the
cabin. At my request he played "Yankee Doodle," and imparted to it a
revolutionary dash, a piquant mocking defiance, which convinced me that
he knew its history and was interpreting it from his own heart--a fact
which a subsequent conversation confirmed. I often wonder that no
musical speculator has ever organized a band of Russian, Hungarian and
English gypsies. Certainly, it would give us a far more characteristic
entertainment than bands of blackened "minstrels."

The Swiss love their national music as they love their mountains and
their freedom; and at first sight it seems singular that a people so
blended with the progress of liberty should possess a music singularly
simple and pastoral. But in this fact we perceive how truly music
explains character, for as early as the fourteenth century their
political faith, like their mode of life, was simple and averse to
display. In a few ordinary words the deputies of Appenzell said all that
has since been said with infinite bombast: "We are convinced that
mankind are born for order, but not for servitude--that they must have
magistrates whom they themselves elect, but not masters to grovel
under." The essentials of true freedom having thus early become an
every-day enjoyment, a people so plain and simple sang naturally
melodies suggestive of the calm pastoral life so dear to them.

[Illustration: SWISS SONG.]

We must notice that the favorite instrument of the Swiss, the Alp-horn,
has caused a predilection for a certain progression of intervals. The
Alp-horn is a long tube of fir-wood having the same compass as the
trumpet. But on both these instruments the upper F is not an exact F,
neither is it an exact F sharp, and thus in most Alpine tunes there are
passages like the following, where the notes marked x ought to be F
natural, but are nearly F sharp. However, this irregular tone charms the
Swiss, and is one of the peculiarities of their "Ranz des Vaches:"

[Illustration: MUSIC.]

But it is in the national music of the Celtic race that we find the most
familiar examples of melody symbolizing character. The purest form of it
is undoubtedly the Irish; and who will not bear witness that in its
half-laughing and half-sobbing notes we hear the voice of the race? Its
musical distinction is the emphatic and striking introduction of the
sixth major, but this peculiarity is also prominent in Scotch and Welsh
airs, and is a favorite termination in all mountainous countri