848 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



8.— THE MODERN LYRIC, FROM A MUSICAL 

 STANDPOINT. 



By MISS EVELYNNE MILLS. 



The song is to music as the flowers are to Nature, not 

 perhaps its most important feature, but still a very helpful 

 and necessary component. The mission of each is, or ought 

 be, to soothe, to interest, to gladden, to bring out whatever 

 there is in us of the power of admiration, which, after all, is 

 very closely akin to adoration or worship — the highest of our 

 human faculties. 



It was late in musical history when the song reached per- 

 fection, perhaps for the reason that the great musicians had 

 been much occupied with the larger branches of their art, 

 and it would seem that every separate department of an art 

 needs the special attention of at least one master-mind to 

 bring its shadow-hidden possibilities into the sunlight of 

 reality. 



In eveiy good song the words are the first consideration, 

 and we may say that the model lyric contains five great 

 essential points : — 1 , Verbal simplicity ; 2, Verbal grace ; 3, 

 Contrast of idea ; 4, Brevity ; 5, An effective conclusion. I 

 use the word lyric in its original sense of a poem written to be 

 sung by one voice to the accompaniment of one instrument. 



1. Verbal Simplicity. 



The necessity for vei'bal simplicity is a point so often over- 

 looked by modern poets, that numbers of otherwise suitable 

 songs must be rejected by musicians simply because they 

 contain words too long to ]je sung in solo without producing 

 a clumsy effect, or one of undue hurry. As a general rule, 

 words of more than three syllables are out of jilace in a lyric. 

 The reason for this is that in all music, whatever the measure, 

 the accents fall either on every alternate or every third note. 

 The beat is either one two, one two, or one two three, one 

 two three. All modifications of " time " can be ultimately 

 reduced to one or other of these primary rhythms. In 

 listening to a song the ear is irritated if the syllables of one 

 word are spread over many of these pulses or beats, though 

 there is no objection to the sustaining of a single syllable for 

 an indefinite period. 



Another reason is, that in ordinary conversation we 



