Music: An Art and a Language

and symmetry was always the result of free experimentation—
hence vitally connected with the emotions and mental processes
of all human effort. One of the most significant of the many say-
ings attributed to Daniel Webster is that “Sovereignty rests with
the people”; and it is an interesting inquiry to see what wider
application may be made of this statement in the field of art.
For it is a fact that there has seldom been an important school
of music, so-called—in any given place and period—which was
not founded on the emotional traits, the aspirations and the
ideals of the people. Surely one of the distinct by-products of
the Great War is to be the emancipation of the art of music,
along with that of all the other arts. Such a realization of its
nature and powers will result that it shall no longer be a mere
exotic amusement of the leisure and wealthy classes, but shall
be brought into direct touch with the rank and file of the people;
even, if you will, with the so-called “lower classes”—that part of
humanity from which, indeed, it sprung and with which it really
belongs—just human beings, just people. So in music also we
may assert that “Sovereignty rests with the people.” Although
all art reflects popular sentiment to a certain extent, in no one of
the arts—as painting, sculpture and architecture—is there such
a vital record of the emotions and artistic instincts of humanity
as we find in the realm of folk-song.[21] During the early period
of Church music, while theorists and scholars were struggling
with the intricate problems of polyphonic style, the people in
their daily secular life were finding an outlet for their emotions,
for their joys and sorrows, in song and in dance. This instinct
for musical expression is universal, and just because the prod-
ucts of such activity were unfettered by rules, they exercised in
process of time much influence upon the development of modern
style. Folk-songs are characterized by a freshness and simplic-
ity, a directness of utterance, which are seldom attained by the
conscious efforts of genius. “Listen carefully to all folk-songs,”
says Schumann. “They are a storehouse of beautiful melody,
and unfold to the mind the innate character of the different
peoples.” They are like wild flowers blooming unheeded by the
wayside, the product of the race rather than the individual, and
for centuries were only slightly known to cultivated musicians.
It should be understood that words and music were inextrica-
bly bound together and that, with both, dancing was naturally
associated; the very essence of a people’s life being expressed by
this tripartite activity. Tonal variety is a marked feature in folk-