The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-19
Musical CULTURE
OF UNEVEN Growth
Particular Ages of Antiqui-
ty Vary in Their
Enthusiasm.
AN FMPEROR'S VANITY
Morris Steinert Closes
Brilliant History
of Music.
AN FMPEROR's VANITY
Article XII.

In the last article on the music of
the Romans, a few instances were CIV
en- of the enjoyment the Romans OBJ
tanned from their musical concerts.
From these we conclude that they
were much inferior in tastes pertain
ing to this delightful art They did
not look upon the art IN the democra-
tic spirit in which the Greeks did.
They INDUCED in the barbarous GUS
tom of abandoning it to their slaves.
A greater impeachment to the pro-
gress of music could not have existed
than such a custom and that of treat
ing with great degree of severity those
who were most distinguished by their
talents. The Greeks, too just and too
wise for so bad a policy proceeded to
the other extreme and confined the eX
ercise Of those arts Gas the eplthet
liberal impliesl to free men and per-
sons of birth and rank, absolutely for
bidding their study among their slaves
as if they were beings of an inferior
nature and their minds unworthy of
human ornament. However, the use
to be here made of the above COMPARE
son between the domestic policy of
the Greeks and that of the Romans
is to point out by it one great cause
of the superiority Of the former peo-
pie in their degree of perfection in
the elegant arts What the Egypt
ans were to the Greeks, the Greeks
were to the Romans, Egypt was the
great fount from which Greece drew
her knowledge, her science and her
arts And from no science did she
make more copious draughts than
from music. For this accomplish
ment the Romans were indebted to
Etruria and Sicily considerable time
before they were instructed by the
/, Greeks, whatever We're the improve
ments they derived from their con-
quest, and subsequent intimacy with
that refined people.
The Romans were for centuries re-
nowned more as military than a
polite and learned people. At length,
however, as if conscious of their own
talents, they Wed with the elegance of
the Greeks, initiated their institutions
Of musical and poetical contests at
their public games and proved their
possession of genius and capability.
Nations, like individuals. have their
fits and changes of temper. They are
sometimes governed by one kind of
circumstances, sometimes by another.
Hence music, like other arts, has been
cultivated and heard in particular
ages of antiquity and in certain coun-
tries with, a greater degree of en-
thusiasin than in others. That the
Romans had genius, would be suffici-
entity evident had we no other proof
than the eagerness and zeal with
which they copied the various excel
leneies of the Greeks, so soon as they
became acquainted with their SUI
Y periority. Admitting some Of the eX-
traordinaAy effects imputed to the
Grecian melody, and it is not easy
wholly to resist the torrent of elo-
quence and panegyric with which they
have been described by respectable
historians and philosophers, the Rom
ans, on their first hearing it, must
have been greatly struck For though
the Greek music did not include har-
mony, properly so termed, yet its
melopoeia, animated by noble order
Of poetry, more solemn ceremonies
greater pomp of public exhibition and
a performance or delivery altogether
more vivid and impressive than any
thing to which the Romans had been
accustomed, must have awakened In
them a new and livelier sense OF
human capability in the elegant arts
and have instantly determined then
to the exertion of their own powers
1t was not, however, till the time
Of Augustus that the glory of theii
literature attained a splendor any way
comparable with that of their mill
tary achievements. After that period
a false taste, borrowed from the Ash
atics, substituted for real and manly
refinement an effeminate luxury ant
vulgar dissipation which pervade'
their public games and exhibitions
While they afforded pleasure to tn
powerful few they taught the multi