|
|
Guibaud studied the question on a number of subjects, confirming and
extending the conclusions of Binet and Courtier. He found that the
reactions of different individuals varied, but that for the same
individual reactions were constant. Circulatory reaction was more often
manifest than respiratory reaction. The latter might be either a
simultaneous modification of depth and of rapidity or of either of these.
The circulatory reaction was a peripheral vasoconstriction with diminished
fullness of pulse and slight acceleration of cardiac rhythm; there was
never any distinct slowing of heart under the influence of music. Guibaud
remarks that when people say they feel a shudder at some passage of music,
this sensation of cold finds its explanation in the production of a
peripheral vasoconstriction which may be registered by the
plethysmograph.[105]
Since music thus directly and powerfully affects the chief vital
processes, it is not surprising that it should indirectly influence
various viscera and functions. As Tarchanoff and others have demonstrated,
it affects the skin, increasing the perspiration; it may produce a
tendency to tears; it sometimes produces desire to urinate, or even actual
urination, as in Scaliger's case of the Gascon gentleman who was always
thus affected on hearing the bagpipes. In dogs it has been shown by
Tarchanoff and Wartanoff that auditory stimulation increases the
consumption of oxygen 20 per cent., and the elimination of carbonic acid
17 per cent.
In addition to the effects of musical sound already mentioned, it may be
added that, as Epstein, of Berne, has shown,[106] the other senses are
stimulated under the influence of sound, and notably there is an increase
in acuteness of vision which may be experimentally demonstrated. It is
probable that this effect of music in heightening the impressions received
by the other senses is of considerable significance from our present point
of view.
Why are musical tones in a certain order and rhythm pleasurable? asked
Darwin in _The Descent of Man_, and he concluded that the question was
insoluble. We see that, in reality, whatever the ultimate answer may be,
the immediate reason is quite simple. Pleasure is a condition of slight
and diffused stimulation, in which the heart and breathing are faintly
excited, the neuro-muscular system receives additional tone, the viscera
gently stirred, the skin activity increased; and certain combinations of
musical notes and intervals act as a physiological stimulus in producing
these effects.[107]
Among animals of all kinds, from insects upward, this physiological action
appears to exist, for among nearly all of them certain sounds are
agreeable and attractive, and other sounds indifferent and disagreeable.
It appears that insects of quite different genera show much appreciation
of the song of the Cicada.[108] Birds show intense interest in the singing
of good performers even of other species. Experiments among a variety of
animals in the Zoölogical Gardens with performances on various instruments
showed that with the exception of seals none were indifferent, and all
felt a discord as offensive. Many animals showed marked likes and
dislikes; thus, a tiger, who was obviously soothed by the violin, was
infuriated by the piccolo; the violin and the flute were preferred by most
animals.[109]
Most persons have probably had occasion to observe the
susceptibility of dogs to music. It may here suffice to give one
personal observation. A dog (of mixed breed, partly collie), very
well known to me, on hearing a nocturne of Chopin, whined and
howled, especially at the more pathetic passages, once or twice
catching and drawing out the actual note played; he panted,
walked about anxiously, and now and then placed his head on the
player's lap. When the player proceeded to a more cheerful piece
by Grieg, the dog at once became indifferent, sat down, yawned,
and scratched himself; but as soon as the player returned once
more to the nocturne the dog at once repeated his accompaniment.
There can be no doubt that among a very large number of animals of most
various classes, more especially among insects and birds, the attraction
of music is supported and developed on the basis of sexual attraction, the
musical notes emitted serving as a sexual lure to the other sex. The
evidence on this point was carefully investigated by Darwin on a very wide
basis.[110] It has been questioned, some writers preferring to adopt the
view of Herbert Spencer,[111] that the singing of birds is due to
"overflow of energy," the relation between courtship and singing being
merely "a relation of concomitance." This view is no longer tenable;
whatever the precise origin of the musical notes of animals may be,--and
it is not necessary to suppose that sexual attraction had a large part in
their first rudimentary beginnings,--there can now be little doubt that
musical sounds, and, among birds, singing, play a very large part indeed
in bringing the male and the female together.[112] Usually, it would
appear, it is the performance of the male that attracts the female; it is
only among very simple and primitive musicians, like some insects, that
the female thus attracts the male.[113] The fact that it is nearly always
one sex only that is thus musically gifted should alone have sufficed to
throw suspicion on any but a sexual solution of this problem of animal
song.
