On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis.

  • Hermann von Helmholtz
Date:
1895
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. Vll I have made many changes in re-editing the section on the History of Music, and hope that I have improved its connection. I must, however, request the reader to regard this section as a mere Compilation from secondary sources ; i have neither time nor preliminary knowledge sufficient for original studies in this extremely difficult field. The older history of music to the commencement of Discant, is scarcely rnore than a confused heap of secondary subjects, while we cau only make hypotheses concerning the principal matters in question. . Of course, however, every tlieory of music must endeavour to bring some Order mto this chaos, and it cannot be denied that it contains many important facts. For the representation of pitch in just or natural intonation, I have abandoned the method originally proposed by Hauptmann, which was not sufficiently clear in involved cases, and have adopted the System of Herr A. von Oettingen [p. 276], as had already been done in M. 0. Gueroult s F rench translation of this book. [A comparison of the Third with the Second editions, shewing the changes and additions individually, is here omitted.] If 1 may be allowed in conclusion to add a few words on the reception expe- rienced by the Theory of Music here propounded, I should say that published objections almost exclusively relate to my Theory of Consonance, as if this were the pith of the matter. Those who prefer mechanical explanations express their regret at my having left any room in this field for the action of artistic invention and esthetic inclination, and they have endeavoured to complete my System by new numerical speculations. Other critics with more metaphysical proclivities have rejected my Theory of Consonance, and with it, as they imagine, my whole Theory of Music, as too coarsely mechanical. I hope my critics will excuse me if I conclude from the opposite nature of their objections, that I have Struck out nearly the right patli. As to my Theory of Consonance, I must claim it to be a mere systematisation of observecl facts (with the exception of the functions of the cochlea of the ear, which is moreover an hypothesis that may be entirely dispensed with). But I consider it a mistake to make the Theory of Consonance the essential foundation of the Theory of Music, and I had thought that this opinion was clearly enough expressed in my book. The essential basis of Music is Melody. Harmony has become to Western Euro- peans during the last three centuries an essential, and, to our present taste, indispensable nleans of strengthening melodic relations, but finely developed music existed for thousands of years and still exists in ultra-European nations, without any harmony at all. And to my metaphysico-esthetical opponents I must reply, that I cannot think I have undervalued the artistic emotions of the human mind in the Theory of Melodic Construction, by endeavouring to establish the physiological facts on which esthetic feeling is based. But to those who think 1 have not gone far enough in my physical explanations, 1 answer, that in the first place a natural philosopher is never bound to construct Systems about everything he knows and does not know; and secondly, that I should consider a theory which claimed to have shewn that all the laws of modern Thorougli Bass were natural necessities, to stand condemned as having proved too much. Musicians have found most fault with the manner in which I have characterised the Minor Mode. I must refer in reply to those very accessible documents, the musical compositions of a.d. 1500 to a.d. 1750, during which the modern Minor was developed. These will shew how slow and fluctuating was its development, and that the last traces of its incomplcte state are still visible in the works of Sebastian Bach and Handel. Heidelberg : May, 1870.