THE MODERN LYRIC. 851 



3. Contrast of Idea. 



The skilful introduction of contrasts is one of the funda- 

 mental duties of all true artists. Our complicated natures 

 must be a)3pealed to on all sides. We need shadow as well 

 as sunshine, rebuffs and encouragements, drudgery and con- 

 genial occupation, anxiety and hope, sorrow and joy, work 

 and rest, adversity and prosperity, in order to draw out all 

 our powers and complete our experience. The artist under- 

 stands that the play of human emotion is as varied as the 

 contour of the clouds or the currents of the sea, and he 

 realises that his art also, if it is to express or appeal to 

 human emotion, must be varied, mobile, objective. 



In Schubert's setting of Goethe's " Erl King " we have a 

 fine example of tbe power of contrast. As Dr. Parry says, 

 " Schubert gives the impression of the wild elements, and of 

 the headlong career through the night, the terror of the 

 child, the anxiety of the father, and the mocking summons 

 of the Erl King, and combines it all in sounds which rush 

 with excitement ever increasing from moment to moment, 

 till, with their arrival at the door of their home, the music, 

 like their headlong career, stops suddenly, and in a stillness 

 of despair, the father's horror at finding his child dead in 

 his arms is simply told in six quiet words." 



4. Brevity. 



A song must not be long. In these days of abbreviated 

 novels, short sermons, reduced hours of labour, and epitomes 

 of everything, it is only fitting that our songs should be con- 

 densed, and that the long-winded anecdotes in poor verse, 

 which used to do duty as songs, should be " rolled up in 

 cotton wool and gum camphor, and placed upon the back 

 shelf of historical memories." When we take up an old 

 song-album and find that the majority of its numbers consist 

 of about four or perhaps eight lines of melody with a 

 monotonous accompaniment, to which are set some ten or 

 fifteen verses of uninteresting poetry, we are amazed at the 

 patience of our forefathers. The music written for the first 

 verse was required, like a family umbrella, to be at general 

 disposal, and was expected to take any number of " lines " 

 under its friendly protection. The accompaniment was there, 

 a fixture, and the words had to adapt themselves to it as best 

 they might. The modern method aims at the reverse of 

 this, The music takes its cue from the words, sympa- 



