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

They Signify Joy; And Similarly With

All Other Intervals, Phrases, And Cadences? Few Will Be So Irrational As

To Think This. Is It, Then, That The   Meanings Of    These Special

Combinations Are Conventional Only?--That We Learn Their Implications,

As We Do Those Of    Words, By Observing How Others Understand Them? This

Is An Hypothesis Not Only Devoid Of    Evidence, But Directly Opposed To

The Experience Of    Every One. How, Then, Are Musical Effects To Be

Explained? If The   Theory Above Set Forth Be Accepted, The   Difficulty

Disappears. If Music, Taking For Its Raw Material The   Various

Modifications Of    Voice Which Are The   Physiological Results Of    Excited

Feelings, Intensifies, Combines, And Complicates Them--If It Exaggerates

The Loudness, The   Resonance, The   Pitch, The   Intervals, And The

Variability, Which, In Virtue Of    An Organic Law, Are The   Characteristics

Of Passionate Speech--If, By Carrying Out These Further, More

Consistently, More Unitedly, And More Sustainedly, It Produces An

Idealised Language Of    Emotion; Then Its Power Over Us Becomes

Comprehensible. But In The   Absence Of    This Theory, The   Expressiveness Of

Music Appears To Be Inexplicable.

 

 

 

Again, The   Preference We Feel For Certain Qualities Of    Sound Presents A

Like Difficulty, Admitting Only Of    A Like Solution. It Is Generally

Agreed That The   Tones Of    The   Human Voice Are More Pleasing Than Any

Others. Grant That Music Takes Its Rise From The   Modulations Of    The

Human Voice Under Emotion, And It Becomes A Natural Consequence That The

Tones Of    That Voice Should Appeal To Our Feelings More Than Any Others;

And So Should Be Considered More Beautiful Than Any Others. But Deny

That Music Has This Origin, And The   Only Alternative Is The   Untenable

Position That The   Vibrations Proceeding From A Vocalist's Throat Are,

Objectively Considered, Of    A Higher Order Than Those From A Horn Or A

Violin. Similarly With Harsh And Soft Sounds. If The   Conclusiveness Of

The Foregoing Reasonings Be Not Admitted, It Must Be Supposed That The

Vibrations Causing The   Last Are Intrinsically Better Than Those Causing

The First; And That, In Virtue Of    Some Pre-Established Harmony, The

Higher Feelings And Natures Produce The   One, And The   Lower The   Other.

But If The   Foregoing Reasonings Be Valid, It Follows, As A Matter Of

Course, That We Shall Like The   Sounds That Habitually Accompany

Agreeable Feelings, And Dislike Those That Habitually Accompany

Disagreeable Feelings.

 

 

 

Once More, The   Question--How Is The   Expressiveness Of    Music To Be

Otherwise Accounted For? May Be Supplemented By The   Question--How Is The

Genesis Of    Music To Be Otherwise Accounted For? That Music Is A Product

Of Civilisation Is Manifest; For Though Savages Have Their Dance-Chants,

These Are Of    A Kind Scarcely To Be Dignified By The   Title Musical: At

Most, They Supply But The   Vaguest Rudiment Of    Music, Properly So Called.

And If Music Has Been By Slow Steps Developed In The   Course Of

Civilisation, It Must Have Been Developed Out Of    Something. If, Then,

Its Origin Is Not That Above Alleged, What Is Its Origin?

 

 

 

Thus We Find That The   Negative Evidence Confirms The   Positive, And That,

Taken Together, They Furnish Strong Proof. We Have Seen That There Is A

Physiological Relation, Common To Man And All Animals, Between Feeling

And Muscular Action; That As Vocal Sounds Are Produced By Muscular

Action, There Is A Consequent Physiological Relation Between Feeling And

Vocal Sounds; That All The   Modifications Of    Voice Expressive Of    Feeling

Are The   Direct Results Of    This Physiological Relation; That Music,

Adopting All These Modifications, Intensifies Them More And More As It

Ascends To Its Higher And Higher Forms, And Becomes Music Simply In

Virtue Of    Thus Intensifying Them; That, From The   Ancient Epic Poet

Chanting His Verses, Down To The   Modern Musical Composer, Men Of

Unusually Strong Feelings Prone To Express Them In Extreme Forms, Have

Been Naturally The   Agents Of    These Successive Intensifications; And That

So There Has Little By Little Arisen A Wide Divergence Between This

Idealised Language Of    Emotion And Its Natural Language: To Which Direct

Evidence We Have Just Added The   Indirect--That On No Other Tenable

Hypothesis Can Either The   Expressiveness Or The   Genesis Of    Music Be

Explained.

