CHAPTER III 



ORIGINAL DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE IN ONE VOICE 



28. Genesis of the Major Consonance^ Music's 

 First Regnant Harmony 



The fundamental forms of tone are dissonance and 

 consonance. Both are products of feeling, both first 

 arose in one voice, both are offsprings of the elemen- 

 tal relation of rhythm-cadence and rhythm-repose. 

 Briefly, /orm is derived from relation^ the forms of dis- 

 sonance and consonance from the rhythmic relation 

 of cadence and repose. This truth lifts the veil of 

 mystery which has hitherto hidden from view the true 

 nature and origin of dissonance and consonance. 

 What man did not feel he could not, it is safe to say, 

 did not express, and music from first to last is a crea- 

 tion and expression, of music-feeling. Man's first ex- 

 pression of tone was admittedly in song. We will 

 study these first utterances. 



The first attempts to pitch a tone comprise two 

 moments of time: first, a sliding; second, an arriving.- 

 These two moments, previously described as now- 

 noWy light-heavy, cadence-repose, unstable-stable, are 

 two correlated and interdependent rhythmic accents 

 which are inseparable in feeling, perception and con- 

 ception. Of the two, the first is tend^ the second is 

 end; the first resolves into the second, the second is 

 attainable only through the first, since apart from the 

 feeling of tend there is no feeling of end. Below I 



