CHILDREN'S CHOIRS

Anyone who is concerned about what will take place here musically in a generation
or two cannot pass a school indifferently when he can hear singing coming from it.
What does this singing say? Mostly this: "For us this is good enough! There is
little time and little pay; the headmaster does not like choral singing. I have no
ambitions, I am happy to keep body and soul together ... "
This is not the text of the song, and yet this is what is heard from it louder than
anything else. What they sing does not even approach art. The way they are singing
is far below the level of talented naturalism.
If we look into the curriculum we can see that those who planned it were far away
from the Greek ideal of education which cast music in a central role. And in most
cases practice is unable to realise even the prescribed minimum.
Children brought up in this way will scarcely come in contact with music as an art
in their whole lives. At most they can get as far as singing circles, where they can find
an edition of "school singing" for adults. Of more refined music all they know is
that it is a kind of head-splitting task, and flee from it with the cry "I have no ear for
music!"
That is why even in our educated circles ignorance in music is often quite painfully
apparent. Musical infantilism goes hand in hand with a highly developed culture in
literature and the visual arts; and those who fight for what is good with their right
sponsor trashy literature in music with their left.
) Hungarian society, which can very well distinguish between inferior and vintage
'wines, drinks inferior wine in music.
No wonder that at most five thousand people go to the Opera House and a thousand
or two to concerts. Or that the more valuable the programme the emptier the con-
cert hall.
Because of the higher requirements of an insignificant minority the state must
maintain musical institutions at the cost of great sacrifices.
Millions are condemned to musical illiteracy, falling prey to the poorest of
music.
F or what do children hear outside their schools if they do not belong to the minority
that practises good music at home, too?
The children of Pest, poor things, pick up the refuse of street music.

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communicate freely, without obstacles, a complete musical effect is created. Technique Of course, every school should deal with Hungarian folk music as thoroughly as
sufficient for a free manifestation of the child's soul can easily be mastered under a with the mother-tongue itself. Only then can the pupil reach a proper understanding
good leader in any school. of foreign music.
Taken separately, the boys of Wesselenyi Street certainly cannot sing as Gigli can. If school orchestras were to give up insipid light music and make their choice from
On the other hand, Gigli alone cannot create the same kind of effect as they can when the range of irreproachable masterpieces only, sooner or later such a musical at-
a hundred of them sing together. mosphere would be created in schools that the souls of the young people leaving them
Pure enthusiasm and naive instinct-rare gifts with grown-up artists-are to be would be immune to the swamp fever of Hungarian musical culture.
found in every healthy child. With a few years' technical preparation children can Provided the formal framework of teaching can in the meantime be extended so
achieve results measurable by the most exacting of absolute artistic standards. that it is worthy of the subject and the purpose (tuition by qualified teachers in every
Below the age of fifteen everybody is more talented than above it; only exceptional school, in the country, too, up to the final class in the secondary school), our present
geniuses continue to develop. It is a crime to miss that talented age. If we do not Potemkin musical culture would be filled with content in a generation or two; new
organise children's choirs properly, our adult choirs will increase neither in number masses longing for good music would fill the concert halls now gaping empty and a
nor in quality. A grown-up person will in any case sing differently if he has the op- network of choral societies founded with serious artistic ends would thread our social
portunity to preserve the fervent enthusiasm of singing from his childhood. And the life together, which today is split in a thousand parts and has no cohesion whatsoever.
child will remember and understand that without conscientious work there are no In many people's view the playing of instruments is the only course leading to
results. results.
Let us stop the teachers' superstition according to which only some diluted art- We must lead great masses to music. An instrumental culture can never become a
substitute is suitable for teaching purposes. A child is the most susceptible and the culture of masses. Instruments have become expensive and the number of pupils
most enthusiastic audience for pure art; for in every great artist the child is alive-and learning to play instruments has fallen. Many of my young friends, pupils between
this is something felt by youth's congenial spirit. eleven and fourteen, have their share of the struggle with life; there are quite a few
Conversely, only art of intrinsic value is suitable for children! Everything else is wage-earners among them. However, delivering the milk or the newspaper in the
harmful. After all, food is more carefully chosen for an infant than for an adult. morning and such like does not yield enough for violin or other music lessons. Should
Musical nourishment which is "rich in vitamins" is essential for children. Without it they be, for this reason, deprived of the blessings of music for a lifetime? Why, is it
the chronic and by now almost incurable musical "avitaminosis" of the whole of only through tormenting the violin, through strumming on the piano that the path
Hungarian society will never come to an end. leads to the holy mountain of music? Indeed, it often rather leads away from it.
