Marcotone: The Science of Tone Color · requested its author to explain the source of his...

MARCOTONE

The Science of Tone-Color

EDWARD MARYON

BOSTON

C. C. BIRCHARD & COMPANY

A U T H O R ’ S N O T E

The author of MARCOTONE, SCIENCE OF TONE-COLOR, has felt the necessity of offering some in-formation underlying its principles, although thisedition of MARCOTONE is for the sole purpose ofgiving an easy, simple method of practical serviceto the general public, young and old, for music-study. Nevertheless, experience has taught usthat copies of a former publication did frequentlyget into the hands of ripe scholars and others, whorequested its author to explain the source of hisdiscoveries and those deductions which have led tothe birth of a new science. Accordingly, the state-ments which appear in the first four chapters aremade for those interested in MARCOTONE as ascience; but they have nothing to do with thepractical side of the present volume, and those whostudy its pages are in no way required to compre-hend some unavoidable technical terms.

References to “Standard Edition” are to the com-plete treatise on this subject by the same author,under the title of M ARCOTONE.

INTRODUCTION

The doctrine of automatism advocated as the essen-tial necessity of MARCOTONE was clearly defined byLamarck when he stated his law: “the functioncreates the organ,” for science verifies its assertionthat life is the sum of habit.

BIOLOGY brings us face to face with the Origin ofThings only because of the parallelism betweenSOUND and LIGHT; for life is obtained, maintained,and understood as a “parallel series of differentscales of magnitude.” Therefore, the primary modefor studying life is through VIBRATION, which devel-ops into spirals, or octaves, through oscillatory,periodic motion.

This genetic discovery of Biology was provedthrough the analytic acquaintance with that builderof cosmos, SOUND. Octaves of periodic movementdiffer from each other merely through their numericalcoefficients. (See Table and Chart, page 38.)

What the ear fails to register, the apperceptibilityof the eye reaches when sound-waves are transferredto cylindrical movements. We know that what thefar-seeing mind of Fresnel did with Descartes’ andHuyghens’ considerations, Clerk Maxwell illuminat-ingly projected into a more exact and applicablescience, so that mental conception progressed froma theory of the “oscillatory motion of ether” to thedemonstrable periodic oscillation of its electro-

2 M A R C O T O N E

magnetic status. For Maxwell discovered that ascale distinct yet nevertheless parallel to the scale ofsonorous vibrations existed, a scale whose prime nucleusis the spectrum of white light. Since Maxwell’s dayour knowledge has been increased by the radial dis-coveries of Kelvin, Crookes, Roentgen, Hertz,Becquerel and others. Today still further intimacyinto the mystery of motion has been gained byThomson, Curie, Rutherford, Bragg and their con-temporaries in exact science.

Le Dantec, in his book THE NATURE AND ORI-GIN OF LIFE, gives us the familiar example of aprismatic aura formed in a waterfall’s spray, show-ing that this rainbow of light is not displaced bythe motion of the water drops, which proves thateither phenomenon is independent of the other,disclosing the fact that the spectrum formed is of thesame order of magnitude as the movement of sound.This deduction is: “light acts on the chemicalreactions of life, sound on its colloidal manifesta-tions.” The upshot of such finding is: “vibratorymotion, which occupies so considerable a place inscience today, was first verified in phenomena bysound . . . scholars finding a first continuous seriesof phenomena equally comparable with each otherthrough simple numerical coefficients.” This is nowtermed scaling, and this model of vibratory motionis hardly likely to be subject to any future change.

Humans should be interested to know that pro-toplasms are declared by science to be colloid, forthis is the keystone of biology.

I N T R O D U C T I O N 3

A remarkable biological phenomenon is, that al-though “chemistry deals with atomic or moleculardimensions, the colloid state on the contrary relatesto activities of a dimension far superior to that ofmolecular reactions; ” yet they take place, simulta-neously, “along two different scales of magnitude.”Therefore, “living substances which are sensitive tosound are also sensitive to light.” Le Dantec,agreeably with the findings of Willard Gibbs, fur-thermore states : “a sound vibration may determine,secondarily, a chemical modification, having set thesuspended particles in motion; reciprocally, a lumi-nous vibration may determine, secondarily, a modi-fication of the colloidal state, having producedcertain chemical reactions.” Therefore, “not onlyLIFE . . . bestrides other series of phenomena sowidely separated as sound vibrations and luminousvibrations on the one hand, and molecular andchemical reactions and particle and colloidal varia-tions on the other; but LIFE also sets up a connec-tion between two series of phenomena which appearas complete strangers to one another.”THESE FACTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO ALL TRUE

SCIENCE AND ART BECAUSE THEY ARE LIFE ITSELF.Let us make it very clear that the tools for locat-

ing and analyzing LIFE are biologically proved to beSOUND and LIGHT (Tone-Color), expressing to theirfullest possibilities the phenomena of equilibriumpeculiar and particular to chemical and molecularaction and reaction.

If, therefore, sound-waves influence protoplasmic

4 M A R C O T O N E

matter and light-waves do analogously the same withall chemical substances which are the constituentsof protoplasm, it proves beyond contradiction thatall life is in the colloid state, the seat of chemicalreactions, and therefore is necessarily a harmoniouscorrelation between chemical activity and colloidalequilibrium.

If this is scientifically established, how can manexpect the fulness of his powers to become consciousuntil these biological laws are not only indexed andtabulated in laboratory and library, but do auto-matically respond within the center of his own being?To this end is MARCOTONE, SCIENCE OF TONE-COLOR; for the human scale of temperament mustlogically coincide with the universal scale of tem-perature, so that Space correlates with Time. Undersuch conditions universal harmony is an actualhuman attainment, for motion then becomes emo-,tion, reciprocally, a transcendent example of naturalequilibrium.

Thermo-dynamics, or, better, the incoming scienceof Chemico-Physics, will add immeasurably to ourunderstanding; in fact, the subconscious is beinglocated. Humanity’s inner eye is being illuminedin all physical sciences through the Law of Inter-ference, which we might term the “chromatism” ofNature’s Gamut of Vibration.

It was through the resonator that the Approxi-mate Law at the dawn of the applied sciences wasdiscovered and termed timbre, i.e., the specific dif-ference of sounds having the same pitch but varying

in quality of tone. This law is as indispensable toboth chemistry and physics as it is to music.

Is it not high time, if this new vision of man hasbeen extended only through the correlation of SOUND

and LIGHT, that our arts and sciences of music areverified and reorganized through this same naturallyordered manner? In the living animal, includingMan, the phenomenon of equilibrium takes a par-ticular form that is characteristic of life, habit.Habit with living beings, and equilibrium pure andsimple with non-living beings, are the two factorsof what is termed universal harmony.

In this elementary course of MARCOTONE, it isnot consistent with its purposes to set forth indetail the mathematical and other precise formulaewhich were necessary for its establishment as theScience of Tone-Color. (The Chart which is givenwill be sufficient evidence for this present workto show the correlation between sound-waves andlight-waves as applied to music.) The followingmay be termed the premises of our Science of Tone-Color.

NU M B E R

Number is the universal ideographic language,being the source of cosmic, religious and scientificsymbolism.

The Symbolism of Number, expressed, becomes theLaw of Motion, generating space and producing lifein all its forms.

6 M A R C O T O N E

Life governed by Number transforms motion intoemotion, creating time, so that Life produces Love.These facts prove that physical law is created toevolve moral law.

T O N E

Silence decomposed through number is sound, thesource of spheric and human MUSIC.

Fundamentally, all forms of vibration are gener-ated by and are transmutable into sound; thereforesound is the origin, even as it is the architect andbuilder of form. Sound is the creator, preserver andalso the destroyer of all forms; because all thingsdepend upon the multiple variety of sound for theirinfinite variety of form.

Basically, geometry is the root of the universeand therefore of all natural forms, including humanarchitectonical forms. Geometry is created by sound.

Simple experiments, proving such to be a fact inNature, are those geometrical forms obtained fromLycopodium spores under the influence of a seriesof isochronous harmonics. These spores placed ona drumhead and ‘set in motion form geometricaldesigns correlated to the harmonics from which theyare generated. The vibrations of steel forks offixed pitches, when shown in shadows cast intomirrors, form patterns which can be thrown througha lens upon a screen and the invisible tone thusbecomes visible, as perfectly ordered geometricalfigures. Therefore, it is evident that universes and

all appertaining to them are embodied MUSIC, theeffects of sound as musical proportions.

The human voice and musical instruments arecapable of elaborating the forms of ferns, flowersand trees, because the vegetable kingdom is gener-ated, geometrically, by sound which creates theirforces and distributes their types through numberedmotion.

The vibrations of any given tone are exclusivelyin a given direction, and therefore the interferences ofswinging pendulums, which result in such complexi-ties of form as shells in which both the angles andcurves are geometrically perfect, simply modify eachother, reproducing the reality of these vibrationswhich such interference has modified.

The crystalloid serves the vegetable world as thecrystal serves the mineral world, showing throughthe power of sound the completeness and harmonyof nature.

Motion, as numbered vibrations, governs all sys-tems of Life, its variety in velocity causing differ-ences in the physical aspect of its material composi-tion. In either case, crystal or crystalloid, the axesmake their appearance when duly formed by theLaw of Numbers, geometrically, through sound. Inthe mineral world every crystal takes its form fromcertain sound-built axes of direction and the morecomplexly elaborate the crystals are, the morenumerous must of necessity be the axes whosecenter is the heart of the crystal. As with crystal-loids the results inevitably depend on tonally created

8 M A R C O T O N E

geometry, for the differences in both solely dependon the basic arrangement of their axes.

Experimentation has proved that light is gener-ated and involves as a dual manifestation under thecausal protection of sound. From a statical concep-tion sometimes termed “cold flame,” fire is generatedas radiant heat, or radiancy, because friction impliesheat. Again, the action of such dualism is to createmoisture, water. Thus, it follows, the elements aremade.

Sound paternally fostering light, Nature proceedsto energize the universe as zones, octaves, or spiralsof motion; for spheres of magnetism, electricity,radio-activity spirally build cosmos from chaos, sothat time shall fill space.

The correlation of sound and light is demonstratedby throwing differing rays of light upon a multi-colored glass ball, and where correlation existsbetween the light-waves and the colors in the ball,tone is generated, because the transmutation betweenlight-waves and sound-waves is thereby effected.

