LECTURE III – William Elbert Munsey
MUSIC.
THERE is nothing but what has its ideal. There is such a thing, if we can properly call it a thing, which we express by the word Beautiful. There is real beauty, and ideal beauty. Real beauty is always imperfect, therefore it is finite ; ideal beauty approaches the perfect, approaches the infinite, ultimating in God, the principle of all things, the principle and perfected ideal of beauty. Whenever the im- agination conceives an ideal, it feels at once the tendencies of its ideal to the immeasurable and boundless — to the in- finite.
The reproduction of the ideal by the genius of man, giving to form an expression which reaches beyond the senses and awakens in the mind the sentiment of the beautiful and in- finite, is Art. The great object of art is not to express the real, but the ideal. Art, to awaken in the mind the sentiments of the beautiful and infinite, and which it must do or it is„not art, must address itself to the senses, and through them touch, penetrate, and excite the incarnated soul. Of the five senses the sentiment of beauty can only be conveyed to the soul through the eye and ear, therefore the arts are divided into two classes : arts addressed to the eye, and arts addressed to the hearing. Among the arts ad- dressed to the hearing is Music. Music is an art. It is not the first of arts, however, and it has not expression in the same degree and direction as some other arts, yet of all arts it penetrates the mind and stirs it more deeply. Its pecu- liar province is within the range of the pathetic, and though it expresses but comparatively few of the sentiments, yet that few it expresses profoundly. It excels all other arts in its power to express those sentiments which are allied to the infinite, and which elevate the mind towards the infinite. It can almost waft the spirit into the presence of God.
Music is defined to be ” the science which teaches the properties, dependencies, and relations of melodious sounds, . … or the art of producing harmony and melody by the due combination and arrangement of sounds.” Sound is defined to be ” the sensations excited in the organs of hearing by the vibrations of the air or other medium.” The organ of sensation to sound is the ear. The two prime elements of simple music, that is music relieved of all its complications, and of all that is adventitious, are harmony and melody. Harmony is an agreeable effect on the ear of two, or more, proportionate and according musical sounds heard at the same instant. Melody is an agreeable effect on the ear of two, or more, succeeding musical sounds — it is the “rhythmical succession ” of single sounds, or single sounds proceeding and following each other at harmonic intervals or distances. When chords instead of single sounds succeed each other, the melody is complex, and is called modulation. Melody is generated by harmony, and is one of the forms of harmony ; and on the correctness of the harmony its beauty and excellency depend. It is a succession of harmonies — a perception of sound as harmonizing with sounds gone before, and retained by the memory. Harmony addresses itself to the understanding ; melody addresses itself to the emotions. Harmony affords an intellectual pleasure ; melody excites the feelings. Harmony is science ; melody is sentiment. We learn harmony ; melody is inspired.
But some sounds are musical, harmonious, and melodious, and other sounds are unmusical, unharmonious, and unmelodious. And this is so in defiance of human skill to produce the contrary. No man can generate music out of essential discords, and e converso. There is an immutable law governing the proportion, combination, and succession of musical sounds. This law is not the arbitrary creation of any mind, Divine or human. Music has a profound philosophy. The philosophic and abstract base of music is found in the harmony of the parts of the universal system of God, entering into a unity, ultimating in God Himself.
It is a philosophic axiom as old as Plato, that all unities imply pluralities, and that all pluralities must ultimate in unities. God’s system is composed of parts, yet these parts harmonize in their being and action into a unity, and in their successive harmonies evolved from their continued being and continued action present the abstract idea of melody. The whole system of God, of which He is the Intelligent Sensorium, the Royal Archetype, spiritual and material, including the government, laws, and abounding phenomena of both, is a perfect unity. Though constituted of parts, yet these parts are not independent, but wonderfully and accurately adapted to each other in the formation of one united whole. Every grade of life and intelligence, every order of things — organic and inorganic, animate and inanimate, spiritual and material, solid, liquid, aerial, ethereal, ponderable, and imponderable — are adapted and adjusted to each other and to universal being. The whole is a well-balanced, symmetrical, and magnificent unity.
Examine the several great parts of God’s system : these are a unity in and of themselves. The material universe is a unity in and of itself. This is illustrated by the inter- dependence and interaction of all natural forces ; by the correlation, conservation, and indestructibility of all the powers of the physical universe ; by the combination and relation of all the elements of nature. These elements, though each is essentially different from all the others, and no one of them is dependent upon any one or more of the others for its individual causation, yet by an elective affinity or attraction of some kind unite into masses and bodies, till as a final result ponderous worlds are formed, and their parts bound together by a chain of reciprocal and homogeneous links — links forged by the arm of God and hammered out by His fiat in the workshops of eternity. So perfect is this unity in nature, that the removal of one element would change its whole constitution, and wreck the universe. For illustration, remove the element oxygen from nature, and ordinary combustion would be impossible, and in a few moments after the removal there would not be a living creature on this globe.
