Rhythm is
measured movement, or the periodical recurrence of accent; and signifies
symmetry and proportion.
Melody, unexhausted and inexhaustible, is the initial force, or, as Dr.
Marx has called it, the life-blood of music. Within itself it bears the
germ of harmony and rhythm. A succession of tones without harmonious and
rhythmic regulation would be felt to lack something. Melody has been
designated the golden thread running through the maze of tone, by which
the ear is guided and the heart reached. Helmholtz styled it the
essential basis of music. In a special sense, it is artistically
constructed song. The creation of an expressive melody is a sure mark of
genius.
Harmony arranges musical sounds with reference to their union, and is
regulated by artistic and aesthetic rules and requirements. It has
endless modes of transforming, inverting and intensifying its materials,
thus continually affording new means of development. All the intervals
and chords used in music had to be discovered, one by one.
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