He could not remain patient at a recital; the effort to
listen to one performer for an hour and a half was too severe a tax
upon his restless nature. The Philadelphia Orchestra gave a symphony
concert each Saturday evening, and Bok dreaded the coming of that
evening in each week for fear of being taken to hear music which he was
convinced was "over his head."
Like many men of his practical nature, he had made up his mind on this
point without ever having heard such a concert. The word "symphony"
was enough; it conveyed to him a form of the highest music quite beyond
his comprehension. Then, too, in the back of his mind there was the
feeling that, while he was perfectly willing to offer the best that the
musical world afforded in his magazine, his readers were primarily
women, and the appeal of music, after all, he felt was largely, if not
wholly, to the feminine nature. It was very satisfying to him to hear
his wife play in the evening; but when it came to public concerts, they
were not for his masculine nature. In other words, Bok shared the all
too common masculine notion that music is for women and has little
place in the lives of men.
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