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Show I . I Music is a series of rhryih- i -rr T 1 f ft H ' mical noises, and this is oq u value or Music 3-5 far as any universal agree- Civilizing Influence mcnt , of u.wfll 0 towards its definition. Una I j By JOHN RITCHIE. JR. cannot eveJL that thej : l-t jcj -S3STOT1 ;utiST33d 8J"B self, then, music raeans nothing and there is nothing in the noises or their succession that can make or mar morality. But -with the. same faculty of imagination that to the child makes her dollies seem to be real persons, man has clothed the- noises with meanings. mean-ings. These meanings, save a few which, like the' rolling bass for thunder, are frankly imitations, are purely artificial and conventional- They ara learned as one learns his lessons in school till the individual attaches meanings to . many kinds of combinations and is able, even, to assume meanings for new combinations. "What meaning may be put upon a figure , or a phrase varies according to the imagination of the individual. lie may take simple pleasure in hearing groups oi sounds mac aie related one to another mathematically, called harmonies; or in successions succes-sions of tones, called melodies, or may go into raptures over subtle meanings mean-ings to an almost infinite pleasure in eccentricity of rhythm as in ragtime, some in analysis of harmonies and some even in the colors with which they mentally paint the different scales. All but the mathematical interpretation inter-pretation are figments of the imaginations, and they have no existence when it conies to a scientific test of relationship. In this investment of music with meanings, however, lies its attract-'iveness attract-'iveness to civilized man, who takes infinite -pleasure in trying to guess what sentiment a given sequence of noises has excited in the mind of another, or from what succession of thoughts or vagaries in the mind( of the composer the melodies' and harmonies arose. ' The interpretations vary with the individual, who for a simple mat ter may recognize the swell of the sea in the moaning of the basses, the sighing of the zephyr in the woodwinds, the rattle of the rain in an onomatopoetic Straussian adjunct to the regular orchestra or the coming of the angels in the trilling high violins. I have known an enthusiast who could see the savages lighting a fire on the beach in a combination, of sounds, -while to most civilized individuals they suggest human serti-' serti-' ments love, hate, fear or quietness. But all this is conventional association. associa-tion. There is no natural relationship. So music, even in the broader acceptation, has nothing in it ennobling or debasing. Playing the piano has no more moral character or influence than touching the keys of a typewriter. If the artistic temperament in the concentrated field of its studies finds its relations to the world somewhat changed, and if in its devotion to its passion it loses sight of one or another of the conventions of social life, it is nothing that is definitely 0 J jS 0 from music. The results are the reac- v iUsh&-J& tion on the individual of the type of ff mind. |