For Every Music Lover | Page 5

realize the delights they
suggest. On these suppositions might be comprehended the power and
significance of music which must otherwise remain a mystery. The
progress of musical culture, he thought, could not be too much
applauded as a noble means of ministering to human welfare. Mr.
Spencer's theory has of late led to much controversy. Its author has
been censured for setting forth no explanation of the place of harmony
in modern music, and for not realizing what a musical composition is.
In his last volume, "Facts and Comments," which contains many
valuable thoughts not previously published, he declares that his critics
have obviously confounded the origin of a thing and that which
originates from it. "Here we have a striking example of the way in
which an hypothesis is made to appear untenable by representing it as
being something which it does not profess to be," he says. "I gave an
account of the origin of music, and now I am blamed because my
conception of the origin of music does not include a conception of
music as fully developed. If to some one who said that an oak comes
from an acorn it were replied that he had manifestly never seen an oak,
since an acorn contains no trace of all its complexities of form and
structure, the reply would not be thought a rational one;" but he
believes it would be quite as rational as to suppose he had not realized
what a musical composition is because his theory of the origin of music
says nothing about the characteristics of an overture or a quartet.

Of the music of primeval man we can form an estimate from the music
of still existing uncivilized races. As the vocabulary of their speech is
limited, so the notes of their music are few, but expressive gestures and
modulations of the voice supplement both. With advancing civilization
the emotions of which the human heart are capable become more
complex and demand larger means of expression. Some belief in the
healing, helpful, uplifting power of music has always prevailed. It
remains for independent, practical, modern man to present the art to the
world as a thing of law and order, whose ineffable beauty and
beneficence may reach the lives of the average man and woman.
Without the growth of the individual, music cannot grow; without
freedom of thought, neither the language of tones nor that of words can
gain full, free utterance. Freedom is essential to the life of the
indwelling spirit. Wherever the flow of thought and fancy is impeded,
or the energies of the individual held in check, there music is cramped.
In China, where conditions have crushed spiritual and intellectual
liberty, the art remains to this day in a crude rhythmical or percussion
state, although it was early honored as the gift of superior beings. The
Chinese philosopher detected a grand world music in the harmonious
order of the heavens and the earth, and wrote voluminous works on
musical theory. When it came to putting this into practice tones were
combined in a pedantic fashion.
In all ages and climes music has ministered to religion and education.
The sacred Vedas bear testimony to the high place it held in Hindu
worship and life. Proud records of stone reveal its dignified rôle in the
civilization of Egypt, where Plato stated there had existed ten thousand
years before his day music that could only have emanated from gods or
godlike men. The art was taught by the temple priests, and the
education of no young person was complete without a knowledge of it.
Egyptian musical culture impressed itself on the Greeks, and also on
the Israelites, whose tone-language gained warmth and coloring from
various Oriental sources. Hebrew scriptures abound in tributes to the
worth of music which was intimately related to the political life, mental
consciousness and national sentiment of the Children of Israel. Through

music they approached the unseen King of kings with the plaintive
outpourings of their grief-laden hearts and with their joyful hymns of
praise and thanksgiving.
From the polished Greeks we gained a basis for the scientific laws
governing our musical art. The splendid music of which we read in
ancient writings has for the most part vanished with the lives it
enriched. Relegated to the guardianship of exclusive classes its most
sacred secrets were kept from the people, and it could not possibly have
attained the expansion we know.
Music has been called the handmaiden of Christianity, but may more
appropriately be designated its loyal helpmeet. Whatever synagogue or
other melodies may have first served to voice the sentiments kindled by
the Gospel of Glad Tidings it was inevitable that the new religious
thought should seek and find new musical expression.
In shaping a ritual for general use,