Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-06-08

MUSIC IN THE HOME.


Arthur selwyn Garbett, in the Phfladel-
phia North American.
What's in a name? Surely a piece
Of music. like the rose, would be IS
sweet if called by another name. But
1t is a fact that the title has a great
deal to do with the popularity OF a
piece Of music. Music in itself Is so
impalpable; it demands SO much of the
Imagination. A real musician, dream
ing music all day long, may be we'll
enough able to float comfortably on an
ocean of sound and still keep his bear
ings, but the ordinary mortal wants a
life preserver to keep his head above
water. This he usually finds in tho
title or the y -rds of a song. John NC
Cormack, who knows better than most
what kind Of music people want. says
that he sings nc song to a miscellane-
Gus audience that does not tell a story,
and the most popular of his records.
are those which are strongly lmbued
with the tale bearing element The Sc
cret Of the success Of Il Hear You
Calli-.g Me- is not due to its intrinsic
n.usical merits, for there is nothing
about the melody to distinguish it from
hundreds of other sentimental British
ballads. 1t is the suggestion that lies
in the words and the p%laintive quality
Of McCormack's voice that stir us. Few
of us are so stolid that we never see
VI llSOA fSlSSo - .
us on to the nan that always lies
just over the hilltop. The visionary
oan Of Arc is sister to US all, n 1t
needs only a Mccormack and a story
song to set our i~maginations going.
The power Of suggestion which lies
in a title is amply set FORTH in the
numerous descriptive" records which
occupy SO much a in the catalogs.
Through the Panama Canal" for in
stance, is classed under this head in
the Columbia catalog. 1t consists of
q march, a militant series of trumpet
calls, a dance of the tango type with
castanets to suggest a Spanish-Ameri-
can environment, cheers from the band,
the Red, White and Blue" patriotic
songs of all nations to illustrate the
cosmopolitan freedom of the canal, and
closes with the Star Spangled Ban
ner." Quite a lot for your money!
Nevertheless, considered in cold blood.
it will be found that the suggestion of
the Panama canal lies not in the mu-
sic itself, but in the title. The same
music would do equally well for "a
Day at Ellis Island" under which title
it would call into mind a wholly diff
ferent train of circumstances. Music
is so amazingly plastic that it adapts
Itself to almost n train of thought.
This is why SO much that is being said
these days about the effect of ragtime
on the morals is such a waste Of
words. The most innocent tune can be-
come atrociously immoral if associated
with unwholesome words. On the
other hand, tL'Homme Arme," a RI
bald song Of the middle ages, was for
years used by innumerable church
composers of Pedestrians time as a
%"cantius firmus," or groundwork, for
religious music, and, as such, doubt
less inspired thousands of good souls to
walk closer to God.
But while music owes much to a title
it sometimes happens that a title owes
it's existence to the nature of the mu-
sic. Such is the case, for instance, with
Mendelssohn's Spring Song" which
never was so called by Mendelssohn,
though, to be sure, it actually was
composed on a mild spring day before
an open window looking out on to an
English garden.