The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-05-26

aeurs of an August thunderstorm to the |
softest breathings of a flute. Small in
strument of music, only a quarter of an
inch of surface and the thinness Of one
two hundred and fiftieth part of an
inch and that thinress divided into
three layers. In that ear musical staff,
lines, spaces, bar and rest A bridge |
leading from the outside natural world
to the inside spiritual world; we see
ing the abutment at this end of the
bridge, but the fog of an unified mys-
terry hiding the abatment on the other
end of the bridge. Whispering gallery
of the soul. The human voice is Gods
eulogy the ear. That voice capable of
producing II, ,59a, 1s6, ,O44 ,4l5 sounds, and
all that variety made, not for the re-
galement of beast or bird. but for the
human ear.
About Is years ago, in Venice, lay
down in death one whom many con-
sidered the greatest musical composer
of the century. Struggling on up from
six years OF age when he was left faith
crless, Wagner rose through the oblo-
guy of the world, and ofttimes all ma
tions seemingly against him, until he
gained the favor of a king, and won
the enthusiasm of the opera houses of
Europe and America. Struggling all
the way on to 20 years of age, to con-
quer the worlds ear. In that same at
tempt to master the human ear and
gain supremacy over this gate of the
immortal soul, great battles were
fought by Mozart, Gluck and Weber,
and by Beethoven and Meyerbeer, by
Rossini and by all the roll of German
and Italian and French composers,
some of them in the battle leaving
their blood on the keynotes and the
musical scores. Great battle fought
for the ear-fought with baton, with
organ-pipe, with trumpet, with cor
net-a-piston, with all ivory and brazen
and silver and golden weapons OF the
orchestra; royal theater and cathedral
and academy of music the fortresses
for the contest for the ear. England
and Egypt fought for the supremacy of
the Suez canal, and the Spartans and
the Persians fought for the defile of
Thermopylae; but the musicians of all
ages have fought for the mastery of the
auditory canal and the detile of the i'm
mortal soul and the Thermopylae of
struggling cadences.
For the conquest Of the ear Haydyn
struggled on up from the garret where
he had neither fire nor food, on and on
until under the too great nervous strain
of hearing his own Grafton of the
Creation" performed, he was carried
out to die, but leaving as his legacy to
the world 113 symphonies, 1853 pieces
for the baritone, 15 masses, 5 orato-
rios, AZ German and Italian songs, 80
canons, 365 English and Scotch songs
with accompaniment. and 1886 pages
of libretti. All that to capture the
gate Of the body that swings in from
the tympanum to the ''snail SHELF ly-
ing on the beach of the ocean of the
immortal soul.
To conquer the ear, Handel strug-
gled on from the time when his father
woald not let him go to school lest he
learn the gamut and become musician,
and from the time when he was allowed
in the organ loft just to play after the
audience had left, to the time when he
left to all nations his unparalleled ora
torios of Esther" deborah, +" ''Samp-
son. 'Jephthah," Judas Maccabeus, y
Israel in Egypt" and the Messiah, "
the soul of the great German composer
still weeping in the Dead March of our
great obsequies and. triumphing in the
raptures of every Easter morn.
70 conquerer the ear and take this
gate of the immortal soul, Schubert
composed his great "Serenade," writ
| ing the slaves of the music on the bill
| of fare in a restaurant, and went on
until he could leave as legacy to the
world over 1000 magnificent compost
tions in music. To conquer the ear
and take this gate of the souls castle
Mozart struggled on through poverty
until he came to pauper's grave, anc
one chilly, wet afternoon the body o.
him who gave to the world the Re
QUEEN" and the ''G-minor symphony
was crunched in on top of two other
paupers into grave which to this day
is epitaphless.
For the ear everything mellitiuous
from the birth hour when our earth
was wrapped in swaddling clothes o
light and serenaded by other worlds
from the time when Jubal thrummet
the first harp and pressed key OF th
first organ, down to the music Of thi:
Sabbath day. Yea, for the ear The
coming overtures of Heaven, for what
ever other part OF the body may be lef
in the dust, the ear, we know, is t.
come to celestial life; otherwise, VIII,
the ''harpers harping with their harps?
For the ear, carol of lark. and whistl
of quail, the chirp of cricket, aid das.
of cascade, and roar of tides oceanic
and doxology of worshipful assem-
bly, and minstrelsy, cherubic, seraphi'
and archangeiic. For the ear all Par
dean pipes, all flutes, all clarinets, al
hautboys, all bassoons, all bells, an
all organs-Luzerene and Westminste
abbey, and Freyburg, and Berlin, an
all the organ pipes set across Christer
dom, the great Giants Causeway fc
the monarchs of music to pass owe
For the ear, all chimes, all tieklings {
, chronometers, all anthems, all dirge