, 1875-02-07
Turner Hall-.-Is the 11nsic
Wicked ?.-.And, if Wicked.
Is It Nice :?
. Bartley Can.pbelI's Last
6lsEurge.
The Dullest Theatrical Week
Of the Season.
Speedy Arrival Of Cushman and Ianau-
schek.

TURNER-HALt- MUSIC.


resu,-belicrlng the two eminent clorgymen jus
non fitting On that question likely. to. giv'
she matter . pretty fair sitting. But thcr.
/. more in the musical question involved
than ut first appears it lies. indeed; a. tht
foundation Of intelligent musical taste. hope
therefore, naay be pn1doned for ohoring ths
EIlowins suggestions as bearing On tho ques
ton Of the moral value OF music in general.
Music IN its present state -.
Ia OF RECENT GROWTH.
In the line Of church-music. cenIury and a bali
Includes almost all that ne now find beauti.
fpl; and, in the department Of secula,
music, scarcely a hundred years have
elapsed since tho Oldest Of the stand.
ard masterpieces came into being. Within this
century and q ilalf have been crested the works
Of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert, Meaeessohn, 8ch1unann, Rossini {and
tho other ltaliaus), Raft. Brahms, Rubinstein,
and Wagner. Those are all, groat names bns
The greatest arc Bach, Beethoven, Echumana,
and Wagner. This selection Of representative
nanos may be regarded as arbitrary; it is founded,
however. on the fact, now generally admitted
by musicians, that, OF the first two. Bach has
crested the greatest works yet produced having
for their object the ecstasy Of the deDout, aud
Besthoren h.s sncceeded most perfectly in the
rroducsiou ii tho absolutely heantifol: the
deeont bong, in this view, a limited form Of tha
ecs,asy OF the beautiful OF The other Two.
schunann las given a wider scope to .ho
e71otioual expression Of music; which resources,
and many others Of Ills own discovery,
Wagner has employed to give keencr point
to his great dramatic creations. Schumann
and. Wagner, therefore, are the composers
who seen to musicians the rather
to point out q better Tav FOR after coming COM
poacrs than to Lare themselves fully succeeded
in creating the absolutely beautiful. Still, such
III opinion OF Wagner needs to be Expressed with
tho uti6ost care; for it necessarily happens, in
the case Of powerful mind taxing up m idea
ac carrying it to its logieai conclusion that the
elect OF his lifelong study cannot but be to
carry him = -
IEEom H1a owE GENERATION,
and that to d distance proportioned to his own
natural insight. And 80 it las repeatod-
II happened in the history OF Art that works re-
iecte3 by one ganerR,ion have been held in thu
highest esteem By the next following. The
most remarkable case Of this kind ~as that Of
Bach's great ''Passions Music" which had q
rest Of hundred yea1s, and is nov haId IS the
very grextest in the line Of sacred music. So it
was with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Wagner
has lived to pee his earlier operas obtain firm
foothold aud real popularity On the German
stage, and, indeed, throughout the world.
present tl1ns i. Wagner and his opinions are Gu
titled to tue more weight because they arc not
those Of the mere tneo1st As understand his
<tBeetnoyen." he holds it to be the highest mis-
sion ot Art to awaken the ecstasy Of tho beauti-
frl- His general idea would Eeem to be, that a
symphony should arouse the came s'seuse OF
the nilpatabe" that one experiences in the
presence OF grand and beautiful scenery. The
logic nf his position culniuaxes in holding tho
symphony as the type OF tue absolutely beautiful
In music. Dramatic music affords moments Of
exquisite beauty but, in proportion as it is
true to the conflicting passions OF the play, and
to the necessary shadows Of hate and malignity
which intensity the pos It necessarily falls short
Of the reposeful ecstasy which the purely beau
tdul &HAkenR-
By which music awake1s this ecstasy Of the beau-
tful is tAat Of the sense Of nea,ing.
Music has no words OF forms adequate to
pictorial representation. ehe has no intellectual
concepts, and, therefore, cannot convey trains |
Of thought For this reason, many jump ut the
conclusion 1ike one OF tue cletgymen on the
4u1ner-HaA question: that ell music is pure. |
md that tho distinction between secular and sa-
cred music has really no existence. But this is |
claiming 80 much for music as to amount to de- |
nying 1t any power over the mind whatever. For,
It. it be possible to act upon the mind through ]
the herVes OF hearing. by tones and infections,
instead Of Hunds and sentences there Ia necessa-
nly involved the power Of actlne more Or less
powerfully, and, By implication, the ability to
awaken mere dreamy languor, not only unin-
Bpi11ng to the higher powers, but OF essentially
nature. This We might confidently
e1pect from tue fact that the ecstasy Of the
medium Of delcasely modulated tones,
e1quisitely contrasted tints OF tone
eolor, and delicious bits Of melody
md harmonic Transition, all OF which require for
inst recognition an aps sense OF hearing. In
his fne Reuae Of hearing We hare ''the promise
md potency" Of the seusuous in music.
The chief argument Of those who deny the
pensuoua power OF music lies in the absence
lrora the musical vocabulary Of terms represent
ps intellectual concepts This. 80 far from i'm
pairing it, spnsuous power, renderslt
ALI. TIE MoRE sUBTLE AND DAKGERous,
dnce, in the nature of the case music exerts this
{f at ALL upon those 30 dslicateiy organ
xed as to he thrown by it into delightful rev.
ny, the real meaning OF which they have no dis |
oosition to inquire, aad, it ipquiring, could find
Iuggested. The musically-obtuse, Oh the other
'and, receive no pleasure from music, except
tonn .Ttte strains SO very sensational as to give
hem slpggish quickening OF the pulse, aud
s1note sense OF good time. 10 such PERSONS
be- most sensuous music is harmless. Hence
he NATURAL man has it pretty much his own way
b this art
4 airniiat careless ipterrnixture Of good and |
MI has heeu observed By thoughtful persons in
be pbenomena OF religious reUvals, and
specially in the kind Of excitement through |
Fhich conversions are produced In these
meetings. there is almost always 1arge element OF
aeretY sensnous iufiuences. One Observes this
. the Talne the operators seem to attach to the {
reduction in the proposed penitent Of stats OF {
GENERAL EMOTIONAL DISQUALIFICATION,
which the mind can no longer hold to ats oHn
ieas, but submits itself to the pressure Of per-
onsi magnetism aud will-power around it. One ,
ught also regard the absence Of oxygen as an
nportant element in these cases, we're it not I
Ut such deprivation would seem to act With
quail power upon saints and sinners
The inherent emotional y2lue cf music Is fur
,er obscured by the fashionable cultivation Of /
- pAao-forts, to the exclusion Of othar instru-
|ents more essentially musical The tona OF !
u pAno is Of an ursympathetic character,
hlch readily lends itself to mere pretaness
I'D finger-diaplay. People who regard them- :
lives as musical buy md retain in their houses / t
sno .fo1tes 80 vile in tone, SO totally tuade- |
aata to tbe creditable interpretation OF the
auo-music Of Beethoven and Schumann, :
!&t It is totally impossible to awaken | !
love for coed music in pupils using such in d
fuments- To such an extent has this cause