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HIGHER EDUCATION
BY
EDWARD DICKINSON
PROCESSOR OK THE HISTORY AND CRITICISM OF MUSIC,
OBERUN COLLEGE
'
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1915
COPYRIGHT, igis, BY
MT
TO
THE HONORED MEMORY
OF
FENELON
B.
RICE
NOBLE SERVICE
TO MUSICAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA
THIS BOOK
IS
DEDICATED
CONTENTS
PRELUDE
PAGE
ROOM
IN A COLLEGE Music
PART
PART
II
76
PART
TEACHER AND CRITIC
METHOD
III
PRELUDE
IN A COLLEGE MUSIC
IN
ROOM
History and Criticism of Music" (to use his ponderous and inadequate official title) was sitting,
oppressed by the half-melancholy that comes over
one who realizes that the year's task has suddenly
ended. Nine happy months had flown by "on
pinions of song." The recollections of the year,
The
As the moments passed the occupant of this solitude slowly awoke to a consciousness of the existence of another world than the ideal one in which
so much of his daily existence had been absorbed.
The clatter of hoofs and wheels upon the pavement, which had often been an irritating distraction,
He
human
For art
commonly unaware
until she
withdraws and
ma-
IN A COLLEGE MUSIC
ROOM
one
life lost
another
life is
gained.
It takes time, however, to effect the reconciliation, and hence the closing of the college year, so
vague recollections and equally vague premoniHe felt a need of readjustment, but his
faculties were too relaxed to spring at once to the
Habit suggested
seizure of the new occasion.
continued labor, but the silence of the building,
of
tions.
The year
of the past
but
went
longer,
roused himself,
just a plain human being
to the window, and looked out into the great,
open
The
sunshine, the quivering masses of green, the glistening clouds soaring like happy winged creatures
in the expanse of blue, the warm tide of the wind
flowing with rhythmic rise and fall from immeasurable spaces, all the seductions of the season of
IN A COLLEGE MUSIC
ROOM
development.
"All are needed by each one;
Nothing
is fair
or good alone."
who
of
his
work
will receive
own.
in
human
service,
in a
We
must only
see
to it that
there
be no
furtherance of the
common
weal.
is
that one
life
stillness of
ROOM
IN A COLLEGE MUSIC
adjust the results of his teaching to other disciplines, so that out of his effort, in correspondence
with the efforts of other guides, a unity of intel-
till, and find inspiration and direction for his labors in the adaptation of his husbandry to the issues of the greater harvest.
Thus
summer-time.
What more
in hours of meditation
profitable
among
the
employment
or by the
hills
make
his course
many winged
PART
arts
would not be
by art in
But the
The moral
freely,
is
to devise obstructions
make
the path to spiritual and intellectual attainment as difficult as possible, with the
that shall
the college
and
if
it
way
is
instruction,
these
inspiration
are
Protection,
the benefits
them
his
college is
embracing
that vocation,
supremely concerned
others, which is found in the constant
all
10
life
its
makes
to that.
The development of the noblest
powers of intellect and spirit is not one thing and
"
the "vocation" another thing.
Resolutely to
live in the good, the beautiful,
common
the
"what
science
and prac-
work."
man
shall
The enormous
opportunities afforded
the
by
present age, emphasizing the idea of work
for the conquest of the material world, have reacted against the old idealism and have greatly
his
ii
which
idealism,
but
will use
will
them
to higher ends,
satisfaction
with
life
its
that
is rich,
best instincts.
working out of
This culture
which, it need hardly be said,
has nothing to do with any kind of dilettante
exclusiveness, but recognizes every human aspiration
this culture, the development of something
12
is
it
lege course
Nothing
is
is isolated;
its relations;
nothing
is
known except
in
activity,
however slender, plays its part in feeding the uniThe scientific courses
versal stream of tendency.
are often considered as peculiarly, even exclusively,
practical; but one who possesses the view of science presented by John Tyndall, in his famous
address on "The Scientific Use of the Imagination," knows that science is poetic, that every
single discovery leads to a new mystery and a
larger generalization, that the true study of sci-
is
any faculty and the gratification of curiosity (the scholar's ever-present motive), and in
the second place the exultation that comes when
cise of
new
life.
upon
"To
II
The
in study that
The
dis-
14
in which strenuous discipline for tanis the paramount purpose and joy
results
gible
in the immediate presentation a secondary and
memory,
the arts
them
is
is,
if
and cannot
is
the preliminary
any
reluctant to do
that
is,
Ill
In their claim for recognition the fine arts apnow become ancient and orpeal to the faith
in the trinity of the Good, the True,
thodox
and the Beautiful, "friends to man, who never can
be sundered without tears." Has not the college
often seemed to sunder them, misunderstanding
their mutual dependence because of imperfect definition of terms, misconceiving especially the real
At last, however,
essence and office of beauty?
*
16
is
the monk's
its
man
ideal
emphasis upon
the things of the mind, of which many of our censors within and without the college so bitterly
complain, even if the two phenomena are not
actually connected as cause and effect.
It follows that in many opinions the increasing
devotion that is paid to the arts, with their primary
as
Emerson
allure-
The
rancor-
we must
Beauty, therefore, is
to
rightly required
justify herself, for we find in
the brilliant periods of art that beauty, while often
the handmaid of good, has also lent herself to serv-
18
ices
sires
And yet, in
ethical consequences of her action.
fact
that
we
attribute
loveliness
the
involuntarily
to truth and goodness, we implicitly ascribe a
divine sanction to the spirit of beauty. These apparent contradictions bewilder us, and in our con-
fusion
we seem almost
the Irish poet in his judgment upon love, and, challenging the college attitude toward beauty, we are
tempted to exclaim:
"
How
How
IV
This hesitation arises from certain imperfect
preconceptions concerning the nature of beauty
which are inherited from an ancestry in whose
eyes the charms of art seemed to conflict with the
stern claims of the moral law. We may escape
from the difficulty by enlarging our definitions.
If beauty and art mean to us only what they mean
art, indeed,
our-
ated by the Dantes, the Michelangelos, the Shakespeares, the Rembrandts, and the Beethovens; or
if the temple and cathedral builders had never
for the
common
bene-
may
ends.
community
pompous grandeur and delicate
20
softness of
man-
upon character which have excited so much iconoThe separaclastic rage and moral denunciation.
tion of art from the common life does not come from
inherent necessity, as though beauty and useful
The powerful and
labor were mutually repellent.
grasping have seized upon the means by which
beauty is made operative, as they have seized upon
the natural products of the earth, and have appropriated them for their own exclusive behoof.
Again and again has the spirit of art rebelled
against this monopoly
temporarily and incombut at times with sufficient success to
prove that beauty is a universal desire, and that
with freedom of opportunity every phase of human
activity may take possession of it and find not
only pleasure but actual co-operation in the part-
pletely,
nership.
is
to history
we
of art coincided
its essential
fore,
demanded by democracy
or even
when left to
its instincts,
which democracy
its
attainment
certain institutional
satisfaction?
The
is
and
is
clearly
If in
which
will rise to
tofore
known
and
do not
flourish."
superficial
freedom and national education, they are preparsoil of man for fairer flowers and fruits in
another age. For beauty, truth, and goodness
are not obsolete; they spring eternal in the breast
of man."
The time which Emerson foresaw, guaranteed by his faith in human nature, is perhaps
nearer than he dreamed. Mr. John Galsworthy
has lately written: "I cannot help thinking that
historians, looking back from the far future, will
record this age as the Third Renaissance. Just as
in the Greek Renaissance worn-out Pagan orthodoxy was penetrated by a new philosophy; just
as in the Italian Renaissance Pagan philosophy,
reasserting itself, fertilized again an already too
ing the
so
now Orthodoxy,
ferti-
for
by
Perfection's
sake.
Slowly,
is
under our
feet,
must flourish."
Mr. W. B. Worsfold
an industrialism which has been hitherto considered inevitably repressive of art and culture
of
the assurance of a
among
the masses.
nificance
modern democracy,
when we recognize
receives a
makes
new
sig-
For
plain that aesthetic enjoyment, whether in the individual or in the community, is only possible when there is 'an organizascientific analysis
it
have not to be
occupy an increasingly
in
life
of man.
the
important place
Democracy,
instead
of
therefore,
destroying must tend to fosity, art
and
literature will
ter Art."
say,
25
The younger
the coarser classes, still bow down undisguisedly to the god Dollar; but when this philiscities,
aesthetic culture
ready to install
To permeate a vast commonwealth like ours
with a desire for beauty in daily life, and to bring
to all the people forms of art suited to their capacities and needs, would seem an impossible task,
and the most hopeful vision could hardly claim to
foresee the time when all the dark places will be
illumined. And yet it is unsafe to set any metes
and bounds to progress when one considers what
has already been done. Every one of the multi-
and bring to them higher motives and opporawakes in them a new sense of the value
of life, and whatever stimulates life in a wholesome fashion involves the expression of life, and
this expression either takes artistic form or else
creates dispositions out of which come natural
issues of comeliness and order.
