The Criticism of Music

Extract

“Criticism,” said a friend casually one day to me, “is the salt of life.” I think that is true: as long as man has experiences, he will persist in discussing them. Music is an experience, and about that I will put a preliminary question: — When was the criticism of music born ?—and will offer an answer for your possible acceptance. It was when the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God. shouted for joy?” The inscrutable wonder of creation was then in performance, it was sung to the tune of the music of the spheres, and a selection of mankind—those whose antecedents made it likely that they would have the requisite knowledge— were filled with the love that precedes understanding, and affirmed the glory of that wonder.