ACADEMY OP SCIENCES] BIOGRAPHY 9 



seven notes in all. Moreover, bearing in mind the experiences of the previous summer, it was recognized that 

 even seven notes would come dangerously near overtaxing the patience of the audience. Inasmuch as the 

 coefficient of absorption for C 4 512 had already been determined six years before, in the investigations mentioned, 

 the coefficient for this note was not redetermined. The experiment was therefore carried out for the lower three 

 and the upper three notes of the seven. The audience, on the night of this experiment, was much larger than 

 that which came the previous summer, the night was a more comfortable one, and it was possible to close the win- 

 dows during the experiment. The conditions were thus fairly satisfactory. In order to get as much data as 

 possible, and in as short a time, there were nine observers stationed at different points in the room. These 

 observers, whose kindness and skill it is a pleasure to acknowledge, had prepared themselves, by previous practice, 

 for this one experiment. 



The next experiment was on the determination of the absorption of sound by wood sheathing. It is not 

 an easy matter to find conditions suitable for this experiment. . . . Quite a little searching in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boston failed to discover an entirely suitable room. The best one available adjoined a night lunch 

 room. The night lunch was bought out for a couple of nights, and the experiment was tried. The work of both 

 nights was much disturbed. The traffic past the building did not stop until nearly two o'clock, and began 

 again at four. The interest of those passing on foot throughout the night, and the necessity of repeated explana- 

 tions to the police, greatly interfered with the work. 



The main purpose of Sabine's work was, of course, utilitarian, though in a highly refined 

 sense, and we shall presently go on to show how he dealt with the acoustic problems of particular 

 buildings, sometimes before and sometimes after their construction. But we must not overlook 

 an important contribution 10 which he made in 1907 to the theory of the musical scale, or, rather, 

 to the theory of the origin of this scale. Referring to Helmholtz and his Sensations of Tone, 

 he says: 



Having given a physical and physiological explanation of the harmony and discord of simultaneous sounds 

 and, therefore, an explanation of the musical scale as used in modern composition, Helmholtz was met by an 

 apparent anachronism. The musical scale, identical with the modern musical scale in all essentials, antedated 

 by its use in single-part melody the invention of chordal composition, or, as Helmholtz expressed it, preceded all 

 experience of musical harmony. In seeking an explanation of this early invention of the musical scale, Helm- 

 holtz abandoned his most notable contribution, and relegated his explanation of harmony and discord to the 

 minor service of explaining a fortunate, though of course an important use of an already invented system of musi- 

 cal notes. The explanation of the original invention of the musical scale and its use in single-part music through 

 the classical and the early Christian eras, he sought for in purely^aesthetic considerations — in exactly those devices 

 from which he had just succeeded in rescuing the explanation of harmony and discord. 



Sabine's explanation of the anachronism that troubled Helmholtz might, perhaps, be sur- 

 mised by anyone who had read the preceding pages, but it is well to give it in his own words: 



In many rooms of ordinary construction the prolongation of audibility amounts to two or three seconds, and 

 it is not exceedingly rare that a sound of moderate initial intensity should continue audible for eight, nine, or 

 even ten seconds after the source has ceased. As a result of this, single-part music produced as successive sep- 

 arate sounds is, nevertheless, heard as overlapping, and at times as greatly overlapping tones. Each note may 

 well be audible with appreciable intensity not merely through the next, but through several succeeding notes. 

 Under such conditions we have every opportunity, even with single-part music, for the production of all the 

 phenomena of harmony and discord which has been discussed by Helmholtz in explanation of the chordal use of 

 the'musical scale. In any ordinarily bare and uncarpeted room, one may sing in succession a series of notes and 

 then hear for some time afterward their full chordal effect. 



But Sabine goes further and suggests a physical explanation of the differences of musical 

 scale developed by different races : 



Housed or unhoused, dwelling in reed huts or in tents, in houses of wood or of stone, in houses and temples 

 high vaulted or low roofed, of heavy furnishing or light, in these conditions we may look for the factors which 

 determine the development of a musical scale in any race, which determine the rapidity of the growth of the scale, 

 its richness, and its considerable use in single-part melody. 



We have explained for us by these figures [absorptive powers of various materials] why the musical scale has 

 but slowly developed in the greater part of Asia and of Africa. Almost no traveler has reported a musical scale, 

 even of the most primitive sort, among any of the previously unvisited tribes of Africa. This fact could not be 

 ascribed to racial inaptitude. If melody was, as Helmholtz suggested, but rhythm in time and in pitch, the 

 musical scale should have been developed in Africa if anywhere. These races were given to the most rhythmical 

 dancing, and the rhythmical beating of drums and tomtoms. Rhythm in time they certainly had. Moreover, 

 failure to develop a musical scale could not be ascribed to racial inaptitude to feeling for pitch. Transported to 

 America and brought in contact with the musical scale, the negro became immediately the most musical part of 

 our population. The absence of a highly developed scale in Africa must then be ascribed to environment. 



".Vice presidential address, Section B, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chicago. 1907. 



