Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-12-06

Americans who love music for har-
monys sake rather than for arts sake
will be pleased v lth what Rubinstein
has recently said regarding music and
musicians in the United States The
great composer and artist says that he
has never known S CHI an appreciation
of good music as he found in this coun-
try, and that the amateur musicians of
the United States are ahead of those of
any other country. The musical talent
that American girls have is, says Rubin
stein, something wonderful There has
been a very general idea that music i'll
this country has not reached beyond the
first stages of the formative process. 1t
has been known that the United States
was the greatest market for pianos i'll
the world, but the impression has been
quite general, we imagine, that the piano
playing of our girls was about on the
plane of the "Maiden's PRAYER with,
perhaps, an occasional daring venture to
the higher level of the "Shower of
Pearls" oreven the "Carnival of Venice.
Then. too, there have been some coura-
geous maidens it has been understood,
who have executed Chopin i'll moro
senses than one and to whom other
modern composers have not been wholly
a sealed book; but it must be admitted
that as rule we ourselves have thought
very poorly of the standing of our Ameri-
can musicians, especially the amateur.
The musician, like the poet, is born, not
made, and the proportion of students of
music who attain to eminence is and al"
ways must lie small. This, however,
should not weigh in the balance at all.
Playing the piano, which may be taken
as Il type for illustrations sake, has IL
double function. 1t is, or should be, II
source of pleasure to the player and to
the hearcr inasmuch as not more than
one in 20 of an average audience can APP
preciate or understand the SO called
classical music, i. is evident that popular
music must remain opul@r, at least I'M
til the Amerc IN ear has become more
highly cultivated and the American
taste more refined
Oar amateurs, thcn, who play Rubn-
stein and others Of his school, must learn
not to scorn the humble and despised
tune. They may pay classical music
tunes for the pie ure of others. The
greater include the less, and every great
musical artist the W WOrld has ever seen
has recoL Z',l the force an value of
harmony Even Richard Wagner, with
all his originality and his peculiar IDEAS
of music, has not scorned the sweet con-
course of sounds WI hch falls 50 CRATE
fully on tie unskilled ear List delights
in simple melodies, about which he
weaves and twines the golden threads of
his musical imagination until the fabric
is transformed, but the groundwork is
still the simple arrangement of a few
notes. The music which goes to the
heart and brings the tear to the eye is
the true classical music, whether it were
written yesterday or centuries ago. An
ton Rubinsten is right in praising our
musical amateurs There has been
great growth in music in America within
the past few years, and we have out
grown the alphabet of music. In time
it is natural to expect another and higher
stage, that of musical composition of
high rank, and the composers, we vent
ure to believe, will spring from the ranks
Of the amateurs. Certainly there is
nothing to discourage us in the outlook
for music in America. AS a people we
must mellow and ripen before we can
accomplish that which is most desirable
in any branch of art, and the process
must take time. -[San Francisco Chron-
icla