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[Transcriber's Note:
About this book: James Monroe Trotter (1842-1892) was born into
slavery in Mississippi. His mother escaped with Trotter and his
brother via the Underground Railroad, and they settled in Cincinnati,
where Trotter became a teacher. He moved to Boston and fought in the
Civil War, becoming the first African-American to achieve the rank of
Second Lieutenant in the Union Army. He later became the first
African-American to be employed by the U.S. Post Office, but resigned
in protest when discrimination prevented his promotion. His _Music and
Some Highly Musical People,_ written in 1878, is said to be the first
comprehensive study of music written in the United States. In 1887,
President Cleveland appointed Trotter to the office of Recorder of
Deeds for the District of Columbia, succeeding the great
African-American statesman Frederick Douglass in what was then the
highest government position to be attained by an African-American.
(Source: Wikipedia.) This e-book was prepared from a 1968 reprint
published by the Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies and errors
in the spelling of proper names and non-English words are noted with
[Transcriber's Note].
Several subheadings are rendered in the original in blackletter. In
this e-book, these are surrounded by equal signs.
Musical flat symbols are rendered in square brackets, e.g. [B-flat].]
MUSIC
AND SOME
HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE:
CONTAINING BRIEF CHAPTERS ON
I. A DESCRIPTION OF MUSIC. II. THE MUSIC OF NATURE.
III. A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF MUSIC.
IV. THE POWER, BEAUTY, AND
USES OF MUSIC.
FOLLOWING WHICH ARE GIVEN SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF
REMARKABLE MUSICIANS OF THE COLORED RACE.
=With Portraits,=
AND AN APPENDIX CONTAINING COPIES OF MUSIC COMPOSED BY COLORED MEN.
BY
JAMES M. TROTTER.
[Illustration]
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and
see a fine picture, every day of his life, in order that
worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful
which God has implanted in the human soul."--GOETHE.
"'Tis thine to merit, mine to record."--HOMER.
FIFTH THOUSAND.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
1881.
COPYRIGHT, 1878,
BY JAMES M. TROTTER.
[Illustration: J.S. CONANT. BOSTON.
[signature] Jas. M. Trotter]
PREFACE.
The purposes of this volume will be so very apparent to even the most
casual observer, as to render an extended explanation here
unnecessary. The author will therefore only say, that he has
endeavored faithfully to perform what he was convinced was a
much-needed service, not so much, perhaps, to the cause of music
itself, as to some of its noblest devotees and the race to which the
latter belong.
The inseparable relationship existing between music and its worthy
exponents gives, it is believed, full showing of propriety to the
course hereinafter pursued,--that of mingling the praises of both.
But, in truth, there was little need to speak in praise of music. Its
tones of melody and harmony require only to be heard in order to
awaken in the breast emotions the most delightful. And yet who can
speak at all of an agency so charming in other than words of warmest
praise? Again: if music be a thing of such consummate beauty, what
else can be done but to tender an offering of praise, and even of
gratitude, to those, who, by the invention of most pleasing
combinations of tones, melodies, and harmonies, or by great skill in
vocal or instrumental performance, so signally help us to the fullest
understanding and enjoyment of it?
As will be seen by a reference to the introductory chapters, in which
the subject of music is separately considered, an attempt has been
made not only to form by them a proper setting for the personal
sketches that follow, but also to render the book entertaining to
lovers of the art in general.
While grouping, as has here been done, the musical celebrities of a
single race; while gathering from near and far these many fragments of
musical history, and recording them in one book,--the writer yet
earnestly disavows all motives of a distinctively clannish nature. But
the haze of complexional prejudice has so much obscured the vision of
many persons, that they cannot see (at least, there are many who
affect not to see) that musical faculties, and power for their
_artistic_ development, are not in the exclusive possession of the
fairer-skinned race, but are alike the beneficent gifts of the Creator
to all his children. Besides, there are some well-meaning persons who
have formed, for lack of the information which is here afforded,
erroneous and unfavorable estimates of the art-capabilities of the
colored race. In the hope, then, of contributing to the formation of a
more just opinion, of inducing a cheerful admission of its existence,
and of aiding to establish between both races relations of mutual
respect and good feeling; of inspiring the people most concerned (if
that be necessary) with a greater pride in their own achievements, and
confidence in their own resources, as a basis for other and even
greater acquirements, as a landmark, a partial guide, for a future and
better chronicler; and, finally, as a sincere tribute to the winning
power, the noble beauty, of music, a contemplation of whose own divine
harmony should ever serve to promote harmony between man and
man,--with these purposes in view, this humble volume is hopefully
issued.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
A DESCRIPTION OF MUSIC 7-11
THE MUSIC OF NATURE 12-21
A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF MUSIC 22-50
THE BEAUTY, POWER, AND USES OF MUSIC 51-65
ELIZABETH TAYLOR GREENFIELD (the "Black Swan") 66-87
THE LUCA FAMILY 88-105
HENRY F. WILLIAMS 106-113
JUSTIN HOLLAND 114-130
THOMAS J. BOWERS (the "American Mario") 131-137
JAMES GLOUCESTER DEMAREST 138-140
THOMAS GREENE BETHUNE ("Blind Tom") 141-159
THE HYERS SISTERS 160-179
FREDERICK ELLIOT LEWIS 180-191
NELLIE E. BROWN 192-208
SAMUEL W. JAMIESON 209-218
JOSEPH WHITE (preceded by a brief account of the
Violin, pp. 219-223) 224-240
THE COLORED AMERICAN OPERA COMPANY 241-252
THE JUBILEE SINGERS OF FISK UNIVERSITY 253-269
THE GEORGIA MINSTRELS 270-282
PART SECOND.
