il to answer the call it is most likely with a
lingering feeling of regret that the days of adventure for us are past
and gone.

All this is the incidental music of the highways and byways, but as a
perennial stimulant for the emotions we call for Music's aid in many
circumstances. Does not the villain of the piece enter and take the
stage to a suggestively diabolic tremolo in the orchestra, and is not
the lovemaking also conducted to an appropriately sensuous
accompaniment, sufficiently subdued, to keep the emotions susceptible
and fluid? Could the villain enter with the same eclat to a stony
silence, or the lovemaking thrill in the same way without the moral
support of a few well-chosen harmonies? It may be that in heightening
the emotional element we correspondingly diminish the appeal to the
intelligence, and thus render ourselves less critical both of
stage-villainy and of fictitious lovemaking.

Nothing can be accomplished without music of some sort. We must have it
in our churches and our chapels, in our moving pictures, in schools, at
banquets and dinners, and in the restaurants. Could any bride feel the
same satisfaction in walking down the silent aisle of the church, after
the most important ceremony in the world, as if the organ were pealing
out its good wishes in Mendelssohn's Wedding March? Oh NO. Music we must
have, for it has wedded itself to all our pomp and ceremony, and if we
may not have it in any other guise we must at least end up with "Auld
Lang Syne" or "For he's a jolly good fe-e-ellow," or at any rate the
National Anthem.

In the robust and plain-speaking days of old Pepys our forbears took
their Musick seriously. There was less of the gadding about that fills
the time to-day, and much of the melody was perforce home-made. Any
educated person was expected to be able to take his part in a glee at
sight, and some of the music was none too easy at that. The contrast
with the present lamentable lack of sight-reading ability is most
marked. The number of people who could do the same to-day is, in
comparison, small. We have not made progress in this direction, indeed
we have fallen back. But we have multiplied our choirs and our choral
societies, our Musical Festivals with their competitions have taken
solid root, training in musical work is now more widespread than ever
before, and these considerations have served, and are serving, to make
music more and more a part of the national life.

Someti