Furthermore, Bell’s experiment with seleniumdisks shows how light-waves are transformed intosound-waves and then into galvanic waves, tore-become sound-waves.

Recent invention has produced an instrument ofprecision which transposes vocal and instrumentalmusic into color. Camille Flammarion states: “Thenotes (seven octaves) of the scale are nothing else

but ratios of numbers between sonorous vibrations. . . but a matter of figures.” A. A. Michaelsonasserts: “All phenomena of the physical universeare only different manifestations of the variousmodes of motion. . . .”

Professors Mills and Milliken lay down the prin-ciple that: “Sound and light are identical exceptin the length of their waves and the nature of themedia which act as their carriers.” The greatacoustical authority, John Tyndall, in his exhaus-tive work, SOUND (see pages 319-320), gives a decisiveand what he terms “a beautiful” experiment, which,he asserts, proves “the perfect analogy between lightand sound.”

This momentous addition to science was describedand illustrated before the Royal Institution, Eng-land. Elaborating upon this, Tyndall concludesthe first part of his magnum opus, SOUND, with thefollowing words :

“Thus far, therefore, we have placed our subjectin the firm grasp of experiment; nor shall we findthis test failing us further on.”

Science has never found this discovery to fail, andnow applies its “perfect analogy” to art, with re-sults not alone portentous to music, but equally tothe sister arts of painting, decorating, etc. Thoseaspiring students who would learn of cosmic HAR-MONY which created the universe, so that they mayreligiously create their works to accord with thefundamentals of natural law, will do well to studyMARCOTONE , SCIENCE OF TONE-COLOR.

1 0 M A R C O T O N E

Further substantiated proofs of Tone-Color corre-lation must be sought for in the standard editionof MARCOTONE; for this present book, as we havealready stated, is to teach its elementary practices.Although the method set forth herein relates to theconscious mastery of reading, memorizing and writ-ing chord-forms, the vital question today is to getthe whole world a-singing, through mastery of melody,the automatic mental control of melodic lines.

Melody controls comparatively all vocal and instru-mental music. For practical purposes, excepting thepiano, organ, harmonium, harp and the study ofmusical theory and composition, the melodic linegoverns the world’s present-day music. It is thepurpose of this volume first of all to implant thissimple yet vital fact in the mind of the generalpublic and, further, to show how to control thepower of unconscious melodic mastery as a humanlyautomatic function.

EDWARD MARYON.

PART I

MARCOTONE THE SCIENCE

The word MARCOTONE was originated by the author from thefollowing sources :

Sanskrit : MA = to measure ; R (raga) = by scaling ; co =color ; and TONE.

MARCOTONE

CHAPTER I

PRINCIPLES OF MARCOTONE

I. Vibration is the Universal Law.II. The mental faculty to apperceive vibration

in the world of phenomena as light-waves in theelement ether is a law of atavism forced upon themind of Man as color and form through the develop-ment of the organ of seeing, which has establishedthis phenomenon upon the consciousness.

III. The same mental faculty which is capableof dealing with the phenomenon of Light throughthe eye and the mind can be utilized in the worldof phenomena in another element, the air, andthrough another sense organ, the ear, because inprinciple it is the same faculty which pertains toboth phenomena.

IV. Natural causes during vast periods of timehave, from the foregoing principles, evolved thesubconsciousness to the point of willing color andform before the human mind; but these same causeshave not obtained the same phenomenal results inthe realm of sound which they have in the domainof light. Therefore, the normal mind does not ap-perceive the precise movements of tonal-pitch, which,between air, ear and mind, are equivalent to theprecise movements of light-waves between ether, eye

14 M A R C O T O N E

and mind. Yet, applying the laws of correspondenceand analogy to this same principle, which conformsto the law of vibration, that which has developedone natural phenomenon subject to vibration willdevelop the other.

v. One prime cause can produce two kinds ofphenomena if the natural law which governs theone governs the other. Therefore, since Color is anatural, spontaneous and involuntary act of themind governed by one prime cause, so Tone, gov-erned by the same prime cause, can become one andindivisible with Color.

This Tone-Color system is MARCOTONE.

A B S O L U T E P I T C H 15

CHAPTER II

ABSOLUTE PITCH; CONSCIOUSNESS OFTONE

ABSOLUTE PITCH

A child learns to eat, walk and talk, and aftermonths of continued effort is able to do so withoutapparent thought, i.e., automatically.

In like manner all habits once formed become“second nature” to us and are, indeed, our life. Ifthe Tone-Color system, MARCOTONE, be conscien-tiously followed until the first awkward struggleshave given way to the natural simplicity of theworkings of this science within us, then we shallhave acquired through its practices Absolute Pitch.

For practical use in music there are about sevenoctaves, ranging from the contra-octave to the four-times-accented octave.

We nominate the fundamental tone 256, the primeor root of the natural octave, because an open pipe26 inches in length and filled with air executes 256vibrations (termed the middle or once-accentedC' or do) in a second of time and which naturallyforms a 52-inch sound-wave. To compute the ve-locity of sound, it is then necessary to multiply thenumber of vibrations (256) by the length of itssound-wave, obtaining as a result the speed of1,120 feet per second. (See Table and Chart, page 38.)

If the middle or natural octave (the once-accentedoctave, the octave which ranges in pitch from 256to 512 pulsations per second), the center of ourisochronous-sounding keyboard, is a fixed crystalli-zation, an inbuilt, lasting structure of that part ofour mental equipment which we term subconscious-ness, then by extending our mental vision in eitherdirection from the middle octave, we find that wecan easily, distinctly and immediately discern thegraver bass or the acuter treble octaves below andabove our subconsciously poised natural octave oftwelve chromatic tones. Bassward, ever more slowlyproduced, but always the same ratio; trebleward,ever more rapidly produced, but always the sameratio. Therefore, having once mastered the middleor natural octave, our command over these raised orlowered octaves (which are only graver or acuterfacsimilies of our natural octave) is equally spon-taneous and involuntary as with the natural octave,which, instead of being a mere mechanical expressionof our vocal or instrumental studies, is now a per-manent superstructure of our subconscious mind, anorganized and perfectly developed attribute of theintellect. This subconscious superstructure is adefinite and ordered crystallization of twelve tone-colors, each tone-color an independent, fixed, yetcorrelated, part of the whole of our new and de-liberately acquired mental faculty, viz: AbsolutePitch of the chromatic scale, which is the base andfundamental property of music. The scale of eventemperament, marcotonely, signifies the decompo-

sition of the spiral or octave of sound into twelvefundamental tones, six primes and six complemen-taries. Each tone is separated by the distance ofan interval (not to be confounded with diatonicintervals), which has the value of >$ or 1.059. (SeeChart, page 38.)

Such a conclusion, borne out by scientific facts,offers no reasonable grounds for argument. Havingobtained interiorly the twelve degrees of the tone-color scale, the mastery of all musical material isours!

As mankind has raised its conception of color tothe subconscious plane where the intuitive apper-ception of color is independent of sense and free toautomatically act at the urge of will alone, so, whenM A R C O T O N E is mastered, the student has forever ob-tained a command of those tone-vibrations whichcomprise the full capacity allotted to all vocal andinstrumental music. The reason for this is that theseunits of tone-vibration are coequal with twelve specificcolor-vibrations which are natural to our subconscious-ness because of the same pitch-ratio pertaining toboth the measured colors and tones used in MARCO-TONE. The colors are measured from the tone wavesof each chromatic step of the once-accented octave.

Color is the one and only mentally stable aspectof motion possessed by man, atavistically, wherebyto measure speeds of vibration, i.e., we visualizecolor by an automatic measurement of vibration-speeds having for its source our subconsciousness.The result is consciousness of color.

MARCOTONE is a science based on the exact rela-tionship between color and tone through number,and since no available medium except color-vibra-tion is natural to us for the exact measurement ofpitch, MARCOTONE should become an integral partof the routine wherever music is taught.

Consciousness of tone, i.e., absolute pitch of thechromatic scale, as units (tones), or in combination(chords), should no more be restricted to the mu-sician’s calling (and alas, generally the musicianhas it not), than the natural and involuntary knowl-edge of color is now restricted to the painter’s art.

Color is a universal attribute of the subconsciousmind; the eternal possession of our mental faculties.It is necessary to all the arts and sciences whosesource is vibratory action, and practically indis-pensable to Music.

Through mastery of MARCOTONE the human racecan obtain the same free-will control of tone which ithas atavistically over color.

Once this new and vital factor in evolution isrealized by those responsible for the nation’s educa-tion, we shall become a race of natural musicians.Song will become a common, everyday gift, even asspeech is today; a new joy will have come into thehearts and minds of the people and a new and moreharmonious epoch of life will fill the earth.

Recapitulation

I. When he has subconsciously established thechromatic cycle of tone-color, viz: the twelve tone-colors of the natural or middle octave of light andsound, then the student automatically controls andutilizes these tone-colors as a permanent mentalpossession.

II. The habit once formed of thinking the nota-tion’s dual value in tone and color of each step ofthe scale, gives the student a mental conceptionof these twelve units of vibration in the perfectmanifestation of their activity as distinct units ofmeasurement.

III. The habit so formed becomes, in time, aspontaneous, natural and involuntary act of themind.

When this has been accomplished:(a) The attention will not be drawn to these exact

speeds of motion as color (etheric waves).(b) The attention will not be drawn to these exact

movements of vibration as tone (aerial waves).(c) The mental action is now automatic.To induce this subconscious power the following

rules should be carefully observed:I. Contemplate each color separately until they

can be evoked singly (as simple units); then practisethem in combination as chords (compound units).

II. Always think and repeat the name of thecolor of a note-sign, because color is the only naturalsubconscious power we possess which reveals the

exact movements of vibration or motion and thuspermits us to obtain absolute pitch of tone as wellas of color.

III. Never try to think the tone of a note-sign,because it is unnatural to do so. We have no naturalmental function which enables us to measure mo-lecular action as sound.

IV. Use the Charts, Figures, Marcotonographand other MARCOTONE appliances, as first aids onlywhen forming the habit of thinking the color-pitchof the chromatic scale of light.

v. The mind must gradually be drawn fromthese first aids and come to rely more and moreupon itself, within itself, i.e., the inner sanctuary ofthe mind must acquire the power to hold the color-thought in its possession without external aid and tocreate the tone which, by natural law, is correlatedto the color-thought.