This unity is finely illustrated by the compensating balance maintained between elements and life in this world. Animals by respiration consume oxygen and throw off car- Donic acid ; plants by respiration consume carbonic acid, decomposing it and assimilating the carbon, and throw off oxygen. Animals throw off that which plants must have, and plants throw off that which animals must have — thus created constitutionally with reference to each other, and in the exercise of their functions keeping up a perfect balance in the perfect unity of nature. Also some plants depend upon animal matter for their growth ; and some animals de- pend upon plants for their existence. The annihilation of some species of plants would result in the annihilation of some species of animals that feed upon them, the reverse also being true. This adaptation and adjustment of the character and degree of animal and vegetable life to each other have been true in every age A the earth’s history • – and furthermore, there has been a perfect adjustment of both to the various epochs of the earth’s development with which they have been synchronal.
Indeed, the earth, itself, is so essential and integral a part of the solar system, its destruction would probably unbalance the whole system, and reduce it to anarchy and chaos. The solar system is so related to every other material system, its destruction would probably unbalance and destroy the whole material universe. The gravity, motion, and aspect of every planet, comet, star, and sun, are mathematically adjusted to their minutest point and phenomena, to the gravity, motion, and aspect of all the others. An undisturbed mathematical harmony reigns supreme throughout the universe. The spiritual universe, if it be lawful to call it a universe, is a unity within and of itself, as well as the material. All of its parts exhibit the same evidences of adaptation and adjustment to each other, that the several parts of the material universe do with reference to themselves.
The material and spiritual universes are but parts of one great system, which great system is of itself a unity. This is evident from the following reasons :
1. The ends, or final causes, for which all material and spiritual things exist, and are governed, are found in God’s moral government, or His government of spiritual and moral beings with relation to moral principles. Do volcanic fires, rushing through the ruptured granite of the earth, pour fiery cataclysms upon fertile gardens and populous cities ? Do academies, seminaries, colleges, and universities, glittering like diamonds upon the dark bosom of the earth, diffuse their light everywhere ? The final end to be promoted is a moral one. For this purpose suns shine, stars twinkle, comets blaze, planets revolve, lightnings flash, thunders roar, earthquakes growl, volcanoes bellow, hurricanes howl, rains descend, dews distil, inventions abound, and angels fly. All things, all natures, all principles, all causes, all effects, all events, find the reason of their existence, government and Providential action, in their appointment for the accomplishment of moral results, lodged in the great facts of God’s moral government. If the ends, or final causes, for the existence, government, and action of spiritual and material things is a unity, it is evidence of the unity of God’s system including both.
2. The unity of the spiritual and material is evident from the abstract nature of virtue. Virtue is a harmony of principles and actions with a law generated in relations— abstract spiritual relations, and physical relations, as essentially related in the production of law with the spiritual. Here we have God’s government of principles, and His government of things, the spiritual and physical, as intimating in the moral, rising into a unity of which virtue is one manifestation and evidence.
3. This unity is evident from the concurrent action of physical, spiritual, and moral agencies in this world. Physical agencies are working upon the physical structure of the earth, and improving and elevating it, in the precise ratio with the improvement of man by the operation of spiritual and moral agencies upon the human mind and character. Thus simultaneously, and side by side, have all the agencies ever worked. Here, again, we have evidence of the unity between the spiritual and material, by finding the key of this unity in the moral.
4. This unity is evident from the unity of law — physical law or the laws of nature, the law of mind or spirit, and moral law. Neither of these grand codes contains any opposition elements to the others. A being may be so constituted as to be under all, yet be able to obey all. Man is such a being, and he knows that to obey the laws of nature involves no disobedience to the laws of mind or morals ; that to obey the laws of mind involves no disobedience to the laws of nature or morals ; that to obey moral law in- volves no disobedience to the laws of nature or mind. He knows, furthermore, that to disobey any one of them brings the violator under their united censure. As in the beginning, when man violated the moral law, the laws of nature con- spired against him, and physical death, a consequent of the penalty of moral law, is inflicted by the laws of cause and effect in nature. The unity of physical, spiritual, and moral law — the laws of the several parts of God’s system, is evidence of the unity of the spiritual with the material in the unity of that system.
5. This unity is evident from the interaction of mind and sense in the developments of science. Theories are born within the sphere of mind, experiments are performed in the sphere of sense, and theory and experiment are the two necessary elements in the development of science ; and both these elements, theory and experiment, the one the child of mind, the other the child of sense, have a mutual and reciprocal action upon their individual development in the development of science. If such be the relation between mind and sense, or, in other words, between spirit and matter, in the developments of science, there is a unity between the two, and the truth of the unity of God’s system as a whole is conceived to be established.
