* * * * *
5. _Musical Learning and the University_
While this movement was going on in the artistic world, scholars were
taking their share in it, and music was beginning to invade the
University.
But the thing was brought about with some difficulty; for among these
serious people music did not count as a serious study. Music was thought
of as an agreeable art, a social accomplishment, and the idea of making
it the subject of scientific teaching must have been received with some
amusement. Even up to the present time, general histories of Art have
refused to accord music a place, so little was thought of it; and other
arts were indignant at being mentioned in the same breath with it. This
is illustrated in the eternal dispute among M. Jourdain's masters, when
the fencing-master says:
"And from this we know what great consideration is due to us in a
State; and how the science of Fencing is far above all useless
sciences, such as dancing and music."
The first lectures on Aesthetics and Musical History were not given in
France until after the war of 1870.[238] They were then given at the
Conservatoire, and, until quite lately, were the only lectures on Music
of any importance in Paris.
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