VI. Owing to the great potentiality of words, arepetition of the name of the color is of great as-sistance in thinking color-pitch.

T O N E D E A F N E S S 2 1

CHAPTER III

TONE DEAFNESS AND ITS REMEDY

It is possible to be a practical performer, a justlyfamous singer, a distinguished composer, and, atthe same time, to be tone-deaf, i.e., unable mentallyto register tonal-pitch. Most of us are born tone-deaf, and the majority of musicians, despite theirerudition and artistry, are musical parrots to theend, victims of tone-deafness.

Neither virtuosity of voice or instrument, nor themastery of harmony, counterpoint, canon and fugueor any other of the allied musical sciences can giveus tone-consciousness.MARCOTONE is an exact science and the only one

through which absolute tone-pitch can be mentallyacquired. It builds into the human unit the naturalbasic powers of musicianship. The absence of abso-lute pitch is the basic flaw in the very principles ofour art, the cause not only of bad musicianship, butof much unnatural labor on the part of all artists,for more than three-fourths of their time is given tolearning the compositions of the tone-poets by rote!

This entirely false attitude toward music enforcesan altogether disproportionate amount of work uponthe sense of touch (the feelings), and in consequencethe nerve centers are strained, and therefore it is acommon matter to find the artist a victim of“nerves.”

To have absolute tone-pitch through MARCOTONEis to have the power to read and hear understand-ingly any musical composition precisely as literaryworks are read and heard.

Without it our ears may readily hear and we mayenjoy a composition that we or others are interpret-ing; yet, except through the medium of mechanicalappliances or the vocal expression of the tone, thetragic silence of the deaf mute is mentally ours.

How can this unnecessarily absurd condition bechanged? By placing in our subconscious mind theabsolute pitch (as tone-color) of the chromatic scale.

By so doing we become attuned to the cosmic oruniversal laws governing vibration or motion. Thiscondition is natural musicianship.

When one has become a natural musician, then isthe allotted time to acquire the aesthetic complementwhich makes the artistic musician.

Remember that in every branch of music thesense of touch and the nervous organism play acapital part.

It cannot be too often repeated:(a) That certain classified colors and certain tones

possess a co-equal ratio. (Those in the MARCOTONEplates were measured from their musical proportions.)

(b) That color is registered through the eye.(c) That tone is registered through the ear.(d) That color is received by the brain according

to its just measurements as light-waves.(e) That tone is not received by the brain accord-

ing to its just measurements as sound-waves.

T O N E D E A F N E S S 23

(f) Yet given ratios of color can be correlated togiven ratios of tone, because the color-thought canrecreate itself in co-equal tone through the mediumof the voice, twenty-nine or thirty octaves below.

It was upon the foregoing principles that the tone-color system, MARCOTONE, was made the funda-mental science of music, a science-art heretoforedevoid of a natural foundation; a growth; as Helm-holtz says, from local and traditional aesthetics.M ARCOTONE has made it possible for all to sur-

round themselves with the wonders of the world oftone, as hitherto they have enjoyed the world ofcolor. This is especially significant now that avariety of mechanical means are bringing the bestof music to our firesides. Who would not ratherunderstand the message of the composer or artistthrough these excellent mechanical contrivances,and to read understandingly from the printed nota-tion whatever is played or sung, or to read it aloneas we do a novel, play or poem, than merely tolisten sensuously and thus barely catch the mereoutline of the composition?

The author has undeniable evidence from thosewho have mastered M A R C O T O N E , that this sub-conscious power will not alone affect the musicalproclivities of humanity, but will add immeasurablyto the clairvoyance of scientists, painters, writersand poets, and to the vision of all who are engagedin the liberal arts and crafts devised by Man in hisefforts toward a higher and nobler civilization.

CHAPTER IV

THE MARCOTONE TONE-COLOR SCALEThe Marcotone Scale is not to be understood as

the chromatic form of the diatonic scale, but as atone-color scale of twelve pitches within the distanceof an octave. Number is the source of M ARCOTONE,

and these numbers are found in the scale of harmonics.Harmonics, or upper-partials, are those overtonescaused by the natural function of a fundamentaltone dividing itself automatically into its aliquotparts. Starting, for example, with C in the “great

octave,” the harmonics are all gov-Pitch 64 z

erned by the number 64, because sixty-four addedmovements in air is Nature’s formula for expressingher harmonica1 scale with the great octave C or Dofor fundamental.

Sixty-four vibrations added as a scale give thefollowing:

HARMONICAL SCALE

T H E M A R C O T O N E S C A L E 25

When Guido d’Arezzo, monk and musician, withhis medieval colleagues accepted the ancient GreekLydian system as the official occidental scale, em-ploying seventeenth century notation, we obtainedan arbitrary seven-toned intervallic scale which wehave called diatonic :

LYDIAN SYSTEM: DIATONIC SCALE

This scale is composed of tetrachords, i.e., of fournotes placed within the interval of a “perfect fourth”,each tetrachord containing two whole steps and onehalf step. The dotted lines above show how thisarbitrary scale of the Greeks was built up as a spiralof fifths placed within an octave.

Greek music, as understood by us, was introducedinto Hellas by Pythagoras from Egypt. It belongsto the Hermetic philosophers of Osiris, Horus andIsis. Therefore, it is easy to trace its origin to theOrphic Lyre, or the “scale of Orpheus”, which tradi-tion says he received from Apollo, his father, the godof light.

425THE ORPHIC SCALE

Through the monochord, an instrument used sincecivilization began for measuring intervals, the “root-note, ” or fundamental tone (1) gave first its octave(2), then its fifth (3), by naturally dividing up thestretched string into halves and thirds. Mathemati-cally the twelfth (fifth within the octave) could beinverted and thus become the lowest note (4) of thefour-stringed “lute of Apollo” or lyre of his sonOrpheus.

Remember that the music of the East is still homo-phonic (melodic), and this purely melodic music pre-vailed in ancient Egypt and therefore in Greece. Asthe “greater contains the lesser” the ancients, havinggauged the interval once removed from the prime tone’soctave (g" removed from c' ), built their scale systems,the seven-toned scale within the distance of the ex-treme strings of the four-stringed lyre of Orpheus,viz: c; g; d; a; e; b; f, betweenf and c", and com-prised in their systems of double-tetrachords isc; d; e; f; g; a; b; c, the Lydian system.

Yet this finely constructed scale is foreign to na-ture and the recent discovery of this fact has led“modern” music into strange places of adventure.The classical composers and, in a large measure, too,the romanticists of the middle nineteenth century,believed with the ancients that their diatonic scalewas Nature’s own scale. Today we have scienceproving this to be erroneous.

Let us carefully consider this matter which is caus-ing a complete revolution, and will eventually lead toa reformation in the world of musical science and art.

THE MARCOTONE SCALE 2 7

The Lydian system, incorporated into modernmusic as the diatonic scale, we have seen to be aseven-toned scale of two tetrachords, each tetra-chord consisting of two whole steps and one halfstep. Now, these steps, although placed side byside and incorporated in each of the seven musicaloctaves, nevertheless are not of the same basic orprimary value. The sonometer or monochord,plucked to obtain the C' or do', causes this instru-ment for the measurement of musical sounds to emit256 pulsations per second, or some acuter or densersound having the same numerical ratio. But thisplucked string of the monochord divided itself intoits aliquot parts with the natural consequence thatsimultaneously its harmonics were heard. The soundobtained by plucking the string was, therefore, ob-tained objectively; but the overtone G or sol used forbuilding the diatonic scale was automatically causedto sound by this same impact and consequently wasobtained subjectively. Therefore the objective sound,C or do, is complemented by the subjective sound,G or sol. Tyndall, Gage and a number of otherphysicists in their acoustical experiments have dem-onstrated how sounds may be reduced to silencewhen a primary and its complementary tone aresounded simultaneously. This law equally appliesto primary and complementary colors. Therefore,when a tone-color is objectively obtained and matedwith its complementary tone-color, to proceed withnatural scaling, it becomes essential to carry out aprecise formula, that is, to continue following our

numerical law regarding a fundamental tone and itsharmonics, and to avoid the ancient error of con-sidering them as of the same acoustical value.

Correcting this hoary fault in building musicalscales, we obtain a perfectly ordered scale of six justtones and their complementary overtones.

The following is the result:

THE MARCOTONE SCALE

Thus is created a perfect cycle or circle of isochro-nous tone.

The following chart, showing this scale related tothe prime geometrical symbols, establishes its rela-tionship to natural law and introduces the chromatichalf-steps.

T H E M A R C O T O N E S C A L E 29

The double triangle illustrates the geometricalposition of the primary (musical proportions), andthe intersecting dotted lines represent the comple-mentary tone-colors.

The “ clavier,” or keyboard of a piano and organ,has been built to conform with d’Arezzo’s “Diatonic”seven-toned scale, made chromatic by evening up itssteps of irregular tones and half-tones into twelvehalf-steps. Hence we have a keyboard irregular tohandle, and which obviously creates technical diffi-culties apart from those which are “natural” to anymechanical instrument upon which we manuallyperform.

Further, three tones of the primary whole-scale arereproduced on the black keys, and four of the com-plementary whole-toned scale, on the white keys.Could anything be more confusing to a true harmon-ical realization of Music? Of course, as these andother errors were formed on false conceptions, andwhich in the course of several centuries have becometraditional, they remained undiscovered by the gen-eral public; but this same public, nevertheless,suffered the consequences of ignorance; for errorcreates confusion. Because it has not seen the truth,the difficulties caused by false conceptions, as anecessary evil to artistry, enveloped music-study.

How long are we going to work hard througherror when natural law shows us an easier waytowards our ideal?

It takes man aeons to discover and become fullyalive to natural law, for Truth is hard to find; but

having found it, all things human are made easy;because when Truth alone informs man’s works, bothhe and his labors become divine, and mortal becomesimmortal.

S C A L E S O F L I G H T A N D S O U N D 3 1

CHAPTER V

TONE-COLOR; THE SCALES OF LIGHTAND SOUND

The scale of Light and the scale of Sound are onein principle; but given in light-waves, this naturalscale of universal vibration is the divine Law of theUniverse, which produces the primary colors, andgiven in sound-waves, produces the primary tones.

