ACCENT AND REGNANT HARMONY 149 



that every melody ancient or modern is the messen- 

 ger of common harmonic reports. The rhythm of 

 ancient melodies may be traced in all cases where the 

 melody is accompanied by a text, for the alternating 

 syllabic accents of the text discover the heavy recur- 

 ring accents which are at once the measure-accents 

 and the efficient accents of regnant harmony. In 

 harmonizing the melodies of antiquity the selection 

 of chords should be made to conform with the 

 concomitant harmonies which each such melody itself 

 asserts. Harmonizations so selected would emphasize 

 and enhance rather than distort and destroy the true 

 nature, beauty and effect of such melodies, would 

 strengthen rather than weaken them, and would cir- 

 cumvent the personal equation. Original harmony 

 in one voice therefore not only empowers us to per- 

 ceive the concomitant harmonies of a Greek melody 

 and Gregorian chant, but empowers us to feel a Greek 

 melody as the Greeks felt it, to feel a Gregorian chant 

 as Gregory himself felt it. 



41. Musical Moments. Power and Originality 

 of Music 



While thinking, expressing or listening to music 

 as we proceed rhythmically from tone to tone, from 

 moment to moment, the inner consciousness unites 

 with, our whole being is merged in the flight of time 

 itself; self-consciousness is annihilated, the spirit is 

 liberated, our self-surrender is complete. During 

 these musical moments we are dominated and swept 

 onward by music's elemental forces and shaping 

 principle; we are ever in the present, now — here^ 