Now the unity of God’s great system is but the transcript of the unity of His essential self. He is the origin of the system, and His essence is the primordial, fundamental, and abstract base of its existence. He sits enthroned in the system as the absolute, supreme, and universal First Cause, into which all the phenomena of material and immaterial being ultimate. He is essentially a unity, and His unity is transcripted in His system. Being a unity every attribute of His nature is in harmonious adjustment with relation to every other attribute, therefore we have a harmony of powers in God. His unity being transcripted in His system, the harmony of His personal and essential powers is the arche- typical, originative, and abstract concord, that is fundamental to every expression of harmony in the universe.
Here, in the harmony of things, evolved from their unity and ultimating in God, is found the philosophic and abstract base of music. This thesis may be illustrated and corroborated by a few brief arguments : i. Mind from an immutable principle or law inhering in itself, naturally associates the idea of music with the harmony of things. The ancient philosophers wrote about ” the music of the spheres.” They believed that the universe had a grand centre. This centre they thought was a mass of fire, which they called the ” Hearth of the Universe,” ” House or Watch-tower of Jupiter,” “The Altar of Nature,” ” The Mother of the Gods.” Around this centre they believed the sun, moon, and earth revolved ; on the outside of these they believed the planets revolved, each moving in a crystal orb; they believed on the outside of these revolved the heaven, which was a solid crystalline sphere, containing the fixed stars. They believed that the respective distances of the circling spheres were regulated according to ” numerical proportions, corresponding with the harmonic distances and intervals in music ; and that their uniform, harmonious, and sweetly tuned motion, therefore, produced the sweetest music. They assigned two reasons why men could not hear it : First, because, men having heard it without intermission from their births, it was philosophically and necessarily inaudible. Second, the music was so loud, various, and sweet, as to exceed all aptitude or proportion of the human ear, therefore could not be heard by men.
Music and the harmony of things were so associated in the minds of ancient philosophers, that because Apollo was the god of the sun, by a very pertinent allusion to the harmonious motions of the heavenly bodies, they made him the god of music. Because he drove the chariot of the sun, for the reason before given they made him lead and direct with his lyre the harmonies and melodies of that universal diapa- son ” the music of the spheres.” This association between music and the harmony of things in the human mind, is as true in its application to us, as it was in its application to the ancient philosophers, and as the mind never associates two things unless there is a real mental perceptible relation between them, it shows that the philosophy of this hour with reference to the abstract base of music is correct, and that the key of all harmony is found in the unity of being.
2. A violation of the principles of harmony and melody in music creates in the mind the feeling of destruction. There is a difference between that confused, clashing, mixture of sounds we call noise, and harmony. Listen to the noise of an earthquake, a volcano, a cataract, a storm, and there is created in the mind the sense of destruction. An accomplished symphonist by a skilful violation of the laws of harmony and melody in music, if the orchestral performance is equal to his skill, can create in the mind sentiments similar to those produced by a tempest, yet he cannot render a tempest so as we can distinguish it from an earthquake. If unharmonious sounds produce in the mind the sense of destruction, it is because that the harmony of things is the base of music, and that if the harmony of things was destroyed the destruction of the universe would be the result, and the two are naturally associated in the mind, and if associated in the mind is evidence of our philosophy — that the philosophic and abstract base of music is found in the harmony of things.
3. The natural tendency of the sounds of nature is to fall into harmony with each other, often upon a common key. Mr. Gardiner, a distinguished musical author, says that this common key is ” the key of F, and its relative, D minor.” Nearly all the sounds of nature seem to regard this as their key; and in this key nearly all the music of the fifteenth century was written. You have heard the music of the in- sects. Mr. Gardiner tells us the key upon which many of them make their music. The hum and buzz of the wings of the housefly, the mezzo tones of the honey bee, always produce the sound of F in the first space ; the bumble-bee plays the double bass an octave lower ; and the door-bug drones on F below the staff in the bass clef. The cricket, however, chirps his triplet in the key of B, and the savage little gnat blows his trumpet on A in the second space. The grasshoppers were extravagantly complimented by the ancients for their music. Indeed, they assigned them a celestial paternity, as the offspring of Phoebus. A story is told by Plutarch of Terpander the first scientific cultivator of music. He was playing upon his lyre at the Olympic games, the people were enrapt with his music, and at the height of their enthusiasm a string broke. A grasshopper quickly leaped upon the bridge, performed the part of the broken string and saved the reputation of the musician.
You have heard the music of the birds — the soft and plaintive nightingale; the chattering magpies ; that miniature organ, the canary, piping and singing away till its little quills quivered with its music; the mimus polyglottus, or mocking- bird, which like some preachers has no song of its own ; and the lark chanting its beautiful song at the very gate of the skies ; — their songs proceeding according to the laws of harmony. Mr. Gardiner says that the chanticleer crows his five notes commonly in the key of B, that the cuckoo sings in the key of D, and that the owl hoots in B flat. He says that the horse’s whinny is a short tune of semitones, running through every half tone in the scale. The donkey, though a very bad musician, yet quite as good as some mammal bipeds of the genus homo I have heard, does not in his awful brayings ignore the music scale, though his harmonies are terrific, and his climax horrible. When dogs are affected by music, they often bark or howl, and the) do it upon some of the notes of the music which affects them.
