In 'An Introduction to the Study of National Music' (London, 1866) I
have endeavoured to give some account of the musical scales of different
nations. The subject requires, however, fuller investigation than the
aim of that book would permit. The 'Introduction to the Study of
National Music' is intended to acquaint the student with the facts
respecting the music of foreign nations and tribes which have been
transmitted to us by travellers and through other sources. It can
therefore scarcely claim more than to be a collection of materials which
will prove useful for the erection of an edifice called the Science of
National Music, as soon as the necessary additional materials have been
obtained, without which it would be premature to design in detail the
plan of the edifice, and to determine precisely its dimensions and
internal divisions. The acquisition of useful materials will probably be
promoted by the step recently taken by the British Association for the
Advancement of Science.[113] There can be no greater mistake in such
pursuits than to form a theory before the examples which are to serve as
illustrations have been most carefully examined and verified. It is by
no means easy to commit to notation a popular tune of a foreign country
which possesses peculiarities with which we are unfamiliar. Even
musicians who have had experience in writing down national songs which
they happen to hear, find this difficult. How unreliable, therefore,
must be the notations of many travellers who know but little of music!
Still, the student of National Music, by careful attention and
comparison, is gradually enabled to discern what is genuine, and
valuable for his purpose. He knows that if there prevails a certain
peculiarity in the scale on which the tunes collected are founded, the
cause may be owing to want of musical experience in the person who wrote
the tunes down, or to an individual whim of the performer by whom they
were sung or played to the writer of the notation. But, supposing the
student examines several collections of popular tunes from the same
country, the collections having been formed by different persons
independently of each other, and he finds all exhibiting the same
peculiarity, he has no reason to doubt that it really exists in the
music of that country. Nothing gives to the popular music of a country a
more distinctive feature than the order of intervals on which it is
founded; when the scale has been clearly ascertained, such other
characteristics as the music possesses are generally soon discerned with
sufficient exactness to be definable by the experienced musical
inquirer.
The notations of musical scales of uncivilized nations emanating from
European travellers who have heard the people sing, are certainly to be
received with caution. Of this kind of communication is, for instance,
the notation of the vocal effusions progressing in demi-semitones of the
Marquesas Islanders at their cannibal feasts, written down by Councillor
Tilesius, and published in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Leipzig,
1805; or the notation of songs of the New Zealanders containing smaller
intervals than semitones, which Mr. Davies has written down, and which
Sir George Grey has published in his 'Polynesian Mythology of the New
Zealand Race' (London, 1855). It is, however, often possible to
ascertain the musical scale of a nation with exactness by examining the
musical instruments appertaining to the nation. Thus, for instance, the
Chinese close some of the finger-holes of their flutes by sticking
pieces of bladder over them, in order to ensure the pentatonic scale;
the Javanese construct instruments of percussion with sonorous slabs of
metal or wood, arranged in conformity with the pentatonic scale; the
Arabs, and most Mohammedan nations who have cultivated their music
after the system of the Arabs, possess wind-instruments of the oboe kind
on which the finger-holes are placed in accordance with the division of
seventeen intervals in the compass of an octave; and also several
stringed instruments of the Arabs, which are supplied with frets made of
gut wound round the neck or finger-board, exhibit the same order of
intervals; again, certain stringed instruments of the Hindus contain a
number of little bridges, stuck with wax beneath the strings so as to
produce, on a string being pressed down on the bridges successively,
twenty-two intervals in the compass of the octave. Other instruments
have marks on the sound-board as a guide to the performer where he has
to press down the strings in exact conformity with the established
scale.
What we observe with different nations of the present day, respecting
the diversity of musical scales, might evidently also have been observed
in ancient time. The Greeks had several kinds of scales, the popularity
of which changed at different periods. So also had our forefathers
during the Middle Ages. There is no necessity to refer to the Tetrachord
of the ancient Greeks and the Hexachord of Guido Aretinus for evidences
of the mutability of taste in these matters, since it can be observed
sufficiently by referring to the music of nations around us. However,
the so-called Modes of our old ecclesiastical music require here, at any
rate, a passing notice.
