FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  
ning to great music it must be with reverence as well as with attention. III. We must listen for ideals. IV. We must listen in order to be self-critical. V. Constant listening to true music reveals that there is never a tone used unless it has a meaning. And besides all this we must think that among those who listen to us there may be some one who has learned this careful concentrated way. Then we shall have it ever in mind to "play as if in the presence of a master."[20] CHAPTER VI. THINKING IN TONE. "The gods for labor sell us all good things."--_Epicharmus_.[21] Perhaps you have some doubt as to exactly what is meant by music-thinking. Being somewhat acquainted with composers and with music, the thought may here come to you that all the music we hear in the world must have been made by somebody--by many somebodies, in fact. They have had to sit down, and forgetting all things else, listen intently to the music-thought which fills the mind. If you will sit quietly by yourself you will discover that you can easily think words and sentences and really hear them in the mind without pronouncing anything. In quite the same way the composer sits and hears music, tone by tone, and as clearly as if it were played by a piano or an orchestra. And to him the tones have a clear meaning, just as words have a clear meaning to us. Naturally, one can see that there could be no other way. Unless the composer can think out everything exactly there could be no music, for music must be written, and one can only write what one thinks. So at this point the thought to remember is this: Music must exist in some one's mind before others can have it to hear and enjoy. In like manner--just the same manner, in fact--the painter is one who thinks pictures; the sculptor, one who thinks statues; the architect, one who thinks buildings. They think these things just as you think words; and as you tell your thoughts in spoken words, so they tell their thoughts in printed music, in painted pictures, in chiseled statues, and in erected buildings. Now, from all this it should be clear to you that there can be nothing which has not first been thought of by some one. You _think_ the door must be closed and you close it; you _think_ you must know the time and you look at the clock; you _think_ the one hand should play more loudly than the other and you try to do it. Power to get things and to do thing
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

things

 

thought

 

thinks

 
listen
 

meaning

 
pictures
 

statues

 

thoughts

 
buildings
 
composer

manner

 

remember

 
sculptor
 
architect
 
painter
 

ideals

 

Naturally

 

Constant

 

listening

 
critical

attention

 
written
 

Unless

 

closed

 

loudly

 

spoken

 
reverence
 
orchestra
 

printed

 

painted


chiseled

 

erected

 

acquainted

 

composers

 

thinking

 

concentrated

 

careful

 
learned
 

THINKING

 

CHAPTER


master
 

Perhaps

 
Epicharmus
 
somebodies
 
pronouncing
 

reveals

 

played

 
presence
 
sentences
 

forgetting