The very wind blowing towards the Orient to welcome the rising sun, or shifting to the Occident to fan the sun’s fiery face and lull him to sleep in the cradle of the west, fills the air with harmony, and according to its degrees of strength and speed makes some of the sweetest diminuendos, and some of the grandest crescendos in nature — though it may have nothing but the cranny of a cottage for its trombone, and nothing but the fibrous-shaped leaf of the mountain pine or the barkless limb of a dead old oak for its harp. It is said by those who profess to know, that the lyre was suggested to the inventor by the wind vibrating the dried sinews stretched across the shell of a dead tortoise ; and that the invention of the harp was suggested by the twang of a bow- string. In some of the Greek classics the invention of both is referred to Apollo — he having found the tortoise on the banks of the Nile, and hearing the twang of his sister Diana’s bow. All sounds in nature have a tendency to fall into harmony with each other. This universal tendency to harmony in sound is another illustration and corroboration of our thesis.
4. There is no music without time and accent — and both of these it derives from nature. Music proceeds by regularly measured movements, and with regularly recurring accents — in other words, it proceeds in rhythmical order. Such a law we feel to be natural ; if we feel it to be natural, it is a law of nature ; if it is a law of nature, it is in keeping with the harmony of things. So natural is this law that language and poetry seem to be governed by it equally with music. It is the very basis of their rhythm. Mr. Gardiner in substance thus illustrates this principle : In the Trochee and Iambic the syllables move in triple time, — three-eighths — in the Dactyl and Spondee they move in common time — two- fourths. The strains of music are always even, it is so with the phrases and strains of poetry. The strains of music have always an equal number of measures, the lines of poetry have always an equal number of accents. Musical accents always fall on the musical bars, poetical accents always fall on the poetical bars. Mr. Gardiner illustrates these several principles. This law of music appears to be the law of every- thing else, hence a law of nature, and we have another illustration and corroboration of our thesis.
5. The pitch of tones can be communicated. Sound a tone into a piano, and only one string responds to it, that is the string whose pitch is the same with the tone sounded. Change the pitch of the tone and the fact remains, that string whose pitch is the same with the pitch of the tone you sound alone responds. I have tried it, you try it. Stand in front of a wall or mountain, and sound a full loud tone. The echo comes back preserving the very pitch you gave the tone. The echoes may multiply by repetition from wall to wall, and mountain to mountain, and the vibrations of the air may grow so feeble that the tone sinks to a murmur, yet to the last the same pitch of tone is preserved. If the pitch of tones can be communicated, it is evidence of the harmony and unity of things, and of the relation of music to the harmony and unity of things, and corroborative of our thesis, that in the harmony of things, evolved from their unity, is found the philosophic and abstract base of music.
The thesis, that the philosophic and abstract base of music is found in the harmony of the parts of the universal system of God, entering into a unity, ultimating in Himself, is sufficiently illustrated; and we are now prepared to know why some sounds are musical, harmonious, and melodious, while others are unmusical, unharmonious, and unmelodious. The reason is, that music being the abstract harmony of things concreted in the form of aerial vibrations, some sounds express intervals and proportions which are true to nature, while others express intervals and proportions which are false to nature — violative of the abstract harmony and unity of things. This answer may appear like the restatement of the question, but it is not so ; for it reveals a reason for the phenomena involved in the question, which is found beyond the mere abstract fact of musical harmony and melody, in the abstract harmony involved in the unity of the system of God, ascending to the ultimate in the unity of God. Be the subject of the reasoning what it may, the mind can go no further than God, — and if the reasoning be with reference to a first cause, and its subject be objective, it will always go thus far.
But man can make music, and appreciate it— Why ? i . Be- cause of the harmony of man’s powers, and the unity of man’s nature. God is essentially a unity, and His powers therefore essentially a harmony. Man is a miniature duplicate of God. All cords of unity and harmony begin in God, and proceeding through His entire system unite in man. They proceed from God by divergence and meet in man by convergence. God’s system is an ellipse, and He and man are the foci. Man is the image of God. In fact, God declared before He made man that He would make him according to a pattern found in Himself. Such being man’s nature, his constitution, though complex, is a unity, and his powers are a harmony, corresponding with the harmony of things one of whose natural expressions in the concrete is music. Our ideas of such a man are naturally expressed by the use of musical terms. We say that he has no jarring or discordant elements in his constitution, that he enjoys a sweet concord of powers, that he is full of music.
Sin, a foreign element in the system of God, is destructive of unity and harmony. And in its effect upon human char- acter, if it reaches its maximum development, it so subverts the order of man’s constitution and distracts his powers, that no music is left in him. Shakespeare recognizes the truth of this theory, when he says :
” The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.”
