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Music

Musicians usually study music theory, music principles and music laws as they apply to audible human hearing, listening, playing and enjoying music. SVP on the other hand uses music theory, music principles and music laws applied to machines, mechanics and matter and energy in all its various states and subdivision. In many of these SVP applications the sounds and vibrations used are not audible but inaudible.

"Music is the religion of the future and the future of religion is Music." [Hazrat Inayat Khan]


Keely
"That was a happy inspiration which led the Quintet Club, of Philadelphia, to pay a visit to the workshop of Keely a few weeks ago. Its members had been told that the illustrious inventor had employed the power of music to develop the wonderful forces of nature, and evolve by a law of sympathetic vibrations a mighty energy through the disintegration of a few drops of water. Naturally they were anxious to go. They were familiar with the claim by Paganini that he could throw down a building if he knew the chord of the mass of masonry, and wanted to know if it were possible that the dreams of the great violinist is realized at last.

So nearly as can be made out from the mysterious language of the man of many promises, there is a harmony of the universe that is controllable by the strains of music. Each of the molecules composing a mass of matter is in a state of incessant oscillation, and these movements can be so much changed by means of musical vibration that the matter will be disintegrated, its constituent molecules fly apart, and a propulsive force be generated similar to that which is evolved by the touching of a match to a single grain of powder stored in a magazine. He holds that matter is nothing but forces held in equilibrium, and that if the equilibrium be once destroyed the most tremendous consequences will ensue.

According to the report, he proved to the satisfaction of more than one member of the club that he has already discovered the means of calling out this force, and is able to partially control it. In their presence he caused a heavy sphere to rotate rapidly or slowly, according to the notes given by the instrument on which he played. The sphere was so isolated as to prove that it could not be acted on by electricity or in any other way than by the sound waves. He disintegrated water into what he calls "etheric vapor" by means of a tuning fork and a zither. The disintegration of only four drops of water produced a pressure of 27,000 pounds to the square inch, and three drops of the harmless liquid fired off a cannon with a tremendous roar." [Keely and His Discoveries]


Russell
"The beauty of a piece of music is not in its technique but in the Soul of its creator; nor is it in the sound vibrations of the piece but in the silence of the Light from which the sound springs." [Walter Russel]


Albert Einstein
"The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition. My parents had me study the violin from the time I was six. My new discovery is the result of musical perception." Albert Einstein, commenting on "The General Theory of Relativity" to Shinichi Suzuki (musical historian and instructor; e.g.: "The Suzuki Method.")
in: "Nurtured by Love: A New Approach to Education," by Shinichi Suzuki, publ. Exposition Press: New York, 1969 (page 90)


Beethoven
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." [Beethoven]


Cayce
"Let yourself be in agreement with spiritual meaning or prompting; like the beauty of music, the rhythm in mathematics, the rhythm in the score in music and that which answers to the high emotions of affection, companionship, activities in your relationships." [Cayce (4028-1]

"For this is the manner... MUSIC... in which distances may be spanned; in which all realms of thought may find a greater outlet of expression; and in which the heart may be raised to a comprehension of the relationships. For, as is oft expressed, the angels seeing - and the music of the spheres, as in color and relationship - this becomes the means or manner that is universal in its activity upon the minds and souls of men." Cayce (1938-1)

"It (the study of music) gives (a knowledge of) a rhythm that is as necessary as law, in making any success in a material experience. Some knowledge of music and some knowledge of law are necessary in the experience of every male individual." Cayce (903-3,4)


Dalai Lama
"Music symbolizes the yearnings for harmony, with oneself and with others, with nature and with the spiritual and sacred within us and around us." [Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama for The World Festival of Sacred Music]

The Power of Music to Transform Society


Ramsay
"It is not by one pulse of the air in a second of time from a vibrating string that we hear a sound. Our ear waits till the vibrations are somewhere about 32 in a second, and then there begins to be heard a very low and not very distinct sound of little service as yet in the musical range. It is when the vibrations become more numerous that the sounds ascend and take their place within the horizon of music. Vibrations are the protoplasm of music. As the nebulous mists which hang in the depths of space are, perhaps, the protoplasm of planets; and as the all-prevading ether is, perhaps, the protoplasm from which our so-called chemical elements are built up; and as the living cell is the organic protoplasm out of which all living tissues are differentiated for their proper functions and special ends, so these vibrations of the air are the protoplasm of music." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 19]

"The science of music is the knowledge of how Nature proceeds in this beautiful region of creation in which so much of pleasure for mankind is found, and meet expression for the praise of God. "Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast;" how much more to gratify the civilized and educated ear; to stir with inspiration the prophetic gift; to comfort the troubled heart; and to draw forth the best feelings of our nature." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 20]

"While vibrations are the sound-stuff, the protoplasm of notes, semitones are, as it were, the atoms of which music is composed. We may think and talk of quarter tones and commas, apotomes and skismas, and dots, but these have no place as intervals for the musical ear, nor any part in the compositions which so charm us of the great masters." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 20]

"notes which are produced by the two primes, 3 and 5. As the quadrant contains all the angles which give the different proportions in form, so does the ratio of 1:2, or the area of an octave, contain all the different notes in music. The ratio of 1:2 corresponds to unity, and, like the square and the circle in form, admits of no varieties. Half the length of a string gives an octave when the string is homogeneous and uniform; if the one half has more gravity than the other, the center of gravity of the whole string gives the octave. The ratio of 1:2 rests on the center of gravity. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 27]

Two Music Systems - Organic and Inorganic
"lower effect than the fifth; the seventh, B, has a higher effect than the sixth; but the eighth, C, has a lower effect than the seventh. If the effects of notes or chords depended wholly on the mathematical primes by which they are measured and located, or the ratios inherent in them, then the effects of the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords would have been alike, for these chords are measured by exactly the same primes, and have exactly the same ratios. It is the position of the tonic chord which gives it its importance and not any special primes by which it is produced, nor any special ratios inherent in it. Notes by the power of 2 have a pure unmixed and invariable character. Notes by the first, second, and third powers of 3 have different degrees of centrifugal force; and the character of the notes produced by the first power of 5 depends on the character of the notes from which they are derived. The final character of notes and chords is determined by the amount of force which they have acquired from the way in which they have been derived, and from their position in the system. And no matter where these notes may be afterwards placed, like chemical elements, they never lose their original forces and tendencies. What Tyndal says of the inorganic chemical elements of the brain is true of the inorganic notes of music, "They are all dead as grains of shot." It is the organic state which gives the notes and chords their gravities and levities, and these two tendencies, the one upward and the other downward, constitute the vital principle of music. It is true that the mathematical operation is required to give birth and life to music, and that the mathematical system gives the knowledge of causes down to the law of gravitation, yet the artistic effects are fully realised from the tempered system deriving its organic harmony from this vital principle of music. The centrifugal tendencies of the notes of the subdominant, are too strong to be at all disturbed by the system being tempered. The enormous power of these chords corrects the effect which might otherwise arise from tempering, as the enormous power of the sun corrects the perturbations of the planets." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 29]


The law of gravitation is the law of Music as well as of Astronomy. The cycles of the distances, that is the intervals, in Music correspond to the cycles of the periods in Astronomy. In Astronomy the distances and quantities of matter are primary, and determine the periods; in Music the periods and quantities are primary, and determine the distances or intervals. In Astronomy the distances are commensurable; in Music the periods are commensurable. In Astronomy the periods are incommensurable; in Music the distances or intervals are incommensurable. In Astronomy, because the simplicity is not in the periods, the conjunctions are very few at one time; in Music, because the simplicity is in the periods, the conjunctions are very many at one time. And herein lies in the one case the harmony and permanence of the solar system, and in the other case the harmony and beauty of the musical system. The periods and distances in Astronomy and Music are inversely related. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 30]

Well, how are we to get the true minor scale? There is a remarkable fact, and a beautiful one, which suggests the method. Such is the economy of Nature, that from one system of proportion employed in two different ways, in the one case as periods of vibrations and in the other as quantities of strings, everything in Music's foundation is produced. It is a remarkable fact that the numbers for the lengths of the strings producing the major scale are the numbers of the vibrations producing the minor scale; and the numbers for the lengths of the strings for the minor scale are the numbers of the vibrations of the notes of the major scale. Here Nature reveals to us an inverse process for the discovery of the minor scale of notes. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 31]

