Febeuaey 9, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



theory, as the Arabs and Hindus. The ma- 

 terials for this chapter have been collected 

 from a wide field, and the reviewer can 

 bear witness to the thoroughness of the 

 search, as he had previously gone over a 

 large part of the ground. 



In the following nine chapters much of 

 this matter, with some additions, is ar- 

 ranged under these heads : Singers and 

 Composers ; Instruments ; the Basis of our 

 Musical System ; Physical and Psychical 

 Influence of Music ; Text and Music ; 

 Dance and Music ; Primitive Drama and 

 Pantomime ; The Origin of Music ; Heredity 

 and Development. Then follows a fall 

 Bibliography, an Index and 25 melodies. 

 The author's standpoint is that of a psy- 

 chologist, as is evident from his papers in 

 Mind and in German journals ; so he seems 

 most at home in the later chapters. 



It is unfortunately true that few of the 

 travellers whose reports are quoted showed 

 any particular fitness to speak on musical 

 questions, or especially to write down cor- 

 rectly as to rhythm and melody the songs 

 they may have heard ; so the reports must 

 be used by the student with great care and 

 discrimination. The author's uncritical 

 treatment of his material may be judged 

 from this passage : "In Virginia (North 

 America) for instance, several rattles are 

 tuned together, and the natives have ' bass 

 tenor, counter-tenor, alto and soprano 

 rattles' " (p. 103). On looking for the au- 

 thority for this statement, made as if true 

 for to-day, one finds it at the end of the 

 book John Smith's History of Virginia ; but 

 the date of publication (1624) is nowhere 

 given. Another passage will throw light 

 on the author's judgment of what facts are 

 important and characteristic : After refer- 

 ring to musical contests for endurance 

 among savages he says : " Barbarian as it 

 may appear to be such performances are 

 still in use in America, the modern counter- 

 part being the ' musical' contest which took 



place at Huber's Museum, New York, on 

 the twenty-third of October, 1892" ; the lady 

 played the piano 16 hours 52 min., her com- 

 petitor, a man, 17 hours ; she received five 

 proposals of marriage (p. 72) ! Must we 

 confess that America is not entitled to the 

 barbaric preeminence tendered her, for the 

 London Musical Times tells of a man who 

 played the piano in public for twenty-five 

 hours consecutively, again for thirty-six 

 hours, and again for forty hours. 



In connection with the present review, 

 Chapter IV. is of most interest, for in it 

 are presented the similarities between sav- 

 age music and ours ; the matter is arranged 

 under the three heads of: (1) Harmony, 

 (2) Major and Minor Key, (3) The Scale. 

 Much is made of the facts that various re- 

 porters tell of savages singing in two or 

 several parts ; the Hottentots especially 

 are said to have keen ears, to be able to 

 give excellent imitations of German hymns 

 after once hearing them, and to employ 

 harmony. The author concludes, "thus 

 neither harmony nor the germs of counter- 

 point are entirely unknown to primitive 

 nations, and it would seem from all the 

 examples that I was able to collect that the 

 principle of tonality is in most cases un- 

 mistakable " (p. 142). It cannot too posi- 

 tively be declared that such a statement is 

 misleading, and in the sense that most 

 readers will understand it, is utterly false ; 

 the musical dictionaries give six meanings 

 for the word ' harmony '; it is only by using 

 the word in a very loose and unusual way 

 that it can be applied to the simultaneous 

 singing of anj^ savages yet reported ; the 

 use of the terms counter-point and tonality 

 is equally loose. 



In the next part comes the statement "it 

 is surprising how often savages sing in the 

 minor key" (p. 145); then various instances 

 are noted of minor music though the ideas 

 are merry and vivacious. " This occurrence 

 of minor chords in savage music is no 



