Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

music at Hawes. 208 At the end of the year the results were reviewed, and the project was
by and large deemed a complete success. Mason was hired to oversee the incorporation
of classes in vocal music in all of the public schools in Boston, representing the first fully
institutional music instruction ever given in the country. In a way, this accomplishment
represented the reform movement’s final success: public perceptions of music had been
transformed from outright suspicion to a general acceptance of music as a potential force
for moral and disciplinary good strong enough to merit its inclusion in the education of
children, the most susceptible of audiences. This early revolution in institutionalized
music education remained, however, limited to primary education. All of the methods
developed by Mason were designed for children, and focused solely on practical matters
of practice, performance, and repertoire. In addition, men with such high-level skills as
Mason were still hard to find in the country, as there was no real place to receive a
comprehensive musical education. It would take one more major sea change in the
American music scene to fully set the stage for widespread collegiate-level instruction.
A Socialist Orchestra in America: Liberal German Culture in the New World 1848-
1860
In 1848 Germany became involved in the Spring of Nations, a series of
revolutions that had exploded into Europe early that year. Lead by intellectuals and
university students, the German revolutionaries demanded many reforms, including
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208 This “slippery slope” argument was a major part of the school board’s early resistance: “It is objected, if
one accomplishment is introduced into our schools, why not another? If instruction is given in vocal music,
why should it not be given in dancing also? The answer simply is, because music is not dancing; because
music has an intellectual character, which dancing has not; and, above all, because music has its moral
purposes, which dancing has not." Academy of Music Committee, 24 August, 1837, quoted in Ritter,
Music in America, 252.
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