ORIENTAL MUSIC. 245 



The use of silk for strings and the employment of instruments of 

 extreme softness in the East, sufficiently disprove the statement that 

 ancient music was barbaric and noisy. Many instruments of percus- 

 sion are soft as drops of water falling into a fountain. Chaldean music 

 was soft and sentimental. Egyptian harps were not of powerful tone. 

 The Hindoos have a flute with vibratory apparatus so extremely deli- 

 cate that it is sounded by one end being suddenly pressed to the neck of 

 the performer. The Greeks and Persians loved soft music, and singers 

 did not strain their voices. The Hebrews alone among ancient people 

 sang " with all their might " unrestrainedly, and delighted in making 

 a grand consensus of tone in their choruses of voices and instruments 

 and the clapping of hands. In other nations solo performances were 

 more general, and among the Hindoos an executant would risk his repl^ 

 tation if he did not execute variations on a theme at each recurrence. 

 These and other performances were most frequently extemporaneous. 

 Conception and realization being thus conjoined, the result of sudden 

 impulse, it was necessary for the player to warm with his theme until 

 he became intensely interested in it ; and his excited imagination to 

 be stimulated by other influences until he succeeded in his artistic 

 efforts, and in gratifying his audience. No cold reflection supervened, 

 the composer was his own performer, his enthusiasm was perceived 

 and his improvisations at every turn were surj^rises that gave delight. 



A complete history of music would be a history of the world, so 

 intimately is it found connected with the language, habits, poetry, 

 religion, and life of the various nations. Our form of the art is alone 

 adapted to our wants ; and when we consider its enhanced powers, its 

 modern counterpoint and harmony, we are at a loss to understand how 

 Oriental music, with its greater limitations, could exercise so j)owerful 

 a sway over its hearers. 



Oriental music has, for ages, shed a benignant and salutary influ- 

 ance on the hearts, minds, and senses of millions of persons, and still 

 is a source of gratification to more than half the population of the 

 globe. It has given immediate expression to many various conditions 

 of mind, has raised noble feelings and subdued painful ones ; it has 

 alleviated suffering and softened down coarseness and hardness of 

 heart. 



The joys and sorrows, aspirations and emotions of an age are sound- 

 ed forth in its music ; therefore that of the past is chiefly valuable as a 

 contribution to historic national psychology. Let us so live that our 

 own music, as a reflex image of ourselves, may attest our progress, 

 not only in the physical sciences, but in nobleness of soul and all true 

 worthiness. 



