LECTURES ON HARMONY.

I

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY.

AM gratified by the opportunity permitted to me of offering a series of technical Lectures on Music to the members of this Institution, in which matters of science and art are expounded, with the purpose of unfolding their principles and describing the laws through which these operate. It is a frequent practice to give musical lectures, on the contrary, in the form of concerts interspersed with anecdotes of the masters whose compositions they include, with perhaps a chronological notice of the rise and decline of the various styles these compositions exemplify. In pursuing a different course from this, of presenting musical performances with-shall I say—historical illustrations, I trust it may not be vain for me to emulate the pattern of the great men in all departments of knowledge who appear before you at this table; and I shall be proud if I can communicate any insight into musical principles analogous to that which you receive here other subjects. pre-suppose that the announcement of the theme of these lectures has in some sort prepared you to

I

upon

B

look rather for instruction than amusement in the series; and, as I shall not pretend to furnish you with amusement, I must appeal to the interest in the technicalities of harmony-which I presume has drawn you hither for such sympathy with the subject I am about to discuss as may enable me to render acceptable the instructive form in which it will be cast.

I presume further that each member of my audience is forearmed, not only with an interest in the subject I am about to treat, but also with a considerable knowledge of its terminology; at least, I trust that you all are familiar with the names of musical notes, and with any words that are in constant use with persons who have some practical proficiency in any branch of the musical art. I will not weary you, therefore, with explanations of technicalities with which every musical tyro is conversant; but I must tax your patience-I hope not too heavily-in defining some terms that are in less general use, yet must frequently occur in my remarks.

Let me say also in advance, to mature musicians, if any such honour me with their attention, who come less to learn than to criticise, that any unfamiliar theoretical views which I may bring forward are not of my own discovery. My late friend, Alfred Day's theory. Day, communicated to me his very original and very perspicuous theory of Harmony, by means of which many obscurities in the subject were cleared that my previous anxious study had vainly sought to penetrate, many discrepancies of principle and practice

were reconciled between the writings of profound
teachers and the works of great masters that had
previously perplexed and discouraged me.
I am
indeed so thoroughly convinced of the truth of Day's
theory, and I have derived such infinite advantage
from its knowledge in my own practical musicianship,
that I should be dishonest to myself and to my
hearers were I to pretend to teach any other; and if
I could have the good fortune to bring any doubters
to share in my conviction, I feel that the satisfaction,
the self-reliance, the genuine faith they would thus
acquire would be a worthy memorial of the keenly
penetrating genius of my friend.

and melody.

The term harmony belongs not exclusively to Harmony music. Its Greek original defines the fitness, propriety, accordance of things; so that we use the word in a primitive rather than a figurative sense, when we speak of harmony among the members of a society -of a harmonious whole, comprising the diverse elements in a work of art. It is employed as a technical term by painters; with whose province, however, I will not interfere by speaking of the signification in which it is understood by them. In music, the word harmony expressly defines a combination of notes, in contra-distinction to melody, which means a succession of notes: the first signifying music which requires several performers except when such instruments as the pianoforte are employed, whereon many notes may be sounded together; the second, which can be executed by a single voice or any instrument that can yield but one sound at a time: the first

unknown to

the Greeks.

expressing music which is written vertically; the second, music which is written horizontally. We must not confound this bare technical interpretation of the horizontal, one-voiced, successive melody, with the sense in which the word is popularly received, the sense comprising rhythm, accent, and numberless delicate gradations, the total of which constitutes what should properly be called good melody, whose absence is implied when critics complain that a piece of music contains no melody at all, since this would be, in true technical terminology, to declare that such a piece was composed of a single reiterated note. Harmony The term Harmony-in the musical sense of symphony, accordance, combination was unknown to the Greeks. I am aware that scholars have had divided opinions as to this fact; but I am convinced, by the very passages in the writings of Greek theorists which are adduced to the contrary, that the ancients never knew the effect of harmonious combination. The art of music, therefore, which I am not single in estimating as the most subtle, the most intense medium of the expression of the beautiful, which has always been classed by ancients and moderns in advance of poetry and painting, is virtually the youngest of the artistic sisterhood; for its very birth-nay, the first dawning upon men's minds of the natural principles which are its basis— dates only within the last six or seven centuries.

Since all harmonic progression must, however, consist of a combination of melodies, it may be well to glance briefly at the melodic code of that great people