ORIENTAL MUSIC. 241 



major and minor scales, which are exclusively used by all those peo- 

 ples who do not employ the Hungarian system. Now, although these 

 scales have hardly been in general use for two centuries, there is grad- 

 ually growing up among ourselves a recognized scheme of characteri- 

 zation or symbolism analogous to the schemes formulated by the Ori- 

 entals. For we not only speak of major modes as bright and genial, 

 and minor modes as sorrowful and depressed, irrespective of the music 

 to be cast in these modes and also regard our sharp keys as brilliant, 

 and flat keys as calm and soothing, irrespective also of the music to 

 be rendered in them, and although we are perfectly certain of the fact 

 that mathematically they present no variation but we notice that the 

 notes in any one key have each their special signification. 



Attempts have been made to define these characteristics, which 

 must be allowed to be successful, for thousands of persons are unani- 

 mous that their experiences agree. 



The most satisfactory proof of this is that large choral bodies have 

 been trained to sing from printed copies of music, at first sight, most 

 elaborate compositions, simply by being taught to identify the various 

 notes by recognizing uniformly their character, and thus to sing them 

 correctly without the aid of an instrument. The societies acquainted 

 with this the tonic sol-fa system, in which particular ideas are asso- 

 ciated with each note have for twenty years competed successfully 

 for prizes, at large festivals in England, with the best organizations 

 trained in other methods. 



We are, therefore, rapidly forming complex psychologic systems, 

 side by side with our technical systems, which to the ancients would 

 prove as strange and unaccountable as some of theirs do to us ; or 

 even still more strange, for the want of sympathy would not be en- 

 tirely due to difference of musical temperament of scales, or to mere 

 remoteness of period and nation, but to the use of harmony and simul- 

 taneous melodies that render our music bewilderingly complex in its 

 structure to those nations who do not employ polyphony. 



An elaborate characterization of even one isolated interval say of 

 the sweet-sighing-sadness of the sixth sound of the ^olian harp, the 

 dominant seventh of nature could be no more intelligible to one who 

 had never experienced the combination than the sweetness of honey 

 be made known to one who had never tasted it. 



Here one would willingly address thoughtful musicians, who strive 

 to understand the present condition of their art, by tracing the history 

 of its phases, being able to appeal to their technical knowledge of our 

 own formal systems of scales, etc., in giving details of other and more 

 complex systems, which can not be made readily comprehensible to 

 the general public. But we must be content to pass on and speak of 

 other links, connecting the present with the most remote ages. 



No more ready proof of the great musical acquirements of the an- 

 cients can be found than in the marvelous skill shovra in their instru- 



VOL. XTIII. 16 



