44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The association between high notes and physical ascent, between 

 low notes and physical descent is certainly in any case very fixed. 3 In 

 Wagner's " Lohengrin/' the ascent and descent of the angelic chorus 

 is thus indicated. Even if we go back earlier than the days of Bach 

 the same correspondence is found. In the work of Bach himself — pure 

 and abstract as his music is generally considered — this as well as much 

 other motor imagery may be found, as is now generally recognized by 

 students of Bach, following in the steps of Albert Schweitzer and 

 Andre Pirro. It is sometimes said that this is "realism" in music. 

 That is a mistake. When the impressions derived from one sense are 

 translated into those of another sense there can be no question of 

 realism. A composer may attempt a realistic representation of thunder, 

 but his representation of lightning can only be symbolical; audible 

 lightning can never be realistic. 



Not only is there an instinctive and direct association between 

 sounds and motor imagery, but there is an indirect but equally in- 

 stinctive association between sounds and visual imagery which, though 

 not itself motor, has motor associations. Thus Bleuler considers it well 

 established that among color-hearers there is a tendency for photisms 

 that are light in color (and belonging, we may say, to the " high " part 

 of the spectrum) to be produced by sounds of high quality, and dark 

 photisms by sounds of low quality; and, in the same way, sharply- 

 defined pains or tactile sensations as well as pointed forms produce 

 light photisms. Similarly, bright lights and pointed forms produce 

 high phonisms, while low phonisms are produced by opposite conditions. 

 Urbantschitisch, again, by examining a large number of people who 

 were not color-hearers found that a high note of a tuning fork seems 

 higher when looking at red, yellow, green or blue, but lower if looking 

 at violet. Thus two sensory qualities that are both symbolic of a third 

 quality are symbolic to each other. 



This symbolism, we are justified in believing, is based on funda- 

 mental organic tendencies. Piderit, nearly half a century ago, forcibly 

 argued that there is a real relationship of our most spiritual feelings 



Nights " the visions aroused by the playing of Paganini, and elsewhere the 

 visions evoked in him by the music of Berlioz. Though I do not myself ex- 

 perience this phenomenon I have found that there is sometimes a tendency for 

 music to arouse ideas of motor imagery; thus some melodies of Handel suggest 

 a giant painting frescoes on a vast wall space. The most elementary motor 

 relationship of music is seen in the tendency of many people to sway portions 

 of their body — to " beat time " — in sympathy with the music. Music is funda- 

 mentally an audible dance, and the most primitive music is dance music. 



3 The instinctive nature of this tendency is shown by the fact that it per- 

 sists even in sleep. Thus Weygandt relates that he once fell asleep in the 

 theater during one of the last scenes of " Cavalleria Rusticana," when the tenor 

 was singing in ever higher and higher tones, and dreamed that in order to reach 

 the notes the performer was climbing up ladders and stairs on the stage. 



