Why We Love Music

by Carl E. Seashore

THOUGHT REVIEW

General Principles

(1) We are entering upon a new era for musical instruments. (2) Present instruments will be improved, new instruments will be innovated, new ensembles will be achieved. (3) Conforming to this progress, present music will be adapted and new types of composition will appear. (4) In this changing order musical tastes will undergo significant changes. (5) The composer may now specify new conceptions of desired features, and the technicians will provide them. (6) Instrument makers will be able to produce or reproduce any musical sound in nature or art.

Consider These Questions

(1) If the violin strings are mounted on a perfect resonator with different shape from the present violin, will that be a violin? (2) If the piano can be built so as to eliminate all accessory noises, will pianists like it? (3) If the playing of new instruments will be made easier and better, will that tend to increase the number of students in music? (4) If all the good characteristics of present musical instruments can be reproduced in a much smaller number of instruments, will that be welcomed by the musical public? (5) If we are to have quarter-tone music, which is now possible, why will this demand new music aside from the size of the interval? (6) If an electronic organ could be built to do all that the best pipe organ now does, if the visible part were reduced to the appearance of a little writing desk, and if speakers were concealed in the walls throughout the building, how would the worshipper in church react to that situation? (7) Children now build their radios from purchased or home-made parts. It will be still easier for them to build a variety of musical instruments. Will they do it and with what effect?

Discuss These Situations

(1) At the Riverside Laboratory, Colonel Fabian built an organ with the pipes distributed throughout the three stories of a large building. The effect was as if the whole building were one grand organ. No matter how many sources there were for the same note, the tone of that note would always be heard as coming from a single source, the location of which depended upon the relative distances and intensities of the various sources. The result was "magical". Discuss the possibility and the significance of using this principle of installation in a house or in a cathedral. (2) It is possible to build a comparatively simple instrument which can yield pure tones throughout the musical register. Consider what role such an instrument might carry in an orchestra.

CHAPTER VIII
PRAISE AND BLAME IN MUSIC

Music is unique among esthetic appeals in that it demands immediate response in the form of praise or blame. The orator demands immediate response; but his appeal is to reasoning, not to feeling. The painter, sculptor, and poet demand esthetic response, but this response is delayed and does not keep the artist on the tip of his nerves to receive it. The musical appeal is all the more emotional because it is not only an appeal for personal recognition but for the aggrandizement of the noble art. The musician at all ages and all stages of advancement can perform for his own pleasure in isolation, but even here the demand for praise or blame on the spur of the moment is emphatic and essential.

It is, of course, fully recognized that at his best the musical performer is not conscious of making a direct appeal for approval by others. His objective is rather that of self-expression and experiment in the execution of an artistic skill. He is often aware of a negative attitude in his audience, and he may take an attitude of aloofness or superiority toward the audience, recognizing its incompetence. Yet back of it all, there may be even a distant hope of approval in a coming generation or the critical judgment of the select few; but the attitude of the immediate audience or the public toward his performance plays heavily upon his unanalyzed feelings and moods.

The bases for musical praise and blame are notoriously inadequate, be they meaningless approval, empty flattery, or censorious criticism. A general attitude of spontaneous approval without knowing or giving reasons among listeners in general is praiseworthy as an expression of good will; but for serious purposes we must question the competence of the listener for the response manifested. The fault may lie in the listener's ignorance of the art of music, his incompetence in recognizing elements of merit, his failure to credit the performer in relation to natural ability or purpose. Praise or blame may also carry or miscarry in so far as it may wisely serve to motivate or discourage the performer on the specific issues involved in the performance. With the sudden popularizing of music, the incoming tendency is to associate music with the beginning of a scientific approach to the understanding of the music and the musician. This situation is changing at a gratifying rate for the good of music. It is worth while to consider in some detail the factors in this progress.