Chinese Music #233024

The origin of music may from its nature be attributed to times coeval with the appearance of man on earth. Indeed, what is music? Listen to the accents of Nature! Hear the murmur of streams, the whisper of trees' leaves, the moaning of winds, the distant rolling of thunder, the resounding majesty of the ocean! Notice the bleating of the timid sheep, the lowing of herds, the singing of the lark, the animated cadence of the nightingale! What are all those voices but music, but a concert — a hymn which impresses the soul and elevates it to the ideal of infinite beauty? When man began to contemplate the vast universe, his attention was naturally directed to harmonious Nature. The singing of birds, above all, must have deeply impressed him and led him to vocal imitation. In the course of time he contrived to combine the natural sounds of his voice into a system, to arrange them into melodies agreeable to the ear, and, finally, to make instruments by which the melodies could be rendered. Mythology shows us orpheus, on the Thracian mountains, submitting the forest monsters to the power of his lyre; arion escaping submersion; amphion building cities. If we open the annals of history we find EU hsi playing on the ch'in timotheus subjugating alexander; the rustic Spartans proscribing every art except music; the same Spartans, often defeated, led to victory by the songs of the Athenian tyrteus. In the Holy Scriptures we are told of tubal cain, the sixth descendant from cain, manufacturing instruments; of moses singing a hymn with accompaniment of timbrels, after the passage of the Red Sea; and of King david playing on the harp. The Egyptian history mentions ptolemy philadelphus employing a band of 600 musicians to celebrate the feast of Bacchus; and ptolemy auletes, or the flute player, competing in his own palace with the greatest professional musicians. Indeed, no nation on earth has existed that did not love that enchanting art, however rude and artless the primitive systems may have been. It is everywhere an instinct of Nature, a want of the soul; it is found in the camps, in the forests, in the gilded palaces of the despots of the East, in the meadows of America; it cheers solitude; it charms society; it animates at the same time war and pastoral life.