The ethnological study of music / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ethnological study of music / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a given piece of music evokes in the community that produced it, are shared by the members of other communities more or less advanced in civilization. The origin of music.—We may regard musical and verbal language as derived from a common source, namely from the tendency to give vent to feelings by vocal expression. There are, however, other theories as to the origin of music which lay stress on more special factors. One of the objects of the ethnological study of music should be the determination of the importance of these various factors. It has been suggested, for example, that music arose from the imitation of notes of birds and other natural sounds—a conjecture closely analogous to the supposed onomatopoeic origin of verbal language. The suggestion has also been put forward that music began when primitive man vied one with the other in exhibiting his superior attractiveness before women. Other theorists, looking to the value of rhythmical music in furthering work and in dancing, and having regard to the delight taken by primitive people in the beats of the tom-tom, have laid chief stress on rhythm as the source of all music. Here, again, is a conjecture which can only be verified by the systematic study of primitive music. Rhythm and melody.—While some examples of primitive music are characterized by a total absence of rhythm and appear to be melodic elaborations of the recitatif, in other examples rhythms of such complexity are introduced that they defy analysis by the civilized European ear. Not infrequently the accents or measures in the melody are opposed to those in the accompaniment. In India and apparently among the Arabs and certain other peoples, successive notes of very different duration are grouped together and recognized as a unit, each unit sometimes receiving a special name and having a special use according to circumstances. Rhythm and harmony.—The widespread occurrence of complex rhythms among primitive peoples is perhaps intimately related to their generally scant feeling for harmony. In Europe the develop¬ ment of polyphony (in which various independent melodies are sung simultaneously) was regulated by the growing regard for consonances and dissonances. Certain tones when sounded together appeared agreeable, others were deemed unpleasant. Thus arose the distinction between consonant and dissonant combinations. The most perfect consonance is given by the octave, i.e. by two