The word music may be used to two senses. h may
mean sounds so combined as to make a pleasant impression on the mind, as when
we say, The music played by the orchestra at the concert was very fine. Or it
may mean that art of composing or of producing such pleasing sounds, as when we
say. A person who has the genius to compose beautiful music, or who is an
expert player on a musical instrument, is called a musician.
All sound is not music. Many sounds, like loud
shouting, the roar of traffic in the streets, the barking, of dogs, are simply
noises. There noise, and discords (that is, the sounding of notes together
which do not agree), produce no pleasing effects on the mind, but on the
contrary are often irritating and disturbing. It is only when the end are so
combined that they please the ear, and have a soothing, inspiring or pleasantly
exciting effect on the hearers, that they become music. Why certain combinations
of sound please us, while others irritate and disgust us, we cannot tell; any
more than we can explain why we call some things beautiful, and others ugly.
Music, then, we may say, consists of beautiful sounds.
But as people’s ideas of what is beautiful differ very much, so there are many
kinds of music, some of which please some people and do not please others, --
from the magnificent compositions of musicians of genius like Beethoven, Bach,
Chopin, Wagner, and Schumann, to the vulgar popular songs and tunes of the
common music-hall. Only people of educated musical taste can appreciate the
former, and they find no pleasure in the latter; while the common people are
bored with what is called classical music, and find pleasure only in what musicians
would call vulgar tunes. But this is not peculiar to music; it is the same with
all arts. For example, untrained eyes and minds cannot appreciate the great
pictures of artists of genius, but prefer highly coloured daubs; and the crowed
prefers trashy and sensational novels to classical literature.
Good music often has a wonderful effect upon the
feelings of even ignorant people. One poet has said, “Music heath charms to
soothe the savage breast”; and the poet Dryden asks. “What passion cannot music
raise and quell?” The regimental bands put courage and enthusiasm for battle
into the hearts of marching troops; the solemn and stately music of the organ
fills the worshippers in church and cathedral with awe and reverence and the
sense of the Divine presence. Soft and sweet music soothes the worried, the
worried, and the sad; mothers send fretful children to sleep with gentle
syllabifies and old song will bring tears to the eyes of the lonely exile; and
grand music will fill strong men with great hopes and ambitions. What passion
cannot music raise and quell?”