Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/181

Rh "What is musical accent?" glibly inquired the counsel.

"My terms for teaching music are a guinea a lesson," said Cooke, much to the enjoyment of the spectators.

"I don't want to know your terms for teaching; I want you to explain to his Lordship the Judge and to the jury what is 'musical accent. Here Sir James Scarlett, the questioner, grew warm and inquired,—

"Can you see it?"

"No."

"Can you feel it?"

"Well," drawled Cooke, "a musician can."

Again the lawyer put the question and the court required it to be answered.

"Will you explain to his lordship and the jury, who are supposed to know nothing about music, the meaning of what you call accent?"

"Musical accent," replied the witness, "is emphasis laid on a certain note, just in the same manner as you would lay stress on any word when speaking, in order to make yourself better understood. Let me give you an illustration, Sir James. If I were to say, 'You are a jackass,' the accent rests on jackass; but if instead I said, 'You are a jackass,' it rests on you, Sir James; and I have no doubt the gentlemen of the jury will corroborate me."  

Appropriateness of expression is a thing foreign to many choir singers and choristers. Many cultivate the fortissimo habit until all hopes for a pianissimo or even a piano passage vanish. Outside of the excellent effect of an occasional change from a strong, lusty tone to a subdued and quieter passage, there is another matter to be considered, that of suiting the sound to the sense,—the volume of tone to the sentiment expressed by the words. 