The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-04-04
For the Guardian.
Thoughts on Music.


We can contemplate no art or science
exercised in enlightened countries, with
out being struck with admiration at its
advancement, when compared with its
state in early periods of society, or in
barbarous communities /; but among them
all, perhaps, few present so marked an
improvement as that of Music. This art
seems in measure to be natural to man.
His joy involuntarily breaks forth in
singing and mirthful caderces, and his
sorrow finds relief in mournful and sad
dening strains. All nature is rife with
similar examples. The lark halls the
morning sun with hymn of praise the
nightingale whites away the long night
with carols, which, though not heard in
this continent. are rivaled by those of
another warbler, whose notes Columbus
mistook for the nightingale's, and de-
scribed them as such to Ferdinand and
Isabella. We have also the Robin-red-
breast, Of melancholy ballad fame, utter
ing his sweet notes the livelong day to
cheer his mate sitting over her cherished
eggs. So, too, We constantly witness the
merry lays of our thousand other forest
songsters, from the gloomy tones Of the
whip poor will to the noisy and hey day
CHATTER Of the bob. link. No wonder
that in observing all these delights of the
ear some philosophers should have fan
cied they heard them accompanying the
motions of the heavenly bodies. and that
Plato should have written of the emu
sic Of the spheres"
Feeling these impulses in their bos-
oms, and perceiving them in the feather
ed inhabitants of the leafy woods. men
undoubtedly early attempted to initiate
the sounds they heard, first by their own
voices, and afterwards by instruments OF
rude construction. Efforts and work.
manship of this character no doubt pre-
coded the earliest preludes to drawing or
writing, SO that We have no means OF
tracing the successive improvements in
conception and construction which from
time to time took place both in musical
instruments and musical compositions.
Scarcely anything would be so we'll
able, as record of this kind, to Illus
trate the progress of civilization in the
human race. In exact proportion with
the diffusion Of knowledge, and advance
ment in other arts and useful sciences,
has been the progression Of vocal and
instrumental music. In the outset, when
language was imperfect and scanty, ideas
we're necessarily few, and it was with |
ifficulty even they could be expressed.
# course singing, which combined har-
ony and sense. was entirely impossi-
g. Melody was then comprised in
erely explanatory sounds, indicative of ]
easure, and in fact serving as kind of
ent for the expression Of Joy, without
'hich its effects might have been as ia
al TO the human system as would be vim
BUS fluids, enclosed tightly, previous to
to the cask which contain |
ed them. In consequence the first mu-
sic could not have been regular or me-
thodical /; and as children are earliest
pleased with noisy trinkets-with whis-
ties and rattle boxes, so men, in the in
fantile stage of their social existence, de-
lighted in sounds of loud and striking
kind. What particular circumstances led
them to fashion the different instruments
that have long been in use, we know not,
and it is beyond the reach OF conjecture,
whatever ingenious and musical Jonathan
Oldbuck might set himself to the task.
AS ship-building is supposed to have
been suggested by the little nautilus, 80
many instruments of music may have
been derived from endeavors to initiate
the songsters Of the grove. Regularity
in the notes. also, might be very plausi-
bly, referred to similar origin. PLrSY,
in his Natural History. takes notice of the
approach to completeness of tune in the
song Of the Nightingale. She indeed
keeps time and measure truly, and rises
and falls in her notes in just accordance
with the rules Of music and perfect har
mony. Having such an example before
them men would naturally initiate it. and
we can easily conceive that in time there
would DO proper structure in tunes.
This would make one step in the march
Of harmony. and serve rs preliminary to
strides of more important and extern
sivo kind, Next. words were probably
in some sort adapted to rude airs. A
long period would elapse before different
parts could be invented. and their form
alton must have arisen from the diverse
ntonations in the VOICES of the two SEX
49, When this was ef}aatad and tbo