A perfect conception of the correlation of boththese scales can be gained through a sub-division ofthe circle (360 degrees). This gives us the ChromaticCircle of Tone-Color. (See Standard Edition.)

Not only do we thus obtain by natural law every-thing which, as sound, is used by the musical com-poser, the sum total of that which in combinationgives us the whole fabric of the musical arts andsciences, but we are thereby enabled to equalize ourimperfect diatonic scale. Examining this scale, wefind it a mixed gamut of tones and half-tones. Insub-dividing it, chromatically, the diatonic scale be-comes a chromatic scale of twelve equal half-stepstempered for technical purposes.

In proceeding upwards, the teacher must impressupon the student that the sharp-sign (#) is alwaysused, and in proceeding downwards the flat-sign (b)takes its place in the chromatic octave.

If the teacher has helped the pupil to realize the

foregoing, the pupil is in a position to put MARCO-

T O N E to practical uses.Because the will has power to imprint on the

mind a given color or series of colors, in MARCOTONE

it is necessary t o practise any exercises given by aqualified teacher without any assistance from thetone-color charts or the figures in the book, i.e.,mentally.

These charts and figures are only first aids towardsmemorizing those colors which are in the same exactratio of the vibrations as the tones and which areincorporated in the same musical sign. When powerhas been gained to recall these colors at will, thenall assistance from the Marcotone Pitch-Pipe (theMarcotonograph*) and the colored diagrams mustbe discarded.

The lessons are to be given with the Marcotono-graph or Pitch-Pipe, and Charts, or with those otherinventions and games which have been expresslymanufactured for students of all ages, to facilitateits study.

*A specially invented instrument which produces the Tone-Colors. A pianomay be used.

T O N E - C O L O R 33

CHAPTER VI

TONE-COLOR; RULES

The Note-Signs in use for musical composition,in MARCOTONE, serve a twofold purpose:

(a) As twelve distinct Signs, for twelve distinctColors.

(b) As twelve distinct Signs, for twelve distinctTones.

Each Note-Sign is made distinct from everyother Note-Sign by the position it occupies on thestaff.

1. The color of these twelve signs must be thought,i.e., realized by the mind, and not the tone.2. When a given color is firmly held in the mind,

this color is to be turned into its correlated tone by thepupil, that is, the pupil will sing it to the name of itscorrelated color.3. These rules, 1 and 2, must be strictly observed,

for the whole tone-color system depends upon theabsolute law of motion or vibration governingMARCOTONE. You can naturally think color withoutthe assistance of the eye; but you cannot thinktone with the assistance of the ear. Therefore,the color must be thought quite independently of itscorrelated tone, the pupil using the color-thought toestablish the required tone. The higher octave

automatically establishes the lower octave. (SeeTable and Chart, page 38.)

4. The tone-colors are to be practised by meansof the Marcotone Charts and the various otherspecially invented means for perfecting the tone-colorsystem.

5. Until the whole Tone-Color Scale of twelvechromatic steps is mastered only one new tone-colorshould be studied at the same lesson. The new tone-color can then be added to those already mastered.

6. Never associate a color with any tone exceptthat tone to which it is correlated by natural law.To do so is to falsify the laws of Nature. This corre-lation is the foundation of the science of tone-color.(See Table and Chart, page 38.)

7. Remember, that having mastered the Naturalor Middle octave (once-accented), the pupil’s earwill easily perceive these same color-tones whenrepeated in the lower or upper octaves, below orabove the middle octave. The universal process ofsound vibrations conforms to a fixed law which inactuality makes an octave circular. Each circlespirally repeats both the color and the tone. Theonly difference between these circles is that the vi-brations intensify, that is, become acuter as theybecome higher, but the ratio of tone and color neverchanges.

8. Never attempt to measure the interval betweentwo tone-colors. Although this has hitherto been acommon practice, the uselessness of trying to do sois patent from the fact that the human brain has no

TONE-COLOR 35

natural means whereby to measure distances betweenobjects.

9. Before exercises are given the teacher mustbe absolutely sure that the pupil can readily thinkthe colors of the notes contained in the exercises,and as readily translate each Color into its co-equalTone.

In the course of practice the effort of translatingcolor into tone will become automatic. Then thestudent may begin reading the compositions of themaster musicians. Finally it will be unnecessary touse the voice to obtain the tone, for both the toneand its correlated color will have become a part of thesubconscious mind, and just as we can naturallycall to mind a color or colors without the aid of theeye, so we shall then be able to call to the mind andhear “in our heads” a tone or tones without theaid of the ear.

Then, just as we eat, walk, talk, read and write,we shall be able to read any music which we desireto study or to enjoy.

When reading instrumental music, in which manynotes are written outside the range of the humanvoice, the reasonable mind will realize the tone ofall such notes in the once-accented octave, and theeye will show and the brain will grasp instanta-neously in which octave such notes lie. When therules and explanations in this chapter are learned,then the pupil will have become a natural musician.

These note-signs are the symbols for both thetones and the colors.

M A R C O T O N E

These twelve colors are measured from the twelvetones of MARCOTONE Scale in the natural, or once-accented octave. (See Table and Chart, page 38.)

When there are two-worded names for the tone-color, use, for example, in ascending the scale, theorder: yellow-green, and in descending: green-yellow. This order applies equally to all two-wordedtone-colors.M ARCOTONE charts, plates, pitch-pipes, instru-

ments of precision, toys and games are first aidsonly for teacher and pupil, to help, interest, andamuse. When M ARC O T O N E is so far mastered thatthe twelve tone-colors, through the habit-formingmethod employed, become “second-nature,” andhave built into the subconscious mind a facultywhich automatically realizes tone in the same waythat color is naturally apperceived by the mind, thesemeans to that end will be entirely unnecessary.These scaff oldings, implements, and paraphernalianecessary to our mental superstructure, like thosefor any building, will be discarded when the buildingis finished.

PART II

LESSONS IN TONE-COLOR

Note. Color-print is not light, and the colors printed in thisbook are the closest representations obtainable of themeasurements of the Tone-Color Scale. The perfect co-ordination is achieved through the Marcotonograph.

TABLE AND CHART 39

S O U N D

A tuning-fork, C' (256 vibrations per second), setin motion, travels at 20° C. a distance of 344 m.,causing the first wave to be at that distance fromthe fork when it has completed its 256th vibration,and proving that in 344 meters there are 256 waves,

344each being the length of - m., or 1.344 m.

256Therefore, speaking generally, wave-length =

velocity frequency, which gives the equation

1 = 1; v = nl; and n = v.n 1

Agreeably with Fraunhofer lines, in air at 20° C.and 760 mm. pressure, the longest wave in the solarspectrum is obtained. Red (spectrum), the Ang-ström unit for this spectral color, is .68 microns

(6870 mm.), namely: ‘g m. raised to its 29th

power, using the binary numeral (2).Thus from the lowest independent audible tonic

or fundamental C (32 vibrations) RED is visible asa light-wave in the 32d octave.

LESSON I. RED 41

CHAPTER VII

LESSON I. RED

The color-vibrations when measured to tone-vibra-tions in their dual value and symbolized by the note-sign shown in PLATE I constitute the tone-color RED.

Red-Color as a light-wave measured to Red-Toneas a sound-wave are two equal phenomena in thespheres of light and sound; but they are one andindivisible in principle, which is vibration, becauseof their common ratio.

1. Instructions given in this lesson apply to all ofthe Twelve Chromatic Tone-Colors, apd will not berepeated. Only such further comments as are nec-essary will be given.

2. In the meantime, with such M ARCOTONE aidsas you have chosen, or, failing these, with a properlytuned piano,* or pitch-pipe, relax and quietly takePLATE I, and without any other thought distractingyour mind, contemplate the note-sign RED.

3. But do not sound your instrument or pitch-pipe until you realize that the color RED occupiesyour mind to the complete exclusion of everythingelse. Then without any thought of the tone-value,sing RED.

Sing the name of the tone-color: RED. If themental effort is adequate in thinking RED, governedentirely by color-thought, your vocal mechanism

* The A’ or la’ pitch between 430 and 440.

(the voice), a mere vassal of your brain, will, by thenatural laws which govern all forms of the universalprinciple v i b r a t i o n , perforce give out the tone-valueRED.

If, “in the mind’s eye,” interiorly and automat-ically, you realize the color RED, then the mind isdominated by the lightspeed of .68 microns, thelength of the color RED, The vocal organs cannotmake light-waves, but are naturally constructed tomake sound-waves; hence, when the mind auto-matically wills the vocal organs to sound the colorRED, the mentally realized color becomes a vocallymade tone, and they automatically reproduce thepitch of the light-wave of .68 microns in women’sand children’s voices in the once-accented octave,and an octave lower in men’s voices, twenty-nineor thirty octaves, as the case may be, below thecolor-thought.

This correlation of motion by ratio is a fixed lawof Nature, discovered and applied through the lawof Numbers, and mathematically applies to eachstep of the Tone-Color Scale. The vocal organshave brought the “etheric” movement of .68 micronsinto the comparative slow-moving octaves of air,so that light automatically becomes registered assound, and the color RED becomes the tone C ordo.

4. You must not be surprised, however, if you donot obtain the tonal-pitch of RED immediately.You must practise thinking color and realizing toneuntil the habit of correlating a given tone with its

LESSON I. RED 43

own measured color makes it "second-nature” to doso.

5. (a) Never think the tone.(b) Always think the color.(c) The co-equal tone will, by natural law, in-

form your mind and in due course correlate itselfwith the color-thought.

6. Never associate any color with any tone exceptthe one to which, by the law of Motion, it belongs.To do so is to falsify the laws of Nature.

Continually read over Chapter VI, Tone-ColorRules; for, unless they are explicitly followedthroughout this system, mastery of M A R C O T O N E isimpossible.

Do not proceed to Lesson II until the Tone-ColorRED is so effectively a part of your mentality thatyou can think the color RED without looking atPLATE I, and can re-create its co-equal tone in yourvoice without any conscious effort.

However, when it is quite as natural for you torealize the tone RED as it is to realize the color RED,you may advance to Lesson II.

LESSON II. YELLOW 45

CHAPTER VIII

LESSON II. YELLOW

The color-vibrations, which measured to the tone-vibrations, fixed to the musical note-sign in the once-accented octave, are co-equal and form the thirdprimary tone-color YELLOW, shown in PLATE II.

