definition is a misfortune. Music-lovers, however, will
rejoice that their favorite art is spared such a misfortune, for it
can not be defined. We know the factors of which music is constituted,
rhythm and sound; and we can trace the historic steps by which methods
of presentation and of style have been so perfected that by means of
this twofold material the emotions and aspirations of human beings may
be expressed and permanently recorded. We realize, and with our inborn
equipment can appreciate, the moving power of music; but to define, in
the usual sense of the term definition, what music really is, will be
forever impossible. The fact indeed that music--like love, electricity
and other elemental forces--cannot be defined is its special glory. It
is a peculiar, mysterious power;[1] quite in a class by itself,
although with certain aspects which it shares with the other arts. The
writings of all the great poets, such as Milton, Shakespeare, Browning
and Whitman, abound in eloquent tributes to the power and influence of
music, but it is noticeable that no one attempts to define it. The
mystery of music must be approached with reverence and music must be
loved for itself with perfect sincerity.

[Footnote 1: For suggestive comments on this point see the essays
_Harmonie et Melodie_ by Saint-Saens, Chapters I and II.]

Some insight, however, may be gained into the nature of music by a
clear recognition of what it is _not_, and by a comparison with the
more definite and familiar arts. Music consists of the intangible and
elusive factors of rhythm and sound; in this way differing
fundamentally from the concrete static arts such as architecture,
sculpture and painting. Furthermore, instrumental music, _i.e._, music
freed from a dependence on words, is not an exact language like prose
and poetry. It speaks to our feelings and imaginations, as it were by
suggestion; reaching for this very reason depths of our being quite
beyond the power of mere words. No one can define rhythm except by
saying that rhythm, in the sense of motion, is the fundamental fact in
the universe and in all life, both physical and human. Everything in
the heavens above and in the earth beneath is in ceaseless motion and
change; nothing remains the same for two consecutive seconds. Even the
component parts of material--such as stone and wood, which we
ordinarily speak of as concrete and stationary--are whirling about
with ceaseless energy, and often in