The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1892-10-05
MUSICAL CULTURE.
WELL MEANING HINTS, BUT NOT
TOO KIND FOR, THE AMATEUR.

Itself - Radical Changes Concerning
Instruments aud Sex.
As speech 10 thought. M pictorial nrt
TO external nature, IL practical music 10
music the element. Aud for this out
ward and audible art form music IN de-
pendent on human mediums, and those
human mediums require n certain prepn-
ration TO iit them for tho reception aud
tho transmission OF their message. TO
some people, In whose natures musical
sympathy IL strong this preparation
comes easily and almost unconsciously.
But tho grent majority need n kind of
ncclimntizntion before they can breathe
and move freely In mn element more or
less strange TO them, aud this acclima-
tization is what we know ms "musical
culture"
Most people have some latent musical
faculty, and this IL capable of develop
mcnt The notion has nj any rate died
ont that IL was effcminnte for n man 10
play tho piano and impossible for u
woman 10 play the violin. II is not 80
long since, in the upper classes, no girls
education was considered even approxi-
mntcly complete without large amount
of piano forte drll-music II shall not
he cnlled--while n certain proficiency in
this respect was too often held Ia atone
for the absence of NIL other culture.
Tho violin on the other hand was
held 10 be good only for men; perhaps
we should restrict the term and say for
iiddlers. Boys now and then learned u
little of tho instrument Mt school--a
knowledge soon TO bc dropped and for
gotten. The difference now scarcely
needs to be pointed out, Boys and girls
i'm numbers, and not fow who are no
longer boys or girls, aro learning TO play
on the violin and other stringed instru-
ments. The discovery has been made
that, though virtuoso must begin early,
IL is not necessary TO practice half tho
day Mt four or five years old in order To
be good useful player mt twenty.
Ensemble classes and school orches-
trns show that ON our amateurs the truth
is Mt last dawning that unlimited solo
performance is not the ultimate aim of
all music training: that while only n
excellence and finish, the combination
of many atoms of good, too small to I've
of any use singly, may result in an of-
feet which is not only good, but great,
so long MS music, not self display. is the
object sought after.
Il may bc roundly stated as general
truth that musical study proclaims itself
on the housctops, without ccasing for an
instant 10 assert itself in tho gnrrot, in the
basement and mt sundry intermediate
points. The students friends assist ut
every stage of his progress; they are in
voluntary and mostly unwilling partici-
pators in his difficulties, perseverance,,
his triumph and his despair Well for
them il two or three such dramas are not
going on in the house mt once, TO say
nothing of probable puffs of melody and
harmony from next door or over the away.
That the character Of musical practice
is far superior to what il used TO be avails
these helpless ones but little.
To them it is an insignificant fact,
compared with the fact that for every
victim of coercion who formerly pound
ed II wiry piano for couple Of hours u
day there now are dozen students of
various instruments and singers galore,
all practicing away fordear life. Should
any link be missing in tho continuous
chain of sound, it is filed up by barrel
organs, street bands, wandering ballad
singers, solos on tho whistle and other
peripatetic instruments.
Good, very good, no doubt. The mu-
steal crusader looks on the work and
congratulates himself. There must bc
means to all end. Music requires ma
chinery, and the machinery for music is
being brought into most forward state
of efficiency. But the music itself,
whence in the future is that to come?
The "enraged composer" and his troubles
have long been favorite theme for the
efforts of humorists. Yet tho fact thus
comically represented is no joke, and in
the present condition of things it threat
ems to resume ugly proportions.
Music is homicidal, suicidal. 1t de-
YOURS its own children and slays itself.
Silence, the absence or cessation of
musical sound, is an absolute necessity
for musical thought. But putting ON
one side the troubles Of composers, who
after all are comparatively few and far
between, the born poor thingsl to be
Ishmaels, their hand against every
man and every mans hand against
them, what ON the rest Of the world is
the effect Of this unceasing, often incon-
gruous sound? It is easier to complain
than In cure and far easier IN noint ont
these evils than to suggest any effective
remedy for them.
II architects and builders would take
into consideration the diffusion of noise,
and would do something to make walls
and partitions music proof, it would be
much. There are continental towns
both in France and Germany where
practicing is prohibited by law, except
at certain stated hours. For a large
and enviable portion Of mankind the
remedy against the evil lies in getting
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