Yellow-Color as a light-wave and Yellow-Tone as asound-wave are of the same ratio of pitch. Thismovement in “ether” causes our eyes to see Yellow-Color, and in air causes our ears to hear Yellow-Tone.Objectively, in all spheres of matter, as we havealready explained, phenomena or sense-perceptionmust be reduced to a question of motion. Therefore,to all sentient beings, vibration is the universal law,its different aspects being due to variety of scaling.

Understand that this present work is for the uniquepractical purpose of obtaining Mastery in Music.

Follow the rules given in Lesson I, and visualizeYellow-Color; and in precisely the same manner thatthe habit was formed to obtain a mental possessionof RED-tone, study to realize mentally Y E L L O W -tone.

When the Tone-Color YELLOW has become apermanent part of the mind, the teacher will writeout several simple, rhythmical exercises.

If later, in testing whether the Tone-Color YELLOW

is permanently placed in the subconscious mind, thepupil finds the pitch is not exact when PLATE II is

4 6 MARCOTONE

quietly visualized, then the exercises must not becontinued. In such cases:

1. Look at the color.2. Listen, while looking at the color.3. Sound the tone.4. Think the tone and color as one unit, Tone-

Color.5. Relaxed, wait a little while in silence.6. From the color again try to realize its correlated

tone.7. After another short rest, if the tone is suc-

cessfully obtained from the color, think (i.e., vis-ualize in the mind) the color without the help ofthe colored plate, and sing YELLOW.

If this effort meets with success, continue withLesson III.

The exercises given will be sung as follows:1. To the names of the Tone-Colors.2. Hummed with closed lips.This suggestion is a sufficient guide to a trained

teacher of MARCOTONE. The MARCOTONE “black-board” is the best medium for the composition ofelementary exercises.

We have the power to register vibration throughany one of the five senses; yet subconsciously wecan only register e x a c t movements of Light, asColor. We cannot register the measurements ofour taste, touch, smell, or hearing subconsciously;

L E S S O N I I . Y E L L O W 4 7

yet we do so to manifestations of Light. We haveexplained that this is due to our evolution havingbeen directed by natural causes of this universalprinciple governing our planetary system.

It is only by coupling our scientifically developedsystem, MARCOTONE, to our hereditary faculty, andcorrelating the measured movements of Light toSound as Color and Tone, realizing them as Tone-Color, that we shall ever command an ability toapperceive tone, as we intuitively apperceive color.That these powers are not equal, no one will deny.

Until these powers are equal, it is impossible forthe world of music to pretend to a natural basis uponwhich to found true musicianship for mankind.

LESSON III. BLUE 49

CHAPTER IX

LESSON III. BLUE

The double note-sign, shown in PLATE III, whichsymbolizes the fifth primary Tone-Color in boththe scales of Light and Sound, differs from the note-signs of the two former lessons because there aretwo notes, both of which symbolize the same primeColor and Tone.

The first of these notes is the sign used in music,ascending the scale, and in keys with so-called sharp-sign (#) signatures.

The second note is the sign used in music, descend-ing the scale, and in keys with so-called flat-sign(b) signatures.

Although in musical notation these note-signsdiffer, the Tone-Color never alters. This change inthe note-sign, but not in the Tone or Color-value, iscalled an enharmonic change.

Therefore in visualizing these double note-signs,the enharmonic change must be remembered, so thatwhenever either of these notes has to be tonallyrealized, no misunderstanding will arise to confusethe student. Do not forget the following order ofstudy:

1. Look at PLATE III, Tone-Color BLUE.2. Listen while you produce its co-equal tone.3. Think both the tone and color together.

4. When it is felt that you have realized the Tone-Color BLUE, mentally, then leave it, and for a fewminutes, to test how well the habit of associatingTone and Color together is gradually becoming anatural function of the brain, go over the exercisesfor Lessons I and II.

5. Looking at PLATE III, or, if you can do so,visualizing BLUE in the mind’s eye without help fromthe color, sing BLUE-tone.

6. Do not continue giving exercises with this lessonuntil the Tone-Color BLUE is permanently placed inyour mind.

The habit must first of all be cultivated until ithas become second nature, so that the tone you ob-tain marcotonely is just as natural for you to thinkor sing, as it is for you by nature to realize mentallyits correlated color. A few days, even weeks, maybe necessary to accomplish this aim with each ofthe Twelve Tone-Colors.

The inventor of MARCOTONE and his pupils whohave mastered it consider, generally speaking, thatthis system of acquiring tonal apperception requiresnine months before music can be read, written, lis-tened to, and memorized with the same automaticfacility that the average person gains over his or herown language. In common schools this will of coursebe a longer period.

Undue haste is fatal to the study of MARCOTONE.It is far more important to work steadily day byday, for a comparatively short time at each sitting,than to neglect study one day with the idea of

LESSON III. BLUE 51

“making up for lost time” the next by double theamount of practice, a procedure which inevitably re-sults in fatigue instead of definite progress towardthe ultimate goal of music-mastery, the unique mis-sion of MARCOTONE.

If you have already gained absolute control ofthe Tone-Color BLUE, you can now use it rhyth-mically by itself to conform to musical law, and alsocoupled melodically with RED and YELLOW.

It will be noticed that the Tone-Colors are notplaced as they progress normally in the scale. Teach-ing has led to the knowledge that they are moreeasily acquired when studied after the manner usedby artists in mixing their body-colors; not in theadditive form of the physicist, but in common withthe subtractive or differential form alluded to.

LESSON IV. ORANGE 53

CHAPTER X

LESSON IV. ORANGE

The movement in light which produces the colorORANGE, the second primary Tone-Color, becomesthe tone whose note-sign is shown in PLATE IV.

With the help of this plate and your pitch-pipeor other instrument, you can now work, strictly ac-cording to the Rules given in the previous chapters,on the note-sign for ORANGE-Tone, symbol forORANGE-Color.

When you are absolutely sure that you canrealize the tone of this note-sign without any externalagency whatever, spontaneously and simply by yourown act of volition, your teacher will outline exercisesfor this Lesson.

LESSON V. GREEN 55

CHAPTER XI

LESSON V. GREEN

The Tone-Color GREEN, symbolized by the doublenote-sign shown in PLATE V, is the fourth primaryTone-Color.

The explanation in Lesson III regarding the en-harmonic change, indicated by the sharp-flat note-signs, in which the lowest note is raised one half-stepand the highest note is lowered one half-step so thatas a unit of Tone-Color they become one and thesame, applies to every step in the chromatic scalewhere an enharmonic change appears in the note-sign.

It is scarcely necessary to tell you that GREEN isnot to be studied until you have perfectly identifiedthe four Tone-Colors ORANGE, BLUE, YELLOW, RED

in your subconscious mind. To undertake themastery of the absolute tonal-pitch of a new Tone-Color before the previous ones can be used auto-matically, without the effort of reasoning about theirfixed position in scale, is to injure your studies andcause unnecessary labor and fatigue.

Can you realize the Tone-Color GREEN by reasonof its pitch being an integral part of your mind? Ifso, then continue exercising. At this stage of MAR-COTONE study, the teacher will give both blackboardand dictated exercises.

Of course such realization of the Tone-Color

GREEN means that it is achieved without assistancefrom any objective means, pitch-pipe, piano, coloredplate, etc.

When you are alone, walking, riding, or undis-turbed at home with nothing to do, visualize in yourmind sometimes two, sometimes three, Tone-Colors,and hum their tone-values. Take them in varyingorder, as:

1 2 3 4 (UP)

Red Green Blue Blue

Blue Blue Red Green t

(down) G r e e n R e d Green Red etc.,

and the same with any of the other Tone-Colorswhich have become absolutely yours subconsciously.

If you have one with you, test your effort on apitch-pipe, or failing that and you are exercisingextemporaneously in the open, verify your resultson arriving home, with piano or pitch-pipe, to showwhat progress towards absolute pitch you havealready made.

By all means reason out the ways and means ofyour studies to an intelligible conclusion; but whenyou have done so, understand that reason must

LESSON V. GREEN 57

lead you from the objective activities of the consciousto the subjective absolutism of the subconscious mind.Your work must be potential before it is actual, andthis differentiates MARCOTONE from other methods.

1. Reason is the faculty by which we obtainwisdom through knowledge.

2. Intuition is the faculty in which the knowledgeonce obtained is forever placed. As the ancientGreek philosophers so wisely stated: “To knowis to be;” and the Hindus: “Know thyself by thy-self .”

LESSON VI. VIOLET 59

CHAPTER XII

LESSON VI. VIOLET

The mastery of MARCOTONE depends primarilyupon the tone-values of the notes finding sponta-neous and accurate expression by the voice at thewill of the pupil. This action is not the cause butthe effect of the color-value being subconsciouslytranslated into its co-equal tone-value, a mere changeof octave.

As we have already pointed out, by inducing thehabit of building specific tone-colors into the sub-conscious mind until they function automatically,we bring singing into the category of speaking,writing and reading, where we are conscious of thesum and substance of our accomplishment withoutconsidering the principles which have led, often slowlyand painfully, to proficiency in those functions.

Through MARCOTONE, by the operation of a newfaculty within your mind, the universal language ofMusic will be no more difficult to control and expressthan your own mother-tongue.

VIOLET is the sixth primary Tone-Color. (SeePLATE VI.)

After you have gained complete mental possessionof this Tone-Color VIOLET, continue by practisingthe exercises which your teacher will compose for thisLesson, and which you will find are arranged in anorderly manner of progressive difficulty.

Also study again the Rules on page 33.

LESSON VII. ORANGE-RED 61

CHAPTER XIII

LESSON VII. ORANGE-RED

Bear in mind that MARCOTONE Rules are vital tosuccess in mentally forming absolute tonal pitch.

If you have already mastered the Primary Tone-Color Scale, you will continue to enlarge the innerfaculty you are building in the mind, by auto-matically acquiring the Complementary Tone-ColorScale, precisely conforming to those methods whichare now becoming familiar to you, until the wholebody of material used in music has become absorbedby your subconscious mind, whose forces, insteadof remaining merely potential, have thus becomeactual and effective powers.

The first step of the Complementary Scale to bestudied is ORANGE-RED, symbolized by the doublenote-sign shown in PLATE VII. ORANGE-RED is thefourth Tone-Color of the harmonica1 half of ourchromatic gamut.