The Art of Music, which is music on its spiritual and inspirational side, has been carried to a wonderful perfection of development; while the Science of Music, which is music on its intellectual and logical side, has been left far behind. Works on the Science of Music have been a failure, not because music has not a scientific basis, but, and for the most part, because Mathematicians have dealt only with the law of Ratios, ignorant of other laws which play an important part in music's scientific basis and build. They have carried the law of ratios beyond its legitimate sphere, and so their conclusions do not represent the method of Nature truthfully. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 33]

Either the one or the other must be at fault. Had the dictates of the mathematicians and the scale of mathematical intonation wholly ruled, the advent of the great masters would have been impossible. It was well said by one writing in The Choir - "Theory should be made from music, and not music from theory . . . the final judge of music is the Ear." The Great Masters are the exponent artists of what is true in the Science of Music, though it may differ from what has been taught by the merely mathematical-intonation advocates of music science. It should not be forgotten that the science of the mathematical theorists is one thing, and that of the composers is another. Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydin, Mendelssohn, and such inspired musicians, who walked in the liberty wherewith Nature made them free, are sufficient authority against the bondage of the one-law theorists who would tie us down to the mathematical command which comes from without, but who know nothing of the life within music which is the law unto itself.1
With twelve divisions in the Octave, each note is adapted to serve in any capacity, and does serve in every capacity by turns. It is quite clear that this cannot be said of the mathematically perfect notes. And this is where it is seen that what is perfect in mathematical ratios becomes imperfect in the Musical System. Indeed, the mathematical intonation does not give a boundary within which to constitute a System at all, but goes off into never-ending cycles.
In music, Nature begins by producing the Diatonic Octave of seven notes, derived by the mathematical ratios2; [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 34]

Music has an inspirational as well as a mathematical basis, and when mathematicians do not recognize this they reckon without their host. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 35]

The number 3 is the creative power in music, producing fifths, but it is under the control of the Octave prime - the number 2. It is the supreme octave which forms a boundary by making twelve fifths and seven octaves unite in one note. Within this horizon lies the musical system in its threefoldness - major, minor, and chromatic. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 35]

When the major scale has been generated, with its three chords, the subdominant, tonic, and dominant, by the primary mathematical ratios, it consists of forms and orders which in themselves are adapted to give outgrowth to other forms and orders by the law of duality and other laws. All the elements, orders, combinations, and progressions in music are the products of natural laws. The law of Ratio gives quantities, form, and organic structure. The law of Duality gives symmetry, producing the minor mode in response to the major in all that belongs to it. The laws of Permutations and Combinations give orders and rhythms to the elements. The law of Affinity gives continuity; continuity gives unity; and unity gives the sweetness of harmony. The law of Position gives the notes and chords their specific levities and gravities; and these two tendencies, the one upward and the other downward, constitute the vital principle of music. This is the spiritual constitution of music which the Peter Bell mathematicians have failed to discern: [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 37]

The extremes of the levities and gravities of a key-system are always at the extent of three fifths; and whatever notes are adopted for these three fifths, the center fifth is the tonic. As there never can be more than three fifths above each other on the same terms, so there can never be more than one such scale at the same time. A fourth fifth is a comma less than the harmonic fifth1; and this is Nature's danger-signal, to show that it is not admissible here. Nature does not sew with a knotless thread in music. The elements are so place that nothing can be added nor anything taken away without producing confusion or defect. What has been created is thus at the same time protected by Nature. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 38]

The mathematical scales, if followed out regardless of other laws which rule in music, would read like a chapter in Astronomy. They would lead us on like the cycles of the moon, for example. In 19 years we have 235 moons; but the moon by that time is an hour and a-half fast. In 16 such cycles, or about 300 years, the moon is about a day fast; this, of course, is speaking roughly. This is the way seemingly through all the astronomical realm of creation. And had we only the mathematical ratios used in generating the notes of the scale as the sole law of music, we should be led off in the same way. And were we to follow up into the inaudible region of vibrations, we should possibly find ourselves where light, and heat, and chemical elective motions and electric currents are playing their unheard harmonies; or into the seemingly still region of solid substances, where an almost infinite tremor of vibrations is balancing the ultimate elements of the world. Music in this case would seem like some passing meteor coming in from among the silent oscillations of the planetary bodies of the solar system, and flashing past with its charming sound effects, and leaving us again to pass into the higher silence of those subtle vibrations to which we have referred, having no infolding upon itself, no systematic limit, no horizon. But music is not such a passing thing. Between the high silence of these intense vibrations, and the low silence of oscillating pendulums and revolving planets, God has constituted an audible sphere of vibrations, in which is placed a definite limit of systematic sounds; seven octaves are carried like a measuring line round twelve fifths; and motion and rest unite in placing a horizon for the musical world, and music comes [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 39]

The specific levity of notes increases in proportion to the number of times the ratios are multiplied in order to produce them, going upward by sharps; and their specific gravity increase in proportion to the number of times the ratios are divided in order to produce them, going downward by flats. The knowledge of this is attained when everything is in its perfect order. It is the discovery of the Law of Duality in music which shows the method of applying the ascending and the descending ratios so as to exhibit that perfect order of Nature. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 43]

Such is the economy of Nature, that from one system of proportions employed in two ways - in the one case as periods of vibrations, and in the other case as quantities of strings - everything in music is derived. The numbers which are the periods in the one are the numbers which are the quantities in the other. And abundantly throughout Creation reigneth the Law of Duality, which thus reigneth here in this region of most perfect response.2[Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 44]

among the Greeks on account of having symmetry in itself. The primitive scale was doubtless that which is the model of all major music; and our minor model is its dual, as Ramsay has shown, which in its genesis indicates the duality of all the rest of the notes, although it is not probable that the Greeks saw the musical elements in this light. It is remarkable and significant that in their modes the Greeks did not lift up the scale of Nature into different pitches, preserving its model form as we do in our twelve major scales, but keeping the model form at one pitch they built up their symmetrical tetrachords, allowing the larger and lesser tones of the primitive scale to arrange themselves in every variety of place, as we have shown in the table of tetrachord modes above. Without seeing the genetic origin of music's duality they were led to arrange the modes by symmetry, which is one of the phases of duality. Symmetry is duality in practice. It may not always be apparent how symmetry originates in Nature; but in music, the art of the ear, duality emerges in the genesis of the minor scale; in the true mathematical build of the major on the root of the major subdominant F, and the true relation of the minor to it in the inverse genesis descending from the top of the minor dominant B. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 46]

There was, then, something of truth and beauty in the Greek modes as seen in the light now thrown upon them by the Law of Duality, at last discerned, and as now set forth in the genesis and wedlock of the major and minor scales. The probably symmetrical arrangement of the modes, all unwitting to them, is an interesting exhibition of the true duality of the notes, which may be thus set in view by duality lines of indication. We now know that B is the dual of F, G the dual of A, C the dual of E, and D minor the dual of D major. Now look at the Greek modes symmetrically arranged:

D EF G A BC D
C D EF G A BC EF G A BC D E
A BC D EF G A G A BC D EF G
F G A BC D EF BC D EF G A B


Thus seen they are perfectly illustrative of the duality of music as it springs up in the genetic scales. The lines reach from note to note of the duals. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 46]

It has been found impossible in this first edition of his work to publish in extenso the musical elaboration of the Chromatic system through all its forms and progressions; this would make the volume fully twice the size it is. We must be content meanwhile to publish the musical doctrines of Ramsay, with illustrations, and leave the music for a further edition and a future time. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 49]

There are two Diatonic systems in Music - the major and the minor. With the exception of one note, all the notes of the one system are identical with those of the other. The major key C has all the notes of the minor key A excepting D, the root of the minor subdominant; and the minor has all the notes of the major exception D, the top of the major dominant. These twain are one music, the masculine and feminine of a twofold unity; one system in duality rather than two systems. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 50]

After vibrations the next thing is musical notes, the sounds produced by the vibrations falling into the ear. Sounds arise in association. There are no bare simple sounds in music; it is a thing full of the play of sympathy. Such a thing as a simple solitary sound would be felt as a strange thing in our ears, accustomed as we are to hear affiliated sounds only. These affiliated sounds, called "harmonics," or "partials" as they have also been called, because they are the parts of which the sound is made up, are like perspective in vision. In perspective the objects lying in the line of sight, seem smaller and smaller, and more dim and indefinite as they stretch away into the distance; while nearer objects and those in the foreground are apparently larger, and are more clearly seen. This is the way of a musical sound; one of its component elements, the fundamental partial, being, as it were, in the foreground to the ear, is large and pronounced; while the other elements are less distinctly heard, and are fainter and fainter as they recede into the musical distance in the perspective of the ear. Few have any idea of the number of these weaker partials of a musical sound. Tyndal's illustrations in his very instructive work on Sound show a string spontaneously divided into twenty segments, all vibrating separately, being divided by still nodes along its length; and a vibrating string will keep thus [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 58]

Guiseppe Tartini, 200 years ago, while practicing on his violin, observed a very interesting phenomenon in music in the matter of notes or sounds, [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 59]

Music, and mathematics have nothing more to do with it. Already the Law of Position has guided the genesis upward in the major; and while mathematical primes were generating the chords one after another in precisely the same way and form, like peas in a pod, the Law of Position was arranging them one over the other, and so appointing them in their relative position each its own peculiar musical effect bright and brighter. And when the major had been thus evolved and arranged by ratios and position, another law, the Law of Duality, gave the mathematical operation its downward direction in the minor; and while the primes which measured the upward fifths of the major also measure the downward fifths of the minor, the Law of Position is placing them in their relative position, and appointing each its own peculiar effect grave and graver. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 68]

Music in the Variety of its Elements [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 70]

The Permanence in Music of the Numbers Three and Twelve

CHAPTER X.

