The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-21
NOW MUSICAL HYPNoT1sM.

Some days ago the Eagle made ref
erence to a curious hypnotic expert
ment in music. Music as science has
long baffied the critics. They have
reduced il to an art of tones and
harmonies; but they cannot explain
why certai "clang tints," or colors in
sound, should represent or awaken
certain conditions of feelings, or GER
tain themes, or tunes, should inspire
certain emotion. Wagner attempted
phrases, or leading motives; and de-
spite the cry Of the advocates of pure
harmonics the greatest maestroS have
INDUCED in onOmatOpoeuc effects.
Scarlitti wrote cat fugue; Mendols-
sohn initiated a donkey'S bray; Bee
thoyen, the God Of Music, composed a
battle symphony, and even Wagner
echoed the birds. What would music
become if for Il moment one should
overthrow its conventional aSSocia-
tons? The laws of harmony do not
teach US, for instance, that the minor
key should be interpreted invariably
as the voice of sorrow, nor that the
Villains voice should be bass, or the
oboe signify 4 pastoral episode.
Suppose a genius should arise who
should write 4 lyrical drama On entirely
reverse lines, in which the villain
should be a. tenor and the lover a basso
prOfundo, and in which all the sad
passages should be sung in the major
key and all the merry arias in the
minor; would not the sensation eclipse
the famous Meyerbeer opera joke?
And yet, why, if there be a fundamen-
tai scientific basis for music, should
the discord of yesterday become the
chord of today, the heretical cadence
! of today become the orthodox cadence
of tomorrow? Why should Chopin
| have offended? Wherefore the war
| between Handel and Bach? Why the
modern Wagnerite and the anti-Wag-
I Is III Trovatore'' or Don Giovanni"
any less immortal than "FaIstaff'' or
the Niebelung Trilogy?
! Professor Alfred S. Warthin, demon
Strator of chemical medicine in the Uni
Yersity of Michigan. solemnly makes
4 startling claim. He declares that
while he was attending 4 series of
! performances of Wagner's operas he
discovered that certain people in the
audience were in Il state of Sclf-in-
IIrnnH hN-nnnSzS l,nr. W.
condition enabled him to determine
! that these music lovers were for the
: time being so completely absorbed
( by sounds that all external relations
were removed from them; that they
I We're in n state wherein nothing but
music existed, or, in other words. that
( they were completely under the in
/ fiucnce of the music drama" Follow
ing up his discovery, Professor Warth-
/ in tried the hypnotic experiment upon
Il brother physician with the ensuing re
markable results:
The gentleman was placed in a hyp-
motto state, and Wagner'S Ride Of the
! Walkure' was played at him on the
piano. Immediately the subjects
/ face showed great mental excitement.
ton. his legs were drawn up in seem
/ ing agony. his arms tossed wildly in the
air. and he broke out in profuSe pers-
piration. On being awakened from
/ his trance the patient declared that
Z lie had not perceived the music as
/ sound, but as feeling, and that feeling
was the sensation OF excitement is
/ if he We're riding furiously through the
air Another subject experimental
: upon with the fire music Of The
Walkure" gave every indication that
lie felt himself in the midst of flames.
The "Nalhalla" motive gave Il third
patient the firm belief that he was
climbing a lofty mountain and sur
veyinS a landscape OF much beauty and
grandeur. One Of the most remark
able effects produced during the inves-
LEGATION consisted in suddenly chang
ing the music from that which Wa--
ner wrote 10 that which Wagner did
not write. Extraordinary results en-
sued. All frenzy immediately ceased.
The subjects face became aShy pale:
the pulse dropped from 121 10 10 beats
per minute and became irregular. soft
and small: the Inspirations We're in
creased in number and became signing
in character. The whole picture pre-
scented one of complete collapse. 50
that all who saw il were alarmed.
ON being awakened the subject said
he had been oppressed 10y horrible