ON MUSIC AND MORALS.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7420, 20 September 1889, Page 2

ON MUSIC AND MORALS.

In no other profession than that of music can men and women be tound so ready to aid a colleague in distress. Take the ease of poor Robert Franz, for instance, who lost his hearing through the whistle of a locomotive, and thereby lost his professional income, and was brought to the verge of starvation because his stupid contemporaries (I mean ourselves) refused to buy his divine songe. Hardly had hi* misfortune become known when Lisit, Joachim, and Frau Magnus arranged a concert tour for his benefit which netted 23,000 dole, and insured him com-

fort for the rest of his life. And in general, let mc ask, why Is it that, whenever a charitable project is organised, musicians are Invariably called upon first to give their services? Does not this amount to an eloquent and universal presumption that musical people

are generous and kind-hearted f Nor is this the only kind of presumption Indicating that music commonly goe 9 hand in band with kindness. The English in the day* of Elizabeth, as Chappell tell* us, "had music at dinner, music at supper, music at weddings, music at funerals, music at night, music at dawn, music at work, music at play. He who felt not, in some degree, its soothing influence, was viewed as a morose unmusical being, whose converse ought to be shunned, and regarded with suspicion and distrust" That this was the general eentlment in Bngland is also proved by the oft-quoted passage in "The Merchant of Venice," where Shakespeare notes the magic effect of maslc on men and animals, and concludes with the verse*—

" The man that hath no music In himself Nor is not moved with cenoord of sweet Bounds. Iβ fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; Tbe motions of his spirit are dull as night. And his affections dark as Erebus; Lea no mob man be trusted." This, of oonrse, Iβ a poetio exaggeration, for we know that there are other eources of refinement besides music, and tha* some of the noblest men and women can hardly tell two tunes from one anotherNevertheless, the general preeumption remains that musio and jolly good-nature go together, and that music is incompatible with crime, Aβ experience I once had In Switzerland brought borne this fact to my mind in a forcible manner. I was taking a fortnight's tramp, all alone, and one day X came near the summit of a mountain pass where, some time preTiously, a solitary tourist had been robbed a nd murdered. There was no house within five miles, and J had not met a soul that morning until I approached this place, when I suddenly saw a shabbily dressed man coming down the road. Not having any weapon, I could not but feel nervous, and my heart began to beat almost audibly. Presently the man, who had apparently not noticed mc, began to sing a Tyroleie melody. With the first notes all my fear instantly vanished, and 1 breathed freely again ; for an instinctive I feeling had told mc that a man intent on I murder and robbery would not sing. Such presamptions, however, although they have some weight as arguments, do not amount to full proof. Our feelings may mislead us, and cannot be accepted in lieu of facts. We must therefore confront our problem more directly. In what manner does music effect our moral character ? Does it make us less inclined to murder, •tealing, lying, lust, avarice, anger, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty, cruelty, and other vices ? And if so, by what means ? I find among writers on Music and Morals, a curious tendency to dodge the direct question, and indulge in side issues and digressions. Mr Haweis, in his book on tbe subject, talks glibly about the train-

ing of the emotions, and has much to tell about the liven of the composers, but very little bearing directly on his subject. Wagner, in one of hie essays, asserts that music has as much influence on tasfces and morals as the drama itself. A frivolous and effeminate taste, he says, cannot but affect our moral conduct- The Spartans understood this when they forbade certain kinds of ecu sic as demoralising. He believes that men who ; are inspired by Beethoven's music make more active and energetic citizens than those who are charmed by Boaaini, Bellini, and Donizetti; and he refers to the fact that in Paris, at a certain period, music became more and more frivolous as the people degenerated morally. At the same time hels obliged to admit that this, perhaps, proves rather the effect of morale on music than of music on morals; and so our problem remains In a vague twilight. To gain more light on the subject, let us take a few specific cases. Does the influence of music make us less inclined to perSetrate murder, suicide, or cruel practices? iverybody has heard the story of the famous Italian composer and vocalist, Stradella, whose wonderful singing in an oratorio made such a profound impression on two men who bid been hired to murder him, that they not! only spared him, but gave him warning that his life was in danger. This story is now regarded as a myth by some of the best authorities; but the fact that it was so long believed universally Is not without significance. Take another case, which, though occurring in a fictitious drama, might easily be true. Faust, in Goethe's drama, when on the point of committing nuicide, is brought back to his senses on suddenly hearing the Easter hymn. But in thiscase it might be said it was not the music itself, but the religious and other associations and memories awakened by it, that prevented Faust from carrying out his criminal intention. Such associations must always be taken into account when estimating the moral value of music ; and yet they do not explain everything. A residue is left which most be placed to the credit of music Perhaps the vice best adapted to illustrate the direct influence of musical culture is cruelty. If yon find a boy in the back yard torturing a cat or a dog, or bullying and maltreating his playmates, it will probably do no good to sing or play to him by way of softening his heart. On the contrary, he will probably not appreciate or understand the music at all, and the interruption will only annoy and anger him. But if you take that same boy and put him in a honse where there is an irtfecr Uoußmruxeal atmosphere, the chances are that before long bin feelings will undergo a change, and he will no longer derive any pleasure from cruelty. This pleasure is one which boys share with savages, and the best way to eradicate ife fs by cultivating the aesthetic sensibilities. " It cannot be doubted," says Eduard yon Hartmann. in his " Philosophic dee Schonen," " that sesthetio culture is one of the most Important means of softening the moral sentiments and polishing coarse habits: and Shelley, in his "Defence of Poetry," says, " It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious citizens of Syracuse and Alexandria who were delighted with the poems of Theocritus were leas cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of their tribe." Now, music seems to bo better adapted to bring about a regeneration of the heart than even poetry, and for two reasons: In the first place, poetry can, and often does, inculcate immoral sentiments, ,

