Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-11-07
EMUSIC. "

Paper Read Before the Women's Musical
Club. Friday, November 5, 1897, by Mrs.
Julius Pollock.
Women of the Musical Club: Sub
hitting this little paper to your atten-
ton under the title of Music will, l
fear, prove greatly misleading, because
to touch upon the subject from a sci
entific baSiS-tO discuss the art of pro-
ducing harmony and melody by the
combination and arrangement of sound,
and the principles governing these COM
binatiOns and SuccessionS-to follow
tone progression or the simplest chord
through all the intricacies of perfect
and imperfect interval-to discuss sus-
pensions, syncopations and unresolved
dissonance-would require more time
and much more profound thought than
| confess is at my disposal Neither is
it my purpose to discuss the History
of Music from its supposed source in
that early Egyptian age, when the first
idea of musical sound was produced
by the wind blowing into the reeds
which grew on the bank of the Nile
nor OF the first instruments, which
were in use $50 years after the deluge
nor yet to trace the numberless changes
through which music has passed until
the perfection of development which
has reached us in the fruition of The
last two centuries This is all inter
esting, but subject matter of such mag
nituGe that the few brief moments at
our command would prove wholly in
adequate; so | propose rather to speak
of music in relation to nature as We
know it in art and in it's effect and
nearer relation to man.
The encyclopedia says: Music is the
art that employs sound Is a medium
of artistic expression for What is not in
the provence of literature, sculpture,
painting or acting, Literature, whether
in verse or prose, states or describes
emotions, perceptions or impression.
Sculpture initiates the Onward form of
animated being-in the moulding and
attitude of the figure, displaying per-
sonal character and the effect Of pas
sion upon it. Painting vitalizers with
color the forms of sculpture, and eX-
tends its range of subjects from animate
to inanimate nature. Acting aCds
speech to the written words OF the
dramatist. and enforces the meaning by
vocal infexion and illustrates IL by
changeful gesture, thus giving the
mobility of life TO the forms Of sculp-
ture and painting. While music en-
bodies the inward feelings Of which
the other arts can but exhibit the ef-
feet. The highest class of musical
composition springs from the artists
Imagination without the prompting OF
words. of form or color. needing moth
ing TO express its meaning-able to ex-
press all things. being in itself poetry.
The source of music is in nature. and
we read that IL was discovered and not
created by mans genius, and the work
OF all artists has been only TO mature
that which having once been found is
the heirloom Of the present and the
future.
Man himself is an instrument-his
every thought is expressed by tones.
Fear, anger, joy, sorrow. desire-eacl
has tone peculiar to itself. understood
by all human beings, and comprehended
even by the brute creation In the
various avccations of life he exercises
this power. Take for instance the ora
tor. 1t is the tone power that makes
him great; he uses it in the lofty cry
that heightens excitement; he ami
mates and encourages by spirit STIR
ring notes, which ar = sao sd
his scorn-however