BRIEF DESULTORY MEMORANDA.


Had D. C. Ramsay lived to weld together his findings in musical science, there would have been fewer, it any, of these desultory notes. The Editor, in endeavoring to arrange his materials so as to give sequence and fullness to them as far as possible, has thought it better to allow these fragments to appear thus as Brevia, than to intertwine them with even the kindred studies of another to any great extent, feeling assured that the light Ramsay has let in upon musical science will lead the way probably to further findings, and certainly to more perfect settings of what, being found, is here set forth in a first edition of his works. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 74]


There are very few things in music which have not change written upon them. TWELVE and THREE, however, are stable. There is nothing that will disturb the propriety of the circle of twelve fifths, as in the tempered system of music; for, although the mathematical-intonation indulges in thirteen keys, the thirteenth is simply the first of a new cycle of twelve.
The working model of three fifths is that which possesses musical life-powers; and these life-powers go with it wherever it goes, and they go with nothing else. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 74]

There is no one musical interval which is the perfect measuring rule for the others. But the octave has been divided into 53 parts called commas, and these commas are as near a commensurable rule as we need seek for measuring the musical intervals; always remembering that, strictly speaking, these intervals are incommensurable. The large second has 9 commas; the medium second has 8; and the small second 5; and all other intervals, being of course composed of some of these seconds, can be measured accordingly. Thus the comma, though not itself an interval of our musical system, is the handy and sufficiently perfect inch, let us call it, for practical purposes in music. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 75]

At the first, in the laws of quantities and motions adjusting musical vibrations, there is one chord of the three notes, F, A, C, the root, middle, and top of the five notes which compose the true natural scale; this one chord can be reproduced a fifth higher, C, E, G, in the same mathematical form, taking the top of the first for the root of the second chord. In like manner this second can be reproduced another fifth higher, G, B, D, still in the same mathematical form, and so fit to be a member of the chord-scale of a key. But the law does not admit of another reproduction without interfering with the first chord, so that a fourth fifth produces no new effect; but the whole key is simply a fifth higher, i.e., if the fifth has been properly produced by multiplying the top of the third fifth by 3 and by 5, the generating primes in music. That this carries us into a new scale is seen in that the F is no longer the F♮ but F#, and the A is no longer A♮ but A,. But if we suppose the fourth fifth to be simply the old notes with their own vibration numbers, then D, F, A would not be a fifth belonging either to the major or the minor mode, but a fifth a comma less. The letters of it would read like the minor subdominant, D, F, A; but the intervals, as found in the upward development of the major genesis, instead of being, when expressed in commas, 9, 5, 8, 9, which is the minor subdominant, would be 8, 5, 9, 8, which is not a fifth of the musical system; these having always, whether major or minor, two 9's, one [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 77]

Helmholtz falls into a mistake when he says- "The system of scales and modes, and all the network of harmony founded on them, do not seem to rest on any immutable laws of Nature, but are due to the aesthetical principle which is constantly subject to change, according to the progressive development of taste." It is true, indeed, that the ear is the last judge; but the ear is to judge something which it does not create, but simply judges. Nature is the maker of music in its scales and modes. The styles of composition may vary with successive generations, and in the different nations of men; but the scientific basis of music is another thing. It is a thing, belonging to the aesthetic element of our being and our environment; it is under the idea of the beautiful, rather than the idea of the useful or the just; but all these various aspects of our relation to creation have their laws which underlie whatever changes may be fashionable at any period in our practice. If the clang-farbe of a musical tone, that is, its quality or timbre, depends on the number and comparative strength of the partial tones or harmonics of which it is composed, and this is considered to be the great discovery of Helmholtz, it cannot be that the scales and modes are at the caprice of the fickle and varied taste of times and individuals, for these partials are under Nature's mathematical usages, and quite beyond any taste for man's to change. It is these very partials or harmonics brought fully into view as a system, and they lead us back and back till they have brought us to the great all-prevading law of gravitation; it is these very partials, which clothe as an audible halo every musical sound, which constitute the musical system of sounds. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 78]

as the savage state. The savage is the sunken state of man, consequent on falling away from God by distrust and disobedience, and the loss of paradisial converse with Him. We may presume that music in the beginning, when the first human pair sang out with unbroken voices the joy of their hearts, was in the scale to which mankind, risen and restored by God's mercy, have returned. Our last days are thus become like the first again; and the lost dominion of Nature has returned, in the Incarnate One, into the hands of mankind. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 79]

All the inverse and reciprocal orders in music, whether of notes or chords, are produced by the law of Duality, and this gives them inevitably their symmetrical form. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 79]

circumstances. And if we may add D to the subdominant chord of d F A C, so we may also, in other circumstances, add the subdominant chord as harmony to D, thus - D f a c, and no discord occur. There is only the interval of a second between F and G in this dominant 9th, and only an interval of a second between C and D in this subdominant 6th; a second standing alone is a discordant interval, as a poison by itself may kill; but as a poison by the processes of nature in chemistry compounded with something else may be an excellent medicine, so may a second when mixed and compounded with something else in music become an excellent harmony. Music is a great apothecary, skillful in compounds. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 81]

So the dual system of Music revolves round a mathematical point which is in none of its notes, but in the empty space between the two D's. Like the earth, it is hung upon nothing. This is an exceedingly interesting musical phenomenon. In that comma of vacant space is music's center of gravity.

1 3 9 27
F C G D
D A E B
26 2/3 80 240 720 [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 82]

2 - In the second sphere the tension of strings and other elastic bodies imbues them with forces operating upon the elastic air, producing vibrations quick enough to awaken sounds for the human ear. Here Nature plays on her tuneful harp the same grand fugue; from which everything in music is derived. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 86]

3 - In the third sphere, vibrating things, molecules, atoms, etc. gaseous, liquid, or solid have tensions and forces far beyond the requirements of music, and far above the audible region where musical sounds have been located by the Great Numberer. The multiplication of forces there, and their augmentation derived from sympathy, of which sympathy we have faint illustrations in the region of [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 86]

The sympathy of one thing with another, and of one part of a thing with another part of it, arises from the principle of unity. For example, a string requires to be uniform and homogenous to have harmonics producing a fine quality of tone by the sweet blendings of sympathy; if it be not so, the tone may be miserable ... You say you wish I were in touch with Mr. Keely; so do I myself ... I look upon numbers very much as being the language which tells out the doings of Nature. Mr. Keely begins with sounds, whose vibrations can be known and registered. I presume that the laws of ratio, position, duality, and continuity, all the laws which go to mould the plastic air by elastic bodies into the sweetness of music, as we find them operative in the low silence of oscillating pendulums, will also be found ruling and determining all in the high silence of interior vibrations which hold together or shake asunder the combinations which we call atoms and ultimate elements, but which may really be buildings of wondrous complexity occupying different ranges of place and purpose between the visible cosmos and Him who built and evermore buildeth all things. The same laws, though operating in different spheres, make the likenesses of things in motion greater than the differences. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 87]

sexual note in the scales of G major and E minor are the two A's; in D major and B minor, the two E's; in A major and F# minor, the two B's; in E major and C# minor, the two F's; in B major and G# minor, the two C's; and in F# major and D# minor, the two G's. These two last scales being the beginning of a second cycle of twelve scales when the scales are written half in flats and half in sharps, as we have done them in this case. Turning to the other half of our circle, those which we have, and which usually in music books are, written in flats, in F major and D minor the sexual notes are the two G's; in B♭ and G, the two C's, in E♭ and C, the two F's; in A♭ and F, the two B's; in D♭ and B♭, the two E's; and in G♭ and E♭, the two A's. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 91]

The relations which music has to mechanics, the sphere of centers; to geometry, the sphere of measures; and to arithmetic, the sphere of numbers, show how deeply seated music is in the nature of things, and how independent it is of the will or choice of the musician. His composition may take any form his inspiration may suggest; they are subject to him; but as to the nature of music and its laws, he must keep himself subject and obedient to them. Music is of the aesthetic; but the aesthetic is of the nature of things. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 92]

THE OPENING FOR MODULATIONS.

