OCR Text |
Show WHERE MUSIC IS SUPREME Elevated Above the Other Arts Because Be-cause It Is the Most Detached of Them All. Tho strength of every art lies chiefly In the completeness of Its detachment from rcnllty. Sculpture docs not gain by being realistic, picturesque, or decorative; dec-orative; on tho contrary It Is at Its highest when It Is Ideal, detached and superhuman. Painting docs not gain by being cntegorlcal, but Is greatest when it seeks something beyond tho outward, physical view. The novel or tho essay depends for Its greatness on Its iK)ivcr of relating real persons, things, nnd Ideas to that greater and deeper reality of which they are u part. In tills senso music stands supreme su-preme nbovo the other arts because It Is the most detached. Tho elements of thought and feeling nnd action are, In music, presented ns elements. Tho thought Is not thought even In the abstract, ab-stract, for It Is not "ubout" anything; the feeling Is not actual feeling and tho nctlon Is not real action. Knelt of these properties, or states, of the human hu-man beings Is hero expressed In Its essence, es-sence, detached from ull actuul manifestation. mani-festation. None but tho highest typo of mind, nono but a heart full of deep humuti sympathy, nono but a vigorous, milltnnt spirit, could huve conceived nnd brought forth such compositions, for example, ns tho third and ninth Hymphnulcs of ISecthovcn; yet they are nothing but sound neither the Intelligence, Intel-ligence, nor tho feeling, nor tho nctlon Is real. Thomas W. Surette, In tho Atluntlc |