THE MUSICAL NOTE

In every field of concentration expect one the University's policy has been to allow the student to take courses instructing him how to use the machinery, such as there may be, around which the field centers, and to receive credit for these courses. The concentrator in Fine Arts may obtain instruction in drawing and receive credit for it. The student in Chemistry learns how to handle the chemical apparatus, and a concentrator in the field of English may take courses in composition.

The exception to this rule may be found in the field of Music. There is not a course in this department in which a student may make use of his ability to play an instrument, and under no conditions may be receive any credit for the furthering of this accomplishment. Thus the average concentrator in this field who realizes that in order to make the most out of his courses in composing and analysis he must spend time practicing the piano, discovers that the Music Department will only teach him the theory of music, and not how this theory may actually be applied to instruments.

To have the University actually offer lessons in piano and violin would be impractical, but to give a man credit for the time he spends practicing on the piano and mark him on it at the end of the year, as would be the case for work done in a laboratory, is an arrangement which would be perfectly possible. In addition to this a course treating with the manner in which composers employed and handled the instruments they were writing for, apart from mere orchestration, might well be given. With these changes the student would be given the opportunity to work into the theory of music it reproduction, which in itself is half of the art.