In passing from one key to another in the fellowship of keys in a composition, the new key grows out of the top of the dominant and converts the old dominant into a tonic. The dominant and subdominant being at the opposite extremes of the key, with the tonic between them, are not related by affinity. This want of affinity makes an opening in the system for the new chord to come in by, and it, being related by affinity to the chord of the old dominant, which is now the new Tonic, comes in and establishes itself and the new key for the time. It is this gap between subdominant and dominant, along with the affinity existing between the new key and the old dominant, which makes this musical event to be so gracefully accomplished. This is what is called natural modulation, the passing for a time into another key in the course of a composition; and its abundant and habitual use in music, even in the simplest chorales, shows how natural and acceptable it is. The young student will find illustrations in the second lines of the Psalm tunes - Watchman, Sicily, Tranquility, Eaton, Birmingham, Jackson, Bethel, Bedford, and Sheffield. Take Watchman, for example, and let the young student follow carefully, noting each chord of the little passage, which we shall analyse for his help. It is by such practice that he will become by-and-by familiar with the kinship of keys and the legitimate resources of harmony. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 93]

true. Music is a network of orders, but three notes going to the root of the tonic does not happen to belong to any of them. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 95]

"The organic structure of music is formed by the three ratios of 1:2, 1:3, and 1:5, from the laws of quantities and motions; but as it is only the ratio of 1:2 that has a pure, unmixed, invariable character, and as the notes produced by the first, second, and third powers of THREE have different degrees of centrifugal force, and the character of the notes produced by the first power of FIVE depends on the character of the notes from which they are derived, so the final character of the notes and chords is determined by the amount of force which they have acquired from the way in which they have been derived, and from their position in the system; and no matter how these notes may be afterwards placed, like chemical elements, they never lose their original force. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 95]

"There are two distinct laws which rule in astronomy - viz., masses and distances; and there are two distinct laws which rule in music - affinities and proximities. The notes produced by simple ratios as 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, etc., are attracted to each other by the law of affinity; notes which are beside each other in the octave scale and have moderately complex ratios as 9:10 and 15:16, are attracted to each other by their proximities. F and C, and C and G, and G and D are related to each other by affinity. C is related to the fifth below and the fifth above; G is related to the fifth above and the fifth below. F and C, C and G, and G and D are never nearer to each other than a fifth or a fourth, and in either case they [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 95]

"Dividing the octave into twelve semitones is a near approach to the mathematical quantities, and this saves the musical artist from errors in tone - at least to any extent; but it does not save from errors in judgment. In the case of G#, for example, not one of the reasons given for the use of the sharp seventh in the minor scale is a correct one. A touch of nature makes the world akin, and a touch of the Law of Duality balances everything in music." [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 99]

The intervening chord between the Diatonic and Chromatic systems, B, D, F. - This chord, which has suffered expatriation from the society of perfect chords, is nevertheless as perfect in its own place and way as any. From its peculiar relation to both major and minor, and to both diatonic and chromatic things, it is a specially interesting triad. F, which is the genetic root of all, and distinctively the root of major subdominant, has here come to the top by the prime 2. D, here in the middle, is diatonically the top of the major dominant, and the root of the minor subdominant; and on account of its self-duality, the most interesting note of all; begotten in the great genesis by the prime 3. B, the last-begotten in the diatonic genesis, top of the diatonic minor, middle of the dominant major, and begotten by the prime 5, is here the quasi root of this triad, which in view of all this is a remarkable summation of things. This B, D, F is the mors janua vitae in music, for it is in a manner the death of diatonic chords, being neither a perfect major nor a perfect minor chord; yet it is the birth and life of the chromatic phase of music. In attracting and assimilating to itself the elements by which it becomes a full chromatic chord, it gives the minor dominant the G# which we so often see in use, and never see explained; and it gives the major subdominant a corresponding A♭, less frequently used. It is quite clear that this chromatic chord in either its major phase as B, D, F, A♭, or its minor phase as G#, B, D, F, is as natural and legitimate in music as anything else; and like the diatonic chords, major and minor, it is one of three, exactly like itself, into which the octave of semitones is perfectly divided. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 101]

Six Octaves required for the Birth of the Scale

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.
[BY THE EDITOR.]


THIS plate is a Pendulum illustration of the System of musical vibrations. The circular lines represent Octaves in music. The thick are the octave lines of the fundamental note; and the thin lines between them are lines of the other six notes of the octave. The notes are all on lines only, not lines and spaces. The black dots arranged in these lines are not notes, but pendulum oscillations, which have the same ratios in their slow way as the vibrations of sounding instruments in the much quicker region where they exist. The center circle is the Root of the System; it represents F1, the root of the subdominant chord; the second thick line is F2, its octave; and all the thick lines are the rising octaves of F, namely 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. In the second octave on the fifth line are dots for the three oscillations which represent the note C3, the Fifth to F2, standing in the ratio of 3 to 2; and the corresponding lines in the four succeeding Octaves are the Octaves of C3, namely 6, 12, 24, and 48. On the third line in the third Octave are 5 dots, which are the 5 oscillations of a pendulum tuned to swing 5 to 4 of the F close below; and it represents A5, which is the Third of F4 among musical vibrations. On the first line in the fourth Octave are 9 dots. These again represent G9, which stands related to C3 as C3 stands to F1. On the seventh line of the same octave are 15 dots; these represent the vibrations of E15, which stands related to C3 as A5 stands to F1. On the sixth line of the fifth Octave are 27 dots, representing D27, which stands related to G9 as G9 stands to C3, and C3 also to F1; it is the Fifth to G. And last of all, on the fourth line of the sixth Octave are 45 dots, representing B45, which, lastly, stands related to G9 as E15 stands to C3, and A5 to F1; it is the Third to this third chord - G, B, D. The notes which arise in each octave coming outward from the center are repeated in a double number of dots in the following Octaves; A5 appears as 10, 20, and 40; G9 appears as 18 and 36; E15 appears as 30 and 60; D27 appears as 54; and last of all B45 only appears this once. This we have represented by pendulum oscillations, which we can follow with the eye, the three chords of the musical system, F, A, C; C, E, G; and G, B, D. C3 is from F1 multiplied by 3; G9 is from C3 multiplied by 3; these are the three Roots of the three Chords. Their Middles, that is their Thirds, are similarly developed; A is from F1 multiplied by 5; E15 is from C3 multiplied by 5; B45 is from G9 multiplied by 5. The primes 3 and 5 beget all the new notes, the Fifths and the Thirds; and the prime 2 repeats them all in Octaves to any extent. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 102]

When these representative dots are arranged on these six Octaves of lines, at regular distances marked out by the proportionate degrees of the circle, they present to the eye this beautiful symmetrical picture of the Diatonic System of Musical Vibrations. They represent all that mathematically belongs to Music. When the notes are strung [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 102]

are always when they have returned to the side from which they were started. The Pendulographer, also, when writing the beautiful pictures which the musical ratios make when a pen is placed under the control of the pendulums, always finds his figure to begin again when the pendulums have finished their period, and have come for a fresh start to the side from which the period began. This confirms our author's definition of an oscillation of a pendulum. Fig. 3 is an illustration of the correct definition of a Musical Vibration, as also given in this work. Although the definition of an oscillation is not identical with that of a vibration, yet on account of their movement in the same ratios the one can be employed in illustration of the other as we have here done. Fig. 4 is a uniform rod suspended from the end as a pendulum; it will oscillate, of course, at a certain speed according to its length. In such a pendulum there are three centers related in an interesting way to the subject of Music in its three chords - subdominant, tonic, and dominant, which roots are F, C, and G. The center of gravity in the middle of the rod at 2, suspended at which the rod has no motion, corresponds to F, the root of the subdominant, in which there is the maximum of musical gravity. The center of oscillation at 3, which is one-third of the length of the rod from the end, is like the root of the tonic whose number is 3 in the genesis of the scale from F1. In this point of suspension the oscillations are the same as when suspended from the end at 1. The point at 9 is at a ninth from the center of oscillation. Our author discovered that, if suspended at this point, the pendulum had its highest rate of speed. Approaching the end, or approaching the center of oscillation from this point, the rate of speed decreases. Exactly at one-ninth from the center of oscillation, or two-ninths from the end, is this center of velocity, as Ramsay designated it; and it corresponds in some sort also to the root of the dominant G, which is 9 in the genesis of the scale from F1; its rate of vibration is nine times that of F1. The dominant chord is the one in which is the maximum of levity and motion in music. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 105]

