Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-08
MUSIC THAT TAKES.
HOW POPULAR AIRS ARE REGARDED
BY CULTURED MUSICIANS.
Ernest Jarrold Writes About a Song That
He Has Sung in Public Many Years.
and Which Never Fails to Strike the
Audience Favorably-Sweet Verses.


Audience Favorably-Sweet Verses.
There is an arrogance born of high de-
gree of culture which is almost insuffer-
able. Particularly is this true of highly
educated musicians. This arrogance is
largely unconscious, and comes from an in
innate acqu aintance with the higher forms
and technical phases of an art which finds
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 to
some extent by the composer, and even
the unlettered in the most divine of arts
ran recognize it. But in the majority of
rases the effort is a soaring after the in
finite, a reaching after the unattainable
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 piano solo,
could tell what the author meant to con-
vey? There may be something in the tune
or rhythm which will enable one to distin-
guish between a dirge and quckstep,
but that is all. After that to the most
acute musical intelligence harmonic sound
is meaningless and eXpressionless.
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 o. 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.
The ordinary common folks, who have
not been initiated into the arcanum of mu-
steal gymnastics and pyrotechnics, want
to know what it is all about. What the
deuce is that woman playing? What does
it all means" we say
The same argument holds good regard
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 to
hear the words and catch the sentiment.
He is perfectly willing to lose some of the
sweetness provided he gets an idea of what
it is all about. | am perfectly aware that
many men of superior intelligence may
read these lines and say that the man who
wrote them is an ass. and that he is strug-
Cling with a subject of which he knows
nothing
To this car only reply that l know as
much about IL e subject as he does in its
utilitarian application. 1t is my theory
that the thing which appeals most forci-
bly, to the greatest number is really the
highest form OF art.
Let us take 10y way of illustration what
consider to be the most popular song IN
the world. 1t has been adopted by the
Press club as its official song, and Colonel
IAb,,
says that it is the most hamonizing influ-
| ence that ever entered the clubhouse.
The song ! allude to is called Scatter
Seeds of Kindness" 1t is hidden away in
| 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 1t appears in the modern form the
| stanZas have been changed around some
| wat, and one stanza in the original has
| been omitted.
1t is fitted to 8 simple little melody, writ
| ten by 5. J. Val, which is eminently ap-
| propriate to the theme and so free from
musical technicalities that child can
| learn it in a few minutes When l say
that this song is the most popular song |
| speak advisedly for 1t is sung now, and
| has been sung for many years, in the Sun
day schools in all the countries where the
English tongue s spoken. Moreover. it is
sung by persons who have no religious be
lief whatever. Yet it is instinct with the
deepest and hottest 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 thorns AID chaff;
Let us find our sweetest comfort in the bless
| ings of today,
With patient hand removing all the briers
from the way.
Then the song becomes somber and pro-
phetic But all great art is somber. 1t
| dips deep down into human destiny. 1t is
| realism personifed. And yet man of
| keen intelligence, a lover of mysterious
sonnets whose meaning could not be dis
cerned with the Lick observatory tele-
scope, once said to me:
why, my dear fellow, that's only dog
gerelr'
Perhaps he was right. But if so. then
Longfellow's Excelsior" is doggerel, and
the Dear Little Shamrock" is doggerel,
and the "Suanee River" is the veriest rot.
What we need in America, in my opinion,
is fewer sonnets and more homely senti-
ment expressed il language as plain as the
following:
If we knew the woe and heartache waiting for
US down the road;
| II our lips cOulu taste the WOrmWO0d: II our
| backs could feel the load,
| Would waste today in wishing for a time
| that ne'er cou d be?
Would we wait in such impotence for our
ships to come rom sea?
There's the song of the true metal in
that stanZa, men nd women. How many of
US are figuratively standing ON the Battery
looking for the spars of our ships to rise
above the horizon? We stand and wish
and wait and long for fortune to sail in to
US, forgetting that the richest fortune is
not material success. The sentiment con-
tanned in the second stanza is deepened in
the two last, which are as follows:
II we knew the baby fingers pressed against
the window pane
1 Would be cold and stiff tomorrow, never
trouble us again.
| Would the bright ey Is of our darling catch the
frown upon our brown
Would the print of rosy fingers vex as then as
they do now?
All, those little ice cold fingers, how they call
our memories back
To the hasty words and actions strewn along
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