| Citation |
SCAGG.771.057
11-18 Nov 1771:41, 42 (14/683)
[This article, an excerpt of a letter dealing with acoustics
and music theory written by Benjamin Franklin. In the page
filmed for the microfilm edition, a large piece of the page
is torn off, with about 40% text loss. Missing text has
been inserted from a copy of the essay published in Church
Music and Musical Life in Pennsylvania in the Eighteenth
Century, vol. 3, part 2, William Lichtenwanger, ed.,
(Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames of
America, 1947), pp. 464-467.]
Extract of a letter to the Right Honourable Lord Kaims of
Edinburgh.
In my passage to America I read your excellent work, the
Elements of Criticism, in which I found great entertainment.
I only wished you had explained more fully the subject of
musick and demonstrated that the pleasure artists feel in
hearing much of that composed in the modern taste is not the
natural pleasure arising from melody or harmony of sounds,
but of the same kind with the pleasure we feel on seeing the
surprising feats of tumblers and rope dancers who execute
difficult things. For my part I take this to be really the
case and suppose it the reason why those who are unpracticed
in musick and therefore unacquainted with those difficulties
have little or no pleasure in hearing this New Music. Many
pieces of it are mere compositions
of tricks. I have sometimes at a con-
[cert, attended] by a common audience placed my-
[self so as to] see all their faces and observed no
[signs of pleasure] in them during the performance
[of a great part] that was admired by the perform-
[ers themselves;] while a plain old Scotch tune,
[which they disdained,] and could scarcely be pre-
[vailed on to play, gave] manifest and general de-
[light. Give me leave] on this occasion to extend
[a little the sense of y]our position that "Melody
[and Harmony are separately] agreeable and in u-
[nion delightful, and] to give it as my opinion that
[the reason why] Scotch tunes have lived so
[long and will pro]bably live forever (if they e-
[scape being stifled] in modern affected ornament)
[, is merely this,] that they are really compositions
[of melody and har]mony united, or rather that
[their melody is harmony.] I mean the simple tunes
[sung by a single voice.] As this will appear pa-
[radoxical, I must ex]plain my meaning. In com-
[mon acceptation, in]-deed, only an agreeable succes-
[sion of sounds is called] melody, and only the co-
[existence of agreeing s]ounds, harmony. But since
[the memory is capable] of retaining for some mo-
[a perfect idea of] the pitch of a past sound,
[so as to compare with it] the pitch of a succeeding
[sound, and judge truly] of their agreement or dis-
[agreement, there may a]nd does arrive from thence
[a sense of harmony be]tween the present and past
[sounds, equally pleasing] with that between two
[present sounds. Now] the construction of the old
[Scotch tunes is this,] that almost every succeeding
[emphatical note is] a third, a fifth, an octave, or
[in short some note] that is in concord, with the pre-
[ceding note.] Thirds are chiefly used, which are
[very pleasing] concords. I use the word [emphatical
to distin]guish those notes which have a stress
[laid on them] in singing the tune, from the lighter
[connecting] notes, that serve merely, like grammar
[articles in] common speech, to tack the whole to[gether].
[That w]e have the most perfect idea of a sound
[just past I] might appeal to all acquainted with mu
[sick, who] know how easy it is to repeat a sound in
[the same] pitch with one just heard. In tuning an
[instrument,] a good ear can as easily determine
[that two s]trings are in unison by sounding them
[separately, as] by sounding them together; their
[disagreement is] also as easily, I believe I may say
[more easily and] better, distinguished when sound-
[ed separately; for] when sounded together, though
[you know by the beating] that one is higher than
[the other, you cannot] tell which it is. I have
[ascribed to memory] the ability of comparing
[the pitch of a] present tone with that of one
[past. But, if there] should be, as possibly there
[may be something] in the ear similar to what we
[find in the eye,] that ability would not be entirely
[owing to memory. ] Possibly the vibrations given
[to the auditory] nerves by a particular sound may
[actually continue] some time after the cause of those
[vibrations is past,] and the agreement or disagree
[ment of a subsequent] sound become by comparison
[with them more dis]cernable. For the impression
[made on the visual] nerves by a luminous object
[will continue twenty] or thirty seconds. Sit-
[ting in a room, look] earnestly at the middle of a
[window a little while] when the day is bright, and
[the shut your eyes;] the figure of the window
[will still remain in the] eye, and so distinct that
[you may count the panes. ] A remarkable cir-
[ ] experiment, is, that the
[ ] retained than that of
[ ] are shut, when you
[ ] the window, the panes
[ ] bars of the sashes,
[ ] and walls, appear white
[ ] add to the darkness in
[ ] with your hand, the re-
[ ] the panes appear lumi[nous]
[ ] And by removing
[ ] [r]eversed. This I know not
[ ] for the following; that
[ ] [r]ough green spectacles, the
[ ] will on first taking them off
[ ] red; and after long look-
[ ] greenish cast; this seems
[ ] green and red not
[Farther,] when we consider by
[whom these ancient tunes] were composed, and
[how they were first performed,] we shall see that
[such harmonical succession of] sounds were natu-
[ral and even necessary in their] construction. They
[were composed by the minstrels] of those days to
[be played on the harp accom]panied by the voice.
[The harp was strung with] wire, which gives a
[sound of long continuance,] and had no contrivance,
[like that in the modern har]psichord, by which the
[sound of the preceding] could be stopt, the mo-
[ment a succeeding note] began. To avoid actual
[discord, it was the]refore necessary that the succeeding
[emphatic] note should be a chord with
[the preceding,] as their sounds must exist at the
[same] time. Hence arose that beauty in those
[tunes] that has so long pleased, and will please fore-
[ver], though men scarce know why. That they were
[origi]nally composed for the harp, and of the most simple
kind, I mean a harp without any half notes but those in the
natural scale, and with no more than two octaves of strings,
from C to C, I conjecture from another circumstance, which
is, that not one of those tunes, really ancient, has a
single artificial half note in it, and that in tunes where
it was most convenient for the voice to use the middle notes
of the harp, and place the key in F, there the B which if
used should be a B flat, is always omitted, by passing over
it with a third. The connoisseurs in modern musick will
say, I have no taste, but I cannot help adding, that I
believe our ancestours in hearing a good song, distinctly
articulated, sung to one of those tunes, and accompanied by
the harp, felt more real pleasure than is communicated by
the generality of modern operas, exclusive of that arising
from the scenery and dancing. Most tunes of late
composition, not having this natural harmony united with
their melody, have recourse to the artificial harmony of a
bass, and other accompanying parts.* This support, in my
opinion, the old tunes do not need, and are rather confused
than aided by it. Whoever has heard James Oswald play them
on his violincello, will be less inclined to dispute this
with me. I have more than once seen tears of pleasure in
the eyes of his auditours; and yet, I think, even his
playing those tunes would please more if he gave them less
modern ornament.
June 2, 1765. I am, &c, Benjamin Franklin.
*The celebrated Rousseau, in his Dictionnaire de Musique,
printed 1768, appears to have similar sentiments of our
modern harmony.
|