MUSIC AND SCIENCE. 
171 
One recognizes early that while musical activity is found 
among almost all peoples, throughout all history, the specific 
lorm in which it finds expression has been and is very varied, 
and what gives satisfaction to one people is often unpleasant 
to another; yet one finds uncritical men assembling in maga- 
zine articles comments “on music” from writers in the most 
diverse conditions; although, perhaps, no two writers had 
the same concrete idea back of the word. For in reality the 
idea of music is not only as generic and indefinite as that of 
tree or animal, but it is constantly being extended to cover 
new forms. A good modern definition is that of the Oxford 
Dictionary : 
"Music. That one of the fine arts which is concerned with 
the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and 
the expression of emotion ; also the science of the laws or prin- 
ciples (of melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.) by which the art 
is regulated. It has two branches, the art of the composer 
and that of the executant.” 
Following the order of ideas in this definition, one notes, 
first, that the “fine arts” are primarily to be enjoyed; their 
educational relations should be held secondary. It ought to 
be obvious that a strange thing cannot be understood or en- 
joyed at once; familiarity with it or with closely allied 
things is indispensable; but the contemptuous remarks of 
travelers about Arab, Hindu or Indian music are far more 
easily found than the appreciations of those who have 
learned to enjoy it. Besides the pleasure that comes from 
suitable bodily activity and cooperation with others, as in 
choral singing, the elements of musical enjoyment are partly 
material, sensuous; and partly psychical, mental. To the 
first belong the beauty of tone, as in the voice ; the contrasts 
in timbre or quality of orchestral instruments; the variations 
in pitch and loudness of the notes of a melody; and most im- 
portant of all, rhythm in its infinite variety; primitive and 
Oriental rhythms are far more complex than those of Euro- 
pean musicians. 
The principal mental elements of musical enjoyment de- 
pend on memory, and may be included under the compre- 
