EDITORIAL

One does not have to be a horticulturalist to realise that if no seed is sown then no crop can be expected for that season. Concern has been expressed recently that music tuition in many of the nation's schools indeed resembles a ploughed but unsown field.
   It seems that in many primary schools children are not being given a musical education. Whether one approves or not of the way in which education is organized, it has to be recognized that the insatiable thirst of government for statistics relating to the performance of pupils has led to a concentration on those areas of the curriculum which can be tested to produce those figures. For the last twenty years the importance of certain subjects, notably Mathematics, English and the sciences has been promoted, while other subjects have disappeared into vacuous headings such 'the humanities' and 'the arts'. Recent efforts to improve the literacy of pupils, we are told, have led to the exclusion of some subjects, such as music, altogether.
   If education is regarded as a commodity, to be acquired in packages, quantified, measured and analyzed, then music will be seen as irrelevant. Its values hardly lie easily with the grotesque jargon which characterizes modern education, and they are not susceptible to measurement.
   Children of primary school age (now described as 'Key Stage 2') are capable of absorbing huge amounts of music by the simple acts of singing together and playing instruments. There would appear to be few limits as to the range of music that children up to eleven years of age cannot attempt and perform successfully, as exemplified by the music performed in our cathedrals. In the process pupils absorb the sounds, feeling and ethos of Western music, years before some of them might be taught harmony. Working as part of a team, using one's abilities and yet subjugating them to the demands of the group, are all acquired to a high degree in music. There are other gains: a sense of wonder, achievement, and a taste of true beauty.
   It seems many of our children are not experiencing this. Of course, there will be schools where there is a good musical education, but there are many where little or nothing is happening. These young children are the seed for the future; BIOS will not exist if there are no future musicians. The knowledge of music gained may not lead to a career in music, but, as with many BIOS members, it is treasured and nurtured as a major interest in adult life.
   In a parallel context, attempts to provide music education for young people in church choirs are hampered unnecessarily. It is a sad reflection on our society that we no longer trust choirs to be trained by a solitary choirmaster; yet another difficulty has been put in the way of the musical education of young people by over-zealous legislators. Many organists owe their inspiration to membership of a church choir. It is time to protest before music education goes into terminal decline.

Theo Saunders writes to point out that the reference to 'the Church of England in Ireland', in the April editorial, was not strictly correct. The Anglican communion in Ireland since the Reformation has been known as the 'Church of Ireland', although following the Act of Union (1801) to the Disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1871, it was known as the 'Church of England and Ireland'.

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