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separate parties. It contains about 30 girls, with room for more. They are excellently trained, and passed a fair examination, considering the short time many of them have been in the house, and the appalling state of ignorance and vice in which they enter. It is in an old and remarkably curious mansion, built in the reign of Elizabeth, and containing some very handsome old oak carving. A small party were permitted to visit the St. Arnold's Convent, rarely shown to any one, where the party were received by the Lady Superior, the Chaplain, and other authorities of the house, which stands on the property of W. Gillow, Esq., who liberally presented it. The Convent contains a Reformatory, just opened, for Roman Catholic criminal girls, nearly all of whom are Irish children from Liverpool. The wards appropriated to their use are admirably fitted up, and the dormitories were excellent and remarkably well ventilated. The provisions for industrial training were capital, including cooking, baking, washing, and gardening. Some of the nuns will learn trades to instruct the children. Kingswood, under the able superintendence of George Bengough, Esq., was next visited. It is for boys only, containing about 40, and is now under a greatly improved system of management. Field labour is the great auxiliar of reformation here. Other Reformatories exist in and near Bristol, which owes its pre-eminence in these Reformatories greatly to the residence and continued zeal and exertion of Miss Carpenter and Mr. Commissioner Hill and his highly accomplished and benevolent family.

The Orphan Asylum was visited by a large party, both sections having met there. It is a princely building, and rears, educates, and maintains destitute orphans of both sexes, being built and supported, according to the statement of Henry Müller, the founder and manager, entirely by voluntary donations, procured solely by prayer and faith. Very many thousand pounds must have been so raised, for a more extensive or admirably constructed building for the purpose we never saw. The children looked remarkably well, and were obviously in the best possible state of discipline. Of their education we had no sufficient means of judging, but it was, at any rate, apparently well cared for; the only defect observable being the need of better industrial training and fitting labour for the boys. The girls have household work, and all are sent out to service or trade by the managers. The cleanliness and order which pervades the whole of this immense establishment is perfect. A superintendence of no ordinary discretion, precision, and power, is everywhere manifest.

Not one of the least interesting incidents of the Conference was the presence of Mrs. Jameson and Miss Dix; the former our own distinguished author, and the latter an American lady, whose placid demeanour and accomplished mind would scarcely have indicated her as the noble founder of no less than nineteen lunatic asylums, by means of her own individual efforts. Though the queen of charity was not there, due homage was done to Miss Nightingale; and her relative, Mr. Bracebridge, gave, after dinner on the first day, some most interesting anecdotes of her residence in the East, and of the deference and respect shown to her by Lord Raglan, who visited her during her first illness. Mr. Bracebridge stated that the world would never know what she had undergone, or the difficulties that had beset her labours; and he ended

by saying, that great as were the qualities in her justly appreciated by the public, that of forbearance, in his judgment, surpassed them all.

We must not omit to mention how greatly the comforts and facilities of the visitors were promoted by the kindness and hospitality of Mr. Miles, M.P.

May there be many more Reformatory Conferences !

S.

PRINCIPLES OF A METHOD OF TEACHING SINGING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

VIII. MELODY SHOULD BE TAUGHT BY MEANS OF HARMONY.

2. Successions included in Chords-continued.

E have now to deal with the minor chords.

WE The first thing for the teacher to do is to enable his pupils to

apprehend and sing a minor triad, as a type. Any sound of moderate height may be taken as the root, and the combination, having no relation to a scale, should be sung, not to any sol-fa syllables, but to the numerals 1, 3, 5.

The pupils will soon perceive that the difference between the minor and the major triad lies in the second sound, which, the teacher may explain to them is, a large or major third above the first in the one case, and only a small or minor third above the first in the other, whence the names given to the two triads.

M. J. R. Weber has some excellent remarks on the practice of the minor triad in the Theoretical Part of his Method :

"The major scale is formed by the combination of the ratios of sounds most nearly related to one another. The most nearly related sounds have the ratios 1: 2: 3 : 4; the harmonic ratios joined with each of these sounds are 4: 5: 6.

"Whenever a key-note appears, all these ratios appear simultaneously with it. Nature, therefore, gives us only a major third and a major fifth on a key-note. But with the major third and major fifth, the minor or small third (56) is also given, just as the semitones are given with the harmonic main points in the scale. The ratios 4: 5: 6 consist of two-thirds raised one above the other, the first of which is major, the second minor. Each of these intervals is harmonious in itself, as well as in its combination with the other to form a triad. invert the intervals so as to make 5: 6 come first and 4: 5 second, we get the following triad:-10: 12:15.

If we

"This triad must likewise be harmonious, as it consists of the ratios of the natural triad. But if the ear apprehends the lowest note of this triad as the key-note, it goes contrary to nature; for nature gives us a large third on the key-note in the common chord, whereas in the minor triad there is always a small third on the key-note; and the singer who is not acquainted with this combination has great difficulty in banishing from his ear the natural sound which forms this large third with the fundamental note, and in singing instead of it the sound which forms the small third.

