THE MUSICAL SCALES OF THE THRUSHES. 



Our Hermit has not progressed beyond that quaint, 

 primitive scale; just there he has reached his own limita- 

 tion, why should we expect more? Indeed we may well 

 marvel at the skillful use of so expressive a scale by so tiny 

 a brain. The Thrush is a pygmy beside which the Scotch 

 piper is an immense giant; comparisons of their music are 

 out of place here, but it is sufficient to say the American bird 

 has outwhistled the piper with his own Scotch pentatones. 



For some years I had wondered why the song of the Her- 

 mit was at least to my ears reminiscent of Scottish 

 melody ; finally a close scrutiny of my innumerable nota- 

 tions taken afield revealed the nature of the limited scale; 

 here is its transcription: please notice that the five keys 



-Hermit Thrush. Various keys 8? the Pentatomc scale. 

 . 1 -+7-flmmor2 -6- F 3 -Eminorj- 



7(fi but one signature 



require but one signature, and also, that the following five 

 songs confined to the scales and the keys as above distinctly 

 suggest the character of Scottish melody: 



Various themes on the scale and keys preceding. 



This scale is by no means a peculiar possession of the 

 Scotch; Dvorak used it in the Largo movement of his New 

 World Symphony, and in his popular Humoresque, Op. 

 101 , Xo. 7. The scale is also characteristic of our southern 

 Negro melody, and of Stephen Foster's beautiful and 

 pathetic songs. A quaint old melody entitled a Northern 

 Refrain* by Charles E. Horn of New York, 1838, contains 



* New York so late as the year 1864 was famous for its negro 

 chimney-sweeps. The title of this song is: "A Northern Refrain, 

 suggested from a well-known New York Carol, sung with enthusiastic 



XXXIX 



