2tye Stbrarg oftljp IttttJf rsttg of Narttf (Earnltna lEnimmb bg STtfF Sialfrtir pftlantljr0ptr i^otfrtiea V 780B BQGg.Z I * '"'" % 4*t*f r 7 % JL • i 1 - .- ' SLk -* > * This book must not be taken from the Library building. i OCT 8 1 , . t - Ifi Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/generalhistoryofburn -1 V FBartoU*; Sculp' CHARLES BFKHEY MUS : DOCT: OXjOT^F. F ■ R ' • S . /W//A/ as 6bt . /, ■! Jtliligfunll/ in 4to. geDniCff/ jll a thin quarto ; the reft of the volume be- 2H'C§Ccn. 1690. ing filled with a treatife on compofition. ~ (»)• ^I'itifC&e ejllleiflinot in tie ©ef> The Mufical Dictionary of M. Roufleau, HM)h UilD SebtfafJC t»L'f (tltt'inilii) tlClieil without prbmifihg any thing more than an ODMicSS- 4 t0 « Berlin. 1759. explanation of terms peculiar to the theory (p) De Cantu et Mujica Sacra a prima and practice of Mufic, affords not only F.cclejia: tetate ufque adprefens tempus. Ty- more amufement, but more hijlorical in- pis San-Blafiams. 1774. formation relative to the art, than perhaps (a) The Hiftory of Mufic by M. Bonet any book of the fize that is extant. Of R E F A C E. XL of plaglarifm ; and with refpect to manufcript information, and inedited materials from foreign countries, few modern writers have expended more money and time, and undergone greater fatigue, or more impaired their health in the fearch of them, than myfelf. And yet, though all will readily allow, in genera!, that per- fection is not to be expected in the works of man ; it is evi- dent that, in particular cafes, little tendernefs is fhewn to im- perfection in the mod difficult and laborious undertakings. If 1 might prefume to hope, however, for any unufual in- dulgence from the public with refpect to this work, it muft be from the peculiarity of my circumftances during the time it was in hand. For mould the materials be found ill-digefted, or the diction incorrect ; it is humbly hoped that part of thefe, and other defects, will be attributed to want of leifure and health, as well as want of abilities, to render it kfs unworthy the public patronage ; for it may with the utmoft truth be faid, that it was compofed in moments ftolen from fleep, from re- fection, and from an occupation which required all my atten- tion, during more than twelve hours a day, for a great part of the year. If it be afked, why I entered on fo arduous a talk, knowing the difadvantages I muft labour under, my anfwer is, that it was neither with a view to rival others, nor to expofe the de- fects of former attempts, but merely to fill up, as well as I was able, a chafm in Englifh literature. I knew that a hiftory of Mufic was wanted by my countrymen, though I was ut- terly ignorant that any one elfe had undertaken to fupply it ; a 2 and, xu R E F A C E. and, to confefs the truth, I did, at firft, imagine, though I have been long convinced of my miftake, that, with many- years practice and experience in mufical matters, fome reading, and the pofleflion of a great number of books on the fubject, I fliould have been able to compile fuch a hiftory as was wanted, at my leifure hours, without great labour or expence. But, after I had embarked, the further I failed, the greater feemed my diftance from the port : doubts of my own abili- ties, and refpect for the public, abated my confidence ; my ideas of what would be required at my hands were enlarged beyond my powers of fulfilling them, elpecially in the nar- row limits of two volumes, and in the little time I had al- lowed myfelf, which was made ft ill lefs by ficknefs. A work like this, in which it is neceffary to give authori- ties for every fact that is aflerted, advances infinitely flower, with all the diligence that can be beftowed upon it, than one of mere imagination, or one confiding of recent circumftances, within the knowledge and memory of the writer. The differ- ence in point of time and labour is as great as in building a houfe with fcarce materials dug out of the earth, or produced in remote regions of the world, or with bricks made upon the fpot, and timber from a neighbouring wood ; and I have fre- quently fpent more time in afcertaining a date, or feeking a ihort, and, in itfelf, a trivial paflage, than it would have re- quired to fill many pages with conjecture and declamation. However, after reading, or at leaft confulting, an almofi: innumerable quantity of old and fcarce books on the fubject, of which the dulnefs and pedantry were almoft petrific, and among PREFACE, xiii among which, where I hoped to find the moft information, I found but little, and where I expected but little, I was feldom difappointed ; at length, wearied and difgufled at the fmall fuc- cefs of my refearches, I fhut my books, and began to examine myfelf as to my mufical principles ; hoping that the good I had met with in the courfe of my reading was by this time digefted and incorporated in my own ideas ; and that the many years I had fpent in practice, theory, and meditation, might entitle me to fome freedom of thought, unfhackied by the trammels of authority. Ancient writers upon fcience ufually began with definitions ; and as it is poffible that this work may fall into the hands of perfons wholly unacquainted with the elements of Mufic, a few preliminary explanations of fuch difficulties as are moft likely to occur to them, may fomewhat facilitate the peruial of the technical parts of my enquiries. What is Music ? An innocent luxury, unneceflary, indeed, to our exiftence, but a great improvement and gratification of the fenfe of hearing, It confifts, at prefent, of Melody, Con~ fo?iance> and DiJfoJiance. What is Melody f A feries of founds more fixed, and gene- rally more lengthened, than thofe of common fpeech ; ar- ranged with grace, and of proportional lengths, fuch as the mind can eafily meafure, and the voice exprefs. Thefe founds are regulated by a fcale, confiding of tones and femitones ; but admit a variety of arrangement as unbounded as imagination. What is Confonance ? A coincidence of two or more founds, which being heard together, by their agreement and union, afford xiv PREFACE. afford to ears capable of judging and feeling, a delight of a moft grateful kind. What is Dijfonance ? It is the want of that agreeable union between two or more founds, which conftitutes confonance : in mufical compofition it is occafioned by the fufpenfion or an- ticipation of fome found before, or after, it becomes a concord. It is the Dolce picca?ite of Mufic, and operates on the ear as a poignant fauce on the palate : it is a zeft, without which the auditory fenfe would be as much cloyed as the appetite, if it had nothing to feed on but fweets. What kind of mujical tones are mofi grateful to the ear ? Such as are produced by the vocal organ. And, next to fing- ing, what kinds of found are mofi pleafmg ? Thofe which ap- proach the neareft to vocal. Which are they ? Such as can be fuftained, fwelled, and diminifhed, at pleafure. Of thefe the firft in rank are the Violin, Flute, and Flautbois. But what injhument is capable of the greatejl effeSls .? The Organ ; which can not only imitate a number of other inftruments, but is fo comprehenfive as to poffefs the power of a numerous orcheftra. But has it no imperjcclions ? Yes. It wants expreflion, and a more perfect intonation. What "kind of tnufc is mofi plea fing to mankind? To prac- tifed ears, fuch as has the merit of novelty, added to refine- ment, and ingenious contrivance : to the ignorant, fuch as is moli familiar and common. What was the mufic of the Greeks, concerning which the learned talk fa much ? It is impoffible to fpeak of it with cer- tainty 3 however, the chief part of what I have to fay concern- ing R E F A C E. xv ing both the theory and practice of ancient mufic, is thrown into a Preliminary Diflertation, in order that the narrative might not be interrupted by difcuffions concerning dark and difputable points, which will be generally uninterefting even to mufical readers ; and in which it is very doubtful, whether I fhall be able either to amufe or fatisfy the learned. There are already more profound books on the fubject of ancient, as well as modern Mufic, than have ever been read ; it was time to try to treat it in fuch a manner as was likely to engage the attention of thofe that are unable, or unwilling, to read treatifes written, for the moft part, by perfons who were more ambitious of appearing learned themfelves, than of making others fo. Indeed, I have long fince found it necef- fary to read with caution the fplendid affertions of writers con- cerning mufic, till I was convinced of their knowledge of the fubjecT: ; for I have frequently detected ancients as well as mo- derns, whofe fame fets them almoft above cenfure, of utter ignorance in this particular, while they have thought it necef- fary to talk abaut it. Apuleius, Paufanias, and Athenasus, among the ancients, were certainly muficians ; but it is not fo evident that Cicero, Horace, and others, who have interfperfed many paffages concerning Mufic in their works, understood the fubject any more than our Addifon, Pope, and Swift. Among thefe, the two nrft have written odes on St. Cecilia's day, in which they manifeft the entire feparation of Mufic and Poetry, and fhew the poffibility of writing well on what is neither felt nor underftood. Mufic and its admirers were ever contemned by Swift and Pope j but> having neither tafte nor judgment in this art, they XVI R they were furely unqualified to cenfure it. Few conquerors ever aimed at univerfal monarchy, compared with the number of authors who have wifhed to be thought poiTefled of univer- fal knowledge ; and yet thefe great writers, who difcover, in what is within their competence, a vigour of mind, and ele- vation of genius, which inclines mankind to regard them as beings of a fuperior order, whenever they hope by the power of thinking to fupply the place of knowledge, difcover an im- becillity, which degrades them into common characters. I will not, however, over-rate mufical fenfations fo far as to fay, with the poet, that the man who cannot enjoy them " is Jit for treafons, Jlratagems, and fpoils ;" there being, per- haps, among mankind, as many perfons of bad hearts that are poffeffed of a love and genius for mufic, as there are of good, that have neither talents nor feeling for it : but I will venture to fay, that it has been admired and cultivated by great and eminent perfons at all times and in every country, where arts have been cherifhed : and though there may be no parti- cular connection between correctnefs of ear, and rectitude of mind, yet, without the leaft hyperbole it may be faid, that the organization of the auditory nerves mull be more exqui- fitely perfect to be affected by fweet founds, than to be infen- fible to ? or offended by them. But, as the Conftable in Much ado about Nothing, fays, " thefe are gifts which God gives," and lovers of mufic ihould be content with their own fuperior happinefs, and not take offence at others for enjoying lefs pleafure than them- felves. However, it is no uncommon thing for the rich to treat the poor with as much infolence, as if it were a crime not to be PREFACE. xvii be born to a great eft-ate ; yet, on the other hand, to be proud of beggary and want, is too ridiculous for cenfure. With refpect to the prefent work, there may, perhaps, be many readers who wifh and expect to find in it a deep and well digefted treatife on the theory and practice of mufic : while others, lefs eager after fuch information, will be feeking for mere amufement in the narrative. I wifh it had been in my plan and power fully to fatisfy either party ; but a hiftory is neither a body of laws, nor a novel. I have blended together theory and practice, facts and explanations, incidents, caufes, con- fequences, conjectures, and confeffions of ignorance, juft as the fubject produced them. Many new materials concerning the art of Mufic in the remote times of which this volume treats, can hardly be expected. The collecting into one point the mod in- terefting circumftances relative to its practice and profeflbrs ; its connection with religion ; with war ; with the ftage ; with public feftivals, and private amufements, have principally em- ployed me : and as the hiftorian of a great and powerful em- pire marks its limits and refources ; its acquifitions and lories ; its enemies and allies ; I have endeavoured to point out the boundaries of mufic, and its influence on our paffions 5 its early fubfervience to poetry, its fetting up a feparate intereft, and afterwards aiming at independence ; the heroes who have fought its battles, and the victories they have obtained. If the titles of my chapters fhould appear too general and mifcellaneous, and the divifions and fections of my work too few ; if method and minute exactnefs in the diftribution of its feveral fubjects and parts fhould feem wanting ; the whole is, perhaps, the more likely to be read for thefe deficiencies ; for a Vol. I. b hiftory, XV111 R E F A C E. hiftory, of which the contents are fymmetrically digefted, fe- parated by chapters, and Cub-divided into fections, may be ea- fily confulted, but is no more likely to be read throughout, than a dictionary. My fubject has been fo often deformed by unflcilful writers, that many readers, even among thofe who love and under- stand mufic, are afraid of it. My wifh, therefore, is not to be approached with awe and reverence for my depth and erudition, but to bring on a familiar acquaintance with them, by talking in common language of what has hitheito worn the face of gloom and myftery, and been too much " ficklied o'er with the pale call of thought ;" and though the mixing biographical anecdotes in order to engage attention, may by fome be condemned, as below the dignity of fcience, yet I would rather be pronounced trivial than tirefome ; for Mufic being, at beft, but an amufement, its hiftory merits not, in reading, the labour of intenfe application, which mould be referved for more grave and important concerns. I have never, from a vain difplay of erudition, loaded my page with Greek ; on the contrary, unlefs fome difputable point (eemed to render it neceflary, or the paffage was both remark- able and fhort, I have induftrioufly avoided it, by referring my learned readers to the original text ; and as I pretend not to fuch a profound and critical knowledge in that language as to depend entirely upon myfelf, in obfcure and contefted pafiages, I have, when fuch occurred, generally had recourfe to the labours of the beft tranflators and commentators, or the coun- fel of a learned friend. And here, in order to fatisfy the fen- timents of friendfhip, as well as thofe of gratitude, I muft publicly R E F A XIX publicly acknowledge my obligations to the zeal, intelligence, tafte, and erudition of the reverend Mr. Twining ; a gentle- man whofe lead merit is being perfectly acquainted with every branch of theoretical and practical mufic. As ancient Greek Mufic had its technical terms, as well as the modern Italian, with which many excellent fcholars and tranflators from that language, for want of an acquaintance with Mufic, and Greek mufical writers, have been utter ftrangers, I may venture to obferve that I have tried, and I hope not always without fuccefs, to trace thefe terms in ancient authors, in order to difcover their original acceptation. It would be a falfe, and perhaps offenfive modefty, if I w«re here to trouble the reader with apologies for the length and frequency of quotations from the Iliad and Odyffey, and other ancient poets befides Homer ; as it will be fhewn, that hiftory has no other materials to work upon in times of high antiquity, than thofe poems, which have always been regarded as hiftori- cal ; profe compofitions having been utterly unknown in Greece for 300 years after moll of them were written (r). I have never had recourfe to conjecture, when facts were to be found. In the hiftorical and biographical parts, I have af- ferted nothing without vouchers ; and I have made the ancients tell their own ftory as often as was poffible, without difputing with them the knowledge of their own hiftory, as many mo- derns have done ; for I cannot help fuppofing them to have been full as well acquainted with their own affairs 2000 years (r) Cadmus Milefius, whom antiquity rodotus, the oldeft Greek hiftorian whofe allowed to have been the inventor of hif- writings are preferved, died 484 years be- tory in profe, flourifhed, according to Sir fore the fame sera. Ifaac Newton, 550 years B. C. and He- b 2 ago, xx PREFACE. ago, as we are at prefent. An ancient Greek might, with almoft equal propriety, have pretended to foretell what we Jhould be, at the diftance of 2000 years, as we determine now what they then were. Indeed it was my intention, when I fir ft entered upon this work, to trace the genealogy of Mufic in a right line, without either meddling with the collateral branches of the family, or violating the reverence of antiquity. I wifhed and determined to proportion my labour to my powers, and I was unawares feduced into a courfe of reading and conjecture, upon matters beyond the reach of human ken, by the chief fubject of my enquiries being (o extenfively diffufed through all the regions of literature, and all the ages of the world. 1 found an- cient Mufic fo intimately connected with Poetry, Mythology, Government, Manners, and Science in general, that wholly to feparate it from them, feemed to me like taking a fingle figure out of a group, in an hiftorical picture ; or a fingle character out of a drama, of which the propriety depends upon the dia- logue and the incidents. If, therefore, a number of figures appear in the back-ground, I hope they will give relief, and fomewhat keep off the drynefs and fatigue which a fingle fub- ject in a long work, or a fingle figure if often repeated, though in different points of view, is apt to prpduce. S U B S C R I E R S. His Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales. His Royal Highnefs Prince Frederic, Bifhop of Ofnabrug.. His Royal Highnefs the Duke of Gloucefter. His Royal Highnefs the Duke of Cumberland.. His mofl Serene Highnefs the Eledtor of Bavaria. Her moft Serene Highnefs the Electrefs Dowager of Saxony. His moft Serene Highnefs the Elector Palatine. HIS Grace the Duke of Ancafter Her Grace the Duchefs of An- cafter Right Hon. Earl of Aftiburnham Right Hon. Countefs of Aylefbury Lady Abdy P. A. Agnew, Efq. Signora Agujari Colonel Ainflie Rev. Mr. Airfon. Dr Alcock, Litchfield William Alderfey, Efq. Member of Council, Calcutta, 4 Copies George Alexander, Efq. All Souls College, Oxford Mrs. Allen of Lynn, 2 Copies Maxey Allen, Efq. 2 Copies Rev. Mr. John Towers Allen Mrs. John Towers Allen Mrs. Allen, Docking Stephen Allen, Efq. Lynn. Mrs. Stephen Allen Sir Rowland Almond, Bart. Mr. Ailward, Muf. Prof. Grefl]. Col; David Anderfon, Efq. 2 Copies Thomas Anguifti, Efq. Mafter in Chan-- eery Anonymous Chriftopher Anftey, Efq. Dr. Armftrong Dr. Arnold Matthew Robert Arnott, Efq. Reading Clerk to the Houfe of Peers Atwood, Efq. Cambridge Mr. Afhley Major Auchmuty, 2 Copies Thomas Audley, Efq. Lynn B. Her Grace the Duchefs of Bedford Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Barrington Right Hon. Lord Bruce Right Rev. Bifhop of Bath and Wells The Prince Abbot of St. Blafius . Haru . U B S C R I B R S. Hon James Brudenell Hon. Mrs. Brudenell Hon. Edward Bouverie Hon. John Smith Barry Hon. Daines Barrington Hon. Capt. Barrington M. Carl. Phil. Emanuel Bach, Hamburg Mr. John Brice Backet, Briftol Rev. Dr. Charles Bagge, Lynn John Bagnall, Efq. Richard Bagot, Efq. William Baker, Efq. Mr. John Baker Mifs Bankes Mifs Banks Golfbrow Banyar, Efq. Mr. Baretti Mifs Barlow- Thomas Barrett, Efq. Mr. John Barrett, Northampton Mr. Barthelemon Joah Bates, Efq. Mr. Baton, Briftol John Thomas Batt, Efq. Lincoln's Inn Mr. John Baverftock, Marlborough Rev. Mr. Beadon, Cambridge Edward Bearcroft, Efq. Lincoln's Inn Mr. T. Becket, Bookfeller, Strand, 50 Copies "William Beckford, Efq. 5 Copies Mr. Richard Bedford Beever, Efq. Norfolk J. Belli, Efq. Mifs Benns Rev. Mr. Berney Sir Richard Betenfon, Bart. Chriftopher Bethel, Efq. Dr. Bever, Doctors-Commons Mr. Bewley, of Maffingham, Norfolk Sir Richard Bickerton, Bart. Mrs. Bigge Rev. Mr. Birch Thomas Birch, Efq. Rev. Mr. Blackall, Cambridge Sir Walter Blacket, Bart. Charles Blake, Efq. William Blenman, Efq. 2 Copies Mifs Bloffet Mr. Boch John Bond, Efq. Mr. Bond, Orgamft, Exeter Book Society at Bungay, Norfolk Book Society at Sandwich Book Society at Wainford Charles Boone, Efq. Mrs. Boone Mifs Boone Mrs. Bofanquet Mifs Bofanquet Mifs Mary Bofanquet Mifs Bofwell Bowles, Efq. Dr. William Boyce William Boys, Efq. Sandwich The late Thomas Bradfhaw, Efq. Thomas Berney Bramfton, Efq. Charles Brandling, Efq. Mr. Bremner, Mufic Printer, 6 Copies Mr. James Bremner William Bromfield, Efq. Rev. Mr. Brooke, Rector of Pirton Samuel Brown, Efq. Lynn James Bruce, Efq. of Kinaird, Scotland George Bryan, Efq. Lady Brydges Mifs Brydges Rev. Lewis Buck, LL. D. Devon. Mr. Buckland Mr. Lewis Bull, Bookfeller, Bath, * Copies Mat. Bunbury, Efq. Bath Thomas Burges, Efq. J. Burgh, Efq. Henry Burgum, Efq. Briftol Rev. Mr. Burnaby Mr. Burney, Salop Mr. Burney, Worcefter Mr. Charles Burney, London Mr. R. G. Burney, Worcefter Mr. J. A. Burney, Worcefter Mifs A. Burney, Worcefter Pvobert Burton, Efq. Longnor, Salop Rev. Mr. Tho. Butler, Queen's Coll.Oxf, Butler, Efq. Lincoln's 'np Right Hon. Lord Camden Right Hon. Lord Cahir Hon. General Conway Hon. Mrs. Gary Hon. Mrs. Clarges Hon. William Cockaine Hun. U B R B Hon. Charles Sloane Cadogan John Calvert, Efq. Mifs Calwell Alexander Campbell, Efq. Mrs. Carlile, Queen's Square John Carter, Efq. Rev. Mr. Cary, Lynn Mifs Cafe, Lynn Mrs. Caftle Henry Cecil, Efq. Edward Chamberlayne, Efq. Thomas Chamberlayne, Efq. Anthony Chamier, Efq. Anthony Champion, Efq. Sir Thomas Champnefs, Bart. Rev. Mr. Chapplehow Samuel Charters, Efa. Rev. Mr. Cheere, EfTex Mr. J. Cheefe, Organift, Lecminfter Mr. Chicheley, Organift, Great Yar- mouth Cholmondeley, Efq. John Cholwell, Efq. Mr. Clack, Organift, Hereford Mifs Clarges G. B. Clarke, Efq. John Claxton, Eiq. Pamphlet Club at Chefter Sir Charles Cocks, Bart. Rev. Mr. Cokayne, Kent Benjamin Colbourne, Efq. Bath Rev. Mr. Cole, Ely Charles N. Cole, Efq. George Colman, Efq. Colonel Congreve, Salop Carlos Cony, Efq. Norfolk Dr. Benjamin Cooke, Organift of Weft- minfter Abbey Mr. Corfe, Salifbury Mrs. Cornwall Rev. Dr. Courtney Samuel Coutts, Efq. Mifs Coutts "William Cowper, Efq. Richard Cox, Efq. 3 Copies Thomas Craigie, Efq. Cramlington, Efq. John Crane, Efq. John Crewe, Efq. Bolefworth Caftle, Chefhire Samuel Crifp, Efq. 2 Copies Mrs. Crifp, of Burford, 2 Copies Mifs Crooke, Organift, Iflington Mrs. Crutchley Culverden, Efq. Sir Robert CunlifFe, Bart. John Cuppage, Efq. J. Cuftance, Efq. Norwich Mifs Cuftance, Norwich Samuel Cutler, Efq. D. Elis Grace the Duke of Dorfet Her Grace the Duchefs of Devonfhire Right Hon. Earl of Denbigh Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Dudley Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Dalrymple The Baronefs Dieden Colonel Dalrymple George Dance, nfq. Rev. Mr. Daniel, Colchefter Harry Dafhwood, Efq. Mr. T. Davies, Bookfeller, 2 Copies Mifs Davis IngleCna Duncan Davidfon, Efq. Rev. Mr. Davifon Rev. Mr. Charles Davy, Suffolk ' M. Alex, de Demiduff ") t, n- -kt . Peter de Dermdoft J. , , M. Paul de Demidoff ) Wemcn. Mr. William Denman Derbyfhire Mineral Mufical Society Mr. Devaynes Mr. Thomas Dibdin M. Diderot Abraham Dixon, Efq. Henry Dodwell, Efq. Robert Lee Doughty, Efq. Robert Drummond, Efq. J. Duncan, Efq. Thomas Dundas, Efq. Dean and Chapter of Durham H. Durham, Efq. Jofiah Dupre, Efq. Mr. Thomas Saunders Dupuis J. Dyneley, Efq. E. Right Elon. Earl of Exeter Right Hon. Earl of Eglinton RighV U B C R B 11 S. Right Rev. Lord Bifhop of Ely Right Hon. Lady Edgcumbe Right Hon Lady Sophia Egerton Benfon Earl, Efq. Mr. Ebdon, Organift, Durham Mr. Ebeling, Hamburg Nicholas Edwards, Efq. Mrs. Frances Egerton M. Alphonfo de Eguino Mils Harriett Ellerker Alexander K. Elliot, Efq. 2 Copies Rev, Dr. Elliftcn, Cambridge Mrs. Alex. Emerfon, WefHletford Rev. Mr. Emily Charles Efte, Efq. Mrs. Efte, Queen's Square Eftridge, Efq. Eftwickj Efq. Rev. Mr. Evanfon, Tewkefbury Rev. Mr. Everard 1 j Edward Everard, Efq. J " Rev. Mr. Eyre, Archdeacon of Carlifle Hon. Lieut. General Fitzwilliam Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick Fakenham Mufical Society, Norfolk Mrs. Falkener Signor Farinelli Thomas Fenwicke, Efq. Mifs Ffrye Mifs Chriftian Ffrye Mrs. Dyfney Ffytch Mr. Fifcher James Fifher, Efq. Oxford Abraham Fifher, Erq. Keane Fitzgerald, Efq. Keane Fitzgerald, jun. Efq. Mr. Flackton, Canterbury T. O'Flaherty, Efq. Thomas Fletcher, Efq. Staffordfliire Meff. Fletchers, Bookfellers, Oxford Sir Martin Folkes, Bart. Ben. Hartley Foote, Efq. Gilbert Ford, Efq. Mifs Ford Rev. Mr. Forfter, Colchefter Briggs Fountaine, Efq. Norfolk James Fox, Efq. Thomas Frankland, Efq. Napthali Franks, Efq. Mr. Franks, Chefter Robert Freind, Efq. Mifs French Fulham, Efq. Oxford Richard Fuller, Efq. George Fuller, Efq. G. Right Hon. Earl Gower His Excellency M. le Comte de Guignes, Ambaffador Extraordinary from the Court of Verfailles Plight Hon. Earl of Galloway Right Flon. the late Lord Vifcount Grimfton Right Hon. Lady Vifcountefs Grimfton Right Hon. Lord Guernfey Hon. Mrs. Gordon Robert Gale, Efq. Philip Gale, Efq. Mr. Galkie Mr. Lawrence Gall Signor Galuppi, Venice William Payne Galwey, Efq. Mrs. Garland Mr. Garland, Organift, Norwich David Garrick, Efq. Mr. Garth, Durham Sir Thomas Gafcoigne, Bart. Mrs. Gaft of Burford, 2 Copies Philip Cell, Efq. Derbyfhire Signor Giardini James Gibbon, Efq. Phillips Glover, Efq. Mifs Glover of Berwick, Norfolk Colonel Goddard, 2 Copies William Man Godfchal, Efq. Edward Golding, Efq. Mifs Goldfworthy Benjamin Goodiibn, Efq. Rev. Dr. Gooch Sir William Gordon, K. B. Minifter Plenipotentiary. at Bruilels Rev. Mr. Gordon Gore, Efq. GoiUingj Efq. John Graham, Efq Member of Council, Calcutta, 2 Copies » » Graham, Efq. Colonel U B B E R Colonel Grant, 2 Copies Charles Grant, Efq. 2 Copies Mrs. Grants 2 Copies James Grant, Efq. 2 Copies James Grant, Efq. Lieut. Robert Grant Captain T. Graveley, 2 Copies Walwyn Graves, Efq. The late Sir James Gray, K. B. Mr. Green, Organ Builder Mr. Daniel Gregory Fulk Greville, Efq. 5 Copies, Mrs. Greville Sir Henry Grey, Bart. Mrs. Grifdale, Salifbury Nicholas Grueber, Efq. Member of Council, Calcutta, 2 Copies Signor Gaetano Guadagni Signor Guarducci H. Guinand, Efq. Mifs Mary Gunthorpe H. Right Hon. Earl of Hertford, Lord Chamberlain of his Majefty's Houihold Right Hon. t:~.arl of Holdemefle Right Hon, Earl of Home Right Hon. Earl of Hardwicke Hon. Warren Haftings, Governor- ge- neral of Bengal, 3 Copies Hon. Nicholas Herbert Hon. and Rev. John Harley Hon. Sir William Hamilton, K. B. Hon. Lady Hamilton Mr. Hague, of Clapham Edward Haiftwell, Efq. N. B. Halhed, Efq. 2 Copies Halifax Mufical Society Dr. Hamilton, Lynn Mr. Archibald Hamilton, Printer, Falcon Court, Fieet-ftreet, 6 Copies Rev. Mr. Hankey, Eaft Bergholt. John Hannay, Efq. Lovet hanfcn, Efq. Henry rlanlbn, Efq. Francis Hargrave, Efq. . ■ Hardingham, Efq. Lady Harland R.ev. Mr. Samuel Harper, Britifh Mufeum James Harris, Efq. Salifbury Vol.. I. James Harris, junior, Efq. Envoy extra*. at Berlin Dr. George Harris, Doctors- Commons Mr. Harris, B. M. Org. Birmingham Mifs Harris Andrews Harrifon, Efq. ■ Harrifon, Efq. Mr. Harrifon, Whitburn G. Hartley, Efq. Signor Adolpho Ha fie Edward Hatton, Efq, Cambridge Martin Bladon Hawke, Efq. Mrs. Hawkefworth, 2 Copies Sir John Hawkins, Knight Rev. Mr. John Hawtrey Right Worfhipful Sir Geo. Hay, LL. D. Dr. Wm. Hayes, Muf. Prof. Oxford J. Hayes, Efq. Philip Hayes, B. M. Richard Haynes, Efq. Mr. Francis Hayward, Hackney William Heath, Efq. Mr. Henley Mrs. Henley, Docking, Norfolk George Herbert, Efq. 2 Copies William Hervey, Efq. Mr. Hiller, Mufic Direaor, Leipfic Mr. Hilligas Hoare, Efq. Bath William Hodfon, M. A. Peter Holford, Efq. Mailer in Chancery, Stainer Holford, Efq. Mifs Hollingfworth Walter Holt, Efq. James Hommerton, Efq. Francis Hopkinfon, Efq. Rev. Thomas Hornfby, Savil. Prof, of: Aftronomy Rev Mr. Holken, Cambridge Henry Howorth, Efq. Temple Mr. Hudfon Mifs Hudfon Sir Abraham Hume, Bart; Dr. William Hunter Mifs Kurlock Francis Hutchefon, M. D. Dublin Mr. Hutton J- Richard Jackfon, Efq. Norfolk William Jackfon, Efq. c. Mi&. U B R I B R S. Mr. Jackfon, of Exeter Mr. Jackfon, Organift, Newark Mifs Jackfon Dr. Jebb The late Signor Jomelli, Naples Soame Jennings, Efq. Mr. Jennings, Chippenham Sir William Jerningham, Bart. Mr. Jeffer John Ince, Efq. Chefter Mifs Incledon H. Inglis, Efq. Hugh Inglis, Efq. Dr. Samuel Johnfon Alexander Johnfon, Efq. Thomas Gregory Johnfton, Efq. Mrs. J. Joye Colonel Ironfide James Irwin, Efq. Mrs. Jubb K. Right Hon. Earl of Kelly Rev. Dr. Kaye, Subalmoner, and Reftor of Kirkby, Nottinghamfhire Mr. Keeble Benjamin Keene, Efq. The late Mrs. Sufan Keene, Lynn bir Robert Murray Keith, K. B. Envoy extra, and Plenipo. at Vienna Thomas Kelfal, Efq. 2 Copies David Kenedy, Efq. David Killican, Efq. Rev. Dr. John Glen King .„ t^. , "1 Hnrpfichord Mr. Kirkman ■** K . . A , , lr - , > Makers to Mr. Abraham Kirkman , t\t • a J her Majefty Mr. Jacob Kirkman Captain R.obert Kyd Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Ludlow Hon. and Right Rev. Lord Bifhop of Landaff Right Hon. Lady Dowr.ger Lyttelton Count Lacy, Major-general in the Ser- vice of his Catholic Majefty, and his Plenipo. at the Court of St. Peterfburg Hon. Baptift Lewfon A Lady Sir James Lake, Bart. Jofeph Lane, Efq. Wolverhampton Mr. Lander Mr. Langdon, Muf. B. Exeter Mr. John Lanfhaw, Organift, L an carter Mr. Launder, Organift, Maidftone James- Lawrell, Efq. Member of Council, Calcutta, 2 Copies James Lawrence, Efq. John Martin Leake, Efq. Rev. Mr. Lee Rev. Mr. Leech, Saxlingham, Norfolk Rev. Mr. Leigh, Arch-deacon of Salop Charlton Leighton, Efq. Shropfhire Mr. Levick William Lewis, Efq. Mathew Lewis, Efq. John Lewis, Efq. Mrs. Lewis Mifs Lewis Library of King's College, Cambridge Mifs Lidderdale, Lynn Colonel Lillyman, 2 Copies Charles Lindegreen, Efq. Mr. Linley, Bath Literary Society, Lynn Regis Thomas Llewelyn, LL. D. Mr. Lloyd, Lynn Mifs Lloyd, Montgomeryfhire William Lock, Efq. Beefton Long, Efq, Charles Long, Efq. Dudley Long, Efq. Samuel Long, Efq. William Long, Efq. Rev Mr Longe John Longley, Efq. Andrew Lumifden, Efq. R.ev. Mr. Lydiatt Robert Lynch, M. D. Mifs Lynch M. His Grace the Duke of Manchefter His Grace the Duke of Montagu Right Hon. Earl of March Right Hon. Lord Montfort Right Hon. the late Lord Mulgrave, 2 Copies Right Hon. Lord Mulgrave Robert U B I B Right Hon. Lord Melburne Right Hon. Lady Melburne The late Hon. Will. Auguftus Montagu George Mackay, Efq. Member of Coun- cil at Madras John Rofs Mackey, Efq. Mr. Alexander Mackintofh James Mainftone, Eiq. Mrs. Maling Manchefter Mufical Society Signor Mancini, Maeftro Imperiale, Vienna Sir Henry Manwaring, Bart. Mrs. Mapletoft Mr. James Marlow, Hull M. Marpurg, Berlin H. B. Martin, Efq. 2 Copies John Martin, Efq. Jofeph Martin, Efq. James Martin, Efq. Padre Martini, Bologna Robert Mafham, Efq. Rev. Mr Mafon Mr. Mathews, Oxford James Mathias, Efq. Mrs. Mayne Benjamin Mee, Efq. Charles Mellifli, Efq.- Mr. Meredith Abate Metaftafio Sam. Middleton, Efq. Prefident of the Council of Committee, Calcutta, 2 Copies Charles Middleton, Efq. William Middleton, Efq. Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart. B-alph Milbanke, Efq. Mr. Miller, Organift, Doncafter Mr. Miller, Bungay, Norfolk Jeremiah Milles, Efq. Mr. Benjamin Millgrove, Bath Signor Millico Mr. Milner Signora Mingotti Thomas Mitton, Efq. Shipton, Salop Crifpe Molyneux, Efq. Mrs. Montague Rev. Dr. Ihomas Moore Rev. Mr. Morgan, Braintree, \ v ~. Rev. Mr. Morgan, Chelmsford j " iex Mr. James Morris Charles Morfe, Efq. Chichefter Dr. Charles Morton, one of the Libra- rians at the Britifh Mufeum, and Keeper of the MSS. and Medals Mr. John Mully, Noiwich Jof. Mufgrave, Efq; N. Rev. Mr. Natt Frederick Nicolay, Efq. Dr. Norford, St. Edmondfbury Thomas Norris, Bac Muf. Oxford! Rev. Dr. North Nottingham New Mufical Society O. His Highnefs Prince Orloff Right Hon. Earl of Orford, 2 Copies Rev. Dr. Ogle, Dean of Winchefler Dr. Okes, Lynn Mrs. Ord Mr. Orme, Chefler Mr. Thomas Orpin, Bath John Ofborne, Efq. Envoy extra, to the Elector of Saxony John Owen, Efq. Montgomeryfhire P, Plight Hon. Countefs of Percy Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Palmerfton Plight Hon. Lord Paget Hon. John Penn Chriftopher Packe, M. B. Canterbury R.ev. Mr. George Jones Palmer Rev. Jof. Palmer, M. A. Mrs. Palmer Mr. Park John Parker, Efq. Rev. Mr. Parkin, Penzance Edward Parry, Efq. Mrs. Parry Robert Parfons, Efq. Henry Partridge, Efq. Lynn Henry Partridge, junior, Efq. Mr. John Partridge Rev. Mr. Partridge, Cranworth, Norfolk William Patterfon, Efq. Madras Thomas Pattle, Efq. Sir Ralph Payne, K. B. c 2 Chriftopher U B I B R S, Sir James Peachy, Cart. Rev. Mr. Peele, Norwich Mr. John Peele Charles Pelham, Efq. Thomas Pennant, Efq. Thomas Pennant, Efq. Downing, Flint- fliire Rev. Mr. Penneck, B. D. Lady Penny man Rev Mr. Penton, Bath Rev, Mr. Pepperill, Cambridge William Periii, Efq. George Peters, Efq. Mifs Peterfon Rev. Mr. Charles Phelps, Lynn John Phillimer, Efq. 2 Copies Colonel Phillips Colonel Phillipfon Conftantine Phipps, Efq. Exeter Signor Piccini, Naples Rev. Mr. Pickering Colonel Pierce, 2 Copies Sir Lionel Pilkington, Bait. Pilkington, Efq. Mr. Pilkinton Rev. Mr. Pindar, M. A. Edmond Pitts, Efq. Rev. Mr. Pixel, Warwickfhire Charles Stafford Playdell, Efq. Mrs. Playdell Edward Poore, Efq. Pottenger, Efq. Rev. Mr. Prefton Uvedale Price, Efq. Captain Price Jofeph Price, Efq. Mr. Daniel Prince, Bookfeller, Oxford Public Library, at Chefler Mrs. Pulteney His Grace the Duke of Queenfbury R. Right Rev. Lord Bifhop of Rochefter Plight Hon. Lord Ravenfworth Right Hon. Lady Ravenfworth Mr. Racket, junior Dr. Randall, Prof, of MufiCj Cambridge Mr. William Randall Henry Raper, Efq. Mathew Raper, Efq. Mrs. K. Raper • Rawlinfon, Efq. Rceveley, Efq. Sir Jofhua Reynolds, Knt. William Richardfon, Efq. Henry Rickets, Efq. Martin Folks Rifhton, Efq. 10 Copies Mrs. Rifhton, 10 Copies Mr. Roberts The late Walter R.obertfon, Efq. Lynn Mr. G. Piobinfon, Paternofter-Row, 6 Copies Mifs Robinfon Mr. Pvobfon, Bookfeller, Bond-ftreet, 5© Copies Nelme Rogers, Efq. 2 Copies Thomas Piokeby, Efq. William Rooke, Efq. 2 Copies Mr. John Rooke Mr. Francis Room, Derby John Piofs, Efq. Mr. Rotheram, of Houghton C. W. Boughton R.ous, Efq. 2 Copies M. Jean Jacques Rouffeau The Abbe Rouffier C. Roy, Efq. Dr. Ruffel George Ruffel, Efq. 2 Copies Francis Ruffel, Efq. Claude Ruffel, Efq. John Ryan, Efq. Henry Ryan, Efq. John Ryland, Efq. Thomas Ryves, Efq. Banfton, Dorfet- fhire S. Prince Sapieha, of Poland Right Hon. Earl of Sandwich, 5 Copies Right Hon. Earl of Scarborough Right Hon. Earl of Stair Right Hon. Earl of Seaforth His Excellency Lord Vifcount Stormont, Ambaffador extra, at the Court of Verfailles, 2 Copies Right Hon. Lord Sandys Right Hon. Lady Fanny Strangeways Right Hon. Sir Thomas SewelJ, Matter of the Rolls John U B R I B R Hon. Charles Stuart, 2 Copies Mr. Peter Saizor, Organift, Okover Mr. de Saigas William Salkeld, M. A. Edward Satterthwaite, Efq. William Savage, Efq. one of the Gen- tlemen of his Majefty's Chapel Rev. Mr. Scot, Re&or of Meathley, Yorkfhire Mrs. Scott Mifs Seaman Sir Charles Sedley, Bart. Mrs. Senior M. Serre of Geneva William Seward, Efq. Lincoln's Inn Richard Sewell, Efq. Robert Shafto, Efq. Dr. Sharpin, Lynn Rev. Dr. Shepherd, Plumiar Profeflbr, Chrift Col. Cambridge James Simpfon, Efq. Mr. Redmond Simpfon Mifs Frances Simpfon Mifs Sleech Mr. Richard Sly, Organift of Lynn Dr. Small brook, Salop Leonard Smelt, Efq. John Smerdon, Efq. Afhburton, Devon. Sir John Smith, Bart. Dorfetfhire Lorraine Smith, Efq. J. B. Smith, Efq. William Smith, Efq. Bofton, Lincoln- fhire John Smithyman, Efq. Salop Sir Robert Smyth, Bart. Dr. Mark Smyth, Norfolk Mr. Snetzler, Organ Builder Sneyd. Efq. Staffbrdfhire Samuel Solly, Efq. Thomas Somerfby, Efq. Lynn John South, Efq. Hampfhire Mifs Spearman Rev. Mr. Spelman Hugh Speed, Efq. Chefter Mifs Speed John Stanley, Bac. Muf. Jofhua Steele, Efq. George Steevens, Efq. Mrs. Stephens Ed. Stephenfon, Efq. 2 Copies Stalman, Efq. Oxford Mr. Sternling, Colchefter Mr. Stevens, Cambridge Mrs. Stinton Rev. Mr. Stone, Chipping Norton, Ox- fordfhire Rev. Dr. Stonehoufe Mifs Storer Mr. Stiange Edmund Strudwicke, Efq, John Stuart, Efq. Secretary to the Coun- cil, Calcutta, 2 Copies Andrew Stuart, Efq. Nicholas Styleman, Efq. Norfolk Mrs. Spilman Swaine John Swale, Efq. Mrs. Swinburne Chriftopher Sykes, Efq. Mr. Sykes, Hackney Plight Hon. Countefs of Tyrconnel Right Hon. Lord Vifcount Townfhend Right Hon. Lady Vifcountefs Townfhend Hon. Mr. Thynne Talbot, Efq. Oxford R.ev. Mr. Tapps, Norwich The Abate Tarruffi, Vienna Rev. Mr. Tafwell, Hereford Benjamin Tate, Efq. Captain Tate Richard Tayler, Efq. Edward Tayler, Efq. Piev, Dr. Taylour Mr. Tewkefbury, Somerfetfhire Rev. Mr. Thorn, Norfolk Captain Alex. Thomfon Henry Thrale, Efq. James Tobin, Efq. Salifbury Mr. Towne Rev. Mr. Travis, Royfton, near Man- chefter Tredway, Efq. Sir John Trevellyan, Bart. Mifs Trevellyan Pelegrine Treves, Efq. Sir John Turner, Bart. Charles Turner, Efq. Rev. Mr. Twining, Fordham, EfTex Mr. R. Twining Benjamin U B Pi I B E R Richard Twifs, Efq. Thomas Tyers, Efq. Thomas Tyrwhitt, Efq. John Tyton, Efq. V. Rodolph Valltravers, Efq. Agent and Conful to the Embaffy from the Courts of Manheim and Munich Lieutenant William Vanas Gerard William Vanneck, Efq. Benjamin Vaughan, Efq. Mr. John Vaughan Signor Vento Norborne Vincent, Efq. Edward Vincent, Efq. Robert Vincent, Efq. Mifs Vincent Mifs S. Vincent Lewis de Vifme, M. A. Envoy Extraor- dinary to the Court of Sweden Gerard de Vifme, Efq. William de Vifme, Efq. Mr. de Vries Rev. Dr. Vyfe W Right Hon. Earl of Weftmeath Right Hon. Lord Walpole Hon. Horatio Walpole, Strawberry Hill Hon. Captain Walfingham William Wadfworth, Efq. Mr. Richard Wafer John Walcot, Efq. Mr. R. Wainfwrigbt, Manchefter William Waller, Efq. Liverpool Mr. Walond, Oxford Walter, Efq. Rev. Mr. Warren, Jamaica Mr. Edward Warren, Secretary to the Catch Club Rev. Dr. Jof. Warton Rev. Mr. Watfon, Lancafter George Wegg, Efq. Cokhefter Samuel Wegg, Efq. Treafurer to the R. S. Colonel Weiraucb, of Saxony The late Mr. Peter Wekker Mr. John Wekker Mifs F. Wekker John Wells, Efq. Colonel Temple Weft Rev. Mr. Weftley Mr. Charles Weftley Samuel Wheeley, Efq. Cokhefter Robert White, M. D. Harkfton, Norfolk James White, Efq. Mr. White, Exeter Mr. Samuel Whitefield Mr. T. Whitehead, Briftol Sir Charles Whitworth Charles Wildbore, Efq. Colonel Wilding, 2 Copie3 Samuel Wild man, Efq. Jacob Wilkinfon, Efq. Mr. Wilkinfon of Stockton John Willes, Efq. Ralph Willet, Efq. Andrew Williams, Efq. 2 Copies Sir Eardky Wilmot, Bart. Edward Windfor, Efq. Salop Mr Sam. Wife, Organift, Nottingham. Sir Armine Wodehoufe, Bart. John Wodehoufe, Efq. Rev. Mr. Wodehoufe Rev. Mr. Woide George Wombwell, Efq. W. Clarke Woodbine, Efq. Swaffham s . Norfolk Mifs Woodcocke, Chefter Michael Woodhall, Efq. Dr. John Worgan Mifs Worrell Jonathan Worrel, Efq. Ipfwich Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Ba'rt. Dr. Wynne, Do£tors Commons Edward Wynne, Efq. Temple, 2 Copies Mrs. Wynne Mr. John Wynne, . Cambridge Y. Mrs. Yates Mifs Yeats Arthur Young, Efq. Mifs D. Young, Norfolk. Sir William Younge, Bart. Younge, Efq. CONTENTS of the DISSERTATION. SECT. I. Of the Notation or T~ablature of ancient Mufic, including its Scales, Intervals, Syjiems, and Dia- grams. Page 6. II. Of the three Genera, Diatonic, Chromatic, and Enharmonic. P. 29. III. Of the Modes. P. 47. IV. Of Mutations. P. 61. V. Of Melopoeia. P. 65. VI. Of Rhythm. P. 71. VII. Of the Practice of Melopoeia, with Examples, P. 86. VIII. Whether the Ancients had Counterpoint, or Mufic in Parts ? P. 1 12. IX. O/Dramatic Music, P. 152. X. Of the Effects attributed to the Mufic of the Ancients, P. 173. CONTENTS of the HISTORY, beginning P. 195. Of Egyptian Mufc, P. 198. Of Hebrew Mufic, P. 217. Of Greek Mufic. CHAP. I. Of Mufc in Greece during the Re/idence of Pagan Divinities of the firft Order upon Earth, P. 253. II. Of CONTENTS. CHAP. II. Of the Terrefrial, or Demi-Gods, P. 301. III. Concerning the Mufic of Heroes and Heroic 'Times, P. 311. IV. Of the Mufic of Greece from the time of Homer, till that Country was fubdued by the Romans, in- cluding the Mufical Contefts at the Public Games, P. 357. Olympic, 370. Pythic, 380. Ne- mean, 403. Isthmian, 412. PanathenjEAN Games, 414. V. Of ancient Musical Sects, and theories of Sounds P- 439. VI. Of the Scolia, or Songs, of the a?icient Greeks, P. 464. Of the Mufic of the Romans, P. 473. Additional Notes. P. 497.- Refections upon the Confiruclion and Ufe of fame parti- cular Mufical Injlruments of Antiquity, P. 508* A Lift and Defer iption of the Plates, P. 517. DISSERTATION ON THE MUSI OF THE ANCIENTS. IT is with great, and almoft hopelefs diffidence, that I enter upon this part of my work ; as I can hardly animate my- felf with the expectation of fucceeding in enquiries which have foiled the moft learned men of the two or three laft cen- turies. It has been remarked by Tartini, in fpeaking of an- cient mufic, that doubt, difficulty, and obfcurity, fhould not be all imputed to the author, but to the fubjecT:, fince they are in its very effence : for what, befides conjedture, is now left us, concerning things fo tranfient as found, and fo eva- nefcent as tafte ? The land of conjecture, however, is fo extenfive and unap~ propriated, that every new cultivator has a right to break up frefh ground, or to feize upon any fpot that has long lain fal- low, without the fanction of a grant from any one who may arrogate to himfelf the fovereignty of the whole, or of any neglected part of it. But though no one has an exclufive right to thefe imaginary regions, yet the public has a juft power of cenfuring the methods of improvement adopted by any new Vol. I. B inhabit- 2 DISSERTATION ON THE inhabitant, and of condemning fuch produdions as may be deemed unfit for ufe. The opinions of mankind feldom agree, concerning the moft common and obvious things ; and confequently will be ftill lefs likely to coincide about others, that are reducible to no ftandard of truth or excellence, but are fubjed to the law- lefs controul of every individual who fhall think fit to con- demn them, either with, or without underftanding them. Dr. Johnfon has well faid, that " thofe who think they have " done much, fee but little to do ;" and with refped to an- cient mufic, I believe thofe who have taken the greateft pains to invefligate the fubjed, are the leaft fatisfied with the fuccefs of their labours. The whole is now become a matter of faith ; but it is difficult to believe implicitly every pompous defcription given us by the ancients of the powers of their mufic, while we fee their in-- ftruments, as reprefented in fculpture, fo fimple, and, feem- ingly, incapable of producing great effects. Read their theorifls, and even the pradical mufician Ari- ftoxenus, and what do we learn, but that the ears of the Greeks were very delicate as to intonation, and the divifions of their fcales ; but among all that author's fpeculations, we can find no. traces of melody, or harmony, fuch as we under- ftand by air accompanied with different parts. What the ancient mufic really was, it is not now eafy to de- termine ; but of this we are certain, that it was fomething with which mankind was extremely delighted : for not only the poets, but the hiftorians and philofophers of the beft ages of Greece and Rome, are as diffufe in its praifes, as of thofe arts concerning which fufficient remains are come down to us, to evince the truth of their panegyrics. And fo great was the fenfibility of the ancient Greeks, and fo foft and refined their language, that they feem to have been, in both refpeds, to the reft of the world, what the modern Italians are at prefent. For MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 3 for of thefe laft, the language itfelf is mufic, and their ears are fo polifhed and accuftomed to fweet founds, that they are rendered faftidious judges of melody, both by habit and edu- cation. But as to the fuperiour or inferiour degree of excellence in the ancient mufic, compared with the modern, it is now as impoffible to determine, as it is to hear bothjides. Indeed it is fo entirely loft, that the ftudy of it is as un- profitable as learning a dead language, in which there are no books ; and yet this ftudy has given rife to fo much pedantry, and to fuch an ambition in modern mufical authors, to be thought well verfed in the writings of the ancients upon mufic, that their treatifes are rendered both difgufting and unintelli- gible by it. Words only are come down to us without tilings. We have fo few remains of ancient mufic by which to illuf- trate its rules, that we cannot, as in painting, poetry, fculp- ture, or architecture, judge of it, or profit by examples ; and to feveral of thefe terms which are crammed into our books, we are utterly unable to affix any precife or ufeful meaning. To write, therefore, in favour of ancient mufic now, is like the emperor Julian's defending paganifm, when mankind had given it up as indefeniible, and had attached themfelves to an- other religion. However, it is, perhaps, a fortunate circumftance for mo- dern mufic that the ancient is loft, as it might not have fuited the genius of our language, and might have tied us down to precedent ; as the writers of modern Latin never dare hazard a fingle thought or expreffion without claffical authority. The fubject itfelf of ancient mufic is fo dark, and writers concerning it are fo difcordant in their opinions, that I fhould have been glad to have waved all difcuffion about it. For to fay the truth, the ftudy of ancient mufic is now become the bufinefs of an antiquary more than of a mufician. But in B 2 every 4 DISSERTATION ON THE every hiftory of mufic extant, in other languages, the practice had been fo conftant for the author to make a difplay of what he knew, and what he did not know concerning ancient mu- fic, that it feemed abfolutely neceffary for me to fay fome- thing about it, if it were only to prove, that if I have not been more fuccefsful in my enquiries than my predeceffors, I have not been lefs diligent. And it appeared likewife neceffary, be- fore I attempted a hiftory of ancient Greek mufic, to endea- vour to inveftigate its properties, or at leaft to tell the little I knew of it, and ingenuoufly to confefs my ignorance and doubts about the reft. Indeed it was once my intention to begin my hiftory with the invention of the prefent mujical fcale and counterpoint ; for " What can we reafon, but from what we know ?" But it was impoflible to read a great number of books upon the fubjecl, without meeting with conjectures, and it was not eafy to perufe thefe, without forming others of my own. If thofe which I have hazarded ihould throw any light upon the fubjec~t, it will enable my readers to travel through the dark maze of in- quiry with more facility, and confequently lefs difguft ; and if I fail in my refearches, and leave both the fubject and them, where I found them, as the expectation which I encou- rage is but fmall, fo it is hoped will be their difappointment. For with refpect to all I have to fay, I muft confefs that the Spanifh motto adopted by Francis le Vayer, is. wholly appli^. cable. De las cofas mas Jeguras Le mas fegura es dudar (a).. In wading through innumerable volumes, with promifing titles, and fubmitting to the drudgery of all fuch reading as naas never read, I frequently found that thofe who were moft («) The moft certain of . certain things, is doubtful. diffuie. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 5 diffufe upon the fubject, knew leaft of the matter ; and that technical jargon, and unintelligible pedantry fo loaded each page, that not an eligible thought could be found, in exploring thoufands of them. Indeed my refearches were fometimes fo unfuccefsful, that I feemed to refemble a wretch in the flreet, raking the kennels for an old rufty nail. However, the ar- dour of enquiry was now and then revived by congenial ideas, and by gleams of light emitted from penetration and intelligence ; and thefe will be gratefully acknowledged, when- ever they afford amftance, SEC- DISSERTATION ON THE SECTION I. Of the Notation or Tablature of Ancient Mufic, including its Scales, Intervals, Syjiems, and Diagrams. THE mufic of the ancients, according to Euclid, Aly- pius, and Martianus Capella, was divided into feven conftituent parts : thefe were founds, intervals, fyftems, genera, modes, mutations, and melopceia, or the compolition of melody. To thefe divisions, which only comprehended the mere mechanifm of the art, theorifts added five other requi- fites, no lefs effential for a mufician to know, than the preceding feven : and thefe were, rhythm, or the regulation of cadences in all kinds of movement ; metre, or the meafure of verfes ; organic, or instrumental ; hypocritic, or gefture ; and poetic, or the rehearfal of verfes. In order to communicate to my readers all the information I am ahle, upon fo dark and difficult a fubject, I fhall confider the mufic of the ancient Greeks under fuch heads only as abfolutely concern mufic, according to our acceptation of the word ; for it is plain that feveral of its an- cient divifions more immediately belonged to poetry. Indeed thefe two arts were at firfl fo intimately connected, and fo de- pendant on each other, that rules for poetry were, in general, rules for mufic ; and the properties and effects of both were fo much confounded together, that it is extremely difficult to difentangle them. Leaving therefore, for the prefent, all other diflinctions, divifions, and fubdivifions, with which ancient mufical treatifes abound, I fhall proceed to fulfil the title of this fec- tion. In the ftudy of modern mufic, the firfl objects of enquiry are the names by which the feveral founds in the fcale are ex- preffed ; MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 7 prefTed ; and, if we regard mufic as a language, the fcale or gammut may be called its alphabet. Plutarch fays, that it is not fufficient for a mufician to know what kind of mufic fhould be fet to any particular poem ; he fhould likewife know how to write it down in all the ge- nera (^>), that is to fay, in the diatonic or natural fcale, confift- ing of tones and femitones, as at prefent ; in the chromatic-, in which the fcale was divided into femitones, and minor thirds ; and in the enharmonic genus, moving by quarter tones, and major thirds, as will be explained hereafter. It does not appear from hiftory, that the Egyptians, Phoe- nicians, Hebrews, or any ancient people, who cultivated the arts, except the Greeks and Romans, had mufical characters ; and thefe had no other fymbols of found than the letters of their alphabet, which likewife ferved them for arithmetical numbers, and chronological dates. As the notation of the Greeks was imagined in the infancy of the art of mufic, when the flute had but few holes, and the lyre but few firings, the fimplicity of exprefling the octave of any found by the fame fign, as in modern mufic, was not thought of ; the molt, ancient and conftant boundary of mu- fical tones having been the Diatejfercn, or fourth, the extremes of which interval were fixed, though the intermediate founds were mutable : and in the manner of tuning thefe confifted the difference of intervals in the feveral genera (c). The Greek fcale, in the time of Ariftoxenus, the oldeft writer upon mufic, whofe works are come down to us (d), ex- tended to two octaves, and was called Eyftema perfeclum, maxi- mum, immutatum ; the great, the perfect, the immutable fyf- tem ; becaufe its extremities formed a perfect confonance, in- cluding all the fimple, double, direct, and inverted concords, (b) DeMufica. (<■) See Seft. II. (d) He flourifhed three hundred and forty years before Chrift. with 8 DISSERTATION ON THE with all the particular fyftems ; and it was the opinion of the ancients that this difdiapafon, or double octave, was the greateft interval which could be received in melody. This whole fyftem was compofed of five tetrachords^ or dif- ferent feries of four founds, and one note added at the bottom of the fcale to complete the double octave ; whence the firing which produced this found was called •zzr£>o©o, Prqfi- lambanomenos, or note fubjoined to the fcale ; for though this was conftantlv the loweft found in all the modes, it was not included in the tetrachords (e). All thefe founds had different denominations in the fyftem, like our Gammut, A re, B mr\ Cfa ut, &c. befides two dif- ferent characters, one vocal, and the other inftrumental, ap- propriated to each found in the feveral modes and genera, for the purpofe of writing down melodies. That the fourth was a favourite and important interval in the mufic of the ancients, is plain from the great fyftem of two octaves having been compofed of five of thefe tetrachords, in the fame manner as the fcale of Guido is of different hexachords. The firft tetrachord is called by the Greek muficians Hypa- ton, or principal ; the founds of which are denominated : 1. Hypate hypaton, principal of principals ; 2. Parypate hypaton., next the principal ; 3. Lichanos hypaton, or index of principals; from its hav- ing been played with the index or fore-finger. This third found of the firft tetrachord in the Diatonic genus, was like- wife called Hypaton Diatonos. 4. Hypate tnefon, or principal of the middle or mean tetra- chord ; for this found not only ferved as the laft or higheft note of the firft tetrachord, but as the firft or loweft of the fecond j whence thefe two tetrachords were called conjoint, or con- (= 35: The founds of the Mefon, or middle tetrachord, were placed ■in the following order : Hypate Mefon, or principal of the mean tetrachord ; Parypate Mefon, next to the middle principal ; Lichanos Mefon ; Mefe, or middle, as this found completes the fecond tetra- chord, and is the center of the whole fyftem. The founds of this tetrachord correfpond with thofe which in the bafe of the fcale of Guido, are called E la mi, F fa ut, G fol re ut, and A la mi re, which are equivalent to j '' g — J 1 ! The Mefe in ancient mufic was of equal importance with the key note in modern mufic : being an ocfave above the Prof am- banomenos, which was the loweft found of the ancient modes, and a kind of key note to them all. Euclid calls Mefe the found by which all other founds are regulated. And Ariflotle, in his XXXVIth problem, feci. 19, afks why all the tones of a fcale are accommodated, or tuned, to the Mefe f The fame author likewife tells us, problem XX, that all melody, whether it moves above or below the Mefe, has a natural tendency to that found. The third tetrachord, beginning by the laft note of the fe- cond, was thence called Synemmenon, the united, or conjunB tetrachord ; the founds of which proceed in the following order: Mefe ; 'Trite Synemmenon, or third firing of this tetrachord from the top; Paranete Synemmenon, penultima of this tetrachord ; . Vol. I. C Nete io DISSERTATION ON THE Nete Synemmenon, laft of the Synemmenon tetrachord ; the four founds of which correfpond with thofe in the center of our gammut, that are called A la mi re, B fa, C fol fa ut. and b« -e-.-a - ■ J D la fol re, or Eg ~ — EEH (/). The fourth tetrachord, afcending, is called Diezeugmenon^ disjunct, or feparated, as it begins at B natural, which is not a note in common with any one in the other tetrachords. But though this fyftem of four founds is only an octave higher than that of the firft tetrachord, and though the next is but a re- plicate of the fecond, I mail prefent them to the reader, as the feveral founds of which they are compofed have in the Greek mufic different denominations. The loweft found of the fecond octave, or feries of eight founds in the ancient great fyftem, and the firft of the fourth tetrachord, begins with the note Paramefe, near the Mefe, or middle found ; the next is called Trite Diezeugmenon, or third ftring of this tetrachord from the top : then follows the Paranete Diezeugmenon ; and laftly, the- (f) After afcending regularly thus far, afcending fix notes regularly in the durum up to D, by three conjoint tetrachords, the bexachord, it is neceflary to defcend a ma- fourth tetrachord in the great fyftem is be- jor third, if we would begin the natural gun by d.jcendivg a minor third to B na- hixachord ; and when the natural hexa- - tural, the oftave above the firft found of chord is completed, if we would begin at the loweft tetrachord. Something of this the Mol/r, it can only be done by a leap of. dodging kind is to be found in the fcale of a third below. This will belt appear by Guido, divided into hexachords : for, after an example in notes : Durum Hexachord Natural Hexachord Mclle H xachord ■ N •■ V H 1 — - — -~ " ^ e ~g~ e — &3s: on „-g ro ^ -n-o-g — .b -e-s- :ez©: -s-Q- Ut re mi fa fol la. Ut re mi fa fol la. Ut re mi fa fol la. It appears from the Greek tetrachords, mitted the Jharp finjenth of a key into their: as well as from this example, that neither fcales. the ancients nor the early moderns ad- Nete MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 1 1 Nete Diezeagmenon, or final found of this tetrachord, which includes the founds B /»/, Cfolfa nt, D lafol re, and E la mi, in the middle of the Guido fcale, or b-e. ° The laft found of the fourth tetrachord is the firft of the fifth, which is called the Hyperbolceon, or fupreme tetrachord ; the founds of which afcend in the following order : Nete Diezengmenon-, laft of the diezeugmenon tetrachord ; Trite Hyperbolaon, third firing of the hyperbokcon tetra- chord ; Paranete Hyperbolceon, penultima of the fupreme tetrachord ; Nete Hyperbolceon, laft of the fupreme, or higheft tetrachord, and of the great fyftem, or diagram. This laft tetrachord being added to the fcale long after its firft formation, was called Hyperbolceon, from its founds being more acute than the reft, and beyond the common bounds of the fcale ; in the fame manner as, with us, the notes above D in the treble are faid to be in alt. This tetrachord includes the founds E la mi, E fa ut, G fol re ut, and A la mi re, or IQI The ancients ufed likewife four different monofyllables end- ing with different vowels, by way of folrnifation, for the ex- ercife of the voice in fmging ; like our mi, fa, fol, la. Thefe were, for the firft note of each tetrachord, ra, for the fecond tij, for the third tu, and for the fourth, if it did not ferve as the firft of the adjoining and relative tetrachord, re ; but if it began a new tetrachord, it was called by the firft name, t«. The repetition of thefe monofyllables is a further proof that the. fourth in the ancient mufic ferved as a boundary to a fyf- tem of four founds, in the fame manner as a hexachord did in the Guido fcale, and as an octave does for eight founds in the more modern pra&ice, C 2 Any 12 DISSERTATION ON THE Any interval between the terms of which one or more founds intervened, was by the ancients called a Sy/iem : EG, for ex- ample, constituted a fyftem of a third minor ; EA, of a fourth ; EB, of a fifth, &c. Thefe fmaller fyftems were of different fpecies ; thus there were three kinds of tetrachord, that differed in melody by the pofition of the femitone, which was fometimes at the begin- ning, fometimes at the end, and fometimes in the middle : as in the following example, where the black notes are femitones,, and the white, tones. ^y^zecgrqnzar^- 1 ^=si As the Greeks ufed all the four and twenty letters of their alphabet for mufical characters, or fymbols of found ; and as their moll extenfive fyftem or fcale did not exceed two ocfaves, or fixteen founds, it mould feem as if their fimple alphabet was more than fufficient to exprefs them ; for their mufic be- ing only a notation of their poetry, the rhythm, or air, muft have been determined by the metre of the verfes, without the afliftance of figns of proportion peculiar to mufic. But fup- pofing it was neceffary for them to have different characters to exprefs the different feet of the verfe, it is certain that vocal mufic was in no want of them ; and inftrumental being no-? thing more than vocal mufic played by inftruments, had like- wife no need of them, when the words were written, or the player knew them by heart. However, in order to multiply thefe characters, the letters of their alphabet were fometimes written in capitals, and fome- times fmall ; fome were entire, fome mutilated, fome doubled, and fome lengthened ; and betides thefe diftinctions in the form of the letters, they had others of fituation, fometimes turning them to the right, fometimes to the left ; fometimes inverting,. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 13 inverting, and fometimes placing them horizontally ; for in- ftance, the letter Gamma, by thefe expedients, ferved to ex- prefs feven different founds : V L 1 p Sj il fc. . Some of the letters were alfo barred, or accented, in order to change their fymbolical import ; and thefe ftill not fufficing, they made the common grave and acute accents ferve as fpecific mufical notes. It is a matter that has been long difputed among the learned, whether accents were originally mufical characters, or marks of profody. It is in vain to fet about determining a queftion concerning which the proofs on both fides are fo numerous (g). But as mufic had characters different from accents fo early as the time of Terpander, to whom the invention is given by the Oxford marbles, which place this event about fix hun- dred and feventy years before Chrift ; and as accents for pro- fody are likewife proved to be of high antiquity, it feems as if there could have been no necemty for the ancients to ufe one for the other. But it has already been remarked that the letters of the al- phabet, though turned, diftorted, and mutilated, fo many dif- ferent ways, were infufficient to exprefs the founds of all the modes in the three genera ; fo that recourfe was had to ac- cents, as the fcale became more extended, in order to aug- ment the number of characters. And Alypius, in the enume- ration of the notes in the enharmonic genus, tells us, that Trite Synemmenon is reprefented by Beta and the acute accent ; (i) See Gaily and Spelman again/! etc- without fufficient proof, that as poets ori- centi, and Primatt and Forfter in defence ginally fet their own verfes, they placed of them. Mr. Weft is firmly of opinion for this purpofe a figure, or accent, over " that accents were originally mufical notes, each fyllable. So that, according to this fet oyer words to direft the feveral tones writer, we are at prefent, not only in pof- and inflexions of the voice, requifite to feflion of the poetry of Homer, Pindar, give the whole fentence its proper harmo- Anacreon, and Sappho, but their mufic. ny and cadence." Pind. vol. ii. And the — Why then do we complain of the total abbe du Bos, who frequently by a pe- lofs of Greek mufic? See Reflex. Cri-- remptory decifion cuts the knot of fuch tique, c. iii. p. 8 r. difficulties as he is unable to untie, aflerts, and j 4 DISSERTATION ON THE and Paranete Synemnicnon enarmonios by Alpha, and the grave accent (h)- This is a proof that the accents were known at the time of Alypius, and were then ufed chiefly for profody, not mufic, for which they were only called in occafionally. Indeed they are mentioned as accentual marks by writers of much higher antiquity than Alypius ; for not only Cicero and Plutarch, but Ariftotle and Plato, fpeak of them as merely regarding the elevation and depreffion of the voice in fpeech. However, in the early Greek and Roman miffals, as will be fhewn here- after, the mufical characters ufed in Canto Fermo, feem to have been only lengthened accents. Thefe various modifications of letters and accents in the Greek notation compofed in all one hundred and twenty dif- ferent characters, which were ftill confiderably multiplied in practice ; for each of thefe characters ferving many purpofes in the vocal as well as inftrumental tablature or gammut, and being changed and varied according to the different modes and genera, as the names of our modes are changed by different clefs and keys, the one hundred and twenty Greek charac- ters produced one thoufand fix hundred and twenty notes ! (z) Two rows of thefe characters were ufuaily placed over the words of a lyric poem ; the upper row ferving for the voice, and the lower for inftruments. If we had not the teftimony of all the Greek writers who have mentioned thefe characters, for their ufe and deftination, it would be natural to fuppofe that the double row of different (b) Euro. xa.i olsia, B' : — uhtpu xai 0a- adoration of almoft every thing exifting, £Eia, a\ Alyp. Edit. Meibom. p. 56. worfhipped a thoufand chimeras of their (/) Not contented with ufing all the own creation, fome with human bodies, letters of the alphabet, in every pofEble and the head or feet of beafts ; others with lituation, as fymbols of found, the Greeks brutal bodies, and the head or feet of mutilated and distorted them in order to men ; while others again were a fantafti- augment their number ; juft as the ancient cal compound of the feveral parts of beafts, ./Egyptians, who in their animal idolatry birds, and reptiles, terreftrial and aquatic." and religious ceremonies, " befides the Div. Leg. vol. iii. p. 178. letters MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 15 letters placed over each other, and above the words of a poem, were intended to exprefs different parts, with refpect to har- mony ; as with us, in modern mulic, the treble notes are written over the bafe, and the firft treble over the fecond ; but Alypius, who is extremely minute in his inftructions con- cerning the ufe of thefe characters, in all thefe modes, tells us, in exprefs terms, that the upper line of the notes is for the words, and the lower for the lyre (k). And he afterwards proves them to have been unifons to each other, both by his definitions, and by placing them oppofite to the fame found in all the fcales. In this author, the notes of the great fyftem of the Lydian mode in the diatonic genus, are ranged in the following order : 7tR they will be found as regular as the former letters. To complete the three oSlaves and one tone, in giving all the fifteen modes intire, there ftill remain thirteen characters more, which are repeated from the firft alphabet of Jimp le letters, except the xj at the top : after that character, they defcend re- gularly from A A ' to OK.', diftinguifhed only by an accent. The plain alphabet therefore is ufed down to Mefe, and the dif- guifed alphabet from mefe to proflambanomenos. Six new dif- guifed letters, however, appear from the octave above Trite fynemmenon, up to the octave above Nete Jynemmenon : and \ thirteen old ones, with the addition only of a virgula, from . thence up to the double octave above Paramefe.. 2. In the enharmonic and chromatic genera the characters are exactly the fame, and in the fame perpendicular order, in all the modes ; only the chromatic Lichani, the diftinguifhing..; firings of each genus, are marked, as Meibomius obferves,., with a da/hi to diftinguifh them from the enharmonic Li-. chant (n). 3. In all the three diagrams the firings, except the Lichani,, have the fame characters : this will appear in examining any (m) Vide Meibora. in Praf. of the two loweft tetrachords, is called («) The third fixing attending, of each Lichaw. of; MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 19 of the modes afcending or defcending perpendicularly, and miffing the red characters, which are the Lichani ; for the or- der of the reft, which are Hack, will be found exactly the fame in all the genera. Thus much feems fixed and conftant in all the diagrams of Alypius, as publifhed by Meibomius, and upon which thefe remarks are intended as a commentary. With refpect to the multiplicity of characters, it is natural to fuppofe that the Greeks began their notation when their compafs was fmall : as that was extended, they were forced by degrees to augment the number of their mufical charac- ters. And when this method of notation by the letters of the alphabet was once eftablifhed, nothing was more obvious .than to repeat the fame letters, which admitted of fuch eafy varia- tion, by pofition, mutilation, and accents. The order of in- ftrumental notes is much more wild and unaccountable than that of the vocal, to which thefe remarks have been hitherto confined. I am fearful of fwelling my book too much with thefe con- jectural explications, though there is fcarce a fingle circum- ftance relative to ancient mufic which does not require them. However, amidft fo much doubt and obfcurity, two points feem clearly demonftrable : firft, that the enharmonic genus moving in diejes, or quarter-tones, is the moil regular in its notation ; which encourages a belief that this genus, however unnatu- ral and difficult to us, muft have been not only very ancient, but the firft that was exprefied in writing ; and confequently, at fome one period of time, muft have been in the moji general nfe if). Secondly, that it muft have been ufual to read the gene- ral fcales, or diagrams, backwards, defcending from acute to grave ; which, as all the ancient modes were in what we mould call minor keys, muft have been more agreeable to the ear than afcending, for want of a fharp-feventh. This, however, (0) See Seft, II. D 2 does so DISSERTATION ON THE does not imply that the tetrachords were always read in that order ; for thefe being much more ancient than the alphabetic notation, had been long tuned and regulated from grave to acute. The neglect of thefe diftindtions will introduce a univerfal fcepticifm concerning every part of ancient mufic. But pro- vided the intervals are determined, it is of as fmall confe- quence whether the fcale is read from the top to the bottom, or the bottom to the top, as whether a child is taught to re- peat the modern gammut from G in the treble, or G in the bafe. The fcales of Ariftoxenus, Euclid, and Alypius, begin at Trojlambanomenos, it is true ; but though this note is firft named in the defcriptions and definitions of the founds of the feveral fyftems, and confequently ftands highejl in the page where it is mentioned, yet it does not follow that it was the moft acute found in the fcale, or that it was produced by the fhorteft firing in the ancient lyre (p). But fo difputable is every thing that concerns Greek mufic, that it has even been doubted whe- ther this leading note was the higheft or loweft of the fcale. Galilei, Zarlino, Bontempi, Tevo, M. Roufleau, Dr. Brown,, and others, have aflerted, that the terms, high and low, had different acceptations among the ancients, from thofe in which they are underftood by the moderns, without guarding, as they ought to have done, againft fuch confequences, with refpect to the fituation of the fcale, as it was natural for the reader to draw from that afiertion. Dr. Pepufch afierts roundly, and without the leaft modifica- tion of doubt, or even condefcending to allege a fingle reafon or proof in defence of his opinion, that " it was ufual among (p) If a verbal description of the mo- ance : rut, A re, B mi, C fa ut, D fo! dern gammut were given in writing, with- re, E la mi, F fa ut, G fol re ut, A la mi ©ut notes, it would have the fame appear- re, B fa B mi, C fol fa ut, &c. the MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 21 the Greeks to confider a defending as well as an afcending (bale ; the former proceeding from acute to grave, precifely by the fame intervals as the latter did from grave to acute. The firfi found of each was the Projlambanomenos ($')." No inftances of thefe inverted fcales are to be found, how- ever, in Arifloxenus, Euclid, or any of the oldeft and beft writers. Boethius, Bryennius, and fome other of the more modern compilers, have, indeed, puzzled the caufe by ambi- gious expreffions, which feem to bear fuch conflrucT:ion (r) ; and Dr Pepufch, the oracle of his time, who equalled at leaft that of Delphos by the darknefs of his decrees, readily jumped to any concluiion that would involve a mufical queflion in myf- terious and artificial difficulty. It feems as if all this perplexity and confufion had arifen from the want of precifion in the mufical nomenclator of the Greeks. The prepolitions v7ro, Jub, uVa^, Juper, and the ad- jectives uVarof, fummiis, and v/jtc?, imus, have manifeflly been applied to- founds more to exprefs their fituation in the lyre and diagrams, than the length of the firings, or the gravity and acutenefs of their tones. Dr. Wallis, in his Appendix to Ptolemy's Harmonics (A explains this difficulty in the following manner. " The Greeks called Eypate, japreme, though it is the loweft found or firing of the tetrachord ; and Ntte, laft, or loweji, though the moft acute. (This Henry Stephens acknowledges at the word v^re, which he defines ultimam feu imam : and pa- ranete, imce proximamj : therefore thofe who firft made ufe of thefe names, applied them differently from us, calling grave, high, and acute, low. And thus Nichomachus, p. 6, calls Saturn, the highefl of the planets, Bypate ; and the moon, the Ibwefl, with refped to us, Nete. Boethius likewife, in his' (j) Phil. Tranf. No. cccclxxsi. p. (>-) Melbora. in Gaudent. p. 33, et 11 6, and Martyn's Abridg. Vol. X. Part WalHs in Bryennio, p. 364, et feq. »• P.- 26 j.. p. , 59 , Fol. Ed. . Treatife 22 DISSERTATION ON THE Treatife on Mufic, places, in all his diagrams, the low founds at the top, and the high ones at the bottom. But, he con- cludes, that we muft not attend to the original import of thefe words, fummus and imns, but underfland Hypate and Nete as Jirji and la/!, or principal and extreme, as Ariftides Quintilia- nus has done, p. 10." In the firft, or Mercurian lyre, the longeft firing, which produced the loweft found, from being placed higheft in the inft'rument, as is the cafe with the modern harp, was called Hypate, the higheft found, and Nete, for the fame reafon, was afterwards, upon the extenfion of the fcale, called loweft, though the moft acute. Trite, the third firing from the top of the two laft tetrachords, had its name, as in our violins, by com- panion with the fmalleft firings. From a paffage in Ariftides Quintilianus (/), it feems as if the Greeks, in naming and numbering the notes of their fcale, made it a rule always to go towards Mefe, and end with it, as being the regulator of the other notes, and fituated in the medium of the voice. This is confirmed by the problem of Ariflotle already cited, and this confirms what has been already obferved of the order of the alphabetic notation, in which Mefe is always expreffed by Omega. It feems, therefore, as if the Greeks afcended the lower octave of the difdiapafon, and defended the upper one ; other- wife it is not eafy to fee why the firings of the upper c&ave fhould have names referring, as they evidently do, to a de- fending feries, and in an order oppofte to thofe of the lower octave (u). Uupx, in the compound names of the notes, evidently means next in order ; Parypate, in the lower octave, then is nfent ; Paranete, in the upper octave, plainly defent. The fame is implied in Trite. But the term Nete, laft, looks very like afent again — And darknef was upon the face of the deep J (i) P. I l, at the top. (a) See Meibomius's note upon Arift. Quintil. p. 1 1 , which feems folid. Thefc MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 23 — Thefe contradictions may account in fome degree for the great perplexity about the fcale ; they are curious however, and as well worth obferving, perhaps, as any matters of this kind. I have, indeed, from the feemingly aukward and uncooth melody produced by the Greek fcales afcending, been fome- times inclined to think that if they were reverfed with refpect to intervals, it would be much more agreeable to our ears, and explain away many difficulties ; but foon found that it would leave others ftill more infuperable behind : put Projlambano- menos out of the queftion, as a note that might be added in- differently to the top or bottom of the fcale, and compare the intervals of our diatonic fcale in C natural defcending, with that of the Greek in the Hypodorian mode afcending, and the intervals will be found to be the fame. EE m ♦2C This hypothefis might have been defended by many paffages in the Greek writers ; yet ftubborn facts would have arifen againft it, by which, in the end, it would be totally overthrown. The perplexity concerning the fcale is a fubjecl that required more time and meditation than I was able to beftow upon it ; however, I was very unwilling to leave it, till I had difcovered by fome indifputable rule, how to determine the queftion, as the few fragments left of Greek mufic, by a miftake in this particular, would be as much injured as a poem, by reading it. backwards. At length, an infallible rule prefented itfelf to me, in the works of the great Euclid, who has been regarded for fo many ages as the legiflator of mathematicians, and whofe writings have been their code. In his fedtion of the Canon (x), p. 37,., (x) By Canon muft here be understood for determining mufical intervals, and the frfingk firing, which being interfered by exaft proportion pf found to found. . moveable bridges, ferves as. a rule or Jaw, Edit. , 24 DISSERTATION ON THE Edit. Meibom. he reprefents P rojlambanomenos by the whole firing : fo that, if any thing concerning ancient mufic can be made certain, it is, that this whole firing reprefented the low eft found in the Greek fcale, which, in the Hyperdorian mode, 7~% was equivalent to the note A rf?zz: zz:sz: 9? e " Half the firing, Mefe, its o&ave, a, Third part, Nete diezeugmenon, fifth of the odlave, e, jfc^ And the fourth part of the firing, Nete hyperbolceon, 4^--T| the double oclave, aa, - - S?iE3r which are all the concords that the ancients admitted. Eight ninths of the firing are allotted to the found Hypate Bareia, Gravis, which is B in the bafe, one tone higher than P rojlam- banomenos, or A. This fection therefore of the line, reprefenting the found A, mufl put an end to every doubt concerning the order of the fcale, which may have arifen from the inverted application of the words high and low, conflantly occurring in all the more ancient and authentic Greek writers on mufic. Andi now having done with the fcale, let us return to the tablature. The multiplicity of notes in ancient Greek mufic mufl cer- tainly have made it a very long and laborious fludy, even at a time when the art itfelf was in reality very fimple. Hence it is not furprifing to find that Plato ( y ), though he was unwil- ling that youth fhould beftow too much time upon mufic, al- lowed them to facrifice three years to it, merely in learning the elements ; and thought that he had reduced this fludy to its fhortefl period : but at the end of this time, a ftudent could (y) De Legib. lib. vii. hardly MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 25 hardly be capable of naming all the notes, and of finging an air at Jight, as we call it, in all keys and in all the genera, ac- companying himfelf at the fame time upon the lyre ; much lefs could it be expected that he fliould be correct in every fpe- cies of rhythm ; that he mould be mafter of tafte and expref- fion ; or be able to compofe a melody himfelf to a new lyric poem. It was much more difficult to ling from the tablature, than to follow a voice or inftrument, as it is far more perplexing to read the Chinefe language than to fpeak it, on account of the great multiplicity of characters. However, if we could find Greek mufic now, we fhould be able to read it, contrary to the general opinion, which is, that the ancient notation is utterly loft. But though we can perhaps decypher it as exactly as the Greeks themfelves could have done, yet to divide it into phrafcs, to accentuate, and to give it the original and true expref- fion, are things, at prefent, impoffible, and ever will remain fo. For it is with the mufic of every country as with the lan~ guage ; to read it with the eye, and to give it utterance, are different things ; and we can arrive at no greater certainty about the expreffion of a dead mufic, than the pronunciation of a dead language. " It is aftonifhing however, fays M. Burette (2), that the an- cient Greeks, with all their genius, and in the courfe of fo many ages as mufic was cultivated by them, never invented a fhorter and more commodious way of exprefling founds in writing, than by fixteen hundred and twenty notes ; nor ever thought of Amplifying their tablature by making the fame characters ferve both for voices and inftruments. It will perhaps be faid that this diftinction of tablature ftill fubfifts with us, for the lute, and for fome other inftruments ; but this diftinction is al- (z) Mem. de Litter, torn. v. p. 182. Vol. L £ moil 26 DISSERTATION ON THE mod abolifhed." {a) And yet, notwithftanding the great fimpli- city of our tablature, compared with that of the ancients, ie muft be owned that the modern characters are fo numerous and difficult to underftand, and retain in the memory, that a ftudent in mufic has the voice and ear formed long before the eye is able to read them. And it may be affirmed, that the at- tention to the rules of mufic is more difficult than the exe- cution. It would be therefore curious to calculate the difficulties of an- cient and modern mufic feparately, that by a comparative view we might be enabled to determine which had the greater number. With refpect to thofe of notation, their being fo much more numerous in the ancient mufic than the modern, is, perhaps, more imaginary than real. For though the ancients had one hundred and twenty dif- ferent characters for found only, without including time, which characters, by changes in the modes and genera were multiplied to fixteen hundred and twenty ; yet, if we compare thefe changes with fuch as are produced by our feven clefs, in which each note is fubject to the accidents of flats and fharps, the memory will appear to be little lefs burthened by modern than by ancient mufical notation. Our compafs is indeed much more extenfive than that of the Greeks ; but if we confine it to three octaves only, which was the extent of the whole range of modes in the great fyf- tem of the ancients, we fhall have feven changes for each of the twenty-two natural founds, which amount in all to one hundred and fifty-four, without the accidents of flats and (a) M. Burette has preferred to the culties, I (hall freely avail myfelf of his Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettrcs diligence and erudition ; at other times, I at Paris, a great number of well written fhall either attempt to explain thefe diffi- memoirs upon almoft every part of an- culties myfelf, or (hall trankly confers my cient mufic. When the enquiries of this ignorance and inability to lurnifh my read- learned academician feem. fuccefsful, and ers with any fatisfaftory information con- . fatisfy my mind by the folution of difli- cerning them. fharps i MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 27 fharps ; and thefe being nearly double that number, the whole will amount to about four hundred and fifty-five different re- prefentations of the femitones contained in three octaves, with- out enumerating either extreme fharps, or double flats. Let us after this confider the difference of intonation occa- fioned by temperament, between the keys of C natural and C fharp with feven fharps ; of D natural with two fharps, and of D flat with five flats ; together with the different fituation of the founds in all our twenty-four keys ; taking into the ac- count at the fame time the great number of our different cha- racters for the duration of thefe founds ; and the fimplicity of modern notation will not appear fo much fuperior to the an- cient as has been imagined. But mufic is a modern art with us, as it is only a few cen- turies fince the prefent fyftem is fuppofed to have been in- vented ; whereas ancient mufic flourifhed and was cultivated fome thoufand years before that period. It is therefore by no means furprifing, that ours has not yet acquired every poffible convenience of notation. However, notwithftanding the de- fects of modern mufic in fome particulars, I may venture to affirm that it has arrived at a very great degree of perfection ; and I appeal for the truth of this affertion to the daily expe- rience of perfons of good tafte and refined ears. In order to furnifh my readers with a comparative view of the ancient and modern mufical fyftems, I fhall here infert a general diagram of both, conftru£ted by the learned Meibomius, in his notes upon Euclid. E 2 The 28 DISSERTATION ON THE The Perfect Syftem of the Moderns compared with the great and General Syftem of the Ancients. Notation of „ , .. k . the founds in Greek appellatives. , „ vv he H)pO(5o- I'ian mode Ar.cicnt Solmii'a- tion. Roman letters Modern Solmifation. firftuled bySt. Gregory. Clefs Greek names to the founds of the 2d oftave. IV 1 j' M i n L J. TU TO) T7 t — Ti TU TV] TO, TOO TV] TCt TCC TU TV] TO, la fol fa la fol fa mi re ut la fol fa mi re ut la fol fa mi re ut d c b a G F dd L'C bb aa g f e d c ee dd cc B U / z r NT K > A c la fol fa mi re ut la fol fa mi re Ut Nete hyperbolason t Paranete Hyperb. or Hyp. diat. Trite hyp. M n n t _ p TV] Nete diezeug. Nete Synemmenon q Paranete diez. or Diez. diat. Synem. diat. a tt Trite diez. Trite Synem. Paramefe Mese A 1 re Melon diat. or ^ Lichanos Mefon h Parypate Mefon w a; Hypate Mefon E TOO TV] la fol fa mi re ut F. D C B A r — Hyp. diatonos, or i Lichanos Hyp. R b Paryp. hypaton <*> Hypate hypaton c TO. mi Proflambanomenos -§_ re ut MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. zg SECTION II. Of the three Genera, Diatonic* Chromatic, and Enharmonic. IN modern mufic the Genera are but two : Diatonic and Chromatic. Thefe confift in the manner of arranging the tones and femitones of which melody is compofed (,<). In ancient mufic, not only the tone was divided into two, as with us, but the femitone by a Die/is, or Quarter-tone. Thefe three kinds of interval, the tone, femitone, and Diejis, con- ftituted the difference of the three genera^ It has been already obferved that the fourth was the con- flant boundary of founds in the mufic of the ancients ; and that its extremes, or higheft and loweft founds, wtrcjiantes, immobiles, or fixed. As the octave in modern mufic admits of no change, but is tuned as perfect as poffible, fo the fourth in ancient mufic was never allowed to deviate from perfection. The different genera therefore were characterifed by the changes that were made in the two middle founds of the tetrachord, which were ftyled mobiles, mutable. So that a Genus is defined by Euclid, the divifion and difpofition of the tetrachord with refpect to the intervals of the four founds of which it is com- pofed ; and Pappus Alexandrinus fays, that the Genera confifted only in different divifions of the tetrachord. (a) When no more than two femitones of modulation, though it occaiions a occur in the courfe of an oftave, the me- change of key, is not a change of genus; lody may properly be filled genuine Dla- for while the founds made ufe of in har- tonic. mony and melody can be referred to any Indeed the Chromatic in ufe at prefent one key, the Diatonic genus is fupofed to can hardly be compared with that of the be preferved : it is only a regular fuccef- - ancients ; tor with them every accidental fion of two or mortfcmltones, afcending or flat or (harp which led to a new mode or defcending, that conftitutes modern Cbro-. key, would have been called a change of matic, Qerius.., With, us, however, a mere change Im 3 o DISSERTATION ON THE In the Diatonic Genus, the melody proceeded by a femitonej and two tones, as B G D E 5*--5BE£n » anc ^ ^ was ^" rom tne fucceffion of two tones, that this genus acquired the name of Diatonic. As the term is derived from 32 DISSERTATION ON THE firings, in the mixed genus muft have heen fupplied with twelve. So that a remark made by Perrauh (i>) concerning the Superiority of the modern fcale over the ancient, in having a greater number of founds in the compafs of a fourth, is not fo much in our favour as it at firft appears ; the number of notes being equal in both : with this difference, that the ancients had no G fharp, or E flat, and the moderns have no Die/Is, or interval of a quarter -tone, between BC, E F, or A and B b. Ariftoxenus tells us that the divifion and bounds of the ge- nera were not accurately fixed till his time ; and Ariftides Quintilianus fpeaks of feveral genera, or fpecies of intervals, long out of ufe, but which were of the higheff. antiquity ; yet fo wild and irregular, that after the art of mufic was brought to a greater degree of perfection, and the laws of the three principal genera were fettled, they had been difufed by the beft mulicians. The fame author afferts, that it is of thefe barbar- ous divifions of the fcale, or old Harmonies, as they were called, and not the common modes of the fame names, that Plato fpeaks in his Republic, where he admits fome of them, and rejects others. The ancients attributed peculiar effects to each genus, and fpeak of many characterise diftinctions of genera, which now appear to be wholly fanciful and imaginary. Thefe, if they ever had exiftence, were, perhaps, deftroyed by modern har- mony. Ariftides Quintilianus, p. iii, tells us, that The diatonic is manly, and auftere ; The chromatic fweet, and pathetic ; and The enharmonic animating, and mild. Vitruvius, fpeaking of the enharmonic, fays, that it is in a particular manner grave and majejiic (c). (b) EJfais Pbyfiqnes, torn. ii. mild, is not eafy to conceive. This genus (r) Cantus ejus maxims gravem, et cgre- was never known to the Romans, having giam hahet auEioritatem. been loft before they attempted the polite Perhaps the idea of a major-key, which arts; and Ariftides Quintilianus, who lived the enharmonic ditone muft imprefs upon after Vitruvius, could have known its ef- the ear, may have contributed to the no- fefts only from tradition. He attributes to tion of'mufic in that genus being ani- it very oppofite qualities : ^ie^e^tixov V ir> mating; but how it could be at the fame tuto x-ai vmw, which Meibomius has ren- time grave and footbing, animating and dcred MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 33 And Plutarch, in his firft Effay againft Colotes the Epicu- rean, afks, " Why does the chromatic genus melt and diffolve, and the enharmonic brace the nerves, and compofe the mind, after being difturbed ?" Ariftides Quintilianus, in another place (d), fays of the genera, that the diatonic is the moft natural, becaufe all who have ears, though uninflruded in mufic, are capable of fing- ing it. The chromatic is more (e) artificial, for it can be fung only by fuch as are adepts in mufic. The enharmonic is the mojl refined and difficult of all, and has been received and practifed only by the greateft artifts. The ancients have related fuch wonders of this long- loft, and long-lamented genus, that a particular difcuffion feems necef- fary here concerning its exiftence and properties. There is nothing fo difficult to the conception of modern muficians, as that pleafing effects mould ever have been produced by inter- vals, which they themfelves are unable to form, and to which, if they could form and introduce them into melody, no har- mony could be given, that would be agreeable to the ear, or the rules of counterpoint. And there are fo many inconfiftencies in the accounts of an- cient authors concerning this kind of mufic, that nothing but an hypothefis can reconcile them to probability. With the per- miffion, therefore, of my readers, I fhall venture to throw to- gether my conjectures upon this fubject in that form ; afluring them, at the fame time, that it is the only hypothefis which I intend to hazard in the courfe of this work. dered, excitandi autem ) Art. Enharmonique. {c) In a work that is not extant. fiO, " ^% MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 35 " fec7, manner, or exprefjion, and forming then the whole fyf~ " tem (of the octachord or heptachord, as I underftand it) ac- " cording to this analogy (d), and being ftruck with it, he " adopted, and compofed in it, in the Dorian mode, with- " out touching any ftring peculiar to the diatonic, to the " chromatic, or indeed to the enharmonic ; and fuch were his " enharmonic melodies. For the jirjl of thefe they reckon to " have been the nome or melody called Spondean ; in which " melody none of the divifions of the tetrachord (i. e. the ge- " nerd) Jhow their peculiar characters (•■-'"- ■-■- ^fc- 4fc- ^fe- ilfc- ^fc- -=lfc ~. ; '- ~'- *'■&■ -ij -4fc ^fc -4fe i^ 4fc -^S $& J*- ^- -S£ i*- -i - -^fc- *■ -dfc- ^4fe \ " For the clofe enharmonic, evupuoviov nrvxvov, now in ufe (J), Teems " not to have been of this mufician's invention ; as any one " may eafily be convinced, that attends to a performer on the " flute, who plays in the old-fafhioned ftyle : for fuch players * chufe to make the femitone an uncompounded interval. Such " then were the original enharmonic melodies ; but, after- " wards, the femitone was divided, in the Lydian, and Phry~- " gian modes. Thus it appears that Olympus improved the " art, by introducing a manner that was new and unknown to " former muficians, and was the great leader and author of ** the genuine and beautiful Greek mufic." M. Burette, who has publiflied the whole Dialogue of Plu- tarch, with a tranilation, and an ample commentary, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Letters, feems unable to account for Olympus touching no found pecu- liar to any one of the three genera : however, nothing in the Dialogue is clearer, than that Plutarch means to fay that the three notes ufed by Olympus in each tetrachord were common (d) That is, miffing the third found, (e) This is, plainly, enbar'm'ome, imthut ojctnding. in eyery tetrachord which he the quarter- ion c'. — Here a long uninteiligi- ufed". What kind of melody would be ble parenthefis is omitted, produced from fuch z mutilated fcale, will (/) That is, -with the Diefi; or true be ffeewn further on. enharmonic quarter-tone, F 2 to 36 DISSERTATION ON THE to all the genera : he neither introduced Lichanos diatonos, which is peculiar to the diatonic ; nor Lichanos chromaticos j nor even, fays Plutarch, the found now effential to the enhar- monic ; that is, neither D natural, C fharp, nor the enharmo- nic B x . But M. Burette confounds the old enharmonic with the new. He will have the fpondean melody to have been in the Phrygian mode mentioned by Ariftides Quintilianus, p. 21; though in that the Diejis is admitted ; and Plutarch fays ex- prefly that this old melody did not admit any charac~terijlics of the genera. And all this he does merely to explain an unintel- ligible parenthefis, which is better omitted, unlefs fome fenfe could be given to it that would not militate with the reft of the text, which is clear and intelligible without it. M. Burette muft be allowed the merit of great diligence and learning ; but he does not feem always to have been pof- feffed of an equal fhare of fagacity, or with courage fufficient to confefs himfelf unable to expound inexplicable paffages in his author. He never fees a difficulty ; he explains all. Hence, amidft great erudition, and knowledge of antiquity, there are a thoufand unintelligible explanations in his notes upon Plutarch. En ecrivant, faid Fontenelle, j'ai tot/jours tache de ni* entendre . — An admirable rule ! which every writer ought to adopt. Thus much is faid, not with a view to depreciate the merit of M. Burette, to whom almoft all late writers on mufic have had great obligations, and whofe labours have been of Angu- lar fervice to myfelf, among the reft ; but to fhew how few au- thors are to be always followed implicitly, or read without precaution. The paflage of Plutarch relative to Old Enharmonic is ren- dered fairly, and as near literally as poffible. It muft be re- membered that the Dorian mode, in which Olympus is faid to have MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 37 have compofed his melodies, anfwers to our key of D natural. Now, in the tetrachords of this mode, if we omit every third found, we fhall have the following melody, whether Olym- pus had two conjunct, or two disjunct tetrachords, for his fyftem. 