initial commit of ebook 14339HEADmain

8 files changed, 11419 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/14339-0.txt b/14339-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f31123
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14339-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3541 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14339 ***
+
+MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN
+
+by
+
+THOMAS TAPPER
+
+Philadelphia
+Theodore Presser
+
+1898
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,
+  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
+  Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  "God being with thee when we know it not."
+
+                            --WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+
+
+TO THE CHILDREN AT HOME
+
+
+  "Teach me to live! No idler let me be,
+  But in Thy service _hand and heart_ employ."
+
+                             --BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+A book of this kind, though addressed to children, must necessarily
+reach them through an older person. The purpose is to suggest a few of
+the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If
+these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be
+actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may
+become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an
+art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding
+in joy. Music with these characteristics is the true music of the
+heart. Unless music gives true pleasure to the young it may be doubted
+if it is wisely studied.
+
+Our failure to present music to the young in a manner that interests
+and holds them is due not so much to the fact that music is too
+difficult for children, but because the children themselves are too
+difficult for us. In our ignorance we often withhold the rightful
+inheritance. We must not forget that the slower adult mind often meets
+a class of difficulties which are not recognized by the unprejudiced
+child. It is not infrequent that with the old fears in us we persist
+in recreating difficulties.
+
+There should be ever present with the teacher the thought that music
+must be led out of the individuality, not driven into it.
+
+The teacher's knowledge is not a hammer, it is a light.
+
+While it is suggested that these chapters be used as the
+subject-matter for talks with the children, they may read verbatim if
+desired. All foot-note references and suggestions are addressed to the
+older person--the mother or the teacher. There is much in the
+literature of art that would interest children if given to them
+discriminatingly.
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+BOSTON, October 30, 1896
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+       PREFACE
+
+    I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS
+
+   II. WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC
+
+  III. MUSIC IN THE HEART
+
+   IV. THE TONES ABOUT US
+
+    V. LISTENING
+
+   VI. THINKING IN TONE
+
+  VII. WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR
+
+ VIII. THE CLASSICS
+
+   IX. WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY
+
+    X. THE LESSON
+
+   XI. THE LIGHT ON THE PATH
+
+  XII. THE GREATER MASTERS
+
+ XIII. THE LESSER MASTERS
+
+  XIV. HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT
+
+   XV. MUSIC AND READING
+
+  XVI. THE HANDS
+
+ XVII. WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID
+
+XVIII. THE GLORY OF THE DAY
+
+  XIX. THE IDEAL
+
+   XX. THE ONE TALENT
+
+  XXI. LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+ XXII. IN SCHOOL
+
+XXIII. MUSIC IN SCHOOL
+
+ XXIV. HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER
+
+  XXV. THE CHILD AT PLAY
+
+       APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+Chats with Music Students; or Talks about Music and Music Life.
+
+"A remarkably valuable work. It is made up of talks to students,
+calculated to make them think; of hints and suggestions which will be
+of immense assistance to those who are earnestly trying to become
+proficient in music."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"No other book covers the same broad field which this covers in such a
+pleasant and inspiring manner."--_The Writer (Boston)._
+
+
+The Music Life and How to Succeed in it.
+
+"These ideas are worthy of attention from students and workers in all
+branches of art, science, and literature, who mean to be serious and
+earnest."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"Exceedingly valuable because of its broad impartiality in its
+exposition of truth, its depth of understanding, and, above all, for
+its earnest desire, manifest in every word, to lead music students to
+a love for music itself.... It abounds in high artistic thought and
+insight."--_The Boston Times._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHAT THE FACE TELLS.
+
+
+  "And the light _dwelleth_ with him."--_Daniel II: 22._
+
+
+Once a master said to a child:
+
+"If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy
+face shall be filled with light."
+
+So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good
+unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the
+light was coming. But at each time she was disappointed. No light was
+there. Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would,
+it was always the same.
+
+I do not know if she doubted the master or not; but it is certain she
+did not know what to make of it. She grieved, and day after day her
+disappointment grew. At length she could bear it no longer, so she
+went to the master and said:
+
+"Dear master, I have been so diligent! I have tried to learn and to do
+good unto others. Yet every time I have sought in my face the light
+_which you promised_, it has not been there. No, not a single time."
+
+Now the master listened intently, and watching her face as she spoke,
+he said:
+
+"Thou poor little one, in this moment, as thou hast spoken to me, thy
+face has been so filled with light that thou wouldst not believe. And
+dost thou know why? It is because every word thou hast spoken in this
+moment has come from thy heart.
+
+"Thou must learn _in the first days_ this lesson: When the thought and
+the deed are in the heart, then the light is in the face, always, and
+it is there at no other time. It could not be. And what is in thy
+heart when thou art before the glass? In that moment hast thou turned
+away from diligence, and from learning, and from the love of doing
+good unto others and in thy heart there is left only the poor
+curiosity to see the light which can never shine when it is sought.
+Thou canst never see the light of thy own face. For thee that light is
+forever within, and it will not prosper thy way to want to look upon
+it. It is only as thou art faithful that this is added unto thee."
+
+Sorrowing yet more than before the little child said:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee;
+but the wish is yet within me to see the light of my face, if only for
+once. Thou who art wise, tell me why it is denied me."
+
+And the master made answer:
+
+"It is denied to us all. No one may see the light of his own face.
+Therefore thou shalt labor daily with diligence that thy light shall
+shine before others. And if thou wouldst see the light thou shalt
+cause it to shine _in another_. That is the greatest of all--to bring
+forth the light. And to do this, thou shalt of thyself be faithful in
+all things. By what thou art thou must show diligence, the love for
+learning, and the desire to do good unto others, even as these things
+have been taught thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC.
+
+
+  "Music makes people more gentle and meek, more modest and
+  understanding."--_Martin Luther._[1]
+
+It was this same music lover who said once, "Music is the fairest gift
+of God." Just these words should be a sufficient answer to the
+question which we have asked in this Talk, but a little more may make
+it clearer. Here we are, gathered together to talk about music. We
+know music is pleasing; to many of us it is even more than a pleasure;
+of course, it is difficult to get the lessons properly and we must
+struggle and strive. Often the way seems so rude and stony that we
+cannot advance. We are hurt, and hot tears of discouragement come, and
+we sit down dejected feeling it were best never to try again. But even
+when the tears flow the fastest we feel something within us which
+makes us listen. We can really hear our thoughts battling to tell us
+something,--prompted by the heart, we may be sure.
+
+And what is music making our thoughts say?
+
+"Have I not been a pleasure and a comfort to you? Have I not set you
+to singing and to dancing many and many times? Have I not let you sing
+your greatest happiness? And am I not ever about you, at home, in
+school, in church? even in the streets I have never deserted you.
+Always, _always_ I have made you merry. But this was music you
+_heard_. Now you have said you wished to know me yourself; to have me
+come to dwell in your heart that you might have me understandingly,
+and because I ask labor of you for this, you sit here with your hot
+tears in your eyes and not a bit of me present in your heart. Listen!
+Am I not there? Yes, just a bit. Now more and more, and now will you
+give me up because I make you work a little?"
+
+Well, we all have just this experience and we always feel ashamed of
+our discouragements; but even this does not tell us why we should
+study music. Some people study it because they have to do so; others
+because they love it. Surely it must be best with those who out of
+their hearts choose to learn about tones and the messages they tell.
+
+Did you ever notice how people seem willing to stop any employment if
+music comes near? Even in the busiest streets of a city the organ-man
+will make us listen to his tunes. In spite of the hurry and the crowd
+and the jumble of noises, still the organ-tones go everywhere clear,
+full, melodious, bidding us heed them. Perhaps we mark the music with
+the hand, or walk differently, or begin to sing with it. In one way or
+another the music will make us do something--that shows its power. I
+have seen in many European towns a group of children about the
+organ-man,[2] dancing or singing as he played and enjoying every tune
+to the utmost. This taught me that music of every kind has its lover,
+and that with a little pains and a little patience the love for music
+belongs to all alike, and may be increased if other things do not push
+it aside.
+
+Now, one of the first things to be said of music is that it makes
+happiness, and what makes happiness is good for us, because happiness
+not only lightens the heart, but it is one of the best ways to make
+the light come to the face. The moment we study music we learn a
+severe lesson, and that is this: There can be no use in our trying to
+be musicians unless we are willing to learn perfect order in all the
+music-tasks we do.
+
+In this, music is a particularly severe mistress. Nothing slovenly,
+untidy, or out of order will do. The count must be absolutely right,
+not fast nor slow as our fancy dictates, but even and regular. The
+hands must do their task together in a friendly manner; the one never
+crowding nor hurrying the other, each willing to yield to the other
+when the right moment comes.[3] The feet must never use the pedals so
+as to make the harmonies mingle wrongly, but at just the right moment
+must make the strings sing together as the composer desires. The
+thoughts can never for a single moment wander from the playing; they
+must remain faithful, preparing what is to come and commanding the
+hands to do exactly the right task in the right way. That shows us,
+you see, the second quality and a strict one of music. It will not
+allow us to be disorderly, and more than this, it teaches us a habit
+for order that will be a gain to us in every other task. Now let us
+see:
+
+First, we should study music for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, we should study music for the order it teaches us.
+
+There is a third reason. If music gives us happiness, do we not in
+learning it gain a power to contribute happiness to others? That is
+one of the greatest pleasures in learning. Not only does the knowledge
+prove of use and joy to us, but we can constantly make it useful and
+joy-giving to others. Does this not teach us how thankful we should be
+to all those who live usefully? And think of all the men who have
+passed their lives writing beautiful thoughts, singing out of their
+very hearts, day after day, all their life long, for the joy of others
+forever after.
+
+In our next Talk we shall learn that pure thought, written out of the
+heart, is forever a good in the world. From this we shall learn that
+to study music rightly is to cultivate in our own hearts the same good
+thought which the composer had. Hence the third reason we can find for
+studying music is that it makes us able to help and to cheer others,
+to help them by willingly imparting the little knowledge we have, and
+to cheer them by playing the beautiful thoughts in tone which we have
+learned.
+
+These are three great reasons, truly, but there are many others. Let
+us speak about one of them. In some of the Talks we are to have we
+shall learn that true music comes from a true heart; and that great
+music--that is the classics--is the thought of men who are pure and
+noble, learned in the way to write, and anxious never to write
+anything but the best. There is plainly a great deal of good to us if
+we study daily the music of men such as these. In this way we are
+brought in touch with the greatest thought. This constant presence and
+influence will mold our thoughts to greater strength and greater
+beauty. When we read the history of music, we shall see that the
+greatest composers have always been willing to study in their first
+days the master works of their time. They have strengthened their
+thoughts by contact with thoughts stronger than their own, and we may
+gain in just the same way if we will. We know now that there are many
+reasons why it is good for us to study music. We have spoken
+particularly of four of these. They are:
+
+First, for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, for the order it demands of us.
+
+Third, for the power it gives us to help and cheer others.
+
+Fourth, for the great and pure thought it brings before us and raises
+in us.
+
+All these things, are they true, you ask? If the little child had
+asked that of the master he would have said:
+
+"These things shalt thou find real because they make thee brave. And
+the pain and the drudgery and the hot tears shall be the easier to
+bear for this knowledge, which should be strong within thee as a pure
+faith."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MUSIC IN THE HEART.
+
+
+  "Raffaello's genius goes directly to the heart."--_Autobiography of
+  Benvenuto Cellini._[4]
+
+The only true way to learn is by doing. The skill of the hand and the
+skill of the thought can be brought out only by use. We shall not
+become very skilful, nor very learned, nor very good unless we daily
+devote ourselves to tasks--often difficult and unpleasant--which shall
+bring to us wisdom, or success, or goodness. None of these things, nor
+any other like them, come merely by talking about them. That is the
+worst way of all--merely to talk and not to act. But if we talk
+truthfully and act with care, we shall gain a great deal. Pleasant
+companionship often brings forth thoughts which if we follow them
+industriously, lead a long way in a good direction.
+
+I do not know that any one has likened music to a country. But we can
+make the comparison, and then it becomes plain that we may either
+wander through it, seeing the beautiful things, wondering about them,
+and talking over our admiration and our wonder; or we may join to this
+a true and an earnest inquiry, which shall give us, as a reward, the
+clear understanding of some things which we see. Let us travel in this
+way; first, because we shall gain true knowledge by it, but better
+still, because we shall thereby learn _in the first days_ that the
+truest pleasures and the dearest happinesses are those for which we
+have done something; those for which we have given both of labor and
+of pains.
+
+One of the wisest little philosophers in the world was Polissena,[5]
+and I think she became wise just because she labored. As we become
+more and more acquainted with true music we shall learn this: True
+music is that which is born in some one's heart. "All immortal writers
+speak out of the heart."[6] Nothing could be truer; and as they speak
+_out_ of their hearts you may be sure they intend to speak _into_
+ours. Nowhere else. As true music is made in some one's heart, we must
+feel it in our own hearts as we play it or it will mean nothing. The
+heart must make it warm, then the beauties of the music will come out.
+It is strange how our moods tell themselves. All we do with our eyes
+and with our ears, with the tongue and with the hands, what we do with
+our thoughts even, is sure to say of itself whether we are doing with
+a willing heart or not. It is curious that the truth will come out of
+whatever seems to be a secret, but curious as it may be, it does come
+out. We must think of that.
+
+Every one of us knows the difference between doing willingly and
+unwillingly. We know that things done with joy and with eagerness are
+well done and seem to spring directly from the heart. Not only that,
+but they really inspire joy and eagerness in those who are about us.
+_Inspire_ is just the word. Look it up in your dictionary and see that
+it means exactly what happens--_to breathe into_--they breathe joy and
+happiness _into_ all things else, and it comes out of our hearts.
+
+Now happiness can be told in many ways: in laughter, in the eyes, in a
+game, in a life like that of Polissena's, in anything, but in nothing
+that does not win the heart. As happiness can be shown in anything, it
+can be shown in music. We can put happiness into play, likewise we can
+put happiness into music. And as much of it as we put into anything
+will come out. Besides, we might just as well learn now as at another
+time, this: Whatever we put into what we do will come out. It may be
+happiness or idleness or hatred or courage; whatever goes into what we
+do comes out very plainly. Everything, remember. That means much. If
+you should practise for an hour, wishing all the time to be doing
+something else, you may be sure that your wish is coming out of your
+playing so plainly that every one knows it. Do you think that is
+strange? Well, it may be, but it is strictly true.
+
+No one may be able to explain why and how, but certainly it is true
+that as we play our music all that goes on in the heart finds its way
+into the head, and the arms, and the hands, into the music, off
+through the air, and into the hearts of every one who is listening. So
+it is a valuable truth for us to remember, that whatever we put into
+our music will come out and we cannot stop it; and other people will
+get it, and know what we are by it.
+
+Once we fully understand how music will show forth our inmost feelings
+we shall begin to understand its truthfulness and its power, as well
+as its beauty. We shall see from our first days that music will tell
+the truth. That will help us to understand a little the true mission
+of art, "either to state a true thing, or adorn a serviceable one."[7]
+The moment we understand this _a very little_ we shall begin to love
+art. We shall be glad and willing for music to reveal us, to show the
+spirit within us, because little by little with the understanding will
+come love and reverence for the beautiful thoughts that are locked up
+in tones.
+
+Men who want to tell something to very many people, many of whom they
+do not know and to whom they cannot go, write down all they have to
+say and make a book of it. There are some men, however, who have many
+beautiful thoughts which they wish to tell to those who can
+understand; these may dwell in their own land or in other lands; in
+their own time or in future time. But the message of these men is so
+beautiful and so delicate that it cannot be told in words, so they
+tell it in music. Then, in their own land and in other lands, in their
+own day and forever after, people can find out the delicate thoughts
+by studying the pages of the music, seeking _with their hearts_ the
+thought that came out of the master's heart.
+
+Do you wonder that composers revere their art? We are told of Chopin
+that art was for him a high and holy vocation.[8] Do you wonder? Let
+me read you a few words about his devotion: "In order to become a
+skilful and able master he studied, without dreaming of the ... fame
+he would obtain." "Nothing could be purer, more exalted, than his
+thoughts,"[9] because he knew that if his thoughts were not pure the
+impurity would come out in his music.
+
+The music that has first been felt in the heart and then written down
+finds its way and tells all about the heart, where it was born. When
+you play and feel that you are playing from the heart, you may be sure
+you are on the right path. The beautiful thing is, that this is true
+no matter how simple music is. The very simplest will tell all about
+us. Remember, in playing music, that great and good men have put into
+tones thoughts which will be a joy and comfort to the world forever.
+Some one of these Talks will be about classic and common music. But
+even now I am sure we understand that good music comes from pure
+thought, and pure thought comes from a good heart. That, surely, is
+clear and simple.
+
+Pure music is earnest and songful. It has meaning in every part. No
+tone is without a lofty purpose. That is true music. It is classic
+from the heart that is put into it.
+
+By being faithful to our music it will do for us more than we can
+dream. Do you know the inscription that used to be over the north gate
+of the city of Siena, in Italy?
+
+"Siena opens not only her gates, but her heart to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TONES ABOUT US.
+
+
+"Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well
+as the visible in nature."--_John Tyndall_.[10]
+
+There used to live in England a famous scientist named Tyndall, who
+was interested, among other things, in the study of sound. He studied
+sounds of all kinds, made experiments with them, wrote down what he
+observed, and out of it all he wrote a book,[11] useful to all who
+desire to learn about sound and its nature.
+
+One day, Tyndall and a friend were walking up one of the mountains of
+the Alps.[12] As they ascended the path, Tyndall's attention was
+attracted by a shrill sound, which seemed to come from the ground at
+his feet. Being a trained thinker he was at once curious to know what
+was the cause of this. By looking carefully he found that it came from
+a myriad of small insects which swarmed by the side of the path.
+Having satisfied himself as to what it was he spoke to his companion
+about the shrill tone and was surprised to learn that he could not
+hear it. Tyndall's friend could hear all ordinary sound perfectly
+well. This, however, seemed to be sound of such a character as did not
+reach his sense of hearing. One who like Tyndall listened carefully to
+sounds of all kinds would quickly detect anything uncommon. This
+little incident teaches us that sounds may go on about us and yet we
+know nothing of them. Also it teaches us to think about tones, seek
+them, and in the first days increase our acquaintance and familiarity
+with them.
+
+Men of science, who study the different ways in which the mind works,
+tell us that habit and also a busy mind frequently make us unconscious
+of many things about us. Sometimes we have not noticed the clock
+strike, although we have been in the room on the hour; or some one
+speaks to us, and because we are thinking of something else we fail to
+hear what is said to us. It certainly is true that very many people do
+not hear half of the sounds that go on about them, sounds which, if
+but heeded, would teach people a great deal. And of all people, those
+who study music should be particularly attentive to sounds of all
+kinds. Indeed, the only way to begin a music education is to begin by
+learning to listen. Robert Schumann, a German composer, once wrote a
+set of rules for young musicians. As it was Schumann's habit to write
+only what was absolutely needed we may be sure he regarded his rules
+as very important. There are sixty-eight of them, and the very first
+has reference to taking particular notice of the tones about us. If we
+learn it from memory we shall understand it better and think of it
+oftener. Besides that, we shall have memorized the serious thought of
+a truly good and great man. This is what he says:
+
+"The cultivation of the ear is of the greatest importance. Endeavor
+early to distinguish each tone and key. Find out the exact tone
+sounded by the bell, the glass, and the cuckoo."
+
+There is certainly a good hint in this. Let us follow it day by day,
+and we shall see how many are the tones about us which we scarcely
+ever notice. We should frequently listen and find who of us can
+distinguish the greatest number of different sounds. Then we shall
+learn to listen attentively to sounds and noises. Bit by bit all
+sounds, especially beautiful ones, will take on a new and deeper
+meaning to us; they will be full of a previously unrecognized beauty
+which will teach us to love music more and more sincerely.
+
+In order that we may better understand how sounds are related to each
+other we should learn early to sing the major scale so that it will go
+readily up and down as a melody. As we become more and more familiar
+with it we must think frequently of its separate tones so as to feel
+just how each one sounds in the scale, how it fits in the scale, and
+just what it says, in fact; we shall then notice after a while that we
+can hear the scale with the inner ear, which is finer and more
+delicate.[13]
+
+We should have names for the scale-tones like the pretty Italian
+syllables, or, if not these, whatever our teacher suggests. Then we
+should have a conception of the tones as they are related. We should
+learn that every tone of the scale is colored by the tonic. Every one
+gets a character from the tonic which tells us all about it, because
+we learn to hear its relation to its principal tone. In a little
+while, with patience, we shall be able to hear the scale-tones in any
+order we may choose to think them. That power will be a fine help
+forever after--we must be sure to get it in the first days.
+
+Whenever we hear two tones we should try to find them on the piano.
+This will make us listen more attentively to the tone sounded by the
+clock, the church-bell, the bird, the drinking-glass. And what a lot
+there are, like the squeaking door, the cricket, the noise of the wind
+and rain, the puff of the engine, and all the other sounds we hear in
+a day. Bit by bit, in this way, our familiarity with tones will grow
+and we shall be well repaid for all the trouble. Gradually we shall
+become better listeners--but about listening we are to speak in our
+next Talk. This, however, may be said now: Let us always be sure to
+listen with special care to two tones, calling one the tonic, or
+first, of the major scale and finding what degree the other is, or
+near what degree it lies. This will make us better acquainted with the
+scale and we shall learn that all the music we have comes out of it.
+
+We must also listen to tones so that we can tell something about them
+besides their scale names. We must learn to describe tones, tell
+whether they are high or low, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, long or
+short. For instance, through the window I can hear a church-bell. Some
+one is ringing it slowly so that the tones are long. The tone is not a
+very high one (it is G above middle C) and the quality is rich and
+mellow. This describes the church-bell tone quite well, and in like
+manner we may describe all the sounds we hear. We should make it a
+habit often to stand or to sit perfectly still and to listen to
+everything that goes on about us. Even in the country, where all seems
+as quiet as possible, we shall be surprised at the great number of
+sounds.
+
+There are some other tones to which I fear we are prone not to listen.
+I mean the tones which the piano makes when we play finger-exercises.
+We think perhaps of the finger motion, which is not all; or we think
+of nothing, which is very bad; or our thoughts begin to picture other
+things even while we play, which is the worst of all, and bit by bit
+we actually forget what we are doing. One of the quickest ways to
+become unable to hear sounds correctly is to play the piano without
+thinking fully of what we are doing. Therefore it must be a rule never
+to play a tone without listening acutely to it. If in the first days
+we determine to do this and remain faithful to it, we shall always
+touch the piano keys carefully, thoughtfully, and reverentially.
+
+Elsewhere we shall have some definite tone lessons for the purpose of
+making us familiar with the tones about us. But no rule can exceed in
+importance this one, never to make any music unthinkingly.
+
+By care and practice we soon become so skilful as to notice tones with
+the readiness we notice colors in the garden. The sense of tone must
+be as strong in us as is the sense of color. Then we shall be able to
+tell differences of tones which are nearly the same, as readily as we
+can now tell two varieties of yellow, for instance. A bit of
+perseverance in this and the beauties even of common sounds shall be
+revealed to us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LISTENING.
+
+
+  "You must listen as if listening were your life."--_Phillips
+  Brooks._[14]
+
+In our last Talk we learned that it was quite possible for sounds to
+be about us and yet we not hear them. Sometimes, as in the case of
+Tyndall's companion, it is because we are not capable; at other times,
+as when the clock strikes and we do not hear, it is because we are
+occupied with other things. It is from this latter fact--being
+occupied with other things--that we can learn what listening is.
+Listening is not being occupied with other things. It is being
+completely attentive to what we are expected to hear.
+
+The condition of being occupied with other thoughts when we should be
+listening is known as inattention. To listen with full attention, all
+other things being entirely absent from the mind, is one form of
+concentration.
+
+Inattention is a destroyer. It divides our power between two or more
+things when it should be directed upon a single thing. Concentration
+gives us greater and greater mind-power. If you will look in the
+dictionary to find what concentration means (you should be good
+friends with the dictionary) you will find it is made up of _con_[15]
+meaning with, and _centrum_, a center, "with a center," or "to come to
+a center." If you hold a magnifying-glass between your hand and the
+sun you will find that at a certain distance the sunlight is in a
+circle. By changing the distance with delicacy you can diminish the
+circle to almost a point,--you make the light _come to a center_. When
+the circle of light is large, no particular effect is noted by the
+hand. When, however, the circle is as small as it can be made you feel
+a sensation of warmth which, if continued long enough, will really
+burn the hand. That small circle is the sunlight _in concentration_.
+The rays of sunlight, instead of being scattered, are centered. They
+burn the hand because they are full of power--powerful.
+
+By way of example: Let the different rays stand for inattention and
+the tiny circle of light for concentration. The former has little or
+no power; the latter is full of power. This very well illustrates what
+happens, both when our thoughts are scattered over a large area, and
+when they are brought together--concentrated--in a small circle. The
+first listening indeed which should claim our attention is not
+tone-listening, but listening to what is said to us. No one under a
+good teacher ever learns well who is not attentive and obedient. And
+then _listening_ and _doing_ are inseparably joined. Tone-listening
+makes us self-critical and observant, and we are assured by men of
+science that unless we become good observers in our early years, it is
+later impossible for us.[16]
+
+In the previous Talk we spoke about listening to all kinds of sounds,
+particularly those out-of-doors. In this Talk we shall speak only of
+real music-listening. You know, now, that music born out of the heart
+is the thought of a good man. Of course, beautiful thoughts of any
+kind should be listened to not only with attention, but with
+reverence. Reverence is the tribute which the thoughtful listener pays
+to the music of a man who has expressed himself beautifully in tone.
+This at once reveals to us that we should listen to what is great for
+the purpose of getting ideals. We hear what we hope to attain. It is
+said of the violinist, Pierre Baillot, that when only ten years of age
+he heard the playing of Viotti, and though he did not hear it again
+for twenty years the performance ever remained in his mind as an ideal
+to be realized in his studies, and he worked to attain it.
+
+The pupils of the great Viennese teacher of the piano, Theodor
+Leschetizky, say he asks no question more frequently than "Can you not
+hear?" It is not only difficult to listen to ourselves, but listening
+is one thing and decidedly a superior thing, while hearing is another
+and equally inferior thing. And it shows us, when we think of it, that
+no self-criticism is possible until we forget all things else and
+listen to what we are doing and listen with concentration. It now
+becomes clear to us that no one becomes an intelligent musician who is
+not skilled in tone sense, in listening, and having thoughts about
+what is heard.
+
+We may read again from the excellent rules of Robert Schumann:
+
+"Frequently sing in choruses, especially the middle parts; this will
+help to make you musical."
+
+Out of this we learn to try to hear more than the melody, to try
+sometimes not to think of the melody, but to listen only to that which
+accompanies it. When, in school, you sing in two and three parts,
+notice how one is inclined always to sing the soprano. The melody
+pulls us away from another part if we are not concentrated upon our
+part. Yet notice how beautifully musical the lower parts are. Listen
+intently to them whatever part you sing.
+
+It seems in music that we learn to listen in two directions. First, by
+training the attention merely to follow prominent sounds and to be
+conscious of all of them; then, later, we do not need to think so much
+of the prominent melody but we strive to hear the accompanying parts.
+These are the melodies which are somewhat concealed by the principal
+one; not truly concealed either, for they are plain enough if we will
+listen. They make one think of flowers hidden in the grass and
+foliage. They are none the less beautiful though they are concealed;
+for the sunlight seeks them out and makes them blossom.
+
+We find hidden melodies in all good music because it is the character
+of good music to have interesting and beautiful melodic thought
+everywhere. There are never meaningless tones allowed. Every sound
+says something and is needed. It is curious that in our playing the
+moment we put our thoughts upon any tone or voice part with the desire
+to hear it, it comes out at once as plainly as if it was the highest
+melody. That illustrates the power of thought concentrated upon even a
+hidden thing. You know how in Bach even the piano works move as if all
+parts were to be sung by voices. It reminds one of conversation; of
+the story, of the question and answer, of the merry chat in a pleasant
+company. Some bits of sentence are tripping and full of laughter,[17]
+others grave and majestic,[18] others have wonderful dignity of heart
+and mind.[19]
+
+Such qualities give music interest and meaning in every part. It will
+not take you long to discover that it is just the absence of these
+qualities that makes other music common.
+
+The melody is not sustained by anything particularly well worth
+listening to. One might say that good music is like the foliage of the
+garden, every leaf and petal variously yet finely formed, and all
+combined to make a beautiful whole.
+
+When you have learned carefully to follow the accompaniment of a
+melody, try to follow the single voice parts in the chorus,
+particularly the Bass, Tenor, and Alto. And when you go to orchestral
+concerts learn early to follow special instruments like the clarinet,
+the oboe, the drum.
+
+Especially try to follow the lower strings, the viola, the 'cello, and
+the bass. They are strongly characteristic. You will learn their
+peculiar qualities only by giving them special and concentrated
+thought. You will now see that acute and careful listening has its
+definite ways and purposes. Here they are:
+
+    I. Listening comes from concentration.
+
+   II. When listening to great music it must be with reverence as well
+       as with attention.
+
+  III. We must listen for ideals.
+
+   IV. We must listen in order to be self-critical.
+
+    V. Constant listening to true music reveals that there is never a
+       tone used unless it has a meaning.
+
+And besides all this we must think that among those who listen to us
+there may be some one who has learned this careful concentrated way.
+Then we shall have it ever in mind to "play as if in the presence of a
+master."[20]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THINKING IN TONE.
+
+
+  "The gods for labor sell us all good things."--_Epicharmus_.[21]
+
+Perhaps you have some doubt as to exactly what is meant by
+music-thinking. Being somewhat acquainted with composers and with
+music, the thought may here come to you that all the music we hear in
+the world must have been made by somebody--by many somebodies, in
+fact. They have had to sit down, and forgetting all things else,
+listen intently to the music-thought which fills the mind. If you will
+sit quietly by yourself you will discover that you can easily think
+words and sentences and really hear them in the mind without
+pronouncing anything. In quite the same way the composer sits and
+hears music, tone by tone, and as clearly as if it were played by a
+piano or an orchestra. And to him the tones have a clear meaning, just
+as words have a clear meaning to us. Naturally, one can see that there
+could be no other way. Unless the composer can think out everything
+exactly there could be no music, for music must be written, and one
+can only write what one thinks. So at this point the thought to
+remember is this: Music must exist in some one's mind before others
+can have it to hear and enjoy.
+
+In like manner--just the same manner, in fact--the painter is one who
+thinks pictures; the sculptor, one who thinks statues; the architect,
+one who thinks buildings. They think these things just as you think
+words; and as you tell your thoughts in spoken words, so they tell
+their thoughts in printed music, in painted pictures, in chiseled
+statues, and in erected buildings. Now, from all this it should be
+clear to you that there can be nothing which has not first been
+thought of by some one. You _think_ the door must be closed and you
+close it; you _think_ you must know the time and you look at the
+clock; you _think_ the one hand should play more loudly than the other
+and you try to do it.
+
+Power to get things and to do things comes to us rapidly only in the
+fairy-tales. In the real, beautiful, healthy world in which we live we
+have to work hard and honestly for the power either to get things or
+to do things. By faithful labor must we win what we want. What we do
+not labor for we do not get. That is a condition of things so simple
+that a child can readily understand it. But all, children and their
+elders, are apt to forget it. In the life of every great man there is
+a story different from that of every other great man, _but in every
+one of them_ this truth about laboring for the power one has is found.
+
+In our Talk on Listening, it was said that the sounds we hear around
+us are the more easily understood if we first become familiar with the
+melody which is called the major scale. But in order to think music it
+is necessary to know it--in fact, music-thinking is impossible without
+it. As it is no trouble to learn the scale, all of you should get it
+fixed in the mind quickly and securely.
+
+It is now possible for you to hear the scale without singing its tones
+aloud. Listen and see if that is not so! Now think of the melodies you
+know, the songs you sing, the pieces you play. You can sing them quite
+loudly (_can_ you sing them?) or in a medium tone, or you can hum them
+softly as if to yourself; or further yet, you can think them without
+making the faintest sound, and every tone will be as plain as when you
+sang it the loudest. Here, I can tell you that Beethoven wrote many of
+his greatest works when he was so deaf that he could not hear the
+music he made. Hence, he must have been able to write it out of his
+thought just as he wanted it to sound. When you understand these steps
+and ways you will then know about the beginning of music-thinking.
+
+Let us inquire in this Talk what the piano has to do in our
+music-thinking. What relation is there between the music in the mind
+and the tones produced by the piano? It seems really as if the piano
+were a photographic camera, making for us a picture of what we have
+written,--a camera so subtle indeed, that it pictures not things we
+can see and touch, but invisible things which exist only within us.
+But faithful as the piano is in this, it may become the means of doing
+us much injury. We may get into the habit of trusting the piano to
+think for us, of making it do so, in fact. Instead of looking
+carefully through the pages of our new music, reading and
+understanding it with the mind, we run to the piano and with such
+playing-skill as we have we sit down and use our hands instead of our
+minds. Now a great many do that, young and old. But the only people
+who have a chance to conceive their music rightly are the young; the
+old, if they have not already learned to do it, never can. That is a
+law which cannot be changed.
+
+We have talked about listening so much that it should now be a settled
+habit in us. If it is we are learning every day a little about tones,
+their qualities and character. And we do this not alone by hearing the
+tones, but by giving great heed to them. Let us now remember this:
+listening is not of the ears but of the thoughts. It is thought
+_concentrated_ upon hearing. The more this habit of tone-listening
+goes on in us, the more power we shall get out of our ability to read
+music. All these things help one another. We shall soon begin to
+discover that we not only have thoughts about sounding-tones, but
+about printed tones. This comes more as our knowledge of the scale
+increases.
+
+We can now learn one of the greatest and one of the most wonderful
+truths of science: _Great knowledge of anything comes from never
+ceasing to study the first steps._
+
+The major scale, as we first learn it, seems a perfectly simple thing.
+But if we think of it all our lives we shall never discover the
+wonders there are in it. Hence, three simple rules for us to follow in
+learning to think music are these:
+
+  1. To listen to all tones.
+
+  2. Never to stop studying the major scale.
+
+  3. To become accustomed to hear tones within.
+
+If we are faithful to these we shall, with increasing study and
+industry, become more and more independent of the piano. We shall
+never think with our hands, nor depend upon anything outside of
+ourselves for the meaning contained in printed tone-thought.
+
+If now we join two things we shall get the strength of both united,
+which is greater than of either alone.
+
+If in our playing lessons we have only the very purest music (heart
+music, remember), and if we are faithful in our simpler thinking
+lessons, we shall gain the power not only of pure thought, but of
+stronger and stronger thought. This comes of being daily in the
+presence of great thoughts--for we are in the presence of great
+thoughts when we study great music, or read a great poem, or look at a
+great picture, or at a great building. All these things are but signs
+made manifest,--that is to say, made plain to us--of the pure thought
+of their makers.
+
+Thomas Carlyle, a Scotch author of this century, spoke very truly when
+he said:
+
+"Great men are profitable company; we cannot look upon a great man
+without gaining something by him."[22]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR.
+
+
+  "You must feel the mountains above you while you work upon your
+  little garden."--_Phillips Brooks._[23]
+
+Somewhere else we shall have some definite lessons in music-thinking.
+Let us then devote this Talk to finding out what is suggested to us by
+the things we see and hear.
+
+Once a boy wrote down little songs. When the people asked him how he
+could do it, he replied by saying that he made his songs from thoughts
+which most other people let slip. We have already talked about thought
+and about learning to express it. If a person of pure thought will
+only store it up and become able to express it properly, when the time
+comes he can make little songs or many other things; for all things
+are made of thought. The poem is stored-up thought expressed in words;
+the great cathedral like the one at Winchester, in England, or the one
+near the Rhine, at Cologne, in Germany, is stored-up thought expressed
+in stone. So with the picture and the statue: they are stored-up
+thought on canvas and in marble.[24] In short, we learn by looking at
+great things just what the little ones are; and we know from poems and
+buildings and the like, that these, and even commoner things, like a
+well-kept garden, a tidy room, a carefully learned lesson, even a
+smile on one's face result, every one of them, from stored-up thought.
+
+We can consequently make a definition of THINGS by saying they are
+what is thought. Things are made of thought. Even if you cannot
+understand this fully now, keep it by you and as you grow older its
+truth will be more and more clear. It will be luminous. Luminous is
+just the word, for it comes from a word in another language and means
+_light_. Now the better you understand things the more _light_ you
+have about them. And out of this you can understand how well ignorance
+has been compared with darkness. Hence, from the poem, the building,
+the painting, the statue, and from commoner things we can learn, as it
+was said in a previous Talk, that music is stored-up thought told in
+beautiful tones.
+
+Now let us heed the valuable part of all this. If poems, statues, and
+all other beautiful things are made out of stored-up thought (and
+commoner things are, too), we ought to be able, by studying the
+things, to tell what kind of a person it was who thought them; or, in
+other words, who made them. It is true, we can. We can tell all the
+person's thought, so far as his art and principal work are concerned.
+Nearly all his life is displayed in the works he makes. We can tell
+the nature of the man, the amount of study he has done, but best of
+all we can tell his meaning. The face tells all its past history to
+one who knows how to look.[25] His intentions are everywhere as plain
+as can be in what he does.
+
+Thus you see there is more in a person's work than what we see at the
+first glance. There are reflections in it as plain as those in a
+mountain lake. And as the mountain lake reflects only what is _above_
+it, so the work of the musician, of the artist, of any one in fact,
+reflects those thoughts which forever hover above the others. Thoughts
+of good, thoughts of evil, thoughts of generosity, thoughts of selfish
+vanity, these, _and every other kind_, are so strongly reflected in
+the work we do that they are often more plainly seen than the work
+itself. And with the works of a great artist before us we may find out
+not only what he did and what he knew, but what he felt _and even what
+he did not want to say_.
+
+We now know what music-thinking is. Also, we see why the young
+musician needs to learn to think music. Really, he is not a musician
+until he can think correctly in tone. And further than this, when we
+have some understanding of music-thought we not only think about what
+we play and hear, but we begin to inquire what story it tells and what
+meaning it should convey. We begin to seek in music for the thought
+and intention of the composer, and, little by little, even before we
+know it, we begin to seek out what kind of mind and heart the composer
+had. We begin really to study his character from the works he has left
+us.
+
+We have now taken the first really intelligent step toward knowing for
+ourselves something about common and classic music. Later on, as our
+ability increases, this will be of great value to us. We begin to see,
+bit by bit, what the author intended. That is the real test of it all.
+We do not want to find mere jingle in music, we want music that says
+something. Even a very young child knows that "eenty meenty meiny moe"
+is not real sense, though it is a pleasant string of sounds to say in
+a game.
+
+Thus we learn to look into what we hear and into what we see and try
+to find how much thought there is in it, and the kind of thought it
+is. We want to know if goodness is expressed; if the best work of the
+man is before us, or if, for a lower reason, his selfishness and
+vanity are most prominent. And let us remember that as we seek these
+things in the works of others, so others of thoughtful kind will watch
+our doings, our playing, our speech, our little habits, and all to see
+what our intentions are each time we express ourselves. They will look
+to see what thoughts we are putting into our doings, whether thoughts
+of goodness or of selfishness. And our actions will always be just as
+good as the thought we put into them.
+
+Now a great and a common mistake is, that sometimes we hope by some
+mysterious change, as in a fairy tale, that they will be better than
+what we intend. But in the first days let us learn that this is not
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CLASSICS.[26]
+
+
+  "Genuine work done faithfully, that is eternal."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+The older we grow and the more we study, the more we shall hear about
+the classics, about classic music, and classic art, and classic books.
+From the beginning let us keep it in our minds that one of our duties
+is to find out the difference between what is classic and what is not.
+Then we shall have a proper understanding. An English writer on art
+says: "The writers and painters of the classic school set down nothing
+but what is known to be true, and set it down in the perfectest manner
+possible in their way."[27]
+
+And we have already learned that thought from the heart, expressed in
+tones, is good music. On the other hand, a thought with the heart not
+in it, expressed in tone, makes poor or common music. Mendelssohn
+wrote in one of his letters: "When I have composed a piece just as it
+springs from my heart, then I have done my duty toward it."[28] But in
+writing thoughts, whether in words or in tones, there is a very
+important thing to add to the bidding of the heart. It is the training
+of the mind. With both of these one works and judges wisely.
+
+With thought and intention ever so pure, but with no education, one
+would not be able to write for others, and with a little education one
+would be able to write only in a partially correct way. This brings us
+to one of the most interesting Talks we shall have. Let us try to make
+it clear and simple.
+
+We can easily imagine a man both true and good who can neither write
+nor spell. Happily, in these days, nearly all people who are old
+enough know how to do both. We can understand that this man may have
+beautiful thoughts--the thoughts of a true poet or of a true
+artist--but being unable to write or to spell he could not put his
+thoughts on paper for others to read and to study. This is the way
+thoughts are preserved and made into books so that people may benefit
+by them.
+
+It would, therefore, be necessary for this man, about whom we speak,
+to get the assistance of some one who knew how to write thoughts and
+to spell their words. Then, together, they would have to talk about
+the thoughts, choose proper words, form the sentences, and make all
+fit rightly together as a writer must who desires to be clear. But it
+is more than likely that the one who writes would not do all these
+things to the satisfaction of the other. Of this there could be but
+one result. The person who had the beautiful thoughts would be forever
+wishing that he had learned in the first days to write and to spell.
+Then he could do all these things for himself and show his thoughts to
+others exactly as he wished them to appear.
+
+Now it is clear that some may have beautiful and valuable thoughts and
+not know how to write them, while others may have the ability to write
+without having thoughts worth preserving. Evidently what one must have
+are both beautiful thoughts and ability to write them.
+
+Did you think when I read you that bit from the letter of Mendelssohn
+that all a composer has to do is to find in his heart just what he
+wants to say? As we have already discovered, that is not enough. To
+show you that Mendelssohn was not afraid of hard work let us read a
+little from another of his letters.[29] Mendelssohn had resolved to
+work in Germany and maintain himself. "If I find that I cannot do
+this, then I must leave it for London or Paris, where it is easier to
+get on. I see indeed where I should be more honored, and live more
+gaily and more at my ease than in Germany, where a man must press
+forward, and toil, and take no rest,--still, if I can succeed there,
+_I prefer_ the latter."[30]
+
+We can now understand that it is quite the same with word-thinkers and
+with tone-thinkers. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make
+the classics.
+
+Out of this thought there comes another. It is this: Great thoughts,
+expressed well, out of a great heart, make the works which last the
+longest; and still further, for one truth leads out of another. Only
+they can appreciate the classics who have something that is classic
+within them. They must have the heart true in its feeling, tender in
+its sentiments. Even a child can have that. They must have the mind
+trained in the truest and best way of expressing thought. And a child
+may begin to learn that. Hence we see that a child may be classic
+worthy. Only we must never, _never_, no matter what is our ability,
+think we are better or above others. The more talents one has the more
+one is expected to do and the greater duty it is.[31]
+
+Thus far we have three truths; now here is a fourth: Some love the
+classics sooner and better than others because they have more power.
+And how do they get it? They think more (thought-making); they feel
+more (heart-learning); and they see more (truth-seeking).
+
+Let us at once go back and gather together these four truths. They are
+important. Perhaps some of us who are willing to spend the time will
+learn them from memory.
+
+And to repay us for the trouble of doing it we shall have greater and
+greater understanding of many things. Here they are:
+
+    I. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make the classics.
+
+   II. Great thoughts, expressed well, out of a great heart, make the
+       works which last the longest.
+
+  III. Only they can appreciate the classics who have something that
+       is classic within them.
+
+   IV. Some love the classics sooner and better than others because
+       they have more power.
+
+What shall these truths teach us? That true music cannot be learned
+rapidly; that the way of Art is long and difficult. But if the way is
+long, it is yet beautiful in every turn; if it is difficult, it is yet
+worth a struggle for what comes. As you read the lives of the great
+composers you will learn that they went willingly about their tasks,
+doing each one well. This is done by all great men. _Great men take
+short steps carefully_, no matter how rapidly they can go.
+
+One of them [32] wrote: "Success comes with tiny steps." And it comes
+entirely unsought. Besides all this we are to remember that the power
+for these things comes from
+
+    I. Thought-making;
+
+   II. Heart-learning;
+
+  III. Truth-seeking.
+
+Now, just to end with let us read a few words from a book I trust we
+all may read some day: [33] "Great art is the expression of the mind
+of a great man, and mean art of a weak man." Let us remember that in
+choosing things to play.
+
+Further on Ruskin says: "If stone work is _well_ put together, it
+means that a thoughtful man planned it, and a careful man cut it, and
+an honest man cemented it." [34]
+
+Likewise in these things one can see what is classic--work out of the
+heart and well done, and that comes from a thoughtful, careful, honest
+person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY.
+
+
+  "But blessings do not fall in listless hands."_--Bayard Taylor._
+
+We already begin to understand what the classics are. Year by year as
+our interest in the beautiful increases, we shall gain more definite
+knowledge about classic art. That which is classic will begin to
+announce itself in us. Our own choice indicates our taste but does not
+always indicate what is best for us. And one of the purposes of art is
+to improve the taste by setting before us the finest works; in these,
+by study, we find beauty with which we are unacquainted. Thus we
+enlarge our capacity for it.
+
+Because we are born with taste unformed and untrained you can at once
+see the reason for gradually increasing the tasks. They are always a
+little more difficult--like going up a mountain--but they give a finer
+and finer view. The outlook from the mountain-top cannot be had all at
+once. We must work our way upward for it. Hence you will observe in
+your lessons that what was once a fitting task is no longer of quite
+the same value because of your increased power. But about this
+especially we shall have a Talk later on.
+
+When one has heard much music of all kinds, one soon begins to
+understand that there are two kinds commonly chosen. Some players
+choose true music with pure thought in it, and do their best to play
+it well after the manner called for by the composer. Their aim is to
+give truthful expression to the music of a good writer. Other players
+seem to work from a motive entirely different. They select music which
+is of a showy character, with much brilliancy and little thought in
+it. Their aim is not to show what good music is, but to show
+themselves. The desire of the first is truth, of the second is vanity.
+
+Now, as we examine into this, and into both kinds of music, we
+discover much. It proves that we must work for the best; for the
+truthful music, not for the vain music. As we get better acquainted
+with true music we find it more and more interesting--it keeps saying
+new things to us. We go to it again and again, getting new meanings.
+But the showy music soon yields all it has; we find little or nothing
+more in it than at first. As it was made not from good thought but for
+display, we cannot find newer and more beautiful thought in it, and
+the display soon grows tiresome. True music is like the light in a
+beautifully-cut gem, it seems that we never see all it is--it is never
+twice the same; always a new radiance comes from it because it is a
+true gem through and through. It is full of true light, and true light
+is always opposed to darkness; and darkness is the source of
+ignorance.
+
+From all this you can now understand the quaintly-expressed opinion of
+a very wise man, who said: "In discharge of thy place, set before thee
+the best example."[35] That means whatever we strive to learn should
+be learned from works of the best kind. In the beginning, we cannot
+choose wisely the best examples to set before ourselves; therefore it
+is for us to heed what another wise man said: "As to choice in the
+study of pieces, ask the advice of more experienced persons than
+yourself; by so doing you will save much time." [36] You thereby save
+time doubly. Later on in your life you will have no bad taste to
+overcome--that is one saving; and already you know from childhood many
+classics, and that is another saving. What we learn in childhood is a
+power all our lives.
+
+You can see plainly, now, that both in the choice of pieces and in the
+manner of playing them, a person's character will come out. We saw in
+the last Talk how character has to come out in writing. Only a very
+common character would select pieces written entirely for a vain
+show--of rapid runs, glittering arpeggios, and loud, unmeaning chords.
+Worse than that, such a choice of pieces displays two common
+people,--three, in fact: A composer who did not write pure thought
+from the heart; a teacher who did not instil good thoughts into the
+pupil's heart; and yourself (if really you care for such things) who
+play from a vain desire to be considered brilliant.
+
+A player who devotes the mind and the hands only to what a meaningless
+composer writes for them is not worthy of any power. With our hands in
+music, as with the tongue in speech, let us strive from the beginning
+to be truthful. Let us try in both ways to express the highest truth
+we are able to conceive. Then in art we shall, at least, approach near
+unto the true artist; and in life we shall approach near unto the true
+life. Every mere empty display-piece we study takes up the time and
+the opportunity wherein we could learn a good composition, by a master
+of the heart. And it is only with such music that you will, during
+your life, get into the hearts of those who are most worthy for you to
+know. Out of just this thought Schumann has two rules now very easy
+for us to understand:
+
+"Never help to circulate bad compositions; on the contrary, help to
+suppress them with earnestness."
+
+"You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled,
+listen to them."
+
+We now come to a really definite conclusion about the compositions we
+should play and to an extent as to how we should play them.
+
+The heart, the mind, and the hands, or the voice, if you sing, should
+unite in our music; and be consecrated to the beautiful. Consecrate is
+just exactly the word. Look for it in your dictionary.[37] It comes
+from two other words, does it not? _Con_ meaning _with_ and _sacer_
+meaning _holiness._ Thus devote heart and head and hands _with
+holiness_ to the beautiful. This is very clear, I am sure.
+
+It is also worth doing. "With holiness" describes _how_ to play and
+really _what_ to play. A composition which has been born of a true man
+is in thought already consecrated. He has heard it and felt it within
+himself. Daily you must get closer and closer to these messages and
+meanings. And are they not already more _luminous_ to you? And do you
+remember what we said luminous means?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LESSON.
+
+
+  "All people value most what has cost them much labor."
+  --Aristotle.[38]
+
+It is true that music is beautiful and that it gives us happiness and
+comfort. But, nevertheless, music is hard to learn _for every one_;
+harder for some than for others, but hard for all. It is well and best
+that it should be so. We appreciate most highly that which we labor
+for earnestly. Just imagine if every one could sing or play merely by
+wishing it! Then music would be so common and so much the talent of
+all that it would cease to give us joy. Why? Because one gained it by
+a wish. That is not enough. From this can we learn to understand the
+great secret of it all? I think we can. Let us see! The secret is
+this: Music is a joy because it takes us out of ourselves and we work
+hard to get it. Music teaches us what a wonderful power there is
+within us, if we will only strive to bring it out. Education is good
+for us for this same reason. As you learn more and more about words,
+you will see more in this word Education.
+
+It means to lead out _what is within us_. To lead music out of the
+heart becomes the object, then, of your lessons. One cannot drive
+music into you; it must be led out.
+
+Where shall we look for music that it may be led out? Only in the
+heart. That is where all is in every one of us. But often in our
+hearts there is so much else, so much vanity, self-love, conceit, love
+for other things, that the music is almost beyond reach. _Almost_, but
+never entirely. In the heart of every one is music. But often it is
+deep, deep down, covered by these other things. The older we grow and
+the more other things we see and think about, the deeper and deeper
+down does the music get.
