Trying to gain a musical
education without a wide acquaintance with the literature of music is
like attempting to form literary taste without knowing the world's great
books. To bathe in the glow of the mighty masterpieces of genius
neutralizes much that is evil. In music they are the only authoritative
illustrations between notes and the ideals they represent; they form the
models and maxims by means of which we approach a knowledge of music.
In view of hearing good music, breathing a musical atmosphere and being
glorified into artists, vast numbers of American girls seek foreign
musical centres. They are apt to go without suitable equipment, mental
or musical, and with inadequate pecuniary provisions. They expect to
attain in a few months what they are doomed to discover would take years
to accomplish, and cannot fail to suffer for the blunder. Many of them
return home disappointed in their aims, and ruined in health. Many of
them are stranded in strange lands. A crusade should be started against
indiscriminate going abroad for music study, without thorough
preparation in every respect.
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