The value of music as a therapeutic agent has long been a subject of more or less speculation and practical experiment. In “Music and Morals,” Mr. Haweis has hinted at certain possibilities in this direction. Music has frequently been employed, with highly satisfactory results, to alleviate suffering and dispel the morbid atmosphere which envelops sick-rooms, hospitals, and sanitariums. Suitable music is a sure antidote for “the blues,” if one is sufficiently receptive to its influence. Its importance as a remedial agent cannot be properly estimated until the general public shall…

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In the music-drama, Wagner has essayed to present ideas simultaneously in poetry, scenic art, and music, so that they shall command the undivided attention of all the perceptive faculties. Ideally, the music-drama represents the highest achievement of Art, because it attempts to express the profoundest human experiences in the most comprehensive manner.It is an advance beyond the spoken drama, in so far as music has power to awaken deeper, more subtle feelings than words. A similar universal artform was sought in the Greek tragedy; but the crude, undeveloped condition of…

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Music possesses both suggestive and stimulative potencies. Its constant flow of suggestiveness arouses the imaginative faculty from a state of passivity, so that one’s thought soars aloft in regions of the highest ideals. It lends wings to thought, which enable it to rise to higher planes, where, beyond the border line of definite suggestion, it is released in the realm of spiritual freedom, and left to its own originality, independent of the guidance of distinct forms. It sometimes fulfils this function best when heard at a distance, beyond the range…

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One should not try, in that sense, to understand music. The profoundest harmonies cannot be translated into definite forms of thought or natural images. One need only surrender to it, become passive, and let it speak as Nature speaks. People do not shun Nature under the pretext that her language is too complex and abstruse. Even uncultured people receive inspiration from the beautiful and sublime. The phrases “popular music” and “music for the masses” are frequently used to distinguish music which satisfies an inferior order of taste from that which…

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Equally erroneous is the impression that prevails to a considerable extent among all classes of people, viz., that music must be understood (comprehended intellectually) in order to be appreciated; that it is its chief function to portray or represent definite ideas by means of symbols forms requiring interpretation. If such were the case, unless one possessed a technical knowledge of the art, and had acquired the ability to interpret its symbols, it would, indeed, be useless to expect him to derive any great measure either of pleasure or benefit from…

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Considerate parents are careful that their children shall be placed under the influence of wholesome books, good companions, and healthful amusements; for the impressions largely subconscious acquired from those sources help to formulate character and determine the course of subsequent life. Children seldom appreciate the full significance of all that comes within their observation. Long before they are able to detect the real meaning of pictures, or comprehend the situations they represent, they are capable of absorbing something of their atmosphere. Before they think of analyzing the aims and motives…

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Each characteristic form of music should be esteemed for the idea it expresses. The essential feature of “dance music” is rhythm. A schottische may possess as great a degree of merit, of its own order, as a symphony; but its possibilities, as a vehicle of expression, must always remain far inferior to those of the higher classical forms, for its dominant suggestion is of a lower type. Purely rhythmic ideas may be clothed, incidentally, in melodies or harmonies of real excellence. Music of this class acts as a healthy stimulant…

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According to Schopenhauef, whose treatise on Music was the first satisfactory exposition of that art, from a philosophical standpoint, “The (Platonic) Ideas are the adequate objectivation of the Will. It is the end of all the arts, except music, to facilitate the cognition of the Ideas by means of the representation of single things. . . . Music, as it ignores the Ideas, does not in the least depend on the perceptible [i.e., natural] world; it ignores it unconditionally; and it could still exist, in a certain measure, even if…

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Hearing is the most recently evolved of the five specific senses known to exist in the animal kingdom. It surpasses the others in its qualifications as a vehicle of pure ideas. Sight and hearing are far superior as avenues through which to discern the spiritual aspect of things; and it is with these two that we have to deal in considering the fine arts. The loftiest function of hearing is exhibited in musical perception. Sound brings one nearer to the realm of pure ideas than does sight. The attractions of…

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The awakened genius for discovery and invention soon placed the new-born art upon a practical foundation, by devising instruments suited to its more advanced requirements. Simultaneously with the growth of the ideal philosophy of Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant and Hegel, the religious awakening of the Lutheran reformation, and the marvelous achievements of the Italian Renaissance, the new art of Music found expression in the works of Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. So mightily was the modern world stirred by the desire to become better acquainted with the essential nature of…

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In the Renaissance, arts which had prevailed in ancient times revived, and did their utmost to manifest this fresh inspiration; but not until the inner mysteries of life were revealed in tone harmonies, was the expression adequate. Then, for the first time in human history, Music took its rank with the fine arts. Indeed it then became virtually a new art; for, although its elementary forms were handed down from a remote period, it first appeared within this modern era as an important factor in human development. On first thought,…

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12.MUSIC. Music constitutes a world of itself, co-ordinate with the worlds of Nature, Religion and Philosophy. It is not, like the other arts, an extension of the natural order, for it is characterized by an entirely different mode of revelation. The world of Music is pre-eminently the world of harmony. The idea of harmony unity in variety is exhibited not alone in the blending of tones, but in the complexion of each individual tone. Sound is sensation occasioned by atmospheric vibrations acting on the auditory nerves. Vibrations recurring at regular…

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These four worlds by no means comprise the possible scope of spiritual revelation; on the contrary they suggest an inexhaustible variety of modes by which the Infinite may radiate in finite expression. Thus far in human history, but little even of the surface of life has been explored by man. He must continue to discover new modes of manifestation, as the domain of knowledge includes wider areas. Already, in this age of discovery and inventive application, unexplored worlds are beginning to loom up, just beyond the range of his perceptive…

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The different forms simply represent particular modes in which it is manifested. The ideal human life calls for such all-around development as is afforded by intercourse with the Infinite through every possible avenue of spiritual discernment. One is in danger of growing ill-balanced by exclusively following any special bent. The pursuit of a “hobby” tends to warp and deform one’s life, until its poise and symmetry are destroyed. The hermit, the religious fanatic, the morbid mystic, the musical monomaniac, are illustrations of this tendency. The ideal life reaches out in…

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The prophet rather than the priest is the exponent of that which is most real in Religion, for he proclaims the supremacy of the Spirit over the letter.Closely allied to the world of Religion is the world of Philosophy or pure thought, in which life is viewed introspectively. All that we know of the internal characteristics of things is revealed in this way; for by outward observation, we become acquainted with externals alone. Through an inward sight (sometimes designated the sixth sense) we perceive life interiorly, just as, by the…

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The world of Religion comprehends those phases of life which concern the attitude of the individual man toward other beings. Its mode of expression, like the natural world, represents the Absolute Essence of things, differentiated in variously related centers. The Supreme Being, fellow men, and hosts of inferior creatures, appeal to the individual, prompting emotions of reverence, love, sympathy, compassion. When man first begins to realize something of the higher consciousness, to know that he is more than a superior animal, and that the human creature is nothing less than…

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