General expo&sations of these fervent, wonder-smitten neophytes, and some of the
things they said remained in my memory. I shall never forget the young
workman who, trying to explain what he felt at the moment of modu-
lation, exclaimed enthusiastically ‘It’s just as if you were opening a
window !’But I must leave these pleasurable memories and continue my argu-
ment. I remember once suggesting to the Council of Radiodiffusion
Fransaise that certain programmes should be devoted to the study of
timbres and families of instruments, going on to combinations of voices
and instruments such as duets, trios, quartets, etc. Such elementary
and necessary instruction has since been given over the air. I hope that
it may be only a beginning, a prelude, and now pass on to the second
part of my study.If music were nothing more than I have already said, i.e. an excellent
form of intellectual and emotional exercise, plus a means of disciplin-
ing the will, it would deserve a place of honour, in any educational
system, in civic and social training. But music has another power as
well. Knowledge of music gives us the key to a wonderful treasure-
house, the vast store of written music has been built up since men, in
the West, devised a method of writing down the works we owe either
to popular tradition or to the individual genius of creative artists and
composers.
Before embarking on a study of musical notation and what it re-
presents in civilization, I must say a few words about musical memory.
Memory i,; the natural faculty which enables us to preserve some of
the practical lessons of life. Memory was all men had to rely on for
long ages until, thanks to the invention of signs, they were able to
consign the greater part of the burden to writing. Books and libraries
have thus become the sacred instruments and shrines enabling us to
record all that our memory can no longer retain.
There are many sorts of memory; and each is generally linked with
a profession, a favourite form of occupation, a taste or a preference.
Musical memory is very commonly found, and in some people is con-
siderable. It is a help to the musician; but it may also be thought that
it makes the musician, by giving him, musically, a natural advantage.
Everybody knows the story of Mozart, who, having once heard a piece
of organ music, could note it down exactly.
Such prodigies notwithstanding, the use of musical notation in the
West has enabled gifted artists to set down their works with sufficient