MUSIC. 



Tonic, Dominant, &c. We have already men- 

 tioned the succession of sounds forming what we 

 know as a scale, and consisting of tones and semi- 

 tones occurring in a certain order. The first note 

 of a scale is called the tonic ; the next, the super- 

 tonic ; the third, the mediant ; the fourth, the 

 sub-dominant ; the fifth, the dominant ; the sixth, 

 the super-dominant or sub-mediant ; and the 

 seventh, the leading tone or sub-tonic. These 



names are very cumbrous and awkward, and it 

 is far more convenient to call each note by the 

 name belonging to it in the old Solfeggio f Do, 

 re, mi, fa, sol, la, and si ; or, as Mr Curwen spells 

 them, partly phonetically : Don, ray, me, fah, soh, 

 lah, and te. 



The following table shews the relations which 

 exist between these notes : 



Key-signature. There is only one succession of 

 notes upon the ordinary staff which corresponds to 

 this scale sequence that, namely, which we obtain 

 by making C Doh. If the music is to be written in 

 any other key than that of C, that is, if it have any 

 other note than C for its key-noteit is necessary to 

 indicate by suitable marks that other notes have to 

 be substituted for those notes in the key of C which 

 <lo not belong to the new key. For instance, if the 

 music be in F, then C will be Soh, and the note 

 below it being Fah, must be a whole tone from it. 

 On the staff, however, the note below C is B, only 

 a semitone distant. We therefore put a flat upon 

 the line corresponding to B, to indicate that Bb 

 must be played instead of Bfl. Similarly, for the 

 key of G, we require a sharp put upon the line 

 that stands for F, so that F$ may be played always 

 instead of Ft]. For other keys, two or three or 

 more sharps or flats have to be placed on the staff. 

 These are called the 'key-signature,' and are 

 placed at the commencement of each line of the 

 music, and understood to refer to all the Bs, Fs, 

 &c. (as the case may be) through the piece, unless 

 they are specially contradicted or altered by a 

 natural or some other sign. 



Major and Minor Scales. In the scale of 

 which we have just given an analysis, the 

 third is major, and from this it receives its 

 name of the 'major scale.' There are, how- 

 ever, scales with minor thirds, called ' minor 

 scales,' the connection of which with the major 

 scales has been matter of endless dispute. We 

 shall confine ourselves here to saying that a scale 

 commencing upon a minor third below the tonic 

 of any major scale is called the relative minor of 

 that scale. For instance, the minor scale on E is 

 the relative minor to the major scale on G (G 

 being called the relative major to E minor). A \ 

 minor scale beginning upon the same note as any | 

 major scale is called the tonic minor of that scale ; ! 

 thus, D minor is the tonic minor of D major. The 

 order of the semitones in the minor scale is not 

 unalterably fixed by our ears, as is the case in the 

 major scale. In its commonest form, however, 



the descending scale is identical with the notes of 

 its relative major from Lah to Lah, while the 

 ascending scale is the same from Lah up to Me, 

 but has the Fah and Soh each raised a semitone. 

 This scale for the key of B minor, the relative 





Ascending. 



Fig. 18. 



Descending. 



minor of D major, is shewn in fig. 18. The sig- 

 nature used for a minor key is always the same as 

 that of its relative major. 



TONIC SOL-FA NOTATION. 



The notation which we have now described at 

 considerable length is a notation of absolute pitch 

 that is to say, it represents each sound to 

 us absolutely, and not relatively to other sounds. 

 When we hear music, however, and still more 

 when we sing it, we do not notice the absolute 

 height of the notes so much as their relative posi- 

 tion in reference to each other, and especially in 

 reference to the key-tone. Thus the three phrases 

 in fig. 30 below are at once pronounced by the 

 ear to be identical, although they differ in pitch, 

 and are represented by entirely different signs. 

 These two facts that it gives no indication of the 

 relation of sounds to their key-note, and that it 

 uses many different signs to represent the same 

 thing render the ordinary musical notation both 

 difficult and cumbrous. Its cumbrousness, espe- 

 cially for vocal music, where the whole machinery 

 of key-signatures becomes quite useless, will be 

 acknowledged by any unbiassed student That it 

 is difficult must, we think, be sorrowfully ad- 

 mitted, when we see what a very small proportion 



See the next number of Informatin for tk* Pe*tte,p*& fOf. 

 t 'Tone' and 'semitone' only approximately upment tncM 

 intervals, but are sufficiently accurate for our proem purpote. 



oyf 



