Tone Thinking and Ear Testing, a Work That Directs the Student in Helping Himself to Develop Discriminative Hearing from the Simplest Beginning to ... and Chromatic Harmonies (Classic Reprint)

Music PREFACE. Music is the union of tone and rhythm, so it naturally follows that the study of music should begin with the training of theE arand Feeling. Thinking in terms of sound is a pre-requisite for sight-singing and all truly creative work, and as the study of Harmony and Counterpoint should be the study of tonal and rhythmic relations, Tone-T hinking andE ar-T raining should precede or accompany the study of those subjects. Every advance in music education renders more clear the advantage and the necessity of understanding the NATURE OF Music, hence the need and demand for ear training of a high order, work which includes something more than mere pitch of sounds. A nother advantage of value is the habit of observation that is cultivated. In time, one finds his power of attention always on the alert; not by conscious effort, but by habit. The perceptive faculties are always on duty. As rhythm is the most elementary factor of music, and as there is no music without rhythm, the first command should be, feel and hear rhythm, and the second and third are like unto it. Rhythm includes the grouping of tones in a beat: beats in a measure or bar: the grouping of measures or bars into sections and phrases, followed by the longer phrases that are equivalent to line or verse in poetry; and the grouping of lines or verses into stanzas. The increased lengths are introduced as the ability to think and hear increases. Much of the spirit of a composition depends upon the rhythm. The expression of ideas is impossible except through form. Thinking and hearing in phrases is as necessary for appreciation, interpretation and composition, as form is to a picture, or the grouping of words together for the expression of ideas. Since melody is intoned rhythm, it merits the next consideration.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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