MUSICAL COMPOSITION

THE TREATMENT OF VOICES 143tion under such conditions, for no great artist eversings a phrase twice alike. It varies with his mood,and with the size of room. The accompaniment,therefore, must allow for elasticity.Lastly, before setting a poem read it all, and read italoud, unless you are sufficiently master of the waysand means of poetry to be able to hear its declamationwith the help of your eye alone. Many an obscureline will become clarified by this process, and thevarying of pace, the rise and fall of the individualsentences, the moments for climax and for rest will allimpress themselves on the mind before the musicaldesign is approached.A piece of advice, which indeed applies to all musicalcomposition, but in a special degree to song writing,may be found useful. If you are gravelled by adifficulty, and it seems, for the time at all events,to be insurmountable, put the whole composition awayand let your brain work it out by itself. The brain isan admirable cook, a "cordon bleu," who boils andbakes and fries ideas far away from you in a distantkitchen. He does not ask you to be present while heis at work; if you wait patiently the dish will be quiteready at the right time. "Unconscious cerebration"is the scientific term for this most beneficent propertyof humanity. A well-ordered brain never forgets. Itwill take an idea, and improve and refine it out of allknowledge; and it will, if you are in a difficulty, helpyou out if you do not worry it or yourself. Of thetruth of this power the writer may perhaps give aninstance from his own experience.When he was fourteen years old he tried to seta somewhat long dramatic poem as a song. He wrote