often moved to wonder where the soul of music has fled. The
critical faculty is keenly alive to-day, but musical criticism, shorn of
its better part, musical appreciation, can never lead to the insight
requisite for true musical interpretation. Observation and perception,
intellectual discernment and spiritual penetration are essential to gain
insight into a great musical composition until its musical ideas, the
very grade and texture of its style, are absolutely appropriated.

In his "Death in the Desert," Robert Browning tells of the three souls
that make up the soul of man: the soul which Does; the soul which Knows,
feels, thinks and wills, and the soul which Is and which constitutes
man's real self. Appreciation of music requires the utmost activity of
all three souls. The more we are, the broader our culture, the more we
think, feel and know, the more we will find in music. Dr. Hiram Corson,
commenting on Browning's words, says the rectification, or adjustment of
what Is, that which constitutes our true being, should transcend all
other aims of education. If this fact were more generally accepted and
enforced it could soon no longer be said that few persons reach maturity
without the petrifaction of some faculty of mind and heart.

Every faculty we possess needs to be keenly alive for the interpretation
of the best in music. One who is accustomed to earnest thinking, quick
observation and sympathetic penetration will see, hear and feel much
that utterly escapes those whose best faculties have been permitted to
lie dormant, or become petrified. The interpreter of music must have
vital knowledge of the inner, spiritual element of every work of art he
attempts to reproduce. His imagination must be kindled by it, and
musical imagination is infinitely more precious than musical mechanism.

It is by no means intended to underrate technical proficiency. No one
can be a satisfactory exponent of music whose technique is deficient,
however profound may be his musicianly understanding and feeling. At the
same time, with every tone, every measure, mechanically correct, a
performance may fail to move the listener, because it lacks warmth and
glow. Only they can make others feel who feel themselves, but sentiment
is apt to be confounded with sentimentality unless it is guided by a
scholarly mind. The more feeling is spiritualized with thought the
nobler it will be. Heart and head need to operate in company with
well-controlled