und only in
museums,--a sort of enormous guitar with a long neck and multiple
strings which offered great opportunities to a skilful artist.

It is curious to note that in ancient times there was not attributed to
the minor and major keys the same character as is assigned them
to-day.[2] The joyous canticle of the Catholic church, "O Filii et
Filiae," is in the minor. "The Romanesca," a dance air of the sixteenth
century, is equally in the minor, just like all the dance airs of Lully,
and of Rameau, and the gavottes of Sebastian Bach. The celebrated
"Funeral March" of Haendel, reproduced in many of his works, is in C
Major. The delicious love duo of Acis and Galathee, which changes to a
trio by the addition of the part of Polyphemus, is in A Minor. When
Galathee weeps afterward over the death of Acis, the air is in F Major.
It is only recently that we find dance airs in the major mood or key.

From the seventeenth century on, music entered into everyday life, never
again to be separated from it. Thus music has remained in favor, and
we are continually hearing executed the works of Bach, of Haendel, of
Hayden, of Mozart and of Beethoven. How are such works executed? Are
they executed as they should be? That is another question.

One source of error is found in the evolution which musical instruments
have undergone. In the time of Bach and Haendel the bow truly merited
its Italian name of "arco." It was curved like an arc--the hairs of the
bow constituted the chord of the arc, a very great flexibility resulting
which allowed the strings of the instrument to be enveloped and to be
played simultaneously. The bow seldom quitted the strings, doing so only
in rare cases and when especially indicated. On this account it happens
that the indication of "legato" is very rare. Even though there was a
separate stroke of the bow for each note, the notes were not separated
one from the other. Nowadays the form of the bow is completely changed.
The execution of the music is based upon the detached bow, and although
it is easy to keep the bow upon the strings just as they did at the
commencement of the nineteenth century, performers have lost the habit
of it. The result is that they give to ancient music a character of
perpetually jumping, which completely destroys its nature.

The very opposite movement has been produced in instruments of the key
or piano type. The precise indications of Mozart show that "non-legato,"
which doesn't