til 



SCALE. 



SCALE. 



316 



northern nations of Europe, &c. It is the well-known wale of the old 

 Scotch and Irish muaio ; it is aaid to have been found in Wales and 

 Cornwall, in various porta of Africa, and even in old Italian mimic. 

 The Chin*"*, who never change, have preserved it in absolute perfec- 

 tion, though the modern form of moat ancient air* in other countries 

 baa been relaxed. We copy the notes of a Chinese air given by 

 Uborde: 



DCCGAOGCCAOEDCCGAGAACECAGOCCAGECCBDAC 



It will be observed that F and B never occur. An almost perfect 

 specimen of this scale occurs in the Scotch air ' The Campbells are 

 coming.' The effect of the scale may be tried by playing ad liliitum on 

 the black keys of a piano %-te. 



The other scale which we have here to mention is that known by 

 the name of the minor scale, the common diatonic scale being for 

 distinction called major. It may easily be observed that the intervals 

 of the minor third and minor sixth have a sad, or at least plaintive 

 fleet, as compared with the major third and major sixth. No expla- 

 nation can be given of this : perhaps the effect of musical intervals is 

 governed in some degree by associations derived from the human voice 

 in speaking. All persons, except perhaps schoolboys reading what 

 they do not understand nor care about, are constantly, whether they 

 know it or not, varying the tone in which they speak, and making 

 intervals which are very nearly musically correct : and the effect of 

 oorrow, regret, fatigue, 4c., is to make those intervals minor. Any 

 person of a quick musical ear who will watch the method of saying 

 the simple words " I cannot," pronounced as a determination of the 

 vHl, ana compare it with the same when it is an expression of regret 

 for want of power, will almost always find such an interval as C F or 

 C 1 O in the first, and C E> or C 1 A in the second ; if this be so, it is 

 not surprising that a scale in which minor intervals occupy conspicuous 

 place* which in the other scale are occupied by major intervals, 

 should produce those associations which have been alluded to. This 

 is a conjecture merely, for after all nature will take the liberty in art, 

 as in science, of concealing her operations. But this much is certain, 

 first, that the minor scale is more plaintive than the major, and 

 .secondly, that all musical composers are acquainted with the fact, 

 .from the African women who sung of Muugo Pork, " Let us pity the 

 {white man, no mother has he to bring him milk, no wife to grind his 

 corn," up to the composer of ' Der Freischiitz," with all the power of 

 cultivation and the memory of centuries of art. The change from the 

 minor to the major scale is perhaps the most effective of musical 

 resources, certainly the most powerful of those which are easily under- 

 stood by ears of the ordinary degree of cultivation, Take as an in- 

 .stonce the music of the following words from Oberon : 



Oh-Araby,-b!est-Ara-by, my own, my native-land, 



Methouglit I-crossed-thc dark-blue sea, and touched a-gain-thy strand ; 



And-there I saw nay-father's house, &c. 



The intervals with which the voice passes over the hyphens in the first 

 two lines are minor, but in the third line a modulation is made into a 

 major scale, and the composer has skilfully taken care to produce a 

 strong result of the new scale in the first two syllables : the effect of 

 the change is strikingly appropriate. 



What is the minor scale ? This question has been differently 

 answered by different writers on the theory of music, who severally 

 contend for one or another scale as the true scale. For ourselves, 

 we are no believers in true and orthodox scales, or rather we 

 hold every scale to have that character which has been used by 

 good composers and approved by good hearers. It seems to have 

 been thought that because there is one diatonic major scale, by 

 universal consent, therefore there must be one lawful diatonic 

 minor scale : just as well might it be said/ that because the iambic 

 trimeter is the one metre of Greek tragic dialogue, there must also be 

 some one other metre, and that one only, in the choruses. Fortunately 

 however the scholar knows, what the musician ought to know^that no 

 one metre is dictated by any absolute law of taste, and teaches that 

 the best tragedians must be the guide, because of the universal approval 

 which has been conceded to their writings. Taking the same sort of 

 guide, -we find in the writings of musicians (the unknown authors of 

 national aim, writers of very high authority, included) one major scale 

 sod several minor scales ; a thing not more atrociously wrong in itself 

 than the one metre of dialogue, and the variety of chorus metres, of 

 the Greeks. And if, moreover, we take the mathematical theory of 

 the scale, we shall find several with equal claims on the score of sim 

 jilieity of consonances. 



Return to the fundamental note C and its consonances, namely 

 C Efc E F O A C 1 

 1 f f J I I 2 



Instead ef throwing out Efcjui too near to E, let it be the latter which 

 we reject; if we finish this with the D and 15 of the diatonic scale, we 

 lure what is called the common ascending minor scale, the common- 

 ness of which we cannot deny upon data, though it strikes us that 

 then are as common, if not more so. 