In fact, whatever
makes for physical and spiritual health, answering
to an inherent need of expansion, is beautiful, and
ers
tunities
26
it realizes itself in
is aesthetic.
less blind
accessible
is
27
in a
acceptance.
Its
universal
when
restricted, and that special privilege in the gratification of intellectual taste, as well as in the ac-
demo-
28
of the love of
it is
being made
lar education.
this
the teachers
who
VI
In the inevitable process of adaptation to the
changing demands of the age the colleges are
compelled, from time to time, to add new departments to the curriculum, and a comparison of
their present catalogues with those of twenty or
thirty years ago will show that, while they have
been conservative, they have not been ultraconservative. In view of their responsibilities as
now many
appreciation and judgment in respect to the achievements of fine art that are accumulating around
them, or to contribute intelligently to those cultural movements which are already giving a new
all this seems to call
aspect to the national life
for explanation.
The most evident reason for the
neglect of interests which have been universal in
history, and which have a vital relationship to
essential elements in human character and its social development, is that until recently there has
have a
the Puritans, least of all; and later the conthe Revolutionary and constitutional periods, the bitter political struggles accompanying the
period of territorial expansion, and after the Civil
tor,
flicts of
War
30
words
of national consciousness
was imported,
artificial,
and
tradition.
It
growth of national
ideals.
Hence
who
is
growth
Si
It
rison's
arouse the spiritual perceptions, reveal the fundamentals of life and quicken the sense of beauty
being ignored in behalf of grammar, philology,
and
historic allusions
things
the subjects of examinations.
Poetry, being a fine art, is the result of the union
of a soul with something that it contemplates, and
metrics,
literary
that can be
made
in poetry
if
much more
plete education includes the nurture of -'the intuitive powers, the cultivation of the instincts
which spring to meet those spiritual communications which cannot be analyzed or weighed or
measured, cannot even be demonstrated by one
33
feels
itions
active faculties to
compose the
full life of
the rea-
No
man
in
is
what he
is
out of isolated experiences an actuality which corresponds to certain innate demands of his spiritual
nature. This power, when it perceives new relationships and shapes them into the embodiment of
an idea, becomes creative imagination; and when
it perceives the significance of another's creation
own
ination.
34
delight.
him who
is
of
There is the delight of the artist
exercises creative imagination; and there
cises
sympathetic imagination.
may be even more wholesome and unselfish
latter
35
us.
We
general.
We
We
can
It is all in particulars.
We
the feeling
Its
it excites.
character.
36
it is
What more
cation can be found than in those works of literature and art in which great artists have incorporated
their visions,
their longings,
sympathies? And
their great
human
it
VII
receiving
but
These
external impressions are derived from the amusements which have taken so large a place in American life, and from the outdoor objects which the
cities and towns offer the observer at every turn
some beautiful, the vast majority ugly. In addiof sources,
still
circle,
it.
lie
37
and monu-
it is
in the sphere in
country habitually dwell.
To say nothing of other causes
certain mechanical inventions, such as the electric motor, the cine-
this
38
of
the times.
We
see the
share.
We
see
ception that the popular taste and wholesome recreation are as much an affair of the whole social
of affairs,
know
39
cates
says Mr. Percival Chubb, "that it communino quickening sense of the poetry of life, is
or censorship
and the drama, trusting to the power of sugawaken a taste for what is lovely and
of good report by means of direct contact with
works that embody those qualities.
"There is [in our colleges]," says Mr. Percival
art,
gestion to
Chubb
"
40
achieve
best results."
its
The one
thing needful
modern
life,
is
ment
of life
on the one
side,
and
life
of the soul
by the
agencies of
men
ress
interests
been greatly
women
fact, at first
may
conceivably act, in
many
ences
is
concerned.
man
of college
age
is
sisters as
of such tastes, and even be hardened in his philistine ways by the softer presence near which he
dwells.
spised.
This is a real obstacle and not to be deWhatever remedies there may be (and un-
and nobility
of
humanity.
man
42
made
He must
that
tions
and the
gallery;
health.
it is
to be sought in the
gymnasium
Among
reason
why
and emotions as
VIII
bringing the fine arts into the college and
university system these institutions will inevitably
By
reflection, will
be a
critical,
conservative attitude.
ulty.
but among the students rather than the facThe college almost invariably stands as an
methods
of scholarship, is to
make
reason prevail,
To
that may be called, in general terms, the comparative method, and this implies a submission to
prudent deliberation rather than surrender to passionate impulse. Hence, the tendency of college
youth
The
is
colleges
if
He
The
professor
must be
alive to the
movements
of
its
primary
condition.
One advantage
makes
his
his
wisdom.
to leave
them
45
ments
which
in question a
be
exercised
withlarge
may
out challenge. Certainly the instructor must not
attempt to domineer over the individual preferin
amount
aesthetic taste is
of authority
than unprincipled
tion,
perhaps,
is
license.
needed in
safely
Especial circumspecaesthetics,
for
most
grounded on fundamental
graduates
may
vaudeville,
if
such be
there
is
bond
In
is
but an earnest of
what
the college,
while
it
offers
it
use,
first
is
47
ours,
and
may
and
it is
liberal opinion
the old.
concerning the
new
as well as
The
is not prone to be
winds of doctrine either in art
or philosophy, its co-operation will be with those
tendencies that lead to the discovery and maintenance of safe standards.
Bitter reproaches are often hurled against such
establishments as the French Institute, the British
and American Academies, and even the national
swayed by
art
shifting
to
recognize new tendencies and that every progressive movement is obliged to fight for its life against
their powerful subsidized opposition.
These com-
education.
IX
In accepting only that which has already been
and making
verified
it
day.
This
is
depends
There
is
broad knowledge,
unaware that the new problems are often superficial, and that there are certain intrinsic and lasting problems that are involved in all art work
from the beginning and have been mightily solved
by the
49
No
artist is in
a posi-
of expression
new age
which the
firmly grounded in
the fundamentals of art which persist amid all
the changes of ideal and fashion. "An untrained
is
"
The novice
Neither
because
it is
his soul,
but only
50
summate artist.
The unrest of
as production
and
in the
prise,
pends itself in vagaries of imagination, in discontent with social repressions, in rebellion against
limitations that are not clearly realized, in cravings
that turn inward and prey upon themselves, producing a turmoil of the spirit whose curse is that
it cannot find the relief that comes with external
action.
Everything that is morbid and sensational
is welcomed, the nervous system is irritated into
an excessive delicacy, a thirst for emotional exSi
There
is
a sound undercurrent
flowing in the heart of the race which is not evident to the casual observer because it has so little
expression in those professional literary and art
circles which, for commercial and other motives,
are kept most persistently before the public eye;
may
easily perceive
it is
growing in volume.
It
is
easy to be de-
noisily in the
market-place need not hastily be taken as indicative of the permanent trend of contemporary ideas.
ence, particularly
minds.
many
letters; who has watched a long procession of painters, playwrights, novelists, and composers move into the glare of publicity and out
in art
and
who has
of
including his
53
easily see
and customs
it is
fluence, based
prone to insist
its
by accusations
of timidity
and
In such a country as ours, and administered as they are both from within and without,
there is little danger that they will be wholly irresponsive to anything that tends to real progress.
But they will not accept a novelty just because it
is new;
their professors, by their very training,
look sharply for an intellectual value in whatever
reaction.
and welcome
it
all
only as
tests,
it
54
the
discloses
Any
ive conservatism
and
still
more
recent,
appears in the increasing number of itinerant exhibitions of paintings, etchings, bronzes, textiles,
etc., which are bringing the output of the studios
ing
up
new
drama analogous
The
college dramatic associations wisely conclude that their service lies not
merely in affording a channel for the histrionic
ambitions of their
also
for
playwrights
as
fortunately
still
mary
existing, that
make
it their pri-
purpose to
their art.
as the
Drama League,
in hospitality to professional
and the encouragement of those beautiful adjuncts to the drama, the folk-dance and
the pageant, the college may not only exert an
invigorating influence upon its own family but
assistance
may
The
now
active in
of the
Its
The part
women.
is
If
inspired,
when
not
fulfilled
This necessity
implies lectures, assigned readings, examinations,
and credits. At first sight these mechanical formalities seem foreign to the nature of art, for the
nearer one approaches to the spirit that dwells in
beautiful forms, and for which alone the forms
it.