INTRODUCTION 285-288
RACHEL M. WASHINGTON 288-290
JAMES CASERAS 300
JOHN T. DOUGLASS 301
WALTER F. CRAIG 301
WILLIAM APPO 302
WILLIAM BRADY 302-303
PETER P. O'FAKE 304-306
FRANK JOHNSON, AND HIS FAMOUS MILITARY BAND AND ORCHESTRA 306-309
JOSEPH G. ANDERSON 308-309
MADAM BROWN 309
SARAH SEDGEWICK BOWERS 309-310
JOHN MOORE 310-311
SAMUEL LUCAS 312-313
WILLIAM H. STARR 314
G.H.W. STEWART 330
THE LAMBERT FAMILY 338-340
EDMUND DÉDÉ 340-341
BASILE BARÈS 341
SAMUEL SNAER 341-343
PROF. A.P. WILLIAMS 343
E.V. MACARTY 343-344
MAURICE J.B. DOUBLET 344-345
DENNIS AUGUSTE 345
THE DUPRÉ FAMILY 347-348
CHARLES MARTINEZ 348
THOMAS MARTIN 349
OTHER MUSICAL PEOPLE OF--
PORTLAND (ME.) 300
BOSTON 288-298
WORCESTER 300
NEW YORK 301-304
NEWARK 306
PHILADELPHIA 306-311
PITTSBURGH 311
CLEVELAND 311-312
WASHINGTON (O.) 312-313
CHILLICOTHE (O.) 313-316
CINCINNATI 316-321
CHICAGO 321-323
THE MUSIC OF THE SOUTH 324-329
BALTIMORE 329-330
LOUISVILLE 330
ST. LOUIS 330
HELENA 330
MEMPHIS 331
NASHVILLE 331
NEW ORLEANS 333-353
ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. ELIZABETH TAYLOR GREENFIELD.
2. THE LUCA FAMILY.
3. HENRY F. WILLIAMS.
4. JUSTIN HOLLAND.
5. THOMAS J. BOWERS.
6. THOMAS GREENE BETHUNE.
7. THE HYERS SISTERS.
8. FREDERICK ELLIOT LEWIS.
9. NELLIE E. BROWN.
10. SAMUEL W. JAMIESON.
11. JOSEPH WHITE.
12. FISK UNIVERSITY.
MUSIC AND SOME HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE.
I.
A DESCRIPTION OF MUSIC.
"In the storm, in the smoke, in the fight, I come
To help thee, dear, with my fife and my drum.
My name is Music: and, when the bell
Rings for the dead men, I rule the knell;
And, whenever the mariner wrecked through the blast
Hears the fog-bell sound, it was I who passed.
The poet hath told you how I, a young maid,
Came fresh from the gods to the myrtle shade;
And thence, by a power divine, I stole
To where the waters of the Mincius roll;
Then down by Clitumnus and Arno's vale
I wandered, passionate and pale,
Until I found me at sacred Rome,
Where one of the Medici gave me a home.
Leo--great Leo!--he worshipped me,
And the Vatican stairs for my feet were free.
And, now I am come to your glorious land,
Give me good greeting with open hand.
Remember Beethoven,--I gave him his art,--
And Sebastian Bach, and superb Mozart:
Join _those_ in my worship; and, when you go
Wherever their mighty organs blow,
Hear in them heaven's trumpets to men below."
T.W. PARSONS.
What is music? Quite easy is it to answer after the manner of the
dictionaries, and say, "Music is (1) a number of sounds following each
other in a natural, pleasing manner; (2) the science of harmonious
sounds; and (3) the art of so combining them as to please the ear."
These are, however, only brief, cold, and arbitrary definitions: music
is far more than as thus defined. Indeed, to go no farther in the
description of this really sublime manifestation of the beautiful
would be to very inadequately express its manifold meanings, its
helpful, delightful uses. And yet the impressions made upon the mind
and the depth of feeling awakened in the heart by music are such as to
render only a partial (a far from satisfying one) description of the
same possible, even to those most skilful and eloquent in the use of
language; for, in fact, ordinary language, after exhausting all of its
many resources in portraying the mind's conceptions, in depicting the
heart's finer, deeper feelings, reveals, after all, its poverty, when
sought to describe effects so entrancing, and emotions so
deep-reaching, as those produced by music. No: the latter must be
heard, it must be felt, its sweetly thrilling symphonies must touch
the heart and fill the senses, in order that it may be, in its
fulness, appreciated; for then it is that music is expressed in a
language of most subtle power,--a language all its own, and universal,
bearing with it ever an exquisitely touching pathos and sweetness that
all mankind may feel.
