390 The Evolution of Music. 



marks that Hucbald's organum was probably intended as a 

 " penance for the ear," inasmuch as at this period all sen- 

 suous beauty, and therefore all musical euphony, was sup- 

 posed to be a device of the evil one. 



With the establishment of the ecclesiastical modes we 

 reach the close of our first period in the evolution of music, 

 reaching from the unknown beginnings of music to about 

 the twelfth century. During this period we find the tonal 

 art confined to successions of single notes, with partly de- 

 veloped melodic form, subordinated as an accompaniment 

 for the voice in recitation, or in the choral odes, or in the 

 hymnology of the early Christians, or the rituals of the 

 Church. Music was now to enter upon a new era and 

 achieve independence in both form and sentiment, and be- 

 come an art the most completely expressive of the emotional 

 nature. But the advance was painfully slow. From the 

 distressing discords of Hucbald's cacophony to the rich and 

 glowing harmonies of a Beethoven symphony was a journey 

 from darkness into light ; and that the journey should have 

 been made is one of the marvels in the history of mental 

 evolution. 



SECOND PEEIOD. 

 Development of Harmony and Polyphony. 



The renovation of music came from the peoples of 

 northern Europe. While ecclesiastics were droning their 

 ancient and monotonous chants, the former, exercising an 

 unrestrained and natural tendency to free melodic and har- 

 monic expression, had developed the volk-songs, or people's 

 songs. These, being sung in parts for different voices, and 

 hence called also part songs, were the fruitful origin of all 

 the subsequent wonderful acquisitions in harmonic and 

 polyphonic composition. These songs, in their earliest 

 form, consisted of a melody, with accompaniment by other 

 voices. The influence of the ecclesiastical modes is found 

 in many, but by far the larger part are based upon a musical 

 scale closely allied to the modern system, such as is naturally 

 followed by the voice in free singing. So devotedly attached 

 were the common people to their volk-songs that, in order 

 to increase attendance upon church services, hymns were 

 adapted to volk-song music. The primitive harmonic forms 

 to which this music gave rise were the faux bourdon, or 

 falso-bordone i. e., the holding of a single note in the bass, 



