Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/91

 MUSIC 83 Immediately after a modulation, the ordinary syllable initials come into use again, and con- tinue to be employed until a fresh modulation occurs. It will be seen at once that the diffi- culty of ' remote keys,' which is so serious in f m d the established notation, thus altogether disap- pears. For instance, a vocal phrase occurring in Spohr's 'Last Judgment,' which in the es- tablished notation is represented in the fol- lowing manner : il||il== takes, in the notation before us, the simple form, sit | d' mf 8 sfl II s | / m. As another example, take the following, from the same work : d The system of notation of which a cursory sketch has just been given originated, it is said, with two Norwich ladies named Glover, but has received its present form at the hands of Mr. J. Curwen, to whom it owes the name of 'tonic sol-fa,' by which it is now so widely known. No mention has been made of the notation for minor and chromatic intervals, nor of that for denoting the relations of time by measures appealing directly to the eye, in- stead of by mere symbols. On these and all other points connected with his system, Mr. Curwen's published works on tonic sol-fa give full and thoroughly lucid and intelligible explanations. Mr. Curwen has also created a very extensive literature of the best vocal mu- sic, printed in his own notation, which has given a most remarkable impulse to choral singing." Helmholtz gives his opinion in favor of the tonic sol-fa method. Melody is a se- quence of sounds of different heights and du- rations, producing an agreeable effect. In the development of music, melody preceded har- mony ; and Helmholtz traces the progress of musical theory through three distinct periods, viz. : 1, homophonous music of antiquity, to which belongs the music at present in use among oriental people; 2, polyphonic music of the middle ages, which allows of several parts, but without attaching any importance to the indi- vidual signification of musical accords ; its pe- riod extends from the 10th to the lYth century, when it developed into : 3, harmonic or modern music, characterized by the importance given to harmony considered in itself. This school of music began to develop in the 16th century. The best theory of melody, like that of har- mony, is based on the existence of the har- monics in all musical sounds. The harmonics which exist in any two sounds determine the affinity of their sequence, just as the affinities existing between the notes of any chord depend d f d on the harmonics which are common to them. It is necessary for the existence of a melody that the sounds composing it shall have definite intervals between them, or, in other words, steps in pitch, and that these sounds shall have definite durations. The measure of the music directs us in the division of time, while the sequence of the notes by definite numbers of tones and semitones gives us 'the means of making the steps in pitch ; and thus we have the movement of the music from the rhythm and the melody. Such sounds as that made by the wind produce confused and unmusical im- pressions because of the absence of measure and of gradations in pitch ; but music has a scale for measuring the ascending and descend- ing movements of sounds, and this scale is the gamut. The foregoing considerations will lead to a rational explanation why, in the musical scale, we have the octave, the fifth, the third, and so on. In the following table are given the tonic, and under it various musical inter- vals. Each interval is followed by those of its harmonics which it has in common with the tonic. The greater the number of such ties, the greater the affinity of the notes. Tonic (1) Octave (2) Twelfth (3) Fifth Major third Minor third The octave has all of its even harmonics in common with the tonic ; therefore the affinity between it and the tonic is greater than that between the notes forming any other interval. Hence, the octave is to a great extent the rep- etition of the tonic, and this is of course true of all the notes of any octave, referred to the