Notes on the Action of Musical Reeds

Extract

The members of this Association, since its foundation, have been again and again both delighted and instructed by discourses on subjects connected with the art and the history of music. Those of us who have ventured to speak on any scientific point have doubtless considered that as the Association was formed for the investigation and discussion of subjects connected not only with the art and history, but also with the science of music, the framers of its constitution had in view a certain object in admitting science. This object I take to be the wholesomeness and desirability of an occasional descent from the realms of art and imagination, and even of a turning aside now and again from the more human and sympathetic interest called up by the study of the history of musicians and their works. I am encouraged to think that this province, the science of music, may be taken to include not only the study of the laws of the art as deduced from our mental perceptions, but also the examination of all those mechanical actions by which music, the conception and thought of one man, becomes a reality to listening thousands.