Semi-weekly herald., 1913-03-31

discords is more keen than among un- I,
musical humans. So far as expert I
ment shows, all animals have per-
feet sense of pitch, and they cannot
be taught, like their two-legged breth-
ren, to acquire taste for dissonances.
Observation also shows that the great
er an animals sagacity, the more
amenabie 1t is to training, the greater
will be its musical aptitude.
Monkeys, however, are = curious
exception to this rule. They are not
insensible to music. When listening
to bright, lively tune, they will
chatter, grimace, and frolic, and give
every indication Of enjoyment. But
the capering of the organ grinders
monkey to its masters dance tunes
represents the highest development
of simian musical intelligence. De-
spite their marvellous initiative pow
ers along other lines, they show lit
tie musical aptitude. 1t might be in
teresting to know whether this is due
to lack Of seriousness of character or
to inability to concentrate their in
terest. The fact remains that while
the monkey can be taught to eat and
drink, dress itself, ride a bicycle,
smoke cigarette, and do innumer-
able other stunts like human being,
It shows no evidence of musical taste.
Dogs, on the contrary, closest Of all
animals to man in his domestic life,
evince the keenest musical suscepti-
,bility. Indeed, it might well be held
that the dog that displays no liking
for music is vicious character. Mu-
sical experiments with dogs have been
carried on extensively, and the re-
suits are sufficient to prove that they
are not only able to recognize melo-
dies but to identify each individual
note in the diatonic scale. The ex-
istence of this power for differentiat-
ing individual tones was shown by
the interesting experiments of DR..
Otto Kalische 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 under
stand that he could eat a piece of
meat placed before him. Then the
other eight tones in the scale were
sounded in turn, and he was made to
understand that they were "prohibi-
ton tones; in other words, he was
Inn tD. uLa,, fhnxr cnIrnHal
apart from the food tone" Five
minutes instruction a. day for three
days proved ample in every instance
to tsrain \ dog to learn the scale
And, so keen was the sense of tone
sho wn that the meat would remain
un touched when a semitone above OIL
below the "food tone" was sounded
or the tone would be recognized wher
sc ,unded in complex chord or ever
bi a dissonance that made its detec
ion impossible to the human ear. The
dogs showed, moreover, little confu
sion when the flood tone" was chang
y ed on them from time to time.
cl When 4 deep, low tone is sounded
10 on a strihged instrument, dog will
z cock up its ears, open its mouth, ant
r listen attentively. If a melanchol.
I'd minor air is played, it is pretty GER
tain that Fido will howl piteously
m but when the player modulates into
st major mode and the piece takes on 1
ID lively character, the animals distres
i'd will disappear instantly. A lively tun
,s will make dog frisk about; but whel
the rhythm is made too speedy he viii
4 bark his displeasure like true critic
,r All have seen at vaudeville tn,
j. dog that will pick out the American
e- flag when the band plays "Yanke
,fl Doodle" the Union Jack when "Go
'y( Save the King" strikes up, or tho Ger
,e man flag when he hears the tune "Di
ldl Wacht am Rhine" This shows tn
e. dogs ability to recognize y melody
l. In all animal acts great care is use
n to play the same music all the time
Whether the performers are dogs o
Of other animals, once they have grow
~ accustomed to working to certai
th rhythms, they can work to no Others
TX To change the music would bring tn
ie act to certain disaster. The sam
rt holds true in great measure for hu
ne man acrobrsts and trapeze perform
o. ers.
n The celebrated tenor Morelli, VIII
st will be remembered by the past gen
Or GRAFTON of opera goers, had saga
n cious little dog which was trained t
e, initiate his masters singing. Perche
is on the piano, he would throw back hi
head and in his own way follow hi
is masters voice up and down the scalt
whining at the top of his voice whe
Morelli was in the upper register an
y, growing when he came down. tn
intense seriousness with which the do
took his. part Of the performance a
ways threw the listeners into paroS
ysms of laughter.
Since the Biblical poet Isaiah cele
brated the warhorse and its suscepti
bilitv IN tho trumnat all horses n