SACRED CONCERTS.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1033, 6 July 1904, Page 2

SACRED CONCERTS.

TO TliK EDITOIt. Snt,—lu Saturday's iasno a ll Band Lover" affirmed llmt all music a 8 played on an instrument is sacred, ond that it is only when words are applied to it that it be 1 comes secular. "Bund Lover" gives no musical authority to baclc up his bare siaieiiinm. Now, tlio groat majority of people, who have only an average ear, feel that tliore is a subtle influence in music which is indepsndent of words. Words without doubt assist tho mental effoct, and in the caso of many increase the onjoyment or sorrow, us tho case may be, The fact still remains thai, musio is like-love, and c;tn find amplo expression without wouls, Paganini could mako his' audioncc weep or laugh for joy by his violin, II the" Dead March in Saul" or "Johnny Conies Marching Home" was played for tho lirst timo to an avcrago musical person, there would bo no words necessary to tell that one was a song ol sadness and the other nne of gladnesß. Wo can haie sensuous, demoralising music, which requires no words for the musical car to explain, On this point Mr Stratton says" As a specific illustration of the enorvating tendencies of inusio of a certain character, which has a deleterious effect upon the iu', l ;il nature, is that voluptuous alido from »»< tone to another, called portamcuio: a i-lide to which singers and violinists are muoh addicted. It is tho acme of sonorous luxury, induces langour, and suggests to the uiind a rolapso from moral discipline." "The musician," declines Mr Station, "literally becomes the music lie produces, and grows fastidioueiy lavish in his tastes and habits, Ho loses his moral poise, end sinks into the musical vortex, wliero crime waits to suck him down and comploto his moral disintegration. But wliilo certain formß of music exert un enervating and immoral inilucnco, othor kinds of music help to strengthen tho morul sense. In order to serve iliis end, howover, there must be a moral rectitude in tho relations of muaioal tones," Browning says: "There's no truer truth obtainable by man than comes of music, It is tho soul's armour; it is mail of sound, and tones aro tho links," Byron, himseif a musician, in discussing the dance music, in his memorable poem on the eve of Waterloo, says: 1 And wlien music arose with its voluptuous swell, fond hearts spoke love," &c. Again, the sound of the bagpipes in some martial tune stirs the biglilanduiaii's Hood, and " Evan s, Donald's fume rings in each olansimn's cars," When sensual words are applied to sensual mtieic tne effect is greater, "It fills the pulse with devils, aud poisons half our voting," But ii not music tho gift of God ? So is the human . voico, but we aro freo agont3. Some express lies and blasphemy; others truth and reverence. Burns, in his " Cottar's Saturday Night," describes the mental effect of tho tunes sung, and says—- " Compared with these, Italian trills ar« tamo; Tho tickled ear no heartfelt raptures raise, No unison nave they with our Creator's praise." —Yours, etc,, MKXTAL EFI'KIT,