Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

/ There Is nothing snobbish about a
| love for the really good in music, al
! though, some may speak Of the high
brow in music. That Is simply igno-
rance-a not knowing that good music
Is just as easy to like as cheap music,
If one prefers it. The preference Is
essential.
How one gets the true liking for the
good. or what the discriminating OF
every age call good, is a mystery. If
educate knew how to solve 1t, they
would shout with joy. Children may be
exposed" to the best in literature for
many years without once catching a
CLEAN Of the purple and gold OF the
best.
| child who has been reared in a home
OF culture, who has heard the best
operas the finest orchestras, yet who
gets genuine enjoyment only from q
wild um-pah brand Of music properly
named as jazz.
Here, on the other hand, is a poor
boy who never heard the Philadelphia
Orchestra yet who naturally takes to
Symphony chamber music, the best
| operas, because something In them ap-
peals' to something in him.
He may sit In the highest gallery, but
his enjoyment of the music, his real
love for it, puts him on a par, In a
musical sense, with the well dressed
man in the box below, who would be
glad, in his turn, to admit the other to
musical brotherhood.
| 1t will seem to some that the demo-
cratic brotherhood of music is more
complete, because more simple than
the fellowship Of kindred minds in good
literature, painting, statuary, archi-
lecture.
This arises, one may feel, because
music, while the most vocal Of arts, Is
also the most mute. In itself 1t ex-
presses nothing. The expression Is done
in the heart and mind of the nearer.
Program music" so called, Is mostly
bluff, an attempt to put into words
what belongs in notes. 1t will do no
good for the program to tell me that
the opening notes represent the rise Of
the sun in the desert. / see no palms
waving. The opening notes are what
they are-music, and one hears music.
II he sees pictures, too, that Is his own
business. and no one on the outside can
tell him in advance what he will see,
II anything. because he does not know
himself.
Music is glorious because it is word
less. Every one knows that the words
of a song do not matter It is the
music which counts. Mendelssohn
knew better than his critics when he
wrote his Songs Without Words. 1"
Since his day words have been written
to some Of them, and titles given to all
Of them, but still the music remains
wordless.
1t is precisely because note is not a
word-not even letter, but a sound, a
certain vibration-that 1t strikes every
ear differently, impinging on the spirit,
soul, intelligence, whatever one chooses
to call 1t, with q peculiar effect.
This unique effect, different for every
nearer, is utterly different from the
separate effect which good book may
have on every reader. The book has
plot, construction, usually one or more
plain aims, expressed in words whose
definitions are known.
There are no definitions for musical
notes and their expression, musical
sounds. They mean, not what the
composer tried to make them mean, but
what they mean to you, the nearer.
We do not believe that q composer ever
tried to make notes mean" anything,
any more than the Lord put any mean
ing" In a beautiful flower. A perfect
piece of music is gem, to be loved in
silence-silence, even while the music
flows. If there is any one who does
| not understand that, he has never
heard music, but only listened to 1t.