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THE MUSICAL OUTLOOK. COLLEGE MUSIC. I. DURING the past three months, three main aspects of the musical outlook have been considered in these columns-local musical efforts (small and great but particularly the small) central musical festivals; and the eisteddfod. A most important feature in the musical map of any country is its College music. By this is meant the musical output of all the public institutions where young men or women are assembled for training. It is hoped to deal specially with this aspect of musical progress during the next two or three months in these pages, It would be extraordinarily interesting if one could see a graph or map of the musical system of the country as one can of its system of rivers, or as one can see the diagram of a complete nervous system in the human body. I expect that, like these, it would rather resemble a tree or trees. It would have trunk-systems,- eisteddfodau, central festivals; and branches, and sub-branches, twigs, twiglets. The tiniest musical activity of a group of three or four people in a remote village would have to be on that map; and the link between the remote music-making and the main activities would have to be traced. In College music, we shall be considering not a great central trunk of the whole system, but branches of great importance and of great possibilities of fruitfulness. But it seems necessary at once to amplify the above simile. A true map of any river and all its tributaries may look like the trunk and branches of a tree. And the imagined map of a musical system may look like both tree and river. But it is more than either of them. For leaves are nourished from the roots via the stem; and without the main-line no tributary branches would be possible. On the other hand, rivers are filled from their tributaries; and in this instance, without the little lines, there would exist no main-line to be mapped. Now the energies of a healthy art flow both ways. All musical efforts whatsoever, brought to the main- lines, are tributary to it. The unknown village violinist may lend surprising glory to the National Eisteddfod; and conversely the eistedd- fod itself may be the means of nourishment to the small remote musical branches as surely as the trunk is to the branches in the case of a tree. With this two-fold natural fact well and always in mind, we shall readily see the reason why in music both the individual effort and the corporate By Sir H. Walford Davies. organization are supremely important to the cause and to one another. They must run con- currently. The individual effort will not wait upon the organization any more than a stream will wait upon an engineer to make it a bed. Nor, on the other hand, must the musical organi- zation waste or ignore a single individual effort if it can help it. For some such reasons as the above, everyone who longs to hear the countryside ring with glorious music will turn hopefully to the colleges, where young people are congregated for training. There an energetic output of music and a wise organisation and release of the gifts and enthu- siasms which are certain to be present will measurelessly repay the effort. No man can sup- ply the musical rivers of the world. But, he can help to irrigate the countryside. He can cut musical canals with a little growth, a musical engineer can even deepen the beds of streams here and there, or widen, or divert them. Given a natural stream, it is even possible to create an inland musical lake of great usefulness as the musical "water-supply" for a whole locality, and incidentally perhaps of a beauty all its own and as great in its own way as that of the Vyrnwy or the Elan Valley! II. It is hoped next month to sketch and discuss possible plans for musical developments in train- ing colleges. The rest of this month's contribu- tion is of great interest and is, I am happy to say, penned by another hand. I have been asked to incorporate in these monthly pages the informal reports which were presented to the National Council of Music last July, describing the musical activities of the four constituents of our Univer- sity. It is a pleasure to be able to begin at once by giving the Bangor Report which Mr. E. T. Davies has kindly written out in full. It is a document of more than Council interest, giving facts and hopes which affect not only Bangor but the whole country. The present session has been of special interest, as it has seen the completion of the first five years in the life of the department. Glancing back over this period, there is evidence that the enterprise of the College authorities in establishing a music depart- ment has been justified. From the start, a vigorous course of action has been pursued and no effort has been spared to make music a live subject of study and a stimulating and refining influence in college life. As is well known to the Council, the college has also given a great deal of attention to extra- mural activities, this being considered vital if a spread of musical culture in the Principalitv is to take place, Each year has seen some new phase of