essential qualities of music. They have tone, rhythm, cadence, in a
very high degree, and also melody, though vague and rudimentary. The
essential difference between melody and mere succession of sounds
consists in its being intelligible, that is, in its conforming to a
scale or musical scheme of some sort, but that scale is not
necessarily the one recognized in modern music. Our ears are so
accustomed to associate melody with a certain diatonic scale, and with
accompanying harmony, actual or potential, that it is very difficult
for us to comprehend as melody successions which do not conform to
that scheme, as, for example, the melodies of Oriental nations, the
scales of which are far more complex and difficult to understand than
ours. It is a very remarkable fact that while the course of evolution
is generally from simpler to more complex organisms, that of the
musical scale is just the reverse. Primitive scales are highly
complex, and involve intervals not appreciable by us as melody; with
time they gradually become simpler; and in the diatonic scale,
especially in its most modern developments, where the distinction
between major and minor tends to become effaced,[15] we seem to have
reached the limit, and the scale is reduced to the simplest possible
numerical relations. However this may be, I know that to a person who
has lived in close converse with nature and possesses a musical ear
the cries of wild animals and birds are full of melody in the strict
sense, though it is rudimentary and different from that of our
concert-rooms. And it is reasonable to suppose that man, when he first
emerged with far more highly organized faculties than any beast, would
gradually raise his musical expression into something higher,
something more melodious, than that of other creatures. Particularly
as his reason developed he would devise a scale; the rhythms would
become more definite and at the same time more varied and complex. The
result of these improvements would be to make his utterances more