renewal of a power to feel and enjoy which is of itself a pecu liar and a very natural satisfaction to a sentient being.

In the earlier stages of the art the struggle to arrive at a solution of the problem this proposes is dimly seen.

As man had only instinct to find his way with, it is not surprising that he was long in finding out means of managing and distributing such contrasts. In the middle period of musical history, when musical mankind had learnt its lesson, and took a complacent view of its achievement, the method and use of such contrasts became offensively obvious; but in the modern period they are disguised by infinite variety of musical and æsthetical devices, and are necessarily made to recur with ! extraordinary frequency in proportion to the exhausting kinds of excitation employed by modern composers. In mature art the systematisation of such contrasts is vital, and in immature art it is incipient; and this fact is the most essential difference between the two.

Of such types of contrast that of principle between the rhythmic and the melodic on one hand, and of emotional and intellectual on the other, are the widest. The manner in which they are applied in the highest works of absolute music, such as symphonies and sonatas, will hereafter come under consideration.

In the earliest stage of musical evolution these respective principles show themselves especially in the manner in which definition is obtained, since, as has been pointed out, definiteness is the first necessity of art. From melodic utterance i came the development of the scale, from dancing the distribu- | tion of pulses. The former is the result of man's instinct to express by vocal sounds, the latter of his instinct to express by gestures and actions; and in the gradual evolution of the art the former supplies the element of sensibility, and the latter that of energy; and when the nature of both is considered it will be felt that these characteristics are in accordance with the nature of their sources.

To sum up. The raw material of music is found in the expressive noises and cries which human beings as well as animals give vent to under excitement of any kind; and

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their contagious power is shown, even in the incipient stage, by the sympathy which they evoke in other sentient beings. Such cries pass within the range of art when they take any definite form, just as speech begins when vague signals of sound give place to words; and scales begin to be formed when musical figures become definite enough to be remembered. In the necessary process of making the material intelligible by definition, the rhythmic gestures of dancing played an important part, for by their means the succession of impulses was regulated, Both vocal music and dancing actually originate in the same sources; as they are different ways of manifesting similar types of feeling. But they are in their nature contrasted, for in the one case it is the sound which forms the means of expression, and in the other it is a muscular action; and the music which springs from these two sources is marked by a contrast of character in conformity with their inherent differences. This contrast presents itself as the widest example of that law of contrasts which runs through the whole art, and forms, next to the definition of material, its most essential feature.

The law of contrasts forms the basis of all the important forms of the art, for a most obvious and natural reason. The principle of sympathetic excitement upon which the art rests necessarily induces exhaustion; and if there was no means of sustaining the interest in some way which allowed repose to the faculties that had been brought into exhausting activity, the work of art could go no further than the point at which exhaustion began. It is therefore a part of the business of the art to maintain interest when one group of faculties is in danger of becoming wearied, by calling into play fresh powers of sensibility or thought, and giving the first centres time to recover tone. And as there would be no point in such a device if the first group of faculties were not called into exercise again when they had revived, the balance and rationale of the process is shown in mature periods of art by a return to the first principle of excitation or source of interest after the establishment of the first distinct departure from it, which embodied this inevitable principle of contrast.

Taking the most comprehensive view of the story of musical evolution, it may be said that in the earlier stages, while the actual resources were being developed and principles of design were being organised, the art passed more and more away from the direct expression of human feeling. But after a very important crisis in modern art, when abstract beauty was specially emphasised and cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, the balance swung over in the direction of expression again; and in recent times music has aimed at characteristic illustration of things which are interesting and attractive on other grounds than mere beauty of design or of

texture.

CHAPTER II

SCALES

THE first indispensable requirement of music is a series of notes which stand in some recognisable relation to one another in respect of pitch; for there is nothing which the mind can lay hold of and retain in a succession of sounds if the relations in which they stand to one another are not appreciably definite. People who live in countries where an established scale is perpetually being instilled into every one's ears from the cradle till the grave, can hardly bring themselves to realise the state of things which prevailed before any scales were invented at all. And the familiar habit of average humanity of thinking that what they are accustomed to is the only thing that can be right, has commonly led people to think that what is called the modern European scale is the only proper and natural one. But it is quite certain that human creatures did exist for a very long time without the advantage of a scale of any sort; and that they did have to begin building up the first indispensable necessity of musical art, by deciding on a couple of notes or so which seemed satisfactory or attractive when heard one after the other; and that they did have to be satisfied with a scale of the most limited description for a very long period.

What interval the primitive savage chose at the outset was probably very much a matter of accident; and inasmuch as scales used for melody are much less exact and stable than those which are used for harmony, it is quite certain that the reiteration of any interval whatever which men first took a fancy for was only approximate, and that only in course of ages did instinctive consensus of opinion, possibly with the help of some primitive instrument, fasten definitely upon a

succession of sounds which to modern musicians would be clearly recognisable as a fourth or a fifth, or any other acoustically explicable pair of notes.

It is advisable to guard at the outset against the familiar misconception that scales are made first and music afterwards. Scales are made in the process of endeavouring to make music, and continue to be altered and modified, generation after generation, even till the art has arrived at a high degree of maturity. The scale of modern harmonic music, which European peoples use, only arrived at its present condition in the last century, after having been under a gradual process of modification from an accepted nucleus for nearly a thousand years. Primeval savages were even worse off than mediæval Europeans. They did not know that they wanted a scale; and if they had known it they would have had neither acous tical theory nor practical experience to guide them, nor even examples to show them how things ought not to be done. But it is very probable that in the end they selected an interval which would approve itself to the acoustical theorist as well as to the unsophisticated ear of a modern lover of art. What that interval would be it is difficult to guess, and pure theoretic speculation is almost certain to be at fault in any decision it comes to on the subject; but examination of the numerous varieties of scales existent in the world, and of such as are recorded approximately by ancient wind instruments, with the help of theory, may ultimately come very near to solving the problem.

With reference to this point, it may be as well to recognise that in the great number of scales which have developed up to a fair state of maturity, there are no two notes whatever that invariably stand in exactly the same relation to one another throughout all systems. It might well be thought that the octave could be excluded from consideration, as if it were not part of a scale, but only the beginning of a new series. But even the octave is said to be a little out of tune in accordance with the authorised theory of Chinese music. However, this is clearly only a characteristic instance of the relation between theory and art, for no Chinese singer would be able consistently