Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home, page: 0360

450 Of The World's Best Songs And Hymns, With Lyrics & Sheet music for voice & piano.

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	Music exists for the expression of varied emotion� sadness, longing, hope, triumph, aspirations toward the unobtained or the indefinite, calm fulfilment of an artistic conception of fitness and beauty; and besides these, monotony, long spell of unbroken quiescence, mental perturbation even to a positive sense of physical discomfort, are absolutely essential to relieve and heighten the more ecstatic emotions of pleasure called forth by a musical composition. We cannot always be burning with passion and reciting dramatic duets or heading triumphal processions. We do not do so in real life. This is what the Italians have failed to recognize. Their staggering tenors and palpitating sopranos rave together down by the prompter's box in	an almost unintermittent frenzy of passion; a very parody of life bereft of many of its tranquil calms and minor impressions pleasurably painful, each having its own special effect and value by contrast in relation to the rest of our lives. It is not only vivid impressions that are interesting; these heaped up one upon another constitute a plethora of over-strained excitement that will jade and exhaust themost passionate nature. There are countless experiences in life which leave us in a tranquil condition of enjoyment; and since these make up by far the greater portion of our existence, and are the vehicle of the most powerful emotions, are they not worthy of a prominent place in so comprehensive an index of human sentiment as is music ?�Chambers.
	THE TREES AND THE MASTER.
	Sidney Lanier.