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Remarks On The Imitative Power Of Instrumental Music.
powers of imitation which distinguish it , and in which it excels all the other Imitative Arts . Poetry and Eloquence , it has accordingly been often observed , produce their effects always by a connected variety and succession of different thoughts and ideas ; but Music frequently produces its effects by a repetition of the same idea ; and the same sense expressed in the same , or nearly the same combina * tion of sounds , though at first perhaps it may make scarce any impression upon us , yet , by being repeated again and again , it comes at last gradually , and by little and little , to move , to agitate , and to
transport us . . To these powers of imitating , Music naturally , or rather necessarily , joins the happiest choice in the objects of its imitation . Tha sentiments and passions which Music can best imitate , are those which unite and bind men together in society ; the social , the decent , the virtuous , the interesting and affecting , the amiable and agreeable , the awfuland respectable , the noble , elevating , and
commanding passions . Grief and distress are interesting and affecting ; humanity and compassion , joy and admiration , are amiable and agreeable ; devotion is awful and respectable ; the generous contempt of danger , the honourable indignation at injustice , are noble , elevating , and commanding . But it is these and such like passions which Music is fittest for imitating , and which it in fact most frequentl y imitates . They are , if I may say so , all Musical Passions ; their natural tones are all clear , distinct , and almost melodious ; and they
naturally express themselves in a language which is distinguished b y pauses , at regular ancl almost equal intervals ; and which , upon that account , can more easily be adapted to the regular returns of the correspondent periods of a tune . The passions , on the contrary , which drive men from one another , the unsocial , the hateful , the indecent , the vicious passions , cannot easily be imitated by Music . The voice of furious anger , for example , is harsh and discordant ; its
periods are ah irregular , sometimes very long , and sometimes very short , and distinguished by no regular pauses . The obscure and almost inarticulate grumblings of black malice and envy , the screaming outcries of dastardly fear , the hideous growlings of brutal and implacable revenge , are all equall y discordant . It is with difficulty that Music can imitate any of those passions ' , and the Music which does imitate them , is not the most agreeable . A whole entertainment may consist , wirhont any impropriety , of the imitation of the social and amiable passions .
It would be a strange entertainment which consisted-altogether in the imitation of the odious and the vicious . A single song expresses almost always some social , agreeable , or interesting passion . In an opera the unsociable and disagreeable are sometimes introduced , but it is rarely , and as discords are sometimes introduced into harmony , to set off by their contrast the superior beauty of the opposite passions . What Plato said of Virtue , that it was of all beauties the brightest , may with some sort of truth be said of the proper and natural objects . » f Musical Imitation ., They are either the sentiments and passions ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks On The Imitative Power Of Instrumental Music.
powers of imitation which distinguish it , and in which it excels all the other Imitative Arts . Poetry and Eloquence , it has accordingly been often observed , produce their effects always by a connected variety and succession of different thoughts and ideas ; but Music frequently produces its effects by a repetition of the same idea ; and the same sense expressed in the same , or nearly the same combina * tion of sounds , though at first perhaps it may make scarce any impression upon us , yet , by being repeated again and again , it comes at last gradually , and by little and little , to move , to agitate , and to
transport us . . To these powers of imitating , Music naturally , or rather necessarily , joins the happiest choice in the objects of its imitation . Tha sentiments and passions which Music can best imitate , are those which unite and bind men together in society ; the social , the decent , the virtuous , the interesting and affecting , the amiable and agreeable , the awfuland respectable , the noble , elevating , and
commanding passions . Grief and distress are interesting and affecting ; humanity and compassion , joy and admiration , are amiable and agreeable ; devotion is awful and respectable ; the generous contempt of danger , the honourable indignation at injustice , are noble , elevating , and commanding . But it is these and such like passions which Music is fittest for imitating , and which it in fact most frequentl y imitates . They are , if I may say so , all Musical Passions ; their natural tones are all clear , distinct , and almost melodious ; and they
naturally express themselves in a language which is distinguished b y pauses , at regular ancl almost equal intervals ; and which , upon that account , can more easily be adapted to the regular returns of the correspondent periods of a tune . The passions , on the contrary , which drive men from one another , the unsocial , the hateful , the indecent , the vicious passions , cannot easily be imitated by Music . The voice of furious anger , for example , is harsh and discordant ; its
periods are ah irregular , sometimes very long , and sometimes very short , and distinguished by no regular pauses . The obscure and almost inarticulate grumblings of black malice and envy , the screaming outcries of dastardly fear , the hideous growlings of brutal and implacable revenge , are all equall y discordant . It is with difficulty that Music can imitate any of those passions ' , and the Music which does imitate them , is not the most agreeable . A whole entertainment may consist , wirhont any impropriety , of the imitation of the social and amiable passions .
It would be a strange entertainment which consisted-altogether in the imitation of the odious and the vicious . A single song expresses almost always some social , agreeable , or interesting passion . In an opera the unsociable and disagreeable are sometimes introduced , but it is rarely , and as discords are sometimes introduced into harmony , to set off by their contrast the superior beauty of the opposite passions . What Plato said of Virtue , that it was of all beauties the brightest , may with some sort of truth be said of the proper and natural objects . » f Musical Imitation ., They are either the sentiments and passions ,