+
+It is like heaping rocks, and dirt, and sticks on a bubbling spring.
+The spring is down there, bubbling freely beneath it all, still
+striving to be as free and as songful as before; but it cannot. People
+may come and go, may pass near to it, and hear not one of its sounds;
+they may never suspect that there is such a thing ready to go on
+merrily if it could.
+
+When is the best time to lead water out of the spring, and music out
+of the heart? Before other things begin to cover it. With music the
+best time is in the early days, in childhood time--_in the first
+days_. We shall hear those words many times. Then little by little the
+bubbling spring of melody gains its independence; then, even if other
+things do come in, they cannot bury the music out of sight. The spring
+has been led forth _and has grown stronger_.
+
+Thoughtful people who have suffered in learning--all people suffer in
+learning, thoughtful ones the most--wonder how they can make the task
+less painful for others. It will always cause us sorrow as well as joy
+to learn, and many people spend their lives in trying to have as
+little sorrow as possible come with the learning of the young. When
+such people are true and good and thoughtful and _have infinite
+kindness_, they are teachers; and the teachers impose tasks upon us
+severely, perhaps, but with kind severity. They study us and music,
+and they seek out the work each one of us must perform in order that
+we may keep the heart-springs pure and uncovered. Further than this,
+they find the way by which we shall lead the waters of life which flow
+out of the heart-springs. They find the way whither they should flow
+best.
+
+Often in the doing of these things we find the lessons hard and
+wearisome, infinitely hard to bear, difficult, and not attractive. We
+wonder why all these things should be so, and we learn in the moment
+we ask that question that these painful tasks are the price we are
+paying for the development of our talent. That is truly the purpose of
+a lesson. And the dear teacher, wise because she has been painfully
+over the road herself, knows how good and necessary it is for us to
+labor as she directs.
+
+Let us suppose you play the piano. There will be two kinds of
+lessons--one will be for the fingers, one for the mind. But really the
+mind also guides the finger-work; and the heart must be in all. Your
+exercises will give you greater power to speak with the fingers. Every
+new finger-exercise in piano-playing is like a new word in language.
+Provided with it, you can say more than you could before. The work for
+the mind is the classics. These are compositions by the greater and
+lesser masters with which you form the taste, while the technical
+exercises are provided to give you the power, the ability, to play
+them. Thus you see how well these two things go together.
+
+Year after year, if you go on patiently, you will add to each of these
+tasks; more power will come to the fingers and to the mind. All this
+time you will be coming nearer and nearer to the true music. More and
+more will be coming out of your heart. The spring will not only
+continue to bubble clearly but it will become more powerful. Nothing
+is so wonderful as that.
+
+Do you know what a sad thing it was for the man not to increase that
+one talent which had been given to him? [39] Perchance you have also
+one. Then find it, love it, increase it. Know that every step of the
+way, every bit of task, every moment of faith is paid for in later
+years ten thousandfold.
+
+If now we remember our Talk on Listening it will serve us. Did we not
+say then that the first duty of a listener is to the one who speaks
+for his good? Lesson time is an opportunity above nearly all others
+when we should listen with love in our attention. Yes, nothing less
+than that, because--how many times we have heard it already--putting
+love into anything, is putting the heart into it, and with less than
+that we do not get all we may have.
+
+This Talk, then, is important, because it gathers together many things
+that have gone before, and hints at some to come. Let us give the last
+words to speaking about that. A lesson suggests listening; listening
+suggests the teacher, who with infinite kindness and severity guides
+us; and the teacher suggests the beautiful road along which we go and
+what we hear as we travel, that is the music of the heart; and the
+music of the heart has in it the tones about us, and the greater and
+lesser masters who thought them into beautiful forms. The masters are
+as servants unto whom there is given to some one talent, to others
+two, and four, and more, but to each according to his worth, to be
+guided and employed in truth and honor; increased by each in
+accordance to his strength.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE LIGHT ON THE PATH.
+
+
+  "Let us seek service and be helpers of one another."
+
+"Master," said the little child, "I am unhappy. Though I have
+companions and games, they do not content me. Even the music which I
+love above all the rest is not truly in my heart; nor is it the
+pleasure to me which it should be. What am I to do?"
+
+And the master replied:
+
+"There is a task, the greatest and severest of all. But a child must
+learn it. Thou must know _from the first days_, that all thou doest
+and sayest, whither thou goest, what thou seekest; these, all these,
+come from within. All that is seen of thee is of thy inner life. All
+thy doings, thy goings and comings, thy ways and thy desires, these
+are from within. And when all these things _are for thyself_ there is
+misery.
+
+"Now there are many things which may not be had by directly seeking
+them; of these the greatest are two. The one is that which already has
+given thee sadness in the heart,--the Light of the Face. And the other
+is happiness.
+
+"But there is a way in which these are to be found. Dost thou not know
+that often, even with much trouble, thou canst not please thyself? But
+always, _with little trouble or none_, thou canst please another.
+
+"And the way is Service.
+
+"Thou poor little one! Thou hast come with thy complaint of
+unhappiness; and yet thou hast all that is bright and rare;
+companions, and music, and a dear home. Dost thou know that there are
+in the world uncounted poor ones, children like thyself, who have not
+their daily bread? And yet there are many of them who never fail to
+say: 'Lead us not into temptation.' And they say this _without having
+tasted_ of the daily bread for which they have been taught to pray.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy. And thy daily bread is set before thee
+with music and with sunshine.
+
+"Yet there are little ones, like thyself, who are hungry in the
+darkness.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE GREATER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "In spite of all, I have never interrupted the study of music."
+  --_Palestrina._
+
+An opera writer of Italy, named Giovanni Pacini, once said that to
+study the writings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven "lightens the mind
+of a student, since the classics are a continuous development of the
+most beautiful and simple melodies," and we sometimes hear it said
+that great men are they who dare to be simple. In our Talks thus far
+we have learned one important fact, which is, that music is truth
+expressed out of the heart. Of course we know that to be in the heart
+it must be felt, and to be expressed we must know a great deal about
+writing. Now we are able to imagine quite well what a great master is
+in music. As Pacini says, his melodies will be simple and beautiful,
+and as we ourselves know, his simple melodies will be an expression of
+truth out of the heart.
+
+But to go only as far as this would not be enough. Many can write
+simply and well, and truthfully, yet not as a master. There must be
+something else. When we have found out what that something else is we
+shall understand the masters better and honor them more.
+
+Everywhere in the history of music we read of what men have been
+willing to do for the love of their art. It is not that they have been
+willing to do when told; but that they have cheerfully done painful,
+laborious tasks of their own accord. The name of every master will
+recall great labor willingly given for music and equally great
+suffering willingly endured, nay, even sought out, that the music
+might be purer to them. Poor Palestrina went along many years through
+life with the scantiest means. But, as he says, "in spite of all, I
+have never interrupted the study of music." Bach was as simple and
+loyal a citizen as any land could have, and from the early years when
+he was a fatherless boy to the days of his sad affliction, he
+sacrificed always. Think of the miles he walked to hear Buxterhude,
+the organist; and in the earlier years, when he lived with Johann
+Christopher, his brother, how eagerly he sought learning in the art
+that so fascinated him. It was a constant willingness to learn
+honestly that distinguished him.
+
+Any of us who will labor faithfully with the talents we have can do a
+great deal--more than we would believe. Even Bach himself said to a
+pupil: "If thou art _equally_ diligent thou wilt succeed as I
+have."[40] He recognized that it matters little how much we wish for
+things to be as we want them; unless our wish-thoughts are forced into
+prompt action we cannot succeed; for while all thoughts seek action,
+wish-thoughts demand the most labor.
+
+It would be pleasant to have a Talk about every one of the great
+masters to see in what particular way each of them sacrificed for the
+art he loved. In all of them the true qualities come out: in one as
+earnestness; in another as determination; in another as patriotism;
+but all are loyal to the art itself. It must be a very plain lesson to
+us to see that when men are willing to give all their thoughts to a
+subject they get much from it. And is it not quite as plain to see
+that no one can get much if he gives but a few unwilling minutes to
+it? I trust none who hear these Talks will ever think that with a
+little time given to their music, and that not freely given, they can
+ever get either pleasure or comfort from it. They never can. And
+rather than do it so they would better leave it undone. If we set out
+on the way to go to the masters we shall get there only by
+earnestness. Lagging is a disgrace to the one who travels and to the
+one to whom we go. It shows his laziness on the one hand, and his
+misunderstanding of the master on the other; for if he understood he
+would take no listless step.
+
+Now we have said again and again that true music comes from the heart,
+and is simple. At the same time we find it difficult to understand the
+music of the masters. That is, some of us find it so. It seems
+anything but simple to us; and naturally we conclude that there is
+something wrong somewhere. We sit at our tasks, poring over the music,
+and we grow discouraged because we cannot play it. To think it a very
+hard task is natural, and we cannot bear to hear such tones. Well, let
+us not get discouraged for that; let us see!
+
+First of all, the playing is more difficult to do than the music is to
+understand. Once a great master of the piano played to a lady who had
+never heard a great master before, and the playing was like beautiful
+lace. When it was over and the master had gone away, some one asked
+the lady how he had played, and she said:
+
+"He played so that the music sounded as I thought it should."
+
+And they asked her what she meant.
+
+"Always I have been taught," she said, "to listen to music and to
+think it. I have been taught this more than I have been taught to
+play. And the music of the master-composers I always think of as
+beautiful and simple but hard to make it sound as it should. Often I
+have heard others say that the music of the masters is dull, and not
+beautiful, but that is really not what the people feel. It is
+difficult for them to play the music rightly. And again they cannot
+understand this: that art is often simple in, its truth, while those
+who look upon it are not! simple-hearted, as they regard it. This is
+hard to understand, but it is the true reason."
+
+Now, if we think of what this cultured lady said, we shall think her
+wise. Whatever stumbling we may do with our fingers, let us still keep
+in our minds the purity of the music itself. This will in a sense
+teach us to regard reverentially the men who, from early years, have
+added beauties to art for us to enjoy to-day. The wisest of the Greeks
+[41] said:
+
+"The treasures of the wise men of old, which they have left written in
+books, I turn over and peruse in company with my friends, and if we
+find anything good in them, we remark it, and think it a great gain,
+if we thus become more attracted to one another."
+
+Once an English lady[42] wrote about a verse-writer: "No poet ever
+clothed so few ideas in so many words." Just opposite to this is a
+true poet, he who clothes in few words many and noble ideas. A master
+tells his message in close-set language.
+
+Now, in the last minutes, let us see what a great master is:
+
+    I. He will be one who tells a beautiful message simply.
+
+   II. He has been willing to sacrifice and suffer for his art.
+
+  III. He has lived his every day in the simple desire to know his own
+       heart better.
+
+   IV. Always he has concentrated his message into as few tones as
+       possible, and his music, therefore, becomes filled to
+       overflowing with meaning.
+
+About the meaning of the masters, one of them has written this:
+"Whenever you open the music of Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, its
+meaning comes forth to you in a thousand different ways." That is
+because thousands of different messages from the heart have been
+_concentrated_ in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LESSER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "And the soul of a child came into him again."--_I Kings, XVII: 22._
+
+If, one day, some one should say to you, earnestly: "Well day are to
+you!" you would scarcely know what to make of it. You would at once
+understand that the person had knowledge of words but could not put
+them together rightly. And if the person continued to talk to you in
+this manner you might feel inclined to lose your patience and not
+listen. But if you would stop and consider things and examine yourself
+you would learn something well worth thinking about.
+
+You would discover that your own ability to put words in the right
+order has come from being obedient. First of all, you have been
+willing to imitate what others said until you have thereby learned to
+speak quite well. Besides that, you have been corrected many times by
+those about you at home, and in school, until language is at length a
+careful habit in you. Every one knows at once what you mean. You see,
+therefore, that you may combine words in such a manner that you will
+be easily comprehended by others; or, as in the case of the imaginary
+person we began with, they may be combined in a perfectly senseless
+way. Consequently, it is not enough to know words alone, we must know
+what to do with them. The true art of using words is to put full and
+clear meaning into a few of them; to say as much as possible with as
+few words as you may select.
+
+Tones may be treated in the same manner as words. One can write tones
+in such a manner as to say quite as senseless a thing as "Well day are
+to you!" Many do. This teaches you that true and simple
+tone-sentences, like similar word-sentences, must have for their
+object to say the fullest and clearest meaning in as little space as
+possible.
+
+For many hundreds of years thoughtful composers have studied about
+this. They have tried in every way to discover the secrets underlying
+tone-writing so that the utmost meaning should come out when they are
+united. Tones thus arranged according to the laws of music-writing
+make sense. To learn this art all great composers have studied
+untiringly. They have recognized the difficulty of putting much
+meaning in little space, and to gain this ability they have found no
+labor to be too severe.
+
+We must remember that there is no end of music in the world which was
+not written by the few men whom we usually call the great composers.
+Perhaps you will be interested to know about these works. Many of them
+are really good--your favorite pieces, no doubt. When we think of it,
+it is with composers as with trees of the forest. Great and small,
+strong and weak, grow together for the many purposes for which they
+are created. They could not all be either great or small. There must
+be many kinds; then the young in time take the place of the old, and
+the strong survive the weak. Together beneath the same sky,
+deep-rooted in the beautiful, bountiful earth, they grow side by side.
+The same sun shines upon them all, the same wind and the same rain
+come to them, selecting no one before another. What are they all
+doing? Each living its true life, as best it can. It is true they may
+not come and go, they may not choose, but as we see them, beautiful in
+their leaves and branches we feel the good purpose to which they live
+and, unconsciously, perhaps, we love them.
+
+Among us it is quite the same. Some are more skilful than others. But
+be our skill great or small, we are not truly using it until we have
+devoted it to a worthy purpose. And as with us, so it is with the
+musicians. There are the great and small. The great ones--leaders of
+thought--we call the great masters. The lesser are earnest men, who
+have not as much power as the masters, but they are faithful in small
+things.
+
+They sing lesser songs it is true, but not less beautiful ones. Often
+these lesser ones think more as we do. They think simply and about the
+things which we have often in our minds. It is such thoughts as these
+which we have in our best moments that we love so much when we see
+them well expressed by one who is a good and delicate writer, either
+of tones or words. Particularly do we understand these thoughts well
+in the first years of our music when nearly all the works of the
+greater composers are above us.
+
+Thus are the many composers (who yet are not great masters) of value
+to us because they write well a kind of thought which is pure and full
+of meaning, and which we can understand. They give us true pleasure
+day after day in the beginning and seem at the same time to help us
+onward to the ability of understanding the great masters. This they do
+by giving our thought training in the right direction.
+
+Now, we know that the very best music for a young musician to learn in
+the first days is that of the lesser tone masters, together with those
+simpler pieces of the great composers which come within his power to
+comprehend--within the power of a child's hands and voice. Let us see,
+once again, if it is not clear:
+
+True composers, great and small, sing from the heart. If one having a
+little skill turn it unworthily away from the good and true work he
+might do, then he does not use rightly his one talent. He does not
+give us true thought in tone. He writes for vanity or a low purpose,
+and is not a lesser master but he is untrue.
+
+It is not our right to play anything. We may rightly play only that
+which is full of such good thought as we in our power may understand.
+It is to supply us with just this that the lesser masters write. In
+simple, yet clear and beautiful pictures, they tell us many and many a
+secret of the world of tone into which we shall some day be welcomed
+by the greater ones if we are faithful unto the lesser.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT.
+
+
+  "Whilst I was in Florence, I did my utmost to learn the exquisite
+   manner of Michaelangelo, and never once lost sight of
+   it."--_Benvenuto Cellini._[43]
+
+On any important music subject Schumann has something to say. So with
+this:
+
+"Learn betimes the fundamental principles of harmony." "Do not be
+afraid of the words theory, thorough-bass, and the like, they will
+meet you as friends if you will meet them so."
+
+We now begin to feel how definitely these rules treat everything. They
+pick out the important subjects and tell the simplest truth about
+them. The meaning of these two rules is this: From the beginning we
+must try to understand the grammar of music. Some of the great
+composers could in childhood write down music with the greatest
+fluency. Handel, even as a boy, wrote a new church composition for
+every Sunday. Mozart began to write music when less than five years
+old, and when he was yet a boy, in Rome, he wrote down a
+composition,[44] sung by the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which was
+forbidden to the public.
+
+Harmony and counterpoint stand to music very much as spelling and
+grammar stand to language. They are the fundamentals of good writing
+and of good--that is, of correct--thinking in music. Harmony is the
+art of putting tones together so as correctly to make chords.
+Counterpoint has to do with composing and joining together simple
+melodies. A modern writer[45] on counterpoint has said: "The essence
+of true counterpoint lies in the equal interest which should belong to
+ever part." By examining a few pieces of good counterpoint you will
+readily see just what this means. The composer has not tried to get
+merely a correct chord succession, such as we find in a choral. Let us
+play a choral; any good one of a German master will do.[46] We notice
+that the soprano is the principal part, and that the other voices,
+while somewhat melodic, tend rather to support and follow the melody
+than to be independent. If, now, we play a piece of counterpoint like
+the G-Minor Prelude by Bach,[47] we shall have quite a good piece of
+counterpoint, as far as separate melodies being combined is concerned.
+Let us play the voice-parts separately. We shall find equal melodic
+interest in each. The chords grow out of the music. Comparing this
+with the choral, the main difference between harmony and counterpoint
+should be clear to us. We shall observe that the three voices do _not_
+proceed in the same way. If one part moves quickly, as in the bass of
+the first two measures, the other parts are quieter; if the bass
+ceases to move rapidly some other voice will take up the motion, as we
+see in the third and following measures. As a general thing no two
+voices in contrapuntal writing move in the same way, each voice-part
+being contrasted with different note-values. This gives greater
+interest and makes each voice stand forth independently.
+
+At first contrapuntal music may not seem interesting to us. If that is
+so, it is because we are not in the least degree conscious of the
+wonderful interest which has been put into every part. The truth is,
+that in the beginning we cannot fully understand the thought that has
+been put into the music, but by perseverance it will come to us little
+by little. This is what makes great music lasting. It is so deftly
+made, yet so delicately, that we have to go patiently in search of it.
+We must remember that gems have to be cut and polished from a bit of
+rock.
+
+In this case the gem is the rich mind-picture which comes to us if we
+faithfully seek the under-thought. And the seeking is polishing the
+gem.
+
+Music written entirely by the rules of counterpoint is called
+contrapuntal music; that written otherwise is known as free harmonic
+music. In the one case the composer desired to have a beautiful
+weaving of the parts--clear as the lines in a line-engraving. In the
+other, the intention is to get effects from tones united into chords,
+such as is obtained from masses of color in a painting. Neither form
+may be said to be the superior of the other. Each is valuable in its
+place, and each has possibilities peculiarly its own, which the other
+could not give. Pure counterpoint could not give us such a charming
+effect as Chopin obtains in the first study of Opus 10; nor could the
+plainer and more free harmonic style give us such delicate bits of
+tracery as Bach has in his fugues.
+
+If now you will take the trouble to learn two long words, later in
+your study of music they will be of use to you. The first is
+Polyphonic; the other is Monophonic. Both, like many other words in
+our language, are made up of two shorter words, and come from another
+language--Greek. In both we have "phonic," evidently meaning the same
+in each case, limited or modified by the preceding part--_poly_ and
+_mono_. Phonic is the Anglicized Greek for _sound_. We use it in the
+English word _telephonic_. Now if we define mono and poly we shall
+understand these two long words.
+
+Mono means one, poly means many. We say _mono_tone, meaning one tone;
+also _poly_gon, meaning many sides.
+
+In the musical reference monophonic music means music of one voice,
+rather than of one tone, and polyphonic music is that _for many
+voices_. Simple melodies with or without accompanying chords are
+monophonic; many melodies woven together, as in the Bach piece which
+we have looked over, are polyphonic.
+
+In the history of music two men surpassed all others in what they
+accomplished in counterpoint--that is, in polyphonic writing. The one
+was Palestrina, an Italian; the other was Bach, a German. Palestrina
+lived at a time when the music of the church was very poor, so poor,
+indeed, that the clergy could no longer endure it. Palestrina,
+however, devoted himself earnestly to composing music strictly adapted
+to the church use. The parts were all melodic, and woven together with
+such great skill that they yet remain masterpieces of contrapuntal
+writing. Later Bach developed counterpoint very much more in the
+modern way. He did with polyphony for the piano and organ much the
+same as Palestrina did for the voice. There have never lived greater
+masters than these in the art of polyphonic music.
+
+There is still another form of writing which is neither strictly
+harmonic, nor strictly contrapuntal,--it is a combination of both.
+There is not the plain unadorned harmonic progress as in the simple
+choral, nor is there the strict voice progression as in the works of
+Bach. This form of writing which partakes of the beauties of both the
+others has been called the free harmonic style. It has been followed
+by all the great masters since the time of Bach,[48] even before,
+indeed. If you can imagine a beautiful song-melody with an artistic
+accompaniment, so arranged that all can be played upon the piano, you
+will understand what the third style is. It is wonderfully free,
+surely; sometimes proceeding in full free chords, as in the opening
+measures of the B flat Sonata of Beethoven,[49] again running away
+from all freedom back to the old style, until the picture looks as old
+as a monkish costume among modern dress.
+
+All of the great sonatas and symphonies are of this wonderfully varied
+form of writing. How full it can be of expressiveness you know from
+the Songs without Words by Mendelssohn, and the Nocturnes of Chopin;
+how full of flickering humor you hear in the Scherzo of a Beethoven
+symphony; how full of deep solemnity and grief one feels in the
+funeral marches.[50]
+
+This school of composition has been followed by both the greater and
+the lesser masters. Every part is made to say something as naturally
+and interestingly as possible, being neither too restricted nor too
+free. Then, in playing, both hands must be equally intelligent, for
+each has an important part assigned to it.
+
+The great good of study in harmony and counterpoint is that it
+increases one's appreciation. As soon as we begin to understand the
+spirit of good writing we begin to play better, _because we see more_.
+We begin, perhaps in a small way, to become real music-thinkers. By
+all these means we learn to understand better and better what the
+meaning of true writing is. It will be clear to us that a composer is
+one who thinks pure thoughts in tone, and not one who is a weaver of
+deceits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MUSIC AND READING.
+
+
+  "Truly it has been said, a loving heart is the beginning of all
+  knowledge."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+A beautiful thing in life is the friendship for books. Every one who
+loves books pays some day a tribute to them, expressing thankfulness
+for the joy and comfort they have given. There are in them, for
+everybody who will seek, wise words, good counsel, companies of great
+people, fairies, friends for every day, besides wonders we never see
+nor dream of in daily life.
+
+Some of the great men have told us about their love for books; how
+they have saved penny by penny slowly to buy one, or how after the
+day's labor a good book and the firelight were prized above anything
+else. All tell us how much they owe to books and what a blessing books
+are. Imagine the number of heart-thoughts there must be in a shelf
+full of good books! Thoughts in tones or thoughts in words may be of
+the heart or not. But it is only when they are of the heart that they
+are worthy of our time.
+
+You will not only love books, but gain from them something of the
+thoughts they contain. We might, had we time, talk of classic books,
+but as we have already talked of classic music we know what the
+principal thing is. It is that good thought, out of the heart, be
+expressed in a scholarly way--"Great thought needs great
+expression."[51] This teaches us the necessity for choosing good books
+for our instruction and for our entertainment. They present beautiful
+pictures to us truthfully, or they present truth to us beautifully.
+And these are the first test of a written thought--its truth and its
+beauty.
+
+If you read good books you will have in every volume you get something
+well worth owning. You should bestow upon it as much care as you would
+want any other good friend to receive. And if it has contributed help
+or pleasure to you it is surely worth an abiding place. A fine
+pleasure will come from a good book even after we are quite done with
+it. As we see it in years after it has been read there comes back to
+one a remembrance of all the old pleasures, and with it a sense of
+thankfulness for so pleasant a friendship. Hence any book that has
+given us joy or peace or comfort is well worth not only good care, but
+a place _for always_; as a worthy bit of property.
+
+In the early days of your music study, it will be a pleasure to you to
+know that there are many and delightful books _about_ music written,
+sometimes by music-lovers, sometimes by the composers. The written
+word-thoughts of the composers are often full of great interest. They
+not only reveal to us many secrets of the tone-art, but teach us much
+about the kinds of things and of thoughts which lived in the minds of
+the composers. We learn definitely not only the music-interests of the
+composers, but the life-interest as well. It really seems as if we
+were looking into their houses, seeing the way they lived and worked,
+and listening to their words. Never afterward do we regard the great
+names in music as uninteresting. The most charming and attractive
+pictures cluster about them and it all gives us a new inspiration to
+be true to music, loyal to the truth of music, and willing to do as we
+see others have done, and to learn by doing. The lesson we get from
+the life of every man is, that he must _do_ if he would learn.
+
+I am sure you will spend many delightful minutes with the Letters of a
+great composer. Every one is like a talk with the writer. They are so
+friendly, and so full of the heart, and yet so filled with the man
+himself. Especially the Letters of Mendelssohn and Schumann will
+please you. In truth the Letters of all the composers are among the
+most valuable music writings we have. In some way they seem to explain
+the music itself: and the composer at once becomes a close friend. But
+besides these read the biographies. Then it is as if we were
+personally invited home to the composer and shown all his ways and his
+life. And besides these, there are some friendly books full of the
+very best advice as to making us thoughtful musicians; many and many
+again are the writers who have so loved art--not the art of tone
+alone, but all other arts as well--that they have told us of it in
+good and earnest books which are friendly, because they are written
+from the right place; and that you must know by this time is the
+heart.
+
+You will soon see when you have read about the composers that true
+music comes out of true life. Then you will begin to love true life,
+to be useful, and to help others. But all these things do not come at
+once. Yet, as we go along step by step, we learn that art is
+unselfish, and we must be so to enjoy it; art is truthful--we must be
+so to express it; art is full of life--we must know and live truth in
+order to appreciate it. And the study of pure thoughts in music, in
+books, and in our own life will help to all this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE HANDS.
+
+
+  "The skill of their hands still lingers."--_John Ruskin._[52]
+
+In one of our Talks, speaking about the thoughts in our hearts, we
+said that they crept from the heart into our arms and hands, into the
+music we play, and off to those who hear us, causing in them the
+thoughts by which they judge us. Thus we see, that as Janus stands
+sentinel at the doorway of the year, so the hands stand between the
+secret world of thought within and the questioning world of curiosity
+without.
+
+If we were not in such a hurry usually, we might stop to think that
+every one, all over the world, is training the hands for some purpose.
+And such a variety of purposes! One strives to get skill with tools,
+another is a conjurer, another spends his life among beautiful and
+delicate plants, another reads with his fingers.[53] In any one of
+these or of the countless other ways that the hands may be used, no
+one may truly be said to have skill until delicacy has been gained.
+Even in a forcible use of the hands there must be the greatest
+delicacy in the guidance. You can readily see that when the hands are
+working at the command of the heart they must be ever ready to make
+evident the meaning of the heart, and that is expressed in truthful
+delicacy. Not only are all the people in the world training their
+hands, but they are, as we have already said, training them in
+countless different ways.
+
+Have you ever stopped to think of another matter: that all things
+about us, except the things that live, have been made by hands? And of
+the things that live very many are cared for by the hands. These
+thoughts will suggest something to us. Those things which are good and
+beautiful suggest noble use of the hands; while those which are of no
+service, harmful and destructive, show an ignoble use. But noble and
+ignoble use of the hands is only another evidence of thought. Thought
+that is pure in the heart guides the hands to beautiful ends. And if
+the heart is impure in its thoughts, of course you know what follows.
+
+I have always been impressed in reading the books of John Ruskin to
+note how many times he speaks about the hands. Very truly, indeed,
+does he recognize that back of all hand work there is heart-thought,
+commanding, directing, actually building. It shows everywhere. The
+building of a wall with the stones rightly placed demands _honor_. The
+builder may be rude, but if his hands place the stones faithfully one
+upon another, there is surely honor in his heart. If it were not so
+his hands could not work faithfully.
+
+If the work is finer, like that work in gold which many have learned
+eagerly in former times, in Rome and Florence, still the spirit must
+be the same. So we see, that be the work coarse or fine, it is in
+either case prompted by the same kind of heart-thought.
+
+Many times in these Talks I have spoken of Ruskin's words to you; for
+two reasons: first, his words are always full of meaning, because he
+was so full of thought when he wrote them; and second, I would have
+you, from the first days, know something of him and elect him to your
+friendship. Many times he will speak to you in short, rude words,
+impatiently too, but never mind that, his heart is warm and full of
+good.
+
+Now from what was said a moment ago about the stone work and the gold
+work we can understand these words:
+
+"No distinction exists between artist and artisan, except that of
+higher genius or better conduct."
+
+Learn from this then, be the work of our hands what it may, its first
+quality and the first things for which it shall be judged are its
+honor, its faithfulness, and its sincerity.
+
+Of themselves the hands are absolutely without power. They cannot
+move, they cannot do good things nor bad things, they can do nothing
+until we command them. And how shall this be done? Surely I can
+understand it if you have wearied of this Talk a little. But I have
+said all the things just for the sake of answering this question, so
+that you should understand it. How do we command? not the hands alone
+but all we do and say?
+
+By our THOUGHTS.
+
+Without them there is no power whatever. Until they have commanded,
+the hands cannot make a motion; the feet must have direction ordered
+to them, the tongue must be bidden to speak, and without the command
+there is nothing.
+
+Of course, all these Talks are about thoughts. But we shall need a
+little time to speak of them particularly. And little by little it
+will be clear to us all why the hands need to act thoughtfully. Now
+the harm of the world is done by two forces,--by evil thought and by
+thoughtlessness. Then it is no wonder that Ruskin speaks much about
+the hands, for it is thought that gives them guidance. Can you wonder,
+that when he says, "the idle and loud of tongue" he associates the
+"_useless hand_."[54] These things go together, and together they come
+either from evil thought or from lack of thought. The moment Ruskin
+speaks of one who uses his hands with honor, his words glow. So he
+speaks of the laborer, describing him as "silent, serviceable,
+honorable, keeping faith, untouched by change, to his country and to
+Heaven."
+
+Thus, when we are earnestly asked to do something worthy with the
+hands every day, we can understand why. I do not mean one worthy
+thing, but some one particular worthy act, especially thought out by
+us. To do that daily with forethought will purify the heart. It will
+teach us to devote the hands to that which is worthy. Then another old
+truth that every one knows will be clear to us: "As a man--or a child,
+for that matter--thinketh in his heart, _so he is_."
+
+Bit by bit the thoughts of this Talk will become clear to you. You
+will feel more friendly toward them. Then you will really begin to
+think about hands; your own hands and everybody's hands. You will
+become truthful of hand, guiding your own thoughtfully; watching those
+of others carefully. And you will find that in the smallest tasks of
+your hands you can put forethought, while every use to which people
+put their hands will teach you something if you observe carefully. It
+may be folding a paper or picking up a pin, or anything else quite
+common; that matters not, common things, like any others, can be done
+rightly.
+
+By this observation we shall see hands performing all sorts of odd
+tricks. The fingers are drumming, twitching, twirling, closing,
+opening, doing a multitude of motions which mean what? Nothing, do you
+say? Oh! no, indeed; not _nothing_ but _something_. Fingers and hands
+which perform all these unnecessary motions are not being commanded by
+the thoughts, and are acting as a result of _no_ thought; that is, of
+thoughtlessness. Every one does it do you say? No, that is not true.
+Many do these things, but those who command their thoughts never allow
+it. If we never moved the hands except in a task when we commanded
+them, we should soon become hand-skilled. The useless movements I have
+spoken of _un_skill the hand. They are undoing motions, and teach us
+that we must govern ourselves if we would become anything. Do you know
+how it is that people do great things? They command themselves. Having
+determined to do something, they work and work and work to finish it
+at any cost. That gives strength and character.
+
+Having observed the hands and their duties, we can readily see the
+kind of task they must do in music. It is just the same kind of task
+as laying a wall of stone. Every motion must be done honorably.
+Everything must be thought out in the mind and heart before the hands
+are called upon to act. Wise people always go about their tasks this
+way. Unwise people try the other way, of acting first and thinking it
+out afterward, and, of course, they always fail. You can now
+understand that a great pianist is one who has great thought with
+which to command the hands. And to be sure they will obey his commands
+at once, he has made them obey him continuously for years. This
+teaching the hands to obey is called Practice.
+
+The Italian artist, Giotto, once said:
+
+"You may judge my masterhood of craft by seeing that I can draw a
+circle unerringly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID.
+
+
+  "You may always be successful if you do but set out well, and let
+  good thoughts and practice proceed upon right method."--_Marcus
+  Aurelius._[55]
+
+The same wise Roman emperor who said this tells us a very pretty thing
+about his mother, which shows us what a wise lady she must have been,
+and how in the days of his manhood, with the cares of a great nation
+upon him, he yet pondered upon the childhood teaching of home. First,
+he speaks of his grandfather Verus, who, by his example, taught him
+not to be prone to anger; then of his father, the Emperor Antoninus
+Pius, from whom he learned to be modest and manly; then of his mother,
+whose name was Domitia Calvilla. Let us read some of his own words
+about her, dwelling particularly upon a few of them. He writes: "As
+for my mother, she taught me to have regard for religion, to be
+generous and open-handed, and not only to forbear from doing anybody
+an ill turn, _but not so much as to endure the thought of it_."
+
+Now these words are the more wonderful when we remember that they were
+not taken down by a scribe in the pleasant apartments of the royal
+palace in Rome, but were written by the Emperor himself on the
+battlefield; for this part of his famous book is signed: "Written in
+the country of the Quadi."
+
+In our last Talk on the Hands we came to the conclusion, that unless
+the hands were commanded they could not act. And on inquiring as to
+what gave these commands we found it was the thoughts. Many people
+believe it is perfectly safe to think anything, to have even evil
+thoughts in their hearts, for thoughts being hidden, they say, cannot
+be seen by others. But a strange thing about thought is this: The
+moment we have a thought, good or bad, it strives to get out of us and
+become an action. And it most always succeeds. Not at once, perhaps,
+for thoughts like seeds will often slumber a long time before they
+spring into life. So it becomes very clear to us that if we wish to be
+on the alert we must not watch our actions, but look within and guard
+the thoughts; for they are the springs of action.
+
+You now see, I am sure, how wise the Emperor's mother was in teaching
+her boy not even to _endure_ a thought to do evil unto others. For the
+thought would get stronger and stronger, and suddenly become an
+action. Certainly; and hence the first thing to learn in this Talk is
+just these words:
+
+Thoughts become actions.
+
+That is an important thing. In a short time you will see, that if you
+do not learn it you can never enjoy music, nor beautiful things, nor
+the days themselves. Let us see how this will come about.
+
+I have told your teacher[56] the name of the book which was written by
+the Roman lady's boy. Well, in that book, running through it like a
+golden thread, is this bit of teaching from his mother.
+
+Not only did he think of it and write it on the battlefield, but at
+all times there seemed to come to him more and more wisdom from it.
+And he tells us this same thought over and over again in different
+words. Sometimes it leads him to say very droll things; for instance:
+
+"Have you any sense in your head? Yes. Why do you not make use of it
+then? For if this does its part, for what more can you wish?"[57]
+Then, a very good thought which we frequently hear:
+
+"Your manners will very much depend upon what you frequently
+think."[58] There are many others, but these show us that the meaning
+of his mother's words went deep, teaching that not action must be
+guarded but the thought which gives rise to action. Now, what can be
+the value of speaking about the Roman lady? Let us see.
+
+In music, the tones are made either by the hands or by the voice. And
+to make a tone is to _do_ something. This doing something is an
+action, and action comes from thought. No music, then, can be made
+unless it be made by thinking. And the right playing of good music
+must come from the right thinking of good thoughts. It may be that you
+will hear some one say that to think good thoughts is not needed in
+making good music. Never believe it! Bad thought never made anything
+good, and _never_ will because it never can. In the very first days
+you must learn, that good things of all kinds come from good thoughts,
+because they can come from nothing else.
+
+Here, then, is the second truth of this Talk:
+
+Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly only
+by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+This leads us to another matter. First, let us see if everything is
+clear. True music is written out of good thought; hence, when we begin
+to study music we are really becoming pupils of good thought. We are
+learning the thoughts good men have had, trying to feel their truth
+and meaning, and from them learning to have our own thoughts not only
+good but constantly better and better. This now seems simple and
+necessary. We see that if we would faithfully study a composer's work
+it must be our principal aim to get into his heart. Then everything
+will be clear to us.
+
+But we can never find our way to the heart of another until we have
+first found our way somewhere else. Where, do you think? To our own
+hearts, being willing to be severe with ourselves; not to be deceitful
+in our own eyes; not to guard the outer act, but the inner thought;
+not to study nor to be what _seems_, but what _is_.[59] This may seem
+a long and roundabout way of learning to play music, but it is the
+honest, straightforward way of going to the great masters whom we wish
+to know.
+
+In one of the books of the Greek general, Xenophon,[60] Socrates is
+made to say that men do nothing without fire; and quite in the same
+way we may learn nothing of each other, especially of those greater
+than ourselves, without thought; which should be pure, strong,
+inquiring, and kind. With this we may do all.
+
+Thus far we have two principles. Let us review them:
+
+   I. Thoughts become actions.
+
+  II. Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly
+      only by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+Now, is it not clear that this can come about only when we watch over
+our own thoughts and govern them as if they were the thoughts of
+others? And when we do not so much as _endure_ the thought of harm or
+evil or wrong we shall be living in the spirit of the Roman lady whose
+son's life was lived as his mother taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE GLORY OF THE DAY.
+
+
+  "Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's duty, fight today's
+  temptation; and do not weaken and disturb yourself by looking
+  forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if
+  you saw them."--_Charles Kingsley._
+
+Nearly all of us have heard about the little child who one day planted
+seeds and kept constantly digging them up afterward to see if they
+were growing. No doubt the child learned that a seed needs not only
+ground and care, but time. When it is put in the earth it begins to
+feel its place and to get at home; then, if all is quite right,--but
+not otherwise--it sends out a tiny rootlet as if it would say that it
+trusts and believes the earth will feed that rootlet. And if the earth
+is kind the root grows and finds a solid foothold. At the same time
+there is another thing happening. When the seed finds it can trust
+itself to root it feels no longer afraid to show itself. It goes down,
+down quietly for a _firmer hold_, and upward feeling the desire for
+light.
+
+_A firm hold and more light_, we cannot think too much of what they
+mean.
+
+Every day that the seed pushes its tender leaves and stem upward it
+has more and more to encounter. The rains beat it down; the winds bend
+it to the very earth from which it came; leaves and weeds bury it
+beneath their strength and abundance, but despite all these things, in
+the face of death itself, the brave little plant strongly keeps its
+place. It grows in the face of danger. But how? Day after day, as it
+fights its way in the air and sunshine, blest or bruised as it may be,
+the little plant never fails to keep at one thing. That is, to get a
+firmer and firmer hold. From that it never lets go. Break its leaves
+and its stem, crush it as you will, stop its upward growth even, but
+as long as there is a spark of life in it there will be more roots
+made. It aims from the first moment of its life to get hold strongly.
+
+And it seems as if the plant has always a great motive. The moment it
+feels it has grasped the mother-earth securely with its roots it turns
+its strength to making something beautiful. In the air and light, in
+the dark earth even, every part of the plant is seeking for the means
+to do a wonderful thing. It drinks in the sunshine, and with the
+warmth of it, _and to the glory of its own life_, it blossoms. It has
+come from a tiny helpless seed to a living plantlet with the smallest
+stem and root, and while the stem fights for a place in the air the
+root never ceases to get a strong hold of the dear earth in which the
+plant finds its home. Then when the home is firmly secured and the
+days have made the plant stronger and more shapely, it forgets all the
+rude winds and rain and the drifting leaves, and shows how joyful it
+is to live _by giving something_.
+
+Then it is clear that every hardship had its purpose. The rains beat
+it down, but at the same time they were feeding it; the leaves dropped
+about and covered it, but that protected its tenderness: and thus in
+all the trials it finds a blessing. Its growth is stronger, and
+thankful for all its life it seeks to express this thankfulness. In
+its heart there is something it is sure. And true enough, out it comes
+some day in a flower with its color and tenderness and perfume; all
+from the earth, but taken from it by love which the plant feels for
+the ground as its home.
+
+We can see from this, that the beauty of a plant or of a tree is a
+sign of its relation to the earth in which it lives. If its hold is
+weak--if it loosely finds a place for a weak root--it lies on the
+ground, helpless, strengthless, joyless. But firmly placed and feeling
+safe in its security, it gives freely of its blossoms; or, year after
+year, like a tree, shows us its wonderous mass of leaf, all of it a
+sign that earth and tree are truely united.
+
+It has been said, and no doubt it is true, that one who cares for
+plants and loves them becomes patient. The plant does not hurry; its
+growth is slow and often does not show itself; and one who cares for
+them learns their way of being and of doing. The whole lesson is that
+of allowing time, and by using it wisely to save it. The true glory of
+a day for a plant is the air and sunlight and earth-food which it has
+taken, from which it has become stronger. And every day, one by one,
+as it proves, contributes something to its strength.
+
+All men who have been patient students of the earth's ways have
+learned to be careful, to love nature, and to take time. And we all
+must learn to take time. It is not by careless use that we gain
+anything, but by putting heart and mind into what must be done. When
+heart and mind enter our work they affect time curiously; because of
+the great interest we take in what we do time is not thought of; and
+what is not thought of, is not noticed.
+
+Hence, the value of time comes to this: to use any time we may have,
+much or little, with the heart in the task. When that is done there is
+not only better work accomplished but there are no regrets lingering
+about to make us feel uncomfortable.
+
+A practice hour can only be an hour of unwelcome labor when one thinks
+so of it. If we go to the piano with interest in the playing we shall
+be unconscious of time. Many men who love their labor tell of sitting
+for hours at their work not knowing that hours have gone by.
+
+If there is a love for music in any of us it will grow as a seed. And
+as the seed needs the dear mother-earth, so the music needs the heart.
+When it has taken root there and becomes firmer and firmer it will
+begin to show itself outwardly as the light of the face. After it is
+strong and can bear up against what assails it--not the wind and the
+rain and the dry leaves, but discouragement and hard correction and
+painful hot tears--then with that strength it will flourish.
+
+Now, sometimes, in the days of its strength the music will seek far
+more in its life, just as the plant seeks for more and blossoms. The
+flower in the music is as great for all as for one. It is joy and
+helpfulness. When for the love of music one seeks to do good then
+music has borne its blossom.
+
+Thus, by learning the life of a simple plant we learn the true mission
+of the beautiful art of tone. It must put forth deeply its roots into
+the heart that it may be fed. It must strive for strength as it grows
+against whatever may befall it. It must use its food of the heart and
+its strength for a pure purpose, and there is but one--to give joy.
+
+This turns our thoughts to two things: First, to the men and women who
+by their usefulness and labor increased the meaning of music. This is
+the glory of their days. Second, we look to ourselves with feeble
+hands and perhaps little talent, and the thought comes to us, that
+with all we have we are to seek not our own glorification but the joy
+of others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE IDEAL.
+
+
+  "Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile, plus peutêtre."--_Victor
+  Hugo._
+
+Mozart once had a friend named Gottfried von Jacquin, who was a man of
+careful thought, and evidently a good musician,--for we are told that
+a melody composed by him is frequently said, even to this day, to be
+by Mozart. This Gottfried lived in Vienna with his father, and to
+their house Mozart often went. At this time Mozart had an album in
+which his friends were invited to write. Among the verses is a
+sentiment written by Gottfried von Jacquin, saying:
+
+"True genius is impossible without heart; no amount of intellect alone
+or of imagination, no, nor of both together, can make genius. Love is
+the soul of genius."
+
+Here we have the same truth told us which we have already found for
+ourselves, namely, that all good music comes from the heart. We have
+found it by studying music and striving faithfully to get deep into
+its real meaning. But to-day we have the words of one who was enabled
+to watch closely as a friend one of the greatest composers that ever
+lived. And being much with him, hearing the music of the master played
+by the master himself, put the thought into his head, that it is
+impossible to be a true genius without heart and love.
+
+From this we shall have courage to know that what we pursue in music
+is real; that the beauties of great music, though they may just now be
+beyond us, are true, and exist to those who are prepared for them.
+When in our struggle to be more capable in art than we are to-day we
+think of the beauty around us, and desire to be worthy of it, we are
+then forming an ideal, and ideals are only of value when we strive to
+live up to them.
+
+Once in Rome there lived a Greek slave--some day you may read his
+name. He has told us, that "if thou wouldst have aught of good, have
+it from thyself."[61] Of course we see in this, immediately, the truth
+that has been spoken of in nearly every one of these Talks. It is
+this: We must, day by day, become better acquainted with ourselves,
+study our thoughts, have purity of heart, and work for something.
+
+Now, working for something may be accomplished in a simple manner
+without thinking of it. If every task is done in our best way it adds
+something to us. It is true and beautiful, too, that the reward for
+patient, faithful work comes silently to us, and often we do not know
+of its presence. But some day, finding ourselves stronger, we look to
+know the cause of it, and we see that the faithfulness of past days
+has aided us.
+
+So art teaches us a very practical lesson in the beginning. If we
+would have her favors we must do her labors. If we say to music: "I
+should love to know you;" music says to us, "Very well, work and your
+wish shall be gratified." But without that labor we cannot have that
+wish. The Greek slave knew that and said:
+
+"Thou art unjust, if thou desire to gain those things for nothing."
+
+Now we begin to see that art has no gifts to bestow upon us for
+nothing. Many think it has, and pursue it until the truth dawns upon
+them; then, because of their error, they dislike it. To recognize the
+truth about art and to pursue that truth, despite the hard road, is to
+have courage. And the Ideal is nothing else than the constant presence
+of this truth.
+
+And what do we gain by pursuing it? Not common pleasure, but true
+happiness; not uncertainty, but true understanding; not selfish life,
+but true and full life. And we can see the beauty of art in nothing
+more plainly than in the fact that all these things may come to a
+child, and a new and brighter life is made possible by them.
+
+The very first day we came together, the little child said to the
+master:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+It is hard, sometimes, to feel the truth and to keep it with us; hard,
+not only for a child, but for any one; and yet, if with faith we will
+labor with it _until the light comes_, then we are truly rewarded and
+made richer according to our faith.
+
+We must not forget in the first days, as we leave our music, that the
+path we have taken since we came together is the hardest; not for
+always, but for now. The right path is hard at first--the wrong one is
+hard always.
+
+We will understand it all better in other days if we remain faithful
+now. If, however, we should forget for a moment that art demands our
+loyalty, there will be no joy or peace in it for us. Worse, perhaps,
+than starting out upon the wrong path, is the deserting of the right
+one. Sometimes out of impatience we do this; out of impatience and
+self-love, which is the worst of all. "Truth is the beginning of all
+good, and the greatest of all evils is self-love."[62]
+
+With the trials that music costs us, with its pains and
+discouragements, we might easily doubt all these promises which are
+contained in our ideals, but we shall be forever saved from deserting
+them if we remember that these ideals have been persistently held by
+great men. They have never given them up. One of the strongest
+characteristics of Bach and of Beethoven was their determination to
+honor their thoughts. Sometimes we find the same persistence and
+faithfulness in lesser men.
+
+I am sure you will see this faith beautifully lived in the few facts
+we have about the life of Johann Christian Kittel, a pupil of Bach,
+and it is strongly brought out by the pretty story told of him, that
+when pleased with a pupil's work he would draw aside a curtain which
+covered a portrait of Bach and let the faithful one gaze upon it for a
+moment. That was to him the greatest reward he could give for
+faithfulness in the music task.
+
+And this reminds us of how the teacher, Pistocchi, who, in teaching
+the voice, kept in mind a pure tone, a quiet manner of singing, and
+the true artistic way of doing. Among his pupils was a certain Antonio
+Bernacchi, who, after leaving his master, began to display his voice
+by runs and trills and meaningless tones. And this he did, not because
+of true art, for that was not it, but because it brought him the
+applause of unthinking people.
+
+Once, when the master, Pistocchi, heard him do this he is said to have
+exclaimed: "Ah, I taught thee how to _sing_, and now thou wilt
+_play_;" meaning that the true song was gone and the pupil no longer
+sang out of the heart, but merely out of the throat. Pistocchi kept
+his ideal pure.
+
+We have then among our ideals two of first importance. The ideal
+perception of music, as being the true heart-expression of great men;
+and the ideal of our doings, which is the true heart-expression of
+ourselves. And to keep these ideals is difficult in two ways: The
+difficulty of keeping the pure intention of great men ever before us,
+and the difficulty of keeping close and faithful to the tasks assigned
+us. Then we can say with the little child:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE ONE TALENT.
+
+
+  "Then he which had received the one talent came."--_Matthew, XXV:
+  24._
+
+Some day, when you read about the great composers, you will be
+delighted with the pictures of their home-life. You will see how they
+employed music every day. In all cases, as we study them, we learn how
+very much they have sacrificed for the music they love, studying it
+daily because of the joy which it yields them. We see them as little
+children, eager to be taught, wanting to listen to music, and to hear
+about it. Many of the composers whose child-life is thus interesting
+were children in very poor families, where things were neither fine
+nor beautiful, where the necessary things of life were not plentiful,
+and where all had to be careful and saving so that every bit should be
+made to go as far as possible. The eagerness and determination of some
+children in music-history is really wonderful. It is the true
+determination. And you are not surprised, in following it, to note
+that it leads the children who have it into lives of great usefulness.
+
+All through the life of Handel we find determination running like a
+golden thread. He was just as determined to be a musician as Lincoln
+was to get an education when he read books by the firelight. Handel's
+father was a surgeon, and knew so little about music that he failed
+entirely to understand the child. He not only forbade the boy to study
+music, but even kept him away from school that he might not by any
+chance learn to read the notes. But one who was in future years to
+befriend homeless children and to write wondrous music for all the
+world could not be held back by such devices. By some means, and with
+friendly assistance (perhaps his mother's), he succeeded in smuggling
+into the garret a spinet, which is a kind of piano. By placing cloth
+upon the strings he so deadened the wires that no one downstairs could
+hear the tones when the spinet was played. And day after day this
+little lad would sit alone in his garret, learning more and more about
+the wonders which his heart and his head told him were in the tiny
+half-dumb spinet before him. Not the more cheerful rooms down-stairs
+nor the games of his playmates drew him away from the music he loved,
+the music which he felt in his heart, remember.