When Leonhard Euler, the distinguished mathematician of the eighteenth century, wrote his essay on a New Theory of Music, Fuss remarks - "It has no great success, as it contained too much geometry for musicians, and too much music for geometers." There was a reason which Fuss was not seemingly able to observe, namely, that while it had hold of some very precious musical truth it also put forth some error, and error is always a hindrance to true progress. Euler did good service, however. In his letters to a German Princess on his theory of music he showed the true use of the mathematical primes 2, 3, and 5, but debarred the use of 7, saying, "Were we to introduce the number 7, the tones of an octave would be increased." It was wise in the great mathematician to hold his hand from adding other notes. It is always dangerous to offer strange fire on the altar. He very clearly set forth that while 2 has an unlimited use in producing Octaves, 3 must be limited to its use 3 times in producing Fifths. This was right, for in producing a fourth Fifth it is not a Fifth for the scale. But Euler erred in attempting to generate the semitonic scale of 12 notes by the use of the power of 5 a second time on the original materials. It produces F# right enough; for D27 by 5 gives 135, which is the number for F#. D27 is the note by which F# is produced, because D is right for this process in its unaltered condition. But when Euler proceeds further to use the prime 5 on the middles, A, E, and B, and F#, in their original and unaltered state, he quite errs, and produces all the sharpened notes too low. C# for the key of D is not got by applying 5 to A40, as it is in its birthplace; A40 has already been altered for the key of G by a comma, and is A40 1/2 before it is used for producing its third; it is A40 1/2 that, multiplied by 5, gives C#202 1/2, not C200, as Euler makes C#. Things are in the same condition with E before G# is wanted for the key of A. G# is found by 5 applied to E; not E in its original and unaltered state, E30; but as already raised a comma for the key of D, E30 3/8; so G# is not 300, as Euler has it, but 303 3/4. Euler next, by the same erroneous methods, proceeds to generate D# from B45, its birthplace number; but before D# is wanted for the key of E, B has been raised a comma, and is no longer B45, but B45 9/16, and this multiplied by 5 gives D#227 13/16, not D225, as Euler gives it. The last semitone which he generates to complete his 12 semitones is B♭; that is A#, properly speaking, for this series, and he generates it from F#135; but this already altered note, before A# is wanted for the key of B, has been again raised a comma [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 107]

The Plate shows the Twelve Major and Minor Scales, with the three chords of their harmony - subdominant, tonic, and dominant; the tonic chord being always the center one. The straight lines of the three squares inside the stave embrace the chords of the major scales, which are read toward the right; e.g., F, C, G - these are the roots of the three chords F A C, C E G, G B D. The tonic chord of the scale of C becomes the subdominant chord of the scale of G, etc., all round. The curved lines of the ellipse embrace the three chords of the successive scales; e.g., D, A, E - these are the roots of the three chords D F A, A C E, E G B. The tonic chord of the scale of A becomes the subdominant of the scale of E, etc., all round. The sixth scale of the Majors may be written B with 5 sharps, and then is followed by F with 6 sharps, and this by C with 7 sharps, and so on all in sharps; and in this case the twelfth key would be E with 11 sharps; but, to simplify the signature, at B we can change the writing into C, this would be followed by G with 6 flats, and then the signature dropping one flat at every new key becomes a simpler expression; and at the twelfth key, instead of E with 11 sharps we have F with only one flat. Similarly, the Minors make a change from sharps to flats; and at the twelfth key, instead of C with 11 sharps we have D with one flat. The young student, for whose help these pictorial illustrations are chiefly prepared, must observe, however, that this is only a matter of musical orthography, and does not practically affect the music itself. When he comes to the study of the mathematical scales, he will be brought in sight of the exact very small difference between this B and C♭, or this F# and G♭; but meanwhile there is no difference for him. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 108]

When Ramsay gave a course of lectures in Glasgow, setting forth "What constitutes the Science of Music," his lecture-room was hung round with great diagrams illustrating in various ways his findings; an ocular demonstration was also given of the system of musical vibrations by his favorite illustration, the oscillations of the Silent Harp of Pendulums. A celebrated teacher of music in the city came to Mr. Ramsay's opening lecture, and at the close remained to examine the diagrams, and question the lecturer, especially on his extension of the harmonics to six octaves. Having seen and heard, this teacher went and shortly after published it without any acknowledgment of the true authorship; and it was afterwards republished in some of the Sol-Fa publications, the true source unconfessed; but our plagarist stopped short at C, the top of the tonic, instead of going on to F, the sixth octave of the root of all; the effect of this was to destroy the unity of the great chord. The 22 notes instead of 25, at which this teacher stopped, allowed him, indeed, to show the natural birthplace of B, which Ramsay had pointed, but it beheaded the great complex chord and destroyed its unity. If C, the root of the tonic, be made the highest note, having quite a different character from F, it pronounces its character, and mars the unity of the great chord. Similar diversity of effect is produced by cutting off only two notes of the 25 and stopping short at D, the top of the dominant; and also, though in a weaker degree, by cutting off only one note of the 25 and stopping at E, the middle of the tonic; this, too, disturbs the unity of the fundamental sound. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 111]

Another remarkable thing is that these dual numbers, when multiplied into each other, always come to 720. Now this number, as we see in the great genesis, corresponds to 1 in the major, being the point of departure for the development of the feminine mode, as 1 is the point of departure in the masculine mode. This 720 is the octave of 360, which is the number of the degrees of the circle, so divided in the hidden depths of human antiquity; and when F1 becomes F2, then B360 is the answering note and number in the dual system. All the notes in the masculine development are above F2; and all the notes in the feminine development are below B360. The unoccupied octave between F1 and F2 and that between B720 and B360 may be counted as the octave heads or roots of the two modes, and then F2 and B360 as the points from which the development of music's diversity begins; and it is noteworthy that the number of the degrees of the circle should be found in this connection. When was the circle so divided? Who divided it so? And why did he, the unknown, so divide it? Was Music's mystery known in that far-off day before the confusion of man's sinking history had blotted out so much of the pure knowledge of pristine days? [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 119]


Hughes
General remarks on the method of harmonies developing on all kinds of instruments, including the human voice
—Much paradox, but yet the scheme will admit of clear demonstration
—A musical note compared to a machine, the motive power not of our creation
—The imperfection of keyed instruments, from some notes acting two parts, attuned to the ideal of harmony within us
Macfarren quoted on the echoing power of a cathedral attuning the Amen
—Why music as an art precedes painting
—Philosophers and mathematicians have only studied music to a certain point
—Every key-note a nucleus, including the past, the present, and the future; no finality in any ultimate
—The late Sir John Herschel's views on the musical gamut alluded to
—The imperfection of keyed instruments adapts them to our present powers
—The laws will be seen to develope the twelve major and the twelve minor keys in unbroken sequence and in harmonious ratio; to gain them in geometric order [as] keyed instrument should be circular, the seven octaves interlacing in tones a lower and a higher series, . 15 [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents1 - Harmonies]

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO F. J . HUGHES BY DR. GAUNTLETT.

On harmonical parallel between tone and colour
—On the term of "rest," fifths, and the sympathy of music with life
Relativities of sounds and vibrations of strings
—The doctrines of three pairs, six tones, and the law of "two and fro"
—The germ of the system probably to be found in the adaptability of numbers
—Sudden death of Dr. Gauntlett, . . . . . 48 [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents4 - Harmonies]

FRAGMENTS FROM LAST NOTE-BOOK OF DR. GAUNTLETT.

