| C MUS VOLUME 1. T 5 = Oo Ae & — we pene ecy nnaer ieee neean se ne on thy te Weerge: gene! THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 80 v( F 962. v. | =~ LIBRARY FOMCRTON. Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. U. of I. Library NOY 21 1939 dU 16 1941 14685-S FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART Dr. Epwarp Dickinson, Editor-in-Chief Professor Emeritus of the History and Criticism of Music at Oberlin College. Author: ‘‘The Spirit of Music,” ‘‘The Education of a Music Lover,’”’ ‘‘ The Study of the History of Music.’’ VOLUME ONE Dav Eric BERG, Managing Editor Author: ‘“ Personality Culture by College Faculties.’’ ‘‘ The Art of Listening,” ‘‘ Choral Music and the Oratorio.”’ ‘‘‘ Beethoven and the Romantic Symphony,” FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX, In Twenty VoLUMES TITLES OF VOLUMES . INTRODUCTION To Music . THE FoLtk Sonc AND DANCE Tue Art SONG AND ITS COMPOSERS . THE GrowTH oF EXPRESSION IN HARMONY . THE Art oF LISTENING . CHoRAL Music AND THE ORATORIO . THE Music or THE CHURCH GREAT PIANISTS AND COMPOSERS . THE ORGAN, COMPOSERS AND LITERATURE . THE VIOLIN, "CELLO AND STRING QUARTET . WHo’s WHO IN THE ORCHESTRA . Earty AND CLassic SYMPHONIES BEETHOVEN AND THE ROMANTIC SYMPHONY . MopERN SYMPHONIC ForMS . Earty ITALIAN AND FRENCH OPERA MopERN FRENCH AND ITALIAN OPERA GERMAN AND RUSSIAN OPERA MoperN TENDENCIES IN Music Music AS A SOCIAL Force IN AMERICA GLossaRY oF TERMS AND INDEX FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART Epwarp Dickinson, Litt.D., Editor-in-Chief VOLUME ONE INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC By DAVID ERIC BERG THE CAXTON INSTITUTE Incorporated NEW YORE Copyright, 1926, By Davin E. BERG The colophon of the Caxton Institute used on our cover and title page repre- sents Y ggdrasil, which according to Norse mythology is a mighty ash tree support- ing the whole universe. It symbolizes Existence, and is the Tree of Life, Knowledge and Fate. aged r to Q e vw? . ; \ ts 3 ew C Te” MUSH CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE I NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC FOREWORD Me argh Bie a Sets MBN ANY) Music THE UNIVERSAL ART... Music’s PLacke AMONG THE OTHER ARTS THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND . Music IN THE INORGANIC WoRLD Music AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS MusIcaL ELEMENTS IN THE SPEAKING VOICE -EFFEcT OF SOUND ON THE HUMAN Bopy . Man’s ABILITY TO Express Music . . Music ExpressivE or MANn’s Psycuic SELF . ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF Music .. . BANATIVE, VALUES OF Music:'. -....., - 10 Ne Ess - 20 Music Voices MAN’s ATTITUDE TOWARD THE epee ra, , Reem hdd EO ANT): (QOCIETY |, um Scie ae el ee Music AMONG SAVAGE RACES . Music AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS Use or Music sy THE CHURCH GrowTH OF FoLK SONG ... SocraL Usts or MeEDI#VvAL Music Tue Marvurine or Musicau Art Music THE Mopern ART... REL MRO PEt cs Ug UW ek eye, es [v] 670326 CONTENTS II SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC "Tan MATERIAL OF MUSIC. . >) <3) eee THE QUALITIES OF MusicaL SouND . TIMBRE AND ‘OVERTONES... yep COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT . WHE HUMAN (BAR) 0000. 0 SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN Ear THE ScALE ESSENTIAL TO Music . DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE . . . THE NATURAL AND [EMPERAMENTAL SCALES THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR 0 .W8 RHYTHM THE DyNamics oF Music THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES ... ForRM IN SIMPLE MELODY . ...__.. SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS . : Uniry or Moop of a Sone 2a FEELING FOR Key ofr A SONG . ... THe RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION BIBLIOGRAPHY 4.5) 0) is) ol [vi] e FOREWORD AMERICA’S MUSICAL AWAKENING AS unprecedented enthusiasm for music has swept America since the war. From every hand pours in new testimony of our growing devotion to music. The most dramatic element in this crescendo of musical development is the radio, at first a novel toy, which now has be- come a household necessity and daily furnishes diversion and instruction to millions of listeners. The proportion of radio programs which do not include at least a small proportion of music is negligible. The radio has stimulated enor- mously the performance of music and _ has brought music to the attention of thousands who otherwise would not hear it. Dozens of new symphony orchestras have been organized since the war, and hundreds of choral societies, glee clubs, and music societies have been formed. A number of opera com- panies generously financed by wealthy music patrons have been organized. Every year these companies and the symphony orchestras make extended tours throughout the country to cities [vii] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC which are not capable of supporting such organ- izations. Recently the college glee clubs have formed an alliance to meet in annual competi- tion and to increase interest in chorus sing- ing. Movie houses with excellent orchestras also introduce thousands of persons to the beauty of good music. Fifty years ago only three or four colleges admitted music as a part of their course of in- struction. Now only a few of the most con- servative have been able to resist the pressure of influence which has favored its inclusion. Classroom instruction in music is supplemented by recitals, choruses, quartet and ensemble work, and orchestra practice. All the public school systems include music as a part of their grade work, and many high schools offer four year courses in music, including such subjects as history of music, theory, and composition. Normal schools train music supervisors and teachers. Music publishers and school text- book houses vie with each other in equipping the schools with new and interesting material for music study. Some of the greatest of our artists annually maintain summer schools where mature students and teachers come from all parts of the country to receive advanced instruction. Several foun- dations have been established by wealthy men [viii ] FOREWORD interested in the cause of music or from the funds left in trusteeship. Fellowships have been provided for gifted students to study either in this country or in Europe. Eminent musicians and music teachers offer lectures to the general public on the understanding and ap- preciation of music. Lecture bureaus send out speakers to clubs throughout the country to lec- ture on the history and appreciation of music. Some of our most eminent orchestral leaders give special concerts to children and also to busi- ness men, explaining the structure of the orches- tra and the principles of enjoying symphonic music. ‘Thousands of women’s clubs meet regularly to study the works of the great composers, either under the direction of their own members or under the direction of specially qualified leaders. The annual outgo for music club work is in excess of two million dollars a year. ‘These figures are exclusive of orchestras, operas, pub- lic school and college expenditures, and all the moneys spent on artist attractions by commer- cial managers. In a twelve-year period the National Federation of Music Clubs has raised its own club audiences from 76,000 to 1,500,- 000. Each one of these persons has attended an average of four concerts for the year, bring- ing the total concert attendance to 6,000,000! [ix] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC Each section of the country boasts its own music magazine or periodical with thousands of subscribers. Practically all of the leading news- papers employ music critics who report the musical events taking place in their respective cities, The phonograph, although now somewhat overshadowed by the radio, still performs yeo- man service in acquainting people with the best as well as the latest in musical production, and reproduces to the listener all varieties of music from ragtime to opera, or from jazz and the ‘blues’? to symphonic selections and the solo renditions of great artists. At first radio broad- casters thought that all the public wanted was jazz and popular and lighter forms of music, but recently when radio listeners have made their real wants known, they have discovered an astonishing demand for the more substantial -forms of music. Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Wagener, Ischaikowsky and others of the ‘‘clas- sical’? composers are demanded by the radio public. ‘The broadcastings of the symphony orchestras and eminent artists bring in thou- sands of letters of approval and requests to duplicate their performances. This interest in music is immensely impres- sive in quantity. Many authorities, however, are inclined to question its quality, and the de- [x] FOREWORD gree to which the world’s great music is really appreciated. While the demand for good music by the radio audiences indicates a decided high level of musical interest, it does not, of course, prove anything as to the actual quality of musi- cal understanding. The increase of attendance at orchestral concerts and the recitals of emi- nent artists might indicate merely the public’s involuntary response to well-managed adver- tising campaigns by the concert bureaus, and the satisfaction of cleverly aroused curiosity. Music appears so elusive and mysterious to the aver- age person, and can so easily be used to satisfy idle curiosity, pride, or the desire to witness mere virtuosity of technique, that it is difficult to determine where the spurious interest ends and where genuine understanding begins. VARYING APPEALS OF MUSIC To many people music is merely a succession of more or less pleasing sounds; to others the rhythmic beat and accentuation is all-important. To some music means a reveling in appealing melodies, while to a smaller number of people music is a significant, comprehensible art of expression, enjoyed for its sensuous elements, but more appreciated because they detect in it a deeper meaning from which they may derive [xi] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC profound satisfaction, genuine inspiration, and substantial cultural benefits. All too many people are merely interested in a much advertised and famous performer. They attend a concert to hear a great pianist, violinist, or singer, partly out of curiosity, and partly to be able to remark casually to their friends that they had heard some eminent artist sing or play. What the artist sings or plays is of minor im- portance to this group. No genuine musical taste or appreciation can be developed until listeners come to regard the music performed at least of equal importance with the artist, if not of even larger significance. While in most European countries it is the composer that is featured, in America managers emphasize the performer, so that American concert-goers are not wholly to blame for their greater interest in performers. Much confusion is due to a general lack of knowledge on the part of our people of the purposes, principles, and facts of the art of music. The older generation did not have the opportunity of studying music in the schools and ‘many others have not had access to sources which would provide the necessary information. ‘Music is a tremendous force, but not every- one who is exposed to it ‘takes’ the infection. On the contrary, a reasonable amount of [ xii ] FOREWORD preparation, as well as guarding and guiding the incipient growth, is necessary to ensure satis- factory returns. The fact of the matter is that nine-tenths, or more, of the American people do not patronize high grade concerts and re- citals because they cannot get out of the per- formances anything to take with them. ‘Their lack of back-ground is such that they are, not tone-deaf but music-deaf—a vital distinction,” states J. Lawrence Erb. PROBLEMS OF THE LISTENERS To many an untrained listener attendance at a concert is like entering into a mysterious and baffling world, where he can detect no guide posts to point his way. He is immersed in a sea of sounds, with cascades of tones tumbling and clashing about in the utmost confusion, ris- ing and falling, swelling to a startling loudness or dying away in a faint whisper. By what laws of enunciation and progression are these sounds governed? By whom and how were they conceived? How are they produced? Wherein lies their merit? What do they sig- nify? Of what value are theyeto me? might naturally be asked by the bewildered listener. For a proper understanding and true appre- ciation of music the listener must know quite [ xiii] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC definitely the answers to these and similar ques- tions. The act of listening seems simple enough. All one has to do is to sit quietly, and permit the stream of sounds that swirls against the ear- drums to be translated into exquisite auditory sensations and a succession of delightful rev- eries. For in one sense that is avowedly the final purpose of music, to arouse just such feel- ing states in our consciousness. The passionate response of the feelings to the beauty of the music is the ultimate thing, and theory and facts are thrown in the discard. But this state of half-hypnotized absorption must be counter- balanced by exact information; feeling and knowledge must cooperate. At the moment of hearing, feeling appears all-dominant, but it 1s the antecedent knowledge and trained judgment that direct feeling, so that it will not go astray and waste itself on what is unworthy. Enjoyment of music must not degenerate into an emotional self-abandéniment. The feeling response should be accompanied by a keen real- ization of the composer’s purpose, and a knowl- edge of the material and range of effects at his disposal, so that the listener may be able to judge with some degree of discrimination the craftsmanship of the composer. Such knowl- edge combined with repeated experiences of hearing good music will soon develop into a [xiv] FOREWORD foundation of sound musical taste and judgment, in addition to extending enormously his capacity for sheer enjoyment. DEMAND FOR THIS SERIES During the past few years a great number of books purporting to teach the appreciation of music have been published, some of them excellent and some of them pitifully inadequate. Many of them are incomplete or fragmentary, for they do not cover the whole field of music. They afford too slight a background, or they do not provide a deep enough explanation of the fundamental principles of music. Some of them devote all their attention to the mere analysis of the technical aspects of the subject, and afford no clue as to the meaning or signifi- cance of music. Such authors write on music as do many teachers of literature who devote their time to the analysis of the structure of a poem or novel and pay no attention to its mean- ing or beauty. Many writers forget that music is an art of expression which dramatizes man’s emotional states and experiences, and treat it merely as an art of representation. Some works are histories of music, which furnish merely dry facts and dates. What is needed now is a work that is at once instructive, comprehensive, [xv] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC and inspiring, and that will interpret to Amer- ica’s army of concert goers and music lovers the marvelous heritage of music of the past and the amazing musical development of our present era. FUNDAMENTALS OF MusIcAL ART is offered in response to the repeated urgings on the part of concert goers and musicians that a treatment of the major forms of musical composition especially adapted to the needs of the layman and the amateur in music be prepared. It furnishes our numerous listeners and students and lovers of music a background of knowledge that will help them to interpret intelligently the wealth of musical offerings that are so prodi- gally placed at their disposal, and thereby in- crease their enjoyment of the art of music. PLAN OF THIS WORK The work introduces the reader to the im- mense wealth and range of musical knowledge. The major forms of musical composition are con- sidered; the folk song and dance, the art song, the choral forms, the Passion and the oratorio, the piano, the organ, the violin, the violoncello, the string quartet, the orchestra, and opera. An explanation of the most significant works of the most famous composers, a discussion of [xvi] FOREWORD what constitutes excellence of performance of the various instruments, what values we can ex- pect to derive from music, what is the range of effects obtainable from the various instruments, and what are the principles of design and form of some of the more important musical forms are also included. ‘The biographies of the most famous composers, a history of the development of the more important musical forms as well as an exposition