7 
could have thought of, and an idea which was beautiful, and would 
remain beautiful, even when familiar? Mr. Davey confessed 
himself unable to say. 
Illustrative music, as a topic more suited to an average 
audience, was dealt with at greater length. Only seldom could 
exact imitation of external matters be given. What was usually 
attempted is suggestion, by the use of sudden contrast. Often the 
suggestion required a great deal of make-believe on the part of 
the listener. Mr. Davey played passages from Bach’s Passion- 
music supposed to be descriptive of scourging, and the servants 
warming themselves before the fire; also from Handel’s Thick 
Darkness Chorus, which an auditor might not recognise without 
the words, though he would be able to tell whether darkness or 
light was intended. Motion in itself was not a very suitable 
subject for musical suggestion, but there are exceptions, as mill- 
wheels, and Handel’s ‘‘ Their land brought forth frogs”; while 
Dr. Strauss in Don Quixote had attempted to describe windmills. 
The fight between David and Goliath, from a descriptive sonata 
_ by Kuhnau, was played as a specimen of a different class. 
Vocal music, using words, generally touched the dramatic 
side of the art, even if not entirely dramatic; consequently it 
belonged usually to illustrative rather than structural music, solo 
music specially so. Composers of concert-music rarely succeeded 
with opera, and vice-versa. Mozart, the universal genius, alone 
perfectly succeeded in combining both species ; and even he only 
occasionally, his musical instinct generally leading him to repeat 
words and phrases against the dramatic sense of the passage. 
Wagner, who scarcely ever tried concert-music, had pointed out 
passages in his own works suitable to their place in the opera, but 
which might justly be blamed in abstract music. 
Real literal imitation of external sounds was sometimes 
successful. ‘‘ Alkan, in a pianoforte piece, imitates the moaning 
ofthe sea marvellously ; Elgar, the youngest of English composers, 
in his oratortio, Zhe Apostles, has exactly imitated the fall of 
Judas’s pieces of silver on the pavement ; Wagner has made the 
violins imitate the sound of scissors. While cannon-firing, 
galloping horses, and the smacking of whips can be well imitated, a 
thunderstorm cannot, and though attempts are frequent, they never 
rise above suggestion. ‘The rippling of a brook, or the course of 
‘a river, and moving water generally, are tempting subjects often 
used.” Mr. Davey instanced works by Smetana and Schubert. 
The moaning of wind reminded one of chromatic passages. 
Turning to animated nature, specimens of bird imitations 
were quoted; also Mendelssohn’s of the donkey’s bray, and 
Strauss’s of the bleating sheep in Den Quixote. 
After a few words upon such rhythms as marches and dances, 
hich might be recognised by their rhythms and suggested in 
ther pieces, so that music, as it were, illustrated music, Mr. 



















