CHORDS IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR ORIGIN 279 



feels, can follow and express because of his innate 

 sense of the relations of its tones and of the natural 

 form and sequence of its phrases, the one thing he 

 knows and delights in, the one thing which to him is 

 music. From all this the student is cut off by an 

 exercise in fundamentals at the sight of which his 

 musical faculties not being stirred are as dead. The 

 student's intellectual grasp of the rhythmo-harmonic 

 form and content of a simple melody should be the 

 first end and aim of a teacher. How this is done has 

 been shown in preceding chapters. Tell him that 

 each tone in melody conveys two definite and simul- 

 taneous reports to his perceptions, a rhythmic report 

 and a harmonic report. Associate these reports with 

 correct symbols and the student's feeling and thought 

 are connected for all time. The resultant intellectual 

 grasp of these reports is the certain awakener of his 

 musical faculties and intelligence with which at the 

 crucial moment his face will not fail to light up. Mel- 

 ody, the original reporter and raison d'etre of harmony, 

 the universal voice and form of the inner music-con- 

 sciousness, is the student's natural key to the what, 

 how and why of chords. Melody is the direct re- 

 porter of fundamentals and chords. Fundamentals 

 and chords are not reporters of melody though they 

 may suggest them. The common practice of con- 

 ceiving different melodies to a given bass belongs to 

 a later stage in study. Thus to begin the study of 

 chords is to reverse the natural order. 



Below are examples of first exercises embodying the 

 primary triads. It is a psychological error to suppose 

 that any beginner however gifted possesses the con- 