of the most significant forces that have influenced the development of musical art receive their proper treatment. This work lays the foundations for a genuine musical taste. Although for the average per- son the serious study of the technique of an art with its necessary long period of preparation and discipline is impracticable, he can through a consistent study of the major principles and the most representative products of an art be- come as it were infected with something of that same elevation of thought and feeling and the spirit of beauty that inspired the creator. It is in this way that he is able to share in the genuine cultural benefits of an art. FUNDAMENTALS OF MusicaLt ArT empha- sizes the expressive side of music, it shows the reader why a composition is a living document of beauty and a revelation of the creator’s imagination. The mood and message of a work [xvii] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC are revealed to the reader, not merely the dead form and structure, although it is true that a deep understanding of structure often increases the enjoyment of the work. | The treatments of the various subjects are concise, clear, and authoritative, so that the maximum amount of information is gained in the minimum space of time. It is self-explanatory, assumes no previous knowledge of music, and to insure perfect clarity a glossary of terms is included. Each volume can be read in less than two hours. The subject matter is arranged according to the major musical forms, as folk-song, art song, piano, organ, violin, etc. This makes it conve- nient for the reader who wishes to review the appropriate volume in anticipation of attend- ance of a certain specific concert. Moreover, there is included what is difficult to find any- where else, a statement of the principles whereby one is enabled to judge of the relative merits of the performance on various musical instruments. The reader is encouraged continually to hear music, especially the music which is discussed and analyzed in this work. Concerts, recitals, the piano, organ and other musical instruments, phonographs, and player pianos will provide the mediums for hearing music. The music that [xviii] FOREWORD comes over the radio will also furnish immense facilities for listening practice and analysis. For music is an art of sound and must be heard to be appreciated, and cannot be understood by merely being read about. This series is intended primarily to lead the reader into the magic world of music, to open up fresh vistas of beauty and new realms of delight that have too long been obscured from his view. To infect the reader with something of that same sensitivity to beauty, and with moods similar to those that stirred the imagina- tions of the composers and inspired their out- bursts of melody, is a further aim of this work. It is especially designed for the person who has little or no ability for performance, or lacks the time to develop it. It is not intended to train performers—but aims to open for the reader the doors of that enchanted world of music created by the great tone poets, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Wagner, Grieg, MacDowell, Bach, Tschaikowsky, Verdi, Liszt, and many others who have contributed so much to the artistic wealth of the world. To enjoy fully one must not only hear with the ears, but with a trained mind and imagina- tion. This series will furnish those suggestions, points of view, and principles necessary for this richer and deeper enjoyment of music. [xix ] INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC I NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC MUSIC THE UNIVERSAL ART E who remains unresponsive to the delights of music misses one of the most exquisite joys vouchsafed to the spirit of man. For music is the most intimate and moving art appealing to man’s sense of beauty, and affording sheer en- joyment. No person can afford to deny himself the pleasure and stimulation of music. ” Music is the most universal of arts in its appeal and distribution. Throughout the whole course of human history, among all tribes, races, and nations,—the most savage tribes of Africa, the ancient nations of the Orient, medi- aeval Europe, and all modern peoples—music’s magic power has ruled continuously. Music has been a fact as natural and universal as speech itself. During the entire span of the individual’s life, from the cradle to the grave, music accom- [1] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC panies all special occasions and pervades all the common acts of life. The crooning lullaby of the wistful mother, the joyous outbursts of childhood, the lilting dances of youth, the jubi- lant accompaniment of the wedding march, and the solemn funeral dirge attend the major periods of life. Almost without exception, churches of all denominations find music indispensable in their services. Without music the art of dancing would languish and die. The military organ- izations of all nations utilize the stirring music of the military band. Numerous industries have commenced to use music as a means of obtaining more and a higher quality of work from their employees. No social affair is com- plete without some kind of musical perform- ance. Music is an invaluable adjunct in the restaurants, the hotels, the theaters, and the movie houses, and a home without some kind of musical instrument is indeed bleak and dreary. Wherever we go we are met with the gra- cious presence of music. It is inescapable and its charm and beauty should be fully appreciated and enjoyed. What then is the nature of this glorious art of sound which exercises such a powerful and universal appeal? What constitutes its appeal? [2] MUSIC’S PLACE AMONG THE OTHER ARTS What are its sources of power? What charac- teristics distinguish it from the other arts to account for its unique position? MUSIC’S PLACE AMONG THE OTHER ARTS From one point of view the fine arts may be divided into two groups:—the imaged arts, which appeal directly to the imagination and include poetry and the novel; and the sense arts, which make a direct appeal to the senses of sight, touch, or hearing and include music, sculp- ture, painting, and architecture. Among the sense arts music stands unique, for it alone deals with the medium of sound and appeals to the sense of hearing, whereas sculpture, painting, and architecture appeal to the sense of sight, although their products are sensible to touch as well. From another viewpoint the fine arts may be divided into the arts of space, or the spatial arts, the products of which, such as sculpture, painting, and architecture, exist in space; and the arts of time, or the progressive arts, which represent action taking place within a period of given time, such as poetry, the drama, the novel, and music. The spatial arts, based upon man’s keen de- light in form and color, seize upon one pleasing [3] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC instant in this world of change, cast it into a permanent form, and thus satisfy his innate craving for the enduring and the substantial. In painting, for example, the artist chooses from the multitude of forms and colors found in ex- ternal nature those best suited to fit into his own created design, while in music the composer from the world of sounds selects those es- pecially adapted to convey his particular mes- sage. [he spatial arts work in the world of space, whose peculiarity i is fixity or permanence, whereas music operates in the realm of time, whose nature is succession, eternal flux and flow. The spatial arts are the arts of the permanent, while music is essentially the art of the imper- manent. ‘The spatial arts are more rigorously imitative, more subservient to external forms than music, which is under no requirement to imitate directly, and imitates only to produce some calculated effect. Music, with its power of enacting the eternal drama of change, is more flexible and respon- sive to the principle of life, whose essential quality is motion, than are the spatial arts. Music, the very soul of motion, is a more in- timate, a more powerful, and a more thrilling art, because it more effectively dramatizes the never ceasing flow of man’s spirit. Music is a glorification of sound, capable of producing [4] THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND effects of incomparable beauty and compelling agitation, THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND Let us examine briefly the world of sound, so that we may know something of the medium of music. When any object is struck, it vibrates and gives forth sound. All bodies are in a state of greater or less motion or change, rubbing, colliding, and clashing, and hence all giving forth some form of sound. The whole material universe is a vast mill in which every particular thing is grinding or being ground, is striking against or is being struck by something else, even down to the minutest particle of dust. The cry of this universal conflict of matter is sound. On our earth the air is the chief medium for the transmission of sound vibrations. Every point of collision of material objects, even if in- finitesimal in size, becomes a center of radiating vibrations which, communicated to the surround- ing atmosphere, continue in everwidening circles towards the aerial boundary of our earth. We live in a weltering chaos of sound, most of it unperiodic, unpleasant, and unmusical. Between the chaotic realm of noise of the natural world and the realm of organized human music there exists a third realm of sound, partaking of the nature of the other two, namely: the quasi- [5] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC musical notes of Nature herself, inorganic and organic. MUSIC IN THE INORGANIC WORLD The inorganic world affords many evidences of the universal presence of music. “The rolling sand of the slope of a Sinaitic mountain sends out a deep, swelling, vibratory sound, sometimes approaching the roar of thunder, sometimes resembling the notes of a violoncello, or the musical whir of a humming top. he echoes tossed to and fro among the mountains in melodious tones testify that the framework of the earth with the resilient at- -mosphere is a mighty instrument of music. The exquisite echo under the dome of the baptistry at Pisa carries a full chord in ravishing sweet- ness, and holds it long in a ‘slowly dying fall.’ The shells by every sea murmur continuously with a musical secret of their own, telling of the universal harmony. ‘Everything in Nature seems keyed to take its part in the cosmic symphony. ‘The composite keynote of external Nature is middle F, which the Chinese claim to have discovered five thou- sand years ago, the root-tone called Kung, from which all others sprang. This tone is heard, according to Silliman, in the roar of a distant city, in the waving foliage of a large forest, and [6] MUSIC IN THE INORGANIC WORLD also in the thunder of a railroad train rushing over a bridge, or through a tunnel. The Coliseum has its keynote, as does every solid structure. ” Powerful and continued vibrations corresponding to the rate of its keynote will wreck a structure, no matter how substantial. This fact may account for the downfall of the walls of Jericho, for the procession of priestly trumpeters during the seven days’ circuit may have struck the keynote of at least some portion of them. It is well known that a bell tower will sway responsively to a peal of bells harmoni- ously struck, and that the rhythmic tramp of soldiers upon a bridge has operated to wreck it. Thus soldiers always ‘break step’ when march- ing over a bridge.” * Perhaps the most universal form of natural music is the beating of the surf upon the sand or rocks of the shore. Here we seem to detect not only strongly marked rhythm, but also the _ rudiments of melody as well; and perhaps even harmony is present in the union of sounds made by the wash of the long rolling waves against the irregular contour of the shore. Every lover of the sea experiences a distant, sensuous pleasure from the sound of the regular wash and rolling of its waves. During a high wind 1John H. Edwards, “God and Music.” The Baker & Taylor Co., New York. [7] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC or'a storm, it rises to a majestic booming that makes the very earth tremble. In the deafening tumult of Niagara Falls we seem to hear the elements of an ordered gamut of massive tones. In the ripple of the brook, in the threatening ragings of a stormwind, in the crashings of the thunder, and in the sighing of the winds of the forest we perceive a musical periodicity. The ancient Egyptian statue of Memnon is said to have daily intoned a morning hymn when the rising sun touched and heated the cold marble. ‘Everything the sun shines upon,” states Horace Bushnell, ‘“‘sings or can be made to sing, and can be heard to sing. Gases, impalpable powders, and woolen stuffs, in common with other non-conductors of sound, give forth notes of different pitches when played upon by an intermittent beam of white light. Colored stuffs will sing in lights of different colors, but refuse to sing in others. -The polarization of light being now accomplished, light and sound are known to be alike.’ Flames have a modulated voice, and in the pyrophone can be made to sing a definite melody. Wood, stone, metal, skins, fibers, membranes and every other rapidly vibrating substance,—all have in them the po-— tentiality of musical sound. Even the rhythmic 2 Horace Bushnell, “Religious Music.” F. A. Brown, Hartford. : [8] MUSIC AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS life processes of plants may be heard with deli- cate instruments recently devised. MUSIC AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS Animate nature as a whole is endowed with the power to produce musical sounds at will. Among the animals and the lower order of life rhythm is usually present, but melody is exceed- ingly limited, and harmony is unknown. Bird songs are rightly enough so termed by analogy and although their songs have little of the rational and none of the spiritual character of human song, scientists claim that birds use the intervals of the true musical scale. Mr. Henry W. Oldys, of the United States Biolog- ical Survey, asserts that besides the third in- terval recognized in the song of the cuckoo, many other birds use that and other musical intervals as correctly as the average human voice. He cites as examples the Carolina wren, song-sparrow, field sparrow, chickadee, wood- thrust, chewink, wood-pewee, and robin. Also in the employment of exact rhythms and simple melodic phrases, birds exhibit what he regards as true avian music. The fact remains, of course, that birds have attained the average of their musical skill in unknown prehistoric times, but have never evolved a scientific system of [9] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC musical tones and forms nor arrived at a definite expression of emotional or psychic states. Combarieu, writing about the musical sounds of the lower animals, reads into their incoherent noises a deeper meaning. “Witness the distracting and deafening con- cert, with its weird rhythm, which on summer nights, after the overwhelming heat, all kinds of beasts keep up in the fields. ‘This grandiose and rude concert has a reason and a meaning; and it is by listening to it that we have some chance of understanding the soul of Nature. With the first shades of night there seems to descend upon the beings here below an irresist- ible need to give more intensity to life, to per- petuate it in new and more beautiful forms. This is part of love, and therefore of something more general. Involuntarily we think we can seize in its flight the voices which the evolution of things assumes, the imperious cry of living beings who yearn and clamour for progress.” ® MUSICAL ELEMENTS IN THE SPEAKING VOICE Finally, a kind of natural music is evident in the tones of the human speaking voice. Rhythm and melody are always present in the speech of deep feeling, with the flow, inflections, and 3 Jules Combarieu, “Music, Its Laws and Evolution.” Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Company, London. [10] EFFECT OF SOUND modulations of the words, while voices differ as much from one another as do musical instru- ments. Some voices are deep and sonorous, like the tones of a bass viol, others are rich and moving as the ’cello, or clear and sweet as the flute. A few voices, like that of Madame Sarah Bernhardt, even while speaking in a language one does not understand, not only give keen sensuous pleasure, but also have the power to move one to tears by the quality of tone alone. Thus throughout the ages man has lived in a world of omnipresent sounds, as universal as matter, force, light, and air, which have been pleasant or hideous, soothing or terrifying, sad or gay, varying from the paralyzing crashes of thunder and hurtling avalanches to the shrill, almost imperceptible pipings of minute insects or the soft sighing of zephyrs through the leaves of the forest trees. ‘Now why is music such a universal, such a peculiarly ee and gratifying form of art? EFFECT OF SOUND ON THE HUMAN BODY To begin with, the medium of music is sound, which even in its crude, unorganized form is a powerful agent for arousing man’s feelings and emotions. The vibrations of sound are slower, more massive in their effects than the finer, [11] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC subtler, and perhaps less potent vibrations of light. The terrific vibrations of a detonating cannon will split the eardrums and knock a man flat on his back. ‘The whole body will tremble to the roar of a waterfall or the thumping of a big bass drum. Sound waves can affect forcibly and directly the whole body of man, which though vital, is material, and thus will vibrate in sympathy with them. ‘The vibratory effects of sound appear so immediate, so intimate, and so forceful that a corresponding emotional state is instantaneously set up in response. The sound of a gigantic avalanche rushing past is much more terrifying than the mere sight of it, majestic though it may appear to the eye. Some scientists contend that during one stage in man’s development, before the appearance of sight, he was guided wholly by the sense of hearing, that most of his impressions were gained through his auditory contact with the external world, and that his only means of com- munication with his fellows was through the medium of sound. If such a condition actually existed, it would serve to explain largely the tremendous effects that sound has on man’s con- sciousness and emotional nature. The power of music is something basic and universally stimulating to all forms of life, reaching down into the very sources of life and [12] EFFECT OF SOUND starting them to flowing anew, often with in- creased vigor. Music appears to satisfy some innate vibrational. hunger of the organism as a whole, and also of its constituent unit, the cell. The cell, minute though it may be and insig- nificant though it appears in comparison with the bulk of the whole organism, is an inde- pendent unit of life. It has its own laws of birth, growth, and activity, and its own sphere of sense and satisfaction. Our feeling of well- being is the sum total of the microscopic satis- factions of our billions of cells. Let their well- being or existence be assailed by an inner or outer force the size of a pin’s point, and our consciousness is instantly informed of the fact. In one ‘sense we hear with every cell of the body, and every cell sends in to the mind its individual microscopic message, thus reinforcing the response of the central consciousness. Such facts lead musicians to believe that the origin of man’s delight in music is essentially biological, that it is an age-old inheritance, the result of man’s continued reaction to his external ‘environment, and not only that of man, but of a large part of the animal kingdom. For animals are certainly influenced by music and some of them, as we know, make it. How far down in the scale of animate nature the musical response may be extended cannot be accurately [13] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC determined. Music apparently has an intimate connection with animal life, a connection that is primordial and powerfully effective. The in- fluence of music starts with a peculiar response in the organism, stimulating it to thrill, to leap, to cry out frequently, and especially to move rhythmically, as in a dance. Music seems to have the power to revitalize every living thing which may possess the sense of hearing. It is well known that music stimulates the body of the savage more powerfully than that of civilized men. So compelling is the urge of music that savages will dance until utterly ex- hausted. Again, youth is more easily stirred to bodily action by music than old age. Our youth will dance all night and only stop when the orchestra leaves. We may therefore con- clude that the response to music belongs funda- mentally to mere life as such, and that its charm in such cases is largely, though not wholly, physical. The more mature and civilized people be- come, the less physically demonstrative and the more psychically impressionable they are to the raptures of music. Observe an audience at an orchestral concert. It is not only silent, but it also sits as motionless as possible, and even during the rendering of a captivating Strauss waltz, little or no bodily response is visible. All © [rad MAN’S ABILITY TO EXPRESS MUSIC have trained themselves to subdue the instinctive bodily reactions and expressions. In some forms of musical composition the complications of melody and rhythm have become so great that the human body is unable to follow and express them adequately. Even in such cases the influence of music is not rendered less potent. Its form of influence has been trans- formed into the psychic. MAN’S ABILITY TO EXPRESS MUSIC Susceptible as man has always been to the influence of music, he has developed remark- able abilities and gifts for musical expression. Greatly inferior to certain lower animals in some points of structure and in the power to do certain things, man possesses, nevertheless, those qualities of reason, emotion, and spirit that have enabled him far to surpass any of his more naturally gifted rivals. Nor must Nature’s gifts of structure be minimized, for with brain, nerves, ear, throat, and hands marvelously fashioned and correlated for perceiving and producing musical sounds man also unites the unique ability of selecting, arranging, and set- ting down in a permanent form musical crea- tions, dramatizing his own feelings and reac- tions. Man has explored the realm of physical [15] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC vibration and sound, has discovered its intricate maze of governing laws, has probed the sphere of his own anatomical structure and physiology, and has applied his knowledge of them in the creation and expression of music. MUSIC EXPRESSIVE OF MAN’S PSYCHIC SELF Music is more than organized sound produc- ing a pleasant effect upon the ear, 7 1t)isue medium of expressing man’s innermost psychic life. Exactly how a series of forms in the physical world born and dying in a quick suc- cession can produce another series in the psychic world is unknown at the present stage of our knowledge. To answer this question would be to touch the very heart of the mystery of life. But mysterious as this is, it is no more mys- terious than why the sight of any object, or in fact, why the sensing of anything should produce in us any effect whatsoever. ‘The reason that music seems so mysterious in its effects is that it works in the realm of sound, which cannot be touched, handled, or seen, and so is not per- ceptible to those dominating senses of man, sight and touch. At the present time man is the abject slave of sight, and hearing as a means of obtaining definite knowledge and impressions is greatly inferior in power. [16] MAN’S PSYCHIC SELF The most psychic and immaterial of the arts, music above all other arts can mirror our feel- ings and emotions:—the joy of life, the sweep and surge of passion, the tenderness of love, the poignancy of despair, in fact the whole of that vast gamut of feeling that constitutes so large a part of our conscious life. Music in portray- ing the unrest and turmoil of life, its struggles and disappointments, can produce a variety and contrast of effects unparalleled by any other art. This fact explains in a large measure the tre- mendous influence of music, for the emotional and feeling life of man is more elemental and basic than the intellectual. In the vast march of evolution, eons upon eons old, intellect was the latest faculty to develop, and consequently it is light-timbred, and all too often impotent in the face of our volcanic feelings and passions. Translated into music, these emotions and feelings assume a heightened beauty and dignity. As vague ideas are born in the mind of man and are rendered coherent through the medium of language, so these fleeting emotions, when transmuted into music, become the purest and most intimate expression of man’s feeling con- sciousness and assume a significance previously unsuspected. Music not only mirrors the emo- tions but quickens, enriches, and organizes our feeling life. By stirring our emotions, music [17] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC can fire the will to determined action, and by arousing to activitity our subconscious minds, it can release the creative powers of the imagina- tion. To attain a well balanced, fully developed character and personality the refining influence of music, if not indispensable, is at any rate immensely valuable. ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF MUSIC Music is inherently associative in its power. It is an art we enjoy together in the drawing room, in the church, in the concert-hall, or in the theater, and the mere act of association in- creases and enhances immeasurably the charm of music. How many listeners have had their keen pleasure during the performance of great music many times multiplied by the realization that hundreds of others were sharing it with them? Great music brings us together, heart to heart, irrespective of birth, position, culture, or ability. Intellectual conceptions separate men, and clas- sify them into different levels of intelligence. Feeling, on the other hand, exerts a powerfully socializing influence, and there is no more efficacious medium for arousing the fundamental human emotions and establishing a harmony of feeling than music. [18] ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF MUSIC At no time during the history of our country has the socializing influence of music been more clearly demonstrated than during the recent World War. During this period, in our great army camps and among the soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force, military bands, group singing, and musical programs by lead- ing artists and trained musicians proved invalu- able in arousing the enthusiasm and maintaining the morale of our citizen army. So convincing was this experience that edu- cators are now employing group singing inten- sively in the school curriculum to stimulate a community of interest and to combat anti-social tendencies among the pupils. Profoundly sig- nificant is such a movement, for the future suc- cess of our democracy depends ultimately upon maintaining a spirit of friendliness and coopera- tion and keeping alive the humanitarian ideals of our great republic. Democracy needs music to humanize, refine, and elevate it. A clear realization of the vast socializing ~ potentialities of music by composers and musi- cians will in turn quicken and intensify enor- mously their creative energies. Mazzini in his essay on the “Philosophy of Music’’ envisages the possibilities of this art. ‘“The power of Genius will be strengthened a thousandfold by a sense of the greatness of the social aim, the [19] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC vastness of the means at his disposal, and the possibility of achieving an immortality to which none dare to aspire at the present day.”’ SANATIVE VALUES OF MUSIC Music is sanative and restorative to all per- sons, whether wretchedly ill or merely fatigued and ill at ease, for by stirring and invigorating the cells of the body to renewed activity and by restoring their broken rhythm, it accelerates the vital processes of the whole organism. More and more the medical world is begin- ning to realize and apply the therapeutical prop- erties of music. For various kinds of mental diseases,—melancholia, despondency, and neu- rasthenia, for patients of certain types of per- sonality recovering from wounds and accidents that have inflicted severe shocks to the nervous system, and for similar disorders, music has proved of definite aid in promoting and hasten- ing recovery. If careful listeners will stop to compare their sense of well-being before and after a fine concert, they will be astonished and delighted at the greatly increased feeling of harmony, joy, and vitality which the music has produced. Music of the right kind, listened to correctly and not over-indulged in, will be found. to prove as sanative and stimulating as any form of physical exercise. [20] MUSIC AND THE INFINITE MUSIC VOICES MAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE INFINITE Music, whose medium of transmission is air, the most intangible of substances, is the least material of arts. Its form appears to be more completely sublimated and its spiritual content is freer from sensuous association than in any of the other arts. Music voices man’s noblest ideals and highest aspirations, his deepest feel- ings and unutterable longings. It expresses his yearnings towards the Infinite, the Absolute, and Source of all. Words cannot describe the Crea- tor, a statue or a painting cannot portray Him, but a great symphony or a noble requiem can express our attitude of mind, the state of our feelings and emotions toward Him. For man’s imagination works largely within the restrictions of the sensible world, and we cannot imagine conditions of life in a world of two or four dimensions. Although man can conceive of an immortal soul, he cannot represent it adequately, but must wed it to an attenuated body of at least two dimensions in painting, or three in sculpture. Dante was compelled to clothe Virgil’s im- mortal soul in a kind of body. The Greeks embodied their conceptions of their gods in three-dimensioned marble. Michael Angelo in [ar] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC his painting “The Creation of Man” in the Sistine Chapel, represented God as a huge bearded old man. Miailton had to give his hero Satan a gigantic stature and frame. Any at- tempt of the other arts to depict the Infinite results essentially in absurdities. But music, such as, for example, the third movement of the “Ninth Symphony” of Beethoven,* can awaken in us our attitude or feeling towards the Omni- potent or arouse that state of bliss that we con- ceive indigenous to Heaven. Music is rightly said to be “the one art capable of revealing the Infinite.” The aged Gounod, looking forward to a speedy departure from the scenes of his artistic labors and triumphs, dwelt much upon the spiritualizing influence of music, and said, “It gives a foretaste of the immateriality of the future life.’’ A Persian sage expressed the be- lief entertained by the best among his people in this way: “The soul purified by music longs for communion with higher beings and purer spheres; and, though darkened by the opaque- ness of the body, is yet prepared for converse with the spirits of light, standing around the throne of the Almighty.” Thus music renders one more deeply respon- 4See Volume xiii, “Beethoven and the Romantic Sym- phony.” [22] MUSIC AND SOCIETY sive to what is noblest and finest in life, to beauty, to love, to moral ideals and religion. It serves to lift us above our usual plane of mundane concerns into that higher plane of ex- perience where all is beauty, proportion, and harmony, and where our ideals and aspirations take on a new lease of life, and are able to assert themselves and function as indubitable realities. MUSIC AND SOCIETY From time immemorial and_ universally, music has been bound up with the most intimate and vital functions and customs of society. In fact, it has always been an integral part in the texture of man’s whole social fabric, as indis- pensable as speech, religion, or government. Because of the possession of emotions and feelings common to all human beings, because of other quite general reactions of the individual towards external nature, and because of simi- larity of social habits and customs, we shall expect that certain types of musical expression will belong to almost all races. Thus we find music voicing man’s attitude towards the various phenomena of Nature, such as the sun, moon, wind, sea, and mountains. Moreover, such forms as the lullaby, the funeral dirge, wedding songs and marches, songs of love and passion, [23] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC war songs and war dances, songs celebrating victories and reciting the glorious deeds of an- cestors, songs and dances of devotion, celebra- tion, festivity, and entertainment are common to people in all stages of advancement, whether savage, barbaric, or civilized. With these facts in mind let us first see how they are borne out in a study of savage or primi- tive music. MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES The Bushman dances almost doubled up in his low tent to the accompaniment of uncouth songs for his amusement. [he Hottentots whistle shrilly an ear-splitting jargon to their frenzied dances. ‘The African Damaras’ idea of a musical performance consists in the imita- tion of the sounds of the galloping and trotting of domesticated animals,for which they cherish a high regard. ‘The Mazamboni warriors dance wildly in serried phalanxes to the chorus of on- looking men, women, and children, shrieking at the top of their voices, aided by deafening beat- ings of great drums. Certain East African tribes thresh their rice to the rhythm of an ener- getic dance, clapping their hands and stamping their feet on the rice until it is almost ground to a powder. In Dahomey, West Africa, the [24] MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES king dances and sings solemnly during the fes- tivals which precede human sacrifices, and is in turn answered by a huge chorus with a lugu- brious accompaniment of a ponderous cymbal. In the southern part of India a few wild races in the Nilgiri hills intone their melancholy funeral lamentations to the music of a tabor. In Siam singing is the ruling passion of the people. The audiences their king grants to am- bassadors are carried on in singing. The people go to the temples singing and dance during all their festivals. In Burma the natives almost invariably drone monotonous tunes during their work. The Dyaks of Borneo execute their fierce, wild war dances to the deafening beatings of tom-toms, emitting loud, bloodcurdling cries .all the while. In New South Wales the natives sing while paddling their canoes, keeping time with their paddles. The songs of the Maoris of New Zealand are adapted to all phases of life; they row in time to a melody which is sung by a chorus _sitting in canoes, they dance to music and chant many of their prayers in a musical tone. It is customary to celebrate all important events, suitable words being adapted to well-known melodies. One of the Maoris’ songs, called the “Totowaka,” is admirably suited for accompani- ment to a large number of people working in [25] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC perfect accord when drawing huge blocks of wood or pulling up their canoes. The Karoka Indians of California have a solemn propitiation dance which is given by the men. Clad in their fantastic attire and standing in a long row, they all join in a well-known chorus jingle after two or three singers have - finished a verse of improvised song. At Shawanee, in Tennessee, the young In- dians play the flute in the evening, producing pleasing, plaintive melodies, to coax the maidens from the village, so that they may declare their love for them in the quiet woods or on the banks of murmuring streams. The ancient Aztecs were very fond of music at their festivals, devotions, and sacrifices in honor of their gods. Among the Incas of Peru, the poets had to keep the national annals. In fulfillment of this duty they selected the chief events of their history for their ballads and many famous names have been preserved for future generations in these rural songs. The practice of music is found among vir- tually all the South American Indian tribes. In Paraguay, the Abipones at the birth of a boy perform certain plays which last eight days, and which are interspersed with the beating of drums, loud singing, and excessive drinking. The Eskimos in Greenland enact a peculiar [26] MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES performance which consists of a sort of musical duel during which an insult may be wiped out by a public tournament of ironical songs, the audience acting as umpire. ‘Thus we perceive that even among the rude, uncultivated savages and barbarians all over the world, in Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America, music is an in- tegral part of their social and individual life, and indeed the social expression of music generally predominates over solo performance. Almost every social function or act of savages is associated with some form of dance, accom- panied by some crude kind of music. The preparation for war is preceded by dancing. The women dance and sing all day to strengthen the courage of the men who are engaged in battle, and victory or defeat is celebrated by music and dancing. Most religious ceremonies are attended by music and dancing. ‘The song and dance constitute an indispensable factor in the incantations of the magician or medicine man. ‘The people’s chief form of amusement also is the song and dance. Men, women, and children sing and dance at work, worship or play, war or peace, and during birth, marriage, or death. In short, music appears to form an ever present element in the emotional and social life of all uncivilized peoples. [27] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC As pure music practically none of this primi- tive music of barbarous people has any value to civilized man, for it is weird, uncouth, and often hideous, and so unorganized and confused that very little of it can be transposed to our system of notation and preserved for any future reference. The phonograph, of course, could record it, and some attempts have already been made to do so. The main interest in consider- ing primitive music at this point is to gain a clearer conception of the universal distribution of the musical instinct, and to realize how in- timately it enters into the texture of the whole social fabric. “It is with music as with language; however far we may descend in the order of primitive people, we should probably find no race which did not exhibit at least some trace of musical aptitude and sufficient understanding to turn it to account.’ ® MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS When we turn our attention to the civilized ancient people, we discover a similar state of affairs. To the ancient Egyptians, as evidenced by the multitude of pictures on the walls of their tombs, 5 Richard Wallaschek, ‘Primitive Music.” Longmans, Green & Co., London. [28] MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS depicting figures dancing and playing numerous instruments, music must have had a profound significance. Among the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, the inscribed monuments testify to the art of music constantly connected with magical beliefs of the people and interwoven with their religious, military, and civil life. The ancient Hebrews used music and poetry to extol Jehovah and to proclaim and to em- phasize divine ideas and ideals. The Old Testa- ment abounds in passages referring to the use of music in the temples and on festival occa- sions. The victorious King Saul was welcomed with the sound of psalter, tabret, lute, and cyther, as was King David upon his return from the overthrow of the Philistines. Whereas in other civilized countries during this period music was used mainly for secular amusement, in Israel it was bound up intimately with high and fervent religious beliefs and wor- ship. The Israelites undoubtedly developed a high form of antiphonal choral singing, perhaps the original inspiration of ancient Christian church music. Besides this, we can gather the existence of another music more subtle, bril- liant, and voluptuous, reserved for the wealthy classes. “A concert of musicians in a banquet of wine is as a carbuncle set in gold.”’ Job char- [29] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC acterizes the ungodly rich as they ““Who take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.”’ Eleven centuries before the Christian era the Chinese had invented an elaborate philosophy of music which was intimately associated with their religious rites. The music of the ancient Hindus was an in- timate and inseparable part of their every-day life as well as of all their religious ceremonies and festival occasions. They composed hymns and music especially adapted to every individual and social act. In the morning they sang an appropriate song to the dawn. Before all meals other fitting songs were intoned, during their various occupations music and singing were in- dulged in, and at the close of day a hymn to the night was sung. In addition, music con- stituted an essential element in religious rituals and on all special occasions, and was used during the hours of recreation, as has been and still is the custom of all peoples. The Arabs and the Persians were particularly fond of instrumental music. The Arabs were singularly adept in the manufacture of a great variety of instruments whose number :s almost fabulous, totaling more than one hundred and fifty varieties of stringed instruments alone. The endless repetition of a short phrase, which [30] MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS acted as a sedative paralyzing the will and the senses, constituted the sum total of their music. The Greeks developed an elaborate system of modes, and differentiated music into two dis- tinct kinds :—the Dorian music, which according to Plato reflected the manly virtues of Sparta and was therefore best suited for state cere- monials and religious worship, and the Phrygian or Lydian music which was supposed to be licen- tious and was reserved for feasts and endowed with enervating power. Musically, such a clas- sification is untenable, but it appeared at the time to serve a political purpose. The Dorian music, therefore, was used in the education of the youth. This deliberate introduction of music into the subject matter of education marked a distinct departure in the treatment of music, a treatment which we have only recently com- menced to appreciate. The choral chant was the favorite musical form of the Greeks. It was highly elaborated and prodigally utilized in the choruses of their great dramas. Music was used at their special functions as well. The Romans used music chiefly as an auxiliary of the dance and of their extravagant theatrical performances, and to a certain extent for mili- tary and ceremonial functions. [31] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC . USE OF MUSIC BY THE CHURCH From its earliest beginnings to the present day the church has enlisted the services of the art of music. Indeed, so intimately was music associated with the liturgy of the Catholic Church that the final product was an impressive and beautiful musical service. Music came to be employed by it as an ever present factor for stimulating that attitude of reverence and awe indispensable to the acceptance of its august doctrines and assurances. Many of the most illustrious musical geniuses have contributed their great abilities to the enrichment of its musical resources. In Germany, Martin Luther’s powerful influ- ence and audacity centered the interest of the people and musicians in the newly born Protestant Church, which during the next three centuries dominated the destiny of musical de- velopment in that country. Luther utilized vigorous march hymns as a militant force to arouse the spirit and enhearten the courage of his Protestant followers. The more sonorous and majestic folk melodies dynamically rhythmic, were bodily incorporated into the revised church ritual, and thus was born the impressive choral music of the Protestant Church, which in ene sense was sacred popular song. From this de- [32] GROWTH OF FOLK SONG veloped the modern hymnody of practically all the Protestant churches. GROWTH OF FOLK SONG The formalistic spirit of the church during the Middle Ages effectively retarded a musical development within the walls of the cathedrals and the monasteries analogous to that which was taking place outside. Among the work- shops and wineshops and in places of amuse- ment and the homes, germinated, grew, and blossomed that superb wealth of beautiful folk music of Europe, unsurpassed by that of any other continent in the history of the human race. Undoubtedly one potent factor in the growth of the muse of music was poetry itself, for a large proportion of folk-tones came into exis- tence in connection with the recitation and chant- ing of poems and ballads. To add fire and color to the tragic tales of courageous ancestors, the plaintive tales of love, or other events, the declaimer would intone or sing certain dramatic passages, invite the audience to joint in a chorus, using the while melodies of his own invention or those he had learned from other sources. This was the practice of the Norse skalds, the Celtic bards, and the Saxon scops, as well as the less gifted professional entertainers of the later mediaeval period. [33] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC The ancient Scandinavian skalds celebrated the prowess of their mighty ancestors or the latest exploits of their audacious, marauding Viking chiefs by a kind of impromptu recitative, combining both music and poetry. ‘The early poetry of the land that became England was made current and kept fresh in the memory of the singers. The kings and nobles often attached to themselves a scop, or maker of verses. ‘The banquet was not com- plete without the songs of the scop. While the warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer and warmed their blood with horns of foaming ale, the scop, standing where the blaze from the pile of logs disclosed to him the grizzly features of the men, sang his most stirring songs, often ac- companying them with the music of a rude harp.” ° In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the troubadours in the south of France, who “found” their own melodies, accompanied by their jongleurs, or skilled singers, the trouvéres and minstrels of northern France, and the trobadores of Spain and Portugal, sang of love and the deeds of valorous and chivalrous knights before the nobility and the royalty of these southern countries. The melodies were 6R, P. Halleck, “Halleck’s New English Literature.” American Book Co., N. Y ; [34] GROWTH OF FOLK SONG graceful and pleasing, well adapted to produce the desired effect. During this time the dance, always a manifes- tation of exuberant vitality and of innocent diversion, afforded a powerful stimulus to musical invention and practice. Many of the melodies owe their origin and form directly to the dance, so that we have such forms as the carol, rondeau, ballad, gavotte, and minuet. The young ladies, squires, and knights, and even the mature people, lords and royalty, did not disdain the study of music, but in many cases applied themselves assiduously to its mastery. There existed also the instrumental military music of the tournament, jousting, and war, which was influenced by the new contacts with the Arabian civilization during the crusades and increased the array of musical instruments. Then during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we find the minnesingers appearing in Germany, journeying from castle to castle, and frequenting as honored guests the abodes of the nobility. Their songs were less flowing and melodious than those of the troubadours, less graceful and delicate, but instinct with vigor and genuine musical feeling. After a century of popularity this form of music was supplanted by its ruder, more sturdy, and more lowly successor, the plebeian meister- [35] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC sang, which became the music of the common people of Germany. ‘The meistersang, dull, prosaic, and monotonous though it was, brought a ray of sunshine and a glint of beauty into the drab life of the lowly artisan and humble trades- man, and so permeated the domestic life of the German people that in few other countries did music become such a moving force, so sweet a solace, or such a unifying element in the history of a people as in Germany. Throughout Western Europe during this period, vagrant players,—shrewd, keen vaga- bonds—journeyed from house to house and from town to town, playing for dances or for bands of warriors and brigands, amusing ladies and nobles in their castles, and furnishing the music and entertainment for festivals and cele- brations. Certain bands of these strolling play- ers even took it upon themselves to give the passion plays which had been previously pre- sented by the clergy alone. They were the first class of musicians to popularize instrumental music, for hitherto instruments had merely served as an incidental accompaniment to the human voice. SOCIAL USES OF MEDIZEVAL MUSIC In the fifteenth century Guillaume Dufay, a Fleming, who took service in the papal choir [36] THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART according to the custom of the period, returned to Flanders and there expanded enormously the resources of unaccompanied chorus singing. His followers and pupils, severely trained in the new contrapuntal art and indefatigable in their zeal, emigrated to all countries in Europe, set up music schools, or took charge of the music in cathedrals and monasteries. There was scarcely an ecclesiastical, princely, or ducal establishment of first rank that did not boast a Flemish maestro. In Italy the lovely folk music of the people finally attracted the attention of the trained musicians, who commenced to imitate it and write