ON SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CHINESE MUSICAL SYSTEM.
I.
SINCE the publication in 1862 of Helmholtz's renowned ''Lehre von den Tonempfindungen'' the investigation of the psychology of tone has been actively pursued by students of the science of mind. The effort made by Helmholtz to interpret the achievements of the constructive genius of modern Europe with the material of tone by a reference to the dealings therewith of other races and ages has in particular given a great impulse to the collection of accurate data in regard to non-European music and their psychological study.[1]
The present paper aims to contribute to this branch of research a discussion of the musical system of China, based upon observations of performances by native musicians. These musical ideas and musical products it is our purpose to examine, not from the artistic, but the psychological point of view. We shall consider them as illustrations of the movements of the human mind in hearing, imagining, and reflecting upon tones and their combination, as material for a comparative psychology of that element of our sensations of sound which is known as the quality of pitch.
- ↑ Among many recent students of the psychology of tone may be mentioned in England, Messrs. Gurney and Sully; in France, R. Koenig; in Germany, Professors Preyer, Mach, Lipps, and especially C. Stumpf of Munich, of whose imposing Tonpsychologie two volumes only have as yet appeared. The studies of non-European scales by the late A. J. Ellis, those of Professor Land of Leyden in Arabian and Javese music, those of T. Baker in the music of the North American Indians, are specimens of the contributions of the last decade to our knowledge of primitive musical usages. We may hope for much light from inquiries of the latter kind upon the problem of the origin of music; an interest in which has recently been reawakened by an essay contributed to ''Mind'' (October, 1890), by Mr. Herbert Spencer.