An endless number of suitable masterpieces is at the disposal of schools. What is the violin or piano to you? You have an instrument in your throat, with a
Every type of school can find music suitable for it. Catholic secondary schools more beautiful tone than any violin in the world, if you will only use it. With this
could be beacons of a revival in Hungarian musical culture if in the course of the instrument you will come invigoratingly near to the greatest geniuses of music-if
service they used the masterpieces of church music with Latin texts from Palestrina there is only somebody to lead you on!
up to our own times. They offer an inexhaustible choice of pieces which are fairly Some statistics: among the 100 members of the choir of the Attila Street boys'
easy to sing. Even the smallest Hungarian town could acquire a programme-from elementary school 5 are learning to play an instrument; of the 67 boys of Marko
Allegri's Miserere to Haydn's Tenebrae-which would not only help towards the Street school, 27; of the 79 of Hemad Street, 14; of the 110 of Rotten biller Street, 18;
religious edification and general spiritual elevation of youth, but would perhaps of the 117 ofWesselenyi Street, 15; of the 200 girls in the Erzsebet Szilagyi secondary
have some effect on the spoiled taste of grown-ups, too. school, 170. From the total of 673, 249 are learning to play an instrument.
By performing the choral transcripts of French psalms and the masterpieces of The programme that the above schools have recently performed so brilliantly is
German and English motet literature, Protestant schools could work similar wonders. much more difficult than the usual choral singing in schools. And yet: no special
Luther's frequently quoted words on polyphonic singing have not so far elicited much musical training was needed for it.
response from Hungarian Protestant churches. Indeed, the voices and sense of music of our young people are so excellent that
Modern language schools could find plenty of excellent material for singing in the they can perform to artistic perfection anything that fits their physical and spiritual
languages in question. To sing in the language of the people concerned and to get to development, however difficult the task may be. Everything depends on the
know their character from their music, too, is an indispensable aid in learning a leader.
language. And this is where urgent reforms are required.

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 The qualification demanded today from music teachers in higher elementary and of the matter. Because what is not in the style of the German Liedertafel is, as a rule,
secondary schools represents such primitive musical knowledge that nobody can do blatant dilettantism.
the work prescribed even in today's curriculum unless he has voluntarily learned a If the German publicist writes today that "German Lieder can be heard ringing in
great deal more. the Buda Hills, in the woods of the Bakony Mountains, on Lake Fert6 and the banks
The situation is only aggravated by the fact that in appointing teachers it is not the of the Danube and the Tisza just as they can in the forests of Thuringia, in the Oden-
best that are chosen; "influential friends" are decisive. wald, along the Neckar and the Rhine" (quoted from the Frankfurter Zeitung in
Thus it is natural that absolutely unsuitable people hold important posts and to Pesti Napl6 on 13th May, 1928), he is much more right than he himself would
have the right man in the right place is virtually a chance phenomenon. And yet believe.
today only personal eminence could make up for the deficiencies in the curriculum Because he does not know that on the lips of the Tisza region Hungarian children,
and qualifications. even the songs with a Hungarian text ring in the spirit of the German Liedertafel!
It is much more important who the singing master at Kisvarda is than who the Nor does he know that in the course of the nineteenth century our eminent poets
director of the Opera House is, because a poor director will fail. (Often even a good became so submerged in forms of verses borrowed from alien sources that a great many
one.) But a bad teacher may kill off the love of music for thirty years from thirty Hungarian poems, otherwise valuable, can be sung only to tunes with an alien lilt.
classes of pupils. And the poor Hungarian boy has the vague idea that music of a higher level is
And yet, I look at the question of teachers with certain optimistic expectations. where Hungarian words shift uneasily in a declamation going against their grain, as
True, those who brought about the "Evening of Children's Choirs" belong to the if they were wearing a borrowed festive attire. He learns to look down upon the natu-
elite of singing teachers in the capital. But there might be some undiscovered aptitude ral Hungarian lilt, in which the words breathe freely in a workaday manner, "peasant-
concealed in those more modestly trained. like". And since he is taught only the poorer part which floats on the surface of
Indeed, suppressed ambitions might come to life in many of them if they saw that ancient folk music-if he is taught it at all-he looks up devoutly to foreign music,
better work meant better advancement and more appreciation for them, and that the which he thinks is more distinguished. And when it is from this outwardly more
scales were not always weighed down by omnipotent contacts. cultured but inwardly emptier music that he receives the spiritual nourishment he
During the transitory period before a new higher qualification can be enforced, has been craving for, he loses his faith in better music and remains in this state of
considerable support could be given to the most talented teachers, and to those who musical infantilism for the rest of his life.