And so I may not hope to bring here to the reader's mind more than a
slight conception of what music is. Nor does he stand in need of any
labored effort to teach him the nature and power, the beneficent
attributes, of this beautiful art. With his own soul attuned to all
the delightful sounds of melody and harmony that everywhere about him,
in nature and in art, he constantly hears, the reader requires no
great length of words in explanation of that which he so deeply feels,
and therefore already understands. Nevertheless, a due regard for the
laws of unity, as well as a sincere wish to make this volume, in all
its departments, speak the befitting words of tribute to the
love-inspiring art of which it aims to treat,--words which, although
they may not have the merit of affording great instruction, may at
least have that of furnishing to the reader some degree of
pleasure,--these are the motives that must serve as an excuse for the
little that follows.
I have sometimes thought that only the elevated and elegant language
of poetry should be employed in describing music: for music is poetry,
and poetry is music; that is, in many of their characteristics they
are one and the same. But, to put this idea in another form, let us
say that Music is the beautiful sister of Poetry, that other
soul-expressing medium; and who would create the latter must commune
with the former, and be able to bring to his uses the sweet and
finishing graces of her rhythmic forms. In early times, the qualities
of the poet and musician were generally actually united in the same
person. The poet usually set to music, and in most instances sang, his
effusions. Nor to this day have the
"Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays,"
ceased to sing, in bewitching verse, the noble qualities of music.
I have said that music speaks a language all its own, and one that is
universal. Bring together a representation of all the nations of the
earth, in which body there shall be a very Babel of tongues. All will
be confusion until the all-penetrating, the all-thrilling voice of
music is heard. At once, silence reigns; each ear quickly catches and
recognizes the delicious sounds. The language of each one in the
concourse may be different: but with "music's golden tongue" all are
alike innately acquainted; each heart beats in sympathy with the
delightful, absorbing tones of melody; and all seem members of one
nation.
Again: music may be called that strangely peculiar form of the
beautiful, whose presence seems, indeed is, appropriate on occasions
the most diverse in character. Its aid is sought alike to add to the
joys of festive scenes, to soothe and elevate the heart on occasions
of mourning, and to enhance the solemnity, the excellence, of divine
worship.
The poet Collins, aptly associating music with the good and beautiful,
calls it the "heavenly maid."
Martin Luther, himself a musical composer and performer of merit,
paused in his great work of religious reform to declare, "I verily
think, and am not ashamed to say, that, next to divinity, no art is
comparable to music." And Disraeli utters this noble thought: "Were it
not for music, we might in these days say the beautiful is dead."
"Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by
voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a
proportionable disposition, such, notwithstanding, is the
force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that part
of man which is most divine, that some have thereby been
induced to think that the soul itself is or hath in it
harmony: a thing which delighteth all ages, and beseemeth
all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as
decent being added unto actions of greatest weight and
solemnity as being used when men most sequester themselves
from action. The reason hereof is an admirable facility
which music hath to express and represent to the mind, more
inwardly than any other sensible means, the very steps and
inflections of every way, the turns and varieties of all
passion whereunto the mind is subject."[1]
"I would fain know what music is. I seek it as a man seeks
eternal wisdom. Yesterday evening I walked, late in the
moonlight, in the beautiful avenue of lime-trees on the bank
of the Rhine; and I heard a tapping noise and soft singing.
At the door of a cottage, under the blooming lime-tree, sat
a mother and her twin-babies: the one lay at her breast, the
other in a cradle, which she rocked with her foot, keeping
time to her singing. In the very germ, then, when the first
trace of life begins to stir, music is the nurse of the
soul: it murmurs in the ear, and the child sleeps; the tones
are the companions of his dreams; they are the world in
which he lives. He has nothing; the babe, although cradled
in his mother's arms, is alone in the spirit: but tones find
entrance into the half-conscious soul, and nourish it as
earth nourishes the life of plants."[2]
[Footnote 1: Hooker.]
[Footnote 2: Bertini.]
II.
THE MUSIC OF NATURE.
"The lark sings loud, and the throstle's song
Is heard from the depths of the hawthorn dale;
And the rush of the streamlet the vales among
Doth blend with the sighs of the whispering gale."
MATIN AND EVENING SONGS.
To the inventive genius of man must, of course, be attributed the
present developments, and the beautiful, diversified forms, existing
in musical art. But, before man was, the great Author of harmony had
created what may be called the music of Nature.
Afterwards, the human ear, penetrated by sounds of melody issuing from
wind, wave, or bird, the rapt mind in strange and pleasing wonder
contemplating the new and charming harmonies,--then it was that man
received his first impressions, and took his first lessons in
delightful symphony.
Take from man all creative and performing power in music, leaving him
only the ear to catch and the mind to comprehend the sounds, and there
would still be left to him God's own music,--the music of Nature,
which, springing as it did from eternity, shall last throughout
eternity.
Passing what must appear to human comprehension as vague (an attempt
at the contemplation of which would be without profit in this
connection), and what has been called the "music of the spheres,"[3]
we may proceed to briefly touch upon those forms of natural music
which are ever within our hearing, and which constantly afford us
pleasure.
[Footnote 3: Reference is supposed to be made to this in the Book of
Job, in these words: "When the morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy."]
First let us go forth into the summer woods. The eye takes in the
charming prospect,--the trees dressed in beautiful green; the "grassy
carpet," parted ever and anon by a gliding, gurgling brooklet; the
wild flower peeping up near the feet; a landscape of even surface, or
at times pleasingly undulated. The atmosphere is freighted with a
delightful fragrance; and from rustling bough, from warbling bird,
from rippling brook, and from the joyous hum of insects almost
innumerable,
"The air is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs,
That give delight, and hurt not."
