Now, the melody of spoken language is measured by a single interval, which is approximately that termed a fifth. When the voice rises towards the acute, it does not rise more than three tones and a semitone; and, when it falls towards the grave, it does not fall more than this interval. Further, the entire utterance during one word is not delivered at the same pitch of the voice throughout but one part of it at the acute pitch, another at the grave, another at both. Of the words that have both pitches, some have the grave fused with the acute on one and the same syllable—those which we call circumflexed; others have both pitches falling on separate syllables, each retaining its own quality. Now in disyllables there is no space intermediate between low pitch and high pitch; while in polysyllabic words, whatever their number of syllables, there is but one syllable that has the acute accent (high pitch) among the many remaining grave ones. On the other hand, instrumental and vocal music uses a great number of intervals, not the fifth only; beginning with the octave, it uses also the fifth, the fourth, the third, the tone, the semitone, and, as some think, even the quarter-tone in a distinctly perceptible way. Music, further, insists that the words should be subordinate to the tune, and not the tune to the words. Among many examples in proof of this, let me especially instance those lyrical lines which Euripides has represented Electra as addressing to the Chorus in the Orestes:—
2 καὶ τὸ EF: καὶ PMV 4 πέρα] παρα F 5 τόνων om. P || ἡμιτόνιον P: ἡμιτονίων M 7 ἐπὶ om. PMV 10 συνδιεφθαρμένον FE 11 ἐν ἑτέρῳ τε καὶ ἑτέρῳ MV: ἕτεραί τε καὶ ἕτεραι P 14 ἡλίκαι ποτ’ ἂν Us.: ἡλίκαι ἂν E: εἰ καί ποτ’ ἂν PM: εἰ καί ποτ’ ἡλικἂν F: οἷαί ποτ’ ἂν V 15 ταῖς ἄλλαις EFM: om. PV 19 τὸ διὰ ‹τριῶν καὶ τὸν› τόνον Radermacher: τόνον F: διάτονον P: διὰ τόνον M: τὸ διάτονον EV 22 ἐκ τῶν EF: τῶν PMV
3. μετρεῖται, ‘is measured,’ ‘is confined,’—terminatur, coërcetur.—For various points in this chapter see Introduction, pp. [39]-43 supra. With regard to the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone’s oratorical delivery, on a special occasion, Sir Walter Parratt obligingly makes the following communication to the editor: “I heard him make his famous ‘Upas tree’ speech at Wigan, in a wooden erection, and watched with some care the inflection of his voice. Addressing so large a crowd I think he put more tone into the voice than usual. Roughly I found that he began his sentences on
, generally ending on
, but sometimes falling the full octave to
.”
4. ὡς ἔγγιστα, ‘as nearly as possible,’ ‘approximately.’