288 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



chapter in history is one thing; the study of counter- 

 point as an art to be mastered or a necessary part of 

 music education is quite another thing. This art of 

 acquiring independence in the use and selection of 

 materia musica in the simpler contrapuntal forms 

 should not be put off until the student has worked his 

 way through an entire textbook on chords. The con- 

 ventional cantus firmus is but a melody, and every- 

 thing that is to be added to the melody lies in it and 

 grows out of it. The sooner such work is begun the 

 better. Let A, B, C indicate the order of conceptive 

 work dealing with a cantus. A : think the rhythm 

 with exaggerated emphasis. B: intone the rhythm. 

 C : harmonize the intoned rhythm. Such a concept is 

 synthetic and complete since B is inseparably asso- 

 ciated with A, and C with both B and A. Now that 

 we have discovered in one voice both the origin of 

 harmony and the fundamental principles of music, 

 now that we can positively affirm that melody is not 

 an element but an indissoluble composite of rhythm 

 and harmony reporting in one voice now a consonance 

 and now a dissonance and that music had its genesis 

 in this composite voice of united rhythm and harmony, 

 now that we are able to view and study the material 

 of music in the light of its origin and can trace its 

 development since we can learn from the harmonic 

 self-reports of homophonic melodies what nature has 

 done and from selective harmony what art has done 

 in the evolution of both rhythmic and harmonic mate- 

 rial : it follows by implication that the entire rhy thmo- 

 harmonic materia musica both as applied in art and 

 in textbooks stands forth in a wholly new light. A 