All these, the beauties of animate and inanimate Nature, pleasantly
affect the senses. But the chief influence there--the crowning glory
of the groves--is the songs, the charming music of the birds, as they
warble from tree to tree, untrammelled by the forms of art, their
sweetest melodies. How often do their lightsome, inspiriting
carollings ring out upon the morning air, persuasively calling us from
our couches to listen in delight to Nature's minstrelsy! "After man,"
says a writer, "the birds occupy the highest rank in Nature's
concerts. They make the woods, the gardens, and the fields resound
with their merry warbles. Their warbled 'shake' has never been
equalled by human gifts of voice, nor by art."
Indeed, it has been found that many of the songs of birds are sung in
certain of the keys; while a learned musical writer has produced a
book in which are printed many samples of the music often sung by
birds. In very recent times it is stated, too, that birds have been
taught to sing some of the popular tunes of the day; this being
accomplished by placing a bird in a room for a while, allowing it to
hear no other bird, and only the tune to be learned. Professor Brown
of Aiken, S.C., has mocking-birds which he has taught to sing such
songs as "The Star-spangled Banner" and "Yankee Doodle." These birds
were to be taken to the Centennial Exhibition, to there exhibit their
marvellous skill.
A writer in "The Monthly Reader" thus speaks of that pretty singer the
bullfinch:--
"I heard a lady cry out to a little bird in a cage, 'Come,
Bully, Bully, sweet little Bully Bullfinch, please give us
just one more tune.'
"And then, to my surprise, the little bird whistled the tune
of 'Yankee Doodle' as well as I could have done it myself.
"The lady then told me about the bird. It was a bullfinch.
She had bought it in the little town of Fulda, in Germany,
where there are schools for teaching these birds to sing.
"When a bullfinch has learned to sing two or three tunes, he
is worth from forty to sixty dollars; for he will bring that
price in London or Boston or New York.
"To teach them, the birds are put in classes of about six
each, and kept for a time in a dark room. Here, when their
food is given them, they are made to hear music. And so,
when they have had their food, or when they want more food,
they will sing, and try to sing a tune like that they have
just heard; for perhaps they think it has something to do
with what they eat."
But as, in presenting these examples of the musical teachableness of
the "feathered songsters," I am entering the domain of music as an
art, I will not further digress. Certain it is, too, that these
delightful musicians of Nature do not require the aid of the skill of
man; nor is it desirable, for the sake of musical effect at least,
that their own wild, free, and glad-hearted warblings should be
changed. They are better as they are, affording as they do a pleasing
contrast, and adding freshness and variety to the many other forms of
music. Some one, dwelling upon the charming beauty of bird-music, has
expressed in words of very excusable rapture the following unique
wish:--
"Oh! had I but the power
To set the proper words
To all your glorious melodies,
My sweet-voiced birds,
When words and dainty music
Would each to each belong,
Together we might give the world
A _perfect_ song."
But I need not refer at greater length to these sweet harmonists of
Nature, since scarce an ear is so dull, and few hearts are so cold, as
not to be charmed and cheered by their unceasing, joyous melodies.
It might well be thought that flowers, those "fairy ministers of
grace," with their delicately tinted, variegated, perfect hues, that
emit, in their sweet, delicious perfumes, what may be called the
"breath of heaven," possess in these delightful qualities full enough
to instruct and charm mankind. But there is a flower, it seems, that,
inviting the aid of the evening zephyr, adds sweet music to its other
fascinating beauties. Let the poet Twombly sing of the music-giving--
BLUE HAREBELL.
Have ye ever heard in the twilight dim
A low, soft strain
That ye fancied a distant vesper-hymn,
Borne o'er the plain
By the zephyrs that rise on perfumed wing,
When the sun's last glances are glimmering?
Have ye heard that music, with cadence sweet
And merry peal,
Ring out like the echoes of fairy feet
O'er flowers that steal?
The source of that whispering strain I'll tell;
For I have listened oft
To the music faint of the blue harebell
In the gloaming soft:
'Tis the gay fairy-folk the peal who ring,
At even-time, for their banqueting.
And gayly the trembling bells peal out
With gentle tongue;
While elves and fairies career about
'Mid dance and song.
It would be tedious to enumerate and dwell upon all the very numerous
music-making agencies of the natural world; and I shall therefore
allude only to a few of those not already mentioned.
Many have heard the sounds of waterfalls, and know that from them
issues a kind of majestic music, which, to be appreciated, must be
heard. Musicians of finely-cultivated ears have studied the tones of
waterfalls; and two of them, Messrs. A. and E. Heim, say that a mass
of falling water gives
"The chord of C sharp, and also the non-accordant F. When C
and D sound louder than the middle note, F is heard very
fully, as a deep, dull, humming, far-resounding tone, with
a strength proportionate to the mass of the falling water.
It easily penetrates to a distance at which the other notes
are inaudible. The notes C, E, G, F, belong to all rushing
water, and in great falls are sometimes in different
octaves. Small falls give the same notes one or two octaves
higher. In the stronger falls, F is heard the most easily;
in the weak ones, C. At the first attempt, C is most readily
detected. Persons with musical cultivation, on attempting to
sing near rapidly-moving water, naturally use the key of C
sharp, or of F sharp if near a great fall."