whereas music, pure and simple, can nerer be immoral. As Dγ Johnson remark*, " Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice." Secondly, It is In childhood that our moral habits are formed, and It is well known that children •Tβ susceptible to the influence of music atltast five or ten years before they can really understand poetry. The infant in arms has its Impatience ana anger subdued countless timer by tne charms of a cradle song; and in this way music sweetens its temper, turnelts frowns Into smiles, and prevents it from becoming habitually cross and ▼fcious. True, some young children also like to read and recite poetry, but what delights them in this case Iβ the mtwfco* jingle ol rhyme and rhythm, rather than the specific qualities of the verse. Later in life, when the children go to school, they are, as expert testimony proves, beneficially affected by singing together, which rests and refreshes the brain, and teaches them the value and beauty of co-operation. While thus singing, each child experiences the same joyous or sad feeling* as its classmates, and learns in this way the great moral lesson of sympathy. And this brings us back to what was said a moment ago regarding the vice of cruelty. Sympathy is the correlative and antidote of cruelty. If savages were not utterly devoid of sympathy, they would not take euoh strange delight in witnessing the cruel torture* they inflict upon their prisoners. Indeed, It may be asserted that almost all crimes spring from a lack of sympathy, and modifled forms of cruelty. If you refieet a moment, you must admit that a man who is truly sympathetic—that is, who rejoices in his neighbour's happiness and grieves over his misfortunes—can be neither ungenerous, nor deceitful, nor covetous, nor jealous, nor ferocious, nor avaricious. &c ; and one need not therefore be a pantheist to agree- with Schopenhauer, that Mltleid, or sympathy, is the basis of all virtues. If, therefore, it can be shown that music is a powerful agent in developing this feeling of sympathy, its far-reach-ing moral value will become apparent. And this can be done easily.

Rousseau named hie collection of songs " The Consolations of the Miseries of my Life"; Shakespeare called muelq " The food of love"; ana Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his first love affair, adds, " How often I relate to my piano everything I should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who Is always ready to sympathise with our Joys and sorrows. And when a real music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them snare the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby I I know of no other art that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be Been by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by 5000 or more at a time—the more the merrier. I have already stated that in public schools music helps to develop a sympathetic feeling of mutual enjoyment. And why is It chat music. ever since the days of the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, has been always provided at political meetings and processions, at picnics, dances, funerals, weddings—in short, at all social and public gatherings ? Obviously, because it has the power oi uniting the feelings of many into one homogeneous and sympathetic wave of emotion. It has s sort of comjntltive force which hurries along even those who are sluggish or unwilling. Plato, in his Republic, gives the curious advice that, at i meetings of older people wine should be distributed, in order to make them more pliable and receptive to the counsel of sages. Many would object to such • risky policy, which, moreover, can well be dispensed with, since music has quite as much power as wine to arouse a sympathetic and enthusiastic state of mind at a public assembly, and without any danger of disastrous consequences. It is toe special function of music to Intensify all the emotions with which it is associated. It inflames the courage of an army of soldiers marching on to defend their country, their homes and families. It exalts the religious feelings of church-goers, and makes them more susceptible to the minister's moral counsels. Is it not absurd to say that such an art has no moral value t One of the most eloquent of modern preachers, the late Henry Ward Beecher, went so far as to admit that "In singing, j you come into sympathy with the Truth as you perhaps never do under the preaching of a discourse." The Rev. Dr. Hawels also bears testimony to the moral value of music, in the following words: "I have known the Oratorio of the "Messiah" draw the lowest dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and attentive throng. Will anyone say that for these people to have their feelings for once put through such a noble and long-strained exercise as that, could be otherwise than beneficial ? If such performances of both sacred and secular music were more frequent, weshould have lees drunkenness, less wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, lees winter pauperism. People get drunk because they have nothing else to do ; they beat their wives because their minds are narrow, their tastes brutal, their emotions, in a word, ill-regulated."