57
it
decoration of
and
the surface
credits,
On
use of
it is
its traditional
to do so
means
of determination, for
lose its hold upon
would seem to be to
58
They know
have no
illusions
on
this subject.
aim
consists in
an increased
reverence for the productions of genius, in a flowering of taste and sensibility, and a power of accurate
who
barren?
Above
all,
who
spirations that are kindled under the personal influence of a strong-brained and large-hearted teacher
is
In very truth
superficial
it
results
Truly speaking/' says Emerson, "it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive
from another soul." Happy would the college be
if
it
could
make
The
college
upon laying
of
analysis
accessories
chief emphasis
technicalities
but
in behalf of a
60
ture.
inculcation
we
much advantage
to our
We believe
pupils.
means must be
different
from yours.'
Like every product of human imgood and its evil, its strength
and weakness, its truth and falsehood. These distinctions are not intuitively perceived by youthful
ature and art.
minds.
more
is
ject.
relative beauty.
going from one object to another; the same criterion does not apply to all.
The mind must be
at
not
least
until
the essence of
active,
passive
the thing
is
must awake
comprehended.
The understanding
The novice
probably ask
why
lected as a model,
human
people
life
is
instructed.
The
art
"
Tyndall expressed it, affirms that the impression
made upon us by any circumstance, or combination of circumstances, depends upon our previous
state.
Two travellers upon the same peak, the one
having ascended to it from the plain, the other
having descended to it from a higher elevation, will
be differently affected by the scene around them.
To the one, nature is expanding, to the other it
contracting, and the feelings are sure to differ
which have two such different antecedent states."
is
62
am;
I will
her, for without you she cannot thrive.
show you how to take her in the only way possible,
which
is
by moulding your
spirit into
conformity
the college
to excite belief
office of
is
63
its
experiential,
impression
made by a work
64
but
memory,
co-ordination,
The
aesthetic in-
XI
When
must often lay aside certain predispositions nourished by another. Gothic sculpture involves considerations of ideal and style other than those of
Hellenic; one may admire Donatello and cavil at
Rodin.
The condemnation
painters
was pronounced
classic art.
was
inspired
The attempt
of the impressionist
name of French
in the
to crush Richard
by a supposed devotion
65
Wagner
to the older
whom
he also revered.
meet the needs of the human spirit as it accommodates itself to changing epoch and experience.
Within the same period, also, different phases of art
appeal to diverse standards of appreciation. The
in portraiture is the expression of
main endeavor
character;
The
in
still
life
it
is
decorative charm.
still
require
Music
another technique.
is
vocal
may
bolize
unbodied emotions, or
of tones.
is
sym-
content with a
It
may be homo-
phonic or contrapuntal; it takes a special character from the mechanism by which it is produced,
so that, for instance, organ music requires one
sort of mental adjustment, piano music another.
Music
is
affected
colored
by
by
nationality, period,
the nature of
66
its
and school;
patronage,
by the
its
liturgical, patriotic, or
terest
influenced
employs it;
which make use
of
by
all
what-not
which
for
its proinvolve
principles which
flexibility
There
are processes
and
be
taught.
analyzed
may
of comparison to be employed, a training of the
tean
will to
affords
or seen.
own
in concrete examples?
In
this
study
is
found the
form and contrivance, every historic or biographreinforcement which the lecturer brings to his
ical
class,
must help
It
or in
uses,
lie
beautiful.
fail
68
sure
more or
departments,
less perceptible
tending
to
Fur-
"
thermore, the lecturer himself, if he be a "practical
artist, often finds his own interest taken up with
like
is
wrong, without any bother over the personal equation. Courses in art history, even, have not escaped
the besetting sin of formalism, for when taught
without imagination they easily relapse into an
examination of lists and dates and various mechanical accessories, instead of
mind
human
life.
Understanding and intuition, reflection and emotion, criticism and spontaneous acceptance must be
trained to act each according to its own laws and
then to blend in a unity spontaneous and complete.
Here is a discipline that embraces many special
disciplines, and not slight are the pedagogical wis-
dom and
skill
it.
XII
Thus we are led to the simple conclusion that,
granted the responsibility of the college in paying
the honor to the fine arts to which their function
in the history of civilization entitles them, in using
them as a means of refining and liberalizing the
70
between teachIn
the
strict interreligion.
neither
if
can
be
we
use
the term
pretation
taught,
in the same sense as when we say that science can
be taught. For the prime purpose of instruction
in religion and art is not to impart information, or
strictly to promote a certain line of action, but to
create a state of mind. In both cases there is involved a perception of truth
but this truth is
not one obtained by experimentation or observation
upon objective phenomena, but a truth intuitively
discerned, a truth recognized and appropriated because it answers a craving of the deepest instincts
here
ing art
and teaching
aspirations.
result of the teaching lies in the
these instincts and aspirations.
And
the finest
development of
While in these
culture may be said
former
is aided, even necessitated, by the application of procedures akin to those of science, by which
the forms in which religion and art have manifested
themselves, the experience of those who have conlives to them, the means by which
formed their
error is sifted
from
truth,
the
tle
work
of the lecturer
supported by
on
art, since
he
precedent or restricted
High must be
ventional routine.
is
so
by
lit-
con-
his enthusiasm,
affluent his knowledge, ripe his experience, and persuasive his tongue, who would draw into the fellow-
of art,
among
may
prove by
many
and
so,
life
by wise
applications
72
his
own
when
it is once gained by the double exercise of research and spontaneous feeling, is no superficial or
selfish indulgence, but combines by natural affinity
XIII
The
is
When
the
first
movement
the method,
everything
after all, is the man.
According to the mental
situation of his pupils, as well as to the means af-
of attack.
is said,
forded him, will the instructor act. He must combine the gifts of the preacher and the man of sci-
ence
73
When
man
is
what they
So is it especially in regard to art and
beauty; a sentimental trifler will have difficulty
thing besides precept of the worth of
teach.
interests of
ask,
life.
"what a
life
"Let me
done
for you."
limit of this field of action also will not easily
be defined, for while the professional work of the
The
life.
classroom work
of his
cates of a
common
cause.
75
PART
II
THE
presence of art in the college, in acknowledged companionship with the sciences and phiAllosophies, is no longer a doubtful question.
growth of
this desire is
not in
the collections of works of art which every millionaire considers necessary to his dignity, nor in the
in taste in the
adornment
the masses of the people that there is no exclusiveness in beauty, that without it even industry is
hampered and material prosperity unsatisfying.
supply
for
is
largely
tive genius.
Multitudes of private organizations,
such as the women's clubs, have given the movement an almost fierce impetus, and in recent days
municipal action in the decoration with beautiful
painting and sculpture of the buildings that belong to the people, in the contrivance of Independ-
and
77
commonwealth
must assume a
The
is no exclusive aristocracy.
exists
for
the
for
the
not
the
college
people
people,
and culture there
college.
Every
and ad-
of art according
78
courses, the art exhibitions, the dramatic performhave long been encouraged in many institu-
ances,
life.
II
Admitting the
moral discipline?
joyless.
religious agency;
al-
the
Certain forms of
tory, library, and lecture-room.
music have always been in the odor of sanctity,
and in such institutions as the English universities,
a partial adoption of
it
inevitable.
not at
first
is still
at the best
it
may
until very recent days, it was practically the unanimous verdict of the American colleges that if
ery, their
These things,
it
trees.
many
reluctant to go.
prejudice against music
lingers in the minds of scientific and literary men.
still
An
legend.
we
itself
What
is
Music, by
its
very nature,
subject to a suspicion to which none
of its sister arts are exposed.
Even so liberal a
is
make
visible,
this
writer in the
is
may, in a certain order of minds, give rise to unwholesome suggestions. There is no other artistic
is productive of such physical exciteas the rhythm, tone-color, and dynamic outbursts of music. Musical performance, in all
agency that
ment
periods of its history, has tended toward the exaggerations of virtuosity. In music, as in the drama,
those
who
lectual
are most conscious of its higher inteland poetic values are always aware that
anything?
Herein is the test of the worth of any aesthetic
has life been permanently instead of
experience
temporarily heightened?
experiences
superficial
and
transitory,
85
when
Ill
An
education that
of the
worthy
name
is
will
in
stimulate
all
implicit
life.
and
direct, will
In certain
divided
ing
is
political
science,
literature
the social
man
It
lies culture.
is
86
when
studied
sults
For art
it
is
and
we see
our trance
periences multiply they inevitably connect themselves with the experiences of others, in the past
as well as the present;
we
power.
