Evening star., 1951-12-23

There is surely no time Of the
year more appropriate than that
of the Christmas season for muSi-
clans to take stock of themselves.
With all the time consumed from
day to day with the external
problems of music, few hours re-
main for considering its spiritual
side. Yet that is the more i'm
portant design of the art and one
that affects the layman to an
even greater degree than the pro-
feSSional. Because of special gifts
conferred upon him, the music
performer has vision of music's
meaning quite apart from him as
an individual and independent of
his personal life. The layman re-
ceives his impressions from the
performance and is influenced
by it.
The responsibility resting on
musicians is great. Their calling
is a dedication to beauty and
spirituality and they form a.
priesthood as potent for good as
that of a liturgical order. They
have been blessed by a divine
touch and can never escape it. Yet
only in this one respect are they
different from other people. 9th
erwise they are subject to the
same rules of living and thinking,
of duty and responsibility. The
fact that they are talented re-
poses on them the greater neces-
sity for using that which is di-
vinely given to them to the bet
terment Of humanity.
Today the need for artists to be
leaders in upholding the highest
ideals is more evident than ever
before. An artist must constantly
refresh his inner dreams and i'm
ages by contemplation of their
divine source and from it draw
increased power to pass on to
others what he has discovered. tt
is not possible any more for one
to be merely an artist. He must
be q man of intellect and SPIRITUAL
force who recognizes that there isl
a social significance to his art. To-
be enamored of success for its ma
terial gains or even to feel that
absorption in his work is filling
a life with a good aim. is not
enough. The effect on others Is
what counts and what must be
considered.
Music Lacks Inspiration.
Within the last years. the way
music has been Influenced by war
and it's aftermath is plainly visible.
Seldom has it risen to the high
plane established by Bach, Haydn,
Handel, Beethoven, Schubert.
Brahms and others Of their pc
riods and seldom, too, has it mir
rored the reverence and the emo
tional depths found by these COM
posers. All of them sought for
divine help in their work. Each
of them thought of the unknown
person and his private troubles, Of
the silent anguish endured by
those who had little faith. and,
to point the way to surcease, they
inscribed their works with a dedi-
cation to God and wrote into
them emotions inspired by His
greatness.
To return to an unabashed ac-
knowledgment of spirituality in
music and to make it felt in the
quality of writing, Of performance
and of instruction, is our pressing
need at the moment. 1t must be
pointed out in the first music les
son and deepened and ripened
with continued study. 1t must be
the magnificent goal of every pub
lie artist and the conservation of
the composer. All these must tell
the listener, whose contact with
music is not personal, that the
fine precepts Of living have not
passed away, that love, charity and
faith still exist and that no sub
stitute has been found for them.
The message that rings over the
world at this time speaks Of peace