ss or
self-consciousness in suggesting the moods or characteristics displayed,
will depend the impression of temperamental force upon his audience.

The following suggestions may be of some value as devices in making songs
mean something; and this, after all, is the object of all attempts at
interpretation.

Suppose you take a new song--one you have never seen before. Do not sit at
the pianoforte, and play at it and sing at it until, after a fashion, you
know it. This way of learning leads to the kind of statement recently heard
after a peculiarly bad performance, "Why, I never think of the words at all
when I sing!" Instead of doing this, if you have been taught to do so, read
the song through, observing its general character. If thinking music
without playing or singing be impossible for you, play it over, carefully
noting _tempo_ and other general characteristics, until you have an
understanding of the melody, rhythm, and musical content. Observe how the
words fit the music, still without singing. Then read the poem silently and
carefully, and decide whether it is narrative, lyric, dramatic, churchly,
or in other ways distinctive. Next read the poem aloud, giving the voice
character appropriate to its sentiment, phrasing it intelligibly, observing
the emotional portent, and coloring it accordingly. If the poem be
narrative, tell the story with life and vitality; if it be dramatic,
attempt to impersonate the characters concerned; if it be devotional,
recite with dignity and devotional quality. Finally, when both words and
music are well in the mind, if possible with an accompaniment, but
certainly standing, sing the song. Sing, making a compromise between the
strict rhythmical value of the notes and the demands of the sense of the
words. Keep the general outlines of the music so far as phrasing and rhythm
are concerned; but whenever a sacrifice must be made, sacrifice the musical
value and emphasize the emotion, the meaning, the poetry, the dramatic or
narrative significance of the words. Phrase with this end in view;
sacrifice anything except tone-production to this end. Do not distort the
rhythm, but bend it sufficiently to emphasize important words and
syllables, by holding them a little, at the expense of unimportant words or
syllables. Finally, remember that misguided enthusiasm is not
interpretation.

No real interpretation is possible without a full comprehension of the
meaning of both words and music. Study