4 m J J — fe 1 — | 1 — I -t— Profl. only wanting to complete the o&ave. Mefe or Key note. Disj. ■TtTT 1 Both thefe fcales contain only the intervals to be found in the following octave. ¥ * m^ Now this is exactly the old Scotv fcale in the minor key; a circumftance which muft ftrike every one who reads the paf- fage of Plutarch, that is at all acquainted with the intervals of the Greek fcale, and with Scots mufic. The abbe Rouffier, in the fecond article of his Memoir e fur la Mujique des Anciens, fpeaks of an old Chinefe fcale of fix notes, mentioned by Rameau. It is preferved in numbers ; and according to Rameau's interpretation, who applies the numbers to afcending fifths, they produce the very identical Scots fcale, adding only a note to complete the octave. C, D, E, G, A, (c). The abbe contends that Rameau is wrong ; and indeed the ar- gument he ufes againfl him concerning lengths and vibrations, Sect. XXI. does feem plaufible ; but the abbe had the interejl of a fyjjfem to biafs him in determining this matter, which Rameau had not. It muil be confeffed, at leaft, that Rameau's interpretation forms the more probable and natural fcale : be- cause, , 38 DISSERTATION ON THE caufe, like the Scots, and the Old Enharmonic, it leaves out the fourth and /event h of the key. The only fpecimen of Chi- nefe mufic which M. Rouffeau has given in his Dictionary, from Du Halde, feems to confirm Rameau's fcale : for ex- cept in one paffage, at the beginning of the third bar, where F natural comes in fo aukwardly, as to raife a fufpicion that it has been inferted by a miflake of the engraver, the fourth and [event h of the key are fcrupuloufly miffed throughout ; and nothing can be more Scottifh than the whole cart of the air. All the fpecimens that I have been able to collect of Chi- nefe melody, feveral of which will be given among the ex- amples of national mufic in the fecond volume, are of this caff. Indeed they muft be fo, in compliance with the construc- tion of their inflruments, in which there are no Jemit ones. One of thefe I faw when I was laft at Paris : it v/as in the poffef- fion of the abbe Arnaud of the French Academy, and was a kind of Sticcado, confining of bars of wood of different lengths, as fonorous as if they had been of metal : thefe were placed acrofs a hollow veffel refembling the hulk of a ihip. The compafs was two octaves, and the intervals were arranged in the following order : 4- -*-£-£ ^Tn^f c Now no mufic can be compofed from fuch a fcale that will not remind us of the melody of Scotland, which will hereafter be proved of a much higher antiquity than has generally been imagined. With refpecl: to the mufic of China, Dr. Lind, an excellent judge of the fubjecf, and philofophically curious about every thing that relates to it, after refiding feveral years in that country, affured me that all the melodies he had heard there, bore a ftrong refemblance to the old Scots tunes. But MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 39 But to return to the old enharmonic of Olympus. What de- gree of authority is to be allowed to the paffage in Plutarch concerning the manner of its invention I will not pretend to determine. No other author whatever, that I have been able to find, tells this ftory ■> though many befides Arifloxenus, from whence Plutarch quotes the account, have attributed to Olympus the invention of the enharmonic genus. But if there had been two forts of enharmonic, an ancient and a modern, it may feem fomewhat ftrange that not one of the many au- thors who treat of the genera, fliould fay a word to this pur- pofe. We may obferve, however, that it came more in the way of an hijlorical than a technical treatife ; and this Dialogue of Plutarch is the only hiftorical tract upon mufic that is come down to us (g). Indeed the account is not given in fuch terms as would make us fuppofe it merely the hypothefis of an in- dividual ; but rather an old traditional opinion current among all the muficians. But the Lichanos, or third found from the bottom of a te- trachord, feems not to have been the only one which the old Grecian harpers and pipers were fond of miffing in their melodies. Plutarch obferves (/), that in what he calls the (nrcvosicx.Kij, rxpi>(iov xcci a.TT'hvv ; that is, " three- ftringed, and fimple.'''' At leaft it feems more eafy to conceive the exe- cution of the enharmonic poflible as mere melody, than the an- cient chromatic, where harmony feems wanting to guide the (m) See Ariftox. p. 19, and Plut. p. 138* ear, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 47 car, and which has the appearance of being both in a major and minor key at the fame time : "p*?i And none of thefe founds can eafily be reduced to mere notes of tafte, all are fundamentally confequential to the harmony, and leave no natural outline of melody for the ear to feize, like the enharmonic. SECTION IIL Of the Modes. A Mode, in ancient mufie, was equivalent to a Key, in the modern {a). And Bryennius fays in exprefs terms, page 48 1 (/£), that the tones or modes differ from each other in nothing elfe but the being fituated in a higher or lower pitch of the voice or inftrument ; which is but faying that the modes differed from each other only by tranfpofition. Ariftoxenus admitted of but thirteen modes, though fubfe- quent muficians allowed of fifteen ; and this is the number of which Alypius has given us a diagram in all the three genera. Thefe are placed by every mufical writer, anterior to Pto- lemy, at the diftance of half a tone from each other. And as it is generally agreed that the loweft of the Greek modes, which was called Hypodorian, had its projlambanomenos, or loweft found, in that part of the modern fcale which is ex- preffed by A upon the firft fpace in the bafe, the following table will convey an idea to the mufical reader of the compa- rative fituation of the reft. (•«) M0J0;, to»o;, t£oot>;, mode, tone, and icy, are fynonimous terms, both in ancient and modern mufic. (£) EdiuWallis. TABLE DISSERTATION ON THE Grave Modes. TABLE of the MODES 3S Proflam Hypodo- rian, or Locrian. Middle and Z^ET:— irig:®z ir^e- Hypoialtian, H)'poionian, or Grave Phrygian. Hypo- phrygian. K Sc Hypoaeo- lian, or Grave Hy- polydian. -a? *~ er original Modes. Acute. Dor ian. 5&£ ^ Ionian or Iaftian. 3te Phry- gian, E&££ IE iEolian. Hypoly- dian. ESEE Lydian. on: — 'US-* ;i-E Hyperdo- rian, or Mixoly- dian. Hypermftian, or Hyperi- onian. Hyper- phrygian, or Hyper- mixoly- dian. ms^m^ ±fc Hyperaso- lian. Hyperly- dian. It was with reafon that Ariftoxenus refufed adraiffion to the two laft modes, which are only o&aves of the fecond and third, as the thirteenth is of the firft. A fcale of two octaves being allowed to each of thefe modes, the whole extent and compafs of the fifteen was from Prof- lambanomenos in the Hypodorian mode, to Nete hyperboleeon in the hyperlydian, three octaves and a tone, from our A in the bafe, to B in the treble Elb j>— 41 As the keys of C and A natural are reprefentatives of all other keys in modern mufic, the fcales which have been given, page 31, to exemplify the Genera, will fhew the intervals of the Hypodorian mode, and ferve as types of all other modes admitted into the mufic of the ancient Greeks. Pliny MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 49 Pliny tells us that the three firft and original modes were the Phrygian, Dorian, and Lydian ; Ho named after the feveral countries where they were invented and chiefly ufed ; though Heraclides of Pontus afferts that the JEolian, Dorian, and Ionian, were of the moil ancient and general ufe among the firft inhabitants of Greece. However that may have been, it feems probable that the five modes mentioned by thefe two authors were in ufe long before the reft, which, in procefs of time, as the nautical fcale was extended by new improvements and new inftruments, were placed above and below them, and diftinguifhed by the prepoutions Jtto and uVe^, under and upper. There is a paffage in Ariftides Quintilianus, p. 23, which feems to point out fomething like connection and relation be- tween the five original modes, and thofe above and below them. He fays, after having enumerated the fifteen modes, " By this means, each mode has /Sa^ur^-raj, ittkt [j.£i a Dorian. Hypodor. Phiygian. Hypcphryg. 1 5 6 7 Bacchius fenior places two of thefe modes, the Hypoly- dian and the Lydian, half a tone higher than Dr. Wallis, who feems to have miftaken their places. The Mixolydian he makes the higheft of all, then places the Lydian half a tone below it, the Phrygian a tone below the Lydian, the Dorian a tone below the Phrygian, the Hypolydian half a tone below the Dorian, the Hypophrygian a tone lower, and the Hypodo- rian, the loweft of all, a note below the Hypophrygian (0). By the difpofition of Ptolemy's modes, it feems as if his defign had been to eftablifh a more eafy and obvious connec- tion and relation between them, than had hitherto been prac- tifed ; for though the modes placed above and below the five principal ones might have been originally intended as their ad- juncts, yet from the multiplicity and promifcuous arrange- ment of the modes at the diftance only of a femitone above each other, their intimate relation and union had not been furfkiently attended to. He therefore included all his feven modes in the compafs of an octave, " making, fays Dr. "Wallis, the Do- rian the center or mean ; after which he placed the Mixolydian a fourth above the Dorian ; the Hypolydian a fifth below the Mixolydian ; and the Lydian a fourth higher than the Hypoly- dian. Then, beginning again at the Dorian, he placed the Hypo- («) Iatrod. Artis Muficx, Edit. Meibom. p. 12. doriaa 54 DISSERTATION ON THE dorian a fourth below it; the Phrygian a fifth above tbe Hypo<- dorian, and the Hypophrygian a fourth below that (p )". Now if each of thefe modes produced fcxen fpecies of diapafon or octave, the feven modes of Ptolemy would furnifh feven times feven, or forty-nine fpecies of octave ; not indeed all of dif- ferent kinds, but of different pitch in the fcale. To each of thefe modes he afligned- the compafs of a difdiapafon, or double octave, as was the practice in the ancient modes ; with this difference, that the firft and charactei illic found in the fif- teen modes was Proflambanomenos, but in thofe of Ptolemy Mefe is made the key note, and the center of the fcale ; which may be fuppofed to extend an octave above, and an octave be- low the found given in the table. Such was the general opinion concerning the modes of Pto- lemy,, till Sir Francis Hafkins Eyles Stiles formed an inge- nious hypothefis concerning them, which was read to the Royal Society in 17595 and afterwards publifhed in the Philofopni- cal Tranfactions, vol. LI. part ii. for 1760, under this title: An Explanation of the Modes or Tones in tbe ancient Grcccian Mujic. Sir Francis in this Differtation endeavours to prove, that the ancients had a double doSlrine of the modes, an har- monic and a mujical doctrine. By harmonic he means the na- tural tones in the fcale of the great or general fyftem ; and by the mufical doctrine is implied melody, or the changes accord- ing to different keys or fpecies of diapafon. He explains this in a diagram, taking his pitch at Hypate Me/bn, our E in the bafe, and makes all his mutations be- tween that found and its octave, Nete Diezeugmenon, prefer- ably to any other part of the Greek fcale, as it is the only boundary, within the limits of which the proper fpecies of all {/>) But this round-about order of the them by fourths and fifths in the only di- jnodes is not that ot Ptolemy ; for in his reel: and warrantable way in which they tenth book, chap. ii. the title ol which is, can be taken, according to modern rao- IIozv to adjujl accurately the Dijlances of dulation, by beginning at the Mixo- tbe Modes, he gives .his method of taking lydian : D, A, E, B, Fat, C4t, Gi. the MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 55 the feven modes can be given, without altering the pofition of the Mefe, or characteristic note, which would difturb the har- monic doctrine. And this is the diapafon chofen by Ptolemy,, cap. 2. lib. ii. for the purpofe of exhibiting his divifions of the feveral fpecies. ■ DIAGRAM of the Species of Diapafon in the feven Modes, admitted by Ptolemy, according to the Doctrine of Sir Francis Hafkins Eyles Stiles. Mefe ^ b« o g "°~ Ke y of Mixolydian. £ ^=^= = £=3ZZ- =zzji d Lydian. H . q s fr 3 ^ -Q_: Mefe ^-. minor. -e- C# Mefe Phrygian. EEzzoz**: -e_Q. B 1 Me fe .»_ Q -Q - A Dorian. r^ — # » a e Mefe *e-^* — C# Hypolydian. [ } : a y;e =g5=* » 3 | Hypophrygran. ;); ;%e— &&- Mefe ^ « -Q- F# Mefe ft _ ± _^'__" e " E. Hypodorian. f-% — g-W^ — g — - Sir Francis gives quotations from the ancient Greek writers in; confirmation of his doctrine, feveral of which indeed feem fa- vourable to it ; at leaft they imply a difference on fome occafions foom the intervals in the natural or great fyftem : this differ- ence 5< DISSERTATION ON THE ence he imagines to be expreiTed by the term perxGoky, mu- tation (y). He very truly afferts, that no tranfpofition of the fame me- lody into a higher or lower key, can have fo powerful an ef- fect as a change in the modulation, or fucceflion of intervals ; and obferves, that modern mufic has but two confiderable changes in the fame key ; thefe are from major to minor, and from minor to major. The firft feems referved for pathetic effects : here he inftances Purcel's happy change of modu- lation in his Mad Bejs, at the words, " Cold and hungry am I grown (r)." Sir Francis affigns a greater antiquity to the mufical doctrine, than to the harmonic, and refers the effects of the modes in {q) See Sea. IV. w ^m^±m^uM -H-*-4, ^t'-t- «1 I I L r Poor Befs will re -turn to the place whence ihe came, Since the world is lb 6 , 6 6 6 5 6 5 i =1 Hn* i\ ~%o- t- ztzp: —^zezt: .«._ -or- — I — -i* .1 J__g 3rBEE / msdfhecan hope for no cure, For love's grown a bubble, a fhadow, a ! - 6 » ■ - 3. 6 7* 676 ^Z£Z»Z— 5 rz: •¥■ £ cZ IpZtZ :p 3 — i — ^ s ■jg-? --r-= nair.e, Which fools do ad nvre and wife men en — dure. Cold & hungry am 1 grown 6 -J 6 5 , , 4 b ' 3 j 3 r §3= 3E :g: #:xzS -^ :p: -#-• tzc- 2 ^:b3- j] &c. early MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 57 early times to -the former. " We find, fays he, in Plutarch, *' Pliny, and other writers, the invention of particular modes " afcribed to particular muficians ; which may be accounted " for, on the fuppofition that the modes were fo many dif- " ferent fpecies of diapafon, fince it requires great art and " fkill to introduce agreeable melodies to which the ear has " not been accuftomed : but the taking the fame melody at a " difFerent pitch, is a variety, for which the inventor would " hardly have had his name fo carefully tranfmitted to pof- " terity (j)." Meibomius however was certainly of opinion, that the dif- ference in the modes, upon which all their effects depended, confined only in the tenfion, or acutenefs and gravity of the whole fyftem. And Dr. Wallis faw ftill lefs of this do&rine than Meibomius, " though he has rightly, fays Sir Francis, explained the fpecies of diapafon, as they lay between Hypate Mefon and Nete Diezeugmenon ; but this interpretation he re- gards as lingular in his author, and draws no confequences from it." The afcertaining the figure of the earth, by meafuring a degree near the pole and under the line, introduced a new geography ; in the fame manner the hypothefis of Sir Francis Eyles Stiles will overfet all former theories and conjec- tures on the fubjecT: of the ancient mufical modes, and ob- lige thofe whom he convinces of the truth of his doctrine, and who had before reconciled themfelves to received opinions on the fubjecT:, to confefs their errors and ignorance, and to begin tne ftudy of ancient mufic anew. It is not, however, certain that Ptolemy's doctrine was im- mediately adopted by all the muficians of his time (t) ; if it was, their minds muft have been more flexible than thofe of .(j) Phil. Tranf. vol. LI. p. 755. cotemporary with Ptolemy, is the only (t) Bacchius lenior, a mufical writer, Greek author who gives but feven modes. Vol. I. I modern 5 $ DISSERTATION ON THE modern profefibrs. For had the mod popular compofers of modern times, had Alexander Scarlatti, for inftance, in Italy,, Sebaftian Bach, in Germany, or Handel, in England, pro- pofed to their cotemporaries fo confiderable a change in the eftablifhed mufical fyftero, it is hardly poffible to believe that it would have been immediately received into general practice. We know not, indeed, what was the fuccefs of Ptolemy's propofed reformation during his life ; a reformatio}!, it muffc be owned, that had fomething Cahiniftical in it ; a zeal for tearing («) ; and yet, flrange to tell ! all the traces to be found of it are in the modes of the Romijh church, eftablifhed long after, but which referable thofe of Ptolemy in nothing except their number and names. Ptolemy's modes are manifeftly tranfpofitions of the fcale into different keys : the ecclefiaftic, only different fpecies of oSiave,. in one and the fame key. Upon the whole, the mufic fo much celebrated by the beft claffical writers, and of which I fhall have the moil frequent occafions to fpeak in my hiftory, was of much higher anti- quity than the time of Ptolemy, who flourifhed when arts and fciences, particularly thofe of Egypt and Greece, were much degenerated. It is therefore of no great importance to the hiftory and in- telligence of ancient mufic, at its beft period, whether this point concerning the fpecies of o£lave, for which Sir Francis- Hafkins Eyles Stiles contends, be accurately fettled, or not ;. for, if he is right, it does not clearly appear, what^peculiar and aftonifhing effects could be produced by a fudden change of mode, which it is not in the power of modern mufic to pro- duce, by a like fudden change of key. But fuch miraculous powers have been attributed to the modes in ancient mufic, that it muft be confefied there is no- thing fo difficult as to imagine they could have been produced hi) See. Tale of a Tub, Seft. VI. by MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 59 by a mere tranfpofition of the fcale to a different pitch, while the intervals remained the fame, or even by the effects of mo- dulation. There mud have been other characteriftic and ftrong-marked diftinctions : as the kind of poetry to which the mufic was fet ; the rhythm or meafure ; or the nature of certain melodies invented and ufed by particular nations. In- deed it was from this laft circumftance that the denominations of the principal modes were derived, fuch as the Dorian, Phry- gian, Lydian, Ionian, and JEolian ; and there may perhaps have been originally fomething ftrongly characteristic in the melodies, as well as in the dialeSls of thofe countries. In modern mufic a change of key, without a change of time, is not fufficient to animate or deprefs the fpirits much : mea- fure muft concur as an auxiliary ; and mere modulation, though it has its effects, yet it can boaft of none like thofe faid to have been operated by a change from the foft Lydian, or grave Dorian, to the fur ion j Phrygian. I mould rather fuppofe then, that in times of mufical refinement among the ancients, when the characteriftics of national melody were fomewhat effaced, the names of the mufical modes had much the fame ufe as our technical terms, graziofo, grave, allegro, con furia : and that in lyric poetry there were particular fpecies of feet and verification allotted to each mode (x). If that was the cafe, we might eafily fuppofe that a change of mode would be a change of ftyle and of meafure ( y). This feems a very natural idea, and yet it has never been fuggefted by any of the writers who have treated the fubject, and who have been fo willing to allow miraculous powers to the Greek modes, except one, (x) All the fancied and boafted proper- lemy, though the names of his feven are ties of the modes muft have been given retained. \ip before the time of Ptolemy, lince he ( v) Morley, and all the old writers not only reduced their number from fif- upon modern mufic, before the ufe of bars, teen to feven, but changed the places of affixed no other meaning to the modes, or thofe he admitted; and Bryennius, long nionds, as they were then called, than that after him, gives eight, but all in differ- of regulators of time, or meafure. ent parts of the fcale from thofe of Pto- I 2 Teodato 6o DISSERTATION ON THE Teodato Ofio, who, in a very ingenious little tract, published at Milan, 1637, called Uarmonia del nudo par/are, has fome- thing like the fame idea, which he flightly mentions, how- ever, with a perhaps, per aventura. Speaking of the Mixo- lydian mode, he fays, " I have often thought that it might " have refembled the trochaic foot ; as the Phrygian might " the An ape ft ; the Hypophrygian, the Iambic ; the Hypodo- " rian, the DaSlyl ; and the Doric gravity might likewife have " been expreffed by the fluggifh J'pondee (2)." Indeed the ancients as frequently fpeak of the Phrygian and the Lydian meafure y as of the modes. Heraclides of Pontus, in Athenseus, lib. xiv. p. 614, defcribing what he calls the. three moft ancient modes, fays " the Dorian is grave and magnificent, neither too difFufive, gay, nor varied ; but fevere and vehement. The JEolian is grand and pompous, though fometimes foothing, as it is ufed for the breaking of-horfes, and the reception of guefts ; and it has likewife an air of fimplicity and confidence, fuitable to plcafure, love, and good chear. Laftly, the ancient Ionian is neither brilliant nor effe- minate, but rough and auftere ; with fome degree, however, of elevation, force, and energy. But in thefe times, conti- nues he, fince the corruption of manners has fubverted every thing, the true, original, and fpecific qualities peculiar to each mode are loft (<>)." Apuleius, in his Florida, tells us that the Lydian meafure was appropriated to complaint and fongs of forrow ; the Dor rian to martial airs ; and that the Phrygian was confecrated to religious ceremotties ; diftinctions which feem to imply time as well as tone. But after all that has been faid, it would, (s) Onde il rolor miJfo-Lidio ft Java ft- niente. P. 184. See a notation of thefe ■jpigliante al piede Trocbeo; coji come awij'ai teet, Seft. VI. 1' ' Auapefto canfarfe col frigio, e forfe con (a) Heraclides of Pontus was cotem- V ' Ipofrigio il Giambo; ma con ilj'uhdorio ft porary with Plato and Ariltotle, and the confara il Dattilo, eel alia Gravita del Do- difciple of both. rio la tardanza dcllo Spondeo fara conve- perhaps, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 6v perhaps, be more for the honour of the ancients to fuppofe feme of the principles upon which their modes were formed, and concerning which iuch furpriiing accounts have been given, to be loft, than to endeavour to reduce them all to our prefent keys and practice of melody. For, with the few li- berties that could be taken with poetical numbers, and the little probability there is that counterpoint was known to them, if we do not give the ancients credit for arts of expreffion and modulation, which have not been clearly explained in the trea- tifes that are come down to us, and which we are now utterly unable to divine, their mufic will be reduced to fuch a low de- gree of perfection, as nothing but blind enthufiafm for. every- thing ancient can diiguife, or deny. SECTION IV. Of Mutations. 1 "^HE next fubject of enquiry to the Genera and Modes of ancient mufic, is that of the Mutations, pt-ragoXcci, or changes incident to melocy ; which, in modern mufic, we ihould call, upon fome occalion, modulation. However, the terms are not exactly fynonimous ; for though to modulate, and to fing, are in ancient authors equivalent, as modulation with them fignified merely a change in melody, yet the mo- derns more frequently apply the term modulation to that kind of change in melody or harmony, which introduces a new key. For modulation may be brought about by changes in harmony, while melody is ftationary. Icu 62 DISSERTATION ON THE M :r_s: 'X r&~ ?^F ± 1223 b *. B art 7 7 6 * t] Key of C A F bAb msip Equiv. In the fyftem of folmifation eftablifhed upon the hexachords of Guido, mutations mean fuch changes only as are occafioned in the names of the notes by accidental flats and fharps. The ancients however had four feveral kinds of accidents in their muiic that were diftinguifhed by the name of mutations. Thefe might have happened in the genus, fyftem, mode, or melopceia. In the Genus, when the melody pafled from one genus to another, from the chromatic, for inftance, to the diatonic or enharmonic, and the contrary. In the Sy/Iem, when the modulation patted from a conjunct to a disjunct tetrachord ; that is, from one that was united to another by fome one found in common to both ; as from this e- m -g-g.rs 1 t0 one t h at was w holly disjunct, and feparated from it by the interval of a tone : 2Ei: a mutation happened in the Mode, when there was a tran- sition in the melody from the Dorian to the Lydian, or Phry- gian, and the like ; and laftly, a mutation in the Melopaia im- plied a change of ftyle ; as from a grave to a gay, or from a fober to an impetuous ftrain. If the mutations were too hid- den and unrelative, they deftroyed the impreflion made upon the ear by the former part of the melody, and the pleafure arifing from reminifcence. " The understanding mufic, fays Ariftoxenus, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 63 Ariftoxenus [b), depends upon fenfation and memory ; for we muft not only feel founds at the inftant they ftrike the organ, but remember thofe with which it has been flruck before, in order to be able to compare them together ; for otherwife it will be impoffible to follow a melody or modulation with plea- fure to the ear, or to form a judgment of its degree of ex- cellence in the mind." The terms pehas and (teXu&otz, which Meibomius has ren- dered by the Latin words, modulatio and cantilena, had no other fignification than the change of founds in finging, or, as we mould call it, melody ; and this is clear from a paflage in Bacchius fenior (<:), where, in his Introduction to the Art of Mufic, by Queftion and Anfwer, it is afked, " How many kinds of modulation there are?" He anfwers, four ; and thefe, he fays, are rifmg, falling, repeating the fame found to dif- ferent words, and remaining upon, or holding out, a mufical tone. This is farther explained, Seel. V. Euclid fays that mutations may be made into any mode within the compafs of an octave, at the diftance even of a fe- mitone (d). This is a latitude of modulation that would greatly offend modern ears, accuftomed only to relative changes of key. Ptolemy, however, does not allow of fuch fudden and extraneous modulations. There is fomething like a fpecimen of Greek modulation in Plutarch's Dialogue [e). If we have placed the modes rightly, the beginning, or firfr. movement of the piece he mentions, was in A; then it paifed to E and B, and ended in G (f) and (I) Lib. i. p. 38 and jg. Edit. Mei- a qur.rter of a tone, as an allowable mo- fccm. dulation, which is not only contrary to (c) P. n; Edit. Meib. the text, but impoffible in practice. Vide (if) M. Burette is miftaken in his tranf- Euclid, Edit. IVIeib. p. 20, at the bottom, lation of this precept in Euclid, which he (e) Mem. ties Iaferip, torn. x. p. 160. has taken from the verlion of Meibomius, (f) Handel is the only one I know of who has likewife either miftaken, or mil- who has hazarded a modulation from B to printed the paflage. Inftead of ^Sonak, G with a fiat third ; a paflage of this kind half a tone, they hare both given Diejis, occurs in the laft aft of the Oratorio of Athalia, 64 DISSERTATION ON THE :D. This would he tolerable ; hut the vopoq ^ty,ep^c, or three .part fong, mentioned by Plutarch, p. 124, which, it feems, confifted in Tinging three ftrophes fucceflively, the firft in the Dorian mode, D, the fecond in the Phrygian, E, and the third in the Lydian, F fharp, rifing a tone each time, would be in ■the higheft degree offenfive to modern ears. And yet, Athenseus ipeaks of a fimilar feat performed by •Pythagoras, the Zacinthyan, upon the lyre ; and Paufanias, of one by Pronomus, the Theban, upon a flute, which he had invented for all the genera. But upon thefe occafions, what Athalia, which is fo bold and wonderfully is relating a dream which (lie had had juft happy in expreffing the words, that I (hall before the execution of that confpiracy, m'ertit here as a great ftroke of the compo- which put an end to her tyranny and life. ler, as well as of mulical imitation. Athalia RECITATIVE. 1tr- Y^hI jpg tz±f=SEz:t- E=s=frH»- w p=l ±= ^4 F^ m-p- I But as the young bar — ba-rian I ca refs'd, He plung'd a dagger --P- e ims si E^=m,s=± :5zz2±z:jz=:iz F :|EEl§ — |E deep 7"H within my bread : 6 No ef — fort could the blow XSQ rr~ re— rfc I I ' - ' ** * __ muft MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 6$ muft have become of their rule for preferring tranfitions by confonant intervals ? We muft fuppofe that thefe unrelative mutations were very old tricks. And yet we muft not condemn them too haflily ; for we find the old church compofers, in the early days of counter- point, neglecting the modern rules of relation, or rather not knowing them, and taking, fearlefsly, two, or more perfect chords of the fame kind, diatonically, ufing every note in the fcale, except the feventh, as a fundamental bafe (g). This is, doubtlefs, the true fecret of ancient church mufic,. and the principal caufe of its effect, fo widely different from that of modern compofitions ; an effect compounded of fo~ lemnity, wildnefs, and melancholy.. SECTION V., Of Melopoeia.. THE rules concerning the different parts of ancient mufic that have been already defcribed, lead naturally to the fubject of Melopoeia, for which they were at firft eftablifhed. MiXog, melos, confifted of a number of mvfical founds of a certain pitch of voice, oppofed to noife, or the unfixed and. evanefcent tones of common fpeecli.. MiXuSiaq, melody, was the Jinging of poetry, X.0 fuch founds : and (g) Paleftrina begins his Stabat Mater, difpofition of the parts, and tempered by which is ftill ufed in the pope's chapel, the perfect manner in which it is fung, and printed in the mufic performed there that though it looks unfcientific and licen- during Paffion week, by three fuccejjive tious upon paper, its effefts, of which no common chords, ivith Jharp thirds, to this idea can be acquired trom keyed inftru-- bafe, A G F, defcending diatonically; and ments, are admirable, yet this modulation is fo qualified by the ~V,0 L . . I. K_ MeXo7rouct } , 66 DISSERTATION ON THE MeXoTToita, mdopoeia, the compofition, or arrangement, of fac'n founds as were fit for Jong. Thefe feveral definitions fhew that all melody was originally vocal, and applied to poetry. Melopoeia had its particular rules, feveral of which are come down to us, and are ftill clear and intelligible : fuch as that an air, or piece of melody, fhould be compofed in fome par- ticular Genus, and be chiefly confined to the founds of fome certain Mode. As to the fucceflion, or order of thefe founds in the courfe of the air, that was in general confined to four fpe- cies of intonation, or intervals, which Euclid fpecifies in his Harmonic Introduction (/>). Thefe I fhall endeavour to de- fcribe with exaclnefs, as they may throw fome light upon an- cient melody. Euclid tells us, firft, that founds may move either afcend- ing or defcending regularly, as thus : ES 135 i=EES==! -25-0-"-= -•- --"-e-o- which was called ctyuyy : fecondly, by leaps of greater inter- vals than a fecond : thus, fk\ ■ ■ • rr- - ' -i which was called -utXokv,, interwoven : thirdly, by repeating the fame found feveral times, which was called -srt!]i:a., iteration: as in tinging thefe notes __o_e_o_e=©zQ_Q_Q. -G-0-&-—3-W ——jj and fourthly, that founds may be fuftained in the fame tone, which we call a holding note, and which the Greeks exprefled by the word tovy\. Thus far feems intelligible ; but I cannot help thinking that the third book of Ariftoxenus, which is chiefly employed in laying down rules for the immediate fucceflion of founds in -a (h) P. 22. Edit. Meib, fcale. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 67 icale, has been mifreprefented, as containing rules for the com~ feojition of melody in general. He fays, indeed, p. 66, " that after a.femkme, the voice can only go two ways up, and two ways down ;" that is, by a tone, or another femitone. This is true in the order of the fcale ; but was all melody confined to that order ? And is there any doubt whether from a femitone it might not go by a leap to a third, fourth, or fifth, above or below ? M. Burette, however, in his notes upon Plutarch, where the enharmonic of Olympus, and the beauty of its melody are mentioned, fays, the beauty muft lie in the novelty, and the novelty was the Ditone, or major third, " which was never heard in the other Genera." What ! was the Diatonic fo ftricTdy confined to a progrefs- by conjoint degrees, as never to be permitted to fkip a note, in order to afcend or defcend by the interval of a. third ?. Nothing can be fo flrange as this afTertion, or fo contrary to the paifage juft quoted from Euclid, which M. Burette has elfewhere tranilated and adopted (/), and indeed to the defini- tion of the term -arAo^, in all fubfequent Greek writers upon mufic, down to Bryennius. But M. Burette is not wholly lingular, I find, in his opi- nion upon this fubject, as Dr. Brown feems to have had the ■ fame idea ;; for in his Progrefs of Poetry^ &c. p. 64, he fays, that the Greek. Diatonic is "utterly incompatible with our Dia- tonic fcale ; becaufe there one femitone, and two tones, muji fucceed each other invariably" Mr. Malcolm is as obfcure and unfatisf actor y as ufual, upon this fubject ; and leaves it,, at leaft, as unintelligible as he found it. But. the denying or doubting, of one of the few fads upon* which ancient writers have exprefled themfelves clearly, is joining in the confpiracy with time, which has already ren- • (i) Mem. ties hifcrip. torn, v, p. 178. K- 2 derecL ?68 DISSERTATION ON THE dered the ftudy of Greek mufic fufficiently hopelefs and def- perate, to reprefs the courage of the boldeft enquirer. There were many rules to be obferved in moving by leaps, or disjunct degrees, the principal of which was to prefer, in general, confonant to diffonant intervals. It was likewife en- joined not to divide any two femitones into quarter tones, to- gether, or two fucceffive tones into femitones (/'), nor were two major thirds to follow each other. But thefe, and a great number of other rules laid down by Ariftoxenus, with refpect to the fuccemon of intervals, were all derived from the genera, the rules for which were rules for melody. The Diatonic genus of the ancients refembled our natural fcale in every particular ; for it is allowed by Ariftox- enus even for three tones to fucceed each other, afcending or defcending, which is all that is allowable in our Diatonic, ex- cept in minor keys, where we afcend to the octave of the key note by a fharp feventh, wh ch the ancients feem never to have admitted. A further detail, or explanation of thefe rules, would not make the matter much clearer ; however, there are fome par- ticulars collected together in the firft book of Ariftides Quin- tilianus (/), that feem to merit attention. He fets off by dividing Melopoeia into three fpecies, taken from the great and general fyftem, which he names after the "founds called Hypaton, Mefe, and Nete ; that is, loweft, mid- dle, and higheft ; and thefe denominations refembled, with refpeft to melody, our diftin&ions of bafe, tenor, and treble. With regard to modulation in melody he has the fame dis- tinctions as Euclid for the feveral fpecies, though he differs a little from him in his manner of defining them ; but thefe differences are of fmall importance to us now ; and indeed the (h) The prohibition of more than two ancient chromatic was very different from femitones fucceeding each other at a time, the modern, rifing or falling, is a clear proof that the (I) P. 28 and 29. Edit. Meibom. autho- MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 69 authority of Euclid is fo fuperior to that of Ariflides Quinti- Jianus, that nothing which can be cited from him would have weight fufficient to invalidate the teftimony of fo exact and re- fpectable a writer. However, the moral diflinctions of Melopoeia to be found in Ariflides Quintilianus are fo curious and fanciful, that I fhall infert a few of them here. He allows of three modes [r^oiroi) or ftyles of Melopoeia : the Dithyrambic, or Bacchanal ; the Komic, confecrated to Apollo ; and the Tragic ; and acquaints us that the firft of thefe modes employed the firings, or founds, in the middle of the great fyftem ; the fecond, thofe at the top ; and the third, thofe at the bottom. Thefe modes had other fubaltern modes that were depend- ent on them ; fuch as the Erotic, or amorous ; the Comic ; and The Encomiajiic, ufed in panegyrics. All thefe being thought proper to excite or to calm certain paffions, were, by our au- thor, imagined to have had great influence upon the manners* ('ij&j) ; and, with refpect to this influence, Melopoeia was di- vided into three kinds : firft, the Syjlaltic, or that which in- fpired the foft and tender paffions, as well as the plaintive, or, as the term implies, fuch as affect and penetrate the heart : fecondly, the Diajlaltic, or that which was capable of exhi- lerating, by kindling joy, or infpiring courage, magnanimity, and fublime fentiments : thirdly, the Hefuchajlic, which held the mean between the other two, that is, which could reftore the mind to a ftate of tranquility and moderation. The firft kind of' Melopoeia fuited poetical fubjects of love and gallantry, of complaint and lamentation : the fecond was referved for tragic and heroic fubjects : the third for hymns, panegyrics, and as a vehicle of exhortation and precept (;«). (m) Thefe imaginations are evidently tells us, that " he had invented certain drawn from the dreams of Pythagoras. mufical airs, with which, by a happy lamblkus, hi the life of that philoibpher, mixture of genera, he could, at his plea- fure, ;o DISSERTATION ON THE All thefe rules concerning the ancient Mehpoeia afford only general notions, which, to be rendered clear and intelligi- ble, would require particular difcuffions as well as illuftrations by example ; but the Greek writers on mufic have abfolutely denied us that fatisfaction, referving, perhaps, when they pub- lished their works, all fuch minutice for the leffons which they gave their fcholars in private ; for in no one of the feven trea- tifes upon ancient mufic, collected and published by Meibo- mius, is a fingle a/r, or pajjage of Greek melody, come down to us ; which is the more extraordinary, as there are few trea* tifes upon modern mufic, without innumerable examples in notes, to illuftrate the precepts they contain. But whatever were the rules for arranging different founds in fuch order as would flatter the ear in the moft agreeable manner, it is eafy to imagine that this regular difpofition* and beautiful order of founds, conftituted nothing more than the mere body of melody, which could only be animated and vivified by the affiftance of Rhythm, or Meafure : and this will be difcuffed in the next fection. fure, govern the paffions of his fcholars, and awaken terror, melancholy, anger, compaffion, emulation, fear, and delires of all kinds ; as well as ftimulate appe- tite, pride, caprice, and vehemence, guid- ing each afFe&ion according to virtue, with fuitabh melodies,, as with fo many falutary and healing medicines." And Plutarch, in his Difcourfe on the CeJJation of Oracles, fays, that poetry Jet to mujic, was once this current language of Greece, and the ve- hicle of hiftory, philofophy, and of every important fubjedt.. SECTION MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. ji SECTION VI. Of Rhythm. CONTINUED motion in every organized body that is capable of it, is fufceptible of fome kind of meafure. This meafure marks the feveral parts of motion, and enables us to judge of their proportions. It is to point out thefe pro- portions that the Greeks, among many other terms, have made life of pvQpog, Rhythm, which they have applied to different purpofes. They have not only expreffed by it the kind of cadence, or vibration of the wings, in the flight of birds ; the movement of the feet in the progreffive motion of animals ; and the geftures, figures, and fteps of dancers ; but every fpecies of regular motion, fuch as is obfervable in the beating of the pulfe, and in refpiration. They have even abufed the original import of the word fo far as to apply it to things ab- folutely motionlefs and inanimate ; fuch as works in painting and fculpture, in which they have called that fymetry and juft proportion which reigns in all the parts by the name of Rhythm. But the moft common application of this term has been to exprefs the time or duration of many founds heard in fuccef- iion : whether thefe founds are mufical, and fuch as are pro- duced by voices and inftruments, or without any determinate tone, as in the ftrokes of a hammer upon an anvil ; in the beating of a drum ; and in the articulations of the voice in common fpeech, in repeating poetry, or pronouncing an oration. But our enquiries here fhall be confined to that fpecies of Rhythm, which more particularly concerns melody, and which merits difcuffion the more, on account of its great importance in mufic, 72 r>TS SERT ATI ON ON THE mufic, and of the darknefs in which it is ufually involved by writers on the fubjecT. - From the ftridt union of poetry and mufic among the an- eient?, which feem to have been almoft infeparable, an offence againft Time or Rhythm was unpardonable, as it not only de- ftroyed the beauty of the poetry, but fometimes even the- meaning of the words of which it was compofed. To ar«« -wccpx fiovtriKoig o pvdpog, fay the Greeks ; it was the principal point ia their mufic, without which they regarded melody as wholly un- meaning and lifelefs. Hence Plato refufed the title of mufi- cian to every one who was not perfectly verfed in Rhythm, as we fhould now to a bad Timei/L It is of fuch importance, that, without it, mufic can have no power over the human paffions. Pythagoras, according to Martianus Capella, ufed to- call Rhythm, in mufic, the male, and Melos the female; and Doni («) has compared Rhythm with dejign, in painting, and Melos to colouring. It is certain that an ordinary melody, in which the time is flrongly marked, and the accents are well placed, has more effect than one that is deficient in thofe par- ticulars, though more refined and uncommon, and fet off with, all the richnefs of harmony, and learning of modulation. Ifaac Voffius, in his Differtation, de Poematum Cantu, ef viribus Rhythmi, has attributed to Rhythm all the miraculoua- powers of ancient mufic. As vocal mufic was chiefly cultivated among the ancient. Greeks, the firft part of thefe rhythmical obfervations fhall be confined to lyric poetry. Ariftides Quintilianus defines mufical Rhythm a-vg-^x Ik -/ao- vuv kxtx Ttva. tu^iv trvyxeipBvuv (o). " The aflemblage of many " parts of time, which preferve a certain proportion with; " each other j" which, fince the ufe of bars in mufic, may be called aliquot parts of a meafure, or a given portion of (n) Tom. ii. p. 203, (0) Lib. i. p. 31. Edit. Meibom. time*. