October ii, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



247 



sports ; and song, as rhythm and melody, exists during all the 

 period denominated "barbarism." 



When freedom comes to song, it starts on a new career. No 

 longer chained to Terpsichorean feet, it soars into the realm of 

 ideal emotion. The dance expresses the joy of exuberant life : the 

 song expresses the joy of exuberant emotion. The dance carries 

 the body through the merry maze : the song carries the soul on its 

 way through the universe of thought. 



If I would share my measure of joy with another, behold, my 

 measure is still full, and more than full : it overflows. When song 

 -comes, men find, that, though the solo is beautiful, the chorus is 

 more beautiful, and rapidly choral music is developed. At the 

 time to which we refer there is no harmony, but only rhythm and 

 melody. Yet the egg of harmony is laid, for m melody sounds 

 follow one another rapidly, and ere one note leaves the ear another 

 joins it. The waning sound mingles with the waxing sound as the 

 embryo of harmony. Thus melody trains the ear to the apprecia- 

 tion of harmony. 



There is still another element of harmony in choral melody. 

 The voices of a varied concourse of people are diverse in pitch. 

 The notes of man are low and resonant, like the voices of waves 

 and winds ; the notes of women are high and clear, like the voices 

 •of birds; while children pipe like bees. In folk-singing, groups of 

 •such voices unite, and the elements of harmony are developed. The 

 village life of barbarism when the people form a body of kin and 

 kith promotes this rudimentary harmony ; for they meet as one great 

 family, and join in many a festival that must ever lead to music 

 -and dancing. 



And here another art assists in the development of music. The 

 •drama begins in savagery. The savage deifies the beast. To him 

 the animals of the world are wonderful. 



The eagle lives a life with which he cannot vie. It plays among 

 the clouds, rests on the mountain-tops, and soars down to circle 

 over the waves of the sea. The humming-bird poises over its 

 blossom-cup of nectar like a winged spirit of the rainbow. The 

 deer bounds away through the forest, and leaves the hunter lost in 

 -amazement. The squirrel climbs the tree, and plays about among 

 its branches, and springs from limb to limb and tree to tree, and 

 laughs at the sport. The rattlesnake glides without feet over the 

 rocks, and in his mouth the spirit of death is concealed. The trout 

 lives in the water, and flies up the brook as the hawk flies up the 

 mountain. Dolphins play on the waves as children play on the 

 grass. The spider spins a gossamer web ; the grub is transformed 

 into a winged beauty ; the bee lays away stores of honey ; the but- 

 terfly sports in the sunshine like a flower unchained from its stem. 

 The air, the earth, and the waters are peopled with marvellous 

 beings. 



The folk-lore of the savage is a vast body of oral literature, in 

 which these wonderful animals are the principal actors, and his 

 book of creation is the history of the animal gods. The stories of 

 these animal gods are dramatized ; and the priest-doctors of sav- 

 agery are the actors who play before the people, assuming the parts 

 ■of beast gods. For this purpose they dress themselves in the skins 

 of beasts, or wear masks that represent the forms and attributes of 

 their deities. In recitations and dialogues, with much acting and 

 mimicry, they represent the scenes of their mythology to the people. 

 When poetry is born, they recast their stories in poetic form, and 

 chant and sing their verses. 



Drama plays a great part in savage and barbaric life. In the 

 .tales of the drama the philosophy of the people is embodied. It 

 contains their history of creation. The human mind is ever inter- 

 ested in the origin of things. The desire to know is the funda- 

 mental impulse of the intellect. The wisest and best of all peo- 

 ples, even among the tribes of sylvan men, devote their highest in- 

 tellectual powers to the enigmas of creation ; and as opinions are 

 formed, they seek to teach them to others. Thus it is in savagery 

 and barbarism that philosophy is embodied in drama, and taught 

 to the people. In primitive society the drama is the school of 

 religion ; for there its precepts are taught, and its lessons are re- 

 flected in the theatrical mirror of life. The drama is deeply em- 

 bedded in eaily culture, and is intimately associated with the intel- 

 lectual growth of the race. 



