MUSICAL SENSATIONS. 22Q 



The effect produced upon our ear by music of a system different 

 from oars is generally painful ; but we have no right to say that the 

 Indians and the Arabs sing false. We have to learn a language to 

 understand it ; and a quite short accustoming is generally sufficient for 

 a music that appeared savage and harsh, at the first hearing, to become 

 supportable, if not agreeable. 



Music nearly always commands the attention of animals ; and 

 every one knows what curious results have been obtained from experi- 

 ments on different species, from the elephant to the spider. This 

 language of feeling is really more within their reach than speech ; 

 and we may generally remark that when we address ourselves to our 

 domestic animals it is by the intonation alone, of greater or less force, 

 that we make them understand that is, feel. Articulate words have 

 no meaning for them, except on condition of a previous education 

 based on the association of sensations. A dog is never mistaken as to 

 the intention of a person calling him, and the tone alone tells him 

 whether a caress or correction is in waiting for him. So music is 

 never heard by animals with indifference. 



After what has been said it would be idle to consider the rank 

 which music holds among the other arts ; its origin, its nature, and its 

 effects give it a separate place. It is a language which everybody 

 understands, which nearly all speak to some extent, and in which 

 some rise to a sublime eloquence. 



Poetry, with its measure and rhythm, is the first intermediary 

 between speech and music ; but it lacks vastly the power of the latter, 

 because of the degree of intellectual culture it exacts. Mimicry 

 comes nearer to music in its effects, for it leaves the idea vague, and 

 speaks more directly to the feelings ; and it is a great aid to the 

 orator. But the most powerful orator is he who has a musical into- 

 nation. 



An interesting investigation might be made of the various musical 

 accents which answer to different conditions of feeling. To ascertain 

 this correctly would require a long and minute course of experiments. 

 It is curious to observe, however, that Gluck, Mozart, Berlioz, Meyer- 

 beer, and Wagner, when they have the same situations to depict, 

 whether in recitative or melody, use the same musical intonations. It 

 thus appears that the major third is generally employed in interroga- 

 tions and appeals, and that the appellative character of that interval 

 becomes more marked and impressive in the fourth descending, while 

 the fourth ascending denotes affirmation, decision, command. The 

 minor and major fifths express the feelings from prayer to violent 

 desire and menace. The sixth is the interval of passion ; it is the 

 symbol of a very accentuated emotion, and is inevitably met where 

 love is declared. A semitone higher conveys the idea of something 

 painful, which is resolved into a real expression of grief in the cry 

 of the seventh, the symbol of an excess of suffering. There are, in 