Harmony expressed by pulsations, ebb and flow, stress and accent
—Necessity of combining religious feeling with natural science in true music
—Remarks on the new College of Music, . . 50 [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents4 - Harmonies]

There is much paradox, and the scheme differs so much from any hitherto published on the subject, that I am aware that, if any link can be found to be wanting in the chain, the defect will immediately be seized upon. I believe, however, that it will be found to admit of clear demonstration. Anyone who has studied the subject knows the difficulties that arise on all sides. In the problem before us, we have to reduce large fields of thought to certain elementary truths. In my endeavour to do this, I have been entirely dependent upon the discovery of the laws of Nature, as my ear is not musical enough to assist me in the matter. "All mysteries are either truths concealing deeper truths, or errors concealing deeper errors," and thus, as the mysteries unfold, truth or error will show itself in a gradually clearer light. The great mystery of music lies in its infinite resources; it teems with subtle elements and strange analogies. A musical note may be compared to a machine: we touch the spring and set the machine in motion, but the complex machinery exists beforehand, quite independent of our will; the motive power is not of our creation, and the laws on which its operation depends are superior to our control. The complex work of harmony is governed by the laws which are originated by the Creator; every note performs what He has willed, and in tracing these laws let us not be indifferent about their Author, but ever bear in mind that the source or fountain of the life and activity of harmonies arises from the Power who created the machine, and who knows how it will act. Let us also remember that we understand this machine but partially, and govern it but imperfectly, as indeed the finite can only, in a small measure, grasp the Infinite; and in any [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Method of Development or Creation of Harmonies1, page 15]

Here we see why music, as a science, takes the priority of painting; for if music is good, it is perfected by natural laws which cause its tones to melt into each other in the most delicate gradations, while the painter who endeavours to represent the exquisite variations of tints and lights in the living landscape is dependent entirely upon his own resources. The early writers on music were philosophers and mathematicians on the broad basis of general science, not on that of music only. Mathematicians, for the most part, have only studied the subject of musical sounds up to a certain point, and have then left it. The musician must take the chromatic scale—not as it exists in Nature, for that offered by the mathematician, without the ordinary compensations of conventional theory, is of no use to the practical musician. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Method of Development or Creation of Harmonies2, page 16]

Of course, true Art cannot be opposed to Nature, although all the rules of the musician are not the facts of Nature. Music, pure, natural, and harmonical, in the true and evident sense of the term, is the division of any key-note, or starting-point, into its integral and ultimate parts, and the descending divisions will always answer to the ascending, having reference to a general whole. The essence and mystery in the development of harmonies consist in the fact that every key-note, or unit, is a nucleus including the past, the present, and the future, having in itself an inherent power, with a tendency to expand and contract. In the natural system, as each series rises, its contents expand and fall back to the original limit from any point ascending or descending; we cannot perceive finality in any ultimate; every tone is related to higher and lower tones, and must be a part of an organised whole. It is well known how deeply the late Sir John Herschel studied this subject; and it was his opinion that there was some principle in the science of music which had yet to be discovered.[Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Method of Development or Creation of Harmonies2, page 16]

The primitive laws of any science should be capable of succinct statement, but in combination with others they become more complex and delicate, and error is proved if in the developments they do not echo each other. If, therefore, musical harmonies are correctly gained, the same laws will develope harmonies of colour, and will agree with the colours of the rainbow, the circle of which is divided by the horizon. All who are interested in the laws which regulate these two sciences will doubtless know the interesting lectures delivered by W. F. Barrett (Professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Science, Dublin), and the article written by him and published in the Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1870, entitled "Light and Sound; an examination of their reputed analogy, showing the oneness of colour and music as a physical basis." I will quote shortly from the latter for the benefit of those who may not have met with it. "The question arises, Has all this æsthetic oneness of colour and music any physical foundation, over and above the general analogy we have so far traced between light and sound? We believe the following considerations will show, not only that it has some foundation, but that the analogy is far more wonderful than has hitherto been [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Colours as Developed by the same Laws as Musical Harmonies1, page 18]

"Their music is of a style very difficult for foreigners to acquire or imitate, but the children very easily and early attain it. I low much the Arabs profited by the works of ancient Greek writers is well known."† As knowledge increases, may not the beginning of every physical science be traced first as a trinity springing from a trinity in unity, followed by a second partaking of the nature of the first, so as to unite with it in complementary pairs as here described in tones and colours, trinity in unity being the germ of never-ending developments? [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Arabian System of Music, page 21]

The inequality of the equinoctial points is a well-known fact. It will be seen how apparent this is in the developments of harmonies. From the moment that trinities depart from unity, the balance is unequal, and the repeated endeavours after closer union cause a perpetual restlessness. May not this want of equilibrium be the life or motive power of the entire universe, with its continuous struggle after concord, even to oneness? "Closer and closer union is the soul of perfect harmony." In tracing harmonies of tones and colours, the double tones of keyed instruments will be seen to correspond with the intermediate tints and shades of colours. The twelve notes, scales, and chords in the major and minor series, the meetings by fifths, &c., all agree so exactly in their mode of development, that if a piece of music is written correctly in colours with the intermediate tints and shades, the experienced musician can, as a rule, detect errors more quickly and surely with the eye than the ear, and the correct eye, even of a non-musical person, may detect technical errors. Although the arithmetical relation has been most useful in gaining the laws, it is not here entered upon; but numbers equally meet all the intricacies both of tones and colours. The bass notes have been omitted, in order to simplify the scheme. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Arabian System of Music, page 21]

Ascending, begin with C in the innermost circle, F being its root. The Key-note C becomes the root of G, G becomes the root of D, and so on. In descending, begin with the octave Key-note C in the outermost circle. F, the root of C, becomes the fifth lower Key-note. F is the next Key-note, and becomes the root of B♭, &c. The 12 Keys in their order are written in musical clef below. Lastly, the Keys of C and G, ascending on a keyed instrument, are written in music as descending; therefore, to shew correctly notes and colours meeting, it is necessary to reverse them, and write C below G. All are seen to be complementary pairs in tones and colours. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram VII Continued2, page 31e]

"Thou art Thyself the secret of Thy works;
Thou art the key: Thine image bear they all,
Or more or less. And heaven-born music, as
Thine ordinance in air and ear, and in
The balance of the force elastic, with
The gravitating force that holdeth all,—
Music the statute is, which more than most,
Of all that stands on Nature's statute-book,
Image and superscription—Three in one
In interlacing monogram doth show of Thee!"
[Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Reflections on the Scheme1, page 43]


"All things are touched with melancholy,
Born of the secret soul's mistrust
To feel her fair ethereal wings
Weighed down with vile degraded dust.
There is no music in the life
That sounds with idiot laughter solely;
There's not a string attuned to mirth,
But has its chord in melancholy."
Thomas Hood. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Reflections on the Scheme3, page 45]

1871.—"There has been much written lately respecting colour and tone, but nothing bearing on your own view." "The new theories in music seem inclined to go back to the ancient faith of Pythagoras, everything being used up with the modern notions of tonality. Perhaps we may find a great change at hand; the present system, limiting, as it does, that which is illimitable, cannot be right." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters1, page 48]

1872.—"It gives me great pleasure to write to you on this subject. Music deals more with the imaginative faculty than any other art or science, and possessing, as it does, the power of affecting life, and making great multitudes feel as one, may have more than ordinary sympathy with the laws you work upon. You say 'from E, root of B, the fountain key-note F, root of C, rises.' There is a singular analogy here in the relativities of sounds, as traced by comparing the numbers made together by vibrations of strings with the length of strings themselves, the one is the inverse or the counterchange of the other. The length of B and E are the counterchange of F and C, hence they are twin sounds in harmony." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters1, page 48]

of action is the great law, and the same force that excites sensation with the auditory nerve lies at the bottom of sensation with organs of vision. When I say my plan, I talk in the old groove, and there are difficulties to be smoothed, but in a way that might be much grumbled over. One very curious thing is plain: your system meets many of the cases on which our present theorists stumble so awfully. I saw this from the first time I had the pleasure of considering it with you, and on this account never relished the idea of giving it up; and the more thought bestowed on it led to its applicability to the more ancient forms of melody—the little tunes of the old world in the East. These are said to be independent of harmony, but your system is perfect harmony. The latest theorists in Paris are all at war with the old theory, and there is now a petition lying before the governing powers of the Paris Academy of Music, praying for a total change in the teaching of harmony in that metropolis; and this memorial has been signed by all the rising celebrities in the musical world there. I really believe the best mode, after all, is the series of six tones—the two trinities; and the law of 'to and fro' is impregnable. That is all right. I should like that term to get into vogue, for it is much more plain and clear than what we call the inverse and reverse, or counterchange." "The grave, or rather extraordinary result of your system is, that so much, very much of it tallies with what may be termed the commonly unknown relatives of the tones. You offer affinities which are termed abstruse, and, although admitted, are accepted without demonstration. Why you should be able to explain the much-quarrelled-over connections is beyond my comprehension, and if I could discover the key, the result would be most important for the well-being of music. With this view your system always interests me. I suspect it lies in that wonderful adaptability of the order of numbers. With the artificial system, music is confined to a few single harmonical tones—none of which can ever be used without alteration—which we gently coax the ear into receiving." "Your system runs up the shortest way, and I find it of advantage in composing." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters2, page 49]

