184 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



powers of abstraction at a time when his melodies were 

 the simple, naive and spontaneous intonations of con- 

 crete feelings. Of these primitive melodies and of the 

 beautiful folk-melodies and of the immortal melodies 

 of our masters two things are equally true: not one 

 was ever produced through deliberate reflection, and 

 no one can t6ll whence they came. Of all the seven 

 diatonics do and la are the only two tones through 

 which melody could have brought forth the minor con- 

 sonance, and this paragraph may be concluded by 

 restating our thesis. 



Any isolated combination of two tones in the rela- 

 tion of a small third generates in feeling the minor con- 

 sonance, and in every such case the two specific tones 

 are do and la. 



44. Original and Duplicate Forms of Harmony 



Each specific form of harmony in one voice arose on 

 a specific tone in a specific relation: every such form 

 being the first of its kind is classed as the original, and 

 every repetition of such an original on other tones is 

 classed as a duplicate. 



In the whole realm of harmony there are but two 

 forms of consonances, the major form with its distinc- 

 tive and characteristic large third (3), the minor form 

 with its distinctive and characteristic small third (a). 

 Of the two consonances the major form is the proto- 

 type, the minor form is the derived and modified type. 

 Their distinctive thirds at once mark the structural 

 difference between the two forms and the individual- 

 ity and essential character of each. The major Tonic- 

 harmony based on do is the original major form: the 



