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Show 90 1\tEANS or ~XPUESS!ON CHAP. IV. " by the s parate ~onndH which make np the mel~dy. " This is an effect indefinable in language-one wh1ch, '' so ftu· a· I am a war , no one has been able to analyse, " and whi ·h the ingenious speculation of Mr. Herbert '' Bpencer as to the orio·in of music leaves quite unex" plainecl. For it is ce~tain that the r;nelodic effect of .a " series of sounds does not depend in the ] east on their ~ " louclne s or softness, or on their absoz~~te pitch. A " tune is always the same tune, whether it is.su~g loudly " or oft.ly, by a child or a man; whether 1t Is pla~ed " on a flut or on a trombone. The purely mus1cal " ffi ct of any sonnd depends on its place in what. iR " technically called a 'scale;' the same sound p~ocluc11~g " absolutely different effects on the ear, accord1ng. as It. " i. · h ard in connection with one or another ser1es ot " sound:;. '' It is on this rr·elati'Ve association of the sounds that " all the essentially characteristic effects which are " summed up in the phrase ' musical expression,' depend. " But why certain associations of sounds have snch-and" such effects, is a problem which yet remains to be " solved. rrhese effects must indeed, in some way Ol' " other, be connected with the well-known arithn1.etical " relations between the rates of vibration of the soundR " which form a musical scale. And it is possible,, but this is merely a suggestion-that the greater or " less mechanical facility with which the vibrating " apparatus of the human larynx passes from one state '' of vibration to another, may have been a prin1ary " cause of the greater or less pleasure produced by ' ' van.o us sequences o f sounc1 s . " But leaving aside these co1nplex questions ancl con~ fining ourselves to the simpler sounds, we can, at least, see some reasons for the association of certain kinds of sounds with certain states of mind. A scream, for CHAP. IV. 1N ANIMAt . instance, uttered Ly a young auinh 1, ot· hy one f th n1 mbers of a eo1nmuuity, as a ·all for a:-;si tane , will naturally b . loud, prolong_ d, and high, s aH 1 }Wnc.·tra~ e to a distance. For H ln1holtz has I hown 7 th< t, owing to the shape of the internal cavity of th lu~man ear and its consequent power of resonanc , hio·h not I produce a particularly strong in1pression. 'Vh n n1nl animals utter sounds in order to please the female , th y would naturally emp]oy those which are swe t to the ears of the Rpecies ; and it appears that the sam sounds are often pleasing to wid ly differ nt anhnals, owing to the similarity of their nervous syste1ns, as we ourselves perceive in the singing of birds and ev n in the chirping of certain tree-frogs giving us pl nslUE. On the other hand, sounds produced in order to strike terror into an enemy, would naturally be harsh or displeasing. vVhether tho principle of antithesis l1as come in1 o play with sounds, as might perhaps have Leen cxp ct d, is doubtful. The interrupted, laughing or tittering ~ounds n1ade by man and by various kinds of InonkeyM when pleased, are as different as possible from the prolonged screams of these animals when distressed. Th deep grunt of satisfaction uttered by a pig, when pleatied with its food, is widely different fron1 its harsh scr mn of pain or terror. But with the dog, as lately remarke(l, the bark of anger and that of joy are sounds which by ~o means stand in opposition to each other; and so it jl In some other eat:>es. There is another obscure point, namely, whether tho f:iounds which are produced under various states of the 7 ' Thc(.H'ie PhyEJiologique do l:t l\fu~iq ue,' Paris, 1 68, p. Ho. Ho1mholtz has also fu11y <Lisenosccl in this profound work the relntiou of the form of the cavity ul' Llw muuth tu Uw pruductiou of vowel~ tiOUUcls. |