+
+One would expect such determination to show itself in many ways. It
+did. Handel does not disappoint us in this. All through his life he
+had strong purposes and a strong will--concentration--which led him
+forward. You know how he followed his father's coach once. Perhaps it
+was disobedience,--but what a fine thing happened when he reached the
+duke's palace and played the organ. From that day every one knew that
+his life would be devoted to music. Sometimes at home, sometimes in
+foreign lands, he was always working, thinking, learning. He is said,
+in his boyhood, to have copied large quantities of music, and to have
+composed something every week. This copying made him better acquainted
+with other music, and the early habit of composition made it easy for
+him to write his thoughts in after years. Indeed, so skilled did he
+become, that he wrote one opera--"Rinaldo"--in fourteen days, and the
+"Messiah" was written in twenty-four days.[63]
+
+Yet parts of his great works he wrote and rewrote until they were
+exactly as they should be. _It will do_ is a thought that never comes
+into the head of a great artist. How do you imagine such a man was to
+his friends? We are told that, "he was in character at once great and
+simple." And again it has been said that, "his smile was like heaven."
+
+We have seen Handel as the great composer, but he was not so busy in
+this that his thoughts were not also dwelling upon other things. If
+ever you go to London, you should of a Sunday morning hear the service
+at the Foundling Hospital. You will see there many hundreds of boys
+and girls grouped about the organ. Their singing will seem beautiful
+to you, from its sweetness and from the simple faith in which it is
+done. After the service you may go to the many rooms of this home for
+so many otherwise homeless ones.
+
+There are for you to visit: the playroom, the schoolroom, the long
+halls with the pretty white cots, and the pleasant dining-room. Here
+it will please you to see the little ones march into dinner, with
+their similar dresses, and all looking as happy as possible. But the
+picture you will, no doubt, longest keep, is that of the children
+about the organ.
+
+They will tell you there that it was Handel who gave this organ to the
+chapel, and who, for the benefit of the children who might come here,
+gave concerts, playing and conducting, which were so successful that
+they had to be repeated. A "fair copy" of the "Messiah" will be shown
+you as one of the precious possessions.
+
+It will very plainly be present in your mind how the little boy sat
+alone playing day after day in the garret, wishing no better pastime
+than to express the feelings of his heart in tones. Perhaps you will
+think of his words: "Learn (of) all there is to learn, then choose
+your own path." He will appeal to you as having possessed an "early
+completeness of character," which abided always with him. It is
+evident in following the life of Handel, and it would be equally plain
+with any other composer, that great talent is developed out of a small
+beginning, and if small, is yet earnest and determined. From the first
+days of a great man's life to the last we find constant effort. "I
+consider those live best who study best to become as good as
+possible."[64] Music helps us to keep the upper windows open; that is
+why it does so much for us even if we have but one talent.
+
+To develop our one talent is a duty, just as it is a duty to develop
+two or five talents. It is given to us to increase. And no one knows
+how much joy may come to us and to others from the growing of that
+talent. We gain much in power to give pleasure to others, if the
+talent we have be made stronger by faithful effort. As we have seen
+good come forth from the story of the man with many talents, we can
+see how, similarly, he with one talent has also great power with which
+he may add unto himself and others.
+
+In all of our Talks it has been evident from what we have said, that
+music is a beautiful art to us, even though we may have but little of
+it. But equally we have learned, that for ever so little we must prove
+ourselves worthy. We must honestly give something for all we get. This
+is the law, and the purpose of all our Talks is to learn it.
+
+We have, likewise, learned that true music, _out of the heart_, may
+not at the first please us, but within it there is a great deal and we
+must seek it. The history of all who have faithfully studied the works
+of the great masters is, that for all the thought and time one spends
+in studying master works a great gain comes. On the other hand,
+everybody's experience with common music is, that while it may please
+much at first and even captivate us, yet it soon tires us so that we
+can scarcely listen patiently to it.
+
+Still a further lesson is, that working with many talents or with one
+is the same. Talents, one or many, are for increase and faithful
+development. Handel's life was a determined struggle to make the most
+of his power. It should be ours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL.
+
+
+  "Every color, every variety of form, has some purpose and
+  explanation."--_Sir John Lubbock_.[65]
+
+Now, when we are almost at the end of the way we have traveled
+together, it will be natural to look back upon the road over which we
+have come. Not all of it will be visible, to be sure. We have
+forgotten this pleasant scene and that; others, however, remain fresh
+in our minds. And as the days pass and we think over our way there
+will now and again come to us a scene, a remembrance, so full of
+beauty and of pleasure that we shall feel rich in the possession of
+it.
+
+To me there is nothing we have learned together greater in value,
+richer in truth and comfort than the thought that the beautiful in
+music and in art is at the same time the good. Even if a person is not
+at all times good, there is raised in him the feeling of it whenever
+he consciously looks upon a beautiful object. We see in this how wise
+it is for one to choose to have beautiful things, to surround others
+with them, to love them, and to place reverent hands upon them.
+
+We can never make a mistake about gentle hands. Once a lady said to a
+boy:
+
+"You should touch all things with the same delicacy that one should
+bestow upon a tender flower. It shows that deep within yourself you
+are at rest, that you make your hands go forward to a task carefully
+and with much thought. In the roughest games you play do not forget
+this; then your hands shall be filled with all the thought you have
+within yourself."
+
+Sometimes, when I am in a great gallery, the thought is very strong in
+me, that many (ever, and ever so many) people, in all countries and in
+all times, have so loved the beautiful as to devote their lives to it.
+Painters, who have made pictures to delight men for generations,
+looked and looked and _prayed_ to find the beautiful. And we must
+believe that one looks out of the heart to find the beautiful or he
+finds only the common. And the sculptors who have loved marble for the
+delight they have in beautiful forms, they, too, with eyes seeking
+beauty, and hands so gentle upon the marble that it almost breathes
+for them, they, too, have loved the beautiful.
+
+But commoner ones have the tenderest love for what is sweet and fair
+in life,--people who are neither painters nor sculptors. In their
+little way--but it is a _true_ way--they have sunlight in their
+hearts, and with it love for something.
+
+Perhaps it is a flower. I have been told of a man--in fact I have seen
+him--who could do the cruelest things; who was so bad that he could
+not be permitted to go free among others, and yet he loved plants so
+much that if they were put near him he would move quietly among them,
+touching this one and that; gazing at them, and acting as if he were
+in another world. As we said once before about the spring, so we may
+say here about love for the beautiful: it may be covered up with every
+thing that is able to keep it down, but _it is always there_.
+
+It is always pleasanter to hear about people and their ways than to
+heed advice. But people and their ways often set us good examples; and
+we were curious, indeed, if we did not look sharply at ourselves to
+see just what we are. From all we have been told about the beautiful
+we can at least learn this: that it sweetens life; that it makes even
+a common life bright; that if we have it in us it may be as golden
+sunlight to some poor one who is in the darkness of ignorance, that is
+the advantage and the beauty of all good things in our lives, namely,
+the good it may be unto others. And the beautiful music we may sing or
+play is not to show what we are or what we can do--it will, of course
+do these things--but it is to be a blessing to those who listen. And
+how are blessings bestowed? _Out of the heart._
+
+Once there was a nobleman[66] with power and riches. He loved
+everything. Learning and art and all had he partaken of. But the times
+were troubled in his country, and for some reason he lost all he had
+and was imprisoned. Then there was scarcely anything in his life. All
+he had was the cell, the prison-yard, and, now and again, a word or
+two with his keeper. The cell was small and gloomy, the keeper silent,
+the yard confined and so closely paved with cobblestones that one
+could scarcely see the earth between them.
+
+Yes, indeed, it was a small world and a barren one into which they had
+forced him. But he had his thoughts, and daily as he walked in his
+confined yard, they were busy with the past, weaving, weaving. What
+patterns they made, and he, poor one, was sometimes afraid of them!
+But still they kept on weaving, weaving.
+
+One day, as he walked in his yard, he noticed that between two of the
+stones there seemed to be something and he looked at it. With the
+greatest attention he studied it, then he knelt on the rude stones and
+looked and looked again. His heart beat and his hands trembled, but
+yet with a touch as gentle as any one could give, he moved a grain or
+two of soil and there, beneath, was something which the poor captive
+cried out for joy to see--a tiny plant. As if in a new world, and
+certainly as if another man, he cared daily for the tender little
+companion that had come to share his loneliness; he thought of it
+first in the morning and last at night. He gave it of his supply of
+water and, as a father, he watched over it.
+
+And it grew so that one day he saw that his plant must either die or
+have more room. And it could not have more room unless a cobblestone
+were removed. Now this could only be done with the consent of the
+Emperor. Well, let us not stop to hear about the way he found, but he
+did get his request to the Emperor and, after a while, what happened
+do you think? That the plant was given more room? Yes, that is partly
+it, and the rest is this: the prisoner himself was given more room--he
+was liberated.
+
+Just because the seed of a beautiful thing came to life in his tiny
+world he found love for it and a new life, a care, _something outside
+of himself_. And it brought him all.
+
+That love which is not given to self reveals the beauty of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public
+  schools, and a living example of their excellence."--_Joseph Story._
+
+In these days we learn many things in our schools--even music. They
+surely must have a purpose, all the studies and the music as well. Let
+us in this Talk see if we can find what the purpose is.
+
+It costs our Government a great deal to educate the children of the
+land. There are now nearly twenty million children in our country.
+That is a number you cannot conceive. But every morning of the year,
+when it is not a vacation day, you may think of this vast number
+leaving home and going to school to be taught. I am sure the picture
+will make us all think how wise a Government is that devotes so much
+to making us know more, because by learning more we are able to enjoy
+more, to do more, to be more. And this makes us better citizens.
+
+Year after year, as men study and learn about what is best to have
+children taught in school, the clearer it becomes that what is given
+is dictated because of its usefulness. Arithmetic teaches us to
+calculate our daily affairs. Grammar teaches us to listen and to speak
+understandingly. Penmanship and Spelling teach us properly to make the
+signs which represent speech. Geography teaches us of the earth on
+which we live, and how we may travel about it. History teaches us how
+to understand the doings of our own day and makes us acquainted with
+great men of former times, who by striving have earned a place in our
+remembrance.
+
+As we go on in our school education, taking up new studies, we find to
+a still greater degree that what we learn is for usefulness.
+Arithmetic becomes mathematics in general. Grammar is brought before
+us in other languages, and branches out into the study of Rhetoric and
+Literature. History is taught us of many lands, particularly of
+Greece, Rome, and England. And, bit by bit, these various histories
+merge into one, until, perhaps not until college years or later, the
+doings of the countries in all the centuries of which we have
+knowledge is one unbroken story to us. We know the names of lands and
+of people. Why Greece could love art, why Rome could have conquest;
+why these countries and all their glories passed away to give place to
+others; all these things become clear to us. We learn of generals,
+statesmen, poets, musicians, rulers. Their characters are made clear;
+their lives are given to us in biography, and year after year the
+story of the earth and man is more complete, more fascinating, more
+helpful to us in learning our own day.
+
+Then, besides all these studies, we are taught to do things with the
+hands. After the Talks we have already had about doing, we know what
+it means to have training of the hands. It really means the training
+of the thoughts. We are training the mind to make the hands perform
+their tasks rightly. It is the same in the science lesson which
+teaches us to see; actually to use our eyes until we see things. That
+may not seem to be a difficult task, but there are really very few
+people who can accurately and properly use their eyes. If there were
+more, fewer mistakes would be made.
+
+Thus we can see that school work divides its tasks into two general
+classes:
+
+First, the learning of facts.
+
+Second, the actual doing of things.
+
+You will readily see that to do things properly is possible only when
+we know facts which tell us how to do them. That shows you at once the
+wisdom of the education you receive.
+
+Now, let us imagine that school life is over. For many years you have
+gone faithfully every day to your place, you have done your tasks as
+honestly as you could, and said your lessons, being wounded no doubt
+by failures, but gladdened again by successes. Now, when it is all
+over, what is there of it?
+
+Well, above all things, there is one truth of it which it is wonderful
+people do not think of more frequently. And that truth is this: The
+only education we may use in our own life is that which we have
+ourselves. No longer have we help of companions or teachers. We depend
+entirely upon our own personal knowledge. If we speak it is our own
+knowledge of Grammar that is used. We cannot have a book at hand in
+order to know from it the words we should use. If we make a
+calculation about money, or do anything with numbers, it must be done
+from our knowledge of Arithmetic, and it must be right or people will
+very soon cease to deal with us. Then, if we have a letter from a
+friend, we must of ourselves know how to read it, and if we have aught
+to say to another at a distance, we must be able clearly to express
+ourselves in writing, so that we may make no mistake in our meaning.
+
+And this, likewise, is to be said of all the rest. Our knowledge of
+History, of Geography, of men of past times, of the boundaries of
+countries, of cities, of people, of everything, must come from
+ourselves. And, further yet, according as we have been careful to see
+in the right way and to do in the right way while we were under
+instruction in school, so we shall be likely to see and to do when we
+are not in school, and no longer have some one over us who will kindly
+and patiently correct our errors, teach us new ways, and give us
+greater powers. We may, of course, go on learning after our school
+days are ended; and really much of the best education comes then, if
+we will immediately set about correcting the faults which we find in
+ourselves.
+
+Indeed, many men have gained the best part of their education after
+leaving school, where, perhaps, it was their fortune to stay but a
+short time.[67] But we must remember that the habits of learning,
+doing, seeking, are gained in early years, and if they are not gained
+then they rarely come.
+
+Now, what have we learned about schools and school-tasks? We have
+learned a little of the purpose which lies in the education we
+receive; that out of it must come the power to do and to know; that is
+our own power; not that of any one else. We have seen the usefulness
+of school-studies, and how practical they are in our daily life.
+
+In all this Talk we have said nothing about Music. If, however, we
+understand what the other studies mean, what their purpose is, we
+shall learn something which shall be valuable when we come to study
+the meaning and purpose of music in schools. That shall be our next
+Talk.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MUSIC IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Become in early years well-informed concerning the extent of the
+  four voices.
+
+"Try, even with a poor voice, to sing at sight without the aid of an
+instrument; from that your ear will constantly improve. In case,
+however, that you have a good voice, do not hesitate a moment to
+cultivate it; and believe, at the same time, that heaven has granted
+you a valuable gift."--_Robert Schumann._[68]
+
+In the previous Talk we learned two very important facts about school
+studies. They were these:
+
+   I. They are useful.
+
+  II. They are useful in proportion to our own (not to anybody else's)
+      real knowledge of them.
+
+We do not study useless subjects, and it is not from our books, nor
+from our teacher that we go through life, making our way. In other
+words, the harder we work, the more independent we become; and the
+more independent we become, the more power we have to help others.
+
+Now, whatever is true about other school studies is likewise true
+about music. It is given to children in school because it is useful,
+and because a child can gain power by learning it. Let us see about
+this.
+
+To one who does not think deeply, it might seem that if any study in
+school is merely ornamental, that study is music. He might say that
+all the other studies tend to some practical end in life and business:
+that one could not add, nor read, nor transact business, nor write a
+letter any more correctly by knowing music. It is only an unthinking
+person--_none other_--who would say that.
+
+Of the usefulness of all the school studies we have spoken. We need
+only to take a few steps along the pleasant road, about which we have
+had so many Talks, and we shall see how much music means in life. To
+us it is already plain. Music is a new world, to enter which
+cultivates new senses, teaches us to love the beautiful, and makes us
+watchful of two of the most important things in life: the thoughts and
+the heart. We must have exact thoughts or the music is not made
+aright, and the heart may be what it will, music tells all about it.
+Therefore, let it be good.
+
+But music in school brings us to daily tasks in tone. What do we
+learn? After the difficulties of reading the notes and making the
+voice responsive are somewhat overcome, we study for greater power in
+both, the one-, two-, or three-part exercises and songs; the exercises
+for skill and the songs to apply the skill, and make us acquainted
+with the music of great masters.
+
+In one Talk, one of the first, we spoke of the major scale. It has
+eight tones only, and though it has existed for many hundreds of
+years, no one has yet dreamed of all the wonderful tone-pictures which
+are contained in it. It is out of it that all the great composers have
+written their works, and for centuries to come men will find in it
+beauties great, and pure, and lasting.
+
+As we sing in school, we are learning to put the major scale to some
+use. It calls upon us in the melodies which it expresses, to be
+careful that each tone shall be right in length, in pitch, in
+loudness, in place. We must sing exactly with the others, not
+offensively loud, nor so softly as to be of no service. And this
+demands precision of us; and precision demands thought. And if we are
+singing to gain a better use of voice we must, in every sound we make,
+have our thoughts exactly upon what we are doing. This is
+Concentration. If, on the other hand, we are trying our skill on a
+song, we shall have, in addition, to be careful to give the right
+expression, to sing not only the tones clearly, but the words, to feel
+the true sentiment both of the poem and of the music, and to express
+from our hearts as much of the meaning of poet and composer as we
+understand. All these things are more particularly required of us if
+we are singing in parts. The melody must be properly sustained and
+must not cover the under parts; while the under parts themselves
+should never intrude upon the melody, nor fail to be a good background
+for it. The singing of part music is one of the best ways to train the
+attention--that is, to get Concentration. As we sing our part we must
+have in mind these things:
+
+
+    I. To keep to it and not be drawn away by another part.
+
+   II. To give the part we sing its due prominence.
+
+  III. Never to destroy the perfect equality of the parts by unduly
+       hastening or holding back.
+
+   IV. To remember that each part is important. The other singers have
+       as much to think of and to do as we have, and they are entitled
+       to just as much praise.
+
+    V. To be alert to take up our part at exactly the right place.
+
+   VI. To put the full meaning of the poet and of the composer into
+       every word and tone.
+
+These, after all, are only a few of the things; but from them we may
+learn this, that to sing (and to play is quite the same) is one of the
+most delicate tasks we can learn to perform, requiring attention from
+us in many ways at the same time. Even now the usefulness of music is
+clear, for the faculties we learn to employ in music form a power that
+can be applied in anything.
+
+But music has even a greater reward for us than this. It presents to
+us many kinds of thoughts and pictures,--of bravery, of
+thoughtfulness, of gaiety, and others without number--and then it
+demands that we shall study so as to sing them truthfully from our
+hearts. And when we can do this music is then a joy to us and to
+others.
+
+Now we see that music, just like the other studies, is useful and
+gives us the power to do something. And besides its use and power it
+is, perhaps more than any other study, the greatest means of giving
+happiness to others. But of that there is yet a word to be said. That
+shall be our next Talk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER.
+
+
+  "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday
+  life."--_Berthold Auerbach._
+
+Just at the end of our Talk about Music in School, I said that music
+was the most powerful of all the studies for giving joy to others. In
+this Talk we shall try to learn what the studies do for each other.
+
+Once more--and we must never get tired if the same thought comes again
+and again--let us remember that music is thought expressed in tone.
+Classic music is great and strong thought; poor, unworthy music is
+weak, perhaps wrong or mean thought.
+
+Further, we have learned that thought may be good and pure, and yet
+that of itself is not sufficient. It must be well expressed. In short,
+to thought of the right sort we must add knowledge, so that it may be
+set before others in the right way.
+
+Now, it is true that the more knowledge we have, the more we can do
+with music. We can put more meaning into it; we can better perform all
+the exacting duties it demands; we can draw more meaning from its art,
+and we can see more clearly how great a genius the composer is.
+Besides these things, a well-trained mind gets more thoughts from a
+subject than an untrained mind. Some day you will see this more
+clearly by observing how much better you will be able to understand
+your own language by possessing a knowledge of Greek and Latin.
+
+All the school studies have a use, to be sure--a direct use--in giving
+us something to help us in life in one way and another. But besides
+this, we get another help from study; namely, the employment of the
+mind in the right way. For the right way of doing things which are
+worthy of the heart, gives power and good. It is the wrong way of
+doing things that causes us trouble. Some studies demand exactness
+above all this,--like the study of Arithmetic--others a good
+memory,--like History--others tax many faculties, as we have seen in
+our Talk about School Music.
+
+Some of the studies are particularly valuable to us at once because
+they make us _do_. They may be called _doing_ studies. In Arithmetic
+there is a result, and only one result, to be sought. In Grammar every
+rule we learn is to be applied in our speech. Manual training demands
+judgment and the careful use of the hands. Penmanship is a test for
+the hand, but History is a study touching the memory more than the
+doing faculty.
+
+School music, you see at once, is a doing study. Not only that, it is
+full of life, attractive, appealing to the thoughts in many ways, and
+yet it is a hearty study--by that I mean a study for the heart.
+
+If you have noticed in your piano music the Italian words which are
+given at the beginning of compositions, you may have thought how
+expressive most of them are of the heart and of action. They are
+_doing_ words particularly. _Allegro_ is cheerful; that is its true
+meaning. It directs us to make the music sound cheerful as we sing it
+or play it. What for? So that the cheerfulness of the composer shall
+be for us and for other people. And _Vivace_ is not merely quickly,
+but vivaciously. Now what does vivacious mean? It means what its
+root-word _vivere_ means, to live. It is a direction that the music
+must be full of life; and the true life of happiness and freedom from
+care is meant. So with _Modcrato_, a doing word which tells us very
+particularly how to do; namely, not too fast, spoiling it by haste,
+nor too slowly, so that it seems to drag, but in a particular way,
+that is, with moderation.
+
+Music takes its place as a _doing_ study; and as we have already
+discovered, its doing is of many kinds, all requiring care. Singing or
+playing is doing; reading the notes is doing; studying out the
+composer's meaning is doing; making others feel it is doing;
+everything is doing; and _doing_ is true living, _provided it is
+unselfish_.
+
+Let us see if there is not a simple lesson in all this. To seek it we
+shall have to say old thoughts over again. Music itself uses the same
+tones over and over again; it is by doing so that we begin to
+understand tone a little.
+
+The school studies try the mind; with the tasks increased bit by bit,
+the mind is made stronger. Thus is Strength gained. By the tasks
+demanding exactness, the thoughts must not be scattered everywhere,
+but centered upon the thing to be done. Thus is Concentration gained.
+By making the hand work with care and a definite purpose, Skill is
+gained. By demanding of the thoughts that they must seek out all the
+qualities of an object, Attention is gained. By placing things and
+signs for things before us, we are taught to See. By educating us in
+sounds, we are taught to Listen. When we have a task that admits of a
+single correct result, we are taught Exactness.
+
+Now, from all we have learned in these Talks about music it must be
+clear that all these qualities are just what are needed in music:
+
+    I. Strength of thought for Real doing.
+
+   II. Concentration for Right doing.
+
+  III. Skill for Well doing.
+
+   IV. Seeing and listening for the cultivation of Attention.
+
+    V. Correctness for the Manner of doing.
+
+We sought for a simple lesson. It is this:
+
+Let us learn all we can that is right and worthy for the strengthening
+of the mind, for the cultivation of the heart, for the good and joy of
+others; for these things are the spirit of music.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE CHILD AT PLAY.
+
+
+  "When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward."
+
+Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand
+shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light
+from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming
+pebbles.
+
+The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and
+played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was
+everywhere and the child was filled with it.
+
+But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to leave
+the beautiful place. Delight was there and many rare things that one
+could play with and enjoy.
+
+The child could not leave them all. Its heart ached to think of them
+lying there alone by the sea. And it thought:
+
+"I will take the pebbles and the shells with me and I will try to
+remember the sunlight and the song of the sea."
+
+So it began to fill its little hands. But it saw that after as many as
+possible were gathered together there were yet myriads left. And it
+had to leave them.
+
+Tired and with a sore heart it trudged homeward, its hands filled to
+overflowing with the pebbles that shone in the sun on the sea-shore.
+Now, however, they seemed dull. And because of this, the child did not
+seem to regret it so much if now and then one fell. "There are still
+some left in my hands," it thought.
+
+At length it came near to its home; so very tired, the little limbs
+could scarcely move. And one who loved the child came out smiling to
+welcome it. The little one went up close and rested its tired head;
+and opening its little hand, soiled with the sea and the sand, said:
+
+"Look, mother, I still have one. May I go for the others some day?"
+
+And the mother said:
+
+"Yes, thou shalt go again."
+
+And the child fell asleep to dream of the singing sea and of the
+sunlight, for these were in its heart.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The following works are referred to in these Talks:
+
+  Addison, Joseph, "Spectator."
+
+  Alexander, Francesca, "Christfolk in the Apennine."
+
+  Antoninus, M. Aurelius, "Meditations."
+
+  Aristotle, "Ethics."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "Kleine Präludien."
+
+  Baldwin, James, "Old Greek Stories."
+
+  Bacon, Francis, "Essays."
+
+  Bridge, J.F., "Simple Counterpoint."
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas, "Heroes and Hero-worship."
+
+  Cellini, Benvenuto, "Autobiography."
+
+  Epictetus, "Memoirs."
+
+  Grove, Sir George, "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+
+  Halleck, R.P., "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+  Handel, G.F., "The Messiah."
+
+  Haupt, August, "Choralbuch."
+
+  Liszt, Franz, "Life of Chopin."
+
+  Lubbock, Sir John, "Pleasures of Life."
+
+  Luther, Martin, "Table Talk."
+
+  Mendelssohn, Felix, "Letters from Italy and Switzerland."
+
+  Parker, J.H., "ABC of Gothic Architecture."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Queen of the Air."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Sesame and Lilies."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Val d'Arno."
+
+  Saintine, X.B., "Picciola."
+
+  Schubert, Franz, "Songs."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Album for the Voung."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Letters."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+  Tapper, Thomas, "Chats with Music Students."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "On Sound."
+
+  Various Authors, "Les Maitres du Clavicin."
+
+  Xenophon, "Memorabilia."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Chats with Music Students
+
+OR
+
+TALKS ABOUT MUSIC AND MUSIC LIFE.
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+Price, Bound in Cloth, $1.50.
+
+This volume appeals to every student of music, however elementary or
+advanced. It is designed to bring to the attention of those who make
+music a life-work, the very many contingent topics that should be
+considered in connection with music. To this end the subjects selected
+for the chats have a practical value, cover considerable ground, and
+are treated from the point of view that best aids the student. The
+reader is taken into confidence, and finds in the chapters of this
+work many hints and benefits that pertain to his own daily life as a
+musician.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+21 SELECTED
+
+CRAMER STUDIES.
+
+From the Von Bülow Edition.
+
+PRICE $1.50, FIRMLY BOUND.
+
+The present complete edition sells for $2.50 and $3.00, retail. Much
+of the material in the complete edition can be eliminated without
+injury to its technical value. We have, therefore, made a selection of
+the choicest of Von Bülow's edition, which we have bound, in one
+volume, in very neat style. Only the most difficult and unimportant
+ones have been eliminated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Normal Course of Piano Technic.
+
+DESIGNED FOR
+
+SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS.
+
+By WM. B. WAIT.
+
+Price $1.50, Bound.
+
+The NORMAL COURSE is based upon the fundamental idea that, for the
+purpose of the development, discipline, and formation of the mind, and
+for teaching the learner how to think and to do, Technical Studies in
+Music are as useful as any other branch.
+
+FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
+
+  Clear, concise statements of facts and principles.
+
+  It deals only with essentials.
+
+  It arranges the materials in grades, by Divisions, Courses, and
+  Steps.
+
+  It exhibits a distinct mode and order of development.
+
+  The course is as clearly laid out as in any other branch of study.
+
+  Practice based upon understanding of means as applied to ends.
+
+  It permits the attention to be given to the hands in practice, and
+  not to the pages.
+
+  In schools it will secure uniformity in the instruction given.
+
+  It furnishes the bases for oral recitations and examinations as in
+  other subjects.
+
+  It is logical, systematic, thorough.
+
+  It is a book for use by schools, teachers, and students.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES:
+
+ 1: From the "Table Talk."
+
+ 2: Play to the children Schubert's song entitled "The Organ-man."
+
+ 3: Phillips Brooks says in one of his sermons ("Identity and
+    Variety"): "Every act has its perfect and entire way of being
+    done."
+
+ 4: Bohn edition, p. 35.
+
+ 5: Read to the children such parts of Francesca Alexander's "Christ's
+    folk in the Apennine" as seem to you pertinent.
+
+ 6: John Ruskin, from the ninth lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 7: John Ruskin. Third lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 8: Franz Liszt's "Life of Chopin," Chapter V.
+
+ 9: _Ibid_, Chapter VI.
+
+
+10: "On Sound."
+
+11: "On Sound" is referred to. The last paragraph of Section 10,
+    Chapter II, may interest the children. The last two paragraphs of
+    Section 13 are not only interesting, but they show how simply a
+    scientist can write.
+
+12: If the original is desired, see Tyndall's "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+13: Schumann wrote in a letter to Ferdinand Hiller, "We should learn
+    to refine the inner ear."
+
+14: From the sermon entitled "The Seriousness of Life."
+
+15: Notice sometime how many of our English words have the Latin
+    _con_.
+
+16: See the fourth chapter of Reuben Post Halleck's "Psychology and
+    Psychic Culture."
+
+17: For instance, the subject of the C minor Fugue in the first book
+    of "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+18: The subject of the C sharp minor Fugue.
+
+19: The prelude in E flat minor and the subject of the G sharp minor
+    Fugue.
+
+20: Robert Schumann.
+
+21: Quoted by Xenophon in the "Memorabilia," Book II, Chapter I, Bohn
+    edition.
+
+22: "Heroes and Hero Worship," Lecture I.
+
+23: From the sermon entitled "Backgrounds and Foregrounds."
+
+24: I should again suggest the value of letting the children become
+    familiar with such books as J.H. Parker's "A B C of Gothic
+    Architecture;" and of having always about plenty of photographs of
+    great buildings, great men, great works of art and of famous
+    places for them to see and to know ("_letting_ them _become_
+    familiar," remember).
+
+25: See R.P. Halleck's "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+26: Read paragraphs 41 and 42 of John Ruskin's "Athena Chalinitis,"
+    the first lecture of "Queen of the Air."
+
+27: John Ruskin, from the lecture entitled "Franchise," in "Val
+    d'Arno," par. 206.
+
+28: "Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and
+    Switzerland." Letter of July 15, 1831.
+
+29: "Letter of December 19, 1831."
+
+30: Read also what is said of Chopin on p. 28.
+
+31: Read to the children "The Wonderful Weaver" in "Old Greek
+    Stories," by James Baldwin. It is only a few pages in length, and
+    is well told.
+
+32: Robert Schumann.
+
+33: John Ruskin's "Queen of the Air," par. 102. ("Athena Ergane.")
+    Read all of it to the children.
+
+34: _Idem_.
+
+35: Lord Bacon, from the essay "Of Great Places."
+
+36: Robert Schumann.
+
+37: Read John Ruskin's "Sesame and the Lilies," par. 19, and as much
+    of what follows as you deem wise.
+
+38: "The Ethics," Book IX, Chapter VII.
+
+39: Always I have it in mind that the teacher will read or make
+    reference to the original when the source is so obvious as in this
+    case. The teacher's, or mother's, discretion should, however,
+    decide what and how much of such original should be read, and what
+    it is best to say of it.
+
+40: I have not attempted to quote the exact words usually given.
+
+41: Socrates. This quotation is from the "Memorabilia of Xenophon,"
+    Book I, Chapter VI.
+
+42: Mary Russell Mitford.
+
+43: "Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Bohn edition, p. 23.
+
+44: "The Miserere" of "Gregorio Allegri." It was written for nine
+    voices in two choirs. "There was a time when it was so much
+    treasured that to copy it was a crime visited with
+    excommunication. Mozart took down the notes while the choir was
+    singing it." (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+    Vol. I, page 54.)
+
+45: Dr. Bridge "On Simple Counterpoint." Preface.
+
+46: Take, in August Haupt's "_Choralbuch zum häuslichen Gebrauch_,"
+    any simple choral. The one entitled "_Zion klagt mit Angst und
+    Schmerzen_" is of singular beauty and simplicity.
+
+47: Peters Edition, No. 200, page 11.
+
+48: I should advise the teacher to have the two volumes entitled "_Les
+    Maitres du Clavicin_." (They can be had in the Litolff
+    collection.)
+
+49: Op. 106.
+
+50: "_Der Erster Verlust_" in Schumann's Op. 68 is well conceived in
+    the sense that it is freely harmonic in some places, imitative in
+    others, while in the opening the melody is very simply
+    accompanied. Show the children how interesting the left-hand part
+    is in this little composition.
+
+51: From a Letter of the Spectator.
+
+52: From the eighth paragraph of the Lecture entitled "Nicholas, the
+    Pisan," in "Val D'Arno."
+
+53: A blind beggar sitting on a bridge in an English town (it was
+    Chester) many times astonished me with the rapidity of his
+    hand-reading, and by the wonderful light of his face. It was
+    wholly free from the perplexity which most of us show. It must
+    arise in us from being attracted by so many things.
+
+54: Eighty-first paragraph of "Val d'Arno."
+
+55: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "The Meditations," Book V, Par. 34.
+
+56: See footnote, p. 119.
+
+57: From the thirteenth paragraph of the fourth book. I have changed
+    the wording a very little to make it simple.
+
+58: Sixteenth paragraph of the fifth book.
+
+59: _Essi quam videri._
+
+60: "The Memorabilia."
+
+61: "Epictetus," H.W. Rollison's Translation.
+
+62: Plato.
+
+63: Mozart wrote three symphonies between June 26th and August 10th,
+    in the year 1778; and an Italian, Giovanni Animuccia, is said to
+    have written three masses, four motettes, and fourteen hymns
+    within five months. As an instance of early composition, Johann
+    Friedrich Bernold had written a symphony before he was ten years
+    of age, and was famous all over Europe.
+
+64: Xenophon, "The Memorabilia," Book IV, Chapter VIII.
+
+65: From the "Pleasures of Life." Eighth Chapter of the Second Series.
+
+66: The little romance of N.B. Saintine is referred to.
+
+67: Read to the children Chapter XIV in my "Chats with Music
+    Students."
+
+68: "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14339 ***
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef9330a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14339 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14339)
diff --git a/old/14339-8.txt b/old/14339-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2aaacd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14339-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3931 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Music Talks with Children, by Thomas Tapper
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Music Talks with Children
+
+Author: Thomas Tapper
+
+Release Date: December 13, 2004  [eBook #14339]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Newman, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN
+
+by
+
+THOMAS TAPPER
+
+Philadelphia
+Theodore Presser
+
+1898
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,
+  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
+  Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  "God being with thee when we know it not."
+
+                            --WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+
+
+TO THE CHILDREN AT HOME
+
+
+  "Teach me to live! No idler let me be,
+  But in Thy service _hand and heart_ employ."
+
+                             --BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+A book of this kind, though addressed to children, must necessarily
+reach them through an older person. The purpose is to suggest a few of
+the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If
+these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be
+actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may
+become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an
+art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding
+in joy. Music with these characteristics is the true music of the
+heart. Unless music gives true pleasure to the young it may be doubted
+if it is wisely studied.
+
+Our failure to present music to the young in a manner that interests
+and holds them is due not so much to the fact that music is too
+difficult for children, but because the children themselves are too
+difficult for us. In our ignorance we often withhold the rightful
+inheritance. We must not forget that the slower adult mind often meets
+a class of difficulties which are not recognized by the unprejudiced
+child. It is not infrequent that with the old fears in us we persist
+in recreating difficulties.
+
+There should be ever present with the teacher the thought that music
+must be led out of the individuality, not driven into it.
+
+The teacher's knowledge is not a hammer, it is a light.
+
+While it is suggested that these chapters be used as the
+subject-matter for talks with the children, they may read verbatim if
+desired. All foot-note references and suggestions are addressed to the
+older person--the mother or the teacher. There is much in the
+literature of art that would interest children if given to them
+discriminatingly.
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+BOSTON, October 30, 1896
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+       PREFACE
+
+    I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS
+
+   II. WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC
+
+  III. MUSIC IN THE HEART
+
+   IV. THE TONES ABOUT US
+
+    V. LISTENING
+
+   VI. THINKING IN TONE
+
+  VII. WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR
+
+ VIII. THE CLASSICS
+
+   IX. WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY
+
+    X. THE LESSON
+
+   XI. THE LIGHT ON THE PATH
+
+  XII. THE GREATER MASTERS
+
+ XIII. THE LESSER MASTERS
+
+  XIV. HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT
+
+   XV. MUSIC AND READING
+
+  XVI. THE HANDS
+
+ XVII. WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID
+
+XVIII. THE GLORY OF THE DAY
+
+  XIX. THE IDEAL
+
+   XX. THE ONE TALENT
+
+  XXI. LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+ XXII. IN SCHOOL
+
+XXIII. MUSIC IN SCHOOL
+
+ XXIV. HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER
+
+  XXV. THE CHILD AT PLAY
+
+       APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+Chats with Music Students; or Talks about Music and Music Life.
+
+"A remarkably valuable work. It is made up of talks to students,
+calculated to make them think; of hints and suggestions which will be
+of immense assistance to those who are earnestly trying to become
+proficient in music."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"No other book covers the same broad field which this covers in such a
+pleasant and inspiring manner."--_The Writer (Boston)._
+
+
+The Music Life and How to Succeed in it.
+
+"These ideas are worthy of attention from students and workers in all
+branches of art, science, and literature, who mean to be serious and
+earnest."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"Exceedingly valuable because of its broad impartiality in its
+exposition of truth, its depth of understanding, and, above all, for
+its earnest desire, manifest in every word, to lead music students to
+a love for music itself.... It abounds in high artistic thought and
+insight."--_The Boston Times._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHAT THE FACE TELLS.
+
+
+  "And the light _dwelleth_ with him."--_Daniel II: 22._
+
+
+Once a master said to a child:
+
+"If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy
+face shall be filled with light."
+
+So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good
+unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the
+light was coming. But at each time she was disappointed. No light was
+there. Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would,
+it was always the same.
+
+I do not know if she doubted the master or not; but it is certain she
+did not know what to make of it. She grieved, and day after day her
+disappointment grew. At length she could bear it no longer, so she
+went to the master and said:
+
+"Dear master, I have been so diligent! I have tried to learn and to do
+good unto others. Yet every time I have sought in my face the light
+_which you promised_, it has not been there. No, not a single time."
+
+Now the master listened intently, and watching her face as she spoke,
+he said:
+
+"Thou poor little one, in this moment, as thou hast spoken to me, thy
+face has been so filled with light that thou wouldst not believe. And
+dost thou know why? It is because every word thou hast spoken in this
+moment has come from thy heart.
+
+"Thou must learn _in the first days_ this lesson: When the thought and
+the deed are in the heart, then the light is in the face, always, and
+it is there at no other time. It could not be. And what is in thy
+heart when thou art before the glass? In that moment hast thou turned
+away from diligence, and from learning, and from the love of doing
+good unto others and in thy heart there is left only the poor
+curiosity to see the light which can never shine when it is sought.
+Thou canst never see the light of thy own face. For thee that light is
+forever within, and it will not prosper thy way to want to look upon
+it. It is only as thou art faithful that this is added unto thee."
+
+Sorrowing yet more than before the little child said:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee;
+but the wish is yet within me to see the light of my face, if only for
+once. Thou who art wise, tell me why it is denied me."
+
+And the master made answer:
+
+"It is denied to us all. No one may see the light of his own face.
+Therefore thou shalt labor daily with diligence that thy light shall
+shine before others. And if thou wouldst see the light thou shalt
+cause it to shine _in another_. That is the greatest of all--to bring
+forth the light. And to do this, thou shalt of thyself be faithful in
+all things. By what thou art thou must show diligence, the love for
+learning, and the desire to do good unto others, even as these things
+have been taught thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC.
+
+
+  "Music makes people more gentle and meek, more modest and
+  understanding."--_Martin Luther._[1]
+
+It was this same music lover who said once, "Music is the fairest gift
+of God." Just these words should be a sufficient answer to the
+question which we have asked in this Talk, but a little more may make
+it clearer. Here we are, gathered together to talk about music. We
+know music is pleasing; to many of us it is even more than a pleasure;
+of course, it is difficult to get the lessons properly and we must
+struggle and strive. Often the way seems so rude and stony that we
+cannot advance. We are hurt, and hot tears of discouragement come, and
+we sit down dejected feeling it were best never to try again. But even
+when the tears flow the fastest we feel something within us which
+makes us listen. We can really hear our thoughts battling to tell us
+something,--prompted by the heart, we may be sure.
+
+And what is music making our thoughts say?
+
+"Have I not been a pleasure and a comfort to you? Have I not set you
+to singing and to dancing many and many times? Have I not let you sing
+your greatest happiness? And am I not ever about you, at home, in
+school, in church? even in the streets I have never deserted you.
+Always, _always_ I have made you merry. But this was music you
+_heard_. Now you have said you wished to know me yourself; to have me
+come to dwell in your heart that you might have me understandingly,
+and because I ask labor of you for this, you sit here with your hot
+tears in your eyes and not a bit of me present in your heart. Listen!
+Am I not there? Yes, just a bit. Now more and more, and now will you
+give me up because I make you work a little?"
+
+Well, we all have just this experience and we always feel ashamed of
+our discouragements; but even this does not tell us why we should
+study music. Some people study it because they have to do so; others
+because they love it. Surely it must be best with those who out of
+their hearts choose to learn about tones and the messages they tell.
+
+Did you ever notice how people seem willing to stop any employment if
+music comes near? Even in the busiest streets of a city the organ-man
+will make us listen to his tunes. In spite of the hurry and the crowd
+and the jumble of noises, still the organ-tones go everywhere clear,
+full, melodious, bidding us heed them. Perhaps we mark the music with
+the hand, or walk differently, or begin to sing with it. In one way or
+another the music will make us do something--that shows its power. I
+have seen in many European towns a group of children about the
+organ-man,[2] dancing or singing as he played and enjoying every tune
+to the utmost. This taught me that music of every kind has its lover,
+and that with a little pains and a little patience the love for music
+belongs to all alike, and may be increased if other things do not push
+it aside.
+
+Now, one of the first things to be said of music is that it makes
+happiness, and what makes happiness is good for us, because happiness
+not only lightens the heart, but it is one of the best ways to make
+the light come to the face. The moment we study music we learn a
+severe lesson, and that is this: There can be no use in our trying to
+be musicians unless we are willing to learn perfect order in all the
+music-tasks we do.
+
+In this, music is a particularly severe mistress. Nothing slovenly,
+untidy, or out of order will do. The count must be absolutely right,
+not fast nor slow as our fancy dictates, but even and regular. The
+hands must do their task together in a friendly manner; the one never
+crowding nor hurrying the other, each willing to yield to the other
+when the right moment comes.[3] The feet must never use the pedals so
+as to make the harmonies mingle wrongly, but at just the right moment
+must make the strings sing together as the composer desires. The
+thoughts can never for a single moment wander from the playing; they
+must remain faithful, preparing what is to come and commanding the
+hands to do exactly the right task in the right way. That shows us,
+you see, the second quality and a strict one of music. It will not
+allow us to be disorderly, and more than this, it teaches us a habit
+for order that will be a gain to us in every other task. Now let us
+see:
+
+First, we should study music for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, we should study music for the order it teaches us.
+
+There is a third reason. If music gives us happiness, do we not in
+learning it gain a power to contribute happiness to others? That is
+one of the greatest pleasures in learning. Not only does the knowledge
+prove of use and joy to us, but we can constantly make it useful and
+joy-giving to others. Does this not teach us how thankful we should be
+to all those who live usefully? And think of all the men who have
+passed their lives writing beautiful thoughts, singing out of their
+very hearts, day after day, all their life long, for the joy of others
+forever after.
+
+In our next Talk we shall learn that pure thought, written out of the
+heart, is forever a good in the world. From this we shall learn that
+to study music rightly is to cultivate in our own hearts the same good
+thought which the composer had. Hence the third reason we can find for
+studying music is that it makes us able to help and to cheer others,
+to help them by willingly imparting the little knowledge we have, and
+to cheer them by playing the beautiful thoughts in tone which we have
+learned.
+
+These are three great reasons, truly, but there are many others. Let
+us speak about one of them. In some of the Talks we are to have we
+shall learn that true music comes from a true heart; and that great
+music--that is the classics--is the thought of men who are pure and
+noble, learned in the way to write, and anxious never to write
+anything but the best. There is plainly a great deal of good to us if
+we study daily the music of men such as these. In this way we are
+brought in touch with the greatest thought. This constant presence and
+influence will mold our thoughts to greater strength and greater
+beauty. When we read the history of music, we shall see that the
+greatest composers have always been willing to study in their first
+days the master works of their time. They have strengthened their
+thoughts by contact with thoughts stronger than their own, and we may
+gain in just the same way if we will. We know now that there are many
+reasons why it is good for us to study music. We have spoken
+particularly of four of these. They are:
+
+First, for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, for the order it demands of us.
+
+Third, for the power it gives us to help and cheer others.
+
+Fourth, for the great and pure thought it brings before us and raises
+in us.
+
+All these things, are they true, you ask? If the little child had
+asked that of the master he would have said:
+
+"These things shalt thou find real because they make thee brave. And
+the pain and the drudgery and the hot tears shall be the easier to
+bear for this knowledge, which should be strong within thee as a pure
+faith."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MUSIC IN THE HEART.
+
+
+  "Raffaello's genius goes directly to the heart."--_Autobiography of
+  Benvenuto Cellini._[4]
+
+The only true way to learn is by doing. The skill of the hand and the
+skill of the thought can be brought out only by use. We shall not
+become very skilful, nor very learned, nor very good unless we daily
+devote ourselves to tasks--often difficult and unpleasant--which shall
+bring to us wisdom, or success, or goodness. None of these things, nor
+any other like them, come merely by talking about them. That is the
+worst way of all--merely to talk and not to act. But if we talk
+truthfully and act with care, we shall gain a great deal. Pleasant
+companionship often brings forth thoughts which if we follow them
+industriously, lead a long way in a good direction.
+
+I do not know that any one has likened music to a country. But we can
+make the comparison, and then it becomes plain that we may either
+wander through it, seeing the beautiful things, wondering about them,
+and talking over our admiration and our wonder; or we may join to this
+a true and an earnest inquiry, which shall give us, as a reward, the
+clear understanding of some things which we see. Let us travel in this
+way; first, because we shall gain true knowledge by it, but better
+still, because we shall thereby learn _in the first days_ that the
+truest pleasures and the dearest happinesses are those for which we
+have done something; those for which we have given both of labor and
+of pains.
+
+One of the wisest little philosophers in the world was Polissena,[5]
+and I think she became wise just because she labored. As we become
+more and more acquainted with true music we shall learn this: True
+music is that which is born in some one's heart. "All immortal writers
+speak out of the heart."[6] Nothing could be truer; and as they speak
+_out_ of their hearts you may be sure they intend to speak _into_
+ours. Nowhere else. As true music is made in some one's heart, we must
+feel it in our own hearts as we play it or it will mean nothing. The
+heart must make it warm, then the beauties of the music will come out.
+It is strange how our moods tell themselves. All we do with our eyes
+and with our ears, with the tongue and with the hands, what we do with
+our thoughts even, is sure to say of itself whether we are doing with
+a willing heart or not. It is curious that the truth will come out of
+whatever seems to be a secret, but curious as it may be, it does come
+out. We must think of that.
+
+Every one of us knows the difference between doing willingly and
+unwillingly. We know that things done with joy and with eagerness are
+well done and seem to spring directly from the heart. Not only that,
+but they really inspire joy and eagerness in those who are about us.
+_Inspire_ is just the word. Look it up in your dictionary and see that
+it means exactly what happens--_to breathe into_--they breathe joy and
+happiness _into_ all things else, and it comes out of our hearts.
+
+Now happiness can be told in many ways: in laughter, in the eyes, in a
+game, in a life like that of Polissena's, in anything, but in nothing
+that does not win the heart. As happiness can be shown in anything, it
+can be shown in music. We can put happiness into play, likewise we can
+put happiness into music. And as much of it as we put into anything
+will come out. Besides, we might just as well learn now as at another
+time, this: Whatever we put into what we do will come out. It may be
+happiness or idleness or hatred or courage; whatever goes into what we
+do comes out very plainly. Everything, remember. That means much. If
+you should practise for an hour, wishing all the time to be doing
+something else, you may be sure that your wish is coming out of your
+playing so plainly that every one knows it. Do you think that is
+strange? Well, it may be, but it is strictly true.
+
+No one may be able to explain why and how, but certainly it is true
+that as we play our music all that goes on in the heart finds its way
+into the head, and the arms, and the hands, into the music, off
+through the air, and into the hearts of every one who is listening. So
+it is a valuable truth for us to remember, that whatever we put into
+our music will come out and we cannot stop it; and other people will
+get it, and know what we are by it.
+
+Once we fully understand how music will show forth our inmost feelings
+we shall begin to understand its truthfulness and its power, as well
+as its beauty. We shall see from our first days that music will tell
+the truth. That will help us to understand a little the true mission
+of art, "either to state a true thing, or adorn a serviceable one."[7]
+The moment we understand this _a very little_ we shall begin to love
+art. We shall be glad and willing for music to reveal us, to show the
+spirit within us, because little by little with the understanding will
+come love and reverence for the beautiful thoughts that are locked up
+in tones.
+
+Men who want to tell something to very many people, many of whom they
+do not know and to whom they cannot go, write down all they have to
+say and make a book of it. There are some men, however, who have many
+beautiful thoughts which they wish to tell to those who can
+understand; these may dwell in their own land or in other lands; in
+their own time or in future time. But the message of these men is so
+beautiful and so delicate that it cannot be told in words, so they
+tell it in music. Then, in their own land and in other lands, in their
+own day and forever after, people can find out the delicate thoughts
+by studying the pages of the music, seeking _with their hearts_ the
+thought that came out of the master's heart.
+
+Do you wonder that composers revere their art? We are told of Chopin
+that art was for him a high and holy vocation.[8] Do you wonder? Let
+me read you a few words about his devotion: "In order to become a
+skilful and able master he studied, without dreaming of the ... fame
+he would obtain." "Nothing could be purer, more exalted, than his
+thoughts,"[9] because he knew that if his thoughts were not pure the
+impurity would come out in his music.
+
+The music that has first been felt in the heart and then written down
+finds its way and tells all about the heart, where it was born. When
+you play and feel that you are playing from the heart, you may be sure
+you are on the right path. The beautiful thing is, that this is true
+no matter how simple music is. The very simplest will tell all about
+us. Remember, in playing music, that great and good men have put into
+tones thoughts which will be a joy and comfort to the world forever.
+Some one of these Talks will be about classic and common music. But
+even now I am sure we understand that good music comes from pure
+thought, and pure thought comes from a good heart. That, surely, is
+clear and simple.
+
+Pure music is earnest and songful. It has meaning in every part. No
+tone is without a lofty purpose. That is true music. It is classic
+from the heart that is put into it.
+
+By being faithful to our music it will do for us more than we can
+dream. Do you know the inscription that used to be over the north gate
+of the city of Siena, in Italy?
+
+"Siena opens not only her gates, but her heart to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TONES ABOUT US.
+
+
+"Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well
+as the visible in nature."--_John Tyndall_.[10]
+
+There used to live in England a famous scientist named Tyndall, who
+was interested, among other things, in the study of sound. He studied
+sounds of all kinds, made experiments with them, wrote down what he
+observed, and out of it all he wrote a book,[11] useful to all who
+desire to learn about sound and its nature.
