Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Been Pointed Out That

The More Frequent Changes Of    Pitch Which Ordinarily Result From Passion

Are Imitated And Developed In Song; And Here We Have To Add, That The

Various Rates Of    Such Changes, Appropriate To The   Different Styles Of

Music, Are Further Traits Having The   Same Derivation. The   Slowest

Movements, _Largo_ And _Adagio_, Are Used Where Such Depressing Emotions

As Grief, Or Such Unexciting Emotions As Reverence, Are To Be Portrayed;

While The   More Rapid Movements, _Andante_, _Allegro_, _Presto_,

Represent Successively Increasing Degrees Of    Mental Vivacity; And Do

This Because They Imply That Muscular Activity Which Flows From This

Mental Vivacity. Even The   _Rhythm_, Which Forms A Remaining Distinction

Between Song And Speech, May Not Improbably Have A Kindred Cause. Why

The Actions Excited By Strong Feeling Should Tend To Become Rhythmical

Is Not Very Obvious; But That They Do So There Are Divers Evidences.

There Is The   Swaying Of    The   Body To And Fro Under Pain Or Grief, Of    The

Leg Under Impatience Or Agitation. Dancing, Too, Is A Rhythmical Action

Natural To Elevated Emotion. That Under Excitement Speech Acquires A

Certain Rhythm, We May Occasionally Perceive In The   Highest Efforts Of

An Orator. In Poetry, Which Is A Form Of    Speech Used For The   Better

Expression Of    Emotional Ideas, We Have This Rhythmical Tendency

Developed. And When We Bear In Mind That Dancing, Poetry, And Music Are

Connate--Are Originally Constituent Parts Of    The   Same Thing, It Becomes

Clear That The   Measured Movement Common To Them All Implies A Rhythmical

Action Of    The   Whole System, The   Vocal Apparatus Included; And That So

The Rhythm Of    Music Is A More Subtle And Complex Result Of    This Relation

Between Mental And Muscular Excitement.

 

 

 

But It Is Time To End This Analysis, Which Possibly We Have Already

Carried Too Far. It Is Not To Be Supposed That The   More Special

Peculiarities Of    Musical Expression Are To Be Definitely Explained.

Though Probably They May All In Some Way Conform To The   Principle That

Has Been Worked Out, It Is Obviously Impracticable To Trace That

Principle In Its More Ramified Applications. Nor Is It Needful To Our

Argument That It Should Be So Traced. The   Foregoing Facts Sufficiently

Prove That What We Regard As The   Distinctive Traits Of    Song, Are Simply

The Traits Of    Emotional Speech Intensified And Systematised. In Respect

Of Its General Characteristics, We Think It Has Been Made Clear That

Vocal Music, And By Consequence All Music, Is An Idealisation Of    The

Natural Language Of    Passion.

 

 

As Far As It Goes, The   Scanty Evidence Furnished By History Confirms

This Conclusion. Note First The   Fact (Not Properly An Historical One,

But Fitly Grouped With Such) That The   Dance-Chants Of    Savage Tribes Are

Very Monotonous; And In Virtue Of    Their Monotony Are Much More Nearly

Allied To Ordinary Speech Than Are The   Songs Of    Civilised Races. Joining

With This The   Fact That There Are Still Extant Among Boatmen And Others

In The   East, Ancient Chants Of    A Like Monotonous Character, We May Infer

That Vocal Music Originally Diverged From Emotional Speech In A Gradual,

Unobtrusive Manner; And This Is The   Inference To Which Our Argument

Points. Further Evidence To The   Same Effect Is Supplied By Greek

History. The   Early Poems Of    The   Greeks--Which, Be It Remembered, Were

Sacred Legends Embodied In That Rhythmical, Metaphorical Language Which

Strong Feeling Excites--Were Not Recited, But Chanted: The   Tones And

The Cadences Were Made Musical By The   Same Influences Which Made The

Speech Poetical.