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 73 time, For the better underftanding of this definition, it is ne- ceftary to remember that the mufic in queftion was conftantly fung to verfes, the words of which were all compofed of long and Jhort fyllables ; that the fhort fyllable was pronounced as quick again as the long, and the fhort fyllable being regarded as one part or portion of this meafure, the long was equal to two : fo that, confequently, the found which was applied to the long fyllable, was equal in duration to two fuch founds as were fung to fhort fyllables, or, in other words, that one note was equal to two portions of time, and the other to one. It muft likewife be remembered that the verfes thus fung, were compofed of a certain number of feet, formed by thefe long and fhort fyllables differently combined, and that the Rhythm of the melody was regulated by thefe feet ; as, whatever was their length, they were always divided into two parts, equal or unequal, the firft of which was called «f and though they had fo great a variety of feet in their poetry, many of thofk already inftanced are unfit for modern melody. After all the refearches which I have been able to make, it muft be acknowledged that the fubject of ancient mufic, in general, ftill remains, and probably ever will remain involved; in much difficulty and uncertainty. It is fortunate, however, for thofe who wifh to view as near as poffible th'sdark angle of antiquity, that the profpedl happens to be the cleareft juft in that part where all its admirers affure us it is beft worth examining ; for however ignorant we may be of the Melody of ancient mufic, the Rhythm, or time of that melody, being re- gulated entirely, as has been already obferved, by the metrical: MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. *8i feet, muft always be as well known to us as the profody and construction of the verfe ; fo that we have nothing to do but to apply to the long and fhort fyllables any two notes, one of which is double the length of the other, in order to know as exactly as if we heard, in what manner any particular kind of metre was fet by the ancients with refpedt to Time and Ca- dence, that boafted Rhythm, which we are fo often told was every thing in their mufic. It may therefore afford fome gra- tification to the curiofity of thofe who have never confidered the poetry of the ancients in this point of view, if I produce a few examples, which will, perhaps, help to throw a little light upon the dramatic mufic of the Greeks, and give fome idea of the rhythmical refources of the poet-mujician in one of the moft interesting provinces of his art. The firft example fhall be of the Iambic verfe, which chiefly prevails in the Greek tragedies, and in which the dialogue and foliloquy, indeed all but the chorus and ode, were generally written. I fhall content myfelf with applying notes of corre- fpondent lengths to the fyllables, and marking rhe time ; leav- ing the Melody to the imagination of the reader. Should I pre- fume to fupply it, I might expedt to be reproached as another Salmoneus for my temerity. Demens ! qui nimhos et non imitabile fulmen, &c. (z) ift Foot =E§3 W3f. _j "4= H=F _pzp B fc H «« vt — ■ — Kpwfmuo puvci zca \gko-th ■zcruXotg- At— 7TWV,. tV ^^smm uzs. =F 'A-Jvjs. %*>£<£ efyah> T«i9-£ — uv, | &c. [a) (■■a) Salmoneus was a king of Elis, Who mock'd with empty founds and mi- mic rays, Heav'n's awful thunder* and the light- ning's blaze. Fi.xx'a Virg,. Book vi. Thefe- (a) This meafure when pure- and un- mixt, confifted of fix Iambic feet, as, eques \ sonan\le vlr\b"era\bit un\gula. Such verfes, however, feldom occur.- The laws of this nretre only required that the fa-ond,- fourth, and loft feet fhould be lam- *22 DISSERTATION ON THE Thefe lines are the beginning of the Hecuba of Euripides,' and were lung by the ghoft of Polydorus (b). The bars in the verfe are only to fhew how the ancients divided it into three portions of two feet in each : but the bars of Time, the The/is, or beat, mull always fall in the middle of the foot : " | J f. Eor the fake of diftinguiihing the feet more clearly, I have barred them fingly ; though it would have been more conform- able to the ancient manner of fcanning this kind of verfe, and probably more exprefhve of its cadence and effeff, to have made but three bars in each line (c.) Befides this metre, the dialogue admitted, occafionally, Trochaic verfes. They are generally introduced in fcenes of hurry and diforder ; being, as Ariftotle has defcribed them, and as their name implies, a voluble and dancing meafure (d). A character which the reader will not be inclined to difpute, when he com- pares the ancient Trochaic with a meafure exactly correfpend- ing to it in our own language, but which we have not yet admitted into our tragedy. Ha VT" »to?> cs urityvyi | Tisjiov ex. oopuv £ 1 Za-irasj e — vc&--pi9 — y,u. p p- i *-p i p TJg yap, Ttg a — v^ ■w\s-ov § T«; eu—dai-- [ao — vl -ag (pepet, £ W- H TO-CTZS-TOU ■htriumve temporum pedes, veluti licence of lyric poetry, were lafer refine- Pyrrichii, Iambi, Daftyli, Pa-ones, lonici, ments. The progrefs of )nujical Rhythm Jimul eopulentur : though this is done con-, was, of courfe, the fame. Plutarch exr tinually, not only in the lyric part, but prefly fays, in the dialogue de Mujicd, even in the dialogue of the ancient drama, -that tb.e compofitions of Terpander, and kinds ,i MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 81 kinds : the time of thefe mar, indeed, have been accelerated or retarded, but ftill the fame proportion mufl: have been pre- ferved between them ; and all their variety mufl: have arifen from different combinations of thefe two kinds of notes, fuch as any two of ours could afford : as femibreves and minims, minims and crotchets, or crotchets and quavers. This accounts for the facility with which even the common people -of Greece could difcover the miftakes, if any were com- mitted, in the length and fhortnefs of the fyllables, both with refpect to the poetry, and the mufic, a point of hiftory in which all writers agree; and this feems to confirm what has been already faid in the fifth fedtion : that belides the intervals peculiar to the melody, Rhythm, or time, mufl: have contributed to characterize the modes, though it has no kind of connection with our flat and fharp keys ; and this gives an idea quite dif- ferent from what our modern modes, taken as keys, and our mufic, in general, furnifh. Tartini upon this fubject fays, that we make the profody fubfervient to the muiic, not the mufic to the profody ; and adds, " that as by the laws prefcribed to the ancient muficians, they were obliged to preferve rigoroufly in their mufic the quantity of fyllables, it was impoflible to pro- tract a vowel, in finging, beyond the time which belonged to a fyllable : we, on the contrary, prolong the vowels through many bars, though in reading they are oftentimes fhort." Tartini, however, in pure courtefy, allows to the ancients a difcretionary power of making fyllables longer or fhorter than rigorous time would admit, in order to diverfify expreflion, and to enforce the paflion implied by the words (z) ; but if time was rigoroufly beaten, in the manner the ancients have related, it is not very eafy to fubfcribe to this opinion. And now, having explained the nature, difference, and pro- perties of ancient Rhythm, I mall beftow a few words on an (z) trot. diMuf. p. 139. Vol. L M , examina- 82 DISSERTATION ON THE examination of the modern, and endeavour to fliew what it has in common with the ancient, and what peculiar to it- felf (4 We no longer know Rhythm now under its ancient name ; however, it has been continued, with a fmall change of pronun- ciation, merely to exprefs the final cadence of verfes, or the agreement and fimilarity of found in the laft fyllables of two or more lines in poetry ; being at prefent what we call Rhyme : whereas the proportion fubfifting between the different parts of a melody are called time, meafure, movement. And when we come to examine this proportion, we find that it only confifts of two kinds, differently modified ; and thefe two are known by the names of common timet confiding of equal numbers, and triple time, of unequal. Tartini has deduced all meafure from the proportions of the octave and its fifth, (h) " Common time, or meafure, fays he, arifes from the octave, which is as I : 2 ; triple time arifes from the fifth, which is as 2 : 3. Thefe, adds he, are the utmoft li- mits within which we can hope to find any practicable propor- tions for melody. Indeed many have attempted to introduce other kinds of meafure, which, inflead of good effects, have produced nothing but the greateft confufion ; and this muft al- ways be the cafe. Mufic has been compofed of five equal notes in a bar, but no mufician has yet been found that is able to execute it." By the improvement of inftrumental mufic, and indeed by the liberties which we have taken with poetry in finging, we (a) Mr. Marpurg has published a very might be fettled by mufical characters ; ufeful work for his countrymen in Ger- and as profotjy comprehends not only the many, upon this fubject, under the title of rules of pronunciation, but the laws of ver- •Slnleitllllfl Jill' <8tngCOIlipOUtion, Berlin, fification, a treatife on the fubje£t, as far 1758, Introduction to Vocal Mafic, in which as it concerns vocal mufic, would be a mod he has compared the pronunciation and ufeful work to our young lyric compofers, verification of the Latin, German, and as well as to foreigners, who frequently in- Italian languages. A ftritt adherence, jure that poetry which their melody fhould however, to the rhythmical laws of Greece enforce and explain. and Rome would not enrich our melody ; (&) Trat. di Muf. p. 1 14. though accurate rules for Englifh frofiody have MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. S3 have multiplied notes, and accelerated the meafure. Inftead of one found to one fyllable, or one portion of time for a fhort fyllable, and two for a long one, we frequently divide and fubdivide the time of thefe feveral portions into all their ali- quot parts, and fometimes into incommenfurable quantities. After the invention of mufical characters for time, differ- ent from thofe in poetry, the ftudy of their relations became one of the moft laborious and perplexed parts of a mufician's bufinefs. Thefe characters were of different value and velo- city, according to other characters placed at the beginning of a mufical compofition, and likewiie frequently occurring in the courfe of a piece, to anounce a change of meafure : as from common time to triple, from quick to flow, or the con- trary. Thefe characters were called moods, but they were fo ex- tremely embarrafling and ill underffood, till the invention of bars, by which mufical notes were divided into equal portions, that no two theorifts agreed in the definition of them. Thefe modes, by which the kind of movement with refpect to quick and flow, as well as the proportions of the notes, ufed to be known, fince the ufe of technical terms, chiefly taken from the Italian language and mufic, have been adopted, ferve no other purpofe than to mark the number and kind of notes in each bar. But by this invention of mufical characters for time, and the ufe of bars, we have certainly advanced in the performance of inftrumental mufic, by giving to it more energy and ac- centuation ; it has now a cadence and feet of its own, more marked and fenfible than thofe of poetry, by which it ufed to move. We have alfo, in our airs, a diflinct fpecies of mufic for poetry, wholly different from recitative and cha7iting ; for in thefe we ■are no more tied down to ftated meafure than the ancients, but are governed by the accent and cadence of the words. However, our florid-Jong, it cannot be diffembled, is not always fufficiently M 2 fubfervient 84 DISSERTATION ON THE fubfervient to poetry ; for in applying mufic to words, it fre- quently happens that the fineft fentimcnts and molt, polifhed verfes of modern languages are injured and rendered unintelligible, by an inattention to profody. Even the fimple and plain rules of giving a fhort note to a fhort fyllable, a long to a long ; and. of accentuating the mufic by the meafure and natural ca- dence of the verfe, which the mere reading would point out> to a good ear and understanding, are but too frequently ne- glected. Modern melody requires, perhaps, more than a fingle foundt to a fingle fyllable ; and a fine voice deferves, now and then, a. Jong note to difplay its fweetnefs ; but this fhould be dons upon long fyllables, and to open vowels, and, perhaps, in ge~ neral, after the words have been once fimply and articulately fung, for the hearer to know what paflion is intended to be expreffed, or fentiment enforced, by future divifions. Expletives, particles, and words of fmall importance, are- forced into notice by carelefs or ignorant compofers, who, only intent upon mere mufic, pay no regard to her fifter^. poetry. But then, poetry, in revenge, is as little folicitous about mufical effects j for- fymmetry of air, or fimplicity of' defign, are generally fo little thought of, that every heteroge- neous idea, which can be hitched into rhyme, is indifcrimi- nately crowded into the fame fong. Indeed mufic and poetry, like man and wife, or other afTociat.es, are befi afunder, if they cannot agree ; and on many occafions, it were to be. wifhed, that the partnerfhip were amicably diflblved. Salinas tells us, from St. Auguftine, that poets and mufi-. cians have ever been at ftxife concerning long and fhort fyl- lables, accents, and quantity, fince they have ceafed to be united; in one and the fame perfon, and have fet up different in- terefts. There is fome poetry fo replete with meaning, fo philofo- phical, inftru&ive, and fublime, that it becomes wholly ener- vated; MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 85 ■^ated by being drawled out to a tunei which affects no part, of the head, but the ear. And there is, again, fome kind even of inftrumental mufic, fo divinely compofed, and fo expreffively performed, that it wants no words to explain its meaning : it is itfelf the lan- guage of the heart and of paffion, and fpeaks more to both ia a few notes, than any other language compofed of clafhing eonfonants, and infipid vowels, can do in as many thoufand. And, upon the whole, it feems as if poetry were more im- mediately the language of the head, and. mufic that of the heart ; or, in other words, as if poetry were the properefr. ve- hicle of inftrudtion, and modulated found that of joy, forrow,. and innocent pleafure.. " Let the mufician, fays M. Roulfeau,. " have as many images or fentiments to exprefs as you pleafe, " with few fimple ideas : for. the. pafjions only fmg it the itn- " derjianding fpeaks (<:).'' But notwithstanding both poetry and profody are fo fre- quently injured by injudicious compofers, it muft not be ima- gined that in our fimple airs of the gavot and minuet kind, we have no mufical Rhythm, or that it always clafhes with the poetical. Innumerable inftances may be given from well known. Englifh fongs, where the cadence of the verfe, and even the pronunciation of each fyllable, is carefully preferved by the air. For though our. time-table furnifhes fix different degrees of long and. fhort notes, without points, yet, if the divifions in fongs defigned to difplay a particular talent for difficult exe- cution be excepted, we feldbm ufe more than two kinds of notes in the fame air; Mirth, admit me of thy crew, by Handel, as well as fe- veral popular fongs by Dr. Arne, Mr. Jackfon, and others, are fufficiently conformable to poetical numbers and Rhythm, to i&tisfy the greateft admirers of ancient fimplicity, or even fuch_ (c) DiB. de Mufiqite, .Ait. Accent. as- 36 DISSERTATION ON THE as love poetry better than mufic, from whom complaints of non-conformity generally proceed. Ifaac Voffius fays it is now above a thoufand years, fince muficians have loll that great power over the affections, which arofe only from the true fcience and ufe of Rhythm ; and he accufes modern mufic of fuch a want of time and accent, as to be all of one ftyle and colour fdj. We will not defend the age in which Voffius wrote from the charge, nor the mufic of the prefent ferious opera in France ; but the compositions of Italy and Germany are certainly free from the cenfure, as mufic is now more divided into phrafes, and fentences, than it was ; time is more marked, and more ealily felt than it has ever been fince the days of Guido. What it was before, is not very well known ; but to confefs the truth, it is my opinion, that whatever it has comparatively loft in fome particulars, it has gained in others, as I fhall endeavour to manifeft in the courfe of this work. SECTION VII, Of the PraBice of Melopoeia. IT was long and ardently wifhed, that a collection of fome of the moft beautiful melodies of antiquity could have been found among the ancient manufcripts that have efcaped the ravages of time, in order to determine what kind of mufic it was, of which fuch wonders have been related ; as exam- ples would have been more decifive in proving the truth or (d) Adeoque temporum varietate deftuitur fhould certainly not be accufed of want of bujus AZtatis Mufica, ut mere de ca dici accent : for, like the French, according to plffl't, unites propemodum cam ejje coloris et M. Rouffeau, in quick movements, it re* faporis. De Poemat. Cantu et Virib. fembles un corps dure ct angukux qui roule Rhythmi, p, 86. But true Englijb fmging fur k pave. falfehood MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 87 falfehood of the effects that have been attributed to it, and its comparative excellence with the modern, than the ftrongeft ar- guments that can be drawn from hiftory, or the dark and dry mufical treatifes that are come down to us. But remains of this kind are not eafily found : however, a few are ftill fub- fifting, of which I fhall give a minute account. At the end of a Greek edition of the aflronomical poems of Aratus, called Phenomena, and their Scholia, publifhed at Ox- ford, in 1672, the anonymous editor (e), among feveral other pieces, has enriched the volume with three hymns, which he fuppofed to have been written by a Greek poet called Dio- nyfuis, of which the firft is addrefled to the Mufe Calliope, the fecond to Apollo, and the third to Neraefis ; and thefe hymns are accompanied with the notes of ancient mufic, to which they ufed to be fung. This precious manufcript, which was found in Ireland,, among the papers of the famous archbifhop Ufher, was bought,, after his deceafe, by Mr. Bernard, fellow of St. John's col- lege, who communicated it to the editor, together with re- marks and illuftrations by the reverend Mr. Edmund Chil- mead, of Chrift-church, who likewife reduced the ancient mufical characters to thofe in common ufe. It appears by the notes, that the mufic of thefe hymns was compofed in the Lv- dian mode, and Diatonic genus. Vincenzo Galilei, father of the great Galileo, firft publifhed thefe hymns, with their Greek notes, in his Dialogues upon slncieni and Modern Mufic, printed at Florence, 1581, folio. He aflures us, that he had them from a Florentine gentleman,, who copied them very accurately from an ancient Greek manu- fcript, preferved in the library of cardinal St. Angelo, at Rome,, which MS. likewife contained the treatifes of mufic by Ariftides. (e) Fabricius, Bibliotbcca Giwa, tells world is indebted for this elegant and ac— us, that it was Dr. John Fell, afterwards curate edition of Aratus. biJliop of Oxford, to whom the literary Quintilianus^ ■&8 DISSERTATION ON THE Quintilianus, and Bryennius, fince publifhedby Meibomius, and Dr. Wallis. The Florentine edition of thefe hymns entirely agrees with that printed at Oxford. In 1602, Hercules Bot- trigari mentioned the fame hymns in his harmonical difcourfe, •Galled Melone, printed at Ferrara, in 4to. But he derived his knowledge of thefe pieces, only from the Dialogues of Ga- inei however, he inferted, in the beginning of his book, fome fragments of them in common notes ; but they were disfi- gured by a number of typographical errors. At length, in the year 1720, M. Burette publifhed thefe three hymns, in the Memoirs of the Academy des Injcriptions^ to?ne V. from a copy found at the end of a Greek manufcript in the king of France's library at Paris, No. 3221, which likewife contained the mufical treatifes of Ariftides Quintilianus, and of Bacchius fenior. But though the words were confufed, and confounded one with another, they appeared much more com- plete in this manufcript than elfewhere, particularly the hymn te Apollo, which had fix verfes more at the beginning ; and that of Nemefis, which, though deficient at the end in all the other editions, was here entire, having fourteen verfes, exclu- five of the fix firft. I was willing to give my readers all poffible fatisfa&ion with refpecl to the authenticity of thefe curious fragments, which have been fifted, collated, and corrected by the moil able critics in the Greek language, as well as the moft fkilful muficians of this and the laft century. I fhall avail myfelf of all their labours ; and after prefent- ing the reader with a copy of the original manufcript in the form it was at firft difcovered, that is, with the Greek mu- fical characters over the words, I fhall infert the fame mufic in equivalent modern notes ; and, laftly, fhall venture to give an Englifh paraphraftical tranflation of each hymn, with remarks upon the whole. - £?5 MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. EI£ MOT2AN, latpGos BxKyjio;. a Z. Z tp $ t7 cr Aeih, pixra, pot (piXy, (T7TCJ/ i (p M M Z Z Z E Z Z i' V Avpy; cs cuv air aXtrzuv M ZE V

,A(37T£ Ms/ma v ■urpox.a.TctyiTi rip-rrvuiv. R 9 o- j M V M Ka; — Tec, Aa-Ty; yc-: 1 ?, Ay-7\.-i 9 Ilsct-xv ! Et-y.s — ycic Trass— ef* /^i • (_/■) In the copy of thefe hymns, pub- liflied by M. Burette from the manufcript in the king of France's library, at Paris, the notes exprefled by the fmall letters i' p a- are all capitals, like thofe in the printed dia- grams of Alypius ; and Vincenzo Galilei obferves, that Hypate Me/im, which in the SLydian mode is C, was exprefled by Aly- Vol, I, N pins, not only with a fmall figma, but a ca- pital, and fometimes by this character C The fame thing happened likewife to Par- hypatc Me/on, and to Me/e. Dial. Mia Mujica Antlca e Modcnia, p. 07. (g) In the French MS. this is G «r. (?) In Burette this is D. X Oxford MS. HYMN 9° DISSERTATION ON THE HYMN to the Mufe CALLIOPE. O Mufe beloved, Calliope divine, The firft in rank among the tuneful Nine, Guide thou my hand, and voice, and let my lyre Re-echo back the notes thy {trains infpire. And thou, great leader of the facred band, Latona's fon, at whofe fublime command The fpheres are tun'd, whom Gods and men declare.- Sov'reign of fong, propitious hear my pray'r. YMNOS EIS AnOAAHNA. Thefe fix verfes are i not in the Oxford, ( or Italian copy. Ovpect T£[t7T£x criyara, Ty, koci wovroq, Kcti ■zrvoixi.y . H^oi, wvpog a.fA.^pOTa § M V Z Z Z i' M p =c-i7t dt — u—/.Eu; 3 Xpv— Jsai-riv a — yK>-? o-xe — v^ «c /Xfifclf, 1 i5 «2*- ^s^ E L J n £ £>j VU—TOV a — "" — 7T£t — ^caov s — ?a— »?. Ak- — Tl — • p« TO- A * TV ~ /* «. '^*_ (fy » r» t"V vt'** , _ 4 1 C. < -J. !. _J c -^ ■4 -* V-'SV 0?'' » Uf/.7T? IE- — %av 9 Ai->Xa ? w *c« ?>.y — * Q.-X nroL- !<■ tv Tis-^t O 1 A * ' 1 " 1 ^5 ^ e 4 Sr* ri'i :zfc±_ f) e -^ U L* „ yexiccv a — Trccaxv e T^iir-aruv, TIoTa, — jxoi £c ere— Qev wv^O- «f* — /9fo — ry, :sz^ mi e: ©-■«- sJz!:: W TtX T0V71V £9T- iHf^ ... ?«-rCJI Ci -fJLE—f>CtV Soi-jwev X°? r ''> ev-ai-ag *S ^ IEplt gE^Sl^=i e-e =3=3 -£WV N 2 Avercy 9 z DISSERTATION ON THE Z Z M Z Z M Z V E Z Avsrov iJ.sXog olisv deiowv, m v zz M V p

o«6ij cr Asuxuv utto (rvp^atri povyjav a CTtJO-crcrppplppM Toivvurca os ts 01 voog eupevvig, M V Z V M V

« xpctTXcrct. IXolOi, yt,ot,y_oup ?oA--^Ct — /C^, y~ ' ow?i.xz-fAyr, mi r r u r I ±M 01 r©i r m 1 ~e S3^: HSg -xov Met — aa'j XTctc — v Tcc$ a- -#y--Et fAtv $z r 1 ± -J. ^siiS :£ fzd 4 d-9 P3 ■ c-t>, 'A— y/) — n&±±±=r: ^ h £Lfl ■G-* F& *-zr- w.:z 3 E SE * MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 109 3 lEgEE sdEEE gglSl gg :a:^: ssz:^p £ ,.j? ? .j I IBt-** -P— '±£ f-f* 3— -d-d- S .i:zai -j — E iEE z±^± gzx:s:s ffiE ^V«s^ p-a-n a C5 , rP-P-n r - i «'i«*T p- ,» O • F I 1 1 JpZ , p 1 1 1 ^Tj 4 1 . | _L_i U ' -d- 1 fi3=a iz=: zdziz^za as * &£ M Dr. Brown, or whoever was author of the Letter concern- ing the Mufic of the Ancients, addreffed to Mr. Avifon, and annexed to the fecond edition of his EJJ'ay on Mufical Expref- Jion, was fomewhat unfortunate, when in his wifhes for a fpe- eimen of ancient Greek melody he fixed upon Pindar's firft ode ; the only piece of Greek poetry generally known, in which thefe wifhes might have been gratified. " If, fays he, " we had the old mufical notes which were fet to any parti- " cular ode or hymn that is extant, I fhould not defpair of " finding out the length of each note ; for the quantity of " fyllables would probably be a tolerable guide [q) ; and I " would confent to truck the works of Signor Alberti for the ** tune that was fet to Pindar's This author goes on informing us by his conjectures con* eerning what the Greek melody was, that he had never heard! {tf) It is the only guide. to the length of sncient notes. ofF no DISSERTATION ON THE of the fpecimens which had been published of it by Vincentio Galilei, Bottrigari, Kircher, the Oxford editor of Aratus, or by M. Burette, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Infcriptions. In the poftfcript, however, he mentions the Oxford edition of Aratus ; but what ufe has he made of it, except to tell us that he faw there ' : fome learned obfervations on ancient mufic, " and a few fragments of ancient tunes to fome Greek odes " and hymns, reduced to our modern notation V Was not this the time and place to tell us what this mufic was ? how far it excelled the modern ? and that he was flill ready to facrince the elegant works of poor Alberti for fo in- valuable an acquisition as the tune that was fet to his favourite ode of Pindar ? Not a word efcapes from the author con- cerning his raptures upon feeing in venerable Greek charac- ters, as well as in fnarp-comered Gothic notes, this divine mufic, nor of the effect it had on his paffions when he heard it performed ; he only tells us that " it came into his mind he " had perufed it long ago ; and upon looking now in the " book, he found two remarks of the editor, agreeing with " his own notions, about time, quantity ', and fimplicity." — He could not fubmit either to the humiliating tafk of conferring that he did not underftand this mufic ; or that its excellence did not at all correfpond with the high ideas he had, unheard, and unfe.en, formed of it. I fhall beftow a word or two more upon this Letter, now I am on the fubject. The author fuppoies that " one great ad- •" vantage which arofe even from the fimplicity of the an- " .cient tunes, and which greatly fet off their concert of vo- " cal and inflrumental mufic, was, that the finger could be " underftood, and that the words had their effect as well as " the mufic ; and then the charms of elegant and pathetic ■" poefy, aided and fet off by the voice, perfon, manner, and *' accent of the finger, and by the found of inftruments, might *' affect the hearer very ftrongly." We do not, however, of- ten MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 1 1 1 ten find this to be the cafe with Italian recitative, though it more than anfwers this defcription in every particular, when the poefy is Metaftafio's, and the finger, belides his fine voice, figure, and action, poffeffes the mod exquifite tafte and ex- preflion. For even, at fuch time, the audience is, in general, yawning and languishing for the air, which, by its fuperior fweetnefs in melody to recitative, makes them forget poefy, declamation, propriety, and every thing but their ears. A line of recitative, ever fo pathetically, or emphatically pronounced, feldom extorts that thundering applaufe from an audience, which is bellowed on a great actor for fpeaking only two or three words ; though an air fung by the fame performer, whofe recitatives had been heard with coldnefs and indiffer- ence, is honoured with rapturous applaufe, and an univerfal encore I The author, in fpeaking of " the harmonious and unri- " vailed fweetnefs of the Greek language, fays, as the Latin " tongue furpaffes ours in fweetnefs, fo the Greek furpaffes " the Latin. When I taught my little boy his Greek nouns " and verbs (fays Tanaquil Faber), he told me one day a " thing that fnrprifed me, for he had it not from me. Me- " thinks, faid he, the found of the Greek tongue is much " more agreeable than that of the Latin. You are in the rip-ht, " faid I. — By this I perceived that the boy had a good ear, " which I took as a prefage that his tajle and his judgment " would one day be good; having often obferved that this is one " of the earlieft and befit marks of a child's capacity." This obfer/ation is, in my opinion, fo unphilofophical and wide of the truth, that it fhould only have been mentioned by our author to cenfure it. A good ear in a child may be a prefage of his genius for mufic ; and there have been many great mu- ficians without tafte or judgment in any thing but their own profeflion. But fome of the wifeft men, and of the greateft talents, in other particulars, I am forry to fay it, have not had ear ii2 DISSERTATION ON THE ear enough for mufic to difcover the difference, not only be- tween good and bad mufic, but between one tune and another. And yet thefe great and wife men, in other particulars, think themfelves qualified to write, talk, and decide, about mufic, in a more peremptory manner, than thofe of the greateft feel- ing and genius, who have long made it their particular ftudy. Poor human nature is never to be perfect : however, the mufi- cian pities the man without ears ; and the man without ears, in revenge, heartily contemns the fiddling fool, who can be delighted with fuch nonfenfe. SECTION VIII. Whether the Ancients had Counterpoint, or Mujic in Parts. THIS is a fubject which has given birth to many learned diiquiiitions and difputes ; and as it long remained a mere matter of opinion, thofe who believed, and thofe who denied the point in queftion, confequently treated each other with all due polemic acrimony. The champions for antiquity thought themfelves involved in the controverfy ; and whether they were poffeffed of mufical knowledge, or were fenfible to the charms of harmony, or no, they determined to regard every man as an enemy to found literature, who did not fubfcribe to the articles of their faith. A poem, called Le Siecle de Louis le Grand, written by Charles Perrault of the Academy of Sciences, and brother to Claude Perrault, the famous phyfician and architect, occafioned the long and violent difpute between him and Boileau, and foon brought on a general war among the learned throughout Europe, concerning the fuperiority of the ancients or mo- derns, with refpect to arts, fciences, and literature. This piece was firil read by the author at the Academy of Sciences in 1687, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 113 1687, and was foon followed by his Parallele des Anciens ei des Modernes. The notes to Boileau's tranflation of Longinus were intended as a reply to Perrault ; and are full of bitter invectives, not only againft him, but the moderns in general. Racine, La Bruyere, and Fontenelle, took fides in the quarrel, which in France was kept alive, with great animofity, for near thirty years. In England, the controverfy between Sir William Temple and Mr. Wootten, Mr. Boyle and Dr. Bentley, and Swift's Battle of the Books, were confequences of this quarrel. Thofe who had written ex profeffb on mufic, had frequently differed in their opinions concerning counterpoint having been known by the ancients, previous to the learned, in general, interesting themfelves in the difpute ; and before I give my own opinion, as an individual, it is incumbent on me, as ah hiftorian, to lay before my readers the fentiments of others, and the reafons, or prejudices, upon which they were founded. Many who doubt of far more important points, though fuch as human evidence can never determine, would, however, be glad to have them demonftrated. I have read and confidered the feveral arguments which have been urged for and againft the queftion, with a mind open to conviction, and certainly free from prejudice againft the ancients ; for, on the contrary, I have always admired and reverenced them in the models they have given us in every fpecies of writing, as well as in the beautiful remains of their fculpture, painting, and architec- ture, and therefore mould moft willingly contribute my ut- moft in fupport of their claims to a melody and harmony fu- perior to our own, if there were fads fufficiently numerous, clear, and indifputable, to found them upon. However, as the whole difpute, at this diflance of time, from the perifhable materials upon which the ancient fymbols of found were traced, refts upon conjeffure, or at moft upon prefumptive proof; and as I have no favourite hypothefis to Vol. I. Q^ fupport, ii4. DISSERTATION ON THE fupport, which would incline me to give all the evidence in favour of one fide, and conceal, or mifconftrue, whatever would be for the advantage of the other ; I fhall put into two honeft and even fcales all that can be urged in fupport of both fides, and then fufpend them by the balance, as fteadily as Jujtice will enable me, in order to let the reader fee, and judge for himfelf, which of them preponderates. The moft eminent writers on the fide of ancient counterpoint are, GafFurio, Zarlino, Gio. Battifta Doni, Ifaac Voffius, Zac- charia Tevo, the abbe Fraguier, and Mr. Stillingfleet, author of Principles and Power of Harmony. Thofe againft it are, Glarianus, Salinas, Bottrigari, Artufi, Cerone, Kepler, Merfennus, Kircher, Claude Perrault, Wal- lis, Bontempi, Burette, the fathers Bougeant and Cerceau, Padre Martini, M. Marpurg, and M. RoufTeau. Claude Perrault, and M. Burette, indeed, feem inclinable to grant it them by thirds ; and M. Marpurg by fourths and fifths. The learned father Martini has collected many of the de^- pofitions of the feveral writers on both fides, with great accu- racy and fairnefs ; but as I am in poffeflion of all the books he quotes, and of others, which it will be neceffary to mention in the courfe of the difpute, I fhall give fome account of each, before I fum up the evidence. Gafforius Franchinus flourifhed in the fifteenth century ; his writings were the firft that came from the prefs, upon the fub- iect of mufic, after the invention of printing. One of them, under the title of Theoricum opus Armonice Difcipline, was pub- lished at Naples, 1480 ; but that in which he allows the an- cients to have known counterpoint, appeared firft at Milan, 1496, and afterwards at Brefcia, J502 ; this has for title, PracJica Mnjicce utrhifque Cantus. This author quotes Bacchius fenior as his authority for the ancients having pra&ifed fimultaneous harmony; but unluckily not a fingle word can be found in that writer, which has the leaft MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. n 5 leaft allufion to the fubject. Counterpoint, as Bontempi ob- ferves, is the PraSiice of Harmony, and Bacchius fenior, in his Introduction to the Art of Mnjic, only treats of the Theory of Melody. Zarlino (a) fuppofes it impoffible for the ancients to have made ufe of inftruments of many firings, without playing in confonance ; and that the hydraulicon, or water-organ, mud have afforded them opportunities of difcovering and ufing dif- ferent parts. In anfwer to the firft fuppofition of the ancients having many firings upon the lyre, this did not happen till feveral ages after its invention, as at firft the number was only 3, 4, 5, 7, or 8 ; but we might oppofe to the ancient lyre of many firings, the Irifh harp, which long had a greater num- ber than the lyre, and yet thefe did not fuggeft to the per- formers upon the harp, the idea of counterpoint, or of play- ing in parts ; as that inflrument remained many ages a fingle or treble inflrument, ufed only for the purpofe of playing a fimple melody, or fingle part. This is not the place in which to difcufs the fecond point ; in a future chapter, upon the inftruments of the ancients, I {hall endeavour to give my readers fome idea of the hydrau- licon : the ufe made of it by Zarlino comes under thofe pre- fumptions in favour of ancient harmony, which having no other fupport than conjecture, can never amount to demon- ftration. However, if the firft idea of an organ was taken from the Syrinx, or Fijlula Panis, which, after being im- proved into Tibice utriculares, or bagpipes, was further per- fected by the addition of keys, as is the opinion of Bartolinus and Blanchinus, it muft have been a long time before that in- ftrument was capable of being played in parts, fuppofing counterpoint to have been in ufe ; and if the hydraulic organs, {a) Sufplimehti Muficalz. Venet, 1580. Q^ 2 flill n6 DISSERTATION ON THE ftill to be found in Italy, are remnants of the ancient, they will furnifh no very favourable idea of their powers. John Baptift Doni, a Florentine nobleman, who flouriihed in the Lift century, fpent the greateft part of his life in the ftudy and defence of ancient mufic. His writings and opinions were very much refpected by the learned, though but little at- tended to by practical muficians ; on which account moft of his treatifes, which are very numerous, are filled with com- plaints of the ignorance and degeneracy of the moderns, with refpect to every branch of mufic, both in theory and practice. It is no uncommon thing for philofophers, mathematicians, and men of letters, abforbed in mere fpeculation, to condemn in their clofets, unheard and unfeen, the productions and per- formance of practical muficians ; who, in their turn, contemn whatever theory fuggefts as vifionary, and inadmiffible in practice, without giving themfelves the trouble to confider, or even to read, the principles upon which an hypothefis may be founded. " Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong," is a con- ceffion that many difputants might make, with great truth, befides Peachum and Lockit. It feems as if theory and practice were ever to be at ftrife ; for the man of fcience, who never hears mufic, and the mufi- cian, who never reads books, muft be equally averfe to each other, and unlikely to be brought to a right underftanding. That Doni was but little acquainted with the mufic which delighted the ears of his cotemporaries, appears in many parts of his works ; and as to his belief that the ancients knew and practifed counterpoint, and that their mufic was fuperior to the modern in every particular, it feems to have been founded upon no better grounds than that of his predeceflbrs, GafFurio, and Zarlino : but if it was fuch as Doni has ima- gined, and given in example, the ears of mankind, to have been delighted with it, muft have been differently conftrudted formerly. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. i 17 formerly, from thofe of the prefent times, which are pleafed with modern harmony. This writer feems full of inconfiftencies, with refpecl: to an- cient counterpoint. He is unwilling that the Greeks and Romans ihould be deprived of it ; and yet, in fpeaking of its ufe among the moderns, he calls it nemico della mujica. His reafons for al- lowing it to the ancients are chiefly drawn, from their vocal notes being different from the inftrumental ; from the early invention of the hydraulic, and other organs ; from the numerous firings upon fome of their inftruments ; and from a flriking paffage in ■Plutarch (Z<), which he thinks decifive, as it proves, that though the moft ancient muficians ufed but few firings, yet thefe were tuned in confonance, and difpofed with as much art as in our in- ftruments at prefent. Thefe points will be feverally conildered in the courfe of this feclion. Doni left behind him at his death, befides many printed works upon ancient mufic (c), a great number of unfinifhed effays and tracts relative to that fubject, and the titles of many more. Few men had indeed confidered the fubjecl with greater attention. He faw the difficulties, though he was unable to folve them. The ti- tles of his chapters, as well as many of thofe of father Merfennus, and others, are often the moft interefling and feducing imagin- able. But they are falfe lights, which like ig?ies faith lead us into new and greater obfcurity ; or like thofe fpecimens of fruit brought from the Land of Promife, which thofe in whom they excited the ftrongeft, defire, never lived to fee. The next Champion for ancient harmony was Ifaac Voffius, who is greatly admired for his elegant and claflical Latin, and more frequently quoted in favour of ancient mufic, than any other modern who has treated the fubject ; but good writing, and fair reafoning^ are fometimes different things ; that is, a felection of well-founding words, formed into harmonious periods, may fubfift without the fupport of either truth, or logic. Voffius, in his ce- lebrated book [d), feems more ready to grant every poffible and (V) m^i Maa-iM).;. Ceteris ; and particularly his Difiorfofopra (cj Compend. del Trat. dc' Generi c dc 1 k Confonajtze. Modi ddla Mujica. De prxjiantia Mujica (d)BePoem'.CantiietV'irib.Ryihml. 1675. impoffible u8 DISSERTATION ON THE impoffible excellence to the Greek muficians, than, when alive, they could have been to afk. None of the poetical fables, or my- thological allegories, relative to the power and efficacy of their mufic, put the leaft violence upon his credulity. A religious bigot who infifts upon our fwallowing implicitly every thing, however hard of digeftion, is lefs likely to make converts to his opinions, than he who puts our faith to few trials ; and Voffius overcharged his creed fo much, that it is of no authority. He does not attribute the efficacy of the Greek and Roman mufic to the richnefs of its harmony, or the elegance, the fpirit, or pa- thos, of its melody, but wholly to the force of R/iyt/im. " As long, fays he, p. 75, as mufic flourished in this 'Rhythmical form, fo long flourished that power which was fo adapted to excite, and calm the paffions." According to this opinion there was no occafion for melifluous founds, or lengthened tones ; a drum, a cymbal, or the violent ftrokes of the Curetes, and Salii, on their fhields, as they would have marked the time more articulately, fo they would have produced more miraculous effects than the fweeteft voice, or moft poiifhed inftrument. In another place he tells us, that " to build cities, furround them with walls, to affemble or difmifs the people, to celebrate the praifes of Gods and men, to govern fleets and armies, to accompany all the functions and ceremonies of peace and war, and to temper the human paffions, were the original of- fices of mufic : in fhort, ancient Greece may be faid to have been wholly governed by the lyre ((?)