THROUGH THE AGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

THROUGH THE AGES

DEVELOPMENT OF HARMONY " NON-HUMAN " FUTURE " At what time ye shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of Jmusic, ye shall fall down and worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar has sot up." It is a far cry from the collection of instruments brought to the imagination by this famous command to the modern symphony orchestra on the one hand or the super-jazz band on the other. In fact, if we imagine that the royal musicians in the great Babylonian court worked on even approximately the same principles as a modern orchestra we should be greatly mistaken. Modern European harmony is an entirely foreign language to primitive Eastern music, and behind the gradual evolution of musio as we know it to-day, and have known it for the past 1000 years is a story too involved and technical to deal with in a short article. It has been stated that the marvel about music is not that earlier civilisations did not discover the principles of musio as we know it, but rather that the beauties of European music were ever evolved. Of course, in even the most primitive racesinstruments of sound are used for ritual and dancing. Drums and simple pipes are met with in countless forms throughout the world; but rhythm or a very simple progression of notes of little recognisable form are all that such musio represents. It was in the ancient Egyptian civilisation that the genesis of European musio is thought to have occurred. The tomb paintings show many forms of pipes and stringed instruments such as the lyre and the harp, and it is to forms of these that Biblical references are made. In some paintings, commemorating great state events or the remote past, we see records of large numbers of players playing together, but there is never any sign of a leader or conductor, and students are of the opinion for this and other reasons that there was no understanding of harmony or melody as we know it. Instead, the resultant music must have resembled Chinese or Japanese musio, with which, it is thoughtj to have had very close relationship. Even in Grecian days music must have been very crude, judged by modern lights. Research has brought to light many curious aspects of the system of musical " criticism," if such it may be called. Music was always judged from a metaphysical standpoint, and mystio meanings were given to various modes. Moreover, when it is realised that scales were always thought of as descending, and were constructed on a five-tone basis, it can be seen that Grecian music would have seemed quite alien to our ideas of musical form and beauty. An involved system of musical notation was used, the various notes being represented by inverted letters, and half-letters and other curious devices. It is said that there were over 1000 symbols for musical notes. Then, with the coming of Christianity, all musical interest for hundreds of years was concentrated on unaccompanied choral singing, and the noble Gregorian chants were evolved. At the Renaissance and under the growing influence of opera, instrumental music again began to be studied, and the wonderful principle of harmony and polyphony which had already reached a high level in vocal musio, was gradually extended to instrumental. The way was full of difficulties. The same principles did not apply to the two forms, and the instruments of 200 and 800 years ago were cumbersome, crude and difficult to play.

The ancestors of the modern violins and 'cellos were harsh in tone, the brass instruments were weak, and the reed instruments were thin tonally. It is said that Bach would never have recognised some of his compositions as performed to-day by a symphony orchestra, but one cannot help thinking that he would delight in seeing the greater fullness and flexibility afforded by the modern orchestra.

Indeed, in many respects modern musical developments may be considered as largely due to purely mechanical improvements. It would be a physical impossibility to play many of the works written in the last 100 years with the instruments of 300 years ago. Modern composers can demand a virtuosity infinitely far ahead of any that Bach or Handel or even Beethoven could expect. This definite effect of mechanical invention on music, strange as it seems, may profoundly modify the future course of musical composition. An instrument, piano-like in appearance, but functioning electrically in an intricate manner, can be made to vary its tone into the semblance of the violin, the piano, the organ, or almost any instrument by the turning of a control. Moreover, this instrument is not a kind of super-steam organ with all the " effects" of a Wurlitzer, but it is definitely a musical instrument of serious importance which may ultimately make possible unknown worlds of musical beauty. Similarly, the amazing discovery of Theremin that by the use of electrical oscillations, he was able to " extract music from the air " merely by the movement of his hands, has won tho admiration and attention of serious musicians as well as scientists.

Even theso developments presuppose human dexterity and artistry, but mechanical advances are going still further. Who knows whether composers may not in the future write merely in terms of the undulations in the track of a gramophone record? The pieces, unplayable by hand, which Stravinsky and others have written for the pianola, are but a start in this direction.