MUSIC AND SCIENCE. 
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into words the thought expressed in a purely instrumental 
piece of music; but the “expressiveness of music,” in this 
sense, generally eludes precise statement, and if stated, the 
conclusions of one generation afford laughter for the next; (as 
the comments on a Beethoven symphony quoted in a recent 
concert program). Most of such writing is futile, for the 
deeper ideas properly expressible by sounds, or colors, or 
words, or forms in sculpture have little in common and can- 
not well be translated into another language. The artist, 
“the man who is master of his materials,” can rarely use well 
two different media of expression. But music, when spon- 
taneous, expresses the emotion or feeling of its author, and 
even when artificial may voice a mood or may project before 
the mind large, indefinite ideas, and so it will inspire in its 
hearers the same emotion or mood to some degree. Naturally 
songs furnish numerous instances of this truth, for the words 
and music cooperate, while many legends of the power of 
music attest it; and even the most unresponsive of us has 
sometimes felt the spell of a purely instrumental composition, 
performed by one in sympathy with it. Perhaps the most 
striking illustrations of the emotional expressiveness of music 
are to be found in the modern operas where the music is to 
assist the words and gestures of the singer ; Wagner furnishes 
many such cases, which critics have often cited; Redfern 
Mason, in the “ Atlantic ” for January, 1910, cites later in- 
stances : 
“When Strauss wants to convey the idea of the weakness 
and depravity of Herod, he does so partly by halting, vacil- 
lating rhythms, partly by a theme based on a scale of whole 
tones. . . . C, D, E, F#, G # , A#, C is the scale used by the com- 
poser of ‘Salome’ when he wants to portray degeneracy. It 
jars on the ear, but not more so than the character of Herod 
on the mind.” “Strauss boldly realizes in music the ineu- 
phoniousness of sin.” . . . "He deepens the moral signif- 
icance of music; ... the music of John the Baptist is 
gravely diatonic; of Salome, chromatic; of Herod, abnor- 
mal.” Debussy also makes use of abnormal aspects of 
