They did not have opportunity
to be enthralled by the throaty, vibrant melodies --
at once so lovingly seductive and harshly compelling --
by which Chinese poets and lovers have revealed their thoughts
and won their quest for centuries. The stirring tom-tom,
if not the ragtime which sets the occidental capering to-day,
was common to the Chinese three or four hundred years ago.
They heard it from the wild Tartars and Mongols -- heard it and rejected it,
because it was primitive, untamed, and not to be compared
with their own carefully controlled melodies. Mr. Emerson Whithorne,
the famous British composer, who is an authority on oriental music,
made this statement to the London music lovers last week:
"`The popularity of Chinese music is still in its childhood.
From now on it will grow rapidly. Chinese music has no literature,
as we understand that term, but none can say that it has not
most captivating melodies. To the artistic temperament, in particular,
it appeals enormously, and well-known artists -- musicians, painters,
and so on -- say that it affects them in quite an extraordinary way.'"
Chinese music from an occidental standpoint has been unjustly described
as "clashing cymbals, twanging guitars, harsh flageolets, and shrill flutes,
ear-splitting and headache-producing to the foreigner."
Such general condemnation shows deplorable ignorance.*
The writer had apparently never attended an official service
in honor of Confucius, held biennially during the whole of the Ching dynasty
at 3 A.
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