Critical and Historical Essays: Lectures delivered at Columbia UniversityMacDowell, Edward
History
Critical and Historical Essays: Lectures delivered at Columbia University
MacDowell, Edward
Music -- History and criticism
The suggestion conveyed by means of pitch is one of the
strongest in music. Vibrations increasing beyond two hundred
and fifty trillions a second become luminous. It is a curious
coincidence that our highest vibrating musical sounds bring
with them a well-defined suggestion of light, and that as
the pitch is lowered we get the impression of ever increasing
obscurity. To illustrate this, I have but to refer you to the
Prelude to "Lohengrin." Had we no inkling as to its meaning,
we should still receive the suggestion of glittering shapes
in the blue ether.
Let us take the opening of the "Im Walde" symphony by Raff as
an example; deep shadow is unmistakably suggested. Herbert
Spencer's theory of the influence of emotion on pitch is well
known and needs no confirmation. This properly comes under
the subject of musical speech, a matter not to be considered
here. Suffice it to say that the upward tendency of a musical
phrase can suggest exaltation, and that a downward trend may
suggest depression, the intensity of which will depend upon
the intervals used. As an instance we may quote the "Faust"
overture of Wagner, in which the pitch is used emotionally
as well as descriptively. If the meaning I have found in this
phrase seems to you far-fetched, we have but to give a higher
pitch to the motive to render the idea absolutely impossible.
The suggestion offered by movement is very obvious, for music
admittedly may be stately, deliberate, hasty, or furious,
it may march or dance, it may be grave or flippant.
Last of all I wish to speak of the suggestion conveyed by
means of tone-tint, the blending of timbre and pitch. It is
essentially a modern element in music, and in our delight in
this marvellous and potent aid to expression we have carried
it to a point of development at which it threatens to dethrone
what has hitherto been our musical speech, melody, in favour
of what corresponds to the shadow languages of speech, namely,
gesture and facial expression. Just as these shadow languages
of speech may distort or even absolutely reverse the meaning
of the spoken word, so can tone colour and harmony change the
meaning of a musical phrase. This is at once the glory and
the danger of our modern music. Overwhelmed by the new-found
powers of suggestion in tonal tint and the riot of hitherto
undreamed of orchestral combinations, we are forgetting that
permanence in music depends upon melodic speech.
In my opinion, it is the line, not the colour, that will last.
That harmony is a potent factor in suggestion may be seen
from the fact that Cornelius was able to write an entire song
pitched upon one tone, the accompaniment being so varied in
its harmonies that the listener is deceived into attributing
to that one tone many shades of emotion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account