C. H. CONGDON
(?-1928)
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Last known address: 200 5th Ave., NY, NY
A music publisher, C. H. Congdon was an important member of the Conference up until his death. He became chairman of the Necrology Committee in 1922.
At the 1918 conference, he expressed some of his philosophy:
"In regard to compulsory education, that principle is applied to school attendance, if that would not be in operation, where would our pupils be? A good many would be on the streets. In regard to selection of music, I believe that rag time, instead of connecting pupils with life it is connecting them with the rag time mill in New York City and we are fools enough to stand for it. I was in Columbus, Ohio, a few weeks ago, and Mr. Roberts took me to a school of boys who were failures, they were so full of deviltry they had to be put there together. One of the graduates of the high school of Columbus was brought in there, he had become proficient on the piano, he was brought down to play the piano for the boys. He played the music of Chopin, all classical music, and if you could have looked into the faces of those boys who were considered failures, and heard them applaud you would have thought there was not very musc room for rag time in public schools."
In response to Congdon's death shortly before the 1928 Conference, E. B. Birge said:
"I am thinking especially of Mr. Congdon's long service to school music and his intense personal interest in it…Congdon pitch-pipe, which represented a pioneer thought, and then the Congdon music rolls and the little booklets which have been so much used as music readers."
This information was compiled by Brian Cardany.
If you have additional information about this member, please submit email to:
Brian.Cardany@asu.edu