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56 PAGES
With which is incorporated THE KEYNOTE.
V O L . X X X . N o . 5 . Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East FourteeDtb Street, New York, February 3,1900.
ART AND MUSIC.
LJ AVE you ever read "The Gate of the
* * Sieur de Maletroit," by Robert Louis
Stevenson ? It is one of the perfect short
stories of our language. Now the incident
which it relates is neither great nor start-
ling, though it is poetic. But the whole
art of the story lies in the literary work-
manship of it. And this is what most read-
ers never notice. In music the art lies in
the music itself. Music must ever be
studied from within, not from without.
As it is the absolute product of the human
intellect, having no prototype in nature or
life, it can be cognized only by the human
intellect. The pretty melody may give
pleasure, the ear may be ravished by the
multifold sweetness of the orchestral sound,
but the aesthetic organism which consti-
tutes a work of art is completely lost un-
less one listens with the mind. Some time
ago the writer was asked to furnish a
sentiment to be printed on the anniversary
program of a Western musical society.
What was written then is so pertinent that
it is here reproduced:
"Music is an art. Art is either the 'har-
monic expression of human emotion' or a
system of rules and traditional methods.
Viewed as either, it is a product of the
human intellect, derived from its efforts to
create a form of expression. It is not a
mere accident of the emotions, and should
never be treated as such. The musical
artist is one who studies the nature of
emotions and the possibilities of their
musical communication, and endeavors to
produce a work both harmonic in design
and significant in content. Those who
seek for art in musical work must search
for the demonstrations of intellectual con-
ception in the embodiment of feeling.
There is no design which is not intellectual;
there is no art without design."
I do not expect to live to see the time
when the general public at the concerts
and the opera will have attained the atti-
tude of intellectual regard for music. But
I do hope to see constant progress toward
it. The world seems to be full of persons
who are eagerly inquiring what they shall
do to be saved from the pit of musical ig-
norance. But they do not like to under-
take the study which is needful to save
them. If there was only some royal road
to musical understanding, how happy these
would be! But there is none. Music is
not for the careless seeker after amuse-
ment. The coy muse of sound is not to be
lightly wooed. She must be sought, like
Echo, in her secret places. The "swan's
nest among the reeds" is not for every idle
passerby. The glory of the shrine is not
for the mere tourist. The majesty of the
sunrise on the Rigi is no more than the
dazzle of a botch of color to the smug stu-
dent of the guide book. The heart of a
woman is only a puzzle to the superficial
worldling. "All is spirit to him who is
spirit; all is matter to him who is nothing
but matter. "—W. J. Henderson.
A MOVEMENT is on foot to secure the
^ * creation by the Legislature of the
office of State Director of Music for the
public schools, and a bill to this effect will
soon be presented. A large number of
prominent men' of all businesses and pro
fessions have interested themselves in this
matter, as have also many women well
known through their connection with mu-
sic, art and other branches of education.
School statistics show that in over eighty
per cent of the towns and cities of Massa-
chusetts music receives more attention
from the pupils than any other single
study, and it seems to be the general opin-
ion in the educational centres of the State
that not only should there be greater facil-
ities offered for the attainment of a musical
education, but also that this education
should be of the same breadth in all parts
of the State arid that it should all be under
the direction of some one official.
Under existing conditions, certain facil-
ities for the study of music are, it is true,
offered by the schools of almost every city
and town, but there is no uniformity about
them. Each community has its own stand-
ard, which may be high or low, according
to circumstances. A competent State mu-
sical director, the supporters of the new
movement urge, would find means of rais-
ing standards which are low and of main-
taining those which are already satisfac-
tory. With the growing interest in music,
it is urged, the State owes it to itself as
well as to the pupils of the schools to make
as ample provision for successful instruc-
tion in this as in any other branch of edu-
cation.
As the matter stands now, the direction
of music, as of other departments of the
school curriculum, is placed in the hands
$2.00 PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES 10 CENTS
of the School Superintendents. Tt is not
denied that the Superintendents, as a class,
are conscientious and able men, and that
they give their best efforts to their work,
but naturally many of them have little
practical knowledge of music.
j*
N. INNES, the bandmaster has given
much attention to the subject of
music as a therapeutic. He holds that
music has a direct effect upon the.nervous
organization. By a perfectly natural pro-
cess it produces physical and mental
changes, which, to the unthinking, seem
unaccountable. Anybody may have seen
a cold, phlegmatic person aroused by mu-
sic to such enthusiasm as to rise and shout,
forgetful of all his surroundings.
It is an incontrovertible fact that music
has a beneficial effect not only upon the
health, but also the disposition of the
young. Children are rocked to sleep with
lullabies hummed by their mothers or
nurses. The appearance of a street organ
or band will soothe a child who is irritable
or pettish. While in this case the effect
is not so pronounced as in persons of ma-
ture years, it is one of those observable
conditions which we meet with every day.
DUCCINI'S new opera " La Tosca " was
*• produced for the first time at the
Theatre Costanzi, in Rome, on Jan. 15.
There was a brilliant audience, including
the Queen and many notabilities. Puccini
was called before the curtain twenty-five
times. The opera is declared to be of the
highest order. The first act takes place in
the Church of St. Andrea della Valle and
there are grand ecclesiastical melodies. In
the second act the music is very dramatic,
especially in the torture scene.
j*
CREDERICK STEARNS, of Detroit,
*
who presented the University of Mich-
igan a year ago with one of the finest col-
lections of musical instruments in exist-
ence, has added another gift, which comes
rather as a supplement. The new dona-
tion is a collection of musical scores and
compositions of the old and modern mas-
ters. It includes nearly complete sets
from the old masters, and in many cases
they are the original manuscripts. The
total number is i,5or, and the collection
is valued by Prof. Stanley at over $3,000,