vote themselves almost exclusively to teaching; those,
however, taught by them are the amateurs of music.
Why are there, among the many really talented pupils who wish to study music as an art and make it their profession, so few now remaining with us to acquire that wished-for knowledge of their art in all its different branches?
Because to do so it would be necessary for them to attend a properly established school—call it Academy, or High School of Music—so organised as to give them all the opportunities wished for at a reasonable expense, enabling them to pass progressive examinations and receive certificates, and such a School does not exist in Scotland. This, then, is clearly the reason why our young music students have to leave us and go either to London or the Continent to pursue their studies. The establishment in Scotland of such a School, organised on carefully defined principles, is therefore strongly to be advocated.
Meanwhile, looking at the results gained in a general way, progress has been made in Edinburgh of late.
We have followed the good example given us by our Glasgow brethren, and created an 'Edinburgh Society of Musicians,' which counts at the present time about sixty-five members, all professional musicians, and twenty-five associates.
At the meetings of this Society lectures and musical performances are given by its different members at regularly fixed intervals, discussions on given subjects are started, and friends—musical celebrities visiting our city—are entertained.
Another move in the riglit direction has been the formation of a Bach Club by Mr. Franklin Peterson. It consists of thirty-five members at the present time, more or less enthusiastic, who meet fortnightly for the study of Bach's compositions.
Otto Schweizer.
LOCAL MUSICAL EXAMINATIONS:
THEIR INFLUENCE ON MUSICAL ART.
IF there is any one characteristic which may be relied upon as affording some proof of the reality of a musician's devotion to his art, it is his earnest desire for some sign that music is beginning to take its place, not only in the Art world, but in the estimation of all, as something not only beautiful and worthy as a pursuit, but deeply serious in intention. That the works of Beethoven or Schubert, when performed, have to be classified in our newspapers under the heading 'Popular Entertainments' is, to any one who reverences art, strikingly significant of the attitude the greater portion of the public assumes towards some of the greatest creations the soul and intellect of humanity have ever produced. Although Literature, Painting, and Music seem, in a way, to lower themselves in order to afford mankind his indispensable entertainment, it is not really so. The sister arts, as arts, and as amusements, are totally different things, and we require new terms for art in the form of the railway novel, the popular illustrations of the same, or the comic opera. These are all well in their way, but must not be confounded with serious art. The true musician feels this very keenly, and lives with a perpetual longing for the time when all will at least acknowledge that music is a deeply earnest pursuit, and not a thing to trifle with. Nothing shows more strongly the irreverent spirit of the age than this heartless trifling with art.
The question that natm-ally arises out of this is—How is it that, notwithstanding the immense amount that is being done in the way of education, the public is more apathetic with regard to its appreciation of music than in any previous age? It is now almost impossible to bring an audience together to listen to anything except a musical phenomenon, or a concert with Madame Patti as the principal attraction. (The 'Queen of Song,' by the way, takes care to avoid an artistic programme altogether.) Even orchestral concert schemes get financially a little worse year by year, not only on this side the border, but in Manchester, where things ought to be better. That education is required, no one for a moment will doubt, but one may surely ask the question whether the Icind of education universal at the present time is not, somehow, at fault? The whole country swarms with professional musicians who have Mus. Bac. or Mus. Doc. after their names, and although we know that, in order to posess this degree, a certain amount of musical study must have been gone through, how few there are, out of the number, of any value to the musical world from an art standpoint! This brings us to the real subject of our article, that is : Do musical examinations, as at present conducted, do anything for the cause of musical art?
The London training schools desire to assist education in the provinces by fixing a certain stan-