Somewhat similar to waterfalls in the character of the tunes they
produce (being distinguished, however, generally, by a greater
softness and more gentle flow) are the waves, that, handsome in form,
roll majestically shoreward, greeting the ear with a strange,
dirge-like, yet, as it seems to the writer, pleasing harmony.
Here is given a duet between the waves and zephyrs:--
"We sit beneath the dreaming moon,
And gaze upon the sea:
Our hearts with Nature are in tune;
List to her minstrelsy.
The waves chant low and soft their song,
And kiss the rocks in glee;
While zephyrs their sweet lay prolong,--
Their love-song to the sea."
There is a pretty, delicate music made by the rippling, gurgling
brooklet, as its transparent waters glide over its pebbly bottom. And
there's the musical sea-shell. Place it to the ear, and you shall
catch, as if in the far distance, the reverberating roll of the
billowy ocean as it sings a mighty song. To this the poet Wordsworth
very gracefully refers in the following lines:--
"I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell:
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely, and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for from within were heard
Murmurings whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with its native sea."
And an anonymous writer (it does not seem that he had good cause for
hiding his name) thus discourses on the music of the sea:--
"The gray, unresting sea,
Adown the bright and belting shore
Breaking in untold melody,
Makes music evermore.
Centuries of vanished time,
Since this glad earth's primeval morn,
Have heard the grand, unpausing chime,
Momently new born.
Like as in cloistered piles
Rich bursts of massive sounds upswell,
Ringing along dim-lighted aisles
With spirit-trancing spell;
So on the surf-white strand
Chants of deep peal the sea-waves raise,
Like voices from a viewless land
Hymning a hymn of praise.
By times, in thunder-notes,
The booming billows shoreward surge;
By times a silver laugh it floats;
By times a low, soft dirge.
Souls more ennobled grow
Listing the worldly anthem rise;
Discords are drowned in the great flow
Of Nature's harmonies.
Men change and 'cease to be,'
And empires rise and grow and fall;
But the weird music of the sea
Lives, and outlives them all.
The mystic song shall last
Till time itself no more shall be;
Till seas and shores have passed,
Lost in eternity."
But the wind is one of Nature's chief musicians. Sometimes singing his
own songs, or lending his aid in awaking to musical life the leaves
and boughs of the trees; whistling melodies among the reeds; entering
the recesses of a hollow column, and causing to issue from thence a
pleasing, flute-like sound; blowing his quiet, soothing lays in
zephyrs; or rushing around our dwellings, singing his tuneful yet
minor refrain,--in these, and in even other ways, does this mighty
element of the Creator contribute to the production of melody in the
world of nature. A writer in "The Youth's Companion" speaks very
entertainingly of "voices in trees." He says,--
"Trees, when played upon by the wind, yield forth a variety
of tones. Mrs. Hemans once asked Sir Walter Scott if he had
noticed that every tree gives out its peculiar sound. 'Yes,'
said he, 'I have; and I think something might be done by the
union of poetry and music to imitate those voices, giving a
different measure to the oak, the pine, the willow, &c.' The
same journal from which we take this anecdote mentions, that
in Henry Taylor's drama, 'Edwin the Fair,' there are some
pleasing lines, where the wind is feigned to feel the want
of a voice, and to woo the trees to give him one.
"He applied to several: but the wanderer rested with the
pine, because her voice was constant, soft, and lowly deep;
and he welcomed in her a wild memorial of the ocean-cave,
his birthplace. There is a fine description of a storm in
'Coningsby,' where a sylvan language is made to swell the
diapason of the tempest. 'The wind howled, the branches of
the forest stirred, and sent forth sounds like an
incantation. Soon might be distinguished the various voices
of the mighty trees, as they expressed their terror or their
agony. The oak roared, the beech shrieked, the elm sent
forth its long, deep groan; while ever and anon, amid a
momentary pause, the passion of the ash was heard in moans
of thrilling anguish.'"
I shall close this chapter on the music of Nature by appending a
beautiful reference to what has been called "the music of the
spheres." The lines form, as well, an elegant and elevated description
of and tribute to music in general. I regret that the author's name
cannot be given.
"The Father spake: in grand reverberations
Through space rolled on the mighty music-tide;
While to its low, majestic modulations
The clouds of chaos slowly swept aside.
The Father spake: a dream, that had been lying
Hushed from eternity in silence there,
Heard the pure melody, and, low replying,
Grew to that music in the wondering air,--
Grew to that music, slowly, grandly waking,
Till, bathed in beauty, it became a world;
Led by his voice, its spheric pathway taking,
While glorious clouds their wings around it furled.
Not yet has ceased that sound, his love revealing;
Though, in response, a universe moves by:
Throughout eternity its echo pealing,
World after world awakes in glad reply.
And wheresoever in his rich creation
Sweet music breathes,--in wave, in bird, or soul,--
'Tis but the faint and far reverberation
Of that great tune to which the planets roll."
III.
A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF MUSIC.
"Thespis, the first professor of our art,
At country wakes sang ballads from a cart."
DRYDEN.
