The Mediant or third of the scale is peaceful and calm, and the color
Yellow is suggested, with its vital, radiating, sunshiny warmth and
comfort. The "O, rest in the Lord" from "Elijah" exemplifies this quality
of restful and peaceful assurance. Of the tones of the Dominant chord
besides the Soh which we have considered, the Ti or seventh interval is
full of irresolution and unrest, crying for completion in the strong and
resolute Doh. This unrest and yearning suggest the mixed color Magenta. The
quality is expressed in bits of an old English song entitled "Too Late."
The insistency of the seventh is felt in the strong measures with the
words, "oh let us in, oh, let us in."
The Ray or second of the scale which completes the Dominant chord is
rousing and expectant--quite in contrast to the eagerness and dispair of
the seventh. This second is represented by orange, the mixture of red and
yellow between which it stands being equally related to both, with the
expectancy born of trust and rest which the Mediant expresses, and the
rousing hopefulness which is the outcome of the firm strength and
conviction of the Doh. As a musical example take Pleyel's hymn set to the
words: "Children of the Heavenly King." In the remaining tones of the
sub-dominant chord Fah and Lah, we find Fah the fourth has a distinctively
leaning tendency, a solemnity which calls forth the direct opposite of the
seventh or Ti which yearns upward and cannot be otherwise satisfied, while
Fah is a downward leaning, a protective and even-solemnly grand, dependent
tone. We hear this in the dead march in "Saul," and the almost stern
reproach in the two measures of "Too late, too late, ye cannot enter now."
Fah's tonal qualities suggest the protective green.
Lah, or the sixth tone is expresive of tender sympathy, and unlike Fah, is
a variable tone which may turn upward or downward for rest. It is found
prominently in Minor music and is represented by the half mourning color of
lavender or violet. "By the sad sea-waves" is a good illustration of this
gentle wail.
While these emotional effects are certainly true, it may be well to remind
the reader that when modulation comes in, the character of the tones is
necessarily changed; just as the appearance and impression of an individual
will be modified and altered by change of surroundings. Consequently these
effects are strong only in the pure unmodulated key.
In awakening the musical sensibility of the child, we are rescuing it from
probable loss of appreciation for the noble, and true, and fine. This loss
is shown by such as are pleased with the trash of the "popular" tunes of a
day--tunes which express nothing worthy of the great gift of expression.
Music is life in all its moods and tenses, but we should be sensitive only
to that which is the expression of the best and most helpful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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