INTRODUCING FIRST PRINCIPLES 5 



form in which music first arose, survives to this hour. 

 In essence and trend there is no difference between the 

 homophony of to-day and that of all the past, between 

 that of a song-sparrow and that of Bach, Mozart, 

 Beethoven and Wagner. We here confront facts of 

 prime importance. Homophony is the one and only 

 form common to all music past and present. Homo- 

 phony is therefore the one and only tie connecting all 

 music of all time. Nowhere but in homophony can 

 we study and discover origins, first principles and 

 causes, the energies and forces from which music 

 proceeds, the incipient stages of progressive evolution 

 from tone to tone, relation to relation, harmony to 

 harmony, in self-fulfilment of inherent laws, in short, 

 nowhere else can we find the explanation of the essen- 

 tial nature of music and of common music-feeling. 

 Hence the importance of homophony as a field for 

 scientific research. Homophony presents and verifies 

 its facts in a most unique and convincing manner since 

 its reports completely exclude personal prejudice and 

 eliminate the personal equation. The personal ele- 

 ment of choice and bias did and does not enter into 

 music until a second voice or part was and is added to 

 a first voice or part, that is, until we add other voices to 

 a given melody. Homophony discovers this remark- 

 able psychological fact. Its reports are self -reports, 

 that is to say, they are not what you and I or ten thou- 

 sand others may think, elect and debate, they are 

 what homophony itself elects, asserts and reports. 

 These self -reports are common to all of us, they are the 

 common reports of common feeling and apperception, 

 moreover, they are immutable and discover the funda- 