When you can realize this Tone-Color withoutrecourse to reason, i.e., automatically, you may thenproceed to practise the exercises given you for thisLesson,-first, singing the Tone-Color names;second, humming the tones of the note-signs.

L E S S O N V I I I . O R A N G E - Y E L L O W 6 3

CHAPTER XIV

LESSON VIII. ORANGE-YELLOW

The exercises given for each lesson could not beread at sight automatically by existing methods ofsolfeggi, or sight-reading. Absolute Pitch can neverbecome a faculty of the mind in opposition to natu-ral law. We do oppose natural law when we try tomeasure an interval between two notes. Naturehas given us no mental yardstick. Absolute Pitchis the power to call before the mind any tone,, aloneor in combination with others, without the aidof any sense organ or mechanically adjusted musicalinstrument. The sense of touch has naught to dowith it, unlike the control of relative pitch.

Therefore Absolute Tone-Pitch is a possession ofthe subconscious mind, and can be obtained onlythrough the hereditary power, possession of AbsoluteColor-Pitch. We can visualize Color subconsciously.We must hear Tone subconsciously by strictly fol-lowing the MARCOTONE Rules.

The fifth complementary Tone-Color O R A N G E -YELLOW (see PLATE VIII), when its pitch is obtainedby simply calling it forth, will be practised aloneas a single unit of measured Tone from its co-equalColor, and then in a melodic line associated withthose Tone-Colors already mastered, as given in theteacher’s exercises.

LESSON IX. YELLOW-GREEN 65

CHAPTER XV

LESSON IX. YELLOW-GREEN

The Tone-Color YELLOW-GREEN (see PLATE IX),as measurement of motion, is the sixth and lastcomplementary Tone-Color.

Do not forget that all these note-signs are symbolsof two effects of motion. Therefore, they determinethe exact ratio of a specific Tone-Color, i.e., of a givencolor which is to be re-created into its correlated tone.

Establish this phase of the law of vibration sub-consciously; then keys, intervals, accidentals andother diatonic characteristics which have hithertocaused difficulty for the musical student will vanish.

When MARCOTONE is mastered, the Twelve Pro-portions of the true musical scale will be crystallizedinto the mental faculties, to be called forth at will.

These note-signs will then synthetically touch theTone-Color reality, because through MARCOTONE

they have become a natural function.When you have mastered YELLOW-GREEN as a

single Tone-Color, continue exercising.

L E S S O N X . G R E E N - B L U E 67

CHAPTER XVI

LESSON X. GREEN-BLUE

In our present method this note-sign is the symbolof the Tone-Color GREEN-BLUE (see PLATE X), firstof the complementary Tone-Color Scale. Add thisstep of the harmonica1 scale to your others bystrictly following the former rules, then continuethe exercises arranged for this Lesson.

LESSON XI. VIOLET-BLUE 69

CHAPTER XVII

LESSON XI. VIOLET-BLUE

VIOLET-BLUE, symbolized by the note-sign shownin PLATE XI, is the second complementary Tone-Color.

When V I O L E T - B L U E is spontaneously realized bythe mind, continue the teacher’s exercises given youspecially for this Lesson.

LESSON XII. VIOLET-RED 71

CHAPTER XVIII

LESSON XII. VIOLET-RED

This lesson completes the statement of the trans-lucent cycle of Tone-Colors. The natural chromaticoctave of Light and Sound becomes fully effectivewhen this Tone-Color VIOLET-RED (see PLATE XII),the third complementary Tone-Color, is placed inyour subconscious mind, to function naturally withits companions.

Instead of forever only being apperceived ascolor, thus compelling you to obtain the correlatedtones from some instrument on which they have beenmechanically placed, these tones are now a livingreality, a glowing part of your own Ego, the sub-consciousness, a revelation for your self-expression,derived directly from the universal world of Prin-ciples.

Thus, as an illumined writer has penned, “therainbow of promise” has been “translated out ofseeing into hearing,” if the student of MARCOTONE

has built a true crystallization of each of the twelveunits of Tone-Color into the subconscious mind.

If this has been done, then a new faculty has beenobtained, in which the poetry of music can be sownin this new-tilled field of the brain; so that theharvest may be gathered and garnered, when thesebright seeds of Tone-Color will blossom into flowers

of Truth and ripen into fruits of Beauty-withinyour own minds.

It is understood that the student, through strictadherence to the MARCOTONE Rules, has acquiredautomatic tonal control of the natural twelve-tonedchromatic scale, and, therefore, when the teacher’sexercises have been realized, this new faculty of themind can at once be placed at the disposition of thepupil’s particular branch of music-study, whethervocal or instrumental.

PART III

MARCOTONE IN RELATION TOLIFE AND ART

CHAPTER XIX

MUSICAL PROPORTIONS IN PHILOSOPHY;SCIENCE; ART

Attention is drawn to two persistent facts:I. That in the philosophy of the ancient Indians,

Egyptians, Greeks and Latins, the highest conceptionof Symmetry and Beauty (mathematics and thearts) was based on musical proportions. That is, theGreek system of Pythagoras, including the orderingof the melodic line through his tetrachord (whichwas the foundation of geometry and higher mathe-matics) was used by the Ancients, and, in part, bythe masters of the Renaissance.

II. That modern science, by the universal prin-ciples governing vibration or motion exactly meas-ured, is attuning her marvels of today. Edison’slamp, Crookes’ tubes, Roentgen’s rays, the wirelesstelephone and telegraph, high explosives, engineering,all are but the precursors of what vibration, limitedto certain practical uses, will do for our century.

In the world of art the painter’s colors are todaytuned to the pitch of the musician’s chromatic scale,and our chemists have the same scale as the mu-sician and painter. These scales, as melodic linesand chord formations, will restore to our architectsand builders the creative wisdom which their pro-ductions of today show only too clearly that they

have, for the most part, lost. They do not originatenew forms, but resort to those of other epochs.

The mastery and use of the laws of vibration ap-plied to the art of Music will not only produce asense of proportion, truth and beauty not generallyavailable in our centers of learning, but will haveprodigious curative effects. Mental healing, auto-suggestion, osteopathy, clinical research, etc., aregerminating these principles in the treatment ofmental and physical sickness. The science of appliedrhythmics (equilibrium) in Tone-Color vibration willfinally banish the all too ready knife from our hos-pitals. Tone therapy will be applied universally infuture human physical needs.

What did Carlyle mean when he said that Thebeswas built by the Music of Orpheus, quoting as hedid from ancient literature?

Simply that this city of unique and glorious pal-aces, tombs and temples was erected, like that mostperfect specimen of all architecture, the Parthenonat Athens, upon an absolute system of Geometryevolved from musical proportions. (See Plato’s“Timaeus.“)

The great Italian sculptor and architect of thefifteenth century, Leone Battista Alberti (1404-1472), quoting from his Latin texts, wrote the fol-lowing edifying words:

“A common thing with the ignorant is to despisewhat they do not understand. . . . Yet variety is,without dispute, a very great beauty in everythingwhen it joins and brings together in a regular manner

MUSICAL PROPORTIONS 77

things different but proportionable to each other; butit is shocking if they are unsuitable and incoherent.For as in music, when the bass answers the trebleand the tenor agree with both, there arises from thatvariety of sounds an harmonious and wonderfulunion of proportions which delights and enchantsthe senses. . . . The Ancients . . . did in theirworks confine themselves chiefly to the imitation ofNature, as the greatest artist at all manner of com-positions . . . a certain mutual correspondence ofthose several lines by which the proportions aremeasured, whereof one is the length, the other thebreadth and the other the height. The rule of theseproportions is best gathered from those things inwhich we find Nature herself most complete andadmirable, and indeed I am every day more andmore convinced of the truth of Pythagoras’s say-ing that Nature is sure to act consistently and witha constant analogy in all her operations: fromwhence I conclude that the Numbers, by means ofwhich the agreement of Sounds affects our ears withdelight, are the very same which please our eyes andour mind [Tone-Color-Numbers]. We shall there-fore borrow all our Rules for the finishing our propor-tions from the Musicians, who are the greatest mastersof this sort of Numbers, and from those particularthings wherein Nature shows herself most excellent andcomplete. . . . This harmony of the Ancients gath-ered from interchangeable concords of the Tones, bymeans of certain determinate Numbers. . . .”

Of which numbers “the architects made very con-

venient use, taking them sometimes two by two, asin planning out their squares and open areas whereinonly two proportions were to be considered, namely,length and breadth; and sometimes taking themthree by three, as in public halls, council cham-bers and the like, wherein as the length was tobear a proportion to the breadth, so they made theheight in a certain harmonious proportion to themboth. . . .”

If all that has come down to us from the past, andwhich is so perfect that it is still the wonder if notthe despair of modern intellectuals, is proved to havebeen evolved from what is known as musical pro-portions, viz: certain units of absolute pitch in fixedratio, singly and in combination, the sooner theseunits of Tone-Color-Number are a permanent part ofour subconsciousness, the sooner we shall be able touse our marvels of modern science and art. Not asan individual sees them, but according to the uni-versal principle of Life, which is motion or vibrationadjusted to the symmetrical, rhythmic proportionsof Nature herself. This is Music, music in all things.

The Science of MARCOTONE, which is the agree-ment of Number correlated to Tone and Color, is asystem within reach of every student, young ormature.

The author of MARCOTONE has followed the law oflife governing his system, through Italy, Greece, andEgypt, to its source, deeply implanted in the cradleof the Aryan race, India. Wherever its universalexpression has been practised he has found, its

M U S I C A L P R O P O R T I O N S 7 9

eternal principles always the same, and in M A R C O -TONE a systematized and modern exposition is givenwhich many students have already mastered andnow practise; a statement of the means by whichthe wisest in all ages and races have attuned the littleuniverse of their own minds in harmony with the Uni-versa1 Mind of God, as He translates it in Nature.

When MARCOTONE has become a natural posses-sion, acquired through the common educational sys-tem of the people, a new epoch will have come. Thecharacteristic feature of this epoch will be that theDivine Cosmical Idea will then be expressed as thepractical work of human endeavor.

Voltaire has said: “There must be somethingwhich produces our thoughts . . . it is Harmony.”

But the worth-while thought which is producedby harmony is unattainable until the processes gen-erating Infinity proceed from the subconscious mind.We know that Color and Number are ours subcon-sciously through atavism.

