t of Music_ where
he calls them "the first essays made by man in distributing his notes
so as to express his feelings in terms of design." In folk-tunes this
design has been dominated by the metrical phraseology of the poetic
stanzas with which they were associated; for between the structure of
melody and that of poetry there is always a close correspondence. In
Folk-songs, therefore, we find a growing instinct for balanced musical
expression and, above all, an application of the principle of
Restatement after Contrast. The following example drawn from Irish
Folk-music[24]--which, for emotional depth, is justly considered the
finest in the world--will make the point clear.

[Music: THE FLIGHT OF THE EARLS]

[Footnote 23: The same statement is true of the Oriental nations, the
Arabians, Persians and Greeks, who are left out of the enumeration
only because their development in many respects has been along
different lines from ours. For suggestive speculations as to early
music among all nations see _Primitive Music_ by Richard Wallaschek.]

[Footnote 24: For illuminating comments on the Folk-music of all the
English-speaking peoples see Chapter XII of Ernest Walker's _History
of Music in England_. The famous Petrie collection of Irish Folk-tunes
should also be consulted.]

The statement is sometimes made that the principles of our modern
system of tonality and of modulation are derived from Folk-music. This
is only partially true, for pure Folk-songs always developed under the
influence of the old medieval modes, long before the establishment of
our fixed major and minor scales. Furthermore, as these were single
unaccompanied melodies, they showed slight connection with modulation
or change of key in the modern sense of the term--which implies a
system of harmonization in several voices. It is true that there was
an instinctive and growing recognition of the importance of the three
chief tonal centres: the Tonic or Keynote, the Dominant (a perfect
fifth _above_) and the Subdominant (a perfect fifth _below_) and at
times the relative minor. All these changes are illustrated in the
melody just cited; _e.g._, in the fourth measure[25] there is an
implication of E minor, in measures seven and eight there is a
distinct modulation to D major, the Dominant, and in the ninth measure
to C major, the Subdominant. This acceptance of other tonal
centres--distant a fifth from the main key-note--doubtless arose from
their simplici