Music Books

I. When we try to picture to ourselves the intellectual and moral state of Europe in the Middle Ages, some fixed and almost stereotyped ideas immediately suggest themselves. We think of the nations immersed in a gross mental lethargy; passively witnessing the gradual extinction of arts and sciences which Greece and Rome had splendidly inaugurated; allowing libraries and monuments of antique... more...

Wagner Wagner's music, more than any other, is the sign and symbol of the nineteenth century. The men to whom it was disclosed, and who first sought to refuse, and then accepted it, passionately, without reservations, found in it their truth. It came to their ears as the sound of their own voices. It was the common, the universal tongue. Not alone on Germany, not alone on Europe, but on every... more...

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE NECESSITY OF FORM IN MUSIC.—So much uncertainty and diversity of opinion exists among music lovers of every grade concerning the presence of Form in musical composition, and the necessity of its presence there, that a few general principles are submitted at the outset of our studies, as a guide to individual reflection and judgment on the subject. Certain apparently... more...

It is a remark of St. Philip Neri's latest biographer that, "Our Saint was profoundly convinced that there is in music and in song a mysterious and a mighty power to stir the heart with high and noble emotion, and an especial fitness to raise it above sense to the love of heavenly things." In like manner the Saint's illustrious son, Cardinal Newman, has spoken of "the emotion... more...

I One of the most interesting of the many interesting stories of our civilization is the story of Music. It affords an intimate knowledge of the inner life of man as manifested in different epochs of the world's history. He who has failed to follow it has failed to comprehend the noblest phenomena of human progress. Mythology and legendary lore abound in delightful traditions in regard to the... more...

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. Recitation with dramatic energy by men whose business it was to travel from one great house to another and delight the people by the way, was usual among us from the first. The scop invented and the glee-man recited heroic legends and other tales to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. These were followed by the minstrels and other tellers of tales written for the people. They... more...

CHAPTER I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS. "And the light dwelleth with him."—Daniel II: 22. Once a master said to a child: "If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy face shall be filled with light." So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the light was coming. But at each... more...

COME LASSES AND LADS Come Lasses and Lads, get leave of your Dads, And away to the May-pole hey: For every heHas got him a she,with a minstrel standing by. ForWillyhas gotten hisJill,And Johnnyhas got hisJone,To jigg it, jigg it, jigg it, jigg it,Jigg it up and down. "Strike up," saysWatt; "Agreed," saysKate,"And I prithee, Fiddler, play;""Content," saysHodge, and so... more...

CHAPTER I The attempts to instil the elements of music into Charles Dickens when he was a small boy do not appear to have been attended with success. Mr. Kitton tells us that he learnt the piano during his school days, but his master gave him up in despair. Mr. Bowden, an old schoolfellow of the novelist's when he was at Wellington House Academy, in Hampstead Road, says that music used to be... more...

About the sweet bag of a beeA chieftain to the Highlands boundAe fond kiss, and then we severAgincourt, AgincourtAh, my swete swetyngAlas! my love, you do me wrongAllen-a-Dale has no faggot for burningAll in the Downs the fleet was moor'dAll ye woods, and trees, and bowersAnd did you not hear of a jolly young WatermanAn old song made by an aged old pateA parrot from the Spanish mainArm, arm, arm,... more...