On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis.

  • Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music / by Hermann L.F. Helmholtz ; translated, thoroughly revised and corrected, rendered conformable to the 4th (and last) German edition of 1877, with numerous additional notes and a new additional appendix bringing down information to 1885, and especially adapted to the use of musical students, by Alexander J. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTROD. PLAN OF THE WORK. image, and enjoy its beauty; not to dwell upon the means by which it was created. It must at least be allowed that the pleasure of a connoisseur or virtuoso in the constructive art shown in a statue or a picture, is not an essential element of artistic enjoyment. It is only in painting that we find colour as an element which is directly appreciated by Sensation, without any intervening act of the intellect. On the contrary, in music, the sensations of tone are the material of the art. So far as these sensations are excited in music, we do not create out of them any images of external objects or actions. Again, when in hearing a concert we recognise one tone as due to a violin and another to a clarinet, our artistic enjoyment does not depend upon our conception of a violin or clarinet, but solely on our hearing of the tones they produce, whereas the H artistic enjoyment resulting from viewing a marble statue does not depend on the white light which it reflects into the eye, but upon the mental image of the beautiful human form which it calls up. In this sense it is clear that music has a more immediate connection with pure Sensation than any other of the fine arts, and, consequently, that the theory of the sensations of hearing is destined to play a much more important part in musical esthetics, than, for example, the theory of chiaroscuro or of perspective in painting. Those theories are certainly useful to the artist, as means for attaining the most perfect representation of nature, but they have no part in the artistic effect of his work. In music, on the other hand, no such perfect representation of nature is aimed at; tones and the sensations of tone exist for themselves alone, and produce their effects independently «fl of anything behind them. This theory of the sensations of hearing belongs to natural Science, and comes in the first place under physiological acoustics. Hitherto it is the physical part of the theory of sound that has been almost exclusively treated at lengtli, that is,the investigations refer exclusively to the motions produced by solid, liquid, or gaseous bodies when they occasion the sounds which the ear appreciates. This pliysical acoustics is essentially nothing but a section of the theory of the motions of elastic bodies. It is physically indifferent whether observations are made on stretched strings, by means of spirals of brass wire (which vibrate so slowly that the eye can easily follow their motions, and, consequently, do not excite any Sensation of sound), or by means of a violin string (wliere the eye can scarcely perceive the vibrations^ which the ear readily appreciates). The laws of vibratory motion are pre- cisely the same in both cases; its rapidity or slowness does not affect the laws themselves in the slightest degree, although it compels the observer to apply different methods of observation, the eye for one and the ear for the other. In physical acoustics, therefore, the phenomena of hearing are taken into consideration solely because the ear is the most convenient and handy means of observing the more rapid elastic vibrations, and the physicist is compelled to study the peculiarities of the natural instrument which he is employing, in order to control the correctness of its indications. In this way, although physical acoustics as hitherto pursued, has, undoubtedly, collected many observations and much knowledge concerning the action of the ear, which, therefore, belong to physiological acoustics, these results were not the principal object of its investigations ; they were merely secondary B 2