om the state of affairs in Germany, where every town of ten thousand
inhabitants has its well-managed opera-house and its various kinds of
musical clubs for public and private amusement! The difference may best
be realized by reading Wagner's admirable little essay, _Ueber Deutsches
Musikwesen_, republished in the first volume of his collected works.

Perhaps there is no better way of arriving at a just estimate of the
present state of general musical culture in this country than by looking
at what may be called the creative department, and examining the vocal
and instrumental sheet-music of native composers continually issued in
such large quantities by our publishers. Were we to follow an old maxim,
that the best way of judging the inner life of a nation is to listen to
its music, and accordingly judge of the sentiments and emotions of
Americans by their sheet-music, we should arrive at very discouraging
results. The characteristics of our sheet-music, briefly summed up, are:
(1) trite and vulgar melody, devoid of all originality, repeating what
has been heard a thousand times already; (2) equally trite and
monotonous accompaniments, the harmony limited to half a dozen
elementary chords, the rhythm mechanical and commonplace, and the
cadences unchanging as the laws of Nature; (3) insipid, sensational
titles; (4) words usually so silly that a respectable country newspaper
would refuse to print them in its columns--true to the French _bon-mot_,
that what is too stupid to be spoken or read must be sung.

This may seem too sweeping a condemnation, but it is not. There are some
honorable exceptions of course, but only just enough of them to attract
notice by the contrast, and thus to prove the rule. If an aspiring young
composer wishes to appear in print, the point to which he must direct
his attention is to secure, not a good original melody or a piquant
accompaniment, but a "catching" title, like "Timber-Thief Galop,"
"Silver Bill Polka," or "Sitting Bull March." If his choice in this
respect does not please the publisher, his manuscript may yet escape the
paper-basket if its title-page happens to be embellished with a
grotesque cartoon or a sentimental picture of a couple of lovers or cats
who have met by moonlight alone. From these external and all-essential
attributes an experienced agent can form an accurate estimate of how
large the sale of a new piece will be; and he will tell you that so
little does the excellence