EVOLUTION OF THE MUSICAL SCALE. 83 



ments, which has forced him to deviate somewhat from this 

 perfect scale, and to use one slightly different, called the 

 " tempered scale." The necessity for this has arisen from the 

 fact that instruments with fixed tones are unable to make all 

 the notes necessary to form the perfect scale in all keys. That 

 is, in order to run a perfect scale commencing on any note at 

 random it would be necessary to have the ability to make 

 more notes than most instruments are capable of making. It 

 is only with such instruments as the violin, slide trombone, 

 etc., and with the voice, that perfect harmony can be obtained. 

 The result is that in most musical instruments those notes 

 which are very close together are represented by a sort of 

 average note which does the duty of both. The difference, 

 while not great, is readily perceptible to the musical ear. The 

 theoretical scale has therefore to be "tempered," as it is 

 called; that is, the intervals must be slightly altered. The 

 result is that the instrument does not play exactly in tune 

 in any one key, but a very little out of tune in all keys. On 

 instruments of short or unsustained notes, like the piano, the 

 diffei-ence is not very noticeable. On the other hand, in an 

 instrument like the organ, with sustained notes, the beats often 

 become very disagreeable. It is said that violinists and sing- 

 ers, when not influenced by the presence of tempered instru- 

 ments, are apt to revert to the true scale in rendering harmon- 

 ically arranged music. 



In conclusion, we may summarize the histor}^ of the mus- 

 ical scale as follows : There is ( i ) to begin with the period 

 when all music was melody, when perhaps many scales existed 

 and any one was practically as good as another. Following 

 this comes the long period (2) during which harmony was 

 growing and the various scales were being tried. The out- 

 come of this was the evolution of the scale into its modern 

 form (3) this being the only form suitable for music based on 

 harmony. Lastly there comes the degradation of this perfect 

 scale into the tempered scale (4), a change brought about by 

 the mechanical imperfection of fixed tone instruments. 