 

 

And Now, What Is The   _Function_ Of    Music? Has Music Any Effect Beyond

The Immediate Pleasure It Produces? Analogy Suggests That It Has. The

Enjoyments Of    A Good Dinner Do Not End With Themselves, But Minister To

Bodily Well-Being. Though People Do Not Marry With A View To Maintain

The Race, Yet The   Passions Which Impel Them To Marry Secure Its

Maintenance. Parental Affection Is A Feeling Which, While It Conduces To

Parental Happiness, Ensures The   Nurture Of    Offspring. Men Love To

Accumulate Property, Often Without Thought Of    The   Benefits It Produces;

But In Pursuing The   Pleasure Of    Acquisition They Indirectly Open The   Way

To Other Pleasures. The   Wish For Public Approval Impels All Of    Us To Do

Many Things Which We Should Otherwise Not Do,--To Undertake Great

Labours, Face Great Dangers, And Habitually Rule Ourselves In A Way That

Smooths Social Intercourse: That Is, In Gratifying Our Love Of

Approbation We Subserve Divers Ulterior Purposes. And, Generally, Our

Nature Is Such That In Fulfilling Each Desire, We In Some Way Facilitate

The Fulfilment Of    The   Rest. But The   Love Of    Music Seems To Exist For Its

Own Sake. The   Delights Of    Melody And Harmony Do Not Obviously Minister

To The   Welfare Either Of    The   Individual Or Of    Society. May We Not

Suspect, However, That This Exception Is Apparent Only? Is It Not A

Rational Inquiry--What Are The   Indirect Benefits Which Accrue From

Music, In Addition To The   Direct Pleasure It Gives?

 

 

 

But That It Would Take Us Too Far Out Of    Our Track, We Should Prelude

This Inquiry By Illustrating At Some Length A Certain General Law Of

Progress;--The Law That Alike In Occupations, Sciences, Arts, The

Divisions That Had A Common Root, But By Continual Divergence Have

Become Distinct, And Are Now Being Separately Developed, Are Not Truly

Independent, But Severally Act And React On Each Other To Their Mutual

Advancement. Merely Hinting Thus Much, However, By Way Of    Showing That

There Are Many Analogies To Justify Us, We Go On To Express The   Opinion

That There Exists A Relationship Of    This Kind Between Music And Speech.

 

 

 

All Speech Is Compounded Of    Two Elements, The   Words And The   Tones In

Which They Are Uttered--The Signs Of    Ideas And The   Signs Of    Feelings.

While Certain Articulations Express The   Thought, Certain Vocal Sounds

Express The   More Or Less Of    Pain Or Pleasure Which The   Thought Gives.

Using The   Word _Cadence_ In An Unusually Extended Sense, As

Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 132

Comprehending All Modifications Of    Voice, We May Say That _Cadence Is

The Commentary Of    The   Emotions Upon The   Propositions Of    The   Intellect_.

The Duality Of    Spoken Language, Though Not Formally Recognised, Is

Recognised In Practice By Every One; And Every One Knows That Very Often

More Weight Attaches To The   Tones Than To The   Words. Daily Experience

Supplies Cases In Which The   Same Sentence Of    Disapproval Will Be

Understood As Meaning Little Or Meaning Much, According To The

Inflections Of    Voice Which Accompany It; And Daily Experience Supplies

Still More Striking Cases In Which Words And Tones Are In Direct

Contradiction--The First Expressing Consent, While The   Last Express

Reluctance; And The   Last Being Believed Rather Than The   First.

 

 

 

These Two Distinct But Interwoven Elements Of    Speech Have Been

Undergoing A Simultaneous Development. We Know That In The   Course Of

Civilisation Words Have Been Multiplied, New Parts Of    Speech Have Been

Introduced, Sentences Have Grown More Varied And Complex; And We May

Fairly Infer That During The   Same Time New Modifications Of    Voice Have

Come Into Use, Fresh Intervals Have Been Adopted, And Cadences Have

Become More Elaborate. For While, On The   One Hand, It Is Absurd To

Suppose That, Along With The   Undeveloped Verbal Forms Of    Barbarism,

There Existed A Developed System Of    Vocal Inflections; It Is, On The

Other Hand, Necessary To Suppose That, Along With The   Higher And More

Numerous Verbal Forms Needed To Convey The   Multiplied And Complicated

Ideas Of    Civilised Life, There Have Grown Up Those More Involved Changes

Of Voice Which Express The   Feelings Proper To Such Ideas. If

Intellectual Language Is A Growth, So Also, Without Doubt, Is Emotional

Language A Growth.

