420 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



a window : it woiild not suggest the same concrete idea to a 

 hearer, but it could not fail, when interpreted by a skilled 

 hand, to awaken a train of feelings parallel to those which 

 inspired the composer — of calm, of meditative repose, and, 

 again, of high aspiration and triumphant hope and trust. 

 To dissect the composition chord by chord and note by note 

 in order to discover its secret charm would be a vain task. 

 The intuitive perceptions of the master could not fail — the 

 sentiment is there, though it defy analysis. 



Still, the notes of the musical scale have been thus ana- 

 lysed, and their mental effect in relation to the key-note 

 approximately determined/'' According as one or the other 

 tone or group of sympathetic tones predominate, the character 

 of the composition is lively or sad, melancholy or triumphant. 

 The process of analysis is by no means easy, as the individual 

 characters of the tones may be indefinitely qualiiied by their 

 order of succession, their modulations and harmonies, the 

 relative stress w^hich is placed upon them, and even by the 

 general time of the composition. 



It is my object in the present paper to show that similar 

 mental effects are produced by the vowel-sounds of the lan- 

 guage, and that their qualities are modified in a parallel 

 manner by succession and emphasis, and to some extent by 

 the consonants with which they &re associated. This being 

 admitted, it follows that we have in language an inherent 

 element of expression, both mental and musical, far more 

 subtle than any mere trick of imitative or alliterative words, 

 and, though in itself but an external quality of poetry or 

 oratory, yet possessing an importance fully equal to that of 

 measure or cadence. 



I have met with the statement, which my own observa- 

 tion confirms, that there is what may be called a " gamut" of 

 vowels, difi"ering slightly in pitch with each individual, and 

 differing markedly in the case of varying languages and dialects. 

 It is the vowel-sounds (or, more correctly, the vowel-pitch) of 

 a foreign tongue that the learner has the greatest difliculty in 

 acquiring. The ordinary Englishman attempting to imitate 

 the speech of a Scotsmai:, an Irishman, or a German, con- 

 tents himself with exaggerating a few of the characteristic 

 peculiarities, and the imitation is a failure ; while the genuine 

 dialect will be betrayed by a single monosyllable. This can 

 only be accounted for by the difference of "pitch," which 

 extends throughout the vocal scale. 



Swedenborg — whose marvellous insight in almost every 



* Cunven thus defines the mental effect of the notes of the scale : 

 *' Doh, the strong or firm tone ; ray, rousing and hopeful ; vie, steady and 

 calm ; fah, desolate or awe-inspiring ; soli, grand or bright tone ; lah, 

 sad or weeping tone ; tc, piercing or sensitive tone." 



