'^"'loie^"^] Correspondence. 105 



trained in the rules and necessities of human music that he is unable to 

 conceive of music that is not rhythmic? Is it not far preferable to change 

 the method to fit the song? 



In the matter of pitch Mr. Moore decides that the graphic method, 

 since it requires twelve horizontal lines, is much too complicated. He 

 uses much space telling how numerous the lines would have to be in order 

 to record the pitch of a note with absolute accuracy. Undoubtedly there 

 would have to be not merely a few thousand lines but an infinite number. 

 Our accuracy in recording pitch is limited by the accuracy of the human 

 ear in perceiving it. It is unnecessary to record the note more accurately 

 than we can hear it. 



If the horizontal lines were all that counted, five lines would be far 

 simpler than twelve. But we must bear in mind a few of the other intri- 

 cate necessities of the old system. We must begin our staff with a clef. 

 We must decide on some key in which the bird is supposed to sing, and 

 indicate this by anythmg from five sharps to five flats, carefuUy placed on 

 their proper fines or spaces. We must use more of these sharps and flats, 

 and also a few natural signs, whenever the bird happens to forget to which 

 key the recorder has assigned his song. If the bird forgets frequently, we 

 have the alternative of changing the key, which is slightly less intricate. 

 We must add lines above or below the staff every time the bird strays out 

 of the hmits of the original five. We must add some more marks at the 

 top to indicate how many octaves above middle C the bird sings. Com- 

 bined with all this we must keep constantly in mind the fact that at cer- 

 tain places on the staff the interval between a line and a space is half a 

 tone, while in others it is a whole tone. Five lines may be very simple, 

 but considering all that goes with it I much prefer twelve, or even thirty- 

 six. Yet Mr. Moore tells us that this method is more simple and com- 

 prehensive than the graphic! 



To go back to the matter of time, we find here also a complicated system. 

 A number precedes the song which teUs the number of beats to the measure. 

 Another number at the top teUs the number of beats to the minute. Each 

 separate note must be one of a dozen or so sorts, indicative of its duration 

 in beats. At the top we must write retards and accelerations, which do 

 not show with accuracy how much of the song is retarded or accelerated, 

 nor how great is this change in time. The whole method, taking pitch and 

 time together, is so intricate that, in order to use it with anything like 

 celerity, one must be educated in its use from his youth up. The accurate 

 recording of a bird's song in the field is a difficult matter in itself. Why 

 compUcate it by a difficult method when we may make one that is reason- 

 ably simple? This "splendid system. . . .evolved by ages of use" may do 

 very well for human music, but it is clearly not applicable to that of birds. 



In the matter of pitch Mr. Moore concludes that the old method is more 

 accurate. What he means is, not that the song as it naturally is can be 

 more accurately recorded, but that, after it has been artificially changed 

 in both pitch and time to fit the method, the pitch of the recorded notes is 



