514 Musical Intonation and Temperament. 



more and more insufficient every year. Unfortunately this reading 

 by the scale, like reading by harmony, makes slaves of its subjects, 

 and they cannot throw oft' the yoke. It is harder to make a good 

 reader of difficult music of a good singer by the scale than of a raw re- 

 emit. Most mental operations, when oft repeated, become habits, 

 and are performed unconsciously and without effort. Thus we walk, 

 read, and write by habit. Not so with reading music by the scale, 

 it i< like reading in a cypher, where the character that is used for A 

 on one page becomes O, or P, or Q, on another. It must always call 

 for conscious effort, and each new piece of music must, be a task be- 

 fore it can become a pleasure. 



The remaining mode of intonation is by abstract pitch. Very 

 little use is made of this by common American singers. It keeps the 

 singer by the scale in the octave he means, and the singer by har- 

 mony from giving a third for a fifth, &c, but beyond this our methods 

 of instruction themselves prevent the use of it. The true method should 

 be to make this the principal, and both the others auxiliary. The pu- 

 pil should be taught to rely on this ; he will instinctively rely on 

 both the others as much as is for his good, and even more. But it 

 is generally doubted whether the mind can retain an abstract pitch 

 with an accuracy that would be useful in intonation. This faculty, 

 like every other, must depend for its perfection on cultivation. We 

 recollect the pitch of a well-known bell, or a familiar voice, almost 

 to comma. With one who is taught to associate each musical 

 note with its precise pitch, as we do each hell and each voice, prac- 

 tice results in an exactness incredible to those who have never made 

 the trial. And here his knowledge of the scale prevents his erring, 

 unless he errs by a whole hemitone — an error greater than he is in 

 danger of making. Habit at length supersedes conscious effort, and 

 finally harmony steps in to his aid, corrects minute errors which the 

 ear will tolerate in the scale, and the pupil becomes an instrument of 

 fixed sounds and perfect intonation, no more liable to get out of tune 

 than those of wood and metal. " The top-stone is brought forth with 

 shoutings of (iracc! gran- unto it!" 



'I'le- question of Solmization, or applying syllables in singing, is 

 a little one in itself, as all agree that it is a scaffolding which ought 

 to lie cleared away as soon as it can be dispensed with. Hut the 

 rigor ofa plant depends on the plumpness of the seed which supplies 

 it with nourishment for a few days, and enables it to strike its roots 



