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The Arabian System of Music

being also a complementary pair, would produce white, as experimentally proved by Helmholtz.

The development into triplets or trinities has been especially remarked in the harmony caused by the falls of Niagara.* "A remarkable peculiarity in the Arabian system of music is the division of tones into thirds. I have heard Egyptian musicians urge against the European systems of music that they are deficient in the number of sounds. These small and delicate gradations of sound give a peculiar softness to the performances of the Arab musicians."

"Their music is of a style very difficult for foreigners to acquire or imitate, but the children very easily and early attain it. I low much the Arabs profited by the works of ancient Greek writers is well known."† As knowledge increases, may not the beginning of every physical science be traced first as a trinity springing from a trinity in unity, followed by a second partaking of the nature of the first, so as to unite with it in complementary pairs as here described in tones and colours, trinity in unity being the germ of never-ending developments?

The inequality of the equinoctial points is a well-known fact. It will be seen how apparent this is in the developments of harmonies. From the moment that trinities depart from unity, the balance is unequal, and the repeated endeavours after closer union cause a perpetual restlessness. May not this want of equilibrium be the life or motive power of the entire universe, with its continuous struggle after concord, even to oneness? "Closer and closer union is the soul of perfect harmony." In tracing harmonies of tones and colours, the double tones of keyed instruments will be seen to correspond with the intermediate tints and shades of colours. The twelve notes, scales, and chords in the major and minor series, the meetings by fifths, &c., all agree so exactly in their mode of development, that if a piece of music is written correctly in colours with the intermediate tints and shades, the experienced musician can, as a rule, detect errors more quickly and surely with the eye than the ear, and the correct eye, even of a non-musical person, may detect technical errors. Although the arithmetical relation has been most useful in gaining the laws, it is not here entered upon; but numbers equally meet all the intricacies both of tones and colours. The bass notes have been omitted, in order to simplify the scheme.


  • See Scribner's Monthly Magazine, No. 81, page 583. †Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 64.


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Hughes
The development into triplets or trinities has been especially remarked in the harmony caused by the falls of Niagara.* "A remarkable peculiarity in the Arabian system of music is the division of tones into thirds. I have heard Egyptian musicians urge against the European systems of music that they are deficient in the number of sounds. These small and delicate gradations of sound give a peculiar softness to the performances of the Arab musicians." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, The Arabian System of Music, page 21]

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Wednesday February 17, 2021 05:27:05 MST by Dale Pond.