These remarks suggest one of the most important moral functions of music—that of weaning the people from low and demoralising pleasures. In proportion as the masses are educated to an appreciation of the subtle and exquisite pleasures afforded by, the fine arts, and especially by music, will they become indifferent to, and abhor, exhibitions which involve cruelty to man and animals, such as dog-ngncs, box-ing-matches, dangerous and cruel circus tricks, executions of criminals. &c. The pleasure derived from such brutal exhibitions is the same in kind as that which prompts savages to flay alive their prisoners of war. And the morbid pleasure which so many apparently civilised people take in reading in the newspapers, column after column, about such brutal sports, is the survival of the same unsympathetic feeling. lam convinced that no one who really appreciates the poetic beauty of a Schubert song or a Chopin nocturne can read these columns of our newspapers ! without feelings of utter disgust. And I am as much convinced as I am of my own existence, that a man who derives more pleasure from good music than from these I vulgar columns in the newspapers, is morally more trustworthy than those who gloat over them. Music can impart only good impulses; whereas, we hear every day of boys and men who, after reading "a dime novel or the police column in a newspaper, were prompted to commit the, crimes end indulge In the vices they have read about. Hence, if people could be weaned from the vulgar pleasure of reading about crimes and scandals, and taught: instead to love innocent music, can any one doubt that they would be morally the better for it? Just a» a tendency to drunkenness can best be combatted by creating a taste for harmless light wines and beer in place of coarse whiskey and gin, so a love of demoralising and degrading amusements can best be eradicated by educating the poetic and musical sensibilities of the masses, why are the lower clashes in Germany so much leas brutal, degraded, and dangerous than the sam* classes in England? Obviously, because, after their day's labor, they do not drink poisonous liquor in a dirty den of crime, but go to sip a few glasses of harmless beer in a garden while listening to the merry sounds of music

Men vnU have, and must have, their pleasures. Social reformers and temperance agitators could not make a greater mistake than by following the example of the Puritans and tabooing all pleasures. They ought to distinguish between those that have a tendency to excess and vice, and those that are harmless and ennobling encouraging the latter in every possible way. And first among those that should be encouraged is music, because it is always ennobling, and can be enjoyed simultaneously by the greatest number. Its effect is well described in Margaret Fuller's private journal: "I felt raised above all} pain, all fear, and every taint off vulgarity was washed out of the world." I think this is an extremely V happy expression. Female writers sometimes have a knack of getting at the heart of a problem by instinct, more easily than men with their superior reasoning powers. " Every taint of vulgarity washed out of the world by music." That is precisely wherein the moral power of music lies; for vulgarity is the twin sister of vice. It is criminal to comtrit a murder ; it is vulgar to gloat over the contagious details of it in books and news-

capers. But how rampant vulgarity still 13, and how rare aesthetic culture is, is shown by the fact that two-thirds of the so-called news In many of our daily papers coneiete of detailed reports of crimes in all parts of the world, which are eagerly read by hundreds of thousands, while oar concert halls hare to be filled with deadheads. There is one more way In which music affects our moral life, to which I wish to call attention, namely, through its value as a- tonic No operatic manager has ever