Some theorists maintain that our diatonic major scale is alone a true
scale, and that any other regular succession of tones in which the two
semitones of the diatonic scale occur upon other intervals than 3-4 and
7-8 is, properly speaking, a Mode. According to this doctrine, which was
evidently suggested by the ecclesiastical Modes, our minor scale must be
called a Mode, and the scales with steps exceeding a whole-tone, of
which some examples will presently be given, are Imperfect Modes. It is
unnecessary to refute such pedantic definitions; suffice it to remember
that they exist.
Again, the diatonic major scale is regarded by many musicians as the
natural order of intervals on which the compositions must be founded
whenever the art of music has attained to a high degree of development,
and which will therefore be universally adopted in the course of time.
They form this opinion especially from the laws of Acoustics, since the
intervals constituting the diatonic major scale are those which as
harmonics stand in the most simple relation to the fundamental tone
produced by a vibrating body. Here, however, it must be observed that
the intervals of our diatonic scale are not all of them precisely the
same as those harmonics, but are "tempered;" since, did we tune them
pure, as nature gives them, we could not use our system of harmony as it
has been developed by our classical composers.
Moreover, if the diatonic major scale is thus suggested by nature, the
minor scale with its flat third must be more artificial, and less likely
to be universally adopted. Howbeit, the minor scale is especially
popular, not only with several uncivilized races, but also with several
who have cultivated the art of music to a high degree. Some of our most
eminent composers have written perhaps more beautiful music in minor
than in major keys.
Besides, certain deviations from the diatonic major scale, which we meet
with in the music of foreign nations, possess a particular charm, which
we are sure to appreciate more and more as we gradually become familiar
with them. This, for instance, is the case with the Superfluous Second
introduced as an essential interval of the scale. Many of our musicians
regard such intervals as whimsical deviations, which ought not to be
liked because they do not well agree with the rules laid down in our
treatises on the theory of music. To such learned Professors the scale
of the Arabs, with its seventeen intervals in the compass of an octave,
instead of twelve semitones, as in our own system, is of course a
flagrant misconception--not to speak of the twenty-two demi-semitones of
the Hindus, which ought to be twenty-four. Those nations have musical
systems very different from ours, for which their order of intervals is
well suited. Our rules of harmony and forms of composition are unknown
to them; still, their popular legends and traditions clearly prove that
they appreciate the beauty and power of music not less keenly than we
do; and they demonstrate the superiority of their scales with the same
confidence as any of our theorists are capable of displaying.
Could we trace our diatonic Major Scale in the songs of birds and in the
euphonious cries of certain quadrupeds, we should have a more cogent
reason for regarding it as the most natural scale than is afforded by a
comparison of the vibrations required for the production of its several
intervals. The songs of various birds have been written down in
notation, from which it would appear that these feathered songsters
possess an innate feeling for the diatonic major scale; but,
unfortunately, unless the melodious phrases, or passages, thus noted
down are distinguished by some remarkable rhythmical peculiarity, they
are seldom easily recognizable when they are played on a musical
instrument. There may be among the numerous birds a few which in their
natural song, untaught and uninfluenced in any way by man, emit a small
series of tones strictly diatonic; but no such musicians are to be found
among our own birds, although we have in Europe the finest singing birds
in existence. The nightingale, it is true, produces occasionally a
succession of tones which nearly corresponds with the diatonic Major
Scale in descending, and which might possibly be mistaken for it by a
listener charmed by the exquisite purity and sweetness of the tones
which he does not investigate with the ear of a pianoforte-tuner. Even
the two melodious sounds of the cuckoo cannot be properly written down
in notation; nor can they be rendered on the pianoforte, because they do
not exactly constitute a Major Third, for which they are generally
taken, and still less a Minor Third. A certain ape of the Gibbon family
is said to produce exactly the chromatic scale through an entire octave
in ascending and descending. Darwin, who in his work on 'The Expression
of the Emotions in Man and Animals' (London, 1872; p. 87) mentions the
astonishing musical skill of this ape, remarks that some quadrupeds of a
much lower class than monkeys, namely Rodents, "are able to produce
correct musical tones," and he refers the reader to an account of a
"singing Hesperomys" [a mouse] by the Rev. S. Lockwood, in the
'American Naturalist,' Vol. V., December, 1871; p. 761. Notwithstanding
the great authority of Darwin, the musical inquirer will probably desire
to ascertain for himself whether the "correct musical tones" are exactly
in conformity with our diatonic and chromatic intervals. However, even
if this should be the case in a few instances, it can only be regarded
as quite exceptional.
