Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best mobile ebook reader TXT) 📖

Comparatively Monotonous, Emotion Makes Use Of    Fifths,

Octaves, And Even Wider Intervals. Listen To Any One Narrating Or

Repeating Something In Which He Has No Interest, And His Voice Will Not

Wander More Than Two Or Three Notes Above Or Below His Medium Note, And

That By Small Steps; But When He Comes To Some Exciting Event He Will Be

Heard Not Only To Use The   Higher And Lower Notes Of    His Register, But To

Go From One To The   Other By Larger Leaps. Being Unable In Print To

Imitate These Traits Of    Feeling, We Feel Some Difficulty In Fully

Realising Them To The   Reader. But We May Suggest A Few Remembrances

Which Will Perhaps Call To Mind A Sufficiency Of    Others. If Two Men

Living In The   Same Place, And Frequently Seeing One Another, Meet, Say

At A Public Assembly, Any Phrase With Which One May Be Heard To Accost

The Other--As "Hallo, Are You Here?"--Will Have An Ordinary Intonation.

But If One Of    Them, After Long Absence, Has Unexpectedly Returned, The

Expression Of    Surprise With Which His Friend May Greet Him--"Hallo! How

Came You Here?"--Will Be Uttered In Much More Strongly Contrasted Tones.

The Two Syllables Of    The   Word "Hallo" Will Be, The   One Much Higher And

The Other Much Lower Than Before; And The   Rest Of    The   Sentence Will

Similarly Ascend And Descend By Longer Steps.

 

 

 

Again, If, Supposing Her To Be In An Adjoining Room, The   Mistress Of    The

House Calls "Mary," The   Two Syllables Of    The   Name Will Be Spoken In An

Ascending Interval Of    A Third. If Mary Does Not Reply, The   Call Will Be

Repeated Probably In A Descending Fifth; Implying The   Slightest Shade Of

Annoyance At Mary's Inattention. Should Mary Still Make No Answer, The

Increasing Annoyance Will Show Itself By The   Use Of    A Descending Octave

On The   Next Repetition Of    The   Call. And Supposing The   Silence To

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Continue, The   Lady, If Not Of    A Very Even Temper, Will Show Her

Irritation At Mary's Seemingly Intentional Negligence By Finally Calling

Her In Tones Still More Widely Contrasted--The First Syllable Being

Higher And The   Last Lower Than Before.

 

 

 

Now, These And Analogous Facts, Which The   Reader Will Readily

Accumulate, Clearly Conform To The   Law Laid Down. For To Make Large

Intervals Requires More Muscular Action Than To Make Small Ones. But Not

Only Is The   _Extent_ Of    Vocal Intervals Thus Explicable As Due To The

Relation Between Nervous And Muscular Excitement, But Also In Some

Degree Their _Direction_, As Ascending Or Descending. The   Middle Notes

Being Those Which Demand No Appreciable Effort Of    Muscular Adjustment;

And The   Effort Becoming Greater As We Either Ascend Or Descend; It

Follows That A Departure From The   Middle Notes In Either Direction Will

Mark Increasing Emotion; While A Return Towards The   Middle Notes Will

Mark Decreasing Emotion. Hence It Happens That An Enthusiastic Person

Uttering Such A Sentence As--"It Was The   Most Splendid Sight I Ever

Saw!" Will Ascend To The   First Syllable Of    The   Word "Splendid," And

Thence Will Descend: The   Word "Splendid" Marking The   Climax Of    The

Feeling Produced By The   Recollection. Hence, Again, It Happens That,

Under Some Extreme Vexation Produced By Another's Stupidity, An

Irascible Man, Exclaiming--"What A Confounded Fool The   Fellow Is!" Will

Begin Somewhat Below His Middle Voice, And Descending To The   Word

"Fool," Which He Will Utter In One Of    His Deepest Notes, Will Then

Ascend Again. And It May Be Remarked, That The   Word "Fool" Will Not Only

Be Deeper And Louder Than The   Rest, But Will Also Have More Emphasis Of

Articulation--Another Mode In Which Muscular Excitement Is Shown.