Music is as old as the world itself. In some form or other, it has
always existed. Ere man learned to give vent to his emotions in
tuneful voice, Nature, animate and inanimate, under the hand of the
Great Master, sang his praises. Of this we learn in the sacred
writings; while all about us, in the songs of birds, the musical
sighing of the winds, the fall of waters, and the many forms of the
music of Nature, we have palpable evidence of its present existence,
and assurances of its most remote antiquity.
It would seem that not long after "God breathed into the nostrils of
man the breath of life, and he became a living soul," he learned to
express the joys and yearnings of his soul in song first, and then
with some sort of musical instrument. And to man it was given,
commencing with the early ages, to develop the simple ejaculations or
melodies of a praise-giving soul into a beautiful, a noble art,
replete at times with harmonic intricacies, and again with melodies
grand in their very simplicity; into a beneficent science, divine from
its inception, which has ever had as votaries many of earth's
greatest minds, and has become a fountain of delight to all mankind.
The history of the music of antiquity--that is, in an art-form--is
nearly, if indeed not quite, enveloped in mystery; and it were futile
to profess to give an historical presentation of an art from its
birth, when documentary evidence of the same is lost.
We may, however, very reasonably suppose of music generally, that it
must have been gradually developed, having had its infancy, childhood,
and youth; and that it grew slowly into present scientific form with
the advance of the centuries.
From all we can gather in regard to the early history of music as a
system, it would appear that it had its infancy in ancient Greece;
although it is supposed by some that the Grecian method was founded
upon that of the still more ancient one of the Egyptians. Dr. Burgh, a
learned musical writer states that, of "the time before Christ, music
was most cultivated and was most progressive in Greece." The verses of
the Greek poet Homer, who was himself a musician, abound in beautiful
allusions to and descriptions of this charming science; while in
mythology are recounted the wonderful musical achievements of the god
Orpheus, who is said to have been so skilled in music that the very
rocks and trees followed in his wake of harmony.
The first artificial music of which the Bible speaks was that which
was sung or played in praise of the Creator,--sacred music. In fact,
this noble quality of the soul was very rarely called into exercise,
save in the worship of the Deity, until many centuries had passed. Of
music before the Christian era, both vocal and instrumental, the books
of the Old Testament often speak. As to its exact character, we are
left to conjecture, being, as before intimated, without materials from
which to form a judgment; but, in some form or other, there was,
during that period, abundance of what was called music.
The first mention of music, either vocal or instrumental, in the
Scriptures, is made in Gen. iv. 21: "Jubal was the father of all such
as handle the harp and organ." Jubal was only seventh in descent from
Adam; and from this passage it is thought by some that he was the
inventor of instrumental music. In the year B.C. 1739, in Gen. xxxi.
27, Laban says to Jacob, "Wherefore didst thou flee away from me, and
didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and
with songs, with tabret and with harp?" This is the first mention in
the Bible of vocal music. King David, who has been called "the sweet
singer of Israel," is said to have been a skilful performer on the
harp. By his magical touch upon its strings at a certain time, he
produced sounds so sweetly soothing as to drive away the "evil spirit"
from Saul.
The poet Byron pays an elevated, glowing tribute to this "monarch
minstrel" in the following lines:--
"The harp the monarch minstrel swept,
The king of men, the loved of Heaven,
Which Music hallowed while she wept
O'er tones her heart of hearts had given,--
Redoubled be her tears; its chords are riven.
It softened men of iron mould;
It gave them virtues not their own:
No ear so dull, no soul so cold,
That felt not, fired not, to the tone;
Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne.
It told the triumphs of our King;
It wafted glory to our God;
It made our gladdened valleys ring,
The cedars bow, the mountains nod:
Its sound aspired to heaven, and there abode.
Since then, though heard on earth no more,
Devotion, and her daughter Love,
Still bid the bursting spirit soar
To sounds that seem as from above,
In dreams that day's broad light cannot remove."
And here I append from the First of Chronicles, xiii. 8, a description
of the music of the "house of Israel:" "And David and all Israel
played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with
harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and
with trumpets."
Josephus, the learned Jewish historian, states that the Egyptians had
two hundred thousand musicians playing at the dedication of the Temple
of Solomon. This structure was of most wonderfully immense dimensions:
and it may have been that this enormous body of performers played in
_detachments_ about the building; otherwise the statement would seem
apocryphal.
The Egyptian musical instruments, it appears, were mostly of very rude
construction: performance upon them would not now, probably, be
tolerated even in circles of the least musical culture.
Of these ancient instruments the Boston "Folio" thus speaks:--
"The Egyptian flute was only a cow's-horn, with three or
four holes in it; and their harp, or lyre, had only three
strings. The Grecian lyre had only seven strings, and was
very small, being held in one hand. The Jewish trumpets that
made the walls of Jericho fall down were only rams'-horns:
their flute was the same as the Egyptian. They had no other
instrumental music but by percussion, of which the greatest
boast was made of the psaltery,--a small triangular harp, or
lyre, with wire strings, and struck with an iron needle or
stick. Their sackbut was something like a bagpipe; the
timbrel was a tambourine; and the dulcimer, a horizontal
harp with wire strings, and struck with a stick like the
psaltery."
