Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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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
Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 128Continue, 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
Part 2 Chapter 5 (On The Origin And Function Of Music) Pg 129That 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
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