perfect rhythm. Thus we see how
natural and vital is the art of music, for it is inseparably connected
with life itself.

As for the other factor, sound is one of the most elemental and
mysterious of all physical phenomena.[2] When the air is set in motion
by the vibration of certain bodies of wood, metal and other material,
we know that sound waves, striking upon the tympanum of the ear,
penetrate to the brain and imagination. Sound is a reciprocal
phenomenon; for, even if there were systematic activity of vibrating
bodies, there could be no sound without some one to hear it.[3] Good
musicians are known for their power of keen and discriminating
hearing; and the ear,[4] as Saint-Saens says, is the sole avenue of
approach to the musical sense. The first ambition for one who would
appreciate music should be to cultivate this power of hearing. It is
quite possible to be stone-deaf outwardly and yet hear most beautiful
sounds within the brain. This was approximately the case with
Beethoven after his thirtieth year. On the other hand, many people
have a perfect outward apparatus for hearing but nothing is registered
within.

[Footnote 2: See Chapter II of Gurney's _Power of Sound_, a book
remarkable for its insight.]

[Footnote 3: It is understood that this statement is made in a
subjective rather than a purely physical sense. See the _Century
Dictionary_ under _Sound_.]

[Footnote 4: Il y a donc, dans l'art des sons, quelque chose qui
traverse l'oreille comme un portique, la raison comme un vestibule et
qui va plus loin.

HARMONIE ET MELODIE, CHAPTER II.]

Combarieu, the French aesthetician, defines music as "the art of
thinking in tones."[5] There is food for thought in this statement,
but it seems to leave out one very important factor--namely, the
emotional. Every great musical composition reveals a carefully
planned and perfect balance between the emotional and intellectual
elements. And yet the basic impulse for the creation of music is an
emotional one; and, of all the arts, music makes the most direct
appeal to the emotions and to those shadowy, but real portions of our
being called the imagination and the soul. Emotion is as indispensable
to music as love to religion. Just as there can be no really great art
without passion, so we can not imagine music without all the emotions
of mankind: their loves, joys, sorrows, hatreds, ideals and subtle
fancies. Music, in fact, is a presentation of emotional experien