40 ST. KILDA. HIGHLAND MUSIC. 



from the -Highland music the whole system of the melo- 

 dies of Scotland. 



To the peculiar limited powers of the bagpipe therefore, 

 must probably be referred the singularities which charac- 

 terize the national melodies of the Highlands. On that 

 instrument they appear to have been first composed, and by 

 that has been formed the peculiar style which the voice has 

 imitated, and which the additional powers of more im- 

 proved and perfect instruments, have altered without obli- 

 terating. In no instance indeed has the human voice 

 appeared to lead the way in uttering a melody, or the ear in 

 conceiving one. They follow at a distance that which was 

 originally dictated by the mechanical powers and construc- 

 tion of the instruments which have been successively in- 

 vented. Hence also an additional proof of the artificial 

 nature of music. The foundation having once been given, 

 endless combinations have doubtless resulted from a deli- 

 cate sensibility and from the powers of a creative imagina- 

 tion ; but the habits of association with respect to sounds, 

 and the pleasures arising from the consonance or succession 

 of notes, appear to have been derived from habits originally 

 founded on mathematical division and on mechanical con- 

 struction. There is no period in the progress of musical 

 composition in which evidences of this are not to be 

 observed. The notes of the New Zealander's voice are as 

 limited as those of the drum or nasal flute from which they 

 are borrowed. The enharmonic ears of the Greeks appear to 

 have been formed by the peculiar structure of their lyres and 

 flutes ; and thus their music acquired a character in which 

 ears accustomed to a diatonic scale can discover no relation 

 of sounds : while even those who, in more recent times, 

 have wandered through all the range of the chromatic scale, 

 are still compelled to limit within very narrow bounds 

 their enharmonic chords. As the original organ gave 

 rise to the plain chant of the early ecclesiastical melodies, 

 so the modern introduction of the violin and other instru- 

 ments, of more accurate intonation, and of greater volu-r 



