Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-06-26
THE SONGS OF BIRDS.
on. ThLMAoE on NATURES Minus
rHY IN soNo.

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melody In Naturs.
BROOKLYN. Juno 25.--Rey DR.. Tai.
mage this morning chose for the subject
Of his sermon The Song of Birds"
This. like many Of his sermons, IL suited
10 the season Of tho year in which IL Is
preached. It is well fitted 20 be read nm
der the trees and has in It tho health Of
outdoor life. Text, Palms, civ, ~. by
them shall the fowls of the heaven have
their babitatiou. which sing among the
branches
There Is an important and improving
subject to which most people have given
no thought and concerning which this
is the first pulpit discussion-namely,
"The Song of Birds" II all that has
been written concerning music by hu-
man voice OF about music sounded on
instrument by finger or breath were put
together, volume by the side of volume,
it would fill hundred alcoves of the
national libraries.
But about the song of birds there is as
much silence as though thousand years
ago the last lark had with his wing
swept the door latch of heaven and as
though never a whippoorwill had sung
its lullaby to a slumbering forest at
nightfall. We give passing smile to
the call of bobolink or the chirp of
canary, but about the origin, about the
fiber, about the meaning, about the
mirth, about the pathos, about the in
spiration, about the religion in the song
of birds the most of us are either igno-
rant or Indifferent. A caveat this morn
ing file in the high court of heaven
against that almost universal irrelig zion.
First, remark that which will sur
prise many, that the song of birds is a
regulated and systematic song, capable
of being written out in note and staff
and bar and clef as much as anything
that Wagner or Schumann or Handel
ever put on paper. AS we pass the
grove where the focks are holding matin
or vesper service we are apt to think
that the sounds are extemporized, the
rising or falling tone is mere accident.
it is flung up and down by haphazard,
the bird did not know what it was
doing, it did not care whether it was
long meter psalm or madrigal. What
mistakel
The musician never put ON the music
rack before him Mendelssohn's "Elijah"
or Beethoven's Concerto" in G. or
Spohr's B fiat symphony with more def
mite idea as to what he was doing than
every bird that can sing at all confines
himself to accurate and predetermined
rendering. The oratorios, the chants,
the carols, the overtures, the interludes,
the ballads, the canticles that this morn
ing were heard or will this evening be
heard in the forest have rolled down
through the ages without a variation.
Even the chipmunk's 8 song was ordained
clear back in the eternities. At the gates
Of paradise it sang in sounds like the
syllables "Kukr' "Kukp "Kukr just
as this morning in a Long Island or
chard it sang "Kul1W ''Kukp "Kukp
The thrush at the creation uttered
sounds like the word "Teacherr Teach
erI" "Teacherp as now it utters sounds
like "Teacherl" "Teacherl" "Teacheri"
In the summer of the year 1 the yel-
lowhammer trilled that which sounded
like '1fr' ''Ifr "Ifr' as in this summer
it trills ''Ifr' "Ifr' "Ifr' The Maryland
yellowthroat inherits and bequeaths the
tune sounding like the words "Pity me,
pity me, pity mel" The white sparrow's
"Tseep, tseep" woke our great grandfa-
theirs as it will awaken our great grand
children. The "Tee-ka-tee- -kartee-ka" Of
the birds In the first century was the
same as the Observation-Disclosures" of the
nineteenth century.
NATURES UNCHANGING SONG.
The goldfnch has for 5000 years been
singing "De-ree-dee-ee-ree." But these
sounds, which we put in harsh words,
they put in cadences, rhythmic, soulful
and enrapturing. Now if there is this
order and systematization and rhythm
all through Gods creation does it not
imply that we should have the same
characteristics in the music we make or
try to make? Is it not q wickedness that
so many parents give no opportunity for
the culture of their children in the art
of sweet sound? If God stoops to edu-
cate every bluebird, oriole and grosbeak
IN song, now can parents De 80 lnulner-
ent about the musical development of
the immortals in their household?
While God will accept our attempts to
sing, though it be only hum or a drone.
if we can do no better, what a shame that
in this last decade of the nineteenth CEN
tury, when 80 many orchestral batons
are waving and so many academies of
music are in full concert, and SO many
skilled men and women are waiting to
offer instruction there are so many peo-
pie who cannot sing with any confidence
in the house of God because they have
had no culture In this sacred art, or
while they are able to sing fantasia at
a piano amid the huttering fans of social
admirers, nevertheless feel utterly help |
less when in church the surges Of an |
"Ariel" or an Antioch" roll over them
The old fashioned country singing school,
now much derided and caricatured land |
indeed sometimes it was diverted from |,
the real design into the culture OF the
soft emotions rather than the voice.,
nevertheless did admirable work, and in |
l. -. 1,.ls.n lie n.