The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-27

From the Musical Courier.
| T f Dickens had lived to finish his story
| of The Mystery of Edwin brood" it
| 1 is probable that John Jasper, the
opium smoker, would have proved to be
the murderer of his nephew In the last
chapter of his last and incompleted book
| the great novelist thus describes Jasper:
| "Impassive. moody. solitary, resolute,
so concentrated on one idea, and on its
attendant fixed purpose, that he would
share 1t with no fellow creature, he lived
apart from human life. Constantly exer-
cising an art which brought him into me-
chanical harmony with others, and which
could not have been pursued unless he and
they had been in the incest mechanical
| relations and unison, 1t is curious to con-
moral accordance or interchange with
nothing around him.
OF course John Jasper was a musician,
and his art was that of chormaster in
an English cathedral. When we first read
this tale we resented this selection of
musician for the part of the villain of
| the piece. A more mature second thought,
however, caused us to observe that Dick
ems had chosen to contrast extremes for
the sake of dramatic effect. We do not
feel that the ancient stately and mag
nificent cathedral is insulted because the
choirmaster leaves II from time to time
to sleep away a night of dreams and
phantasmagoria in she fiends room in
| company with sailors, Lascars, Cinnamon.
among the poor and degraded of an east
| London Stun. And If 1t is curious that
| the spirit of the man was In moral ac-
cordance or interchange with nothing
around him. then it is clear that Dick
ems considered 1t natural that the spirit of
the musician ought to be in harmony with
mankind. In other words, the novelist
| has chosen musician for his villain for
| the simple reason that it is unusual to
find a villain and a musician combined in
the self same person.
| STILL it must be confessed that novelists
like to make musicians out to be morally
depraved or mentally weak. We read the
old story time and again until we grow
weary of the monotony of it and begin
to wonder If novelists in general are cap
able of creating a type of villain who is
not polished snake understanding music
and the hypnotizing of women.
! In Henry William Herbert's book on
| Henry VIII and His Six Wives written
| In 1856, a few years before Dickens created
John Jasper we find this entertaining in
| formations:
TT is worthy of remark In this connec-
ton that at this time Q55O), and long
after. the Lutte players musicians and
singers of the court society, perform
large part in all the most disgraceful
ntrigues of the day. Low born, and often
iliterate men, raised for the most part
by their musical talents from the dregs
Of society," not gentlemen from innate In
stincts, education, or high feeling. and
yet raised by their art, and by their po-
| stion as instructors, to certain station
of equality among gentlemen. and to terms
of intimacy with their pupils. their stand
ing in the community was anomalous.
ltheir influence was almost invariably evil.
and themselves, for the most part, thor
ough prof1igates and villains
Now we know what musicians are, for
Henry William Herbert has told U.S. Ha!
a happy thought. Perhaps the immortality
of that age was due to the influence OF
the musicians of the period. Henry VIII
himself. that great-no, big man, was q
musician. therefore profigate. Was not
his second wife, the most radiantly beau
tiful and lovely of all ilisSconsorts, Anne
! Boleyn, bcheaded because Of her sup
posed familiarities with the Kings mu-
4 sician, Smeaton, and others of the royal
household? And his fifth wife, Kath-
crime Parr. unjustly accused of all that
is vile in woman, persisted on the scaffold
because of the evil influence of her earliest
music MASTER Henry Manox. according to
Henry William Herbert, whoever H. W..
H. may be.
And that David Rizzio. who was stabbed
in Hollywood palace in Edinburgh, March
9, 1866. while supping with Mary, Queen
of Scots. was an excellent musician and
an Italian. 1t is true that he was the
Queens secretary and was assassinated.
by consent of the Queens dissolute and
brutal consort, Lord Darnley. for purely
political reasons only. Yet scandal fas-
tened it's filthy fangs on Ill starred Mary's
reputation, especially as Rizzio was .
musician and therefore depraved Great
ure. Is it not wonder that We musi-
clans are bold enough to hold up our
heads in public? No; not if we consider
the matter soberly. For it is only another
Of those popular fallacies even IL it is be-
, lieved at ALL that musicians are more
depraved as class than any other class.