The following interesting and able summary of the history of ancient
Roman music is taken from a recent number of "The Vox Humana:"--
"Art love was not a distinguished characteristic of the
ancient Romans; and we are not astonished, therefore, to
find them borrowing music from Etruria, Greece, and Egypt;
originating nothing, and (although the study was pursued by
the emperors) never finding any thing higher in its practice
than a sensuous gratification.
"In the earliest days of Rome, the inhabitants were
exclusively farmers or warriors; and their first temples
were raised to Ceres or to Mars.
"The priests of Ceres came originally from Asia Minor, and
were called the Arval Brotherhood. Flute-playing was a
prominent feature in their rites, and they were all
proficient upon that instrument. Their number was limited to
twelve.
"The worship of Mars was conducted by the Salian priests,
whom Numa summoned to Rome from Etruria. These also used the
flute as an accessory to their sacrificial rites. In these
primitive days of Rome, much was borrowed from the Etruscans
in style and instruments of music.
"The earliest songs of Rome were in praise of Romulus, and
told the story of the twin-brothers and the divine origin of
the city. They were sung by choruses of boys. Similar songs
were sung during meals by the elders, with an accompaniment
of flutes; these latter songs being especially directed to
the young men, and inciting them to be worthy of the deeds
of their ancestors.
"Under the rule of the emperors, all these worthy
compositions went to decay, and were replaced by a much more
degrading school of music. At no time, however, was music
considered a necessary part of the education of Roman youth.
"There existed in the latter days of ancient Rome some
music-schools; but the study was far less universally
pursued than in Greece at the same epoch. The musical course
has been given by Quintilian as follows:--
"Theoretical: first, arithmetic, physics; second, harmony,
rhythm, metrics.
"Practical: composition, rhythm, melody, poetry.
"Execution: playing instruments, singing, dramatic action;
which makes a rather formidable array, even to modern eyes.
"Among the Roman musical instruments, the flute was the most
popular, and essentially national. We have already stated
that it was used in the worship of their two chief deities:
it was in secular use to a yet greater extent.
"This flute (_tibia_) was hooped with brass bands, and had
an immense resonance. It was used by both sexes; but, on
public and on most religious occasions, was played by men.
"The frequency with which it was used made the art of
playing it a most remunerative one; and the flute-players
soon formed themselves into a guild, or protective society.
This guild had many privileges accorded to it, and existed
for a period of some centuries. The 'Guild of Dionysian
Artists' was a society of later date, and was a musical
conservatory, academy, and agency, all in one. It flourished
greatly under the patronage of various Roman emperors, and
for a long time supplied singers and actors to the Roman
world.
"Valerius Maximus has given an anecdote which shows how
powerful and exacting the guild of flute-players could
afford to be.
"They were one day excluded from the Temple of Jupiter,
where they had been allowed, by ancient custom, to take
their meals; upon which the entire guild left Rome, and went
to the village of Tibur near by. This caused great
embarrassment: no religious services could be held, and
scarce any state ceremony properly conducted. The senate
thereupon sent an embassy to induce them to return,--in
vain: the angry musicians were inflexible. The wily
ambassadors then called the inhabitants of Tibur to their
aid, and these pretended to give a great feast to welcome
the flute-players. At this feast the musicians were all made
very drunk; and, while asleep from the effects of their
liquor, they were bundled into chariots, and driven back to
Rome, where all their old privileges were restored, and
newer and greater ones added.
"They received the right to give public representations and
spectacles in Rome; but at these they were all masked, the
reason being their shame at the manner of their inglorious
return to the city.
"Flutes were used at funerals; and it appears, at one time,
the luxury and pomp of Roman obsequies grew so excessive,
that a law was passed limiting the number of flute-players
on such occasions to ten.
"Only at one time did the flute disappear from any public
worship, and that was when the worship of Bacchus was
introduced into Rome. To this rite the kithara was used; but
this worship, which was somewhat refined, though jovial,
among the Greeks, became among the Romans so debauched and
uxorious, that it was soon prohibited by law.
"The flute was used in combination with other instruments at
times. Apuleius speaks of a concert of flutes, kitharas, and
chorus, and mentions its deliciously sweet effect. It was
also used as a pitch-pipe, to give orators a guide in
modulating their voices when addressing an assembly: thus
Caius Gracchus always on such occasions had a slave behind
him, whose duty it was to aid him to commence his orations
in a proper pitch, and when his voice sank too low, or
became too shrill, to call him to a better intonation by the
sounds of the flute.
"Although the flute was the favorite Roman instrument, it
was by no means the only one. Trumpets were used to a great
extent. A one-toned trumpet, of very loud voice, was used
for battle-signals. These were of very large size, usually
of brass; and their sound is described as 'terrible.' There
was also a smaller (shepherd's) trumpet of mellower tone.
"Another much-used instrument, of different character, was
the _sumphonium_, which did not differ materially from the
modern bagpipe.
"Instruments of percussion were few, and not indigenous to
the Romans: such as were used came from the East, and were
chiefly used in the worship of Eastern deities at Rome. When
the worship of Bacchus was prohibited, they passed away with
that licentious rite. The most complicated instrument of
the ancient world appeared in Rome during the first century
of our era. It was an _organ_, not, as in the scriptural
days, a mere syrinx, or Pan's pipes, but an undoubted organ,
somewhat similar in effect to our modern instrument.
