Let us always keep in mind that, while the psychological effect of music remains a considerable mystery, and the appreciation of great music must be a personal and individual act involving a certain receptivity and sensitiveness to musical impressions, yet the perception of the logic or sense in a piece of music is a long step towards understanding it, and one of the best means of cultivating that receptivity and sensitiveness.

Folk-songs have been described by an eminent writer[1] as "the first essays made by man in distributing his notes so as to express his feelings in terms of design." We shall shortly examine some typical folk-songs in order to see how this design gradually became larger and more various, and how, through this process, the foundations were laid for the masterpieces of modern instrumental music. We shall see that this advance has accompanied an advance in civilization; that as men's lives have become better ordered, as higher standards of living and thinking have appeared, the sense of beauty has grown until, finally, this steady progress has resulted in the creation of certain permanent types. It must be kept in mind, however, that these primitive types are largely the result of instinctive effort, and not of conscious musical knowledge. The science of music, as we know it, did not exist when these songs were written.

I. FOLK-SONGS AND ART SONGS.

In order to distinguish between Folk-songs and songs like those of Schubert and Schumann, musicians call the latter "Art" songs. The folk-song is a na?e product, springing almost unconsciously from the hearts of simple people, and not intended to convey any such definite expression of the meaning of the words as is conveyed in modern songs. While there are specimens[2] of the art song that closely approach the simplicity and beauty of the folk-song, the art song in general is not only of wider range and of wider application to men's thoughts and feelings, but it also has, as an integral part of it, an accompaniment of which the folk-song, in its pure state, is entirely devoid.

A further distinguishing characteristic of the folk-song is that it is often composed in one of the old ecclesiastical "modes."

These modes were old forms of the scale that existed before our modern harmonic system came into use. The following English folk-song, called "Salisbury Plain," is in the "Aeolian" mode.

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FIGURE IV.