The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-09-02

lent one. Our meetings In the
louse Of God are accompanied by de-
5otional songs Sad and somber mu-
SIC ascends In The house Of mourn
ng, and yet, what a relief this music
to sorrowing heartsi With the
Iound Of drum and trumpet and the
;lang Of the cymbal the soldier plum.
ges into the smoke and carnage of bat
.le, and even the trained horses dance
and curvet in time with the music
and strain at the reins which restrain
.hem and learn the meaning of the
different bugle calls. Love, anger, sor-
row, enthusiasm, pain-all the pas
ions and emotions of the human soul
can be, and are, expressed in mu-
sic
The progress which has been made
In the composition of music and in the
building of musical instruments of
every kind is enormous The primi-
tive instruments of the ancients and
their monotonous music, or the instru-
ments Of barbarous or semi-civilized
people and the intolerable noise which
they call music cannot be compared
with the expressive harmony of our
music or with the multitude of beau
fUl and powerful musical instruments
and in the execution Of musical pieces
our age has doubtless advanced furth-
er than any preceding time. In conf
position, however, in the art Of pro
ducing musical pieces, the past cen
tury undoubtedly had greater masters
than the present.
At the opening of the nineteenth
century the musical leadership, which
Italy had enjoyed for a considerable
period, had passed to Germany, and in
the twentieth century It appears as If
Germany would also lose this exalted
position in its turn, for in the field
of art no nation can long hold the
leadership. Perhaps the industrial
and commercial development of Ger
many may be one of the causes why
the number Of its great composers is
decreasing; for though prosperity is
no obstacle to the enjoyment and cul-
tiVatiOn of art, yet It does not seem to
form a specially favorable soil for the
growing masters of this. noble art.
When the nineteenth century
dawned Bach, Haendel and Mozart
had raised German music to pin
nacle of glory, and Beethoven and
lection as today Chamber music has
Haydn were at the zenith of their
splendid powers, while List, Weber,
Kreutzer and Schubert had begun
their immortal careers. Before Bee
thoven died, Mendelssohn, Schumann
and Wagner had been born. This was
therefore a golden age of music with
an unexampled array of peerless mas
ters and unequalled musical works.
Comparing the present age with that
glorious time, we are compelled to
admit that today there are no giants
in musical composition, for the three
greatest composers of the present, Ed
ward Grieg, Anton Dvorak and Rich
ard Strauss, only the last named
German, do not reach up to the stand
ard of the heroic age.
But though there are today no Ger
man composers of commanding ge-
MUS, yet there has never been a time
when their works were so highly es-
teemed and produced with such per-
reached the highest stage of develop
ment in Germany.
In England also musical education
has reached a high degree Of perfec-
tion, but England never produced
many composers and none of COM
manding genius Richard Elgar has,
however, succeeded in meeting with so
much approval that he is being reck-
oned among the great composers. The
majority of British and Irish COM
posers, however, are content to fol-
low in the footsteps of German mas
ters; the later ones, though following
their own ideals, love to walk abroad
in the mantle of Wagner or Brahms.
France has for three centuries oc-
cupied a prominent place on the mu-
steal stage and her great masters,
Boieldieu, Auber, Herold, Adam and
Chopin offer much that is interesting
and valuable. Yet it must be ad-
mitted that here the tendency was
mainly to write for the opera and for
the production of light and frivolous
music. OF a more serious and nobler
character are the modern musical