"All theory must be founded on one great fact—harmony; for harmony is the chief beauty of two or more sounds heard together. There may be figure, schemata, and all other niceties of succession and combination; but if no harmony, the music is not beautiful. It is dim, dull, and disagreeable." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from the Last Note-book, page 50]

"Harmony must be looked at in two ways at least: first, up the score from bottom to top—the perpendicular view; second, along the score from side to side—the horizontal view. Then as to its periods or pulsations—its to and fro, its flow and ebb. This brings us to rhythm and measure. At the bottom of these lie what is called stress or accentemission and remission—strong and weak: of these the bar in modern music is an outward and visible sign of certain facts which ought to be in the music, but which, if not in the music, the presence of the bar is of no avail. The bar cannot give stress or accent. 'Wherever there is time, there must be accent;'* but the tick of a clock has no accent. Hullah (or Chorley) should have said life." "The semitone makes music. What operation has it upon the accent or to and fro? It creates the call, it supplies the answer." [This point, I believe, Dr. Gauntlett never alluded to with me, and I have feared that making no difference between tones and semitones might be considered a difficulty with regard to the scheme. In the working of the natural laws of harmony, they must all equally be employed.—F. J. H.] "Art (grand and true) does not depend upon the teaching of facts. The head is of less importance than the heart. Unless the tone of feeling, the habit and disposition, be well fixed, nothing enduring can come out of the misdirected artist." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from the Last Note-book, page 50]

"Teach music on some principle. Without a confession of Christianity, this music is mere discipline." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from the Last Note-book, page 50]

schools on the hill of Sion—'out of Sion hath God appeared in perfect beauty.' So long as this principle was recognised in musical academies, there were composers of the highest class; devoid of it, the highest order of compositions disappeared." "Power over music does not depend solely on the mere agreement of 'how to do it.' The student in song will never learn the perfection of beauty except from the preparation of the heart. To make a real musician, there must be a sense of the ever-presence of the Creator of all beauty. The boy-musician must begin his day with prayer, and end it with praise. This made Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. Music is neither dram nor sweetmeat, neither sensual nor intellectual. It is made so now; but in this order of music there is neither joy nor love, thankfulness nor reverence." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from Dr. Gauntlett's Last Note-book, page 51]

"So long as music was taught primarily for worship, and to proclaim the immortality of man by the inestimable gift of the Royal Ransomer, it culminated to wonders upon wonders." "Noble teachers yield noble teaching, and from such seed the reaping is noble music. To rear the musician with knightly, faithful, and pure feelings, he must believe in his mission and its reward. The law of his life must be the advancement of his art, or rather God's art, given for the honour of the Deity and the elevation of humanity." "The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to teach one another in music, and the greatest doctor in theology, the mightiest defender of the Faith, has been the giant Handel in his oratorio of The Messiah. We are told that 'the nineteenth century is weary of the religion of Christ,' and the bright smile of the English boy and the sweet face of the English girl are no longer to be gladdened by the teachings of the holy mystery. The Devil is the strongest opponent to music in its right intention." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Fragments from Dr. Gauntlett's Last Note-book, page 51]

"I esteem myself fortunate in being introduced to you, and becoming acquainted with your beautiful work on 'Tones and Colours.' I have, to the best of my ability, worked out your idea, by writing down in music the various discords in use amongst musicians, and resolving them according to the laws of Harmony, and I find in all cases the perfect triad agrees with what you term the trinities in colours. The way in which you find the whole circle of Major and Minor keys by pairs in colours is deeply interesting, and must be true. The only point of divergence between your system and that recognised by all musicians is the ascending Minor Scale. No musically trained ear can tolerate the seventh note being a whole tone from the eighth. The Minor second in the lower octave descending is very beautiful, and it is strange how all composers feel a desire to use it. To mention one case out of hundreds, I may cite Rossini's well-known air, 'La Danza.'
"Yours faithfully,
"W. CHALMERS MASTERS." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Supplementary Remarks and Diagrams, page 53]

EXAMINE the notes in the first circular diagrams. Beginning with C, they rise revolving from the right hand to the left; the notes in the musical clef below rise from the left hand to the right, as in keyed instruments. If, however, the volume be turned upside down, the circles will correspond with the music below. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Keyed Instruments as considered Circular, page 56]


Music and Color
"The violin here. We see ... the entity gets the color rather than what is ordinarily called the tonal vibration, see? Though, of course, the tonal vibration is that which produces color. For, of course, color and tone are just different rates of vibration." [Cayce (2156-1)]


Music and Creation
"For music alone may span the space from the realms of the divine to the spheres of activity." [Cayce (3509-1) ]

"For remember, music alone may span the space between finite and infinite." [Cayce (3659-1)]

"Remember, music alone may span that space between the finite and the infinite. In the harmony of sound, the harmony of color, even the harmony of motion itself, its beauty is all akin to that expression of the soul-self in the harmony of the mind, if used properly in relationship to body." [Cayce 3659-1]

"Music is the one element which may span the distance between the sublime and the ridiculous." Cayce (5253-1)


"Human individuals will not function in such cumbersome fashion as they do today. They will go about their tasks with the grace of dancers, performing to a music that each will hear on his or her own channel, the music of his or her own soul. Through melodies, God will sustain each of His contextual identities in supreme fulfillment. Specific melodies will change with each environment, with each moment, with each task. Yet a consistent overall pattern of musical relationship will constitute the new identity of Mankind. The song of the moment will be what each individual is in that moment, translated into an ever-changing musical score.

Music will be the informational medium through which the Totality of Consciousness informs each individual cell of its specific functional duties within that Totality. Individuals will participate in this music as well as listen to it. All humanity will be involved in Conscious Creation, immensely fulfilled in the capacities they serve. When an individual is not required in a functional capacity, he or she will be free to compose the score that will specify a route of musical travel within the body of Creation." [Starseed Transmissions]


Music, Creative Force
"Music is what appeals to the latent and the creative force within the entity. For music alone may span the sphere from the sublime to the ridiculous - from the finite to the infinite - from the spheres of activity to realms of the divine. Music is like color, like tone, in that it is a destructive or a creative force - depending upon that to which it appeals, in its influence upon individuals." Cayce (622-2)


Music and Creative Energy
Q-7: Are music, poetry and art only worldly and illusory?

A-7: "Know that they are of the realms of Creative Energies, which are of the Maker." Cayce (5265-1)

"As indicated, music is what appeals to the latent and the creative force within the entity. For music alone may span the sphere from the sublime to the ridiculous - from the finite to the infinite - from the spheres of activity to realms of the divine. Music is like color, like tone, in that it is a destructive or a creative force - depending upon that which it appeals, in its influence upon individuals." Cayce (3509-1)


Music and Emotion
"Hence, as the attuning of music... arouses emotions in the body to an unusual degree, well that there be choices made as to what the emotions are that are aroused by the character of music -... choose that which is constructive in the experience, and know it must partake of that which brings peace to the soul and not gratifying of body or of an emotion of the body alone." Cayce (1406-1)

"Remember that music is the one element which may span the difference between the sublime and the ridiculous. It may arouse violent passion, yet it may soothe the beast of passion. It may bring up thoughts of home, of heaven, of loved ones; of the laugh of a baby, or the tears of a beautiful woman, or the arms of a loved one, or the jeers of a crowd." Cayce (7053-1) also (5253-1)

"These (the reeds) are those that appeal more to the emotions in the body-forces of individuals, groups or masses ... They don't play the piano in battle; not because they can't carry the piano along to march by, but because it is the martial music from reeds and horns that rouses the emotions in these directions." Cayce (3407-1)

"Music itself is a means or a manner of expressing the harmonies of the mental self in relationship to spiritual ideals and spiritual concepts. Hence as is the very nature of rhythm or harmony in the expression of tone or sound ... it is to arouse, does arouse the natures of the hearer to activity, either for uplifting the soul or the mind to activity or otherwise ... in the directions that are indicated by the harmony itself." Cayce (949-13)

