History of the Torrington High School Music Department  

"Our Music Department" by Sterrie Weaver - "The Tabula January 1898"

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Our Music Department

The growth of music like all healthy growth has been so slow and natural that teachers and pupils who are daily associated with it, hardly realize the magnitude of its results.  It is only eleven and one half years ago that the earnest pleadings for its introduction met with cold comfort.  How well I remember the crude conditions which the schools of that time presented.  When speaking of conditions it does not mean simply lack of knowledge of musical tone and notation.  This was really a small part of the obstruction which at once beset the new study.  I venture the assertion that many looked upon it as the new fad.  When once decided by the school board that it should be made a study, no pains were spared to make it a complete success.  As far as the Board was concerned the track was cleared and the music supervisor was given "the right of way."  A railroad man reading this last sentence would suppose nothing stood in the way of goof time and sure connections, but, alas! Such was far from true.  Some teachers were fully convinced that the move was made in ignorance, that it was a fad instituted at the earnest solicitation of some musical crank and that it was bound to be short lived.  In fact, their attitude would have led one to suppose that it was a battle royal, between this innovation and such teachers to see which should live.  They began by explaining that they could not sing and a very small part of their schools had any music in them.  Nothing but time and constantly applied effort could convince the, against their wills.  This was a particular difficult task when the real work must be left in the hands of such pessimistic teachers.  Seldom the clouds broke and gave a downpour of opposition although they would have been welcome  as clearing up showers, but a steady, cold, gray sky was ever present in some instances.  

Not all teachers are included in this category.  Far be it from me to underrate the clear sky and constant sunshine in certain quarters.  It took some time to convince some teachers of the falsity of their statements when they brought forward the plausible argument that a large portion of the class could not sing or read music.  When at last convinced by hearing and seeing that this unpromising portion of the class simply did not sing, but could sing if they applied themselves, the teacher not only learned that the class had musical ability, but she learned a greater lesson, namely, that something more was required of a regular teacher than to simply present a subject, that idleness was damaging to her class, that she was responsible for their individual effort.  When such teachers found that discipline required for a singing lesson was teaching the children habit of attention, quick perception, instant obedience and self reliance, she began to realize the necessity for the same in all other studies and the standard of excellence of the Torrington school rose.  Music was not the only factor, but I assert, its influence in raising the standard of the school work can not be gainsaid.  Many a public school with no particular leaning toward school music will bear testimony to the truth of this claim.  After the rank and file of the executives had fallen into line and were in sympathy with the music work, the track was found to be full of obstructions in the way of pupils who were fully convinced they could not sing.  Get half way through the grades and you found children arriving at the age of self-consciousness,  Their efforts being frequently unsuccessful they disliked to try again and would resort to any subterfuge to evade the singing.  This was all overcome by degrees.  It was done so slowly and noiselessly that the reader of this article who have passed up through the grades of our schools will hardly credit these statements of difficulties met and overcome in the singing lessons. The young man of a High School Choir who springs into his part of a chorus with a refreshing zeal born of victories won in the field of music reading, forgets many failures of years before.  It is well that he does, and they are here referred to with a view of showing the growth of music in the Torrington Schools.  With no child in town exempt from singing and singing alone as much as he would read alone months go by with no friction and no effort to evade the singing lesson. During the first year of our music supervision a careful examination of each pupils in the schools showed about forty percent who could not keep the pitch to sing the major scale.  To-day you can not find five per-cent in that condition.  Eleven years ago not five per-cent could read music at all and now ninety per-cent can read music up to grade standard.  After all has been said, but a minor side of the whole matter has been touched upon; the far-reaching influences of the music training in the public schools can only be summed up a ling time hence.  The tremendous waves of influence going out from our schools tending to waken a broader horizon of the musical realm is not to be discounted.  The musical club of your town is fed largely from those who took their first lisping lessons in the school rooms.  The fact that your evenings with Beethoven, Handel, Hayden, Brahms, Gounod and Rubinstein are enjoyed so thoroughly, is in a large measure due to the constant training in childhood of that which is worthy in music.  Let the good work continue and in long years from now those of you who participate so actively to-day will realize more than now that, "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard all the good things God has in store, many of which come to us under the label of music."  Sterrie A. Weaver January 1898