 

 

 

There Is Some Danger, However, In Giving Instances Like This; Seeing

That As The   Mode Of    Rendering Will Vary According To The   Intensity Of

The Feeling Which The   Reader Feigns To Himself, The   Right Cadence May

Not Be Hit Upon. With Single Words There Is Less Difficulty. Thus The

"Indeed!" With Which A Surprising Fact Is Received, Mostly Begins On The

Middle Note Of    The   Voice, And Rises With The   Second Syllable; Or, If

Disapprobation As Well As Astonishment Is Felt, The   First Syllable Will

Be Below The   Middle Note, And The   Second Lower Still. Conversely, The

Word "Alas!" Which Marks Not The   Rise Of    A Paroxysm Of    Grief, But Its

Decline, Is Uttered In A Cadence Descending Towards The   Middle Note; Or,

If The   First Syllable Is In The   Lower Part Of    The   Register, The   Second

Ascends Towards The   Middle Note. In The   "Heigh-Ho!" Expressive Of    Mental

And Muscular Prostration, We May See The   Same Truth; And If The   Cadence

Appropriate To It Be Inverted, The   Absurdity Of    The   Effect Clearly Shows

How The   Meaning Of    Intervals Is Dependent On The   Principle We Have Been

Illustrating.

 

 

 

The Remaining Characteristic Of    Emotional Speech Which We Have To Notice

Is That Of    _Variability Of    Pitch_. It Is Scarcely Possible Here To

Convey Adequate Ideas Of    This More Complex Manifestation. We Must Be

Content With Simply Indicating Some Occasions On Which It May Be

Observed. On A Meeting Of    Friends, For Instance--As When There Arrives A

Party Of    Much-Wished-For-Visitors--The Voices Of    All Will Be Heard To

Undergo Changes Of    Pitch Not Only Greater But Much More Numerous Than

Usual. If A Speaker At A Public Meeting Is Interrupted By Some Squabble

Among Those He Is Addressing, His Comparatively Level Tones Will Be In

Marked Contrast With The   Rapidly Changing One Of    The   Disputants. And

Among Children, Whose Feelings Are Less Under Control Than Those Of

Adults, This Peculiarity Is Still More Decided. During A Scene Of

Complaint And Recrimination Between Two Excitable Little Girls, The

Voices May Be Heard To Run Up And Down The   Gamut Several Times In Each

Sentence. In Such Cases We Once More Recognise The   Same Law: For

Muscular Excitement Is Shown Not Only In Strength Of    Contraction But

Also In The   Rapidity With Which Different Muscular Adjustments Succeed

Each Other.

 

 

 

Thus We Find All The   Leading Vocal Phenomena To Have A Physiological

Basis. They Are So Many Manifestations Of    The   General Law That Feeling

Is A Stimulus To Muscular Action--A Law Conformed To Throughout The

Whole Economy, Not Of    Man Only, But Of    Every Sensitive Creature--A Law,

Therefore, Which Lies Deep In The   Nature Of    Animal Organisation. The

Expressiveness Of    These Various Modifications Of    Voice Is Therefore

Innate. Each Of    Us, From Babyhood Upwards, Has Been Spontaneously Making

Them, When Under The   Various Sensations And Emotions By Which They Are

Produced. Having Been Conscious Of    Each Feeling At The   Same Time That We

Heard Ourselves Make The   Consequent Sound, We Have Acquired An

Established Association Of    Ideas Between Such Sound And The   Feeling

Which Caused It. When The   Like Sound Is Made By Another, We Ascribe The

Like Feeling To Him; And By A Further Consequence We Not Only Ascribe To

Him That Feeling, But Have A Certain Degree Of    It Aroused In Ourselves:

For To Become Conscious Of    The   Feeling Which Another Is Experiencing, Is

To Have That Feeling Awakened In Our Own Consciousness, Which Is The

Same Thing As Experiencing The   Feeling. Thus These Various Modifications

Of Voice Become Not Only A Language Through Which We Understand The

Emotions Of    Others, But Also The   Means Of    Exciting Our Sympathy With

Such Emotions.