 

 

 

By Those Who Have Investigated The   Matter, This Chanting Is Believed To

Have Been Not What We Call Singing, But Nearly Allied To Our Recitative

(Far Simpler Indeed, If We May Judge From The   Fact That The   Early Greek

Lyre, Which Had But _Four_ Strings, Was Played In _Unison_ With The

Voice, Which Was Therefore Confined To Four Notes), And As Such, Much

Less Remote From Common Speech Than Our Own Singing Is. For Recitative,

Or Musical Recitation, Is In All Respects Intermediate Between Speech

And Song. Its Average Effects Are Not So _Loud_ As Those Of    Song. Its

Tones Are Less Sonorous In _Timbre_ Than Those Of    Song. Commonly It

Diverges To A Smaller Extent From The   Middle Notes--Uses Notes Neither

So High Nor So Low In _Pitch_. The   _Intervals_ Habitual To It Are

Neither So Wide Nor So Varied. Its _Rate Of    Variation_ Is Not So Rapid.

And At The   Same Time That Its Primary _Rhythm_ Is Less Decided, It Has

None Of    That Secondary Rhythm Produced By Recurrence Of    The   Same Or

Parallel Musical Phrases, Which Is One Of    The   Marked Characteristics Of

Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 130

Song. Thus, Then, We May Not Only Infer, From The   Evidence Furnished By

Existing Barbarous Tribes, That The   Vocal Music Of    Pre-Historic Times

Was Emotional Speech Very Slightly Exalted; But We See That The   Earliest

Vocal Music Of    Which We Have Any Account Differed Much Less From

Emotional Speech Than Does The   Vocal Music Of    Our Days.

 

 

 

That Recitative--Beyond Which, By The   Way, The   Chinese And Hindoos Seem

Never To Have Advanced--Grew Naturally Out Of    The   Modulations And

Cadences Of    Strong Feeling, We Have Indeed Still Current Evidence. There

Are Even Now To Be Met With Occasions On Which Strong Feeling Vents

Itself In This Form. Whoever Has Been Present When A Meeting Of    Quakers

Was Addressed By One Of    Their Preachers (Whose Practice It Is To Speak

Only Under The   Influence Of    Religious Emotion), Must Have Been Struck By

The Quite Unusual Tones, Like Those Of    A Subdued Chant, In Which The

Address Was Made. It Is Clear, Too, That The   Intoning Used In Some

Churches Is Representative Of    This Same Mental State; And Has Been

Adopted On Account Of    The   Instinctively Felt Congruity Between It And

The Contrition, Supplication, Or Reverence Verbally Expressed.

 

 

 

And If, As We Have Good Reason To Believe, Recitative Arose By Degrees

Out Of    Emotional Speech, It Becomes Manifest That By A Continuance Of

The Same Process Song Has Arisen Out Of    Recitative. Just As, From The

Orations And Legends Of    Savages, Expressed In The   Metaphorical,

Allegorical Style Natural To Them, There Sprung Epic Poetry, Out Of

Which Lyric Poetry Was Afterwards Developed; So, From The   Exalted Tones

And Cadences In Which Such Orations And Legends Were Delivered, Came The

Chant Or Recitative Music, From Whence Lyrical Music Has Since Grown Up.

And There Has Not Only Thus Been A Simultaneous And Parallel Genesis,

But There Is Also A Parallelism Of    Results. For Lyrical Poetry Differs

From Epic Poetry, Just As Lyrical Music Differs From Recitative: Each

Still Further Intensifies The   Natural Language Of    The   Emotions. Lyrical

Poetry Is More Metaphorical, More Hyperbolic, More Elliptical, And Adds

The Rhythm Of    Lines To The   Rhythm Of    Feet; Just As Lyrical Music Is

Louder, More Sonorous, More Extreme In Its Intervals, And Adds The

Rhythm Of    Phrases To The   Rhythm Of    Bars. And The   Known Fact That Out Of

Epic Poetry The   Stronger Passions Developed Lyrical Poetry As Their

Appropriate Vehicle, Strengthens The   Inference That They Similarly

Developed Lyrical Music Out Of    Recitative.

 

 

 

Nor Indeed Are We Without Evidences Of    The   Transition. It Needs But To

Listen To An Opera To Hear The   Leading Gradations. Between The

Comparatively Level Recitative Of    Ordinary Dialogue, The   More Varied

Recitative With Wider Intervals And Higher Tones Used In Exciting

Scenes, The   Still More Musical Recitative Which Preludes An Air, And The

Air Itself, The   Successive Steps Are But Small; And The   Fact That Among

Airs Themselves Gradations Of    Like Nature May Be Traced, Further

Confirms The   Conclusion That The   Highest Form Of    Vocal Music Was Arrived

At By Degrees.