(I) C D E|> F O A B C' 



> I I I t I V * 



The car will not very quickly acknowledge this as a minor scale in 



descent, and for the obvious reason that in going from C 1 to C there 

 is 11. , distinction between this scale and the major scale till we come to 

 E o ; though in the ascent the minor interval occurs early. To 

 remedy this, A and B are both lowered a semitone, or the A is made 

 A b, a fourth to E j, and the B is made B b, a fifth to E |>, which 

 gives 



m C D E|> F G Ab Bb C> 



iS! I i f ! 2 



and this scale reversed is called the common mode of descending the 

 minor scale ; but as we also find it used in ascending, we put it down 

 as a second minor scale, both for ascent and descent, observing also 

 that (1) may be, and is, used in descent. Again, suppose we retain 

 the B of the original scale, and lower the A, we have then 

 (3) C D Eb F O A|> B C 



Iff * i * V 2 



a wild and pleasing scale, both in ascent and descent, and employ, .! 

 too, in spite of the wide interval between A ;> and B. Its harmonies, 

 technically speaking, are easier and more natural than those of the 

 common scale, and Schneider (' Elements of Harmony ') makes it the 

 principal minor scale, treating all others as incidental deviations : tin- 

 English translator of Schneider contends for its absolute truth, and 

 asks (justly enough) which scale a composer would take who wan con- 

 verting the air of ' Robin Adair' into the minor key (the original air 

 having the notes G A B C D E) namely, GABCDEb,orGA|>B 

 C D E b f There can be no doubt that the latter would be preferable, 

 but we might add, that if the composer were required to make two 

 variations in the minor key, he would probably choose scale (1) for his 

 other case. The following minor scales are used, and are agreeable : 



(4) 

 (i) 



C Db E 



D Eb 

 ff 



F 

 * 

 F 

 i 



G A|> 

 * t 

 O A 



B C 



V 2 



B|> C 



Of all these minor keys, we prefer (3). For an instance of the use of 

 it, take the first part of the air " Charlie is my darling," the notes of 

 which run thus, C D EbF G C 1 G AbC' AbG C'.C D EbFG C' D> E'b 

 C 1 D 1 B C'. It is also the scale used in the first two lines of the air 

 from Oberon, already noticed. 



We now come to the extension of the diatonic scale by the inter- 

 polation of notes between all such notes as are far enough apart to 

 bear it, which completes what is called the chromatic scale. There 

 are various ways in which this can be done, and if notes were only 

 occasionally interposed between those of the diatonic scale, it would 

 be a subject of comparatively little importance how it was done. But 

 we must now explain what is meant by different keys in music. 



The note C having heen fixed, and the diatonic scale on it, let an air 

 be composed and written down, say ' Robin Adair.' The consecutive 

 notes of the first part of this air, played in the key of C, that is, in the 

 diatonic scale which has C for its fundamental note, are (we have 

 nothing here to do with the time) 



G A B C 1 D 1 E 1 , G C 1 A C 1 B D 1 C 



Let us now transpose this, as it is said, into the key of F, that is, show 

 how it is to be pkyed in a diatonic scale having the F of the preceding 

 scale for its fundamental (or key) note. If all the intervals of the 

 scale were equal, this would be done by playing as follows : 



CDEFGA, CFDF, EOF 



Again, to remove this air into the key of A, or into the diatonic scale 

 constructed on A, we should write (if the intervals were all equal), 



EFGABC 1 , EAFAGBA 



If we chose to confound the intervals of a major and minor tone, wo 

 should find the second of these (so it happens) correct, for the intervals 

 of the original air are (m, minor tone ; M, major tone ; s, semitone) 

 mMsMm(2M + 2m + s) (M+m + s) (M + s) (M + s) s (M+s) M. and 

 those of the second are MmsMm (2M + 2m + s) (M + m + s) (m+s) 

 (m + s) s (M + s) M, which are undistinguishable from each other, if M 

 and m be supposed (as is the fact) too nearly equal to make it worth 

 while to take account of their difference. But the third is s M m M s 

 (2 M + 2 s + m) (M + m + B) (M + m) (M +m) m (m + M) M, which docs not 

 agree with either of the other two, nor can do so, except to an ear 

 which cannot distinguish s from in or M. To see what intermediate 

 notes will be wanted, we must construct a diatonic scale on each of the 

 seven notes, which we shall now do, putting an equivalent to every 

 note above C 1 or below C into the octave between C and C 1 , by halving 

 or doubling the fraction which expresses its vibrations. Moreover, \ve 

 express the notes in the diatonic scale on D by D, l),i l), n D iT D, D,i 

 D,H and D,m ; and so on. Also let ||D stand for an octave below D,n, 

 i,C stand for the note an octave below C, , and so on, the rule being 

 that m C and C n are octaves when m and n together make ninr. All 

 this is well known, if anything of the scale be practically understood. 

 What we have to do, for instance in forming the diatonic scale on F, is 

 to take J, the representative of F in the diatonic scale of C, and multiply 

 it successively by 1, |, j, &c. Our scales then are as follows, putting 

 down under each note gained any note of the original diatonic scale, 



