The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-09-13
The Influence Of Music on the Ear and Foot

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Paper Read Before the Cha,ttduQua Circle. +
IF 1 were a musical fanatic land |
most musicians are fanatics) |
should commence this paper with
some such eulogium as follows:
"Of all the arts and sciences that have
contributed to the progress and devel-
opment of mankind, music, the
purest and divinest of arts, easily
stands in the foremost place." 7 might
even 60 further and rank it with the
really fine arts, such as gastronomy,
stenography and the art of self-defense.
But being short on hair and, I trust,
long on sense, shall confine myself
to asserting that the art of music is
good thing for the world in general
and the most important thing existent
to musicians, just as, to drag in the
shorthand again, that art Tor craft? p is
the most important thing to stenogra-
piers.
The fact is that that non-existent,
but much-quoted phenomenon, the
average man, listens to music, as
the title of this paper implies, not with
his ears but with his feet. At least
that is the impression which the pres
ent popularity of rag-time and kindred
monstrosities produce. 1 may say, in
parenthesis, that the word rag-time is
somewhat misnomer; take it that
the meaning is ''time torn to rags" and
such an expression could only be
rightly applied to few of the modern
Russian school of composers, far-off
followers of Tschaikovsky. Nothing
is more regular, more deadly monoto-
nous, a musician would say, than the
rag-time march. Its pendulum-like
swing, Rhythmic Tilt" have heard it
called, offers no break to the gentle
quasi-woodpecker tapping of the foot
with which so many listeners accom-
pany it. Now it is difficult, indeed, I
am thankful to say, practically !mpos-
sible to mark the time of Beethoven
symphony or a Bach fugue with the
feet. Hence, in part, the aversion to
classical music.
But if this reason may seen trife
far-fetched, there is another one which
satisfactorily accounts for the rag
time epidemic, namely, the inability OF
anyone without either an instructive
love of music or carefully cultivated
taste for it to appreciate harmony.
for one should be the last to believe or
to believe that Shakespeare believed
that the man devoid of any taste fol
music is necessarily eft for treasons
stratagems, and spoils"-nobody, fol
instance, could imagine Charles Laml
or honest DR.. Johnson, neither O.
whom had any liking for music, play
ing traitor to anyone. The fact re
mains, however, that there is a larg
number of people who consider music
at best, "the least unpleasant o
noises," or who, in other words, onl,
know two tunes, one of which i
Yankee Doodle, and the other whicl
isn't Then there is second and ia
larger class, class which, in fact, in
cludes the vast majority of all Angie
Saxons, and which, while utterl
ignorant of harmony, can and does az
preciate melody. 1t is for this clas
that the brass band, brought to perfee
ton by Sousa and his kind, exists.
is for this class, too, that the ballat
ranging all the way from the "Hone.
want you for my own" species up t
the real music of "Annie Laurie" an
"Home, Sweet Home" has come int
being.
The appreciation and comprehensio
have thus led to its development
the utter exclusion of harmony, wit
the result that the melodies used
our march-writers would be rejecte
by musician as far too complicate
to be practical, while their harmoni
at the same time would seem to hi
at the best, trivial, and at the wors
and far more usually, wrong.
The true musician is neither boz
nor made, but usually Dotn. A boy
girl who has not natural taste f
music can never have it hammered
to his or her head, and many, too, ha
natural taste but not natural ap
tude. For sheer waste of time, !
deed, it is hard to beat the your