It is, however, an exceedingly remarkable fact that, although among
insects and lower vertebrates the sexual influence of music is so large,
and although among mammals and predominantly in man the emotional and
æsthetic influence of music is so great, yet neither in man nor any of the
higher mammals has music been found to exert a predominant sexual
influence, or even in most cases any influence at all. Darwin, while
calling attention to the fact that the males of most species of mammals
use their vocal powers chiefly, and sometimes exclusively, during the
breeding-season, adds that "it is a surprising fact that we have not as
yet any good evidence that these organs are used by male mammals to charm
the female."[114] From a very different standpoint, Féré, in studying the
pathology of the human sexual instinct in the light of a very full
knowledge of the available evidence, states that he knows of no detailed
observations showing the existence of any morbid sexual perversions based
on the sense of hearing, either in reference to the human voice or to
instrumental music.[115]
When, however, we consider that not only in the animals most nearly
related to man, but in man himself, the larynx and the voice undergo a
marked sexual differentiation at puberty, it is difficult not to believe
that this change has an influence on sexual selection and sexual
psychology. At puberty there is a slight hyperæmia of the larynx,
accompanied by rapid development alike of the larynx itself and of the
vocal cords, which become larger and thicker, while there is an associated
change in the voice, which deepens. All these changes are very slight in
girls, but very pronounced in boys, whose voices are said to "break" and
then become lower by at least an octave. The feminine larynx at puberty
only increases in the proportion of 5 to 7, but the masculine larynx in
the proportion of 5 to 10. The direct dependence of this change on the
general sexual development is shown not merely by its occurrence at
puberty, but by the fact that in eunuchs in whom the testicles have been
removed before puberty the voice retains its childlike qualities.[116]
As a matter of fact, I believe that we may attach a considerable degree of
importance to the voice and to music generally as a method of sexual
appeal. On this point I agree with Moll, who remarks that "the sense of
hearing here plays a considerable part, and the stimulation received
through the ears is much larger than is usually believed."[117] I am not,
however, inclined to think that this influence is considerable in its
action on men, although Mantegazza remarks, doubtless with a certain
truth, that "some women's voices cannot be heard with impunity." It is
true that the ancients deprecated the sexual or at all events the
effeminating influence of some kinds of music, but they seem to have
regarded it as sedative rather than stimulating; the kind of music they
approved of as martial and stimulating was the kind most likely to have
sexual effects in predisposed persons.
The Chinese and the Greeks have more especially insisted on the
ethical qualities of music and on its moralizing and demoralizing
effects. Some three thousand years ago, it is stated, a Chinese
emperor, believing that only they who understood music are
capable of governing, distributed administrative functions in
accordance with this belief. He acted entirely in accordance with
Chinese morality, the texts of Confucianism (see translations in
the "Sacred Books of the East Series") show clearly that music
and ceremony (or social ritual in a wide sense) are regarded as
the two main guiding influences of life--music as the internal
guide, ceremony as the external guide, the former being looked
upon as the more important.
Among the Greeks Menander said that to many people music is a
powerful stimulant to love. Plato, in the third book of the
_Republic_, discusses what kinds of music should be encouraged in
his ideal state. He does not clearly state that music is ever a
sexual stimulant, but he appears to associate plaintive music
(mixed Lydian and Hypolydian) with drunkenness, effeminacy, and
idleness and considers that such music is "useless even to women
that are to be virtuously given, not to say to men." He only
admits two kinds of music: one violent and suited to war, the
other tranquil and suited to prayer or to persuasion. He sets out
the ethical qualities of music with a thoroughness which almost
approaches the great Chinese philosopher: "On these accounts we
attach such importance to a musical education, because rhythm and
harmony sink most deeply into the recesses of the soul, and take
most powerful hold of it, bringing gracefulness in their train,
and making a man graceful if he be rightly nurtured, ... leading
him to commend beautiful objects, and gladly receive them into
his soul, and feed upon them, and grow to be noble and good."