." It appears from this paflage, and from the tenor of his whole book, that this author will not allow us to doubt of a Angle circumftance, be it ever fo marvellous, relative to the perfection and power of ancient mufic ; the probable and the impro- bable are equally articles of his belief; fo that with fuch a lively faith it is eafy to imagine that he ranks it among mortal iins to doubt of the ancients having invented and practifed Counterpoint ; and he confequently fpeaks with the higheft in- dignation againft the moderns, for daring to deny that they (c) Uries condere, mania moliri, condones gere, pads bellique munia obire, &c. — Lyra advocate ct dimhtere, Deorum ct •oirorum eji qua veterem rexerit Grttciam. P. 47. fortium. laudes celebrare, clajjis et cxcrcitus re- » were MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 119 were in poffeffion of a fimultaneous harmony, though, ac- cording to him, they ufed it with fu'ch intelligence and difcre- tion, as never to injure the poetry by lengthening, fhottening, or repeating words and fyllables at their pleafure, nor by that moft abfurd of all cuftoms, finging different words to feveral different airs at the fame time. This author's remarks, however, on the little attention that is paid by modern compofers to profody, merit fome refpect, He has already been quoted in the fection upon Rhythm (f), and will, perhaps, more than once be occafionally mentioned in the eourfe of this work. With regard to the prefent queftion, whether the ancients had counterpoint or not, he cites the ufual paffages in their favour from Plato, Ariftotle, Cicero, and Se- neca, all which will be allowed due attention farther on. The name of Zaccharia Tevo is but little known, though he is an ingenious and candid writer, who has read good books, and reflected deeply on the fubject of mufic fgj. However, as he is a favourer of ancient counterpoint, whofe name appears in the lift of its champions, he fhall have a few words beftowed upon him among the reft. This author very modeftly ftyles himfelf a collector and com- piler of the opinions of others concerning ancient harmony. Indeed new materials can now hardly be expected ; new con- jectures are all that time, and the many writers who have already handled the fubject, have left. After citing paffages from the moft refpectable writers of antiquity, which feem to favour the fide of counterpoint, and giving the fentiments of the moft eminent moderns upon thefe paffages, he concludes, that " from the minute and accurate defcription of concords by ancient authors, it is natural to fuppofe that they were not unacquainted with the uk of them." But it is as neceffary to know, and to afcertain intervals in melody as in harmony, (f) Page 82. (g) II Muf.co Trfiore, or the Camfnfir^ was publifned by him at Venice, 1 706.. otherwife 120 DISSERTATION ON THE otherwife there can be no truth, or certainty, of intonation ; and this author diffembles the difficulty of thirds and fixths being ranked among the difcords by ancient theorifts. It is his opinion, however, that harmony was known before the time of Plato and Ariftotle ; but that it was loft with other arts and fciences during the barbarifm of the middle ages, and afterwards, about the year 1430, according to Vincentio Ga- lilei, was renewed, enlarged, and reduced to fixed and certain rules, which for the moft part remain in force at prefent. In- deed all that he fays may be allowed to the ancients, without putting them in pofieffion of fuch harmony as ours, confifting of different melodies performed at the fame time. The abbe Fraguier is the next in the lift of defenders of ancient harmony. This learned academician was unable to perfuade himfelf that antiquity, fo enlightened, and fo inge- nious in the cultivation of the fine arts, could have been igno- rant of the union of different parts, in their concerts of voices and inftruments, which he calls the rmji perfect and fublime part of mufic ; and thinking that he had happily difcovered in a paffage of Plato, an indubitable and decifive proof of the ancients having poffeffed the art of counterpoint, he drew up his opinion into the form of a memoir, and prefented it to the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres, in 1716 [h). The paffage in queftion is in the feventh book of Laws, in which Plato determines that the proper time for young perfons to learn inufic is from thirteen to fixteen years of age ; during which period he fuppofed they might be enabled to fing in unifon with the lyre, and to diftinguifh good mufic from bad ; that is, fuch airs as were grave, decorous, and likely to in- fpire virtue^ from thofe that were of a light and vicious cafh This is fpeaking like a legislator, fays the abbe Fraguier. But (h) M. Burette acquaints us that this good things, could not do without coun- abbe learned the harpiichord at ^n ad- terpoint, made them a prefent of that har- vanced age, and concluding that the an- mony, with which his aged ears were io ■cients, to whom he generoufly gave all pleafed. as MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. il 1 as harmonic compofition was very bewitching to minds fo re- markable for fenfibility as the Greeks, and being, befides, of fo difficult a ftudy, as to require infinite time and labour to ac<- complifh, he thought it neceffary to caution them againft too ftrong an attachment to it, and therefore eftablifhed a kind of rule, by which they would be prevented from giving tha\ time to mufical ftudies, which might be better employed in more important concerns. This is but the introduction to the paffage in queftion, which is the following : " As to the difference and variety in the ac- " companiment of the lyre, in which the firings produce one air, " while the melody compofed by the poet produces another, " (the poet then fet his own verfes,) from whence refults the " afTemblage of denfe and rare, of quick and flow, acute and " grave, as well as pf concord and difcord (i) ; befides, the " knowing how to adjuft the rhythm, or meafure, to all the " founds of the lyre : thefe are not ftudies fit for youth, to " whom three years only are allowed for learning merely what " may be of future ufe to them. Such contrarieties of dif* " ferent difficulties in the ftudy and practice of mufic, are too " embarraffing, and may render young minds lefs fit for fci- " ences, which they ought to learn with facility,'* It does not feem neceffary here to enter into a verbal criti- cifm of this paffage, as it has been underftood and tranflated by the abbe Fraguier ; nor to infert two other paffages, one from Cicero, and one from Macrobius, which this author has given by way of corollaries, in fupport of his explanation of the paffage in Plato ; as I fhall confign him and his fancied proofs in favour of ancient counterpoint, to his brother acade- mician M. Burette, the moft able writer, in many particulars, of all thofe who have interefted themfelves in the difpute con- cerning ancient mufic. (!) Though the abbe Fraguier tranflates found thus explained in any lexicon, or at\mqum, dijpmance, it is not the true ac- Greek writer on mufic ; its precife and •ceptation of the word, nor can it be technical meaning will be given farther on. Vol. I. R The 122 DISSERTATION ON THE The laft champion, though by no means the lean* formidable, for ancient harmony, was the late Mr. Stillingfleet, in his ad- mirable Commentary upon a mufical Treatife by Tartini (k)l If ftrong prejudices in favour of the ancients appear in this work, they are natural to a man of learning and tafte, who has long drank of the pure fountain of knowledge at the fource ; and Boileau has truely faid, that thofe who have been the moft captivated in reading the beft writings of antiquity, have been men of the firft order, and of the moft exalted genius (/). Though I am not fo happy as to agree entirely with Mr.. Stillingfleet in all his mufical opinions, yet it is a juftice due to his merit as a writer, to confefs, that I am acquainted with no book in our language, upon the fame fubjec~t, which a fcholar, a gentleman, or a mufician, can read with fo much pleafure and profit as the Principles and Power of Harmony. As Mr. Stillingfleet was able to have recourfe to original in- formation to form his judgment, whether right or wrong, his opinions are refpectable. Tartini, in his Trattato di Mujica, p. 143 (m), advances the following proportion : " That, if fimultaneous harmony was " known to the Greeks, they could not, and ought not to ufe " it, in order to arrive at the end propofed ; but ought to em- *' ploy a fingle voice in their fongs." This propofition he fupports with arguments drawn from ftrong reafon, and deep rene&ion. Tartini modeftly declared himfelf to be no fcholar ; however, he had perfectly informed himfelf of the famous dis- pute, whether the ancients knew and practifed* harmony, in our fenfe of the word. He feems to have been gifted with native difcernment and penetration in all his mufical enquiries, which (k) Principles and Po'.ver of Harmony. tre a M. Perrault. (1) Des efprits du premier orJre, des (m) In Mr. Stillingfleet's Commentary,. homines tie la plus haute elevation. Let- p. 70. tifualTy MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 123 ufually conduced him to truth, though not always by the beaten or fhorteft road. Mr. Stillingfleet allows him to doubt of the ancients having known counterpoint, in peace, during the examination of his book ; but in the appendix to Principles and Power of Har- mony., p. 1 8 x, he takes the matter up ierioufly. " Dr. Wallis, fays he, tells us, that the ancients had not conforts of two, three, four, or more parts or voices. Meibo- mius afferts much the fame thing ; and this is, one may al- moft fay, the univerfal opinion. Some, however, of the wri- ters on mufic, have produced palfages out of the ancients, which feem to imply the contrary ; but which are not looked on as conclufive by others : fuch as that out of Seneca, Epiftle lxxxiv. " Non vides quam multorum vocibus" &c. where perhaps nothing but ocfaves are implied. Another paffage cited by Ifaac Voffius, Dt Poemat. Cant. &c. out of the piece De Mundo, attributed to Ariftotle, feems to be more to the purpofe, puntcri o%ei$, &c. i. e. mufic, mixing together acute and grave, long and fhort founds, form one harmony out of different voices. Wallis alfo has produced a paffage out of Ptolemy, which he thinks may infer mufic in parts. Ptol. Harm. p. 317. But the ftrongeft which I have met with, in relation to this long difputed point, is in Plato ; a paffage which I have never feen quoted, and which I fhall tranflate." It appears from this declaration, that Mr. Stillingfleet knew not that the Memoire of the abbe Fraguier, juft mentioned, was written merely to explain this paffage of Plato, and to confute that in which Dr. Wallis denies counterpoint to the ancients. I fhall, however, give Mr. Stillingfleet' s tranflation of the paffage in Plato, in order to let my readers fee how he understood it, before I enter upon M. Burette's examination of the fame paffage. * c Young men fhould be taught to fing to the lyre, on ac- count of the dearnefs and precifion, of the founds, fo that Rr z- " they a 1 24 DISSERTATION ON THE " they may learn to render tone for tone. But to make ufe " of different fimultaneous notes, and all the variety belong- " ing to the lyre, this founding one kind of melody, and the " poet another — to mix a few notes with many, fwift with " flow, grave with acute, confonant with dijfonant^ &c. muft " not be thought of; as the time allotted for this part of edu- " cation is too fhort for fuch a work." Plato, 895. " I am fenfible, fays Mr. Stillingfleet, that obje&ions may be made to fome parts of this tranflation, as of the words ■stukvo]^, i^xvo]yj;, and av]i(puvotg ; . but I have not designedly dif- guifed what I took to be the true fenfe of them, after due con- fideration. It appears then, upon the whole, that the ancients were acquainted with mufic in parts, but did not generally make ufe of it." Having now ranged in chronological order the principal writers who have flood forth in defence of ancient harmony, and fairly {fated the reafons which they have feverally urged in fupport of their opinions, I fhall next proceed in the fame manner to relate all the different proofs alleged by thofe who have traverfed the caufe of the ancients. Glareanus and Salinas are fo unanimous in thinking coun- terpoint a modern invention, that they make ufe of precifely the fame words in denying it to the ancients («). The Dode- cachordon of Glareanus was publifhed in 1547 ; and the Trea- ttfe of Mujic by Salinas, in 1 577. Their opinion was, that the great muficians of antiquity, when they accompanied themfelves on the lyre, played only in unifon with the voice, . and that nothing can be found in the books that are come down, to us, which can be urged in proof that 7nujic in parts was, known to the ancients.. Y (n) Scio antem dulitari vehementer etiam- btijv.s cantus inveniatur. Malta minus etiam aura bac atate inter eximie doBos vec la voix. Joint que les llmrcs que to their honour, at the expence of the mp. les Greet nous ontlaijjees de leur mttfque, ne derns, gives no proofs of their knowledge tcfmolgnent pas quails ayent ft Hen connu et of counterpoint. Two paflages which he pratique la rnufquc, partlcullerement celle qui quotes from Bryennius and Pfellus, writers eft a plifieurs parties, come l' on fait mainte- of the middle ages, fliew, that even in r.ant, et confcqucmcnt II rfejl pas raifonable their time, thirds and fixths made no part de Us prendre pour nos jugt\cn cette mature . of their Antiphonia, or Paraphonla. 128 DISSERTATION ON THE ter of the fubjecT: ; he has read all the ancient authors who have written exprefiy upon it ; he has examined the paffages which have been thought the moil favourable to it, in fome authors who have only mentioned it occasionally ; and has confidered the marvellous effects attributed to it in others ; he reafons forcibly, and the fads he alleges in fupport of the fide he has taken, are ftrong, and well ftated. This work was neither the caufe, nor confequence of the quarrel between Boi- leau, and his brother, Charles Perrault, which did not break out till feven years after the publication of the EJJays in Na- tural Philofophy, in the fecond volume of which the Differ ta- tion upon the Mujic of the Ancients firft appeared. Our author had indeed given his opinion upon the fubjecf very freely in the notes to his excellent tranllation of Vitruvius in 1673 ; where, in his commentary of the chapter upon Harmonic Mv/ic, according to the Doclrine of Arijloxenus, he declares that " there is nothing in Ariftoxenus, who was the firft that wrote upon concords and difcords, nor in any of the Greek authors who wrote after him, that manifefts the ancients to have had the leaft idea of the ufe of concords in mufic of many parts (#)." Satire is an excellent weapon when employed againft vice and folly ; but it becomes a bafilifk in the hands of a man of Ilrong paffions and little feeling, who only employs it to blaft the reputation, and wither the laurels of thofe who differ from him in opinion, or whom mere caprice mall incline him to dif- like; it is then a deadly inftrument, an edged tool in the hands of a mifchievous child, or a madman. I have never been able to difcover, after a minute enquiry and perufal of the literary hiftory and quarrels of the learned in France, during the reign of Lewis the fourteenth, any other caufe for the hatred and deteftation which Boileau long manifefted for Charles Perrault, but that he was a friend to the poet Quinault, whom pofterity has however allowed to be a modeft and Inoffenfive man, of (x) Les-dix Liv. d' ' Architc&urc de Vitruve. liv. V. p. 161, 2d Edit. 1684. true MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. n 9 true genius ; yet Boileau not only hated him, and his manner of writing, but furioufly attacked all who were connected with him. In his Art of Poetry, his Satires, and in a great num- ber of Epigrams, he calls the moft learned phyfician of his age and country, " an ignorant quack, an aflaflin, an enemy to health and good fenfe ;" and of the beft architect France has ever produced, he fays, that " through pity to human kind, or rather want of practice, he quitted phyfic for the trowel, and in a few years- raifed as many bad buildings, as he had before ruined good conftitutions." This {hews how dangerous it is to depend upon poetical in- formation concerning the vice or virtue, the genius br dulnefs, of individuals. It does not appear that either Quinault, or Perrault, ever tried to retaliate Boileau's abufe ; but luckily pofterity has done them juftice ; and M. de Voltaire, among others, has refcued their characters from the infamy with which the furly fatirift had loaded them. " Quinault, he fays* is no lefs admired for his beautiful lyric poetry, than for the pa- tience with which he fuffered the unjuft feverity of Boileau. Dur- ing his life it was believed that he owed his reputation to Lulli ; but his poetry will always be read, though the mufic of Lulli is already infupportable. Time fets a juft value on all things." And Claude Perrault he allows to have been not only a moft accurate naturalift, profoundly fkilled in mechanics, and an admirable architect, but that he was pofleffed of great abi- lities in all the arts, which he acquired without a mafter ; and finifhes his character by faying, that he encouraged the talents of others under the protection of the great ftatefman Colbert, and enjoyed a high reputation, in fpite of Boileau (y). But to return to counterpoint. — There is a famous pafTage sn the Treati/'e on the Sublime of Longinus, cap. xxiv. which has been made ufe of in favour of ancient harmony* The (y) Steele de Louis XIV. Vol. I. S fubjed 130 DISSERTATION ON THE fubjecT: of the chapter is the Periphrafis. " I believe, fays Longinus, no one will difpute the utility of the periphrafis in the fublime ; for as .the principal fubjecl: in mufic becomes more agreeable to the ear when it is broken into divifions, or embellifhed with other notes, fuitable to it, or which corre- fpond with it : fo the periphrafis, turning round the proper word, frequently forms with it a kind of confonance and har- mony, which is very beautiful in difcourfe." Boileau has tranflated (pQoFyoi -wx^xtpuvoi, different parts, from his belief that the ancients had counterpoint : " For I am not of the opinion of thofe moderns, fays he, who will not allow different parts to that mufic, of which fuch wonders are re- lated, fince, without parts, there could be no harmo?ty." But he did not know, that by harmony the ancients always under- ftood what we mean by melody, as may be proved from ancient mufical treatifes, as well as from a paffage in Longinus him- felf, cap. xxxiii. where harmony applied to the human voice in the fingular number, muft mean melody ; a miftake that perfons not verfed in mufic, are apt to make. Mr. Addifort talks of an harmonious voice. However, Boileau, in this inftance, only declared his reli- gious principles and veneration for antiquity, in oppofition to the fentiments of his antagonist, Perrault ; and in this he has been rather more humble and modeft than ufual ; for he con- cludes his note on the paffage, by faying, " I fubmit this mat- ter, however, to the learned in mufic, for I have not fufficient knowledge in the art, to determine the point." Upon the whole, it muft be allowed, that a periphrafis, which implies many words to exprefs the fame thing, gives a^ truer idea of melody than harmony, according to the modern acceptation of thofe words, and a paffage varied, or a fingle note broken into divifions, has a great fimilitude to circumlo- cution, Angdlinii MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 131 Angelini Bontempi, the next opponent of ancient counter- point, is truly a formidable one. He was not only an excel- lent practical mufician, but a profound theorift, and a fcholar. With thefe qualifications he read the ancient authors upon the fubjed: of mufic, in the languages they were originally writ- ten, and compoied a hiftory of mufic, in one finall volume, folio, which is better digefted, and better executed in moft of its parts than any other, of the fame fize, that has been pro- duced. This author, after examining all the ancient genera, fyftems, and proportions, declares that it is no longer a matter of doubt and conjecture, but a certainty, of the moft clear and eafy de- monftration, that ancient mufic confifted of only a fingle part, as the treatifes which are come down to us have confidered nothing more than contiguous and fucceffive founds, and, con- fequently, the ufe of counterpoint was utterly unknown to the ancients : though the moderns, without reading or understand- ing the doctrines of the ancient fathers of this fcience, have imagined, and have perfuaded others to imagine, that they were in poffefiion of it (2). The learned doctor Wallis has given great offence to the de- fenders of antiquity, by the contempt which he has thrown upon ancient mulic, both in his appendix to the Harmonics of Ptolemy^ and in the P hilofophical TranfaBions. His opinions are indeed the more to be feared by them, as it could never be faid that they were founded upon ignorance ; for they were obliged to allow that he knew more of ancient mufic than any modern, except Meibomius, who, likewife, with all his know- (%) Da qtiejli pocbi ajjiomi o dimojira- alia notitia dcgli anticbi ; Jsccwne i modern!, tione d'ArijloJJlno Ji fcopre, non per duhbiofa J'cnza ba-vere o letto o intefo la dpttrina degii, conghiettur-a : ma per cbiara e manifejlacvi- anticbi Padri di quejla /'cientia, ft j'ono per- denza, cbe la mujica antica, Jicome quclla, fuaji; ct hanno co' loro fcritti procurato di cbe non ba conjidcrato fc non i.Juoni contigui porfuadcrne anco gli altri. Hiftoria Mufica e fujjeguaiti, altro nonfiajlata, cbe mujica di Gio. And. Angelini Bontempi. Pe- appartencnte ad una fola voce; e cbe I'ufo rugia, 1 695, p. 108, ■del coittrapnnto, non Jia gianunai pernjenuto S 2 ledge i 3 2 DISSERTATION ON THE ledge of the fubjecl, and admiration of the ancients, could dis- cover nothing in their mufical treatifes, upon which to found- their claim to the knowledge of counterpoint. Doctor Wallis, who had no prejudices againft mufic in ge- neral, or that of the Greeks in particular, faid, that as far as he was able to difcover, the union of two, three, four, or more parts, as they are called, or founds in confonance, which is- admired in modern mufic, was unknown to the ancients [a] ; or, as he has tranflated the paflage himfelf in the Philofophical Tranfadlions, No. ccxliii. p. 298, for Auguft 1698: "I do not find amongft the ancients any footfteps of what we call' fever al parts or voices^ (as bafe, treble, mean, &e. fung in con? fort) anfwering each other, to complete the mufic." Doctor Wallis has indeed produced one paflage out of Pto- lemy, which he thinks may infer mufic in parts. The abbe Fraguier, Chateauneuf, and Mr. Stillingfleet, have all ea- gerly availed themfelves of this conceflion ; but M. Burette has cruelly deprived them and their adherents of that comfort, by. a critical examination of their manner of tranflating the paf- fage, in which he feems clearly to have proved that they have either wilfully or inadvertently miftaken the true acceptation of the moft important terms in the Greek text ; and that the utmoft which can be inferred from the paflage in queftion is A that the ancients both played and fung together frequently ins unifons and ocJaves. In 1723, M. Burette publifhed, in the fourth volume of the Memoires des lnfcriptions^ a. Diflertation upon the Symphony of the Ancients, which has never yet been anfwered. The abbe Fraguier, indeed, indirectly endeavoured to invalidate the proofs he cited from ancient writers againft counterpoint, by others . which feemed to bear a different construction ; but though the (a) Ea vero, qua in bodierna mufica con-- audiuntur, fonis) vetcrilus crat (quantum , fpicitur, partium (ut loquuntur) feu vocum ego video) ignota. Appendice ad Ptolem. duarum, trium, quatuor, pluriumve inter fe Harm. p. 316 & 317, in 4W. 1682. fol. confenfo,. (concinentibus inter fe-, qui fimul p. 175, Edit, 1699. abbe\ MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS, ijj abbe was a man of tafte and claflical learning, he wanted mu- fical erudition fufficient to know the technical ufe of the Greek words, which he thought favourable to his argument, in writers who had only mentioned mufic incidentally ; whereas M. Burette, who had drawn his knowledge from the fource, by ftudying fuch treatifes of ancient Greek muficiana as had been written exprefly on the fubject, foon proved the evidence of his antagonist to be feeble, and his reafoning fallacious^ M. Burette, after fo complete a victory, was allowed to enjoy his laurels in peace for a considerable time, till,. at length, the two Jefuits, Bougeant and Cerceau, commenced hoftilities ; not for his having treated the ancients with too much rigour, but with too little : Le fceptique Bayle, fays M. de Voltaire, neft pas ajfez fceptique. M. Burette, in the opinion of thefe fathers*, had granted too much to the ancients, in allowing them to have fung and. played in concert by thirds^ In order to give my readers an idea of this difpute, I fhall epitomize, and make fome remarks upon M. Burette's Differ- tation. But firft it feems neceflary to explain a few import- ant terms, which frequently occur in. ancient authors concern- ing mufic ; and the fafeft way of doing this will be to have recourfe to the Greek mufical writers themfelves. Such founds as were tuneable, and fit for mufic, were called in all their treatifes efiptteioci, concinnous ; and of thefe fome were concords, and fome difcords. The concords, according to; the teftimony of every writer on ancient mufic, from Ari-- ftoxenus, to Boethius and Bryennius, the two laft, of any au- thority, were the fourth, fifth, eighth, and their replicates., or octaves. The difcords were fuch intervals as are lefs than a; fourth; and all fuch as are found between the other confo- nant intervals ; confequently, the third and fixth, as well as the fecond and feventh, mull have been numbered among the djfr cords,. Gaudentius, p. u, tells us that. 1 3 4 DISSERTATION ON THE " '■Opttxpuvoi, homophortoi, unifons, difFer neither in gravity nOf acutenefs, but are duplicates of the fame found." " ?,v[A.)." " Yluoav : and adds, that it " refults from the mixture of the voices of boys and men (f)" The fame philofopher, Prob. XVI, after afking why Antiphony is more agreeable than Homophony, gives this rea- fon : that in Antiphony the voices are diftincYiy heard ; where- as in unifon they are often fo confounded that one abforbs the other. The ancients fung in concert not only in the octave, but the double octave, or fifteenth. This appears from another pro- blem in Ariftotle, XXXIV, where he afks why the double fifth, and double fourth, cannot be ufed in concert as well as the double octave ? It likewife appears from the fame author that the union of two voices in octaves was called Magadizing, from a treble inftrument of the name of Magadis, Maya&z, ftrung with double ftrings tuned octaves to each other, like the octave ftop in our harpfichords, (f) In the ancient Greek mufic the li- pofition of voices, refpenfe, as when the teral meaning ot Aniiphonia, or Antiphony, congregation anfwers the priefr ; or in is found oppofed to found; as a note and chanting, when each -fide of the choir fings its odlave, its fourth, or its fifth : in"the verfe for verfe, alternately, mufic of the Romilh church its means op- Vol. L T Thus 138 DISSERTATION ON THE Thus far M. Burette has advanced nothing but what is rea- fonable and indifputable ; but, when he adds, that befides the.e two ways of ringing and playing together in unifons and oc- taves, there is room to conjecture that the ancients had flill another method, which confifted of linging and playing by thirds, here the Jefuits, Bougeant and Cereeau, commence their attack ; and here I mall leave him, as I fhall every au- thor, however refpectable, when his reafoning does not fully fatisfy my mind j that is, when it rather raifes than removes difficulties. It is well known that there is nothing fo agreeable in mo- dern harmony as the alternate fucceffion of fharp and flat thirds ; but it is likewife as well known that a whole move- ment in two parts, compofed entirely of nothing elfe but of flat or of fharp thirds, from the beginning to the end, would be in- tolerable. Let any one make the experiment with the two flops of an organ called the fifteenth and tierce, and he will find the ef- fect deteflable. No organift ever attempts to play on them to- gether, without other flops ; and in the full chorus they are fo qualified by the great number of lower and more powerful founds produced by pipes that are longer, and of a larger dia- meter, that they cannot be diflinguifhed without great at- tention. Full organ, when only G is put down, -»-- ^ - Tierce I 15th.. "ijth. -Principal Zz Diapafons. With thefe flops out, every fingle note upon the inflrument is, furnifhed with its full harmony ; but if the fmall harmonic pipes were not governed by the greater, what a cacophony would a complete chord occafion ! Gp.Ttmo(t MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. *39 Common chord \ major. -*#- -j g g - q fr '.mr -»-*© — ^ ~ o The chord minor would be worfe. |T would be 7- y— 8 SI f l^t^-^HHI 1* -e- • **- • ___*JJ iTV $ 'nil «/• n SI a ii ^^ >• ' £ 4 v. • Add any one difcord to thefe, ^ind the chord feems to include every infult that can be put upon the ear. M. Perrault fuppofed that a paflage in Horace could only bt explained by admitting that the ancients fometimes fung and played by thirds, that is, in two different modes, which were diftant a third from each other. Sonante mijium tibiis carmen lyra Hac Dorium, Mis Barbarum, Epod ix. v. 5. M. Burette adopted this idea in the year 17 17. In 1726 he feemed to give it up to the reafoning of father Bougeant ; but in 1729 he refumed it again with more firmnefs than ever, upon being treated with fome feverity by father Cerceau, for having adopted M. Perrault's explication of the paflage in Horace. It was urged againft him, that the ancients always regarded thirds as difcords ; but this was thought a trivial difficulty. And M. Burette had reconciled it to his mind, he furely could not to his ear, that it was a common thing among them to fing and play in two different modes, or keys, at once. He fettles it therefore, that Horace by the Barbarian mode meant the Lydian, which is a fharp third above the Dorian. J. Baptifti Doni, in fpeaking of our imitating the ancients in mufical dramas, propofes as a pleafing variety, the accom- panying fome airs in the courfe of the piece entirely by thirds \ T 2 but 140 DISSERTATION ON THE but whether two parts always fing in fharp thirds, or flat thirds, the effect, will be equally difagreeable. Suppofe, for inftance, the melody was the following, and the upper part, was the accompaniment : Lydian mode, fog ' Jg»*~^*i ij j Dorian mode. PiiH Thefe parts would be moving in two keys very different from each other ; the relations would be moftly falfe, and there would be no precife idea of either of thefe keys imprefTed on the ear, in preference to the other ; and yet M. Burette fup- pofes that Horace, in fpeaking of the pleafures of the table, in- troduces a concert compofed of a lyre, played in the Dorian mode, and accompanied by flutes in the Lydian ; that is to fay in the key of D k t and E # with a minor third ; as the general idea about the modes, before Ptolemy's time, was, that they were a femitone higher than each other. But let them be placed how they will, either a fourth dif- tant from each other, or thus ; d cit B A G# R# E, no two of them can be ufed at the fame time in thirds, without changing the intervals of one, which would be changing the mode or key. Indeed a melody might be accompanied by thirds in two dif- ferent fpecies of oclave ; but that would be ftill in one mode ; and the matter in debate is how two perfons could fing and play in two different modes at the fame time. In the fifteen modes, as underftood by Bontempi and others,, the Hyperphrygian, or Hypermixolydian mode, and the Hy- podorian are only octaves to each other ; and in the explana- tion which Sir Francis Eyles Stiles gives of the fifteen modes, there is not only a repetition in thefe two, but in the Hyper- lydian and Hypophrygian, which are likewife o&aves to each other. 5, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. i 4 r other ; and it feems to explain the Magadizing, or playing in two modes at once, more naturally and probably s by fuppofing it was done in the modes that were octaves, than in any two that were thirds, fourths, or fifths to each other. This will likewife explain a pafiage in Athenseus, lib. xiv. cap. 5, concerning what Pindar fays in writing to Hiero, that " when a boy fings an air with a man, it is called Magadiz- ing, becaufe they fing the fame melody in two different modes.'" Now boys and women naturally fing an octave higher than a man, at the fame time that they think they are finging in unifon. Father Cerceau has preffed M. Burette very hard in this dif- pute, and driven him to a fophiftical defence. However, M. Burette would perfuade us that he has totally overthrown his adverfary, in the inftances he gives of thirds, fixths, and tenths, ufed per faltnm y to the fame fyllable, in ancient me— lody ; but becaufe one third, or Jixt/i, may be pleafing in me- lody, does it follow that a fucceffion of nothing elfe.but thirds, of the fame kind would have a good effect in harmony ? If the ancients called thirds and fixths difcords, on account of their being out of tune, from the too great perfection of , fourths and fifths, which were never tempered, it but renders, the fac~l infifted on by M. Burette, of a fucceffion of thirds fiat or fharp, the more improbable. It is fo humiliating a circumftance for a difputant to confefs himfelf vanquifhed, where fagacity is the ftake, that it is hardly ever done, publicly, with a good grace. M. Burette, a man of learning and candour, when he was not hard pufhed himfelf,. could never have defended fo improbable and difagreeable a practice, as the fucceffion of fiat or fharp thirds throughout an. entire piece, in the ancient mufic, for any other reafon but that of having once /aid it, after Claude Perrault, perhaps without fuffici— ently reflecting upon the numerous objections to which fuch an ajfertion was liable. But I am as certain as it is poffible to be, of wdiat 142 DISSERTATION ON THE what cannot be proved, that though he may have thought with Perrault at firft, yet, after, he had read the arguments urged agalnft fuch a practice by the fathers Bougeant and Cerceau, he reafoned againft conviction ; and in fupporting his firft propor- tion, reputation, not truth, was the object of his defence* But to return to M. Burette's Diflertation. He examines the ftructure of the ancient lyre, and the number of its firings, and fhews how far it was capable of the harmony of double ftops. After which he enquires whether the ancients availed them- felves of all its powers in this particular; and concludes that he can find no appearance that they did. However, in fpeaking of the lyre in its improved ftate, when it was furnifhed with a great number of firings, M. Burette, after refufing counterpoint to the ancients, allows that the ly- rifts firuck fometimes a chord compofed of the key note, fifth and eighth, which was a fourth to the fifth ; but though he fuppofes the ancients could bear a whole movement of fiarp thirds-, he will not fuppofe that a Jingle third was ever ufed in thofe chords to complete the harmony. Upon other iraftru- ments he allows for accompaniment a kind of dione compofed of key note and fifth, like that of a vielle, or bagpipe ; but this is all conjecture ; and if we muft have recourfe to that, why not generoufly grant the ancients counterpoint at once, upon a iuppofition that fo ingenious and refined a people as the Greeks could not help difcovering it, with the great time and pains they beftowed in the cultivation of mufic ? But not content with annihilating the harmony of the an- cients, M. Burette adopts a remark of Perrault in his Vitru- vius, which bears hard upon their melody. By comparing the ancient Greek tetrachord with our fourth, it appeared to thefe writers that we had the advantage in the number of founds ; but the fpecimen of Euclid's mixed genus, that has been given, p. 3 i » proves them to have been miftaken. According MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 143 According to Ariftotle, Prob. XIX. Sect. \J. neither the fifth nor fourth, though concords, were Jung together in con- cert fgj. In Plutarch (/'), however, who wrote many ages after Ariftotle, when it may be imagined that Jymphony had made fome advances towards our harmony, it appears as if both the fourth and fifth were frequently founded together ;, whence they were called a-vptpuva,, concords ; but whoever is verfed in modern counterpoint muft know that a fucceflion of thefe concords is infufferable, and that a compofition, in which no other concords than the fourth, fifth, and eighth, had ad- miflion, would be fo dry and infipid, that it would fcarce merit the name of harmony. On the other fide, if, in fpite of fuch formal and pofitive proofs to the contrary, we were, for argument fake, to allow that the ancients made ufe of their four difcords in concert, as well as of the three concords, we muft at the fame time grant them the art of combining different chords ; of preparing and refolving difcords, according to the rules, founded upon the nature of chords, and upon the effect which they produce upon the ear. Now we ought to conclude that a body of all thefe rules would form an effential part of the theory of mufic, with refpect to Jymphony, as other parts have done with refpect to melody, or a fimple treble. However, in the moft ample and complete treatifes upon ancient mufic which are come down to us, not one rule with refpect to compofition in parts is to be found. The authors of thefe treatifes, after promifing at the beginning, that they would fpeak of every thing that con- cerned mufic, feparate the heads of their work, which they all divide into feven articles : founds, intervals, fyjlems, genera, tones, or keys, mutations, and melody, or melopoeia ; which with rhythm, or time, conftituted the whole art and extent of their practical mufic. For there is not the leaft probability, , (g) Aids mm x«i *«* ns-crugwr urn dhvaiv (b) De U Delphica, p.- 69 J.. l£ditt . HKtyum. Sujbb. .Gr. . that' Hi DISSERTATION ON THE that they would have omitted in their didactic writings fo con- siderable a part of it as counterpoint, if it had come to their knowledge. That diligent enquirer, father Martini of Bologna, whofe learning and materials have afforded me great affiftance in my raulical relearches, ranks himfelf among the opponents of an- cient counterpoint. The opinion of this refpectable judge muft have great weight with all thofe who conlider that he has fpent the chief part of a long and laborious life in the fludy of mufic, and muiical literature ; that all the repofitories, all the archives of Italy, where the moft precious reliques of anti- quity are treafured up, have been opened to him ; that his knowledge and materials are equally uncommon ; and that the native candour and purity of his mind are fuch as exempt him from all fufpicion of prejudice or partiality. This author, after inewing a ftrong defire to favour the an- cients in their claims, is obliged to confefs, with feeming re- luctance, that as they allowed no other intervals to be con- cords than the oclave, fourth, and fifth, with their replicates, it indubitably robs them of the merit of having invented and practifed what we call counterpoint (i) ; and this decifion re- ceives additional force from the teftimony of feveral writers of the middle ages, cited in his book, who call mufic in parts, the new mujic, the new art, the new invention [k). Padre Martini, however, before . he quits the fubjecl:, gives the following fpecimen of fuch meagre counterpoint as was likely to have been produced without the ufe of imperfect con- cords ; in which he has been obliged to admit three fixths, a fecond, a feventh, and a ninth, contrary to the idea we have of what the delicate ears of the Greeks would allow. (i) Cib effi/tdo, parmi qucjlo bajievole a I 74. 1 757. contra/tare a' Grcci il vanto, e la notizia (k) Mufica nova ; an nova ; novitiunt in- dcl contrappunto, che noi abbiamo ora in ci SHten nnD neiien 3)?iifif. Modern Mufic. 1 Vol. thiii 4to. A Critical Introduction Vol. I. U M. Mar- i 4 6 DISSERTATION ON THE M. Marpurg is obliged to confefs, by which the date can be fixed when the two part fyftem was invented, and generally received." However, he conjectures, that a kind of harmony in pure conf nance, by which I fuppofe he means perfecl concords, of fourths, fifths, and eights, continued from that period, to about the time of Guido. Indeed this is not allowing the an- cients to have made much progrefs in the art of combining founds, as the example jull given from Padre Martini will manifeft. M. Roufleau is very explicit upon this fubject in his Mufical Dictionary, at the article Counterpoint, which he terminates by faying, " It has long been difputed whether the ancients knew counterpoint ; but it clearly appears from the remains of their mufic and writings, efpecially the rules of practice, in the third book of Ariftoxenus, that they never had the ieaji idea of it" His reflections upon this fubjecl:, in the article Harmony, are curious. " When we reflect, that of all the people on the globe, none are without mufic and melody, yet only the Europeans have harmony and chords, and find their mixture agreeable ; when we reflect how many ages the world has en- dured, without any of the nations who have cultivated the polite arts knowing this harmony ; that no animal, no bird, or being in nature, produces any other found than unifon, or other mufic than mere melody ; that neither the Oriental languages, fo fonorous and mufical, nor the ears of the Greeks, endowed with fo much delicacy and fenfibility, and cultivated with fo much art, ever led that enthufiaftic and voluptuous people to the difcovery of our harmony ; that their mufic, without it, had fuch prodigious effects, and ours fuch feeble ones with it ; in fhort, when we think, continues he, of its being referved for a northern people, whofe coarfe and obtufe organs are more touched with the force and noife of voices, than with the fweetnefs of accents, and melody of inflexions, to make this great MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 147 . great difcovery, and to build all the principles and rules of the art upon it ; when, fays he, we reflect: upon all this, it is hard to avoid fufpedting that all our harmony, of which we are fo vain, is only a Gothic and barbarous invention, which wc fhould never have thought of, if we had been more fenfible to the real beauties of the art, and to mufic that is truely natural and affeding." This opinion is generally ranked among the paradoxes of M. Rouffeau. However the fentiments of this wonderful writer feem here to proceed more from a refined tafte, enlargement of thought, and an uncommon boldnefs and courage in pub- liming notions fo repugnant to eftablifhed opinions, than from a love of fmgularity. Befides, M. Rouffeau is not the only writer on mufic who has imagined it poffible for melody to pleafe without the affiftance of harmony. Vincenzio Galilei and Merfennus went ftill farther, and thought that the contrary effects of grave and acute founds in different progreffions, mult mutually weaken and deftroy each other. Indeed Merfennus, in his Harmonie Univerfelle [m), declares, that he thinks it no re*- proach to the ancient Greeks, to have been ignorant of counter- point. " It is difficult, fays this father, t.o prevail upon modern com*- pofers to allow that fnnple melody is more agreeable than •when it is accompanied by different parts, becaufe they are in fear of diminilhing the public efteem for the learning and con- trivance of their own compofitions ; which, indeed, would be the cafe, if a method could be devifed of finding the mod beau- tiful melodies poffible, and of executing them with the ut- moft perfection." " For it feems as if the art of compofing in parts, which has been pra£tifed onlyyor thefe laji hundred and fifty, or two hun- dred years, had been invented merely to fupply the defects of air, and to cover the ignorance of modern muficians in this (m) Liv< IV. dc la Compaction, p. 197. U 2 part 148 DISSERTATION ON THE part of melopoeia, or melody, as practifed by the Greeks, who have preferved fome vefliges of it in the Levant, according to the teftimony of travellers, who have heard the Perlians and modem Greeks fing." " And experience daily fhews, that the generality of mankind are more attentive to pure melody, than to concertos, or pieces of many different parts, which they readily quit, in order to hear a fimple air fung by a good voice ; becaufe they can more eafily diftinguifh the beauty of a fingle part, or voice, than of harmonic relations ; without taking into the account the beauties of poetry, wdiich are certainly more eafily compre- hended in a fingle part, than when it is accompanied by two or more parts, moving in different proportions of time." " But granting that great pleafure in mufic arifes from hear- ing and diftinguifhing confonance, a duo muft be more agree- able than a trio, as the harmony is lefs confufed and com- pounded. For, if an eighth, a fifth, a fourth, a third, or a. fixth, has any thing beautiful in itfelf, and affects the ear with a peculiar fpecies of delight, the founding each of thefe con-, cords with others of a different kind, muft confiderably weaken their force and effecx." " It is related of the famous compofer, Claude le Jeun, that when he firft prefented his pieces of five, fix, and feven parts, to the mafters of Italy and Flanders, that they would not look at them ; and his compofitions would never have been per- formed by them, if he had not written fomething in two parts ; in which, however, he, at firft, fucceeded fo ill, that he con- feffed himfelf to have been ignorant of the true principles of mufic." P. Merfennus adds, that " the beauties of a trio cannot be fo eafily difcovered and comprehended as of a duo ; as the mind and the ear have too many things to attend to at the fame time. And this father carries his predilection for fimplicity fo far as to fay, that when lovers of mufic are more delighted with trios than duos, it muft proceed from their being more fond of crowds. