PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF MUSICAL EFFECTS. 229 



melancholy, another of affection, another of reverence ? 

 Is it that these special combinations have intrinsic mean- 

 ings a2)art from the human constitution ? — that a certain 

 number of aerial waves per second, followed by a certain 

 other number, in the nature of things signify grief, while 

 in the reverse order they signify joy ; and similarly with 

 all other intervals, phrases, and cadences ? Few will be so 

 irrational as to think this. Is it, then, that the meanings 

 of these special combinations are conventional only ? — that 

 we learn their implications, as we do those of words, by 

 observing how others understand them ? This is an hy- 

 pothesis not only devoid of evidence, but directly opposed 

 to the experience of every one. How, then, are musical 

 effects to be explained ? If the theory above set forth be 

 accepted, the difficulty disappears. If music, taking for its 

 raw material the various modifications of voice which are 

 the physiological results of excited feelingj intensifies, com- 

 bines, and complicates them — if it exaggerates the loud- 

 ness, the resonance, the pitch, the intervals, and the varia- 

 bility, which, in virtue of an organic law, are the charac- 

 teristics of passionate speech — if, by carrying out these fur- 

 ther, more consistently, more unitedly, and more sus- 

 tainedly, it produces an idealized language of emotion ; 

 then its power over us becomes comprehensible. But in 

 the absence of this theory, the expressiveness of music ap- 

 pears to be inexplicable. 



Again, the preference we feel for certain qualities of 

 sound presents a like difficulty, admitting only of a like 

 Bolution. It is generally agreed that the tones of the hu- 

 man voice are more pleasing than any others. Grant that 

 music takes its rise from the 'modulations of the human 

 voice under emotion, and it becomes a natural consequence 

 that the tones of that voice should appeal to our feelings 

 more than any others ; and so should be considered more 

 beautiful than any others. But deny that music has this 