 

 

 

Have We Not Here, Then, Adequate Data For A Theory Of    Music? These Vocal

Peculiarities Which Indicate Excited Feeling _Are Those Which Especially

Distinguish Song From Ordinary Speech_. Every One Of    The   Alterations Of

Voice Which We Have Found To Be A Physiological Result Of    Pain Or

Pleasure, _Is Carried To Its Greatest Extreme In Vocal Music_. For

Instance, We Saw That, In Virtue Of    The   General Relation Between Mental

And Muscular Excitement, One Characteristic Of    Passionate Utterance Is

_Loudness_. Well, Its Comparative Loudness Is One Of    The   Distinctive

Marks Of    Song As Contrasted With The   Speech Of    Daily Life; And Further,

The _Forte_ Passages Of    An Air Are Those Intended To Represent The

Climax Of    Its Emotion. We Next Saw That The   Tones In Which Emotion

Expresses Itself Are, In Conformity With This Same Law, Of    A More

Sonorous _Timbre_ Than Those Of    Calm Conversation. Here, Too, Song

Displays A Still Higher Degree Of    The   Peculiarity; For The   Singing Tone

Is The   Most Resonant We Can Make. Again, It Was Shown That, From A Like

Cause, Mental Excitement Vents Itself In The   Higher And Lower Notes Of

The Register; Using The   Middle Notes But Seldom. And It Scarcely Needs

Saying That Vocal Music Is Still More Distinguished By Its Comparative

Neglect Of    The   Notes In Which We Talk, And Its Habitual Use Of    Those

Above Or Below Them And, Moreover, That Its Most Passionate Effects Are

Commonly Produced At The   Two Extremities Of    Its Scale, But Especially

The Upper One.

 

 

 

A Yet Further Trait Of    Strong Feeling, Similarly Accounted For, Was The

Employment Of    Larger Intervals Than Are Employed In Common Converse.

This Trait, Also, Every Ballad And _Aria_ Carries To An Extent Beyond

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That Heard In The   Spontaneous Utterances Of    Emotion: Add To Which, That

The Direction Of    These Intervals, Which, As Diverging From Or Converging

Towards The   Medium Tones, We Found To Be Physiologically Expressive Of

Increasing Or Decreasing Emotion, May Be Observed To Have In Music Like

Meanings. Once More, It Was Pointed Out That Not Only Extreme But Also

Rapid Variations Of    Pitch Are Characteristic Of    Mental Excitement; And

Once More We See In The   Quick Changes Of    Every Melody, That Song Carries

The Characteristic As Far, If Not Farther. Thus, In Respect Alike Of

_Loudness_, _Timbre_, _Pitch_, _Intervals_, And _Rate Of    Variation_,

Song Employs And Exaggerates The   Natural Language Of    The   Emotions;--It

Arises From A Systematic Combination Of    Those Vocal Peculiarities Which

Are The   Physiological Effects Of    Acute Pleasure And Pain.

 

 

 

Besides These Chief Characteristics Of    Song As Distinguished From Common

Speech, There Are Sundry Minor Ones Similarly Explicable As Due To The

Relation Between Mental And Muscular Excitement; And Before Proceeding

Further These Should Be Briefly Noticed. Thus, Certain Passions, And

Perhaps All Passions When Pushed To An Extreme, Produce (Probably

Through Their Influence Over The   Action Of    The   Heart) An Effect The

Reverse Of    That Which Has Been Described: They Cause A Physical

Prostration, One Symptom Of    Which Is A General Relaxation Of    The

Muscles, And A Consequent Trembling. We Have The   Trembling Of    Anger, Of

Fear, Of    Hope, Of    Joy; And The   Vocal Muscles Being Implicated With The

Rest, The   Voice Too Becomes Tremulous. Now, In Singing, This

Tremulousness Of    Voice Is Very Effectively Used By Some Vocalists In

Highly Pathetic Passages; Sometimes, Indeed, Because Of    Its

Effectiveness, Too Much Used By Them--As By Tamberlik, For Instance.

 

 

 

Again, There Is A Mode Of    Musical Execution Known As The   _Staccato_,

Appropriate To Energetic Passages--To Passages Expressive Of

Exhilaration, Of    Resolution, Of    Confidence. The   Action Of    The   Vocal

Muscles Which Produces This Staccato Style Is Analogous To The   Muscular

Action Which Produces The   Sharp Decisive, Energetic Movements Of    Body

Indicating These States Of    Mind; And Therefore It Is That The   Staccato

Style Has The   Meaning We Ascribe To It. Conversely, Slurred Intervals

Are Expressive Of    Gentler And Less Active Feelings; And Are So Because

They Imply The   Smaller Muscular Vivacity Due To A Lower Mental Energy.

The Difference Of    Effect Resulting From Difference Of    _Time_ In Music Is

Also Attributable To The   Same Law. Already It Has