If man’s powers are a harmony and his nature a unity, corresponding with the harmony and unity of God’s system in which is found the philosophic and abstract base of mu- sic, we have a strong reason why man can make music and appreciate it.
2. Because man is a unity in the unity of the system of God. The material universe epitomizes itself in man’s body, the spiritual universe epitomizes itself in man’s soul, and both unite in him. The cords of unity descending from the spiritual, and ascending from the material, meet and intersect in man’s constitution, and there are tied, and he is the tie. The chain of the material ascending by regular gradations from inorganic rock to the mammals, the chain of the spiritual descending by regular gradations from God through angelic hierarchies, interlinks in man’s constitution — he having both a body and soul. He is the essential central link in the chain of the unity of universal being. In his normal state, as God made him, he is therefore in harmony with both the spiritual and material. Every desire of his spiritual nature may be gratified in the spiritual system, every desire of his physical nature may be gratified in the physical system. The respective wants and necessities of man’s bifold nature are provided for in the respective and corresponding systems. The spiritual world is adapted to his spiritual sense, the physical world is adapted to his physical sense. Being but a unit in the unity of the system of God, he passes into the grand empire of harmony, the philosophic and abstract base of music, therefore he is able to make music, and appreciate it.
3. Because the soul of man has a sympathy with the soul of nature. Nature is a grand temple. Most all the philosophy of the day expends itself upon the architecture and magnificence of the temple, without the least suspicion of there being an inhabitant entempled there. All nature is instinct with a kind of life — a soul — which gives nature an expression which no language can describe, no man can communicate, yet which has the power to awaken the profoundest sentiments in the human mind. This delicate spirit in nature no man can see, no man can touch it, hear it, taste it, or smell it, yet in the almost unfathomable depths of his soul he can feel it. Why do deep and dense forests sometimes appear dreamy ? — they cannot dream. Why do some landscapes appear as if they were smiling ? — they can- not smile. Why do some sceneries in nature appear so sad and melancholic that we feel like weeping ? — they are in- capable of sadness and melancholy. Why do some mountain peaks helmeted with everlasting granite, seared by the lightning’s flash, and scarred by the thunder’s bolt, appear to frown and preach of the sublime, the majestic, the terrible ? — they cannot frown, or preach, and they are as harm- less as the atom which dances in the sunbeam of evening, and nestles against our window-panes. Why ? There is a soul in nature, which the soul of man has so deep a sympathy with, that he designates its expressions by the names of the sentiments those expressions awaken in him. The soul of man being in such sympathy with nature, shows that he is in harmony with it, and is himself one note in that harmony which constitutes the philosophic and abstract base of music — and we have another reason why man can make and appreciate music.
4. Because there is an innate feeling in man which prompts him to manifest his sentiments in music. Sorrow loves to wail in plaintive minors. Joy loves to revel in bold and triumphant majors. How often we have heard the maiden sing in snatches a lively canzonet, as she has run about the house, along the halls, across the halls, and up and down the stairs, when some little billet-doux, dropped by the post-boy at her father’s door, has made her happy. How often we have heard the voice of the country maid ringing through the farmyard, as she has scattered grain and crumbs to the poultry, and the half-fledged chicklings have perched upon her arm, and fed from her hand. How often we have heard the simple melodies of the Southern negro, when returning from the field on Saturday evening, reverberating through the woods, every note full of joy.
How often we have heard the lover sing, with his eyebrows slightly arched, his -languid eyes dreamily anchored in the air — at which point the image of his love shakes its tresses, for whose every hair he would die a martyr’s death — his bosom heaving, his panting solo sighing, and supreme foolishness king of his countenance ; his song changing keys and modes as often as heart ever vibrating sweeps like a pendulum between two extremes, now in the realms of ecstatic hope, then swinging away goes throbbing into the regions of despondency. We have sometimes heard the victim of despair sing his appropriate song of insuperably painful strains, wailing, wandering, and shrieking, his very notes tramping upon the heart-strings with feet of fire. We have often heard the Christian sing — and of all persons he is the greatest singer, and has the greatest right to sing. The philosophic nature of religion is to harmonize man’s powers, and tune them in unison with God and the universe ; hence, religious sentiments above all others, love to warble in harmonic chords, and carol in the euphonies and mellifluous strains of enrapturing melody. The Christian himself is a harp, whose every quivering string is replete with music. Nothing is more natural than for man’s internal feelings to seek an appropriate expression in music. If this is so, it is because that man is in harmony with the unity of nature, the philosophic and abstract base of music, therefore can make music and appreciate it.
5. Because that all men in the same states of feeling ex- press themselves by similar sounds. The same proportions and intervals of sound are employed by all men to express the various sentiments. And so universal is this law regarded, that we profess to be able to judge the state of any person’s feelings by the tones of his voice. If this is so, we have additional corroborative testimony, at least, of man’s unity with nature, as a reason of his ability to make music and appreciate it.