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 149 crowds and confufion, than of unity and clearnefs ; and com- pares them to thofe who love to fifh in troubled waters, or who like fighting pell-mell with the multitude, better than in duel, where a want of courage and conduct is more eafily difcovered." At the time when Merfennus lived, the rage for mufic in many parts, and the utter neglect, and indeed ignorance, of true melody, were fuch, as to render his reafoning juft and neceffary ; but, at prefent, however harmony may be fome- times abufed, it mud be allowed that great and pleafing effects are produced from it, by compolers of genius, tafte, and ex- perience, who, from the ftudy of contraft, know when to mul- tiply the parts, and when to difentangle melody. Having given the opinions of the mod refpe&able writers on both fides of this long difputed queftion, it now remains to tell the reader ingenuoufly my own fentiments : and, to con- fefs the truth, I will venture to fay, that I do not believe the ancients ever did wk Jimultaneous harmony, that is, mnjic in dif- ferent parts ; for without thirds and lixths it muff have been infipid ; and with them, the combination of many founds and melodies moving by different intervals, and in different time, would have occasioned a confufion, which the refpect that the Greeks had for their language and poetry, would not fuffer them to tolerate. It has been frequently urged, and with apparent reafon and probability, that ignorance and knowledge, tafte and inele- gance, could not be fo much united in the fame people, as that they fhould be poffeffed of every kind of refinement and per- fection in poetry, fculpture, and architecture, and yet be de- lighted with a rude, coarfe, and ordinary mufic. But flop any one principle of improvement in an art, or fmgle wheel in a watch, and it will check all the reft ; tie up one leg of an ani- mal, to whom nature has even given four, and it will impede his progreftive motion. The Turkifh religion has not only ilopt the advancement of human reafon wherever it has been^ eftablifhed^ i 5 o DISSERTATION ON THE eflublifhed, but totally fuppreflTed all the acquirements of former ages. If, therefore, it was a law with the ancients to regu- late their melody by the length and number of fyllables ; and if every thing that was thought to injure poetry, by diffracting the attention from it, and rendering it difficult to be under- ftood, was avoided, the multiplicity of concords in fimple counterpoint, and the contrary motion of parts in founds of different lengths, in more florid compofitions, muff, have been held in utter abhorrence. But mufic has not always kept pace with other arts in thofe countries, where they have been moft fuccefsfully cul- tivated. Painting, poetry, and fculpture, in Italy, during the iixteenth century, greatly furpaffed the mufic of that period ; and in France, though the compofitions of Lulli, in Louis the fourteenth's time, were at leaft as much extolled by the na- tives, as thofe of the greateft muficians of ancient Greece, by fuch as either heard them, or heard of them ; yet the French themfelves, now, are of the fame opinion as the inhabitants of other parts of Europe have long been, in thinking them not only greatly inferior to the beft productions of the fame period in all the other arts, but wholly intolerable and deteffable. I well know that many paffages in ancient authors are pointed Out as favourable to the fide of mufic in parts ; but what can not be found there by thofe who are determined to fee what- ever they feek ? However, counterpoint feems as much a mo- dern invention, as gunpowder, printing, the ufe of the com- pafs, or circulation of the blood ; and if more proofs againft its ever having exifted are not given, it is not for want of them, but for fear of tiring the reader. One obfervation more, however, I muft add, as it feems conclufive, and has not, to my knowledge, been urged by any other writer. It is generally allowed that the ecclefiaftical modes, and Canto Fermo of the Romifh church, are remains of the ancient Greek mufic ; and as thefe have ever been written in manufcript mif- fals, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 151 fals, without parts, and been always chanted in unifons and oohives, it is a ftrong prefumptive proof, among others, againft the ancients having had counterpoint y as this fpecies of me- lody is fo flow and Ample, as to be more capable of receiving, and, indeed, to ftand more in need of, the harmony of dif- ferent parts, than any other. The chief ufe, therefore, which the ancients made of con- cords in mufic, feems only to afcertain intervals and diftances ; as in our firft leflbns of folmifation it has been cuftomary to fpell intervals, as it were, by naming the intermediate founds ; as do re mi, do mi ; do re mi fa, do fa ; do re mifafol, do fol, &c. Upon the whole, therefore, it feems demonftrable, that har- mony, like ours, was never practifed by the ancients : how- ever, I have endeavoured to fhew, that the ftripping their mulic of counterpoint does not take from it the power of pleafing, or of producing great effects ; and, in modern times, if a Farinelli, a Gizziello, or a Cafarelli, had fung their airs wholly without accompaniment, they would, perhaps, have been liftened to but with flill more pleafure. Indeed the clofes of great fingers, made wholly without accompaniment, are more attended to than all the contrivance of complicated parts, in the courfe of the airs which they terminate.. An elegant and graceful melody, exquifitely fung by a fine voice, is fure to engage attention, and to create delight without inftrumental afliftance ; and in a folo, compofed and performed by a great mafter, the lefs the accompaniment is heard, the better. Hence it fhould feem as if the harmony of accumu- lated vocal parts, or the tumult of inftrumental, was no more than a fuccedaneum to a mellifluous voice, or Angle inftrument of the firft clafs, which is but feldom found. However, to diversify and vary our muiical amufements, and to afllft in dra- matic painting, a full piece, and a well written chorus, have their peculiar merit, even among fongs and folos, however ele- gant the compoiition, or perfect the performance. section; i S z DISSERTATION ON THE SECTION IX. Of Dramatic Mujic. RISTOTLE tells us, in his Poetics, that mufic, fj.£\o7roua., is an effential part of tragedy ; but how it "became effential, this philofopher does not inform us. M. Da- cier has endeavoured to fupply this omiffion, by fuggefting, that cuftom, and a natural paffion implanted in the Greeks for mufic, had incorporated it into their drama. Indeed Ariftotle calls it, in the fame work, " the greater! embellilhment that tragedy can receive." And innumerable paflages might be quoted from other ancient writers, to prove, that all the dramas of the Greeks and Romans were not only fung, but accom- panied by mufical inftruments. However, many learned critics, not reflecting upon the origin of tragedy, and infenfible, perhaps, to the charms of melody, have wondered how fo intelligent a people as the Greeks could bear to have their dramas fung. But as antiquity is unanimous in deriving the firfl dramatic reprefentations at Athens, from the Dithyrambics, or fongs, fung in honour of Bacchus, which afterwards ferved as chorulfes to the firft tragedies, we need not wonder at the continuation of mufic in thofe choruffes, which had been always fung. Nor will the cuftom of fetting the epifodes, as the acts of a play were at firft called, appear ftrange to fuch as recollect that they were written in verf:, and that all ve.'fe was fung, particularly fuch as was intended for the entertainment of the public, afiembled in fpacious theatres, or in the open air, where it could only be heard by means of a very flow, fonorous, and articulate utterance. It is true that tragedy is an imitation of nature; but it is an exalted, and embellifhed nature : take away mufic and verifi- cation, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 153 cation, and it lofes its raoft captivating ingredients. Thofe who think it unnatural tojing during diftrefs, and the agonies even of death, forget that mufic is a language that can ac- commodate its accents and tones to every human fenfation and pafhon ; and that the colouring of thefe on the ftage muft be higher than in common life, or elfe why is blank verfe, or a lofty and figurative language, neceffary (a) ? From thefe, and other circumftances, mentioned in the courfe of this fection, there can remain no doubt but that the an- cient dramas were Jung : dramatic recitation having been con- ftantly called by the Greeks, pe\os, melody ; and by the Latins, modulation modus, cantkum, and other mufical terms, which imply Jinging. Indeed, fo immenfe was the fize of the theatres of Greece and Italy, that we may naturally conclude a mufical declama- tion for the ftage to have been a neceffary confequence of fpeaking loud ; for whoever fhouts, hallows, or bawls, with fufficient force to be heard further than common fpeech can penetrate, makes ufe of fixed tones, which, if foftened, would become mufical : and it is well known that the tones of fpeech are too tranfient and undetermined to be afcertained by thofe of mufic, or to be audible at a great diftance, or in a wide fpace. This want of natural power of voice fufficient to be heard in the open air, for the ancient theatres had no cover, and by a great multitude, gave rife not only to Jinging upon the ftage, but, perhaps, to chanting in the church. The neceffity of aug- menting the force of a performer's voice by every poflible means, likewife firft fuggefted the idea of metallic majks, "which were ufed by the actors upon the principle of fpeaking trumpets, and to that of the eclma, or harmonic vafes ; two (a) The ftage cannot fubfift without ex-- in like manner, exaggerated gefture be- aggeration ; as verfe is the exaggeration of comes dancing. ^common fpeech, fo mufic is that of verfe : Vol. I. X expedients i 5 4 DISSERTATION ON THE expedients fo peculiar to the ancient drama, that it feems ne=-- ceffary to give ibme account of them. The mafk was called by the Latins pcrfona, from perfonare, to found through, and delineations of fuch mafks as were ufed- 1 in each piece, were generally prefixed to it, as appears from,: the Vatican Terence. Hence dramatis perfonce, mafks of the drama ; which words, after mafks ceafed to be ufed, were un-- derftood to mean perfons of the drama. Quintilian, lib. ii. gives a lift of invariable maiks appro- priated to different characters, to which the public had for*- many ages been accuftomed. Niobe, weeping ; Medea, fu- rious ; Ajax, aftonifhed ; and Hercules, enraged. In comedy, the flave, the parafite, the clown, the captain, the old woman f the harlot, the auftere old man, the debauched young man, the prodigal, the prudent young woman, the matron, and the father of a family, were all conftantly characterifed by par- ticular mafks. This cuftom is, in fome meafure, ftill preferred in the Italian comedy, and in our pantomime entertainments,, which originated from it (h). " The fpe£tators, fays du- Bos, fpeaking of the ancient- theatre, loft but little on the fide oi face-playing, by the intro- duction of majks ; for not one third of the audience were near enough to the adlor to difcern the play of mufcles, or- work- ing of the paffions in the features of his face; at leaft to have received pleafure from them ; for an expreffion muft have been accompanied with a frightful' grimace and diftortion of vifagej to be perceptible at fo great a diftanoe from the ftage (?).'! (i) The ancients. had three feveral kinds head of a»perfon ringing on the ftage. No, of maiks ; the tragic, comic, and fatiric. 2. is likewife taken from an antique mafk Lucian, de Saltat. fpeaks ftill of a fourth ■ in metal. It has a large mouth in the kind, peculiar to dancers, of which the fhape of a fhell ; and by the, horror ex r mouths were fliut ; whereas the others were prefled in the countenance, it feems to always open, and of an enormous fize. have been the mafk of a tragic aitor, re- . (c) For the form of thefe mafks, fee citing fome terrible event upon the ftage. Plate IV.No. 1. 2. and 5. No. 1. is taken " The wide mouth, in the form of a fhell^ from an antique figure in metal, of Greek fays Ficoroni, fo common in the ancient feulpture ; the mafk. covered the whole mafks, ferved to augment the .power of the voice,. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 155 With refpecl: to the echeia, or vafes, ufed in theatres for the augmentation of found, Vitruvius, book V. cap. 5. tells us, that they were placed in cells or niches, between the rows of feats occupied by the fpeclators, to which the voice of the -actor had free paffage ; that they were made of brafs, or earthen ware, and proportioned in magnitude to the fize of the build- ing ; and laftly, that in the fmall theatres, they were tuned in harmonical proportions of fourths, fifths, and eighths, with -their replicates ; and in theatres of great magnitude, there was -a vafe to correfpond with every found in - the difdiapafon, or great mufical fyftem, in all the genera. The Romans, according to the fame author, were obliged "to the Greeks for this invention, as well as for tragedy itfelf. For the echeia were brought firft into Italy from Corinth, by Mummius. Perhaps they had fomething of the effect of the whifpering gallery at St. Paul's church, which, by its orbicu- lar form, augments found in the fame manner as the belly of •an inftrument, a hogfhead, or a draw-well. Sir Francis Bacon long fince obferved, that found difrufe-s and waftes itfelf in open air ; but if inclofed and confined in a canal, or narrow limits, its force is augmented ; and adds, 'that inclofures not only encreafe and fortify found, but preferve it [d). Refonance is but an aggregate of echos, or of quick repetitions and returns of the fame found, which foon uniting into one point, are confolidated and embodied ; and by this means, the force of the tone fir ft given is greatly augmented upon the delivery, and preferved fome time after the rirft caufe -ceafes. This conftitutes the ringing of mufical inftruments, and places favourable to found ; but with refpe£t to the whijper, voice, upon the principle of a (peaking- the mart: held in the hand of Thalia, the trumpet." £>uella bocca a c&nchiglia, che comic mufe, one of the molt perfect and Ji vede in altre mqfcbere, ferinva per in- beautiful of the ancient paintings in the grctKilire la voce, come JucceJe nclk trombe a mufaeum at Portici ; it was dug out of Pom- frtfporzione. Le Maichere Sceniche, cap. peii. See Anticb. de Krcoh.no. torn. ii. xyii. and xxii. See likewife Dacier's and (d) Nat, HijK Cexu 2d and 3d. -Colman's Terence. No. 3. is taken from X 2 which i 5 6 DISSERTATION ON THE ■which is Lnftantly carried from the perfon who utters it, to the oppofite fide of the gallery, it runs along the fmooth furface of the wall, and arrives at the place of its deftination with nearly the fame degree of force as it is delivered. It is not eafy now, however, to defcribe, or even to con- ceive, the form and effects of the theatric vafes ; it is enough for the prefent purpofe that their exiftence and ufe are re- corded by fo fcientific a writer as Vitruvius. Our fmaller theatres, luckily, are in want of no fuch helps ; but this is certain, if thefe velfels were tuned to mufical tones and in- tervals, nothing but noife and confufion could be produced from them by common Jpeec/i, or fuch as is ufed in modern de- clamation. For if any one cough, fpeak loud, or ftrike forcibly upon the cafe of a harpfichord, with the lid propped up, or on any hard body near it, the fhock will make every firing in the inftrument found at the fame inftant ; but if a fixed and mufical tone be produced by the voice, or upon a violin or flute, none but the unifon will be heard upon the harpfichord ; and though the cloathing of the jacks be in clofe contact with all the firings, which renders it impoffible to produce a clear tone from any one of them, by the common means of quills, or hammers, yet if any perfon fing near them, every note will be exactly echoed by the inftrument. If, therefore, thefe echeia were of the ufe related by Vitru- vius, it muft have been from the voice approaching them in fixed and mufical tones, modulated in unifon with the tones of the vafes (e). Every thing was upon a large fcale in the ancient theatres. The figure, features, and voice, were all gigantic. The voice was, in a particular manner, the object of an actor's care ; nothing was omitted, fays father Brumoy, that could render it (e) The beft commentary upon this ob- hibit the fituation of the harmonic vafes. . fcure fubjeft in Vitruvius is that of Per- Les dix Livrcs d' Architecture de Fitrwve. . rault, who has given an engraving of part Par. 1684. 2d Edit, folio. e£ an. ancient theatre, on pnrpofe to ex- more. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 157 more fonorous ; even in the heat of action it was governed by the tones of inftruments, that regulated the intervals by which it was to move, and to exprefs the paflions. What kind of mufic was applied to the epifodes and choritjfes of tragedy, is another enquiry : fome idea may perhaps be ob- tained concerning it, without having recourfe to conjecture ; for Plutarch ffj tells us, that the dithyrambic and tragic poets, adopted for their pieces that kind of mufical execution, of which Archilochus is faid to have been the inventor (g). The fame author likewife informs us, that Archilochus per- formed the mufic to his iambic verfes in two different ways ; rearing fome of them to a partial accompaniment, and fmging others, while inftruments fervilely performed the fame notes as the voice ; and this was the method which the tragic poets afterwards adopted fhj. We learn from this fame work of Plutarch, that even the declamatory iambics were accompanied by the Cit/iera, and other inftruments ; but as the employment of the Cither a upon thefe occafions was not eonftant, it feems as if only the ge- neral tone of declamation was given to the actor by the mu- fician, as the chord is given to the finger in modern recita- tive ; whereas in the chorus, and other poetry that was Jung, the inftrument conftantly accompanied the voice, note for note.- Hence it appears that the ancient dramatic writers had a different kind of melos for the declamation of the actors, and for the fongs of the chorus (i). The one may perhaps be compared to modern recitative, and the other to chanting in the Romifti church (k). (f) Dial, upon Mufic. (i) Ariftotle, in his Poetics, chap, xxvii. (g) Archilochus flourifhed about fix fpeaks of two different kinds of rhapfo- hundred and fixty years before Chrift. difts ; one of which recited epic poems, (b) Iambics, or fatyrs, are fuppofed to and the other fung them. have given birth to comedy, as dithyram- (k) Father Meneitrier conjectures, that bics did to tragedy : and it is fomewhat the practice of chanting and finging in the remarkable that religious myfteries fliould church, was derived from the ancient man- have furnifhed fubjefts for the firfl dra- ner of declaiming and finging in public, matic exhibitions among the ancients as Traite des Reprefentations en Mafique, Anc. well as die moderns. . etJMod.. That: i 5 3 DISSERTATION ON THE That this mufic was fimple, and intended to render fpeech more articulate, as well as to fortify paflion, both reafon, and the authority of ancient writers enable us to believe. Plutarch (/) fays, " that the chromatic genus was never ufed in tragedy." Now, if the ancient dramas were declaimed in a fpecies of recitative, it will bring it ftill nearer the recitative of modern mufical dramas, in which no chromatic is ever ad- mitted. Plutarch likewife informs us, that rhythm, or ftricl: mea- fure, was not obferved in tragedy ; another circumftance re- fembling modern recitative, in which no time is kept but that of the accent and cadence of the verfe. And this affertion of Plutarch feems to agree with what Ariftotle fays in his Poetics, chap. i. " That dithyrambics, nomes, tragedies, and comedies, ufe alike number, verfe, and harmony, with this difference, that in fome all three are employed at once, in others, they are ufed feparately." Py number, or rliythm, is here meant regular time ; and by harmony, mufic, or fong. In dithyrambics and nomes the verfe was always accompanied by melody, rhythm, and dance [m) ; and in tragedy and comedy, the verfe was alone recited during the courfe of the a<5ts ; but in the chorufles it was accompa- nied by finging and dancing. As candour forbids the loading the ancients with more cuf- toms, that are repugnant to modern ideas of propriety, than (I) Uii fupra. have fet the ra^.01, or laws of Lycurgus, to (m) Bithyramhics and nomes were equally mufic, the conjecture has both a literal hymns fung in honour of the Gods. The and a figurative foundation. Ariftotle, nomes were for Apollo, as the dithyrambics Prob. X VII. z8. afks why fuch different were for Bacchus. Now the literal mean- things as laws and fongs had the fame ap- ing of ra^oj, name, being a law or rule, it pellations ? and anfwers the queftion him- Ihould feem as if, after the invention of lelf, by faying, that before the knowledge mufical charafters, the names were the firft of letters, kw vrttefung, in order to their melodies, or tunes, that were written being the better retained in memory. But down, and rendered permanent and unal- if, according to Jofephus, the word mpa% is terable ; whereas, before that period, mufic not to be found in all the writings of Ho- muft have been played extempore, or by mer, it muft, confequently, be a more memory : and as Terpander, the inventor modern term. of a mufical notation, is likewife find to can MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 159 can be warranted by good authority, I fhall endeavour to ac- quit them of fome part of that exceflive fondnefs for dancing,, which many writers have laid to their charge, by fuppofing that not only the chorus, but the principal characters of the drama, were continually dancing all the time they were upon, the ftage. Indeed Xogog, chorus, equally means a band of fingers,, and a company of dancers. Many inftances occur, however, in- ancient authors, where dancing in the old drama of the Greeks, feems but another word for moving and acting grace- fully ; and the term liypocritic, which- the Greeks likewife call. orc/ie/is, and the Latins, fait at io though it fometimes means dancing, more frequently is ufed to exprefs gefture, or theatri- cal action. In the younger drama, according to Lucian (n), a fingle dancer, or mime, was able to exprefs all the incidents and fentiments of a whole tragedy, or epic poem, by dumb figns, but ftill to mufic, as the actors recited it ; though Ari- ftotle exprefly fays, that dancers want neither poetry nor mufic,. as by the affiftance of meafure and cadence only, they can. imitate human manners, actions, and pafhons. The ftrange cuftom of dividing the declamation and gef- tures, or fpeaking and acting, between, two perfons, was never, thought of by the Greeks. It is mentioned by Livy as an in^ vention of Titus Andronicus, an old Roman poet, who flou- rifhed two hundred and forty years before Chrift, in order to fave himfelf the fatigue of finging in his own piece ; to which he, like other authors of his time, had been accuftomed- But being hoarfe by repeating a whole play that had been encored, he obtained permiffion to transfer the vocal part to a young performer, retaining to himfelf only the acting, which he was able to go through with the more fire and propriety, fays Livy, by being exempted from the labour of finging. M. Duclos endeavours to prove, that as the Canticum of Andronicus was compofed of fongs and dances, the words of Livy, canticum (n) Be Salt attune* t6o DISSERTATION ON THE egiffe aliquanto magis viginti motu, quia nihil vocis nfus impedi- ebat, imply no more than that the old poet, who at fir ft fling his Canticum, or, if you will, his Cantata^ and afterwards danced in the interludes alternately, having fung till he was hoarfe, transferred the finging to another performer, in order to dance with more force and activity ; and from thence came the cuftom of making finging and dancing two different pro- feflions (o). The Greek dramas confifted of foliloquy, dialogue, and cho- rus ; hut as the chorus was never adopted in the Latin co- medy, it has been imagined, that fuch cantica, or foliloquies, as were full of fentiment and paffion, had a different, and more elaborate and refined melody and accompaniment fet to them, than the diverbia, or dialogues ; and that, like the cho- rus of the Greek tragedy, they ferved as interludes, or ac~fc tunes. But 1 have been able to meet with no fatisfadtory proof of thefe cantica, or fongs, being a part of the piece, like the Greek chorus : for though Flaccus is mentioned as com- pofer of the modes, or melodies, to which all the fix come- dies of Terence were fung, no notice is taken of a different mufic for the cantica, or even interludes, if fuch there were, ufed between the acts. Some of the foliloquies in Terence feem too fhort and trivial to be fung to different mufic from the diverbia ; and others, that are longer and more fentimental, have no diftin&ion of verification, like the odes or choruffes of Greek tragedy, to point them out as cantica ; but are all in the fame free iambic verfe as the diverbia. Donatus, who flourished three hundred and fifty years after Chrift, tells us, indeed, that " though the dialogues were fpoken, the cantica were fet to mufic, not by the poet, but by an able compofer (/>)." I fhould therefore rather imagine that (o) Kncyclop. Art. Declamation lies An- cantica this union. " Ancient Greece had many muficians, fays M. Dacier (y)y who were not poets, but not one poet who was not a mufi- cian, and who did not compofe the mufic of his own pieces :: (x) Theatre des Grecs, du fere Brumoy, (y) Remarqves fitr laPoetiqued''Ariftote,. Uwe I. E' 1°5» i68 DISSERTATION ON THE ■Mvjici qui erant quondam iidem poeta, fays Cicero ; for 1ft •Greece, mufic was the foundation of all fciences ; the educa- tion of children was begun by it, from a perfuafion that no- thing great could be expected from a man who was ignorant of mufic. This probably gave the Greek poetry fuch a fuperiority over the Latin, as well as over that of modern languages ; for at Rome poetry and mufic were two diftinct arts, and poets were there obliged to give their pieces to be fet by rnuficians, as is the cafe at prefent every where elfe." Such were the fentiments of this profound critic, and thefe were likewife the opinions of the late Dr. Browne, and are thofe of moft learned men, who, being out of the way cf good mufic, and good performers -of the prefent times, have formed a romantic idea of ancient mufic upon the exaggerated accounts of its effects, which they have read in old authors. The abate Metaflafio, more a man of the world, and more reafonable, confefTes, that the ffudy of modern mufic requires too much time for a man of letters ever to be able to qualify himfelf for the bufinefs of a compofer. The Greeks, indeed, during the lime of their education, had no language to learn but their own : hence they had more time for other ftudies. But with all the fimplicity of their mufic, the poets themfelves being able to fet their own pieces, and to fing them fo well to the fatisfadtion of the public, is to me a certain proof that their mufic had not only fewer diffi- culties, but fewer excellencies than the modern. This is not the place to difcufs the point j but it appears to me as if the being at once a great poet, and a great mufician, were utterly impoffible ; otherwife why fhould not fuch a coin- cidence of talents frequently happen ? Milton ftudied mufic, and fo have many of our poets ; but to know it equally well with a profeffor, is a drudgery to which they cannot fubmit ; befides, a genius for poetry is fo far from including a genius for mufic, that fome of our greateft poets have not only been enemies MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 169 enemies to harmony, but have had ears fo unfortunately con- ftrutted, as not to enable them to diftinguifh one found from another. The Grecian fage, according to Gravina (x), was at once a philofopher, a poet, and a mufician. " In Separating thefe characters, fays he, they have all been w«akened ; the fphere of philofophy has been contracted ; ideas have failed in poetry, and force and energy in fong. Truth is now extinguifhed from among men ; the philofopher no longer fpeaks through the medium of poetry, nor is poetry any more heard through the vehicle of melody." Now, to my apprehenfion, the reverfe of all this is exactly true ; for, by being feparated, each of thefe profeffions receives a degree of cultivation, which for- tifies, and renders it more powerful, if not more illuftrious. The mufic of ancient philofophers, and the philofophy of mo- dern muficians, I take to be pretty equal in excellence. Having now mentioned the principal fubjects of the ancient drama, as far as they concern mufic, fuch as the majks, echeia, melopoeia of the c'antica, diverbia, and choruffes, divided into Jlrophe, antiflrophe, and epode ; the accompaniments of thefe by the cither a and flutes, equal and unequal', the union of poet and mufician, in the authors of ancient dramas ; all which, fingly, and collectively, prove the declamation of the Greeks and Ro- mans to have been mufical, and regulated, like the recitative of modern operas, by a notation : I mall now beftow a few words upon the expediency and pofiibility of reducing modern de- clamation in the natural tones of fpeech, unaccompanied by mufical inftruments, to a notation, fuch as would accurately mark the elevation, depreffion, and inflexions of voice, as well as determine its degree of force, and the accentuation of words and fyllables. As to the expediency of fuch an invention, it feems on many occafions devoutly to be wifhed ; but, for the pofiibility of its being practicable, that is certainly very prob- fVt^ Delia Ragion Pcctica. Vol. I. Z lematical. 170 DISSERTATION ON THE kmatical. However, Dionyfius Hallicarnaflus, de Struc7. Qrat. (y), tells us, in a famous paflage which has often been difcuffed, that " the fifth was the common boundary to the melody of fpeech :" that is, fays the abbe Arnaud (2), " the tones which constitute language, were commonly all comprifed within the compafs of a fifth, and the inflexions of voice ex- tended to all the feveral degrees of that interval. Each word had its accent ; the fyllable was elevated by the acute accent, and lowered by the grave. This rule was fixed and unalter- able ; the degree of high and low was free and various ; and it was this variety and freedom, which threw not only grace and variety into the pronunciation, but which ferved to fhew the li- mits and even fhades of elocution." Many paflages from Cicero, Quintilian, Plutarch, and Bo~ ethius, might be cited, to prove, that not only muficians and actors, but even orators, had a notation, by which the in- flexions of voice, peculiar to their feveral profeflions of fing- ing, declaiming, and haranguing in public, were afcertained {a). But the orators, though not conftantly accompanied by an inftrument, yet had their voices regulated by one, which Quin- tilian calls a tonarium, Cicero, a Jijlula, and Plutarch, cru,;iFyiov, or Jjrinx, which is the fame thing ; and this inftrument ferved as a kind of pitch-pipe. Both Cicero (<£) and Plutarch [c], re- late the well-known ftory of the voice of the furious tribune, Caius Gracchus, being brought down to its natural pitch, after he had loft it in a tranfport of paflion, by means of a fervant placed behind him with one of thefe inftruments (d). It is not (y) Seft. ii. p. 76. Edit. Upton. for declamation, at which he taught fe- (z) Mem. de Littcraturc, tome xxxii. veral perfons, preparatory to their fpeak- p. 442. ing in public, or going on the ftage. (a) As there were combats, or contorts, He had a law-fuit with one of them, in eftablifhed by the ancients for the voice, as which Cicero pleaded his caufe. well as other parts of the Gymuajlice, (b) Dc Orat. lib. iii. thofe who taught the management of the (c) In Fit. C. Graccb. voice were called (pmx.ax.oi, pbonafci ; and (d) Cicero, who tells us that this tibicen, under their inftruftions were put all thofe with his jlappcr, quijlaret occults pojl ipfum, who were deftined to be orators, fingers, and was not feen by the people, does not sKa' comedians.. Rofcius had an academy confine his employment to appeafing the paffioa , MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 171 eafy, however, to conceive of what ufe this expedient could be, unlefs rhetorical tones were regulated by thofe of mufic. M. Duclos (ui hiflaret cclcritcr (<•/' Kncydop. Art. Dedamat, des Anc. ■eum fonum, quo Ilium cut remiflum exci- Z 2 fuch i 7 2 DISSERTATION ON THE fuch minute inflexions ; a difficulty that feems obviated by the pafTage juft cited from Dionyfius ; which fays, that the com- pafs of voice in declamation, even during a fcene of paffion,. feldom exceeds the interval of a fifth. I therefore cannot help giving a place to the invention of characters, for theatrical elo- cution among mufical dejiderata*. Mr. Garrick, indeed, with feeming reafon, objects to the ufe of them for himfelf, as " they would render his declamation cold and monotonous, and deprive him of the power of varying the tones of his voice according to his prefent feelings." But in anfwer to this it might be urged, that a great finger, notwithftanding the outline that is given him by the compofer, feldom performs an air twice in the fame manner ; though, on account of the ac- companiments, and regularity of the meafure, to which every change, or embellifhment, muff, correfpond, it is much more difficult to vary mufical founds in melody, than the tones of fpeech in declamation, which are not only unconnected with other parts, but uncontrolled by time,. It is far from being my wifh ever to hear our tragedy fung, or pronounced in recitative, however defirable it may be to. preferve the tones of voice ufed by great actors, if it were only to affift the young, the ignorant, and unfeeling candidates, for theatrical fame. Moliere, when he performed in his own plays, and Beau-- bourg, the actor, are confidently affirmed, by the abbe du Bos, to have noted their particular fcenes of declamation ff). This . author fays that he does not wonder at actors by profeffion be- ing, in general, againft fuch reftraint ; mankind is naturally fond of liberty in all things : il ne veut pas etre contraint dans fes allures ; they will not be confined in their natural gait, fays , Montaigne. But though actors and actrefles of the firft clafs i are fure to charm an audience, let their humour be what it will, ; (/) Riflex. Crit._ tome M. fe£t, 1 8. yet: MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 17 j yet the notation of the tones, in which a favourite and affect- ing fpeech was fpoken by a Garrick, or a Cibber, would not only be an excellent leftbn to inferior a&ors, but would be a means of conveying it to pofterity, who will fo frequently meet with their names and elogiums, in the Hiftory of the Stage, and be curious to know, in what manner they acquired, fuch univerfal admiration.. SECTION X. Of the EjfeSts attributed ta the Mufic of the Ancients*. ATERIAL.S for this part of my Differtation are fo numerous, that if I were only to prefent the reader with all the ftories that have been related by the moft grave and refpeclable hiftorians and philofophers of Greece and Rome, concerning the moral, medicinal, and fupernatural powers of ancient mufic, this fection. would be as full, of the miracles of muficians, as the Golden Legend is of thofe operated; by the faints. The credulous and exclufive admirers of an- tiquity have, however, fo long read and reverenced all thefe narrations, that they are impreifed by them with an extra- vagant idea of the excellence of ancient mufic, which they are very unwilling to relinquifh ; and yet, after a moft careful inveftigation of the fubject, and a minute analyfis of this mufic, by examining, its conftituent parts* I have not been, able to difcover that it was fuperiour to the modern in any other refpe&s than its fimplicity, and ftrict adherence to me- trical feet, when applied to poetry. For, as mufic, confidered: abftractedly, it appears to have been much inferiour to the mo- dern, in the two great and effential parts of the art, melody. and harmony*. s 7 4 DISSERTATION ON THE It fhall therefore be my bufmefs in this fection to collect and examine the principal facts, purely hiftorical, that have been related by ancient writers, and which are urged by the moderns in its favour, under the three following heads : Firft, of the effects of ancient mufic in foftening the man- ners, promoting civilization, and humanizing men, naturally favage and barbarous : Secondly, its effects in exciting, or repreffing the paffions : And, thirdly, its medicinal power in curing difeafes. Among the effects of the firjl clafs, one of the moft fingular and finking is related by Polybius, the hiftorian, a grave, exact, and refpectable writer, who, in fpeaking of feveral acts of cruelty and injuftice exercifed by the jEtolians againft their neighbours the Cyncetheans, has the following remarkable paf- fage, which I fhall give at full length from Mr. Hambden's excellent tranflation. " With regard to the inhabitants of Cyncetha, whofe mis- fortunes we have juft now mentioned, it is certain, that no people ever were efteemed fo juftly to deferve that cruel treat- ment to which they were expofed. And fince the Arcadians, in general, have been always celebrated for their virtue through- out all Greece ; and have obtained the higheft fame, as well by their humane and hofpitable difpofition, as from their piety alfo towards the Gods, and their veneration of all things fa- cfed ; it may perhaps be ufeful to enquire, from whence it could arife, that the people of this fingle city, though con- feffed to be Arcadians, fhould, on the contrary, be noted for the favage roughnefs of their lives and manners, and diftin- guifhed by their wickednefs and cruelty above all the Greeks. In my judgment then, this difference has happened from no other caufe, than that the Cyncetheans were the firft and only people among the Arcadians, who threw away that inftitution, which their anceftors had eftablifhed with the greateft wifdom, and with a nice regard to the natural genius, and peculiar dif- pofition MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 175: pofition of the people of the country; I mean, the difcipline and exercife of mufic : of that genuine and perfect mufic, which is ufeful indeed in every ftate, but abfolutely neceflary to the people of Arcadia. For we ought by no means to adopt the fentiment that is thrown out by Ephorus in the preface to his hiftory, and which indeed is very unworthy of that writer, " That mufic was invented to deceive and delude mankind." Nor can it be fuppofed, that the Lacedemonians, and the an- cient Cretans, were not influenced by fome good reafon, when, in the place of trumpets, they introduced the found of flutes, and harmony of verfe, to animate their foldiers in the time of battle : or that the firff. Arcadians acted without ftrong ne- ceffity, who, though their lives and manners, in all other points, were rigid and auftere, incorporated this art into the very effence of their government ; and obliged not their chil- dren only, but the young men likewife, till they had gained the age of thirty years, to perfift in the conftant ftudy and practice of it. For all men know, that Arcadia is almoft the only country, in which the children, even from their moft tender age, are taught to fing in meafure their fongs and' hymns, that are compofed in honour of their gods and heroes : and that afterwards, when they have learned the mufic of Timotheus and Philoxenus, they affemble once in every year in the public theatres, at the feaft of Bacchus ; and there dance, with emulation, to the found of flutes, and celebrate, according to their proper age, the children thofe that are called the puerile, and the young men, the manly games. And even in their private feafts and meetings, they are never known to employ any hired bands of mufic for their entertainment ; but each man is obliged himfelf to fing in turn. For though they may, without fhame or cenfure, difown all knowledge of every other fcience, they dare not on the one hand diffemble or deny, that they are fkilled in mufic, fince the laws require, that every one fhould be inftru&ed in it ; nor can. they, on the other hand s > a;6 DISSERTATION ON THE liand, refufe to give fome proofs of their {kill when afked, be* caufe fuch refufal would be efteemed difhonourable. They are alfo taught to perform in order all the military fteps and motions, to the found of infbruments : and this is likewife pra&ifed every year in the theatres, at the public charge, and in fight of all the citizens." " Now to me it is clearly evident, that the ancients by no means introduced thefe cuiloms, to be the instruments of luxury and idle pleafure : but becaufe they had confidered with attention, both the painful and laborious courfe of life, to which the Arcadians were accuftomed ; and the natural au- fterity alfo of their manners, derived to them from that cold and heavy air, which covered the greater! part of all their pro- vince. For men will be always found to be in fome degree aflimilated to the climate in which they live : nor can it be afcribed to any other caufe, that in the feveral nations of the world, diftinct and feparated from each other, we behold fo wide a difference, in complexion, features, manners, cuftoms. The Arcadians, therefore, in order to fmooth and foften that difpofition, which was by nature fo rough and ftubborn, be- sides the cuftoms above defcribed, appointed frequent feftivals and facrifices, which both fexes were required to celebrate to- gether ; the men with women, and the boys with virgins ; and, in general, eftablifhed every inftitution, that could ferve to render their rugged minds more gentle and compliant, and tame the fiercenefs of their manners. But the people of Cy- ncetha, having flighted all thefe arts, though both their air and fituation, the moft inclement and unfavourable of any in Arcadia, made fome fuch remedy more requifite to them than to the reft, were afterwards engaged continually in inteftine tumults and contentions ; till they became at laft fo fierce and favage, that, among all the cities of Greece, there was none in which fo many and fo great enormities were ever known to be committed. To how deplorable a ftate this condudl had at MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. i; 7 at laft reduced them, and how much their manners were de- tefted by the Arcadians, may be fully underftood from that which happened to them, when they fent an embafiy to Lace- dxmon, after the time of a dreadful {laughter which had been made among them. For in every city of Arcadia, through which their deputies were obliged to pafs, they were com- manded by the public crier inftantly to be gone. The Manti- neans alfo expreffed even ftill more ftrongly their abhorrence of them : for as foon as they were departed, they made a fo- lemn purification of the place ; and carried their victims in proceffion round the city, and through all their territory." " This then may be fufficient to exempt the general cuftoms of Arcadia from all cenfure ; and at the fame time to remind the people of that province, that mufic was at firft eftabliflied in their government, not for the fake of vain pleafure and amufe- ment, but for fuch folid purpofes, as mould engage them never to defert the practice of it. The Cyncetheans alfo may perhaps draw fome advantage from thefe reflexions ; and* if the Deity fhould hereafter blefs them with better fentiments, may turn their minds towards fuch difcipline, as may foften and improve their manners, and efpecially to mufic ; by which means alone, they can ever hope to be diverted of that brutal fiercenefs, by which they have been fo long diftinguifhed (a)," Though Polybius in this paflage feems to attribute the happy change that was brought about in the manners of the Arca- dians to mufic alone, it does not appear to merit all the honour, as a confiderable part was doubtlefs due to the poetry that ac- companied it ; which being grave, majeftic, and full of piety andrefped: for the gods and heroes, whofe glorious actions and benefits were celebrated in it, muft have had great influ- ence upon the minds of young perfons, in whofe education thofe two arts had fo confiderable a mare, i (a) Book IV. Vol. I, A a Homer vfi DISSERTATION ON THE Homer places a mufician. over Clytemneftra during the ab~ fence of Agamemnon, as a guard upon her chaftity ; and tilt he was fent away, her feducer, iEgifthus, had no power over her affections 1 At firft with worthy fhame, and decent pride* The royal dame his lawlefs fuit deny*d. For virtue's image yet poffeft her mind, Taught by a mafter of the tuneful kind : Atrides parting for the Trojan war, Confign'd the youthful confort to his care ; True to his charge, the bard preferv'd her long: In honour's limits, fuch the power of fong. Pope's Homer's Iliad, Book iiu. It is not, however, to be fuppofed, that mere leffons o£ mufic could be leffons of prudence and virtue : it muff have: been the poetry, in which the bard's inftrucliions and precepts were conveyed, that kept the queen from infidelity, and not the found of his lyre ; though Paufanias in his. Attics, calls, him u.oiloq unto}, z.Jinger, and not a poet.. But if thefe accounts from Poly bi us and Homer were to be* taken literally, they would prove the fenfibility of the Greeks more than the excellence of their mufic, in fuch remote an- tiquity ; for though all writers agree in; faying that the Gre- cian lyre was at firft furnifhed with only three or four open firings, and for many ages after had,, at moft, but feven or- eight, by which fmall number of founds the voice was wholly regulated and governed ; yet the miraculous effects of mufic are thrown into thefe dark and fabulous times, when the art', may be fuppofed to have been in its infancy ; and the hearers, at leaft as ignorant as the performers \b\ (b) From the heavy complaints made by Jtkement, we may fuppofe that' its miracu-- Plato and Ariftotle of the degeneracy of lous powers had then ceafed. isufic in their time, from its too great re- Bllt; MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 179 But now, fince gods and goddeffes are humanized, and an- cient heroes are reduced to the common ftandard of mankind, why, it may be afked, are we to retain only the marvellous ftories concerning the mufic of thofe remote periods, when all the reft are given up ? I fhall now confider under the fecond head what has been related by ancient authors, relative to the empire of mufic over the paffions. Plutarch, in his Dialogue on Mu/ic, tells us, that Terpander appealed a violent fedition among the Lacedaemonians by the afliftance of mufic. The fame author, in his Life of Solon, relates, that this ce~ lebrated legiflator, by finging an elegy of his own writing, confifting of a hundred verfes, excited his countrymen, the Athenians, to a renewal of the war againft the Megariansj which had been put an end to in a fit of defpair, and which was forbidden to be mentioned on pain of death ; but by the power of his fong, they were fo enflamed, that they never refted till they had taken Salamine, which was the object of the war. This circumftance is not only related by Plutarch, but by Diogenes Laertius, Paufanias, and Polyan. Pythagoras, according to Boethius (c), feeing a young ftranger enflamed with wine, in fo violent a rage, that he was on the point of fetting fire to the houfe of his miftrefs, for preferring his rival to him ; and, moreover, animated by the found of a flute playing to him in the Phrygian mode, had this young man reftored to reafon and tranquillity, by ordering the tibicina, or female performer on the flute, to change her mode, and play in a grave and foothing ftyle, according to the meafure ufually given to the fpondee {d). The fame kind of ftory is recorded by Galen of Damon, the mufic-mafter of (c) Mnjtc, lib. i. cap. 1. known in their old ferious operas by the (d) This meafure the French imagine name of fommcih, fo proper to tranquilize, to have been the fame as that of the airs and excite drowiinefs. A a 2 Socrates $ 180 DISSERTATION ON THE Socrates ; and Empedocles is, in like manner, faid to have, prevented murder by the found of his- lyre. Plutarch relates of Antigenides, what others have given to Timotheus, that in playing a fpir-ited air to Alexander, it fo» enflamed the courage of that prince, that he fuddenly rofe ffom table, and feized his arms. The painter, Theon, who knew the virtue of this martial: mufic, availed himfelf of its power ; for, according to ./Elian (e), at an exhibition of a picture, in which, he had reprefented a. foldier ready to fall on the enemy, he firft took the precaution, of making a tibicen found the charge ; and as foon as he. faw. the Spectators fufficiently animated by this mufic, he uncovered; his picture, which gained univerfal admiration.. Thucydides, as quoted by Aulus Gellius ,,(_/!), fays, when : the Lacedemonians went to battle,., a tibicen played foft and. foothing mufic to temper their courage, left, by an ardent te-~ merity they fhould have rufhed on with too great impetuofity ;• for, in general, they had more need of having their courage; reprelfed than excited*. However, in an engagementwith the Meffenians, they were - very near being difcomfited* when the celebrated Tyrtaeus, who performed the part of a tibicen that day, finding the troops, give way, immediately quitted the Lydian mode, and played \ in the Phrygian, which fo reanimated their courage, reprelfed ; by the preceding, mode, that they obtained a. complete vic-. tory (g). Such are the wonderful effects upon the paffions, which the ancient mufic is faid to have produced. Now, without dis- puting the truth of the facts, let us enquire whether, in thofe • early ages, it was neceffary for the art to have been brought to ■ great perfection, in order to operate fo powerfully. (e) Lib. ii. cap. 44. (g) Patritius, lib, ii. fap. 2, (f) ■ LjbA, cap, II,.