INTRODUCING FIRST PRINCIPLES 19 



perception, as common reports of common feeling 

 verifiable by common observation. What are these 

 common reports and their immutable principle? 

 This question has not yet been answered. The 

 answer to this question would discover the true 

 basis of music and its science, it would be the initial 

 step toward a common conception of the ultimate 

 what of music, it would eventually result in a com- 

 mon recognition and adoption of the one true basis. 



In these pages it is my purpose to show that such 

 things as common reports verifiable by common 

 perception do exist and may be clearly presented 

 and explained. The ultimate question What is 

 music .^ now assumes the following form: What are 

 the common reports of common feeling and per- 

 ception of consonance and dissonance, their inher- 

 ent principles and laws.^ It is clear that this is a 

 psychological question, a question addressed to the 

 inner ear of the mind, a question of psychological 

 acoustics, not of physical acoustics. Though this 

 question places the present writing upon an inde- 

 pendent basis and defines the writer's position, 

 the psychology of this position still requires some 

 explanation. 



We are told by M. Hauptmann * that it is custom- 

 ary to begin a treatise on harmony with a learned 

 chapter on acoustics the half-truths in which, how- 

 ever, have little if any influence upon and are often 

 not again referred to in the subsequent chapters of 

 the book. Acoustics treats the question What do we 

 hear? on its physical side and therefore objectively, 

 as every one knows. Music as we hear it does not 