"Music ... because this may be only the basis: not as something to be practiced but as the basis of harmony in the life. As every expression is a means of giving out the emotions, music is the greater manner of same." Cayce (2648-1)


Music and Healing
"Keep about the body the colors of purple and lavender, and all things bright; music that is of harmony - as of the Spring Song, the Blue Danube and that character of music, with either the stringed instruments or the organ. These are the vibrations that will set again near normalcy - yea, normalcy, mentally and physically." Cayce (2712-1)

"(She) supplied the music that would span the distances between loneliness and crowds, that would make for lifting the soul even in those periods when operations were performed under the soothing strains of (music). The entity perfected the stringed instruments. And when there was the roll of the organ, with the ecstasies reached in the Temple Beautiful, again the entity supplied same." Cayce (3234-1)

"The entity then was among those who supplied music in the Temple Beautiful, as well as (supplied) in the dance; or in the activities of the body to bring to the consciousness of individuals the change being wrought in the mental being, as physical change was wrought in the body, during temple service ... Hence the musical ability; the dancing ability comes from this experience. Yet time - or the activity of the feet in keeping time or beating time - will be seen - particularly with the right foot." Cayce (314-1)

"When illness or the like were to come about, soft music and the lighter shades or tones will quiet where medicine would fail -... but the developing will come for the soul, for the spiritual portion, through the music." Cayce (773-1)

"..the entity was among those who first set the chants of the various peoples to any form of music... that establishing of the chants that aided in HEALING.." Cayce (2584-1)

Q - "Why does she walk and talk so much in her sleep?"

A - "Close to the music that spans the distance between the finite and the infinite." Cayce (3621-1)


Music and Soul Development
"The music of a pastoral nature; that is, as attuning to the vibrations of flowers, the song of birds, the wind, the hail, the sleet, the snow; these in their roughness, yea in their quietness - all of these are appealing." Cayce (3374-1)

"As has been indicated, in the interpretation through the dance or through the athletic forces or dramatic forces that may bring to the mind and experience of others the glory of expressing the rhythm and the music of the inner self." Cayce (1207-1)

"The entity was among those who added music to the service (in an early Christian incarnation) that brought the oneness of mind; not only by the song, but by the music of the instrument. For then the stringed instruments were used, but the piano - which should be used in the present - is also by nature a stringed instrument. The entity, then, added to that hope and that faith which would span the varied realms of thought." Cayce (4099-1)

"Music should be life-giving flow: the interpretation of the emotions both physical and mental. A little later we should find these interpretations taking forms other than piano music; but this is the basis ... So begin with this ... and we will come into symphonies, to be sure. For music is that upon which the greater interpretation of the soul and mind may be based, in attuning the body to the Infinite." Cayce (3053-1)

"Do learn music. It is part of the beauty of the spirit. For remember, music alone may span the space between finite and infinite. In harmony of sound, in harmony of color - even in harmony of motion itself - all beauty is akin to the soul - self's expression of harmony of the mind. That is, if all these are used properly in relationship to body.

Not that music is to be made the major portion of thy life. But let much of thy life be controlled by the same harmony which is in the best music - yea, in the worst music also, for it too has its place. But cling to that which you experience by listening and watching a mother sing the lullaby of Brahms. Catch something that is shown in the love and emotion of the body as it sings the Song of Songs, or in the pure, true notes of Songs My Mother Taught Me." Cayce (3659-1)

"For unless the activity of every individual is as the music of the surf, the rippling waters, the sky, the birds, the very nature itself, it has not accomplished and does not accomplish that as an uplifting experience for the individual soul or entity." Cayce (949-13)

"Music is of the soul, and one may become mind and soul-sick for music, or soul and mind-sick from certain kinds of music." Cayce (5401-1)

"Music should be a part of each soul's development." Cayce (2780-1), (2780-3)

"For as you pour yourself out into music, in a way helpful to others, you are helping yourself also." Cayce (5253-1

"Music! History of it, activity in it - all such varied forms. If you learn music, you learn history. If you learn music, you'll learn mathematics. If you learn music, you'll learn almost all there is to learn - unless something bad!" Cayce (3053-1)

"Then without music there cannot be found the complete expression sought; whether it be music by instruments, or the music of doing good, or the music found when just being quiet in the moonlight, or listening to the voices of the night. That is music of the soul..." Cayce (5164-1)

"For the entity, as each soul, is a portion of the whole. Thus, though a soul may be as but a speck upon the earth's environs, and the earth in turn much less than a mote in the universe, if the spirit of man is so attuned to the Infinite, the music of harmony becomes as the divine love that makes for the awareness in the experience of the Creative Forces working with self for the knowledge of the associations with same." Cayce (1469-1)


Music of the Spheres


Tesla and the Music
"If you've already come across my discussion of a physical parallel for Tolkien's Great Music, you might find the following quote about Nikola Tesla intriguing as well:

"On that fateful afternoon in February in Budapest in 1882, when he was given the vision of the rotating magnetic field, there had come with it an illumination that revealed to him the whole cosmos, in its infinite variations and its myriad of forms and manifestations, as a symphony of alternating currents. For him, the harmonies of the universe were played on a scale of electrical vibrations of a vast range in octaves. In one of the lower octaves was a single note, the 60-cycle-per-second alternating current, and in one of the higher octaves was visible light with its frequency of billions of cycles per second.

"Nikola Tesla had in mind a course of experimentation in which he would explore this region of electrical vibration between his alternating current and light waves. He would increase the frequency of the alternating current through the unknown intervening regions. If one note in a lower octave produced such a magnificent invention as the rotating magnetic field and the polyphase system, who could imagine the glorious possibilities that lay hidden in other notes in higher octaves? And there were thousands of octaves to be explored. He would construct an electrical harmonium by producing electrical vibrations in all frequencies, and study their characteristics. He would then, he hoped, be able to understand the motif of the cosmic symphony of electrical vibrations that pervaded the entire universe."

If there is, indeed, a Great Music from which all things have formed, it appears that Nikola Tesla had a brief opportunity to listen to it." [Quote from Prodigal Genius by John J. O'Neill, p. 84.]


Music the Universal Language
"music, - that is of the nature that brings into association those forces of the celestial as well as the mental and spiritual,.."

"Then, give particular attention to the music in the experience of the entity; not only as the channel, but as an outlet for itself in its desires for expressions in the mental and the spiritual. For, hath it not been said that only music may span the space between the finite and the infinite? The entity's music maybe the means of arousing and awakening the best of hope, the best of desire, the best in the heart and soul of those who will and do listen. Is not music the universal language, both for those who would give praise and those who are sorry in their hearts and souls? Is it not a means, a manner of universal expression? Thus may the greater hope come." Cayce (2156-1)

". . . the entity's music may be the means of arousing and awakening the best of hope, the best of desire, the best in the heart and soul of those who will and do listen. Is not music the universal language, both for those who would give praise and those who are sorry in their hearts and souls? Is it not a means, a manner of universal expression? Thus, may the greater hope come." [Cayce 2151-1]


Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.” [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]


"Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting" [Gottfried Leibniz]


Music Affects Blood

See Also


01 - The origin of a Musical Sound
1.21 - It Really Is a Musical Universe
19.03 - Philosophy of Transmission and Rotation of Musical Sphere
19.05 - Excerpts from original Articles about Keelys Globe Motor or Musical Sphere
432
Base 12
Chord
Etheric Liberator used with Atlin the Musical Dynasphere
Figure 13.15 - Equilibrium as Musical Tonal Equivalents
Figure 14.01 - Overtones Developed Musically Showing Up as Isotopes along the Vertical Axis of this Chart
Figure 4.17 - Musical Relationships of Colors Tones and Attributes
frisson
Interval
Laws of Music
Music Notation
music note or sound colors
Music
Musical Dynasphere
musical globe
neutral center in music
Part 11 - SVP Music Model
Part 19 - Musical Dynasphere - Historical
Part 20 - Musical Dynasphere - Current Research
Part 26 - Science of Sound Vibration Acoustics and Music
Principles of Acoustics
protoplasm of music
sing
MUSICAL CULT CONTROL: THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION'S WAR ON CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH THE IMPOSITION OF A=44OHZ STANDARD TUNING
Science of Music

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Saturday August 5, 2023 05:35:57 MDT by Dale Pond.