Show Significance of Different Musical Mu-sical Intervals Ail interesting investigation might be made of the various musical accents ac-cents which answer to different conditions con-ditions of feeling To ascertain this correctly would require a long and minuto course of experiments It I is curious to observe however that Gluck Mozart Berlioz Meyerbeer and Wagner when they have the same situations to depict whether in recitative or melody use the same musical intonations It thus appears ap-pears that the major third is generally gener-ally employed in interrogations and appeals and that the appellative character of that interval becomes more marked and impressive in the I fourth defending while the fourth ascending denotes affirmation decision I de-cision command The minor and major fifths express the feelings from prayer to violent desire and menace The sixth is the interval in-terval of passion it is the symbol of a very accentdated emotion I emo-tion and is inevitably met where I love is declared A semitone higher i conveys the idea of something painful which is resolved into a real expression of grief In the cry of I the seventh the symbol of an excess ex-cess of suffering There are in I effect no two ways of saying the I same thing in music and it is only in the way the phrase is introduced and sustained by the harmony that authors vary We are speaking of course only of those passages of n the songs In which the emotions are exploded for it is in these only that the author not caring to expend ex-pend his force over the whole phrase aims to bring out his full meaning From these comparisons emotions and intonations we are able to discover the physiological reason of the correspondence between be-tween the note and expression The smaller intervals congenial with indifference monotony doubt melancholy and sadness the group of moderate intervals affirms occupation occu-pation pleasure and desire which grow more ardent as we approach the extreme intervals and in these we look for the most intense feel ng Melancholy sentiments involving in-volving diminished vitality we might naturally conceive them to be expressed musically by dimin ished intervals the compass of which requires little effort while tamest desires strong passions and Peasant and happy feelings being accompaniments of a more activ vitality provoke more vigorous expressions ex-pressions and these expressions by giving an outlet to the excess of vitality tality furnish one of the best means for calming violent passions Popular Pop-ular Science Monthly December |