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"The melody of every grace And music of her face." Lovelace. |
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"And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight; All melodies the echoes of that voice." Coleridge. |
ALL musical tones please the ear, and affect to a greater or lesser degree the finer senses; for as beautifully and expressively sings Cowper, explaining this sensibility,—
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"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:... Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies." |
The musical instrument, of itself lying cold and inanimate, may become, when touched by the hand of genius, seemingly a thing of life as the performer evolves from its board tones of melody so thrillingly sweet, so soulful, as to awaken in the listener's breast the holiest emotions. Even stout-hearted men have shed the tear of feeling when listening to the tenderly touching strains of the voiceful violin; while the musical moanings of the violoncello have caused them to experience feelings of a tender sadness.
NELLIE E. BROWN.
I saw this exemplified, when, a short while ago, I listened with rapt attention to the marvellously sweet singing of the violin of that rare virtuoso, Ole Bull. The performer appeared like one inspired; and his noble instrument seemed sentient as under his magnetic hand its pure, melodic, and at times human-like voice, so replete with poetic, soulful expression, gave out tones of most exquisite beauty and grandeur, while every heart of his vast, enraptured audience throbbed in unison.
Still it is only once in a great while that one may witness the production of effects like those just described: and I think, that although the lines of Cowper, previously quoted, may refer to the effect of musical sounds in general, they yet are more particularly expressive of the impressions produced upon the ear and the heart by the melodious echoings of a human voice when heard in song; for then a real, a living soul, with aid of music's charm, breathes to soul its joys, its pathos, its inmost longings,—touching indeed the unseen,