27 chapters
3 hour read
Selected Chapters
27 chapters
PREFACE
PREFACE
A book of this kind, though addressed to children, must necessarily reach them through an older person. The purpose is to suggest a few of the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding in joy. Music wit
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
"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 time she was disappointed. No light was there. Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would, it was always the same. I do not
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
"Music makes people more gentle and meek, more modest and understanding."— Martin Luther. [1] It was this same music lover who said once, "Music is the fairest gift of God." Just these words should be a sufficient answer to the question which we have asked in this Talk, but a little more may make it clearer. Here we are, gathered together to talk about music. We know music is pleasing; to many of us it is even more than a pleasure; of course, it is difficult to get the lessons properly and we mu
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
"Raffaello's genius goes directly to the heart."— Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. [4] The only true way to learn is by doing. The skill of the hand and the skill of the thought can be brought out only by use. We shall not become very skilful, nor very learned, nor very good unless we daily devote ourselves to tasks—often difficult and unpleasant—which shall bring to us wisdom, or success, or goodness. None of these things, nor any other like them, come merely by talking about them. That
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
"Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well as the visible in nature."— John Tyndall .[10] There used to live in England a famous scientist named Tyndall, who was interested, among other things, in the study of sound. He studied sounds of all kinds, made experiments with them, wrote down what he observed, and out of it all he wrote a book,[11] useful to all who desire to learn about sound and its nature. One day, Tyndall and a friend were walking up one of the mountains
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
"You must listen as if listening were your life."— Phillips Brooks. [14] In our last Talk we learned that it was quite possible for sounds to be about us and yet we not hear them. Sometimes, as in the case of Tyndall's companion, it is because we are not capable; at other times, as when the clock strikes and we do not hear, it is because we are occupied with other things. It is from this latter fact—being occupied with other things—that we can learn what listening is. Listening is not being
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
"The gods for labor sell us all good things."— Epicharmus .[21] Perhaps you have some doubt as to exactly what is meant by music-thinking. Being somewhat acquainted with composers and with music, the thought may here come to you that all the music we hear in the world must have been made by somebody—by many somebodies, in fact. They have had to sit down, and forgetting all things else, listen intently to the music-thought which fills the mind. If you will sit quietly by yourself you will discove
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
"You must feel the mountains above you while you work upon your little garden."— Phillips Brooks. [23] Somewhere else we shall have some definite lessons in music-thinking. Let us then devote this Talk to finding out what is suggested to us by the things we see and hear. Once a boy wrote down little songs. When the people asked him how he could do it, he replied by saying that he made his songs from thoughts which most other people let slip. We have already talked about thought and about learnin
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
"Genuine work done faithfully, that is eternal."— Thomas Carlyle. The older we grow and the more we study, the more we shall hear about the classics, about classic music, and classic art, and classic books. From the beginning let us keep it in our minds that one of our duties is to find out the difference between what is classic and what is not. Then we shall have a proper understanding. An English writer on art says: "The writers and painters of the classic school set down nothing but what is k
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
"But blessings do not fall in listless hands." —Bayard Taylor. We already begin to understand what the classics are. Year by year as our interest in the beautiful increases, we shall gain more definite knowledge about classic art. That which is classic will begin to announce itself in us. Our own choice indicates our taste but does not always indicate what is best for us. And one of the purposes of art is to improve the taste by setting before us the finest works; in these, by study, we find bea
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
"All people value most what has cost them much labor." —Aristotle.[38] It is true that music is beautiful and that it gives us happiness and comfort. But, nevertheless, music is hard to learn for every one ; harder for some than for others, but hard for all. It is well and best that it should be so. We appreciate most highly that which we labor for earnestly. Just imagine if every one could sing or play merely by wishing it! Then music would be so common and so much the talent of all that it
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
"Let us seek service and be helpers of one another." "Master," said the little child, "I am unhappy. Though I have companions and games, they do not content me. Even the music which I love above all the rest is not truly in my heart; nor is it the pleasure to me which it should be. What am I to do?" And the master replied: "There is a task, the greatest and severest of all. But a child must learn it. Thou must know from the first days , that all thou doest and sayest, whither thou goest, what th
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
"In spite of all, I have never interrupted the study of music." — Palestrina. An opera writer of Italy, named Giovanni Pacini, once said that to study the writings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven "lightens the mind of a student, since the classics are a continuous development of the most beautiful and simple melodies," and we sometimes hear it said that great men are they who dare to be simple. In our Talks thus far we have learned one important fact, which is, that music is truth expressed out
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
"And the soul of a child came into him again."— I Kings, XVII: 22. If, one day, some one should say to you, earnestly: "Well day are to you!" you would scarcely know what to make of it. You would at once understand that the person had knowledge of words but could not put them together rightly. And if the person continued to talk to you in this manner you might feel inclined to lose your patience and not listen. But if you would stop and consider things and examine yourself you would learn someth
