Since the publication of my first volume on the education of small children, considerable progress has been made in the matter of musical education. Miss Maccheroni, who came to Rome to work with me on experiments looking to the continuation of the methods used with primary classes, was successful in establishing a number of tests which constituted our first steps into this important field of education. We are under great obligations to the Tronci firm of Pistoja, which took charge of the manufacture of materials and gave us the most sympathetic cooperation.

We had already prepared at the time of that first publication an equipment of bells to be used in training the ear to perceive differences between musical sounds. The methods of using this material were considerably modified and perfected again after the publication of my Own Handbook (New York, Stokes, 1914), in which for the first time appeared a treatise on musical method. The foundation of the system consists of a series of bells representing the whole tones and semi-tones of one octave. The material follows the general characteristics of that used in the sensorial method, that is, the objects differ from each other in one and only one quality, the one which concerns the stimulation of the sense under education. The bells, for instance, must be apparently identical in dimensions, shape, etc., but they must produce different sounds. The basic exercise is to have the child recognize "identities." He must pair off the bells which give the same sound.

The bell system is constructed as follows: We have a very simple support, made of wood (of course any other material might be used) 115 cm. long and 25 cm. wide. On this the bells rest. The board is wide enough to hold two bells placed lengthwise and end to end across it. The board is marked off into black and white spaces, each wide enough to hold one bell. The white spaces represent whole tones, the black spaces semi-tones. Though the apparent purpose of this board is to serve as a support, it is in reality a measure, since it indicates the regular position of the notes in the simple diatonic scale. The combination of white and black rectangles indicates the interval between the various notes in the scale: in other words, a semi-tone between the third and fourth and between the seventh and eighth, and a whole tone between the others. Bells showing the value of each rectangle are fixed in proper order in the upper portion of the support. These bells are not all of the same size, but vary in dimension regularly from the bottom to the top of the scale. This permits considerable saving in manufacture; for, to get a different sound from bells of the same size, different thicknesses are required, and this entails more labor for construction and consequently greater cost. But in addition the child here sees a material variation corresponding to the differences in quality of sound. On the other hand, the other bells on which the child is to perform his critical exercises are of identical dimensions.

In the exercise the child strikes with a small mallet one of the bells fixed on the support. Then, from among the others scattered at random on the table, he finds one which gives the same sound and places it on the board in front of the fixed bell corresponding to it. In the most elementary exercises, only the whole tone bells corresponding to the white spaces are used. Later, the semi-tones are brought in. This first exercise in sense perception corresponds to the pairing practised in other sensory exercises (color, touch, etc.) The next step is for the child to distinguish differences, and at the same time, gradations of stimuli (like the exercises with the color charts, hearing, etc.) In this case the child mixes at random the eight bells, all of the same size, which give the whole tones of the scale. He is to find do, then re, and so on through the octave one note after the other, placing the bells in order in their proper places. Nomenclature is taught step by step as in the other sensorial exercises. To familiarize the child with the names, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, we use small round disks, the circular form serving to suggest the head of the written note. On each disk the name of the note is written. The disks are to be placed on the bases of the bells that correspond to them. The exercises in naming the notes may be begun with the fixed bells, in order (with children who already know how to read) to associate the sounds with their names in the first exercise of pairing. Later, when the child comes to the exercise of putting the bells in gradation, he can place the corresponding disk on each bell as he finds it.

Some individuals, commenting on this material, have solemnly protested their native inability to understand music, insisting that music reveals its secrets only to a chosen few. We may point out in reply that, so far, our principal object is simply to distinguish notes so widely different from each other that the different number of vibrations can easily be measured with instruments. It is a question of a material difference which any normal ear can naturally detect without any miraculous aptitude of a musical character. One might as well claim that it is the privilege only of genius to distinguish one color from another somewhat like it. Particular aptitude for music is determined by conditions of a quite different and a much higher order, such as intuition of the laws of harmony and counterpoint, inspiration for composition, and so on.

In actual practise, we found that when the material was used with some restrictions by forty children between three and six years of age, only six or seven proved capable of filling out the major scale by ear. But when the material was freely placed at their disposal, they all progressed along the same lines and showed about the same rate of improvement, as was the case in our experiments with reading, writing, etc. When individual differences appeared, it was by no means due to the possibility of performing these tasks, but rather to the amount of interest taken in the exercises, for which some children showed actual enthusiasm. Eagerness for surmounting difficulties and for high attainment is much more frequently found in children than we, judging by our own experience as adults, easily suspect. In any event, actual performance is the only guide to the revelation of particular aptitude, of personal calling.

When one of the larger children spreads on the table the eight bells of similar size to make up the scale by ear, the little ones pick up a single bell, sometimes reaching out for it with the greatest eagerness. They beat it with the mallet for a long time, they feel of it, examining it carefully, making it ring more and more slowly. The older children take special interest in the pairing, often repeating the same exercise many times; but an unusual charm is found in the successive sounds of the eight bells when placed in order; in other words, in hearing the scale. Nennella, one of the children of the "Children's House" of Via Giusti, played the scale over two hundred times in succession, one hundred for the ascending scale and one hundred back again. The whole class is sometimes interested in listening, the children following with absolute silence the classic beauty of this succession of sounds. Another child, Mario, used to go to the very end of the table—as far away as possible, and resting his elbows on the table with his head in his hands, he would remain without stirring in the silence of the darkened room, showing his extraordinary interest in the exercise in every detail of demeanor and facial expression.

At a certain, moment, interest in reproducing the note vocally appears. The children accompany the scale with their voices. They strive for the exact reproduction of the sound which the bell gives. Their voices become soft and musical in this exercise, showing nothing of that shrillness, so characteristic of children's voices in the usual popular songs. In the classes of Via Trionfale it happened that some children asked permission to accompany vocally the scale that a child was playing softly on the bells. The interest taken in this exercise was of a higher order than that shown by children in the singing of songs. It was easy to see that songs with their capricious intervals between widely separated notes and calling for pronunciation of words, musical expression, differences in time, etc., are unadapted to the most elementary exercises in singing.

It was possible to test the absolute memory of the child for the different notes without any set exercise. After a long series of experiments in pairing, the children begin to make scales, using only one series of bells, and they repeat this exercise many times and in different ways. Sometimes, for instance, a child always looks for the lowest note, do, then for the next above it, re, etc. Again, a child will take any bell at random, looking next for the note immediately above or immediately below, and so on. It also happens that on picking up some bell or other, the child will exclaim on hearing its sound, this is mi, this is do, and so on. One child had made a splendid demonstration of the use of the bells before her Majesty, the Queen Mother. This was in the month of May. Although he had had no further access to the materials in his "Children's House" of Via Giusti, in the November following he was asked to use some musical pipes,[9] which he had hardly seen before, and which happened to be in great disorder since they had just arrived from the factory. There were sixteen pipes mixed at random, comprising a double diatonic scale. He took one of the pipes, struck it and said, "This is si," and immediately hung it on the appropriate hook of the support. On ringing the next one, he said, this is mi, and again put the pipe in the right place. So he went on and arranged the sixteen pipes in accurate order on the two parallel frames. He had had a good deal of exercise during the preceding year and had preserved an absolutely accurate memory of the notes.

As is the case with colors, geometrical shapes, etc., the children begin at this point to explore the environment. One will come to the teacher at the piano and say, striking a key, "This is stee," meaning that the note corresponds to the first syllable of the first word in some song he knows (Stella, Stellina). It happens that the key struck by the child is a do, the very note corresponding to the syllable ste in the song. We had many touching examples of this musical exploration of the environment.