Plato is, however, by no means so consistent and thorough as the
Chinese moralist, for having thus asserted that it is the
influence of music which molds the soul into virtue, he proceeds
to destroy his position with the statement that "we shall never
become truly musical until we know the essential forms of
temperance and courage and liberality and munificence," thus
moving in a circle. It must be added that the Greek conception of
music was very comprehensive and included poetry.
Aristotle took a wider view of music than Plato and admitted a
greater variety of uses for it. He was less anxious to exclude
those uses which were not strictly ethical. He disapproved,
indeed, of the Phrygian harmony as the expression of Bacchic
excitement. He accepts, however, the function of music as a
katharsis of emotion, a notion which is said to have originated
with the Pythagoreans. (For a discussion of Aristotle's views on
music, see W.L. Newman, _The Politics of Aristotle_, vol. i, pp.
359-369.)
Athenæus, in his frequent allusions to music, attributes to it
many intellectual and emotional properties (e.g., Book XIV,
Chapter XXV) and in one place refers to "melodies inciting to
lawless indulgence" (Book XIII, Chapter LXXV).
We may gather from the _Priapeia_ (XXVI) that cymbals and
castanets were the special accompaniment in antiquity of wanton
songs and dances: "_cymbala, cum crotalis, pruriginis arma_."
The ancient belief in the moralizing influence of music has
survived into modern times mainly in a somewhat more scientific
form as a belief in its therapeutic effects in disordered nervous
and mental conditions. (This also is an ancient belief as
witnessed by the well-known example of David playing to Saul to
dispel his melancholia.) In 1729 an apothecary of Oakham, Richard
Broune, published a work entitled _Medicina Musica_, in which he
argued that music was beneficial in many maladies. In more recent
days there have been various experiments and cases brought
forward showing its efficacy in special conditions.
An American physician (W.F. Hutchinson) has shown that anæsthesia
may be produced with accurately made tuning forks at certain
rates of vibration (summarized in the _British Medical Journal_,
June 4, 1898). Ferrand in a paper read before the Paris Academy
of Medicine in September, 1895, gives reasons for classing some
kinds of music as powerful antispasmodics with beneficial
therapeutic action. The case was subsequently reported of a child
in whom night-terrors were eased by calming music in a minor key.
The value of music in lunatic asylums is well recognized; see
e.g., Näcke, _Revue de Psychiatrie_, October, 1897. Vaschide and
Vurpas (_Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biologie_, December 13,
1902) have recorded the case of a girl of 20, suffering from
mental confusion with excitation and central motor
disequilibrium, whose muscular equilibrium was restored and
movements rendered more co-ordinated and adaptive under the
influence of music.
While there has been much extravagance in the ancient doctrine
concerning the effects of music, the real effects are still
considerable. Not only is this demonstrated by the experiments
already referred to (p. 118), indicating the efficacy of musical
sounds as physiological stimulants, but also by anatomical
considerations. The roots of the auditory nerves, McKendrick has
pointed out, are probably more widely distributed and have more
extensive connections than those of any other nerve. The
intricate connections of these nerves are still only being
unraveled. This points to an explanation of how music penetrates
to the very roots of our being, influencing by associational
paths reflex mechanisms both cerebral and somatic, so that there
is scarcely a function of the body that may not be affected by
the rhythmical pulsations, melodic progressions, and harmonic
combinations of musical tones. (_Nature_, June 15, 1899, p. 164.)