+
+One day, Tyndall and a friend were walking up one of the mountains of
+the Alps.[12] As they ascended the path, Tyndall's attention was
+attracted by a shrill sound, which seemed to come from the ground at
+his feet. Being a trained thinker he was at once curious to know what
+was the cause of this. By looking carefully he found that it came from
+a myriad of small insects which swarmed by the side of the path.
+Having satisfied himself as to what it was he spoke to his companion
+about the shrill tone and was surprised to learn that he could not
+hear it. Tyndall's friend could hear all ordinary sound perfectly
+well. This, however, seemed to be sound of such a character as did not
+reach his sense of hearing. One who like Tyndall listened carefully to
+sounds of all kinds would quickly detect anything uncommon. This
+little incident teaches us that sounds may go on about us and yet we
+know nothing of them. Also it teaches us to think about tones, seek
+them, and in the first days increase our acquaintance and familiarity
+with them.
+
+Men of science, who study the different ways in which the mind works,
+tell us that habit and also a busy mind frequently make us unconscious
+of many things about us. Sometimes we have not noticed the clock
+strike, although we have been in the room on the hour; or some one
+speaks to us, and because we are thinking of something else we fail to
+hear what is said to us. It certainly is true that very many people do
+not hear half of the sounds that go on about them, sounds which, if
+but heeded, would teach people a great deal. And of all people, those
+who study music should be particularly attentive to sounds of all
+kinds. Indeed, the only way to begin a music education is to begin by
+learning to listen. Robert Schumann, a German composer, once wrote a
+set of rules for young musicians. As it was Schumann's habit to write
+only what was absolutely needed we may be sure he regarded his rules
+as very important. There are sixty-eight of them, and the very first
+has reference to taking particular notice of the tones about us. If we
+learn it from memory we shall understand it better and think of it
+oftener. Besides that, we shall have memorized the serious thought of
+a truly good and great man. This is what he says:
+
+"The cultivation of the ear is of the greatest importance. Endeavor
+early to distinguish each tone and key. Find out the exact tone
+sounded by the bell, the glass, and the cuckoo."
+
+There is certainly a good hint in this. Let us follow it day by day,
+and we shall see how many are the tones about us which we scarcely
+ever notice. We should frequently listen and find who of us can
+distinguish the greatest number of different sounds. Then we shall
+learn to listen attentively to sounds and noises. Bit by bit all
+sounds, especially beautiful ones, will take on a new and deeper
+meaning to us; they will be full of a previously unrecognized beauty
+which will teach us to love music more and more sincerely.
+
+In order that we may better understand how sounds are related to each
+other we should learn early to sing the major scale so that it will go
+readily up and down as a melody. As we become more and more familiar
+with it we must think frequently of its separate tones so as to feel
+just how each one sounds in the scale, how it fits in the scale, and
+just what it says, in fact; we shall then notice after a while that we
+can hear the scale with the inner ear, which is finer and more
+delicate.[13]
+
+We should have names for the scale-tones like the pretty Italian
+syllables, or, if not these, whatever our teacher suggests. Then we
+should have a conception of the tones as they are related. We should
+learn that every tone of the scale is colored by the tonic. Every one
+gets a character from the tonic which tells us all about it, because
+we learn to hear its relation to its principal tone. In a little
+while, with patience, we shall be able to hear the scale-tones in any
+order we may choose to think them. That power will be a fine help
+forever after--we must be sure to get it in the first days.
+
+Whenever we hear two tones we should try to find them on the piano.
+This will make us listen more attentively to the tone sounded by the
+clock, the church-bell, the bird, the drinking-glass. And what a lot
+there are, like the squeaking door, the cricket, the noise of the wind
+and rain, the puff of the engine, and all the other sounds we hear in
+a day. Bit by bit, in this way, our familiarity with tones will grow
+and we shall be well repaid for all the trouble. Gradually we shall
+become better listeners--but about listening we are to speak in our
+next Talk. This, however, may be said now: Let us always be sure to
+listen with special care to two tones, calling one the tonic, or
+first, of the major scale and finding what degree the other is, or
+near what degree it lies. This will make us better acquainted with the
+scale and we shall learn that all the music we have comes out of it.
+
+We must also listen to tones so that we can tell something about them
+besides their scale names. We must learn to describe tones, tell
+whether they are high or low, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, long or
+short. For instance, through the window I can hear a church-bell. Some
+one is ringing it slowly so that the tones are long. The tone is not a
+very high one (it is G above middle C) and the quality is rich and
+mellow. This describes the church-bell tone quite well, and in like
+manner we may describe all the sounds we hear. We should make it a
+habit often to stand or to sit perfectly still and to listen to
+everything that goes on about us. Even in the country, where all seems
+as quiet as possible, we shall be surprised at the great number of
+sounds.
+
+There are some other tones to which I fear we are prone not to listen.
+I mean the tones which the piano makes when we play finger-exercises.
+We think perhaps of the finger motion, which is not all; or we think
+of nothing, which is very bad; or our thoughts begin to picture other
+things even while we play, which is the worst of all, and bit by bit
+we actually forget what we are doing. One of the quickest ways to
+become unable to hear sounds correctly is to play the piano without
+thinking fully of what we are doing. Therefore it must be a rule never
+to play a tone without listening acutely to it. If in the first days
+we determine to do this and remain faithful to it, we shall always
+touch the piano keys carefully, thoughtfully, and reverentially.
+
+Elsewhere we shall have some definite tone lessons for the purpose of
+making us familiar with the tones about us. But no rule can exceed in
+importance this one, never to make any music unthinkingly.
+
+By care and practice we soon become so skilful as to notice tones with
+the readiness we notice colors in the garden. The sense of tone must
+be as strong in us as is the sense of color. Then we shall be able to
+tell differences of tones which are nearly the same, as readily as we
+can now tell two varieties of yellow, for instance. A bit of
+perseverance in this and the beauties even of common sounds shall be
+revealed to us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LISTENING.
+
+
+  "You must listen as if listening were your life."--_Phillips
+  Brooks._[14]
+
+In our last Talk we learned that it was quite possible for sounds to
+be about us and yet we not hear them. Sometimes, as in the case of
+Tyndall's companion, it is because we are not capable; at other times,
+as when the clock strikes and we do not hear, it is because we are
+occupied with other things. It is from this latter fact--being
+occupied with other things--that we can learn what listening is.
+Listening is not being occupied with other things. It is being
+completely attentive to what we are expected to hear.
+
+The condition of being occupied with other thoughts when we should be
+listening is known as inattention. To listen with full attention, all
+other things being entirely absent from the mind, is one form of
+concentration.
+
+Inattention is a destroyer. It divides our power between two or more
+things when it should be directed upon a single thing. Concentration
+gives us greater and greater mind-power. If you will look in the
+dictionary to find what concentration means (you should be good
+friends with the dictionary) you will find it is made up of _con_[15]
+meaning with, and _centrum_, a center, "with a center," or "to come to
+a center." If you hold a magnifying-glass between your hand and the
+sun you will find that at a certain distance the sunlight is in a
+circle. By changing the distance with delicacy you can diminish the
+circle to almost a point,--you make the light _come to a center_. When
+the circle of light is large, no particular effect is noted by the
+hand. When, however, the circle is as small as it can be made you feel
+a sensation of warmth which, if continued long enough, will really
+burn the hand. That small circle is the sunlight _in concentration_.
+The rays of sunlight, instead of being scattered, are centered. They
+burn the hand because they are full of power--powerful.
+
+By way of example: Let the different rays stand for inattention and
+the tiny circle of light for concentration. The former has little or
+no power; the latter is full of power. This very well illustrates what
+happens, both when our thoughts are scattered over a large area, and
+when they are brought together--concentrated--in a small circle. The
+first listening indeed which should claim our attention is not
+tone-listening, but listening to what is said to us. No one under a
+good teacher ever learns well who is not attentive and obedient. And
+then _listening_ and _doing_ are inseparably joined. Tone-listening
+makes us self-critical and observant, and we are assured by men of
+science that unless we become good observers in our early years, it is
+later impossible for us.[16]
+
+In the previous Talk we spoke about listening to all kinds of sounds,
+particularly those out-of-doors. In this Talk we shall speak only of
+real music-listening. You know, now, that music born out of the heart
+is the thought of a good man. Of course, beautiful thoughts of any
+kind should be listened to not only with attention, but with
+reverence. Reverence is the tribute which the thoughtful listener pays
+to the music of a man who has expressed himself beautifully in tone.
+This at once reveals to us that we should listen to what is great for
+the purpose of getting ideals. We hear what we hope to attain. It is
+said of the violinist, Pierre Baillot, that when only ten years of age
+he heard the playing of Viotti, and though he did not hear it again
+for twenty years the performance ever remained in his mind as an ideal
+to be realized in his studies, and he worked to attain it.
+
+The pupils of the great Viennese teacher of the piano, Theodor
+Leschetizky, say he asks no question more frequently than "Can you not
+hear?" It is not only difficult to listen to ourselves, but listening
+is one thing and decidedly a superior thing, while hearing is another
+and equally inferior thing. And it shows us, when we think of it, that
+no self-criticism is possible until we forget all things else and
+listen to what we are doing and listen with concentration. It now
+becomes clear to us that no one becomes an intelligent musician who is
+not skilled in tone sense, in listening, and having thoughts about
+what is heard.
+
+We may read again from the excellent rules of Robert Schumann:
+
+"Frequently sing in choruses, especially the middle parts; this will
+help to make you musical."
+
+Out of this we learn to try to hear more than the melody, to try
+sometimes not to think of the melody, but to listen only to that which
+accompanies it. When, in school, you sing in two and three parts,
+notice how one is inclined always to sing the soprano. The melody
+pulls us away from another part if we are not concentrated upon our
+part. Yet notice how beautifully musical the lower parts are. Listen
+intently to them whatever part you sing.
+
+It seems in music that we learn to listen in two directions. First, by
+training the attention merely to follow prominent sounds and to be
+conscious of all of them; then, later, we do not need to think so much
+of the prominent melody but we strive to hear the accompanying parts.
+These are the melodies which are somewhat concealed by the principal
+one; not truly concealed either, for they are plain enough if we will
+listen. They make one think of flowers hidden in the grass and
+foliage. They are none the less beautiful though they are concealed;
+for the sunlight seeks them out and makes them blossom.
+
+We find hidden melodies in all good music because it is the character
+of good music to have interesting and beautiful melodic thought
+everywhere. There are never meaningless tones allowed. Every sound
+says something and is needed. It is curious that in our playing the
+moment we put our thoughts upon any tone or voice part with the desire
+to hear it, it comes out at once as plainly as if it was the highest
+melody. That illustrates the power of thought concentrated upon even a
+hidden thing. You know how in Bach even the piano works move as if all
+parts were to be sung by voices. It reminds one of conversation; of
+the story, of the question and answer, of the merry chat in a pleasant
+company. Some bits of sentence are tripping and full of laughter,[17]
+others grave and majestic,[18] others have wonderful dignity of heart
+and mind.[19]
+
+Such qualities give music interest and meaning in every part. It will
+not take you long to discover that it is just the absence of these
+qualities that makes other music common.
+
+The melody is not sustained by anything particularly well worth
+listening to. One might say that good music is like the foliage of the
+garden, every leaf and petal variously yet finely formed, and all
+combined to make a beautiful whole.
+
+When you have learned carefully to follow the accompaniment of a
+melody, try to follow the single voice parts in the chorus,
+particularly the Bass, Tenor, and Alto. And when you go to orchestral
+concerts learn early to follow special instruments like the clarinet,
+the oboe, the drum.
+
+Especially try to follow the lower strings, the viola, the 'cello, and
+the bass. They are strongly characteristic. You will learn their
+peculiar qualities only by giving them special and concentrated
+thought. You will now see that acute and careful listening has its
+definite ways and purposes. Here they are:
+
+    I. Listening comes from concentration.
+
+   II. When listening to great music it must be with reverence as well
+       as with attention.
+
+  III. We must listen for ideals.
+
+   IV. We must listen in order to be self-critical.
+
+    V. Constant listening to true music reveals that there is never a
+       tone used unless it has a meaning.
+
+And besides all this we must think that among those who listen to us
+there may be some one who has learned this careful concentrated way.
+Then we shall have it ever in mind to "play as if in the presence of a
+master."[20]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THINKING IN TONE.
+
+
+  "The gods for labor sell us all good things."--_Epicharmus_.[21]
+
+Perhaps you have some doubt as to exactly what is meant by
+music-thinking. Being somewhat acquainted with composers and with
+music, the thought may here come to you that all the music we hear in
+the world must have been made by somebody--by many somebodies, in
+fact. They have had to sit down, and forgetting all things else,
+listen intently to the music-thought which fills the mind. If you will
+sit quietly by yourself you will discover that you can easily think
+words and sentences and really hear them in the mind without
+pronouncing anything. In quite the same way the composer sits and
+hears music, tone by tone, and as clearly as if it were played by a
+piano or an orchestra. And to him the tones have a clear meaning, just
+as words have a clear meaning to us. Naturally, one can see that there
+could be no other way. Unless the composer can think out everything
+exactly there could be no music, for music must be written, and one
+can only write what one thinks. So at this point the thought to
+remember is this: Music must exist in some one's mind before others
+can have it to hear and enjoy.
+
+In like manner--just the same manner, in fact--the painter is one who
+thinks pictures; the sculptor, one who thinks statues; the architect,
+one who thinks buildings. They think these things just as you think
+words; and as you tell your thoughts in spoken words, so they tell
+their thoughts in printed music, in painted pictures, in chiseled
+statues, and in erected buildings. Now, from all this it should be
+clear to you that there can be nothing which has not first been
+thought of by some one. You _think_ the door must be closed and you
+close it; you _think_ you must know the time and you look at the
+clock; you _think_ the one hand should play more loudly than the other
+and you try to do it.
+
+Power to get things and to do things comes to us rapidly only in the
+fairy-tales. In the real, beautiful, healthy world in which we live we
+have to work hard and honestly for the power either to get things or
+to do things. By faithful labor must we win what we want. What we do
+not labor for we do not get. That is a condition of things so simple
+that a child can readily understand it. But all, children and their
+elders, are apt to forget it. In the life of every great man there is
+a story different from that of every other great man, _but in every
+one of them_ this truth about laboring for the power one has is found.
+
+In our Talk on Listening, it was said that the sounds we hear around
+us are the more easily understood if we first become familiar with the
+melody which is called the major scale. But in order to think music it
+is necessary to know it--in fact, music-thinking is impossible without
+it. As it is no trouble to learn the scale, all of you should get it
+fixed in the mind quickly and securely.
+
+It is now possible for you to hear the scale without singing its tones
+aloud. Listen and see if that is not so! Now think of the melodies you
+know, the songs you sing, the pieces you play. You can sing them quite
+loudly (_can_ you sing them?) or in a medium tone, or you can hum them
+softly as if to yourself; or further yet, you can think them without
+making the faintest sound, and every tone will be as plain as when you
+sang it the loudest. Here, I can tell you that Beethoven wrote many of
+his greatest works when he was so deaf that he could not hear the
+music he made. Hence, he must have been able to write it out of his
+thought just as he wanted it to sound. When you understand these steps
+and ways you will then know about the beginning of music-thinking.
+
+Let us inquire in this Talk what the piano has to do in our
+music-thinking. What relation is there between the music in the mind
+and the tones produced by the piano? It seems really as if the piano
+were a photographic camera, making for us a picture of what we have
+written,--a camera so subtle indeed, that it pictures not things we
+can see and touch, but invisible things which exist only within us.
+But faithful as the piano is in this, it may become the means of doing
+us much injury. We may get into the habit of trusting the piano to
+think for us, of making it do so, in fact. Instead of looking
+carefully through the pages of our new music, reading and
+understanding it with the mind, we run to the piano and with such
+playing-skill as we have we sit down and use our hands instead of our
+minds. Now a great many do that, young and old. But the only people
+who have a chance to conceive their music rightly are the young; the
+old, if they have not already learned to do it, never can. That is a
+law which cannot be changed.
+
+We have talked about listening so much that it should now be a settled
+habit in us. If it is we are learning every day a little about tones,
+their qualities and character. And we do this not alone by hearing the
+tones, but by giving great heed to them. Let us now remember this:
+listening is not of the ears but of the thoughts. It is thought
+_concentrated_ upon hearing. The more this habit of tone-listening
+goes on in us, the more power we shall get out of our ability to read
+music. All these things help one another. We shall soon begin to
+discover that we not only have thoughts about sounding-tones, but
+about printed tones. This comes more as our knowledge of the scale
+increases.
+
+We can now learn one of the greatest and one of the most wonderful
+truths of science: _Great knowledge of anything comes from never
+ceasing to study the first steps._
+
+The major scale, as we first learn it, seems a perfectly simple thing.
+But if we think of it all our lives we shall never discover the
+wonders there are in it. Hence, three simple rules for us to follow in
+learning to think music are these:
+
+  1. To listen to all tones.
+
+  2. Never to stop studying the major scale.
+
+  3. To become accustomed to hear tones within.
+
+If we are faithful to these we shall, with increasing study and
+industry, become more and more independent of the piano. We shall
+never think with our hands, nor depend upon anything outside of
+ourselves for the meaning contained in printed tone-thought.
+
+If now we join two things we shall get the strength of both united,
+which is greater than of either alone.
+
+If in our playing lessons we have only the very purest music (heart
+music, remember), and if we are faithful in our simpler thinking
+lessons, we shall gain the power not only of pure thought, but of
+stronger and stronger thought. This comes of being daily in the
+presence of great thoughts--for we are in the presence of great
+thoughts when we study great music, or read a great poem, or look at a
+great picture, or at a great building. All these things are but signs
+made manifest,--that is to say, made plain to us--of the pure thought
+of their makers.
+
+Thomas Carlyle, a Scotch author of this century, spoke very truly when
+he said:
+
+"Great men are profitable company; we cannot look upon a great man
+without gaining something by him."[22]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR.
+
+
+  "You must feel the mountains above you while you work upon your
+  little garden."--_Phillips Brooks._[23]
+
+Somewhere else we shall have some definite lessons in music-thinking.
+Let us then devote this Talk to finding out what is suggested to us by
+the things we see and hear.
+
+Once a boy wrote down little songs. When the people asked him how he
+could do it, he replied by saying that he made his songs from thoughts
+which most other people let slip. We have already talked about thought
+and about learning to express it. If a person of pure thought will
+only store it up and become able to express it properly, when the time
+comes he can make little songs or many other things; for all things
+are made of thought. The poem is stored-up thought expressed in words;
+the great cathedral like the one at Winchester, in England, or the one
+near the Rhine, at Cologne, in Germany, is stored-up thought expressed
+in stone. So with the picture and the statue: they are stored-up
+thought on canvas and in marble.[24] In short, we learn by looking at
+great things just what the little ones are; and we know from poems and
+buildings and the like, that these, and even commoner things, like a
+well-kept garden, a tidy room, a carefully learned lesson, even a
+smile on one's face result, every one of them, from stored-up thought.
+
+We can consequently make a definition of THINGS by saying they are
+what is thought. Things are made of thought. Even if you cannot
+understand this fully now, keep it by you and as you grow older its
+truth will be more and more clear. It will be luminous. Luminous is
+just the word, for it comes from a word in another language and means
+_light_. Now the better you understand things the more _light_ you
+have about them. And out of this you can understand how well ignorance
+has been compared with darkness. Hence, from the poem, the building,
+the painting, the statue, and from commoner things we can learn, as it
+was said in a previous Talk, that music is stored-up thought told in
+beautiful tones.
+
+Now let us heed the valuable part of all this. If poems, statues, and
+all other beautiful things are made out of stored-up thought (and
+commoner things are, too), we ought to be able, by studying the
+things, to tell what kind of a person it was who thought them; or, in
+other words, who made them. It is true, we can. We can tell all the
+person's thought, so far as his art and principal work are concerned.
+Nearly all his life is displayed in the works he makes. We can tell
+the nature of the man, the amount of study he has done, but best of
+all we can tell his meaning. The face tells all its past history to
+one who knows how to look.[25] His intentions are everywhere as plain
+as can be in what he does.
+
+Thus you see there is more in a person's work than what we see at the
+first glance. There are reflections in it as plain as those in a
+mountain lake. And as the mountain lake reflects only what is _above_
+it, so the work of the musician, of the artist, of any one in fact,
+reflects those thoughts which forever hover above the others. Thoughts
+of good, thoughts of evil, thoughts of generosity, thoughts of selfish
+vanity, these, _and every other kind_, are so strongly reflected in
+the work we do that they are often more plainly seen than the work
+itself. And with the works of a great artist before us we may find out
+not only what he did and what he knew, but what he felt _and even what
+he did not want to say_.
+
+We now know what music-thinking is. Also, we see why the young
+musician needs to learn to think music. Really, he is not a musician
+until he can think correctly in tone. And further than this, when we
+have some understanding of music-thought we not only think about what
+we play and hear, but we begin to inquire what story it tells and what
+meaning it should convey. We begin to seek in music for the thought
+and intention of the composer, and, little by little, even before we
+know it, we begin to seek out what kind of mind and heart the composer
+had. We begin really to study his character from the works he has left
+us.
+
+We have now taken the first really intelligent step toward knowing for
+ourselves something about common and classic music. Later on, as our
+ability increases, this will be of great value to us. We begin to see,
+bit by bit, what the author intended. That is the real test of it all.
+We do not want to find mere jingle in music, we want music that says
+something. Even a very young child knows that "eenty meenty meiny moe"
+is not real sense, though it is a pleasant string of sounds to say in
+a game.
+
+Thus we learn to look into what we hear and into what we see and try
+to find how much thought there is in it, and the kind of thought it
+is. We want to know if goodness is expressed; if the best work of the
+man is before us, or if, for a lower reason, his selfishness and
+vanity are most prominent. And let us remember that as we seek these
+things in the works of others, so others of thoughtful kind will watch
+our doings, our playing, our speech, our little habits, and all to see
+what our intentions are each time we express ourselves. They will look
+to see what thoughts we are putting into our doings, whether thoughts
+of goodness or of selfishness. And our actions will always be just as
+good as the thought we put into them.
+
+Now a great and a common mistake is, that sometimes we hope by some
+mysterious change, as in a fairy tale, that they will be better than
+what we intend. But in the first days let us learn that this is not
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CLASSICS.[26]
+
+
+  "Genuine work done faithfully, that is eternal."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+The older we grow and the more we study, the more we shall hear about
+the classics, about classic music, and classic art, and classic books.
+From the beginning let us keep it in our minds that one of our duties
+is to find out the difference between what is classic and what is not.
+Then we shall have a proper understanding. An English writer on art
+says: "The writers and painters of the classic school set down nothing
+but what is known to be true, and set it down in the perfectest manner
+possible in their way."[27]
+
+And we have already learned that thought from the heart, expressed in
+tones, is good music. On the other hand, a thought with the heart not
+in it, expressed in tone, makes poor or common music. Mendelssohn
+wrote in one of his letters: "When I have composed a piece just as it
+springs from my heart, then I have done my duty toward it."[28] But in
+writing thoughts, whether in words or in tones, there is a very
+important thing to add to the bidding of the heart. It is the training
+of the mind. With both of these one works and judges wisely.
+
+With thought and intention ever so pure, but with no education, one
+would not be able to write for others, and with a little education one
+would be able to write only in a partially correct way. This brings us
+to one of the most interesting Talks we shall have. Let us try to make
+it clear and simple.
+
+We can easily imagine a man both true and good who can neither write
+nor spell. Happily, in these days, nearly all people who are old
+enough know how to do both. We can understand that this man may have
+beautiful thoughts--the thoughts of a true poet or of a true
+artist--but being unable to write or to spell he could not put his
+thoughts on paper for others to read and to study. This is the way
+thoughts are preserved and made into books so that people may benefit
+by them.
+
+It would, therefore, be necessary for this man, about whom we speak,
+to get the assistance of some one who knew how to write thoughts and
+to spell their words. Then, together, they would have to talk about
+the thoughts, choose proper words, form the sentences, and make all
+fit rightly together as a writer must who desires to be clear. But it
+is more than likely that the one who writes would not do all these
+things to the satisfaction of the other. Of this there could be but
+one result. The person who had the beautiful thoughts would be forever
+wishing that he had learned in the first days to write and to spell.
+Then he could do all these things for himself and show his thoughts to
+others exactly as he wished them to appear.
+
+Now it is clear that some may have beautiful and valuable thoughts and
+not know how to write them, while others may have the ability to write
+without having thoughts worth preserving. Evidently what one must have
+are both beautiful thoughts and ability to write them.
+
+Did you think when I read you that bit from the letter of Mendelssohn
+that all a composer has to do is to find in his heart just what he
+wants to say? As we have already discovered, that is not enough. To
+show you that Mendelssohn was not afraid of hard work let us read a
+little from another of his letters.[29] Mendelssohn had resolved to
+work in Germany and maintain himself. "If I find that I cannot do
+this, then I must leave it for London or Paris, where it is easier to
+get on. I see indeed where I should be more honored, and live more
+gaily and more at my ease than in Germany, where a man must press
+forward, and toil, and take no rest,--still, if I can succeed there,
+_I prefer_ the latter."[30]
+
+We can now understand that it is quite the same with word-thinkers and
+with tone-thinkers. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make
+the classics.
+
+Out of this thought there comes another. It is this: Great thoughts,
+expressed well, out of a great heart, make the works which last the
+longest; and still further, for one truth leads out of another. Only
+they can appreciate the classics who have something that is classic
+within them. They must have the heart true in its feeling, tender in
+its sentiments. Even a child can have that. They must have the mind
+trained in the truest and best way of expressing thought. And a child
+may begin to learn that. Hence we see that a child may be classic
+worthy. Only we must never, _never_, no matter what is our ability,
+think we are better or above others. The more talents one has the more
+one is expected to do and the greater duty it is.[31]
+
+Thus far we have three truths; now here is a fourth: Some love the
+classics sooner and better than others because they have more power.
+And how do they get it? They think more (thought-making); they feel
+more (heart-learning); and they see more (truth-seeking).
+
+Let us at once go back and gather together these four truths. They are
+important. Perhaps some of us who are willing to spend the time will
+learn them from memory.
+
+And to repay us for the trouble of doing it we shall have greater and
+greater understanding of many things. Here they are:
+
+    I. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make the classics.
+
+   II. Great thoughts, expressed well, out of a great heart, make the
+       works which last the longest.
+
+  III. Only they can appreciate the classics who have something that
+       is classic within them.
+
+   IV. Some love the classics sooner and better than others because
+       they have more power.
+
+What shall these truths teach us? That true music cannot be learned
+rapidly; that the way of Art is long and difficult. But if the way is
+long, it is yet beautiful in every turn; if it is difficult, it is yet
+worth a struggle for what comes. As you read the lives of the great
+composers you will learn that they went willingly about their tasks,
+doing each one well. This is done by all great men. _Great men take
+short steps carefully_, no matter how rapidly they can go.
+
+One of them [32] wrote: "Success comes with tiny steps." And it comes
+entirely unsought. Besides all this we are to remember that the power
+for these things comes from
+
+    I. Thought-making;
+
+   II. Heart-learning;
+
+  III. Truth-seeking.
+
+Now, just to end with let us read a few words from a book I trust we
+all may read some day: [33] "Great art is the expression of the mind
+of a great man, and mean art of a weak man." Let us remember that in
+choosing things to play.
+
+Further on Ruskin says: "If stone work is _well_ put together, it
+means that a thoughtful man planned it, and a careful man cut it, and
+an honest man cemented it." [34]
+
+Likewise in these things one can see what is classic--work out of the
+heart and well done, and that comes from a thoughtful, careful, honest
+person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY.
+
+
+  "But blessings do not fall in listless hands."_--Bayard Taylor._
+
+We already begin to understand what the classics are. Year by year as
+our interest in the beautiful increases, we shall gain more definite
+knowledge about classic art. That which is classic will begin to
+announce itself in us. Our own choice indicates our taste but does not
+always indicate what is best for us. And one of the purposes of art is
+to improve the taste by setting before us the finest works; in these,
+by study, we find beauty with which we are unacquainted. Thus we
+enlarge our capacity for it.
+
+Because we are born with taste unformed and untrained you can at once
+see the reason for gradually increasing the tasks. They are always a
+little more difficult--like going up a mountain--but they give a finer
+and finer view. The outlook from the mountain-top cannot be had all at
+once. We must work our way upward for it. Hence you will observe in
+your lessons that what was once a fitting task is no longer of quite
+the same value because of your increased power. But about this
+especially we shall have a Talk later on.
+
+When one has heard much music of all kinds, one soon begins to
+understand that there are two kinds commonly chosen. Some players
+choose true music with pure thought in it, and do their best to play
+it well after the manner called for by the composer. Their aim is to
+give truthful expression to the music of a good writer. Other players
+seem to work from a motive entirely different. They select music which
+is of a showy character, with much brilliancy and little thought in
+it. Their aim is not to show what good music is, but to show
+themselves. The desire of the first is truth, of the second is vanity.
+
+Now, as we examine into this, and into both kinds of music, we
+discover much. It proves that we must work for the best; for the
+truthful music, not for the vain music. As we get better acquainted
+with true music we find it more and more interesting--it keeps saying
+new things to us. We go to it again and again, getting new meanings.
+But the showy music soon yields all it has; we find little or nothing
+more in it than at first. As it was made not from good thought but for
+display, we cannot find newer and more beautiful thought in it, and
+the display soon grows tiresome. True music is like the light in a
+beautifully-cut gem, it seems that we never see all it is--it is never
+twice the same; always a new radiance comes from it because it is a
+true gem through and through. It is full of true light, and true light
+is always opposed to darkness; and darkness is the source of
+ignorance.
+
+From all this you can now understand the quaintly-expressed opinion of
+a very wise man, who said: "In discharge of thy place, set before thee
+the best example."[35] That means whatever we strive to learn should
+be learned from works of the best kind. In the beginning, we cannot
+choose wisely the best examples to set before ourselves; therefore it
+is for us to heed what another wise man said: "As to choice in the
+study of pieces, ask the advice of more experienced persons than
+yourself; by so doing you will save much time." [36] You thereby save
+time doubly. Later on in your life you will have no bad taste to
+overcome--that is one saving; and already you know from childhood many
+classics, and that is another saving. What we learn in childhood is a
+power all our lives.
+
+You can see plainly, now, that both in the choice of pieces and in the
+manner of playing them, a person's character will come out. We saw in
+the last Talk how character has to come out in writing. Only a very
+common character would select pieces written entirely for a vain
+show--of rapid runs, glittering arpeggios, and loud, unmeaning chords.
+Worse than that, such a choice of pieces displays two common
+people,--three, in fact: A composer who did not write pure thought
+from the heart; a teacher who did not instil good thoughts into the
+pupil's heart; and yourself (if really you care for such things) who
+play from a vain desire to be considered brilliant.
+
+A player who devotes the mind and the hands only to what a meaningless
+composer writes for them is not worthy of any power. With our hands in
+music, as with the tongue in speech, let us strive from the beginning
+to be truthful. Let us try in both ways to express the highest truth
+we are able to conceive. Then in art we shall, at least, approach near
+unto the true artist; and in life we shall approach near unto the true
+life. Every mere empty display-piece we study takes up the time and
+the opportunity wherein we could learn a good composition, by a master
+of the heart. And it is only with such music that you will, during
+your life, get into the hearts of those who are most worthy for you to
+know. Out of just this thought Schumann has two rules now very easy
+for us to understand:
+
+"Never help to circulate bad compositions; on the contrary, help to
+suppress them with earnestness."
+
+"You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled,
+listen to them."
+
+We now come to a really definite conclusion about the compositions we
+should play and to an extent as to how we should play them.
+
+The heart, the mind, and the hands, or the voice, if you sing, should
+unite in our music; and be consecrated to the beautiful. Consecrate is
+just exactly the word. Look for it in your dictionary.[37] It comes
+from two other words, does it not? _Con_ meaning _with_ and _sacer_
+meaning _holiness._ Thus devote heart and head and hands _with
+holiness_ to the beautiful. This is very clear, I am sure.
+
+It is also worth doing. "With holiness" describes _how_ to play and
+really _what_ to play. A composition which has been born of a true man
+is in thought already consecrated. He has heard it and felt it within
+himself. Daily you must get closer and closer to these messages and
+meanings. And are they not already more _luminous_ to you? And do you
+remember what we said luminous means?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LESSON.
+
+
+  "All people value most what has cost them much labor."
+  --Aristotle.[38]
+
+It is true that music is beautiful and that it gives us happiness and
+comfort. But, nevertheless, music is hard to learn _for every one_;
+harder for some than for others, but hard for all. It is well and best
+that it should be so. We appreciate most highly that which we labor
+for earnestly. Just imagine if every one could sing or play merely by
+wishing it! Then music would be so common and so much the talent of
+all that it would cease to give us joy. Why? Because one gained it by
+a wish. That is not enough. From this can we learn to understand the
+great secret of it all? I think we can. Let us see! The secret is
+this: Music is a joy because it takes us out of ourselves and we work
+hard to get it. Music teaches us what a wonderful power there is
+within us, if we will only strive to bring it out. Education is good
+for us for this same reason. As you learn more and more about words,
+you will see more in this word Education.
+
+It means to lead out _what is within us_. To lead music out of the
+heart becomes the object, then, of your lessons. One cannot drive
+music into you; it must be led out.
+
+Where shall we look for music that it may be led out? Only in the
+heart. That is where all is in every one of us. But often in our
+hearts there is so much else, so much vanity, self-love, conceit, love
+for other things, that the music is almost beyond reach. _Almost_, but
+never entirely. In the heart of every one is music. But often it is
+deep, deep down, covered by these other things. The older we grow and
+the more other things we see and think about, the deeper and deeper
+down does the music get.
+
+It is like heaping rocks, and dirt, and sticks on a bubbling spring.
+The spring is down there, bubbling freely beneath it all, still
+striving to be as free and as songful as before; but it cannot. People
+may come and go, may pass near to it, and hear not one of its sounds;
+they may never suspect that there is such a thing ready to go on
+merrily if it could.
+
+When is the best time to lead water out of the spring, and music out
+of the heart? Before other things begin to cover it. With music the
+best time is in the early days, in childhood time--_in the first
+days_. We shall hear those words many times. Then little by little the
+bubbling spring of melody gains its independence; then, even if other
+things do come in, they cannot bury the music out of sight. The spring
+has been led forth _and has grown stronger_.
+
+Thoughtful people who have suffered in learning--all people suffer in
+learning, thoughtful ones the most--wonder how they can make the task
+less painful for others. It will always cause us sorrow as well as joy
+to learn, and many people spend their lives in trying to have as
+little sorrow as possible come with the learning of the young. When
+such people are true and good and thoughtful and _have infinite
+kindness_, they are teachers; and the teachers impose tasks upon us
+severely, perhaps, but with kind severity. They study us and music,
+and they seek out the work each one of us must perform in order that
+we may keep the heart-springs pure and uncovered. Further than this,
+they find the way by which we shall lead the waters of life which flow
+out of the heart-springs. They find the way whither they should flow
+best.
+
+Often in the doing of these things we find the lessons hard and
+wearisome, infinitely hard to bear, difficult, and not attractive. We
+wonder why all these things should be so, and we learn in the moment
+we ask that question that these painful tasks are the price we are
+paying for the development of our talent. That is truly the purpose of
+a lesson. And the dear teacher, wise because she has been painfully
+over the road herself, knows how good and necessary it is for us to
+labor as she directs.
+
+Let us suppose you play the piano. There will be two kinds of
+lessons--one will be for the fingers, one for the mind. But really the
+mind also guides the finger-work; and the heart must be in all. Your
+exercises will give you greater power to speak with the fingers. Every
+new finger-exercise in piano-playing is like a new word in language.
+Provided with it, you can say more than you could before. The work for
+the mind is the classics. These are compositions by the greater and
+lesser masters with which you form the taste, while the technical
+exercises are provided to give you the power, the ability, to play
+them. Thus you see how well these two things go together.
+
+Year after year, if you go on patiently, you will add to each of these
+tasks; more power will come to the fingers and to the mind. All this
+time you will be coming nearer and nearer to the true music. More and
+more will be coming out of your heart. The spring will not only
+continue to bubble clearly but it will become more powerful. Nothing
+is so wonderful as that.
+
+Do you know what a sad thing it was for the man not to increase that
+one talent which had been given to him? [39] Perchance you have also
+one. Then find it, love it, increase it. Know that every step of the
+way, every bit of task, every moment of faith is paid for in later
+years ten thousandfold.
+
+If now we remember our Talk on Listening it will serve us. Did we not
+say then that the first duty of a listener is to the one who speaks
+for his good? Lesson time is an opportunity above nearly all others
+when we should listen with love in our attention. Yes, nothing less
+than that, because--how many times we have heard it already--putting
+love into anything, is putting the heart into it, and with less than
+that we do not get all we may have.
+
+This Talk, then, is important, because it gathers together many things
+that have gone before, and hints at some to come. Let us give the last
+words to speaking about that. A lesson suggests listening; listening
+suggests the teacher, who with infinite kindness and severity guides
+us; and the teacher suggests the beautiful road along which we go and
+what we hear as we travel, that is the music of the heart; and the
+music of the heart has in it the tones about us, and the greater and
+lesser masters who thought them into beautiful forms. The masters are
+as servants unto whom there is given to some one talent, to others
+two, and four, and more, but to each according to his worth, to be
+guided and employed in truth and honor; increased by each in
+accordance to his strength.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE LIGHT ON THE PATH.
+
+
+  "Let us seek service and be helpers of one another."
+
+"Master," said the little child, "I am unhappy. Though I have
+companions and games, they do not content me. Even the music which I
+love above all the rest is not truly in my heart; nor is it the
+pleasure to me which it should be. What am I to do?"
+
+And the master replied:
+
+"There is a task, the greatest and severest of all. But a child must
+learn it. Thou must know _from the first days_, that all thou doest
+and sayest, whither thou goest, what thou seekest; these, all these,
+come from within. All that is seen of thee is of thy inner life. All
+thy doings, thy goings and comings, thy ways and thy desires, these
+are from within. And when all these things _are for thyself_ there is
+misery.
+
+"Now there are many things which may not be had by directly seeking
+them; of these the greatest are two. The one is that which already has
+given thee sadness in the heart,--the Light of the Face. And the other
+is happiness.
+
+"But there is a way in which these are to be found. Dost thou not know
+that often, even with much trouble, thou canst not please thyself? But
+always, _with little trouble or none_, thou canst please another.
+
+"And the way is Service.
+
+"Thou poor little one! Thou hast come with thy complaint of
+unhappiness; and yet thou hast all that is bright and rare;
+companions, and music, and a dear home. Dost thou know that there are
+in the world uncounted poor ones, children like thyself, who have not
+their daily bread? And yet there are many of them who never fail to
+say: 'Lead us not into temptation.' And they say this _without having
+tasted_ of the daily bread for which they have been taught to pray.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy. And thy daily bread is set before thee
+with music and with sunshine.
+
+"Yet there are little ones, like thyself, who are hungry in the
+darkness.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE GREATER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "In spite of all, I have never interrupted the study of music."
+  --_Palestrina._
+
+An opera writer of Italy, named Giovanni Pacini, once said that to
+study the writings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven "lightens the mind
+of a student, since the classics are a continuous development of the
+most beautiful and simple melodies," and we sometimes hear it said
+that great men are they who dare to be simple. In our Talks thus far
+we have learned one important fact, which is, that music is truth
+expressed out of the heart. Of course we know that to be in the heart
+it must be felt, and to be expressed we must know a great deal about
+writing. Now we are able to imagine quite well what a great master is
+in music. As Pacini says, his melodies will be simple and beautiful,
+and as we ourselves know, his simple melodies will be an expression of
+truth out of the heart.
+
+But to go only as far as this would not be enough. Many can write
+simply and well, and truthfully, yet not as a master. There must be
+something else. When we have found out what that something else is we
+shall understand the masters better and honor them more.
+
+Everywhere in the history of music we read of what men have been
+willing to do for the love of their art. It is not that they have been
+willing to do when told; but that they have cheerfully done painful,
+laborious tasks of their own accord. The name of every master will
+recall great labor willingly given for music and equally great
+suffering willingly endured, nay, even sought out, that the music
+might be purer to them. Poor Palestrina went along many years through
+life with the scantiest means. But, as he says, "in spite of all, I
+have never interrupted the study of music." Bach was as simple and
+loyal a citizen as any land could have, and from the early years when
+he was a fatherless boy to the days of his sad affliction, he
+sacrificed always. Think of the miles he walked to hear Buxterhude,
+the organist; and in the earlier years, when he lived with Johann
+Christopher, his brother, how eagerly he sought learning in the art
+that so fascinated him. It was a constant willingness to learn
+honestly that distinguished him.
+
+Any of us who will labor faithfully with the talents we have can do a
+great deal--more than we would believe. Even Bach himself said to a
+pupil: "If thou art _equally_ diligent thou wilt succeed as I
+have."[40] He recognized that it matters little how much we wish for
+things to be as we want them; unless our wish-thoughts are forced into
+prompt action we cannot succeed; for while all thoughts seek action,
+wish-thoughts demand the most labor.
+
+It would be pleasant to have a Talk about every one of the great
+masters to see in what particular way each of them sacrificed for the
+art he loved. In all of them the true qualities come out: in one as
+earnestness; in another as determination; in another as patriotism;
+but all are loyal to the art itself. It must be a very plain lesson to
+us to see that when men are willing to give all their thoughts to a
+subject they get much from it. And is it not quite as plain to see
+that no one can get much if he gives but a few unwilling minutes to
+it? I trust none who hear these Talks will ever think that with a
+little time given to their music, and that not freely given, they can
+ever get either pleasure or comfort from it. They never can. And
+rather than do it so they would better leave it undone. If we set out
+on the way to go to the masters we shall get there only by
+earnestness. Lagging is a disgrace to the one who travels and to the
+one to whom we go. It shows his laziness on the one hand, and his
+misunderstanding of the master on the other; for if he understood he
+would take no listless step.
+
+Now we have said again and again that true music comes from the heart,
+and is simple. At the same time we find it difficult to understand the
+music of the masters. That is, some of us find it so. It seems
+anything but simple to us; and naturally we conclude that there is
+something wrong somewhere. We sit at our tasks, poring over the music,
+and we grow discouraged because we cannot play it. To think it a very
+hard task is natural, and we cannot bear to hear such tones. Well, let
+us not get discouraged for that; let us see!
+
+First of all, the playing is more difficult to do than the music is to
+understand. Once a great master of the piano played to a lady who had
+never heard a great master before, and the playing was like beautiful
+lace. When it was over and the master had gone away, some one asked
+the lady how he had played, and she said:
+
+"He played so that the music sounded as I thought it should."
+
+And they asked her what she meant.
+
+"Always I have been taught," she said, "to listen to music and to
+think it. I have been taught this more than I have been taught to
+play. And the music of the master-composers I always think of as
+beautiful and simple but hard to make it sound as it should. Often I
+have heard others say that the music of the masters is dull, and not
+beautiful, but that is really not what the people feel. It is
+difficult for them to play the music rightly. And again they cannot
+understand this: that art is often simple in, its truth, while those
+who look upon it are not! simple-hearted, as they regard it. This is
+hard to understand, but it is the true reason."
+
+Now, if we think of what this cultured lady said, we shall think her
+wise. Whatever stumbling we may do with our fingers, let us still keep
+in our minds the purity of the music itself. This will in a sense
+teach us to regard reverentially the men who, from early years, have
+added beauties to art for us to enjoy to-day. The wisest of the Greeks
+[41] said:
+
+"The treasures of the wise men of old, which they have left written in
+books, I turn over and peruse in company with my friends, and if we
+find anything good in them, we remark it, and think it a great gain,
+if we thus become more attracted to one another."
+
+Once an English lady[42] wrote about a verse-writer: "No poet ever
+clothed so few ideas in so many words." Just opposite to this is a
+true poet, he who clothes in few words many and noble ideas. A master
+tells his message in close-set language.
+
+Now, in the last minutes, let us see what a great master is:
+
+    I. He will be one who tells a beautiful message simply.
+
+   II. He has been willing to sacrifice and suffer for his art.
+
+  III. He has lived his every day in the simple desire to know his own
+       heart better.
+
+   IV. Always he has concentrated his message into as few tones as
+       possible, and his music, therefore, becomes filled to
+       overflowing with meaning.
+
+About the meaning of the masters, one of them has written this:
+"Whenever you open the music of Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, its
+meaning comes forth to you in a thousand different ways." That is
+because thousands of different messages from the heart have been
+_concentrated_ in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LESSER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "And the soul of a child came into him again."--_I Kings, XVII: 22._
+
+If, one day, some one should say to you, earnestly: "Well day are to
+you!" you would scarcely know what to make of it. You would at once
+understand that the person had knowledge of words but could not put
+them together rightly. And if the person continued to talk to you in
+this manner you might feel inclined to lose your patience and not
+listen. But if you would stop and consider things and examine yourself
+you would learn something well worth thinking about.
+
+You would discover that your own ability to put words in the right
+order has come from being obedient. First of all, you have been
+willing to imitate what others said until you have thereby learned to
+speak quite well. Besides that, you have been corrected many times by
+those about you at home, and in school, until language is at length a
+careful habit in you. Every one knows at once what you mean. You see,
+therefore, that you may combine words in such a manner that you will
+be easily comprehended by others; or, as in the case of the imaginary
+person we began with, they may be combined in a perfectly senseless
+way. Consequently, it is not enough to know words alone, we must know
+what to do with them. The true art of using words is to put full and
+clear meaning into a few of them; to say as much as possible with as
+few words as you may select.
+
+Tones may be treated in the same manner as words. One can write tones
+in such a manner as to say quite as senseless a thing as "Well day are
+to you!" Many do. This teaches you that true and simple
+tone-sentences, like similar word-sentences, must have for their
+object to say the fullest and clearest meaning in as little space as
+possible.
+
+For many hundreds of years thoughtful composers have studied about
+this. They have tried in every way to discover the secrets underlying
+tone-writing so that the utmost meaning should come out when they are
+united. Tones thus arranged according to the laws of music-writing
+make sense. To learn this art all great composers have studied
+untiringly. They have recognized the difficulty of putting much
+meaning in little space, and to gain this ability they have found no
+labor to be too severe.
+
+We must remember that there is no end of music in the world which was
+not written by the few men whom we usually call the great composers.
+Perhaps you will be interested to know about these works. Many of them
+are really good--your favorite pieces, no doubt. When we think of it,
+it is with composers as with trees of the forest. Great and small,
+strong and weak, grow together for the many purposes for which they
+are created. They could not all be either great or small. There must
+be many kinds; then the young in time take the place of the old, and
+the strong survive the weak. Together beneath the same sky,
+deep-rooted in the beautiful, bountiful earth, they grow side by side.
+The same sun shines upon them all, the same wind and the same rain
+come to them, selecting no one before another. What are they all
+doing? Each living its true life, as best it can. It is true they may
+not come and go, they may not choose, but as we see them, beautiful in
+their leaves and branches we feel the good purpose to which they live
+and, unconsciously, perhaps, we love them.
+
+Among us it is quite the same. Some are more skilful than others. But
+be our skill great or small, we are not truly using it until we have
+devoted it to a worthy purpose. And as with us, so it is with the
+musicians. There are the great and small. The great ones--leaders of
+thought--we call the great masters. The lesser are earnest men, who
+have not as much power as the masters, but they are faithful in small
+things.
+
+They sing lesser songs it is true, but not less beautiful ones. Often
+these lesser ones think more as we do. They think simply and about the
+things which we have often in our minds. It is such thoughts as these
+which we have in our best moments that we love so much when we see
+them well expressed by one who is a good and delicate writer, either
+of tones or words. Particularly do we understand these thoughts well
+in the first years of our music when nearly all the works of the
+greater composers are above us.
+
+Thus are the many composers (who yet are not great masters) of value
+to us because they write well a kind of thought which is pure and full
+of meaning, and which we can understand. They give us true pleasure
+day after day in the beginning and seem at the same time to help us
+onward to the ability of understanding the great masters. This they do
+by giving our thought training in the right direction.
+
+Now, we know that the very best music for a young musician to learn in
+the first days is that of the lesser tone masters, together with those
+simpler pieces of the great composers which come within his power to
+comprehend--within the power of a child's hands and voice. Let us see,
+once again, if it is not clear:
+
+True composers, great and small, sing from the heart. If one having a
+little skill turn it unworthily away from the good and true work he
+might do, then he does not use rightly his one talent. He does not
+give us true thought in tone. He writes for vanity or a low purpose,
+and is not a lesser master but he is untrue.
+
+It is not our right to play anything. We may rightly play only that
+which is full of such good thought as we in our power may understand.
+It is to supply us with just this that the lesser masters write. In
+simple, yet clear and beautiful pictures, they tell us many and many a
+secret of the world of tone into which we shall some day be welcomed
+by the greater ones if we are faithful unto the lesser.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT.
+
+
+  "Whilst I was in Florence, I did my utmost to learn the exquisite
+   manner of Michaelangelo, and never once lost sight of
+   it."--_Benvenuto Cellini._[43]
+
+On any important music subject Schumann has something to say. So with
+this:
+
+"Learn betimes the fundamental principles of harmony." "Do not be
+afraid of the words theory, thorough-bass, and the like, they will
+meet you as friends if you will meet them so."
+
+We now begin to feel how definitely these rules treat everything. They
+pick out the important subjects and tell the simplest truth about
+them. The meaning of these two rules is this: From the beginning we
+must try to understand the grammar of music. Some of the great
+composers could in childhood write down music with the greatest
+fluency. Handel, even as a boy, wrote a new church composition for
+every Sunday. Mozart began to write music when less than five years
+old, and when he was yet a boy, in Rome, he wrote down a
+composition,[44] sung by the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which was
+forbidden to the public.
+
+Harmony and counterpoint stand to music very much as spelling and
+grammar stand to language. They are the fundamentals of good writing
+and of good--that is, of correct--thinking in music. Harmony is the
+art of putting tones together so as correctly to make chords.
+Counterpoint has to do with composing and joining together simple
+melodies. A modern writer[45] on counterpoint has said: "The essence
+of true counterpoint lies in the equal interest which should belong to
+ever part." By examining a few pieces of good counterpoint you will
+readily see just what this means. The composer has not tried to get
+merely a correct chord succession, such as we find in a choral. Let us
+play a choral; any good one of a German master will do.[46] We notice
+that the soprano is the principal part, and that the other voices,
+while somewhat melodic, tend rather to support and follow the melody
+than to be independent. If, now, we play a piece of counterpoint like
+the G-Minor Prelude by Bach,[47] we shall have quite a good piece of
+counterpoint, as far as separate melodies being combined is concerned.