We know that Tone and Number are not ours sub-consciously; yet the universal principles upon whichMARCOTONE is founded will forever afford us thisnatural key to another and higher realm of the In-finite. By its practice and complete mastery, thetrinity Tone-Color-Number will become a permanentpossession of the real man-that inner, secret,sacred sanctuary of the mind, the Subconsciousness.

CHAPTER XX

VIBRATION OR MOTION

1. Vibration or Motion is the source of cosmicmanifestation and the principle of such universalpowers as extension, space, figure and time.

Therefore, when that cosmic principle is limited,its universality, which otherwise makes it incom-prehensible to mortals, can be understood, reason-ably studied and utilized.

2. Light is comprehended when the minute vibra-tions of ether come in contact with the organ ofseeing, the eye.

Sound is comprehended through the impact ofatmospheric molecules upon the organ of hearing,the ear.

It is the eye and ear, respectively, which receive thespeeds of motion or vibration which we call lightand sound; yet it is the brain which comprehensivelyregisters them. The organs of sense are but themechanical aids to deliver these speed messages tothe intellect, and except for the vibratory powers ofthe brain they would remain unregistered.

3. Chemistry and mathematics prove that in prin-ciple the natural scales of light and sound are one;therefore, the colors of the solar spectrum and thetones of the musical scale have the same ratios ofvibration. Hence both tone and color can be scaled

V I B R A T I O N O R M O T I O N 81

so that a given number of light-waves (colors) willequal a given number of sound-waves (tones).

4. Because it is possible thus to correlate Colorand Tone, mankind, through the exercise of thispower, can become a race of natural musicians.

5. Music has become a part of our nationalsystem of education; therefore a scientific methodis necessary to equip the student with the sameautomatic control of tone that all except those whoare defective in color-sense (color-blind) now possessover color.

6. For ages, indeed from Man’s infancy, Naturehas forced the color-scale on the human percep-tions. The savage is as susceptible to its influenceas the civilized man; the only difference is in theaesthetic ability to apply color as a cultural factorin life.

So long a period, reaching back to the dawn ofHumanity, has passed in which color has been adominant factor in evolution that, except in cases ofcolor-blindness, everyone, savage and civilized, hasan hereditary subconscious power to summon be-fore the mind at will a given color without the aidof the organ of sight. This power to memorizecolor in its variously defined pitches or degrees ofmotion is natural, involuntary and spontaneous.

7. The whole human race is tone-deaf except in therare cases where relative pitch appears as an abnor-mal gift. The mind which automatically identifiescolor is incapable of recognizing subconsciously setspeeds of vibration as tone.

8. Why is this phenomenon so universally ap-parent? Because sound, except as mathematicallytreated by science or when mechanically obtainedfrom musical instruments, has not been naturallyforced upon mankind. Phenomenally Nature hasproduced only noise (absence of continuous melodyor harmony according to musical proportions), andit has remained for science and art to produceisochronous or musical tone. These conditions haveprevented the pitch of the tones of the natural scaleof sound from producing the same phenomenon inthe subconsciousness that color has succeeded indoing.

9. Before the advent of MARCOTONE no meanshad been discovered by which Tone could be madea natural, spontaneous and involuntary act of thewill, freed from sensual assistance: Even the sensesgenerally fail to register the relative pitch of a com-bination of tones within the brain. Most of us,even professional musicians, depend entirely uponthe aid of some sonorous instrument for an exactimpression of the sound of a musical compositionuntil it has been learned by rote, as the parrot learnsto say “Pretty Poll!”

Today more than three-fourths of the labor andfatigue of music study is due to the wasted effortof “learning” new music-and by rote! Do we“learn” to see a new painting? No; our automaticcolor sense enables us to see what is before us. Itremains for the student of music so to correlateColor with Tone that he has the same automatic

VIBRATION OR MOTION 83

control over the natural scale of sound that he has overthe scale of color. This will endow him with Abso-lute Pitch, the power to will a given tone before themind without external aid. The function of M A R -COTONE is to give the student that power.

CHAPTER XXI

MELODY ; VISUALIZATION; HARMONY

M E L O D Y

The student has learned that in order to read ormemorize a melodic line understandingly at sight,he must previously have gained automatic controlof the simple units of tonal-pitch. Such mastery ofMelody can be obtained only in the complete absenceof conscious effort. The process of reading musicmust be so natural that neither the color nor thetone engages the mind any more than consciousthought of tenses, cases and other elements ofsyntax enters into the process of reading words.It is equally obvious that there must be noresort to intervalically or harmonically inducedformulae.

From reading words we derive the sense of whathas been written by a process which is involuntaryand automatic. Not so with the old method ofreading music. Why? Because in languages wework from within; whereas in music, almost invari-ably we call into play the cerebra-spinal apparatusinvolving the sense of touch, and shock our conclu-sions into the brain from without by the objectiveactivities of the nerve centers. Any physician orpsychiatrist will acknowledge such procedure to beunnatural, false and injurious.

MELODY AND HARMONY 85

However, when we have gained automatic controlover the natural scale of Tone-Color by means ofMARCOTONE, the power so derived can then be ap-plied directly to our general music studies, therebyraising the whole structure of musical art from theexisting plane of erroneous routine to the zenith ofsubconscious attainment.

We may now turn our attention to the practicalmethod of developing these desired powers.

RULES FOR READING AND MEMORIZING MELODY

(1) Never employ any musical instrument except to test resultsin the early stages of study, and then only to sound thatsingle tone of which you are uncertain. In MARCOTONEall outside help is forbidden.

(2) When, through study of tone-color, the apperception of pitchhas been realized sufficiently to warrant our exploration inthe rich fields of melody, the first effort will be to visualize asimple song, which should be a melodic line within the com-pass of the student’s voice. Note that we do not use thewords read, memorize, but, instead, the term visualize.

VISUALIZATION

In MARCOTONE the word “visualize” is a sig-nificant word requiring careful explanation in con-nection with this rule.

In the development of photography, the eye andthe brain, with their nerve centers, have been usedas models; and dark-chamber, exposure-trap, lens,etc., were contrived to catch the external objectand permanently record its likeness within. Theseinventions in turn become useful in affording the

student a clear conception of the operations of thehuman eye and the definite results that can be ex-pected from that organ. Therefore, we use theterm visualization in the sense of photography. Inreading at sight and memorizing, the first step to betaken is to photograph the musical phrase so that itbecomes a picture for the mental vision.

To readily accomplish this, the following directionsmust be observed:

(a) Avoid any suggestion of intervallic measuring. Expose tothe camera of the eye at least one complete measure in whichall the notes are comprehended simultaneously. As soon asthis can be done without effort, treat a complete phrase inthe same manner. Never regard a measure or phrase as aseries of single notes; that would lead to rote reading, amere parrot-like repetition of intervallic progressions.

(b) The same relaxation which gave you the tone-color must in-variably attend all MARCOTONE studies. Do not allow your-self to make or feel any effort whatever. That is, emotionshave no place in the process of visualizing. It is only in theinterpretation of what you have dispassionately marcotonedthat the dynamic qualities of the art are brought into play.Then, having no artificial and arbitrary barriers to over-come, the fullest freedom of expression, the goal of all artistry,is within your grasp.

(c) The measure or phrase must be calmly looked at, that is tosay, exposed to the camera, for a time sufficient to mechan-ically photograph it on the brain. Note the word “me-chanically. ” No reasoning, suggestion, in fact, no thoughtwhatever may be employed by the student. The mechanismonly is used; the eye for lens; the nerve for conductor; thebrain for dark-chamber; the eyelids for shutter. Thus apicture is obtained of our measure or phrase. Preciselythat - nothing more, nothing less.

(d) Give no thought to values of the notes, etc., which constituteyour measure or phrase. When you believe you havephotographed the unit under observation, close your eyesand see if the picture has been recorded in your "mind’seye. ” You will find it without effort if sufficient progresshas been made; otherwise, return to the same measure orphrase and repeat the process until it has become visualized.

(e) When you have so visualized the measure or phrase, put themusic aside. If you are not absolutely sure you have afaithful copy of the music in your mind, write it down andverify it. If it is inaccurate, do not correct it from themusic, but by a repetition of the photographic process.When you are sure you have the passage perfectly registered,you should proceed to sing it by the MARCOTONE methodyou have been studying, as follows:

(1) Think the color-value of each separate note; sing itscorrelated tone-value.

(2) Sing the passage again without the aid of the color;i.e., sing each note, using its tone-color name only.

(3) Sing the passage directly from the note-signs, withoutthought of color or tone values. In other words, singthe passage freely, without conscious effort to associ-ate tone, color, or tone-name. If the passage has beenvisualized successfully, i.e., photographed on the mind,the melody will come automatically and that passagewill have been marcotoned. Then proceed with themeIody as before, in precisely the same methodicalmanner, measure by measure, or, better still, phraseby phrase (if the latter can be achieved without ef-fort), until a complete musical period has become apossession of the mind, freed from the printed symbols.

(f) It is important that, as each succeeding unit (measure orphrase, as the case may be) is perfectly visualized, the studentshould return to the first unit and repeat the entire passage;but each unit must be studied as independent of the restuntil it is mastered. This procedure should be continued

throughout the song until the whole can be sung freely andautomatically from memory.

(g) Then follows the committing of the words and finally yourown interpretation of the meaning of author and composer,where the emotions are enlisted; and the student will findthat the melody has passed so completely into the possessionof his mind, that n o thought of it will appear to divert himfrom the fullest artistic expression.

Visualization, systematically realized, eventuallybecomes habit and the student finds himself able toread and memorize music at will, whatever his sur-roundings, as he would read a book.

In studying the foregoing rules, bear constantly inmind that they are the outgrowth of the author’slong teaching experience and are now in successfuluse by beginners, as well as professional teachers anddistinguished artists, and approved by eminentpsychologists.

SIGHT-READING

Both memorizing and sight-reading depend onthe possession of automatic absolute pitch. As thisis a mental faculty, sight-reading becomes a simplematter of systematic mental adjustment, i.e., makinga habit of doing automatically something whichformerly we had the habit of doing by consciouscerebration. We have placed the subject of memo-rizing before that of sight-reading for the reason thatonce the functional control of tone in relation tomemorizing is adjusted, the mind by the same ad-justment is enabled to achieve sight-reading. In

visualization we form the habit of automatically as-sociating note-signs with corresponding tones. Thepower to see a phrase of music photographed onthe brain and at the same time subconsciously tohear the tones that we have the habit of associatingwith the symbols seen, naturally and logically, re-leases the power to comprehend at sight the tonalsignificance of the musical phrase, as you would reada line of poetry.

