Wisely has a great and merciful God thrown an
impenetrable veil between the soul and its future belongings, and
clipped its wings lest it soar too soon.
So much for a simple strain of music. A trifling matter, perhaps you
will say, to make so much talk about. Not quite so trifling as you may
think, however; for a single musical chord is a more important and
complex thing than to the careless ear it would seem. Who ever cares to
_study_ a single chord of music? And yet how few are there who know that
it is composed of not three or four but a myriad of separate and
distinct sounds, appreciable in exact proportion to the cultivation of
the ear? The uncultivated ear perceives but the three or four primitive
or fundamental notes of the chord, while, to the nicer perception, the
more delicate susceptibility of the ear trained by long study and
practice to analyze all musical sounds, come harmonic above harmonic,
sounds of melody above, beneath, and beyond the few prime motors which
act as the nucleus to the gush of tiny harmony which fills the
ear--sounds clear and distinct, yet blending in perfect order and
symmetry with their fundamental notes, and partaking so much of their
character and following with such unerring certainty their direction as
to become voiceless to the ear unskilled.
And why should this not be so? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the
current of undulations in the atmosphere producing these united sounds
should communicate its agitation in some degree to the circumambient
air, creating thousands of delicate ramifications branching off in all
possible directions from the main channel, yet all partaking of its
peculiar character, and becoming in themselves separate sounds, yet
consonant and harmonious?
Ah! could we but _see_ the vibrations of the atmosphere which a single
musical chord produces--the rolling bass, the gliding alto, the sweeping
soprano, and the soaring tenor, rolling onward in one broad channel of
harmony, with its myriad tributary streams of thirds and fifths, and its
curling, twinkling, shifting, blending, soaring mists of delicate-toned
harmonics, how would our enjoyment of music be enhanced! how would both
eye and ear be delighted, enraptured with the poetry of motion, the
harmony of sound, the eternal and indestructible order and concord and
consonance of both sight and sound! But this is reserved for the
experience of pure spirit--this is reserved to enhance the beauty of the
celestial realm.
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