During the present century, our musical composers have so frequently
employed in the diatonic major scale the Minor Sixth instead of the
Major Sixth, that some theorists--among them Moritz Hauptmann--notice
this order of intervals as a new and characteristic scale, and desire to
have it as such generally acknowledged by musicians. A. Krauss, a
teacher of music in Florence, has recently published a pamphlet,
entitled 'Les Quatre Gammes diatoniques de la Tonalite moderne,' in
which he designates this new scale with the name 'La Gamme semimajeur'
(The Half-major Scale,) which is at any rate better than that suggested
by Moritz Hauptmann, in his 'Die Natur der Harmonik and der Metrik,'
which is 'Die Moll-Dur-Tonart' (the Minor-Major-Key, or scale).
We possess then, according to these theorists, now four diatonic scales,
namely:--
[Music: 1. THE MAJOR SCALE.]
[Music: 2. THE HALF-MAJOR SCALE.]
Or also with minor seventh in descending:
[Music: 3. THE MINOR SCALE.]
[Music: 4. THE HALF-MINOR SCALE.]
The Half-Minor Scale contains the Minor Third, while its other intervals
are identical with those of the Major Scale. This is the case in
descending, where the seventh and sixth are lowered, as well as in
ascending.
Furthermore, we have the Chromatic Scale, a regular progression in
semitones, which is much used by modern composers; and the Enharmonic
Scale, which may be said to exist only in notation, since it is not
executable on most of our musical instruments, but which is likely to
become important in the music of a future period when our instruments
have been brought to the degree of perfection which permits the most
delicate modifications in pitch by the performer, and which is at
present almost alone obtainable on instruments of the violin kind.
[Music: 5. THE CHROMATIC SCALE.]
[Music: 6. THE ENHARMONIC SCALE.]
Furthermore, we find at the present day the following scales in use
among foreign nations:--
[Music: 7. THE MINOR SCALE WITH TWO SUPERFLUOUS SECONDS.]
If the lover of music is acquainted with the popular songs and
dance-tunes of the Wallachians, or with the wild and plaintive airs
played by the gipsy bands in Hungary, he need not be told that the Minor
Scale with two Superfluous Seconds is capable of producing melodies
extremely beautiful and impressive. Indeed, it would be impossible to
point out more charming and stirring effects than those which
characterise the music founded on this scale.
[Music: 8. THE PENTATONIC SCALE.]
The Pentatonic Scale was in ancient times apparently more universally in
use than it is at present. It is still popular in China, in Malaysia,
and in some other Eastern districts. Traces of it are found in the
popular tunes of some European nations, especially in those of the
Celtic races. Its charming effect is known to most of our musicians
through some of the Scotch and Irish melodies. Also among the Javanese
tunes, which have been brought to Europe by travellers, and which are
generally strictly pentatonic, some specimens are very melodious and
impressive.
[Music: 9. THE DIATONIC SCALE WITH MINOR SEVENTH.]
The Diatonic Scale with Minor Seventh is likewise an Eastern scale.
Among European nations, the Servians especially have popular tunes which
are founded on this scale. The Servian tunes frequently end with the
interval of the Fifth instead of the First or the Octave. As the leading
tone of our diatonic order of intervals--the Major Seventh--is wanting,
our common cadence, or the usual harmonious treatment of the conclusion
of a melody to which our ear has become so much accustomed that any
other appears often unsatisfactory, cannot be applied to those tunes.
