The 2 Affections of Sound

The object of Music is Sound.

Its effect is to:

• please us
• move various emotions in us

But songs can be diverse, at once sad and delightful.

This is why the elegiac poets and tragedians are more pleasing the more they stir grief in us.

There are 2 affections of sound:

1. Differences in duration of time

2. The intensity of sound—whether high or low

The physicists say that sound is judged more pleasing to the body and spirit from the very quality of sound.

The human voice is particularly pleasing to us because it most closely resembles our own breath (or spirit).

Thus, the voice of a friend is more agreeable than that of an enemy due to the sympathy and sharing of feelings.

In the same way that they say the stretched skin of a drum vibrates when another drum is struck, or a wolf’s skin silences a drum, a similar harmony or dissonance happens in hearing.

Notes (Praenotanda)

1. All the senses are capable of some form of delight

2. For delight to occur, a certain proportion between the object and the sense is required

For example, a very loud thunder might not seem suitable for music, since it could hurt the ears—just as a very bright light might harm the eyes.

3. The object should not be too difficult or confused to perceive

Otherwise, it falls unpleasantly on the senses.

For example, a very intricate shape, though regular, like a geometric figure from astronomy, may not be pleasing.

4. An object is more easily perceived by the senses when the differences between its parts are smaller

5. Of all the objects, those with fewer and more distinct parts are more easily perceived than those with many indistinct parts

Arithmetic proportions are easier to perceive than geometric ones because the ratio is equal and differences are more noticeable to the senses.

Therefore, not all things that are equally spaced are equally sensed:

Example—lines like

1—2—3—4
vs
1———2—————3———————4

In the first case, the eye notices the arithmetic progression more clearly.

6. Thus, sounds in arithmetic proportion are more easily perceived than geometric ones, unless the differences are very large.

7. Among objects of sense, those most pleasing are those most easily perceived—requiring neither strenuous attention nor effort.

For what is easily sensed does not tire the mind, whereas what is hard to perceive either does not fill the mind or fills it only with difficulty, which fatigues the sense.

Therefore, we conclude: In all things, the most pleasing are those that combine variety with order—that is, what is moderately different but still harmonious.