"We know that the more intelligible interval 4:5 is the last one in the minor triad, and that the interval 5: 6 is the first; they are both included in the fifth. If the singer follows the plan which nature points out, in learning to sing the minor chord, and takes the ratio 4: 5 first, from which it is a natural descent to the minor third below, he will find the matter come easy to him, as the most difficult ratio, the minor third, is thus given him without further trouble."

The teacher will now tell the pupils that there are three minor, as well as three major, chords in the major scale, and proceed to the practice of the minor chords. No complete phrases can be formed from these chords alone in the major scale: they occur only as transition steps interspersed among the major chords. In order that each exercise may have a complete character, it should consist of a tonic phrase.

1. The minor chord on the sixth sound of the scale (la), as it includes the tonic and the mediant, is the most closely related to the tonic harmony. This chord should be practised with the syllables la, do, mi, first as an harmonic combination, and then dispersed in various ways as melody, thus (Fig. 1) :—

FIG. 1.-MINOR TRIAD OF LA, AS HARMONY AND MELODY.

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The most common tonic phrase in which this chord is introduced is naturally the upper tetrachord itself. The full chords are as follows (Fig. 2):

FIG. 2.-PROGRESSION CONTAINING MINOR TRIAD OF LA.

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This harmonic progression should be practised by the class, the master taking the lowest notes.

By melodic dispersion of the triads, the upper part may be expanded into the following passage (Fig. 3):

FIG. 3.-SAME PROGRESSION WITH CHORDS DISPERSED.

This passage should be practised both with and without the accompaniment of the full chords.

2. The minor chord on the second sound of the scale (re) bears the same relation to the minor chord on the sixth (la), that the chord of the subdominant bears to the chord of the tonic. This chord should be

practised both harmonically and melodically to the syllables re, fa, la (Fig. 4):

I.

FIG. 4.-MINOR TRIAD OF RE, AS HARMONY AND MELODY.

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We do not think it advisable that the syllables la, do, mi should, even at the commencement, be used as general names for all three minor chords. The syllables must show the similarity of the chords of different scales, not the similarity of the chords of the same scale; for which latter purpose the numerals, as we have already said, are best adapted.

One of the most common tonic passages in which this chord is employed is the descending lower pentachord of the scale (Fig. 5):

FIG. 5.-PROGRESSION CONTAINING MINOR TRIAD OF RE.

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The upper part in this progression may be expanded into the following phrase, which may be practised in the same manner as the foregoing exercise (Fig. 6):

FIG. 6.-SAME PROGRESSION WITH CHORDS DISPERSED.

3. The minor chord on the third of the scale (mi) bears the same relation to the principal minor chord that the chord of the dominant bears to the chord of the tonic. We have mentioned this similarity of relations simply to account for the order in which we have taken the three minor chords.

The present minor chord must be practised in the same way as the preceding two (Fig. 7) :—

FIG. 7.-MINOR TRIAD OF MI, AS HARMONY AND MELODY.

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Being a dominant chord in relation to the principal minor chord, it is invariably followed by the latter, and thus it is not employed so frequently in music written in the major mode as either of the others. Its employment is exemplified in the subjoined progression (Fig. 8), which contains all six chords. The three major chords are denoted by Roman

numerals and capital letters; the three minor by Arabic figures and Italic letters :

FIG. 8.-PROGRESSION CONTAINING ALL SIX CHORDS.

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This progression will give us the following melodic passage (Fig. 9):

FIG. 9.-SAME PROGRESSION WITH CHORDS DISPERSED.

In practising the foregoing and similar melodic passages, the bass notes of the progression should always be added by the master, to sustain the voices of the children; for there is nothing that keeps a class of young singers, and indeed of any singers, in tune so well as a good firm bass. In executing a single melody or part, the singer has nothing to guide him except the relations of the single successive sounds, and these relations are frequently indirect and occasionally ambiguous. But when the harmony is supplied either by other voices or by an instrument, he has the further guidance afforded by the impression of the direct relation of each sound to the other sounds of the harmonic combination to which it belongs, especially to the root from which the combination springs. The roots of the chords occur more frequently in the bass than in any other register. Further, the low notes have a breadth, force, and decision which render them peculiarly adapted to give the impression of stability in the fundamental sounds. Hence it is that a bass, either vocal or instrumental, when itself well sustained, affords (as a bass ought to do) a good support to an upper part. And such support is evidently afforded in the highest degree when, as in the exercises which we have proposed, the melody consists of chord successions, and the bass holds on the fundamental sound during each.

We have thus concluded the subject of successions occurring in chords, and arrive at the third kind of successions, namely,

3. Successions arising from the progression of chords.

Most of the intervals contained in successions of this kind will have been already practised as parts of chord successions. The only intervals that will not have been so practised are sevenths, and, with the exception of the minor seventh on the dominant, which has been included among the chord successions, these intervals occur so seldom that they will not need any separate practice. It is probably for these reasons that Dr. Marx has omitted to notice successions of this class.

In concluding our exposition of this principle, we give the following

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