insult offered to the composer and the more enlight-
ened part of the audience, the music is certain to
fail altogether in its effect on the unmusical, as its
power to move and impress must depend on its
beauties being properly brought out, and on its being
rendered as the composer intended. To the educated
musician, a moderately good performance of a new
work may be of interest, as he himself can feel the
beauties latent in the music ; but the less-instructed
audience can only judge of it by the effect produced
as it is performed.
To what extent the love of music has penetrated
into the homes and private life of the people, it is
very difficult to estimate. The number of pupils
from our city who pass the Local Musical Examina-
tions does not give a very reliable indication ; for in
many cases success in this direction has been at-
tained at the expense of the love of music for its
own sake. Instead of being taught to feel the
beauty of the music, to take deligjit, and find
emotional expression, in the lovely melodies, and in
the exquisite poetic feeling, of the works of Mozart
and Schubert, the pupil is made to grind away
at particular pieces in order to obtain as much
mechanical dexterity and imitative expression as
will satisfy the examiner. Evidence of this fact
may be found in the fashionable concerts given by
teachers to exhibit the attainments of their pupils
to their admiring friends and relatives. At these
concerts the feeble, tentative efforts of juvenile pre-
cocity are warmly applauded — to the almost certain
injury of the pupil. The audience, liowever, in the
long run becomes wearied of the imperfect render-
ings of high-class work, and feels a sense of relief
wlien the performance is over. Were there a
musical school in Glasgow, there coidd be no ob-
jection to selected pupils of the various masters
giving a periodical recital before the professors and
a critical audience of people interested in musical
progress. This is done in the principal Conser-
vatoires abroad, and serves a useful purpose. But
the setting of fifteen or twenty young persons —
more or less musically endowed — ^to give utterly
inadequate performances of good music before a
fashionable audience in a concert-hall, cannot, we
think, serve any good end.
Still, the air is full of talk about music — talk, we
fear, more or less superficial. From pulpits and
platforms we are taught the necessity that exists
for its widespread cultivation. Even the Town
Council of our city, a body usually more remarkable
for economic astuteness tlian artistic sympathy, lias
tliought it advisable of late years to provide music
for the people, and has established open-air band
jjerformances, and a weekly Corporation concert by
local performers. At the International Exhibition,
concerts of the ' promenade ' order will be frequent —
though, considering the important place in the scheme
which the sister art of painting occupies in its most
serious form — it is perhaps a pity that the artistic
aspects of music have not come in for more considera-
tion. We might have had a few high-class recitals in
a suitable building, and a chamber concert or two, by
efficient performers. As, however, the Committee
dealing with the musical arrangements entirely
ignored the musical profession, and did not seek the
aid of experts, the result arrived at is not surprising.
On J of the most hopeful signs of a happier future
is the existence in a flourishing state of the Society
of Musicians. This Society was formed four years
ago for the purpose of bringing the professional
musicians of Glasgow together, that they might get
to know each other, and act in concert for the
advancement of the best interests of music in Glas-
gow. It now numbers among its members and
associates the best musicians in the city, and also
many gentlemen who have been intimately con-
nected with the promotion of music and musical
organisations. The Society has already done some
good work in giving encouragement to composition,
and forming a library of valuable orchestral, chamber,
and other music, besides promoting the free dis-
cussion of musical questions and the study of various
phases of musical thought and activity. Already
the example of Glasgow has been followed by the
formation of similar societies in Edinburgli and
Dundee. There can be no doubt that the existence
of these organisations will exercise a most beneficial
inHuence on the progress of music, as from them
will proceed the future development and extension
of musical education and culture.
In this paper we have been able to deal only with
the more important circumstances which affect
musical life and progress in Glasgow. There are
many interesting features which we have not been
able to notice, such as the settlement among us
during recent years of many accomplished musicians, the development of a taste for chamber music, etc. With these, we may take occasion to deal in future articles. G. W. H.
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