Miss Cole's Lectures

On Monday evening, February 1 1, Miss Lucy Cole, teacher of music in the public schools and of sight singing in the University School of Music, gave a most interesting lecture before the Inland League on "How We Teach the Little Ones to Sing. " Miss Cole began by stating that the cultivation of music made better men and better citizens; that the great period of musical development in Germany was coexistent with the great literary productions of that country; that though she was unprepared to state that the great literary achievements of that period were due to the wonderful musical com positions of the time, yet it was a significant fact that the two were simultaneous. The lack of suitable music set to suitable words for children was deplored. Many in writing music for children appear in no way to grasp the idea of the requirements of children in this respect. Sotne excellent music was set to words a mere doggerel, while some excellent words were fitted with so-called music that contained nothing to entitle it to such a name. Miss Colé said that a better condition of things could hardly be hoped for until teachers realized more the mportance of suitable songs for the children, and related some of the songs sung at a teachers' convention to which the words were insipid and absurd. She related, too, some queer mistakes made by pupils who in singing their songs at school under a teacher who gave little or no attention to proper enunciation formed entirely wrong ideas of sense of the words, which led to some very amusing expressions. At the close of her lecture Miss Cole illustrated, with about forty of the little school children, her methods of teaching the little ones to sing. So marvelous to most of her hearers were the results obtained from the little ones that those in attendance were surprised anc amused at the possibilities in this direction with children. Miss Cole expressly stated that her method was, first, teach the child to con ceive of tone and of tone relation ship before teaching any idea o staff notation or of symbols for tone For this purpose she used the hanc position and later numbers, anc gave several examples of singing in two or three part and harmony b; the hand method and the svstem o numbers, after which the little tots were called upon to write upon the board notes given on the piano, which they did with remarkable aptness. They were then required to sing from memory melodies written on the board and left for a few seconds and then erased. The proficiency shown in all these examples by the pupils was truly remarkable, but would have been more surpris ing had not Miss Cole struck the very key-note of her system by the statement that the teacher could only hope to accomplish the best rssults by having the confidenceand affection of her pupils, and that teacher who had this confidence and affection for and of the pupils to the greatest extent the most rapidly developed not only the musical but the moral side of her pupils, and received in return the greatest moral and intellectual benefit. No more interesting or instructive talk to parents and citizens generally has been given in our city for months than this one on "How to Teach the Little Ones to Sine."