lso the means of exciting our sympathy with
such emotions.

Have we not here, then, adequate data for a theory of music? These vocal
peculiarities which indicate excited feeling _are those which especially
distinguish song from ordinary speech_. Every one of the alterations of
voice which we have found to be a physiological result of pain or
pleasure, _is carried to its greatest extreme in vocal music_. For
instance, we saw that, in virtue of the general relation between mental
and muscular excitement, one characteristic of passionate utterance is
_loudness_. Well, its comparative loudness is one of the distinctive
marks of song as contrasted with the speech of daily life; and further,
the _forte_ passages of an air are those intended to represent the
climax of its emotion. We next saw that the tones in which emotion
expresses itself are, in conformity with this same law, of a more
sonorous _timbre_ than those of calm conversation. Here, too, song
displays a still higher degree of the peculiarity; for the singing tone
is the most resonant we can make. Again, it was shown that, from a like
cause, mental excitement vents itself in the higher and lower notes of
the register; using the middle notes but seldom. And it scarcely needs
saying that vocal music is still more distinguished by its comparative
neglect of the notes in which we talk, and its habitual use of those
above or below them and, moreover, that its most passionate effects are
commonly produced at the two extremities of its scale, but especially
the upper one.

A yet further trait of strong feeling, similarly accounted for, was the
employment of larger intervals than are employed in common converse.
This trait, also, every ballad and _aria_ carries to an extent beyond
that heard in the spontaneous utterances of emotion: add to which, that
the direction of these intervals, which, as diverging from or converging
towards the medium tones, we found to be physiologically expressive of
increasing or decreasing emotion, may be observed to have in music like
meanings. Once more, it was pointed out that not only extreme but also
rapid variations of pitch are characteristic of mental excitement; and
once more we see in the quick changes of every melody, that song carries
the characteristic as far, if not farther. Thus, in respect alike of
_loudness_, _timbre_, _pitch_, _intervals_, and _rate of variation_,
song employs and exaggerates the natural language of the emotion