have fallen behind through no fault of their own, by means of extension courses. So by communicating only inferior music both in foreign and in Hungarian works,
New singing teachers should be ensured positions equal in every respect to those of the schools cut off the way to a higher development of the musical sense. In the
the other teachers. For today it is of no avail to direct better trained young musicians name of good taste and of the Hungarian spirit alike school literature generally used
to this profession. There is no use telling them that they cannot find a more exalted today must be protested against.
calling, a vocation contributing more to the building of the nation. They have one I include in this the greater part of unison school songs, too. Some writers of text-
look at how much the salary of a singing master is and they go straight off and play books consider Hungarian children practically idiotic by torturing them with such
the piano in a cinema because by starving they cannot build the nation. little verses and songs as could be improvised much better by any sound child given
And what about choral literature? In Latin and foreign languages itis so rich thatit the chance.
makes selection difficult. Nor is the choice easy in the Hungarian field. But here it is Of foreign music: only masterpieces! There are plenty of them. It is up to Hungarian
hard to discover what is good. composers to create literature in the Hungarian idiom.
About 1870 the whole country resounded with the German singing circle's "So So far they have not dealt with it over much. When my mother wanted me to sing
weit die deutsche Zunge reicht", and a network of the "Schulverein" was operating something other than the songs of the servant-girls and gipsies and tried to find some
everywhere. artistic Hungarian songs, she could find only the songs of the meek Ignac Bognar.
Jena Rakosi had an easy job in fighting against them in his "Reform". He and his She inoculated me with "Naczika", but the rest simply did not work. Strangely enough,
companions fought against visible enemies. children learn what is good much more easily than what is bad. This, too, is a crite-
Since then the texts of the German Liedertafel have been translated; but a number rion, Masters!
of Hungarian composers have written new melodies in the same spirit. Up to this Had Ferenc Erkel written even one or two little choruses for children, more people
very day this style is in the forefront in Hungarian schools. And this is the better side would listen to his operas today. Nobody is too great to write for the little ones;
indeed, he must do his best to be great enough for them.

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 Original works are to be written, compositions starting from the child's soul, from
the child's voice in text, tune and colour alike. Let us show singing, ringing Hungary
to urban children! They hardly know that they live here. Let them feel that the "mother-
land" is not the few, inane platitudes they are made to sing but buoyant life, healing
warmth, a colourful virgin forest to which they can cling with a thousand feelers.
Then they will be really at home. What rural children have preserved of ancient tradi-
tions should be the urban children's encouragement and model. As we have seen,
they can find themselves in this element at once. On the lips of Budapest children
Hungarian songs resound with the same victorious assurance as in villages. This is
one of the most valuable and hopeful lessons learned from the recent concerts of
children's choirs.
It is the custom with us to recommend a single physic for the healing of every
disease: the state should give money.
I have pointed out a few things that would greatly advance the musical educa-
tion in schools, things that would not cost the state or anyone else a single penny.
It only needs some singing teachers who, at the chime of the mid-day bell, do not
throw the mortar back into the mortar-trough: for whom, even if it is not their official
duty, a little additional work is a spiritual need, which can provide the stimulus and
is the soul and significance of the teacher's task.
Luckily, there are teachers like this, too.
The additional work refers only to the teacher; for the pupil it should not mean
an additional burden but refreshment and joy. Only thus will he profit from it.
A systematic building up of teaching will then be the job of the state, a job that
cannot be shirked any longer. The state maintains opera houses and concert halls in
vain if nobody goes to them. Audiences for whom high-level music is a necessity must
be reared. Hungarian audiences are to be raised up from their unexacting demands
in music. And this can only be commended by work in the schools.
That the economic crisis is the cause of everything? Everything will be set right as
soon as the economy is in order? I do not think so. Penury may hamper development
but wealth does not always promote it either. Money does not produce ideas. Anyhow,
there would be sufficient money here if only it were always spent on what is
needed. However, the most valuable things cannot be bought with money. The
greatest trouble is not the emptiness of the purse but the emptiness of the soul. And
of this we have got more than our share.
The recent development of music in Hungary is a straight refutation of the econo-
mic view of history. Now, too, a new crop is sprouting: it will have a thorough trans-
forming effect on Hungary's musical life when it is fully grown. And who have sown
the seeds? Singing teachers, who have to cope with the worries of everyday life; Buda-
pest pupils, who deliver the milk and newspapers at dawn. It is unthinkable that
there should be no blessing on their work.
(1929)