 

 

 

Now, The   Hypothesis Which We Have Hinted Above, Is, That Beyond The

Direct Pleasure Which It Gives, Music Has The   Indirect Effect Of

Developing This Language Of    The   Emotions. Having Its Root, As We Have

Endeavoured To Show, In Those Tones, Intervals, And Cadences Of    Speech

Which Express Feeling--Arising By The   Combination And Intensifying Of

These, And Coming Finally To Have An Embodiment Of    Its Own--Music Has

All Along Been Reacting Upon Speech, And Increasing Its Power Of

Rendering Emotion. The   Use In Recitative And Song Of    Inflections More

Expressive Than Ordinary Ones, Must From The   Beginning Have Tended To

Develop The   Ordinary Ones. Familiarity With The   More Varied Combinations

Of Tones That Occur In Vocal Music Can Scarcely Have Failed To Give

Greater Variety Of    Combination To The   Tones In Which We Utter Our

Impressions And Desires. The   Complex Musical Phrases By Which Composers

Have Conveyed Complex Emotions, May Rationally Be Supposed To Have

Influenced Us In Making Those Involved Cadences Of    Conversation By Which

We Convey Our Subtler Thoughts And Feelings.

 

 

 

That The   Cultivation Of    Music Has No Effect On The   Mind, Few Will Be

Absurd Enough To Contend. And If It Has An Effect, What More Natural

Effect Is There Than This Of    Developing Our Perception Of    The   Meanings

Of Inflections, Qualities, And Modulations Of    Voice; And Giving Us A

Correspondingly Increased Power Of    Using Them? Just As Mathematics,

Taking Its Start From The   Phenomena Of    Physics And Astronomy, And

Presently Coming To Be A Separate Science, Has Since Reacted On Physics

And Astronomy To Their Immense Advancement--Just As Chemistry, First

Arising Out Of    The   Processes Of    Metallurgy And The   Industrial Arts, And

Gradually Growing Into An Independent Study, Has Now Become An Aid To

All Kinds Of    Production--Just As Physiology, Originating Out Of    Medicine

And Once Subordinate To It, But Latterly Pursued For Its Own Sake, Is In

Our Day Coming To Be The   Science On Which The   Progress Of    Medicine

Depends;--So, Music, Having Its Root In Emotional Language, And

Gradually Evolved From It, Has Ever Been Reacting Upon And Further

Advancing It. Whoever Will Examine The   Facts Will Find This Hypothesis

To Be In Harmony With The   Method Of    Civilisation Everywhere Displayed.

 

 

 

It Will Scarcely Be Expected That Much Direct Evidence In Support Of

This Conclusion Can Be Given. The   Facts Are Of    A Kind Which It Is

Difficult To Measure, And Of    Which We Have No Records. Some Suggestive

Traits, However, May Be Noted. May We Not Say, For Instance, That The

Italians, Among Whom Modern Music Was Earliest Cultivated, And Who Have

More Especially Practised And Excelled In Melody (The Division Of    Music

With Which Our Argument Is Chiefly Concerned)--May We Not Say That These

Italians Speak In More Varied And Expressive Inflections And Cadences

Than Any Other Nation? On The   Other Hand, May We Not Say That, Confined

Almost Exclusively As They Have Hitherto Been To Their National Airs,

Which Have A Marked Family Likeness, And Therefore Accustomed To But A

Limited Range Of    Musical Expression, The   Scotch Are Unusually Monotonous

In The   Intervals And Modulations Of    Their Speech? And Again, Do We Not

Find Among Different Classes Of    The   Same Nation, Differences That Have

Like Implications? The   Gentleman And The   Clown Stand In A Very Decided

Contrast With Respect To Variety Of    Intonation. Listen To The

Conversation Of    A Servant-Girl, And Then To That Of    A Refined,

Accomplished Lady, And The   More Delicate And Complex Changes Of    Voice

Used By The   Latter Will Be Conspicuous. Now, Without Going So Far As To

Say That Out Of    All The   Differences Of    Culture To Which The   Upper And

Lower Classes Are Subjected, Difference Of    Musical Culture Is That To

Which Alone This Difference Of    Speech Is Ascribable, Yet We May Fairly

Say That There Seems A Much More Obvious Connection Of    Cause And Effect

Between These Than Between Any Others. Thus, While The   Inductive

Evidence To Which We Can Appeal Is But Scanty And Vague, Yet What There

Is Favours Our Position. 

 

Probably Most Will Think That The   Function Here Assigned To Music