Part 8 (2/2)

But 2n, in a scale containing 3, 5, etc, is ale know as the tonic The tonic, then, gives a sense of equilibriuives a feeling of restlessness or striving

Now tone-relationshi+p alone, it is clear, would not of itself involve this immediate impulse to end a sequence of notes on one rather than on another Nor is tonality, in the all- pervasive sense in which we understand it, a characteristic of ancient, or of mediaeval music, while the tendency to end on a certain tone, which we should to-day call the tonic, was always felt Thus, since complete tonality was developed late in the history ofon the tonic was certainly prior to it, the finality of the tonic would seem to be the primary fact, out of which the other has been developed

We speak to-day, for instance, of dissonant chords, which call for a resolution--and are inclined to interpret them as dissonant just because they do so call But the desire for resolution is historically much later than the distinction between consonance and dissonance ”What we call resolution is not change from dissonant to consonant IN GENERAL, but the transition of definite tones of a dissonant interval into DEFINITE TONES of a consonant”<1> The dissonance co variety, in polyphonicbehind, and the discords which arose while they were catching up were resolved in the final coether; but the STEPS were all PREDETERMINED<2> Resolution was inevitably implied by the very principle on which the device is founded That is, the understanding of a chord as so of tonality; but the ending on the tonic was that out of which this resolution- feeling grew

<1> Stumpf, op Cit, p 33

<2> Grove, _Dict Of Music and Musicians_ Art ”Resolution”

Must we, then, say that the finality of the tonic is a unique, inexplicable pheno up the nature of melody as a proble of finality in the return to 2n is explained by Lipps and his followers, from the fact that the two-division is most natural, and so tones of 2n vibrations would have the character of rest and equilibriuht hold if ere ever conscious of the two-division as such, in tones --which we are not; so that it would seem to depend on the restful character of a perception which by hypothesis is never present to the mind at all

The experience is, on the contrary, immediate,--an impression, not a perception; and this i we have so far discovered The whole develop of tonality, is an expression of the desire for consonance Every change and correction in the scale has gone to hbors And naturally the tonic is the tone hich all other tones have the most unity Now this ”return” pheno of unity The tonic is the epitos of consonance or unity which are possible in any particular sequence of tones, and is therefore the goal or resting-place after an excursion The undoubted feeling of equilibriu on the tonic is thus explained Not that consonance itself, the feeling of unity, is explained But at any rate consonance is the root of the ”return,” and of its development into complete tonality

The history of music is then the explicit develope ofcovers an ever wider field When Mr Hadow says that the terms concord and discord are wholly relative to the ear of the listener,<1> and that the distinction between them is not to be explained on any mathematical basis, or by any a priori law of acoustics,--that it is not because a ly that we dislike it, for it will be a concord soht The minor second may be a ”concord,” that is, we may like it, so of tonality to include the minor second When that day comes the minor second will be so closely linked with other fully consonant combinations that we shall hear it in terms of them, just as to-day we hear the chord of the dominant seventh in terms of its resolution But the basis will not be convention or custo of natural law

The course of music, like that of every other art, is away froh simple--convention, to a coanism The ”natural persuasion” of the ear is omnipotent

<1> WH Hadow, _Studies in Modern Music_, 1893

V

It has been said that the feeling of tonality is a e of the tonic persists throughout every sequence of tones in aa certain relation to the tonic; that relation is an active one It was said that we had a positive desire to end on a certain tone, and that a tendency to pass to that tone was bound up with the hearing of another tone

The degree of this tendency is determined by their relation

The key, the tonality, is determined by the consensus of intervals which have been felt as more or less consonant

Then steps in this scale which coreatest consonance, which is unity, which is rest--are felt as suggesting theression is felt as so co the scale upward, C to C', that element in the tone- space already clearly foreshadowed by the previous tones is C'; B is so near that it is almost C'--it seems to cry aloud to be completed by C' Then the tendency toIn the saly the salient point in the scheme to which it is nearest--and ”tends” to it as to a point of comparative rest

The difference between the major and minor scales may be found in the lesser definiteness<1> hich the tendency to progression, in the latter, is felt--”a condition of hovering, a kind of auity, of doubt, to which side the movement shall proceed” We rees of urgency, of strain, to its centre of gravity, the tonic

<1> F Weinmann, _Zeitschr f Psychol_, Bd 35, p 360

It is froency of Gurney's re for unutterable things, it is really yearning only for the next note ”In this step froain to rest; on what circuitous ways, hat reluctances and hesitations; whether quick and decisively or gradually and unnoticed--therein consists the nature of melody”<1>

<1> Weinmann, op cit

Or in Gurney'sits way through a sweetly yielding resistance to a gradually foreseen cliain fresh expectation is bred, perhaps for another excursion, as it were, round the same centre but with a bolder and freer sweep,to a point where again the oal; till after a certain number of such involutions and evolutions, and of delicately poised leanings and reluctances and yieldings, the forces so accuratelyit horation which has underlain all our provisional adjustments of expectation is triumphantly justified”<1>

<1> Op cit, p 165

This should not be taken as a more or less poetical account under the s” are literal in the sense that one note does imply another as its natural complement and satisfaction and we seek to reach oris an intrinsic ele

There is another point to note The ”sense of potential and co factor of melody If it cannot be said that the first note implies the last, it is at least true that from point to point the next step is dimly foreseen, and this effect is cuoal, at least the hindrances the to the final oal is reached It is like an accumulation of evidence, a constellation of associations AB foretells C; but ABCDEF rushes yet ly upon G So it is that the irresistibleness, the ”unalterable rightness”

of a piece of nificance of this essential internal necessity of progression cannot be overestihtness of htness” is fundaht because it is beautiful, it is beautiful because it is right The natural tendencies point out different paths to the goal; and thus different ways of being beautiful; but the nature of the relation between point and point, the nature of the progression, that is, the nature of melody, is the same

Up to this point we have consistently abstracted fro, however, it is impossible to do so The individuality of a melody is absolutely dependent on its rhythm, that is, on the relative ties to showing the trivial, dragging, lustreless tunes that result froe in the rhythm of noble themes, or even in the distribution of rhythmical elements within the bar

The reason for this is evident The nature of melody in the sense of sequence consists in the varied answers to the demands of the ear as felt at each successive point Now it is clear that such ”answer” can be eiven indifferently, held in suspense, in short, subjected to all kinds of variation as well by the rhythmical form into which it is cast, as by the different choice of possibilities for the tone itself The rhyth to it an independently pleasing ele the intrinsic relations of the notes theree true that in melody and rhyth, the e of tone-sequence and rhythrounded in the identity of their inner nature; both are varieties of the objective conditions of embodied expectation It is not of the essence of music to satisfy explicit and conscious expectation--to satisfy the understanding It meets on the contrary a subconscious, automatic need which beco Every ress in a beautiful melody is hailed like an instinctive action performed for the first tieneral with all its bodily concomitants and expressions Tone-sequence is the satisfaction of attention directed to auditory demands But the form-quality of rhythm, the form-quality of tonality, is an all but subconscious possession Together, reinforcing each other in nant of sense- stimulations