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Vol. VII., No. 2.
ist OCTOBER 1925.
EDITORIAL
THE GREAT ADVENTURE.
It is said that, during the past year, no fewer
than five hundred American cities, townships,
and districts have had each its " Music Week."
We are not aware whether any systematic
attempts have been made to collect and tabulate
results from all this organised music making and
study — we have sought for them but have so far
signally failed to find them. No doubt there have
been some obvious successes, and many dis-
appointments and failures, all of which should
have been recorded for the use and instruction
of other workers in the field, but whether such
individual efforts have been greatly successful or
incontinently unsuccessful from one or more par-
ticular viewpoints, can really matter little when
the aggregate results are taken into account, for
it surely stands to reason, that when an entire
community is forced by all manner of means to
concentrate upon any subject for a certain period
of time, the influences which are brought to bear
ill connection with the matter in hand for that
period are certain to leave at least some particle
of good behind. How much of good is of course
partly due to the methods that may have been
employed in giving effect to the thing in ques-
tion, but chiefly, we think, it will depend upon
the psychology of the people for whom the busi-
ness has been organised. The " Music Week "
is, as we have demonstrated on former occasions,
purely an American idea, and the fact that five
hundred different places in that great continent
can utilise it within a year, proves that it is very
much in keeping with present-day American
psychology. On the other hand, although the
idea is now three years old, the fact that, up to
the moment of writing, no attempt has been
made to adopt it in Europe might be regarded
as evidence that it is not at all in line with the
mass mentality of the various nations which make
up the Continent of Europe. That some effort
should, sooner or later, be made to put it into
effect here was however inevitable, and whatever
the ultimate event may bring forth, it is not
without significance that the first European essay
should be made in Scotland, where the musical
consciousness has always been more practical and
acute, than it has been, certainly in any other
part of the British Empire, and in not a few
of the Continental nations as well. The Scottish
Music Week is being organised, as we intimated
in our August number, by the Scottish Music
Masters' (Traders') Association, and it will take
place during the week commencing on 12th inst.,
and finishing on the 17th. During that particu-
lar week, if matters are properly and compre-
hensively organised, no single individual man,
woman or child throughout the entire length
and breadth of Scotland can fail to come under
the influence of music in one way or another, or
will be able to plead ignorance of the fact that
Music is a mighty force in the land. It is cer-
tainly to be regretted that the Music Masters'
Association has not incorporated seven days into
their " Week " as they do in America. For the
propagation of ethical and moral ideas, the
Church still remains the most powerful federation
jn existence, and, if not too late, arrangements
should still be made for including the Sunday
preceding the 12th October, or opening day of
the " Music Week." Every minister and priest
in the country should be requested to preach a
sermon upon the Art, its ramifications, its moral
influences and tendencies, its sacred and secular