I have mentioned the principles of song construction, but there are
other things which have to do with making a song effective. One of the
most important of these is association. Let us remember that the effect
and consequent value of music depends upon the class of emotions it
awakens rather than upon the technical skill of the composer, and that
these emotions are dependent to a considerable extent upon association.
We all remember the time honored expedient of tying a string around a
finger when a certain thing is to be remembered. The perception of the
digital decoration recalls the reason for it and thus the incident is
carried to a successful conclusion. In like manner feelings become
associated with ideas. Church bells arouse feelings of reverence and
devotion. To many of us a brass band awakens pleasant memories of circus
day. _Scots Wha Hae_ fills the Scotchman with love for his native
heather. The odor of certain flowers is offensive because we associate
it with a sad occasion. The beauty of a waltz is due not only to its
composition but also to our having danced to it under particularly
pleasant circumstances.
At the opera there are many things that combine to make it a pleasant
occasion--the distant tuning of the orchestra, the low hum of voices,
the faint odor of violets, and the recollection of having been there
before with that miracle of a girl,--all combine to fill us with
pleasurable anticipation. In this way we give as much to the performance
as it gives to us. According to some Aestheticians the indefinable
emotions we sometimes feel when listening to music are the
reverberations of feelings experienced countless ages ago. This may have
some foundation in fact, but it is somewhat like seeing in a museum a
mummy of ourselves in a previous incarnation.
Songs which have the strongest hold upon us are those which have been in
some way associated with our experience. The intensity with which such
songs as _Annie Laurie_, _Dixie_, _The Vacant Chair_, _Tramp, Tramp, Tramp_
grip us is due almost entirely to association.
Therefore the value of a song consists not alone in what it awakens in
the present, but in what it recalls from the past. Man is the sum of his
experience; and to make past experience contribute to the joy of the
present is to add abundance to riches.