thing, it expresses a
feeling, a state of mind."[24] The grace of the dancer may very well
stir something in mind that ordinarily receives but little awakening.
With the changes in the rhythm of the dance, and the gestures that vary
in consonance, the echo within sings to a new tune. Perhaps we find
ourselves tapping the rhythm with our feet or our fingers, or it may be
that we find the very expression on our own face is altering to match
that upon the countenance of the dancer. The skilful speaker also can
arouse almost any emotion he pleases in the minds of his audience. He
may one moment have them laughing, and then the next, as if by magic
touch, he may bring them to sober mood or even to sorrow. Music no less
surely does the same through the agency of rhythm, melody, and harmonic
texture. There may be no words in the music or the dance, but the
emotion is nevertheless conveyed. Moreover, each idea in mind has its
own associations, and when once the central idea is implanted it
forthwith proceeds to clothe itself in these associations, decking
itself out according to the native colour of the mind.

[Note 24: Ribot. "Psychology of the Emotions."]

We find it impossible to conceive that anything which may be termed
music is devoid of significance, though there are certainly gradations
and degrees of import. It may well be that music, like so many other
things in nature, has a three-fold aspect corresponding to our own
make-up as body, soul, and spirit. The outer form, the composition and
actual structure, represents the "body" of music: that part which is
visible even to the unobservant eye and audible to the indiscriminating
ear. This is a matter of notes and tones quite apart from any real
meaning or value. Such would be an academic exercise, or a technically
correct but unconvincing ballad. It might possibly make some appeal to
the intellect by by virtue of the "exhibition of balance and symmetry,
the definiteness of plan and design, the vitality and proportion of
organic growth,"[25] but this would not suffice to place it in the
category of music displaying the "soul" element.

[Note 25: Hadow. "Studies in Modern Music."]

This second and higher "soul" significance shows itself in the
emotional appeal of the music, in the feelings it provokes and the mood
it engenders. Here sound speaks in parables with an outer story and an
inner meaning. The non-musical person hears sounds, but the musical mind
hears sense.