Morning journal and courier., 1882-10-18

Their FoNdness for Songs ana the Kinds
 They Like Best--Singers That VIII not
 Sing Men Aione-Ths Surest Way ts
 an Arab Woman's Hsart-Ballads of
 Love and Wine.
 Letter to the London Times.l A great deal has been said Arab music and Arab singing, but so little is the profit to be gained from it all that the study is still a tempting one for an enthusiast in search of a hobby. The truth is that most writers on Arabic subjects only devote casual chapter, or it may be paragraph, to the music which they neither admire nor understand. One or two, perhaps, could give more information if they chose, but these are men who have mass of matter to digest and select from, most of which they deem of greater general in terest than their knowledge of music and song, and so it happens that there IS still an opening for monograph on this branch of Arabic education, or culture, call 1t which we will.
 No one who has lived in Egypt or Syria can
 have failed to remark the innate love of their
 own music shown by the Arabs. Although Egypt was the source from which Syria learned her music, the Syrians are fond of the art and proficient executants as their Egyptian masters. Indeed, the Syrian is rather more obtrusive singer than the average Cairene, and the smallest imp does not hesitate to lift up his voice to an imaginary lady-love in the streets of Damas GUS with an assurance and volume that should I Qulckly earn IOr n1El lOWly pOsltlon III th6 gutter. The only experience which most l Europeans can speak of in regard to Egyptian l singing is that gained their own Nile ] boats, but this is necessarily limited for the l best sailor na0gAGnnS has seldom more than l two or three songs in his repertoire. The ! instrumental music again, is weak, and quite 1 below the consideration of an artist who will l only touch the 'Go0d, gG1aoon, or violin. It ! is, perhaps fortunately, not the fashion for ! tourists to frequent native coffee houses, nor l to pay visits among the good houses where 1 they might have chance of hearing first ! class music. Now and then they honor a | wedding with their presence, but are doubt l less far from agreeably impressed with the 1 novel sounds evoked by the musicians, to | which the company listened with such rapt l attention. The taste for Arab music needs ! much acquiring, but this is net fair reason
 for our turning from it with an arbitrary
 dictum that such discord should never be ! called music It may not seem to come up
 to our ideas, but we have only to see 0 clever
 musician surrounded by an appreciative
 audience in order to be sure that it has the l same fascination for Arab thu mas l terpieces of our own composers possess fol | us. We remember once seeing an old woman ! listen quite unmoved to the most brilliant sonatas and fugues, but waken into sudde1 ! enthusiasm at the sound of a ''marchs Arabe' in imitation of her natives music. ''That, , she cried, lis something one can understand,
 while Frenchman was stopping his ears a
 the other end of the room, and beseechin the pianist to leave off ''cette musique d l'autrs monde"
 1t is only within the last 30 years that tn : ! 'a0od, modified violin, has been known Ii Syria, and the story of its introduction l ! worth repeating. A clever Damascene
 | thoroughly versed in the usual accomplish
 ments of 8 well educated man, went to vis ', ! some friends at Alexandria. He created \ favorable impression by his eloquence an = ! f I musical instruments were brought in. Thl n ! was the opportunity waited for by one Of th l company, who had been noticing with jea
 | ousy the strangers superiority Tn learnin l. aud politeness He began to ply the syria = with questions on music, and ended by beg v | ging him to give them a specimen of h a | country's songs. The poor man who ha never seen an 'ao0G before felt that his glor '- was gone and at once left the circle in whlc r. he had been shining. He resolved, howeve e not to be so easily put down, and forthwit l engaged famous Professor, after six weei
 of whose teaching he again presented hin ,s l self at the same house. Once me re the m 5t sicaI wag took up the 'd006 and chanted
 satiricsl reflection on the superiority
 1 Epyptians to Syrians. This time the Dana
 cene listened for Q moment or two, and tho d. quietly remarked that the performer had { ar ready played falsely more than once and ( ny fered to prove it. This he did amid t
 sn1ash0Jkdhs'' of his friends, after which
 | LOOK the lpSLrNlnSuC duu hCCompdu to pt ts lection song of his own demonstrating th he l all the wit and all the beauty of the wol ,e came from Damascus. Returning to his I tive land he became the father of high els ne music in Syria and has written an elabors V1- | treatise on the whole system of Arab h; he mony. Unfortunately this is still in mar ,,e script, the author is very old, and his sc are scarcely likely to publish it, their tas m imih not running in that line, so that it will in tn probability be lost before anyone has the yas terprise to print it. The fruits of his tea
 ing are nevertheless everywhere appare and there is no eastern city whose inhabita are so devoted to music as Damascus. Ev 'or wedding has it's performers, who generf od continue their labors till daylight, especis ish if the audience are sympathetic and the
 ;s treatments good, two considerations wh
 always weigh heavier than a sordid seek aos for hire. In the large public gardens in the summer evenings good "nao6eh" is always ess be heard the musicians perched in