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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



snme for the behavior of all animate 

 beings the same mental causes that 

 •would produce such behavior in them- 

 selves ; but scientific minds, in combat- 

 ing this error, transgress equally in the 

 opposite direction. Such reactions 

 generally go too far. Thus the constant 

 use of consecutive fifths and octaves for 

 several centuries in the earlier stages 

 of our modern music has led to a rabid 

 proscription of such harmonic progres- 

 sions ; and a later overindulgence in the 

 chord of the diminished seventh has 

 brought that attractive and serviceable 

 combination of tones into almost equal 

 disrepute. Hence, the complete human- 

 izing of the animal world by ignorance 

 has led to the complete dehumanizing 

 of it by learning. It is the reverse 

 swing of the pendulum. 



Disregarding the many physiological 

 likenesses between ourselves and these 

 fellow creatures of a lower evolutionary 

 stage, science emphasizes the physiologi- 

 cal differences and makes them the 

 basis for an almost totally different psy- 

 chological method of arriving at results. 

 Yet, as in the human mind instinct 

 mingles with reason, so in the animal 

 mind reason mingles with instinct. 

 When we are confronted with two mu- 

 sical evolutions paralleling each other 

 renuirkably, the most rational supposi- 

 tion is that such evolutions are alike in 

 their origin and in their sustaining 

 causes. The birds display evidence of 

 enjoyment of their songs; they mani- 

 fest a proneness to sing freely when 

 happy and to be mute when unhappy; 

 they show a seeming interest in the 

 performances of more accomplished 

 singers, and an apparent desire to ac- 

 quire phrases and tones that excel their 

 own ; they exhibit much knowledge of 

 the value of rhythm, of melody, of 

 tonality, and even of sequence of re- 

 lated musical phrases; in all these 



things paralleling ourselves. An expla- 

 nation of these attributes on any basis 

 but that of musical appreciation (by 

 which human attributes of the same 

 kind are explained) would be most 

 complicated, far-fetched, and alto- 

 gether unsatisfactory. The rule adopted 

 by investigators of the psychology of 

 the lower animals is never to accept an 

 explanation based on higher psychical 

 ]iroc('sses when one based on lower 

 psychical processes may be made. A 

 useful rule; but it is easily metamor- 

 ])hosed into a rule never to accept a 

 simple, direct explanation when a more 

 complicated, indirect one may be as- 

 sumed. And many of the interpreta- 

 tions of psychologists seem to be 

 governed l)y this derived (and per- 

 nicious) rule. 



As with man, so with birds, the de- 

 velopment of musical appreciation 

 ranges from zero to the maximum. 

 While the impulse to express emotion 

 vocally is common to many creatures, 

 such expression in musical form is lim- 

 ited to comparatively few. The dog 

 barks his joy, the bull roars his de- 

 fiance, the cat purrs her content, the 

 hog grunts its satisfaction, but utter- 

 ances of this character can by no 

 legitimate stretching of the term be de- 

 scribed as music. So, too, among birds 

 the rattle of a kingfisher, the scream of 

 an eagle, the squawk of a parrot, cannot 

 be classed as musical performances. 

 Nor is there any physiological line of 

 demarcation between musical and non- 

 musical birds. The crow and grackle, 

 although properly classed structurally 

 with the Oscines, or singing birds, are 

 lacking in musical expression; while 

 the wood pewee, dove, bobwhite, and 

 others beyond the pale physiologically, 

 express themselves musically, the wood 

 pewee taking high rank in this re- 

 gard. 