canzoni, balletti, and other lighter pieces. From these beginnings developed the beauti- ful madrigal, polyphonic in form, which was adopted and imitated by all the musicians of Europe, Flanders, France, Spain, and England. During the sixteenth century, these later musical forms of the medieval period were util- ized alike by the church for its ritual and by the royalty and nobility for religious and recrea- tional purposes, THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART In addition to Europe’s rapid advance in choral art, the seventeenth century witnessed a marvelous development of other musical forms [37] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC and musical instruments. Absolute music, that is, music devoid of words, began and instru- mental music commenced to rival choral music in power and appeal. The first efforts at opera with its vocal aria and declamatory recitative, the birth of the over- ture, the concerto, the literature of the organ, and the precursors of the pianoforte, all saw the light of day during the seventeenth century. Great strides in the construction of stringed instruments, especially the violin, together with a standardization of the violin’s previous be- wildering variety of sizes and shapes, made pos- sible rapid improvement in violin playing and composition. The improvement in organ con- struction prepared the way for the triumphs of Johann Sebastian Bach. Domenico Scarlatti of Italy and Francois Couperin through their original treatment of the harpischord laid the foundation for the modern pianoforte style of composition and technique. Henry Purcell of England and Alessandro Scarlatti of Italy elaborated chamber music. In the house of Giovanni Bardi, Conte di Vernio, originated those innovations in musical form which were later to develop into opera as we know it today. Bardi summoned to his aid a large body of contemporary poets and musi- cians, who composed libretti and scores which [38] THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART approached the operatic form. This movement, arrested for a few years, finally moved the fire- brand Claudio Monteverde of Cremona to revo- lutionary reforms which paved the way for Gluck’s modernization of the opera. The con- tagion of this newly-born art spread swiftly to all parts of Europe. Henry Purcell headed it in England, Reinhard Keiser in Germany, and Lully ruled the operatic world in France. Musical forms which afforded edification and amusement for thousands of people were rapidly developing. The eighteenth century saw the immense con- tributions of Handel to the oratorio form and of Bach to Passion music and organ and clavier forms, the elaboration of chamber music and the orchestra and symphony by Haydn and Mozart, and the phenomenal growth of opera in Italy and France. In the nineteenth century occurred the birth and development of the art song. The further growth of the opera, culminating in the vast music dramas of Richard Wagner; the enormous enrichment of piano literature; the astonishing increase in symphonic forms, and the immense contributions by a host of modern composers, added greatly to the resources of musical litera- ture. It was during the nineteenth century there- [39] NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC fore that music came into its own rightful sphere. Then after eighteen centuries of slow and steady growth, the spirit and form of music had so developed that it could express with in- comparable force, vividness, and subtlety the complex, sophisticated, and daring spirit of modern society and the modern individual. MUSIC THE MODERN ART And now in this modern period we find music of all forms and degrees of excellence firmly intrenched in all our institutions, the church, the school, the theater, the concert hall, and present at every turn—in our cafés and hotels, in our parks, and in almost every home. The mechanical production of music by means of the phonograph, the player piano, and the radio, and the wide distribution of all of these have carried music to practically every home and hamlet in the country. Musical art, which was once the plaything of the princes and nobles of Europe, dependent largely upon their favor for its existence and development, is now rapidly becoming an indis- pensable cultural factor in the lives of everyone. Music, like sculpture in the time of the ancient Greeks, like Gothic architecture during the Middle Ages, or like painting during the [40] MUSIC THE MODERN ART Renaissance, is fast assuming the role of a democratic art, available to all citizens, and universally beloved and enjoyed. Composers, performers, critics, teachers, music publishers and manufacturers, and wealthy patrons are all laboring to improve the status of musical art and to effect its wider dissemination. The advance and development of the art of music in Europe and America represent in sum total the results of the work of thousands upon thousands of men and women who devoted their whole life-time to the mastery and production of music, as well as the scattered efforts of millions upon millions of amateurs and music lovers extending over a period of approximately two thousand years. When one reads over the names of the composers, and musicians one is amazed at the great number, and is awestruck in contemplation of the prodigious amount of work and the vast quantity of musical composi- tions that must have been poured out. Who, realizing this, can question the dignity, value, and, in fact, the indispensability of music to the human race and society? [41] BIBLIOGRAPHY BurRTON, FREDERICK R. American Primitive Music. New York, Moffat, Yard, & Co. CoMBARIEU, JULES. Music, Its Laws and Evolution. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Tribner & Co. Dickinson, Epwarp. ‘The Spirit of Music. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. GEHRING, ALBERT. ‘The Basis of Musical Pleasure. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Hapow, Sir W. H. Music. London, Williams and Norgate. HANCHETT, HENRY GRANGER. The Art of the Musician. New York, The Macmillan Co. KREHBIEL, HENRY Epwarp. How to Listen to Music. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. McALpINnE, CoLin. Hermaia. New York, E. P. Dutton & Co. McEwen, Joun B. The Thought in Music. Lon- don, The Macmillan Co. Parry, Sir C. Husert H. The Evolution of the Art of Music. New York, D. Appleton & Co. SEyMouR, Harriet A. ‘The Philosophy of Music. New York, Harper & Bros. SURRETTE & MAson. ‘The Appreciation of Music. New York, H. W. Gray Co. WALLESCHEK, RicHarp. Primitive Music. London, Longmans, Green & Co. [42] II SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC THE MATERIAL OF MUSIC UCH of the intangibility of music is due to the nature of its material, namely, periodic vibrations. Compare the material of music, which is vibration transmitted by im- ponderable and invisible air, to that of the other arts. Sculpture and architecture, for example, employ stone, bronze, wood, iron, or other hard resisting materials. Even painting utilizes can- vas, pigments, crayons, or inks of various sorts which can be handled and seen, and poetry uses words which are of acknowledged meaning to obtain its peculiar effects. In all the other arts, the material used is either concrete and pon- derable, or else it is familiar and definite in sig- nificance. The art of music is the only art which utilizes a material which is intangible, unfa- miliar, and arbitrarily determined. Small wonder that music appears to the uninitiated as elusive and mysterious. [43] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC Physicists divide sounds into two major classes, periodic or musical tones and non- periodic or noises. Musical tones are produced by an elastic medium, such as a steel string, a metal plate, or a column of air, which under the impact of an outside force vibrates at a uniform rate during a given period of time, usually cal- culated at so many per second. Such uniform vibrations are termed periodic. All sounds, whether musical or unmusical, are compounds of tones of various pitches. The sensation of noise is due to non-periodic vibrations, or to a mixture of vibrations which sound irregular and jerky. Even musical sounds, however, contain certain dissonant and harsh elements, but these are to a large extent drowned out by the regu- lar vibrations of the whole body or medium. A musical tone produces an impression of defi- . nite pitch, whereas noises give at the best a very hazy idea of pitch. A keen ear, however, can detect the fundamental tones in many noises. A noise, too, may occasionally be more agree- able than some musical tones as for instance, the sound of wind in the trees, or the babbling of water in a brook. Scientists have selected the stretched string as the best means of illustrating and analyzing musical sounds, and of formulating the funda- mental principles and laws of acoustics. It is [44] ic ey ae THE MATERIAL OF MUSIC significant to note that as long ago as the sixth century Pythagoras, the Greek discoverer of the musical scale, chose the stretched string for his experiments. His choice has remained valid to this day, because it best exemplifies the action both of the human vocal chords and the strings of the violin, two of our most important musical instruments. The stretched string may be thought of as a kind of externalized vocal chord, which was undoubtedly the first instrument of music, Na- ture’s own product, grown in the organism of bird, beast, and man. ‘This may serve to ex- plain why the violin is considered by many the most perfect musical instrument, bearing as it does, the closest resemblance to the human voice. q In studying the laws of a vibrating string, which is usually of catgut or of wire, it is fas- tened at each end and wound up to a tension, and in such a state is struck by a small padded hammer. It is important to note that the string must be tensed and is thus, as it were, keyed to a strong energy, ready to resist the action of an outer force, and revealing thereby its spirit and character. The string must be flexible, elastic, and tenacious. When the blow is struck, the string must be flexible enough to vibrate, elastic enough to regain its first shape, and tenacious [45] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC enough not to be torn apart by the impact of the blow. The possession of these properties permits periodic oscillations, or vibrations, which in turn are imparted to the surrounding air, setting the air particles to vibrating in unt- son, and producing musical sound. THE QUALITIES OF MUSICAL SOUND Now this periodic or musical sound is said to have three qualities: Pitch, Strength (Quan- tity), and Timbre (Character). 1. Pitch, which is the highness or lowness of a tone, depends upon the number of vibrations per unit of. time,—usually denoted as so many per second,—and becomes higher with the in- creased rapidity of the vibrations. Rapidity of vibration in turn depends upon four qualities of the string: First, its length,—the longer the string the slower the vibration and the lower the note; Second, its thickness,—the thicker the string the lower the note; Third, its tension,— an increased tension tends to decrease the thick- ness of the string and thus increases the pitch; and Fourth, the density of the material of the vibrating string also modifies the pitch, which varies inversely as the square root of the den- sity. For example, since steel is more dense than cat-gut, the former is used in the G or [46] ee een yn ee en THE QUALITIES OF MUSICAL SOUND lowest string of the violin to provide weight without undue bulk. 2. Strength, the quantity or degree of loud- mess or softness of the musical sound, depends not upon the rapidity of the vibrations, but upon their width and amplitude, which in turn are dependent upon the force of the external blow. Increased violence of the string’s vibra- tions influence the air correspondingly so that the ear is more greatly excited. ‘This greater violence of vibration can be produced not only by the stronger impact of the blow of a hard object such as the hammer of a piano, but also by an increased pressure of a bow as upon the string of a violin. In playing musical instru- ments utilizing stretched strings these may be caused to vibrate by the bow or by plucking with the fingers as in pizzicato on the violin, by pluck- ing with finger or pick on a guitar, banjo, or harp, or by striking with hammers as in the piano. 3. Timbre. The sounds of various musical instruments have a distinctive quality of their own called timbre, which constitutes their indi- viduality, and which is dependent ultimately no doubt, upon the atomic structure, the shape, and combinations of the materials in the instrument. ‘Timbre is the “voice” of an instrument and varies among instruments as greatly as the voice [47] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC of each animal or each person. This quality or timbre of an instrument or voice finds its ex- planation acoustically in the fact that a musical sound is a compound of a considerable number of accompanying tones termed partials, over- tones, or harmonics. ‘Their relative strength and mixture vary with different substances and instruments, and produce characteristic qualities of tone. | TIMBRE AND OVERTONES A string, when plucked by the fingers or struck by a hammer, has a total movement in- volving the entire string, and, at the same time, a number of partial movements involving only sections of the string. These smaller yet inde- pendent oscillations of parts of the string take place between relatively fixed points called _ nodes, and superimpose smaller sound waves upon the fundamental waves in much the same way as smaller wavelets of water are included ina large billow. ‘The same process takes place with a column of air vibrating in a tube, or organ pipe. Taking C below middle C as the fundamental tone, the tones resulting from the vibrating segments of the string or column of air are as follows: TIMBRE AND OVERTONES Thé sounds above C, the fundamental tone, much lighter in intensity, are the overtones or harmonics, whose varying compoundings in dif- ferent instruments determine their timbre. On the other hand, if one were to play on the piano only the partials or overtones with the fundamental note pressed down, but not sounded, this fundamental note would be dis- tinctly heard after the partials had been stopped. Another demonstration of the pres- ence of overtones is to hold the octave and the fifth on the piano, strike the fundamental and release it, whereupon the octave and the fifth, which have not been struck, will be plainly heard. In this experiment the pedal is not used. These little experiments, which may be tried on the piano, illustrate the peculiar character- istics of a periodic sound, which, while retain- ing its fundamental vibrational rate, divides itself into manifold subsidiary sounds, termed overtones, and then quickly reabsorbs these into itself, a singular process of successive subdi- vision and reunion, which when heard by the human ear constitutes the characteristic musical tones and gives an instrument its special sound- color. Some of the upper overtones are harsh and dissonant even in the case of the string and the tube, and serve to impart to a tone a peculiar [49] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC tang or bite, which perhaps saves it from being too sweetly cloying. The partials of circular plates and distended membranes are very close in pitch to the fundamental tone and are very dissonant. In the case of elastic rods, the over- tones are very high and distant from the funda- mental, but are equally dissonant. ‘This ex- plains the inevitable jangle of drums, tympani, cymbals, xylophones, and similar instruments of percussion, no matter how carefully constructed or tuned. However, dissonant overtones quickly fade out, and hence the effect of orches- tral and violin music is best at a certain distance. Church bells are disagreeable close at hand, but agreeable farther away. Thus we can see that the ultimate unit of music, the sound wave, which exists in reality as a sound sphere, is very complex in composition. Physicists tell us that sound travels through the © air in concentric spheres, like a series of shells radiating in all directions, upwards, downwards, forwards, backwards, and sidewards, in ever- widening spheres of vibrations, and that the overtones are secondary vibrations carried along with the ever-widening spheres of the fundamental tones. The bane of musicians and conductors are strong winds, prolonged echoes, and competing sounds and noises, for these not only destroy [50] COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT the delicate overtones, but the fundamentals as well and blur the listeners’ impressions. Pro- viding the fitting acoustical setting for musical performances is a serious problem. COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT Sound travels at the rate of roSo feet per second in air. Light, traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, proceeds at a veloc- ity more than 45,000 times as rapid as sound! But the slower sound wave is enormously larger than a wave of light. For example, the lowest audible sound wave, vibrating 16 times a second, is 20 meters or over 65 feet in length, whereas a light wave of red, the lowest visible light ray, is .0008 millimeter, or .00003 inch, in length, so that the sound wave is more than 26,000,000 times as large as the light wave! The ear of a man is so constructed that it can only detect sounds at rates vibrating be- tween 12 per second to about 40,000 per sec- ond. The average limits of sound vibrations audible to the human ear vary between 16 per second to 30,000 per second, which includes a gamut of a little more than g octaves. Of light, varying between 375 trillion vibrations per second to 750 trillion per second, the eye detects one scanty octave of color from red to violet. [51] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC THE HUMAN EAR Sound waves moving through the air arrive at that marvelous receiving, transmitting, and transmuting organ of hearing—the human ear. The external ear, formed of cartilage, cov- ered with facial skin, and attached to the skull by muscles, serves to gather and converge the sound waves into the ear canal. At the end of this canal is situated the ear drum, or tym- panum, resembling a miniature drum head or the transmitting disc of a telephone, which transmits the vibrations to the minute ear-bones, the smallest bones of the human body. | The middle ear contains three small bones, named because of their shape, the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, controlled by special muscles, and contains also the tympanic cavity connected with the pharynx by the Eustachian tubes, which serve to equalize the pressure of the atmos- phere on the tympanum, or ear drum. The inner ear, filled with a liquid, consists of the labyrinth, which in turn is divided into the vestibule, the semicircular canals, and the cochlea. The movements of the ear bones are communicated to the liquid in the labyrinth of the ear in which is situated the cochlea, covered with thousands of minute elastic pillars, termed the organs of Corti, which are in turn influenced [52] THE HUMAN EAR by the vibrations of the fluid. These vibrations are gathered up by the multitudinous nerve endings of the two great auditory nerves and are transmitted to the auditory portion of the brain. ‘Thus sound reaches our consciousness. The exact function and action of the pillars of Corti, which are said to number 3,000 and to which are attached 60,000 fibers, have not been fully agreed upon by scientists. Some contend, among them the renowned physicist, Helmholtz, that the ear consists of a multitude of special organs represented by these minute fibers, each of which selects from a mass of tones the one to which it is especially attuned, and transmits its sensation of that tone to the auditory center of the brain. ‘This theory is largely discountenanced by other scientists. The theory generally accepted asserts that these fibers are flexible in function, and accom- modate themselves to the widely varying in- coming vibrations, without any minute and exact specialization of structure and function, but are aided by previous impressions and _ habits, which control and modify their purely sen- sational action. In other words, the fibers perform not only a physiological, but also simultaneously a psychological function, utiliz- ing in their action the stored-up knowledge of past experiences. [53] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN EAR The sense of hearing of the trained musician and others who work with sounds has reached — a high degree of sensitivity. A skillful piano tuner can distinguish between a true and a tem- pered fifth, where the difference is only one one-hundredth of a tone. This would indicate an ability to detect over six hundred sounds in an octave. A syperior violinist is said to recog- nize at least a hundred more, or nearly three thousand in the forty notes of his instrument. Extremely acute ears can distinguish notes whose vibrational difference is that between 1000 and 1001, or one sixty-eighth of a half- tone. When we remember that the notes of an orchestra are produced by vibrations ranging from 33 to 4608 per second, and compute the number of notes played by all its instruments during that time, wonder grows to amazement that the human ear can perceive, accurately judge, and keenly enjoy the innumerable throng of musical air-waves thus set in motion. ‘Hearing is at present the paramount artis- tic sense,’ states Combarieu, “‘quite superior to that of vision, for its impressions have given rise to a language which is practically universal among all Western nations, and is fast being learned even by the Oriental nations. The [54] SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN EAR ear is no longer a machine, the study of which belongs only to anatomy and its microscopes, or to physics, but an organism into whose tissues penetrates every minute phenomenon of a psy- _chical order. ‘The ear has a purely organic memory, similar to that which stores itself up in the fingers of the virtuoso, capable of play- ing ‘by heart’ the most difficult compositions, while carrying on a conversation on any given subject. It compares, it appreciates, and it judges, quite apart from the intensty of the impact, the distance which separates it from the source of emission. It also selects, for one of the marvels of its structure is that it not only hears, but also, that it does not hear certain sounds which, though musical in themselves, would render music impossible were they per- ceived. It has arrived at such a degree of sensibility that certain conflicts of vibrations are a positive suffering to it. It distinguishes the finest shades. It makes the synthesis of sound, and it excels—and that is its superiority over the eye—in the analysis of a group of sounds. “The eye is unable to analyze its impressions. If, for example, we cause to revolve rapidly a disc on which bands of all colors have been superposed, the eye will only see one result, the color white. On the contrary, sound a per- fect chord, and, if his ear be at all educated, [55] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC the listener will distinguish the three notes, their position, and their timbre. He will say whether the first note is given by a violin, the second by an alto, and the third by a wind instrument. In the middle of the rendering of a symphony by eighty or a hundred musicians, the conductor, sensitive to a slight inaccuracy of tone, will direct one of his musicians to tune his first string slightly up or down. We may add that the eye only properly catches the waves in front of it. ‘he ear, on the contrary, can equally well receive the waves of sound whether the subject be in front, behind, or at the side of the source of emission.” + THE SCALE ESSENTIAL TO MUSIC The essential and distinctive element in music as opposed to noise is pitch, the highness or lowness of a sound. It is to music what color is to painting. Without color of some kind, whether it is only the most delicate tint of a pastel or the minutest line in an etching, there would be no graphic arts. Without pitch, melody and harmony alike would be impossible. Without pitch all the rhythmic sound effects con- ceivable by man would not alone give us even 1 Jules Combarieu, “Music, Its Laws and Evolution.” Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., London, [56] THE SCALE ESSENTIAL TO MUSIC a musical phrase, much less a complete musical composition. It is the innumerable combina- tions of notes of different pitch that render possible both melody and harmony. Moreover, unorganized tones of varying pitch would not alone make music possible, for the pitch of notes is practically infinite in num- ber. Since pitch is determined by the rate of vibrations we could, for example, have a note for each rate of vibration from the lowest audi- ble limit of 16 vibrations per second to 30,000 vibrations per second, or practically 30,000 notes according to such a scheme. If we should select the notes according to the variation of Y% of a vibration per second we should have 120,000 notes, a number vastly too great, and of a degree of difference so minute as to be absolutely unmanageable and impracticable. Not even the most highly trained and sensitive ear could possibly detect such minute distinc- tions of pitch. The average human ear for which, in the last analysis, music is intended, would be utterly confused and discouraged. Therefore, from this series of vibrational rates, some must be arbitrarily selected and placed in a recognizable relationship to each other, in order that the mind may lay hold of them and retain them with some degree of pre- cision and assurance. This relationship, after [57] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC many centuries of experimenting, has finally been established and embodied in the musical scale. The proper function and place of the scale in musical art must not be misunderstood. Music existed centuries before the scale was even conceived of, much less formulated. The formulation of the scale is an abstraction, the result of experiments, gropings, compromises, and manipulations, from the study of music it- self. ‘he scale does not create music any more than the alphabet creates language. Hundreds of languages have never been reduced to writ- ing, and considerable modifications would be necessary to reduce them to a phonetic alpha- bet. Similarly, a great deal of music not built on the Eurdpean scale would have to be greatly modified to fit into it. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE The growth and perfection of the present scale have required many centuries, and the thought and labor of thousands of men. To trace in any detail this development would re- quire too much space for our purpose. Savages possessed no scale and did not even know they wanted one, and thus were worse off than the mediaeval Europeans who had [58] DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE none, but at least were in search of one. Even those savages who had constructed some sort of musical instrument had no means of insuring the exact pitch of its notes, even though their relationship was fairly permanent. That conceptions of the scale have varied greatly is shown by the fact that in the large number of scales, which in different countries and periods have been developed to a fair de- gree of maturity, there are not two notes that stand in exactly the same relation to one an- other. Even the Chinese octave is a little out of tune according to their orthodox theory, but very probably in the actual practice of singing the true octave is utilized. The scales used in China, Japan, Java, and the Pacific Islands are all pentatonic (five-toned) in their recognized structure. The rest of the most notable scales of the world are structurally heptatonic (seven- toned). Such are the scales of India, Arabia, probably Egypt, certainly ancient Greece, and modern Europe. The Persian scale is very interesting, because it is probably the most elaborate scale system in the world. The Persians early discovered the curiously paradoxical facts of acoustics, which make an ideally perfect scale impossible. To obviate these difficulties they subdivided the scale into seventeen tones, thereby securing true [59] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC intervals of the fifth and fourth, a major third and a major sixth, and a true minor seventh. Theoretically, this is the most perfect scale ever devised. In modern times this remarkable sys- tem of the Persians has been changed still further by the adoption of twenty-four equal quarter tones in the octave, which, however, does not give such absolutely true intervals as the earlier scheme. The ancient Greek scale consisted of two tet- rachords (four-tones), arranged in such a way as to form an octave, essentially the same as our modern scale, composed of five whole tones and two semi-tones. The Greeks elaborated fifteen modes, some of them really duplicate, which correspond closely to our various keys. The Greek scale theory played a very great part in the development of the European scale, for the mediaeval churchmen took the Greek scale as their basis, and in fact for centuries copied it slavishly, considering it perfect, and interpreting it, ironically enough, wrongly. The Greeks used only two octaves in their musical composition, the range of an ordinary voice, which proves that their music could not have been very passionate or exciting. According to tradition, under the direction of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the fourth cen- tury, and Pope Gregory the Great, during the [60] | DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE sixth century, the chaotic condition of the mediaeval church’s music was cleared away. Ambrose is reputed to have authorized four of the ancient Greek modes; the Dorian, Phry- gian, Lydian, and Misolydian, the latter two wrongly named: These were called the au- thentic modes. ‘Iwo centuries later, Gregory the Great is thought to have authorized four additional modes, termed the. plagal modes. Later in the sixteenth century four more modes were added, and two hypothetical modes, mak- ing a total of fourteen modes, two of which were not used. These formed with but little change the basis of the modern fifteen major modes or keys as we now term them. By the seventeenth century, the fifteen relative minor keys had been formulated. When musicians began to discover the artis- tic nature of modulation of keys as a means of contrast and variety, they began to desire to use all the keys. ‘‘But under the old system of tuning, B flat was by no means the same thing as A sharp, and anyone who played the old G sharp, C, and E flat under the impression that it was the same chord as C, E, and G transposed, was rudely unde- ceived by an unpleasant discordance. The men whose instincts were genuinely and energet- ically artistic insisted that our system must ac- [61] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC cept a little imperfection in all the intervals for the sake of being able to use all keys on equal terms. The struggle was long, and various alternatives were proposed by those who clung to the ideal of perfectly tuned chords—such as splitting up the semi-tone as the Persians had done. But in the end the partisans of the thoroughly practical and serviceable system of equal temperament won the day. The first im- portant expression of faith was J. S. Bach’s best-known work, the two books of “Preludes’’ and “Fugues’’ in all the keys, called by him the “Well-Tempered Clavichord.” ? Thus was established the modern major scale, composed of five full tones and two semi- tones, the semi-tones occurring between the third and the fourth tones, and the seventh and eighth tones of the scale counting upwards. THE NATURAL AND TEMPERAMENTAL SCALES It was due to the careful researches of physi- cists and mathematicians that the exact mathe- matical ratios of the various tones of the scale to each other were determined. The analysis of the natural scale, almost identical with the Pythagorean scale, revealed the ratio. Using 2Sir Hubert Parry, “Evolution of the Art of Music.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. [62] NATURAL AND TEMPERED SCALES the key-note of the scale as equivalent to 1, or unity, the ratios of the natural scale are as follows: C1, D%, E &%, F %, G %, A %, B 15%, and C (one octave higher) 2. These ratios were determined by measuring the vibrational rates of the various tones, according to the in- ternational concert pitch of 450 vibrations per second for middle C. The vibrational rate of each octave higher is just twice the ratio of the preceding octave. Thus middle C is 450, Ct is 900, C? is 1,800, C* is 3,600, etc., while C+ me25, © is:t12.5 and so on. The notes of the temperamental (or tem- pered) scale have a slightly different ratio to each other, namely: Temperamental Scale Natural Scale C—r. r D—1.122462 Lu 2G E—1.259921 1i2\5 F—1.334840 1.3333 G—1.498307 1.5 A—1.681793 1.6666 B—1.887749 1.875 C—2, vs By means of the adjustment indicated in the above table it is now possible to use any tone of the twelve semi-tones comprising the octave On an instrument like the piano, as the keytone, [63 ] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC and by simply choosing the tones of the proper sequence we obtain a scale identical with all the others. “An ideally tuned scale is as much of a dream as the philosopher’s stone,’ states Sir Parry, ‘“‘and no one who clearly understands the mean- ing of art wants it. The scale as we now have it is as perfect as our system requires. It is completely organized for an infinite variety of contrast, both in the matter of direct expres- sion—by discord and concord—and for the purpose of formal design. The instincts of human creatures for thousands of years have, as it were, sifted it and tested it till they have got a thing which is most subtly adapted to the purposes of artistic expression. It has afforded Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, and Brahms ample opportunities to produce works which in their respective lines are as wonderful as it is conceivable for any artistic works to be. A scale system may fairly be tested by what can be done with it. It will probably be a good many centuries before any new system is justi- fied by such a mass of great artistic works as the one which the instincts and efforts of our ancestors have gradually evolved for our ad- vantage.” * 3 Sir Hubert Parry, “Evolution of the Art of Music.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. [64] , THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR The bar in music is the element of notation used to divide the notes of a composition into its meter. ‘The bar is formed of a succession, always regular and indefinitely repeated, of ac- cented and unaccented beats. The origin of the bar has been the cause of much speculation. Plato sees in it a reminis- cence of the Absolute, the art of an artist obey- ing the law of numbers. Spencer considers it as one of the First Principles, which underlie the constitution of all things. Others have seen in it an imitation of the movements of a pendu- lum, of the beat of the pulse, or of the normal stride. The bar probably had its origin in the fact that the savage has a much greater tendency than the civilized man to movements repeated with regularity, due to his greater freedom from clothing and the restrictions of conven- tions and complex thought. Miners, in the eighteenth century, wrote as follows regarding the African negroes: ‘Marching, dancing, games, singing, work, everything with them is dance in time. The most stupid negroes keep time far better than our soldiers, and far better than our musicians after a long course of care- ful training.” . [65] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC In work especially, the savage ignorant of technique and lacking proper .tools, makes up for this by patience and endurance, which in- volves endless repetition of identical move- ments. Impelled by instinct and the desire to expedite the process as much as possible, the savage executes uniform movements in uniform spaces of time, which eventually become purely automatic. ‘Thus arises periodicity. [he na- ture of the periodicity is determined by the movement, the muscular action, and the efforts of the workers. This effort is characterized by tension followed by relaxation, corresponding in music to an accented beat and an unaccented beat. ; This periodicity, leading to the creation of a bar, becomes imperative when work is done in unison, as in rowing, hauling canoes, rocks, or timber, carrying logs, or hauling ropes or hawsers. Moreover, periodicity serves to equalize the strength exerted by the individual so as to prevent a disturbance of balance or direction of the work asa whole, and not only does it insure uniformity, but it distinctly pro- motes morale or discipline, and acts as a definite stimulant. Its influence is not only valuable physically but psychically as well for it seems to release and make available a greater re- serve of physical power in the worker. As an [66] RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC instance of this, the French government, in building a railroad in Dahomey, was compelled to engage a musician to play the flute to in- duce the negroes to work at all. RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC Music is usually said to be composed of three major elements: rhythm, melody, and harmony. Of these three, we shall discuss rhythm and melody in the present volume. Harmony can more appropriately be discussed in a later volume. Rhythm, which we shall consider first, is that element which infuses music with vitality and pulsation and gives it momentum. The salient characteristic of rhythm is periodicity, a perio- dicity which groups, dominates, and sweeps along the constituent sound waves of the indi- vidual notes and chords. We also discern perio- dicity in the motion of waves, the rise and the fall of the tides, and the diastole and systole of the heart. Rhythm to many people means merely the regular accentuation occurring in each measure of a composition, but its meaning and applica- tion are much broader. While it is true that the accented and unaccented beats of the meas- ure constitute an important rhythmic element [67] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC in all forms of composition, it must not be overlooked that the larger units of a composi- tion are likewise subject to the principles of rhythm. Rhythm is detected in the crescendo and diminuendo of a phrase or a whole move- ment of a composition, in the accelerando or ritardendo of a section of music, in the subtle shadings of phrase against phrase, or in the apposition of two or more melodies played simultaneously. In the larger forms of musical composition we find rhythm within rhythm, sub- tle interweavings of contrasting and varicolored voices, sonorous billows of sound interfused and leavened by musical phrases as delicate and elusive as flying wisps of mist, each obeying its own laws of rhythm and pulsation. Rhythm, in its fullest sense, is a distinctive aesthetic creation and not merely a necessary and mechanical unit of structure, which per- vades and leavens the whole spirit of a compo- sition. Indeed, it is as indispensable to the essential message of the whole composition as are melody and harmony. Compare the rollick- ing rhythm of “Dixieland” with the tender, brooding spirit of “Sweet and Low,” and judge how important an element the rhythm is in de- termining the spirit and mood of a song. Rhythm in music is thought to derive its original impulse from the instinct of man to [68] e oe 4 ¥ he as i 4 Meas aa, 4, i/+ RA bes Bae RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC express his inner state in muscular movements. In very primitive music, the rhythmic and melodic elements of music are often found in- dependent of each other. Sheer, unalloyed rhythmic music is found among most savage tribes. ‘Thus the monotonous beating of the tom-toms or the deafening clashes of cymbals, gongs, or rude drums, accompanied often by a rhythmic wailing chorus of onlookers, will excite the savage to a frenzy. All dancing is ultimately derived from ex- pressive gestures and movements, which have become rhythmic through the symmetrical ar- rangements of the parts of the human body, rendering difficult irregular repetitions of simi- lar movements, for the body in its action will instinctively seek for the lines of least resist- ance, which in dancing is rhythmic movement. Primitive dancing is usually mimic, imitative of the most absorbing and significant elements of the individual and social life of the savage, and involves the excitement of the most power- ful passions of the human spirit, rage and revenge during the mimicry of fighting, of the sex emotion during the representation of love- making. As ruder kinds of rhythmic dances advance during the process of evolution, the significance of the accompanying gestures is ob- scured, the degree of excitement decreases, and [69] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC the dance becomes refined, so that it consists of various well-defined forms of rhythmic motion and graceful gesture. Savages all over the world combine singing with their dancing, so that inevitably their simple melodies are perme- ated with the rhythmic element. They not only sing rhythmically when regular set dances are going on, but also when they are walking, reap- ing, sowing, rowing, threshing, or performing any other of their daily labors which admit of such accompaniment. From some such form of combination very probably sprang the original rhythmic organization of poetry. Many people might ask the question: If rhythm has such powerful effects on savages, does it not have similar effects on the civilized individual? Many authorities claim that rhythm produces even more significant effects in the sensitive and cultivated individual. Rhythm is instinctive. It has its roots in the fundamental processes of the living organism, in respiration, in circulation, in the swing of the limbs, in the swaying of the trunk, and in the kinaesthetic sensations of our consciousness. Through the influence of rhythmic activity the minute atoms of our cells are quickened into renewed activity and self-regeneration, and the secreting glands of our bodies work with in- creased fervor. Small wonder that rhythm pro- [70] RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC duces such an electrical effect in our conscious- ness, arousing our emotions, and impelling us to heightened motor activity. Rhythm, founded upon symmetry of structure and motion, pro- duces in us a feeling of balance, freedom, well- being and power, which can be either purely psychic, or can be experienced physically during such an activity as dancing. In listening to music the ability to note the rhythmic groupings of tones enables the mind to grasp as distinct units, groups of measures or phrases, an ability which will make for rapid progress in the appreciation and understanding of music. This feeling for the rhythmic pattern of a composition permits the mind to anticipate the magnitude of the units of a work and thus makes it possible for the listener to ease the effort and strain of attention at the strategic moment and thus delay the appearance of fa- tigue when listening to complex musical forms. Rhythm, in addition to being an integral ele- ment of a composition, may become a means for grasping and retaining the import of the whole musical creation. At times as we have stood at the base of some great cathedral, and our eyes have swept upward delineating swiftly the beautiful tracery and design of the structure until they have traveled to the apex of the towering spires, we [71] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC have felt as though stone had taken wings and had soared to pierce the heavens, as though matter had become spirit under the subtle power of the architect’s will and imagination. So in music, when our ear has grasped the animating theme of a work and has followed its dazzling rhythmic development, through its towering climaxes, and majestic pinnacles of tone figures, we have felt as though our inward self had become sheer energy to grapple victoriously with our multifarious problems. Close attention to the rhythmic elements of a composition, will enable one to penetrate more deeply into the subtle realm of musical dyna- mics, to discover rhythm within rhythm, sys- tem within system, elusive, provocative, and fascinating, ever suggestive of more mysterious and beauteous effects. THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY To many people music means a melody, a tune or an air. Music without melody is to many unthinkable, and yet in some of the later modern forms of music we shall find superb compositions almost wholly devoid of melody, or with melody greatly subordinated, and still productive of beautiful musical effects on the listener. [72] THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY Melody has been defined as ‘“‘a well ordered succession of single sounds, producing a unified effect.”’ By another, it has been termed “‘the golden thread that runs through music.” It cor- responds to the pattern that is found in decora- tive designs, the plot in a story or drama, or the arrangement of figures and details in paint- 11.2. As rhythm grew out of the instinct for the periodic movements and gestures of the human body, so melody undoubtedly evolved from the expressive cries of the lowly savages. It is still possible to find among the least developed savage tribes examples of a kind of music that consists of little more than impulsive cries or expressive howls, utterly without any sign of the definite intervals or patterns that are found in the higher forms of music. As soon as well-defined, pleasing intervals appear, however, these little fragments of melody, per- haps of only two or three tones, are repeated an interminable number of times, until this repetition palls on the dull imagination of the savage. He then instinctively demands a change in rhythm or intensity, in key or tone arrangement, and attempts a departure from ‘ the original pattern. Thus these small phrases, which have become stereotyped, are rearranged or combined with other phrases, and there ap- [73] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC pears the beginning of a tune or a design or pattern in melody. DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES The following fragment taken from a war song of the Mafulus on the coast of British New Guinea shows the achievement of a single musical figure which is repeated over and over again: a From the Negroes of West Africa comes a formula one step further advanced; the repeti- tion of the motive one semi-tone lower. Fe Coe In the following is shown the contrast of two entirely different figures: DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES This design is lacking in symmetry and the real impulse of the singers appears to have been to derive pleasure from the sense of contrast between the two little figures by singing one until it becomes monotonous and then as a relief singing the second until that too palls on their ears. Examination of much of the music of savages reveals numerous examples of this childish simplicity, incoherent rambling, and lack of design in their melody, with a conse- quent impression of monotony and dullness. The savage’s lack of mental power apparently renders the formulation of more complex phrases and balanced design impossible. Many of the savage races have not mastered the simultaneous combination of the two func- tions of the human vocal organs, that of speech and song. Usually their tunes are without words, consisting merely of meaningless sounds, or if words are used they are unintelligible gibberish. The presence of melody does not mean the use of poetry, for often tunes are current among savage tribes whose language is so elementary in its development that poetry is impossible. Sometimes songs are passed from one tribe to another, whose members are utterly ignorant of the meaning of the syllables which they have learned. ‘The North American In- dians, however, even in early times were far [75] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC enough advanced to combine the use of melody and intelligible words. FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY These rudimentary forms in music, which we have just discussed, illustrate the fundamental law of all progress in the arts—that design and form are necessary to all varieties of artistic expression; that balance and ya are es- sential for adequate results. In sculpture, painting, and architecture, the presence of design and absolute necessity for it are obvious, but in music, where the necessity is equally imperative, design is not so apparent, and to most people may seem either superflu- ous, or merely the expression of a harmless obsession on the part of the composer. But, as we shall see, expression and form must go hand in hand. Without a compact, balanced structure in musical composition, the desired musical effect cannot be produced in the mind of the listener. All forms of musical composi- tion, from the simplest little folk-song to the most majestic and complex symphonies of Bee- thoven and ['schaikowsky, must obey some law of organization and design. The simple melody and folk song illustrate an intermediary stage of development between [76] FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY the uncouth songs of barbarians and the finished products of musical genius. A rapid analysis of the elements of design of the simple melody will enable us to comprehend the principles of structure of music in general, and will also give us a deeper understanding of our precious heri- tage of folk music. An examination of even the simplest of melodies reveals the existence of distinct group- ings of notes, which, with varying degrees of skill or conscious art, are combined and ar- ranged to produce different effects. Some of these groups of notes appear again and again and are separated by contrasting groups, which perform the same function in song and music as the component phrases and clauses of a sentence do in speech. Musicians have classi- fied and named these groups of notes. What in speech or writing is termed a sentence, in music is called a period. A period represents a complete musical idea, which, in its simplest form, usually consists of two balanced phrases. Each phrase, which usually contains four measures, is divided into two parts called sections, each of which in turn is composed of motifs. The first phrase gives rise to a feeling of incompleteness or unrest, because the close (usually on the dominant chord) asks a question, arouses uncertainty or [77] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC agitation, that is answered or satisfied in the following phrase (ending on the tonic). So here within the space of eight measures we find balance, contrast, and variety. Below is an ex- ample of a little one-period song: Snickenhus Although this single period form sufficed for the expression of a simple mood or emotion, its small compass and monotony, through neces- sity for repetition, prevented its use in songs expressing the more mature and complex emo- tions. Singers began to grope about for a means of extending the range of expression. A partial solution of the difficulty was found in the simple expedient of adding a second period to the first. To insure unity the second period had to be related to its predecessor in spirit and usually took its form as well as some detail of the principal strain or motif. Its special con- tribution, however, was the element of contrast and variety, which is the basis for the construc- [78] FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY tion of the simple melody. It is best exempli- fied in the regular forms of the German and English folk songs. Irregularities are, how- ever, frequently met with in many Hungarian folk songs as well as those of Russia and other countries, where we find periods containing sec- tions of three, four, or even five measures. The lovely old English air, “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,” is a perfect example of the binary, or two-period form. The first period, A A’, ends with the word “wine,” and the second period, B A” with “thine.” ‘The first phrase A ends with the word “mine,” the sec- ond phrase A’ with ‘‘wine,”’ the third phrase B with “divine,” and the fourth phrase A” with the word “‘thine.’’ We observe that although it actually contains four phrases, there are really only two different phrases here. If we repre- sent these two phrases as A and B respectively, we discover that the arrangement is as follows, A ABA. Such is the typical scheme of ar- rangement in simple melodies. The exact repe- tition of phrase A gives the effect of assurance, while the appearance of phrase B (note its more irregular form) introduces the contrast- ing element of agitation and suspense. The final reiteration of phrase A reestablishes the first feeling of confidence and final complete- ness. Hum this melody and note the contrast- [79] Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes Sd (A) Drink to me on - ly’ with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine, (A!) Or leave a_ kiss with - in the cup, BRI WLS NER Luho sures meneame so dp And Till not ask for wine; ae (B) ‘The thirst that from the soul doth rise, ———— we 9 ep Doth ask a drink di - vine; (A'') But might I of love’s nec - tar sip, a HEE pace I would not change for thine. SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS ing spirit of phrase A and B. “All Through the Night,” “Believe Me, If all those Endear- ing Young Charms” are other familiar examples of this same plan. In “Old Folks at Home’ in which the struc- ture is A A B A, a cadence is introduced to insure variety. Then there are other arrange- ments of the two-phrase song as in ‘““Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground,’ where itis AA AA BA. In “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep” the scheme is AA BAA. The reader is urged to work out this simple plan of analysis in a number of songs and culti- vate this power of analysis until it becomes habitual. This practice will develop a deeper understanding of musical compositions, and in- crease markedly one’s powers of memorization. SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS Another method of analyzing any composi- tion is to classify the tonal combinations accord- ing to their position and sequence on the staff, that is, according to their horizontal arrange- ment. ‘Thus in the example below we have a song whose phrases in measures I-5 and 9-13 consist of some tones of the same pitch re- peated, combined with short sections of the scale, that is, tones in the same sequence as the [81] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC scale of the key of the song in measures 2-3—6— 7—-I0—II—I4—-I5. Teach Us to Pray Moderato God Vi Whose tues cle en - folds us Gregorian Chant : SS nO | eT Thy lov-ing kind- ness waits our gis gee eee Teach Thy chil - dren how to pray, SS Thus bring-ing guid-ance day by Observe that there is no place in the whole melody where the skip from one note to the other is more than one tone higher or lower. In other words, there is in the whole song not an interval, that is, a skip in pitch of two or more tones. Then turn back to page 80 and examine “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes’ and note the repeated tones in the first measure, the scale track (that is the tones follow each other [82] SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS as they would in the scale) in the second meas- ure, and in the third measure a jump from B flat to E flat, which is termed a chord skip or interval. Note in the ninth measure the fact that here the melody indulges in four chord skips, which gives one a feeling of agitation or increased emotional tension, and that this is diminished as soon as the thirteenth measure and the ensuing two phrases are reached. In the Gregorian Chant, with its smoothly flowing melody, devoid of all skips, we do not experi- ence this agitation, but only solemnity and state- liness. In these two songs we find examples of three tonal arrangements—(1) the repeated tone, (2) the scale track, and (3) the chord track. Examination of all forms of music will reveal that they can all be resolved into these three simple kinds of combinations. In the cultiva- tion of a musical memory this knowledge will be of great benefit in fixing clearly the pitch scheme of various melodies, and thus develop- ing a feeling for the melodic trend of a song. It is astonishing how such an analysis will simplify the memorization of a melody if this visual imagining is combined with aural recog- nition also. It is a good plan to analyze a number of melodies in this manner. [83] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC UNITY OF MOOD OF A SONG Involved in this whole principle of design and organization in a song is the element of unity. Each song dramatizes a certain mood or feeling, and, because of this, possesses its own distinctive mood, feeling tone, or atmos- phere. This fact is very evident when we play or sing a tune, or listen to the actual per- formance of a song. The principle holds good for all other forms of music as well. During the next sonata, symphony, or violin concerto you hear, note how each composition strikes and maintains a distinctive feeling tone. If we but consider some examples of the simple folk song we shall discover immediately that a distinctive mood or feeling is embodied in their lovely musical messages. Let us again turn to that beautiful little melody “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes.” Sing, play, or hum it through two or three times. Note the unity of the emotional and musical effect on your mind. Observe that as soon as you have sung the first measure you have caught the atmosphere of the song, you are aware even then of its peculiar charm and individuality and as you progress you note that this feeling is accentuated and when the end of the song has been reached it appears quite [84] FEELING FOR KEY OF A SONG fixed and permanent. Its feeling message, gra- cious and appealing, seems to have taken perma- nent lodgment in your heart. This unity of effect is discovered in all real works of art, and especially in music. The peculiar fascination of music is that this essen- tial unity is capable of such great variation of treatment. The feeling effect of ‘Dixieland’ is much different from “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes.’ It is gay and animated, full of rollicking good humor, and the whole song is permeated with a unified feeling atmos- phere. In “Holy Night’ we observe a totally different atmosphere—serene and _ soothing, transfused with tenderness, yet borne along rhythmically on a substratum of confidence and faith. / ‘In all listening one should always strive to / detect and absorb one’s self in the characteristic -mood or feeling tone of a composition. This is _a fundamental principle of either performance or listening. To neglect it is to miss the essence of music. FEELING FOR KEY OF A SONG One of the primary musical effects to be noted in any musical composition is the feeling for the key. In the simple song a modulation or change [85] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC of key is rare, but when we come to the consid- eration of the art song we shall find this oc- curring frequently. Even in such cases there is usually a return to the original key. Thus in learning to sing, hum, or play a song it is extremely important for one to feel and con- sistently cling to the feeling for the key. Most songs end on a key-note, or home tone, as it is sometimes called. Very often a phrase or a melodic unit in the body of a song will end on a key-note. and one then experiences for a moment a feeling of repose. For example, at the last note of the first score in “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes,” the word “mine” is on the note E flat, the key-note of the song. “Wine” and “thine” are also sung on the key- note of the song, which you will observe, gives a feeling of repose. Sometimes a song will be- gin on a key-note, but more often, on the third or the fifth note above the key-note. ‘The feel- ing for key is another of the basic elements in the process of memorizing melody, and in the cultivation of a musical memory. THE RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY Rhythmic patterns, as well as pitch patterns, are repeated in a melody. Observe in “Dixie- land,” with its two-four meter, the repetition [86] THE RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY of the sixteenth notes in the first, fourth, ninth, and twelfth measures, the recurrence of the dotted eighth note with its complementary sixteenth note, and the preliminary triplet six- teenth notes in the chorus. This quick, sharp, rhythmic pattern is largely responsible for the buoyancy and dash of this melody. Note the rhythmic scheme in “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes’; the flowing 6-8 meter, the first three-eighth notes, and then the quarter note with a short eighth note completing the measure. ‘This pattern is present in the Ist, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, roth, rth, 13th and 15th measures... Not only that, but the rhythmic patterns in the 2nd, 6th and 14th measures are identical. This rhythmic symmetry aids de- cidedly in maintaining a unity of feeling tone. In the magnificent melody used in the hymn “How Firm a Foundation,’ the 4-4 meter, with its regular march-like accentuation, and rhythmic pattern consisting of a half note plus two quarter notes alternating with four quarter notes, gives it a stately, confident rhythm, like the advancing tramp of an invincible host of warriors. Marches are usually written in 2-4 or 4-4 meter, a meter equally divisible by two to indi- cate the rapid, successive steps of the person marching. Lullabies, boat songs, love songs, [87] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC songs of longing and peacefulness, are written in 6-8, 3-4 or 3-8 meter, which is less sharply accented in its rhythm. The dances of various countries have their distinctive rhythms. Recall the rhythmic peculiarities of the Irish jig, the Italian tarantelle, the Spanish fandango, and the Hungarian czardas. The rhythmic scheme of a composition plus its tempo exercises an almost autocratic control over its general feel- ing tone. THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION In the singing, instrumental performance, or hearing of any composition one cannot escape observing its emotional background, or a feel- ing tone. Because music is so very slightly imi- tative of external nature in its essential spirit and in its structure as well, it appears to voice more directly and infinitely more effectively the magic play of the human consciousness than any other medium now at man’s disposal. Unless a song or a musical composition pos- sesses the power of infecting with its own con- tagiousness the heart of the listener, it is not worth the effort nor time to rehearse it. Unless a song touches a sympathetic chord in the heart of the listener and moves him in some vital, pleasurable way, it is a waste of time for his [88] EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION ears to transmit the vibrations to his conscious- ness. This does not mean that the music neces- sarily be agitating or exciting, for there exists in the human imagination a gamut of emotions and subtle nuances of feeling that is practically inexhaustible in power, range, and variety.‘ Music is a portrayal of a mood, the drama- tization of a feeling tone. The effects of music are enjoyed as representations of genuine emotions. They furnish the greatest of all educational influences—the opportunity to gain spiritual stimulation and development without any harmful reactions of the material and ex- ternal world. The emotional reactions from music and per- sonal emotions are entirely different. Musical emotions are personal reactions to impersonal interests. Personal emotions are personal re- actions to personal interests. To illustrate, so- called somber and sad music does not produce a condition of actual somberness or sadness, does not induce a real state of mental depres- sion, which would uniformly lead to unhappi- ness and discontent, but sublimates the actual emotion, translating it into the world of ro- mance and poetry, idealizing and refining the reality. Indeed, sad music artistically per- See Volume V, “The Art of Listening.” [89] SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC formed, will bring the greatest satisfaction and the fullest response, no matter how profoundly the listener or the performer may be stirred by a particular mood for the time being. “Old Black Joe,’ the wail of a poor negro who has lost his home and his all, and nothing could be more pathetic and mournful, is merely an artis- tic portrayal of pathos and misery. And one who sings a negro spiritual does not take on its frenzied and fantastic religious mood, but merely its art simulation. In the countries of sorrow and oppression nearly all of the songs of the people are plain- tive and sad. ‘These songs serve, not to in- tensify and more deeply establish these condi- tions in the lives of the people, but as an outlet for feeling, a reaction to the real conditions of sorrow and sadness which they portray. And so of every song that is worth singing. It pro- duces a mood of its own which takes the singer away from the literal and actual life mood for the time being, refining, beautifying, and re- storing him atter the wear and tear of real moods and real life conditions. Thus, music has real art value and consequently genuine educational significance according to the degree of emotional reaction derived from performing or listening to music. It will be apparent to every thoughtful per- | [90] EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION son that the important matter in music educa- tion is carefully to guard, nourish, and develop the aesthetic quality of the emotional reaction. Every other consideration should be subordi- nated to this end. [91] BIBLIOGRAPHY Buck, Percy Carter. Acoustics for Musicians. Oxford, Clarendon Press. GEHRKENS, Kart W. Musical Notation and Ter- minology. New York, The A. S. Barnes Co. Grove. Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Article: “Notation.” Rhythm, Accent, Metre, etc. New York, The Macmillan Co. GuRNEyY, EpMonp. ‘The Power of Sound. London, Smith, Elder & Co. HAMILTON, CLARENCE §. Sound, and its Relation to Music. Boston, O. Ditson & Co. LavicNac, ALBERT. Music and Musicians. New York, H. Holt & Co. Lussy. A Short Treatise on Musical Rhythm. Lon- don, Vincent Music Co. WILLIAMS, CHARLES FrANcIs Appy. ‘The Story of Music Notation. London, The W. Scott Publish- ing Co. WILLIAMS, CHARLES FrRANcIS Aspy. The Rhythm of Modern Music. London, The Macmillan Co. [92] < = << =>) c + 2 oO = nel = u. oO > = wv c LA = = a co01 v001 MUSICAL ART NEW YORK NNN FUNDAMENTALS OF 780F 962 Ml 18317 12 0145 |