Musical criticism is a subject which, I am of opinion, may be investigated and discussed with advantage by the members of the Musical Association. It is a field which may be thought delicate ground to tread upon. The atmosphere by which it is surrounded may be impregnated with explosive matter; but I am not dismayed from pursuing the inquiry I have proposed to my. self. With the safety lamp of good faith and good temper, I believe that the ground may be traversed without any apprehension of danger.

The object of this paper is to explain a method of representing Musical Intervals, which is very useful in the higher class of musical investigations, from the easy and definite manner in which it enables relations, usually considered complex and obscure, to be presented to the mind.

It has been suggested to me that the subject of Ecclesiastical Music treated from the historical point of view might prove suitable and interesting for a paper to be read before this Association. It appears, however, too large a subject for a single paper, and moreover there are some branches of it which trench too much upon questions of religious observance to be fitting matter for such a meeting as the present. Under these circumstances it seems best, on the whole, to confine our attention this afternoon to a few important considerations arising out of the historical aspect of Church Music, some of which, as it appears to me, have not hitherto received that amount of attention which they deserve.

The earliest musical instruments were most probably those of percussion. Music consists of two parts: rhythm and tone. To produce a tone requires a certain amount of constructive ingenuity; to obtain a variety of tones from one instrument requires considerably more; whereas rhythm may be produced by beating together any solid substances, or even by clapping the hands. By degrees, various as well as improved qualities of rhythmical sound would be discovered; and the stretching of skins over hoops or hollow vessels would soon suggest itself. In the latter case, especially, a musical tone or note would be the result.

I very much fear that the observations I have undertaken to bring before you to-day, under the dignified title of a ‘Paper,’ may be disappointing, for more reasons than one. I fear that they should have been illustrated by diagrams, for one thing; but I found that their adequate illustration in such a manner would have been too cumbrous for this, or any other like room, since they have to do with an orchestral score. Then I fear you may think me very revolutionary; for I am proposing to quarrel with old-established customs: with the way in which the pitch of certain orchestral instruments is represented on paper; and with which I cannot, probably, give any very scientific reasons for quarrelling.

Dr. Stone said he did not intend to go into the question of any particular pitch, but rather to deal with the difficulties of keeping to a pitch when it was obtained. This was a constant source of difficulty, particularly in orchestras, where the wood instruments were constantly varying. In almost all cases the pitch tended upwards. The process of ascertaining with exactness the number of vibrations per second, either by means of the siren or any other instrument, was long and tedious; but in taking the French pitch as a standard, there was this advantage, that it had been ascertained once for all, by very competent men, and tuning forks had been made in accordance with it which varied very little, and could be produced in great numbers with considerable accuracy. Such forks, therefore, formed a good practical standard for experimental use, because, if you set two forks in vibration the beats were clearly perceptible. On the other hand, they had disadvantages. In the first place, the sound was very feeble and evanescent, and in the noise of an orchestra almost inaudible; besides which the beats, on account of the pure and rather dull character of the tone, were very faint at a distance; and after all it was by means of beats that tuning must be accomplished. Temperature again affected these forks very much. He had on the table several common tuning forks, such as were generally supplied by the trade, and although they were not so well made as the French, still they were very fair. There was a slight amount of beating usually perceptible between two of the same pitch arising from defective workmanship; but on warming one fork even to the temperature of the body, the difference became greatly increased. A tuning fork, then, was not absolutely accurate. Their evanescent tone might be made more permanent by exciting it with a fiddle bow; but with an ordinary high-pitched fork you rapidly wore away the hair of the bow without producing much effect. There was no doubt a better way which deserved to be tried, although he had not been able yet to carry it out, namely, to put them in vibration by means of galvanism. On passing an intermittent current through them you might obtain a permanent tone; but it would require care to bring it to pitch Helmholtz had succeeded in doing this, and it was no doubt sufficient for the purposes of the physical cabinet, but for an orchestra, or for tuning an organ, it was hardly practicable.

When Mr. Spottiswoode asked me some time since to take his place in reading a paper before this Society, I called to mind some acoustical experiments I made last summer, with a view to making out how we detect so easily and generally the direction of a source of sound, and hoped to be able to complete the experiments to some extent, so that I might be able to present the matter in a little more complete form. Unfortunately, however, my health is not good enough to allow of my making acoustic experiments in the open air at this time of the year, and therefore I have but little to add to what I discovered last summer.

The work of the late Sir Charles Wheatstone was very varied in character, and was not limited to one, or even two, of the branches of physics. He investigated the laws of sound, of ordinary and polarised light, and he greatly advanced our knowledge of electricity and magnetism. But there is one characteristic, at least, which runs through all his investigations: he always sought to embody the results of his study of the laws of nature in a practical form, so that they might be beneficial to mankind. Thus he made use of the polarisation of the light of the sky to determine the correct solar time by means of his solar clocks; and again, in his electric instruments, he has enabled us to make electric measurements, and also to interchange ideas with our fellow-creatures all over the globe.

The subject which I have chosen for the consideration of the Musical Association presents to the most casual observer so many obstacles in the way of treatment that it will be easily believed I approach my task with feelings of diffidence. The largeness of the field for discussion, the difficulty of treating the musical or, to me, unfamiliar portion in a manner worthy of this Association, and the fear lest the medical portion may be tediously or too technically dwelt upon, have tended to render me distrustful of success. Were I not well assured of the generous forbearance shown by professional men to those who have real desire to contribute to our common knowledge, I had many times turned back from the plough to which I have put my hand.