240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In some cases strange and extravagant hyperbole leads to a general 

 notion being formed of the character of certain forms, but yet to 

 great uncertainty as to their actual nature. In the case of some Ori- 

 ental nations, the perfected systems, the theories and their symboli- 

 cal analogies and illustrations came to be valued more highly than the 

 music based upon them. The Chinese, for instance, compared at a 

 very early period the twelve notes of the chromatic scale with the 

 lunar zodiac, and the expression of each note with the exjDression of 

 outwai-d nature the weather of each month. 



Their various modes have characteristic significations. That of 

 Koung (= fa) represents the emj^eror the sublimity of his docti'ine, 

 the majesty of his countenance, and the high importance of his actions ; 

 the mode Cheng {= sol) represents the minister his intrepidity in 

 the exercise of his duties, firm administration of justice, and slight 

 rigorousness ; and so on, throughout the complete series. 



The Hindoos were also led to personify all their modes, but their 

 excited, unbridled imaginations led them to place in their heaven the 

 presiding deity of each. Their systems are complicated, symbolical, 

 mystical, and beautiful. They believed in miracle-working melodies, 

 called Ragas, each having its own special power on rain, harvests, sun, 

 wild beasts, etc., and the faith in their efficacy still exists. It is rarely 

 tested because of the alleged difficulty in finding an executive artist 

 competent to perform the music with the proper expression in the par- 

 ticular locality selected for the trial. 



The Persians, who regarded music as physic for the soul, found in 

 a tree and its roots and branches a fitting emblem and convenient 

 illustration for their technical system of modes, and, in the strings of 

 their lute, correspondences with their seasons. 



The Chaldeans and Egyptians required the whole cosmos for an 

 exemplification of their systems ; and thus, through the Greeks, the 

 expression " music of the spheres " has come down to us. 



Here, at least, we find a link connecting the dead past with the liv- 

 ing present. Pythagoras and the mathematical musicians of his age 

 and country made the middle string of the Greek lyre typify the sun, 

 and the others the planets ; and even their opponents, Aristotle and 

 the practical musicians, were led to acknowledge that, when this mid- 

 dle string was out of tune, the whole instrument was out of tune, but 

 that if any other string were untuned the lyre would still be playable. 

 Here evidence is found that there then existed a vague, glimmering 

 notion of the peculiar and inherent importance of some one note, which 

 we now fully recognize, and commonly speak of as the key-note from 

 which all the other notes are measured, and in which all find justifica- 

 tion. 



And, further, the Greek modes, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc., 

 which were somewhat similar to the ecclesiastical modes that bear the 

 same names interchanged, have given place in Europe to our modern 



