Milford chronicle., 1889-07-05
THE POWER OF MUSIC.
AN APPEAL FOR MELODY OF A
! WHOLESOME CHARACTER.


The ''Classic" An Right In It's Place. but
ths People Want Popular Ballads and
National AiEs-Ths Poor Love Good
8Iusio Though They Cannot Buy It
Give the people music, and Lee it be both
popular and good.
Music rouses and trains the emotionA as
the gymnasium trains men In the exercise OF
their limbs. Inward activities long dormant
OF never before awakened are called up and
become new powers within the breast and
emotion nerves for action. The stupidest
horse that goes up hill to the So md Of bells,
the timidest soldier who marches 70 battle
with fife and drum, the most delicate girl
who spins round aud round tireleg In the
dance, the poorest laboreE who sings at his
worl-any Of them are good enough to prove
that music rouses and sustaius the emotions.
But that Is not all Il will discipline and
control emotion; that Is the explanation Of
the art OF music as distinguished from the
mere power Of mystical sounds
IT MAKES THEK BETTER
Have you ever noticed how mell women,
and children will stand around tue door OF a
Aloon listening TO the wretched version OF
some fms melody executed by gutter bandi
Many who come 70 the door will not enter,
preferring to hear the music, such as it is;
those who are inside VIII come .orth with
lighted pipes and pause. Slatternly girls,
with ragged children in their arms; idle ex-
press drivers and dirty, stone throwing, dog
worrying boys, will oil stand still in wonder
ment and joy. And what is it all abouti A
cracked fiddle, a wretched cornet, and harp
Of ufafn -. -. O..
wildly to follow "Dhe Last F Of Sum
mer"
The masses Of the people wan music and
II 1t be Of suitable quality Il viii 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 ruio the
majority care nothing for what Is usually
called classical" music. To them this means
something ground out with great exertion
by the performers, with much bleating and
gesticulation, full Of many trills and phrases
and banging and changing, but without any
simple air In it which can be easily caught
up and remembered afterward with pleasure.
So II 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 vagrant bands. They
will hear much that has been written by suck
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 1.-THE Star Spangled
Banner" Hail Columbia, =" yankee Doodle"
and Marching Through Georgia. and they
will discover by no means infrequent pretty
and catchy" airs from the comic operas
The peasant songs of France, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy and Ireland cen also be
heard In short, the free park concerts will
be greater success than ever before if the
music selected by the band leaders 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 will be there with their wives
and children, they will spend less on the whole
family than they would squander on them
selves in one idle afternoon; they will meet
friends and form new acquaintances aud have |
PLEASANT chats; they viii go home satisfied, |
recreated, having had their exercise and com |
pany, viii be likely to go 10 bed early.
BETTER THAN MEDICINE
The rich have their grand operas and their |
high toned concerts They have their |
mudcales and their lat homes.n But there |
are thousands and thousands Of mechanics |
and labOrers and tOilers-denizens Of I'M
fashionable streets and sections-whose only |
uss Of the emotional life is base undisciplned. |
and degraded. Pleasure with many means
crime; restraint, the real handmade Of pleas /
ure, i unknown; system, order, harmony In /
thslr feelings, habits Of SELF control checking /
the impulses, mOdieTating and econOmiEinQ |
the feelings, guiding them 70 powerful pay |
poses and wise ends and wholesome joys-of 4
all this the masses are chiefly ignorant; yea |
AL this good music would nightly help to |
teach and give.
The music Of the churches has become 80
prominent feature that It attracts as many |
listeners as the sermon, but the vast majority |
Of the poor do not 90 to church at all Yet |
these people have their feelings Rnd emotions.
and a beautiful strain Of music. Wihsther
sacred or secular, Is as likely 70 cause q sob |
within the breast clad in fustian as within
one attired In silk
Music viii some day become powerful
and acknowledged therapeutic. And it is
one especially appropriate In this excitable
age. Half our diseases-some physicians saw
all our diseases-come from disorder Of the
nerves How many ills Of the mind precede
the ills OF the bodyl Boredom makes more
patients than fever. Want of interest and
excitement, stagnation Of the emotional life,
or the fatigue'of overweight emotion, lies
at the root Of half the III health Of our young
men End women. Can we doubt the power
Of music 70 break up that stagnations Or
can We doubt its power to sOotho To- recreate
an overstrained emotional life bending
the bow the other wayl There re moods
Of exhausted feeling in which Ger ain kinds
Of music would act like poison, ia, as whip
and spur which encourage the racer Ct first
tire 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
narvous centers
When good music ceases ~ be the luxury
Of the rich and the degradation Of the poor
4 viii open the golden gates Of a wider and
happier realm Of recreation for the masses
lttv have q marked influence on crime.
and it win promote thrift and increase the
1nm-now lamentably amRll-of the peoples
wholesome pleasures. Chicago Times.
GrAfting Part Of Nerve.