BOSTON, Dec. 5, 1870.

Mr. EICHBERG, Supervisor of Music in the Public Schools.

DEAR SIR,- In reply to your request for a report of the progress made in my department, I would say that I have visited the classes under my supervision once in every four weeks.

During the last four weeks, owing to the illness of Mr. Alexander, I have (in nearly all of the schools) taken charge of his classes in addition to my own. In my sixth class is commenced an intellectual study of the sounds of the scale.

To illustrate: Children are taught to recognize any sound of the scale, by its scale name; as, 1, 2, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, etc. ; and they will produce the same at the dictation of the teacher. This is intended mainly to educate and train the ear.

One or two minutes are spent in this exercise, which is followed by a representation of the sounds, thus:

which trains the eye together with the ear.

Five minutes are spent in this way, each day, as a drill exercise, followed by practice upon the music charts. The result of this drill is remarkable. The ear becomes so well trained that children will go to the black-board and write the scale, or pitchname, of any sounds given with the syllable la. This drill of single sounds is followed by Triad practice, after which the class is divided, an additional pointer used, and the pupil is trained in two-part harmony.

This is followed by the practice of two-part songs upon the charts, together with the beating of the time; and, in addition to this, in the fifth and fourth classes, by the chromatic scale and a study of the keys which grow out of it.

And such has been the progress, that children ten years of age will go to the black-board and write the pitch of any progression of sounds which may be given in any of the sharp keys. I think it is safe to say that at the end of the school year the fourth class will have so practical a knowledge of all the nine different keys, that they will sing correctly any choral which may be written in any of those keys, at sight.

The pupils become familiar with the position of each scale upon the staff, the same as in the key of C.

The teachers under my supervision are accomplishing much more than last year. A large maj›rity are doing excellent work. All are doing something. Their experience, and the result of their work, is giving them confidence, and many are teaching successfully, what a year ago seemed to them impossible. We shall continue to improve in proportion as the teachers gain ability and confidence in themselves to do the work.

Yours very truly,

H. E. HOLT,

Supervisor of Music in the Lower Classes of the Grammar Schools.

BOSTON, Dec. 1, 1870.

DEAR SIR,I am happy to report, in regard to the progress of musical instruction in the Primary schools, that the regular teachers are bringing the children up to the requirements of the programme better than at any previous time. It is hoped that by the end of the present term (in March) there may be shown still more satisfactory results.

Yours truly,

LUTHER W. MASON,

Supervisor of Music in the Primary Schools.

BOSTON, Dec. 7, 1870.

JULIUS EICHBERG, Esq., Supervisor of Musical Instruction in the Boston, Public Schools.

DEAR SIR, In giving my report of the work done in the Dorchester schools, I would say that this is the first year that music

has been taught in the schools of Dorchester, with the exception of the first class in the master's room, which I have visited weekly for three years.

I now visit all the rooms in each school once a week. The teachers are generally anxious to accomplish all they can with their pupils. Five teachers cannot sing, and know nothing about music. With them I practise separately.

The first class had been through the first twenty lessons of Mr. Mason's charts (second series), the chromatic scale, and have just commenced reading in the different keys. They are doing well, and I hope, by the end of the year, they will be as far advanced as the third and fourth classes in the Boston schools.

The other classes in the Grammar department are supplied with Mason's charts (second series), and are not so far advanced by two years as they are in the Boston schools.

The Primary schools are all supplied with Mason's charts (first series), and are doing very well indeed; they also are about two years behind in their studies, but I hope by my weekly visits in the Primary schools and lower classes of the Grammar schools, to have them up to the high standard attained by the Boston pupils in the shortest time possible.

I would, before closing my report, call your attention to the wretched condition of the piano-fortes in our schools. I hope we may have better ones before the end of the year.

Respectfully yours,

HIRAM WILDE,

Supervisor and Teacher of Music in the Grammar and Primary Schools of the Dorchester District.

As embodying the recommendations set forth in the report of your committee, the following orders are respectfully submitted:

1. Ordered, That under the new arrangement of the gradation of the classes in the Grammar schools, Mr. Sharland shall take

charge of the musical instruction of the 1st and 2d; Mr. Holt that of the 3d and 4th, and Mr. Alexander that of the 5th and 6th classes respectively, in the schools now taught by them, and at the salaries they now receive.

2. Ordered, That ten minutes each day be devoted to musical instruction by the regular teachers of the 1st and 2d classes of the Grammar schools (under the new gradation), in like manner as is now done in the other classes of those schools.

3 Ordered, That hereafter, no contract for the purchase of pianos for the schools shall be made without the approval of the standing committee on music.

ANNUAL MUSICAL EXHIBITION.

The third regular Musical Exhibition of the Public Schools, took place in the Music Hall, on Wednesday, the 8th day of June last. The morning was devoted to the Primary, the afternoon to the High and Grammar schools.

Promptly at the hour of 10 A. M. about a thousand pupils from the primaries, varying in age from five to eight years, were marshalled to their places on the platform and performed their parts with admirable precision, accuracy, and good taste. They were accompanied by an orchestra of about twenty-five musicians, -the whole under the direction of Mr. L. W. Mason.