226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



contradicted this, and defined music as the double result of the con- 

 formation of the organs and the disposition of the soul, as the art of 

 awakening emotion by means of the combination of sounds. It is, 

 in fact, generally agreed that music addresses itself more directly to 

 our feelings and passions, and is correctly said that it speaks to them 

 in a special language. Descartes indicated this as its object. 



In the theory of Helmholtz, music expresses the different dispo- 

 sitions of the soul by imitating the characteristic particularities of 

 movement in space, and by thus translating the forces and impulses 

 that produce the movement. While he admits that it may have been 

 at first only an imitation of the instinctive modulations of the voice 

 corresponding with the different states of the mind, he does not con- 

 sider this fact contradictory to his definition, for the natural processes 

 of vocal expression are capable of being traced back to the same 

 elements. " Rhythm and accentuation express directly the rapidity 

 and vivacity of corresponding psychical movements ; a vehement 

 effort causes the voice to rise ; the desire to produce an agreeable 

 impression on another person prompts us to select a pleasant tone ; 

 and thus the efforts to imitate the involuntary modulations of the 

 voice, to enrich and make more expressive the recitation of words, 

 may very probably have guided our ancestors in seeking out the 

 means for musical expression." 



This is probably the real origin of music ; and it is in this direc- 

 tion that we should look in investigating its nature. 



Two elements closely connected, but quite different and having 

 each its peculiar function, may be distinguished in the analysis of 

 spoken language the intonation and the articulation of the emitted 

 sound. No doubt they are the interpreters of the two great human 

 faculties of intelligence and feeling. Speech, then, is a complex physi- 

 ological resultant, the double image of a double inner condition. The 

 elements it represents can not be conceived as isolated from each other, 

 any more than we can conceive a human organization a pure intelli- 

 gence. We all know the important part intonation plays in conver- 

 sation, and how by it the general sense, the whole expression of the 

 spoken words, may be varied indefinitely. 



Having thus found the origin of music in the imitation of these 

 instinctive modulations of speech, it should be easy to draw from this 

 an exact idea of its nature ; for, without doubt, to read verse well, to 

 declaim with warmth and conviction, is only to perform in advance 

 the work of the musician. We have now a whole class of musical 

 phrases which are only exaggerations of spoken intonations ; they are 

 our recitatives. The music of uncultivated peoples is mostly recita- 

 tive ; so also was a large part of the music of the middle ages. The 

 rules and grammar of music and its particular features are the growth 

 of modern times. 



This conception of music as the language of sensibility permits us 