But this power is not attained without study,and the following suggestions will be foundhelpful :

(1) Always read a whole musical phrase, unless the student findsit requires effort to do so, in which case he may begin with ameasure and follow the procedure prescribed for memorizing.

(2) Read each phrase:(a) Thinking the colors correlated by the tone-symbols.(b) Singing tone-color names for the notes.(c) Singing the tones of the note-signs.

(3) After the phrase has been sung without hesitation, verify itscorrectness on a musical instrument. If correction is needed,repeat the process described in Rule 22 for memorizing.

(4) Continue as in memorizing until you have read the entiremelody. Test it as a whole and if any part is found to beincorrectly read, return to that part and master it by thesame process and independently of the rest of the song.

HARMONY

When the art of memorizing and sight-reading ismastered, the melodic line is followed by compoundunits of tonal-pitch, i.e., chord formation.

Chord forming is a vertical building of two ormore tones instead of the horizontal movement oftones representing melody.

HARM0NY M E L O D Y

Therefore, the eye, seeking to command an in-terior audition of the composer’s musical message,must adjust itself to a new form of written note-signs; but the tones will not be new, for their pitch,through number, is absolute. However, the rulesand study prescribed for melody apply equally to theprocess of visualizing chords for both reading andmemorizing, with the additions now to be stated.

RULES FOR READING AND MEMORIZING HARMONY

(1) (a) The notes forming a chord are always to be taken asone compound unit of pitch and are never to be con-sidered separately.

(b) To verify the correctness of tonal-pitch, it is advisableto hum the tones of single chords (beginning with thelowest note and singing upwards in arpeggio form)not from the printed page, but from the visualizedpicture of the chord as a unit, vertical in form and notas a horizontal melodic line.

(c) Each chord must be heard as one unit of tone. Whentested by humming (b), the full chord should be realized

as a complete harmonic formation and this realizationmust automatically emerge from the visualization ofthe chord as a unit.

The eye has now taken into its possession photo-graphically a compound instead of a single figure,and the mind is required to comprehend and useunits made up of a number of tone-colors insteadof one. Proceed as in Melody by easy steps, test-ing progress with voice or piano by sounding thechord or succession of chords, from the visualizedpicture-never from the printed page. If difficultyis encountered in realizing the compound tonalvalue of a chord, use the actual visualization of theTone-colors and if necessary revert to the early prac-tice of tone-color names. Thus mental visualizationand hearing will become an automatic function.Remember, whenever a particular measure, phraseor chord gives trouble to take it up independently ofthe rest of the composition and master it separately.In other words, take it away from the rest and donot return it until it is right.

(2) For the study of three-toned formations afterthe mastery of two-toned chords, it will be wise toobserve the following suggestions:

(a) Realize each three-toned chord formation by humming asprescribed in Rule 1 (b), but not each tone singly as before,since you will have become able to visualize and hear thetwo lower tones automatically. Therefore, you hum onlythe highest note of the chord with the result that you realizethe chord-formation as a whole.

Without the perfect functioning of the controllingmind the ear would be and forever remain tone-deaf, merely a conveyer of sensations from withoutto be intelligibly interpreted by the mind. There-fore, we train the mind to use the ear.

As a last word on visualization we urge the studentto remember that whatever the eye can convey tothe brain through its photographic lens, the braincan realize automatically. When MARCOTONE ismastered no more friction will exist between thecomposer’s message and the student than betweenthe sending and receiving apparatus of wireless te-legraphy. Indeed, there should be less, since in theScience of Tone-Color only natural laws are invokedand the human and therefore uncertain element,inseparable from all man-made mechanism, disap-pears as soon as the exercise of MARCOTONE princi-ples becomes automatic.

Music is simply the artistic or happy expression ofthose mathematical laws which are God’s CreativeWord, so that the naked truth of science becomesclothed in the immortal raiment of the beautiful inArt. Science can never directly advance the emo-tional and spiritual splendor of the mind; that is thedivine function of philosophy and art. Yet these,without the foundation and environment of science,are insecure and incomplete. Combine them in thebroad sense, and we have an influence that contrib-utes immeasurably to the glory and ecstacy of Life.

CHAPTER XXII

HOW TO HEAR MUSIC; MUSICAL DIC-TATION; COMPOSITION

The majority of people believe that to listen tomusic is to hear it. Nothing could be farther fromthe truth. Anyone who is not deaf can listen; fewcan hear! Why? Because man has not been giftedwith a direct and special means to apperceive toneintuitively as he apperceives color. Therefore webecome conscious of music through the mechanismof the ear only, a mere sense-perception in which themind is not involved. The intellect may be con-cerned in individuals who have cultivated the purelyintellectual significance of given compositions; butthe actual picture in tone-color is not produceduntil the listener automatically realizes the inevitableassociation of musical notation with the twelve unitsof Pitch forming the Chromatic Scale of Sound. Wehave said that man has not been gifted naturallywith this power. By this we do not mean that thepower is not a natural one. It is essentially natural,but has heretofore remained undeveloped becausethe primitive sense-perception has been blindly heldto constitute all there is to music.

The first steps in Hearing and Writing music havebeen taken already by mastery of the Rules for Tone-Color Study. The inter-correlation of Tone andColor having been thus achieved and with it the

HOW TO HEAR MUSIC 95

ability to visualize a tone from without, the studentmay proceed to utilize that interior audition bywriting down dictated music or music listened to,thereby perfecting his full consciousness of tone-values in association with notation.

RULES FOR DICTATION

(1) The teacher will play a short phrase, not morethan two measures, three times, as follows: slowly;somewhat faster; in the tempo indicated by thecomposer. Let the pupil listen-but withoutany mental activity whatever, thoroughly relaxed.If the tone-colors function automatically, accord-ing to previous successful practice, the phrase so re-peated will readily be carried in the pupil’s memory.Whereupon three effects should be obtained simul-taneously:

(a) The pupil will see the colors;(b) He will hear the tones;(c) He will visualize the notes.

The pupil is then required to -(a) Say the color-names;(b) Sing the tone-pitches;(c) Write the note-signs.

(2) These results having been achieved the teacherrepeats the same phrase several times in correcttempo, and the pupil writes -

(a) The key signature;(b) The tempo;(c) The whole melodic phrase with the

length values of each note and rest.

(3) Repeat the process with several independentphrases until the pupil can do the work withouteffort.

(4) When single melodic phrases can be writtendown exactly as composed, always phrase by phrase,the complete melody can then be dictated. Ulti-mately the pupil must be able correctly to reducethe melody to writing automatically and withouteffort.

(5) When the dictated melody has been mastered,proceed in the same manner with passages in two,three and four parts and so on through all forms ofcomposition, instrumental and vocal. But it mustbe understood that to command such competence inmusical art, a patient progressive course must befollowed. Undue haste retards, while a calm, thor-ough mastery of examples in the various stages ofmusical complexity insures an ultimate position onthe splendid heights of artistry.

Finally, care must be taken not to think we hearor imagine we feel the tones. We must alreadyhave built the faculty which recognizes withoutthought or feeling the absolute pitch of the twelvetones in which all music finds expression.

COMPOSITION

The only real difficulty which confronts us in theadjustment of our artistic requirements is the adapta-tion of this automatic tonal functioning to musicalcomposition.

When you can both hear and set down music

marcotonely, habit will gradually advance your ap-perception to a natural consciousness of musicalinterpretation. When MARCOTONE is mastered youhave a scientifically and systematically in-built men-tal power, a newly added function of the mentalfaculties, which permits free play of your Will, thesame liberty of consciousness that you possess in-herently in the world of Color. This is won byperfect coordination

Physically: Of eye; ear; brain,

which gives us apperception;

Mentally: Color; Tone; Number,

which enables us to realize all tone-combinationsas naturally as we realize word- and color-combina-tions.

It is not our purpose here to go deeply into theart of composition. That subject is exhaustivelytreated in the Standard Edition of MARCOTONE; butwe will suggest a few simple means by which excel-lent habits may be acquired that will greatly assistthe creative art.

(1) Listen to Nature in all her various forms. Try always tocoordinate the humming of insects, the singing of the birds,the soughing of the wind, the movement of water, the greenof spring, the yellow and red of autumn and all of Nature’scolor schemes, with the twelve tone-colors. See and hearthese sights and sounds of Nature with your newly acquiredMARCOTONE powers which enable you to realize the actualtone-colors of these manifestations.

(2) Listen to Artifice, to man’s endeavor to concentrate Forceeffectively. Find and hear those tones single and compoundemanating from engine, forge, hammer, loom, harvester,boiler.

(3) Listen to Human Voices and to all sounds on earth and in theheavens that cause aerial movement. Correlate that move-ment to what you see and thus advance in realization of“etheric” motion in infinite forms.

(4) At times write down in your music note-book what you seeand hear, and try to correlate this within your own being.Such “listening-in” on Life’s activities will give you wisdomand make you a worthy interpreter of abstractions andemotions through music more surely than can be realizedin any other domain of endeavor.

(5) Finally, listen to the inner promptings, the “still smallvoice” of your own heart and soul.

A few minutes daily, calmly consecrated to thispractice, will be an unfailing source of education tothe higher observance of the Eternal Law. WhenHarmony is established, Wisdom will enter.

Some day, entirely your own day to choose, whenLife’s, eternal music flows into a free stream ofmelodic-harmony, listen - and write down themessage of Truth in Beauty which you then findresiding in the depths of your being; then inscribeto your fellows a song of the Infinite. If the well-spring be pure, unchoked by the subtle error ofIgnorance, the stream will be endless, for it flowsfrom Unity, through Number, into that perfectHarmony, which is not a part of you, but is yourwholeness of being; in rhythm; harmonized, andtherefore one with the Unity by devout men calledGod.

0 we live, 0 we live -And this life that we conceiveIs a clear thing and a fair,Which we set in crystal air,That its beauty may be plain:

With a breathing and a floodingOf the heaven-life on the whole,While we hear the forests buddingTo the music of the soul -Yet is it tuned in vain?

- ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

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