CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCING FIRST PRINaPLES 



1. Questions 



Science has not yet fathomed the mystery of the 

 prigin and early evolutional stages of music. Our 

 knowledge of the evolution of music is confined to the 

 records of a few thousand years of history. Its his- 

 tory plainly shows that music has passed through pro- 

 gressive stages of evolution from simplicity to com- 

 plexity. But how it began far back in the ages, the 

 causes of its genesis, its shaping energies and forces, 

 its essential nature, these and like questions still wait 

 for a scientific solution. Sound emerges from and 

 evanesces in silence. We assume that incalculable 

 ages ago there was a time when music as yet unborn, 

 unheard, lay dormant in silence, a mere potentiality. 

 The evolutional study of music therefore begins with 

 silence. All that is music is potential in and an evolu- 

 tion of an embryo, namely, the composite of elements 

 upon the genesis of which depended the genesis of 

 music. What is this composite.? ^Vhat are its ele- 

 ments ? What is the principle or cause of their union ? 

 Where and how did and does this union take place.? 

 These are leading questions which confront us in this 

 study. We investigate melody, rhythm, harmony, to- 

 nality, the tone-realm or tone-system. What are all 

 these things ? What is the origin and nature of each ? 