- To. MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. i8r To begin with the fedition at Sparta, that Terpander was able to appeafe fo opportunely ; upon which I fhall only ob~ ferve, that it does not appear as if the lyre had had the prin- cipal {hare in the bufinefs ; that inftrument only ferving as an accompaniment to the voice of the mufician, who was likewife an excellent poet, and whofe verfes upon this occafion, it is moft likely, were far more perfuafive than his mulic. It has' aheady been obferved how much his melody and modulation muft have been confined by the fmall compafs of the lyre ; and yet, however defirous Terpander might have been to ex- tend its limits, he would hardly have been fo imprudent as to expofe himfelf a fecond time to the penalty which the ephori had before made him pay, for only adding a fingle fixing tO' his lyre (//).. As to the adventure of Solon with refpedT: to Salamine, the favourable difpofition in which he found the Athenian youth for war, and the perfuafive {trains of his elegy, the poetry of which was rendered interefting and pathetic, by every circum*- fiance that could be urged upon fuch an occafion, contributed no lefs to his being favourably heard than the mufic. For me- lody at this time confined to few notes, could not be fufcep- tible of great variety : and we may eafily form an idea of the rhythm, as it muft have been regulated by daclyls, fpondees, and anapaefts, the only feet admiflible in elegiac verfe. With refpecl to the power attributed to the flute, it lefiens. the marvellous very much,, when we confider that, in the in- ftances juft given, this power was only exercifed upon perfons agitated by the fumes of wine; for, at prefent, it certainly would not be. difficult to render a company of drunken fel- lows furious, by a ; bad hautbois, or tabor and pipe ; but, {/>) The Spartans, though the firfl: cul- Phrynnis.and Timotheus underwent a. Hill, tivators of mufic among the Greeks, were feverer punifhment. And Plutarch fpeaks fych. enemies to variations in that art, that of a lyrift whom they heavily, fined for- Terpander was not the only reformer playing with his fingers, inilead of the ajid. innovator who felt the.ir refentment : plchrum, as their forefathers had done. when,: i32 DISSERTATION ON THE when the firft rage has fpent itfelf, if the hautbois were to play a graver ftrain, and retard the meafure by degrees, we fhould foon fee thefe pot-valiant heroes fall faft afleep, without reflect- ing any great honour upon the excellence of the mufic, or per- formance. The flutes, therefore, that were ufed under the direction of Pythagoras and Damon cannot eafily be regarded in a more wonderful light ; any more than the lyre of Empedocles, which is faid to have had the power of preventing murder ; ^for all that can be inferred from what has been related of this poet and mufician is, that he reftored a furious young man to reafon and moderation by the afliftance of poetical counfel, conveyed to him in a fong ; for the chief ufe made of the lyre at that time, as before obferved, was to accompany the voice. With regard to the particular power of the flute of Timo- theus, or of Antigenides, over Alexander, where is the won- der that a young and martial prince, extremely fenfible to the charms of mufic, fhould fuddenly rife from table upon hear- ing fome military charge, or march founded, and, feizing his arms, dance a Pyrrhic dance ? Muft a mufician's abilities be very extraordinary, or the mufic miraculous, to operate fuch a natural effect ? A Thracian prince, mentioned by Xenophon, lib. viu was roufed in the fame manner by the found of flutes and trum- pets, made of an ox's hide undrefled, and is faid to have danced with as much impetuofity and fwiftnefs, as if he had tried to avoid a dart. But muft we conclude from hence, that in the city Cerafontes, where it is faid to have happened, mufic was arrived at a greater degree of perfection than elfewhere ? The trumpeter, Herodorus, of Megara, had the power, according to Athenseus, of animating the troops of Demetrius fo much, by founding two trumpets at a time, during the fiege of Argos, as to enable them to move a machine towards the ramparts, which they had in vain attempted to do for fe- veral MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS, 183 veral days before, on account of its enormous weight. Now the whole miraculous part of this exploit may fafely be con- strued into a Jignal given by the mulician to the foldiers for working in co?icert at the battering ram, or other military en- gines ; for want of which fignal, in former attempts, their ef- forts had never been united, and confequently were ineffectual. Nor can any thing be inferred very much in favour of either the mufic or mufician, mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus (/), who, under the reign of Eric the fecond of Denmark, could work his hearers up to a fury at his pleafure : for it was in a dark and barbarous age, when mufic was extremely degene- rated. However, imperfect as it was, its power over the paffions feems to have been as great as in the days of Alexander. Gi- raldus affures us, that he faw the fame effects produced at the court of Leo X. Mufic was then, indeed, a little emerged from barbarifm, though very remote from its prefent degree of perfection. All this only proves, that the belt mufic of every age, be it ever fo coarfe and imperfect, has great power over the human affections, and is thought delightful, perfect, and inimitable : hence thofe hyperbolical praifes at all times, and in all coun- tries, concerning mufic, that becomes intolerable to perfons of tafle in future ages ; and, perhaps, the more barbarous the age and the mufic, the more powerful its effects (k). I (hall now lay before my readers, under the Third head, the Medicinal powers that have been attributed to mufic by the ancients. Martianus Capella (/) affures us, that fevers were removed by fong, and that Afclepiades cured deafnefs by the found of the trumpet. Wonderful, indeed ! that the fame noife which would occafion deafnefs in fome, fhouid be a fpecific for it in others ! it is making the viper cure her own bite, (i) Lib, xii. p. 226, accuftomed to excellence, gave way to their {k) " For flill the lefs they underftand, feelings, without afking 'their judgment: The more they admire the flight of hand." leave to be pleafed, its operations were In the firil ages of Greece, when mu- moll miraculous, Ac was a new art, and the hearers, un- (I) Lid, ix. Be Mujica, But 1 84 DISSERTATION ON THE Rut perhaps Aiclepiades was the inventor of the Acovjlicon, or ear-trumpet, which has been thought a modern difcovery ; or of the fpeaking-trumpet, which is a kind of cure for dijiant deafnefs. Thefe would be admirable proofs of mufical power (/) ! We have the teilimony of Plutarch (»;), and feveral other an- cient writers, that Thaletas the Cretan, delivered the Lacedae- monians from the peftilence by the fweetnefs of his lyre. Xenocrates, as Martianus Capella further informs us, em- ployed the found of inftruments in the cure of maniacs ; and Apollonius Dyfcolus (»), in his fabulous hiftory, Hijlorla Com- mentitia, tells us, from Theophraftus's Treatife upon Entlui- Jiqfi'h that mufic is a fovereign remedy for a deje&ion of fpi- rits, and a difordered mind ; and that the found of the Flute will cure an epilepfy, and a fciatic gout. Athenseus quotes the fame paffage from Theophraftus, with this additional cir- cumftance, that as to the fecond of thefe diforders, to render the cure more certain, the Flute mould play in the Phrygian mode (o). But Aulus Gellius, who mentions this remedy ( p ), feems to adminifter it in a very different manner, by prefcribing to the Flute-player a foft and gentle ftrain ; Ji modulis lenibus, fays he, tibken incinat : for the Phrygian mode was remarkably vehement and furious. This is what Ccelius Aurelianus calls /oca dolentia decant are, enchant ing the difordered places (q). Fie even tells us how this enchantment is brought about upon thefe occafions, in faying that the pain is relieved by caufing a vi- bration in the fibres of the afflicted part : Qua cum faltum fu- ?nerent palpitando-, difcuJJ'o dolor e niitefcerent. Galen fpeaks fe- rioufly of playing the Flute on the fuffering part, upon the (/) It has been afferted by feveral mo- account favs, hired a Drummer as her fer- derns, that deaf people can hear heft in a vant, in order to enjoy the pleafure of her great noife; perhaps to prove, that Greek converfation. noife could do nothing which the modern (m) De Miijica. cannot operate as effectually ; and Dr. (>/) Cap. xlix. Dc Mujica, p. 42. Willis, in particular, tells us of a lady (0) Deipnof. lib. xiv. cap. if. who could hear only while a drum was (p) Lib. iv. cap. 13. beating, in fo much that her hufband, the \n) Cbron. lib. v. cap. 1. fcS, 23. principle., MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 185 principle, I fuppofe, of a medicated vapour bath (;-}. The found of the flute was likewife a fpecific for the bite of a viper, according to Theophraftus and Democritus, whofe au- thority Aulus Gellius gives for his belief of the fad. But I find nothing more extraordinary among the virtues attributed to mufic by the ancients, than what Ariflotle relates of its fuppofed power in foftening the rigour of punifhment. The Tyrrhenians, fays he, never fcourge their Haves, but by the found of flutes, looking upon it as an inftance of humanity to give fome counterpoife to pain, and thinking, by fuch a di- version, to leffen the fum total of the punifhment (s). To this account may be added a paflage from Jul. Pollux (t), by which we learn, that in the triremes, or veflels of three banks of oars, there was always a tibicen, or flute-player, not only to mark the time, or cadence, for each ftroke of the oar, but to footh and cheer the rowers by the fweetnefs of the melody. And from this cuftom Quintilian took occafion to fay, that mufic is the gift of nature, to enable us the more patiently to fupport toil and labour (aj. Thefe are the principal paffages which antiquity furnifhes, relative to the medicinal effect s of mufic ; in considering which, I fhall rely on the judgment of M. Burette, whofe opinions will come with the more weight, as he had not only long made the mufic of the ancients his particular ftudy, but was a phyfician by profeffion. This writer, in a DifTertation on the fubjedl, has examined and difcuffed many of the ftories above related, concerning the effects of mufic in the cure of difeafes. He allows it to be poflible, and even probable, that mufic, by reiterated flrokes and vibrations given to the nerves, fibres, fr) Many of the ancients fpeak of mufic (s) It feems, by the lightnefs of the as vi recipe for every kind of malady ; and mufic, from a very different reaibn, that it is probable that the Latin word prscci- the Pruffian Soldiers are Scourged to the nere, to charm away pain, incantare to en- found of inftruments at prefent. chant, and our word incantation, came (t) Lib. iv. cap. i. from the medicinal ufe of long. (u) Infiit. Orat. lib. i. cap. 10. Vol. I. B b and i.StS DISSERTATION ON THE and animal fpirits, maybe of ufe in the cure of certain dif- eafes ; yet he by no means fuppofes that the mufic of the an- cients poffeffed this power in a greater degree than the mo- dern, but rather, that a very coarfe and vulgar mufic is as likely to operate effectually on fuch occafions as the moft re- fined and perfect. The favages of America pretend to per- form thefe cures by the noife and jargon of their imperfect in- ftruments ; and in Apulia, where the bite of the tarantula is pretended to be cured by mufic, which excites a defire to dance, it is by an ordinary tune, very coarfely performed (x). Credulity muft be very ftrong in thofe who can believe itr poffible for muiic to drive away the peftilence. Anciquity r however, as mentioned above, relates, that Thaletas, a famous lyric poet, cotemporary with Solon, was gifted with this power ; but it is impoffible to render the fact credible, without quali- fying it by feveral circumftances omitted in the relation. la the firft place it is certain, that this poet was received among, the Lacedaemonians during the plague, by command of an oracle : that by virtue of this miffion, all the poetry of the hymns which he fung, muft have confifted of prayers and fupplications, in order to avert the anger of the Gods againft the people, whom he exhorted to facrifices, expiations^ purifications, and many other acts of devotion ; which how- ever fuperftitious, could not fail to agitate the minds of the multitude, and to produce nearly the fame effects as public fafts, and, in catholic countries, proceffions, at prefent, in times of danger, by exalting the courage, and by animating hope. The difeafe having, probably, reached its higheft pitch of malignity when the mufician arrived, muft afterwards have be-; come lefs contagious by degrees ; till, at length, ceafing of _" (.v) M. Burette, with our Dr. Mead, however, philofophical and curious eii- Baglivi, and all the learned, of their quirers, have fince found to be built upon time, throughout Europe, feem to have fraud and fallacy. See Serrao, delta Ta- - entertained no doubt of this fail, which, rantola o vera Fahngio di Puglia. itfelf* * MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS, i8 7 ■itfelf, by the air wafting away the feeds of infection, and re- covering its former purity, the extirpation of the difeafe was attributed by the people to the mufic of Thaletas, who had been thought the fole mediator, to whom they owed their happy deliverance. This is exactly what Plutarch means, who tells the ftory; and what Homer meant, in attributing the ceffation of the plague among the Greeks, at the fiege of Troy, to mufic. With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends, The Pceans lengthen'd till the fun defcends : The Greeks reftor'd, the grateful notes prolong ; Apollo liftens, and approves the fong. Pope's Homer's Iliad, Book I. For the poet, in this paflage, feems only to fay, that Apollo was rendered favourable, and had delivered the Greeks from the icourge with which they were attacked, in confequence of Chrifeis having been reftored to her father, and of facrifices and offerings. M. Burette thinks it eafy to conceive, that mufic may be really efficacious in relieving, if not removing, the pains of the fciatica ; and that, independent of the greater or lefs (kill of the muiician. He fuppofes this may be effected in two dif- ferent ways : firft, by flattering the ear, and diverting the at- tention ; and, fecondly, by occafioning ofcillations and vibra- tions of the nerves, which may, perhaps, give motion to the humours, and remove the obftructions which occafion this diforder. In this manner the action of mufical founds upon the fibres of the brain, and animal fpirits, may fometimes foften and alleviate the fufferings of epileptics and lunatics, and even calm the moft violent fits of thefe two cruel diforders. And if antiquity affords examples of this power, we can op- pofe to them fome of the fame kind faid to have been effected by mufie, not of the moft exquifite fort. For, not only M. B b 2 Burette s iS8 DISSERTATION ON THE Burette, but many modern philofophers, phyficians, and ana- tomifts, as well as ancient poets and hiftorians, have believed, that mufic has the power of affecting, not only the mind, but the nervous fyftem, in fuch a manner, as will give a temporary relief in certain difeafes, and, at length, even operate a radical cure. In the Memoires of the Academy of Sciences for 1707, and 1^08, we meet with many accounts of difeafes, which, after having relifted and baffled all the moil efficacious remedies in common ufe, had, at length, given way to the foft impref- fions of harmony. M. de Mairan, in the Memoires of the fame academy, 1737, reafons upon the medicinal powers of mufic in the following manner. " It is from the mechanical and involuntary con- nexion between the organ of hearing, and the confonances excited in the outward air, joined to the rapid communication of the vibrations of this organ to the whole nervous fyftem, that we owe the cure of fpafmodic diforders, and of fevers attended with a delirium and convulfions, of which our Memoires fur- nifh many examples." The learned Dr. Bianchini, profeffor of phyfic at Udine, has lately collected all the paffages preferved in ancient authors, relative to the medicinal application of mufic by Afclepiades ; and it appears from this work (y), that it was ufed as a re- medy by the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Ro- mans, not only in acute, but chronical diforders. And this writer gives feveral cafes within his own knowledge, in which mufic has been efficacious ; but the coniideration, as well as the honour, of thefe, mote properly belong to modern mufic,,, than to the ancient. And now, after an examination of the power attributed to ancient mufic over the human fpecies, in foftem'ng the manners, (y) L.a Medicina cC Afdcpiade per be?i curare malatie acute, Ven. . governing MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 189 governing the pajjions, and healing difeajes, this feftion might be confiderably fwelled, by accounts of its influence over the brute creation. But I mail wave the difcufllon of thefe, as fome of them belong to poetic fables, moral allegories, and mytho- logical myfteries ; and others are too puerile and trivial to merit attention, unlefs among Jiories to he laughed at. Indeed, with refpecf to this boafted influence of mufic upon animals, though not only antiquity, but fever al eminent and philofophical modern writers feem to have entertained no doubt of it, yet the articles of my creed, upon this fubjecl, are but very few. Even birds, fo fond of their own mufic, are no more charmed and infpired by ours, than by the moft dilTonant noife ; for I have long obferved that the found of a voice, or inftrument of the moft exquifite kind, has no other effe£t upon a bird in a cage, than to make him almoft burft himfelf in en- vious efforts to furpafs it in loudnefs ; and that the ftroke of a hammer upon the wainfcot, or a fire (hovel, excites the fame rival fpirit. A finging bird is as unwilling to liften to others, as a loquacious difputant. As to quadrupeds, it is by no means certain, that mufic af- fec~ls them naturally with any thing but furprife and terror. A dog and cat, not accuftomed to hear mufic, will howl, when an inftrument is touched in the fame room with them, as if the found were too much for their nerves to bear. Some have, indeed, conftrued this effect into ecftatic pleafure ; but, open the door, and they will run away from the mufic, as haftily as from a whip and a bell. By education and difcipline'feveral animals have in- deed been taught to attend to it : the found of a trumpet will roufe a horfe (z) ; and a pack of hounds will obey orders if- fued through a French horn. But if the truth of every ftrange ftory related by iElian,. Pliny, and other authors, concerning the great fenfibility of all. kinds of animals for ancient mufic, could be afcertained, the (.?), Frank equus quiim Jigna dedit titbkcn. Ovid. power, .190 DISSERTATION GN THE power it had over them would by no means prove its fuperiour excellence. Indeed, if it fhould be granted that any fupernatural effecls upon man were ever produced in former times by mere f radical mufic, it would be fo far from proving its fuperiority to the modern, that it feems to demonfbrate the direct con- trary. For, at prefent, it is not the moft refined and uncommon melody, fung in the moft exquifite manner, or the moft arti- ficial and complicated harmony, which has the greateft power over the paflions of the multitude : on the contrary, the moft fimple mufic, fung to the moft intelligible words, applied to a favourite and popular fubjec"t, in which the whole audience can occafionally join, will be more likely to roufe and tranf- port them, than the moft delicate or learned performance in an opera, or oratorio. But in propoition as an age, or nation, grows refined, and accuftomed to mufical excellence, it becomes more difficult to pleafe. The dofe of any medicine muft be doubled, if fre- quently taken ; an opiate, or cathartic, that would caufe eter- nal fleep, or the moft violent convulfions, if adminiftered to a patient at firft in a large quantity, would become mild and anodyne by ufe, and a gradual encreafe of the quantity. The nearer the people of any country are to a ftate of nature, the fonder they are of noify mufic, like children, who prefer a rattle and a drum to a foft and refined melody, or the artful combinations of learned harmony. It is not, therefore, difficult to conceive, that the mufic of the ancients, with all its fimplicity, by its ftricT: union with poetry, which it rendered more articulate and intelligible, could operate more powerfully in theatric, and other public exhibi- tions, than the artificial melody, and complicated harmony of modern times ; for though poetry was affifted by ancient mufic, it is certainly injured by the modern. And here I can believe great effects to have arifen from little caufcs. However, many hyperbolical accounts of its fuperna- tural MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 191 rural powers, that have been handed down from age to age,' are not only too improbable for belief, but too ridiculous to' be treated ferioufly. Poetical fables, and ingenious allegories, come not under this clafs. Amphion building the walls of Thebes with the* found of his lyre, may be folved into the fweetnefs of his poetical numbers, and the wifdom of his counfel prevailing upon' a rude and barbarous people to fubmit to law and order, to live in fociety, and to defend themfelves from the infults of favage neighbours, by building a wall round their town. It is not quite fo eafy to unfold the myfteries of fmgingfwansj or 'intelligent - graf shoppers. However, the chevalier de Jaucourt tells ms ferioufly •> that " the fwan, whofe fweet fong is fo cele- brated by the poets, does not produce the founds by his voice, which is very coarfe and difagreeable ; but by his wings, which,! being raifed and extended when he lings, are played upon by the winds, like the iEolian harp, which produce a found fo much the more agreeable, as it is not monotonous, which is the cafe in the warble of raoft other birds ; but, on the con- trary, this found is continually changing, being compofed of many different tones, which form a kind of harmony, in pro- portion as the wind happens to fall on different parts of the wings, and in different pofitions (a)." But who ever heard this harmony ? and why was it more remarkable and melifluous* in the dying fwans of. antiquity, than in thofe of youth and* vigour ? The ftory of a grafshopper fupplying the place of a broken firing in the mufical conteft between Eunomes and Arifton, at the Pythian games, is gravely related by Strabo, Diodorus Si- culus, Pliny, and Paufanias. The firft of thefe authors gives a, very plaufible reafon for one particular breed of grafshop-* pers finging better than another, though not for the fagacity of - (a) JLncyc, Art. Folx, the 192 DISSERTATION ON THE the individual infecT: in queftion. He fays, that though the two cities of Rhegium and Locris were only feparated by the river Alex, the grafshoppers fung on the fide of Locris, and were ut- terly mute on that of Rhegium : for at Rhegium, the country be- ing moid, and woody, the infect is languid and dull ; whereas on the Locrian fide, which is dry and open, the grafshoppers are more lively, and fond of finging. The dolphins feem, at all times, to have had a great attach- ment to human kind (<£), but particularly to poets and mufi- cians. I fhall give the celebrated flory of Arion from Hero- dotus, in the words of his tranflator. " Periander, the fon of Cypfelus, was king of Corinth ; and the Corinthians fay, that a raoft aftonifhing thing hap- pened there in his time, which is alfo confirmed by the Lef- bians. Thofe people give out, that Arion of Methymna, who was fecond to none of his time in playing on the harp, and firft inventor of dithyrambics, both name and thing, which he taught at Corinth, was brought by a dolphin to Taenarus ; and thus they tell the ftory : Arion having continued long with Periander, refolved to make a voyage to Italy and Sicily, where, when he had acquired great riches, determining to return to Corinth, he went to Tarentum, and hired a fhip of certain Co- rinthians, becaufe he put more confidence in them than in any other nation. But thefe men, when they were in their paflage, ■confpired together to throw him into the lea, that they might get his money : which he no fooner underftood, than offering them all his treafure, he only begged they would fpare his life. But the feamen being inflexible, commanded him either to kill himfelf, that he might be buried afhore, or to leap immedi- ately into the fea. Arion feeing himfelf reduced to this hard ■choice, moft earneftly defired that, having determined on his (b) Pliny, HI. \x. cap. 8, tells us of a Simon, that he carried him every day, dolphin that became fo fond of a child, during feveral years, acrofs the fea, to by whom he had been regaled with fome fchool, from Baii to Puzzuoli, and back crumbs of bread, and the fweet name of again. death, MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. 193 death, they would permit him to drefs in his richeft apparel, and to fing, ftanding on the fide of the fhip, promiiing to kill himfelf when he had done. The feamen, highly pleafed that they mould hear a fong from the bed finger in the world, granted his requeft, and went from the ftern to the middle of the veflel. In the mean time, Arion having put on all his robes, took up his harp, and began an Orthian ode, which, when he had finifhed, he leapt into the fea as he was dreffed, and the Corinthians continued their voyage homeward. They fay a dolphin received him on his back, from the fhip, and carried him to Tsenarus ; where he went afhore, and thence proceeded to Corinth, without changing his cloaths ; that upon his arrival there, he told what had happened to him ; but that Periander giving no credit to his relation, put him under a clofe confinement, and took efpecial care to find out the fea- men : that when they were found, and brought before him, he enquired of them concerning Arion ; and they anfwering, that they had left him with great riches at Tarentum, and that he was undoubtedly fafe in fome port of Italy, Arion in that inftant appeared before them in the very drefs he had on when he leaped into the fea ; at which they were fo aftonifhed, that having nothing to fay for themfelves, they confeffed the facl:. Thefe things are reported by the Corinthians and Lefbians ; in confirmation of which, a flatue of Arion, made of brafs, and of a moderate fize, reprefenting a man fitting upon a dol- phin, is feen at Tsenarus (c)" Plutarch, in his Banquet of the feven .JVife Men, puts a ridi- culous account of the death of Hefiod into the mouth of Solon, who, after telling us that the poet was killed at the Nemean tem- ple at Locris, ferioufly affures u"s that his body being caft into the fea, was inftantly caught up by a fhoal of dolphins, and car- ried to Rhium, and Molycrium, where it was foon recognized, and buried, by the inhabitants in the temple of Nemean Jove. {t) Littlebury's Herodot. vol.i, p. 13. Vol. I. C c All i 9 4 DISSERTATION ON, &c. All thefe ftories, and many more, have frequently been quoted in favour of ancient mufic ; yet to realize or demon- ftrate its excellence now, feems out of the power even of thofe who have fpent the greateft part of their lives in the ftudy of it. Meibomius, the great and learned Meibomius, when pre- vailed on at Stockholm to fing Greek Strophes, fet the whole court of Chriftina in a roar, as Naude did in executing a Ro- man dance (f) ; but who would venture to appear at court now, in a drefs that was worn a thoufand years ago ? Yet men delight in the marvellous ; and many bigoted admirers of an- tiquity, forgetting that mod of the extraordinary effects attri- buted to the mufic of the ancients had their origin in poetical inventions, and mythological allegories, have given way to credulity fo far as to believe, or pretend to believe, thefe fabu- lous accounts, in order to play them off againft modern mufic ; which, according to them, muft remain in a ftate far inferior to the ancient, till it can operate all the effects that have been attributed to the mufic of Orpheus, Amphion, and fuch won- der-working bards, (f) Vie dc Cbrijiine, Peine de Suede* GENERAL HISTORY O F MUSIC. TARMONY feems a part of nature, as much as light or heat ; and to number any one of them among hu- man inventions would be equally abfurd. Indeed, na- ture feems to have furnifhed human induftry with the princi- ples of all fcience : for what is geometry, but the ftudy and imitation of thofe proportions, by which the world is go- verned ? Ajlronomy, but reflecting upon, and calculating the motion, diftances, and magnitude, of thofe viable, but won- derful object s, which nature has placed before our eyes ? Theo- logy, but contemplating the works of the Creator, and adoring him in his attributes ? Medicine, but the ftudy of nature, or the difcovery and ufe of what inferior beings inftincfively find, in every wood and field through which they range, when the animal oeconomy is difturbed by accident, or intemperance ? The ancients, by experiments on a fingle ftring, or mono- chord, found out the relations and proportions of one found to another ; but the moderns have lately difcovered that nature, in every founding body, has arranged and fettled all thefe pro- portions in fuch a manner, that a fingle found appears to be C c 2 compofed 196 A GENERAL HISTORY compofed of the mod perfect harmonies, as a fingle ray o£ light is of the rnoft beautiful colours ; and when two concord- ant founds are produced in juft proportion, nature gives a third,, which is their true and fundamental bafe (a). This is only fpeaking of natural harmony, and the fcience of harmonical proportion. : but even the art or practice of mufic cannot be laid to have been invented by any one man, for that muft have had its infancy, childhood, and youth, be- fore it arrived at maturity (b). I fhall not, therefore, amufe my readers with puerile ac- counts of the invention of muiic ; as I believe it may be af- ferted with truth, that no one man was the inventor of any art, fcience, or complicated piece of mechanifm, without, fome prcecognita, fome leading principles, or affiftance from others. Among the ancient Greeks, fays Paufanias, rude and fhape— lefs ftones held the place of ftatues, and received divine ho- nours. A ftone was adored in Baeotia-for Hercules; at Thebes, for Bacchus : and Herodian pretends, that the image, or fym- bol, of the Venus of Paphos, was at firft only a ftone, in form of a land-mark, or pyramid. The firft houfe was, doubtlefs, a cavern, or a hollow tree",- and the firft picture, a fhadow ; even temples at firft were fb. fmall, that the Gods could hardly ftand upright in them : Jupiter angujla vix totus Jlabat in cede (<:)... Ovid, Faft. lib. i. and yet it has been thought neceffary, in hiftories of archi- tecture and of painting, to tell us who were the inventors of." thofe arts. (a) This will be explained hereafter. doms then began to build fepulchres to (b) Omnium rerum principia parvum their founders, in a magnificent manner : funt, fed fits progreffwnibus ufu augentur. fuch were eonftrudled by Hiram in Tyre, Cic. de Fin. bon. et mal. Sefac in all Egypt, and Benhadad in Da- (c) No fumptuous temples are upon re- mafcus. Newto»'s Cbron, cord, till the days of Solomon : new king- AS; O F M U S I C. 197 As in thefe, fo in mufic, the firft attempts muft have been rude and artlefs : the firft flute, a whiftling reed fdj, and the firft lyre, perhaps, the dried Jinews of a dead tortoife. However, particular perfons have been mentioned as the in- ventors of fiich clumfy inftruments as were made by nature, and found by chance ; and yet, notwithftanding the little pro- bability there is that mufic could have been brought to perfec- tion by thofe who firft attempted it, we are told by the ancient poets, hiftorians, and even philofopbers, that the miraculous powers of this art were exercifed with the greateft fuccefs by its firft cultivators. Who thefe firft cultivators were, and what region of the earth they inhabited, it is not eafy to determine. According to Hero- dotus (e), it was long difputed by the Egyptians and Phry- gians, which of them could boaft the higher antiquity ; and we are told by the fame writer, that it was put to a very weak and precarious iffue, which turned out favourable to the Phrygians [f). But as all the molt ancient hiftorians fpeak of the ftupendous and fplendid remains of grandeur and civilization to be found in Egypt, at a time when Phrygia could produce no fuch vouchers; and as Sanconiatho, the moft ancient hiftorian of the Phoenicians, a people, who have a juft claim to a very high an- tiquity, confeiTes fgj his cofmogony to have been taken from that of Taautus, who was the fame with the Egyptian Thoth, or Hermes ; I fliall not enter upon a minute difcuffion of the point, but proceed immediately to the hiftory of mufic in that country, of which the moft indifputable proofs and teftimonies remain of the extreme high antiquity, of its religion, govern- ment, arts, and civil policy. (d) Etzcpbyris cava per calamorum.Jibila children, juft born-, to be fhut up in a cot— frim'um tage with dumb nurfes ; and thefe chil- Jigrejleis docvere cavas injlare ciaitas,. dren, as they grew up, were always heard, Lucret. lib. v. when hungry, to pronounce the word hek-- (c) Euterpe. kos, which, upon enquiry, was found to ( f) In order to make the experiment, be the Phrygian name for bread. Bfvunmetichus, king of Egypt, ordered two (g) Apud \Eufti. dejPrap. Ev. 1. f„ c. 10. . T H-Er. i 9 8 THE HISTORY OF THE H I S T O R O F EGYPTIAN MUSIC. THAT Egypt was one of the firft countries on the globe which cultivated arts and fciences, is certain, from the teftimony of the mofl ancient and refpectable hiflorians. In- deed, we have no authentic accounts of any nation upon the earth, where a regular government was eftablifhed, civilization advanced, the different orders and ranks of the people fettled, property afcertained, and the whole regulated by long cuftom and by laws, founded upon wifdom and experience, in luch high antiquity as in Egypt. For all this, we have the teftimony of the Jewifh legiflator and hiftorian, Mofes, who allows the Egyptians to have been a powerful and polifhed people, before the arrival of Jacob's fingle family among them, co nil fling of only feventy perfons, in order to obtain corn, during the time of a great famine, which raged throughout Syria ffj. And even much earlier, Abram was obliged to vifit that country upon a fimilar occa- flon (g), where he found the flate fettled under a king, the fe- cond of whom mention is made in the facred writings, and who had ideas of juflice and rectitude, and treated him with hofpitality and kindnefs. (f) Gen. xlvi. 6. 27. (g) Gen. xii. 10. That EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 199 That architecture was known here in a grand and magnifi- cent ftyle, much earlier than in other parts of the known world, is certain, from the wonderful remains of it ftill fublifting in the pyramids, and of which the antiquity was fo remote in the days of Herodotus, the oldeft hiftorian of Greece, that he could neither difcover the time of their conftruclion, nor procure an explanation of the hieroglyphics they contained, though he travelled through that country exprefly in fearch of hiftorical information. To the Egyptians has been affigned the invention of geo- metry, an art neceffary for meafuring and afcertaining the por- tions of land belonging to each individual, after the overflow- ing of the Nile, by which all boundaries were obliterated. Now as it is allowed by all antiquity that Pythagoras tra- velled into Egypt, and was obliged to the priefts of that coun- try for the chief part of his fcience, particularly that of muiic (/?), it is natural to fuppofe that the doctrine of harmo- nics, or the geometrical menfuration of founds, and the laws of their proportions to each other, were the invention of thefe early geometricians, who had brought the fcience of calcula- tion to great perfection, long before the arrival of the Samian fage among them. It is in vain, therefore, to endeavour to trace mufic from a higher fource than the hiftory of Egypt ; a country, in which all human intelligence feems to have fprung. Its ancient in- habitants boafted a much higher antiquity than thofe of any other country, or, indeed, than has ever been granted them by any modern fyftem of chronology ; for from the time of Ofiris to Alexander the Great, they counted ten thoufand years. However, there are no annals of their hiftory, or com- putations of time, which do not allow them an extreme high antiquity : thofe who ftrictly adhere to the Hebrew chronology are obliged to it, for the reafons afligned above ; and the foL- (b) See Diog,. Laert.. lowers. 