And this can be
done easily.
Rousseau named his collection of songs "The Consolations of the
Miseries of my Life;" Shakspere called music "The food of love;" and
Chopin, in one of his letters to a friend, after referring to his
first love affair, adds, "How often I relate to my piano everything I
should like to communicate to you." Similar remarks might be quoted by
the score from the letters of composers and other great men devoted to
music, showing that music is valued like a personal friend who is
always ready to sympathize with our joys and sorrows. And when a real
music-lover comes across a beautiful new piece, how he bubbles over
with enthusiasm to play or sing it to his friends, and let them share
the pleasure; his own being doubled thereby! I know of no other art
that so vividly arouses this unselfish feeling, this desire for
sympathetic communion. Indeed, music is the most unselfish of all the
arts. A poem is generally read in solitude, and a picture can be seen
by only a few at a time; but a concert or opera may be enjoyed by
5,000 or more at a time--the more the merrier.
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