+Let us play the voice-parts separately. We shall find equal melodic
+interest in each. The chords grow out of the music. Comparing this
+with the choral, the main difference between harmony and counterpoint
+should be clear to us. We shall observe that the three voices do _not_
+proceed in the same way. If one part moves quickly, as in the bass of
+the first two measures, the other parts are quieter; if the bass
+ceases to move rapidly some other voice will take up the motion, as we
+see in the third and following measures. As a general thing no two
+voices in contrapuntal writing move in the same way, each voice-part
+being contrasted with different note-values. This gives greater
+interest and makes each voice stand forth independently.
+
+At first contrapuntal music may not seem interesting to us. If that is
+so, it is because we are not in the least degree conscious of the
+wonderful interest which has been put into every part. The truth is,
+that in the beginning we cannot fully understand the thought that has
+been put into the music, but by perseverance it will come to us little
+by little. This is what makes great music lasting. It is so deftly
+made, yet so delicately, that we have to go patiently in search of it.
+We must remember that gems have to be cut and polished from a bit of
+rock.
+
+In this case the gem is the rich mind-picture which comes to us if we
+faithfully seek the under-thought. And the seeking is polishing the
+gem.
+
+Music written entirely by the rules of counterpoint is called
+contrapuntal music; that written otherwise is known as free harmonic
+music. In the one case the composer desired to have a beautiful
+weaving of the parts--clear as the lines in a line-engraving. In the
+other, the intention is to get effects from tones united into chords,
+such as is obtained from masses of color in a painting. Neither form
+may be said to be the superior of the other. Each is valuable in its
+place, and each has possibilities peculiarly its own, which the other
+could not give. Pure counterpoint could not give us such a charming
+effect as Chopin obtains in the first study of Opus 10; nor could the
+plainer and more free harmonic style give us such delicate bits of
+tracery as Bach has in his fugues.
+
+If now you will take the trouble to learn two long words, later in
+your study of music they will be of use to you. The first is
+Polyphonic; the other is Monophonic. Both, like many other words in
+our language, are made up of two shorter words, and come from another
+language--Greek. In both we have "phonic," evidently meaning the same
+in each case, limited or modified by the preceding part--_poly_ and
+_mono_. Phonic is the Anglicized Greek for _sound_. We use it in the
+English word _telephonic_. Now if we define mono and poly we shall
+understand these two long words.
+
+Mono means one, poly means many. We say _mono_tone, meaning one tone;
+also _poly_gon, meaning many sides.
+
+In the musical reference monophonic music means music of one voice,
+rather than of one tone, and polyphonic music is that _for many
+voices_. Simple melodies with or without accompanying chords are
+monophonic; many melodies woven together, as in the Bach piece which
+we have looked over, are polyphonic.
+
+In the history of music two men surpassed all others in what they
+accomplished in counterpoint--that is, in polyphonic writing. The one
+was Palestrina, an Italian; the other was Bach, a German. Palestrina
+lived at a time when the music of the church was very poor, so poor,
+indeed, that the clergy could no longer endure it. Palestrina,
+however, devoted himself earnestly to composing music strictly adapted
+to the church use. The parts were all melodic, and woven together with
+such great skill that they yet remain masterpieces of contrapuntal
+writing. Later Bach developed counterpoint very much more in the
+modern way. He did with polyphony for the piano and organ much the
+same as Palestrina did for the voice. There have never lived greater
+masters than these in the art of polyphonic music.
+
+There is still another form of writing which is neither strictly
+harmonic, nor strictly contrapuntal,--it is a combination of both.
+There is not the plain unadorned harmonic progress as in the simple
+choral, nor is there the strict voice progression as in the works of
+Bach. This form of writing which partakes of the beauties of both the
+others has been called the free harmonic style. It has been followed
+by all the great masters since the time of Bach,[48] even before,
+indeed. If you can imagine a beautiful song-melody with an artistic
+accompaniment, so arranged that all can be played upon the piano, you
+will understand what the third style is. It is wonderfully free,
+surely; sometimes proceeding in full free chords, as in the opening
+measures of the B flat Sonata of Beethoven,[49] again running away
+from all freedom back to the old style, until the picture looks as old
+as a monkish costume among modern dress.
+
+All of the great sonatas and symphonies are of this wonderfully varied
+form of writing. How full it can be of expressiveness you know from
+the Songs without Words by Mendelssohn, and the Nocturnes of Chopin;
+how full of flickering humor you hear in the Scherzo of a Beethoven
+symphony; how full of deep solemnity and grief one feels in the
+funeral marches.[50]
+
+This school of composition has been followed by both the greater and
+the lesser masters. Every part is made to say something as naturally
+and interestingly as possible, being neither too restricted nor too
+free. Then, in playing, both hands must be equally intelligent, for
+each has an important part assigned to it.
+
+The great good of study in harmony and counterpoint is that it
+increases one's appreciation. As soon as we begin to understand the
+spirit of good writing we begin to play better, _because we see more_.
+We begin, perhaps in a small way, to become real music-thinkers. By
+all these means we learn to understand better and better what the
+meaning of true writing is. It will be clear to us that a composer is
+one who thinks pure thoughts in tone, and not one who is a weaver of
+deceits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MUSIC AND READING.
+
+
+  "Truly it has been said, a loving heart is the beginning of all
+  knowledge."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+A beautiful thing in life is the friendship for books. Every one who
+loves books pays some day a tribute to them, expressing thankfulness
+for the joy and comfort they have given. There are in them, for
+everybody who will seek, wise words, good counsel, companies of great
+people, fairies, friends for every day, besides wonders we never see
+nor dream of in daily life.
+
+Some of the great men have told us about their love for books; how
+they have saved penny by penny slowly to buy one, or how after the
+day's labor a good book and the firelight were prized above anything
+else. All tell us how much they owe to books and what a blessing books
+are. Imagine the number of heart-thoughts there must be in a shelf
+full of good books! Thoughts in tones or thoughts in words may be of
+the heart or not. But it is only when they are of the heart that they
+are worthy of our time.
+
+You will not only love books, but gain from them something of the
+thoughts they contain. We might, had we time, talk of classic books,
+but as we have already talked of classic music we know what the
+principal thing is. It is that good thought, out of the heart, be
+expressed in a scholarly way--"Great thought needs great
+expression."[51] This teaches us the necessity for choosing good books
+for our instruction and for our entertainment. They present beautiful
+pictures to us truthfully, or they present truth to us beautifully.
+And these are the first test of a written thought--its truth and its
+beauty.
+
+If you read good books you will have in every volume you get something
+well worth owning. You should bestow upon it as much care as you would
+want any other good friend to receive. And if it has contributed help
+or pleasure to you it is surely worth an abiding place. A fine
+pleasure will come from a good book even after we are quite done with
+it. As we see it in years after it has been read there comes back to
+one a remembrance of all the old pleasures, and with it a sense of
+thankfulness for so pleasant a friendship. Hence any book that has
+given us joy or peace or comfort is well worth not only good care, but
+a place _for always_; as a worthy bit of property.
+
+In the early days of your music study, it will be a pleasure to you to
+know that there are many and delightful books _about_ music written,
+sometimes by music-lovers, sometimes by the composers. The written
+word-thoughts of the composers are often full of great interest. They
+not only reveal to us many secrets of the tone-art, but teach us much
+about the kinds of things and of thoughts which lived in the minds of
+the composers. We learn definitely not only the music-interests of the
+composers, but the life-interest as well. It really seems as if we
+were looking into their houses, seeing the way they lived and worked,
+and listening to their words. Never afterward do we regard the great
+names in music as uninteresting. The most charming and attractive
+pictures cluster about them and it all gives us a new inspiration to
+be true to music, loyal to the truth of music, and willing to do as we
+see others have done, and to learn by doing. The lesson we get from
+the life of every man is, that he must _do_ if he would learn.
+
+I am sure you will spend many delightful minutes with the Letters of a
+great composer. Every one is like a talk with the writer. They are so
+friendly, and so full of the heart, and yet so filled with the man
+himself. Especially the Letters of Mendelssohn and Schumann will
+please you. In truth the Letters of all the composers are among the
+most valuable music writings we have. In some way they seem to explain
+the music itself: and the composer at once becomes a close friend. But
+besides these read the biographies. Then it is as if we were
+personally invited home to the composer and shown all his ways and his
+life. And besides these, there are some friendly books full of the
+very best advice as to making us thoughtful musicians; many and many
+again are the writers who have so loved art--not the art of tone
+alone, but all other arts as well--that they have told us of it in
+good and earnest books which are friendly, because they are written
+from the right place; and that you must know by this time is the
+heart.
+
+You will soon see when you have read about the composers that true
+music comes out of true life. Then you will begin to love true life,
+to be useful, and to help others. But all these things do not come at
+once. Yet, as we go along step by step, we learn that art is
+unselfish, and we must be so to enjoy it; art is truthful--we must be
+so to express it; art is full of life--we must know and live truth in
+order to appreciate it. And the study of pure thoughts in music, in
+books, and in our own life will help to all this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE HANDS.
+
+
+  "The skill of their hands still lingers."--_John Ruskin._[52]
+
+In one of our Talks, speaking about the thoughts in our hearts, we
+said that they crept from the heart into our arms and hands, into the
+music we play, and off to those who hear us, causing in them the
+thoughts by which they judge us. Thus we see, that as Janus stands
+sentinel at the doorway of the year, so the hands stand between the
+secret world of thought within and the questioning world of curiosity
+without.
+
+If we were not in such a hurry usually, we might stop to think that
+every one, all over the world, is training the hands for some purpose.
+And such a variety of purposes! One strives to get skill with tools,
+another is a conjurer, another spends his life among beautiful and
+delicate plants, another reads with his fingers.[53] In any one of
+these or of the countless other ways that the hands may be used, no
+one may truly be said to have skill until delicacy has been gained.
+Even in a forcible use of the hands there must be the greatest
+delicacy in the guidance. You can readily see that when the hands are
+working at the command of the heart they must be ever ready to make
+evident the meaning of the heart, and that is expressed in truthful
+delicacy. Not only are all the people in the world training their
+hands, but they are, as we have already said, training them in
+countless different ways.
+
+Have you ever stopped to think of another matter: that all things
+about us, except the things that live, have been made by hands? And of
+the things that live very many are cared for by the hands. These
+thoughts will suggest something to us. Those things which are good and
+beautiful suggest noble use of the hands; while those which are of no
+service, harmful and destructive, show an ignoble use. But noble and
+ignoble use of the hands is only another evidence of thought. Thought
+that is pure in the heart guides the hands to beautiful ends. And if
+the heart is impure in its thoughts, of course you know what follows.
+
+I have always been impressed in reading the books of John Ruskin to
+note how many times he speaks about the hands. Very truly, indeed,
+does he recognize that back of all hand work there is heart-thought,
+commanding, directing, actually building. It shows everywhere. The
+building of a wall with the stones rightly placed demands _honor_. The
+builder may be rude, but if his hands place the stones faithfully one
+upon another, there is surely honor in his heart. If it were not so
+his hands could not work faithfully.
+
+If the work is finer, like that work in gold which many have learned
+eagerly in former times, in Rome and Florence, still the spirit must
+be the same. So we see, that be the work coarse or fine, it is in
+either case prompted by the same kind of heart-thought.
+
+Many times in these Talks I have spoken of Ruskin's words to you; for
+two reasons: first, his words are always full of meaning, because he
+was so full of thought when he wrote them; and second, I would have
+you, from the first days, know something of him and elect him to your
+friendship. Many times he will speak to you in short, rude words,
+impatiently too, but never mind that, his heart is warm and full of
+good.
+
+Now from what was said a moment ago about the stone work and the gold
+work we can understand these words:
+
+"No distinction exists between artist and artisan, except that of
+higher genius or better conduct."
+
+Learn from this then, be the work of our hands what it may, its first
+quality and the first things for which it shall be judged are its
+honor, its faithfulness, and its sincerity.
+
+Of themselves the hands are absolutely without power. They cannot
+move, they cannot do good things nor bad things, they can do nothing
+until we command them. And how shall this be done? Surely I can
+understand it if you have wearied of this Talk a little. But I have
+said all the things just for the sake of answering this question, so
+that you should understand it. How do we command? not the hands alone
+but all we do and say?
+
+By our THOUGHTS.
+
+Without them there is no power whatever. Until they have commanded,
+the hands cannot make a motion; the feet must have direction ordered
+to them, the tongue must be bidden to speak, and without the command
+there is nothing.
+
+Of course, all these Talks are about thoughts. But we shall need a
+little time to speak of them particularly. And little by little it
+will be clear to us all why the hands need to act thoughtfully. Now
+the harm of the world is done by two forces,--by evil thought and by
+thoughtlessness. Then it is no wonder that Ruskin speaks much about
+the hands, for it is thought that gives them guidance. Can you wonder,
+that when he says, "the idle and loud of tongue" he associates the
+"_useless hand_."[54] These things go together, and together they come
+either from evil thought or from lack of thought. The moment Ruskin
+speaks of one who uses his hands with honor, his words glow. So he
+speaks of the laborer, describing him as "silent, serviceable,
+honorable, keeping faith, untouched by change, to his country and to
+Heaven."
+
+Thus, when we are earnestly asked to do something worthy with the
+hands every day, we can understand why. I do not mean one worthy
+thing, but some one particular worthy act, especially thought out by
+us. To do that daily with forethought will purify the heart. It will
+teach us to devote the hands to that which is worthy. Then another old
+truth that every one knows will be clear to us: "As a man--or a child,
+for that matter--thinketh in his heart, _so he is_."
+
+Bit by bit the thoughts of this Talk will become clear to you. You
+will feel more friendly toward them. Then you will really begin to
+think about hands; your own hands and everybody's hands. You will
+become truthful of hand, guiding your own thoughtfully; watching those
+of others carefully. And you will find that in the smallest tasks of
+your hands you can put forethought, while every use to which people
+put their hands will teach you something if you observe carefully. It
+may be folding a paper or picking up a pin, or anything else quite
+common; that matters not, common things, like any others, can be done
+rightly.
+
+By this observation we shall see hands performing all sorts of odd
+tricks. The fingers are drumming, twitching, twirling, closing,
+opening, doing a multitude of motions which mean what? Nothing, do you
+say? Oh! no, indeed; not _nothing_ but _something_. Fingers and hands
+which perform all these unnecessary motions are not being commanded by
+the thoughts, and are acting as a result of _no_ thought; that is, of
+thoughtlessness. Every one does it do you say? No, that is not true.
+Many do these things, but those who command their thoughts never allow
+it. If we never moved the hands except in a task when we commanded
+them, we should soon become hand-skilled. The useless movements I have
+spoken of _un_skill the hand. They are undoing motions, and teach us
+that we must govern ourselves if we would become anything. Do you know
+how it is that people do great things? They command themselves. Having
+determined to do something, they work and work and work to finish it
+at any cost. That gives strength and character.
+
+Having observed the hands and their duties, we can readily see the
+kind of task they must do in music. It is just the same kind of task
+as laying a wall of stone. Every motion must be done honorably.
+Everything must be thought out in the mind and heart before the hands
+are called upon to act. Wise people always go about their tasks this
+way. Unwise people try the other way, of acting first and thinking it
+out afterward, and, of course, they always fail. You can now
+understand that a great pianist is one who has great thought with
+which to command the hands. And to be sure they will obey his commands
+at once, he has made them obey him continuously for years. This
+teaching the hands to obey is called Practice.
+
+The Italian artist, Giotto, once said:
+
+"You may judge my masterhood of craft by seeing that I can draw a
+circle unerringly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID.
+
+
+  "You may always be successful if you do but set out well, and let
+  good thoughts and practice proceed upon right method."--_Marcus
+  Aurelius._[55]
+
+The same wise Roman emperor who said this tells us a very pretty thing
+about his mother, which shows us what a wise lady she must have been,
+and how in the days of his manhood, with the cares of a great nation
+upon him, he yet pondered upon the childhood teaching of home. First,
+he speaks of his grandfather Verus, who, by his example, taught him
+not to be prone to anger; then of his father, the Emperor Antoninus
+Pius, from whom he learned to be modest and manly; then of his mother,
+whose name was Domitia Calvilla. Let us read some of his own words
+about her, dwelling particularly upon a few of them. He writes: "As
+for my mother, she taught me to have regard for religion, to be
+generous and open-handed, and not only to forbear from doing anybody
+an ill turn, _but not so much as to endure the thought of it_."
+
+Now these words are the more wonderful when we remember that they were
+not taken down by a scribe in the pleasant apartments of the royal
+palace in Rome, but were written by the Emperor himself on the
+battlefield; for this part of his famous book is signed: "Written in
+the country of the Quadi."
+
+In our last Talk on the Hands we came to the conclusion, that unless
+the hands were commanded they could not act. And on inquiring as to
+what gave these commands we found it was the thoughts. Many people
+believe it is perfectly safe to think anything, to have even evil
+thoughts in their hearts, for thoughts being hidden, they say, cannot
+be seen by others. But a strange thing about thought is this: The
+moment we have a thought, good or bad, it strives to get out of us and
+become an action. And it most always succeeds. Not at once, perhaps,
+for thoughts like seeds will often slumber a long time before they
+spring into life. So it becomes very clear to us that if we wish to be
+on the alert we must not watch our actions, but look within and guard
+the thoughts; for they are the springs of action.
+
+You now see, I am sure, how wise the Emperor's mother was in teaching
+her boy not even to _endure_ a thought to do evil unto others. For the
+thought would get stronger and stronger, and suddenly become an
+action. Certainly; and hence the first thing to learn in this Talk is
+just these words:
+
+Thoughts become actions.
+
+That is an important thing. In a short time you will see, that if you
+do not learn it you can never enjoy music, nor beautiful things, nor
+the days themselves. Let us see how this will come about.
+
+I have told your teacher[56] the name of the book which was written by
+the Roman lady's boy. Well, in that book, running through it like a
+golden thread, is this bit of teaching from his mother.
+
+Not only did he think of it and write it on the battlefield, but at
+all times there seemed to come to him more and more wisdom from it.
+And he tells us this same thought over and over again in different
+words. Sometimes it leads him to say very droll things; for instance:
+
+"Have you any sense in your head? Yes. Why do you not make use of it
+then? For if this does its part, for what more can you wish?"[57]
+Then, a very good thought which we frequently hear:
+
+"Your manners will very much depend upon what you frequently
+think."[58] There are many others, but these show us that the meaning
+of his mother's words went deep, teaching that not action must be
+guarded but the thought which gives rise to action. Now, what can be
+the value of speaking about the Roman lady? Let us see.
+
+In music, the tones are made either by the hands or by the voice. And
+to make a tone is to _do_ something. This doing something is an
+action, and action comes from thought. No music, then, can be made
+unless it be made by thinking. And the right playing of good music
+must come from the right thinking of good thoughts. It may be that you
+will hear some one say that to think good thoughts is not needed in
+making good music. Never believe it! Bad thought never made anything
+good, and _never_ will because it never can. In the very first days
+you must learn, that good things of all kinds come from good thoughts,
+because they can come from nothing else.
+
+Here, then, is the second truth of this Talk:
+
+Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly only
+by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+This leads us to another matter. First, let us see if everything is
+clear. True music is written out of good thought; hence, when we begin
+to study music we are really becoming pupils of good thought. We are
+learning the thoughts good men have had, trying to feel their truth
+and meaning, and from them learning to have our own thoughts not only
+good but constantly better and better. This now seems simple and
+necessary. We see that if we would faithfully study a composer's work
+it must be our principal aim to get into his heart. Then everything
+will be clear to us.
+
+But we can never find our way to the heart of another until we have
+first found our way somewhere else. Where, do you think? To our own
+hearts, being willing to be severe with ourselves; not to be deceitful
+in our own eyes; not to guard the outer act, but the inner thought;
+not to study nor to be what _seems_, but what _is_.[59] This may seem
+a long and roundabout way of learning to play music, but it is the
+honest, straightforward way of going to the great masters whom we wish
+to know.
+
+In one of the books of the Greek general, Xenophon,[60] Socrates is
+made to say that men do nothing without fire; and quite in the same
+way we may learn nothing of each other, especially of those greater
+than ourselves, without thought; which should be pure, strong,
+inquiring, and kind. With this we may do all.
+
+Thus far we have two principles. Let us review them:
+
+   I. Thoughts become actions.
+
+  II. Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly
+      only by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+Now, is it not clear that this can come about only when we watch over
+our own thoughts and govern them as if they were the thoughts of
+others? And when we do not so much as _endure_ the thought of harm or
+evil or wrong we shall be living in the spirit of the Roman lady whose
+son's life was lived as his mother taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE GLORY OF THE DAY.
+
+
+  "Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's duty, fight today's
+  temptation; and do not weaken and disturb yourself by looking
+  forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if
+  you saw them."--_Charles Kingsley._
+
+Nearly all of us have heard about the little child who one day planted
+seeds and kept constantly digging them up afterward to see if they
+were growing. No doubt the child learned that a seed needs not only
+ground and care, but time. When it is put in the earth it begins to
+feel its place and to get at home; then, if all is quite right,--but
+not otherwise--it sends out a tiny rootlet as if it would say that it
+trusts and believes the earth will feed that rootlet. And if the earth
+is kind the root grows and finds a solid foothold. At the same time
+there is another thing happening. When the seed finds it can trust
+itself to root it feels no longer afraid to show itself. It goes down,
+down quietly for a _firmer hold_, and upward feeling the desire for
+light.
+
+_A firm hold and more light_, we cannot think too much of what they
+mean.
+
+Every day that the seed pushes its tender leaves and stem upward it
+has more and more to encounter. The rains beat it down; the winds bend
+it to the very earth from which it came; leaves and weeds bury it
+beneath their strength and abundance, but despite all these things, in
+the face of death itself, the brave little plant strongly keeps its
+place. It grows in the face of danger. But how? Day after day, as it
+fights its way in the air and sunshine, blest or bruised as it may be,
+the little plant never fails to keep at one thing. That is, to get a
+firmer and firmer hold. From that it never lets go. Break its leaves
+and its stem, crush it as you will, stop its upward growth even, but
+as long as there is a spark of life in it there will be more roots
+made. It aims from the first moment of its life to get hold strongly.
+
+And it seems as if the plant has always a great motive. The moment it
+feels it has grasped the mother-earth securely with its roots it turns
+its strength to making something beautiful. In the air and light, in
+the dark earth even, every part of the plant is seeking for the means
+to do a wonderful thing. It drinks in the sunshine, and with the
+warmth of it, _and to the glory of its own life_, it blossoms. It has
+come from a tiny helpless seed to a living plantlet with the smallest
+stem and root, and while the stem fights for a place in the air the
+root never ceases to get a strong hold of the dear earth in which the
+plant finds its home. Then when the home is firmly secured and the
+days have made the plant stronger and more shapely, it forgets all the
+rude winds and rain and the drifting leaves, and shows how joyful it
+is to live _by giving something_.
+
+Then it is clear that every hardship had its purpose. The rains beat
+it down, but at the same time they were feeding it; the leaves dropped
+about and covered it, but that protected its tenderness: and thus in
+all the trials it finds a blessing. Its growth is stronger, and
+thankful for all its life it seeks to express this thankfulness. In
+its heart there is something it is sure. And true enough, out it comes
+some day in a flower with its color and tenderness and perfume; all
+from the earth, but taken from it by love which the plant feels for
+the ground as its home.
+
+We can see from this, that the beauty of a plant or of a tree is a
+sign of its relation to the earth in which it lives. If its hold is
+weak--if it loosely finds a place for a weak root--it lies on the
+ground, helpless, strengthless, joyless. But firmly placed and feeling
+safe in its security, it gives freely of its blossoms; or, year after
+year, like a tree, shows us its wonderous mass of leaf, all of it a
+sign that earth and tree are truely united.
+
+It has been said, and no doubt it is true, that one who cares for
+plants and loves them becomes patient. The plant does not hurry; its
+growth is slow and often does not show itself; and one who cares for
+them learns their way of being and of doing. The whole lesson is that
+of allowing time, and by using it wisely to save it. The true glory of
+a day for a plant is the air and sunlight and earth-food which it has
+taken, from which it has become stronger. And every day, one by one,
+as it proves, contributes something to its strength.
+
+All men who have been patient students of the earth's ways have
+learned to be careful, to love nature, and to take time. And we all
+must learn to take time. It is not by careless use that we gain
+anything, but by putting heart and mind into what must be done. When
+heart and mind enter our work they affect time curiously; because of
+the great interest we take in what we do time is not thought of; and
+what is not thought of, is not noticed.
+
+Hence, the value of time comes to this: to use any time we may have,
+much or little, with the heart in the task. When that is done there is
+not only better work accomplished but there are no regrets lingering
+about to make us feel uncomfortable.
+
+A practice hour can only be an hour of unwelcome labor when one thinks
+so of it. If we go to the piano with interest in the playing we shall
+be unconscious of time. Many men who love their labor tell of sitting
+for hours at their work not knowing that hours have gone by.
+
+If there is a love for music in any of us it will grow as a seed. And
+as the seed needs the dear mother-earth, so the music needs the heart.
+When it has taken root there and becomes firmer and firmer it will
+begin to show itself outwardly as the light of the face. After it is
+strong and can bear up against what assails it--not the wind and the
+rain and the dry leaves, but discouragement and hard correction and
+painful hot tears--then with that strength it will flourish.
+
+Now, sometimes, in the days of its strength the music will seek far
+more in its life, just as the plant seeks for more and blossoms. The
+flower in the music is as great for all as for one. It is joy and
+helpfulness. When for the love of music one seeks to do good then
+music has borne its blossom.
+
+Thus, by learning the life of a simple plant we learn the true mission
+of the beautiful art of tone. It must put forth deeply its roots into
+the heart that it may be fed. It must strive for strength as it grows
+against whatever may befall it. It must use its food of the heart and
+its strength for a pure purpose, and there is but one--to give joy.
+
+This turns our thoughts to two things: First, to the men and women who
+by their usefulness and labor increased the meaning of music. This is
+the glory of their days. Second, we look to ourselves with feeble
+hands and perhaps little talent, and the thought comes to us, that
+with all we have we are to seek not our own glorification but the joy
+of others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE IDEAL.
+
+
+  "Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile, plus peutêtre."--_Victor
+  Hugo._
+
+Mozart once had a friend named Gottfried von Jacquin, who was a man of
+careful thought, and evidently a good musician,--for we are told that
+a melody composed by him is frequently said, even to this day, to be
+by Mozart. This Gottfried lived in Vienna with his father, and to
+their house Mozart often went. At this time Mozart had an album in
+which his friends were invited to write. Among the verses is a
+sentiment written by Gottfried von Jacquin, saying:
+
+"True genius is impossible without heart; no amount of intellect alone
+or of imagination, no, nor of both together, can make genius. Love is
+the soul of genius."
+
+Here we have the same truth told us which we have already found for
+ourselves, namely, that all good music comes from the heart. We have
+found it by studying music and striving faithfully to get deep into
+its real meaning. But to-day we have the words of one who was enabled
+to watch closely as a friend one of the greatest composers that ever
+lived. And being much with him, hearing the music of the master played
+by the master himself, put the thought into his head, that it is
+impossible to be a true genius without heart and love.
+
+From this we shall have courage to know that what we pursue in music
+is real; that the beauties of great music, though they may just now be
+beyond us, are true, and exist to those who are prepared for them.
+When in our struggle to be more capable in art than we are to-day we
+think of the beauty around us, and desire to be worthy of it, we are
+then forming an ideal, and ideals are only of value when we strive to
+live up to them.
+
+Once in Rome there lived a Greek slave--some day you may read his
+name. He has told us, that "if thou wouldst have aught of good, have
+it from thyself."[61] Of course we see in this, immediately, the truth
+that has been spoken of in nearly every one of these Talks. It is
+this: We must, day by day, become better acquainted with ourselves,
+study our thoughts, have purity of heart, and work for something.
+
+Now, working for something may be accomplished in a simple manner
+without thinking of it. If every task is done in our best way it adds
+something to us. It is true and beautiful, too, that the reward for
+patient, faithful work comes silently to us, and often we do not know
+of its presence. But some day, finding ourselves stronger, we look to
+know the cause of it, and we see that the faithfulness of past days
+has aided us.
+
+So art teaches us a very practical lesson in the beginning. If we
+would have her favors we must do her labors. If we say to music: "I
+should love to know you;" music says to us, "Very well, work and your
+wish shall be gratified." But without that labor we cannot have that
+wish. The Greek slave knew that and said:
+
+"Thou art unjust, if thou desire to gain those things for nothing."
+
+Now we begin to see that art has no gifts to bestow upon us for
+nothing. Many think it has, and pursue it until the truth dawns upon
+them; then, because of their error, they dislike it. To recognize the
+truth about art and to pursue that truth, despite the hard road, is to
+have courage. And the Ideal is nothing else than the constant presence
+of this truth.
+
+And what do we gain by pursuing it? Not common pleasure, but true
+happiness; not uncertainty, but true understanding; not selfish life,
+but true and full life. And we can see the beauty of art in nothing
+more plainly than in the fact that all these things may come to a
+child, and a new and brighter life is made possible by them.
+
+The very first day we came together, the little child said to the
+master:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+It is hard, sometimes, to feel the truth and to keep it with us; hard,
+not only for a child, but for any one; and yet, if with faith we will
+labor with it _until the light comes_, then we are truly rewarded and
+made richer according to our faith.
+
+We must not forget in the first days, as we leave our music, that the
+path we have taken since we came together is the hardest; not for
+always, but for now. The right path is hard at first--the wrong one is
+hard always.
+
+We will understand it all better in other days if we remain faithful
+now. If, however, we should forget for a moment that art demands our
+loyalty, there will be no joy or peace in it for us. Worse, perhaps,
+than starting out upon the wrong path, is the deserting of the right
+one. Sometimes out of impatience we do this; out of impatience and
+self-love, which is the worst of all. "Truth is the beginning of all
+good, and the greatest of all evils is self-love."[62]
+
+With the trials that music costs us, with its pains and
+discouragements, we might easily doubt all these promises which are
+contained in our ideals, but we shall be forever saved from deserting
+them if we remember that these ideals have been persistently held by
+great men. They have never given them up. One of the strongest
+characteristics of Bach and of Beethoven was their determination to
+honor their thoughts. Sometimes we find the same persistence and
+faithfulness in lesser men.
+
+I am sure you will see this faith beautifully lived in the few facts
+we have about the life of Johann Christian Kittel, a pupil of Bach,
+and it is strongly brought out by the pretty story told of him, that
+when pleased with a pupil's work he would draw aside a curtain which
+covered a portrait of Bach and let the faithful one gaze upon it for a
+moment. That was to him the greatest reward he could give for
+faithfulness in the music task.
+
+And this reminds us of how the teacher, Pistocchi, who, in teaching
+the voice, kept in mind a pure tone, a quiet manner of singing, and
+the true artistic way of doing. Among his pupils was a certain Antonio
+Bernacchi, who, after leaving his master, began to display his voice
+by runs and trills and meaningless tones. And this he did, not because
+of true art, for that was not it, but because it brought him the
+applause of unthinking people.
+
+Once, when the master, Pistocchi, heard him do this he is said to have
+exclaimed: "Ah, I taught thee how to _sing_, and now thou wilt
+_play_;" meaning that the true song was gone and the pupil no longer
+sang out of the heart, but merely out of the throat. Pistocchi kept
+his ideal pure.
+
+We have then among our ideals two of first importance. The ideal
+perception of music, as being the true heart-expression of great men;
+and the ideal of our doings, which is the true heart-expression of
+ourselves. And to keep these ideals is difficult in two ways: The
+difficulty of keeping the pure intention of great men ever before us,
+and the difficulty of keeping close and faithful to the tasks assigned
+us. Then we can say with the little child:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE ONE TALENT.
+
+
+  "Then he which had received the one talent came."--_Matthew, XXV:
+  24._
+
+Some day, when you read about the great composers, you will be
+delighted with the pictures of their home-life. You will see how they
+employed music every day. In all cases, as we study them, we learn how
+very much they have sacrificed for the music they love, studying it
+daily because of the joy which it yields them. We see them as little
+children, eager to be taught, wanting to listen to music, and to hear
+about it. Many of the composers whose child-life is thus interesting
+were children in very poor families, where things were neither fine
+nor beautiful, where the necessary things of life were not plentiful,
+and where all had to be careful and saving so that every bit should be
+made to go as far as possible. The eagerness and determination of some
+children in music-history is really wonderful. It is the true
+determination. And you are not surprised, in following it, to note
+that it leads the children who have it into lives of great usefulness.
+
+All through the life of Handel we find determination running like a
+golden thread. He was just as determined to be a musician as Lincoln
+was to get an education when he read books by the firelight. Handel's
+father was a surgeon, and knew so little about music that he failed
+entirely to understand the child. He not only forbade the boy to study
+music, but even kept him away from school that he might not by any
+chance learn to read the notes. But one who was in future years to
+befriend homeless children and to write wondrous music for all the
+world could not be held back by such devices. By some means, and with
+friendly assistance (perhaps his mother's), he succeeded in smuggling
+into the garret a spinet, which is a kind of piano. By placing cloth
+upon the strings he so deadened the wires that no one downstairs could
+hear the tones when the spinet was played. And day after day this
+little lad would sit alone in his garret, learning more and more about
+the wonders which his heart and his head told him were in the tiny
+half-dumb spinet before him. Not the more cheerful rooms down-stairs
+nor the games of his playmates drew him away from the music he loved,
+the music which he felt in his heart, remember.
+
+One would expect such determination to show itself in many ways. It
+did. Handel does not disappoint us in this. All through his life he
+had strong purposes and a strong will--concentration--which led him
+forward. You know how he followed his father's coach once. Perhaps it
+was disobedience,--but what a fine thing happened when he reached the
+duke's palace and played the organ. From that day every one knew that
+his life would be devoted to music. Sometimes at home, sometimes in
+foreign lands, he was always working, thinking, learning. He is said,
+in his boyhood, to have copied large quantities of music, and to have
+composed something every week. This copying made him better acquainted
+with other music, and the early habit of composition made it easy for
+him to write his thoughts in after years. Indeed, so skilled did he
+become, that he wrote one opera--"Rinaldo"--in fourteen days, and the
+"Messiah" was written in twenty-four days.[63]
+
+Yet parts of his great works he wrote and rewrote until they were
+exactly as they should be. _It will do_ is a thought that never comes
+into the head of a great artist. How do you imagine such a man was to
+his friends? We are told that, "he was in character at once great and
+simple." And again it has been said that, "his smile was like heaven."
+
+We have seen Handel as the great composer, but he was not so busy in
+this that his thoughts were not also dwelling upon other things. If
+ever you go to London, you should of a Sunday morning hear the service
+at the Foundling Hospital. You will see there many hundreds of boys
+and girls grouped about the organ. Their singing will seem beautiful
+to you, from its sweetness and from the simple faith in which it is
+done. After the service you may go to the many rooms of this home for
+so many otherwise homeless ones.
+
+There are for you to visit: the playroom, the schoolroom, the long
+halls with the pretty white cots, and the pleasant dining-room. Here
+it will please you to see the little ones march into dinner, with
+their similar dresses, and all looking as happy as possible. But the
+picture you will, no doubt, longest keep, is that of the children
+about the organ.
+
+They will tell you there that it was Handel who gave this organ to the
+chapel, and who, for the benefit of the children who might come here,
+gave concerts, playing and conducting, which were so successful that
+they had to be repeated. A "fair copy" of the "Messiah" will be shown
+you as one of the precious possessions.
+
+It will very plainly be present in your mind how the little boy sat
+alone playing day after day in the garret, wishing no better pastime
+than to express the feelings of his heart in tones. Perhaps you will
+think of his words: "Learn (of) all there is to learn, then choose
+your own path." He will appeal to you as having possessed an "early
+completeness of character," which abided always with him. It is
+evident in following the life of Handel, and it would be equally plain
+with any other composer, that great talent is developed out of a small
+beginning, and if small, is yet earnest and determined. From the first
+days of a great man's life to the last we find constant effort. "I
+consider those live best who study best to become as good as
+possible."[64] Music helps us to keep the upper windows open; that is
+why it does so much for us even if we have but one talent.
+
+To develop our one talent is a duty, just as it is a duty to develop
+two or five talents. It is given to us to increase. And no one knows
+how much joy may come to us and to others from the growing of that
+talent. We gain much in power to give pleasure to others, if the
+talent we have be made stronger by faithful effort. As we have seen
+good come forth from the story of the man with many talents, we can
+see how, similarly, he with one talent has also great power with which
+he may add unto himself and others.
+
+In all of our Talks it has been evident from what we have said, that
+music is a beautiful art to us, even though we may have but little of
+it. But equally we have learned, that for ever so little we must prove
+ourselves worthy. We must honestly give something for all we get. This
+is the law, and the purpose of all our Talks is to learn it.
+
+We have, likewise, learned that true music, _out of the heart_, may
+not at the first please us, but within it there is a great deal and we
+must seek it. The history of all who have faithfully studied the works
+of the great masters is, that for all the thought and time one spends
+in studying master works a great gain comes. On the other hand,
+everybody's experience with common music is, that while it may please
+much at first and even captivate us, yet it soon tires us so that we
+can scarcely listen patiently to it.
+
+Still a further lesson is, that working with many talents or with one
+is the same. Talents, one or many, are for increase and faithful
+development. Handel's life was a determined struggle to make the most
+of his power. It should be ours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL.
+
+
+  "Every color, every variety of form, has some purpose and
+  explanation."--_Sir John Lubbock_.[65]
+
+Now, when we are almost at the end of the way we have traveled
+together, it will be natural to look back upon the road over which we
+have come. Not all of it will be visible, to be sure. We have
+forgotten this pleasant scene and that; others, however, remain fresh
+in our minds. And as the days pass and we think over our way there
+will now and again come to us a scene, a remembrance, so full of
+beauty and of pleasure that we shall feel rich in the possession of
+it.
+
+To me there is nothing we have learned together greater in value,
+richer in truth and comfort than the thought that the beautiful in
+music and in art is at the same time the good. Even if a person is not
+at all times good, there is raised in him the feeling of it whenever
+he consciously looks upon a beautiful object. We see in this how wise
+it is for one to choose to have beautiful things, to surround others
+with them, to love them, and to place reverent hands upon them.
+
+We can never make a mistake about gentle hands. Once a lady said to a
+boy:
+
+"You should touch all things with the same delicacy that one should
+bestow upon a tender flower. It shows that deep within yourself you
+are at rest, that you make your hands go forward to a task carefully
+and with much thought. In the roughest games you play do not forget
+this; then your hands shall be filled with all the thought you have
+within yourself."
+
+Sometimes, when I am in a great gallery, the thought is very strong in
+me, that many (ever, and ever so many) people, in all countries and in
+all times, have so loved the beautiful as to devote their lives to it.
+Painters, who have made pictures to delight men for generations,
+looked and looked and _prayed_ to find the beautiful. And we must
+believe that one looks out of the heart to find the beautiful or he
+finds only the common. And the sculptors who have loved marble for the
+delight they have in beautiful forms, they, too, with eyes seeking
+beauty, and hands so gentle upon the marble that it almost breathes
+for them, they, too, have loved the beautiful.
+
+But commoner ones have the tenderest love for what is sweet and fair
+in life,--people who are neither painters nor sculptors. In their
+little way--but it is a _true_ way--they have sunlight in their
+hearts, and with it love for something.
+
+Perhaps it is a flower. I have been told of a man--in fact I have seen
+him--who could do the cruelest things; who was so bad that he could
+not be permitted to go free among others, and yet he loved plants so
+much that if they were put near him he would move quietly among them,
+touching this one and that; gazing at them, and acting as if he were
+in another world. As we said once before about the spring, so we may
+say here about love for the beautiful: it may be covered up with every
+thing that is able to keep it down, but _it is always there_.
+
+It is always pleasanter to hear about people and their ways than to
+heed advice. But people and their ways often set us good examples; and
+we were curious, indeed, if we did not look sharply at ourselves to
+see just what we are. From all we have been told about the beautiful
+we can at least learn this: that it sweetens life; that it makes even
+a common life bright; that if we have it in us it may be as golden
+sunlight to some poor one who is in the darkness of ignorance, that is
+the advantage and the beauty of all good things in our lives, namely,
+the good it may be unto others. And the beautiful music we may sing or
+play is not to show what we are or what we can do--it will, of course
+do these things--but it is to be a blessing to those who listen. And
+how are blessings bestowed? _Out of the heart._
+
+Once there was a nobleman[66] with power and riches. He loved
+everything. Learning and art and all had he partaken of. But the times
+were troubled in his country, and for some reason he lost all he had
+and was imprisoned. Then there was scarcely anything in his life. All
+he had was the cell, the prison-yard, and, now and again, a word or
+two with his keeper. The cell was small and gloomy, the keeper silent,
+the yard confined and so closely paved with cobblestones that one
+could scarcely see the earth between them.
+
+Yes, indeed, it was a small world and a barren one into which they had
+forced him. But he had his thoughts, and daily as he walked in his
+confined yard, they were busy with the past, weaving, weaving. What
+patterns they made, and he, poor one, was sometimes afraid of them!
+But still they kept on weaving, weaving.
+
+One day, as he walked in his yard, he noticed that between two of the
+stones there seemed to be something and he looked at it. With the
+greatest attention he studied it, then he knelt on the rude stones and
+looked and looked again. His heart beat and his hands trembled, but
+yet with a touch as gentle as any one could give, he moved a grain or
+two of soil and there, beneath, was something which the poor captive
+cried out for joy to see--a tiny plant. As if in a new world, and
+certainly as if another man, he cared daily for the tender little
+companion that had come to share his loneliness; he thought of it
+first in the morning and last at night. He gave it of his supply of
+water and, as a father, he watched over it.
+
+And it grew so that one day he saw that his plant must either die or
+have more room. And it could not have more room unless a cobblestone
+were removed. Now this could only be done with the consent of the
+Emperor. Well, let us not stop to hear about the way he found, but he
+did get his request to the Emperor and, after a while, what happened
+do you think? That the plant was given more room? Yes, that is partly
+it, and the rest is this: the prisoner himself was given more room--he
+was liberated.
+
+Just because the seed of a beautiful thing came to life in his tiny
+world he found love for it and a new life, a care, _something outside
+of himself_. And it brought him all.
+
+That love which is not given to self reveals the beauty of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public
+  schools, and a living example of their excellence."--_Joseph Story._
+
+In these days we learn many things in our schools--even music. They
+surely must have a purpose, all the studies and the music as well. Let
+us in this Talk see if we can find what the purpose is.
+
+It costs our Government a great deal to educate the children of the
+land. There are now nearly twenty million children in our country.
+That is a number you cannot conceive. But every morning of the year,
+when it is not a vacation day, you may think of this vast number
+leaving home and going to school to be taught. I am sure the picture
+will make us all think how wise a Government is that devotes so much
+to making us know more, because by learning more we are able to enjoy
+more, to do more, to be more. And this makes us better citizens.
+
+Year after year, as men study and learn about what is best to have
+children taught in school, the clearer it becomes that what is given
+is dictated because of its usefulness. Arithmetic teaches us to
+calculate our daily affairs. Grammar teaches us to listen and to speak
+understandingly. Penmanship and Spelling teach us properly to make the
+signs which represent speech. Geography teaches us of the earth on
+which we live, and how we may travel about it. History teaches us how
+to understand the doings of our own day and makes us acquainted with
+great men of former times, who by striving have earned a place in our
+remembrance.
+
+As we go on in our school education, taking up new studies, we find to
+a still greater degree that what we learn is for usefulness.
+Arithmetic becomes mathematics in general. Grammar is brought before
+us in other languages, and branches out into the study of Rhetoric and
+Literature. History is taught us of many lands, particularly of
+Greece, Rome, and England. And, bit by bit, these various histories
+merge into one, until, perhaps not until college years or later, the
+doings of the countries in all the centuries of which we have
+knowledge is one unbroken story to us. We know the names of lands and
+of people. Why Greece could love art, why Rome could have conquest;
+why these countries and all their glories passed away to give place to
+others; all these things become clear to us. We learn of generals,
+statesmen, poets, musicians, rulers. Their characters are made clear;
+their lives are given to us in biography, and year after year the
+story of the earth and man is more complete, more fascinating, more
+helpful to us in learning our own day.
+
+Then, besides all these studies, we are taught to do things with the
+hands. After the Talks we have already had about doing, we know what
+it means to have training of the hands. It really means the training
+of the thoughts. We are training the mind to make the hands perform
+their tasks rightly. It is the same in the science lesson which
+teaches us to see; actually to use our eyes until we see things. That
+may not seem to be a difficult task, but there are really very few
+people who can accurately and properly use their eyes. If there were
+more, fewer mistakes would be made.
+
+Thus we can see that school work divides its tasks into two general
+classes:
+
+First, the learning of facts.
+
+Second, the actual doing of things.
+
+You will readily see that to do things properly is possible only when
+we know facts which tell us how to do them. That shows you at once the
+wisdom of the education you receive.
+
+Now, let us imagine that school life is over. For many years you have
+gone faithfully every day to your place, you have done your tasks as
+honestly as you could, and said your lessons, being wounded no doubt
+by failures, but gladdened again by successes. Now, when it is all
+over, what is there of it?
+
+Well, above all things, there is one truth of it which it is wonderful
+people do not think of more frequently. And that truth is this: The
+only education we may use in our own life is that which we have
+ourselves. No longer have we help of companions or teachers. We depend
+entirely upon our own personal knowledge. If we speak it is our own
+knowledge of Grammar that is used. We cannot have a book at hand in
+order to know from it the words we should use. If we make a
+calculation about money, or do anything with numbers, it must be done
+from our knowledge of Arithmetic, and it must be right or people will
+very soon cease to deal with us. Then, if we have a letter from a
+friend, we must of ourselves know how to read it, and if we have aught
+to say to another at a distance, we must be able clearly to express
+ourselves in writing, so that we may make no mistake in our meaning.
+
+And this, likewise, is to be said of all the rest. Our knowledge of
+History, of Geography, of men of past times, of the boundaries of
+countries, of cities, of people, of everything, must come from
+ourselves. And, further yet, according as we have been careful to see
+in the right way and to do in the right way while we were under
+instruction in school, so we shall be likely to see and to do when we
+are not in school, and no longer have some one over us who will kindly
+and patiently correct our errors, teach us new ways, and give us
+greater powers. We may, of course, go on learning after our school
+days are ended; and really much of the best education comes then, if
+we will immediately set about correcting the faults which we find in
+ourselves.
+
+Indeed, many men have gained the best part of their education after
+leaving school, where, perhaps, it was their fortune to stay but a
+short time.[67] But we must remember that the habits of learning,
+doing, seeking, are gained in early years, and if they are not gained
+then they rarely come.
+
+Now, what have we learned about schools and school-tasks? We have
+learned a little of the purpose which lies in the education we
+receive; that out of it must come the power to do and to know; that is
+our own power; not that of any one else. We have seen the usefulness
+of school-studies, and how practical they are in our daily life.
+
+In all this Talk we have said nothing about Music. If, however, we
+understand what the other studies mean, what their purpose is, we
+shall learn something which shall be valuable when we come to study
+the meaning and purpose of music in schools. That shall be our next
+Talk.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MUSIC IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Become in early years well-informed concerning the extent of the
+  four voices.
+
+"Try, even with a poor voice, to sing at sight without the aid of an
+instrument; from that your ear will constantly improve. In case,
+however, that you have a good voice, do not hesitate a moment to
+cultivate it; and believe, at the same time, that heaven has granted
+you a valuable gift."--_Robert Schumann._[68]
+
+In the previous Talk we learned two very important facts about school
+studies. They were these:
+
+   I. They are useful.
+
+  II. They are useful in proportion to our own (not to anybody else's)
+      real knowledge of them.
+
+We do not study useless subjects, and it is not from our books, nor
+from our teacher that we go through life, making our way. In other
+words, the harder we work, the more independent we become; and the
+more independent we become, the more power we have to help others.
+
+Now, whatever is true about other school studies is likewise true
+about music. It is given to children in school because it is useful,
+and because a child can gain power by learning it. Let us see about
+this.
+
+To one who does not think deeply, it might seem that if any study in
+school is merely ornamental, that study is music. He might say that
+all the other studies tend to some practical end in life and business:
+that one could not add, nor read, nor transact business, nor write a
+letter any more correctly by knowing music. It is only an unthinking
+person--_none other_--who would say that.
+
+Of the usefulness of all the school studies we have spoken. We need
+only to take a few steps along the pleasant road, about which we have
+had so many Talks, and we shall see how much music means in life. To
+us it is already plain. Music is a new world, to enter which
+cultivates new senses, teaches us to love the beautiful, and makes us
+watchful of two of the most important things in life: the thoughts and
+the heart. We must have exact thoughts or the music is not made
+aright, and the heart may be what it will, music tells all about it.
+Therefore, let it be good.
+
+But music in school brings us to daily tasks in tone. What do we
+learn? After the difficulties of reading the notes and making the
+voice responsive are somewhat overcome, we study for greater power in
+both, the one-, two-, or three-part exercises and songs; the exercises
+for skill and the songs to apply the skill, and make us acquainted
+with the music of great masters.
+
+In one Talk, one of the first, we spoke of the major scale. It has
+eight tones only, and though it has existed for many hundreds of
+years, no one has yet dreamed of all the wonderful tone-pictures which
+are contained in it. It is out of it that all the great composers have
+written their works, and for centuries to come men will find in it
+beauties great, and pure, and lasting.
+
+As we sing in school, we are learning to put the major scale to some
+use. It calls upon us in the melodies which it expresses, to be
+careful that each tone shall be right in length, in pitch, in
+loudness, in place. We must sing exactly with the others, not
+offensively loud, nor so softly as to be of no service. And this
+demands precision of us; and precision demands thought. And if we are
+singing to gain a better use of voice we must, in every sound we make,
+have our thoughts exactly upon what we are doing. This is
+Concentration. If, on the other hand, we are trying our skill on a
+song, we shall have, in addition, to be careful to give the right
+expression, to sing not only the tones clearly, but the words, to feel
+the true sentiment both of the poem and of the music, and to express
+from our hearts as much of the meaning of poet and composer as we
+understand. All these things are more particularly required of us if
+we are singing in parts. The melody must be properly sustained and
+must not cover the under parts; while the under parts themselves
+should never intrude upon the melody, nor fail to be a good background
+for it. The singing of part music is one of the best ways to train the
+attention--that is, to get Concentration. As we sing our part we must
+have in mind these things:
+
+
+    I. To keep to it and not be drawn away by another part.
+
+   II. To give the part we sing its due prominence.
+
+  III. Never to destroy the perfect equality of the parts by unduly
+       hastening or holding back.
+
+   IV. To remember that each part is important. The other singers have
+       as much to think of and to do as we have, and they are entitled
+       to just as much praise.
+
+    V. To be alert to take up our part at exactly the right place.
+
+   VI. To put the full meaning of the poet and of the composer into
+       every word and tone.
+
+These, after all, are only a few of the things; but from them we may
+learn this, that to sing (and to play is quite the same) is one of the
+most delicate tasks we can learn to perform, requiring attention from
+us in many ways at the same time. Even now the usefulness of music is
+clear, for the faculties we learn to employ in music form a power that
+can be applied in anything.
