I can hear and imagine tones far
beyond the range of my own voice. In listening to an orchestral performance
with all the parts, or in having an hallucination of such a performance, it
is impossible for me to think that my understanding of this broad and
complicated sound-fabric has been effected by my _one_ larynx, which is,
moreover, no very practised singer. I consider the sensations which in
listening to singing are doubtless occasionally noticed in the larynx a
matter of subsidiary importance, like the pictures of the keys touched
which when I was more in practice sprang up immediately into my imagination
on hearing a performance on the piano or organ. When I imagine music, I
always distinctly hear the notes. Music can no more come into being merely
through the motor sensations accompanying musical performances, than a deaf
man can hear by watching the movements of players. I cannot therefore agree
with Stricker on this point" (comp. Stricker, "Du langage et de la
musique," Paris, 1885).
Of the motor type myself and having a fairly good untrained ear for music,
I find that to memorise a melody, whether played by an instrument or by an
orchestra, I must either try to sing or hum that melody in order to fix it
in my memory.
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