thought of advertising his performance «• a tonic yet he might do so with more propriety than the patent medicine venders whose grandiloquent advertisements take up so much space in our newspapers. Plato, In the "Laws," says that ,f The Gods, pitying the toils which our race is born to undergo, h»ve appointed holy festivals in which men neU from their labours." Lucentio, in " ?&» Taming of the Shrew," advances the same opinion in more definite and pungent terms : " Preposterous ass! that never read so far To know the oaueo why muaio was ordain a 1 Was it not to refresh the mind of man After hia studies, or Wβ usual pain)" ''■ There can be no doubt whatever that music has the moet remarkable effect, not only on our minds, but on our bodies. Physiologists tell us that different kinds of mental activity are carried on in different parts of the brain, and that, in order to recover from fatigue, we need not rest altogether, but merely take up some other kind of work. Hundreds of times I have found that, however much I ma> be fatigued by a day's brain work, I can play all the evening, or attend a concert or opera, without in the least adding to my fatigue. On the contrary, In most cases it disappears altogether, the music acting on!the mind as a surf bath does on the body. Like many others, I have found the best way to cure a headache is to attend an orchestral concert. It works like a charm. It stirs up the circulation in the brain as a brisk walk does in the body. Even brain disease Iβ eased in this way. The power of music even to cure Insanity altogether, was frequently maintained in ancient and mediaeval times. This claim Is doubtless ' exaggerated, vet there is more than a grain of truth in it. There can be no doubt that violent maniacs can becalmed, and melancholy ones cheered and soothed by music. To get an authoritative opinion on this subject, I wrote to Dr. Hammond. Hβ answered : "I know of no cases of insanity that have been cured by music, but I have eeen many cases In which music has quieted insane persons, exerting the same calming influence that it doee on most of. us when we are irritated by pettj annoyances." " When we are irritated by petty annoyances." It is then that music becomes a medicine and a moral tonio. Writers on ethics have, hitherto, too much overlooked the moral Importance of health. Where there is a lack of health, we rarely find anymoral sweetnens of temper. The vices may be small and peevish, but In their aggregate they are enoueh to poison the happiness ot the household. If • man comes to ruin from drink and the crimes it leads him to commit, we call him Im« moral. But Iβ he not also Immoral if, from excess of work and worry, and will m negleot of exercise, rast, and recreation, he breaks down and beggars his family, becoming a burden to them instead of a help I 1 think he is, and that, instead of pitying: such a man, we should censure him. ignorance of the laws of hygiene, physical and mental, is no valid excuse. He can buy a book on the subject for one dollar. But he does not need to do that. Music, we read in Shakespeare, has the power of " killing care and grief of heart, and what he needs, therefore, Iβ to hear some good muelo every evening, at home or at the opera. This will draw the blood from the overworked part of bis brain to another part, and by thus relieving it of the tormenting persistency of worrying thoughts and business cares, enable htm to

enjoy refreshing, dreamless sleep afterward. In this way music may help to restore his health, cure his dyspepsia, and sweeten his moral temper. In America, more than anywhere else, is music needed as a tonic, to cure the infectious and ridiculous business fever which is responsible for so many eases of premature collapse. Nowhere else is so much time waated in making money which is then spent In a way that contributes to no one] 3 happiness—least of all the

owner's. We Americans are In the habit of calling ourselves the most practical nation in the world, but the fact Is it would be difficult to find a nation less practical. For, what is the object of life? la it to toll like a galley slave and never have any amusements! Every nation In Europe, except the English, knows better how to enjoy the pleasures of life than we do. Our so-called "practical" men look, upon recreation as something useless, whereas In reality it is the most useful thing in the world. Recreation is re-creation —regaining the energies lost by hard work, and those who enjoy some music after hard work economise their brain power, and are therefore infinitely more practical than I those who scorn or neglect recreation. The utility and the moral value of refined pleasures is not sufficiently understood. It should be proclaimed from the housetops every day. Bread and butter to eat, and a bed to sleep In, are not the only useful things In the world, but, in the words of Shelley, "Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful." Muuc is useful because it does this, and it is useful in many other ways. Singing strengthens the lungs, Slaying the muscles, and both stimulate tie mind. Milton, Schiller, George Sand, Alfleri, and other geniuses have testified that music aroused their creative faculties ; and in Beaconsfield'e " Contarint" occurs this passage : " I have a passion for instrumental music. A grand orchestra fills my mind with ideas. I forget everything in the stream of inventions." Furthermore, music is a stepping-stone to social success. A gifted amateur is welcomed at once into circles to which others may vainly seek admission fox years ; and a young lady with a ndusical voice has a great advantage in the period of courtship. But most important of all is the moral value of music as an ennui killer. Ennui leads to more petty crimes than anything else ; and a devotee of music need never suffer a moment's ennui. There Are enough charming songs and pieces to fill up every spare moment in our lives with ecstatic bliss, and to banish all temptation to vice. It is in reference to similar pleasures that Sir John Lubbock, in his eeeay on the "Duty of Happiness," exclaims : "It is wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw away." The art of enjoying iife is an accomplishment which few have thoroughly mastered.—Henry T. Finch. \