+
+But music has even a greater reward for us than this. It presents to
+us many kinds of thoughts and pictures,--of bravery, of
+thoughtfulness, of gaiety, and others without number--and then it
+demands that we shall study so as to sing them truthfully from our
+hearts. And when we can do this music is then a joy to us and to
+others.
+
+Now we see that music, just like the other studies, is useful and
+gives us the power to do something. And besides its use and power it
+is, perhaps more than any other study, the greatest means of giving
+happiness to others. But of that there is yet a word to be said. That
+shall be our next Talk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER.
+
+
+  "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday
+  life."--_Berthold Auerbach._
+
+Just at the end of our Talk about Music in School, I said that music
+was the most powerful of all the studies for giving joy to others. In
+this Talk we shall try to learn what the studies do for each other.
+
+Once more--and we must never get tired if the same thought comes again
+and again--let us remember that music is thought expressed in tone.
+Classic music is great and strong thought; poor, unworthy music is
+weak, perhaps wrong or mean thought.
+
+Further, we have learned that thought may be good and pure, and yet
+that of itself is not sufficient. It must be well expressed. In short,
+to thought of the right sort we must add knowledge, so that it may be
+set before others in the right way.
+
+Now, it is true that the more knowledge we have, the more we can do
+with music. We can put more meaning into it; we can better perform all
+the exacting duties it demands; we can draw more meaning from its art,
+and we can see more clearly how great a genius the composer is.
+Besides these things, a well-trained mind gets more thoughts from a
+subject than an untrained mind. Some day you will see this more
+clearly by observing how much better you will be able to understand
+your own language by possessing a knowledge of Greek and Latin.
+
+All the school studies have a use, to be sure--a direct use--in giving
+us something to help us in life in one way and another. But besides
+this, we get another help from study; namely, the employment of the
+mind in the right way. For the right way of doing things which are
+worthy of the heart, gives power and good. It is the wrong way of
+doing things that causes us trouble. Some studies demand exactness
+above all this,--like the study of Arithmetic--others a good
+memory,--like History--others tax many faculties, as we have seen in
+our Talk about School Music.
+
+Some of the studies are particularly valuable to us at once because
+they make us _do_. They may be called _doing_ studies. In Arithmetic
+there is a result, and only one result, to be sought. In Grammar every
+rule we learn is to be applied in our speech. Manual training demands
+judgment and the careful use of the hands. Penmanship is a test for
+the hand, but History is a study touching the memory more than the
+doing faculty.
+
+School music, you see at once, is a doing study. Not only that, it is
+full of life, attractive, appealing to the thoughts in many ways, and
+yet it is a hearty study--by that I mean a study for the heart.
+
+If you have noticed in your piano music the Italian words which are
+given at the beginning of compositions, you may have thought how
+expressive most of them are of the heart and of action. They are
+_doing_ words particularly. _Allegro_ is cheerful; that is its true
+meaning. It directs us to make the music sound cheerful as we sing it
+or play it. What for? So that the cheerfulness of the composer shall
+be for us and for other people. And _Vivace_ is not merely quickly,
+but vivaciously. Now what does vivacious mean? It means what its
+root-word _vivere_ means, to live. It is a direction that the music
+must be full of life; and the true life of happiness and freedom from
+care is meant. So with _Modcrato_, a doing word which tells us very
+particularly how to do; namely, not too fast, spoiling it by haste,
+nor too slowly, so that it seems to drag, but in a particular way,
+that is, with moderation.
+
+Music takes its place as a _doing_ study; and as we have already
+discovered, its doing is of many kinds, all requiring care. Singing or
+playing is doing; reading the notes is doing; studying out the
+composer's meaning is doing; making others feel it is doing;
+everything is doing; and _doing_ is true living, _provided it is
+unselfish_.
+
+Let us see if there is not a simple lesson in all this. To seek it we
+shall have to say old thoughts over again. Music itself uses the same
+tones over and over again; it is by doing so that we begin to
+understand tone a little.
+
+The school studies try the mind; with the tasks increased bit by bit,
+the mind is made stronger. Thus is Strength gained. By the tasks
+demanding exactness, the thoughts must not be scattered everywhere,
+but centered upon the thing to be done. Thus is Concentration gained.
+By making the hand work with care and a definite purpose, Skill is
+gained. By demanding of the thoughts that they must seek out all the
+qualities of an object, Attention is gained. By placing things and
+signs for things before us, we are taught to See. By educating us in
+sounds, we are taught to Listen. When we have a task that admits of a
+single correct result, we are taught Exactness.
+
+Now, from all we have learned in these Talks about music it must be
+clear that all these qualities are just what are needed in music:
+
+    I. Strength of thought for Real doing.
+
+   II. Concentration for Right doing.
+
+  III. Skill for Well doing.
+
+   IV. Seeing and listening for the cultivation of Attention.
+
+    V. Correctness for the Manner of doing.
+
+We sought for a simple lesson. It is this:
+
+Let us learn all we can that is right and worthy for the strengthening
+of the mind, for the cultivation of the heart, for the good and joy of
+others; for these things are the spirit of music.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE CHILD AT PLAY.
+
+
+  "When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward."
+
+Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand
+shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light
+from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming
+pebbles.
+
+The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and
+played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was
+everywhere and the child was filled with it.
+
+But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to leave
+the beautiful place. Delight was there and many rare things that one
+could play with and enjoy.
+
+The child could not leave them all. Its heart ached to think of them
+lying there alone by the sea. And it thought:
+
+"I will take the pebbles and the shells with me and I will try to
+remember the sunlight and the song of the sea."
+
+So it began to fill its little hands. But it saw that after as many as
+possible were gathered together there were yet myriads left. And it
+had to leave them.
+
+Tired and with a sore heart it trudged homeward, its hands filled to
+overflowing with the pebbles that shone in the sun on the sea-shore.
+Now, however, they seemed dull. And because of this, the child did not
+seem to regret it so much if now and then one fell. "There are still
+some left in my hands," it thought.
+
+At length it came near to its home; so very tired, the little limbs
+could scarcely move. And one who loved the child came out smiling to
+welcome it. The little one went up close and rested its tired head;
+and opening its little hand, soiled with the sea and the sand, said:
+
+"Look, mother, I still have one. May I go for the others some day?"
+
+And the mother said:
+
+"Yes, thou shalt go again."
+
+And the child fell asleep to dream of the singing sea and of the
+sunlight, for these were in its heart.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The following works are referred to in these Talks:
+
+  Addison, Joseph, "Spectator."
+
+  Alexander, Francesca, "Christfolk in the Apennine."
+
+  Antoninus, M. Aurelius, "Meditations."
+
+  Aristotle, "Ethics."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "Kleine Präludien."
+
+  Baldwin, James, "Old Greek Stories."
+
+  Bacon, Francis, "Essays."
+
+  Bridge, J.F., "Simple Counterpoint."
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas, "Heroes and Hero-worship."
+
+  Cellini, Benvenuto, "Autobiography."
+
+  Epictetus, "Memoirs."
+
+  Grove, Sir George, "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+
+  Halleck, R.P., "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+  Handel, G.F., "The Messiah."
+
+  Haupt, August, "Choralbuch."
+
+  Liszt, Franz, "Life of Chopin."
+
+  Lubbock, Sir John, "Pleasures of Life."
+
+  Luther, Martin, "Table Talk."
+
+  Mendelssohn, Felix, "Letters from Italy and Switzerland."
+
+  Parker, J.H., "ABC of Gothic Architecture."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Queen of the Air."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Sesame and Lilies."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Val d'Arno."
+
+  Saintine, X.B., "Picciola."
+
+  Schubert, Franz, "Songs."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Album for the Voung."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Letters."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+  Tapper, Thomas, "Chats with Music Students."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "On Sound."
+
+  Various Authors, "Les Maitres du Clavicin."
+
+  Xenophon, "Memorabilia."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Chats with Music Students
+
+OR
+
+TALKS ABOUT MUSIC AND MUSIC LIFE.
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+Price, Bound in Cloth, $1.50.
+
+This volume appeals to every student of music, however elementary or
+advanced. It is designed to bring to the attention of those who make
+music a life-work, the very many contingent topics that should be
+considered in connection with music. To this end the subjects selected
+for the chats have a practical value, cover considerable ground, and
+are treated from the point of view that best aids the student. The
+reader is taken into confidence, and finds in the chapters of this
+work many hints and benefits that pertain to his own daily life as a
+musician.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+21 SELECTED
+
+CRAMER STUDIES.
+
+From the Von Bülow Edition.
+
+PRICE $1.50, FIRMLY BOUND.
+
+The present complete edition sells for $2.50 and $3.00, retail. Much
+of the material in the complete edition can be eliminated without
+injury to its technical value. We have, therefore, made a selection of
+the choicest of Von Bülow's edition, which we have bound, in one
+volume, in very neat style. Only the most difficult and unimportant
+ones have been eliminated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Normal Course of Piano Technic.
+
+DESIGNED FOR
+
+SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS.
+
+By WM. B. WAIT.
+
+Price $1.50, Bound.
+
+The NORMAL COURSE is based upon the fundamental idea that, for the
+purpose of the development, discipline, and formation of the mind, and
+for teaching the learner how to think and to do, Technical Studies in
+Music are as useful as any other branch.
+
+FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
+
+  Clear, concise statements of facts and principles.
+
+  It deals only with essentials.
+
+  It arranges the materials in grades, by Divisions, Courses, and
+  Steps.
+
+  It exhibits a distinct mode and order of development.
+
+  The course is as clearly laid out as in any other branch of study.
+
+  Practice based upon understanding of means as applied to ends.
+
+  It permits the attention to be given to the hands in practice, and
+  not to the pages.
+
+  In schools it will secure uniformity in the instruction given.
+
+  It furnishes the bases for oral recitations and examinations as in
+  other subjects.
+
+  It is logical, systematic, thorough.
+
+  It is a book for use by schools, teachers, and students.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES:
+
+ 1: From the "Table Talk."
+
+ 2: Play to the children Schubert's song entitled "The Organ-man."
+
+ 3: Phillips Brooks says in one of his sermons ("Identity and
+    Variety"): "Every act has its perfect and entire way of being
+    done."
+
+ 4: Bohn edition, p. 35.
+
+ 5: Read to the children such parts of Francesca Alexander's "Christ's
+    folk in the Apennine" as seem to you pertinent.
+
+ 6: John Ruskin, from the ninth lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 7: John Ruskin. Third lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 8: Franz Liszt's "Life of Chopin," Chapter V.
+
+ 9: _Ibid_, Chapter VI.
+
+
+10: "On Sound."
+
+11: "On Sound" is referred to. The last paragraph of Section 10,
+    Chapter II, may interest the children. The last two paragraphs of
+    Section 13 are not only interesting, but they show how simply a
+    scientist can write.
+
+12: If the original is desired, see Tyndall's "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+13: Schumann wrote in a letter to Ferdinand Hiller, "We should learn
+    to refine the inner ear."
+
+14: From the sermon entitled "The Seriousness of Life."
+
+15: Notice sometime how many of our English words have the Latin
+    _con_.
+
+16: See the fourth chapter of Reuben Post Halleck's "Psychology and
+    Psychic Culture."
+
+17: For instance, the subject of the C minor Fugue in the first book
+    of "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+18: The subject of the C sharp minor Fugue.
+
+19: The prelude in E flat minor and the subject of the G sharp minor
+    Fugue.
+
+20: Robert Schumann.
+
+21: Quoted by Xenophon in the "Memorabilia," Book II, Chapter I, Bohn
+    edition.
+
+22: "Heroes and Hero Worship," Lecture I.
+
+23: From the sermon entitled "Backgrounds and Foregrounds."
+
+24: I should again suggest the value of letting the children become
+    familiar with such books as J.H. Parker's "A B C of Gothic
+    Architecture;" and of having always about plenty of photographs of
+    great buildings, great men, great works of art and of famous
+    places for them to see and to know ("_letting_ them _become_
+    familiar," remember).
+
+25: See R.P. Halleck's "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+26: Read paragraphs 41 and 42 of John Ruskin's "Athena Chalinitis,"
+    the first lecture of "Queen of the Air."
+
+27: John Ruskin, from the lecture entitled "Franchise," in "Val
+    d'Arno," par. 206.
+
+28: "Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and
+    Switzerland." Letter of July 15, 1831.
+
+29: "Letter of December 19, 1831."
+
+30: Read also what is said of Chopin on p. 28.
+
+31: Read to the children "The Wonderful Weaver" in "Old Greek
+    Stories," by James Baldwin. It is only a few pages in length, and
+    is well told.
+
+32: Robert Schumann.
+
+33: John Ruskin's "Queen of the Air," par. 102. ("Athena Ergane.")
+    Read all of it to the children.
+
+34: _Idem_.
+
+35: Lord Bacon, from the essay "Of Great Places."
+
+36: Robert Schumann.
+
+37: Read John Ruskin's "Sesame and the Lilies," par. 19, and as much
+    of what follows as you deem wise.
+
+38: "The Ethics," Book IX, Chapter VII.
+
+39: Always I have it in mind that the teacher will read or make
+    reference to the original when the source is so obvious as in this
+    case. The teacher's, or mother's, discretion should, however,
+    decide what and how much of such original should be read, and what
+    it is best to say of it.
+
+40: I have not attempted to quote the exact words usually given.
+
+41: Socrates. This quotation is from the "Memorabilia of Xenophon,"
+    Book I, Chapter VI.
+
+42: Mary Russell Mitford.
+
+43: "Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Bohn edition, p. 23.
+
+44: "The Miserere" of "Gregorio Allegri." It was written for nine
+    voices in two choirs. "There was a time when it was so much
+    treasured that to copy it was a crime visited with
+    excommunication. Mozart took down the notes while the choir was
+    singing it." (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+    Vol. I, page 54.)
+
+45: Dr. Bridge "On Simple Counterpoint." Preface.
+
+46: Take, in August Haupt's "_Choralbuch zum häuslichen Gebrauch_,"
+    any simple choral. The one entitled "_Zion klagt mit Angst und
+    Schmerzen_" is of singular beauty and simplicity.
+
+47: Peters Edition, No. 200, page 11.
+
+48: I should advise the teacher to have the two volumes entitled "_Les
+    Maitres du Clavicin_." (They can be had in the Litolff
+    collection.)
+
+49: Op. 106.
+
+50: "_Der Erster Verlust_" in Schumann's Op. 68 is well conceived in
+    the sense that it is freely harmonic in some places, imitative in
+    others, while in the opening the melody is very simply
+    accompanied. Show the children how interesting the left-hand part
+    is in this little composition.
+
+51: From a Letter of the Spectator.
+
+52: From the eighth paragraph of the Lecture entitled "Nicholas, the
+    Pisan," in "Val D'Arno."
+
+53: A blind beggar sitting on a bridge in an English town (it was
+    Chester) many times astonished me with the rapidity of his
+    hand-reading, and by the wonderful light of his face. It was
+    wholly free from the perplexity which most of us show. It must
+    arise in us from being attracted by so many things.
+
+54: Eighty-first paragraph of "Val d'Arno."
+
+55: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "The Meditations," Book V, Par. 34.
+
+56: See footnote, p. 119.
+
+57: From the thirteenth paragraph of the fourth book. I have changed
+    the wording a very little to make it simple.
+
+58: Sixteenth paragraph of the fifth book.
+
+59: _Essi quam videri._
+
+60: "The Memorabilia."
+
+61: "Epictetus," H.W. Rollison's Translation.
+
+62: Plato.
+
+63: Mozart wrote three symphonies between June 26th and August 10th,
+    in the year 1778; and an Italian, Giovanni Animuccia, is said to
+    have written three masses, four motettes, and fourteen hymns
+    within five months. As an instance of early composition, Johann
+    Friedrich Bernold had written a symphony before he was ten years
+    of age, and was famous all over Europe.
+
+64: Xenophon, "The Memorabilia," Book IV, Chapter VIII.
+
+65: From the "Pleasures of Life." Eighth Chapter of the Second Series.
+
+66: The little romance of N.B. Saintine is referred to.
+
+67: Read to the children Chapter XIV in my "Chats with Music
+    Students."
+
+68: "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 14339-8.txt or 14339-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/3/14339
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/14339-8.zip b/old/14339-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0452e48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14339-8.zip
diff --git a/old/14339.txt b/old/14339.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0914ec9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14339.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3931 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Music Talks with Children, by Thomas Tapper
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Music Talks with Children
+
+Author: Thomas Tapper
+
+Release Date: December 13, 2004  [eBook #14339]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Newman, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN
+
+by
+
+THOMAS TAPPER
+
+Philadelphia
+Theodore Presser
+
+1898
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,
+  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
+  Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  "God being with thee when we know it not."
+
+                            --WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+
+
+TO THE CHILDREN AT HOME
+
+
+  "Teach me to live! No idler let me be,
+  But in Thy service _hand and heart_ employ."
+
+                             --BAYARD TAYLOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+A book of this kind, though addressed to children, must necessarily
+reach them through an older person. The purpose is to suggest a few of
+the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If
+these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be
+actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may
+become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an
+art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding
+in joy. Music with these characteristics is the true music of the
+heart. Unless music gives true pleasure to the young it may be doubted
+if it is wisely studied.
+
+Our failure to present music to the young in a manner that interests
+and holds them is due not so much to the fact that music is too
+difficult for children, but because the children themselves are too
+difficult for us. In our ignorance we often withhold the rightful
+inheritance. We must not forget that the slower adult mind often meets
+a class of difficulties which are not recognized by the unprejudiced
+child. It is not infrequent that with the old fears in us we persist
+in recreating difficulties.
+
+There should be ever present with the teacher the thought that music
+must be led out of the individuality, not driven into it.
+
+The teacher's knowledge is not a hammer, it is a light.
+
+While it is suggested that these chapters be used as the
+subject-matter for talks with the children, they may read verbatim if
+desired. All foot-note references and suggestions are addressed to the
+older person--the mother or the teacher. There is much in the
+literature of art that would interest children if given to them
+discriminatingly.
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+BOSTON, October 30, 1896
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+       PREFACE
+
+    I. WHAT THE FACE TELLS
+
+   II. WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC
+
+  III. MUSIC IN THE HEART
+
+   IV. THE TONES ABOUT US
+
+    V. LISTENING
+
+   VI. THINKING IN TONE
+
+  VII. WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR
+
+ VIII. THE CLASSICS
+
+   IX. WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY
+
+    X. THE LESSON
+
+   XI. THE LIGHT ON THE PATH
+
+  XII. THE GREATER MASTERS
+
+ XIII. THE LESSER MASTERS
+
+  XIV. HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT
+
+   XV. MUSIC AND READING
+
+  XVI. THE HANDS
+
+ XVII. WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID
+
+XVIII. THE GLORY OF THE DAY
+
+  XIX. THE IDEAL
+
+   XX. THE ONE TALENT
+
+  XXI. LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+ XXII. IN SCHOOL
+
+XXIII. MUSIC IN SCHOOL
+
+ XXIV. HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER
+
+  XXV. THE CHILD AT PLAY
+
+       APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+
+Chats with Music Students; or Talks about Music and Music Life.
+
+"A remarkably valuable work. It is made up of talks to students,
+calculated to make them think; of hints and suggestions which will be
+of immense assistance to those who are earnestly trying to become
+proficient in music."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"No other book covers the same broad field which this covers in such a
+pleasant and inspiring manner."--_The Writer (Boston)._
+
+
+The Music Life and How to Succeed in it.
+
+"These ideas are worthy of attention from students and workers in all
+branches of art, science, and literature, who mean to be serious and
+earnest."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+"Exceedingly valuable because of its broad impartiality in its
+exposition of truth, its depth of understanding, and, above all, for
+its earnest desire, manifest in every word, to lead music students to
+a love for music itself.... It abounds in high artistic thought and
+insight."--_The Boston Times._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHAT THE FACE TELLS.
+
+
+  "And the light _dwelleth_ with him."--_Daniel II: 22._
+
+
+Once a master said to a child:
+
+"If thou wilt study diligently, learn, and do good unto others, thy
+face shall be filled with light."
+
+So the child studied busily, learned, and sought how she could do good
+unto others. And every little while she ran to the glass to see if the
+light was coming. But at each time she was disappointed. No light was
+there. Try as faithfully as she would, and look as often as she would,
+it was always the same.
+
+I do not know if she doubted the master or not; but it is certain she
+did not know what to make of it. She grieved, and day after day her
+disappointment grew. At length she could bear it no longer, so she
+went to the master and said:
+
+"Dear master, I have been so diligent! I have tried to learn and to do
+good unto others. Yet every time I have sought in my face the light
+_which you promised_, it has not been there. No, not a single time."
+
+Now the master listened intently, and watching her face as she spoke,
+he said:
+
+"Thou poor little one, in this moment, as thou hast spoken to me, thy
+face has been so filled with light that thou wouldst not believe. And
+dost thou know why? It is because every word thou hast spoken in this
+moment has come from thy heart.
+
+"Thou must learn _in the first days_ this lesson: When the thought and
+the deed are in the heart, then the light is in the face, always, and
+it is there at no other time. It could not be. And what is in thy
+heart when thou art before the glass? In that moment hast thou turned
+away from diligence, and from learning, and from the love of doing
+good unto others and in thy heart there is left only the poor
+curiosity to see the light which can never shine when it is sought.
+Thou canst never see the light of thy own face. For thee that light is
+forever within, and it will not prosper thy way to want to look upon
+it. It is only as thou art faithful that this is added unto thee."
+
+Sorrowing yet more than before the little child said:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee;
+but the wish is yet within me to see the light of my face, if only for
+once. Thou who art wise, tell me why it is denied me."
+
+And the master made answer:
+
+"It is denied to us all. No one may see the light of his own face.
+Therefore thou shalt labor daily with diligence that thy light shall
+shine before others. And if thou wouldst see the light thou shalt
+cause it to shine _in another_. That is the greatest of all--to bring
+forth the light. And to do this, thou shalt of thyself be faithful in
+all things. By what thou art thou must show diligence, the love for
+learning, and the desire to do good unto others, even as these things
+have been taught thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHY WE SHOULD STUDY MUSIC.
+
+
+  "Music makes people more gentle and meek, more modest and
+  understanding."--_Martin Luther._[1]
+
+It was this same music lover who said once, "Music is the fairest gift
+of God." Just these words should be a sufficient answer to the
+question which we have asked in this Talk, but a little more may make
+it clearer. Here we are, gathered together to talk about music. We
+know music is pleasing; to many of us it is even more than a pleasure;
+of course, it is difficult to get the lessons properly and we must
+struggle and strive. Often the way seems so rude and stony that we
+cannot advance. We are hurt, and hot tears of discouragement come, and
+we sit down dejected feeling it were best never to try again. But even
+when the tears flow the fastest we feel something within us which
+makes us listen. We can really hear our thoughts battling to tell us
+something,--prompted by the heart, we may be sure.
+
+And what is music making our thoughts say?
+
+"Have I not been a pleasure and a comfort to you? Have I not set you
+to singing and to dancing many and many times? Have I not let you sing
+your greatest happiness? And am I not ever about you, at home, in
+school, in church? even in the streets I have never deserted you.
+Always, _always_ I have made you merry. But this was music you
+_heard_. Now you have said you wished to know me yourself; to have me
+come to dwell in your heart that you might have me understandingly,
+and because I ask labor of you for this, you sit here with your hot
+tears in your eyes and not a bit of me present in your heart. Listen!
+Am I not there? Yes, just a bit. Now more and more, and now will you
+give me up because I make you work a little?"
+
+Well, we all have just this experience and we always feel ashamed of
+our discouragements; but even this does not tell us why we should
+study music. Some people study it because they have to do so; others
+because they love it. Surely it must be best with those who out of
+their hearts choose to learn about tones and the messages they tell.
+
+Did you ever notice how people seem willing to stop any employment if
+music comes near? Even in the busiest streets of a city the organ-man
+will make us listen to his tunes. In spite of the hurry and the crowd
+and the jumble of noises, still the organ-tones go everywhere clear,
+full, melodious, bidding us heed them. Perhaps we mark the music with
+the hand, or walk differently, or begin to sing with it. In one way or
+another the music will make us do something--that shows its power. I
+have seen in many European towns a group of children about the
+organ-man,[2] dancing or singing as he played and enjoying every tune
+to the utmost. This taught me that music of every kind has its lover,
+and that with a little pains and a little patience the love for music
+belongs to all alike, and may be increased if other things do not push
+it aside.
+
+Now, one of the first things to be said of music is that it makes
+happiness, and what makes happiness is good for us, because happiness
+not only lightens the heart, but it is one of the best ways to make
+the light come to the face. The moment we study music we learn a
+severe lesson, and that is this: There can be no use in our trying to
+be musicians unless we are willing to learn perfect order in all the
+music-tasks we do.
+
+In this, music is a particularly severe mistress. Nothing slovenly,
+untidy, or out of order will do. The count must be absolutely right,
+not fast nor slow as our fancy dictates, but even and regular. The
+hands must do their task together in a friendly manner; the one never
+crowding nor hurrying the other, each willing to yield to the other
+when the right moment comes.[3] The feet must never use the pedals so
+as to make the harmonies mingle wrongly, but at just the right moment
+must make the strings sing together as the composer desires. The
+thoughts can never for a single moment wander from the playing; they
+must remain faithful, preparing what is to come and commanding the
+hands to do exactly the right task in the right way. That shows us,
+you see, the second quality and a strict one of music. It will not
+allow us to be disorderly, and more than this, it teaches us a habit
+for order that will be a gain to us in every other task. Now let us
+see:
+
+First, we should study music for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, we should study music for the order it teaches us.
+
+There is a third reason. If music gives us happiness, do we not in
+learning it gain a power to contribute happiness to others? That is
+one of the greatest pleasures in learning. Not only does the knowledge
+prove of use and joy to us, but we can constantly make it useful and
+joy-giving to others. Does this not teach us how thankful we should be
+to all those who live usefully? And think of all the men who have
+passed their lives writing beautiful thoughts, singing out of their
+very hearts, day after day, all their life long, for the joy of others
+forever after.
+
+In our next Talk we shall learn that pure thought, written out of the
+heart, is forever a good in the world. From this we shall learn that
+to study music rightly is to cultivate in our own hearts the same good
+thought which the composer had. Hence the third reason we can find for
+studying music is that it makes us able to help and to cheer others,
+to help them by willingly imparting the little knowledge we have, and
+to cheer them by playing the beautiful thoughts in tone which we have
+learned.
+
+These are three great reasons, truly, but there are many others. Let
+us speak about one of them. In some of the Talks we are to have we
+shall learn that true music comes from a true heart; and that great
+music--that is the classics--is the thought of men who are pure and
+noble, learned in the way to write, and anxious never to write
+anything but the best. There is plainly a great deal of good to us if
+we study daily the music of men such as these. In this way we are
+brought in touch with the greatest thought. This constant presence and
+influence will mold our thoughts to greater strength and greater
+beauty. When we read the history of music, we shall see that the
+greatest composers have always been willing to study in their first
+days the master works of their time. They have strengthened their
+thoughts by contact with thoughts stronger than their own, and we may
+gain in just the same way if we will. We know now that there are many
+reasons why it is good for us to study music. We have spoken
+particularly of four of these. They are:
+
+First, for the happiness it will give us.
+
+Second, for the order it demands of us.
+
+Third, for the power it gives us to help and cheer others.
+
+Fourth, for the great and pure thought it brings before us and raises
+in us.
+
+All these things, are they true, you ask? If the little child had
+asked that of the master he would have said:
+
+"These things shalt thou find real because they make thee brave. And
+the pain and the drudgery and the hot tears shall be the easier to
+bear for this knowledge, which should be strong within thee as a pure
+faith."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MUSIC IN THE HEART.
+
+
+  "Raffaello's genius goes directly to the heart."--_Autobiography of
+  Benvenuto Cellini._[4]
+
+The only true way to learn is by doing. The skill of the hand and the
+skill of the thought can be brought out only by use. We shall not
+become very skilful, nor very learned, nor very good unless we daily
+devote ourselves to tasks--often difficult and unpleasant--which shall
+bring to us wisdom, or success, or goodness. None of these things, nor
+any other like them, come merely by talking about them. That is the
+worst way of all--merely to talk and not to act. But if we talk
+truthfully and act with care, we shall gain a great deal. Pleasant
+companionship often brings forth thoughts which if we follow them
+industriously, lead a long way in a good direction.
+
+I do not know that any one has likened music to a country. But we can
+make the comparison, and then it becomes plain that we may either
+wander through it, seeing the beautiful things, wondering about them,
+and talking over our admiration and our wonder; or we may join to this
+a true and an earnest inquiry, which shall give us, as a reward, the
+clear understanding of some things which we see. Let us travel in this
+way; first, because we shall gain true knowledge by it, but better
+still, because we shall thereby learn _in the first days_ that the
+truest pleasures and the dearest happinesses are those for which we
+have done something; those for which we have given both of labor and
+of pains.
+
+One of the wisest little philosophers in the world was Polissena,[5]
+and I think she became wise just because she labored. As we become
+more and more acquainted with true music we shall learn this: True
+music is that which is born in some one's heart. "All immortal writers
+speak out of the heart."[6] Nothing could be truer; and as they speak
+_out_ of their hearts you may be sure they intend to speak _into_
+ours. Nowhere else. As true music is made in some one's heart, we must
+feel it in our own hearts as we play it or it will mean nothing. The
+heart must make it warm, then the beauties of the music will come out.
+It is strange how our moods tell themselves. All we do with our eyes
+and with our ears, with the tongue and with the hands, what we do with
+our thoughts even, is sure to say of itself whether we are doing with
+a willing heart or not. It is curious that the truth will come out of
+whatever seems to be a secret, but curious as it may be, it does come
+out. We must think of that.
+
+Every one of us knows the difference between doing willingly and
+unwillingly. We know that things done with joy and with eagerness are
+well done and seem to spring directly from the heart. Not only that,
+but they really inspire joy and eagerness in those who are about us.
+_Inspire_ is just the word. Look it up in your dictionary and see that
+it means exactly what happens--_to breathe into_--they breathe joy and
+happiness _into_ all things else, and it comes out of our hearts.
+
+Now happiness can be told in many ways: in laughter, in the eyes, in a
+game, in a life like that of Polissena's, in anything, but in nothing
+that does not win the heart. As happiness can be shown in anything, it
+can be shown in music. We can put happiness into play, likewise we can
+put happiness into music. And as much of it as we put into anything
+will come out. Besides, we might just as well learn now as at another
+time, this: Whatever we put into what we do will come out. It may be
+happiness or idleness or hatred or courage; whatever goes into what we
+do comes out very plainly. Everything, remember. That means much. If
+you should practise for an hour, wishing all the time to be doing
+something else, you may be sure that your wish is coming out of your
+playing so plainly that every one knows it. Do you think that is
+strange? Well, it may be, but it is strictly true.
+
+No one may be able to explain why and how, but certainly it is true
+that as we play our music all that goes on in the heart finds its way
+into the head, and the arms, and the hands, into the music, off
+through the air, and into the hearts of every one who is listening. So
+it is a valuable truth for us to remember, that whatever we put into
+our music will come out and we cannot stop it; and other people will
+get it, and know what we are by it.
+
+Once we fully understand how music will show forth our inmost feelings
+we shall begin to understand its truthfulness and its power, as well
+as its beauty. We shall see from our first days that music will tell
+the truth. That will help us to understand a little the true mission
+of art, "either to state a true thing, or adorn a serviceable one."[7]
+The moment we understand this _a very little_ we shall begin to love
+art. We shall be glad and willing for music to reveal us, to show the
+spirit within us, because little by little with the understanding will
+come love and reverence for the beautiful thoughts that are locked up
+in tones.
+
+Men who want to tell something to very many people, many of whom they
+do not know and to whom they cannot go, write down all they have to
+say and make a book of it. There are some men, however, who have many
+beautiful thoughts which they wish to tell to those who can
+understand; these may dwell in their own land or in other lands; in
+their own time or in future time. But the message of these men is so
+beautiful and so delicate that it cannot be told in words, so they
+tell it in music. Then, in their own land and in other lands, in their
+own day and forever after, people can find out the delicate thoughts
+by studying the pages of the music, seeking _with their hearts_ the
+thought that came out of the master's heart.
+
+Do you wonder that composers revere their art? We are told of Chopin
+that art was for him a high and holy vocation.[8] Do you wonder? Let
+me read you a few words about his devotion: "In order to become a
+skilful and able master he studied, without dreaming of the ... fame
+he would obtain." "Nothing could be purer, more exalted, than his
+thoughts,"[9] because he knew that if his thoughts were not pure the
+impurity would come out in his music.
+
+The music that has first been felt in the heart and then written down
+finds its way and tells all about the heart, where it was born. When
+you play and feel that you are playing from the heart, you may be sure
+you are on the right path. The beautiful thing is, that this is true
+no matter how simple music is. The very simplest will tell all about
+us. Remember, in playing music, that great and good men have put into
+tones thoughts which will be a joy and comfort to the world forever.
+Some one of these Talks will be about classic and common music. But
+even now I am sure we understand that good music comes from pure
+thought, and pure thought comes from a good heart. That, surely, is
+clear and simple.
+
+Pure music is earnest and songful. It has meaning in every part. No
+tone is without a lofty purpose. That is true music. It is classic
+from the heart that is put into it.
+
+By being faithful to our music it will do for us more than we can
+dream. Do you know the inscription that used to be over the north gate
+of the city of Siena, in Italy?
+
+"Siena opens not only her gates, but her heart to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE TONES ABOUT US.
+
+
+"Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well
+as the visible in nature."--_John Tyndall_.[10]
+
+There used to live in England a famous scientist named Tyndall, who
+was interested, among other things, in the study of sound. He studied
+sounds of all kinds, made experiments with them, wrote down what he
+observed, and out of it all he wrote a book,[11] useful to all who
+desire to learn about sound and its nature.
+
+One day, Tyndall and a friend were walking up one of the mountains of
+the Alps.[12] As they ascended the path, Tyndall's attention was
+attracted by a shrill sound, which seemed to come from the ground at
+his feet. Being a trained thinker he was at once curious to know what
+was the cause of this. By looking carefully he found that it came from
+a myriad of small insects which swarmed by the side of the path.
+Having satisfied himself as to what it was he spoke to his companion
+about the shrill tone and was surprised to learn that he could not
+hear it. Tyndall's friend could hear all ordinary sound perfectly
+well. This, however, seemed to be sound of such a character as did not
+reach his sense of hearing. One who like Tyndall listened carefully to
+sounds of all kinds would quickly detect anything uncommon. This
+little incident teaches us that sounds may go on about us and yet we
+know nothing of them. Also it teaches us to think about tones, seek
+them, and in the first days increase our acquaintance and familiarity
+with them.
+
+Men of science, who study the different ways in which the mind works,
+tell us that habit and also a busy mind frequently make us unconscious
+of many things about us. Sometimes we have not noticed the clock
+strike, although we have been in the room on the hour; or some one
+speaks to us, and because we are thinking of something else we fail to
+hear what is said to us. It certainly is true that very many people do
+not hear half of the sounds that go on about them, sounds which, if
+but heeded, would teach people a great deal. And of all people, those
+who study music should be particularly attentive to sounds of all
+kinds. Indeed, the only way to begin a music education is to begin by
+learning to listen. Robert Schumann, a German composer, once wrote a
+set of rules for young musicians. As it was Schumann's habit to write
+only what was absolutely needed we may be sure he regarded his rules
+as very important. There are sixty-eight of them, and the very first
+has reference to taking particular notice of the tones about us. If we
+learn it from memory we shall understand it better and think of it
+oftener. Besides that, we shall have memorized the serious thought of
+a truly good and great man. This is what he says:
+
+"The cultivation of the ear is of the greatest importance. Endeavor
+early to distinguish each tone and key. Find out the exact tone
+sounded by the bell, the glass, and the cuckoo."
+
+There is certainly a good hint in this. Let us follow it day by day,
+and we shall see how many are the tones about us which we scarcely
+ever notice. We should frequently listen and find who of us can
+distinguish the greatest number of different sounds. Then we shall
+learn to listen attentively to sounds and noises. Bit by bit all
+sounds, especially beautiful ones, will take on a new and deeper
+meaning to us; they will be full of a previously unrecognized beauty
+which will teach us to love music more and more sincerely.
+
+In order that we may better understand how sounds are related to each
+other we should learn early to sing the major scale so that it will go
+readily up and down as a melody. As we become more and more familiar
+with it we must think frequently of its separate tones so as to feel
+just how each one sounds in the scale, how it fits in the scale, and
+just what it says, in fact; we shall then notice after a while that we
+can hear the scale with the inner ear, which is finer and more
+delicate.[13]
+
+We should have names for the scale-tones like the pretty Italian
+syllables, or, if not these, whatever our teacher suggests. Then we
+should have a conception of the tones as they are related. We should
+learn that every tone of the scale is colored by the tonic. Every one
+gets a character from the tonic which tells us all about it, because
+we learn to hear its relation to its principal tone. In a little
+while, with patience, we shall be able to hear the scale-tones in any
+order we may choose to think them. That power will be a fine help
+forever after--we must be sure to get it in the first days.
+
+Whenever we hear two tones we should try to find them on the piano.
+This will make us listen more attentively to the tone sounded by the
+clock, the church-bell, the bird, the drinking-glass. And what a lot
+there are, like the squeaking door, the cricket, the noise of the wind
+and rain, the puff of the engine, and all the other sounds we hear in
+a day. Bit by bit, in this way, our familiarity with tones will grow
+and we shall be well repaid for all the trouble. Gradually we shall
+become better listeners--but about listening we are to speak in our
+next Talk. This, however, may be said now: Let us always be sure to
+listen with special care to two tones, calling one the tonic, or
+first, of the major scale and finding what degree the other is, or
+near what degree it lies. This will make us better acquainted with the
+scale and we shall learn that all the music we have comes out of it.
+
+We must also listen to tones so that we can tell something about them
+besides their scale names. We must learn to describe tones, tell
+whether they are high or low, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, long or
+short. For instance, through the window I can hear a church-bell. Some
+one is ringing it slowly so that the tones are long. The tone is not a
+very high one (it is G above middle C) and the quality is rich and
+mellow. This describes the church-bell tone quite well, and in like
+manner we may describe all the sounds we hear. We should make it a
+habit often to stand or to sit perfectly still and to listen to
+everything that goes on about us. Even in the country, where all seems
+as quiet as possible, we shall be surprised at the great number of
+sounds.
+
+There are some other tones to which I fear we are prone not to listen.
+I mean the tones which the piano makes when we play finger-exercises.
+We think perhaps of the finger motion, which is not all; or we think
+of nothing, which is very bad; or our thoughts begin to picture other
+things even while we play, which is the worst of all, and bit by bit
+we actually forget what we are doing. One of the quickest ways to
+become unable to hear sounds correctly is to play the piano without
+thinking fully of what we are doing. Therefore it must be a rule never
+to play a tone without listening acutely to it. If in the first days
+we determine to do this and remain faithful to it, we shall always
+touch the piano keys carefully, thoughtfully, and reverentially.
+
+Elsewhere we shall have some definite tone lessons for the purpose of
+making us familiar with the tones about us. But no rule can exceed in
+importance this one, never to make any music unthinkingly.
+
+By care and practice we soon become so skilful as to notice tones with
+the readiness we notice colors in the garden. The sense of tone must
+be as strong in us as is the sense of color. Then we shall be able to
+tell differences of tones which are nearly the same, as readily as we
+can now tell two varieties of yellow, for instance. A bit of
+perseverance in this and the beauties even of common sounds shall be
+revealed to us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LISTENING.
+
+
+  "You must listen as if listening were your life."--_Phillips
+  Brooks._[14]
+
+In our last Talk we learned that it was quite possible for sounds to
+be about us and yet we not hear them. Sometimes, as in the case of
+Tyndall's companion, it is because we are not capable; at other times,
+as when the clock strikes and we do not hear, it is because we are
+occupied with other things. It is from this latter fact--being
+occupied with other things--that we can learn what listening is.
+Listening is not being occupied with other things. It is being
+completely attentive to what we are expected to hear.
+
+The condition of being occupied with other thoughts when we should be
+listening is known as inattention. To listen with full attention, all
+other things being entirely absent from the mind, is one form of
+concentration.
+
+Inattention is a destroyer. It divides our power between two or more
+things when it should be directed upon a single thing. Concentration
+gives us greater and greater mind-power. If you will look in the
+dictionary to find what concentration means (you should be good
+friends with the dictionary) you will find it is made up of _con_[15]
+meaning with, and _centrum_, a center, "with a center," or "to come to
+a center." If you hold a magnifying-glass between your hand and the
+sun you will find that at a certain distance the sunlight is in a
+circle. By changing the distance with delicacy you can diminish the
+circle to almost a point,--you make the light _come to a center_. When
+the circle of light is large, no particular effect is noted by the
+hand. When, however, the circle is as small as it can be made you feel
+a sensation of warmth which, if continued long enough, will really
+burn the hand. That small circle is the sunlight _in concentration_.
+The rays of sunlight, instead of being scattered, are centered. They
+burn the hand because they are full of power--powerful.
+
+By way of example: Let the different rays stand for inattention and
+the tiny circle of light for concentration. The former has little or
+no power; the latter is full of power. This very well illustrates what
+happens, both when our thoughts are scattered over a large area, and
+when they are brought together--concentrated--in a small circle. The
+first listening indeed which should claim our attention is not
+tone-listening, but listening to what is said to us. No one under a
+good teacher ever learns well who is not attentive and obedient. And
+then _listening_ and _doing_ are inseparably joined. Tone-listening
+makes us self-critical and observant, and we are assured by men of
+science that unless we become good observers in our early years, it is
+later impossible for us.[16]
+
+In the previous Talk we spoke about listening to all kinds of sounds,
+particularly those out-of-doors. In this Talk we shall speak only of
+real music-listening. You know, now, that music born out of the heart
+is the thought of a good man. Of course, beautiful thoughts of any
+kind should be listened to not only with attention, but with
+reverence. Reverence is the tribute which the thoughtful listener pays
+to the music of a man who has expressed himself beautifully in tone.
+This at once reveals to us that we should listen to what is great for
+the purpose of getting ideals. We hear what we hope to attain. It is
+said of the violinist, Pierre Baillot, that when only ten years of age
+he heard the playing of Viotti, and though he did not hear it again
+for twenty years the performance ever remained in his mind as an ideal
+to be realized in his studies, and he worked to attain it.
+
+The pupils of the great Viennese teacher of the piano, Theodor
+Leschetizky, say he asks no question more frequently than "Can you not
+hear?" It is not only difficult to listen to ourselves, but listening
+is one thing and decidedly a superior thing, while hearing is another
+and equally inferior thing. And it shows us, when we think of it, that
+no self-criticism is possible until we forget all things else and
+listen to what we are doing and listen with concentration. It now
+becomes clear to us that no one becomes an intelligent musician who is
+not skilled in tone sense, in listening, and having thoughts about
+what is heard.
+
+We may read again from the excellent rules of Robert Schumann:
+
+"Frequently sing in choruses, especially the middle parts; this will
+help to make you musical."
+
+Out of this we learn to try to hear more than the melody, to try
+sometimes not to think of the melody, but to listen only to that which
+accompanies it. When, in school, you sing in two and three parts,
+notice how one is inclined always to sing the soprano. The melody
+pulls us away from another part if we are not concentrated upon our
+part. Yet notice how beautifully musical the lower parts are. Listen
+intently to them whatever part you sing.
+
+It seems in music that we learn to listen in two directions. First, by
+training the attention merely to follow prominent sounds and to be
+conscious of all of them; then, later, we do not need to think so much
+of the prominent melody but we strive to hear the accompanying parts.
+These are the melodies which are somewhat concealed by the principal
+one; not truly concealed either, for they are plain enough if we will
+listen. They make one think of flowers hidden in the grass and
+foliage. They are none the less beautiful though they are concealed;
+for the sunlight seeks them out and makes them blossom.
+
+We find hidden melodies in all good music because it is the character
+of good music to have interesting and beautiful melodic thought
+everywhere. There are never meaningless tones allowed. Every sound
+says something and is needed. It is curious that in our playing the
+moment we put our thoughts upon any tone or voice part with the desire
+to hear it, it comes out at once as plainly as if it was the highest
+melody. That illustrates the power of thought concentrated upon even a
+hidden thing. You know how in Bach even the piano works move as if all
+parts were to be sung by voices. It reminds one of conversation; of
+the story, of the question and answer, of the merry chat in a pleasant
+company. Some bits of sentence are tripping and full of laughter,[17]
+others grave and majestic,[18] others have wonderful dignity of heart
+and mind.[19]
+
+Such qualities give music interest and meaning in every part. It will
+not take you long to discover that it is just the absence of these
+qualities that makes other music common.
+
+The melody is not sustained by anything particularly well worth
+listening to. One might say that good music is like the foliage of the
+garden, every leaf and petal variously yet finely formed, and all
+combined to make a beautiful whole.
+
+When you have learned carefully to follow the accompaniment of a
+melody, try to follow the single voice parts in the chorus,
+particularly the Bass, Tenor, and Alto. And when you go to orchestral
+concerts learn early to follow special instruments like the clarinet,
+the oboe, the drum.
+
+Especially try to follow the lower strings, the viola, the 'cello, and
+the bass. They are strongly characteristic. You will learn their
+peculiar qualities only by giving them special and concentrated
+thought. You will now see that acute and careful listening has its
+definite ways and purposes. Here they are:
+
+    I. Listening comes from concentration.
+
+   II. When listening to great music it must be with reverence as well
+       as with attention.
+
+  III. We must listen for ideals.
+
+   IV. We must listen in order to be self-critical.
+
+    V. Constant listening to true music reveals that there is never a
+       tone used unless it has a meaning.
+
+And besides all this we must think that among those who listen to us
+there may be some one who has learned this careful concentrated way.
+Then we shall have it ever in mind to "play as if in the presence of a
+master."[20]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THINKING IN TONE.
+
+
+  "The gods for labor sell us all good things."--_Epicharmus_.[21]
+
+Perhaps you have some doubt as to exactly what is meant by
+music-thinking. Being somewhat acquainted with composers and with
+music, the thought may here come to you that all the music we hear in
+the world must have been made by somebody--by many somebodies, in
+fact. They have had to sit down, and forgetting all things else,
+listen intently to the music-thought which fills the mind. If you will
+sit quietly by yourself you will discover that you can easily think
+words and sentences and really hear them in the mind without
+pronouncing anything. In quite the same way the composer sits and
+hears music, tone by tone, and as clearly as if it were played by a
+piano or an orchestra. And to him the tones have a clear meaning, just
+as words have a clear meaning to us. Naturally, one can see that there
+could be no other way. Unless the composer can think out everything
+exactly there could be no music, for music must be written, and one
+can only write what one thinks. So at this point the thought to
+remember is this: Music must exist in some one's mind before others
+can have it to hear and enjoy.
+
+In like manner--just the same manner, in fact--the painter is one who
+thinks pictures; the sculptor, one who thinks statues; the architect,
+one who thinks buildings. They think these things just as you think
+words; and as you tell your thoughts in spoken words, so they tell
+their thoughts in printed music, in painted pictures, in chiseled
+statues, and in erected buildings. Now, from all this it should be
+clear to you that there can be nothing which has not first been
+thought of by some one. You _think_ the door must be closed and you
+close it; you _think_ you must know the time and you look at the
+clock; you _think_ the one hand should play more loudly than the other
+and you try to do it.
+
+Power to get things and to do things comes to us rapidly only in the
+fairy-tales. In the real, beautiful, healthy world in which we live we
+have to work hard and honestly for the power either to get things or
+to do things. By faithful labor must we win what we want. What we do
+not labor for we do not get. That is a condition of things so simple
+that a child can readily understand it. But all, children and their
+elders, are apt to forget it. In the life of every great man there is
+a story different from that of every other great man, _but in every
+one of them_ this truth about laboring for the power one has is found.
+
+In our Talk on Listening, it was said that the sounds we hear around
+us are the more easily understood if we first become familiar with the
+melody which is called the major scale. But in order to think music it
+is necessary to know it--in fact, music-thinking is impossible without
+it. As it is no trouble to learn the scale, all of you should get it
+fixed in the mind quickly and securely.
+
+It is now possible for you to hear the scale without singing its tones
+aloud. Listen and see if that is not so! Now think of the melodies you
+know, the songs you sing, the pieces you play. You can sing them quite
+loudly (_can_ you sing them?) or in a medium tone, or you can hum them
+softly as if to yourself; or further yet, you can think them without
+making the faintest sound, and every tone will be as plain as when you
+sang it the loudest. Here, I can tell you that Beethoven wrote many of
+his greatest works when he was so deaf that he could not hear the
+music he made. Hence, he must have been able to write it out of his
+thought just as he wanted it to sound. When you understand these steps
+and ways you will then know about the beginning of music-thinking.
+
+Let us inquire in this Talk what the piano has to do in our
+music-thinking. What relation is there between the music in the mind
+and the tones produced by the piano? It seems really as if the piano
+were a photographic camera, making for us a picture of what we have
+written,--a camera so subtle indeed, that it pictures not things we
+can see and touch, but invisible things which exist only within us.
+But faithful as the piano is in this, it may become the means of doing
+us much injury. We may get into the habit of trusting the piano to
+think for us, of making it do so, in fact. Instead of looking
+carefully through the pages of our new music, reading and
+understanding it with the mind, we run to the piano and with such
+playing-skill as we have we sit down and use our hands instead of our
+minds. Now a great many do that, young and old. But the only people
+who have a chance to conceive their music rightly are the young; the
+old, if they have not already learned to do it, never can. That is a
+law which cannot be changed.
+
+We have talked about listening so much that it should now be a settled
+habit in us. If it is we are learning every day a little about tones,
+their qualities and character. And we do this not alone by hearing the
+tones, but by giving great heed to them. Let us now remember this:
+listening is not of the ears but of the thoughts. It is thought
+_concentrated_ upon hearing. The more this habit of tone-listening
+goes on in us, the more power we shall get out of our ability to read
+music. All these things help one another. We shall soon begin to
+discover that we not only have thoughts about sounding-tones, but
+about printed tones. This comes more as our knowledge of the scale
+increases.
+
+We can now learn one of the greatest and one of the most wonderful
+truths of science: _Great knowledge of anything comes from never
+ceasing to study the first steps._
+
+The major scale, as we first learn it, seems a perfectly simple thing.
+But if we think of it all our lives we shall never discover the
+wonders there are in it. Hence, three simple rules for us to follow in
+learning to think music are these:
+
+  1. To listen to all tones.
+
+  2. Never to stop studying the major scale.
+
+  3. To become accustomed to hear tones within.
+
+If we are faithful to these we shall, with increasing study and
+industry, become more and more independent of the piano. We shall
+never think with our hands, nor depend upon anything outside of
+ourselves for the meaning contained in printed tone-thought.
