The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-23

"Philostrate, master of the revels," of real
taste and judgment, to see to it that the bands
be good ones, the programmes of kind to
elevate and oiviize, and not demoralize by
brutal bray of everlasting brass; and that the
repertoire be made up of models of enduring
beauty, instead of specimens of every fool
ish reigning fashion in its turn. Such an
Office should be of high honor, of careful ap-
pointment. and safe tenure, like judgeship.
Think what revival of the best enthusiasm,
what enriching of the inner mans resources,
what lift to thought and feeling, may be
given, has been given by great festivals of
music, and even by great jubilees," could
their ambition be little sobered, and all the
claptrap and extravaganza left out.
Think, above all, how much of the best
kind of culture, though it be undefnable, uu-
demonstrative, silent absorption, as it were
through all the pores and into every finest
spiritual fibre, may be found in the stated
series of concerts of the highest order,
where to listen we'll is to take part, and where
every person present both in body aud
in soul "assists, " in the French sense of the
word. All that is necessary to this is that,
besides rich material, there shall be a pure
artistic spirit pervading the whole concert;
the programme ought to be an art-work in
ITSELF with nothing miscellaneous about it, it
being not enough that it should contain fiue
things it should contain them so placed that
they shall not jostle one another, each oblite-
rating the impression of the last; and that
their spell shall not be broken by bringing
them into incongruous company with things
of so irreconcilable spirit that one can carry
home no clear impression of the concert as a
whole
But of the good influence of music in
the more popular and public way the
half is not told, so long as 1--WE have not
hinfnd how nn0h ftIu phncaO mn cia
may do, has done, though too seldom, as an
element in public celebrations of great
events in human progress, in commemora-
tions Of great men, or in aid of noble chari-
ties. On such occasions its chief efficacy
depends upon significant, appropriate selec-
tions to be played or sung upon the close
affinity or correspondence of each strain of
music, both with the spirit of the hour and
with whatever spoken thought or cere-
mony it may prepare or follow; in word,
upon certain artistic unity of programme.
of which it catches by quick sympathy the
keynote, dictates in some way the order,
moulds all to sympathy, tenderly guards
throughout the unbroken continuity of mean
ing, and serves as frame and background TO
the whole. She, Music, should be called in
at the first inchoation of the plot as the most
sympathetic, subtly appreciative, suggestive
contidante; and when it comes to the fulfil
meht, hers is the part of chief interpreter,
as well as of disposer, of all minds
to the right mood of expectation and
the right impression after. Commonly we
do quite differently. We call in music
upon such occasions, not as an equal, a CO.
working intelligence, but rather as kings
jester, to supply little idle recreation in the
pauses. We employ band of instruments,
mostly military, to discourse loud polkas,
pot-pourris from operas, or what not, selected
without rhyme or reason, and SO rudely break
the spell and rob the hour of character and
meaning. Art would reform this. Art kno ws
nothing miscellaneous.
We are not quite without examples of the
better way our Boston Music Hall, within
few years. has been witness of a few which
might be followed. Who that was present
will forget that welcome to our noble
Lineolns Proclamation of Emancipation
on that first of January, when Emer-
son first read his thrilling Boston Hymn"
of liberty and justice; and when music
furnishing first the darker prelude, in allu-
sion to the days of bondage and of hope
mont" and that exciting number from The
Hymn of Praise, in which to the anxiously
repeated question, 'Will the night soon
pass?" the clear soprano, like stream Of
sunshine, startles with the cry, ''The night is
departing" and the glorious cresceadO Of the
chorus floods the world with light and carries
all before it in blaze of high
pitched harmony and trumpets-then
proceeded in the lofty vein of
heroism and of holy triumph, by making
heard, in such significant connection (not to
name alD, the glorious Fifth Symphony of
Beethoven; the chorus from Elijdh full of
comfort to the long-suffering, "He watching
over Israeli" Handels sublime hallelujahs;
and finally tie patriotic ''sunburst" of the
overture to William Tell?
Think, too, of the part that music bore the
day we listened to the eulogy on our good
Governor. How the organ whispered peace
in those sweet strains of the concluding
chorus, sung at the tomb of the Saviour
of Bach's Passion Music; and how the
mournful effect of the grandest EXPIRE ssion
of peoples grief, bereft of true hero,
the Funeral March from Beethovens Heroic
Symphony, was tempered by the chorus, full
of comfort, from ''St. Paul, "Happy and
blest are they who have endured" then by
the heavenly dnddllte, reassuring and uplift-
ing, from the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven;
and then, to sum up all in one grand lesson
the strong, confding choral, harmonized by
Bach, what God does, surely is well done /"
Think, too, how music lent new meaning
and new beauty to that commemoration of a
great man of science, when our Agassiz paid
noble tribute to the life and labors of his
great friend aud teacher, Humboldt; how
light upon each other how Mo-
zart's chorus of the Priestess of Isis
sang of the conservation of the noble
youth to Truth, wherever she might lead
him; and how the wondrous overture to
The Magic FIute, and the first movement
of Beethovens Seventh Symphony, by
their fascinating hint of the perpetual pur-