1 8 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



time in the creations of a few exceptional geniuses, to be in turn 

 imitated by lesser genius or mere talent, until at last there was accu- 

 mulated a vast amount of material to which one may refer as constitut- 

 ing the art of that particular period or nation ? 



Such questions, which may seem to be mere platitudes, are, I am 

 convinced, only such to the few, for even among the better educated 

 class there is often to be found not only an absence of a knowledge of 

 music (that phase of art which we are at present considering), but, 

 to put it rather humorously, there exists an undefined feeUng that 

 music contains no ** department of learning" — which possibly explains 

 why those who regret their ignorance of other subjects do not hesitate 

 to confess to, and seem almost proud of, their ignorance of music. 



The volumes of history are too full of "wars and rumors of wars" to 

 allow much space for the dreams of the world's dreamers to be 

 recorded, and hence it is along the byways rather than on the well- 

 traveled broad road of recorded history that we catch glimpses, not 

 so much of art, but of what men and women have thought of art, 

 and of what was its message to them. Each human heart goes at 

 last to its grave, and with it is buried the key which alone can unlock 

 its real history — a history which contains art's message to that heart; 

 for that message could not be retranslated into words, being an inde- 

 finable something which for the time being freed from its narrow prison 

 house "the spirit, which may be so 'cabined, cribbed, confined' as 

 not to come to any consciousness of itself."^ 



In comparing the different periods of the history of music, whether 

 measured by decades, generations or centuries, after all that can be 

 said on the subject of the reaction on the composer of the social and 

 political influences of his time, a final consideration must be that of 

 the musical personality of the composer himself, which is revealed 

 at least in part by his attitude toward music, and which is measured 

 not by the rank of his genius but rather by his sincerity. This sincere 

 earnestness as contrasted with a selfish mercenary attitude is a very 

 vital question. The following passage, also from Professor Corson's 

 Introduction to Browning, can be applied to music : 



• Professor Hiram Corson, Introduction to Brooming. 



