| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 7 |
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But we must make music also in relations as well as singularly. We do not live alone; we live in companionships, in families, in friendship’s circles, in churches, in communities. It is one thing to be waited for, to hurry after, to harmonize or blend with. The soloist can sing at sweet will, without restriction or limitation or fear of clashing or jarring. But it is quite another thing for several persons to sing together, in choir or chorus, and there voices all to blend in harmony. It is necessary in this latter case that they should have the same key and that they should sing carefully and unselfishly, each watching the others and controlling, repressing, or restraining their own voice for the sake of the effect of the whole, full music. If one sings falsely, out of tune or out of time, they mar the harmony of the chorus. If one sings without regard to the other voices, only for the display of their own, their part is out of proportion and the effect is unhappy. It requires the spirit of self-repression, self-effacement, to be one of a company of singers. One must give up all desire for personal prominence or conspicuousness, and be content to lose one’s self in the song which all together sing.
Yet it is necessary not only that we make sweet music in our individual lives, but also that in choirs or choruses in which we may find ourselves only individual members, we do our part in making pleasing harmony. Some people are very good alone, where no other life comes in contact with theirs, where they are entirely their own master and have to think only of themselves, and where they can have their own way, who yet make most wretched business of living when they come into relationships with others. Then they are selfish, tyrannical, absorbing, despotic, and willful. They will not brook suggestion, request, and authority.
They will not submit to any inconvenience, any sacrifice. They are good in many respects. They live morally. They do well in the world. They are even generous in certain ways, and may be refined and cultured. But they cannot live cordially with people; at least other people cannot live cordially with them. They have not the remotest conception of life with self-denials and sacrifices in it, in which others have to be considered.
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