 

 

 

Moreover, We Have Some Clue To The   Influences Which Have Induced This

Development; And May Roughly Conceive The   Process Of    It. As The   Tones,

Intervals, And Cadences Of    Strong Emotion Were The   Elements Out Of    Which

Song Was Elaborated, So We May Expect To Find That Still Stronger

Emotion Produced The   Elaboration: And We Have Evidence Implying This.

Instances In Abundance May Be Cited, Showing That Musical Composers Are

Men Of    Extremely Acute Sensibilities. The   Life Of    Mozart Depicts Him As

One Of    Intensely Active Affections And Highly Impressionable

Temperament. Various Anecdotes Represent Beethoven As Very Susceptible

And Very Passionate. Mendelssohn Is Described By Those Who Knew Him To

Have Been Full Of    Fine Feeling. And The   Almost Incredible Sensitiveness

Of Chopin Has Been Illustrated In The   Memoirs Of    George Sand. An

Unusually Emotional Nature Being Thus The   General Characteristic Of

Musical Composers, We Have In It Just The   Agency Required For The

Development Of    Recitative And Song. Intenser Feeling Producing Intenser

Manifestations, Any Cause Of    Excitement Will Call Forth From Such A

Nature Tones And Changes Of    Voice More Marked Than Those Called Forth

From An Ordinary Nature--Will Generate Just Those Exaggerations Which We

Have Found To Distinguish The   Lower Vocal Music From Emotional Speech,

And The   Higher Vocal Music From The   Lower. Thus It Becomes Credible That

The Four-Toned Recitative Of    The   Early Greek Poets (Like All Poets,

Nearly Allied To Composers In The   Comparative Intensity Of    Their

Feelings), Was Really Nothing More Than The   Slightly Exaggerated

Emotional Speech Natural To Them, Which Grew By Frequent Use Into An

Organised Form. And It Is Readily Conceivable That The   Accumulated

Agency Of    Subsequent Poet-Musicians, Inheriting And Adding To The

Products Of    Those Who Went Before Them, Sufficed, In The   Course Of    The

Ten Centuries Which We Know It Took, To Develop This Four-Toned

Recitative Into A Vocal Music Having A Range Of    Two Octaves.

 

 

 

Not Only May We So Understand How More Sonorous Tones, Greater Extremes

Of Pitch, And Wider Intervals, Were Gradually Introduced; But Also How

There Arose A Greater Variety And Complexity Of    Musical Expression. For

This Same Passionate, Enthusiastic Temperament, Which Naturally Leads

The Musical Composer To Express The   Feelings Possessed By Others As Well

As Himself, In Extremer Intervals And More Marked Cadences Than They

Would Use, Also Leads Him To Give Musical Utterance To Feelings Which

They Either Do Not Experience, Or Experience In But Slight Degrees. In

Virtue Of    This General Susceptibility Which Distinguishes Him, He

Regards With Emotion, Events, Scenes, Conduct, Character, Which Produce

Upon Most Men No Appreciable Effect. The   Emotions So Generated,

Compounded As They Are Of    The   Simpler Emotions, Are Not Expressible By

Intervals And Cadences Natural To These, But By Combinations Of    Such

Intervals And Cadences: Whence Arise More Involved Musical Phrases,

Conveying More Complex, Subtle, And Unusual Feelings. And Thus We May In

Some Measure Understand How It Happens That Music Not Only So Strongly

Excites Our More Familiar Feelings, But Also Produces Feelings We Never

Had Before--Arouses Dormant Sentiments Of    Which We Had Not Conceived The

Possibility And Do Not Know The   Meaning; Or, As Richter Says--Tells Us

Of Things We Have Not Seen And Shall Not See. 

Indirect Evidences Of    Several Kinds Remain To Be Briefly Pointed Out.

One Of    Them Is The   Difficulty, Not To Say Impossibility, Of    Otherwise

Accounting For The   Expressiveness Of    Music. Whence Comes It That

Special Combinations Of    Notes Should Have Special Effects Upon Our

Emotions?--That One Should Give Us A Feeling Of    Exhilaration, Another Of

Melancholy, Another Of    Affection, Another Of    Reverence? Is It That These

Special Combinations Have Intrinsic Meanings Apart From The   Human

Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 131

Constitution?--That A Certain Number Of    Aerial Waves Per Second,

Followed By A Certain Other Number, In The   Nature Of    Things Signify

Grief, While In The   Reverse Order