ON THE 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES OF HARMONY 

 IN MUSIC. 



A LECTURE DELIVERED IN BONN DURING THE WINTER OP 1857. 



Ladies and GtENTLEMEN, — In the native town of Beet- 

 hoven, the mightiest among the heroes of harmony, no 

 subject seemed to me better adapted for a popular 

 audience thau music itself. Following, therefore, the 

 direction of my researches during the last few years, I 

 will endeavour to explain to you what physics and physio- 

 logy have to say regarding the most cherished art of the 

 Ehenish land — music and musical relations. Music has 

 hitherto withdrawn itself from scientific treatment more 

 than any other art. Poetry, painting, and sculpture 

 borrow at least the material for their delineations from 

 the world of experience. They portray nature and man. 

 Not only can their material be critically investigated in 

 respect to its correctness and truth to nature, but scien- 

 tific art-criticism, however much enthusiasts may have 

 disputed its right to do so, has actually succeeded in 

 making some progress in investigating the causes of that 

 aesthetic pleasure which it is the intention of these arts to 

 excite. In music, on the other hand, it seems at first 