+
+If now we join two things we shall get the strength of both united,
+which is greater than of either alone.
+
+If in our playing lessons we have only the very purest music (heart
+music, remember), and if we are faithful in our simpler thinking
+lessons, we shall gain the power not only of pure thought, but of
+stronger and stronger thought. This comes of being daily in the
+presence of great thoughts--for we are in the presence of great
+thoughts when we study great music, or read a great poem, or look at a
+great picture, or at a great building. All these things are but signs
+made manifest,--that is to say, made plain to us--of the pure thought
+of their makers.
+
+Thomas Carlyle, a Scotch author of this century, spoke very truly when
+he said:
+
+"Great men are profitable company; we cannot look upon a great man
+without gaining something by him."[22]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WHAT WE SEE AND HEAR.
+
+
+  "You must feel the mountains above you while you work upon your
+  little garden."--_Phillips Brooks._[23]
+
+Somewhere else we shall have some definite lessons in music-thinking.
+Let us then devote this Talk to finding out what is suggested to us by
+the things we see and hear.
+
+Once a boy wrote down little songs. When the people asked him how he
+could do it, he replied by saying that he made his songs from thoughts
+which most other people let slip. We have already talked about thought
+and about learning to express it. If a person of pure thought will
+only store it up and become able to express it properly, when the time
+comes he can make little songs or many other things; for all things
+are made of thought. The poem is stored-up thought expressed in words;
+the great cathedral like the one at Winchester, in England, or the one
+near the Rhine, at Cologne, in Germany, is stored-up thought expressed
+in stone. So with the picture and the statue: they are stored-up
+thought on canvas and in marble.[24] In short, we learn by looking at
+great things just what the little ones are; and we know from poems and
+buildings and the like, that these, and even commoner things, like a
+well-kept garden, a tidy room, a carefully learned lesson, even a
+smile on one's face result, every one of them, from stored-up thought.
+
+We can consequently make a definition of THINGS by saying they are
+what is thought. Things are made of thought. Even if you cannot
+understand this fully now, keep it by you and as you grow older its
+truth will be more and more clear. It will be luminous. Luminous is
+just the word, for it comes from a word in another language and means
+_light_. Now the better you understand things the more _light_ you
+have about them. And out of this you can understand how well ignorance
+has been compared with darkness. Hence, from the poem, the building,
+the painting, the statue, and from commoner things we can learn, as it
+was said in a previous Talk, that music is stored-up thought told in
+beautiful tones.
+
+Now let us heed the valuable part of all this. If poems, statues, and
+all other beautiful things are made out of stored-up thought (and
+commoner things are, too), we ought to be able, by studying the
+things, to tell what kind of a person it was who thought them; or, in
+other words, who made them. It is true, we can. We can tell all the
+person's thought, so far as his art and principal work are concerned.
+Nearly all his life is displayed in the works he makes. We can tell
+the nature of the man, the amount of study he has done, but best of
+all we can tell his meaning. The face tells all its past history to
+one who knows how to look.[25] His intentions are everywhere as plain
+as can be in what he does.
+
+Thus you see there is more in a person's work than what we see at the
+first glance. There are reflections in it as plain as those in a
+mountain lake. And as the mountain lake reflects only what is _above_
+it, so the work of the musician, of the artist, of any one in fact,
+reflects those thoughts which forever hover above the others. Thoughts
+of good, thoughts of evil, thoughts of generosity, thoughts of selfish
+vanity, these, _and every other kind_, are so strongly reflected in
+the work we do that they are often more plainly seen than the work
+itself. And with the works of a great artist before us we may find out
+not only what he did and what he knew, but what he felt _and even what
+he did not want to say_.
+
+We now know what music-thinking is. Also, we see why the young
+musician needs to learn to think music. Really, he is not a musician
+until he can think correctly in tone. And further than this, when we
+have some understanding of music-thought we not only think about what
+we play and hear, but we begin to inquire what story it tells and what
+meaning it should convey. We begin to seek in music for the thought
+and intention of the composer, and, little by little, even before we
+know it, we begin to seek out what kind of mind and heart the composer
+had. We begin really to study his character from the works he has left
+us.
+
+We have now taken the first really intelligent step toward knowing for
+ourselves something about common and classic music. Later on, as our
+ability increases, this will be of great value to us. We begin to see,
+bit by bit, what the author intended. That is the real test of it all.
+We do not want to find mere jingle in music, we want music that says
+something. Even a very young child knows that "eenty meenty meiny moe"
+is not real sense, though it is a pleasant string of sounds to say in
+a game.
+
+Thus we learn to look into what we hear and into what we see and try
+to find how much thought there is in it, and the kind of thought it
+is. We want to know if goodness is expressed; if the best work of the
+man is before us, or if, for a lower reason, his selfishness and
+vanity are most prominent. And let us remember that as we seek these
+things in the works of others, so others of thoughtful kind will watch
+our doings, our playing, our speech, our little habits, and all to see
+what our intentions are each time we express ourselves. They will look
+to see what thoughts we are putting into our doings, whether thoughts
+of goodness or of selfishness. And our actions will always be just as
+good as the thought we put into them.
+
+Now a great and a common mistake is, that sometimes we hope by some
+mysterious change, as in a fairy tale, that they will be better than
+what we intend. But in the first days let us learn that this is not
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE CLASSICS.[26]
+
+
+  "Genuine work done faithfully, that is eternal."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+The older we grow and the more we study, the more we shall hear about
+the classics, about classic music, and classic art, and classic books.
+From the beginning let us keep it in our minds that one of our duties
+is to find out the difference between what is classic and what is not.
+Then we shall have a proper understanding. An English writer on art
+says: "The writers and painters of the classic school set down nothing
+but what is known to be true, and set it down in the perfectest manner
+possible in their way."[27]
+
+And we have already learned that thought from the heart, expressed in
+tones, is good music. On the other hand, a thought with the heart not
+in it, expressed in tone, makes poor or common music. Mendelssohn
+wrote in one of his letters: "When I have composed a piece just as it
+springs from my heart, then I have done my duty toward it."[28] But in
+writing thoughts, whether in words or in tones, there is a very
+important thing to add to the bidding of the heart. It is the training
+of the mind. With both of these one works and judges wisely.
+
+With thought and intention ever so pure, but with no education, one
+would not be able to write for others, and with a little education one
+would be able to write only in a partially correct way. This brings us
+to one of the most interesting Talks we shall have. Let us try to make
+it clear and simple.
+
+We can easily imagine a man both true and good who can neither write
+nor spell. Happily, in these days, nearly all people who are old
+enough know how to do both. We can understand that this man may have
+beautiful thoughts--the thoughts of a true poet or of a true
+artist--but being unable to write or to spell he could not put his
+thoughts on paper for others to read and to study. This is the way
+thoughts are preserved and made into books so that people may benefit
+by them.
+
+It would, therefore, be necessary for this man, about whom we speak,
+to get the assistance of some one who knew how to write thoughts and
+to spell their words. Then, together, they would have to talk about
+the thoughts, choose proper words, form the sentences, and make all
+fit rightly together as a writer must who desires to be clear. But it
+is more than likely that the one who writes would not do all these
+things to the satisfaction of the other. Of this there could be but
+one result. The person who had the beautiful thoughts would be forever
+wishing that he had learned in the first days to write and to spell.
+Then he could do all these things for himself and show his thoughts to
+others exactly as he wished them to appear.
+
+Now it is clear that some may have beautiful and valuable thoughts and
+not know how to write them, while others may have the ability to write
+without having thoughts worth preserving. Evidently what one must have
+are both beautiful thoughts and ability to write them.
+
+Did you think when I read you that bit from the letter of Mendelssohn
+that all a composer has to do is to find in his heart just what he
+wants to say? As we have already discovered, that is not enough. To
+show you that Mendelssohn was not afraid of hard work let us read a
+little from another of his letters.[29] Mendelssohn had resolved to
+work in Germany and maintain himself. "If I find that I cannot do
+this, then I must leave it for London or Paris, where it is easier to
+get on. I see indeed where I should be more honored, and live more
+gaily and more at my ease than in Germany, where a man must press
+forward, and toil, and take no rest,--still, if I can succeed there,
+_I prefer_ the latter."[30]
+
+We can now understand that it is quite the same with word-thinkers and
+with tone-thinkers. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make
+the classics.
+
+Out of this thought there comes another. It is this: Great thoughts,
+expressed well, out of a great heart, make the works which last the
+longest; and still further, for one truth leads out of another. Only
+they can appreciate the classics who have something that is classic
+within them. They must have the heart true in its feeling, tender in
+its sentiments. Even a child can have that. They must have the mind
+trained in the truest and best way of expressing thought. And a child
+may begin to learn that. Hence we see that a child may be classic
+worthy. Only we must never, _never_, no matter what is our ability,
+think we are better or above others. The more talents one has the more
+one is expected to do and the greater duty it is.[31]
+
+Thus far we have three truths; now here is a fourth: Some love the
+classics sooner and better than others because they have more power.
+And how do they get it? They think more (thought-making); they feel
+more (heart-learning); and they see more (truth-seeking).
+
+Let us at once go back and gather together these four truths. They are
+important. Perhaps some of us who are willing to spend the time will
+learn them from memory.
+
+And to repay us for the trouble of doing it we shall have greater and
+greater understanding of many things. Here they are:
+
+    I. Good thoughts and the proper writing of them make the classics.
+
+   II. Great thoughts, expressed well, out of a great heart, make the
+       works which last the longest.
+
+  III. Only they can appreciate the classics who have something that
+       is classic within them.
+
+   IV. Some love the classics sooner and better than others because
+       they have more power.
+
+What shall these truths teach us? That true music cannot be learned
+rapidly; that the way of Art is long and difficult. But if the way is
+long, it is yet beautiful in every turn; if it is difficult, it is yet
+worth a struggle for what comes. As you read the lives of the great
+composers you will learn that they went willingly about their tasks,
+doing each one well. This is done by all great men. _Great men take
+short steps carefully_, no matter how rapidly they can go.
+
+One of them [32] wrote: "Success comes with tiny steps." And it comes
+entirely unsought. Besides all this we are to remember that the power
+for these things comes from
+
+    I. Thought-making;
+
+   II. Heart-learning;
+
+  III. Truth-seeking.
+
+Now, just to end with let us read a few words from a book I trust we
+all may read some day: [33] "Great art is the expression of the mind
+of a great man, and mean art of a weak man." Let us remember that in
+choosing things to play.
+
+Further on Ruskin says: "If stone work is _well_ put together, it
+means that a thoughtful man planned it, and a careful man cut it, and
+an honest man cemented it." [34]
+
+Likewise in these things one can see what is classic--work out of the
+heart and well done, and that comes from a thoughtful, careful, honest
+person.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WHAT WE SHOULD PLAY.
+
+
+  "But blessings do not fall in listless hands."_--Bayard Taylor._
+
+We already begin to understand what the classics are. Year by year as
+our interest in the beautiful increases, we shall gain more definite
+knowledge about classic art. That which is classic will begin to
+announce itself in us. Our own choice indicates our taste but does not
+always indicate what is best for us. And one of the purposes of art is
+to improve the taste by setting before us the finest works; in these,
+by study, we find beauty with which we are unacquainted. Thus we
+enlarge our capacity for it.
+
+Because we are born with taste unformed and untrained you can at once
+see the reason for gradually increasing the tasks. They are always a
+little more difficult--like going up a mountain--but they give a finer
+and finer view. The outlook from the mountain-top cannot be had all at
+once. We must work our way upward for it. Hence you will observe in
+your lessons that what was once a fitting task is no longer of quite
+the same value because of your increased power. But about this
+especially we shall have a Talk later on.
+
+When one has heard much music of all kinds, one soon begins to
+understand that there are two kinds commonly chosen. Some players
+choose true music with pure thought in it, and do their best to play
+it well after the manner called for by the composer. Their aim is to
+give truthful expression to the music of a good writer. Other players
+seem to work from a motive entirely different. They select music which
+is of a showy character, with much brilliancy and little thought in
+it. Their aim is not to show what good music is, but to show
+themselves. The desire of the first is truth, of the second is vanity.
+
+Now, as we examine into this, and into both kinds of music, we
+discover much. It proves that we must work for the best; for the
+truthful music, not for the vain music. As we get better acquainted
+with true music we find it more and more interesting--it keeps saying
+new things to us. We go to it again and again, getting new meanings.
+But the showy music soon yields all it has; we find little or nothing
+more in it than at first. As it was made not from good thought but for
+display, we cannot find newer and more beautiful thought in it, and
+the display soon grows tiresome. True music is like the light in a
+beautifully-cut gem, it seems that we never see all it is--it is never
+twice the same; always a new radiance comes from it because it is a
+true gem through and through. It is full of true light, and true light
+is always opposed to darkness; and darkness is the source of
+ignorance.
+
+From all this you can now understand the quaintly-expressed opinion of
+a very wise man, who said: "In discharge of thy place, set before thee
+the best example."[35] That means whatever we strive to learn should
+be learned from works of the best kind. In the beginning, we cannot
+choose wisely the best examples to set before ourselves; therefore it
+is for us to heed what another wise man said: "As to choice in the
+study of pieces, ask the advice of more experienced persons than
+yourself; by so doing you will save much time." [36] You thereby save
+time doubly. Later on in your life you will have no bad taste to
+overcome--that is one saving; and already you know from childhood many
+classics, and that is another saving. What we learn in childhood is a
+power all our lives.
+
+You can see plainly, now, that both in the choice of pieces and in the
+manner of playing them, a person's character will come out. We saw in
+the last Talk how character has to come out in writing. Only a very
+common character would select pieces written entirely for a vain
+show--of rapid runs, glittering arpeggios, and loud, unmeaning chords.
+Worse than that, such a choice of pieces displays two common
+people,--three, in fact: A composer who did not write pure thought
+from the heart; a teacher who did not instil good thoughts into the
+pupil's heart; and yourself (if really you care for such things) who
+play from a vain desire to be considered brilliant.
+
+A player who devotes the mind and the hands only to what a meaningless
+composer writes for them is not worthy of any power. With our hands in
+music, as with the tongue in speech, let us strive from the beginning
+to be truthful. Let us try in both ways to express the highest truth
+we are able to conceive. Then in art we shall, at least, approach near
+unto the true artist; and in life we shall approach near unto the true
+life. Every mere empty display-piece we study takes up the time and
+the opportunity wherein we could learn a good composition, by a master
+of the heart. And it is only with such music that you will, during
+your life, get into the hearts of those who are most worthy for you to
+know. Out of just this thought Schumann has two rules now very easy
+for us to understand:
+
+"Never help to circulate bad compositions; on the contrary, help to
+suppress them with earnestness."
+
+"You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled,
+listen to them."
+
+We now come to a really definite conclusion about the compositions we
+should play and to an extent as to how we should play them.
+
+The heart, the mind, and the hands, or the voice, if you sing, should
+unite in our music; and be consecrated to the beautiful. Consecrate is
+just exactly the word. Look for it in your dictionary.[37] It comes
+from two other words, does it not? _Con_ meaning _with_ and _sacer_
+meaning _holiness._ Thus devote heart and head and hands _with
+holiness_ to the beautiful. This is very clear, I am sure.
+
+It is also worth doing. "With holiness" describes _how_ to play and
+really _what_ to play. A composition which has been born of a true man
+is in thought already consecrated. He has heard it and felt it within
+himself. Daily you must get closer and closer to these messages and
+meanings. And are they not already more _luminous_ to you? And do you
+remember what we said luminous means?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LESSON.
+
+
+  "All people value most what has cost them much labor."
+  --Aristotle.[38]
+
+It is true that music is beautiful and that it gives us happiness and
+comfort. But, nevertheless, music is hard to learn _for every one_;
+harder for some than for others, but hard for all. It is well and best
+that it should be so. We appreciate most highly that which we labor
+for earnestly. Just imagine if every one could sing or play merely by
+wishing it! Then music would be so common and so much the talent of
+all that it would cease to give us joy. Why? Because one gained it by
+a wish. That is not enough. From this can we learn to understand the
+great secret of it all? I think we can. Let us see! The secret is
+this: Music is a joy because it takes us out of ourselves and we work
+hard to get it. Music teaches us what a wonderful power there is
+within us, if we will only strive to bring it out. Education is good
+for us for this same reason. As you learn more and more about words,
+you will see more in this word Education.
+
+It means to lead out _what is within us_. To lead music out of the
+heart becomes the object, then, of your lessons. One cannot drive
+music into you; it must be led out.
+
+Where shall we look for music that it may be led out? Only in the
+heart. That is where all is in every one of us. But often in our
+hearts there is so much else, so much vanity, self-love, conceit, love
+for other things, that the music is almost beyond reach. _Almost_, but
+never entirely. In the heart of every one is music. But often it is
+deep, deep down, covered by these other things. The older we grow and
+the more other things we see and think about, the deeper and deeper
+down does the music get.
+
+It is like heaping rocks, and dirt, and sticks on a bubbling spring.
+The spring is down there, bubbling freely beneath it all, still
+striving to be as free and as songful as before; but it cannot. People
+may come and go, may pass near to it, and hear not one of its sounds;
+they may never suspect that there is such a thing ready to go on
+merrily if it could.
+
+When is the best time to lead water out of the spring, and music out
+of the heart? Before other things begin to cover it. With music the
+best time is in the early days, in childhood time--_in the first
+days_. We shall hear those words many times. Then little by little the
+bubbling spring of melody gains its independence; then, even if other
+things do come in, they cannot bury the music out of sight. The spring
+has been led forth _and has grown stronger_.
+
+Thoughtful people who have suffered in learning--all people suffer in
+learning, thoughtful ones the most--wonder how they can make the task
+less painful for others. It will always cause us sorrow as well as joy
+to learn, and many people spend their lives in trying to have as
+little sorrow as possible come with the learning of the young. When
+such people are true and good and thoughtful and _have infinite
+kindness_, they are teachers; and the teachers impose tasks upon us
+severely, perhaps, but with kind severity. They study us and music,
+and they seek out the work each one of us must perform in order that
+we may keep the heart-springs pure and uncovered. Further than this,
+they find the way by which we shall lead the waters of life which flow
+out of the heart-springs. They find the way whither they should flow
+best.
+
+Often in the doing of these things we find the lessons hard and
+wearisome, infinitely hard to bear, difficult, and not attractive. We
+wonder why all these things should be so, and we learn in the moment
+we ask that question that these painful tasks are the price we are
+paying for the development of our talent. That is truly the purpose of
+a lesson. And the dear teacher, wise because she has been painfully
+over the road herself, knows how good and necessary it is for us to
+labor as she directs.
+
+Let us suppose you play the piano. There will be two kinds of
+lessons--one will be for the fingers, one for the mind. But really the
+mind also guides the finger-work; and the heart must be in all. Your
+exercises will give you greater power to speak with the fingers. Every
+new finger-exercise in piano-playing is like a new word in language.
+Provided with it, you can say more than you could before. The work for
+the mind is the classics. These are compositions by the greater and
+lesser masters with which you form the taste, while the technical
+exercises are provided to give you the power, the ability, to play
+them. Thus you see how well these two things go together.
+
+Year after year, if you go on patiently, you will add to each of these
+tasks; more power will come to the fingers and to the mind. All this
+time you will be coming nearer and nearer to the true music. More and
+more will be coming out of your heart. The spring will not only
+continue to bubble clearly but it will become more powerful. Nothing
+is so wonderful as that.
+
+Do you know what a sad thing it was for the man not to increase that
+one talent which had been given to him? [39] Perchance you have also
+one. Then find it, love it, increase it. Know that every step of the
+way, every bit of task, every moment of faith is paid for in later
+years ten thousandfold.
+
+If now we remember our Talk on Listening it will serve us. Did we not
+say then that the first duty of a listener is to the one who speaks
+for his good? Lesson time is an opportunity above nearly all others
+when we should listen with love in our attention. Yes, nothing less
+than that, because--how many times we have heard it already--putting
+love into anything, is putting the heart into it, and with less than
+that we do not get all we may have.
+
+This Talk, then, is important, because it gathers together many things
+that have gone before, and hints at some to come. Let us give the last
+words to speaking about that. A lesson suggests listening; listening
+suggests the teacher, who with infinite kindness and severity guides
+us; and the teacher suggests the beautiful road along which we go and
+what we hear as we travel, that is the music of the heart; and the
+music of the heart has in it the tones about us, and the greater and
+lesser masters who thought them into beautiful forms. The masters are
+as servants unto whom there is given to some one talent, to others
+two, and four, and more, but to each according to his worth, to be
+guided and employed in truth and honor; increased by each in
+accordance to his strength.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE LIGHT ON THE PATH.
+
+
+  "Let us seek service and be helpers of one another."
+
+"Master," said the little child, "I am unhappy. Though I have
+companions and games, they do not content me. Even the music which I
+love above all the rest is not truly in my heart; nor is it the
+pleasure to me which it should be. What am I to do?"
+
+And the master replied:
+
+"There is a task, the greatest and severest of all. But a child must
+learn it. Thou must know _from the first days_, that all thou doest
+and sayest, whither thou goest, what thou seekest; these, all these,
+come from within. All that is seen of thee is of thy inner life. All
+thy doings, thy goings and comings, thy ways and thy desires, these
+are from within. And when all these things _are for thyself_ there is
+misery.
+
+"Now there are many things which may not be had by directly seeking
+them; of these the greatest are two. The one is that which already has
+given thee sadness in the heart,--the Light of the Face. And the other
+is happiness.
+
+"But there is a way in which these are to be found. Dost thou not know
+that often, even with much trouble, thou canst not please thyself? But
+always, _with little trouble or none_, thou canst please another.
+
+"And the way is Service.
+
+"Thou poor little one! Thou hast come with thy complaint of
+unhappiness; and yet thou hast all that is bright and rare;
+companions, and music, and a dear home. Dost thou know that there are
+in the world uncounted poor ones, children like thyself, who have not
+their daily bread? And yet there are many of them who never fail to
+say: 'Lead us not into temptation.' And they say this _without having
+tasted_ of the daily bread for which they have been taught to pray.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy. And thy daily bread is set before thee
+with music and with sunshine.
+
+"Yet there are little ones, like thyself, who are hungry in the
+darkness.
+
+"And thou? Thou art unhappy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE GREATER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "In spite of all, I have never interrupted the study of music."
+  --_Palestrina._
+
+An opera writer of Italy, named Giovanni Pacini, once said that to
+study the writings of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven "lightens the mind
+of a student, since the classics are a continuous development of the
+most beautiful and simple melodies," and we sometimes hear it said
+that great men are they who dare to be simple. In our Talks thus far
+we have learned one important fact, which is, that music is truth
+expressed out of the heart. Of course we know that to be in the heart
+it must be felt, and to be expressed we must know a great deal about
+writing. Now we are able to imagine quite well what a great master is
+in music. As Pacini says, his melodies will be simple and beautiful,
+and as we ourselves know, his simple melodies will be an expression of
+truth out of the heart.
+
+But to go only as far as this would not be enough. Many can write
+simply and well, and truthfully, yet not as a master. There must be
+something else. When we have found out what that something else is we
+shall understand the masters better and honor them more.
+
+Everywhere in the history of music we read of what men have been
+willing to do for the love of their art. It is not that they have been
+willing to do when told; but that they have cheerfully done painful,
+laborious tasks of their own accord. The name of every master will
+recall great labor willingly given for music and equally great
+suffering willingly endured, nay, even sought out, that the music
+might be purer to them. Poor Palestrina went along many years through
+life with the scantiest means. But, as he says, "in spite of all, I
+have never interrupted the study of music." Bach was as simple and
+loyal a citizen as any land could have, and from the early years when
+he was a fatherless boy to the days of his sad affliction, he
+sacrificed always. Think of the miles he walked to hear Buxterhude,
+the organist; and in the earlier years, when he lived with Johann
+Christopher, his brother, how eagerly he sought learning in the art
+that so fascinated him. It was a constant willingness to learn
+honestly that distinguished him.
+
+Any of us who will labor faithfully with the talents we have can do a
+great deal--more than we would believe. Even Bach himself said to a
+pupil: "If thou art _equally_ diligent thou wilt succeed as I
+have."[40] He recognized that it matters little how much we wish for
+things to be as we want them; unless our wish-thoughts are forced into
+prompt action we cannot succeed; for while all thoughts seek action,
+wish-thoughts demand the most labor.
+
+It would be pleasant to have a Talk about every one of the great
+masters to see in what particular way each of them sacrificed for the
+art he loved. In all of them the true qualities come out: in one as
+earnestness; in another as determination; in another as patriotism;
+but all are loyal to the art itself. It must be a very plain lesson to
+us to see that when men are willing to give all their thoughts to a
+subject they get much from it. And is it not quite as plain to see
+that no one can get much if he gives but a few unwilling minutes to
+it? I trust none who hear these Talks will ever think that with a
+little time given to their music, and that not freely given, they can
+ever get either pleasure or comfort from it. They never can. And
+rather than do it so they would better leave it undone. If we set out
+on the way to go to the masters we shall get there only by
+earnestness. Lagging is a disgrace to the one who travels and to the
+one to whom we go. It shows his laziness on the one hand, and his
+misunderstanding of the master on the other; for if he understood he
+would take no listless step.
+
+Now we have said again and again that true music comes from the heart,
+and is simple. At the same time we find it difficult to understand the
+music of the masters. That is, some of us find it so. It seems
+anything but simple to us; and naturally we conclude that there is
+something wrong somewhere. We sit at our tasks, poring over the music,
+and we grow discouraged because we cannot play it. To think it a very
+hard task is natural, and we cannot bear to hear such tones. Well, let
+us not get discouraged for that; let us see!
+
+First of all, the playing is more difficult to do than the music is to
+understand. Once a great master of the piano played to a lady who had
+never heard a great master before, and the playing was like beautiful
+lace. When it was over and the master had gone away, some one asked
+the lady how he had played, and she said:
+
+"He played so that the music sounded as I thought it should."
+
+And they asked her what she meant.
+
+"Always I have been taught," she said, "to listen to music and to
+think it. I have been taught this more than I have been taught to
+play. And the music of the master-composers I always think of as
+beautiful and simple but hard to make it sound as it should. Often I
+have heard others say that the music of the masters is dull, and not
+beautiful, but that is really not what the people feel. It is
+difficult for them to play the music rightly. And again they cannot
+understand this: that art is often simple in, its truth, while those
+who look upon it are not! simple-hearted, as they regard it. This is
+hard to understand, but it is the true reason."
+
+Now, if we think of what this cultured lady said, we shall think her
+wise. Whatever stumbling we may do with our fingers, let us still keep
+in our minds the purity of the music itself. This will in a sense
+teach us to regard reverentially the men who, from early years, have
+added beauties to art for us to enjoy to-day. The wisest of the Greeks
+[41] said:
+
+"The treasures of the wise men of old, which they have left written in
+books, I turn over and peruse in company with my friends, and if we
+find anything good in them, we remark it, and think it a great gain,
+if we thus become more attracted to one another."
+
+Once an English lady[42] wrote about a verse-writer: "No poet ever
+clothed so few ideas in so many words." Just opposite to this is a
+true poet, he who clothes in few words many and noble ideas. A master
+tells his message in close-set language.
+
+Now, in the last minutes, let us see what a great master is:
+
+    I. He will be one who tells a beautiful message simply.
+
+   II. He has been willing to sacrifice and suffer for his art.
+
+  III. He has lived his every day in the simple desire to know his own
+       heart better.
+
+   IV. Always he has concentrated his message into as few tones as
+       possible, and his music, therefore, becomes filled to
+       overflowing with meaning.
+
+About the meaning of the masters, one of them has written this:
+"Whenever you open the music of Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, its
+meaning comes forth to you in a thousand different ways." That is
+because thousands of different messages from the heart have been
+_concentrated_ in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LESSER MASTERS.
+
+
+  "And the soul of a child came into him again."--_I Kings, XVII: 22._
+
+If, one day, some one should say to you, earnestly: "Well day are to
+you!" you would scarcely know what to make of it. You would at once
+understand that the person had knowledge of words but could not put
+them together rightly. And if the person continued to talk to you in
+this manner you might feel inclined to lose your patience and not
+listen. But if you would stop and consider things and examine yourself
+you would learn something well worth thinking about.
+
+You would discover that your own ability to put words in the right
+order has come from being obedient. First of all, you have been
+willing to imitate what others said until you have thereby learned to
+speak quite well. Besides that, you have been corrected many times by
+those about you at home, and in school, until language is at length a
+careful habit in you. Every one knows at once what you mean. You see,
+therefore, that you may combine words in such a manner that you will
+be easily comprehended by others; or, as in the case of the imaginary
+person we began with, they may be combined in a perfectly senseless
+way. Consequently, it is not enough to know words alone, we must know
+what to do with them. The true art of using words is to put full and
+clear meaning into a few of them; to say as much as possible with as
+few words as you may select.
+
+Tones may be treated in the same manner as words. One can write tones
+in such a manner as to say quite as senseless a thing as "Well day are
+to you!" Many do. This teaches you that true and simple
+tone-sentences, like similar word-sentences, must have for their
+object to say the fullest and clearest meaning in as little space as
+possible.
+
+For many hundreds of years thoughtful composers have studied about
+this. They have tried in every way to discover the secrets underlying
+tone-writing so that the utmost meaning should come out when they are
+united. Tones thus arranged according to the laws of music-writing
+make sense. To learn this art all great composers have studied
+untiringly. They have recognized the difficulty of putting much
+meaning in little space, and to gain this ability they have found no
+labor to be too severe.
+
+We must remember that there is no end of music in the world which was
+not written by the few men whom we usually call the great composers.
+Perhaps you will be interested to know about these works. Many of them
+are really good--your favorite pieces, no doubt. When we think of it,
+it is with composers as with trees of the forest. Great and small,
+strong and weak, grow together for the many purposes for which they
+are created. They could not all be either great or small. There must
+be many kinds; then the young in time take the place of the old, and
+the strong survive the weak. Together beneath the same sky,
+deep-rooted in the beautiful, bountiful earth, they grow side by side.
+The same sun shines upon them all, the same wind and the same rain
+come to them, selecting no one before another. What are they all
+doing? Each living its true life, as best it can. It is true they may
+not come and go, they may not choose, but as we see them, beautiful in
+their leaves and branches we feel the good purpose to which they live
+and, unconsciously, perhaps, we love them.
+
+Among us it is quite the same. Some are more skilful than others. But
+be our skill great or small, we are not truly using it until we have
+devoted it to a worthy purpose. And as with us, so it is with the
+musicians. There are the great and small. The great ones--leaders of
+thought--we call the great masters. The lesser are earnest men, who
+have not as much power as the masters, but they are faithful in small
+things.
+
+They sing lesser songs it is true, but not less beautiful ones. Often
+these lesser ones think more as we do. They think simply and about the
+things which we have often in our minds. It is such thoughts as these
+which we have in our best moments that we love so much when we see
+them well expressed by one who is a good and delicate writer, either
+of tones or words. Particularly do we understand these thoughts well
+in the first years of our music when nearly all the works of the
+greater composers are above us.
+
+Thus are the many composers (who yet are not great masters) of value
+to us because they write well a kind of thought which is pure and full
+of meaning, and which we can understand. They give us true pleasure
+day after day in the beginning and seem at the same time to help us
+onward to the ability of understanding the great masters. This they do
+by giving our thought training in the right direction.
+
+Now, we know that the very best music for a young musician to learn in
+the first days is that of the lesser tone masters, together with those
+simpler pieces of the great composers which come within his power to
+comprehend--within the power of a child's hands and voice. Let us see,
+once again, if it is not clear:
+
+True composers, great and small, sing from the heart. If one having a
+little skill turn it unworthily away from the good and true work he
+might do, then he does not use rightly his one talent. He does not
+give us true thought in tone. He writes for vanity or a low purpose,
+and is not a lesser master but he is untrue.
+
+It is not our right to play anything. We may rightly play only that
+which is full of such good thought as we in our power may understand.
+It is to supply us with just this that the lesser masters write. In
+simple, yet clear and beautiful pictures, they tell us many and many a
+secret of the world of tone into which we shall some day be welcomed
+by the greater ones if we are faithful unto the lesser.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HARMONY AND COUNTERPOINT.
+
+
+  "Whilst I was in Florence, I did my utmost to learn the exquisite
+   manner of Michaelangelo, and never once lost sight of
+   it."--_Benvenuto Cellini._[43]
+
+On any important music subject Schumann has something to say. So with
+this:
+
+"Learn betimes the fundamental principles of harmony." "Do not be
+afraid of the words theory, thorough-bass, and the like, they will
+meet you as friends if you will meet them so."
+
+We now begin to feel how definitely these rules treat everything. They
+pick out the important subjects and tell the simplest truth about
+them. The meaning of these two rules is this: From the beginning we
+must try to understand the grammar of music. Some of the great
+composers could in childhood write down music with the greatest
+fluency. Handel, even as a boy, wrote a new church composition for
+every Sunday. Mozart began to write music when less than five years
+old, and when he was yet a boy, in Rome, he wrote down a
+composition,[44] sung by the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which was
+forbidden to the public.
+
+Harmony and counterpoint stand to music very much as spelling and
+grammar stand to language. They are the fundamentals of good writing
+and of good--that is, of correct--thinking in music. Harmony is the
+art of putting tones together so as correctly to make chords.
+Counterpoint has to do with composing and joining together simple
+melodies. A modern writer[45] on counterpoint has said: "The essence
+of true counterpoint lies in the equal interest which should belong to
+ever part." By examining a few pieces of good counterpoint you will
+readily see just what this means. The composer has not tried to get
+merely a correct chord succession, such as we find in a choral. Let us
+play a choral; any good one of a German master will do.[46] We notice
+that the soprano is the principal part, and that the other voices,
+while somewhat melodic, tend rather to support and follow the melody
+than to be independent. If, now, we play a piece of counterpoint like
+the G-Minor Prelude by Bach,[47] we shall have quite a good piece of
+counterpoint, as far as separate melodies being combined is concerned.
+Let us play the voice-parts separately. We shall find equal melodic
+interest in each. The chords grow out of the music. Comparing this
+with the choral, the main difference between harmony and counterpoint
+should be clear to us. We shall observe that the three voices do _not_
+proceed in the same way. If one part moves quickly, as in the bass of
+the first two measures, the other parts are quieter; if the bass
+ceases to move rapidly some other voice will take up the motion, as we
+see in the third and following measures. As a general thing no two
+voices in contrapuntal writing move in the same way, each voice-part
+being contrasted with different note-values. This gives greater
+interest and makes each voice stand forth independently.
+
+At first contrapuntal music may not seem interesting to us. If that is
+so, it is because we are not in the least degree conscious of the
+wonderful interest which has been put into every part. The truth is,
+that in the beginning we cannot fully understand the thought that has
+been put into the music, but by perseverance it will come to us little
+by little. This is what makes great music lasting. It is so deftly
+made, yet so delicately, that we have to go patiently in search of it.
+We must remember that gems have to be cut and polished from a bit of
+rock.
+
+In this case the gem is the rich mind-picture which comes to us if we
+faithfully seek the under-thought. And the seeking is polishing the
+gem.
+
+Music written entirely by the rules of counterpoint is called
+contrapuntal music; that written otherwise is known as free harmonic
+music. In the one case the composer desired to have a beautiful
+weaving of the parts--clear as the lines in a line-engraving. In the
+other, the intention is to get effects from tones united into chords,
+such as is obtained from masses of color in a painting. Neither form
+may be said to be the superior of the other. Each is valuable in its
+place, and each has possibilities peculiarly its own, which the other
+could not give. Pure counterpoint could not give us such a charming
+effect as Chopin obtains in the first study of Opus 10; nor could the
+plainer and more free harmonic style give us such delicate bits of
+tracery as Bach has in his fugues.
+
+If now you will take the trouble to learn two long words, later in
+your study of music they will be of use to you. The first is
+Polyphonic; the other is Monophonic. Both, like many other words in
+our language, are made up of two shorter words, and come from another
+language--Greek. In both we have "phonic," evidently meaning the same
+in each case, limited or modified by the preceding part--_poly_ and
+_mono_. Phonic is the Anglicized Greek for _sound_. We use it in the
+English word _telephonic_. Now if we define mono and poly we shall
+understand these two long words.
+
+Mono means one, poly means many. We say _mono_tone, meaning one tone;
+also _poly_gon, meaning many sides.
+
+In the musical reference monophonic music means music of one voice,
+rather than of one tone, and polyphonic music is that _for many
+voices_. Simple melodies with or without accompanying chords are
+monophonic; many melodies woven together, as in the Bach piece which
+we have looked over, are polyphonic.
+
+In the history of music two men surpassed all others in what they
+accomplished in counterpoint--that is, in polyphonic writing. The one
+was Palestrina, an Italian; the other was Bach, a German. Palestrina
+lived at a time when the music of the church was very poor, so poor,
+indeed, that the clergy could no longer endure it. Palestrina,
+however, devoted himself earnestly to composing music strictly adapted
+to the church use. The parts were all melodic, and woven together with
+such great skill that they yet remain masterpieces of contrapuntal
+writing. Later Bach developed counterpoint very much more in the
+modern way. He did with polyphony for the piano and organ much the
+same as Palestrina did for the voice. There have never lived greater
+masters than these in the art of polyphonic music.
+
+There is still another form of writing which is neither strictly
+harmonic, nor strictly contrapuntal,--it is a combination of both.
+There is not the plain unadorned harmonic progress as in the simple
+choral, nor is there the strict voice progression as in the works of
+Bach. This form of writing which partakes of the beauties of both the
+others has been called the free harmonic style. It has been followed
+by all the great masters since the time of Bach,[48] even before,
+indeed. If you can imagine a beautiful song-melody with an artistic
+accompaniment, so arranged that all can be played upon the piano, you
+will understand what the third style is. It is wonderfully free,
+surely; sometimes proceeding in full free chords, as in the opening
+measures of the B flat Sonata of Beethoven,[49] again running away
+from all freedom back to the old style, until the picture looks as old
+as a monkish costume among modern dress.
+
+All of the great sonatas and symphonies are of this wonderfully varied
+form of writing. How full it can be of expressiveness you know from
+the Songs without Words by Mendelssohn, and the Nocturnes of Chopin;
+how full of flickering humor you hear in the Scherzo of a Beethoven
+symphony; how full of deep solemnity and grief one feels in the
+funeral marches.[50]
+
+This school of composition has been followed by both the greater and
+the lesser masters. Every part is made to say something as naturally
+and interestingly as possible, being neither too restricted nor too
+free. Then, in playing, both hands must be equally intelligent, for
+each has an important part assigned to it.
+
+The great good of study in harmony and counterpoint is that it
+increases one's appreciation. As soon as we begin to understand the
+spirit of good writing we begin to play better, _because we see more_.
+We begin, perhaps in a small way, to become real music-thinkers. By
+all these means we learn to understand better and better what the
+meaning of true writing is. It will be clear to us that a composer is
+one who thinks pure thoughts in tone, and not one who is a weaver of
+deceits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+MUSIC AND READING.
+
+
+  "Truly it has been said, a loving heart is the beginning of all
+  knowledge."--_Thomas Carlyle._
+
+A beautiful thing in life is the friendship for books. Every one who
+loves books pays some day a tribute to them, expressing thankfulness
+for the joy and comfort they have given. There are in them, for
+everybody who will seek, wise words, good counsel, companies of great
+people, fairies, friends for every day, besides wonders we never see
+nor dream of in daily life.
+
+Some of the great men have told us about their love for books; how
+they have saved penny by penny slowly to buy one, or how after the
+day's labor a good book and the firelight were prized above anything
+else. All tell us how much they owe to books and what a blessing books
+are. Imagine the number of heart-thoughts there must be in a shelf
+full of good books! Thoughts in tones or thoughts in words may be of
+the heart or not. But it is only when they are of the heart that they
+are worthy of our time.
+
+You will not only love books, but gain from them something of the
+thoughts they contain. We might, had we time, talk of classic books,
+but as we have already talked of classic music we know what the
+principal thing is. It is that good thought, out of the heart, be
+expressed in a scholarly way--"Great thought needs great
+expression."[51] This teaches us the necessity for choosing good books
+for our instruction and for our entertainment. They present beautiful
+pictures to us truthfully, or they present truth to us beautifully.
+And these are the first test of a written thought--its truth and its
+beauty.
+
+If you read good books you will have in every volume you get something
+well worth owning. You should bestow upon it as much care as you would
+want any other good friend to receive. And if it has contributed help
+or pleasure to you it is surely worth an abiding place. A fine
+pleasure will come from a good book even after we are quite done with
+it. As we see it in years after it has been read there comes back to
+one a remembrance of all the old pleasures, and with it a sense of
+thankfulness for so pleasant a friendship. Hence any book that has
+given us joy or peace or comfort is well worth not only good care, but
+a place _for always_; as a worthy bit of property.
+
+In the early days of your music study, it will be a pleasure to you to
+know that there are many and delightful books _about_ music written,
+sometimes by music-lovers, sometimes by the composers. The written
+word-thoughts of the composers are often full of great interest. They
+not only reveal to us many secrets of the tone-art, but teach us much
+about the kinds of things and of thoughts which lived in the minds of
+the composers. We learn definitely not only the music-interests of the
+composers, but the life-interest as well. It really seems as if we
+were looking into their houses, seeing the way they lived and worked,
+and listening to their words. Never afterward do we regard the great
+names in music as uninteresting. The most charming and attractive
+pictures cluster about them and it all gives us a new inspiration to
+be true to music, loyal to the truth of music, and willing to do as we
+see others have done, and to learn by doing. The lesson we get from
+the life of every man is, that he must _do_ if he would learn.
+
+I am sure you will spend many delightful minutes with the Letters of a
+great composer. Every one is like a talk with the writer. They are so
+friendly, and so full of the heart, and yet so filled with the man
+himself. Especially the Letters of Mendelssohn and Schumann will
+please you. In truth the Letters of all the composers are among the
+most valuable music writings we have. In some way they seem to explain
+the music itself: and the composer at once becomes a close friend. But
+besides these read the biographies. Then it is as if we were
+personally invited home to the composer and shown all his ways and his
+life. And besides these, there are some friendly books full of the
+very best advice as to making us thoughtful musicians; many and many
+again are the writers who have so loved art--not the art of tone
+alone, but all other arts as well--that they have told us of it in
+good and earnest books which are friendly, because they are written
+from the right place; and that you must know by this time is the
+heart.
+
+You will soon see when you have read about the composers that true
+music comes out of true life. Then you will begin to love true life,
+to be useful, and to help others. But all these things do not come at
+once. Yet, as we go along step by step, we learn that art is
+unselfish, and we must be so to enjoy it; art is truthful--we must be
+so to express it; art is full of life--we must know and live truth in
+order to appreciate it. And the study of pure thoughts in music, in
+books, and in our own life will help to all this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE HANDS.
+
+
+  "The skill of their hands still lingers."--_John Ruskin._[52]
+
+In one of our Talks, speaking about the thoughts in our hearts, we
+said that they crept from the heart into our arms and hands, into the
+music we play, and off to those who hear us, causing in them the
+thoughts by which they judge us. Thus we see, that as Janus stands
+sentinel at the doorway of the year, so the hands stand between the
+secret world of thought within and the questioning world of curiosity
+without.
+
+If we were not in such a hurry usually, we might stop to think that
+every one, all over the world, is training the hands for some purpose.
+And such a variety of purposes! One strives to get skill with tools,
+another is a conjurer, another spends his life among beautiful and
+delicate plants, another reads with his fingers.[53] In any one of
+these or of the countless other ways that the hands may be used, no
+one may truly be said to have skill until delicacy has been gained.
+Even in a forcible use of the hands there must be the greatest
+delicacy in the guidance. You can readily see that when the hands are
+working at the command of the heart they must be ever ready to make
+evident the meaning of the heart, and that is expressed in truthful
+delicacy. Not only are all the people in the world training their
+hands, but they are, as we have already said, training them in
+countless different ways.
+
+Have you ever stopped to think of another matter: that all things
+about us, except the things that live, have been made by hands? And of
+the things that live very many are cared for by the hands. These
+thoughts will suggest something to us. Those things which are good and
+beautiful suggest noble use of the hands; while those which are of no
+service, harmful and destructive, show an ignoble use. But noble and
+ignoble use of the hands is only another evidence of thought. Thought
+that is pure in the heart guides the hands to beautiful ends. And if
+the heart is impure in its thoughts, of course you know what follows.
+
+I have always been impressed in reading the books of John Ruskin to
+note how many times he speaks about the hands. Very truly, indeed,
+does he recognize that back of all hand work there is heart-thought,
+commanding, directing, actually building. It shows everywhere. The
+building of a wall with the stones rightly placed demands _honor_. The
+builder may be rude, but if his hands place the stones faithfully one
+upon another, there is surely honor in his heart. If it were not so
+his hands could not work faithfully.
+
+If the work is finer, like that work in gold which many have learned
+eagerly in former times, in Rome and Florence, still the spirit must
+be the same. So we see, that be the work coarse or fine, it is in
+either case prompted by the same kind of heart-thought.
+
+Many times in these Talks I have spoken of Ruskin's words to you; for
+two reasons: first, his words are always full of meaning, because he
+was so full of thought when he wrote them; and second, I would have
+you, from the first days, know something of him and elect him to your
+friendship. Many times he will speak to you in short, rude words,
+impatiently too, but never mind that, his heart is warm and full of
+good.
+
+Now from what was said a moment ago about the stone work and the gold
+work we can understand these words:
+
+"No distinction exists between artist and artisan, except that of
+higher genius or better conduct."
+
+Learn from this then, be the work of our hands what it may, its first
+quality and the first things for which it shall be judged are its
+honor, its faithfulness, and its sincerity.
+
+Of themselves the hands are absolutely without power. They cannot
+move, they cannot do good things nor bad things, they can do nothing
+until we command them. And how shall this be done? Surely I can
+understand it if you have wearied of this Talk a little. But I have
+said all the things just for the sake of answering this question, so
+that you should understand it. How do we command? not the hands alone
+but all we do and say?
+
+By our THOUGHTS.
+
+Without them there is no power whatever. Until they have commanded,
+the hands cannot make a motion; the feet must have direction ordered
+to them, the tongue must be bidden to speak, and without the command
+there is nothing.
+
+Of course, all these Talks are about thoughts. But we shall need a
+little time to speak of them particularly. And little by little it
+will be clear to us all why the hands need to act thoughtfully. Now
+the harm of the world is done by two forces,--by evil thought and by
+thoughtlessness. Then it is no wonder that Ruskin speaks much about
+the hands, for it is thought that gives them guidance. Can you wonder,
+that when he says, "the idle and loud of tongue" he associates the
+"_useless hand_."[54] These things go together, and together they come
+either from evil thought or from lack of thought. The moment Ruskin
+speaks of one who uses his hands with honor, his words glow. So he
+speaks of the laborer, describing him as "silent, serviceable,
+honorable, keeping faith, untouched by change, to his country and to
+Heaven."
+
+Thus, when we are earnestly asked to do something worthy with the
+hands every day, we can understand why. I do not mean one worthy
+thing, but some one particular worthy act, especially thought out by
+us. To do that daily with forethought will purify the heart. It will
+teach us to devote the hands to that which is worthy. Then another old
+truth that every one knows will be clear to us: "As a man--or a child,
+for that matter--thinketh in his heart, _so he is_."
+
+Bit by bit the thoughts of this Talk will become clear to you. You
+will feel more friendly toward them. Then you will really begin to
+think about hands; your own hands and everybody's hands. You will
+become truthful of hand, guiding your own thoughtfully; watching those
+of others carefully. And you will find that in the smallest tasks of
+your hands you can put forethought, while every use to which people
+put their hands will teach you something if you observe carefully. It
+may be folding a paper or picking up a pin, or anything else quite
+common; that matters not, common things, like any others, can be done
+rightly.
+
+By this observation we shall see hands performing all sorts of odd
+tricks. The fingers are drumming, twitching, twirling, closing,
+opening, doing a multitude of motions which mean what? Nothing, do you
+say? Oh! no, indeed; not _nothing_ but _something_. Fingers and hands
+which perform all these unnecessary motions are not being commanded by
+the thoughts, and are acting as a result of _no_ thought; that is, of
+thoughtlessness. Every one does it do you say? No, that is not true.
+Many do these things, but those who command their thoughts never allow
+it. If we never moved the hands except in a task when we commanded
+them, we should soon become hand-skilled. The useless movements I have
+spoken of _un_skill the hand. They are undoing motions, and teach us
+that we must govern ourselves if we would become anything. Do you know
+how it is that people do great things? They command themselves. Having
+determined to do something, they work and work and work to finish it
+at any cost. That gives strength and character.
+
+Having observed the hands and their duties, we can readily see the
+kind of task they must do in music. It is just the same kind of task
+as laying a wall of stone. Every motion must be done honorably.
+Everything must be thought out in the mind and heart before the hands
+are called upon to act. Wise people always go about their tasks this
+way. Unwise people try the other way, of acting first and thinking it
+out afterward, and, of course, they always fail. You can now
+understand that a great pianist is one who has great thought with
+which to command the hands. And to be sure they will obey his commands
+at once, he has made them obey him continuously for years. This
+teaching the hands to obey is called Practice.
+
+The Italian artist, Giotto, once said:
+
+"You may judge my masterhood of craft by seeing that I can draw a
+circle unerringly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+WHAT THE ROMAN LADY SAID.
+
+
+  "You may always be successful if you do but set out well, and let
+  good thoughts and practice proceed upon right method."--_Marcus
+  Aurelius._[55]
+
+The same wise Roman emperor who said this tells us a very pretty thing
+about his mother, which shows us what a wise lady she must have been,
+and how in the days of his manhood, with the cares of a great nation
+upon him, he yet pondered upon the childhood teaching of home. First,
+he speaks of his grandfather Verus, who, by his example, taught him
+not to be prone to anger; then of his father, the Emperor Antoninus
+Pius, from whom he learned to be modest and manly; then of his mother,
+whose name was Domitia Calvilla. Let us read some of his own words
+about her, dwelling particularly upon a few of them. He writes: "As
+for my mother, she taught me to have regard for religion, to be
+generous and open-handed, and not only to forbear from doing anybody
+an ill turn, _but not so much as to endure the thought of it_."
+
+Now these words are the more wonderful when we remember that they were
+not taken down by a scribe in the pleasant apartments of the royal
+palace in Rome, but were written by the Emperor himself on the
+battlefield; for this part of his famous book is signed: "Written in
+the country of the Quadi."
+
+In our last Talk on the Hands we came to the conclusion, that unless
+the hands were commanded they could not act. And on inquiring as to
+what gave these commands we found it was the thoughts. Many people
+believe it is perfectly safe to think anything, to have even evil
+thoughts in their hearts, for thoughts being hidden, they say, cannot
+be seen by others. But a strange thing about thought is this: The
+moment we have a thought, good or bad, it strives to get out of us and
+become an action. And it most always succeeds. Not at once, perhaps,
+for thoughts like seeds will often slumber a long time before they
+spring into life. So it becomes very clear to us that if we wish to be
+on the alert we must not watch our actions, but look within and guard
+the thoughts; for they are the springs of action.
