56 Professor C. Hubert H. Parry [Feb. 28, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, February 28, 1890. 



Colonel James A. Grant, C.B. C.S.I. F.R.S. Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



Professor C. Hubert H. Parry, Mus. Doc. M.A. 



Evolution in Music. 



As far as I can discover, not much has been said on the subject before 

 us as yet; and as there is a great deal to be said, my only pre- 

 liminary will be to remind you of one of Mr. Herbert Spencer's 

 definitions of evolution, which happens to be most apt to our subject. 



The formula in question is as follows: — Evolution is a "change 

 from indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent hetero- 

 geneity," accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of 

 matter ; * which, for present purposes, I may expand into — a change 

 from vague indefinite chaos to an aggregate of clearly-defined separate 

 entities or organisms, each with functions well determined. 



I shall endeavour to keep these formulas steadily in view, and to 

 show how the various departments and phases of music, as we know 

 it, have developed in consonance with them. My argument must 

 necessarily take the form of a mere summary, as the strength of 

 the case rests to a great extent on the uniformity of the principles 

 of development ; and I do not think that it will be of any real use to 

 take an isolated department and discuss it in detail before the general 

 aspect of the matter is clearly understood. I will begin then at once 

 with the subject of scale-making. I presume that music began before 

 the existence of scales, and that they were developed in the early 

 attempts made by our savage ancestors to express their feelings in 

 sounds. In fact, though the making of scales and the discussion of 

 scales is now such a dreary and thankless matter, originally they 

 were the product of emotion and imitation. In order to follow the 

 process of development we must take the original material of music 

 before scale-making began to be figuratively a chaos of possibilities, in 

 which no points or relations were established. The process began 

 when some savage expressed his feelings in some group of sounds, 

 and insisted upon them clearly enough, and often enough, to make his 

 fellow savages imitate him. The variety of relations of notes chosen 

 by savages is sufficiently shown by records of varieties of existent 

 savage music ; ranging from the horrible grinding glide of the 

 voice which certain cannibals use to express their feelings when 



♦ ' First Principle^,' xvi. § 138. 



