Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 5 (1929-02)

176 The Phonograph Monthly Review February, 1929 . .--L-J ..I.".. Victor 21796 (DIO, 75c) By the Waters of Minnetonka, and Meditation from Thais (arr. Grofe), played by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Re-recording of two of Whiteman’s old favorites, “classi- cal” fox-trots and fox-trot classics. The performances and the recording are good and the pieces lend themselves readily to Grofe’s ingenious exploitation. R.O.B. THE MUSIC EDUCATION SERIES The Music Education Series by Thaddeus P. Giddings, Will Earhart, Ralph L. Baldwin, Elbridge W. Newton; pub- lished by Ginn and Company. A Comprehensive Educational Work The Music Education Series is a complete course in music education for the elementary schools of America. It pro- vides adequate singing texts for pupils and music appreciation phonograph records and manuals for teachers. It is edited by noted music educators, assisted by a staff of well-known psychologists, musicians, composers, research worker, critics, poets, and teachers in widely separated localities. All have united to make this a powerful educational force to carry good music to the rising generation. Great in Scope A work so great in scope naturally includes Music Appreci- ation. While singing is essential in developing music ap- preciation, yet school music should mean something more than singing. The musical activity most important to the greatest number of people in adult life is listening. There- fore school children should be taught how to listen as well as how to sing. Through the medium of singing 'and the selections on the phonograph records made for this course, every variety of good music is available in the schoolroom. Music Appreciation Evolved from Singing Music Appreciation is an integral part of the Music Edu- cation Series. Vocal music made familiar by singing from the readers is recorded and is followed by its analogy or counterpart in instrumental music reproduced on the phono- graph for listening. Thus Music Appreciation begins with the child-voice and extends to the artist-voice and the tone quality of the various instruments. The World's Best Music The Singing Course In the eight books for pupils’ use there # are 1351 songs, carefully selected from every known source. Of these songs 223 are the best folk songs of different nations. 1128 songs are by 232 composers of various nationalities. Compositions by Beethoven, Grieg, Schubert, Schumann, Tschaikowsky, and other matter composers appear throughout the course, as well as songs by Franz Abt, Carl Bohm, Peter Cornelius, Niels W. Gade, and others, representing the lesser lights. American composers are represented by Henry Hadley, Clayton Johns, Mabel Daniels, W. H. Neidlinger, George B. Nevin, and others. The most significant feature of this course ig that each individual song is excellent and attractive to the grade in which it is presented—worthy of a place on a concert pro- gram. The teaching plan is as practical as the songs are beautiful. From rote singing, which induces a love of music, corrects the defective singers, and develops a beautiful sing- ing tone, progress is made directly to music reading by the plateau plan of gradation. The course provides an abundance and variety of attractive songs which are easy enough for the child to develop skill in music reading and at the same time to take delight in so doing. When one plateau is finished there comes another long level of easy songs characterized by one other new element; and so the series continues throughout. Music Appreciation Course Sixty double-faced phonograph records were made especially for this course by members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with Henry Hadley as conductor. These records, together with “Music Appreciation in the Schoolroom,” a teachers’ manual giving every detail for the successful pre- sentation of the work, comprise the material for development in music appreciation. These sixty records present 207 pieces of music, of which 66 are “bridge” songs from the singing books and 141 are well-known music classics, such as the Adagio Cantabile from “Sonata Pathetique” by Beethoven, various numbers from Bizet’s “L’Arlesenne Suite,” Wagner’s “Album Leaf,” the Andante from the Sixth Symphony by Tschaikowsky, Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite,” Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 6, the Andante from Mendelssohn’s “Italian Sym- phony” Liszt’s “Liebestraum,” Bach’s “Loure,” and so on. Edited by Eminent Music Educators Thaddeus P. Giddings, Director of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota; college instructor, lecturer, edietor, and member of the Educational Council of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference. Will Earhart, Director of Music in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; professor of music, lecturer, author and editor, conductor, past president of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference, and Doctor of Music. Ralph L. Baldwin, Director of Music in Hartford, Con- necticut; Dean of the Institute of Music Pedagogy, lecturer, author and editor, composer, organist, conductor of the Mendelssohn Club of New York City, and past president of the Eastern Music Supervisors’ Conference. Elbridge W. Newton, managing editor, author and editor of various school music books, and lecturer. The best music mass-psychology has been incorporated into the Music Education Series. It has been tested successfully in widely separated localities, and in the schoolroom it is thoroughly practical, efficient, and artistic. Educator VICTOR’S EDUCATIONAL LIST NO. 5 Although the special list No. 5 of Victor Educational Rec- ords is perhaps not as long as some of the previous releases, in quality it is superior to them all. Nearly all the works on this list are of general musical interest as well as of value in educational work. Of the larger musical works, a few of which every Victor educational list invariably includes, The Moldau (21748-9) and the coupling of Juba Dance and From the Canebrake (21750) were reviewed in the last issue; Till Eulenspiegel (9271-2) is reviewed elsewhere in this issue; and Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli sung by the West- minster Cathedral Choir (35941-4) is to be reviewed later. Perhaps the most unusual feature of the list is a group of three ten-inch records of Localized American Speech. A fable is recited in the peculiar varieties of American speech heard in Oklahoma and Macon, Georgia (65), Northern New York State and Columbia, S. C. (66), Southern Ontario and Neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts (67). The fable is wisely chosen to include a number of words whose pronunciation varies somewhat in various parts of the country. The disks are priced at $2.00 each, rather strange- ly, but they are of uncommon interest. Two disks of Songs for Rural Scools are issued, 21751 (DIO, 75c) and 4083 (D10, $1.00). On one side of the former Ralph Crane sings splendidly sturdy versions of Away for Rio, Blow the Man Down, Sourwood Mountain, Billy Boy, and Be Gone Dull Care ; and on the other Raymond Dixon sings less noteworthy versions of Sweet Kitty Clover, Bedemer’s Stream, Frog Went A-Courting (the orchestral arrangment here is particularly felicitous) and Spanish Guitar. On the latter disk Lambert Murphy and Royal Dadmum each have a side devoted to traditional songs, largely Scotch. Real songs, all of these, and they will be appreciated by every real boy who (as the supplement aptly puts it) resents the kitty-flowers-manners-songs of the primary grades. On 4085 Lamburt Murphy and Royal Dadmun sing Bene- dict’s The Moon Has Rais’d Her Lamp Above, and Olive Kline and Elsie Baker sing Horn’s I Know a Bank : pleasing duets for Junior and Senior High Schools and College. Sally Hamlin story teller has five records (21696-9 and 35939) on which she recounts such familiar tales as Jack and the Bean Stalk Cinderalla The Kitten That Would Not Wash Its Face The Dog That Would Not Wag Tale, The Night Gefore Christmas and The Shoemaker and the Elves. There are six records in the folk dance group, all by the Victor Band, augmented for the occasion. All are excellently played and recorded, but special mention goes to 21618, Seven Jumps and Roman Soldiers (singing dancing games), and 21619, Ribbon Dance, Crested Hen, and Green Sleeves. The Music History group contains some real gems of