The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-03-20

4 OL au HAnOnS Is IOWnueu essentially
upon rhythmic pulsation.
THE position of this form az rythm
as main factor OF everyday musical
experience Is a matter that may have
escaped notice. It Is impossible to
recall a tune that has once been heard
by noting only the order of it's tones
in pitch. But note the tlme-outline,
and the tune will return at once to the
Fmemory. If pitch were the primary
outline, the reverse would be the case.
It Is o matter of common experience
| thaT IL ndsical work remains unintel-
| lig'hlc until It's rythmic form IS grasp
| ed The essential value OF motive
| "a short musical subject) lies in its
! rythm ard It's general meiodic figure,
| chiefly in the former. So long
| as the rythm is preserved intact all
| Transformations impress the ear as
more or less modified repetitions OF
the original idea. 1t is rythm that
leads to tone relations, and not tome
relations that lead to rythm, for single
notes, or detached chords. however
attractive in themselves, are not mus
ic. There is no music without sue
cessive tones, nor will any succession
mic succession"
The student of music history is ia
miliar with the fact that much is COM
monty said of the work Of the mediae-
val church composers concerning their
Importance as factor in the evo-
luton OF the art. This has ever been
a difRcuH mater for the historian to
rendef convincing, for as Sir Hubert
Parry writes in The Art OF Music,
The whole aspect and texture OF this
old music Is so different from the mod
ern style, that 1t seems almost inconr
ceivable to most people when they first
come into contact with IL that II could
have had any musical effect at all,
much less that It could be the direct
source of the elaborate modern fabric.
Almost every elementary rule of art
which a modern musician holds in
violable is broken necessarily, and
there are. hardly any pieces of music,
by the most learned or intelligent mu-
sician up to the fourteenth century
which are not too rough and uncouth
to be listened to by even the most
liberal minded and intelligent music
ian without such bewilderment as
often ends in irrepressible laughter"
Miss Glyn, however. entirely accounts
for this difference of conception be-
tween the medieaval church and mod
the general principle of art formation.
of early music, and of experience are
all alike in favor of the theory of
rythmic unity; yet the history of the
art Of music at first sight appears to
prove the contrary. If 1t be assumed.
as is commonly done, that modern
music is the lineal descendant Of the
church-music of the middle ages, then
it must follow that the art has orig
mated in tones, and not in rythm,
since. as is well known, rytfm in early
church music was a negligible factor.
This is a time honored assumption
which probably has never before been
questioned, the credentials of which
now require to be examined. The ap-
plication of the evolutionary test must
either confirm or destroy it as the
ory Of musical development and this
may be briefly stated as follows: be-
tween the earlier and later stages
there should exist some affinity, since
the difference will be one of degree
grapes OF thorns. - The rythrnic
feeling is common to all men, but an
indoor sedentary life is fatal to its
development, since there is no call for
its translation into rhythmic action. The
impulse thus suppressed, practically
ceases to exist. Therefore the church
of the middle ages, desiring a music
of her own, was confronted with the
problem of forming an art whose nat
ural foundations had long vanished
from the horizon. How this problem
was solved is well known. Starting
from an arbitrary system, misappre-
hension of Greek scales. tones were
laboriously arranged to sound together
according to well-defined rules, and
this was called counterpoint, or "note
against note The church had no
need to invent harmony, but regarding
the popular music as worldly and friv-
olous. which it doubtless often was,
the monks set to work to devise an
art which should bear no resemblance
whatever to the fascinating buts un-
holy strains that beguiled the outer
world. And in this attempt they may
be said to have succeeded When It
reached the period of It's final develop
ment in the 18th and 18th centuries,
which is the only part OF 1t that can
reasonably be called ar ART. certain
elements of rhythmic form had partially
leavened its construction. and this was
in all probability due to the slow but
sure altering through of the rythrnic
growth which was pressing upon IL
from outside.
But since persistent labor is certain
in the long run to yield some valuable
result to mankind, so these nlonkish
musicians, besides developing an art
which posterity might have done with
out, at the same time. slowly invented
a system wherein to record 1t, nota-
ton which has been indispensable to
musical art. The fact that the church
system. the Gregorian, which held the
field completely from the 4th century
to the close of the 10th. has descended
to posterity by means of Its notation.
and the popular system OF foIksong, with
the exception of few examples noted
down by church musicians. has come
down to us through oral tradition