18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"Devoid of printed notes, the Tzigane is not forced to divide his attention 

 between a sheet of paper and his instrument, and there is consequently nothing 

 to detract from the utter abandonment with which he absorbs himself in his play- 

 ing. He seems to be sunk in an inner world of his own ; the instrument sobs 

 and moans in his hands, and is pressed tight against his heart as though it had 

 grown and taken root there. This is the true moment of inspiration, to which 

 he rarely gives way, and then only in the privacy of an intimate circle, never 

 before a numerous and unsympathetic audience. Himself spell-bound by the 

 power of the tones he evokes, his head gradually sinking lower and lower over 

 the instrument, the body bent forward in an attitude of rapt attention, and his 

 ear seeming to hearken to far-off ghostly strains audible to himself alone, the 

 untaught Tzigane achieves a perfection of expression unattainable by mere pro- 

 fessional training. 



" This power of identification with his music is the real secret of the Tzigane's 

 influence over his audience. Inspired and carried away by his own strains, he 

 must perforce carry his hearers with him as well; and the Hungarian listener 

 throws himself heart and sonl into this species of musical intoxication, which to 

 him is the greatest delight on earth. There is a proverb which says, 'The Hun- 

 garian only requires a gypsy fiddler and a glass of water in order to make him 

 quite drunk;' and, indeed, intoxication is the only word fittingly to describe 

 the state of exaltation into which I have seen a Hungarian audience thrown by a 

 gypsy band. 



" Sometimes, under the combined influence of music and wine, the Tziganes 

 become like creatures possessed ; the wild cries and stamps of an equally excited 

 audience only stimulate them to greater exertions. The whole atmosphere seems 

 tossed by billows of passionate harmony ; we seem to catch sight of the electric 

 sparks of inspiration flying through the air. It is then that the Tzigane player 

 gives forth everything that is secretly lurking within him fierce anger, childish 

 wailings, presumptuous exaltation, brooding melancholy, and passionate despair; 

 and at such moments, as a Hungarian writer has said, one could readily believe 

 in his power of drawing down the angels from heaven into hell! 



" Listen how another Hungarian has here described the effect of their music : 

 'How it rushes through the veins like electric fire! How it penetrates straight 

 to the soul! In soft plaintive minor tones the adagio opens with a slow rhythmi- 

 cal movement : it is a sighing and longing of unsatisfied aspirations ; a craving 

 for undiscovered happiness; the lover's yearning for the object of his affection; 

 the expression of mourning for lost joys, for happy days gone forever; then 

 abruptly changing to a major key, the tones get faster and more agitated; and 

 from the whirlpool of harmony the melody gradually detaches itself, alternately 

 drowned in the foam of overbreaking waves, to reappear floating on the surface 

 with undulating motion collecting as it were fresh power for a renewed burst of 

 fury. But quickly as the storm came it is gone again, and the music relapses into 

 the melancholy yearnings of heretofore.' " The Land beyond the Forest, vol. ii, 

 pp. 122-4. London, 1888. 



After the evidence thus furnished, argument is almost super- 

 fluous. The origin of music as the developed language of emotion 

 seems to be no longer an inference but simply a description of 

 the fact. 



