THE POWER OF MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1246, 30 September 1911, Page 11

THE POWER OF MUSIC.

STUPENDOUS, THOUGH SOFT, "We trifle with the wonderful art of mnsio nowadays, not recognising its extraordinary power for good and ovil, its effect on tljo nervous system, its strange ascendancy not only over the emotions but over tho brain. It is the youngest of all the fine arts, and its developments during the last hundred yeaTS have been nothing short of stupendous, yet there is no censorship over music, which has a more potent influence over the mind and the bc<]y than any other produot of man's brain. "Y.et men of genius, the prophet and tho writer, have often been afraid of music and have denounced its influence. As a rule, the man of letters apart from (the poet-is singularly unmoved by musical sounds, which are even, in some oases, obnoxiotw to him. "Tolstoy, however, the chief enemy of music, even in its most exalted and highest form, was profoundly moved by Beethoven, Bach, and all tho great'hierarchy of composers, and it was their overpowering influence which ho wt nimv self to combat in the TCreutzer Sonata, and in his essay, TVhat is Art? Tolsfcoy was oti« of tho most original, tho most candid of humnn beings who ever drew breath,, nnd everything wluoli ho gays on life and art is worth deep attcn"Now, M. Romain Holland, the aiithor of 'Jean Christophe,' tells ns that Tolstflv in his youtn, was passionately fond of musics as, indeed, the yonng Russian giant. was of all things alluring and appealing. Bnt even then the dashing soldier who was to develop into Russia s greatest writer and teacher had the fear of music in his soul. His brother-in-law has described how , he noticed that 'the sensations which musio called forth in him were accompanied by a slttrht pallor of the face and an imperceptible grimace, which'seemed to express frurht. Tolstoi was.'one of the first of moderns to perceive the profound significant oi music in human life."