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Page 92
Now if we depart from this chord a sensation of unrest is
occasioned which can only subside by a progression to another
triad or a return to the first. With the development of our
modern system of tonality we have come to think tonally; and a
chord lying outside of the key in which a musical thought is
conceived will carry with it a sense of confusion or mystery
that our modern art of harmony and tone colour has made its
own. Thus, while any simple low chords accompanying the first
notes of Raff's "Im Walde" symphony, given by the horns and
violins, would suggest gloom pierced by the gleams of light,
the remoteness of the chords to the tonality of C major gives
a suggestion of mystery; but as the harmony approaches the
triad the mystery dissolves, letting in the gleam of sunlight
suggested by the horn.
Goldmark's overture to "Sakuntala" owes its subtle suggestion to
much the same cause. Weber made use of it in his "Freisch�tz,"
Wagner in his "Tarnhelm" motive, Mendelssohn in his "Midsummer
Night's Dream," Tcha�kovsky in the opening of one of his
symphonies.
In becoming common property, so to speak, this important
element of musical utterance has been dragged through the mud;
and modern composers, in their efforts to raise it above the
commonplace, have gone to the very edge of what is physically
bearable in the use of tone colour and combination. While this
is but natural, owing to the appropriation of some of the most
poetic and suggestive tone colours for ignoble dance tunes and
doggerel, it is to my mind a pity, for it is elevating what
should be a means of adding power and intensity to musical
speech to the importance of musical speech itself. Possibly
Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" may be considered the
apotheosis of this power of suggestion in tonal colour, and
in it I believe we can see the tendency I allude to. This
work stuns by its glorious magnificence of tonal texture; the
suggestion, in the opening measures, of the rising sun is a
mighty example of the overwhelming power of tone colour. The
upward sweep of the music to the highest regions of light has
much of splendour about it; and yet I remember once hearing
in London, sung in the street at night, a song that seemed to
me to contain a truer germ of music.
For want of a better word I will call it ideal suggestion.
It has to do with actual musical speech, and is difficult to
define. The possession of it makes a man a poet. If we look
for analogy, I may quote from Browning and Shakespeare.
Dearest, three months ago
When the mesmerizer, Snow,
With his hand's first sweep
Put the earth to sleep.
BROWNING, _A Lovers' Quarrel_.
Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and takes
The winds of March with beauty; Violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes.
SHAKESPEARE, _Winter's Tale_.
For me this defies analysis, and so it is with some things
in music, the charm of which cannot be ascribed to physical
or mental suggestion, and certainly not to any device of
counterpoint or form, in the musical acceptance of the word.
INDEX
A.
Accents, 92.
Adagio, 189.
Aeolian mode, 83.
Aeschylus, 70, 76.
Alberti bass, 197.
Allemande, 182, 189, 195.
Amati, 138.
Ambros, 205.
Ambrose, 98, 99, 102, 104.
Amiot, 50, 57, 61, 263.
Anapaest, 75.
Andaman Islanders, 3, 5, 6.
Animals, 13.
Arabian, 152, 158.
Architecture, 192, 225.
Arion, 76.
Aristides, 74, 84.
Aristophanes, 91, 92.
Aristotle, 49.
Aristoxenus, 73, 81.
Assyrian, 48.
Auber, 216, 217, 219.
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