Just as we are not entitled from the ancient belief in the influence of
music on morals or the modern beliefs in its therapeutic influence--even
though this has sometimes gone to the length of advocating its use in
impotence[118]--to argue that music has a marked influence in exciting the
specifically sexual instincts, neither are we entitled to find any similar
argument in the fact that music is frequently associated with the
love-feelings of youth. Men are often able to associate many of their
earliest ideas of love in boyhood with women singing or playing; but in
these cases it will always be found that the fascination was romantic and
sentimental, and not specifically erotic.[119] In adult life the music
which often seems to us to be most definitely sexual in its appeal (such
as much of Wagner's _Tristan_) really produces this effect in part from
the association with the story, and in part from the intellectual
realization of the composer's effort to translate passion into æsthetic
terms; the actual effect of the music is not sexual, and it can well be
believed that the results of experiments as regards the sexual influence
of the _Tristan_ music on men under the influence of hypnotism have been,
as reported, negative. Helmholtz goes so far as to state that the
expression of sexual longing in music is identical with that of religious
longing. It is quite true, again, that a soft and gentle voice seems to
every normal man as to Lear "an excellent thing in woman," and that a
harsh or shrill voice may seem to deaden or even destroy altogether the
attraction of a beautiful face. But the voice is not usually in itself an
adequate or powerful method of evoking sexual emotion in a man. Even in
its supreme vocal manifestations the sexual fascination exerted by a great
singer, though certainly considerable, cannot be compared with that
commonly exerted by the actress. Cases have, indeed, been
recorded--chiefly occurring, it is probable, in men of somewhat morbid
nervous disposition--in which sexual attraction was exerted chiefly
through the ear, or in which there was a special sexual sensibility to
particular inflections or accents.[120] Féré mentions the case of a young
man in hospital with acute arthritis who complained of painful erections
whenever he heard through the door the very agreeable voice of the young
woman (invisible to him) who superintended the linen.[121] But these
phenomena do not appear to be common, or, at all events, very pronounced.
So far as my own inquiries go, only a small proportion of men would
appear to experience definite sexual feelings on listening to music. And
the fact that in woman the voice is so slightly differentiated from that
of the child, as well as the very significant fact that among man's
immediate or even remote ancestors the female's voice can seldom have
served to attract the male, sufficiently account for the small part played
by the voice and by music as a sexual allurement working on men.[122]
It is otherwise with women. It may, indeed, be said at the outset that the
reasons which make it antecedently improbable that men should be sexually
attracted through hearing render it probable that women should be so
attracted. The change in the voice at puberty makes the deeper masculine
voice a characteristic secondary sexual attribute of man, while the fact
that among mammals generally it is the male that is most vocal--and that
chiefly, or even sometimes exclusively, at the rutting season--renders it
antecedently likely that among mammals generally, including the human
species, there is in the female an actual or latent susceptibility to the
sexual significance of the male voice,[123] a susceptibility which, under
the conditions of human civilization, may be transferred to music
generally. It is noteworthy that in novels written by women there is a
very frequent attentiveness to the qualities of the hero's voice and to
its emotional effects on the heroine.[124] We may also note the special
and peculiar personal enthusiasm aroused in women by popular musicians, a
more pronounced enthusiasm than is evoked in them by popular actors.
As an interesting example of the importance attached by women
novelists to the effects of the male voice I may refer to George
Eliot's _Mill on the Floss_, probably the most intimate and
personal of George Eliot's works. In Book VI of this novel the
influence of Stephen Guest (a somewhat commonplace young man)
over Maggie Tulliver is ascribed almost exclusively to the effect
of his base voice in singing. We are definitely told of Maggie
Tulliver's "sensibility to the supreme excitement of music."
Thus, on one occasion, "all her intentions were lost in the vague
state of emotion produced by the inspiring duet--emotion that
seemed to make her at once strong and weak: strong for all
enjoyment, weak for all resistance. Poor Maggie! She looked very
beautiful when her soul was being played on in this way by the
inexorable power of sound. You might have seen the slightest
perceptible quivering through her whole frame as she leaned a
little forward, clasping her hands as if to steady herself; while
her eyes dilated and brightened into that wideopen, childish
expression of wondering delight, which always came back in her
happiest moments." George Eliot's novels contain many allusions
to the powerful emotional effects of music.
It is unnecessary to refer to Tolstoy's _Kreutzer Sonata_, in
which music is regarded as the Galeotto to bring lovers
together--"the connecting bond of music, the most refined lust of
the senses."
In primitive human courtship music very frequently plays a considerable
part, though not usually the sole part, being generally found as the
accompaniment of the song and the dance at erotic festivals.[125] The
Gilas, of New Mexico, among whom courtship consists in a prolonged
serenade day after day with the flute, furnish a somewhat exceptional
case. Savage women are evidently very attentive to music; Backhouse (as
quoted, by Ling Roth[126]) mentions how a woman belonging to the very
primitive and now extinct Tasmanian race, when shown a musical box,
listened "with intensity; her ears moved like those of a dog or horse, to
catch the sound."
