344 



NATURE 



\AugMst 1 1, 1887 



reason that music is an artistic structure, which cannot 

 consist of one sound only. We must have other sounds 

 to build up with it. We should hesitate, practically as 

 well as theoretically, to give the name of music to a 

 monotone. 



Supposing, then, we add another sound, differing in 

 pitch. Will these two sounds, heard either together or in 

 succession, constitute music ? The answer depends on 

 the relation which the pitches of the two sounds bear to 

 each other. For reasons which can be explained, but which 

 it is unnecessary to go into here, it has been settled, by 

 the universal concurrence of all nations who have made 

 music an artistic structure, that the sounds to be used 

 therein may not be chosen at random, but shall only be 

 such as bear certain defined relations of pitch to each 

 other. These relations have varied at different times 

 and among different peoples ; in our case they refer to 

 our acknowledged musical scales} Hence the answer to 

 our question will be that if the two sounds are related 

 to each other in a way accordant with our scales (but 

 not otherwise) they may be used to form a part of our 

 artistic musical structure, and do constitute elementary 

 music. 



Thus, suppose the second sound to vibrate quicker than 

 the first one in the proportion of 5 to 4, or so near to this 

 ratio that it may be mistaken by the ear for it. This will 



produce the note 



having a relation to the 



former acknowledged in our scales. Then the two 



— -j — g^~i? Of together 



notes sounded successively 



t?lT -H-3,will constitute music; the former being an 



element of melody, the latter of harmony. Similarly in 



'A 



the proportion of 6 to 5, 



— ^ — b id I , the same thing 



may be said. 



But if we suppose the vibrations of the second sound 

 to have the ratio to those of the first one of 49 to 40, 



giving a note about half way between 



zszzj and 



bs^— j, we should decline to acknowledge the'succession 



or combination as music according to our understanding 

 of the term, though it might be so in the systems of the 

 Greeks or of other nations. 



We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that the essen- 

 tial feature of music, its minimum component, must be a 

 combination of sounds of different pitches, these pitches 

 being moreover strictly fixed and defined, and their rela- 

 tions to each other corresponding to certain series agreed 

 on and adopted as standard musical scales. Such com- 

 bination will of itself constitute music ; we may add all 

 sorts of other features ; but without the above essential 

 foundation we cannot have music, in an artistic point of 

 view. 



This definition will enable us now to inquire whether 

 or to what extent "music" in this sense is actually to be 

 met v/ith in Nature, or in the sources mentioned by Mr. 

 Weber. 



To begin with, the natural production of the first 

 requisite, i.e. notes of fixed and definite pitch, is not fre- 

 quent. Most sounds naturally produced are uncertain 



' Further explanations on this point will be found in my '"Philosophy o 

 Music," Second Edition (London : Trubner ; and Novelloand Co., 1887). f 



and wavering ; precision in pitch of a sound always con- 

 veys an impression of artificiality, of its being, in fact, 

 made purposely musical. No doubt natural sounds of 

 definite pitch, even long sustained, do occur. The night- 

 ingale is remarkable for a beautiful long steady holding 

 note ; a quail gives three notes successively, at the same 

 definite pitch ; other birds, and occasionally some ani- 

 mals, give short notes clearly defined ; and such notes 

 may even be produced by inanimate causes of steady 

 action, as a waterfall, or any substance naturally set in 

 elastic vibration. All these, however, are exceptional. 



But if there is this difficulty in getting one musically- 

 defined note, it will be still harder to find in any natural 

 source the occurrence of two or more such notes that are 

 musically related to each other. The case that will pro- 

 bably first occur to one's mind is the song of our old friend 

 the cuckoo, who has been immortalized by Beethoven as 

 a musical performer. There was some time ago a con- 

 troversy as to the true notes of the cuckoo, in which some 

 eminent musicians took part ; but I fancy the case is the 

 same as the well-known fable of the chameleon : each of 

 the witnesses was right, but the true solution of the ques- 

 tion escaped them all. The facts would appear to be as 

 follow. 



The cuckoo gives out successively two very distinct 

 strictly musical sounds, and his vocal organs are so pro- 

 portioned that the interval between them may vary from 

 about two semitones to five. This interval changes with 

 the bird's age. Early in the season it is at its smallest. 

 On May 5 last I heard on the Monte Sacro, at Orta, in 

 Italy, a bird with a splendid voice give notes about a tone 

 apart : late in the season I have heard them fully at a 

 fourth interval. Of course, therefore, as the change goes 

 gradually on they will pass through a minor third and 

 then through a major third (which is Beethoven's inter- 

 val) ; but the exactitude is all a matter of chance. I 

 have noticed sometimes that the interval lay between a 

 minor and a major third, so that I could not decide to 

 which it inclined. Hence the idea that the cuckoo gives, 

 by predetermined arrangement, any interval recognized 

 in musical scales, is quite a fallacy. 



Mr. Weber asserts that " all the animals on land, quad- 

 rupeds and bipeds, have their characteristic voices and 

 calls in distinct intervals. The cow gives a perfect fifth 

 and octave or tenth ; the dog barks in a fifth or fourth ; 

 the donkey brays in a perfect octave ; the horse neighs 

 in a descent on the chromatic scale ; the cat in a meek 

 mood cries in a fifth, or, when excited, in a major third ; 

 proud chanticleer crows in the diminished triad and [in 

 the diminished] seventh chord." All these Mr. Weber 

 writes down ; but I fear that more careful observation 

 would never substantiate the idea that the intervals 

 do really correspond with those of our very artificial 

 scales, otherwise than occasionally by pure accident. 



But he makes also inanimate objects conform to our 

 musical system.^ The wind, he says, sings certain melo- 

 dies, precisely according to our scales and to our nota- 

 tion, in which he writes them down. This is even morej 

 incredible. 



Then we come to the main topic of Mr. Weber's essayj 

 " Melody in Speech." He gives a large number of ex-| 

 amples, written out fully in musical notation, professing| 

 to represent natural language in different varieties; 

 casual expressions, salutations, questions and answers^ 

 conversations, and winding up with a speech of an Oxforc 

 Professor and a sermon of an English Bishop. These 

 representations are very curious ; but it is of course open] 

 to any musician to observe for himself the language he] 

 hears every hour of the day, and to judge how far it 

 corresponds with this alleged musical character. Therel 

 is, however, a more conclusive form of test, by what we| 



' Of course we must exclude from consideration the natural harmonicsj 

 of vibrating bodies, with which our system is purposely connected. Som« 

 really music?.! effects of the wind may be exceptionally produced in this 

 way. 



