Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/110

94 plentiful supply of music was essential to peaceful rule, probably on the assumption that he who was not supplied with "concord of sweet sounds" was "fit for murders and conspiracies." The Indians are also intensely addicted to music, and possess their own types of folk-songs and their own military bands. The half-caste element of Mexico has been described as being as musical as the Hungarians, and there is little doubt but that a Mexican Brahms would find as much and as superior material to his hand as his Hungarian prototype, were he suddenly to arise.

The type of folk-song to be heard among the half-breed and the Indian classes is plaintive, melancholy, and beautiful, couched usually in a minor key, and very reminiscent of old Spain and its semi-Oriental music. The native bands are particularly melodious, their members receiving but little instruction. The son learns from his father the rudiments of the art, and the leader does the rest, the result being that in many of the thousand plazas of Mexico, excellent music may be heard throughout the soft tropical evenings. Dance-music, with its weird and rhythmic movement, is most in favour, and is played in perfect time and tune: for the ear of the musician is remarkably correct, and his taste almost faultless. The national dance, resembling somewhat the Cuban habanera, has a slow, swaying movement, conforming to the strains of the orchestra; and the songs are somewhat of the same description, a striking feature being their melancholy tone. In fact, Mexican music is as individual in its character as the Hungarian czardas or the German Volkslieder. The best bands are undoubtedly those of pure Indian race. The delicacy and harmony of their performances, their masterly command of their instruments, the originality of the compositions they render, and their ability to capture the soul of the music are quite exceptional among untrained and even among professional musicians. The two-fold gift of utterance and composition is theirs. These bands