Contrary to common opinion, reminiscence over a long life does not automatically mean thinking that nothing now is as good as it used to be; and that everything – music education included – has gone to the dogs. Once unshakeable Victorian belief in the inevitability of human progress may have received a battering during the past century's disasters. But in the field of music education at least, remarkable progress has clearly been made since music lessons were reintroduced into the generality of English schools during the nineteenth century. However, that does not mean that perfection has been reached – and the future can be seen to hold both opportunities and weighty challenges …

My own clear memory of the very modest music lessons typical of the London elementary schools I attended early in the 1920s is of singing by rote ‘Early One Morning’, ‘Come, lasses and lads’, ‘Hearts of Oak’, and other by now defunct items from the ubiquitous National Song Book. The rest of the lesson was spent on sight-reading exercises pointed out by the teacher on a Tonic Sol-fa Modulator slung over the blackboard. All this would take place around the piano in the school hall; otherwise our own class-teachers (invariably non-pianists) produced a tuning fork and ‘gave us the note’. There was no other musical equipment or provision; but once a week a mature lady came after school to teach the violin to a handful of children. To emphasise her extra-mural status she always taught wearing an elaborate hat.