I have found little evidence to show that music, except in occasional
cases, exerts even the slightest specifically sexual effect on men,
whether musical or unmusical. But I have ample evidence that it very
frequently exerts to a slight but definite extent such an influence on
women, even when quite normal. Judging from my own inquiries it would,
indeed, seem likely that the majority of normal educated women are liable
to experience some degree of definite sexual excitement from music; one
states that orchestral music generally tends to produce this effect;
another finds it chiefly from Wagner's music; another from military music,
etc. Others simply state--what, indeed, probably expresses the experience
of most persons of either sex--that it heightens one's mood. One lady
mentions that some of her friends, whose erotic feelings are aroused by
music, are especially affected in this way by the choral singing in Roman
Catholic churches.[127]
In the typical cases just mentioned, all fairly normal and healthy women,
the sexual effects of music though definite were usually quite slight. In
neuropathic subjects they may occasionally be more pronounced. Thus, a
medical correspondent has communicated to me the case of a married lady
with one child, a refined, very beautiful, but highly neurotic, woman,
married to a man with whom she has nothing in common. Her tastes lie in
the direction of music; she is a splendid pianist, and her highly trained
voice would have made a fortune. She confesses to strong sexual feelings
and does not understand why intercourse never affords what she knows she
wants. But the hearing of beautiful music, or at times the excitement of
her own singing, will sometimes cause intense orgasm.
Vaschide and Vurpas, who emphasize the sexually stimulating
effects of music, only bring forward one case in any detail, and
it is doubtless significant that this case is a woman. "While
listening to a piece of music X changes expression, her eyes
become bright, the features are accentuated, a smile begins to
form, an expression of pleasure appears, the body becomes more
erect, there is a general muscular hypertonicity. X tells us that
as she listens to the music she experiences sensations very like
those of normal intercourse. The difference chiefly concerns the
local genital apparatus, for there is no flow of vaginal mucus.
On the psychic side the resemblance is marked." (Vaschide and
Vurpas, "Du Coefficient Sexual de l'Impulsion Musicale,"
_Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904.)
It is sometimes said, or implied, that a woman (or a man) sings
better under the influence of sexual emotion. The writer of an
article already quoted, on "Woman in her Psychological Relations"
(_Journal of Psychological Medicine_, 1851), mentions that "a
young lady remarkable for her musical and poetical talents
naïvely remarked to a friend who complimented her upon her
singing: 'I never sing half so well as when I've had a
love-fit.'" And George Eliot says. "There is no feeling, perhaps,
except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not make a man
sing or play the better." While, however, it may be admitted that
some degree of general emotional exaltation may exercise a
favorable influence on the singing voice, it is difficult to
believe that definite physical excitement at or immediately
before the exercise of the voice can, as a rule, have anything
but a deleterious effect on its quality. It is recognized that
tenors (whose voices resemble those of women more than basses,
who are not called upon to be so careful in this respect) should
observe rules of sexual hygiene; and menstruation frequently has
a definite influence in impairing the voice (H. Ellis, _Man and
Woman_, fourth edition, p. 290). As the neighborhood of
menstruation is also the period when sexual excitement is most
likely to be felt, we have here a further indication that sexual
emotion is not favorable to singing. I agree with the remarks of
a correspondent, a musical amateur, who writes: "Sexual
excitement and good singing do not appear to be correlated. A
woman's emotional capacity in singing or acting may be remotely
associated with hysterical neuroses, but is better evinced for
art purposes in the absence of disturbing sexual influences. A
woman may, indeed, fancy herself the heroine of a wanton romance
and 'let herself go' a little in singing with improved results.
But a memory of sexual ardors will help no woman to make the best
of her voice in training. Some women can only sing their best
when they think of the other women they are outsinging. One girl
'lets her soul go out into her voice' thinking of jamroll,
another thinking of her lover (when she has none), and most, no
doubt, when they think of nothing. But no woman is likely to
'find herself' in an artistic sense because she has lost herself
in another sense--not even if she has done so quite respectably."
