Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
memories that begin life have songs that last for life.
As a mere sensation, music has power. A little maid I have known, who
would sit on her cricket by her father’s knee until he had read the
whole of Christobel—of which she did not know the meaning of a line. It
was melodious to her ear, and merely in its music there was fascination
to her infant spirit. The songs which primitive people sing—in which
they have their best social interchange, are frequently poor in diction
and bald in sentiment. It is the music that gives the words a life; and
this life can transfuse energetic inspiration into the meanest words.
Early melodies are, of necessity, most simple. They are the instincts
seeking to put themselves into measured sound—yet with little to fill
the ear, and less to reach the mind. Nevertheless, they are good for the
mind and pleasant to the ear. A rude musical sensation is of value; of
how much more value is a refined musical sensation. But a musical
sensation is of its very nature a refined one. It is among the purest of
sensations. It may, indeed, be associated with coarse and base emotions.
This, however, is not in itself. It is in the imagination or the
word-music simply, as music presents nothing to the sense that is either
coarse or base. The conception is from the mind to music, not from music
to the mind. Speaking of music as a sensation, I speak relatively—for
to man there is no music without soul. In music soul and sense both
mingle—and become _one_ in its inspired sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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