CHAPTER XII.

ANALOGIES BETWEEN THE USE OF QUALITY AND PITCH IN POETRY AND MUSIC.

Each of these Arts Developed Independently, yet Sounds as Used in Both are Connected-Every Vowel Has a Quality of its Own-Also a PitchNot Essential for our Purpose to Know what this Pitch Is-Only the Fact-In Passing from One Word to Another we Pass to a Different Pitch, and in Using Different Vowel and Consonant Sounds Together in One Word we Produce Effects Allied to Chords-These Effects Augmented by Upward and Downward Inflections Used in Reading, Causing Analogies to Musical Melody and Harmony-Different Kinds of Verse-Melody Produced by Different Arrangements of Sounds and Accents-Tunes of Verse as Determined by the Rhythm-Illustrations -Melody and Harmony, though Existing in Both Poetry and Music, Are Different in Each Art-Every Possible Pitch of the Voice can be Used in Poetry; Only Notes of Some Selected Pitch in Music-The Cause of this Difference to be Found in the Difference between the Expressional Possibilities of Articulated and Inarticulated Sounds— Early Musicians did Not Know all their Reasons for Constructing Musical Scales—But, Judging by Effects, were Led, as is Now Known, in All Cases to Put together Like Partial Effects of Unlike Complex Wholes.

IT

T is natural to suppose that the laws of sound work analogously in poetry and in music, but as, historically, each of these arts is developed in accordance with independent tendencies of its own, it has been thought best up to this point to treat poetry precisely as would have been done, had music never existed. But one object of this series of essays is to show the correspondences between the arts; and on this account not only, but because

of the way in which the known facts of music confirm many of the statements already made here, it seems important to add a few words showing in what sense quality and pitch, and the melody and harmony resulting from them, exist in both arts and are subject to the same laws, though these are manifested in each of them, because designed for a different purpose, in a different way.

As stated in Chapter VIII. of "Poetry as a Representative Art," where the fact was mentioned in order to show the significance of the sounds of speech, instruments have been constructed by means of which sounds can be analyzed and their component tones distinctly and definitely noted. As a consequence, it has been found that every vowel has a quality of its own different from that of any other vowel. But quality, as will be shown in Chapter XIII., is determined by the pitch of different partial tones which are blended with the prime or principal tone, and which enter into it as component parts.

If, therefore, every vowel has a quality of its own, does it not follow that it must also have a pitch of its own? This question was answered in the affirmative some years ago by Donders, who discovered that the cavity of the mouth, when whispering each of the different vowels, is tuned to a different pitch. Accordingly, the voice, when pronouncing vowel-sounds, at whatever key in the musi cal scale it may start them, has a tendency to suggest-if not through its main, or what is termed its prime tone, at least through associated, or what are termed its partial tones-that pitch which is peculiar to the vowel uttered.

Exactly what this pitch is, in the case of each vowel, it is not important for us to know here. In fact, it has not yet been definitely determined. Helmholtz, in his "Sen

says, for instance, that the series, which caced in English by a in father, a in man, e aine, forms an ascending minor chord

"-b" flat-d"""; and the following alts of Merkel's experiments with the given in his "Physiologie der Menschli

Sconcerns us at present is the fact that there is to these vowels. By consequence, when Yowel sounds are heard, sounds of different pitch d, or at least suggested. But besides this, the vapecially the sonants, m, n, l, y, r, b, v, d, ,, all necessitate some pitch when they are , and it is not likely to be the same as that by their accompanying vowel.

on these facts two inferences follow: First, that whenwallables, whether containing sounds of different

Consonants or of both, are uttered in succession,

4 succession of tones that differ in pitch. This is as to say that whenever we use consecutively that are not pronounced exactly alike, we produce, true a sense as when singing a melody, an effect

pang from one pitch to another. The second inferthat whenever sounds of two different vowels or

yowels and consonants that constitute a syllable are ... amultaneously, they produce a blending of tones Po duter in pitch, or, in other words, an effect corregonding to that which is heard in musical harmony. In

d, the music of the speaking voice, as distinguished from the singing, is characterized mainly by the harmony

that results from this blending of the consonant-sounds with the vowel-sounds, the latter being often in singing the only sounds that are heard, and always the only sounds that are made prominent. Of course, too, there is a sense in which the utterance of the component parts of any single syllable, especially when these are the two vowels of a diphthong, resembles more an effect of quality than of harmony. But sometimes, as in the case of an inflection which begins at one pitch and ends at another, it is more like that of harmony. Moreover, it is to be noted that at all times, as will be shown in Chapter XV., the effects of quality and of harmony are in their sources identical.

The facts just mentioned are somewhat subtle in their nature, and the reader may find it difficult to recognize their application to our present subject. We now pass on to other facts, so apparent that they are generally recognized. They are connected with the emphasis that every man, in talking or reading, gives to his utterances. By means of this, he causes his words to slide upward or downward in pitch, or he keeps them at the same pitch. This kind of emphasis, as pointed out in Chapters II. and VIII. of "Poetry as a Representative Art," is so closely analogous to the effects of musical melody that it is generally considered to be the cause of them. See the music on page 172. In the same chapters, as also in Chapters III. and IV. of "Music as a representative Art," the particular phase of thought represented through each of the different movements is also explained. This part of the subject is not relevant to our present discussion. But a consideration of the movements themselves is relevant. For however dull the inexperienced ear may be in recognizing the elements of melody and harmony that have already been pointed out, none can fail to perceive in the emphatic elocutionary rising and falling of the voice,

sations of Tone," says, for instance, that the may be represented in English by a in fat: in there, and in machine, forms an ascendi of G-thus: ""-g"-b"" flat-d"""; ar represents the results of Merkel's experi German vowels given in his "Physiolog chen Sprache":

All that concerns us at present is t a pitch peculiar to these vowels. B different vowel sounds are heard, so are heard, or at least suggested. consonants, especially the sonants

, s, all necessitate some pronounced, and it is not likely to suggested by their accompanying

From these facts two inferences ever two syllables, whether conta vowels or consonants or of both, we have a succession of tones th the same as to say that whene words that are not pronounced inst as true a sense as when

pong from one pitch to Aww that whenever sound wwwwwls and consonants t *ived simultaneously, they tor in pitch, or, in *hat which is b wwire awe of the sp www.w is charac

ter Was

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masculine endings.