New England Conservatory of Music - Neume Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 16 text:

j Director Chadwick and Our Curriculum By LOUIS C. ELSON N THE September-October issue of the New England Conser- vatory Magazine-Review, the present writer published an ap- preciation of the character and the compositions of Mr. Chad- wick. On the completion of the 20th year of his directorship there still remains much to be said about the work that he has done within our Conservatory. If some of the old students of Franklin Square days were to attend the examinations which have recently been held, or acquaint themselves with the re- quirements of a full course, they would realize that, thanks to Mr. Chadwick, the Conservatory has become much more of a College, or even a University, than it pretended to be in the olden times. Let us examine but a few of these advances. The lectures have a much wider scope than of yore and there are examinations upon them which make their val- uable information an integral part of the course. Most especially Mr. Chadwick labored to bring the Institution out of the piano rut into which it was drifting. The piano department is as powerful as ever (even more so), but a piano education alone is not tolerated in the grad- uate. Mr. Chadwick insisted upon ensemble work in many ways. The great annual piano competition was due to the generosity of the Mason Hamlin Co., but the artistic position of Mr. Chadwick made it possible for him to obtain as judges the leading conductors, composers and musicians, on this and other occasions. The director ' s high position in the musical world has resulted in the co-operation of many great personages in the artistic and the commercial world, men who once looked askance at our Alma Mater, or at least held aloof from it. This change of sentiment was largely due to the confidence in the standard which Mr. Chadwick was establishing. He never aimed at big- ness merely. Quality not quantity was his motto, and because of the quality of the new curriculum the quantity followed in its wake. Of course Piano and Voice are the chief studies in every Conservatory in the world, but Mr. Chadwick saw to it that none of the other points of musical study were neglected. Every orchestral instrument has its professor within our walls. The vocal department had an important adjunct added in chorus training. Most artistic and advanced of all was the orchestra which this eminent composer- conductor founded. Not an amateur organization, but one which has given most classical as well as most modern works. These are a few of the advances which the Conservatory has made under Mr. Chadwick ' s regime, and the end is by no means attained, for there is constant advance made from year to year. We have already attained a rank which is equal to that of the best European Conservatories before the war, and, with the favorable conditions for the United States at present, and with the continued guidance of our broadminded and artistic conductor, we may yet hope to have the very best Conservatory in the world. Page twelve

Page 15 text:

CLASS OF NINETEEN SEVENTEEN was purchased and converted to the uses of the Conservatory, including the new departments and home. During the fifteen years at the Music Hall Building, the Conservatory had become a well-paying private institution, Dr. Tourjee necessarily profiting thereby but in order to realize his ideals in connection with this new enterprise and for the sake of perpetuating this school of his heart, our founder turned over his entire property, amounting to about $50,000 in its behalf, and voluntarily gave it all into the hands of a board of trustees. That his hopes and ambitions were well-founded, and his investment timely, is proved by the fact that during the first year in the new building the number of pupils more than doubled itself, the enrollment amounting to over 1600. hile these closely related, but not strictly musical, departments of oratory, fine arts, etc., were entirely successful and productive of great good, study along those lines has gradually, during the development of the school, been relegated to those other schools which have later come into existence, specializing along these same lines, and the Conservatory has rightly conformed to the spirit of the times in itself specializing as a school of music. It is always timely, and especially so at the end of this brimming half-century, to look backward with affectionate gratitude to the one who gave life to our be- loved school; and let us never forget that in creating for us this fair heritage, Dr. Tourjee gave not only his time, his unflagging efforts, his exceptional enthu- siasm, but all he possessed, and finally his own life. What greater offering can man make? Page eleven

Page 17 text:

G. W. CHADWICK