Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/31

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pears fully fledged. As the more complicated dancing steps become more pleasing than the primeval monotonous step, the melodic chant becomes more pleasing than the simple rhythmic chant; that is, a rhythm of rhythms is developed which makes melody. So music was endowed first with rhythm and then with melody.

Melody is a pleasing succession of sounds, or notes as they are called in written music, having a different pitch, and we have to consider how such notes come to obtain that quality which we call melody and which is so delightful to the hearer.

The dance is a sport in which usually many persons simultaneously engage. In primitive dancing the time is marked by the voice, and the shouts of the dancers constitute a chant in which oftentimes they all take part, but at other times there is a leader and only one marks the time. As the dance develops from the simple monotonous recognition of the same step to a combination of two or more differentiated steps, they are marked by differences in the pitch of the voice. To fully understand the ultimate effect of this device, we must appreciate the universality of dancing and that it continued in the first stage of society through thousands of years.

Harmony—In a succeeding stage of society, which we call the monarchical stage, or the tyrant stage, when tribal society was developed into national society, music made another advance by the introduction of a new element of pleasure. As these new elements appear from time to time in the course of human culture, it must be remembered that they do not come into view fully fledged, but that germs planted in primordial music slowly develop until they become recognized as elements of such importance that they receive designed development in the purpose of music makers. Now, there existed in primitive music the germ of harmony which, in the progress of the centuries, came to be considered by men of such importance that special efforts were made to improve that fully recognized element itself. The