A Popular History of the Art of Music

*...The name *music* contains two ideas, both of them important in our modern use of the term: The general meaning is that of *a pleasing modulation of sounds.* In this sense the term is used constantly by poets, novelists and even in conversation—as when we speak of the *music of the forest,* the *music of the brook* or the *music of nature.* There is also a reminiscence of the etymological derivation of the term, as something derived from the *Muses,* the fabled retinue of the Greek god Apollo, who presided over all the higher operations of the mind and imagination. Thus the name *music,* when applied to an art, contains a suggestion of an inspiration, a something derived from a special inner light, or from a higher source outside the composer, as all true imagination seems to be to those who exercise it...*