Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-06-07

MUSIC IN THE HOME.
Arthur Selwyn Garbett, in the Philadel-
phia North American.

Arthur Selwyn Garbett, in the PhlIadel-
phia North American.
What's in a name? Surely a piece
of music. like the rose, would De us
sweet if called by another name. But
it is a fac that the title has a great
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 Wen
enough b to float comfortably on an
ocean of sound n still keep his bear
ings, but the ordinary mortal wants a
life preserver to keep his head above
water. This he usually finds in the
title or the Words of a song. John NC
Cormack. who knows better than most
what kind of music people want. says
that he sings no song to a m~lscellane-
Gus audience that does not tell a story;
and the most popular of his records
are those which are strongly imbued
with the tale bearing element. The Sc
cret of the success of Il Hear You
Calling Me" is not due to its intrinsic
musical 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 plaintive quality
of McCormack's voice that stir us. Few
of us are so stolid that we never see,
visions or hear voices calling, Turing
uo VII w lliG kolIlctIlSS llcll VIC . NE
just over the hilltop. The visionary
Joan of Arc is sister to us all, NJ it'll
needs only a Mccormack and a story.
song to set our im%aginations going.
The power of suggestion which lies
in a title is amply set forth in the,
numerous descriptive" records which|
occupy so much space in the catalogs.
Through the Panama Canal" for in-|
stance, is classed under this head in
the Columbia catalog. 1t consists of!
a 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!
1T 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 we'll for "A
Day at Ellis Island" under which title
1T would call into mind a wholly diff
is SO amazingly plastic that it adapts
itself to almost any train of thought.
h 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 tut can be-
with unwholesome words. On the
other hand, "L'Homme Arme.' a RI
bald song of the middle ages, was for
years used by innumerable church
composers of Pedestrians time as 4
"cantius firmus," or groundwork. for
religious music, and. as such, doubt
less inspired thousands of good souls to
Wal closer to God.
But while music owes much to a title
it sometimes happens that a title owes
its 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 De sure, it actually was
composed on a mild spring day before
an open window looking out on to an
ngliSh garden.