Men
own possession.
plain that music is essentially at one with
the other arts in these respects. It is, like them,
is
to increase one's
It
is
a striving of the
human
8?
and
the language
is
another's
hearts.
as a testimony
In the
first
they can be expressed only by symbolism and sugthat are understood only as a kindred
gestion
corresponding vibration. That
devoid of the imitative means which the
other arts possess, instead of being a weakness, is
the very reason of its peculiar power. It uses
spirit is set into
music
is
stir
is
in
put
counterpart.
the soul; it
resentative.
sculpture,
The
is
function of
all
art
is
thus to
The
and
is
not contained
bre and rhythm, offer an infinitely subtle correspondence with the flux and varying tension of
88
than this
life
of feeling.
it
Matthew Arnold
divines as the
home
of the far-
they go."
accustomed to
unfathomed spiritual
which
makes
music
not
meaning
only a cherished
of
also
an
but
object
affection,
inexhaustibly intheme
of
on
the
viting
inquiry
part of psycholoand
aestheticians.
In
the
gists
development of its
technical forms it has attained an exquisite and
ordered complexity which affords endless delight
to the theorist and the historian; but to linger in
this region is to dwell upon the surface.
Music is
not merely "an art of beautiful motion," as many
of its practitioners seem to conceive it
it testiIt
fies
it is
is
is
not
less
deserving
90
history.
It
is
self-constructive,
and
forms are the result of the development of cenIt has at the same time sought to extend
turies.
and deepen its powers of expression. In this effort
it has not remained isolated or wholly self-dependent; it has responded to certain stimuli that have
acted upon literatures, arts, philosophies, and institutions, and like them is to be understood not by
itself alone, but in its relation to the larger tendits
Spiritual forces,
beyond
indi-
most
people."
music as
it unquestionably is in
respect to literature and the arts of design? If so, then we have
the strongest motive for extending our study of
music outside our own individual experience, finding in its large historic evidences a value which
supplements and dignifies our direct personal
Not
we
are
less
drawn
to the
work
of
We
as human beings,
author's essential life.
alive to all things human, find that our hearts are
awakened to sympathy with a heart that is appeal-
its
ored master.
We
call
an instrumental composi-
a poetic
92
title
"representative"
of genius representative ?
him
tifies
as distinct in
temperament and
experi-
human
of
works ap-
pear to us enveloped in an atmosphere which colTheir ultimate value conors and vitalizes them.
sists
quality of
life
That music
the
amount and
life,
is
that
emotions are always social they strive to communicate themselves in the search for sympathy, and
;
among
the chase, the longings of love, the maternal feelings, the woe of bereavement, the every-day cares
of the household, the various amenities that even
the rudest life affords. Everything that can stir
alleviated
we
ritual of
When,
and
and lawgivers.
That
purpose of music
is utilitarian
for example,
acting as an efficient means of controlling the invisible powers in magical incantations, stimulating
development of an independent art of tone is impossible without an elaborate scientific theory, and
the only class capable of such an achievement was
one whose official station and habits of mind kept
them bound to custom and tradition. It may be
also, as Dr. Washington Gladden has suggested,
that spiritual refinement must attain a higher stage
before music, "the most spiritual of the arts,"
could fulfil the powers that are latent within it.
"The
revelation of
God
to
this
man
is
phase
always a slow
of it as well as
95
came
self-conscious.
humanity be-
of folk-
rhythm, or embellishment which are plainly suggestive of certain distinctive qualities in the national
temperament. No connoisseur in such matters
common
interests.
If we wish to penetrate into
the very heart of a people, to comprehend what is
96
and
and proportion.
These
97
traits
have
their
whole
par-
they survive even that strong cosmopolitan tendency that appears in the work of certain exceptional artists of recent days, which strives to obliterate national distinctions in the effort to work out
nown
as Russia,
more
Indeed,
than that the former unification of musical style was greatly due to the hegenothing
is
clear
mony
- is
for
physiof the
eighteenth century and that of the nineteenth, differences plainly corresponding to social and intelfeatures which distinguish those periods
from one another. The patronage of the progresslectual
ionable
J. S.
98
less
ideas
The
secular music of
ruled in music;
in the seventeenth
and
99
formal
elegance,
technical precision,
and
by the narrow,
superficial
requirements of
his
public.
The
great tone masters of the nineteenth century felt the stir of far mightier forces, for they
were sons of the people in a sense in which the
its discoveries.
eenth century.
ICO
That
Protestantism
Reformation.
is
manners
compre-
and painting;
by a
the rise of
programme music,
in-
volving
questions concerning the nature
and scope of music's expressive power; the union
of music and poetry, its manner and effect; the
difficult
the multiplication of institutions for musical extenthese phenomena, and many more which
sion
that it would be impossible to consider the correspondence as accidental. While it would be in-
102
at
tic
school of poetry
tain
dominant
traits in
and
face,
cessity.
Thus the
life-work of such
commanding
geniuses as Beethoven and Wagner cannot be explained by looking at the periodic progress of mu-
103
when scientific
say the sixteenth century
music first became aware that its true function in
may
life
was
An
expression.
works most
men
Schumann,
musical evolution
age,
and witnesses
it.
104
upon them,
for
and
it.
force of the
often distinctly
modern
is,
more
art because
and while
so;
it
it is
called the
vancing ideas.
Even from
point of view, therefore, music challenges the attention of the historian and the sociologist, and pro-
VII
In proportion as art in
self-consciousness
is
how
of
came
it
any
to be.
We
it is
These differences of style are not superacquisitions, but are inherent, and are inseparably identified with dispositions which distinguish the artist as a man from other men.
They are forms of expression which the artist canstyle.
ficial
not alter by any amount of effort; they are identified with the very texture and tendency of his
mind. In every work of strong individuality
there is a revelation of the author's self. This essential self may be made manifest after the work
has been
somewhat mechanically
begun; or
the spiritual turmoil may come first, excited by
ing, or
We
author.
107
The
thus revealed
we
feel
life
as revealed in
far
108
more
diffi-
we
music
seek
first after
artist;
in the case of
external evidences
and
we must employ
sentimental
which to them is a thing apart; while others, agreeing that music is a personal disclosure, often radGoethe
ically disagree in their interpretations.
once said that every poem of his was a confession,
and such we may easily believe was often the case
with the compositions of a Beethoven, a Wagner,
a Chopin, a Tchaikovsky. But the thing confessed
what
is it
window
upon him.
But
and
here
is
other
evidence
whatever.
The
first
suggestion
Does
it
how did
own
no
moment
in either
When
of the
his
written down;
in
"The
Beatitudes,"
"The Dream
of Gerontius"
We
from a
dominated
music sub-
off
come from an
aesthetic that is
out of date, or at
The
ties
that
and experience
from the beginning
is
we
difficult
the reading
is!
How we
is
sincere
and
stammer over
We
is
a universal
human
doubt there
VIII
The
lectual
fied.
says.
The value
Art
is
the
animals
and
men
of
by
undeveloped
acts
that
were
useful
to
"the
life,
primitive
spontaneous employment of forces acquired by nutrition."
"Hence art is a higher form of play, and,
to those who receive it, essentially the enjoyment
attached to the idle contemplation of forms."
From this point of view the aim of art is to "treat
reality as a spectacle, real objects as if they were
simulation
against
of art
from
it,
life
degrades it."
Confirmations of this statement by the philosopher of Jena spring up readily in the mind of
any one who is at all conversant with the history
"The world
not of the
fickle public;
devotees of an ideal
their
contemporaries.
Wagner were
in a real
every one
who
defies the
"5
men who
ing instances of
upon
its
benefactors.
IX
The scrutiny of the lives of the great composers,
as of the masters in the other arts, suggests inquiry concerning the ethical as well as the intellectual consequences of exclusive occupation in
imaginative creation. This phase of the subject
to
do
ought
instruction
members
at the
of art
manner
does not
inquire
because
is
his
world, of which he
He
own.
is (or
so
it
it is
to
him good
inhabits a separate
appears to him) the
laws of his
art.
promote a disregard
118
which make
so
ment
of individuality.
Morality speaks with the
stern voice of duty; art invites the free play of all
our forces."
It is not strange that an artist, who rightly demands the free exercise of his individual genius,
should, when placed in the midst of a philistine
and bourgeois environment, sometimes carry conceptions that belong to art over into social relations, and convince himself that the unhampered
activity of his natural inclination in one field is
incompatible with constraint in the other. This
instinctive craving for liberty on all sides, permitting the dominant passion for artistic independence
sodes which
domain
we would
men
such
we
many
shows us men
Franck laying
men
like Palestrina,
Bach, and
their vast
ganists
Church
and cantors
in
motives of
the
many
of the
120
But why
artists,
all
men?
