SOME PHASES OF MUSICAL AESTHETICS 2$ 



are acquainted with so many deep-toned and powerful instruments 

 that seem better capable of conveying musically the spirit of this 

 combat, which is one proof that such matters are conclusions of a 

 merely relative nature, rather than scientific facts. There is probably 

 but one Hmit which can be placed for all time on the human ear, viz., 

 its inability to hear as sounds of definite pitch those exceeding the 

 extreme low or high notes of a compass of about eight octaves; and 

 doubtless equally certain is it that the most beautiful and the noblest 

 themes, especially of a lyric nature, will be heard within a compass 

 represented by the middle two or three octaves of the piano keyboard, 

 the higher and lower octaves beyond this compass being used by the 

 composer to reinforce, echo or possibly to serve as a contrast to these 

 middle ones. Passages such as that in the Lohengrin prelude, where 

 high sustained chords are played by four solo violins, are no contra- 

 diction to this, for not as a melody but "as a something floating in the 

 loftiest sunHt heights, gradually sinking down to earth, " is this passage 

 heard. As an opposite illustration note the entrance of the 'cellos and 

 basses in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or in Schubert's B minor 

 Symphony. Transfer these latter passages to the register of the 

 vioHns and instantly their sense of mysterious solemnity would be 

 lost. Such matters are decided intuitively by the composer rather 

 than by a process of reasoning. 



As a very simple test in connection with the subject of melody 

 take a slow theme from, say, a Mozart or Beethoven composition, 

 and have it played in the same tempo in each instance on the piano, 

 then the vioHn, French horn, oboe, clarinet, etc., and note the different 

 effect on the emotions. To refer to the "longing quality of the 

 horn," the "plaintive quality of the oboe," the "exquisitely sensitive 

 quality of the violin," etc., would afford no scientific solution of the 

 problem, for science demands absolute proof and not a subjective 

 impression which might be as far from the truth as were the flute notes 

 of Sakadas. Equally impossible is it to explain why the melody 

 chosen was beautiful and inspired and not commonplace and stupid. 

 And yet again, why the difference between the performance, even of a 

 simple theme, by an artist and by a mere tyro ? I have asked these 