"The instrument is said to have been invented by Ctesbius of
Alexandria in Egypt, who lived about 250 B.C. It did not
appear extensively in Rome, however, until nearly three
hundred years later. This organ has given rise to much
fruitless discussion. In the field of musical history
especially, 'a little' knowledge has proved 'a dangerous
thing;' for, where slight descriptions exist of instruments
of music, latitude is left for every writer to form his own
theory, to fight for it, and denunciate those who differ
from it.
"We have seen what a battle was fought over the three little
manuscripts of Greek music; what a host of differing
opinions were held about the scriptural word 'Selah:' and
now, about this hydraulic organ, each writer mounts his
hobby-horse, and careers over the field of conjecture.
Vitruvius has given a full description of the instrument
from personal inspection; but as his technical terms have
lost all significance to modern readers, and have been
translated in various ways, and as his work contained no
diagrams or illustrations of the various parts, it is
useless.
"Some writers imagine the organ to have had seven or eight
stops,--that is, so many different _kinds_ of tones,--which
would place them nearly on a par with our own. Others think
that they possessed seven or eight _keys_; that is, so many
_tones_ only. It has been a point of dispute as to what
function the water performed in working it. Vitruvius is
rather hazy on this point, saying only that it is
'suspended' in the instrument. The water, when the organ was
played, was in a state of agitation, as if boiling.
"There are medals still in existence which were awarded to
victors in organ contests, on which this instrument is
represented with two boys blowing or pumping; but the
representation is too small to clear up any doubtful
points."
But, without devoting further space to the music that was in vogue
prior to the Christian era, I proceed to notice that our first
reliable account of it, as a system, commences with the fourth
century; at which time St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, arranged the
sacred chants that bear his name, and which were to be sung in the
cathedrals.
In the year 600 St. Gregory improved upon these chants, inventing the
scale of eight notes. His system is the basis of our modern music.
From the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the fourteenth
century, minstrels, _jongleurs_, or troubadours, were the principal
devotees of music. They seem to have been its custodians, so to speak;
and to their guild many of the knights belonged. Some of the kings and
nobles of the time were also, in a sense, troubadours; such as, for
instance, Thibault of Navarre, and William the Ninth of Poitou.
These roving musicians, who generally united the qualities of the
poet, the musical composer, and performer, were treated with much
favor by princes and all the nobility, and were everywhere warmly
welcomed for a long period. It is, however, far from pleasant to have
to say that this for a long time noble class of musicians, to whom we
owe so much for the preservation unbroken for three hundred years of
the chain of musical life, as well indeed, also, as that of general
literature, spoiled perhaps by the excessive praises and indulgences
accorded them, became at last quite dissolute, and fell from their
high position. All royal favors were finally withdrawn from them, and
orders for their restriction were issued from the throne.
Mr. B.W. Ball (in that faithful exponent of art, "The Boston
Commonwealth") thus expressively sings the story of the ancient
troubadour, styling him--
"THE POET OF OLD."
Once the poet wandered,
With his lyre in hand,--
Wandered, singing, harping,
On from land to land.
Like a bird he hovered;
And, where'er he came,
Kindled he each bosom
With his song to flame.
Careless of the morrow,
Journeyed he along;
Opened every portal
To the sound of song.
_Suâ sponte_ heart's-ease
In his bosom grew:
Happiness as birthright,
Like the gods, he knew.
All life's haps and changes
On his chords he rung:
Every thought, emotion,
In him found a tongue.
Voiced he for the lover
Passion of his breast;
Feigned he, death to lighten,
Islands of the Blest.
Up in ether throned he
Gods, the world to sway,--
Gods to bend and listen
While their votaries pray.
Soul and sense, enchanted,
Drank his accents in:
E'en to marble bosoms
He his way could win.
From her casement Beauty
Leaned his song to hear:
E'en the haughty conqueror
Bent a willing ear;
For without the poet
And his epic lay
Passed his vast existence,
Whirlwind-like, away,--
Trace nor vestige leaving
Where his legions trod,
Which the year effaced not
From the vernal sod.
Thus the poet wandered
In a nobler time,--
Wandered, singing, harping,
Free of every clime.
During the fourteenth century, music was most cultivated by the people
of the Netherlands, who carried the art towards much perfection,
producing several fine composers, and furnishing the leading musical
instructors for the other parts of Europe. Among some of the ablest
musicians of the Netherlands may be mentioned Dufay, Jan of Okenheim,
and Josquin Desprès, the latter being the most celebrated of
contrapuntists. The Netherland musical supremacy lasted until 1563.
In the year 1400 the claims of music received the recognition of the
crown in England, a charter being granted to a regularly formed
musical society.
Commencing with the invention of movable type in 1502 (which invention
so vastly facilitated the publication and spreading of the thoughts of
the composer), and with the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the
noble art of music began a new, unimpeded, and brilliant career among
the civilized nations of the world. Dating from thence, the steps in
the progress of this delightful science can be plainly traced. Unvexed
and unfettered by the obscurities that attach to its antique history,
we can contemplate with pleasure and profit the wonderful creations
and achievements of its devotees.
This I need not attempt here, save in the briefest form; my purpose in
preparing this chapter being only to give, as indicated in the title,
a glance at the history of music.