The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-02-24
THE MUSIC OF THE ORIENT
BEA UTIFUL LECTURE BY EDGAR
 STTLLM1N KELLEY.
Given in the Yale Art School Tuesa"y
 Large and Apprcciative Audience Present-Lecture Illustrated With the Piano-spealscr Assisted by Mrs'


 Piano-spealser Assisted by Mrs. Kelley. MT. Edgar Stillman Kelly the we'll known critic and musician of New York, lectured on Music of the Orient De- fore a large and appreciatlve audience in the Yale Art School, Tuesday night. The lecture was most interesting one and all through it MT. Kelley lllustrat- ed his lecture, so to speak, with the ald of the piano. Mrs. Kelley, the talented wife of the lecturer assisted him ana with MT. Kelley played four hand ar engagement by the latter "Chinese suite Aladdin" Mrs. Kelley also played Lady Picking Mulberries.' MT. Kelley spoke in part as follows:
 Prominent among the characteristic features which distinguish the Oriental peoples, from those of the Occldent, is the devotion to time honored GUS tom. This conservatism is due, partly to an indolence begotten of hot sun and a languid sky and partly to the despotic forms of government which en- force the strict observance of rigid rules. This observance becomes habltual ana hereditary, so that we find the people of to-day going through the same rou- tine prescribed for their ancestors ages ago.
 "A noticeabel trait of Oriental art is lack of individuality. This is the negative side of conservatism. The an- cient sculptures of Egypt and Greece show servile copying of set types. It was only at later period, that Greek artists ventured to assert themselVes and the best work was produced.
 'The development of music in the Orient, has been retarded from other causes also; for, while the wise men Of the East began their researches in logical manner, on a mathematical pas is, and felt the possibilities of the art as we do still they always wandered orr into the swamps and bogs of symbolism and philosophical speculation, wnere | they are still foundering. We small ma | that all these elements, conservatism, lack of individuality, servitude to sym , bolism and fruitleets speculation, have affected Oriental music as well as the other arts cultivated in the East
 l Our attention will naturally first be | directed to China the most Oriental or all countries, and the land where for eign and modernizing influences have been most carefully excluded. Egypt and India, may dispute the matter or precedence in respect to antiquity, still no other nation can furnish so accurate ly as China such valuable and reliable information concerning the music Of re- mote ages. H.3
 We are told by geologists, how the gums of antedeluvian trees caught ana l imprisoned insects and bits of fern, thus preserving in amber settings, forms or l life and vegetation so dellcate that' under no other conditions could we ob- tain an idea of their structure. In d similar manner, the spirit of conserVa- tism has saved from oblivion, melodies which frightened the life of the people in Cathay thousands of years gone by'
 'The Chinese, it is true, have music al notation, but they usually learn to play by rote. Indeed I never saw d Chinaman employ written music. we i see then how valuable has proved this habit of transmitting melodies rom master to pupil, from generation to generation, for from characters alone It is difficult to form conception Of the sounds they represent. Modern Euro pean musicians are familiar with the many fruitless attempts to decipher the music of ancient Greece. While every student knows that there is even some doubt concerning the proper pronuncla- ton of the classical languages.
 ''The visitor to that picturesque DOT ,tv,n
 ton of San Francisco known as Chlna- town will sometimes hear, in passing d restaurant or a private dwelling, melo- die strains of singular tone-color. quite tantalizing in their elusiveness. SC vague and rambling are these phrases that many casual listeners of European descent are often tempted to make one of the following three assertions; name ly:
 I. That the Chinese do not play any 4 definite melody but merely improVlse
 IT. That they employ but one melody
 which they play continuously on all oc- casions.
 I'll. Some even say that they have n' music whatsoever; what they are pleased to term such being merely
 confusion of noises and barbaric din. | on a Cdl6lul luNGSllS1tiO'i 0e'eiNiioN myself that these opinions were quite
 erroneous. Concerning the improvisa
 tions of the Chinese, one incident suffi' ces to settle that question. While list ening to what seemed an internlinablt aria rendered on the yee win or Chinese fiddle, I asked an interpreter if his friend made up that tune" With look of awe he replied NO! Tha1 tune is five thousand year ole! No
 body make new tunes now." This an
 swer reveals in so startling manner the spirit of conservatism and the ami
 hilation of individuality, that the pos sibility of a Chinaman's improvis1ng |
 wholly out of the question. That they do play more than one melody l cal testify, for, after repeated hearings . have been able to write down mum l Der of them; and in giving a few O these examples I hope to be able t l show that the people of the Celestia empire do possess a system of music which commands our interest and re } spect, if not our admiration and love } am free to admit that, when som twenty years ago in California, l t1rs = listened to the performance of Chimes musicians, I was inclined to doubt tn l existence of any features common |
 their art and ours. They themseVe } disclaim any such esthetic kinship, be ' ing firm in the conviction that their mu l sic is superior to the tone art we enjoy 1 "Pere Amiot, the Jesuit misslonaly }