John Weeks Moore

“ To the truth of the last remark of the great moralist, that pleasure and innocence are generally at variance, except when music brings them together, we may surely demur ; and certainly a moderate experience in the ways of the world would excite in the mind of every serious person the earnest wish that no other associations than such as are characterized by pleasure in combination with innocence were ever occasioned or encouraged by this delightful art. ”

“ An opposite conclusion would be at war with our convictions of the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity, who made the hearing ear and formed the melodious voice, and strung the soul of man with chords ever responsive to the influence of sweet sounds. Music is as truly the voice of nature as speech ; that is, it is as natural for man to convey and to receive the movements of sentiment by the influence of sweet sounds as by the use of words. ”

“ Art of music. The Greeks, who were fond of claiming to themselves the invention of every art and science, have not scrupled to assign the origin of music, and to name the inventor. To Mercury they ascribe the honor of inventing the lyre, the first of musical instruments. ”

“ We find music as a work of God in the constitution of the air, which is made capable of proportionate vibrations to de light us ; and in such degree and manner as to save the ear from offence and interruption. Music may be further traced as the work of God in the nature of man ; for God hath undoubtedly made man to sing as well as to speak. The gift of speech we cannot but derive from the Creator ; and the gift of singing is from the same Author. The faculty by which the voice forms musical sounds is as wonderful as the flexures of the organs of speech in the articulation of words. ”

“ Every tone which proceeds from a stringed instrument, as a violin, a harp, a piano-forte, or from a pipe, as a flute, or an organ, or from a bell, gives out at the same time other sounds which are not the same, but yet unite so as to form one whole in their effect. In a large bell this can easily be perceived when it is tolled slowly ; the note sounds, and immediately after we hear others, more particularly the twelfth, fifteenth, and seventeenth. A delicate ear will perceive the same in a piano-forte ”

“ Man, then, is, as it were, a musical instrument of God's own formation ; he has music in his voice, his ear, his whole frame." And the thought is beautifully expressed and enlarged by the poet Cowper: "There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, and as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased with melting airs or martial, brisk, or grave ”

“ Music, indeed, like vegetation, flourishes differently in different climates, and in proportion to the culture and encouragement it receives ; yet to love such music as our ears are accustomed to is an instinct so generally subsisting in our nature, that it is not wonderful it should have been held in high estimation at all times. ”

“ Music, as the practice of it is of more easy acquisition than that of either of the other fine arts, as it is more indiscriminately ad-dressed to all, of every age and condition, from youth to age, from the daily laborer to the prince, and as it is in fact more universally practised, may more unhesitatingly be treated of by those but moderately initiated, without fear of the charge of presumption. The right of music to be enumerated among the fine arts has never been disputed, although its relative place in point of dignity has often been matter of controversy. ”

“ As music, then, has its origin in the nature of man, and in the constitution of the material world, which has been assigned as the place of his temporary habitation, we may expect to find evidences of its practice wherever the human. voice has been heard. We hear of no people, however wild and savage in other respects, who have not music of some kind or other with which we must suppose them to be greatly delighted by their constant use of it upon occasions the most opposite ”

“ But the assertion that music unites corporal with intellectual pleasure, and gratifies sense without weakening reason, and therefore that the great may cultivate it with-out debasement, and the good enjoy it without depravation, is as true as it is forcible. ”

“ From what has been said concerning the origin of music, it will be seen that we could not for a moment assent to that theory which would consider this noble art as having had its beginnings in the imitation of birds or other animals, or of any of the ordinary sounds of nature. ”

“ The philosophical theory of musical sounds is very remarkable, and gives the clearest evidence that their employment, for the benefit and pleasure of man, was originally designed by the Almighty. In illustration of this position, I will instance a few of those laws or principles of sound which have been discovered by experiment and proved by demonstration. ”

“ If thus derived from heaven we esteem this noble art to be, should not its highest employment be the service and worship of God? and should not w e deem it a wretched and criminal degradation, when its powers and capacities are made to minister, as they too often are, to worldly and sensual purposes? ”

“ The human pipe is of a small diameter, and very short, when compared with the pipes of an organ; yet it will distinctly give the same note with the pipe of an organ eight feet in lunge The movable parts which are around the pipe of the human throat have but a very small range. ”