4+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
The association between high notes and physical ascent, between 
low notes and physical descent is certainly in any case very fixed. In 
Wagner’s “ Lohengrin,” the ascent and descent of the angelic chorus 
is thus indicated. Even if we go back earlier than the days of Bach 
the same correspondence is found. In the work of Bach himself—pure 
and abstract as his music is generally considered—this as well as much 
other motor imagery may be found, as is now generally recognized by 
students of Bach, following in the steps of Albert Schweitzer and 
André Pirro. It is sometimes said that this is “realism” in music. 
That is a mistake. When the impressions derived from one sense are 
translated into those of another sense there can be no question of 
realism. A composer may attempt a realistic representation of thunder, 
but his representation of lightning can only be symbolical; audible 
lightning can never be realistic. 
Not only is there an instinctive and direct association between 
sounds and motor imagery, but there is an indirect but equally in- 
stinctive association between sounds and visual imagery which, though 
not itself motor, has motor associations. Thus Bleuler considers it well 
established that among color-hearers there is a tendency for photisms 
that are light in color (and belonging, we may say, to the “ high” part 
of the spectrum) to be produced by sounds of high quality, and dark 
photisms by sounds of low quality; and, in the same way, sharply- 
defined pains or tactile sensations as well as pointed forms produce 
light photisms. Similarly, bright lights and pointed forms produce 
high phonisms, while low phonisms are produced by opposite conditions. 
Urbantschitisch, again, by examining a large number of people who 
were not color-hearers found that a high note of a tuning fork seems 
higher when looking at red, yellow, green or blue, but lower if looking 
at violet. Thus two sensory qualities that are both symbolic of a third 
quality are symbolic to each other. 
This symbolism, we are justified in believing, is based on funda- 
mental organic tendencies. Piderit, nearly half a century ago, forcibly 
argued that there is a real relationship of our most spiritual feelings 
Nights” the visions aroused by the playing of Paganini, and elsewhere the 
visions evoked in him by the music of Berlioz, Though I do not myself ex- 
perience this phenomenon I have found that there is sometimes a tendency for 
music to arouse ideas of motor imagery; thus some melodies of Handel suggest 
a giant painting frescoes on a vast wall space. The most elementary motor 
relationship of music is seen in the tendency of many people to sway portions 
of their body—to “ beat time ’—in sympathy with the music. Music is funda- 
mentally an audible dance, and the most primitive music is dance music. 
The instinctive nature of this tendency is shown by the fact that it per- 
sists even in sleep. Thus Weygandt relates that he once fell asleep in the 
theater during one of the last scenes of “ Cavalleria Rusticana,” when the tenor 
was singing in ever higher and higher tones, and dreamed that in order to reach 
the notes the performer was climbing up ladders and stairs on the stage. 
