166 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



exercise in rhythmic sound on the road to true per- 

 ception is traceable throughout music's development. 

 The story of the development of pure instrumental 

 music is not long in telling. The primitive woods- 

 man beat upon a hollow tree-trunk and the sound 

 pleased him; the primitive shepherd blew into a 

 reed and the sound pleased him; the primitive war- 

 rior twanged his bowstring and the sound pleased 

 him. Because the sound pleased woodsman, shep- 

 herd and warrior they kept on beating, blowing and 

 twanging, man has kept on beating, blowing and 

 twanging ever since, does so to-day, and promises to do 

 so in the future. In the hollow tree-trunk the prime- 

 val woodsman discovered the principle of the drum, 

 in the reed the shepherd that of the wind-instrument, 

 in the bowstring the warrior that of the stringed instru- 

 ment. All sorts of drums, pipes and stringed instru- 

 ments in all sorts of shapes were fashioned out of all 

 sorts of materials favoring the principle of each class. 

 Steadily advancing perception, selection, craft and 

 art gradually employed and combined the best mate- 

 rials, discovered and produced new materials, modified 

 and improved shapes, added new principles such as 

 stroke of bow and blow of hammer on string, im- 

 proved and perfected many old instruments, discarded 

 many others and invented new ones. And all this was 

 accomplished under the impulse of steadily evolving 

 music-feeling and music-art in fulfilment of inherent 

 laws and principles. Result: the modern orchestra 

 with its choirs of perfected instruments, the great 

 organ, the pianoforte and their respective literatures. 

 The basic group-numbers of rhythms being 2 and 3, 



