ABSTRACT
Richard Wallaschek was hardly the first writer to emphasize the significance of rhythm in music. In his writing Wallaschek indicated that he did not view the rhythmic nature of primitive music merely as evidence of its poverty, or its incommensurability with civilized music. Herbert Spencer, who had conceived of music primarily in terms of its tonal structure, nevertheless spurred the scientific interest in rhythm in his First Principles of a New System of Philosophy. Spencer’s chapter on ‘The Rhythm of Motion’ captivated readers and undoubtedly influenced music theory, psychology and popular scientific writing. As late as 1939, the musicologist Warren Dwight Allen lamented that too many music historians were writing music histories based on the ‘developmental assumptions’ of Spencer and other ‘Victorian anthropologists’. 'The emotion produced by music’, according to Spencer, had a stronger effect on him in the cathedral than ‘the adoration of a personal being, the utterance of laudations, and the humble professions of obedience’.
