Dec. 3, 1874] 



NATURE 



89 



combinations, the properties of which and their appro- 

 priateness for particular cases were easily ascertainable. 



Mr. Ellis, while deprecating the introduction generally 

 of musical performances under the guise of lectures, illus- 

 trated his propositions by showing the eftect of several 

 instruments of tixed tones, concertinas and harmoniums, 

 tuned in different ways. Some short harmonical pas- 

 sages were played, first on a harmonium of the ordinary 

 kind, secondly on another with absolutely just intonation, 

 and thirdly on a newly-constructed harmonium tuned on 

 Handel's plan of the old organ temperament, but with the 

 addition of several other notes enabling music to be 

 played in all keys, equally well in tune. These additional 

 notes were brought into use by draw-stops, each of which 

 made an enharmonic change in one note, as from 

 C sharp to D flat, G sharp to A flat, and so on. The 

 stops were arranged before commencing the piece ac- 

 cording to the key it was in, and they could be instantly 

 altered at any time during its progress, if required by 

 modulation. In this instrument the major thirds (the 

 intervals to which the ear is most sensitive) were all justly 

 in tune, but the fifths and minor thirds were a little flat ; 

 the ear, howe^-er, tolerated these slight errors much better 

 than the extremely discordant error of the major third in 

 equal temperament, and the effect of the harmony as 

 played upon it was a great improvement on that plan. 



ISIr. Ellis, in the course of the paper, made frequent 

 mention of the views of Helmholtz on harmony and tem- 

 perament, and illustrated them by examples. 



After the reading of the paper, Dr. Pole, F.R.S., re- 

 marked that Mr. Ellis's method of treating the elements 

 of the musical scale had much originality, and had an 

 interesting bearing on the structure of harmony generally ; 

 its principal object appeared, however, to be, in continu- 

 ation of the author's former labours, to facilitate the pro- 

 duction of correct intonation in music, an object of much 

 importance. He would remind the meeting what was the 

 present state of matters in regard to this. The fact was, 

 that at present it was but seldom possible to hear what 

 true harmony was like, as the great majority of music- 

 producing instruments, namely, all those with fixed tones, 

 were deliberately and systematically tuned false, with an 

 amount of error painful to a sensitive ear. When he, 

 a day or two ago, put his fingers on Mr. Ellis's just 

 harmonium, he uttered an involuntary exclamation of 

 surprise, for he had not heard the true harmony of a 

 common chord for some time before. The public had 

 only two opportunities of hearing true harmony : one when 

 a stringed quartett was played by fine players ; the other 

 when a vocal unaccompanied piece was sung by first-rate i 

 singers. In each of these, the performers, being untram- 

 melled by the odious temperament, gave way to the 

 dictates of their correct ears, and produced true harmony. 

 Every person of musical taste knew well the delightful 

 impression produced by this kind of music. In modern 

 oratorios it was very customary to insert, as in " Elijah," 

 for example, an unaccompanied vocal piece, which was 

 always rapturously applauded. Yet few people thought 

 of the cause; it was not the composition, for the same 

 music, when played on tempered instruments, was quite 

 another thing ; it was not even the skill of the performers, 

 which could be manifested in other ways ; it was purely 

 and simply the fact of the harmonies being in tune, which 

 was an agreeable novelty to the ear. 



On the pianoforte, where the sounds were not long 

 sustained, the errors of the temperament were not so 

 offensive, but on instruments with sustained tones, such 

 as the organ and harmonium, the defects were much 

 more prominent. In olden times musicians had more 

 sensitive ears, and organs were tuned (as Mr. Ellis had 

 stated in regard to Handel's organ) on a temperament 

 which put the principal keys in good tune, and threw the 

 defects into keys seldom or never used on an organ in 

 those days. But since that time, as modern music, and 



especially what the Germans called Fingftfertigkeit, had 

 increased in popular favour, organists had made up their 

 minds to play in all sorts of remote keys, and had 

 demanded that the organ builders should favour this by 

 applying the equal temperament. For show organs this 

 course might be defended, but for church organs, where 

 nothing was required but the use of the simplest keys, it 

 was perfectly indefensible, as it was spoiling the tone of 

 the organ for its ordinary use, for the sake of a purely 

 imaginary want. The organ was half a century ago a 

 sweet-sounding instrument ; now it was a harsh, offen- 

 sive one, which made attendance at church a penance 

 to persons with musically sensitive ears. A curious proof 

 occurred a few years ago as to the mischief the equal tem- 

 perament did to the tone of an organ. Dr. Pole had to 

 superintend the construction of two organs of tolerable 

 size : in one he was obliged to give way to popular pre- 

 judice by having it tuned equally ; in the other he pleased 

 himself by adopting the old tuning ; and although the 

 instruments were precisely alike in other respects, and 

 made by the same builder, the latter acquired the reputa- 

 tion of a peculiarly sweet-toned organ, while the former 

 was considered a harsh tone. 



It was time something was done to correct the evil, but 

 there had been difficulties both theoretical and prac- 

 tical. Theoretically it had been dilticult to determine 

 what should be the exact pitch and number of the notes 

 to be used, but he conceived Mr. Ellis had now exhausted 

 that subject, and that for the future no person who wished 

 to carry out plans of just intonation would find difficulty 

 in selecting from Wx. Ellis's data, exactly such ducdenes, 

 or series of notes, as would answer his purpose. There 

 were still difficulties in practice, for as it was certain that 

 more notes than twelve must be used, the problem how 

 to enable the player to arrange them easily was not an 

 easy one. In this particular, however, progress was 

 being made ; Mr. EUis had pointed out several important 

 simplifications, and Dr. Pole especially looked on the 

 harmonium with shifting tones now exhibited as a pro- 

 mising invention. It v/as pleasant to hope there was 

 some practical possibility of getting music in tune. 



The continued discussion of the subject of just in- 

 tonation was very desirable, for the reason that practical 

 musicians, probably from a feeling of hopelessness as to 

 getting anything better, were beginning to consider equal 

 temperament as a necessarj' evil, and to look upon its 

 harshness with indifference. Indeed, it was to be feared 

 that the ears of musicians were becoming actually dete- 

 riorated in sensitiveness to errors of intonation. In our best 

 orchestras, for example, although the strings might play 

 in tune (for our orchestral violinists had no superiors 

 in the world), yet the wind instruments were often 

 false ; and our conductors, even the best of them, seemed 

 callous to the cacophony. He might remark here that ■ 

 the efforts at producing just intonation had been hitherto 

 confined to instruments with the pianoforte keyboard, but 

 there was a wide field open for the improvement in this 

 respect of orchestral wind instruments, in regard to the 

 just intonation of which absolutely nothing had yet been 

 done. The utmost wind instrument makers had aimed 

 at was to make them play correctly on equal tempera- 

 ment ; he was not aware that anybody had thought it 

 worth while to make enharmonic distinctions in their 

 scale. 



On all these accounts Mr. EUis's labours to improve the 

 general knowledge of the subject were most valuable, and 

 earned for him the gratitude of all true lovers of music. 



THE TREE-ALOES OF SOUTH AFRICA 



T^HE flora of Southern Africa is extremely remarkable, 



-'- not merely for the number of its species and their 



generally very restricted range, but also for the frequent 



singularity of their aspect and manner of growth. In 