When we sum up
the whole question, is not Guyau correct in his belief that great art results from living the life of all
and expressing this life by means of elements borrowed from reality? "The great artist
is not he who contemplates; it is he who loves and
who communicates his love to others." Eucken
sums up the whole question of the relation of art
to morality when he says, reviewing the history of
the apparent discrepancy between these two spheres
of human life: "Morality was able to escape the
danger of becoming rigid and superficial only by
entering into wider relationships. When the movement took place, however, in so far as it led toward
the appropriation of a new reality, and in so far
beings,
121
it
to mean not merely the correct fulfilcommand but an inward renewal of man,
came
ment
of
life, it
new matter
could
solutely indispensable;
not be comprehended as a whole, and become really
present and alive, without the assistance of artistic
for this
activity;
nor could
it
become
really universal in
the absence of the constructive labor of art, weaving inward and outward together. When the great
object is to attain to a new world and a
to rise above the petty aims of the mere
new
life,
man and
mere every-day life, then art, with its quiet and sure
labor conditioned by the inner necessities of things,
with its inner liberation of the soul, and with its
power to bring the whole infinitude of being inwardly near to us, and to make it part of our own
life, must be directly reckoned as moral."
X
In view of these considerations, inferred from
the impressions given by great musical works and
from the statements of the composers in regard to
the principles that actuated them, we cannot fail
to find a profound significance in the fact of the
scientific
for
enormous expansion
of industry
122
and commerce,
The
And
and
possibilities
of the soul.
so.
The
insistent longings of human nature.
several forms of art have no doubt been greatly
affected by certain special requirements of an inmost
dustrial age;
into channels
marked out by
its
own
requirements,
newed outburst
of creative
will
man
123
captains of industry.
XI
When we turn our attention away from historic
and biographical considerations and listen, as we
commonly do in opera-house and concert hall, to
musical works for the immediate and direct enjoyment of something in itself sufficiently beautiful,
we easily discover that even here intelligence has
a serviceable part to play, and that the permanence,
and even the keenness, of our satisfaction is connected with our antecedent state of preparation.
Through instruction we are brought to the appreciation of music as a fine art rather than an aimless flow of unrelated sounds.
In music, as well
as in poetry, we look before and after; the impression of an instant has no point except as it is related to previous impressions
and
excites
an ex-
pectancy of impressions to follow. It is the before and after that gives each tone its life and
meaning.
so the listener
in relations,
The
ability
and the
he knows
how
and
co-
ordinate his perceptions. The keenest natural sensibility to music's spell will carry one but a little
him a
which
there
is
disclosed to
texture, and enables him to acquire the conception of unity as the aim of variety, of clear-sighted
contrivance, of the adaptation of means to aesthetic
ends.
The
still
ballet
increased, as
we
are assured
by
its
is
by
how much more
supporters,
In the
125
of the design.
clear one's
unity,
mind which
preliminary
of attention
best of will,
considerable
length of time. The discipline involved, for instance, on the part of a conscientious musical critic,
The hearing
that
With
is peculiarly invigorating
not merely
the invigoration that attends every healthful exercise of faculty, but a lasting enrichment of men-
tion that
tal treasure
is
in pos-
In the
musical
126
XII
Still farther must we proceed in our estimate of
the function which music performs in the life of
culture.
The gratification that arises from the
reactions
if
mu-
to
fulfil
it is
is
is
of
any other
artistic
agency.
In
this latter quality lies not only its glory but also
its danger.
If musical indulgence lulls the strong
faculties to sleep,
or ignoble,
if
it
if it
stirs feeling
makes one
that
is
shallow
less steadfast in
the
performance of daily duty, then whatever its fascinations it cannot be held as innocent. But any
one who supposes that such debilitating results are
inherent in the very nature of music has been very
unfortunate in his experience, or else there is something wrong in his philosophy. There can be no
question that music
rightly pursued, be it ob127
and unyielding
will.
shock that vitalizes while it disturbs. Our business is, by the intelligent use of the means at hand,
to open channels through which the spirit of the
masters may flow into our own without impediment.
It
is
modern
the
that
is
not too
it
Gaudens's statues of Lincoln and Sherman, for example, deriving only a minor interest from accuracy of portraiture; toiling humanity passes before
us in the rhythmic movement of Millet's Sower
yet it is in music that the splendor and pathos of
life
find their
pathetic imagination.
to the
sym-
tators
the typical
modern musician.
That the
qualities
which music symbolizes are abstracted from immediate locality and incident seems a gain rather than
a loss. It is a common experience that ideas that
are fundamental and especially penetrating are
often imparted most conclusively by means that
stir the emotion by indirection, as in noble buildings and memorials to great men and momentous
achievements
Gothic cathedrals, for example,
129
impressions,
Back
for the
that
is
is
still
another mystery,
escapes the control of his will. Beyond the individual attributes which can, to some extent at
making
130
now.
of history until
also that
music has a
Bough makes no unwarranted claim when he asserts that "this, the most intimate and affecting
of the arts, has done much to create as well as to
express religious emotion, thus modifying more or
less
reactions effected
which music
is
The
of
prin-
that
emphasized by modern psychology
what we are depends to a great extent on what
we do, that every expression modifies the nature
that expresses
applies to communities and races
ciple so
as well as to individuals.
festation of
its
it
last,
while
still
by
scientific
procedure, so buttressed
made
by method
raw emo-
of
satisfactions.
These self-conscious
forces,
There
is
as yet
no apparent limit
their suggestion.
its
strained
tions.
by
For
and they
student assurance
Here, then, is the credential which music presents to the college and university as it proudly
asks the rights of domicile. Because of its aesthetic
value as an art of form, its significance as an interpretation of life, its refining touch upon the emotional nature, and the means it affords for the culture of important elements of character, the old
must be no longer suffered, and the lead-
neglect
133
PART
III
ACCEPTING
which the
his-
reasonable hesitation in according to art an honorable station in the college curriculum. The question
is
for
in the college on some kind of terms
stitution of learning rejects it altogether
of art
no
in-
but
134
more ob-
it
is
before them.
The
col-
Own Sake
Van Dyke's
a text-book, and
the writings of Ruskin, Thoreau, Jefferies, and
"
Fiona Macleod" for required reading. What
many people call a love of nature is often hardly
more than a sense of bodily comfort under pleasant atmospheric conditions, or delight in physical
action quickened by external stimulus; but as a
Wordsworth or Thoreau uses the term, or as a
Corot or an Inness feels it, it is the result of education.
The difference between a native Samoan
and Winslow Homer in the love of the sea, or between a Swiss peasant and John Ruskin in face of
the mountain gloom and glory, is simply a difference in culture. The "noble red man," contrary
to a general impression, has no real love of nature;
for
learning
We
who have
see
who has
to see.
The man
136
wonder at
parison,
bear.
II
If we profit by the experience of others in attaining an intelligent love of nature, how much more
in the appreciation of art
To him who is not in!
knowledge that
is
137
in fact, will not frequent picture-galleries and concert halls without taking pains to meet their friendly
by
aesthetic contacts
may
and
mission there.
Ill
of this art.
The remainder
of
the present discussion will be devoted to the question of his preparation and his methods. What
its relations
and personal?
138
How
and
shall
he
and
its
productive knowledge?
The first question has been treated in the preceding chapters. The second is now awaiting an
answer. It divides into two problems, the teacher's
with his
The
his procedure
class.
Still
more
recently,
what
is
who
other.
firmly planted
may
To
real profit in
any
Every
going on in colleges,
schools, and organized private circles perceives that
music is everywhere being drawn into the grasp of
educator
this idea.
is
day
accelerated,
of teachers and
pupils is prophetic of still finer results. Mechanical inventions have given this work an enormous
has
The whole
ideal
mere
made
into think-
No
technicians.
if
cipline
natural affection.
140
however, a
is,
the
matter, which must receive the speedy consideration of teachers and directors of educational in-
The demand
stitutions.
in excess of
competent
no other subject in the whole circuit
of our educational practice that is taught with so
slender a stock in trade. Young men and women
that there
is
partments of
have
com-
pilations
as
it
most
mental question
it
and
creates
of taste
and judgment
holds true.
is
to ignore
altogether.
141
The
true
psychologic and historic background nowhere apNot only are works and biographic data
pears.
table of contents.
how
and derive from them the generalizaby which they become really significant.