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
"Whilst I was in Florence, I did my utmost to learn the exquisite manner of Michaelangelo, and never once lost sight of it."— Benvenuto Cellini. [43] On any important music subject Schumann has something to say. So with this: "Learn betimes the fundamental principles of harmony." "Do not be afraid of the words theory, thorough-bass, and the like, they will meet you as friends if you will meet them so." We now begin to feel how definitely these rules treat everything. They pick out the important
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
"Truly it has been said, a loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge."— Thomas Carlyle. A beautiful thing in life is the friendship for books. Every one who loves books pays some day a tribute to them, expressing thankfulness for the joy and comfort they have given. There are in them, for everybody who will seek, wise words, good counsel, companies of great people, fairies, friends for every day, besides wonders we never see nor dream of in daily life. Some of the great men have told us abo
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
"The skill of their hands still lingers."— John Ruskin. [52] In one of our Talks, speaking about the thoughts in our hearts, we said that they crept from the heart into our arms and hands, into the music we play, and off to those who hear us, causing in them the thoughts by which they judge us. Thus we see, that as Janus stands sentinel at the doorway of the year, so the hands stand between the secret world of thought within and the questioning world of curiosity without. If we were not in such
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
"You may always be successful if you do but set out well, and let good thoughts and practice proceed upon right method."— Marcus Aurelius. [55] The same wise Roman emperor who said this tells us a very pretty thing about his mother, which shows us what a wise lady she must have been, and how in the days of his manhood, with the cares of a great nation upon him, he yet pondered upon the childhood teaching of home. First, he speaks of his grandfather Verus, who, by his example, taught him not to b
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's duty, fight today's temptation; and do not weaken and disturb yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them."— Charles Kingsley. Nearly all of us have heard about the little child who one day planted seeds and kept constantly digging them up afterward to see if they were growing. No doubt the child learned that a seed needs not only ground and care, but time. When it is put in the earth it begins
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
"Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile, plus peutêtre."— Victor Hugo. Mozart once had a friend named Gottfried von Jacquin, who was a man of careful thought, and evidently a good musician,—for we are told that a melody composed by him is frequently said, even to this day, to be by Mozart. This Gottfried lived in Vienna with his father, and to their house Mozart often went. At this time Mozart had an album in which his friends were invited to write. Among the verses is a sentiment written by Go
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
"Then he which had received the one talent came."— Matthew, XXV: 24. Some day, when you read about the great composers, you will be delighted with the pictures of their home-life. You will see how they employed music every day. In all cases, as we study them, we learn how very much they have sacrificed for the music they love, studying it daily because of the joy which it yields them. We see them as little children, eager to be taught, wanting to listen to music, and to hear about it. Many of th
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
"Every color, every variety of form, has some purpose and explanation."— Sir John Lubbock .[65] Now, when we are almost at the end of the way we have traveled together, it will be natural to look back upon the road over which we have come. Not all of it will be visible, to be sure. We have forgotten this pleasant scene and that; others, however, remain fresh in our minds. And as the days pass and we think over our way there will now and again come to us a scene, a remembrance, so full of beauty
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
"Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public schools, and a living example of their excellence."— Joseph Story. In these days we learn many things in our schools—even music. They surely must have a purpose, all the studies and the music as well. Let us in this Talk see if we can find what the purpose is. It costs our Government a great deal to educate the children of the land. There are now nearly twenty million children in our country. That is a number you cannot conceiv
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."— Berthold Auerbach. Just at the end of our Talk about Music in School, I said that music was the most powerful of all the studies for giving joy to others. In this Talk we shall try to learn what the studies do for each other. Once more—and we must never get tired if the same thought comes again and again—let us remember that music is thought expressed in tone. Classic music is great and strong thought; poor, unworthy music is weak, pe
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXV.
"When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward." Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming pebbles. The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was everywhere and the child was filled with it. But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
The following works are referred to in these Talks: Addison, Joseph, "Spectator." Alexander, Francesca, "Christfolk in the Apennine." Antoninus, M. Aurelius, "Meditations." Aristotle, "Ethics." Bach, J.S., "The Well-tempered Clavicord." Bach, J.S., "Kleine Präludien." Baldwin, James, "Old Greek Stories." Bacon, Francis, "Essays." Bridge, J.F., "Simple Counterpoint." Carlyle, Thomas, "Heroes and Hero-worship." Cellini, Benvenuto, "Autobiography." Epictetus, "Memoirs." Grove, Sir George, "Dictiona
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
NOTES:
NOTES:
1: From the "Table Talk." 2: Play to the children Schubert's song entitled "The Organ-man." 3: Phillips Brooks says in one of his sermons ("Identity and Variety"): "Every act has its perfect and entire way of being done." 4: Bohn edition, p. 35. 5: Read to the children such parts of Francesca Alexander's "Christ's folk in the Apennine" as seem to you pertinent. 6: John Ruskin, from the ninth lecture of "Val d'Arno." 7: John Ruskin. Third lecture of "Val d'Arno." 8: Franz Liszt's "Life of Chopin,
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter