To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square : So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. Thy sidelong pillowed meekness; Thy thanks to all that aid; The little trembling hand That wipes thy quiet tears, These, these are things that may demand -To a Child during Sickness: Leigh Hunt. Come in the evening or come in the morning; Come when you're looked for or come without warning; O whistle and I'll come to you, my lad, O whistle and I'll come to you, my lad; Tho' father and mother and a' should gae mad, O whistle and I'll come to you, my lad. -Whistle and I'll Come to You: Burns. Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots wham Bruce has often led, Or to glorious victory. -Bannockburn: Idem. 'T is for this they are dying where the golden corn is growing, 'T is for this they are dying where the crowded herds are lowing, 'T is for this they are dying where the streams of life are flowing, And they perish of the plague where the breeze of health is blowing. -Ireland: D. F. MacCarthy. Notice also this same fact as brought out by the illustrations of different kinds of rhythm given on pages 61 to 89. Thus far, we have found that poetry and music are alike in that both contain melody and harmony. But when we attempt to go beyond this, and to inquire in what ways melody and harmony are manifested in each, we find great differences. This discovery is important, not only on its own account, but, as we shall find in another place, on account of the light that it throws on the correspondences which we should expect to exist between harmony of sound and of color. That which connects the arts is the unity of method underlying them. In each of them this method is applied to a different germ. By keeping this fact in mind we shall be able to recognize, as would otherwise be impossible, in what sense the effects of harmony in all the arts are secured in ways essentially the same. The elements causing poetic harmony differ from those causing musical harmony in this-that while any possible tones can be used in verse, only certain selected tones can be used in music, i. e., in the art of music as we now know it. Science has ascertained that all tones whatever result from vibrations. Authorities differ, but, according to Helmholtz, thirty-two of these vibrations in a second are necessary in order to render audible the lowest possible musical tone, and 3960 to render audible the highest. Between these two extremes it is conceivable that there should be 3928 distinct degrees of pitch. Of these degrees music uses only about eighty-four, twelve degrees, including whole and half notes, being employed in each of about seven octaves. As for the speaking voice, its range extends neither so low nor so high as that of instrumental music; nevertheless it can use a very much. larger number of notes. Suppose that we limit its range to two octaves, and take for the lowest note the bass C REF of the male voice,' representing 132 vibrations a second, and for the highest note the C two octaves above this, representing 528 vibrations a second. This leaves, between the two notes, 396 distinct degrees of pitch, and the reading voice is at liberty to use all of these. But the singing voice within the same range can use only twenty-four of them. What is the cause of this difference? Why, within these limits, are the possibilities of pitch in poetry practically unrestricted, and in music restricted so greatly? Undoubtedly it is connected with the fact that, in the one, words are used, and in the other, at least in instrumental music, sounds without words. It would be possible, of course, in all cases to add music to verse, that is, to chant all poetry, as well also as to add words to melody, and to articulate all music. But this is not done, evidently because artists think it unnecessary. Poetry is felt to be one art and music another. In the first art words are used; and these, owing to their articulation, are easily distinguished, and, if similar, easily compared. Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, phonetic gradation in connection with accent, metre, and versification, furnish as many opportunities for grouping the like partial effects produced by unlike complex wholes as this art needs. But when, as in music, especially in that which is instrumental, the artist is compelled to use sounds that are not distinguishable by articulation, he is obliged, if his effects are to be above the level of the rhythm produced by the taps of a drum, to make more of quality and pitch. In poetry these latter, although, as we have found, necessarily involved in articulation, are accidental and secondary. 1 This is merely a supposititious case. Most voices, whether male or female, have their lowest note on an E, F, G, or A, rather than on C, In music, they are essential and primary. It may be said that, if it were not for them, there could be no music at all, as we know it; and this for the very sufficient reason that, without them, like or allied elements could not be grouped together in sufficient numbers to constitute an art-form. Of course, the early musicians could not have explained exactly why they selected certain notes and put them into a musical scale, and from these began to develop that which has now come to be our elaborated system of melody and harmony. Those artists followed merely the instincts of their æsthetic nature. This prompted them, in constructing forms, to select sounds that would naturally go together; and to use these and these only. But what connection is there, it may be asked, between sounds that naturally go together, and those that go together because certain of their effects are alike? None, perhaps, so far as the first musicians were aware. They judged merely by the results that they heard, and had only a limited knowledge of the causes of these. Nevertheless, as will be shown presently from an examination of the discoveries of modern science, their ears guided. them aright. All the notes of the scale, and all the methods of musical harmony owe their origin to a literal fulfilment of the art-principle declared in "The Genesis of Art-Form" to be of universal applicability. This principle is that in order to convey an impression of unity, the mind groups complex wholes by putting those together that produce like partial effects. 12 CHAPTER XIII. MUSICAL MELODY AND HARMONY, AS DEVELOPED HISTORICALLY ACCORDING TO THE METHODS OF ART-COMPOSITION. The Best Results of Quality, as Exemplified in the Human Voice and Instruments, Produced by a Blending of Like Effects-In Pitch, the Same is True-But to Understand the Subject Thoroughly, we should Know the Causes of Quality and Pitch-The Note and Half-NoteWritten Music: the Staff-Treble Clef-Bass Clef—C Clef─Sharps and Flats-Music among the Greeks-How Developed by Effects of Comparison, First by Way of Congruity-The Gregorian Chant an Endeavor to Imitate the Speaking Voice-Intonation is Based on Comparison by way of Repetition-Melody, Developed from this, is Based on Comparison by way of Consonance: Pythagoras and the Origin of Musical Scales-Variety, Introducing Contrast, Incongruity Alteration, and Dissonance, Necessitates, for Unity of Effect, Complement, Balance, Alternation, and Interchange-Octaves as Sung Together by the Greeks, a Form of Parallelism-Polyphonic Music, as Developed from this, and from Methods of Alternation, Complication, and Interchange-Harmonic Music Developed by a Renewed Application of the Methods of Order, Principality, etc.-Causes of the Rise of Harmonic Music. MUSICAL tones may be divided according to their quality into those produced by the human voice and by manufactured instruments. The latter may be either instruments of percussion like drums and cymbals, stringed instruments like pianofortes and violins, or wind instruments, which latter may either have flue-pipes, like flutes and organs, as a rule, or reed pipes, like clarionets, and oboes. There is no need of stopping here to describe |