Nevertheless, they will be found beautiful by inquirers who are able to
dismiss prejudice and to enter into the spirit of the music. Although
the scale with Minor Seventh bears a strong resemblance to one of our
antiquated Church Modes, called Myxo-Lydian, it is in some respects of a
very different stamp, since its characteristic features would become
veiled if it were harmonised like that Church Mode.
In addition to the nine scales which have been enumerated, some others
could be pointed out which are popular in European countries; but, as
they resemble more or less those which have been given above, and as
they may be regarded as modifications, it will suffice here to refer to
them only briefly. There are, for instance, in the Irish tunes many of a
pentatonic character in which one of the two semitones of the diatonic
scale is extant, and the scale of which therefore consists of six
intervals, either thus
[Music: C, D, E, F, G, A, C], or thus [Music: C, D, E, G, A, B, C]
We also meet with a pentatonic order of intervals in which the Third is
flat like in our diatonic minor scale.
Again, some nations which have the diatonic order of intervals deviate
slightly from it by habitually intoning some particular interval in a
higher or lower pitch than it occurs in our tempered system. For
instance, careful observers have noticed that the Swiss peasants in
singing their popular airs are naturally inclined to intone the interval
of the Fourth sharper than it sounds on the pianoforte. Thus, in C-major
it is raised so as to give almost the impression of _F sharp_. This
peculiarity is supposed to have arisen from the Alphorn, a favourite
instrument of the Swiss, on which the interval of the Fourth, like on a
trumpet, is higher than it is in our Diatonic Scale. No doubt many
peculiarities of this kind are traceable to the construction of certain
popular instruments. This is perhaps more frequently observable among
uncivilized nations than with Europeans. Professor Lichtenstein, who,
during his travels in South Africa, in the beginning of the present
century, investigated the music of the Hottentots, asserts that these
people sing the interval of the Third slightly lower than the Major
Third, but not so low as the Minor Third; and the Fifth and Minor
Seventh likewise lower than in our intonation. He found that the same
deviations from our intervals exist on the _Gorah_, a favourite stringed
instrument of the Hottentots.
Other peculiarities of the kind are more difficult to explain. In the
Italian popular songs of the peasantry, for instance, we not
unfrequently meet with the Minor Second, where to an ear accustomed to
our Minor Scale it appears like a whimsical substitution for the Major
Second. It occurs, however, only occasionally. When it is used, the
scale is as follows; the Seventh being Major in ascending, and Minor in
descending:--
[Music]
In some instances such peculiarities have evidently been derived, as has
already been stated, from the series of tones produced on a popular
instrument. But there are many instances in which the tones yielded by
the instrument have been purposely adopted in the construction of the
instrument from the previously existing popular scale of the vocal
music. Thus, it may possibly be that, as some inquirers maintain, the
pentatonic character of certain Irish airs has its origin in the
primitive scale of the ancient rural bagpipe of Celtic races, or, as
others believe, in the simple construction of the ancient Irish
harp;--on the other hand, the Chinese and Javanese, as we have seen,
contrive in the construction of their instruments to obtain the
pentatonic scale on which their vocal music is usually founded.
Those theorists who regard our diatonic major scale as the most perfect
one, which ultimately must be universally accepted as the only true one,
will probably not admit that under certain circumstances the sounding of
one or other of its intervals a little "out of tune" may actually
increase the beauty of a musical performance. Such is, however,
unquestionably the case. To note a curious instance in proof of the
correctness of this assertion as afforded by the clavichord, a
contemporary of the harpsichord and predecessor of the pianoforte:--The
strings of the clavichord are not sounded by being twanged with quills,
as is the case in the harpsichord, but are vibrated by means of iron
pins, called tangents, which press under the strings when the keys are
struck. The pressure of the tangent lasts as long as the key to which
the tangent is attached is held down. The deeper the performer presses
the key down with his finger, the stronger is the pressure of the
tangent against the string, and the more the string is raised by it.
