His
work on _Music and Education_ shows with what force and purity of
style he could afterwards write in English. It was the same
principle--that of commencing with practice and letting theory
follow--which he carried out in his system of 'Singing for the
Million.' He argued, that as children learn to speak before they can
read or construct language grammatically, so they ought to be taught
vocal music in such a way as to introduce the rules of harmony
gradually, and prepare them for the manipulation of an instrument, if
it is intended they should learn one; while for the great masses of
both children and adults, _the voice_ is the best and only instrument,
and one that can be trained, with _very few exceptions_, to take part
in choral, if not in solo singing, and at the same time be made a
powerful and pleasing agent in moral culture. On this subject, we
shall quote Dr Mainzer's own words, when speaking of the compositions
introduced into his classes, he says: 'Besides religious compositions,
there are others, which refer to the Creator, by calling attention to
the beauty and grandeur of his works. Songs, shewing in a few touching
lines the wondrous instinct of the sparrow, the ant, the bee, and
cultivating a feeling of respect for all nature's children. Besides
these, there are songs intended to promote social and domestic
virtues--order, cleanliness, humility, contentment, unity, temperance,
etc.; thus impressing, not the letter of the law of charity on
immature minds, but the spirit of it in the memory, and so identifying
them with the very fibres of the heart.
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