Great Falls High School - Roundup Yearbook (Great Falls, MT)

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ROUNDUP liold us are liroken and vc realize the freedom nf the snul. and a con- fidence in the purposes of our Creator is inspired. ( iod has gi en us many gifts, but the fairest and most glorious gift of all is music. Bulwer has said, Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit that never dies. It wanders perturbedly through the halls and galleries of memory and is often heard again, distinct anrl li -ing, as when it first dis])laced the wavelets of the air. Music has been called the fourth material want of our nature — first, food: then raiment, then shelter, then music. This would in- deed be a dreary world without music to (luicken our steps and make our hearts lighter. Ricard has said. It is in learning music that many youthful hearts learn to lo e. .Musical history re -eals many happy marriages: e. g., Robert and Clara Schumann, T-lvard and Nina Grieg, Felix and Cecile Mendelssohn and many others. Musical couples are, in fact, er - happy couples when they have in them the traits of character which under any other conditions would result in a happy marriage. The music has ery little to do with the question, except that it gi es the marriages a common intellectual and artistic bond which may bring a kind of delight unknown to couples wh(.) have no such mutual interest. Music in the home brings one of the greatest joys of life to e ery member of the household. The father will stay at home from t iwn any night to hear his little daughter play or sing. It draws the mem- bers of the family nearer to one another and binds them together by a golden chain not easily broken. It murmurs in the ear of the child and the child sleei)s. Its tones are companions of his dreams — they are the world in which he lives. When we know we are nearing the end of life ' s journey our thoughts turn to God, our Father, and to Heaven. Only soft strains, only a few sweet words, but could we thiid of a sweeter way to ex- ])ress our last thoughts? When the faint hope was gone to those who remained on the Titanic, the eight musicians lined U]) on tli and quietly the leader waxed his staff, hands o -er the ice laden water floated the strains hymns ever written : Nearer, my God, to Thee ! Nearer to Thee ! F ' en though it be a cross That raiseth me. Still all my song shall he Nearer, my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee. To their i)laying more than fifteen hundred souls passed from life. ■k. Then so lemnly to instrumer Its and me of the sv veetest

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Eighth Year June 1915 Number 1 The Influence of Music Im USIC IS the Cinderella Lit arts casually (.iliscr -ed. in- cidentally admired, btit generally treated as nf no serious importance in the presence of her more fav- ored sisters, painting and poetry. Music is the uni- ' ersal language s])eaking to all nations alike, need- ing no interpreter to unfold her melody, or convey and emotions, some unknown reason music exerts a wonderful influence on us. She makes the tears trickle down our cheeks, but we cannot trace ' their source. She arouses courage in the heart of man and brings the tears from the heart of woman. Music has lieen called the medicine of the breaking heart and she has rightly been named, ftjr in our saddest hours she is our great comfort — soothing us and caressing us in her own sweet way. When grief wounds the heart and op])resses the mind, music comes with her siK ' er sound antl her golden touch and banishes all our woes. We love music for the buried hopes, the garnered memories, the tender feelings she can sum- mon at a touch. She recalls the past, makes us feel the present and foretells the future. Music is the rainbow of jiromise translated from seeing into hearing, the language of another worlil. What can awak- en the soul ' s instinct, what can con ey emotion, what can arouse feel- ing in the heart of the hearer, as can music? ( )ur lives are made better because of music. We are lifteil I ' ar beyond the cares of e ery-day life and our souls are washed from the dust of such a life. We are lifted to a higher realm which could never be attained without the aid of music. The whole world seems brighter to us. . t the touch of nuisic all the bonds and fetters which (20)

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R O U NDUP ' hose heart does not swell with pride and beat faster when it hears America or the Star Spangled Banner played? What is it that arouses our soldiers and urges them to the front? Miat is it that induces them to leave their wives and children and those they love? What is it that spurs them on to give th eir lives for their country? Explain it as we may, a martial strain will urge a man tn the frunt rank of battle sooner than an argument, and a fine anthem will excite his devotion more certainly than a logical discourse. Oh. friends, respond to this wonderful art of music, with its meaning so deep, its voice so melodious, its charm so soothing. Of all the arts beneath the hea en That man has found or God has given. None draws the soul so sweet away, As music ' s melting, mystic lay; Slight emblem of the bliss above, It soothes the spirit all to love. —EDNA BARNES. ' U. (22)