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Page 89
Mere beauty of sound is, in itself, purely sensuous. It is
the Chinese conception of music that the texture of a sound
is to be valued; the long, trembling tone-tint of a bronze
gong, or the high, thin streams of sound from the pipes are
enjoyed for their ear-filling qualities. In the _Analects_ of
Confucius and the writings of Mencius there is much mention
of music, and "harmony of sound that shall fill the ears"
is insisted upon. The Master said, "When the music maker Che
first entered on his office, the finish with the Kwan Ts'eu
was magnificent. How it filled the ears!" P�re Amiot says,
"Music must fill the ears to penetrate the soul." Referring to
the playing of some pieces by Couperin on a spinet, he says that
Chinese hearers thought these pieces barbarous; the movement
was too rapid, and did not allow sufficient time for them to
enjoy each tone by itself. Now this is colour without form,
or sound without music. For it to become music, it must possess
some quality which will remove it from the purely sensuous. To
my mind, it is in the power of suggestion that the vital spark
of music lies.
Before speaking of this, however, I wish to touch upon two
things: first, on what is called the science of music; and
secondly, on one of the sensuous elements of music which enters
into and encroaches upon all suggestion.
If one were called upon to define what is called the
intellectual side of music, he would probably speak of "form,"
contrapuntal design, and the like. Let us take up the matter
of form. If by the word "form" our theorists meant the most
poignant expression of poetic thought in music, if they meant
by this word the art of arranging musical sounds into the most
telling presentation of a musical idea, I should have nothing
to say: for if this were admitted instead of the recognized
forms of modern theorists for the proper utterance, we should
possess a study of the power of musical sounds which might
truly justify the title of musical intellectuality. As it is,
the word "form" stands for what have been called "stoutly
built periods," "subsidiary themes," and the like, a happy
combination of which in certain prescribed keys was supposed
to constitute good form. Such a device, originally based upon
the necessities and fashions of the dance, and changing from
time to time, is surely not worthy of the strange worship
it has received. A form of so doubtful an identity that the
first movement of a certain Beethoven sonata can be dubbed by
one authority "sonata-form," and by another "free fantasia,"
certainly cannot lay claim to serious intellectual value.
Form should be a synonym for _coherence_. No idea, whether
great or small, can find utterance without form, but that form
will be inherent to the idea, and there will be as many forms
as there are adequately expressed ideas. In the musical idea,
_per se_, analysis will reveal form.
The term "contrapuntal development" is to most tone poets of the
present day a synonym for the device of giving expression to
a musically poetic idea. _Per se_, counterpoint is a puerile
juggling with themes, which may be likened to high-school
mathematics. Certainly the entire web and woof of this
"science," as it is called, never sprang from the necessities of
poetic musical utterance. The entire pre-Palestrina literature
of music is a conclusive testimony as to the non-poetic and
even uneuphonious character of the invention.
In my opinion, Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the world's
mightiest tone poets, accomplished his mission, not by means
of the contrapuntal fashion of his age, but in spite of it. The
laws of canon and fugue are based upon as prosaic a foundation
as those of the rondo and sonata form; I find it impossible to
imagine their ever having been a spur, or an incentive to poetic
musical speech. Neither, pure tonal beauty, so-called "form,"
nor what is termed the intellectual side of music (the art
of counterpoint, canon, and fugue), constitutes a really vital
factor in music. This narrows our analysis down to two things,
namely, the physical effect of musical sound, and suggestion.
The simplest manifestations of the purely sensuous effect of
sound are to be found in the savage's delight in noise. In
the more civilized state, this becomes the sensation of mere
pleasure in hearing pleasing sounds. It enters into folk song
in the form of the "Scotch snap," which is first cousin to the
Swiss _jodel_, and is undoubtedly the origin of the skips of
the augmented and (to a lesser degree) diminished intervals to
be found in the music of many nations. It consists of the trick
of alternating chest tones with falsetto. It is a kind of quirk
in the voice which pleases children and primitive folk alike,
a simple thing which has puzzled folklorists the world over.
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