San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-12
The Photograph and Primitive
Music.

Music.
New York Tribune.
Chance would have it that | was in
F%raukfort-on the-Msin yesterday,
when a Tribune of August 8, contain
ing Mr.. Gilmsn's letter on your review
of DIR, Fewkes, experiments with the
phonOgraph as IN aid TO the study OF
Iolkmusic, reached me. | read b paper
while in the grounds OF the ELECTRICAL
Exhibition, and embraced the oppor-
runity offered by the various displays
of monographs to test some instrument
with a view to their servlceabillty III
such study and especially to discover
what ground Mr.. Gilman might have
for his belief that the pnOnograph
brings out delicacies OF intouatlon
that the car canno retain. The re-
suits were startling, so startling in
deed, that the skepticism touching
the prevalence of fractional tones i'll
the music of the Zunians, expressed
in your review of the Journaio of Eth
noiogy, and Archaeology, in VIII CO
I shared, has been changed into COM
plets unbelief. While listening to
music repeated by an instrument
of German invention and construction
in which q rotating disk Is used III
stead of the cylinder of the American
instruments, L observed that the pltch
of the music severed times descended
suddenly nearly ifnot quite a semitone
aud then as suddenly returned to the
standard. The instrument was Oh
viously q crude device, though itgave
out the sounds distinctly and with q
loudness which may the usual ear
tubes unnecessary. Since the rotary
motion was supplied to the disk by
| electricity I attributed the changes
In pitch to irregularity Of speed when
record was made.
The reasonsbleness of this theory
was strikingly demonstrated by a series
of experiments undertaken with the
help of Mr.. Graham Hope, manager
in the department devoted to the
| Edison photograph. There l disco
vered that a melody Can be rendered
utterly unrecognizable by Irregular
pedaling, and that by shifting the
regulator ON the instrument supplied
with electrical motors a single tone
can be run through 81 large portion OF
the gamut, producing a tone similar
to that which a violinist produces by
sliding his fingers along a string. L
then sounded q pitch.pipe giving
the A for the French diapasOn nOmal
into the funnel of the instrument
while the cylinder which received the
| record was making first ten, then
twelve, then fifteen revolutions in five
seconds, that period of time beng
chosen as being most practicable.
The record complete, the instrument
x,na .,ala ~ rnpaof thn nnfa OF N nni-
form speed throughout of fifteen revo-
lutions. The results was q seq ueDce o
three intervals, as nea as | could de-
termlne hastily and with the unaidad
ear, q fourth second and first 81 the
tone given out by the pitchpipe. The
last tone was q Ir file shary, but rot
enough go to deceive a musical ear.
Evidently it was one Of Mr.. GilmaD's
delicate intonations, for which he
could find symbol. In repeating the
tones at the lowest rate Of speed it
found that the tone was lowered al
each increase of speed made while
taking the record, the operation being
the reverse of the first. The lowest
of speed in recording yielded the
highest tone in the REPETITION at the
highest rate; the highest rate in re.
cording yielded the lowest tOne(in
one case a full fifth below in repeat
ing at the lowest rate. Whether oil
not the variations follow a rule which
can be formulated with eXactness, ]
can not say; the circumstances did
not permit the scientific accuracy and
fullness of investigation and record
which such a determination would
demand.
l believe that the photograph is
destined to become a most valuable
aid in the investigation Of savag
music, but il must be used scientific
ally, not empirically. A simple de-
vice to ecure absolute regularity o
motion should be applied to it and
the record and transmission should
be made at absolutely the came rate
of speed and with unquestiOned regu
larity of motion. I fear, too, that the
instrument has other vagaries which
ought to admon ish an theological Of
musical student to study it's voice
cautiously. L confess that / part with
regret from the Zuni melodies which
DR.. Fewkes imprisoned on his phono
graph cylinder and Mr.. Gilman tran
scribed for us chose quarter-tOne'
opened up such a delightful field fol
speculation but since 1 toyed witt
q photograph and pitch. pipe at thu
Frankfort Exhibition yesterday they
are banished from my collection. L
is not proved that the Zunians ar,
first cousins, unsteady, with tneHin
docs, Arabs and an Gent Greeks.
J MERIT WINS.
1 We desire to say to our citizens. that 70
, wars we have heen selling nr KING