The herald., 1897-10-16
THE ART OF LISTENING
THE FRIDAY MORNING CLUBS
MUSICAL PROGRAM
An Impressive Paper by Mrs. Eva
Mitchell Cook-The Intelligent
Appreciation of Music

yesterday morning for the weekly meet
ing of the Friday Morning club. The
subject of the morning was music and
thoughtful and very impressive paper
on ''The Art of Listening was read by
Mrs. Eva Mitchell Cook.
Miss Blanche Rogers supplemented the
paper delightfully."- with three piano num-
bers. The first, Bach's fugue in D ma jor
No. 5, was given a reading of scholarly
intelligence; the second, Rubinsteins
Nocturne, op. 60, received an interpreta-
ton both sympathetic and poetic; and
the third, The Brahms Rhapsodie, Nc
2, op. 79, was handled throughout in
mastery manner. Miss Rogers tech
nique is always clean and sure, her tones
are musical, pure and beautiful the
measures carefully observed, and her
grasp of the spirit of what she plays is
always musicianly and brought out with
artistic skill.
| In her paper Mrs. Cook said in part:
Has it ever occurred to you how few
people really know what they go to a
concert for? And once there, what to
| listen for in the music-and why? There
Is probably not one of the arts about
which there is such confusion of ideas
in the general mind as music; partly be-
cause it is the latest of all the arts to de-
| velop; probably because there has been
less intelligent thought given to it than
to the other arts by the laity.
"How common it is to meet people who
pass as intelligent in most things, who
announce boldly that they love music but
| they draw the line at classical music,
and yet these same people would be 10th
| to acknowledge that they did not know
an oil painting from a water color, an
| etching from an engraving Yet ie re-
quires no more arduous mental
process to distinguish rondo
from fugue, If one would
only take the trouble to inform
himself OF the definition Of each, and
then listen for the distinguishing charac-
teristics when they are played
'In most cases it is sheer laziness that
keeps people from looking beyond and
| more deeply into a composition for the
IDEAS that are presented, and the watch
Ing for their development and elabora-
ton. and the comparison and contrast
Of one musical idea with another, which
| le after all, the essence Of real art in
real music.
Another imaginary stumbling block
is the exploded idea that one must be a
practical worker in music before he can
understand the work of others intelli-
gently
The first requisite for just apprecia-
| tion of music is-to listen, not to hear
only! One hears with his physical ear,
one listens with his mind; one hears with
but one of his faculties alive one listens
with them all on the alert
1--WE all concede that listening to good
music Is the surest and quickest way
Of cultivating the taste and Judgment
But do we all take advantage of the op-
portunities we have? And are we sure
that we are as intelligent listeners to
what we DO hear as we might become?
A newer and Juster conception of the
value Of good music and a broader
knowledge of the wealth of musical
literature can only be acquired by the
listeners by first, hearing the best music,
and, second. reading and studying the
history of music. the biographies of mas
ters of musical composition, and al! good
criticisms written on the subject.
LAS either a science or an art music
will amply repay the most respectful in
vestigation, the most reverent attention;
| for the best in music Is at once an in
epiration and a delight"
Melody Is to music what ideas are to
poetry. The melodic phrase once per-
| ceived by the ear, the next thing is to
fix it firmly in the memory, so that it
may be recognized at it's every appear
| ance.
THE next mental process in listening
| to music Is to see and understand the re-
lation borne by one part of composition
to another.
Here we have the essential elements
Of listening to music. This sounds dry
and Unconditional; but it is the analysis Of
a mental process. which is, in reality, no
more complex than that required in lis-
tening unders tandingly to the recitation
Of poem.
mo doubt, as this process of listening
to music is accompanied at first by a
conscious mental effort, there will be a
corresponding loss of purely emotional
pleasure. This is why even musicians
enjoy new music less thoroughly than
that with which they are already famil-
lar. But the process must be gone
through with Notwithstanding, If spe-
officially musical enjoyment is to be OBJ
tanned; IL the pleasure we derive from
music is to be more and higher than a
merely physical or vaguely emotional
qualification.
''To be sure, the process is an intellec-
| tual one; but if We deem the activity of
| the intellect any bar to the emotions
we must read the history of art back
| ward It Is not intellectual activity, but
only conscious intellectual effort that
checks the throbbing of the pulse; and
1t may truly be said that our highest and
noblest emotions are appealed to
through the Intellect, and not through
| the senses alone.
BE it remembered, Furthermore, that
what intellectual effort IS at first re-
quired to understand music, to appre-
hend it's form and organic quality,
grows less and less with familiarity and
practice, until at last it vanisbes alto
gether."
AS supplement to Mrs Cooks paper,
Miss Blanche Rogers played Bach's
Fugue in D. Major, No. s; Rubenstein's s.
Nocturne Opus 60, and Brahms Rhap-
sodie, No. 2, Opus 70.