Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-27
9ai1Y eagle
THE POWER OF MUSIC.
AN APPEAL FOR MELODY OF A
WHOLESOME CHARACTER.

The ''C1assac'' An Right in It's Place, but
the People Want Popular Ballads and
National Airs-The Poor Love Good
Give the people music, and let it be both
popular and good
Music ropses and trains the emotions, as
the gymnasium trains men in the exercise of
their limbs. Inward activities long dormant
or never before awakened are called up and
become new powers within the breast and
emotion nerves Tor action. The stupiiest
horse that goes up hill to the sound Of bells.
the tifnidest soldier who marches to battle
with fife and drum, the most delicate girl
who spins round and round tireiess m the
dance, the poorest laborer who sings at bis
work-any Of them, are good enough to prove
that music nouses and sustains tho emotions.
But that is not all 1t viii discipline and
control emotion; that Is the explanation of
the art of music as distinguished from tbs
mere power of musical sounds
IT MAKES THEM BETTER
Have you ever noticed how men, women,
and children will stand around the door Of a
saloon listening 20 the wFetched version of
some fine melody executed by gutter bandit
Many who come TO the door VIII not enter,
preferring TO hear the music, such as it is;
those who are inside viii come forth with
lighted pipes and pause. SlatterIly girls,
with ragged children IN their arms; idle ex-
press drivers, and dirty, stone throwing, dog
worrying boys, VIII all stand still IN wonder
n,ent and Joy. And what is it all abouta A
cracked fiddle, a wretched cornet, and harp
Of which no two strings are IN tune, trying
wildly 20 follow THE Last Rose Of Sum-
niers
The masses of the people want music and
if5t be of suitable quality it Will do them
good.
The masses who attend the free, open air
concerts in the parks include many persons
of wealth and refinement, but as a rule the
majority care nothing for what is usually
called classical" music. Tothem this means
something ground out with great exertion
by the performers, with much bieating and
gesticulation, fui of many triils and phrases
and banging and changing, but without any
simple air IN II which can be easily caught
up and remembered afberward with pleasure
So If leaders OF bands really desire to strike
the key note of The class of music most popu-
lar with their audiences they should listen to
the selections given ON the streets by the
organ grinders and the pagrant bands. They
will hear much that has been written by such
eminent composers as Mozart, Verdi, Schu-
mann and Sullivan. They will find not I'M
common old English ballads Of the same style
as the patriotic airs Of THE Star Spangled
Banner, ''Eail Columbia, - yankee Doodle"
and Marching Through Georgia. and they
viii discover by no means infreQuent pretty
and catchy" airs from the comic operas
The peasant songs Of France, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy and Ireland can also be
heard In short, the free park concerts will
be greater success than ever before if the
music selected by the band headers is both
popular and good.
And supposing that every Saturday after
noon through the summer and early autumn
hard worked men can look forward to feast
of music that will soothe, solace and refresh
them. They VIII be there with their wives
and children, they viii spend less on the whole
family than they would squander on them
selves In one Idle afternoon; they will meet
friends and form new acquaintance and have
pleasant chats; they will go home satisfied,
having had their exercise and COM
pany, win be likely TO go to bed early.
BETTER THAN MEDICINE.
The rich have their grand operas and their
high toned concerts. They have their
and their sat homes" But there
are thousands and thousands of mechanics
and laborers and toilers-deuizens of IN
streets and sections-whose only
use of the emotional life is base, undisciplined
and degraded. Pleasure with many means
~ L
TIRE, Is unknown; system, order, harmony in
their feelings, habits of self control, checking
the impulses, moderating and economizing
the feelings, guiding them to powerful pur-
poses and wise ends and wholesome joys-of
all this the masses are chiefly ignorant; yet
all this good music would nightly help to
teach and give.
The music of the churches has become so
prominent a feature that it attracts as many
listeners as the sermon, but the vast majority
OF the poor do not go TO church at all. Yet
these people have their feelings and emotions, |
and a beautiful strain of music, whether |
sacred or secular, is as likely TO cause sob |
within the breast clad in fustian as within |
one artired in silk.
Music viii some day become powerful |
and acknowledged therapeutic And it is |
one especially appropriate IN this excitable 1
age Half our diseases-some physicians say |
all our diseases-come from disorder of the |
nerves. How many ills of the mind precede |
the Ills OF the bodyi Boredom makes more |
patients than fever. Want of interest and |
excitement, stagnation of the emotional life,
or the fatigue of overwrought emotion, lies |
ut the root of half the i'll health of our Young
men and women. Can We doubt the power
Of music TO break up that stagnationl Or
can we doubt its power % soothe, to recreate
an overstxained emotional life, by bending
the bow the other wayl There are moods
Of exhausted feeling in which certain kinds
Of music would act like poison, just as whip
and spur which encourage the racer at first
ire him to death at last. There are other
Kinds of music which soothe, and, if one may
use the word, lubricate the worn ways OF the
nervous centers
When good music ceases to be the luxury
# the rich and the degradation of the poor
6 viii open the golden gates of a wider and
happier realm Of recreation for the masses.
L viii have a marked influence on crime,
md it will promote thrift and increase. the
lamentahly smalI-of the peoples
wholesome pleasures Chicago Times.