We cannot gain experience by being brought into contact with the
experiences of others, nor can we know music by reading about it. Only
by taking it into our hearts and homes, by admitting it to our intimate
companionship, can we approach a knowledge of the art that has enriched
so many lives, even though it has never yet completely fulfilled its
function. At the same time, every music lover is helped to new ideas,
inspired to fresh efforts, by suggestions and statements from those who
have themselves had deep experiences in their search for the inner
sanctuary of the Temple of Art.
Musicians have been too much inclined to treat their art as something to
be exclusively appropriated by a favored class of men and women, and are
themselves greatly to blame for its mistaken isolation. True, music has
its privileged class. To this belongs the mind of creative genius that
can formulate in tones the universal passions, the eternal verities of
the soul. In it may also be numbered those gifted beings whose
interpretative powers peculiarly adapt them to spread abroad the
utterances of genius. Precisely in the same way religion has its
prophets and its ministers. Music, as well as religion, is meant for
everyone, and the business of its ministers and teachers is to convey to
all the message of its prophets.
The nineteenth century was the period of achievement. There is every
reason to believe that the twentieth century will be the period of still
nobler achievement, beyond all in the realm of the spirit. Then will
music find its most splendid opportunity, and in our own free soil it
will yield its richest fruitage. Amid the favorable conditions of
liberty it will flourish to the utmost, and will come to afford blessed
relief from the pressure of materialism. During the era we are entering
no unworthy teacher will be permitted to trifle with the unfolding
musical instincts of childhood. The study of music will take an honored
place in the curriculum of every school, academy, college and
university, as an essential factor in culture. Then music among us will
come to reflect our deepest, truest consciousness, the American
world-view.
It is with a desire to stimulate thought and incite to action that the
present volume has been prepared for every music lover. The essays
contained in it have not previously appeared in print. They are composed
to a large extent of materials used by the author in her lectures and
informal talks on music and its history. That her readers may be led to
seek further acquaintance with the divine art is her earnest wish.
Many thanks are due L. C. Page & Company, of Boston, for kind permission
to use the portrait of Corelli, from their "Famous Violinists," by Henry
C. Lahee.
AUBERTINE WOODWARD MOORE.
MADISON, WIS.