CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 187, 9 August 1871, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

INFLUENCES OF THE AGE UPON MUSIC. To the Editor op the Nelson Evemng Mail. Sir, — As you inserted the former abstract from Mr. O'Neil's beautiful lecture on the "Influences of the Age upon Music and the Drama," I have taken tbe liberty io send the following, on that part of the lecture more peculiarly devoted toMusic : — At the present time music, as well as the Drama, is merely regarded as a means to afford amusement ; if that alone be their mission, men gifted with genius would not spend their lives for so poor a purpose. If other arts merely minister to acquired tastes, Music satisfies a mental want coeval with our existence. They have been created by the perceptive faculties of man ; but music was born with him, and is the link which connects him with another iiorld. The power of sound pervades creation from the very elements to the meanest object in animal life; and there is music in very silence. Of all the arts music is the most spiritual in its nature, and also tbe most ancient, its influence having preceded that of the most useful. Its advance has been slow, since it is a language which requires extraneous aid to make it intelligible; for tbe human voice, though the most perfect organ for expression, is too limited lo give full utterance to its varied effects. But science has not supplied all that was wanting, and there is even a danger of its abusing its privilege, by aiming at the production of the quantity rather than quality of sound. The number of truly great musicians is small when compared with other artists; yet this is not due to the want of | intellectual power in music ; since 'there cannot be a poem or picture illustrative of nature more perfect in the expression of emotions than theJPastoral .Symphony of Beethovep, ,or mmoree < cx u presßive of the fitful moods of jove than his Sonata in C sharp minor — so improperly called the Moonlight Sonata. Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony is simply the expression of the impression on a sensative mind by the 'beauty and the fallen greatness of the country and the undying vivacity of its inhabitants. Other examples of musical expression are abundantly found in the

choruses and songs of Handel, Mozart, and Gliick. The degradation of the public taste in the present time is shown in the success of nigger-minstrels and music-hall vocalists, and in the efforts to provide crude novelties and spasmodic effects on the so-called music of the future. Thanking you for allotting space to the above subject, and hoping that the young musical world will peruse the lectures of Mr. O'Neil in full, which may be found in the musical publications of the day, I am, &c, E. T.