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Darwin Correspondence Project

From H. E. Litchfield   [before 2 December 1871]1

My dear Father

Richard has read H Sp. & thinks it sticking—but is not prepared off hand to give you an opinion as to his theory of origin of music—but he made some remarks that seem to me to fit in beautifully with your theory of expression being contrast—2 There are a certain set of notes called the common chord   When a bell is sounded these notes are also heard. I think he said they are sung with less effort & I’m sure he called them the normal notes— now all calm simple & dignified melodies are chiefly made out of the notes of the common chord.3 When you wish to express passion, despair—anything violent you go off the common chord & this I take it he thinks makes the distinction of expression not anything so simple as going up or going down. But as you know he thinks it so easy to get into a mess, that you had better keep out of it, so I’m only writing this down for fun. Mind you the theory is mine— the theory being, that as these common chord notes are from physical laws produced with greater care & as they are familiar to us in nature—i.e. in bell & I suppose any ringing sound—we express our normal states of mind by means of these notes—but when we wish to show any violent & therefore less frequent state of mind, from the principle of contrast we use the others. R is going to meditate & as soon as he can will send you some sort of answer & H. Sp. shall go home tomorrow—but he wants to read it again

yours dear F HEL.

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘Pitch or tonality connected with the nature of the sounds emitted.’ pencil

Footnotes

The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to H. E. Litchfield, 2 December [1871] (Correspondence vol. 19).
CD had sent a twelve-page draft on the voice from his manuscript of Expression to Henrietta Emma and Richard Buckley Litchfield for comments. He had previously lent them a copy of the first volume of Herbert Spencer’s Essays: scientific, political, and speculative (Spencer 1858–74), which contained an essay on the origin and function of music (ibid., 1: 359–84). See Correspondence vol. 19, letter to H. E. Litchfield, [before 2 December 1871].
For R. B. Litchfield’s account of the common chord, see Correspondence vol. 19, memorandum from R. B. Litchfield, [before 2 December 1871]). See also Expression, pp. 86–90.

Bibliography

Spencer, Herbert. 1858–74. Essays: scientific, political, and speculative. 3 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts; Williams & Norgate.

Summary

Summarises her theory about expression in music.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-8088F
From
Henrietta Emma Darwin/Henrietta Emma Litchfield
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Source of text
Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 42)
Physical description
ALS 4pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8088F,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8088F.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)

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