New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-02-02
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR FEBRUARY 2. 1913
MUSICAL CULTURE AMONG ANIMALS

A Ii animals, with few exceptions SeeNi
IA sensible to musical rhythm, and among
those whose hearing apparatus Is highly de-
veloped the sensibiity to dlScordS IS more
keen than among unmuslcal humans DO
far as experiment shows all animals nave
perfect sense of pitch, and they cannot De
taught, like their two-legged brethren, 70 ac-
uuire a taste for dissonanceS. Observation
also shows that the greater an amman
sagacity, the more amenable 1t Is 10 training
the greater will be its musical aptitude.
Monkeys, however, are curious eXcep-
ton to this rule They are not inSensibe to
music When listening to bright. llvely
tune, they will chatter, grimace, and froIic,
and give every indication OF enjoyment put
the capering of the organ grinders monkey
to its masters dance tunes represents the
highest development of Simian musical IN
telligence. Despite their marvellous imita-
tive powers along other lines, they show
little musical aptitude 1t might be interest.
ing to know whether this is due to lack OF
seriousness of character or to inability to
concentrate their interest The fact remains
that while the monkey can be taught to eat
and drink. dress itself, ride bicycle, smoke
a cigarette. and do innumerabe other stunts
like a human being, it shows no evidence OF
musical taste.
DCGS. on the contrary, closest of all ami
II mails to man in his domestic life, evince
the keenest musical susceptibility. Indeed, 1t
might we'll be held that the dog that dis
PLAYS no liking for music is vicious char
actcr. Musical experiments with dogs have
been carried on extensively, and the results
are sufficient to prove that they are not only
able to recognize melodies but to identity
each individual note in the diatonic scale.
The existence of this power for ditterentia-
ting Individual tones was shown by the IN
tcrcsting experiments Of DR.. Otto kallSche
Of Berlin. His plan was to take one tone OF
the scale and identify it for the dog as
food tone" that is, whenever the tone was
sounded. the dog was made to understand
that he could eat piece Of meat placed be-
fore him. Then the other eight tones IN the
scale were sounded in turn, and he was made
TO understand that they were prohibition
tones: i'm other words. he was not 10 eat
when they were sounded apart from the
food tone Five minutes instruction
dav for three days proved ample in every
instance 10 train a dog TO learn the scale.
And so keen was the sense Of tone shown
that the meat would remain untouched when
a scmitonc above or below the food tone
was sounded. or the tone would be reCog-
nizcd when sounded in complex chord or
even in a dissonance that made its detection
impossible 20 the human ear. The dogs
showed. moreover. little confusion when the
food tone" was changed on them from
time 20 time.
When a deep, low tone is sounded on a
stringcd instrument. dog will cock Its ears,
open its mouth, and listen attcntivcly. If
melancholy minor air is played, II is pretty
certain that Fido will howl piteously; but
when the player modulateS into a major
mode and the piece takes on a lively char
actcr. the animals distress will disappear in
,tantly. \ lively tune will make dog frisk
about: but when the rhythm is made too
speedy he will bark his displcasurc like
true critic.
All have seen at vaudeville the dog that
will pick out the American flag when the
band plays Yankee Doodle, the Union
lack when God Save the King strikes up,
or the German flag when he hears the tune
Die Wacht am Rhine This shows the
dog, ability 10 recognize a melody. In all
animal acts great care is used 10 play the
same music all the time. Whether the per-
formers are dogs or other animals. once they
have grown accustomed TO working TO GER
tain rhvthms. they can work 20 no Others.
To change the music would bring the act 20
certain disaster. The same thing holds true