The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-15
INFLUENCE OF ATHLETICS CONSPICUOUS IN MUSIC The Trumpet Received Stimulus From
 Olympic. FIRST MUSICAL VICTOR Morris Steinert Contributes Another Chapter of
 History of Music.
Article VII,


 not only on music but on those who practiced it. Now we must take a view of those national institutions which not only open field for the display of Grecian genius and Grecian taste but also of Grecian emulation.
 There were variety of games or public sports consisting of trials of skill in arts and bodily exercises, and dedicated to the honor of distinguished personages or suspicious events. Chief among them were the Olympic games, said to have been founded by Her cules. The Pythian games were first established by the King of Etolia and re-esta blished by Iphitus. The Ne mean games were instituted by Adras- tus and subsequently, were augmented by Hercules. The 1sthmian games were founded in commenoration of Ndelicertes and the Panathenean games were appointed in honor of Minerva.
 The Olympic games which com- menced in the year of the world 2SS6, were held at the beginning of every fifth year. on the banks of the Alpheus near Olympia, a city of Ellis, in honor of Olympian Jupiter They comprised personal combats, chariot races and musical contests. In the year IT'S be- fore Christ their celebration was fixed for every f1ftleth month or the second month after the expiration of four years and were made to serve as epochs.
 These games which had their name from the god in whose honor they were ordained, or from the city of Olympia, near which the ywere held, or were originally instituted for religi- ous or civil purposes. The precise req son cannot be stated. They became so important to all Greece that every state and city felt 8 deep and constant interest in their celebration. By the horse race, the breed and manage ment of that useful animal was pro- noted. In the foot race manly speed and activity aded to the fact that this noble thirst of excellence and victory was excited by the various other feats of manhood and dexterity per formed on these occasions, and the higher and more useful feelings were awakened and called into play. These assemblies were frequented by persons of the greatest eminence in all the arts of peace, such as historians, orators philosophers, poets and painters who >>eaW that the most direct way to fame was through Olympia.
 There were both poetical and musical contests. The Pentathlon, or five bodi- ly exercises of leaping, running throw ing the quoit or dart, boxing and wrestling, were all accompanied with the flute. Pythocritus of sicyon play ed six times on the flute during the ex- ercises of the Pentathlon at Olympia and, in testimony of his skill, pillar and statute were erected to him The horse race was accompanied with the trumpet and the chariot race by the flute.
 Near Olympia there was a gymnasi- um called Lolichmium, which was open at all times to those who were desir- ous of trying their powers in poetical and musical exercises, and though music was sometimes performed inde- pendently of poetry, poetry was never recited without music.
 The flute was the favorite instru- ment with the Greeks. They practice ed the trumpet also. In the ninety sixth Olympiad, a prize was instituted at the Olympic games for the best performer on the trumpet and the first of these honors gained there was awarded to Timoeus of Ellis. Another one was obtained by Crates on the cornet or horn. According to some o,,4I,ores LYa1nI ot,9s af NTaorn 1ryas remarkable for his gigantic figure as for the strength of his lungs which were so powerful that his perform anee could not be heard with safety unless at a great distance. The ex- ertions used by the ancients in blow ing the flute and the trumpet were so great that, for the preservation of their cheeks, they were obliged to use a capistrum, or muzzle, which, how ever, was not always adequate for the purpose. According to Lucian, Har- monides, juvenile scholar of Tlmo- theus, at his first public performance began his flute solo with so violent a blast that he breathed into the instru- ment his last breath. From this it would appear that the power or full ness of the tone constituted one of the principal excellences in instrumental performance, at least in those of the inhatile kind.
 From an epigram of Archais we learn that that trumpeter dedicated a statue to Apollo in gratitude for that diets preservation of his cheeks and blood vessels while, with his utmost force, he proclaimed the Olympic games.
 An important feature of these games was the musical recitations of Rhap- sodists. Their exercises consisted chiefly of pasticios, or collections of favorite passages of poetry and music from different masters which they rendered to the accompaniment of the cithara The Emperor Nero's ambi- tion to rival every other rhapsodist of his time, impeled him to enlist him. self among the performers at these games, at which he was content to submit himself to all the discipline and rigor of the Olympic laws, as also to the self-humiliating practice of sup plicating the favorable decision of the Nomodietai, or umpires. Honor, the chief indictment to the candidates in all the sacred games, demanded the applausive voices of bards and musi- clans. It is to these we owe the no- hle odes of Pindar and a great num- her of valuable specimens of Greek eu-