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Music from the East. |
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in the trained vocal music which they have found in the theatres of the great Transatlantic cities. There is something, after all, in organisation; and though it may appear presumptuous and paradoxical to venture so sweeping a definition, I must say that some research and experience have brought me to a firm belief that there are races and nations in whom certain of the finest artistic senses (capriciously enough distributed) have no existence. I dare to believe that the music of the Greeks was so much foolishness, if it be measured against their colossal drama, their divine sculpture; and nurture a secret and deep irreverence against the harpers, pipers, and sym-phonists, whose strange forms in the monumental sculptures of Egypt have set speculation so eagerly to work, "and have beguiled so many ingenious people into conceiving that the art of music was with them something rich, complete, and attractive; the key to the cipher being untowardly lost.
The musical humour of the East seems to undergo a marked change at the points where instruments come in. At that juncture (wherever it may arrive), something distinct and precise, indicating the enjoyments of the dance or the discipline of the march, enters likewise. Here—to give an example of a |
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