The reality of the association between the sexual impulse and music--and,
indeed, art generally--is shown by the fact that the evolution of puberty
tends to be accompanied by a very marked interest in musical and other
kinds of art. Lancaster, in a study of this question among a large number
of young people (without reference to difference in sex, though they were
largely female), found that from 50 to 75 per cent of young people feel an
impulse to art about the period of puberty, lasting a few months, or at
most a year or two. It appears that 464 young people showed an increased
and passionate love for music, against only 102 who experienced no change
in this respect. The curve culminates at the age of 15 and falls rapidly
after 16. Many of these cases were really quite unmusical.[128]
FOOTNOTES:
[86] This view has been more especially developed by J.B. Miner, _Motor,
Visual, and Applied Rhythms_, Psychological Review Monograph Supplements,
vol. v, No. 4, 1903.
[87] Sir S. Wilks, _Medical Magazine_, January, 1894; cf. Clifford
Allbutt, "Music, Rhythm, and Muscle," _Nature_, February 8, 1894.
[88] Bücher, _Arbeit und Rhythmus_, third edition, 1902; Wundt,
_Völkerpsychologie_, 1900, Part I, p. 265.
[89] Féré deals fully with the question in his book, _Travail et Plaisir_,
1904, Chapter III, "Influence du Rhythme sur le Travail."
[90] Fillmore, "Primitive Scales and Rhythms," _Proceedings of the
International Congress of Anthropology_, Chicago, 1893.
[91] "Love Songs among the Omaha Indians," in _Proceedings_ of same
congress.
[92] Groos, _Spiele der Menschen_, p. 33.
[93] "Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_,
vol. iii.
[94] Féré, _Sensation et Mouvement_, Chapter V; id., _Travail et Plaisir_,
Chapter XII.
[95] Scripture, _Thinking, Feeling, Doing_, p. 85.
[96] Tarchanoff, "Influence de la Musique sur l'Homme et sur les Animaux,"
_Atti dell' XI Congresso Medico Internationale_, Rome, 1894, vol. ii, p.
153; also in _Archives Italiennes de Biologie_, 1894.
[97] "Love and Pain," _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iii.
[98] Féré, _Travail et Plaisir_, Chapter XII, "Action Physiologique des
Sens Musicaux." "A practical treatise on harmony," Goblot remarks (_Revue
Philosophique_, July, 1901, p. 61), "ought to tell us in what way such an
interval, or such a succession of intervals, affects us. A theoretical
treatise on harmony ought to tell us the explanation of these impressions.
In a word, musical harmony is a psychological science." He adds that this
science is very far from being constituted yet; we have hardly even
obtained a glimpse of it.
[99] _American Journal of Psychology_, April, 1898.
[100] _American Journal of Psychology_, November, 1887. The influence of
rhythm on the involuntary muscular system is indicated by the occasional
effect of music in producing a tendency to contraction of the bladder.
[101] _Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie_ (Physiologisches Abtheilung),
1880, p. 420.
[102] M.L. Patrizi, "Primi esperimenti intorno all' influenza della musica
sulla circolozione del sangue nel cervello umano," _International Congress
für Psychologie_, Munich, 1897, p. 176.
[103] _Philosophische Studien_, vol. xi.
[104] Binet and Courtier, "La Vie Emotionelle," _Année Psychologique_,
Third Year, 1897, pp. 104-125.
[105] Guibaud, _Contribution à l'étude expérimentale de l'influence de la
musique sur la circulation et la respiration_. Thèse de Bordeaux, 1898,
summarized in _Année Psychologique_, Fifth Year, 1899, pp. 645-649.
[106] _International Congress of Physiology_, Berne, 1895.
[107] The influence of association plays no necessary part in these
pleasurable influences, for Féré's experiments show that an unmusical
subject responds physiologically, with much precision, to musical
intervals he is unable to recognize. R. MacDougall also finds that the
effective quality of rhythmical sequences does not appear to be dependent
on secondary associations (_Psychological Review_, January, 1903).
[108] R.T. Lewis, in _Nature Notes_, August, 1891.
[109] Cornish, "Orpheus at the Zoo," in _Life at the Zoo_, pp. 115-138.
[110] _Descent of Man_, Chapters XIII and XIX.
[111] "The Origin of Music" (1857), _Essays_, vol. ii.
