The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-01

THE music IS simple and sweet. II is
written in common time. that is four
four time, but it does not beat with the
heart.
Its rhythm Is much slower. It is neither
good music nor bad. The words are also
simple and sweet, but they appeal to a
sentiment that is universal In the human
breast.
"In order to avoid confusion, in order to
study music as music. without the words. I
would ask you to imagine all music I men,
ton to be played at a distance or on some
nearby band.
There is Julian Edwards's new patriotic
song, My Own United States If you lay
your finger on your pulse you will find
that 1t beats to the rhythm Of the heart.
The music and the heart come out evenyI
at the end of each bar. It's the same with,
old Fatherland song, The Watch on the
Rhine
THAT song Is a beautiful example, be-
cause 1t Is so ponderous in its swing. II
inspires. 1t stirs the heart. Tt makes you
feel like getting up and doing. And 1t moves
along from start to finish with the regu-
larity Of the beating heart it inspires.
THE music of America or the Star
Spangled Banner does not do that. It halts
and holds so much throughout its course
that no well-regulated heart could keep
time to 1t and live. On the other hand. the
SoCtnern SOES Dixie moves along like
clockwork. II invariably sets the feet in
motion, starts a cheer. and before long
everybody is singing along with It.
"It beats with the heart and never inter
rupts itself until 1t reaches the last note,
It is not a new theory. this heartbeat idea.
but I am sure 1t will be found to be as true
as II is novel"
Doctor Wilfred P. Byrne of the Board of
Education. a prominent practitioner Of New
York has fiven the hpart-haat fhoorxy L.
music some attention. When I first heard,
of it." he said. at struck me as being new
and curious. The heart-that Is. the aver
age heart-beats about seventy-two times to
the minute. Some hearts beat only sixty
times a minute
I have found. are cool and collected. Moth
ing ever annoys or excites them. They lack
imagination. Other hearts beat as high az
eighty times In a minute. And those peo-
Pile are lust the antithesis of the slow heart
beat NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and imaginative.
THE AVERAGE HEART.
But the average heart beat. the heart
beat of the greatest number, has been found
to be seventy-two TO the minute. In an au-
dience where several hundred or several
thousand persons are assembled It may be
said that their hearts are beating at seven
ty-two to the minute.
The heart beat is regular. March time
in music is regular. 1t is the regular music
which causes the audience to beat time; it
is the music which beats to their hearts.
II had occasion to experiment with music
and the sphygmograph on a patient not
long ago in order to determine what effect
the harmony of sounds. moving along to
some definite conclusion governed by def
mite laws. would have upon the heart beat.
'T found that the march time appealed TO
the heart and that by accelerating the time
of the music I could accelerate the beat of
the heart. and by depressing the tone of the
music could depreSs the beat of the heart.
1t was as If the heart tried to beat in time
with the music.
What Is true Of the Individual is equally
true OF the mass, and I am not surprised
therefore to find that the sound and rhythm
OF the song Of Dixie played before an au-
dience of a thousand or more caused them
to rise and sing with It, stamping out the
time with their feet-for every heart in the
place was beating in. time to the music. I
believe firmly in the theory of Mr.. STANCE
concerning the heart beats in music"