24 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



correcting false ideas. The following illustrations will possibly explain 

 some of the conditions which govern scientific observations of music. 



The mind cannot comprehend a present, a now, that is so infinitesi- 

 mal a period of time that, like the imaginary line of the mathematician, 

 it has neither breadth not thickness, or in other words that is so 

 instantaneous that it has neither beginning nor end; therefore it 

 cannot contemplate in a sustained chord a point of absolute repose, 

 but rather a continuation of motion, or at least a progress or transition 

 from a past to a future. This element of motion or progression from 

 a past to a future is the common ground upon which psychology and 

 music must meet, for it involves mere sensation on the one hand and 

 rhythm and mere sensation on the other. Nearly all writers on this 

 subject have made the mistake of referring to the vibrations of sound 

 as an expression of motion, a mistake which is at once apparent when 

 we consider that these vibrations are incomprehensible to the ear, 

 and are only understood as translated by scientific apparatus to the 

 mind through the medium of mathematical demonstration. In this 

 sense Dr. Riemann is wrong when he asserts that "it is only the change 

 of pitch or strength that produces the impression of movement — 

 wrong scientifically though not wrong musically speaking, as for all 

 practical purposes he is right in the same sense that one is right in 

 using the terms past, present and future as applied to life. Relative 

 to the relation of musical sounds to the emotions through the medium 

 of the nerves, I quote the following Important passage from HansHck: 



It is true, of course, that the cause of every emotion which music arouses is 

 chiefly to be found in some specific mode of nerve activity induced by an auditory 

 impression. But how the excitation of the auditory nerve (which we cannot 

 trace even to its source) is transformed into a definite sentiment; how a physical 

 impression can pass into a state of mind; how, in fine, a sensation can become an 

 emotion — all this lies beyond the mysterious bridge which no philosopher has ever 

 crossed. 



In the year 585 B.C., Sakadas, the flute-player, was awarded a prize 

 at the Pythian games for a nomas that represented in tones the combat 

 of Apollo with the dragon Python. The idea of representing a combat 

 by the tones of a flute appears amusing if not absurd to us, for we 