[112] Anyone who is in doubt on this point, as regards bird song, may
consult the little book in which the evidence has been well summarized by
Häcker, _Der Gesang der Vögel_, or the discussion in Groos's _Spiele der
Thiere_, pp. 274 et seq.
[113] Thus, mosquitoes are irresistibly attracted by music, and especially
by those musical tones which resemble the buzzing of the female; the males
alone are thus attracted. (Nuttall and Shipley, and Sir Hiram Maxim,
quoted in _Nature_, October 31, 1901, p. 655, and in _Lancet_, February
22, 1902.)
[114] _Descent of Man_, second edition, p. 567. Groos, in his discussion
of music, also expresses doubt whether hearing plays a considerable part
in the courtship of mammals, _Spiele der Menschen_, p. 22.
[115] Féré, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 137.
[116] See Biérent, _La Puberté_ Chapter IV; also Havelock Ellis, _Man and
Woman_, fourth edition, pp. 270-272. Endriss (_Die Bisherigen
Beobachtungen von Physiologischen und Pathologischen Beziehungen der
oberen Luftwege zu den Sexualorganen_, Teil III) brings together various
observations on the normal and abnormal relations of the larynx to the
sexual sphere.
[117] Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, bd. 1, p. 133.
[118] J.L. Roger, _Traité des Effets de la Musique_, 1803, pp. 234 and
342.
[119] A typical example occurs in the early life of History I in Appendix
B to vol. iii of these _Studies_.
[120] Vaschide and Vurpas state (_Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904) that
in their experience music may facilitate sexual approaches in some cases
of satiety, and that in certain pathological cases the sexual act can only
be accomplished under the influence of music.
[121] Féré, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 137. Bloch (_Beiträge_, etc., vol. ii,
p. 355) quotes some remarks of Kistemaecker's concerning the sound of
women's garments and the way in which savages and sometimes civilized
women cultivate this rustling and clinking. Gutzkow, in his
_Autobiography_, said that the _frou-frou_ of a woman's dress was the
music of the spheres to him.
[122] The voice is doubtless a factor of the first importance in sexual
attraction among the blind. On this point I have no data. The
expressiveness of the voice to the blind, and the extent to which their
likes and dislikes are founded on vocal qualities, is well shown by an
interesting paper written by an American physician, blind from early
infancy, James Cocke, "The Voice as an Index to the Soul," _Arena_,
January, 1894.
[123] Long before Darwin had set forth his theory of sexual selection
Laycock had pointed out the influence which the voice of the male, among
man and other animals, exerts on the female (_Nervous Diseases of Women_,
p. 74). And a few years later the writer of a suggestive article on "Woman
in her Psychological Relations" (_Journal of Psychological Medicine_,
1851) remarked: "The sonorous voice of the male man is exactly analogous
in its effect on woman to the neigh and bellow of other animals. This
voice will have its effect on an amorous or susceptible organization much
in the same way as color and the other visual ovarian stimuli." The writer
adds that it exercises a still more important influence when modulated to
music: "in this respect man has something in common with insects as well
as birds."
[124] Groos refers more than once to the important part played in German
novels written by women by what one of them terms the "bearded male
voice."
[125] Various instances are quoted in the third volume of these _Studies_
when discussing the general phenomena of courtship and tumescence, "An
Analysis of the Sexual Impulse."
[126] _The Tasmanians_, p. 20.
[127] An early reference to the sexual influence of music on women may
perhaps be found in a playful passage in Swift's _Martinus Scriblerus_
(possibly due to his medical collaborator, Arbuthnot): "Does not Ælian
tell how the Libyan mares were excited to horsing by music? (which ought
to be a caution to modest women against frequenting operas)." _Memoirs of
Martinus Scriblerus_, Book I, Chapter 6. (The reference is to Ælian,
_Hist. Animal_, lib. XI, cap. 18, and lib. XII, cap. 44.)
[128] E. Lancaster, "Psychology of Adolescence," _Pedagogical Seminary_,
July, 1897.
II.
Summary--Why the Influence of Music in Human Sexual Selection is
Comparatively Small.
We have seen that it is possible to set forth in a brief space the facts
at present available concerning the influence on the pairing impulse of
stimuli acting through the ear. They are fairly simple and uncomplicated;
they suggest few obscure problems which call for analysis; they do not
bring before us any remarkable perversions of feeling.