As the heads of colleges and schools know nothing, as a rule, of what the history and criticism of
their facts
tions
142
to solve the
Even
How
and type
of that
epoch?
What was
the motive that inspired the revolutionary propaganda of Richard Wagner? On the basis of what
144
and
inter-
many
to
mention a few
highly honorable to American taste and scholBut where are these men to be found?
arship.
is
Fortunately,
men properly
qualified as pro-
make
first
definite in his
that of
and
final significance of
aesthetic relations
musical culture
is
where the
to be found.
and
his
The
of his spirit
method.
146
zations
class
pupils
must be uppermost
in his design.
Contradictory opin-
among
masterpieces."
The
an
as
it is
The
If I
147
work
service
which
is
will fan
flame.
The
critic in
the controversy
"The
France.
is
that
made by Anatole
me
says, "in-
All books in
masters
and
is
familiar, floating
santly broken and rewoven, long reveries, a curiosity vague and delicate, which attaches to every-
the
moved
The
critic
must
148
Accommodated
to
my
tastes
and suited to
my
mayest
This
'
The
critic
and "long
himself,
if
he
is
be a
work
must
skilled
many
is a notable example.
the great prose writers, as for instance
Ruskin, there are eloquent responses to the touch
of beauty, where the writer seems endowed with
Among
charm and
We
be affected in totally
150
dif-
the
also that
by some
critic's
rhapsody
is
And
so,
when
much
allowance to
of
make
VI
The critic of the "objective" or impersonal order
proceeds more coolly. He tries, in Matthew Arnold's phrase, to put himself out of the way and
let
humanity
decide.
something that
may
manifestations of the art impulse answer to a constant human need. To discover these needs and
relations,
terms of
permanent
critic.
art,
not in
in terms of
The
critic of
The
critic
who
is
is
152
exist,
is
upon temperament and moods which have no ultimate validity, certainly no authority over the opinIf one's use of art is
merely for
exclusive
then
the
indulgence,
personal
consideration may serve, but not if one assumes
The teacher must not say to
to instruct others.
his pupils, "The only thing I can give you for your
ions of others.
one's
help
own
is
my own
must
plies
all
of their great-
ness.
lent
of the
"Hermes"
of
appreciation
may be made
periority of Praxiteles
and Rembrandt?
ally of Turner we are undoubtedly made to see
what we should not otherwise have seen, and our
pleasure in the pictures is enhanced by the contagion of the critic's enthusiasm; but are there no
positive grounds
for all
their best;
that
more
own whims
that there
an
is
He
discovers
mate
is
of origi-
easily determined
motive may often be
clearness
and
force
The
artist con-
siders not
and
To
must
work.
These and
many
155
work dispassionately in
bearings of form, structure, application, and
intent, and teaches his followers to see it as it appears to the normal sense, so far as the normal
to his aid first studies the
all its
who have
in the
cerned.
ing.
As a man
is
so he feels,
and no
critic,
however
source in directing art appreciation is to take artwho have been accepted as supreme by the
ists
agreement of the best minds acting through considerable periods of time, and attempt to mould
the judgment in accordance with the spirit and
But even this course, which
style of their works.
seems so safe, involves insuperable difficulties, for
even if the station of these artists may have been
156
name
name
of the ro-
of all the
To imbibe
others.
the past
when
How
shall
supreme excellence
we know
when we
157
these passages of
see
them?
There
of
shall
we
find it?
explains
Arnold
What
is
there in
felicity awhile,"
or
Would not a
mark
of
supreme
a different mengenius?
of
Arnold
offer
that
a very different
from
tality
Arnold is
list for our adoption as touchstones?
the
back
upon
"personal estimate"
plainly falling
which a few pages earlier he condemned as "falIt follows that while the subjective
lacious."
critic may renounce objective criticism and simplify his reaction to the utmost, the critic who
seeks for law and authority cannot leave the personal preference out of the account. The true
critic of
wisdom
of art
by the
he can
catholic,
summon from
158
still
farther,
is
ing instruction
social, racial
chiefly interested in
reflect.
them
as afford-
psychologic,
The
critic of
interprets in terms of his own instinctive reactions of pleasure or distaste, the second
the
first class
and
archaeologist or
The acknowledged
is
Taine.
to that of
an
an economist.
leader of this scientific school
not isolated, and consequently that it is necessary to study the conditions out of which it prois
ceeds and
is
by which
it is
to understand that
"a work
productions,
artists
alone that
down
a group of
artists,
we must
clearly
comprehend
above
all,
sympathy; that
his first
160
added to
posed of analysis,
it is, like
every
scientific opera-
between
artistic creations
and
their
epoch, but omits from the calculation the free, spiritual self-determination which is not only the condition of art progress, but also, in the last resort, the
ultimate ground of the delight which art brings to us.
161
the cold intellectual, where, then, is the right procedure to be found? The answer is, In all of them
combined. The final value of art to all of us is
the personal value
the amount of life that it
contains, heightening, enlarging, strengthening our
own
undergo some preliminary preparation for that receptiveness which seems at the moment spontaneous and unconditioned. Art works, no matter how
ideal they may be, are not isolated or miraculous;
the artist is not snatched away out of space and
time, reporting of a world apart from that in which
men perform their daily tasks. Everything that he achieves testifies to a life which is
the product of a multitude of ordinary activities,
his fellow
value in art;
logical,
him who
creates
sees or hears,
and
of causes
by a perception
and truth-seekers
of those
own experience to
who are beauty-
like ourselves.
The
and
The
We
ive powers,
is
what we
call interpretation,
is
and
in
IX
These conclusions belong to musical criticism
and plastic art.
must be made
to in-
in abstractor without reference to the historical conditions under which the art has lived, and under
The
music must, therefore, be a critic, with the knowledge, breadth of view, and sense of proportion
which the office of an interpreter requires. He
must be at home not only with music but also with
a great deal besides music.
164
He
music as a whole, and he must not isolate any department of music. There are many who pretend
to teach the appreciation of music who confine
their attention to matters of musical structure and
the merely formal side of the subject.
one were to teach archaeology in the name
of art, or grammar to those who looked for literature.
It is easily conceivable that a man like
Charles Lamb, who confessed that he had no ear,
might be greatly interested in the history of notation, or even the machinery of counterpoint.
There are histories of music which seem to discover
technique
It
is
as
if
is
ture of his pupils and assure them that the sufficient warrant of music is in its beauty and the joy
gives; he may properly indicate his own preferences because they are drawn from a large experience; but he must show that emotions and preferences are to be based on reason and subject to
it
revision.
He should
by previous
minds
clar-
165
But if he attempts
temperamental
for their
own
be annihilating to his pretensions. His true procedure will be to throw them back upon themselves,
X
the
Reverting again to questions of method
of
finds
music
of
the
history
scholarly expounder
the guiding thread amid the labyrinth in the prinA comprehensive estimate of
ciple of evolution.
works and phases of art is gained when they are
studied, not as detached, self-dependent items, but
as the result of processes. Too many students
and teachers, even authors of books and "outlines,"
are well satisfied with raking together miscellaneous
facts, with great apparent admiration for facts as
such, quite unaware, it would seem, that these interesting counters are of no value except as they
166
"
and by means
of resident
unknown
and even
ment
up to
its
by an
old principle,
now
for the
selection, adaptation,
and
specialization,
with
also,
Every musical composer, every composiand every school has a definite place in this
intricate but logical system.
So persistent has
ergies.
tion,
of this process
its
for it
beauty and
its
as music
motive,
is
may be said to be
found in the desire for
but
The
primi-
utilitarian.
and the
rhythm conceived
ingenious theorists;
it
and the
into a grace of melody and a harmonious sweetness to which the heart and the imagination could
rhythms, turns of melody, and simple sectional arrangement derived from the dances of the common
The modern key system arose through a
people.
natural transformation of the mediaeval Gregorian
modes, stimulated by the need of unhampered freedom in modulation and of a reciprocal balancing
of tonal supports.
The
Italian opera
and
instru-
and the
portions by Handel. J. S. Bach, drawing his technique from the German chorale and organ music
and French instrumental chamber music, worked
music
moving
in
German
for a century.
Instrumental
music in
the
seventeenth
and
of the instrumental
of instruments
styles
began to be
differentiated,
and
The contrapuntal
170
also to react
style clung
of the
seventeenth century.
little
an offshoot from
earlier
dramatic
many
itself
practice
did form
began swiftly to expand into the splenknown as the romantic opera, which was
Bach, and
concentration, complexity, inward energy, and affluent detail of the orchestral works of the later
schools.