The raising of the string has the effect of slightly raising the pitch
of its tone. The performer, therefore, has it in his power to modify in
some degree the pitch of a tone, and by this means to distinguish any
tone to which he desires to give emphasis, or to render prominent in
expressing a melody, or in executing a passage with delicacy. The
aptness of the clavichord for yielding to these deviations from the
intonation of the intervals in which it is tuned, combined with its
aptness for producing with great delicacy different degrees of loudness,
constitute the principal charms of the instrument, and sufficiently
account for the love which our old classical composers,--Handel, Bach,
etc.,--bore for the clavichord.
A musical instrument containing all conceivable perfections for
performance, we do not yet possess. Such an instrument would be required
to yield not only Whole-Tones and Semitones, but likewise
Demi-semitones, Semidemi-semitones,--in short, every modification of an
interval which the performer desires. It must have the greatest compass
obtainable in tones. All its tones must be of equal power, sonorousness
and beauty. The sustaining, the increasing and decreasing in loudness,
must be possible with each tone separately, at the option of the
performer, even in harmonious combinations. Likewise the difference in
manner of expression, such as legato, staccato, etc., must be thus
obtainable. The greatest possible difference in the quality of sound
(_timbre_) must be at the command of the performer for any tone which he
wishes to be thus affected. The instrument must permit the simultaneous
sounding of as many of its tones as the performer desires, whatever
their distance from each other may be, and this must be achievable by
him with about the same facility as he requires for the production of a
single tone. The instrument must be playable by only one performer; it
must not present any extraordinary difficulty to musicians to play it
well; and it must permit being easily kept in tune. Perhaps the organ
approaches the nearest to this perfection, but is still far from it. The
violin and the violoncello are in some respects ahead of all--at any
rate, as regards delicacy of expression.
But, fascinating though it may be to depict such a nearly perfect
musical instrument of the Future, the real substitutes of our present
contrivances, a century or two hence, will probably be very different
from our ideal, especially if we found our speculation on the impression
that our Tonal System is the only right one, and that our diatonic major
scale will be as everlasting as a mathematical truth, or as the axiom
that two and two are four.
Indeed, the mutability of the musical taste of man appears to be
unlimited, and it is certainly possible that our children's children may
find decidedly objectionable some rule of musical composition which is
now thought highly satisfactory. Did not our ancestors at the time of
Hucbald relish consecutive Fifths and Octaves as an harmonious
accompaniment to a melody? A Chinese Mandarin, on hearing a French
Jesuit, at Pekin, play on a clavecin some _Suites de Pieces_ of a
celebrated French composer, endeavoured to convince the performer that
the Chinese music was the only true music "because," he said, "it
appeals to the heart, while yours makes only noise." When Villoteau,
during his residence in Egypt, investigated the Arabic music, his Arab
music-master at Cairo endeavoured to convince him that the division of
the Octave into seventeen intervals was more natural and tasteful than
the European division into twelve chromatic intervals. A Nubian
musician, on hearing Mr. Lane play the pianoforte, remarked: "Your
instrument is very much out of tune, and jumps very much." He evidently
missed the accustomed small intervals connecting the whole-tones in his
own music. Livingstone, in his 'Missionary Travels in South Africa,'
relates that on a certain occasion when an English missionary sang a
hymn to an assembly of Bechuana Kafirs, "the effect on the risible
faculties of the audience was such that the tears actually ran down
their cheeks;" and the same may have happened to the missionary when he
heard the Kafirs sing.
Many more examples from nations in different stages of civilization
could be cited evidencing the remarkable variety and instability of
musical taste. Much of our own music, which about a century ago was
greatly admired, appears now unimpressive; and great masters who
introduce important innovations are sure at first not to be understood
by the majority of musical people.
Instead of regarding our Tonal System as exhibiting the highest degree
of perfection attainable, and of repudiating musical conceptions which
reveal another foundation, as our musicians are apt to do, it would be
more wise in them to study the various systems on which the music of
different nations is founded, to acquaint themselves especially with the
characteristics of the various scales, and, by adopting them on proper
occasions, to produce new effects more refreshing than the hackneyed
phrases and modulations which usually pervade their works.
[Illustration: FINIS.]
[113] See above, Vol. I., p. 23.