The march of material events was amply recorded, but melodies were passed from mouth to mouth and ear to ear, necessarily changing their outlines in the process, for the line that connects memory and expression seems, in most of humankind, to run so near that which leads from imagination to expression, as to engender inaccuracy in transmission. (This crossed-line influence is recognizable in the productions of most composers. Memories become entangled in their fancies.) Although our modern melody has doubtless come down to us through long lines of heritage, yielding to the prevailing influences of each successive stage in transmission, there is no statistical light on its line of development.
It would be interesting to know in what form the first musical intuition manifested itself, and then to trace an unbroken chain of cause and effect from that first manifestation to date, but that knowledge would not materially benefit music, which is the only art whose career does not follow well-defined cycles,--the features of periods reproducing themselves with the recurrence of conditions.
In sculpture, poetry, and architecture we have seasons of reverting to the antique, and with good results. These arts dealt with tangible material, could be kept present to the eye and mind, and therefore developed quickly. We return to their ancient forms, so restful in their conformity to natural adjustment, for relief from the tireless ingenuity of modern producers, and to find bases for new flights.
Music is, however, so essentially intangible that it required ages to discover sufficient of its underlying principles to afford the foundation for an art. Nothing within our ken has been as slow in evolving, and yet nothing has shown such an unwavering tendency forward and upward. These characteristics, and its insidious influence upon man's nature, entitle it to be called the divine art. It is in course of evolution from its original germ, but the outlines of its early technical forms have no significance for the nineteenth-century composer.
For the above reasons statistics will be avoided when they are not essential in locating and verifying conditions. Some periods were too influential in broadening and defining the scope of musical expression to be ignored. I shall endeavor to make my theories in regard to the origin and growth of music accord with its inherent qualities, as well as with man's devious and changing nature. The greater the music the more direct is its appeal to our imaginations, and the stronger its effect upon our emotions. Each intrinsically great composition has its distinguishing mood or temperament, which is the sequential expression and perpetuation of an emotion. This mood is first announced by the chosen themes, and then its varied phases and the cumulative intensity essential to sustained expression are secured through the logical manipulation of these themes.