LITERARY NOTICES. 



241 



ble review of it that has just appeared 

 in the London Lancet, The writer says : 

 " This work is an attempt to popularize the 

 theory of music, and so to combine the the- 

 oretical with the practical study of this 

 art that instrumentalists may obtain some 

 knowledge of those fundamental laws of 

 sound on which music is based. With this 

 object in view Prof. Blaserna commences 

 his treatise by explaining the laws of vibra- 

 tions of strings and pipes, and shows how 

 such vibrations may be measured ; he then 

 explains the theory of music in reference 

 to the consonant and dissonant intervals, 

 pointing out how the various ratios in the 

 octave have been introduced, together with 

 the nature of the perfect major and mi- 

 nor chords, the inversion of which, he ob- 

 serves, constituted the principal resource 

 of Palestrina and of the composers of his 

 school. This leads him to speak of dis- 

 sonances, and of the nature of the musi- 

 cal scales. An exceedingly interesting re- 

 sume is then given of the history of music 

 from the earliest period to the present day. 

 In the music of all nations, Prof. Blaserna 

 remarks, two unfailing characters are found 

 rhythmic movement and procedure by 

 determinate intervals. The former apper- 

 tains to many of the actions of man, but 

 the second belongs exclusively to music. 

 The instrument of Orpheus, however pow- 

 erful its effects may have been in rendering 

 inanimate objects ' sequacious of the lyre,' 

 was but a poor instrument, consisting only 

 of the following four notes : C, F, G, and 

 the octave C. It is remarkable that this 

 scale contains the most important musical 

 intervals of declamation, the voice rising a 

 fourth in making an interrogation, another 

 a fifth higher in emphasizing a word, while 

 in ending a story it falls a fifth. In speak- 

 ing of Greek music he explains the differ- 

 ence between the Pythagorean and the 

 modern scale. The ancient Scotch and Chi- 

 nese scale, in which an enormous number 

 of popular songs are written, consists of a 

 succession of fifths, P>/, F, C, G, D. 



" The inventor of the modern system 

 of musical notation was Guido d'Arezzo, 

 and by him and Josquino and Orlando Tas- 

 so polyphonic music underwent great de- 

 velopment. Then came the Reformation, 

 and church music was greatly simplified to 



enable the whole congregation to join in it. 

 An elaborate discussion of the characters 

 of the major and minor scales succeeds, 

 with an account of the effects of transpo- 

 sition. The temperate scale in common 

 use is then explained, and its imperfections 

 are declared to be so manifest that the au- 

 thor expresses a hope it will eventually be 

 abolished. It is, in fact, only maintained 

 by the piano-forte, which is essentially the 

 instrument of the temperate scale, and the 

 defects of which have greatly tended to 

 obscure pure melody. The quality or timbre 

 of musical sounds, both vocal and instru- 

 mental, is then referred to, and the methods 

 of investigating the vibrations are given, 

 as well as the laws of harmonics and 

 chords. Finally, Italian and German music 

 are compared. The influence of Paris on 

 music, though the French have never been 

 creators, is defined as insisting on the crea- 

 tion of a type of music which should con- 

 tain the good points of the German and 

 Italian schools without their exaggeration. 

 It has maintained the Italian melody and 

 song, but has also adopted the grand choral 

 and orchestral movements of Germany." 



The Races of Man and their Geographi- 

 cal Distribution. By Oscar Peschel. 

 Translated from the revised German edi- 

 tion. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 528. Price, $2.25. 

 The students of ethnology are to be con- 

 gratulated on the appearance in English of 

 this admirable manual of ethnological and 

 ethnographical science, which has for some 

 years and in its successive editions been a 

 standard in Germany. While the work is 

 full and systematic, it is at the same time 

 compact and convenient for reading, be- 

 ing a happy medium between the bulky 

 and formidable treatise, and the deficient 

 and unsatisfying compend. Dr. Peschel's 

 work has the great merit of being up to 

 date in the presentation of an extensive 

 and rapidly-developing branch of science, 

 and of dealing fully with those recent and 

 highly-important questions concerning the 

 science of man which have come forward 

 into such prominence in our own generation. 

 The book is exactly what readers of general 

 cultivation require to inform themselves 

 upon a subject of great moment, and which 

 is occupying the close attention of thinkers 



vol. x. 16 