+
+You now see, I am sure, how wise the Emperor's mother was in teaching
+her boy not even to _endure_ a thought to do evil unto others. For the
+thought would get stronger and stronger, and suddenly become an
+action. Certainly; and hence the first thing to learn in this Talk is
+just these words:
+
+Thoughts become actions.
+
+That is an important thing. In a short time you will see, that if you
+do not learn it you can never enjoy music, nor beautiful things, nor
+the days themselves. Let us see how this will come about.
+
+I have told your teacher[56] the name of the book which was written by
+the Roman lady's boy. Well, in that book, running through it like a
+golden thread, is this bit of teaching from his mother.
+
+Not only did he think of it and write it on the battlefield, but at
+all times there seemed to come to him more and more wisdom from it.
+And he tells us this same thought over and over again in different
+words. Sometimes it leads him to say very droll things; for instance:
+
+"Have you any sense in your head? Yes. Why do you not make use of it
+then? For if this does its part, for what more can you wish?"[57]
+Then, a very good thought which we frequently hear:
+
+"Your manners will very much depend upon what you frequently
+think."[58] There are many others, but these show us that the meaning
+of his mother's words went deep, teaching that not action must be
+guarded but the thought which gives rise to action. Now, what can be
+the value of speaking about the Roman lady? Let us see.
+
+In music, the tones are made either by the hands or by the voice. And
+to make a tone is to _do_ something. This doing something is an
+action, and action comes from thought. No music, then, can be made
+unless it be made by thinking. And the right playing of good music
+must come from the right thinking of good thoughts. It may be that you
+will hear some one say that to think good thoughts is not needed in
+making good music. Never believe it! Bad thought never made anything
+good, and _never_ will because it never can. In the very first days
+you must learn, that good things of all kinds come from good thoughts,
+because they can come from nothing else.
+
+Here, then, is the second truth of this Talk:
+
+Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly only
+by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+This leads us to another matter. First, let us see if everything is
+clear. True music is written out of good thought; hence, when we begin
+to study music we are really becoming pupils of good thought. We are
+learning the thoughts good men have had, trying to feel their truth
+and meaning, and from them learning to have our own thoughts not only
+good but constantly better and better. This now seems simple and
+necessary. We see that if we would faithfully study a composer's work
+it must be our principal aim to get into his heart. Then everything
+will be clear to us.
+
+But we can never find our way to the heart of another until we have
+first found our way somewhere else. Where, do you think? To our own
+hearts, being willing to be severe with ourselves; not to be deceitful
+in our own eyes; not to guard the outer act, but the inner thought;
+not to study nor to be what _seems_, but what _is_.[59] This may seem
+a long and roundabout way of learning to play music, but it is the
+honest, straightforward way of going to the great masters whom we wish
+to know.
+
+In one of the books of the Greek general, Xenophon,[60] Socrates is
+made to say that men do nothing without fire; and quite in the same
+way we may learn nothing of each other, especially of those greater
+than ourselves, without thought; which should be pure, strong,
+inquiring, and kind. With this we may do all.
+
+Thus far we have two principles. Let us review them:
+
+   I. Thoughts become actions.
+
+  II. Good music being the fruit of good thought can be played rightly
+      only by one who thinks good thoughts.
+
+Now, is it not clear that this can come about only when we watch over
+our own thoughts and govern them as if they were the thoughts of
+others? And when we do not so much as _endure_ the thought of harm or
+evil or wrong we shall be living in the spirit of the Roman lady whose
+son's life was lived as his mother taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE GLORY OF THE DAY.
+
+
+  "Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's duty, fight today's
+  temptation; and do not weaken and disturb yourself by looking
+  forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if
+  you saw them."--_Charles Kingsley._
+
+Nearly all of us have heard about the little child who one day planted
+seeds and kept constantly digging them up afterward to see if they
+were growing. No doubt the child learned that a seed needs not only
+ground and care, but time. When it is put in the earth it begins to
+feel its place and to get at home; then, if all is quite right,--but
+not otherwise--it sends out a tiny rootlet as if it would say that it
+trusts and believes the earth will feed that rootlet. And if the earth
+is kind the root grows and finds a solid foothold. At the same time
+there is another thing happening. When the seed finds it can trust
+itself to root it feels no longer afraid to show itself. It goes down,
+down quietly for a _firmer hold_, and upward feeling the desire for
+light.
+
+_A firm hold and more light_, we cannot think too much of what they
+mean.
+
+Every day that the seed pushes its tender leaves and stem upward it
+has more and more to encounter. The rains beat it down; the winds bend
+it to the very earth from which it came; leaves and weeds bury it
+beneath their strength and abundance, but despite all these things, in
+the face of death itself, the brave little plant strongly keeps its
+place. It grows in the face of danger. But how? Day after day, as it
+fights its way in the air and sunshine, blest or bruised as it may be,
+the little plant never fails to keep at one thing. That is, to get a
+firmer and firmer hold. From that it never lets go. Break its leaves
+and its stem, crush it as you will, stop its upward growth even, but
+as long as there is a spark of life in it there will be more roots
+made. It aims from the first moment of its life to get hold strongly.
+
+And it seems as if the plant has always a great motive. The moment it
+feels it has grasped the mother-earth securely with its roots it turns
+its strength to making something beautiful. In the air and light, in
+the dark earth even, every part of the plant is seeking for the means
+to do a wonderful thing. It drinks in the sunshine, and with the
+warmth of it, _and to the glory of its own life_, it blossoms. It has
+come from a tiny helpless seed to a living plantlet with the smallest
+stem and root, and while the stem fights for a place in the air the
+root never ceases to get a strong hold of the dear earth in which the
+plant finds its home. Then when the home is firmly secured and the
+days have made the plant stronger and more shapely, it forgets all the
+rude winds and rain and the drifting leaves, and shows how joyful it
+is to live _by giving something_.
+
+Then it is clear that every hardship had its purpose. The rains beat
+it down, but at the same time they were feeding it; the leaves dropped
+about and covered it, but that protected its tenderness: and thus in
+all the trials it finds a blessing. Its growth is stronger, and
+thankful for all its life it seeks to express this thankfulness. In
+its heart there is something it is sure. And true enough, out it comes
+some day in a flower with its color and tenderness and perfume; all
+from the earth, but taken from it by love which the plant feels for
+the ground as its home.
+
+We can see from this, that the beauty of a plant or of a tree is a
+sign of its relation to the earth in which it lives. If its hold is
+weak--if it loosely finds a place for a weak root--it lies on the
+ground, helpless, strengthless, joyless. But firmly placed and feeling
+safe in its security, it gives freely of its blossoms; or, year after
+year, like a tree, shows us its wonderous mass of leaf, all of it a
+sign that earth and tree are truely united.
+
+It has been said, and no doubt it is true, that one who cares for
+plants and loves them becomes patient. The plant does not hurry; its
+growth is slow and often does not show itself; and one who cares for
+them learns their way of being and of doing. The whole lesson is that
+of allowing time, and by using it wisely to save it. The true glory of
+a day for a plant is the air and sunlight and earth-food which it has
+taken, from which it has become stronger. And every day, one by one,
+as it proves, contributes something to its strength.
+
+All men who have been patient students of the earth's ways have
+learned to be careful, to love nature, and to take time. And we all
+must learn to take time. It is not by careless use that we gain
+anything, but by putting heart and mind into what must be done. When
+heart and mind enter our work they affect time curiously; because of
+the great interest we take in what we do time is not thought of; and
+what is not thought of, is not noticed.
+
+Hence, the value of time comes to this: to use any time we may have,
+much or little, with the heart in the task. When that is done there is
+not only better work accomplished but there are no regrets lingering
+about to make us feel uncomfortable.
+
+A practice hour can only be an hour of unwelcome labor when one thinks
+so of it. If we go to the piano with interest in the playing we shall
+be unconscious of time. Many men who love their labor tell of sitting
+for hours at their work not knowing that hours have gone by.
+
+If there is a love for music in any of us it will grow as a seed. And
+as the seed needs the dear mother-earth, so the music needs the heart.
+When it has taken root there and becomes firmer and firmer it will
+begin to show itself outwardly as the light of the face. After it is
+strong and can bear up against what assails it--not the wind and the
+rain and the dry leaves, but discouragement and hard correction and
+painful hot tears--then with that strength it will flourish.
+
+Now, sometimes, in the days of its strength the music will seek far
+more in its life, just as the plant seeks for more and blossoms. The
+flower in the music is as great for all as for one. It is joy and
+helpfulness. When for the love of music one seeks to do good then
+music has borne its blossom.
+
+Thus, by learning the life of a simple plant we learn the true mission
+of the beautiful art of tone. It must put forth deeply its roots into
+the heart that it may be fed. It must strive for strength as it grows
+against whatever may befall it. It must use its food of the heart and
+its strength for a pure purpose, and there is but one--to give joy.
+
+This turns our thoughts to two things: First, to the men and women who
+by their usefulness and labor increased the meaning of music. This is
+the glory of their days. Second, we look to ourselves with feeble
+hands and perhaps little talent, and the thought comes to us, that
+with all we have we are to seek not our own glorification but the joy
+of others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE IDEAL.
+
+
+  "Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile, plus peutetre."--_Victor
+  Hugo._
+
+Mozart once had a friend named Gottfried von Jacquin, who was a man of
+careful thought, and evidently a good musician,--for we are told that
+a melody composed by him is frequently said, even to this day, to be
+by Mozart. This Gottfried lived in Vienna with his father, and to
+their house Mozart often went. At this time Mozart had an album in
+which his friends were invited to write. Among the verses is a
+sentiment written by Gottfried von Jacquin, saying:
+
+"True genius is impossible without heart; no amount of intellect alone
+or of imagination, no, nor of both together, can make genius. Love is
+the soul of genius."
+
+Here we have the same truth told us which we have already found for
+ourselves, namely, that all good music comes from the heart. We have
+found it by studying music and striving faithfully to get deep into
+its real meaning. But to-day we have the words of one who was enabled
+to watch closely as a friend one of the greatest composers that ever
+lived. And being much with him, hearing the music of the master played
+by the master himself, put the thought into his head, that it is
+impossible to be a true genius without heart and love.
+
+From this we shall have courage to know that what we pursue in music
+is real; that the beauties of great music, though they may just now be
+beyond us, are true, and exist to those who are prepared for them.
+When in our struggle to be more capable in art than we are to-day we
+think of the beauty around us, and desire to be worthy of it, we are
+then forming an ideal, and ideals are only of value when we strive to
+live up to them.
+
+Once in Rome there lived a Greek slave--some day you may read his
+name. He has told us, that "if thou wouldst have aught of good, have
+it from thyself."[61] Of course we see in this, immediately, the truth
+that has been spoken of in nearly every one of these Talks. It is
+this: We must, day by day, become better acquainted with ourselves,
+study our thoughts, have purity of heart, and work for something.
+
+Now, working for something may be accomplished in a simple manner
+without thinking of it. If every task is done in our best way it adds
+something to us. It is true and beautiful, too, that the reward for
+patient, faithful work comes silently to us, and often we do not know
+of its presence. But some day, finding ourselves stronger, we look to
+know the cause of it, and we see that the faithfulness of past days
+has aided us.
+
+So art teaches us a very practical lesson in the beginning. If we
+would have her favors we must do her labors. If we say to music: "I
+should love to know you;" music says to us, "Very well, work and your
+wish shall be gratified." But without that labor we cannot have that
+wish. The Greek slave knew that and said:
+
+"Thou art unjust, if thou desire to gain those things for nothing."
+
+Now we begin to see that art has no gifts to bestow upon us for
+nothing. Many think it has, and pursue it until the truth dawns upon
+them; then, because of their error, they dislike it. To recognize the
+truth about art and to pursue that truth, despite the hard road, is to
+have courage. And the Ideal is nothing else than the constant presence
+of this truth.
+
+And what do we gain by pursuing it? Not common pleasure, but true
+happiness; not uncertainty, but true understanding; not selfish life,
+but true and full life. And we can see the beauty of art in nothing
+more plainly than in the fact that all these things may come to a
+child, and a new and brighter life is made possible by them.
+
+The very first day we came together, the little child said to the
+master:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+It is hard, sometimes, to feel the truth and to keep it with us; hard,
+not only for a child, but for any one; and yet, if with faith we will
+labor with it _until the light comes_, then we are truly rewarded and
+made richer according to our faith.
+
+We must not forget in the first days, as we leave our music, that the
+path we have taken since we came together is the hardest; not for
+always, but for now. The right path is hard at first--the wrong one is
+hard always.
+
+We will understand it all better in other days if we remain faithful
+now. If, however, we should forget for a moment that art demands our
+loyalty, there will be no joy or peace in it for us. Worse, perhaps,
+than starting out upon the wrong path, is the deserting of the right
+one. Sometimes out of impatience we do this; out of impatience and
+self-love, which is the worst of all. "Truth is the beginning of all
+good, and the greatest of all evils is self-love."[62]
+
+With the trials that music costs us, with its pains and
+discouragements, we might easily doubt all these promises which are
+contained in our ideals, but we shall be forever saved from deserting
+them if we remember that these ideals have been persistently held by
+great men. They have never given them up. One of the strongest
+characteristics of Bach and of Beethoven was their determination to
+honor their thoughts. Sometimes we find the same persistence and
+faithfulness in lesser men.
+
+I am sure you will see this faith beautifully lived in the few facts
+we have about the life of Johann Christian Kittel, a pupil of Bach,
+and it is strongly brought out by the pretty story told of him, that
+when pleased with a pupil's work he would draw aside a curtain which
+covered a portrait of Bach and let the faithful one gaze upon it for a
+moment. That was to him the greatest reward he could give for
+faithfulness in the music task.
+
+And this reminds us of how the teacher, Pistocchi, who, in teaching
+the voice, kept in mind a pure tone, a quiet manner of singing, and
+the true artistic way of doing. Among his pupils was a certain Antonio
+Bernacchi, who, after leaving his master, began to display his voice
+by runs and trills and meaningless tones. And this he did, not because
+of true art, for that was not it, but because it brought him the
+applause of unthinking people.
+
+Once, when the master, Pistocchi, heard him do this he is said to have
+exclaimed: "Ah, I taught thee how to _sing_, and now thou wilt
+_play_;" meaning that the true song was gone and the pupil no longer
+sang out of the heart, but merely out of the throat. Pistocchi kept
+his ideal pure.
+
+We have then among our ideals two of first importance. The ideal
+perception of music, as being the true heart-expression of great men;
+and the ideal of our doings, which is the true heart-expression of
+ourselves. And to keep these ideals is difficult in two ways: The
+difficulty of keeping the pure intention of great men ever before us,
+and the difficulty of keeping close and faithful to the tasks assigned
+us. Then we can say with the little child:
+
+"Master, I do not understand what thou hast said, yet I believe thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE ONE TALENT.
+
+
+  "Then he which had received the one talent came."--_Matthew, XXV:
+  24._
+
+Some day, when you read about the great composers, you will be
+delighted with the pictures of their home-life. You will see how they
+employed music every day. In all cases, as we study them, we learn how
+very much they have sacrificed for the music they love, studying it
+daily because of the joy which it yields them. We see them as little
+children, eager to be taught, wanting to listen to music, and to hear
+about it. Many of the composers whose child-life is thus interesting
+were children in very poor families, where things were neither fine
+nor beautiful, where the necessary things of life were not plentiful,
+and where all had to be careful and saving so that every bit should be
+made to go as far as possible. The eagerness and determination of some
+children in music-history is really wonderful. It is the true
+determination. And you are not surprised, in following it, to note
+that it leads the children who have it into lives of great usefulness.
+
+All through the life of Handel we find determination running like a
+golden thread. He was just as determined to be a musician as Lincoln
+was to get an education when he read books by the firelight. Handel's
+father was a surgeon, and knew so little about music that he failed
+entirely to understand the child. He not only forbade the boy to study
+music, but even kept him away from school that he might not by any
+chance learn to read the notes. But one who was in future years to
+befriend homeless children and to write wondrous music for all the
+world could not be held back by such devices. By some means, and with
+friendly assistance (perhaps his mother's), he succeeded in smuggling
+into the garret a spinet, which is a kind of piano. By placing cloth
+upon the strings he so deadened the wires that no one downstairs could
+hear the tones when the spinet was played. And day after day this
+little lad would sit alone in his garret, learning more and more about
+the wonders which his heart and his head told him were in the tiny
+half-dumb spinet before him. Not the more cheerful rooms down-stairs
+nor the games of his playmates drew him away from the music he loved,
+the music which he felt in his heart, remember.
+
+One would expect such determination to show itself in many ways. It
+did. Handel does not disappoint us in this. All through his life he
+had strong purposes and a strong will--concentration--which led him
+forward. You know how he followed his father's coach once. Perhaps it
+was disobedience,--but what a fine thing happened when he reached the
+duke's palace and played the organ. From that day every one knew that
+his life would be devoted to music. Sometimes at home, sometimes in
+foreign lands, he was always working, thinking, learning. He is said,
+in his boyhood, to have copied large quantities of music, and to have
+composed something every week. This copying made him better acquainted
+with other music, and the early habit of composition made it easy for
+him to write his thoughts in after years. Indeed, so skilled did he
+become, that he wrote one opera--"Rinaldo"--in fourteen days, and the
+"Messiah" was written in twenty-four days.[63]
+
+Yet parts of his great works he wrote and rewrote until they were
+exactly as they should be. _It will do_ is a thought that never comes
+into the head of a great artist. How do you imagine such a man was to
+his friends? We are told that, "he was in character at once great and
+simple." And again it has been said that, "his smile was like heaven."
+
+We have seen Handel as the great composer, but he was not so busy in
+this that his thoughts were not also dwelling upon other things. If
+ever you go to London, you should of a Sunday morning hear the service
+at the Foundling Hospital. You will see there many hundreds of boys
+and girls grouped about the organ. Their singing will seem beautiful
+to you, from its sweetness and from the simple faith in which it is
+done. After the service you may go to the many rooms of this home for
+so many otherwise homeless ones.
+
+There are for you to visit: the playroom, the schoolroom, the long
+halls with the pretty white cots, and the pleasant dining-room. Here
+it will please you to see the little ones march into dinner, with
+their similar dresses, and all looking as happy as possible. But the
+picture you will, no doubt, longest keep, is that of the children
+about the organ.
+
+They will tell you there that it was Handel who gave this organ to the
+chapel, and who, for the benefit of the children who might come here,
+gave concerts, playing and conducting, which were so successful that
+they had to be repeated. A "fair copy" of the "Messiah" will be shown
+you as one of the precious possessions.
+
+It will very plainly be present in your mind how the little boy sat
+alone playing day after day in the garret, wishing no better pastime
+than to express the feelings of his heart in tones. Perhaps you will
+think of his words: "Learn (of) all there is to learn, then choose
+your own path." He will appeal to you as having possessed an "early
+completeness of character," which abided always with him. It is
+evident in following the life of Handel, and it would be equally plain
+with any other composer, that great talent is developed out of a small
+beginning, and if small, is yet earnest and determined. From the first
+days of a great man's life to the last we find constant effort. "I
+consider those live best who study best to become as good as
+possible."[64] Music helps us to keep the upper windows open; that is
+why it does so much for us even if we have but one talent.
+
+To develop our one talent is a duty, just as it is a duty to develop
+two or five talents. It is given to us to increase. And no one knows
+how much joy may come to us and to others from the growing of that
+talent. We gain much in power to give pleasure to others, if the
+talent we have be made stronger by faithful effort. As we have seen
+good come forth from the story of the man with many talents, we can
+see how, similarly, he with one talent has also great power with which
+he may add unto himself and others.
+
+In all of our Talks it has been evident from what we have said, that
+music is a beautiful art to us, even though we may have but little of
+it. But equally we have learned, that for ever so little we must prove
+ourselves worthy. We must honestly give something for all we get. This
+is the law, and the purpose of all our Talks is to learn it.
+
+We have, likewise, learned that true music, _out of the heart_, may
+not at the first please us, but within it there is a great deal and we
+must seek it. The history of all who have faithfully studied the works
+of the great masters is, that for all the thought and time one spends
+in studying master works a great gain comes. On the other hand,
+everybody's experience with common music is, that while it may please
+much at first and even captivate us, yet it soon tires us so that we
+can scarcely listen patiently to it.
+
+Still a further lesson is, that working with many talents or with one
+is the same. Talents, one or many, are for increase and faithful
+development. Handel's life was a determined struggle to make the most
+of his power. It should be ours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+LOVE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL.
+
+
+  "Every color, every variety of form, has some purpose and
+  explanation."--_Sir John Lubbock_.[65]
+
+Now, when we are almost at the end of the way we have traveled
+together, it will be natural to look back upon the road over which we
+have come. Not all of it will be visible, to be sure. We have
+forgotten this pleasant scene and that; others, however, remain fresh
+in our minds. And as the days pass and we think over our way there
+will now and again come to us a scene, a remembrance, so full of
+beauty and of pleasure that we shall feel rich in the possession of
+it.
+
+To me there is nothing we have learned together greater in value,
+richer in truth and comfort than the thought that the beautiful in
+music and in art is at the same time the good. Even if a person is not
+at all times good, there is raised in him the feeling of it whenever
+he consciously looks upon a beautiful object. We see in this how wise
+it is for one to choose to have beautiful things, to surround others
+with them, to love them, and to place reverent hands upon them.
+
+We can never make a mistake about gentle hands. Once a lady said to a
+boy:
+
+"You should touch all things with the same delicacy that one should
+bestow upon a tender flower. It shows that deep within yourself you
+are at rest, that you make your hands go forward to a task carefully
+and with much thought. In the roughest games you play do not forget
+this; then your hands shall be filled with all the thought you have
+within yourself."
+
+Sometimes, when I am in a great gallery, the thought is very strong in
+me, that many (ever, and ever so many) people, in all countries and in
+all times, have so loved the beautiful as to devote their lives to it.
+Painters, who have made pictures to delight men for generations,
+looked and looked and _prayed_ to find the beautiful. And we must
+believe that one looks out of the heart to find the beautiful or he
+finds only the common. And the sculptors who have loved marble for the
+delight they have in beautiful forms, they, too, with eyes seeking
+beauty, and hands so gentle upon the marble that it almost breathes
+for them, they, too, have loved the beautiful.
+
+But commoner ones have the tenderest love for what is sweet and fair
+in life,--people who are neither painters nor sculptors. In their
+little way--but it is a _true_ way--they have sunlight in their
+hearts, and with it love for something.
+
+Perhaps it is a flower. I have been told of a man--in fact I have seen
+him--who could do the cruelest things; who was so bad that he could
+not be permitted to go free among others, and yet he loved plants so
+much that if they were put near him he would move quietly among them,
+touching this one and that; gazing at them, and acting as if he were
+in another world. As we said once before about the spring, so we may
+say here about love for the beautiful: it may be covered up with every
+thing that is able to keep it down, but _it is always there_.
+
+It is always pleasanter to hear about people and their ways than to
+heed advice. But people and their ways often set us good examples; and
+we were curious, indeed, if we did not look sharply at ourselves to
+see just what we are. From all we have been told about the beautiful
+we can at least learn this: that it sweetens life; that it makes even
+a common life bright; that if we have it in us it may be as golden
+sunlight to some poor one who is in the darkness of ignorance, that is
+the advantage and the beauty of all good things in our lives, namely,
+the good it may be unto others. And the beautiful music we may sing or
+play is not to show what we are or what we can do--it will, of course
+do these things--but it is to be a blessing to those who listen. And
+how are blessings bestowed? _Out of the heart._
+
+Once there was a nobleman[66] with power and riches. He loved
+everything. Learning and art and all had he partaken of. But the times
+were troubled in his country, and for some reason he lost all he had
+and was imprisoned. Then there was scarcely anything in his life. All
+he had was the cell, the prison-yard, and, now and again, a word or
+two with his keeper. The cell was small and gloomy, the keeper silent,
+the yard confined and so closely paved with cobblestones that one
+could scarcely see the earth between them.
+
+Yes, indeed, it was a small world and a barren one into which they had
+forced him. But he had his thoughts, and daily as he walked in his
+confined yard, they were busy with the past, weaving, weaving. What
+patterns they made, and he, poor one, was sometimes afraid of them!
+But still they kept on weaving, weaving.
+
+One day, as he walked in his yard, he noticed that between two of the
+stones there seemed to be something and he looked at it. With the
+greatest attention he studied it, then he knelt on the rude stones and
+looked and looked again. His heart beat and his hands trembled, but
+yet with a touch as gentle as any one could give, he moved a grain or
+two of soil and there, beneath, was something which the poor captive
+cried out for joy to see--a tiny plant. As if in a new world, and
+certainly as if another man, he cared daily for the tender little
+companion that had come to share his loneliness; he thought of it
+first in the morning and last at night. He gave it of his supply of
+water and, as a father, he watched over it.
+
+And it grew so that one day he saw that his plant must either die or
+have more room. And it could not have more room unless a cobblestone
+were removed. Now this could only be done with the consent of the
+Emperor. Well, let us not stop to hear about the way he found, but he
+did get his request to the Emperor and, after a while, what happened
+do you think? That the plant was given more room? Yes, that is partly
+it, and the rest is this: the prisoner himself was given more room--he
+was liberated.
+
+Just because the seed of a beautiful thing came to life in his tiny
+world he found love for it and a new life, a care, _something outside
+of himself_. And it brought him all.
+
+That love which is not given to self reveals the beauty of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public
+  schools, and a living example of their excellence."--_Joseph Story._
+
+In these days we learn many things in our schools--even music. They
+surely must have a purpose, all the studies and the music as well. Let
+us in this Talk see if we can find what the purpose is.
+
+It costs our Government a great deal to educate the children of the
+land. There are now nearly twenty million children in our country.
+That is a number you cannot conceive. But every morning of the year,
+when it is not a vacation day, you may think of this vast number
+leaving home and going to school to be taught. I am sure the picture
+will make us all think how wise a Government is that devotes so much
+to making us know more, because by learning more we are able to enjoy
+more, to do more, to be more. And this makes us better citizens.
+
+Year after year, as men study and learn about what is best to have
+children taught in school, the clearer it becomes that what is given
+is dictated because of its usefulness. Arithmetic teaches us to
+calculate our daily affairs. Grammar teaches us to listen and to speak
+understandingly. Penmanship and Spelling teach us properly to make the
+signs which represent speech. Geography teaches us of the earth on
+which we live, and how we may travel about it. History teaches us how
+to understand the doings of our own day and makes us acquainted with
+great men of former times, who by striving have earned a place in our
+remembrance.
+
+As we go on in our school education, taking up new studies, we find to
+a still greater degree that what we learn is for usefulness.
+Arithmetic becomes mathematics in general. Grammar is brought before
+us in other languages, and branches out into the study of Rhetoric and
+Literature. History is taught us of many lands, particularly of
+Greece, Rome, and England. And, bit by bit, these various histories
+merge into one, until, perhaps not until college years or later, the
+doings of the countries in all the centuries of which we have
+knowledge is one unbroken story to us. We know the names of lands and
+of people. Why Greece could love art, why Rome could have conquest;
+why these countries and all their glories passed away to give place to
+others; all these things become clear to us. We learn of generals,
+statesmen, poets, musicians, rulers. Their characters are made clear;
+their lives are given to us in biography, and year after year the
+story of the earth and man is more complete, more fascinating, more
+helpful to us in learning our own day.
+
+Then, besides all these studies, we are taught to do things with the
+hands. After the Talks we have already had about doing, we know what
+it means to have training of the hands. It really means the training
+of the thoughts. We are training the mind to make the hands perform
+their tasks rightly. It is the same in the science lesson which
+teaches us to see; actually to use our eyes until we see things. That
+may not seem to be a difficult task, but there are really very few
+people who can accurately and properly use their eyes. If there were
+more, fewer mistakes would be made.
+
+Thus we can see that school work divides its tasks into two general
+classes:
+
+First, the learning of facts.
+
+Second, the actual doing of things.
+
+You will readily see that to do things properly is possible only when
+we know facts which tell us how to do them. That shows you at once the
+wisdom of the education you receive.
+
+Now, let us imagine that school life is over. For many years you have
+gone faithfully every day to your place, you have done your tasks as
+honestly as you could, and said your lessons, being wounded no doubt
+by failures, but gladdened again by successes. Now, when it is all
+over, what is there of it?
+
+Well, above all things, there is one truth of it which it is wonderful
+people do not think of more frequently. And that truth is this: The
+only education we may use in our own life is that which we have
+ourselves. No longer have we help of companions or teachers. We depend
+entirely upon our own personal knowledge. If we speak it is our own
+knowledge of Grammar that is used. We cannot have a book at hand in
+order to know from it the words we should use. If we make a
+calculation about money, or do anything with numbers, it must be done
+from our knowledge of Arithmetic, and it must be right or people will
+very soon cease to deal with us. Then, if we have a letter from a
+friend, we must of ourselves know how to read it, and if we have aught
+to say to another at a distance, we must be able clearly to express
+ourselves in writing, so that we may make no mistake in our meaning.
+
+And this, likewise, is to be said of all the rest. Our knowledge of
+History, of Geography, of men of past times, of the boundaries of
+countries, of cities, of people, of everything, must come from
+ourselves. And, further yet, according as we have been careful to see
+in the right way and to do in the right way while we were under
+instruction in school, so we shall be likely to see and to do when we
+are not in school, and no longer have some one over us who will kindly
+and patiently correct our errors, teach us new ways, and give us
+greater powers. We may, of course, go on learning after our school
+days are ended; and really much of the best education comes then, if
+we will immediately set about correcting the faults which we find in
+ourselves.
+
+Indeed, many men have gained the best part of their education after
+leaving school, where, perhaps, it was their fortune to stay but a
+short time.[67] But we must remember that the habits of learning,
+doing, seeking, are gained in early years, and if they are not gained
+then they rarely come.
+
+Now, what have we learned about schools and school-tasks? We have
+learned a little of the purpose which lies in the education we
+receive; that out of it must come the power to do and to know; that is
+our own power; not that of any one else. We have seen the usefulness
+of school-studies, and how practical they are in our daily life.
+
+In all this Talk we have said nothing about Music. If, however, we
+understand what the other studies mean, what their purpose is, we
+shall learn something which shall be valuable when we come to study
+the meaning and purpose of music in schools. That shall be our next
+Talk.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MUSIC IN SCHOOL.
+
+
+  "Become in early years well-informed concerning the extent of the
+  four voices.
+
+"Try, even with a poor voice, to sing at sight without the aid of an
+instrument; from that your ear will constantly improve. In case,
+however, that you have a good voice, do not hesitate a moment to
+cultivate it; and believe, at the same time, that heaven has granted
+you a valuable gift."--_Robert Schumann._[68]
+
+In the previous Talk we learned two very important facts about school
+studies. They were these:
+
+   I. They are useful.
+
+  II. They are useful in proportion to our own (not to anybody else's)
+      real knowledge of them.
+
+We do not study useless subjects, and it is not from our books, nor
+from our teacher that we go through life, making our way. In other
+words, the harder we work, the more independent we become; and the
+more independent we become, the more power we have to help others.
+
+Now, whatever is true about other school studies is likewise true
+about music. It is given to children in school because it is useful,
+and because a child can gain power by learning it. Let us see about
+this.
+
+To one who does not think deeply, it might seem that if any study in
+school is merely ornamental, that study is music. He might say that
+all the other studies tend to some practical end in life and business:
+that one could not add, nor read, nor transact business, nor write a
+letter any more correctly by knowing music. It is only an unthinking
+person--_none other_--who would say that.
+
+Of the usefulness of all the school studies we have spoken. We need
+only to take a few steps along the pleasant road, about which we have
+had so many Talks, and we shall see how much music means in life. To
+us it is already plain. Music is a new world, to enter which
+cultivates new senses, teaches us to love the beautiful, and makes us
+watchful of two of the most important things in life: the thoughts and
+the heart. We must have exact thoughts or the music is not made
+aright, and the heart may be what it will, music tells all about it.
+Therefore, let it be good.
+
+But music in school brings us to daily tasks in tone. What do we
+learn? After the difficulties of reading the notes and making the
+voice responsive are somewhat overcome, we study for greater power in
+both, the one-, two-, or three-part exercises and songs; the exercises
+for skill and the songs to apply the skill, and make us acquainted
+with the music of great masters.
+
+In one Talk, one of the first, we spoke of the major scale. It has
+eight tones only, and though it has existed for many hundreds of
+years, no one has yet dreamed of all the wonderful tone-pictures which
+are contained in it. It is out of it that all the great composers have
+written their works, and for centuries to come men will find in it
+beauties great, and pure, and lasting.
+
+As we sing in school, we are learning to put the major scale to some
+use. It calls upon us in the melodies which it expresses, to be
+careful that each tone shall be right in length, in pitch, in
+loudness, in place. We must sing exactly with the others, not
+offensively loud, nor so softly as to be of no service. And this
+demands precision of us; and precision demands thought. And if we are
+singing to gain a better use of voice we must, in every sound we make,
+have our thoughts exactly upon what we are doing. This is
+Concentration. If, on the other hand, we are trying our skill on a
+song, we shall have, in addition, to be careful to give the right
+expression, to sing not only the tones clearly, but the words, to feel
+the true sentiment both of the poem and of the music, and to express
+from our hearts as much of the meaning of poet and composer as we
+understand. All these things are more particularly required of us if
+we are singing in parts. The melody must be properly sustained and
+must not cover the under parts; while the under parts themselves
+should never intrude upon the melody, nor fail to be a good background
+for it. The singing of part music is one of the best ways to train the
+attention--that is, to get Concentration. As we sing our part we must
+have in mind these things:
+
+
+    I. To keep to it and not be drawn away by another part.
+
+   II. To give the part we sing its due prominence.
+
+  III. Never to destroy the perfect equality of the parts by unduly
+       hastening or holding back.
+
+   IV. To remember that each part is important. The other singers have
+       as much to think of and to do as we have, and they are entitled
+       to just as much praise.
+
+    V. To be alert to take up our part at exactly the right place.
+
+   VI. To put the full meaning of the poet and of the composer into
+       every word and tone.
+
+These, after all, are only a few of the things; but from them we may
+learn this, that to sing (and to play is quite the same) is one of the
+most delicate tasks we can learn to perform, requiring attention from
+us in many ways at the same time. Even now the usefulness of music is
+clear, for the faculties we learn to employ in music form a power that
+can be applied in anything.
+
+But music has even a greater reward for us than this. It presents to
+us many kinds of thoughts and pictures,--of bravery, of
+thoughtfulness, of gaiety, and others without number--and then it
+demands that we shall study so as to sing them truthfully from our
+hearts. And when we can do this music is then a joy to us and to
+others.
+
+Now we see that music, just like the other studies, is useful and
+gives us the power to do something. And besides its use and power it
+is, perhaps more than any other study, the greatest means of giving
+happiness to others. But of that there is yet a word to be said. That
+shall be our next Talk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+HOW ONE THING HELPS ANOTHER.
+
+
+  "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday
+  life."--_Berthold Auerbach._
+
+Just at the end of our Talk about Music in School, I said that music
+was the most powerful of all the studies for giving joy to others. In
+this Talk we shall try to learn what the studies do for each other.
+
+Once more--and we must never get tired if the same thought comes again
+and again--let us remember that music is thought expressed in tone.
+Classic music is great and strong thought; poor, unworthy music is
+weak, perhaps wrong or mean thought.
+
+Further, we have learned that thought may be good and pure, and yet
+that of itself is not sufficient. It must be well expressed. In short,
+to thought of the right sort we must add knowledge, so that it may be
+set before others in the right way.
+
+Now, it is true that the more knowledge we have, the more we can do
+with music. We can put more meaning into it; we can better perform all
+the exacting duties it demands; we can draw more meaning from its art,
+and we can see more clearly how great a genius the composer is.
+Besides these things, a well-trained mind gets more thoughts from a
+subject than an untrained mind. Some day you will see this more
+clearly by observing how much better you will be able to understand
+your own language by possessing a knowledge of Greek and Latin.
+
+All the school studies have a use, to be sure--a direct use--in giving
+us something to help us in life in one way and another. But besides
+this, we get another help from study; namely, the employment of the
+mind in the right way. For the right way of doing things which are
+worthy of the heart, gives power and good. It is the wrong way of
+doing things that causes us trouble. Some studies demand exactness
+above all this,--like the study of Arithmetic--others a good
+memory,--like History--others tax many faculties, as we have seen in
+our Talk about School Music.
+
+Some of the studies are particularly valuable to us at once because
+they make us _do_. They may be called _doing_ studies. In Arithmetic
+there is a result, and only one result, to be sought. In Grammar every
+rule we learn is to be applied in our speech. Manual training demands
+judgment and the careful use of the hands. Penmanship is a test for
+the hand, but History is a study touching the memory more than the
+doing faculty.
+
+School music, you see at once, is a doing study. Not only that, it is
+full of life, attractive, appealing to the thoughts in many ways, and
+yet it is a hearty study--by that I mean a study for the heart.
+
+If you have noticed in your piano music the Italian words which are
+given at the beginning of compositions, you may have thought how
+expressive most of them are of the heart and of action. They are
+_doing_ words particularly. _Allegro_ is cheerful; that is its true
+meaning. It directs us to make the music sound cheerful as we sing it
+or play it. What for? So that the cheerfulness of the composer shall
+be for us and for other people. And _Vivace_ is not merely quickly,
+but vivaciously. Now what does vivacious mean? It means what its
+root-word _vivere_ means, to live. It is a direction that the music
+must be full of life; and the true life of happiness and freedom from
+care is meant. So with _Modcrato_, a doing word which tells us very
+particularly how to do; namely, not too fast, spoiling it by haste,
+nor too slowly, so that it seems to drag, but in a particular way,
+that is, with moderation.
+
+Music takes its place as a _doing_ study; and as we have already
+discovered, its doing is of many kinds, all requiring care. Singing or
+playing is doing; reading the notes is doing; studying out the
+composer's meaning is doing; making others feel it is doing;
+everything is doing; and _doing_ is true living, _provided it is
+unselfish_.
+
+Let us see if there is not a simple lesson in all this. To seek it we
+shall have to say old thoughts over again. Music itself uses the same
+tones over and over again; it is by doing so that we begin to
+understand tone a little.
+
+The school studies try the mind; with the tasks increased bit by bit,
+the mind is made stronger. Thus is Strength gained. By the tasks
+demanding exactness, the thoughts must not be scattered everywhere,
+but centered upon the thing to be done. Thus is Concentration gained.
+By making the hand work with care and a definite purpose, Skill is
+gained. By demanding of the thoughts that they must seek out all the
+qualities of an object, Attention is gained. By placing things and
+signs for things before us, we are taught to See. By educating us in
+sounds, we are taught to Listen. When we have a task that admits of a
+single correct result, we are taught Exactness.
+
+Now, from all we have learned in these Talks about music it must be
+clear that all these qualities are just what are needed in music:
+
+    I. Strength of thought for Real doing.
+
+   II. Concentration for Right doing.
+
+  III. Skill for Well doing.
+
+   IV. Seeing and listening for the cultivation of Attention.
+
+    V. Correctness for the Manner of doing.
+
+We sought for a simple lesson. It is this:
+
+Let us learn all we can that is right and worthy for the strengthening
+of the mind, for the cultivation of the heart, for the good and joy of
+others; for these things are the spirit of music.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE CHILD AT PLAY.
+
+
+  "When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward."
+
+Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand
+shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light
+from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming
+pebbles.
+
+The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and
+played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was
+everywhere and the child was filled with it.
+
+But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to leave
+the beautiful place. Delight was there and many rare things that one
+could play with and enjoy.
+
+The child could not leave them all. Its heart ached to think of them
+lying there alone by the sea. And it thought:
+
+"I will take the pebbles and the shells with me and I will try to
+remember the sunlight and the song of the sea."
+
+So it began to fill its little hands. But it saw that after as many as
+possible were gathered together there were yet myriads left. And it
+had to leave them.
+
+Tired and with a sore heart it trudged homeward, its hands filled to
+overflowing with the pebbles that shone in the sun on the sea-shore.
+Now, however, they seemed dull. And because of this, the child did not
+seem to regret it so much if now and then one fell. "There are still
+some left in my hands," it thought.
+
+At length it came near to its home; so very tired, the little limbs
+could scarcely move. And one who loved the child came out smiling to
+welcome it. The little one went up close and rested its tired head;
+and opening its little hand, soiled with the sea and the sand, said:
+
+"Look, mother, I still have one. May I go for the others some day?"
+
+And the mother said:
+
+"Yes, thou shalt go again."
+
+And the child fell asleep to dream of the singing sea and of the
+sunlight, for these were in its heart.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The following works are referred to in these Talks:
+
+  Addison, Joseph, "Spectator."
+
+  Alexander, Francesca, "Christfolk in the Apennine."
+
+  Antoninus, M. Aurelius, "Meditations."
+
+  Aristotle, "Ethics."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+  Bach, J.S., "Kleine Praeludien."
+
+  Baldwin, James, "Old Greek Stories."
+
+  Bacon, Francis, "Essays."
+
+  Bridge, J.F., "Simple Counterpoint."
+
+  Carlyle, Thomas, "Heroes and Hero-worship."
+
+  Cellini, Benvenuto, "Autobiography."
+
+  Epictetus, "Memoirs."
+
+  Grove, Sir George, "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+
+  Halleck, R.P., "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+  Handel, G.F., "The Messiah."
+
+  Haupt, August, "Choralbuch."
+
+  Liszt, Franz, "Life of Chopin."
+
+  Lubbock, Sir John, "Pleasures of Life."
+
+  Luther, Martin, "Table Talk."
+
+  Mendelssohn, Felix, "Letters from Italy and Switzerland."
+
+  Parker, J.H., "ABC of Gothic Architecture."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Queen of the Air."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Sesame and Lilies."
+
+  Ruskin, John, "Val d'Arno."
+
+  Saintine, X.B., "Picciola."
+
+  Schubert, Franz, "Songs."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Album for the Voung."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Letters."
+
+  Schumann, Robert, "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+  Tapper, Thomas, "Chats with Music Students."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+  Tyndall, John, "On Sound."
+
+  Various Authors, "Les Maitres du Clavicin."
+
+  Xenophon, "Memorabilia."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Chats with Music Students
+
+OR
+
+TALKS ABOUT MUSIC AND MUSIC LIFE.
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS TAPPER.
+
+Price, Bound in Cloth, $1.50.
+
+This volume appeals to every student of music, however elementary or
+advanced. It is designed to bring to the attention of those who make
+music a life-work, the very many contingent topics that should be
+considered in connection with music. To this end the subjects selected
+for the chats have a practical value, cover considerable ground, and
+are treated from the point of view that best aids the student. The
+reader is taken into confidence, and finds in the chapters of this
+work many hints and benefits that pertain to his own daily life as a
+musician.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+21 SELECTED
+
+CRAMER STUDIES.
+
+From the Von Buelow Edition.
+
+PRICE $1.50, FIRMLY BOUND.
+
+The present complete edition sells for $2.50 and $3.00, retail. Much
+of the material in the complete edition can be eliminated without
+injury to its technical value. We have, therefore, made a selection of
+the choicest of Von Buelow's edition, which we have bound, in one
+volume, in very neat style. Only the most difficult and unimportant
+ones have been eliminated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Normal Course of Piano Technic.
+
+DESIGNED FOR
+
+SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS.
+
+By WM. B. WAIT.
+
+Price $1.50, Bound.
+
+The NORMAL COURSE is based upon the fundamental idea that, for the
+purpose of the development, discipline, and formation of the mind, and
+for teaching the learner how to think and to do, Technical Studies in
+Music are as useful as any other branch.
+
+FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
+
+  Clear, concise statements of facts and principles.
+
+  It deals only with essentials.
+
+  It arranges the materials in grades, by Divisions, Courses, and
+  Steps.
+
+  It exhibits a distinct mode and order of development.
+
+  The course is as clearly laid out as in any other branch of study.
+
+  Practice based upon understanding of means as applied to ends.
+
+  It permits the attention to be given to the hands in practice, and
+  not to the pages.
+
+  In schools it will secure uniformity in the instruction given.
+
+  It furnishes the bases for oral recitations and examinations as in
+  other subjects.
+
+  It is logical, systematic, thorough.
+
+  It is a book for use by schools, teachers, and students.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES:
+
+ 1: From the "Table Talk."
+
+ 2: Play to the children Schubert's song entitled "The Organ-man."
+
+ 3: Phillips Brooks says in one of his sermons ("Identity and
+    Variety"): "Every act has its perfect and entire way of being
+    done."
+
+ 4: Bohn edition, p. 35.
+
+ 5: Read to the children such parts of Francesca Alexander's "Christ's
+    folk in the Apennine" as seem to you pertinent.
+
+ 6: John Ruskin, from the ninth lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 7: John Ruskin. Third lecture of "Val d'Arno."
+
+ 8: Franz Liszt's "Life of Chopin," Chapter V.
+
+ 9: _Ibid_, Chapter VI.
+
+
+10: "On Sound."
+
+11: "On Sound" is referred to. The last paragraph of Section 10,
+    Chapter II, may interest the children. The last two paragraphs of
+    Section 13 are not only interesting, but they show how simply a
+    scientist can write.
+
+12: If the original is desired, see Tyndall's "Glaciers of the Alps."
+
+13: Schumann wrote in a letter to Ferdinand Hiller, "We should learn
+    to refine the inner ear."
+
+14: From the sermon entitled "The Seriousness of Life."
+
+15: Notice sometime how many of our English words have the Latin
+    _con_.
+
+16: See the fourth chapter of Reuben Post Halleck's "Psychology and
+    Psychic Culture."
+
+17: For instance, the subject of the C minor Fugue in the first book
+    of "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
+
+18: The subject of the C sharp minor Fugue.
+
+19: The prelude in E flat minor and the subject of the G sharp minor
+    Fugue.
+
+20: Robert Schumann.
+
+21: Quoted by Xenophon in the "Memorabilia," Book II, Chapter I, Bohn
+    edition.
+
+22: "Heroes and Hero Worship," Lecture I.
+
+23: From the sermon entitled "Backgrounds and Foregrounds."
+
+24: I should again suggest the value of letting the children become
+    familiar with such books as J.H. Parker's "A B C of Gothic
+    Architecture;" and of having always about plenty of photographs of
+    great buildings, great men, great works of art and of famous
+    places for them to see and to know ("_letting_ them _become_
+    familiar," remember).
+
+25: See R.P. Halleck's "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
+
+26: Read paragraphs 41 and 42 of John Ruskin's "Athena Chalinitis,"
+    the first lecture of "Queen of the Air."
+
+27: John Ruskin, from the lecture entitled "Franchise," in "Val
+    d'Arno," par. 206.
+
+28: "Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and
+    Switzerland." Letter of July 15, 1831.
+
+29: "Letter of December 19, 1831."
+
+30: Read also what is said of Chopin on p. 28.
+
+31: Read to the children "The Wonderful Weaver" in "Old Greek
+    Stories," by James Baldwin. It is only a few pages in length, and
+    is well told.
+
+32: Robert Schumann.
+
+33: John Ruskin's "Queen of the Air," par. 102. ("Athena Ergane.")
+    Read all of it to the children.
+
+34: _Idem_.
+
+35: Lord Bacon, from the essay "Of Great Places."
+
+36: Robert Schumann.
+
+37: Read John Ruskin's "Sesame and the Lilies," par. 19, and as much
+    of what follows as you deem wise.
+
+38: "The Ethics," Book IX, Chapter VII.
+
+39: Always I have it in mind that the teacher will read or make
+    reference to the original when the source is so obvious as in this
+    case. The teacher's, or mother's, discretion should, however,
+    decide what and how much of such original should be read, and what
+    it is best to say of it.
+
+40: I have not attempted to quote the exact words usually given.
+
+41: Socrates. This quotation is from the "Memorabilia of Xenophon,"
+    Book I, Chapter VI.
+
+42: Mary Russell Mitford.
+
+43: "Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Bohn edition, p. 23.
+
+44: "The Miserere" of "Gregorio Allegri." It was written for nine
+    voices in two choirs. "There was a time when it was so much
+    treasured that to copy it was a crime visited with
+    excommunication. Mozart took down the notes while the choir was
+    singing it." (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
+    Vol. I, page 54.)
+
+45: Dr. Bridge "On Simple Counterpoint." Preface.
+
+46: Take, in August Haupt's "_Choralbuch zum haeuslichen Gebrauch_,"
+    any simple choral. The one entitled "_Zion klagt mit Angst und
+    Schmerzen_" is of singular beauty and simplicity.
+
+47: Peters Edition, No. 200, page 11.
+
+48: I should advise the teacher to have the two volumes entitled "_Les
+    Maitres du Clavicin_." (They can be had in the Litolff
+    collection.)
+
+49: Op. 106.
+
+50: "_Der Erster Verlust_" in Schumann's Op. 68 is well conceived in
+    the sense that it is freely harmonic in some places, imitative in
+    others, while in the opening the melody is very simply
+    accompanied. Show the children how interesting the left-hand part
+    is in this little composition.
+
+51: From a Letter of the Spectator.
+
+52: From the eighth paragraph of the Lecture entitled "Nicholas, the
+    Pisan," in "Val D'Arno."
+
+53: A blind beggar sitting on a bridge in an English town (it was
+    Chester) many times astonished me with the rapidity of his
+    hand-reading, and by the wonderful light of his face. It was
+    wholly free from the perplexity which most of us show. It must
+    arise in us from being attracted by so many things.
+
+54: Eighty-first paragraph of "Val d'Arno."
+
+55: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "The Meditations," Book V, Par. 34.
+
+56: See footnote, p. 119.
+
+57: From the thirteenth paragraph of the fourth book. I have changed
+    the wording a very little to make it simple.
+
+58: Sixteenth paragraph of the fifth book.
+
+59: _Essi quam videri._
+
+60: "The Memorabilia."
+
+61: "Epictetus," H.W. Rollison's Translation.
+
+62: Plato.
+
+63: Mozart wrote three symphonies between June 26th and August 10th,
+    in the year 1778; and an Italian, Giovanni Animuccia, is said to
+    have written three masses, four motettes, and fourteen hymns
+    within five months. As an instance of early composition, Johann
+    Friedrich Bernold had written a symphony before he was ten years
+    of age, and was famous all over Europe.
+
+64: Xenophon, "The Memorabilia," Book IV, Chapter VIII.
+
+65: From the "Pleasures of Life." Eighth Chapter of the Second Series.
+
+66: The little romance of N.B. Saintine is referred to.
+
+67: Read to the children Chapter XIV in my "Chats with Music
+    Students."
+
+68: "Rules for Young Musicians."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MUSIC TALKS WITH CHILDREN***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 14339.txt or 14339.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/3/14339
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/14339.zip b/old/14339.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7391bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14339.zip