The wonderful relation between sound and mind is confirmatory of our several theses. What a variety of sentiments of all shades and degrees of power, are awakened by the ordinary sounds heard in nature. The aeolian whispers of the evening breeze ; the hum of insects ; the notes of birds ; the murmurs of the rivulet; the brawl of the brook; the laugh of the cascade ; the scream of the torrent ; the bel- lowing of the cataract ; the roar of the tempest ; the crash of the vertically descending thunderbolt, and the awful and tremendous echo of its horizontal rumblings, are all sounds in the grand orchestra of nature which inspire the mind, till breaking away from the mortal, material, and perishable, it rises above the stars and careers with steady wing in the very presence of its Maker, every dazzling plume of its broad wing instinct with sentiment, and quivering with a holy afflatus.
The unity of God’s system is perfect. And as the nerves in the human body distributed in its tissues, primarily proceeds from the brain, so every cord of unity in the system of God primarily proceeds from Him the Royal Encephalon and Head of the system. And as no nerve in the human body can be touched without the sensation being conveyed to the brain, and through the brain to every other nerve, exciting the sympathy of all, so no integral part of the system of God, however small, can be touched without the sensation being conveyed to God, the system’s imperial Sensory and Head, and through Him communicated to universal being. And as the harmony of God’s system, evolved from its unity, is the abstract base of music, the whole constitutes a harp of prodigious proportions, which, if one string is vibrated from bass to alto, contralto to soprano, discourses universal music.
It is scientifically demonstrative that there is a rare, subtile, and elastic element or medium, pervading the universe. This element or medium is called ether. Being a finer medium than air, it may be capable of conveying finer sounds, of conveying the delicate concords and melodies floating spontaneously from the delicately adjusted harmonies of the universe. Angels and spirits with their keener sense may be able to hear the ethereal strains of such music, and join in themselves. This may be analogous to the music of heaven, and that instinctive harmony which the human ear cannot hear, but which the soul with its finer powers can feel in its sanctified communion with God. Dying Chris- tians have declared their rooms were full of celestial music. The bystanders could not hear it, but I believe the dying Christians did; because their souls were gradually losing their dependency upon gross material organs, and in the same proportion their finer powers were brought into use. Such music may be ringing all around us, yet we cannot hear it. The human ear is comparatively a coarse organ, and there are many sounds of which it can take no cognizance. As there are confessedly objects, and organized objects, which are too small for the eye to see, so there are sounds too fine for the ear to hear. Such music may be as universal as the laws of harmony which give it birth. And the universal unity out of which these harmonies are evolved may be so perfect, that if joy but strike with its potent plectrum one chord in the human soul, it may excite into sympathetic vibrations every other chord in man’s nature ; and as man is connected with universal being, every musical chord of unity in the universe, till harmony floating from every trembling string stretched from rock to rock, and from world to world, and star to star, from man to God, go rolling on against the conterminable boundaries of light and night, then reflected, blend in overwhelming strains and pour their thundering octaves at the foot of the Mount of God, heaven’s choir fin- ishing the musical climax.
And as the principle involved in the theory of the ” music of spheres,” as taught by the Grecian philosophers, is not a mere chimera of the brain, so they have left us in their myth- ology their ideas, though expressed in hyperbolisms, of the power and influence of music. The nine muses were the daughters of Jupiter or Zeus, and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. Shortly after they were born, the nine daughters of Pierus, King of Almathia, challenged them to a musical contest. They met on Mount Helicon. When the daughters of Pierus sung, the sky became dark, and all nature was thrown out of harmony. When the muses sang, the rivers, seas, stars, and heavens were motionless, Mount Helicon swelled and elevated its crest with delight, and had not the winged Pegasus, the steed of the muses, struck the summit with his hoof, it would have reached the sky. In solemn evidence of the truth of this story, where the foot of Pegasus struck Hippocrene, the fountain sacred to the muses burst forth, and flows on to this day. The daughters of Pierus, for their presumption, were metamorphosed by the muses into nine different kinds of birds. Ovid says they were turned into magpies.
A golden fleece was nailed to an oak in the grove of Mars, in Colchis, a country between Caucasus and Armenia. ALson, the King of Iolcus, was dethroned by Pelias. Pelias promised to restore the kingdom to Jason, ^Eson’s son, if Jason would bring him the golden fleece from Colchis. Jason undertook to do it, and built a ship which he called Argo, and selected fifty of the greatest heroes of the day to go with him. Orpheus, the poet, musician, and philosopher, was one of them. The music of his lyre, in concert with his voice, made the Argo move through the water, the oars of the heroes or Argonautae keeping time to the harmony. The power of his music delivered the expedition from many dangers and difficulties, and was principally instrumental in obtaining the golden fleece. In passing the isle of the Sirens, whose strand was whitened by the bones of mariners who were irresistibly attracted by their melodious songs, and who were so enrapt that they forgot home and friends, and perished for lack of nutriment, Orpheus delivered his companions by overpowering their music with the strains of his lyre and the tones of his voice. Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, was bitten by a serpent, and died. Orpheus de- scended to the lower world to obtain permission for her re- turn to earth. Armed only with his lyre he entered Hades, and gained an easy admission to Pluto. His music was so enchanting that the vulture ceased feeding upon the viscera of Tityus, Tantalus forgot his unquenchable thirst, the wheel of Ixion ceased its revolutions, and Pluto and Proserpine conditionally granted his request. When he died, the muses carried his lyre to the skies. In these classical legends we have illustrated, though extravagantly, the influence of music; but that its influence is extensive and its power great, we do, know. The effect of music upon the lowei animals is well known, but its real influence and power can only be estimated when we notice the effect of that influence and power upon man.
