HOW TO ENJOY MUSIC.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2209, 26 August 1889, Page 2

HOW TO ENJOY MUSIC.

Musical Opinion, We ploture to ourselves the old halls of Ejogl&od m the times of good Queen Bess j stately dames and gallant courtiers rise before our eyes • hoops and ruffi, doublets and hose, make brilliant oolorIng against oak panels, with here and there the glisten cf armour, and that nothing may bo laoking to this btiUlant epeoteale there ia also brilliant sound. Soma such madrigal ng Motley's "Now Is the month of maylng" flows on with rare feeling of revelry from no musioal hlreliags, but from the gay throng Itself ; proud to do honor to the English art of the day,— to that muslo In wbioh wo stand now as we stood then, In the neat and foremost rank as oompoaera, Where should wo find suoh a gathering to give us that baautlful lovelorn pqsto.al, ov merry making muglo a* |he present day ? lastead qf that, wa spend £500 on aoancart to givo supposed satisfaction to a similar asaembly, often with a very dire result, mußtoally, little remaining to us of tbe v venlag but a general sense of hurry as we souffb on to something else; neltbe? plaoe, paopl?, nor performance having given ns the slightest satisfaction. One of the simplest methods for the cultivation of mus 'oil taste we bel'eve to be participation m it, when it forms an evening's entertainment Why 's a ball so much the moat popu'ar form of gr.tb.ring % Beoaußo everyone has hia or her share m the evening's proceedings. Will th^ time ever come again when general society will give us part music, as we bave reaaoo to believe that it was given m the time of Elizabeth, — when tho number of cleffs. too, Heed by composers nr*st have doubted ordinary musical* study ? No one m thOße d*ys was considered a properly constifcutad member of aoolety unless he or she could at sight takea part m thrse famous choral productions. No mean standard of exaelle ace either j a eorry hearicg would be the result of an amateur fr professional raiding ihem nowadays ! Thau nqVqdy cared for solo alng'ngj the Ingenui'y displayed m writing vocsl mrsio lo many parts was eagerly wclootn d by the court and by the country, and to excel In the production and peformanoa of euoh music was^ the hlgheßt ambition alike of tho musicians and the amateur. Ocnvng at a date when all that waß great m poetry lay, as it were, before them, assisted by the roal encouragement of Elizabeth, not only as a queen but »s musioinn (if she ever performed half the pieces cDntaino-1 m her Virginal Book); our madrigal writers were determined tbat tister art should not be a whit behind the a<>e m which it lived. In this par»loular branch of mqeio tbo English havo never been excelled or, wo venture to think, equalled by other nations,