In 1957, the Ford Foundation undertook an examination of the arts and their present place in the national scene. At that time, I had observed the increasing proficiency of performing groups in high schools over the country and, aside from the practical economics of the idea, I submitted to the foundation the idea that the high school could afford talented young composers an immediate artistic outlet. I saw, too, that their work could be dynamically related to the social and ethical roles that should be played by the schools.Since the composer deals with notes objectively, his or her paramount concern is to make the twelve notes he has at his disposal behave as best he can. How well the elements and joints of his creation fuse is the gauge of his imagination. To neglect the raw materials of his music by indulging in vague emotions and "lofty" sentiments is perhaps a cozy refuge, but I submit that the intensity of one's visceral response is dependent on literacy in the many levels that one should be capable of relating to a musical experience.At the crucial elementary stage of musical development educational inducements are often perpetrated on children that I fear take years to overcome, if indeed they are ever overcome. There is no stage of a youth's development when the art of music is simply fun. We chart a dangerous path when we depart at any stage from a course that deals with the stuff of music iself. The tendency to spoon-feed the child is not tenable in view of the many complex concepts he or she is expected to handle today. The enlightened teacher should look to music as a learning process that can be exciting as the child discovers music for himself.The free-wheeling and unfettered
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