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Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise, The towers, the domes, the temples fall;
The fortress crumbles and decays,
One breath of song outlasts them all.
Oliver Wendell Holmes. To Rev. S. P. Smith. Author of " My Country, Tis of Thee" |
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One of my keenest musical Impressions is connected with that marvellous show, the first World's Fair, held in London, and known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition. I shall never see such another. As I stood in the gallery of the great crystal transept and looked down upon a spectacle such as has been witnessed since, but had never before been seen, a feeling of intoxication�there is no other word for it�came over me. I remember perfectly weU falling into a kind of dream as I leaned over the painted iron balcony and looked down on the splendid vista. The silver-bell-like tones of an Erard�it was the iooo-guinea piano-pierced through the human hum and noise of splashing waters, but it was a long way off. Suddenly, in the adjoining gallery, the large organ broke out with a blare of trumpets that thrilled and riveted me with an inconceivable emotion. I knew not then what those open�ing bars were. Evidently something martial, festal, jubilant and full of triumph. I listened and held my breath to hear Mendelssohn's " Wedding March " for the first time, and not know it I To hear it when half the people present had never heard of Mendelssohn, three years after his death, and when not one in a hundred could have told me what was being played, that is an experience I shall never forget. As successive waves of fresh inex�haustible inspiration flowed on, vibrating through the building without a check or a pause, the peculiar Mendelssohnian spaces of cantabile melody alternating as they do in that march with the passionate and almost fierce decision of the chief processional theme, I stood riveted, bathed in the sound as in an element. I felt ready to melt into those har�monious yet turbulent waves and float away upon the tides of "Music's golden sea setting toward Eternity." The angel of Tennyson's Vision might have stood by me whispering, "And thou listenest the lordly music flowing from the illimitable years." Some one called me, so I was told afterward, but I did not hear. They supposed that I was following; they went on, and were soon lost in the crowd. Presently one came back and touched me, but I did not feel. I could not be roused, my soul was living apart from my body. When the music ceased the spell slowly dissolved, and I was led away still half in dreamland. For long years afterward the " Wedding March " affected me strangely.�Haweis* Musical Memories. |
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«�« The Franklin Square Song Collection, comprising Eight numbers, has sold its hundreds of thocsands. The present Supplementary Number, which is more than twice the size of any that has prc^ded it, is issued in response to the wish of many who have enjoyed the series. Our purpose has Been to make this final number the best book of its kind in the world. It is made up from all that havt preceded it; and contains some favorite songs not found in any of them. In its 400 pages there are 450 songs and hymns, with much additional matter of interest and value. When we consider the influence of a song or hymn sung by generations and beloved of millions, the pleasure it has af�forded, the hojpe it has inspired, the love it has breathed, the courage it has aroused, stirring the depths of feeling and enriching life with experiences and memories ; when we think of hundreds of such heart-songs of home and country, each with its history of deepest interest, could it be writ�ten ; when we know that the Franklin Square Collection, made up largely of such songs, is a book known and prized, used and enjoyed, in perhaps a hundred thousand schools and homes in and be�yond the United States,�when we consider all this, and what it means, we are almost ready to say that nothing has been published within a generation, either in America or in Europe, that we would rather have given to the world. These books reach so many people of fine sensibility ; are referred to with pleased interest so often and so widely ; are enjoyed, alone and with others, by day and by night, on land and sea, with voice and musical instruments of every kind ; and grow in favor, as they become better known, with young and old. rich and poor, learned and unlearned. Blessings on the dear old songs and those who made them j All the ment of the book is theirs. The Compiler is simply glad and grateful that it has been his privilege to contribute to the enjoyment of so many good people, so widely scattered, yet everywhere recognizing the " one touch of nature " that makes the whole world kin." To Prof. Carl Matz, and to publishers who have kindly permitted the use of their copyrighted songs, he is under special obligations. |
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Copyright, 1899, by J. P. McCaskey. |
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W. P. 12 |
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