At the same time, the stimuli to sexual excitement received through the
sense of hearing, although very seldom of exclusive or preponderant
influence, are yet somewhat more important than is usually believed.
Primarily the voice, and secondarily instrumental music, exert a distinct
effect in this direction, an effect representing a specialization of a
generally stimulating physiological influence which all musical sounds
exercise upon the organism. There is, however, in this respect, a definite
difference between the sexes. It is comparatively rare to find that the
voice or instrumental music, however powerful its generally emotional
influence, has any specifically sexual effect on men. On the other hand,
it seems probable that the majority of women, at all events among the
educated classes, are liable to show some degree of sexual sensibility to
the male voice or to instrumental music.
It is not surprising to find that music should have some share in arousing
sexual emotion when we bear in mind that in the majority of persons the
development of sexual life is accompanied by a period of special interest
in music. It is not unexpected that the specifically sexual effects of the
voice and music should be chiefly experienced by women when we remember
that not only in the human species is it the male in whom the larynx and
voice are chiefly modified at puberty, but that among mammals generally it
is the male who is chiefly or exclusively vocal at the period of sexual
activity; so that any sexual sensibility to vocal manifestations must be
chiefly or exclusively manifested in female mammals.
At the best, however, although æsthetic sensibility to sound is highly
developed and emotional sensibility to it profound and widespread,
although women may be thrilled by the masculine voice and men charmed by
the feminine voice, it cannot be claimed that in the human species hearing
is a powerful factor in mating. This sense has here suffered between the
lower senses of touch and smell, on the one hand, with their vague and
massive appeal, and the higher sense, vision, on the other hand, with its
exceedingly specialized appeal. The position of touch as the primary and
fundamental sense is assured. Smell, though in normal persons it has no
decisive influence on sexual attraction, acts by virtue of its emotional
sympathies and antipathies, while, by virtue of the fact that among man's
ancestors it was the fundamental channel of sexual sensibility, it
furnishes a latent reservoir of impressions to which nervously abnormal
persons, and even normal persons under the influence of excitement or of
fatigue, are always liable to become sensitive. Hearing, as a sense for
receiving distant perceptions has a wider field than is in man possessed
by either touch or smell. But here it comes into competition with vision,
and vision is, in man, the supreme and dominant sense.[129] We are always
more affected by what we see than by what we hear. Men and women seldom
hear each other without speedily seeing each other, and then the chief
focus of interest is at once transferred to the visual centre.[130] In
human sexual selection, therefore, hearing plays a part which is nearly
always subordinated to that of vision.
FOOTNOTES:
[129] Nietzsche has even suggested that among primitive men delicacy of
hearing and the evolution of music can only have been produced under
conditions which made it difficult for vision to come into play: "The ear,
the organ of fear, could only have developed, as it has, in the night and
in the twilight of dark woods and caves.... In the brightness the ear is
less necessary. Hence the character of music as an art of night and
twilight." (_Morgenröthe_, p. 230.)
[130] At a concert most people are instinctively anxious to _see_ the
performers, thus distracting the purely musical impression, and the
reasonable suggestion of Goethe that the performers should be invisible is
still seldom carried into practice.
VISION
I.
Primacy of Vision in Man--Beauty as a Sexual Allurement--The Objective
Element in Beauty--Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Various Parts of the
World--Savage Women sometimes Beautiful from European Point of
View--Savages often Admire European Beauty--The Appeal of Beauty to some
Extent Common even to Animals and Man.
Vision is the main channel by which man receives his impressions. To a
large extent it has slowly superseded all the other senses. Its range is
practically infinite; it brings before us remote worlds, it enables us to
understand the minute details of our own structure. While apt for the most
abstract or the most intimate uses, its intermediate range is of universal
service. It furnishes the basis on which a number of arts make their
appeal to us, and, while thus the most æsthetic of the senses, it is the
sense on which we chiefly rely in exercising the animal function of
nutrition. It is not surprising, therefore, that from the point of view of
sexual selection vision should be the supreme sense, and that the
love-thoughts of men have always been a perpetual meditation of beauty.
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