Did you never hear the music of the old time singing school? Oh! who can
forget the old school house that stood on the hill? Who can forget the
sweet little maidens with their pink sun bonnets and checkered dresses,
the walks to the spring, and the drinks of pure, cold water from the
gourd? Who can forget the old time courtships at the singing school?
When the boy found an opportunity he wrote these tender lines to his
sweetheart:
"The rose is red; the violet's blue--
Sugar is sweet, and so are you."
She read it and blushed, and turned it over and wrote on the back of it:
"As sure as the vine clings 'round the stump,
I'll be your sweet little sugar lump."
Who can forget the old time singing master? The old time singing master
with very light hair, a dyed mustache, a wart on his left eyelid, and
with one game leg, was the pride of our rural society; he was the envy
of man and the idol of woman. His baggy trousers, several inches too
short, hung above his toes like the inverted funnels of a Cunard
steamer. His butternut coat had the abbreviated appearance of having
been cut in deep water, and its collar encircled the back of his head
like the belts of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. His vest resembled
the aurora borealis, and his voice was a cross between a cane mill
and the bray of an ass. Yet beautiful and bright he stood before the
ruddy-faced swains and rose-cheeked lassies of the country, conscious
of his charms, and proud of his great ability. He had prepared, after a
long and tedious research of Webster's unabridged dictionary, a speech
which he always delivered to his class.
[Illustration: THE SINGING MASTER DELIVERING HIS GREAT SPEECH.]
"Boys and girls," he would say, "Music is a conglomeration of pleasing
sounds, or a succession or combernation of simultaneous sounds modulated
in accordance with harmony. Harmony is the sociability of two or more
musical strains. Melody denotes the pleasing combustion of musical and
measured sounds, as they succeed each other in transit. The elements
of vocal music consist of seven original tones which constitute the
diatonic scale, together with its steps and half steps, the whole being
compromised in ascending notes and half notes, thus:
Do re mi fa sol la si do--
Do si la sol fa mi re do.
Now, the diapason is the ad interium, or interval betwixt and between
the extremes of an octave, according to the diatonic scale. The turns
of music consist of the appoggiatura which is the principal note, or
that on which the turn is made, together with the note above and the
semi-tone below, the note above being sounded first, the principal note
next and the semi-tone below, last, the three being performed sticatoly,
or very quickly. Now, if you will keep these simple propersitions clear
in your physical mind, there is no power under the broad canister of
heaven which can prevent you from becoming succinctly contaminated with
the primary and elementary rudiments of music. With these few sanguinary
remarks we will now proceed to diagnosticate the exercises of the
mornin' hour. Please turn to page thirty-four of the Southern harmony."
And we turned. "You will discover that this beautiful piece of music is
written in four-four time, beginning on the downward beat. Now, take the
sound--sol mi do--All in unison--one, two, three, _sing_:
[Illustration: (Sheet Music)]
Sol sol, mi fa sol, la sol fa, re re re, re mi fa
Re mi fa, sol fa mi, do do do--
Si do re, re re re, mi do si do, re do si la sol,
Si do re, re mi fa sol la, sol fa mi, do do do."
[Illustration: BEATING TIME.]