Stoney — On Equal Temperament upon Piano Music. 61 



to urge that it is a great pity that, when glees are sung without 

 accompaniment, more care is not taken to bring out the exquisite 

 effects which enchant the hearer when the music which is adapted 

 to it is rendered in this scale. 



One obstacle to this is, that people become partisans. The 

 Tonic-solfaists, who have widely advocated the natural scale, are 

 sometimes not content without also disparaging tempered instru- 

 ments, forgetting that many of the best instrumental effects have 

 no existence with the natural scale. And on the other hand, some 

 lovers of the richest harmonised effects speak very unappreciatively 

 of the praiseworthy efforts of the Tonic-solfaists to extend the use 

 of the natural scale. 



. The truth is, that each in its own place is the best, and we 

 deprive ourselves of much of the legitimate delight of the most 

 delightful of all arts by limiting our choice to one only — to either 

 the natural scale, or the scale of equal temperament. 



I need not pursue these general considerations farther, for my 

 immediate object is of limited scope. What I desire particularly 

 to invite attention to is to one collateral advantage among those 

 which render the system of equal tempering of importance to us, 

 viz., that it provides us on the piano with twelve keys which differ 

 essentially in the artistic effects which they can produce. 



Nothing about Art is more astonishing than the extreme sub- 

 tnty and delicacy of the causes which weave webs of the strongest 

 influence about our minds. They are very difl&cult to make out, 

 and in many instances have defied every effort that has been made 

 to bring them to light. It is my aim on the present occasion to 

 endeavour to obtain some insight into one of these — ^to try to trace 

 out what minute shades of difference produce that remarkable 

 difference of artistic effect which we perceive in the various keys 

 on the piano — to endeavour to find out why the key of A is so 

 well adapted to joyous, bright, and sparkling effects, while its close 

 neighbour, the key of A b, is gentle, soft, and liquid — why D and E 

 are brighter than E bj and so on. 



This great difference does net depend in any considerable de- 

 gree on pitch nor on the tempering. In fact, as Helmholtz points 

 out, if two pianos are tuned one a semitone lower than the other, 

 these keys will preserve their distinctive characteristics on both. 

 Even though the key of A on the one piano is made to consist of 



G 2 



