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522 Transactions. 



heard most clearly ; and that they are heard in the string of the lower G, 

 which has been set in vibration by the string struck, is made evident by 

 the sounds ceasing immediately the key of the lower G is released. Thus 

 it is evident that the unassisted ear is able to detect the first five partials, 

 or four besides the first partial, the principal note : some ears are able to 

 detect more than these. 



The result of this is far-reaching. Lower the fifth harmonic one octave ; 

 then strike the principal note G firmly, and immediately afterwards the 

 second, third, fourth, and the fifth lowered an octave, together, lightly, as in 

 the diagram. The sounds of the second to fifth partials, heard faintly when 

 the principal note was struck, are now accentuated, and the 

 common chord of G has resulted. This means that when- 

 ever a note is sounded the common chord of that note is 

 also sounded, and is heard by the listener, though he may 

 not be conscious that he hears it, as he may hear the 

 ticking of a clock and not be conscious that he hears it 

 until it stops, or until he consciously directs his attention 

 towards it. He is conscious of the change in quality of a 

 note, and this change is caused by a subduing, or an accentuating, of certain 

 partials. The four partials heard with the lower G as above are the prin- 

 cipal notes of the scale ; the intermediate notes are derived from the 

 higher partials. 



Whilst, then, the scale, as a .scale, may be an artificial production, the 

 notes of which it is composed are natural productions, all sounding, in 

 varying degrees of intensity, every time a musical note is produced. Science 

 did not invent the scale ; it merely explains the manner in which the scale 

 came to be used unconsciously by singers from time immemorial. It must 

 be remembered that until music came to be written in harmony — that is, 

 about the seventeenth century — there was no need for the term " scale." 

 Mankind had been singing its melodies for hundreds of years without know- 

 ing such a term, and without feeling any need for it. Their ear was pro- 

 bably as true as the ear of the most skilled musician of the present day ; 

 certainly their melodies were equal to his in beauty. Not that the melodies 

 themselves were fixed : they were common property, and singers varied 

 them as the mood inspired, and as the ear allowed. It cannot be said of 

 any particular melody that its preserved form was the form in which it 

 was sung ; all that can be said is that that is how it was sung at least by 

 some. " Scales " were unknown, and " bars " also ; and that it is possible 

 to confine the old wild-song melodies within modern scales and bars is proof 

 that the ancient artless music and the modern art of music have a common 

 basis. All that is claimed for birds is that this common basis is the one on 

 which their song, too, is built. 



The figures accompanying this article contain the new notes observed 

 since publication of the paper in the Transactions of 1914 (Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. 47, p. 593). As before, for convenience of reference, the variations 

 in the notes of each species of bird have been numbered consecutively from 

 (1) onwards, the earlier numbers appearing in Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 41, 

 p. 422 ; vol. 43, p. 656 ; vol. 45, p. 387 ; vol. 47, p. 593. Reference is at 

 times made to these earlier-numbered variations. 



The Tui. 

 The few new notes were heard at Pangatotara, Motueka Valley, in 

 January, 1916. The theme of (87) was heard on the 7th at early morning, 



