For Every Music Lover | Page 3

to spread abroad the
utterances of genius. Precisely in the same way religion has its prophets
and its ministers. Music, as well as religion, is meant for everyone, and
the business of its ministers and teachers is to convey to all the message
of its prophets.
The nineteenth century was the period of achievement. There is every
reason to believe that the twentieth century will be the period of still
nobler achievement, beyond all in the realm of the spirit. Then will
music find its most splendid opportunity, and in our own free soil it
will yield its richest fruitage. Amid the favorable conditions of liberty it
will flourish to the utmost, and will come to afford blessed relief from
the pressure of materialism. During the era we are entering no
unworthy teacher will be permitted to trifle with the unfolding musical
instincts of childhood. The study of music will take an honored place in

the curriculum of every school, academy, college and university, as an
essential factor in culture. Then music among us will come to reflect
our deepest, truest consciousness, the American world-view.
It is with a desire to stimulate thought and incite to action that the
present volume has been prepared for every music lover. The essays
contained in it have not previously appeared in print. They are
composed to a large extent of materials used by the author in her
lectures and informal talks on music and its history. That her readers
may be led to seek further acquaintance with the divine art is her
earnest wish.
Many thanks are due L. C. Page & Company, of Boston, for kind
permission to use the portrait of Corelli, from their "Famous
Violinists," by Henry C. Lahee.
AUBERTINE WOODWARD MOORE. MADISON, WIS.

FOR EVERY MUSIC LOVER

I
The Origin and Function of Music
One of the most interesting of the many interesting stories of our
civilization is the story of Music. It affords an intimate knowledge of
the inner life of man as manifested in different epochs of the world's
history. He who has failed to follow it has failed to comprehend the
noblest phenomena of human progress.
Mythology and legendary lore abound in delightful traditions in regard
to the birth of music. The untutored philosophers of primitive humanity
and the learned philosophers of ancient civilizations alike strove to
solve the sweet, elusive mystery surrounding the art. Through the
myths and legends based on their speculations runs a suggestion of

divine origin.
The Egyptians of old saw in their sublime god, Osiris, and his ideal
spouse, Isis, the authors of music. Among the Hindus it was regarded
as a priceless gift from the great god Brahma, who was its creator and
whose peerless consort, Sarasvati, was its guardian. Poetic fancies in
these lines permeate the early literature of diverse peoples.
This is not surprising. Abundant testimony proves that the existence of
music is coeval with that of mankind; that it is based on the
modulations of the human voice and the agitations of the human
muscles and nerves caused by the infinite variations of the spiritual and
emotional sensations, needs and aspirations of humanity; that it has
grown with man's growth, developed with man's development, and that
its origin is as divine as that of man.
[Illustration: MOZART]
The inevitable dualism which Emerson found bisecting all nature
appears also in music, which is both spiritual and material. The
spiritual part of music appeals to the spiritual part of man, addressing
each heart according to the cravings and capacities of each. The
material part of music may be compared to the body in which man's
spirit is housed. It is the vehicle which conveys the message of music
from soul to soul through the medium of the human ear with its
matchless harp of nerve-fibres and its splendid sounding-board, the
eardrum.
Music is the mirror which most perfectly reflects man's inner being and
the essence of all things. Ruskin saw clearly that he alone can love art
well who loves better what art mirrors. This may especially be applied
to music, which offers, as a Beethoven has said, a more lofty revelation
than all wisdom and philosophy.
Having no model in nature, being neither an imitation of any actual
object, nor a repetition of anything experienced, music stands alone
among the arts. It represents the real thing, as Schopenhauer has it, the
thing itself, not the mere semblance. Were we able to give a thoroughly

satisfactory explanation of music, he declares, we should have the true
philosophy of the universe.
"Music is a kind of inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to
the edge of the Infinite, and impels us for a moment to gaze into it,"
exclaimed Carlyle. Wagner found in music the conscious language of
feeling, that which