Melody in the upper part with plain accompaniment having done
all that it could in respect to variety and interest,
Beethoven, in his
last
172
The
effort
to
make
and orchestral
and splendor,
has consistently driven instrumental music into
raising melody, harmony, rhythm,
color to the highest pitch of force
the attempt to portray definite concrete concepsymbolizing outward scenes and movements
tions,
as in
and the moods and passions of the soul
the programme symphonies, overtures, and sym-
now
lifted
that
it
ilation
would almost seem as though the assimof the results attained would be gratifica-
completely stayed.
173
XI
The rational principle of connection which the
student seeks for in the midst of the vast accumube found, it seems, in the suwhich links successive events
preme
not
a
together,
by mechanical, but by a vital bond.
As every human being has a history, each experience within and without modifying his character,
so that what he is at one moment is conditioned by
what he was a moment before; so music, in its
lation of details
is
to
fact of growth,
These
revitalizing influences
174
its turn.
rowed
their
chant
itself
multitude.
And when,
at
certain
periods,
the
form
of aria
of the popular
and
and
Italian grand opera, but also became the inspiration of distinct additions to the world's art in the
itself
when
The
riched
was most
176
and
turn from
its spirit
beliefs and experiences which constituted the folk-poesy and folk-religion. And, as a
final demonstration that the nourishment of music
is in the popular soil, toward the middle of the
in
XII
The expounder
we
have
seen, a
177
He
the
stir of life
advance
is
that springs
quickened by
up spontaneously in the popular heart, which, as soon
it
into the
We
historic
may
analogous consequence in music, or else the analogous phenomenon in music will appear at a later
Secularization in music, although an outperiod.
growth of the Renaissance, appeared long after the
Renaissance had established its mission in other
It would be difficult to explain the work
spheres.
of Sebastian Bach in the light of contemporary
tendencies in religion or art; his counterparts
must
the likeness of
artist's
most worthy
But
its creator.
emotional
life;
it
an event in the
back to that
study, a living man.
It
is
leads us
of all objects of
man is not isolated or self-deter-
this living
is
which he
Just as soon
analysis of his work.
as the investigator compares different styles and
phases of musical development with other mani-
by any formal
festations of
contemporary
activity,
when he
ex-
amines
all
179
knowledge of history
into
tory
what
music has
all
its
roots in that
human emotions
common
spring.
soil
In this
from which
lies
the higher
180
illustrate
would
is
of worship in the different branches of the Christian church ; the inseparable union of music, poetry,
of sense, the revival of pagan myths as subjectmatter of art, the passion to embrace life under
science,
of
the opera.
national and
field of
racial qualities
181
the
academic routine
mak-
now
all
forms
takes
all
come
the factors
to realize
sagacious
pliable and
measure art works by the laws
involved in their own peculiar nature, and not by
a pedantic canon or an arbitrary predilection.
adaptive; he
He
will see
is
is
will
how every
sincere production
met a
need of
its
how
was
rife
Just as
liberal estimate,
the critic
interpreter.
less
critic.
He
In
183
Rather
of
human
XIII
It would be difficult to assign any limits to the
range of thought and study to which the art of
music invites one who would read its many secrets.
The further one pursues the fascinating theme the
more correspondences one finds in nature and the
varied activities of the human mind. No acquaint-
it
bond and a common office. Suggestive comparisons meet the musical critic on every side; pertinent illustrations crowd upon him; all the species
of imaginative thought seem to belong to one family, so abundant are the resemblances and affinities.
gives
to the study of
them
as results of forces
within and without, the tracing of processes extends to the recognition of relationships which con-
184
momentous
The sharp
heat-lightnings of
and
ply, that
The music
spirit of
modern
power.
and historically
ner in which these
ally
common
The
drama
as psychologic-
allied to music,
arts
may
be combined to a
action.
for
he
no
finalities.
New
is
isolated
problems
will
XIV
Another factor remains to be considered,
the
human
dents
whom
factor as
viz.,
which the instructor in the history and appreciation of music will concern himself.
Musical works
in their objective relationships
historic, social,
works upon
In this second problem
as a concrete, objective fact remains unthe plastic element is the receiver's
changeable
A scientific experiment in the laboratory,
feeling.
mind
the work
the
of the recipient.
186
beauty and
not
ing
spirit,
The formation
healthful exercise.
cipline.
sensitiveness of the
is
is
nized
From
Note the
ture pictures
literature.
entitled
The
writer
the time
is sitting
is late
words
fron, lapis lazuli, verd-antique, ultramarine
which seem in themselves to throb with color, floating memory and imagination into regions where
the world is all aglow with tropical splendors.
The keen vision of the seeker after beauty finds
the utmost loveliness of tint not in flowers, not in
jewels,
we
of the stars
The
white,
ancient poets and
189
it existed,
sibility is
not so
temperament,
much a matter
for it is the
of aptitude as of
relation
more intimate
by scientific discovery,
more nervous haste after novel experience, new
modes of thought, that have enabled the sensitive
subject of the present day to find delight in pheto which his far-away ancestor was com-
nomena
paratively indifferent.
Beyond
of life
all
which
reckoning
is
is
acquired by
him who
trains his
Nature and art, in this pursuit, reinand guide each other. The lover of the
painter's art must strive to develop a painter's eye.
It is held as worthy of remark that it was reserved
and
color.
force
day
to dis-
190
this to
be
true, it
not in a love for vivid sensations and strong contrasts, but rather for mellowness, harmony, and
delicacy of gradation. The great colorists are not
those who spread flamboyant hues upon their canvases.
The
connoisseur
blending of
of sunset,"
Van Dyke,
preciate.
191
still
XV
The analogy between
192
it is
abundance
do so indicates
that the training of the youthful ear to discrimination between the pure and the impure is not to be
neglected. The enjoyment that multitudes of our
fellow creatures find in the ghastly "white voice"
and the discordant tremolo of the worst type of
The
afford,
train himself to perceive the multitudinous
varieties and contrasts which are due to the relalet
him
the differences
predominance of overtones
between the adjacent strings of a violin,
between the violin and the viola, the oboe and the
English horn, the registers of the bassoon or the
clarinet; and while his ear is invaded by the surge
and thunder of the full orchestra, let him try to
tive
of quality
much
the
more
virtue
is
there in acquir-
is
a danger of
ear
is
This
is no true expression.
hard for many amateurs, who
offended there
latter doctrine is
justly emphasize intellectual values in art, to accept, but it is nevertheless one of the foundation
it
it.
power
be found
"A
significant
of sound-percepin the fact that
most young
Lehmann
and
vitality,
with a
out altogether, while the old habits once more assert themselves.
If, however, it were possible for
the singer to remain during a long period under
the influence of the sound by which he had been
so strongly impressed, the continuity of the
sound-perception would certainly prevail in
time,
to
new
due
be formed in the
singing
196
find
lyre
and soft-murmuring
flute.
It
is
commonly
holds good in
and sound.
The
tion
of intellectual progress,
he
"I hearing
And
get
sight,
XVI
There must be a training of the understanding.
The college instructor in the value and the use
of art faces a group of young people who should
need no exhortation to give heed to the intellect,
for the thought that is more persistently brought to
them, directly and indirectly, than any other, is
that they are in the place they occupy in order that
they may learn the uses of the reason, and they
would naturally be disrespectful toward any subject that accomplished nothing more than the seduction of the senses and ephemeral emotional excitement.
teacher, for reasons already discussed, tend to incline him in a direction that leads away from those
and
lull
them
into slumber.
There
is little
need,
198
agitation of the
emotional nature, theoretically distinct, are in experience blended in mutual action; that while the
intellect is
and
warmed and
exclusive self-conscious-
its
is reduced by feeling,
not
forsaken
the sense-perception is
by the will,
and the passionate emotion is regulated by the
judgment and brought under the guidance of the
ness,
self-confidence too,
reason.
The cause
ence of similar incidents in daily life; but an emotion that is held up for inspection by the critical
faculty and made to give a reason for its existence,
which reason is found in the judgment of the performance as true to the laws, not of reality, but of
the drama. The feeling of depression is temporary,
and the enduring mood is one of pleasure over the
199
the latter.
to a
when emotion
held in abeyance while the understanding applies its tests. In the case of those
is
every
detail,
poem
subjects
he examines
or
each
shade
or color
plane
surveys
liminary analysis
is
impossible.
200
The
hearer can-
and sooner or
dim
down
the
No
corridors.
hearing
at
first
glance
it
appears.
The
music, indeed,
classified,
If the
pattern
work
is
it will fit
and character
201
the
title,
which
will serve
total error.