Music can elevate the soul, giving it a direction with various momenta from the material toward the spiritual, from earth towards heaven, from matter towards God. Why? i. Because the mind in man can only truly appreciate music, and fully feel its power; and whatever affects the mind primarily, and not the body, develops the mind’s individuality, and in the same ratio lessens its dependence upon the body, and has a tendency to the ultimate disincarnation of mind, or the assimilation of body to mind by spiritualiza- tion. 2. Because, music being educed from the harmony of things, ultimating in God, its tendency is to incline the soul to spiritual good, and as a converse proposition to dis- incline it to evil. The effect of David’s harp upon Saul was to compel the evil spirit to depart from Saul. 3. Because, music being educed from the harmony of things, its power is communicative and social — educed from the harmony of things, ultimating in God, it prepares the soul for communion with God. For this purpose some of the prophets employed it, that they might be able to speak the mind of God, and prophesy. 4. Because, music being educed from the harmony of things, ultimating in God, music proceeds from God as its First Cause, and proceeding from Him must return to Him as its Final Cause, and it must needs carry man back with it if he falls into its current.
Proceeding from God as its First Cause, it returns to him as naturally as rivers run to their parent Ocean. Let us fling ourselves upon its sanctified waves, and let them bear us to the other shore, as they break in glory upon the celestial beach — that beach sown with gems and strewn with golden sand, and glittering under the lambent glories of heaven’s eternal morning. God’s great system is one great harp, and all His system’s parts are its harmonious strings, tuned by His own artistic hand. We all have our parts to play, and as our active fingers fly our strains go dancing and kissing up the undulating strings to heaven. We all have our parts to play, and as we perform our task, our music vibrates from string to string, ascending, deepening, widening, till it thrills the universe ; and though every sentient being out of hell may be a player, and each constitute a musical centre, and each play on different chords, their several strains though meeting, crossing, and waving and passing through each other in one apparently infinite entanglement, yet preserve without confusion their individuality, and sound their peculiar notes in the ear of every star, and weave their peculiar harmonies in every comet’s fiery mane, to be carried to God, the Royal source of music.
So strange this harp, so strange its chords, our words and works are plectrums whose every smiting stroke is repeated on every string of unity in the system of God, and sends a corresponding note to the other world. Oh, then, let no word or work mar our music, and send a discord to grate on the hearing of God. If we dare disturb the harmony of this universal diapason, God will lock us up in an anarchic hell, in that outer darkness beyond the circumference of normal being, where our discords may noise in harmless riot forever. But if we perform the parts for which we are intended, and perform them well, we will die with heavenly symphonies rolling through our souls, every fibre of our spiritual natures thrilling with responsive music, and upon the broad waves of a universal harmony we will rise to heaven, the centre of that universal sphere within whose circumference creations play their parts, and from which every thread of unity radiating connects every atom, element, being, and thing to God, and there hear the melodies generated in the geometrically adjusted and interdependent parts of the universe, and hear them forever.
The philosophic and abstract base of music is found in the harmony of the parts of the universal system of God, entering into a unity, ultimating in Himself. But with the music possibly generated in the harmonies involved in the unity of things, and the figurative application of music to the agreement of human character and actions with the harmonies in- volved in the unity of things, and educed from the funda- mental and central thesis of this lecture, and illustrative of it, I have nothing further to do, but simply invite your attention to the sounds around you. You may call it music, or what you will, but listen to nature’s choir.
Myriads of birds give us the soprano ; insects, rivulets, and breezes sing the alto ; hurricanes and tempests scream the tenor ; and thunders, cataracts, and stormy oceans roar the bass — and the music began the first week of creation, and without intermission its melodies, hymning in lullabies over the cradles of infant ages or breaking in requiems over the tombs of dead and buried centuries, have rolled on winter, spring, summer, and autumn, and are now sounding into the ears of the eventful present. True, the insects which perform their parts now are not the insects which began it ; true, the birds which sing now are not the birds which sang a hundred years ago, but as each aerial songster tottered and fell from the bough under the eye of God, to be reproduced by and by to warble amid the beauties of the new earth, or to rest in cold oblivion forever, others took their places — and the grand oratorio, unceasing and ceaseless, will sweep on till its harmonious octaves will break into hallelujahs against the throne of the Judgment.
