Books › The story of the violin, 1904 › scan 60
Scan 60
The story of the violin, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER VI.
3MUSIC IN GENERAL IN THE FIRST CENTURIES A.D.
5Music had shared in the general quickening of life which followed the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth. It was, shall we say, the first fair flower of the spirit pushing its way through yet wintry darkness to proclaim to the world the new spring; the primula veris blooming by the open grave of a doomed and dying pagan civilisation. Kiesewetter, in his History of European Music, tells how this new Christian music (if so it may be called even in its primitive beginnings) was born unnoticed in huts and out-of-the-way places, in caves and catacombs where early Christians were assembled. They were but poor and simple folk for the most part, who knew nothing of a Greek music system, enharmonic and chromatic. Their hearts were full of hope and joy, and when a heart is so full that it cannot contain its fulness any longer, it flows over in tears or in melodies, this is the beginning of all true music.
7The early Christians sang. May be it was at first only a simple la la of the soul, joined to a psalm, a prayer, or an Alleluia, Amen; extemporaneous, with-
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