Litchfield enquirer., 1840-10-08
OBSERVATIONS ON MUSIC.

There are few who have not felt the charms of music, and acknowledged it's ex- pressions to be ineligible to the heart. It is the language of delightful sensations, which is far more eloquent than that of words it hreathes into the ear clearest inti- nations but how it was learned, to what origin we owe it, or what is the definite meaning to be affixed 10 some of its most af- ! fecting strains, we know not. We plainly feel that music gently touches and agi- t,tcs the agreeable and sublime passions that it wraps us in melancholy and elevates us with joy that it dissolves and infiames; that it melts us to otenderness and rouseS to rage but its strokes:are so fine and delicate, that as ina tragedy, even the passions that wound, please. Its sorrows are charming, and its rage heroic and delightful as peo- pie feel the particular passions with differ cnt degrees of force, their taste for harmony must proportionably vary. Music then is Q language directed to the passions; but the rudest of these put on new nature and be- comes pleasing in harmony; let me also add, that it awakens some passions which we do not see in ordinary life. The most eleva- ted sensation of music arises from confused perception of ideal or visionary beauty and | rapture, which is sufficiently distinguishable l to fire the imagination, but not clear enough to become an object of knowledge. This shadowy beauty the mind attempts, with Q languishing curiosity, to collect into a dis tinct object of view and comprehension but 1t fades and escapes, like the diSsolving ideas ot delightful dfcaFn, that are neither witlI- m the reach of memory, or yet totally fled. The noblcst charm of music, then, though re- al and affecting, seems too confused and fluid to be collected into a distinct idea.- Melody is always understood by the crowd, but almost always mistaken by musicians, who are, wltn naruiy an exception, servile followers of the taste of the day; who, hav- ing expended much time and pains on the mere mechanical and practical part, are in- duced to lay too great a stress on those dex- terities of hand, which have no real value, except as they serve to produce sounds, or Eco.lectons of sounds, which move the pas- | sions. The present taste for music bears u striking resemblance 10 the rage for lrag- | comedy, which about n century ago gained so much ground upon the stage. The musi- cians of the present day are charmed at the strange union they form between the grave and the fantastic, and at the surprising tram sition they make to the widest extremes while every nearer who has the least re- mainder of the taste of nature left, must be shocked at the strange jargon. If the same taste prevailed in painting, we should soon find the monster of Horace realized on can- vass; we should see the woman's head, the horses body, and the iish's tail united by soft graduatlons, and set off in the most im- posing manner. Musicians should take par ticuar care to preserve in it's full vgor and sensibily their original, natural taste which alone can feel and discover the true beauty ofmusic.
 If Shakespeare. Milton, or Dryden, had been born with the same genius and inspira- tion for music as for poetry, and had passed through the practical part without corrupt ing the natural taste, or blending with it prepossessions in favor of those sleights of hand and curious deXterties of which our musicians are ambitious, then would their notes have been turned to passions and to- sentiments as natural and expressive as the tones and modulations of the voice in elo- quent discourse. No great difference would be found between the music and the thought; the hearers would only think impetuously, | and the effect of the music would be to im- l part to the ideas tumultuous violence, and give u divine impulse to the mind. Any person conversant with the classic poets, sees instantly the passionate power of the music l speak of was perfectly understood and practised by the ancients that the nl- ses of the Greeks always sung, and that :heir song was the echo of tho subject which swelled their poetry into enthusiasm and rapture. 1t were devoutly to be wished that 1 the Grecian taste for impnssionate music could be once more restored, 10 the delight and wonder of mankind. But as. from the disposition of things, and the force of fash ion, we can scarcely hope in our time to rescue the sacred tyre, and place it in the hands of men of genius-all that can be done I is 10 try and reclaim musicians to their own natural feeling of harmony to inculcate this important truth, that the genuine emo- tions of music are not 10 be found in compo- sitions of labored, fantastic, and surprising kind, but rather in those pieces that are the growth of a native, simpe, and unvitiated taste. Such emotions are discoverable in the swelling sounds that wrap US in imagina- ry grandeur; in those plaintive notes that make us in love with wo; in the tones that breathe the lovers sighs and agitate the breast with gentle pain; in those noble im- pressions that coil up the courage and fury of the soul, or that Hull it in confused visions of joy; in n word, in those affecting strains that find their way to the inmost recesses of the heart
 Untwisting all the chains that tie
 Il The hidden soul of harmony.
 If (says the Albany Cultivator) man would understand the value of agriculture if he would learn to prize the art of all arts. the one that confers wealth nDd bread on the world-if he would see the true nobility of -EA An.zI IY..s