1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



325 



guage. A lady played an accompaniment on 

 the piano. I did not enjoy the piece very much. 

 In fact, I was a little provoked to think that a 

 celebrated singer should come before an Amer- 

 ican audience and sing in German. But music, 

 you know, is the universal language, and so I 

 expected that I could appreciate the music, if 

 not the sense expressed in the words. To my 

 surprise, however, I did not " catch on " to the 

 music, much if any better than I did the Ger- 

 man words. In fact, I felt a good deal inclined 

 to criticise our brother, and to say to myself 

 there was not any music about it, and to sug- 

 gest that he was putting on airs. etc. Well. 

 when that great crowd of men and women, 

 boys and girls, encored him to such an extent 

 that they almost insisted on his coming back 

 and singing again, I began to get vexed with 

 the audience, and to say to myself, "' This is a 

 new and fashionable sort of craze, and they all 

 pretend they are pleased with such a senseless 

 performance." Then I began to look around on 

 the audience, and to study their fac<'S. I think 

 I have learned to distinguish an intelligent per- 

 son by his looks — at least, to some extent. I 

 was perplexed. The audience was composed 

 mostly of young people; and a finer, brighter, 

 and more intelligent lot of faces I think I never 

 saw. Quite a number of them were Germans; 

 and the real honest delight that shone forth 

 from those German faces as they clapped their 

 hands (as only Germans can clap), indicated 

 beyond question that there was downright hon- 

 est energy and enthusiam, and that it was prob- 

 ably myself that was lacking, and not the sing- 

 er and the audience. 



Then a German organist came on the stage. 

 He was said to be one of the finest play(>rs in 

 America; but I was disappointed again. He 

 threw his whole soul and all the energy of his 

 being into the performance. Not only his 

 hands and face and the motions of his head, but 

 his feet and his knees also, took part, and his 

 body seemed full of inspiration; but it was all 

 an unknown tongue to me, even though it did 

 come from the organ. Many of the passages 

 were difficult, without question. Once or twice 

 I could catch a little glimpse of melody; but 

 just as soon as I began to hope it would contin- 

 ue in that strain, or repeat it with some varia- 

 tion, both time and tune seemed to be absolute- 

 ly jumbled up; and before I knew it I was 

 working hard to scrape up charity, as in the 

 former case, to have faith that he and the au- 

 dience knew what he was doing. In this case 

 such a storm of applause burst forth from that 

 great audience, and that storm was kept up for 

 quite a long interval (for they seemed deter- 

 mined to call him back), that I was completely 

 dumbfounded. 



After this, a lady came on the program — a 

 distinguished pianist. I believe that, since I 

 was of a very tender age— say three or four 

 years old — I could understand women better 

 than men. The sight of a cultured and intelli- 

 gent woman is always pleasant to me, even if 

 she does not sing nor speak; and I leli sure I 

 should be able to understand at least a little of 

 the next piece on the program. The woman 

 was beautiful, and she looked smart and bright; 

 but I began to be troubled almost at once, for 

 she simply struck the instrument at long inter- 

 vals; and the tones that it gave forth were not 

 pleasant either. They were, to me, meaning- 

 less. I concluded that it was, perhaps, a sort of 

 preamble that did not mean any thing particu- 

 larly to anybody, and hoped she would get 

 "down to business" after awhile, and play 

 something. It was all pretty much like the 

 Krst, however. Once or twice there were a few 

 chords, or perhaps a bar or two, that, by a 

 stretch of the imagination. I could think might 



have some melody about them, if one understood 

 the matter, and was familiar with this (to me) 

 unknown language; but just as soon as I began 

 to feel hopeful that I was "catching on" just a 

 little, she just knocked it all over by getting 

 shockingly out of time and out of tune. I re- 

 member of asking myself whether it were pos- 

 sible that anybody could beat time for such 

 music; and I mentally decided that it must be 

 a sort of music where time wa» pitched out of 

 the window; and I was greatly tempted to say 

 to myself that I more than half believed the 

 tune was pitched out of the window also. And 

 what did Carrie say to all this classical music? 

 Why, she enjoyed it hugely. She admitted, 

 however, when questioned closely, that some of 

 the passages were beyond her comprehension 

 and training; and she rather thought that one 

 who understood it could beat time to all the 

 music that evening. Shortly afterward I met a 

 professional teacher .who has for years drilled 

 the juveniles in our Medina schools in music. 

 I have mentioned him before in these pages. 

 In reply to my inquiry he said, " Why, to be 

 sure one could beat time to every piece of music 

 that was played during the evening. It was 

 all right— every bit of it. The only trouble is, 

 you were unfamiliar with it." 



During the latter part of the performance the 

 Oberlin Glee Club sang some pieces. The har- 

 mony and beauty of so many trained voices was 

 plain enough; but the pieces were all something 

 I had never heard before, and therefore I could 

 not enjoy them very much. Oh how I did long 

 for just one strain of Old Hundred, or some- 

 thing from the Moody and Sankey Hymns;— 

 just a little glimpse, if nothing more, to remind 

 me of something I could recognize. I did not 

 get it, however, and so the great concert, that 

 seemed to awaken such enthusiasm among hun- 

 dreds of educated and intelligent people, was to 

 me almost a blank. I fell to wondering once or 

 twice whether it were not my duty as a Chris- 

 tian to applaud just a little with the rest; but, 

 even though Paul did say, " I am become all 

 things to all men," I did not feel that I was call- 

 ed upon to applaud something that I did not 

 understand. I could express my satisfaction 

 at the performance of the glee club; and when 

 the Oberlin Football Club came on to the stage 

 with their playing uniforms, and sang some- 

 thing, the words of which were full of comical 

 pleasantry, I felt that I could applaud then, 

 even If the music were still unfamiliar. 



Now. friends, why do you suppose I tell all of 

 this? Why have I needlessly " trotted out" my 

 ignorance and my lack of musical training, or 

 ear for music? What is the point, any way ? 

 Whv, it is this: 



I did not enjoy the concert in one sense: but 

 in another sense I did enjoy it, because it seem- 

 ed to me as though God in his providence was 

 teaching me a great lesson. You remember the 

 time when Peter was taught that great object- 

 lesson by a vision that came down from heaven. 

 At first he rejected it, and said, " Not so. Lord." 

 But the angel replied, •' What God hath cleans- 

 ed, call not thou common." Suppose that, in 

 my stupidity. I had said to myself. "These peo- 

 ple on the stage are all a pack of idiots. They 

 h7iow there is not any sense nor music in all this 

 folderol;" and suppose I had.'furthermore. said 

 that that great faudience of people, mostly 

 scholars, many of them graduates, probably, 

 were also a pack of idiots, and that they pre- 

 tended they were pleased just because it was a 

 new thing, and fashiomible. I was greatly 

 tempted to sav something of this sort, but, thank 

 God, a little streak of common sense was left to 

 me— enough to overcome my preposterous ego- 

 tism. Grace enough was given me to say, " If 

 there is any idiot at all in this whole assembly. 



