I. WHAT IS MUSIC?
Among animals, only birds and men can produce music. Possibly, of these, men only can appreciate it. It is not agreed as to whether birds can appreciate music. They respond to it, and even imitate it, as in the case of the mocking bird, but we cannot be sure that their singing is for “pure joy,” or for the love of the melody rendered. With the majority of men we know that musical tones arranged in melody or harmony act as original satisfiers, by and in themselves. “Music hath power to soothe the savage breast.”
The analysis of capacity for musical performance, and the study of individual differences in this respect, were preceded by monumental studies of tone-psychology, rhythm, pitch-discrimination, and acoustics. In these researches psychologists, physiologists, and physicists have joined efforts. As Mead says in discussing Meyer’s theory of melody, “The search for the basis of music is centuries old; it antedates the search for the philosopher’s stone, the Holy Grail, and the North Pole.”
Nevertheless, in spite of all their searching, scientific men have not discovered the basic psychology of harmony and melody. Meyer, a lifelong student of the problem, concludes that, “Where we hear a succession of different pitches, we are affected in a certain way which cannot be described, but has to be regarded as an elementary psychological fact.” The satisfaction experienced by the typical person upon hearing a harmony, and the annoyance experienced by him upon hearing a discord, remain among the mysteries, perhaps unfathomable, of human psychology.