Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-12-19
s. y0DJTION OF MUSIC. !"
Fly Miss Flora Pollock.
y aper Read Before the Womans Musical
Club, December II, 1881

Club. December II, 1881
| Music. tho ) j. ~ sound i alsa the con-
'oiouS langua: re of feeling. Like other
iah ua'ses, it is read; it is written; it is
'auene: it is lie; ,rned. 1t is perceptible to
+, the cyl .nd a.r ana ono +bire o,1,, AZ
Ing hes it from the languages. proper
y sue allied: one feels it, or does not feel
It. III the musical language, sound is the
organ AS poet combines letters for
syiiaoiss syllabIes FOR words. and words
Ior Sc fences to express his ideas, so
coihpoS Err combines sounds for intervals,
| Intervals for phrases and phrases for
lhenAes in the creation of his tone-poems.
Aitho.,sh 1t has not. like speech, the es-
PEAL privilege of the word which is a
precise and explicit representation of its
object; yet music is language, and
those who speak it understand it very
well by the signs of which it is composed,
if not by the thoughts and sentiments
which they represent. A long while has
this musical language been waiting its de-
velopment, and until very recent times
it has been in the utmost simplicity. AT
ter all the other fine arts had reached 4
high state of excellence. and had oper-
ated with many other powerful agencies
of Christian civilization in educating the
sensibilities of men. lifting them upward
to higher plane of spiritual existence,
m 81 i'm ha
is now here in our midst-the youngest of
the arts-tea ching us through the medium
Of Gulcet tones what men are capable of
feeling in their innermost hearts.
Painters and Sculptors get not only their
material and Inspirations from Nature
but their masterpiece es are triumphant in
proportion to their exactness in reproduc-
ing or initiating Nature. Composers, on
the contrary. find no perfected musical
creation. Nature to them in an Aeolan
harp-a musical instr ume;at whose tones
are the re-echo of higher strings within
their souls. Wild sounds civilized into
time and intermediates of nature har-
monized, are music. In order that a
sound may acquire d musical character.
it must be agreeable to the ear. It is on
this account that all sounds produced by
imperfect instruments must be rejected
whatever their pitch; all those, also.
which are too high or too low must be
rejected as either disagreeable or insig-
nificant. There remain. therefore, the
notes comprised between about twenty
seven and four thousand vibrations per
second which form an interval of a lit !
tie more than seven ootaves, between
which limits the music of all countries
and of all nations is written Wei III !
would be a grave error to suppose that !
within these limits all the notes can be
used arbitrarily or at hazard. Experience
shows that any one of these notes may be
chosen in executing or beginning a piece
of music, but when once this note is Sc
lected, all the others that are to follow or
accompany it are limited, and we move in !
a very restricted circle. This is not only
the case in our modern music, but also |,
holds good for that of every epoch. |
There is no instance known of a musical
system, however barbarous it may be, in |
which the choice of notes is left to the ,
fancy of the composer or performer. The |
history of music, on the contrary, |
teaches Us that from the enormous num- |
Der of possible notes. an infinitely more !,
restricted number have been selected ac-
cording to certain rules in which musical (
instinct was at times influenced by scien, !
tific theories of greater or less value
1t may be established as one of the fun !
damental principles of our music, that !
the ear can only endure notes, be they I,
simultaneous or successive, on this condi- |
ton: namely, that they should bear s.mpe !
ratios TO each other in respect to the !
number of their vibrations per second |
The most simple ratio that can be imag-
ined between the vibrations per second of !
two notes is that in which both are rep !
resented by the same number. The two
notes are then said to be in unison.
With tones the composer works just as |
an architect with his wood. stone and /
iron. There is many progression which !
by it's breadth and other properties is ,
suited to a bass part, though it could |
never form part of the superstructure I
We could no more substitute the bass for
the treble in Tails litany than the base
of a column for its capital. A design suit
able for stone is inappropriate for brick
or wook: and violin passage is incon- !
venient or impossible for a wind instru-
ment. The Art of Sound, like Architect
ure. is a constructive one, and can be re-
ferred to no rules save its own, and that
subtle sense of beauty and fitness which
is implanted in the human breast.
Il is the essence of composition that
everything should be in a determined
place. perform an intended part, and act
in that part advantageously for every
thing that is connected with it. It's great
object berg always to secure unity-that
is, to make out of many things one whole
the first mode in which this can be eff
fected is by determining that one feature
shall be more important than all the rest !
and that the others shall group with it in
subordinate positions. If we take fugue
as the highest type of musical compost /
ito based on one subject, we find it ODE
dent to this law of principality. The
subject is the one feature more import
ant than all the rest: the counter subject
and the various episodes group with 1t in
lesser positions. Moreover. the subject Of
a fugue is a short musical phrase com
plete in itself. which can be isolated. but
this is not the case with the subordinate
parts which only exist by their relation
to the subject.
The second great canon Of art Is in
terms almost the exact opposite Of the
first namely: that where two musical