Timbre is the quality of sound which identifies it with the instrument of its production. Although many instruments can be convincingly gay or subdued, most authors are agreed that some instruments emit prejudicing tones. Chomet[18] considered the bassoon mournful, the flute tender, and the trombone harrowing. He found that the clarinet expresses grief, the oboe suggests reverie, but that the violin “seems suited to express all sentiments common to humanity.” Mursell[60] finds consistent tactile values in tone. Low tones are dull and high tones cutting. He speaks of the French horn as smooth, the piccolo sharp, the oboe as stringent, the cello velvety and the bassoon rough.
Gundlach[38] believes that the timbre of an instrument is significant in mood response. He finds the brasses triumphant and grotesque, never melancholy or tranquil, delicate or sentimental; the woodwinds mournful, awkward, uneasy, never brilliant or glad. The human voice also has timbre, and distinctive values. There is the dramatic quality of Marian Anderson and the syrupy flow of Bing Crosby; the virility of the basso and the sparkle of the coloratura.
Duration. The sounding of a single note will attract attention, but if the note continues for a sufficient period without changing its characteristics it will become monotonous, annoying and finally exasperating. If the sound is interrupted at equal intervals, this reaction will take longer to develop, but if the intervals between them are irregular, interest is sustained, especially if these variations occur periodically; that is, with a certain rhythm.[8]
Rhythm. It is possible to have music without rhythm, but as Rameau[68] pointed out long ago, “Music without rhythm loses all its grace.” Since percussion instruments probably preceded all others, rhythm was the first stage in the evolution of music. The proponents of the motor theory of rhythm feel that muscular response to music with pronounced rhythm is a physiological reflex. They point out that it is difficult to walk deliberately out of time to a well accentuated march, and Dunlap[26] has shown that in reclining subjects “With the utmost possible relaxation of the entire body, good rhythmic grouping of an auditory series can be obtained.” With the aid of the electromyograph Jacobson[50] has shown that in complete relaxation mental activity results in fleeting but specific muscle contractions invisible to the eye and unknown to the subject.
Rhythm perception is a mental stimulant. Reade[69] observed that African negroes when ordered to row a boat always began to sing as an aid to overcome their natural laziness. Bücher[14] believed that rhythm as exemplified in working songs facilitates the synchronous expenditure of energy by individuals engaged in a common task.
Although rhythmic song will not necessarily elicit obvious motor responses in all subjects, the wide-spread use of work songs among groups of people engaged at hard work on land or sea throughout the world is indicative of the value of background rhythm for communal effort. Mursell[60] believes that “any notion that pure or ‘naked’ rhythm is more effective than rhythm clothed in tone is open to very serious doubt.” But the chief effect of marked rhythm is the feeling of excitement and happiness which it can arouse. Rhythm gives us a certain pleasure because of its orderliness to which the mind is sensible.
Melody as a musical element contributes chiefly to restfulness.[71] If it is simple and recognizable it will recall other times and rest the mind from the thoughts of present problems. If it is complex and new it will distract the more musical but have a less desirable effect on the uninterested.
Mode. The term mode is applied to the arrangement of whole and half-tones in the musical scale construction. Of the many possible modes only two are used in our present system of music, the major and the minor. There is only one form of the major mode, and it is the one most people recall when they think of the scale. There are three forms of the minor mode, but of these the harmonic is the most frequently used. It is formed by lowering the third and sixth notes by a half-tone.[80]
When an author pioneers convincingly in a field which has long needed clarification, it is likely that even his questionable remarks will be accepted with the same degree of authority as his scientific statements. In 1722, Rameau[68] published a treatise on harmony which received wide acceptance because of its excellence and comprehension, but in that work he prejudiced many of the writers who followed into believing that the major triad was more pleasing and beautiful than the minor. This concept was not only adopted but embroidered. Hauptman[44] likened the minor triad to the branches of the weeping willow and hence attributed to it a mournful downward drawing power. To the major triad he assigned the property of an upward driving force. (When this is taken literally, as it was, and applied to the patient, we can see clearly why remarkable attributes were claimed for music.)
Now there is little doubt that if the triad of C minor is struck on a piano after that of C major, most people will describe the sensation elicited by the sound of the minor chord as melancholy. Helmholtz[46] attributed the veiled or sad effect of a minor chord to certain notes foreign to the chord which physical reasoning expects.