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On the Nature of Musical Talent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

H. Lowery
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Extract

One of the outstanding applications of psychology to education during recent years has consisted in the development of methods of measuring intelligence and the results have been so successful that intelligence tests now form part of the normal procedure in selecting pupils in school for higher forms of educational training. If intelligence tests had no other value, their use would be justified in that they have enabled us to find out many facts regarding the nature of intelligence; for example, we now know that “The observed facts indicate that all branches of intellectual activity have in common one fundamental function (or groups of functions) whereas the remaining or specific elements seem in every case to be different from that in all the others.” (Spearman.) Now it is well known that aesthetic abilities are generally regarded as standing quite apart from say ordinary vocational aptitudes. The musician and the artist have often been treated by educationists as being a class by themselves, an attitude which has been fostered by the musicians who have let the idea become current that their subject is not capable of being assessed in the same terms as those of the other school subjects. This is amusingly illustrated by the case of the musical adviser to a certain education authority who refused to attend schools at the same time as the inspectors of the ordinary school subjects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Musical Association , Volume 67 , 1940 , pp. 31 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1940

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References

The Psychology of Musical Talent: Professor Seashore, Carl, University of Iowa (Silver, Burdett & Company, 1919). Especially valuable for its reasoned statement of the problem of measurement of musical talent and the difficulties involved.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psychology of Music: Seashore, Carl (McGraw-Hill, 1938). In an appendix Seashore justifies his adoption of cognitive tests against the criticism of Mursell.Google Scholar
The Psychology of Music: Professor Mursell, James, Columbia University (Norton & Company, 1937). A comprehensive critical account of previous investigations on musical talent with 605 references to the relevant literature.Google Scholar
“What is Musical Talent?” Professor Drake, Raleigh M., Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia; The Journal of Musicology, p. 9, vol. I (1939)-Google Scholar
“Music and Psychology,” Lowery, H., The Journal of Musicology, p. 14, vol. I (1939).Google Scholar
“On the Integrative Theory of Musical Talent,” Lowery, H., The Journal of Musicology, p. 1, vol. II (1940).Google Scholar
The Testing of Intelligence, (published by the University of London, Institute of Education), especially Chapter 12 on “Tests in Aesthetics,” by Dr. Vernon, P. E.Google Scholar
Creative Technique, Woodhouse, George (Kegan Paul & Company, 1922). Emphasises the distinction between technique and interpretation in respect of pianoforte playing and the essentially mental character of interpretation.Google Scholar
The Borderland of Psychology and Music: Howes, Frank (Kegan Paul, 1926). Contains a valuable discussion of the affective element in music as also does Style in Musical Art, Sir Hubert Parry (Macmillan, 1911). See Chapter XIV on “The Sphere of Temperament.”Google Scholar
Counterpoint and Harmony: Bairstow, E. C. (Macmillan & Co. and Stainer & Bell, 1937). Unlike most musical text-books, recognises the mental character of musicality. “A musical person, even without any knowledge, imagines mentally some harmony to accompany single sounds or intervals when he hears them. It is this faculty—the mental conception of sounds—upon which the writing of music depends. It can be developed by using it constantly until a complicated orchestral score can be heard mentally” (p. 5). “This instinct for the implied chord, far from being a difficult thing to acquire, is found in nearly everyone who is at all musical” (p. 6).Google Scholar