When I Read Homer

by James Francis Cooke, Editor

THE ETUDE MUSIC MAGAZINE – August, 1927

                “When I read Homer I look at myself to see if I am not twenty feet in height,” said Michael Angelo.

                We often think that great music has a corresponding effect upon its hearers.  Who can hear the thrilling Beethoven “Fifth Symphony,” the Chopin Sonatas, The Brahms “First Symphony,” the Verdi “Requiem,” without experiencing that peculiar sensation of being exalted to spiritual and even physical altitudes, which rarely seems to come through any other source.

                The stirring strains of a fine band have a similar psychological effect.  Watch a crowd of Americans as they listen to a body of skilled players marching down the street to the music of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” “Semper Fidelis,” or his recent march triumph, “Power and Glory.”  Watch them throw back their shoulders.  Watch the rich red blood come to their cheeks.  Watch their chests expand.  Life has a new purpose, a new vision.  The sense of integrity, of patriotism, of valor, of honor is exalted.  They actually seem to grow taller, happier, stronger, more alert, and in every way finer human beings.

                We know from interminable demonstrations by psychologists and educators that music properly studied makes for better citizenship.  That is one of the reasons why The Etude Music Magazine has circulated over twenty-five million times its forceful slogan,

                MUSIC STUDY EXALTS LIFE