The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1910-12-31


+ in the music of ancient Greece; har-
mony, as in the highest form of sac
red music; melody, as in Italian
opera; whether two of them are com
bined, or all three are merged in one
and the same, like a deity having
many attributes. 1t is a trinity whose
constituents are those named above
but a trinity one and indivisible
Every composition pervaded by the
living breath of one of these three
creative powers has right to exist
in the empire of muSic.-Liszt.
Arthur Sullivan on Music.
Darwin says: Neither the enjoy
ment nor the capacity of producing
musical notes are faculties of the
least direct use to man in reference
to his ordinary habits of life" PhySi
ologically he may be correct, but as
soon as mere rudimentary actions are
left. and existence becomes life, his
statement is completely false. Indeed
music is, as this philosopher else
where says, bound up in daily life,
and a necessity of existence Of its
usefulness in daily life there can be
no question. What would religious
services be without organs and sing
ing? What would armies be without
bands? If music were a luxury, would
people spend so much time and mo
ney on it? 1t is not to obtain mere
unemployment; it is because it is a
necessity to satisfy certain require
ments of the mind. It enters into the
chemistry of the mind as salt does
into the chemistry of the body. Here
and there you will meet with a per
son who says, Il never eat SALT do
not require it." Well, you are sorry
for him. There is evidently some
thing wrong in his physical consti-
tuition. So when any one assumes a
tone of lofty superiority, and boasts
he knows nothing-about music,
and pretends not to be able to dis
tinguish one tune from another, you
either accept his statement with
some reserve, or conclude that there
is something wrong in his physical
or mental faculties, and recommend
an aurist.
Life is one great symphony. Firm
the cradle to the grave one finds in
music an expression of his highest,
richest, divinest life. Music lulls the
infant to peaceful slumbers; by its aid
the lover wooS and wins the maiden
of his choice. Music heightens the
joy of the wedding; stimulates the
tagging footsteps of the soldier on
the march; is the expression of JOY
and thankfulness for the harvest sea
son; aids by its voice the merrymak-
ing after toll; glides with healing
sympathy into the funeral rites; ard
in death, had we but ears to hear. The
music from the other world might
roll in upon US and resolve in heav
emily harmonies all discords of earth's
jangling life.-Lyman Abbott
After all my friends, think for a
moment what a quiet, dull, uninter
esting world this would be were it
not for the music which we can
hear or feel within us to quote our
late Paul Laurence Dunbar in The
Poet and His Song.
A song is but a little thing,
And yet what joy it is to singl
In hours of toll, it gives me zest,
And when at eve, long for rest;
When cows come home along the
bars,
And in the fold, hear the bell;
As night. the shepherd, herds his
stars,
sing my song. and all is we'll.
There are no ears to hear my lays,
No lips to lift a word of praise;
But still, with faith unfaltering,
live and laugh and love and sing.
What matters you unheeding throng?
They cannot feel my spirits spell,
Since life is sweet and love is long,
sing my song, and all is we'll.
My days are never days of ease;
till my ground and prime my trees.
When ripened gold is all the plain,
put my sickle to the grain.
labor hard, and toll and sweat,
While others dream within the dell;
But even while my brow is wet,
sing my song. and all is we'll
Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,
Nv garden makes a desert spot;