Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Science
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Psychology, Experimental
mathematically simple. It is not such in virtue of any physical
relations which may obtain among its constituents, though it may be
dependent on such conditions in consequence of the subordination to
physical laws of the organic activities of the human individual. The
view must be subjectively objective throughout.
The need for simplicity and exactness has led to the very general
employment of material as barely sensorial as could be devised for the
carrying on of experiments upon rhythm. Rich tones and complex
combinations of them are to be avoided, for these qualities are
themselves immediate sources of pleasure, and the introduction of them
into the material of experimentation inevitably confuses the analysis
which the observer is called upon to make of his experience and of the
sources of his pleasure in it. Still more objectionable than the
presence of such complex musical tones in an investigation of rhythm
is the introduction of the symbols of rational speech in concrete
poetical forms. This element can be only a hindrance to the perception
of pure rhythmical relations, in virtue of the immediate interest
which the images called up by the verbal signs possess, and further,
in view of the fact that the connections of significant thought impose
upon the purely rhythmical formulation of the series of stimulations
an unrelated and antagonistic principle of grouping, namely, the
logical relations which the various members of the series bear to one
another.
The demand for a simplification of the material which supports the
rhythm experience, for the purpose of obtaining a more exact control
over the conditions of experimentation, has been met by the invention
of a variety of devices whereby the sequences of music, song and
poetical speech have been replaced by elementary conventional symbols
as the vehicle of the rhythmical impression or expression. On the one
side there has commonly been substituted for musical tones and
rhythmical speech the most simple, sharply limited and controllable
sounds possible, namely, those due to the action of a telephone
receiver, to the vibrations of a tuning-fork placed before the
aperture of a resonator, or to the strokes of metallic hammers falling
on their anvils. On the other side, the form of the reproduced rhythm
has been clarified by the substitution of the finger for the voice in
a series of simple motor reactions beaten out on a more or less
resonant medium; by the use--when the voice is employed--of
conventional verbal symbols instead of the elements of significant
speech; and--where actual verse has been spoken--by a treatment of the
words in formal staccato scansion, or by the beating of time
throughout the utterance. The last of these methods is a halting
between two courses which casts doubt on the results as characteristic
of either type of activity. There is no question that the rhythmic
forms of recitative poetry differ vastly from those of instrumental
music and chanted speech.
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