in the stream of invention." Furthermore, music is a
stepping-stone to social success. A gifted amateur is welcomed at once
into circles to which others may vainly seek admission for years; and
a young lady with a musical voice has a great advantage in the period
of courtship. But most important of all is the moral value of music as
an _ennui_ killer. _Ennui_ leads to more petty crimes than anything
else; and a devotee of music need never suffer a moment's _ennui_.
There are enough charming songs and pieces to fill up every spare
moment in our lives with ecstatic bliss, and to banish all temptation
to vice. It is in reference to similar pleasures that Sir John
Lubbock, in his essay on the "Duty of Happiness," exclaims: "It is
wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw
away." The art of enjoying life is an accomplishment which few have
thoroughly mastered.

V

ITALIAN AND GERMAN VOCAL STYLES

Why is it that most persons are more interested in vocal than in
instrumental music? Obviously because, as Richard Wagner remarks, "the
human voice is the oldest, the most genuine, and the most beautiful
organ of music--the organ to which alone our music owes its
existence." And not only is the sound or quality of the human voice
more beautiful than that of any artificial instrument, but it is
capable of greater variation. Although a good artist can produce
various shades of tone on his instrument, yet every instrument has a
well-defined characteristic _timbre_, which justifies us in speaking,
for instance, of the majestic, solemn trombone, the serene flute, the
amorous violoncello, the lugubrious bassoon, and so on. The human
voice, on the other hand, is much less limited in its powers of tonal
and emotional coloring. It is not dependent for its resonance on a
rigid tube, like the flute, or an unchangeable sounding-board, like
the violin or the piano, but on the cavity of the mouth, which can be
enlarged and altered at will by the movements of the lower jaw, and
the soft parts--the tongue and the glottis. These movements change the
overtones, of which the vowels are made up, and hence it is that the
human voice is capable of an infinite variety of tone-color, compared
with which Wagner admits that even "the most manifold imaginable
mixture of orchestral colors must appear insignificant."

Notwithstanding that the superiority of the voice is thus conceded,
even by the greatest magician of the