AMERICANS AND MUSIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11686, 1 May 1916, Page 5

AMERICANS AND MUSIC.

Americans pay for music in one pbasff ■ or another £-15*000,000-a year, accord- W ing ro the findings of the National' I Music Association. This seems like a Hj 1 : ir.tri"' sum till it. is pitted ngainst th«. H war bill. Each of the quartet of prm- H cipal beiiiperents is disposing of a sum H as larae as that within about a wefttH for the tiiinas that would crowd mustflt 9 nut] all idealistic pursuits off the em-, ffl baevict! stage of the world. There i» EH no sign yet that too much is spent oal art that is the .-.ntithesis of blood .and- |H hnic. V. o must have the warships and EH wo must secure our borders against EH ••malice, domestic, foreign levy"; But H the soul cannot live by saltpetre and EH iiitro-trjyoerino alon?. The musicians— • |H and those cngiiged in the cognate an H tistie callings—-wcro never so valuable Hj in tlie life of a nation as they are to-H| day. One of the great sources o? re- H Hoi' to nervous overstrain and mental H tenseness is; in such music as that of HJ the orchestra or the body of or HJ the individual performer filled with the H s.'nse of a healing mission to perform 9H for tired bodies and worn, exasperated JHj