The Place of Music in a Technological World

TLDR: The advice given by the Reverend Smith to musicians to bow their heads, fold their hands, and sit down in the presence of a young Sunday school teacher was discussed in this paper.

Abstract: You may have heard of the advice given the Reverend Smith. Young bachelor that he was, newly out of seminary, eager to be effective in his first pastorate, he found himself completely tongue-tied as a pretty young Sunday School teacher urged him to say a few words to her class of wriggling six-year-olds. As he ended his stammering excuses with the pleading question, \"But what can I say ?\" a solemn and sympathetic little girl rose and answered: \"Pleathe, Mithter Thmith, why don't thuh jutht thay 'Amen' and thit down ?\" It occurs to me that we could consider such advice in the two quite different sentences which follow, the first one being: It would be a very simple and easily rationalized action in today's climate of demands for scientific education and increased emphasis upon the so-called \"solid\" subjects, for musicians simply to bow their heads, fold their hands, say \"Amen,\" and sit down engulfed by their defeatism and suffering from their lack of faith in their own art. The second sentence: If we believe that music is one of the values of our world, if we know why we believe this and if we do not choose to throw away fifty years of professional growth, then this is most certainly not the time for musicians to say \"Amen\" and sit down!