The Influence of Music on Health and Life

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... influence of music oh health and life. part I. chapter I. General reflections on the melodic and harmonic character of music among different nations.--Influence of the tone of the voice. very nation has a music and a song of its---' own. All, without exception, according to their taste, their talent, and their customs, have made use of the organs with which they have been endowed by nature, and of the instruments invented by their own ingenuity. Among primitive nations, music, having neither rules nor laws, consisted only of melody, which is a succession of sounds gratifying to the ear; it is a pleasure of emotion and of sentiment, addressed to the heart. Harmony is a music of science and combination. It is the result of several sounds heard at once, which produce what we call accord. It affords a pleasurable sensation which is addressed to the understanding. As to rhythm, one of the three elements which are found in nature, it pervades all melody and imparts character to it. Martianus Capella, a compiler of the fifth century, wrote at that time: "Melody is the female, rhythm the male." For us, melody is the sketch, harmony the coloring, and rhythm the character." Music is not the same among all nations. Climate, customs, habits, a certain degree of refinement or of civilization, all impress the tones of melody with various characters. Northern nations express themselves very differently from those of the south, while eastern nations have quite another music from those of the west. The exposition of 1867, that immense caravansary, where all nations elbowed each other, that vast capharndum where the most diverse objects were crowded together pell-mell, has afforded us samples of the music of many nations. To ou