When the drama borrows aid from music, music itself is greatly 



invigorated. With the new impulse it rapidly develops, and this 

 is the manner of its growth : — 



When the chorus is sung by skilled performers, the unskilled 

 join in parts, adding a kind of refrain to the music, not by follow- 

 ing the undulations of the melody in unison with the principal 

 singers of t^e chorus, but by chanting on a note in harmony there- 

 with ; and thus harmony becomes. 



To suit the conditions of the actors in the drama, harmonious 

 parts are developed until one, two, or more accessory chants are 

 produced ; then these harmonious parts are developed from acces- 

 sory chants to accessory melodies, more simple than the principal 

 melody, which still retains the name. 



In the music thus developed by our race there are usually four 

 parts, — soprano, contralto, tenore, and basso, — and these are ad- 

 justed to four classes of voices. 



Rhythm grows into melody, and melody grows into harmony : 

 yet music is young, and music must grow, for it blossoms with 

 the promise of becoming divine. Music is to become symphony. 

 Harmony is a combination of co-existent melodies ; but symphony 

 in its broadest sense is a combination of sequent harmonies. At 

 the song stage of music, men begin to recite stories, simple dramas, 

 and intersperse their narratives with stanzas of song ; then the 

 narratives are chanted, and songs and chants are combined, chants 

 and songs alternating. At this stage a body of sacred music is 

 developed. From hymns grow anthems, and Bible passages are 

 rendered in the solemnity of the chant and the majesty of the 

 hymn, for chants and hymns alternate ; and anthems by minute 

 increments become oratorios, where Bible history is taught in a 

 succession of chants and hymns, changing along the course of the 

 oratorio to express the varied emotions kindled by the sacred story. 

 The mythic drama of the Pagan world is represented by the oratorio 

 of the Christian world. 



The profane dramas that are recited and sung come to be 

 chanted and sung with instrumental accompanirnents. And then 

 are produced the cantatas, or poetic stories set to music ; and 

 fugues, or musical dialogues, are composed ; and nocturnes, sere- 

 nade music laden with tender love. Then the cantata is developed 

 into the opera as the drama is wholly set to music and the parts 

 presented by dramatis pejsonce. 



Men must laugh sometimes, for tragedy must be set in comedy, 

 as precious stones are ofttimes set in filigree ; and so the madrigal 

 is developed, which is an elaborate musical composition of many 

 parts, designed for the expression of tender and hilarious joy in 

 alternating movements : it is the comedy of music. And then 

 comes the sonata, designed for solo instruments, — a musical com- 

 position usually of three or more successive parts, each of which 

 has a unity of its own, yet all so related as to form one varied and 

 consistent whole. From the sonata, music passes to the symphony, 

 which is a musical composition of successive parts having slightly 

 varied but intimately related movements, treated in such a man- 

 ner, by varying the time and stress and pitch, as to produce the 

 greatest contrasts. With the anthem and oratorio, the cantata 

 and the opera, the fugue and the madrigal, the sonata and the 

 symphony, music has reached its highest stage in civilization. 



The theme is the evolution of music, not the evolution of musi- 

 cal instruments ; but something must be said of instruments, for 

 they play an important part in the evolution of music itself. 

 Were I to enter upon this theme fully, the task would be great. 

 Then I should have to tell of thumpers of many kinds, by which 

 the rhythm of the dan:e is controlled ; I should have to tell of rat- 

 tles, by which the dance is enlivened ; and I should have to tell of 

 whistles, by which the dance is made merry with screams. Then I 

 should have to tell how thumpers became drums, and how rattles 

 became tambourines, and whistles became flutes : and I should 

 have to tell how twanged flexible strings became violins, and how 

 twanged rigid strings became pianos, and how bark whistles be- 

 came horns, and how pipes became organs. 



The invention of musical instruments begins with the sylvan 

 man, who uses them to mark the rhythm of the dance. Through- 

 out savagery and barbarism only time-marking instruments are 

 invented. Not till civilization came to the people of the shores of 

 the Mediterranean were instruments of melody produced ; but 



