This article first appeared in the December 1955 issue of The Instrumentalist.
In 1916 the big news in music education was that the Oakland California Board of Education had appropriated $10,000 ($213,000 in 2011) for the purchase of band and orchestra instruments for use by public school students. Later we heard that the superintendent lost his job and that the board members failed to be re-elected because of this extravagant act.
Glenn H. Woods, then Director of Music in the Oakland Schools, sold the Board of Education on the value of instrumental music instruction and – in particular – on the public relations value of a school band playing for football games. Apparently it was too early in the 20th century for this type of public relations to be appreciated by the voting public.
This event and a performance by the high school orchestra of Lincoln, Nebraska in 1917 – for the Music Supervisors National Conference – laid the foundation for my entrance into the music education field. Charles Miller, Supervisor of Music at Lincoln, was promoted to Director of Music in the schools of Rochester, New York as the result of his instrumental demonstration at the Lincoln convention.
Mr. Miller felt he needed help on the teaching of the instruments, and I was finally selected for the job with the title of Supervisor of Instrumental Music, the first such title in America. I had played violin, viola, clarinet and saxophone professionally and had studied all the other band and orchestra instruments in the hope that just such an opportunity as the Rochester opening would occur.
I had, however, overlooked the matter of an academic education, having completed one and a half years of high school in Kansas before dropping out to concentrate on my music. In those days it was practically impossible to do both!
On examination by President Rush Rhees of Rochester University, I was pronounced sufficiently educated to receive a life certificate to teach music in New York state. But three years later I had to pass examinations in all four years of high school subjects as the price of obtaining a certificate to teach music in Indiana, where I was Supervisor of Music in the Richmond schools, Conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Instructor of public school music methods at Earlham College. Indiana would not accept the New York certificate.
In Indiana all school employees had to hold teaching certificates except superintendents and janitors. I was elected assistant superintendent the first year to get around the requirement, but the law was quickly changed because of this, and I was forced to get the certificate.
Rochester had two high school orchestras when I went there in 1918. There had been talk of $10,000 worth of band and orchestra instruments, but the Oakland affair killed any such possibility. I, therefore, wrote a letter to George Eastman asking for $15,000 for 300 instruments with a promise that, if this money was made available so we could get the instruments by March, I would guarantee a 100-piece band for the Memorial Day Parade. (The 1919 Memorial Day celebration was probably the greatest in our history because World War I had just ended the previous winter.)
Mr. Miller, my superior, signed the letter and mailed it. A few days later the request was granted, and I had my chance of a lifetime. Came the day of the parade, and we had a band of 150 players on the march, with uniforms furnished by a local clothing manufacturer. Mr. Eastman invited the band to an oyster supper at his home that evening.
Soon after the Memorial Day parade, Mr. Eastman engaged Will Earhart to make a survey of Rochester industries and schools for the purpose of ascertaining in what ways music might contribute to richer living and happiness of the people. The result of that survey was the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eastman School of Music, both heavily endowed by Mr. Eastman.
I believe that Cleveland was the first school system to provide certain instruments as standard equipment for each new school building, the first city to recognize the educational value of instrumental music in our school curriculum. Before that time it was customary to provide equipment for sewing classes, home economics, manual training, and all types of athletic classes. Music was still a frill in most school systems as late as 1927, but the school band and orchestra movement was gaining momentum every year.
Joseph E. Maddy (1891-1966) was a pioneer in music education in the United States. One of his notable achievements was founding the National Music Camp in 1928 which today is the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
