From Rhythmic Pulsation to Classical Outline

Extract

From time to time such able papers have been read before this Association upon the outlines of those patterns of musical works which have been generally accepted, and deemed worthy of classification and imitation, that I should not have ventured to reintroduce the subject this afternoon, except with a hope that we may be able to trace back those rules of construction which have been diligently sought out and adopted by generations of earnest musicians, until we arrive at some clue to the leading principles, some glimpse of the natural law, which must underlie all satisfactory artistic work. And it will be admitted that the subject is of great importance to all students of music. For now—certainly not less than at any former time—there is a kind of impatient, restless spirit about, which (seeking to escape from the labour of a life-long study of the deeper, less obvious, principles of art; or prompted by a supposition that in its higher flights, such a pure, imaginative, art as ours should be free from all restraint, and absolved from all obedience) makes light of the achievements of bygone musicians, and refuses to profit by the experience gained, and bequeathed to us, by generations of earnest workers. No one would be more reluctant than I should to submit to mere dogmatic restriction. In a modest cautious spirit every student should carefully weigh each proposition submitted to him before he admits it among the articles of his creed.