I've seen the forest, adorned the foremost,
With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant and gay;
Sae bonny was their blooming,
Their scents the air perfuming,
But now they are withered, and weeded away.
Oh, fickle fortune, why this cruel sporting?
Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day?
Nae mair your smiles can cheer me,
Nae mair your frowns can fear me,
For the flowers of the forest are a' wede away.
The words are beautiful, and instinct with
sorrow when spoken or sung. But it is the
music of the pipes that gives them supreme
interpretation, and makes them the expression
of grief so profound that "The Flowers
of the Forest" has become the national dirge.
Nor is sorrow their only note.
The pipes can sound—and have sounded on many a stricken field and in many an hour of despair—the triumph of hope and of victory over death. They have stirred the blood and cleared the head, and given strength to the arm of many a soldier who has never dreamed of the eagle plume blended with the heather and never heard through the mists of memory the clash of the broadsword on the targe—
I hear the pibroch sounding
Deep o'er the mountain glen,
While light springing footsteps are trampling the heath—
'Tis the march of the Cameron men.
(2135)
MUSIC OF NATURE
The Innuits, or Eskimos, of Smith Sound,
Greenland, the most northerly people in the
world, believe that the aurora borealis has a
singing noise; and the inhabitants of the
Orkneys, of Finmarken, and those in the region
of Hudson Bay believe, with many
competent observers, that a peculiar sound
like the rustling of silk always accompanies
it. The Lapps liken this sound to the
cracking in the joints of moving reindeer.
(Text.)
(2136)
MUSIC, POPULAR, VALUE OF
All history reveals the fact that music,
wedded to stirring and patriotic words, has
in every age had a powerful influence on
the course of public events. Nor is this true
alone of civilized peoples. Among almost
all savage races, the warriors excite themselves
to martial ardor by songs which thrill
their souls. The war-dances alike of our
North American Indians, of the African
negroes, and of the semicivilized races
which dwell in Asia, are accompanied by
songs which, tho wild and incoherent to
European ears, have an inspiring influence
upon themselves. Carlyle wisely said, "The
meaning of song goes deep"; and a more recent
writer has declared that "it goes as
deep as the heart of man, the throbbings of
which it controls more readily and widely
than do the speeches of statesmen, the sermons
of preachers, or the writings of
journalists." It was clearly because the influence
of legend and of patriotic appeal,
joined with familiar tunes so strongly roused
the emotions of the people, that the ancient
bards of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were
held in such high honor in the old royal
courts and princely castles of these lands,
and were regarded with such veneration by
the people everywhere. About two centuries
ago Lord Wharton wrote a political ballad,
which was set to music, the title of which
was "Lillibulero." It was very poor poetry,
but somehow the rude verses struck a chord
in the popular heart, and were sung everywhere.
It was written in opposition to King
James the Second; and so wide was its influence
that Lord Wharton boasted, it is
said, that it "sang James II out of three
kingdoms." The effect of the "Marseillaise"
in arousing and exciting the revolutionary
spirit of France is one of the prominent facts
in the history of that country. To it, in no
small degree, is attributed the success of the
French arms against the allies who assailed
the young republic. So potent, indeed, was
the "Marseillaise" felt to be in kindling political
passion, that both the Napoleons forbade
it being sung or played in France during
their reigns.—Youth's Companion.
(2137)
MUSIC REFLECTS THE SOUL
Welsh, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish,
and Armenian music is apt to be
pitched in plaintive, mournful, minor keys.
A Welsh preacher explained to an English
congregation why Welsh tunes were thus
habitually pathetic. It is because for centuries
liberties were lost under Saxon domination.
So, in Russia, visitors were imprest
by the tender and melancholy tho beautiful
strains of the national melodies. People
