listen, we make sense of the fabric of sounds and rhythms.
[Footnote 7: From earliest times, mothers have doubtless crooned
to their infants in instinctive lullabies.]
It is evident from the foregoing observations that our approach
to the subject is to be on the intellectual side. Music, to be sure,
is an emotional art and so appeals to our emotions, but these will
take care of themselves. We all have a reasonable supply of emo-
tion and practically no human being is entirely deficient in the
capacity for being moved by music. We can, however, sharpen
our wits and strengthen our musical memories; for it is obvious
that if we cannot recognize a theme or remember it whenever it
appears, often in an amplified or even subtly disguised form, we
are in no condition to follow and appreciate the logical growth
and development of the themes themselves which, in a work of
music, are just as real beings as the “dramatis personae” in a
play. The would-be appreciator should early recognize the fact
that listening to music is by no means passive, a means of light
amusement or to pass the time, but demands coöperation of an
active nature. Whether or not we have the emotional capacity of
a creator of music may remain an open question; but by system-
atic mental application wecan, as we listen to it, get from the
music that sense which the composer meant to convey. Music—
more than the other arts—demands, to use a happy expression
of D.G. Mason, that we “mentally organize our sensations and
ideas”; for the language of music has no such fixed grammar
as verbal modes of expression, and the message, even when re-
ceived, is suggestive rather than definite. In this way only can
the composition be recreated in our imaginations. For acquiring
this habit of mind, this alertness and concentration, the start,
as always, is more than half the battle. Schumann’s good advice
to young composers may be transferred to the listener: “Be sure
that you invent a thoroughly vital theme; the rest will grow of
itself from this.” Likewise in listening to music, one should be
sure to grasp the opening theme, the fundamental motive, in or-
der to follow it intelligently and to enjoy its subsequent growth
into the complete work.[8]
[Footnote 8: In this connection we cannot refrain from suggest-
ing the improvement which should be made in the concert man-
ners of the public. How often, at the beginning of a concert, do
we see people removing their wraps, looking at their neighbors,
reading the programme book,etc., instead of concentrating on