Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 / Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.

by Unknown

In the cases given in the above table there is an irregularity quite impossible to music.

In the movement cycle of the simple sounds there is a perfect uniformity of the movements of the positive and negative sets of muscles from unit group to unit group. But in verse, the movements of the motor apparatus are very complicated. Certain combinations require more time for execution; but if this variation in the details of the movement does not break the series of motor cues, or so delay the movements as to produce a feeling of strain, the unit groups are felt to be alike. We have no means of judging their temporal equality, even if we cared to judge of it. It is a mistake, however, to say that time relations ('quantity') play no part in modern verse, for the phases of the movement cycle have certain duration relations which can be varied only within limits.

Extreme caution is necessary in drawing conclusions as to the nature of verse from work with scanned nonsense syllables or with mechanical clicks. It is safe to say that verse is rhythmic, and, if rhythm depends on a certain regularity of movements, that verse will show such movements. It will of course use the widest variation possible in the matter of accents, lags, dynamic forms, and lengths of sonant and element depending on emphasis. The character of the verse as it appears on the page may not be the character of the verse as it is actually read. The verses may be arbitrarily united or divided. But in any simple, rhythmic series, like verse, it seems inevitable that there shall be a pause at the end of the real verse, unless some such device as rhyme is used for the larger phrasing.

There is a variety of repetitions in poetry. There may be a vague, haunting recurrence of a word or phrase, without a definite or symmetrical place in the structure.

Repetition at once attracts attention and tends to become a structural element because of its vividness in the total effect. There are two ways in which it may enter into the rhythmic structure. It may become a well-defined refrain, usually of more than one word, repeated at intervals and giving a sense of recognition and possibly of completeness, or it may be so correlated that the verses are bound together and occur in groups or pairs. Rhyme is a highly specialized form of such recurrence.

The introduction of rhyme into verse must affect the verse in two directions.

It makes one element in the time values, viz., the verse pause, much more flexible and favors 'run on' form of verses; it is an important factor in building larger unities; it correlates verses, and contributes definite 'Gestaltqualitäten' which make possible the recognition of structure and the control of the larger movements which determine this structure. Thus it gives plasticity and variety to the verse.

On the other hand, it limits the verse form in several directions. The general dynamic relations and the individual accents must conform to the types possible with rhyme. The expressional changes of pitch, which constitute the 'melody,' or the 'inflections' of the sentences, play an important part. The dynamic and melodic phases of spoken verse which have important relations to the rhyme are not determined by the mere words. The verses may scan faultlessly, the lines may read smoothly and be without harsh and difficult combinations, and yet the total rhythmic effect may be indifferent or unpleasant. When a critic dilates on his infallible detection of an indefinable somewhat, independent of material aspects of the verse and traceable to a mystic charm of 'thought,' it may very well be that the unanalyzed thing lies in just such dynamic and melodic conditions of rhythm and rhyme.

The most primitive characteristic of music is the ensemble. Savage music is often little else than time-keeping. When the social consciousness would express itself in speech or movement in unison, some sort of automatic regulation is necessary. This is the beginning of music. The free reading of verse easily passes over into singing or chanting. When this happens, the thing most noticeable in the new form is its regulated, automatic and somewhat rigid character. It is stereotyped throughout. Not only are the intervals and accents fixed, but the pitch and quality changes are now definite, sustained and recurrent. The whole sum of the motor processes of utterance has become coördinated and regulated. Along with this precision of all the movements comes a tendency to beat a new rhythm. This accompanying rhythm is simpler and broader in character; it is a kind of long swell on which the speech movements ripple. This second rhythm may express itself in a new movement of hand, head, foot or body; when it has become more conscious, as in patting time to a dance or chant, it develops complicated forms, and a third rhythm may appear beside it, to mark the main stresses of the two processes. The negro patting time for a dance beats the third fundamental rhythm with his foot, while his hands pat an elaborate second rhythm to the primary rhythm of the dancers.

The essential character of musical rhythm, as contrasted with the rhythm of both simple sounds and of verse, is just this coördination of a number of rhythms which move side by side. This is the reason for the immense complexity and variety of musical rhythms. The processes check each other and furnish a basis for a precision and elaborateness of rhythmical movement in the individual parts which is quite impossible in a simple rhythm.