The
which
is
employment
the deterioration which might result from the surrender of the emotion to blind impulse, having no
touchstone to separate between the strong and
noble and the paltry and base
not that alone,
but
the exercise
art the
is
made upon
the facul-
is
something that
may
its
coalesce into logical significance; and then, furthermore, the fortunate listener retains the music in
XVII
Last and greatest of
of the feeling
all,
there
is
the education
of intuition,
worth.
life ?
point, or can he
still
of delight
203
and awe,
is
accom-
Those
means
arts act
of ideas
no counterpart in our experience; it is unprecedented and unique. Its action upon our feeling
is direct, not indirect.
This would seem to imply
that music can have no meaning, for in the acquisition of knowledge we proceed from the known to
the unknown, and nothing can be understood except as
it is
music
it
vincing,
there
it gives,
is
204
summoned, and
its
answer
acquired.
to
more
monplace.
give coherence and reality. Language was developed under the compulsion of every-day needs,
and in the guise of poetry acts through images or
humble part
and
is
in
and by
itself
206
is
elimi-
These pure currents, existing only in duraour souls with a refreshment such as
bathe
tion,
no other aesthetic experience affords, and equally
unique is the ecstasy with which the soul springs
nated.
to its embrace.
What
is
ecstasy ?
is its effect
of the individual?
for to say that this emotion is transient is contrary to fact, since there is no mental experience
music, be
made
XVIII
In the first place, the guide to musical appreciation can perform a negative service
not less imof showing what the
portant on that account
emotional office of music is not. It surely is desirable that emotion should not be ruled by false beliefs, or overflow with a volume that is far in excess
of its cause, for in that consists the vice called senti-
207
conflict
between
intelligence.
Difficulties at once strike the teacher
when he
mentalism.
emotion and
enters
of musical expression.
He
it
consists of
decoration,
empty
nevertheless, this
opinion
is
may
208
by
We
know
may
have
different ex-
an agreeable
or
second
because
colors,
arrangement
it conveys an idea that is in itself worthy of consideration.
The beauty and the expression may
of
of lines
it
affords
and
famous picture
Ghirlandajo.
pression,
of the old
Poetry
is
intellect as to take
man and
the child
supremely an art
by
of ex-
"we may
distinguish
two terms
209
the
first is
the
part of
its
significance is
we always
metal carvings,
architecture
etc.
is,
strictly
210
speaking,
almost
Romanesque
cathedral.
St. Peter's
Church may
mood on
and certainly
much
is
not so
his material
sitter
each pic-
211
XIX
Now, what
is
result accomplished.
ive, if at all, as
on a June morning. Such experiences do not promote introspection, but rather the contrary. Almost all of the eighteenth-century harpsichord
music
is
of this type,
much
of nineteenth-century
of
we
discover
we cannot
day
life,
or outward nature.
Music
creates its
Now
case music, through some mysterious correspondence, real or imaginary, stimulates the visualizing
who
213
ment.
This
may
weak
endowbut
not
true,
always.
or else pretended to be
in genuine musical
be generally
us here.
literal
more
perience.
we know
that
men
are often
moved
214
similar
inevitable associations ?
We
must hold by the fact that the words emoand expressive are not identical in their connotations. A piece of music may be strong on the
emotional side and weak on the expressive side, and
tional
vice versa.
linist
may
grief,
be
it
A few tones produced by a great viobring tears to the eyes (but not tears of
observed), while it would be impossible
The language of
"Music associates
Berlioz
itself
is hardly extravagant:
with ideas which it has a
215
John Addington
Symonds, standing reverently before the sublime
ven.
It requires
these effects
216
value as music.
Imitative music
may
strive
more expressive than any musical tone can posA commonplace succession of lugubrious
sibly be.
is
tones cannot
of noisy
make us
feel sad,
ones,
now
now
loud,
in
low,
now
if
it is soft,
now
quiet
the composer is
brilliant,
bent on portraying precise feelings, why this disorder? If we imagine a definite series of ideas,
where is the logic, the unity? But when we look
at it as a work of musical art, obeying not poetic or
pictorial but musical laws, we may find an admirable
order, its affluent variety falling into coherent system, quite exempt from the contradiction that en-
sues
if
actual
we
life
within
its shifting
periods.
XX
When
the
we
218
We
refuse to believe
it
thing in
all
the world.
who insist on peras a condition of acceptance of aesthetic impressions will consent to receive music
art of tone to others that those
manent values
If one hesitates to bemusic can directly excite or express definite moods, may we not find a way of escape from
our difficulty in the undeniable power of music to
ally itself with particular sentiments and ideas and
intensify the emotional effect which they normally
lieve that
produce ?
Illustrations multiply as soon as we turn our
thought in this direction. Nowhere is this intensifying quality in music more apparent than when
it is employed in religious worship.
We enter a
church for a purpose so simple and distinct that
the expectation of what is to follow our entrance
prepares a state of mind which is peculiarly sensitive and open to impressions of a special order.
The
is
activities of
The enormous
effects of
mood.
cloisters
silent atmosphere.
Suddenly
the tones of the organ burst upon his ear, alternating with the voices of the choir, affording the one
element needed to fill the current of emotion and
fix
at once
and
one commanding
most mournful and
impression which
220
mind
thrust the
vigorously in a particular
and
tones,
The
songs
secret
its
its
association with
and "Gloria
eleison"
there
is
beyond the compass of text and situation. Heinrich Schiitz, in the "Conversion of Saul," assigns
the words of the Redeemer, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?"
rising from lower to higher, conveying an intimation of superearthly majesty, together with an in-
The death-song of
creasing urgency of appeal.
in
the
of
its
note
of triumph, in the
Isolde,
ecstasy
pure sonorous concords emerging from the
long anguish of passionately driven sequences,
final
life
that with
222
its close
no continua-
life
could be accepted.
XXI
Go one step farther; separate music from a
formal attachment to words, scenery, action, or concrete images given by a title or programme
now,
because music has abandoned these guides to exact
interpretation, has that very thing which was so
eloquently expressive before become unexpressive
Is Liszt's "Les Preludes" expressive be-
now?
Music
is
thing to
definite
possession of language
to attain full
itself
abiding of
realities.
this con-
great music it
taken captive
is
in us that rejoices.
It needs no psychologist to tell us that these
eve,
XXII
But let us return from this alluring chase after
explanations which we may cherish but can never
prove; accepting the delights of music as the assurance of something more than delight, can the
musical sense (using the term in its deepest connotation as dealing with emotional values apart
from intellectual values derived from the study of
scientific principles
and
historic relationships)
may
be found which
will
own
be
its
in itself alone
and no other
would
many
other means of
the visible and invisible world around it, will enhance the emotional reaction to musical beauty,
provided that music is not conceived as wholly abstract, shutting off one part of the mind from every
227
ments which music throws out. If in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries music appeared
divorced from the essential life of the time, it is
Music has become a vivid reflection
so no longer.
of nationality, personal temperament, spiritual and
even material tendencies, a counterpart and ally
of all the reflective and passionate moods which
the intensely self-conscious life of the present age
induces. It has become the guiding task of mu-
flexible
228
through
it
compounded
of
reverence
and
curiosity,
which
veys ideas of nationality, of nature, of poetry, romance, the joys or sorrows of genuine humanity.
Even in the most absorbed musical experience the
reason is not utterly annihilated; from the known
our consciousness leaps away to the unknown, and
this unknown assumes a positive shape and color.
All art employs what is seen or heard to bring to us
a sense of what is unseen and unheard. That is
of music no less than
the entire function of art
her sisters. Step by step we may broaden Mrs.
Rogers's discovery into an allegory. As the voice
of an immature singer may take on an access of
when
the
mind
is
stimulated
by
a supremely beautiful model, so the emotional nature of every lover of music is quickened by every
229
is
direct
may
suggest.
this or that in
No
music
will avail.
must be
it
may
associations,
social
tastes
finding
of life
style, color, or
form.
life
erly find voice in musical strains, and he will discover that to understand is to feel, and to feel
Chief of all evidence to music's
rightly is to love.
reality
in
life,
Love
is
love
This, then,
is
We may believe
231
life
of feeling
cannot long
re-
it
is
the passageways
by which music
preparation of
all
by the aid
mind more
"
Beauty whose pries tlike task
is
may make
it
the
spirit of
of pure ablution"
Thus the
of music,
lecturer
criticism
of his
own
music
is
He had
unreal, apart
from
life,
is lost to view, and relationship with the intellect and truth a figment
But the question came with the
of the fancy.
is
When we
spells
us,
and
by the
all
our
previous
"Come,
234
MT
18
Dickinson, Edward
Music and the higher
education
Mmte
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