152 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



serving the equilibrium from moment to moment, 

 so keen the sense of keeping time or balance that our 

 anticipation of the recurring periods of music is per- 

 fectly definite; because we feel what is coming we do 

 not stop to think about it. This is why rhythm per se 

 has not the power of concentrating the whole atten- 

 tion and does not necessarily even attract the attention. 

 However, all this is changed when tone, the living and 

 original voice of music, unites with rhythm; it is 

 then that the elemental power asserts itself and holds 

 the attention. Each tone in a musical series com- 

 mands the entire attention; not one progression or 

 resolution if unperceived that does not break the 

 thread of connection, that does not mar our sense of 

 the whole.. Let the music be familiar or unfamiliar, 

 in either case absolute attention upon each tone is a 

 necessity; the momentary relation of each tone must 

 be felt by the artist else he cannot express it, by the 

 listener else he loses the connection. In unfamiliar 

 music it is obvious that the listener cannot anticipate 

 progressions or even resolutions, but even in familiar 

 music where he does anticipate them, and where he 

 anticipates whole phrases, sentences and paragraphs, 

 nevertheless, he is compelled to rivet his attention 

 upon each tone -moment, now — ^here, now — ^here. 

 This rapt attention upon the musical moment is not 

 the result of any conscious or voluntary effort, it is the 

 direct effect of music's elemental power, the power 

 of tone-rhythm. The artist expresses the musical 

 moment as he feels it then and there. He has grouped 

 the series of moments in a composition into motives, 

 phrases, sentences, paragraphs; he has correlated and 



