THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC. 



BY Z. SIDNEY SAMPSON. 



THAT the laws of evolution apply to the development of 

 such a purely subjective art as Music we hope to demon- 

 strate in the following lecture. Manifestly, as we progress 

 from studies of external phenomena, as in the domains of 

 biology and sociology, to the more recondite studies in 

 psychological evolution and the growth of mind, the 

 problem becomes increasingly complex. As all phases of 

 art are distinctively phases of mental evolution, the applica- 

 tion of the principles of the latter to the history of the 

 former will, if successful, verify the claim of this latest and 

 most imposing of the modern philosophies to be of univer- 

 sal application. In science its position has been secured, 

 owing to the fact that it deals with objective phenomena, 

 wherein analysis and classification are possible ; but in re- 

 spect to mental phenomena, while the laws governing men- 

 tal progress have been formulated, there is still much work 

 to be done in demonstrating, from the history of the sev 

 eral arts, that these laws are valid. All the arts are forms 

 of purely mental activity, and advance in these, and the 

 improvement of the forms in which they are presented is 

 dependent upon, and conditioned exclusively by, mental 

 progress, and is a certain indication of the latter by rea- 

 son of the fact that in all art-work the materials given 

 in experience are, through the innate activity of the 

 mind, utilized to body forth the ideals which it has con- 

 ceived. 



The increasing complexity of which we have spoken be- 

 comes more apparent as we pass from what we may term 

 the static arts those which are presented in line and form, 

 viz., sculpture, painting, and architecture to the dynamic, 

 which produce their effects by succession in presentation 

 poetry, oratory, and music. The former, being of definite 

 outline, are much more readily studied in the light of evolu- 

 tion principles, and examples of sculpture and architecture 

 remain to us from remote antiquity ; whereas of poetry and 

 oratory the remains are extremely limited, and of music we 