Now listen to the artificial music of civilization. Ten thousand mechanics hammer out the soprano upon ten thou- sand ringing anvils ; ten thousand revolving spindles make the alto ; ten thousand locomotives yell the tenor through their metallic nostrils, and roar the bass along musical staves with iron lines and wooden bars — and this music, generated in the machinery and appliances of the world’s civilization, is never silent, but day and night goes thundering on, and will, till continents are buried in fiery immersion beneath the lavic cataclysms of the last Great Day.
Now listen to the music of social life.. Laughing, merry, and prattling maidens make the treble ; puling, weeping, and babbling infancy makes the alto ; sportive, boisterous, and vociferating boyhood shouts the tenor ; holyday, festival, and political assemblages fulminate the bass. And never since man was made, and he had a tongue — and tongued he is, both male and female — but what the yielding air has been racked, and rent, and shivered by the din of human voices, multitudinous and innumerable ; talking, quarrelling, disputing, clamoring, brawling, bawling, squall- ing, grumbling, murmuring, moaning, groaning, whining, puling, piping, squeaking, screeching, screaming, shrieking, snoring, snorting, howling, growling, shouting, roaring, till the lunarians are astounded with the hubbub — the broad, good-natured, squabby, pinguid, and silly face of whose King greets us nightly from the cold and chaste orb of which he is the Sovereign.
There was a time, however, as the old story goes, when for the long period of an entire minute, every tongue ceased its wagging, and every man was more anxious to hear than to speak. But attention to the story : Once upon a time, as all orthodox stories begin, acoustic philosophers said, that if every man, woman, and child, were to hollow at one and the same time, the aggregated power of the race would produce a sound sufficient to be heard to the moon. To attest the truth of their theory they caused every individual in the world to buy a chronometer, and wind it up and adjust its time with the time in London, and at a certain minute during a certain day, open-mouthed and trumpet-tongued, all were to hollow with the utmost power and compass of their voices. I suppose arrangements were made with the mar, in the moon, to telegraph by a moonbeam to the aforesaid philosophers resident upon this planet, whether he heard the sound, or otherwise the experiment would be a failure ; or it may be they selected one of their number remarkable for his hearing, and rammed him into a mortar huge and sent him up upon the sulphurous breath and nitrous pinions of explosive powder ; or it may be they bid him climb some east- ern mountain, and as the moon came rolling up and kissed the mountain’s crest to attach himself to her chilly lips, and hold on there till the critical moment was past, and then let go, unkiss, and trust to the gods for the sake of science to let him down easy. But be that as it may, the eventful moment to prove their theory arrived, but since the world was made there never was so still a time ; for every man, and every woman for once, and every child was intent on hearing the stunning noise and forgot to hollow, and for once the world was as mute as death. I believe, however, that an old deaf woman in one of the Feejee, who was too deaf to hear, herself, screamed, and a crack-voiced, idiotic old man in China — and that was all ; — and so ends the story.
Now listen to the music of an orchestra. The violins, violas, violoncellos, and contrabassos, or double bassos, forming the orchestral centre. Then the altissimo tones of the flutes, the tender tones of oboes, the energetic notes of the clarionets, the complaining notes of the bassoons, the melancholy notes of the horns, the martial notes of the trumpets, the terrible tones of the trombones, the beat of the drums, and the liquid thunder of the organ rolling in the background, and a competent number of vocalists performing the four ordinary parts of music — and we have a full orchestra. How charming the music of a perfect orchestra. Twin harmonies flit like angels among the singing strings, and float upon every wave of sound which radiates from the tuneful lips of the vocalists, and rises from the sonorous horns and vibratory drums — while with the throbbing of every successive chord, giant melodies are born, and entwining their great arms around us lift us to God.
Now listen to the music of sounding bells. What a variety of sentiments can be awakened in the mind by the various changes rung upon church bells. Chiming bells stir the soul to its profoundest depths. Did you ever hear Old Hundred floating from a church steeple on a Sabbath morning, its majestic strains and deep-toned measures winding along the streets, and into your houses, and telling you in its odd, grand way that God had descended into His temple, and was waiting for your worship ? I have — and it was the sublimest invitation to repair to the house of God I ever heard. Now listen to a properly organized, instructed, and competent church choir — ladies singing the treble and alto, men the tenor and bass, and a stupendous organ whose pipes talk harmony, and in whose deep abysms diapasons of harmonic thunder go rumbling. Some persons think that the Devil is in an organ ; I would much sooner believe he is in the objector, and an archangel in the organ, for certainly its tones are the most wonderful and heavenly of all earthly tones. No man ever heard and loved an organ, but what he was the better for it. An instrument which uniformly enkindles in man the sublime and holy into a devel- opment which for the time being crushes out their oprosites, is in its proper place when it is in the house of God.