With advancing
civilization the emotions of which the human heart are capable become
more complex and demand larger means of expression. Some belief in the
healing, helpful, uplifting power of music has always prevailed. It
remains for independent, practical, modern man to present the art to the
world as a thing of law and order, whose ineffable beauty and
beneficence may reach the lives of the average man and woman.
Without the growth of the individual, music cannot grow; without freedom
of thought, neither the language of tones nor that of words can gain
full, free utterance. Freedom is essential to the life of the indwelling
spirit. Wherever the flow of thought and fancy is impeded, or the
energies of the individual held in check, there music is cramped. In
China, where conditions have crushed spiritual and intellectual liberty,
the art remains to this day in a crude rhythmical or percussion state,
although it was early honored as the gift of superior beings. The
Chinese philosopher detected a grand world music in the harmonious order
of the heavens and the earth, and wrote voluminous works on musical
theory.
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