The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-05-19
MUSIC THAT TAKES,
HOW POPULAR AIRS ARE REGARDED
BY CULTURED MUSICIANS.

i
gree OF culture which is almost insufTer
able. Particularly is this true Of bipbI,
| educated musicians This arrogance /,
| largely unconscious, and comes from an in
! innate acquaintance with the higher form,
and technical phases Of an art which find,
| its highest expression in the voices OF
| birds and the music of brook. Now and
then fugitive symphony is written. in
! which the harmony Of nature is caught tc
! some extent by the composer, and even
/ the unlettcrcd in the most divine of arts
can recognize it. But in the majority OF
cases the effort is q soaring after the in.
Unite, reaching after the unattanable
Then these attempts become only an exhi.
bition of mechanical dexterity in their ex.
eCution.
What man or woman is there in the
world who without having some previous
knowledge of the composer, or without
| having heard the title of a piano solo.
could tell what the author meant to con.
vey2 There may be something in the tune
or rhythm which will enable one TO distin-
guish between dirge and q quickstep,
but that is all. After that TO the most
acute musical intelligence harmonic sound
Is meaningless and CNpressionless.
This brings me to the subject Of my ar
gument, that too much contempt is ex-
pressed by those acquainted with the me
chanical forms Of music for what is known
as popular melody. You mention, for in.
stance, annie Rooney" to Paderewski
and he will turn up his cultured Polish
nose with contempt.
Ihe ordinary common folks, who have
not been initiated into the arcanum Of mu-
sicaI gymnastics and pyrotechnics, want
know yph hnf 81 .TI
deuce is that woman playing? What does
it all meant" we say.
The same argument holds GOOD rnr,ord-
ing vocal music. Everything is sacrificed
to tone purity" If the roulades are run
smoothly and the sustained tones are pure
and even the critical ear is satisfied. But
not so the man ignorant Of higher refined
art in musical expression. He wants IN
hear the words and catch the sentiment.
lie is perfectly willing to lose some Of the
sweetness provided he gets an idea of what
II Is all about. am perfectly aware that
many men of superior intelligence NAV
read these lines and say that the man who
wrote them Is an ass, and that he is strup-
Cling with n subject Of which he knows
nothing.
10 this can only reply that I know as
much about the subject as he does in its
utilitarian application. 1t is my theory
that the thing which appeals most forci-
Dly TO the greatest number is really the
highest form of art.
Let us take by way of illustration what
consider to be the most popular song I'm
the world. 1t has been adopted bv the
Press club as its official song, and Colonel
John A. Cockerill, president of the club,
says that it is the most hamonizing in1u-
ence that ever entered the clubhouse.
The song allude to is called Scatter
Seeds of Kindness" 1t is hidden away in
a mass of canting rubbish in one of the
Moody and Sankey hymn books. The
song appeared originally without the
music, under the title of IF We Knew
AS it appears in the modern form the
stanzas have been changed around some
what, and one stanza in the original has
been omitted.
1t is fitted to a simple little melody, writ
ten by ). j. Vail, which is eminently ap-
propriate to the theme and so free from
musical technicalities that a child can
learn it in few minutes. When I saw
that this song is the most popular song I
speak adyisedly, for it is sung now. and
has been sung for many years, in the Sun
day schools in all the countries where the
English tongue is spoken. Moreover, it is
sung by persons who have no religious be-
lief whatever. Yet it is instinct with the
deepest and holiest religious feeling. Here
is the first stanza
Let us gather up the sunbeams lying all around
our path,
Let US, keep the wheat and roses, casting out
the thOrEs and Chaff;
Let us find our sweetest comfort in the bIags
ing Of today,
With a patient hand removing all the briers
from the way.
Then the song becomes somber and nro-
phetic. But all great art is somber, It
dips deep down into human destiny. II Is
realism personifed. And yet a man Of
keen intelligence, a lover Of mysterious
whose meaning could not be dis.
,erned with the Lick observatory tele-
scope, once said to me:
why, my dear fellow, that's only dog
gerelm s
Perhaps he was right. But if SO, then
Longfellow's Excelsior" is doggerel, and
5he Dear Little Shamrock" is doggereI.
and the "Suanee River' is the veriest rot
What we need in America, in my opinion.
s fewer sonnets and more homely septi- |
nent expressed in language as plain as the |
following:
4 we knew the, woe and heartache waiting for |
us down the road;
4 our lips could taste the wormwood: If our
- backs could feel the load
Would we waste today in wishing for q time
that ne'cr could be?
Would We wait in such impatience for our |
ships to come from seaI
There's the song Of the true metal in !
hat stanZa, men land women. Howmany of |
IS are tguratively standing on the Battery |
ooking for the spars Of our ships to rise |
lbove the horizon? We stand and wish |
md wait and long for fortune to sail in to |
Is, forgetting that the richest fortune is |
lot material success. nae sentiment CON |
aimed in the second stanZa is deepened in |
he two last, which are as follows:
we knew the baby fingers pressed against
j., the window pane
Would be cola and stir tomorrow, never
Would tho bright eyes of our darling catch the |
frown upon our brOw2
Would the print Of rosy fingers vex us then as
they do nowr
|h' those little ice cold fingers, how they call
our backward track
low those little hands remind us, as in snowy
grace they lie,
not to scatter thorns, but roses, for our reap
ing by and by.
There, critics, Pve committed myself.
LAY me on the gridiron Of your cynicisml
Nnock me out with your material logicl
tut you can safely bet a five dollar gold |
iece against big red apple that ri get |
p again and sing that little song, as well
S my poor voice will permit, to the bows |
nd girls who never go to Sunday school |
We sung II III cathedral to great organ
compartment; I've sung it at an east side
nusicale in cellar in Oak street; I've
through it in desolate Come
naTal with the poor peasants showing me
uch homage as king might be grateful /
Or NO argument, no sophistry can con