John Weeks Moore

“ Man, distinguished from the inferior parts of creation by the divine gift of reason, exhibits no greater evidence of that faculty than by the seeds of science which the Creator has implanted in his nature and the power which he possesses to cultivate and bring them to perfection ; but of all the various arts and sciences which he is qualified to pros cute, no one appears more congenial to, no one more intimately interwoven with, the constitution of his frame than that of music. Vocal music, indeed, seems to have been coeval with human nature itself. ”

“ Thousands of invisible harps are pouring their united melody through the depths of air and earth ; millions of archangels touch their heaven-strung lyres and send celestial harmony through the vast halls of the temple of the living God up to the throne of the dread eternal One. It is the air of earth ; it is the atmosphere of heav- en. The unbounded universe is one sleepless lyre, whose chords of love, and hope, and purity, and peace are fanned into a dreamy and mystic melody by the breath of the invisible God. ”

“ It represents nothing with the graphic outline of the pencil, because it strives to paint what no outlines can take in : it is the heart's prayer, which cannot imbody itself so fully as in the language of tones and harmonies : it seems like the soul's effort to speak its mother tongue in a strange land, a yearning for a completer fulfilment of its destiny, an attempt to paint on the blank canvas of the present, with color-like melodies and tint-like harmonies, its ideal, Claude-like reminiscences of the scenery of its native clime. ”

“ Music propagates itself with great rapidity : from the pleasure it gives, and from the facilities afforded in our day for acquiring a knowledge of it in a country so prosperous as ours, a country the great mass of whose people can afford to hear the performances of the greatest musical artists of the age and can afford the best musical education for their families, the rapid extension of the art may be anticipated. ”

“ The great European vocalists and artists who have followed each other to this country in quick succession have produced a remarkable effect in raising the standard of musical taste and spreading the science and practice of music over the land. Critics talk of the want of a national music in America : a national music is the spontaneous growth of ages of insulated life and feeling. It is impossible that American music can do more than reproduce the music of other ages and nations. ”

“ The better music is known and understood, the more it will be valued and esteemed ; and a love of the higher schools of musical composition is one of the surest tests of a re-fined and elegant state of society. The reading and study of music and the use of musical instruments have become so general among all classes of people in this country that books treating of the subject begin to have a ready sale. ”

“ It has been so long the custom to use Italian and French words, indeed, whole phrases of the former, and Latin and German words, when describing or indicating the style, time, and occasional characteristics of a piece of music, that it would be a vain undertaking at this day to at-tempt any innovation on a system which has received the sanction of conventionalism, not only in this country, but all over the civilized world. ”

“ The invention of musical instruments must, consequently, have taken place at a very early period of the world ; though the different epochs of their introduction and improvement, as well as the gradation by which the harmonic laws arrived at their first systematic order and regulation, cannot perhaps be accurately ascertained by modern inquiry. It is more than probable that he who first tuned his voice to song little thought of the marvels of music or dreamed to what perfection the rules of sound would one day be brought. ”

“ He used the power which God had given him, nor stopped to inquire into the nature or construction of the tones which he almost involun- tarily produced, and which lightened his labor while they made glad his heart. Music is the finest expression of life, from its lowest actual up to its highest ideal phases. It is the most central, universal mode of utterance which art can attain ”

“ It is a great thing to live after these men—men whose lives were all one burning feeling, one overmastering idea, one deep yearning after a perfect expression of the beautiful, one long series of grand, unclassified psychological facts. ”

“ THE value of undertakings in the way of reference, and for the rapid acquirement of leading particulars concerning men more or less eminent for genius, skill, and science, being now universally acknowledged, little apology will be deemed necessary for extending the benefit to a department so interesting as that of Music. The utility of individual effort for the purpose of collecting and preserving whatever remains of the history of music cannot be questioned ”

“ We are too open to the world, too receptive of all influences from abroad, too much a nation made up of others to possess a music of our own. We are for a long time yet to remain in the position of learners ”

“ It is a privilege of priceless value that we live in an age through which are transmitted the inspirations of Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Auber, and the long line of masters. ”

“ In all ages, ancient and modern, music has had its inspired votaries. But it is only within the last few centuries, as we all know, that it has attained to any thing like perfec- tion as a science and an art. ”

“ Mankind are generally interested in the feelings and pursuits of man in different ages ; hence arises a fondness for even those details which singly may be unworthy of regard, but which, in the aggregate, form the most valuable sources from which to learn the exact condition of a people. ”

“ Burney and Sir John Hawkins, but from all the lighter and more fugitive notices of French, German, English, and American musical progress which have been scattered abroad for many years past. Productions which are the result of labor more than of genius generally lie under two great disadvantages : the pleasure of composing is incomparably less, and the composition itself is held in far less estimation ”

“ Limited as they are, however, it is confidently believed that no other work ever published can be found containing so much that is desirable to be known by every student of music. I have compressed the language generally ; and yet I have retained all the important intelligence. Whatever regards melody and harmony, either vocal or instrumental ; the invention, formation, powers, and characters of musical instruments ; the nature of composition and performance in general ”

“ The material from which this first volume has been compiled was gathered by much labor and expense : the labor has been almost incredible : such a vast amount of matter could not be collected in a day or a year: the gathering of it together has consumed the patient industry of many years. Much of the information was difficult to obtain and slow to collect, and, when obtained, had to be, at great expense, translated and rewritten. ”