The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-04-27
OVER CULTURE.


4 We believe that the present period
the most parts OF the world, is one in
! which intellectual training is greatly
exaggerated and false ideals are raised
as to the conditions of culture. The
idea now seems to be to render the
| subject involved enigmatical, unnatur-
| al, absurd, grotesque, or anything ont
of the ordinary, Every department OF
thought and activity has its votaries,
who, in their wild efforts to acquire
notoriety as reformers in their chosen
sphere, have, instead of improving, ut
terly perverted it. In fiction we have
the disgusting italian and French au-
thors of the realistic type; in philoso-
ply, the incomprehensible Emerson /; in
sociology, the ridiculous Bellamy; in
religion the heretical Briggs. But in
no realm has there arisen, we believe,
a greater transformation for the worse
than in music.
The many Marietta people who at
tended the recent Thomas concerts in
Atlanta, will, for the most part, if they
speak frankly, bear US out in this opin-
ion. Nearly all the music rendered by
this organization was OF the so-called
Classical type of which the non-sen-
steal lin our opinion Wagner is the
the arch apostle. Shakespeare defines
/ 80 r. nIrg1
and SO it was considered by all great
composers such as Mozart, Beethoven,
Meyerbeer and other master-musicians
! prior to Wagner's time. But with the
advent Of this iconoclast, the ideals OF
classical music underwent a change.
Discord takes the place of harmony or
concord, and the listener is expected to
be beguiled by the high-sounding title,
descriptive number" to guess at the
idea intended to be conveyed by mer-
CHESS pounding of drums, the blare of
horns and the squeaking of violins. So
far as mental gymnastics is concerned
this is very well; people Ike to inter-
pref "books in running brooks; sermons
in stones. and God in everything"
Even at the expense of having their
nerves severely shocked or their sense
of the ridiculous excited, to discover
the motive" in discord, is not unpleas-
ing. But, we respectfully contend,
this is not the true idea of the real ma
ture OF music, which appeals to the
soul and not to the mind, an apprecia-
ton of which the most abject savages,
yes, animals as well, possess, showing
that it is entirely instructive and there
fore is not within the range of the ac-
quired.
Mice and other animals, and some
huge saurians in tropical countries
have died of excessive transports caus-
ed by soft, plaintive, concordant music
and the softer and more harmonious
the strain, the greater the effect has
been noted to be. We are sure that
had Shakespeare heard the alleged clas-
steal music of Wagner, the overture
from "Tannhouser" not being included
in the list, the fearful malediction upon
non-lovers of harmony, fit for treason,
strategems and spoils" would never
have been uttered
AS we stated at the beginning, we
believe that the tendency of the civ
ilized world to day is strongly in the
direction of over-culture, the effects of
which are revolutionary in their ma
ture. 1t is said "a little learning is
dangerous thing" but we are of the
opinion that too much is great deal
more so. Intellectual dyspepsia, which
produces abnormal conditions, is the
result of partaking more mental food
than can be assimilated, and an I'M
balanced or diseased mind is a dam
gerous mind. A doctor" Van Dyke.
a so-called preacher of New York,
gravely informs us that the world is to
be saved, not by religion but by "cul-
ture )" and if we look around us we
shall discover his counterpart in the
men o, feeble minds but great ambi-
tions who having no original ideas have
resurrected those of others in order to
institute some vicious scheme in some
department of thought.
Let us have culture for its own sake,
but let us not permit it to make mental
puppets of US.
MARIETTA CHURCH.