200 THE HISTORY OF lowers of other fyflems can find no tranfacfions concerning any other countries, prior to thofe recorded of the Egyptians ; for they were a great people long before the ufe of letters was known, till which period, they had no other memorials of times part than hieroglyphics, which being, at firft, vague and fanciful, muft foon have grown out of ufe and unintelligible, when the more fimple, certain, and expeditious method of conveying their tranfactions and thoughts to diftant places and times, was agreed on, by writing. With reflect to mufic, I know it is afferted by Diodorus Si- culus (/), " that the cultivation of it was prohibited among them ; for they looked upon it not only as ufelefs, but noxious, being perfuaded that it rendered the minds of men effeminate." To this palfage has been oppofed one from Plato, by a writer, who has well difcufled the point (k) ; and as Plato travelled into Egypt, with a view of getting acquainted with the arts and fciences that flourifhed there (/), and was particularly attached, to mufic ; it is natural to fuppofe that his enquiries would be judicious, and his account of it accurate. The following quo- tation from him will, therefore, have the more weight. " Athen. The plan which we have been laying down for the education of youth, was known long ago to the Egyptians, viz. that nothing but beautiful forms, and fine mufic, mould be permitted to enter into the affemblies of young people. Having fettled what thofe forms, and that mufic fhould be, they exhibited them in their temples ; nor was it allowable for painters, or other imitative artifls, to innovate, or invent, any forms different from what were eftablifhed ; nor is it now law- ful, either in painting, ftatuary, or any of the branches of mufic, to make any alteration. Upon examining, therefore, you will find, that the pictures and ftatues made ten thoufand ft) Lib. i. (I) According to Strabo, he remained (/;) Mr. Stillingfleet, in Principles and in that country thirteen years. ' Po'tver of LLmuonj, p. IZ3. ^ years EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 201 years ago, are, in no one particular, better or worfe than what they make now. Clin. What you fay is wonderful. At hen. Yes, it is in the true fpirit of legiflation and policy. Other things practifed among that people may, perhaps, be blame- able ; but what they ordained about mufic is right ; and it de- ferves confideration, that they were able to make laws about things of this kind, firmly eftablifhing fuch melody as was fitted to rectify the perverfenefs of nature. This muft have been the work of the Deity, or of fome divine man ; as, in fact, they fay in Egypt, that the mufic which has been fo long pre- ferved, was compofed by Ifis, and the poetry likewife," Plato, p. 789. This teftimony of Plato contains a fuflicient anfwer to Diodorus ; but one ftill more full may be extracted from his own writings, as, in this particular, he is in contradiction with himfelf ; for he not only tells us that mufic, and mufical inftruments, were invented by the Egyptian deities, Ofiris, Ifis, Orus, and Hermes ; but that Orpheus had from Egypt the fable of his defcent into hell, and the power of mufic over the infernals ; and enumerates all the great poets and muficians of Greece who had vifited that country, in order to improve themfelves in the arts. Herodotus too, who travelled into Egypt more than three hundred years before Diodorus, and a hundred before Plato, is fo far from mentioning any pro- hibition againft the practice of mufic there, that he gives fe- veral inftances of its ufe in their feftivals, and religious cere- monies. " The Egyptians, fays he (m), were the firft inventors of feftivals, ceremonies, and tranfactions with the gods, by the mediation of others. It is not thought fufficient in Egypt, continues this father of hiftory, to celebrate the feftivals of the gods once every year ; but they have many times appointed to that end : particularly in the city of Bubajlis, where they af- (m) Ruterpc. Vol. I. D d femble 202 THE HISTORY OF femble to worfhip Diana, with great devotion. The manner obferved in thefe feftivals at Bubaftis, is this : men and women embark promifcuoufly, in great numbers ; and, during the voy- age, fome of the women beat upon a tabor, while part of the men play on the pipe ; the reft, of both fexes, finging, and clapping their hands together at the fame time. At every city they find in their pafiage, they hawl in the vefTel, and fome of the women continue their mufic." In the fame book, he tells us, that in the proceflions of Ofiris or Bacchus, the Egyptian women carry the images, fing- ing the praifes of the god, and preceded by a flute. And af- terwards, in fpeaking of funeral ceremonies, he has the fol- lowing remarkable paffage. " Among other memorable cuf- toms, the Egyptians fing the fong of Linus, like that which is fung by the Phoenicians, Cyprians, and other nations, who vary the name, according to the different languages they fpeak. But the perfon they honour in this fong, is evidently the fame that the Grecians celebrate : and as I confefs my furprize at many things I found among the Egyptians, fo I more parti- cularly wonder whence they had this knowledge of Linus, be- caufe they feem to have celebrated him from time immemorial. The Egyptians call him by the name of Maneros, and fay he was the only fon of the firft of their kings, but dying an un- timely death, in the flower of his age, he is lamented by the Egyptians in this mourning fong, which is the only compo- lition of the kind ufed in Egypt." Strabo (n) fays, that the children of the Egyptians were taught letters, the fongs appointed by law, and a certain fpe- cies of mulic eftablifhed by government, exclufive of all others. Indeed the Greeks, who loft no merit by negle&ing to claim it, unanimoufly confefs, that moft of the ancient mufical inftruments were of Egyptian invention : as the triangular lyre, the mon- aulos, or lingle flute -, the tymbal, or kettle-drum ; and the (n) BiS. i, flftrura, EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 203 fiftrum, an inftrument of facrifice, which was fo multiplied by the priefts in religious ceremonies, and in fuch great favour with the Egyptians in general, that Egypt was often called, in derifion, the country of fijlrams ; as Greece has been faid to be governed by the lyre. Herodotus (0), in tracing the genealogy of the Dorians, one of the moft ancient people of Greece, makes them natives of Egypt : and as the three mufical modes of higher! antiquity among the Greeks, are the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian, it is likely that the Egyptian colony, which peopled the Dorian province, brought with them the mufic and inftruments of their native country. The profeffion of mufic was heredi- tary among the Egyptians, as was the cafe with every other profeffion. This cuftom was imitated by the Hebrews ; and Herodotus (p) tells us, that the Lacedaemonians, who were Dorians, agreed with their progenitors, the Egyptians, in this, that their muficians were all of one family. Their priefts too, like thofe of Egypt, were at once taught medicine, to play on ftringed inftruments, and initiated into religious myfteries. The prohibition, therefore, mentioned by that excellent and judicious writer, Diodorus Siculus, inconfiftent as it may feem with what he elfewhere fays of the mufic and muficians of Egypt, may be accounted for, by the ftudy of mufic, in very ancient times, having been confined there to the priefthood, who ufed it only on religious and folemn occafions. And as we are told by Plato, that not only the mufic, but the fculp- ture of the Egyptians, was circumfcribed by law, and conti- nued invariable for many ages, which accounts for the little progrefs they made in both, it feems as if, during the time that arts were thus rendered ftationary, only new mufic was prohibited ; and that the old was facred, and fo connected with religion, that it was, perhaps, forbidden to be ufed on light and common occafions. (0) Erato. . (p) Ibid. D d 2 But 204 THE HISTORY OF But the Egyptians are mentioned by all writers, as if their government, cuftoms, religion, laws, and arts, had remained the fame through all the revolutions of time, and viciffitude of things. Yet it mould be remembered that they became fub- jeds of different invaders at different periods, who mufl have greatly changed, not only the form of their government, but their manners and amufements : they were, by turns, after the reign of the Pharaohs, conquered by the Ethiopians, Perfians, Greeks, and Romans. In the time of the Ptolemies, it feems as if nothing but Greek literature, arts, and fciences, were cultivated among them ; and the mufical games and contefts. inftituted by thofe monarchs, were all of Greek origin, and chiefly fupplied by Greek muficians. However, a fufficient number of paffages have been cited, from ancient authors, to evince the ufe of mufic, at all times, in Egypt ; and there ftill remain, both at Rome, and at Thebes, in Upper Egypt, fuch proofs of its high antiquity, as appear to be wholly inconteftable. There are no memorials of human art and indtrftry, at pre- fent fubfifting in Rome, of equal antiquity with the obelifks that have been brought thither from Egypt ; two of them, in particular, are fuppofed to have been erected at Heliopolis, by Sefoftris, near four hundred years before the Trojan war [q). Thefe Auguftus, after reducing Egypt to a Roman province, caufed to be brought to Rome. One of them he placed in the great Circus, and the other in the Campus Martius ; this laft, the largeft of all thofe that have been tranfported from Egypt to Rome, was thrown down and broken, during the facking and burning of that city by the conftable duke of Bourbon, general to the emperor Charles V. 1527, and ftill lies in the Campus Martius. This column is known at Rome by the name of the guglia rotta, or broken pillar. Upon this, among (q) Not. ad Tacit. An. 111. ii. cap. 60. mlan, lib. xvii. cap. 74. and the biftiop of f, 2JK Edit... Grown:. Fakf..Not. Am- Gloucefter on the Hieroglyphics. other- Fig. VII. U/U^fcH/i/f/ffaiifi/tf^ An Egyptian Musical Instrument, the Size of the Original, on the broken Obelifc, now lyi DE in the Campus Martius at Rome. Delcribcd, p. 204. I ■ I EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 205 ©ther hieroglyphics, is reprefented a mufical inftrument of two firings with a neck to it (r). much refembling the Calafcione, which is ftill in common ufe throughout the kingdom of Naples. The drawing of this inftrument, which was made under my own eye, is of the exact fize of the figure or hie- roglyphic on the Obelilk, which is the moft ancient piece of fculpture at Rome (s). This inftrument feems to merit a particular defcription here, not only from its great antiquity, but from its form ; for by having been furniftied with a neck, though it had but two firings, it was capable of producing from them a great num- ber of notes ; for inftance, if thefe two firings were tuned fourths to each other, they would furnifh that feries of founds which the ancients called a heptachord, confifting of two con- junct tetrachords, as B, c, d, e ; E, f, g, a ; and if the firings of this inftrument, like thofe on the Calajcione, were tuned fifths, they would produce an octave, or two disjunct tetra- clwrds ; an advantage which none of the Grecian inftruments feem to have poffefled for many ages after this column was erected. Indeed I have never yet been able to difcover in any remains of Greek fculpture, an inftrument furnifhed with a. neck ; and father Montfaucon fays, that in examining the re- prefentations of near five hundred ancient lyres, harps, and citharas, he never met with one in which there was any con- trivance for Ihortening firings, during the time of performance, as by a neck and finger-board. This inftrument, therefore, is not only a proof that mufic was cultivated by the Egyptians in the moft remote antiquity, (r) See pi. vii. tians eftabliflied there, during the time of (s) Figures of mufical inftruments have the emperor Caracalla, in imitation of the been found upon the Iliac table, particu- figures and workmanship of Egypt. The larly the harp and Jijlrum ; but this obelilk Compte de Caylus, however, thinks that is a monument of far more certain and- it certainly was engraved in Egypt, and quity than the table of His, which has brought into Italy about the end of the been fuppofed by the learned Jablonfki, Republic, when the worihip of His was firft : to be a calendar of Egyptian feftivals, introduced there. Recueil d! Antiquitis, , fabricated at Rome for the ufe of the Egyp- 1767. .torn, vii. p. 37, , but 2 o6 THE HISTORY OF but that they had difcovered the means of extending their fcale, and multiplying the founds of a few firings, by the moftfimple and commodious expedients. Proclus tells us (/), " That the Egyptians recorded all Angu- lar events, and new inventions., upon columns, or ftone pillars." Now if this be true, as the gugh'a, or great obelifk, is faid to have been firft erected at Heliopolis, in the time of Sefoftris, it will in fome meafure fix the period when this dic/iord, or two- firinged inftrument, was invented. An exact chronology, however, in tranfactions of fuch re- mote ages, can hardly be expected. Sir Ifaac Newton, whom I {hall frequently follow, has more opponents to his Egyptian Chronology, than to any of his other writings. The bifhop of Gloucefter has attacked him with all his powers of learn- ing and argument : it is not my bufinefs to enlift, on either fide, in fo learned and hopelefs a difpute, in which both par- ties have the authority of ancient writers to confirm their opinions (n). Sir Ifaac Newton fuppofes the elder Bacchus, Ofiris, Sefac, and Sefoftris, to be one and the fame perfon (x) : the bifhop of Gloucefter, on the contrary, denies their identity, efpecially that of Ofiris and Sefoftris, whom he makes totally different perfons, and to have flourifhed at very different periods. To Ofiris he gives the character of legiflator, inventor of arts, and civilizer of a rude and barbarous people; and to Sefoftris that of a conqueror who carried thofe arts and that civilization into remote countries (y): and Ofiris, whom fir Ifaac Newton places but 956 years before Chrift, the bifhop makes cotem- porary with Mofes, and feven hundred years higher than Se- fac or Sefoftris, the cotemporaries of Solomon and Jeroboam. (t) hi Timceum, HI/, i. ers to pleafe themfelves by chiding among (u) When refpeftable authors differ them that which they may think the moft very widely in fixing the periods of time probable. in which any of the perfonages I haveoc- (x) Chronol. of Ancient Kingdoms, p. 195. cation to mention, lived, I fliall give the (y) Div. Leg. b. iv, fecf. v. feveral dates of tbefe writers for my read- The EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 207 The Egyptian mythology, as well as the Grecian, is fo much connected with the firft attempts at mufic, and fo many of the Pagan divinities have been faid to be its firft cultivators, that fome flight mention of them is unavoidable. The fun, moon, and flars feem to have ftruck all mankind with wonder, awe, and reverence ; and to have impreffed them with the firft idea of religious veneration. To the adoration of thefe fucceeded hero-worfhip, in the deification of dead kings and legiflators. This was the courfe of idolatry eveiy where, as well as in Egypt : indeed the inhabitants of this country feem, from their early civilization, conquefts, and power, to have fpread their religious principles over the whole habitable earth ; as it is eafy to trace all the Pagan mytho- logy of other countries, in the firft ages of the world of which we have any account, from Egypt ; and Ifis and Ofiris may be proved to have been the prototypes of almoft every other god and goddefs of antiquity. For the moon, or luna, under the name of Ifis, means all the moft ancient female divinities of Paganifm ; as the fun, under that of Ofiris, does the male. Diodorus Siculus confefTes, that there was ever a great con- fufion of fentiments concerning Ifis and Ofiris. The former is called Ceres, Thermophora, or Juno, Hecate, Proferpine, and Luna ; Ofiris has been likewife called Serapis, Dionyfius, He- lios, Pluto, Ammon, Jupiter, and Pan. However, the hiftory of thefe does not fo immediately con- cern the prefent enquiries, as that of Mercury or Hermes, one of the fecondary gods,. of Egypt, who received divine honours on account of his ufeful and extraordinary talents (z). This God muft therefore be taken out of his niche, and examined. . (z) By fecondary divinities is heremeant living, in diftinftion to the heavenly lu- - fuch princes, heroes, and legiflators as minaries, or fun, moon, and liars, which were deified after death for the benefits were the firil divinities of paganifm. jhey had conferred on mankind when There 2o8 THE HISTORY OF There is no perfonage in all antiquity more renowned than the Egyptian Mercury, who was firnamed Trifmegiftus, or thrice iiluftrioiis. He was the foul of Ofiris's counfel and go- vernment, and is called by fir Ifaac Newton, his fecretary ; " Ofiris," fays he, " ufing the advice of his fecretary Thoth, diftributes Egypt into thirty-hx names [a] ; and in every nome erects a temple, and appoints the feveral gods, feftivals, and religions of the feveral names. The temples were the fe- pulchres of his great men, where they were to be buried and worfhipped after death, each in his own temple, with cere- monies and feftivals appointed by him ; while he and his queen, by the names of Ofiris and Ifis, were to be worfhipped in all Egypt ; thefe were the temples fecn and defcribed by Lucian, who was himfelf an Egyptian, eleven hundred years after, and to be of one and the fame age : this was the ori- ginal of the feveral names of Egypt, and of the feveral gods and feveral religions of thole nomes (^)." And Diodorus Si- culus tells us, that Mercury was honoured by Ofiris, and af- terwards worftiipped by the Egyptians, as a perfon endowed with extraordinary talents for every thing that was conducive to the good of fociety. He was the firft who out of the coarfe and rude dialects of his time formed a regular lan- guage, and gave appellatives to the moft ufeful things : he likewife invented the firft characters or letters, and even re- gulated the harmony of words and phrafes : he inftituted fe- veral rights and ceremonies relative to the worfhip of the gods, and communicated to mankind the firft principles of aftrofiomy. He afterwards fuggefted to them, as amufe- ments, wreftling, and dancing, and invented the lyre, to which he gave three firings, in allufion to the feafons of the year : for thefe three firings producing three different founds, the grave, the mean, and the acute, the grave 4 a) Diftricls, or provinces. (I) Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, jf. 22. anfwered EGYPTIAN MUSIC. 209 anfwered to winter, the mean to fpring, and the acute to fum- mer (c). Among the various opinions of the feveral ancient writers who have mentioned this circumftance, and confined the in- vention to the Egyptian Mercury, that of Apollodorus is the moft intelligible and probable. " The Nile, fays this writer [d], after having overflowed the whole country of Egypt, when it returned within its natural bounds, left on the more a great number of dead animals of various kinds, and among the reft a tortoife, the flefti of which being dried and wafted by the fun, nothing was left within the fhell, but nerves and cartilages, and thefe being braced and contracted by deficcation, were ren- dered fonorous ; Mercury, in walking along the banks of the Nile, happening to ftrike his foot againft the (hell of this tor- toife, was fo pleafed with the found it produced, that it fug- gefted to him the firft idea of a lyre, which he afterwards con- ftru&ed in the form of a tortoife, and ftrung it with the dried finews of dead animals." It is generally imagined that there were two Thoths, or Mer- curies, in Egypt, who lived at very remote periods, but both perfons of great abilities ( , r . r., , ' , , ' , , , rr , much contounaed together, as thofe ot (J er human labours, they the pow r poilels, ,~. r • „ . c ,- a . • %,. \ , , - ■ar^u r r i- x .' c '• r .t ui r Ofins and Seioltns. Div. Leg-, book iv. Vvithy;-n/i;;/jkmd, tnetnntsot earth tobleis. fW 5 neogony. ^J G ^ ek Chr ; lH;ms had fo h ; gh a? However, Ovufa, Amumnus, occurs in opinion of the antiquity of the firft ficryp- Xenophon ; and M. de Boze has deicribed tian Herraes, who lived at Sais, that they in the Mem. de Littcrature, an ancient fuppofed him, and the antediluvian patri- marble monument found among the ruins arch, Enoch, to have been the fame per- near Athens, upon which the four feafons fon, and give to both the fame inventions. of the year are reprefented in fculpture. We are told likewife, that Manetho ex- Indeed, according to Tacitus, "the ancient traCted his hiftory and dynafties of the Germans knew all the feafons of the year, Egyptians from certain pillars in Egypt, except autumn, of which they had no idea." on which inferiptions had been made by Vol. 1. E e Thoth, 2io THE HISTORY OF in this lyre, it is reafonable to fuppofe that the invention of it was due to the Jirjl Egyptian Mercury : for that attributed to the Grecian had more firings, as will be fhewn hereafter. Moft of the writers on mufic among the ancients have fuppofed, that the three founds of this primitive lyre were E, F, G ; though Boethius, who makes the number of firings four, fays they were tuned thus : E, A, B, e ; but this tuning, if not invented by Pythagoras, was at leafl firfl brought into Greece by that philofopher. No lefs than forty-two different works are attributed to the Egyptian Hermes by ancient writers (J) ; of thefe the learned and exa£t Fabricius has collected all the titles (g). It was ufual for the Egyptians, who had the highefl veneration for this perfonage, after his apotheofis, to have his works, which they regarded as their Bible, carried about in proceffions with great pomp and ceremony : and the firfl that appeared in thefe fo- lemnities was the chanter, who had two of them in his hands, while others bore fymbols of the mufical art. It was the bu- finefs of the chanters to be particularly verfed in the two firfl books of Mercury, one of which contained the hymns to the Gods, and the other maxims of government : thirty-fix of thefe books comprehended a complete fyflem of Egyptian phi- lofophy ; the reft were chiefly upon the fubjects of medicine and anatomy (/;). Thefe books upon theology and medicine are afcribed by Marfham (/) to the fecond Mercury, the fon of Vulcan, who,, according to Eufebius (k), lived a little after Mofes ; and this author, upon the authority of Manetho, cited by Syncellus v . Thoth, or the firfl: Mercury, in the facred been upon the fubjeft of mufic and poetry, letters, before the flood ! Vid.Dodwell Dif- as, i . 'Y^oi Oiw. ig. TIi^ vpyui. 39. ri£f« firt. de Sanchon. Fabric. -Bib. Gr. Stilling- hpyavm, Sic. and among his inventions are- fleet. Orig. Sacr. et alios. enumerated, Mujlca, or the nature and . (f) Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. vi. properties of found, Quvut ; and the ufe of (g) Bib. Greec. torn. i. the lyre. (1) Several of thefe works, however, if (/) Chro. Sac. |, Wfcmay judge by their titles, feem to have \k) In Cbron, regarded EGYPTIAN MUSIC ait regarded the fecond Mercury as the Hermes, furnamed Trif- megiftus. Enough has been faid, however, to prove, that the Egyptian Mercuries, both as to the time when they flourished, and their attributes, were widely different from the Grecian Hermes, the fon of Jupiter and Maia. Though fo ancient and honourable an origin has been af- figned to the Dichord and Trichord, which can both be fairly traced from Egypt, yet the fingle flute, or Monau/os, is faid by feveral writers not only to be a native of that country, and of much higher antiquity than the lyre, but, according to Athe- nseus, from Juba's Theatrical Hijiory, to have been invented by Ofiris himfelf (/). The Egyptians called it Photinx, or crooked flute ; its fhape was that of a bull's horn, as may be feen in many gems, medals, and remains of ancient fculpture* Not only the form of this inftrument, but the manner of hold- ing it, is defcribed by Apuleius, in fpeaking of the myfteries of Ifis : " Afterwards, fays this author, came the flute players, confecrated to the great Serapis, often repeating upon the crooked flute turned towards the right ear, the airs commonly tifed in the temple (»*)." All the reprefentations which I have feen of this inftrument, have fo much the appearance of real horns-, that they encourage a belief of its great antiquity ; and that the firft inftruments in ufe of this kind, were not only fug- gefted by the horns of dead animals, but that the horns them- felves were long ufed as mufical inftruments, at leaft thofe (I) Toi MwaiAsi Oc-ipiJoc mat tv^r,f/.x, va- been fo ferioufiy related by the moll re- dcnrtj: y.ai nv tMtifunii fanyTa «B7i*yJi£iAoi'. fpeclable hiftorians of Greece and Rome, De'ifiwfflpb. lib. iv. However, Plutarch yet we mult allow that the giving the in- fnvs, that Apollo was not only the inven- vention ot mulic, and m.ifical in(lrument6 tor of the tttbara, but likewife of the to the Gods, proves them to have been of flute : oi> fiom h xi9»p» AmXKmtH;, «Wa«»i the moft remote antiquity, and held in the euAflttiai;, mi Ki9afi-<*i« ovpfais o §io<; In- highefl ellimation by fuch as bellowed deed it was a very common practice with upon them fo honourable an origin, antiquity, to attribute to the Gods all the (nt) Ibaiit et dicati magna Serapidi tlhl- -difcoveries and inventions to which there cixes, qui per oM'tquitm calamum ad aurtia Were no lawful claimants among mortals. pertratfum dcxtram, famlliartm templi dci- And though we may now venture to doubt gut modnlum freqnentabant, Metamorph, of all the marvellous facts, which have lib. xi, E e 2 founded zi2 THE HISTORY OF founded by the Hebrew priefts at the fiege of Jericho, we are repeatedly told, were trumpets made of nun's horns (n). Before the invention of the flute, mufic could have been little more than metrical, as no other inftruments, except thole of percufllon, were known ; and when the art was firft dif- covered of refining and fuftaining tones, the power of mufic over mankind was probably irrefiftible, from the agreeable fur- prize, which foft and lengthened founds muft have occafioned. But proofs can be given of the Egyptians having had mufical inftruments in ufe among them, capable of much greater va- riety and perfection than thofe hitherto mentioned, at a time when all the reft of the known world was in a ftate of the utmoft barbarifrn. Thebes or Diofpolis, that is the city of Jupiter, in Upper Egypt, was built, according to Sir Ifaac Newton, by Ofiris, and dedicated to his father Ammon, which was the original Egyp- tian name for Jupiter, who was the firft mortal that can be found in profane authors, to whom temples were erected, and. divine honours paid () are well known. The Greeks and Romans have perpetuated its magnificence, though neither ever faw more than its ruins (q). Herodotus fays, that Egypt in general furpafled all othcg countries in things admirable, and beyond expreffion remark- able (r) ; and Dr. Pococke, and captain Norden, who vifited that country but lately (j), agree in giving fuch a fplendid ac-- (n) Jofhua, chap, vi. Hence this city obtained the epithet of (o) Chronology, p. 1 8. Rccatompylos. (p) Book ix. (<]) The name of this city is not to be NotallproudThebesunrival'dwallscontain, found in Scripture, and it is not known. The world's great emprefs on th' Egyp- what it was called by the Hebrews. tian plain, (/•) Euterpe. That fpreads her eonquefts o'er a thou- (j) Both thefe travellers were in Egypt fahd ltates, at the fame time ; that is, during the years And pours her heroes thro* a hundred 1737 and 1738, though neither of thern gates. Pope, was acquainted with the other's perfon or delign ; EGYPTIAN MUSIC. aij count of Egyptian antiquities, as confirms all that ancient writers have related of its former magnificence. It is agreed by all writers that the pyramids are works of the moll remote antiquity, though the time and object of their con- ftruction {till remain a myftery [t). The city of Thebes in the time of Strabo was ten miles- long (u), and the magnificent tomb of Ifmandes, or Oiyman- duas, fo particularly defcribed by Diodorus Siculus (x), Dr. Pococke thinks, from its ftupendous ruins ftill remaining, which extend more than half a mile, that it mull greatly have exceeded all that the Greek writers have faid of it ( y). But the circumftance of the greateft importance to the prefent purpofe is, that the fame au- thor in his account of the remains of this lepulchre, tells us that the walls of its rooms are ftill adorned with fculpture, and with inftruments of mujic. Now as the prince whofe tomb this is imagined to be, reigned, according to Diodorus Siculus, and other authors, who mention him, many ages before Sefoftris, we cannot allow lefs than 3000 years to the antiquity of thefe reprefentations of fueh mufical inftruments as were then known and practifed in Egypt (z). The mention of which in the books above cited, had awakened an ardent defire in me to know of what kind they could be ; but as neither Dr. Pococke had defcribed them, nor captain Norden given them a place ia his drawings from Egyptian Antiquities, and as the death of defign ; however, there is no material dif- (y) Defa:iption of the Eaft. ■ ference in their accounts of the extraor- (z) According to Dr. Blair, the king- dTnary things they faw in that country. dom of Egypt, of the Diofpolitan fucceffion (t) M. Diderot has ingenioufly imagined had fubfifted 1663 years, when it was con.~ that long before the invention of letters, quered by Cambyfes, king of Perfia, czc they were the Bibles of Egypt, and con- years before the Chriftian a;ra. And as- Articled as the receptacles and reppfitories the fame excellent chronologer fixes the of all human fcience, exprefled in hiero- reign of Sefoftris [485 years B. C ; and glyphics ; which though time has effaced, Diodorus Siculus tells us that Ofymanduas yet the pyramids themfelves have refifted lived twenty -feven generations earlier than the deftruftive power of the elements, to that conqueror, it throws the invention which they have been for fo many ages ex- and ufe of mufical inftruments in Egypt,-- pofed. Eruyclop. Art. Ecyftieks. full 2000 years B. C. and near 4000 years ■ (») Lib. xvii. p. 816. from the prefent period. - (a) Lib, i.feti..2. both 214 THE HISTORY OF both thefe travellers had put it out of ray power to confult them, I had no refource till the arrival of Mr. Bruce ; the ce- lebrity of whofe extenfive knowledge of Eaftern countries, as well as of his excellent drawings, and philofophical reflections, made me hope for a full gratification of my wifhes. And I was not disappointed ; for, upon application to this intrepid and intelligent traveller, who had explored fo many regions of the earth unknown to the inhabitants of Europe, he not only furnifhed me with exquifite drawings of two inflruments of the moft curious kind, and of the greateft importance to my work, but honoured me with a letter relative to them, as well as to the ftate of mulic in Abyffinia, with a permiflion to pub- lilh it; a circumftance the more flattering to myfelf, and which .muft afford my readers the greater fatisfadtion, as Mr. Bruce, among his innumerable acquirements of other kinds, has, by Audy, pra&ice, and experience, rendered himfelf an excellent judge of the fubjedt of mufic. I fhall therefore haften to gratify the curiofity of my readers by laying before them the information with which 1 have been favoured relative to my particular fubjecT:, which will doubtlefs .be the more acceptable to them, as it contains the firft and only intelligence of any kind from Mr. Bruce, to which he has hitherto fet his name, or that he allows to be authentic. JCinnaird, Oil. 20, 1774. Dear Sir, I have employed the firft. leifure that bad weather has en- abled me to fteal from the curiofity and kindnefs of my friends, to make you two diftindf drawings of the mufical inflruments you deiired of me. I lit down now to give you fome particu- lars relative to them, and to other inftruments of lefs confe- •quence, which I found in my voyage in Abyflinia to the foun- tains of the Nile, I need not tell you that I fhall think myfelf overpaid, if this, or any thing elfe in my power, can be of fervice to you, or E G Y P T I AN MUSIC. *i$ or towards the hiflory of a fcience, which I have always culti- vated, with more application than genius; and to which I may fay, however, that 1 owe fome of the happier! moments of my life. I have kept both the lyre and harp of fuch a fize as not to exceed the bounds of a quarto page ; but I hope you will find that all the parts appear diftinctly. I did not chufe to embar- rafs the harp with- the figure which is playing upon it, be- caufe this would neceffarily conceal great part of the inftru- ment; and your bufinefs is with the inurument, not with the figure. There are fix mufical inftruments known in Abyflinia ; the Flute, the Trumpet, the Kettle- drum., the Tambourine., the Sifi- trum, and the Lyre. The four fir ft are ufed in war, and are by much the moft. common; the fifth is dedicated to the fervice of the church ;■-. and the fixth is peculiarly an attendant on feftivity and re- joicings. There are two principal languages in Abyflinia,- the Mtlri-- opic, which is the literal, or dead language ; and the Amharic^ . or language of Amhara, fpoken by the court. The Flute, in the iEthiopic, is called Kwetz, a word diffi- cult to be written or founded in Englifh : in the Amharic, it is • called Agada ; it is about the fhape and fize of the German flute, but played upon long- ways, with a mouth-piece re-- fembling that of the clarinet ; its tone is not loud, but ac- companied with a kind of jar, like a broken hautbois; not owing to any accidental defect, but to conftruction and de- fign, as it would not be efteemed without it (a). The kettle-drum is called in both languages Nagareet, be- caufe all proclamations are made by the found of this drum, , (thefe are called Nagar) if made by governors-, they have the (a) It is probable that the jar, men- a reed, which conftitutes the difference tiojaed here, raife$ from the vibration of between the tone of a hautbois and a flute. force- mi% THE HISTORY OF force of laws in their provinces ; but if made by the king, they are for all Abyftinia. The kettle-drum is a mark of fo- "vereign power : whenever the king promotes a fubjecl: to be governor, or his lieutenant-general in a province, he gives him a kettle-drum, and ftandard as his inveftiture. The king has forty-five of thefe drums always beating before him when he marches. They are in fhape and fize like ours, only they are braced very difadvantageoufly ; for the fkin is ftrained over the outer rim, or lip of the drum, and brought a third down its outfide, which deadens it exceedingly, and deprives it of that clear, metallic found which ours has. Each man has but a fingle drum, upon the left fide of his mule, and beats it with a crooked ftick, about three feet long. Upon the whole, its found is not difagreeable, and I have heard it at an incredible diftance. The third inftrument is the fmall drum, called Kabaro, in iEthiopic and Amharic ; though in fome parts of Amhara it is alio called Hatamo. It is about half the diameter, and twice the length of our common drum ; it is juft the tambourine of •Provence, only rounded to a point at the lower end. This is beaten. always with the hand, and carried fometimes on foot, fometimes on horfeback, when any inferior officer, (not having a Nagareet) marches. The Trumpet is called Meleketa, or Meleket ; and Kenet in Amharic, but Keren in iEthiopic, (or horn) ; which (hews of what materials it was anciently formed. It is now made of a cane that has lefs than half an inch aperture, and about five feet four inches in length. To this long ftalk is fixed at the end, a round piece of the neck of a gourd, which has juft the form of the round end of our trumpet, and is on the outfide or- namented with fmall white fhells ; it is all covered over with parchment, and is a very neat inftrument. This trumpet founds only one note, E, in a- loud, hoarfe, and terrible tone [b\. It is (l) The New-Zealand trumpet, though though it is capable of as great a variety extremity fonorous, is hkevvife monoto- oi tones as an European trumpet. jious, when it is blown by the natives, played EGYPTIAN MUSIC. * 2 i? played flow when on a march, or before an enemy appears in light ; but afterwards it is repeated very quick, and with great violence, and has the effect upon the Abyffinian foldiers of tranfporting them abfolutely to fury and madnefs, and of making them fo regardlefs of life, as to throw themfelves in the middle of the enemy, which they do with great gallantry, I have often in time of peace tried what effect this charge would have upon them, and found that none who heard it could continue feated, but that all rofe up and continued the whole time in motion. I The fifth inftrument is the Sijirum : it is ufed in the quick meafure, or in allegros, in finging pfalms of thankfgiving. Each prieft has a fiftrum, which he makes in a very threats ening manner at his neighbour, dancing, leaping, and turn- ing round, with fuch an indecent violence, that he refembles rather a prieft of paganifm, from whence this inftrument was derived, than a Chriftian. I have forgot the name of the fiftrum in Mthiopic, but on looking into my notes I mall find it. The fixth and laft inftrument is the Lyre, which is never played folo, but always in accompanying the voice, with which it plays conftantly in unifon ; nor did I ever hear mufic in parts, in any nation, favage or polifhed, out of Europe : this is the laft refinement mufic received, after it was in pof- feflion of complete inftruments, and it received it probably in Italy. The lyre has fometimes five, fometimes fix, but moft fre- quently feven firings, made of the thongs of raw fheep or goat fkins, cut extremely fine, and twifted ; they rot foon, are very fubjecl: to break in dry weather, and have fcarce any found in wet. From the idea, however, of this inftrument be- ing to accompany and fuftain a voice, one would think that it was better mounted formerly. The Abyflinians have a tradition, "that the fiftrum, lyre, and tambourine were brought from Egypt into Ethiopia, by Thotj Vol. I. * E e in *2i8 THE HISTORY OF in the very firft ages of the world. The flute, kettle-drum, and trumpet, they lay, were brought from Paleftine, with Menelek, the fon of their queen of Saba, by Solomon, who was their firft Jewiih king. The lyre in Amharic is called beg, (the fheep) ; in Ethiopic, it is called niesTnko ; the verb Jinko flgnifies to ftrike firings with the fingers : no pleBrum is ever ufed in Abyflinia, fo that mejinko being literally interpreted, will fignify the ftringed in- Jlrument played upon with the fingers. This would feem as if anciently there was no other ftringed inftrument in Abyflinia, nor is there any other ftill. Indeed the guitar is fometimes feen in the hands of the Ma- hometans, but they have brought it with them from Arabia, where they go every year for trade or devotion. This- inftru- ment having a neck, is, from that circumftance, furely mo- dern. Necks were probably invented after firings of dif- ferent lengths and flzes had been fo multiplied upon the harp and lyre, that more could not be added without confufiom This improvement of producing feveral notes upon one firing, by fhortening it with the momentaneous preflure of the fingers was then introduced, and left little more to do, be- fldes the invention of the bow, towards bringing ftringed in- ftruments to their utmoft perfection. The fides which conftitute the frame of the lyre were an- ciently compofed of the horns of an animal of the goat kind, called Agazan, about the iize of a fmall cow, and common in the province of Tigre. I have feen feveral of thcfe inftrumenta> very elegantly made of fuch horns, which nature feems to have fhaped on purpofe. Some of the horns of an African fpecies of this animal may be feen in M. Buffon's Hiftory of the King of France's Cabinet. They are bent, and lefs regular than the Abyflinian; but after fire-arms became common in the province of Tigre, and the woods were cut down, this animal being more fcarce, the lyre has been made of a light red wood ;.• how-. EGYPTIAN MUSIC. * 219 libwever, it is always cut into a fpiral twilled form, in imi- tation of the ancient materials of which the lyre was compofed. The drawing I fend you was from one of thefe inftruments made of wood (c). The kingdom of Tigre, which is the largeft and moft po- pulous province of Abyffinia, and was, during many ages, the feat of the court, was the firft which received letters, and civil and religious government ; it extended once to the Red Sea : various reafons and revolutions have obliged the inha- bitants to refign their fea coaft to different barbarous nations, Pagan and Mahometan ; while they were in poffeffion of it they fay that the Red Sea furnifhed them with tortoife fhells, of which they made the bellies of their lyres, as the Egyp- tians did formerly, according to Apollodorus, and Lucian ; but having now loft that refource, they have adopted, in its place, a particular fpecies of gourd, or pumpkin, very hard and thin in the bark, ftill imitating with the knife the fquares, com- partments, and figure of the fhell of the tortoife. The lyre is generally from three feet, to three feet fix inches high ; that is, from a line drawn through the point of the horns, to the lower part of the bafe of the founding board. It is exceedingly light, and eafy of carriage, as an inftrument mould naturally be, in fo rugged and mountainous a country. When we confider the parts which compofe this lyre, we cannot deny it the earlieft antiquity. Man, in his firft ftate, was a hunter, and a fifher, and the oldeft inftrument was that which partakes moft of that ftate. The lyre compofed of two principal pieces, owes the one to the horns of an animal, the other to the fhell of a fifh. It is probable that the lyre continued with the Ethiopians in this rude ftate. as long as they confined themfelves to their {c) See PI. V. No. 6. *Ee 2 rainy, *22© THE HISTORY OF rainy, fteep, and rugged mountains •> and afterwards, when many of them defcended along the Nile in Egypt, its portabi- lity would recommend it in the extreme heats and wearinefs of their way. Upon their arrival in Egypt, they took up their habitation in caves, in the fides of mountains, which are in- habited to this day. Even in thefe circumftances, an inftru- ment larger than the lyre muft have been inconvenient, and liable to accidents, in thofe caverns ; but when thefe people encreafed in numbers and courage, they ventured down into the plain, and built Thebes. Being now at their eafe, and in a fine climate, all nature fmiling around them, mufic, and other arts, were cultivated and refined, and the imperfect lyre was extended into an inftrument of double its compafs and vo- lume. The fize of the harp could be now no longer an ob- jection, the Nile carried the inhabitants every where eafily, and without effort ; and we may naturally fuppofe in the fine evenings of that country, that the Nile was the favourite fcene upon which this inftrument was pradtifed ; at leaft the fphinx and lotus upon its head, feem to hint that it was fomeway con- nected, with the overflowings of that river. Behind the ruins of the Egyptian Thebes, and a very little to the N. W, of it, are a great number of mountains, hol- lowed into monftrous caverns ; the fepulchres, according to tradition, of the firft kings of Thebes. The moft confiderable of thefe mountains thus hollowed, contains a large farcophagus of granite, of which the lid only is broken. Pococke, I think, (for though I have fometimes looked into him, I never could read. him) was in this grotto, and flept here, I fuppofe, for he takes no notice of one of the few monuments from which we . may guefs at the former ftate of arts in Europe. In the entrance of the paffage which leads, floping gently down, into the chamber where is the farcophagus, there are two pannels, one on each fide ; on that of the right, is the figure of the fcarabceus T/ie&aicus, fuppofed to have been the hiero- EGYPTIAN MUSIC. *22i -■> hieroglyphic of immortality ; on the left, is the crocodile, fixed upon the apis with his teeth, and plunging him into the waves : thefe are both moulded in bafib-relievo, in the ftucco ltfelf. This is a fufficient indication of the grotto, to any one who may wifh to examine it again. At the end of the paflage on the left-hand, is the picture of a man playing upon the harp, painted in frefco, and quite entire. He is clad in a habit made like a fhirt, fuch as the women ftill wear in AbyrBnia, and the men in Nubia. This feems to- be white linen or muflin, with narrow ftripes of red. It reaches down to his ancles; his feet are without fandals, and bare; his neck and arms are alfo bare ; his loofe, wide fleeves, are gathered above his elbows ; his head is clofe fhaved ; he feems a corpulent man, of about- fifty years of age, in colour rather of the darkeft for an Egyptian. To guefs by the detail of the figure, the painter mould have- had about the fame degree of merit with a good fign-painter in Europe ; yet he has reprefented the a&ion of the mufician in a manner never to be miftaken. His left hand feems em- ployed in the upper part of the inftrument among the notes in altOy as-if in an Arpeggio ; while {looping forwards, he feems with his right hand to be beginning with the loweft fixing, and promifing to afcend with the moft rapid execution ; this acfion, fo obvioufly rendered by an indifferent artift, fhews that it was a common one in his time, or, in other words, that great hands were then frequent, and confequently that mufic was well underftood, and diligently followed. If we allow the performer's ftature to be about five feet ten inches, then we may compute the harp in its extreme length to be fomething lefs than fix feet and a half. It feems to fupport- itfelf in equilibrio on its foot, or bafe, and needs only the-* player's guidance to keep it fteady. It has thirteen firings ; . the length of thefe, and the force and liberty with which they, are treated, fhew that they are made in. a very different man- ner from thofe of. the lyre. . Thiss * 2 22 THE HISTORY OF This inftrument is of a much more elegant form than the triangular Grecian harp. It wants the fore-piece of the frame, oppofite to the longeft firing, which certainly muft have im- proved its tone, but muft likewife have rendered the inftrument itfelf weaker, and more liable to accidents, if carriage had not been fo convenient in Egypt. The back part is the founding board, compofed of four thin pieces of wood, joined together inform of a cone, that is, growing wider towards the bottom ; fo that, as the length of the firing encreafes, the fquare of the correfpondent fpace, in the founding board, in which the tone •is to undulate, always encreafes in proportion. Befides that, the whole principles upon which the harp is confkucted are rational and ingenious, the ornamental parts are likewife executed in the very beft manner ; the bottom and fides of the frame feem to be fineered, or inlaid, probably with ivory, tortoife-fhell, and mother of pearl, the ordinary produce of the neighbouring feas and deferts. It would be even now impoflible to finifh an inftrument with more tafte and elegance. Befides the elegance of its outward form, we muft obferve, likewife, how near it approached to a perfect inftrument ; for it wanted only two firings of having two complete odaves in compafs. Whether thefe were intentionally omitted or not, -we cannot now determine, as we have no idea of the mufic or tafte of that time ; but if the harp be painted in the propor- tions in which it was made, it might be demonftrated that it could fcarce bear more than the thirteen firings with which it was furnifhed. Indeed the crofs-bar would break with the ten- fion of the four lcngeft, if they were made of the fize and confiftence, and tuned to the pitch that our's are at prefent. I look upon this inftrument, then, as the Theban harp, be- fore and at the time of Sefoftris, who adorned Thebes, and probably caufed it to be painted there, as well as the other figures in the fepulchre of his father, as a monument of the fuperiority EGYPTIAN MUSIC. * 223 fuperiority which Egypt had in mufic at that time, over all the barbarous nations that he had feen, or conquered. Aftronomy, and, we may imagine, the other arts, made a rapid progrefs at this period in Upper Egypt, and continued' to do fo for fifty years after, between which time, and the Per- fian conqueft, fome cataftrophe mud have happened that re- duced them to the lowed ebb, which hiftorians have mis- taken for their firft original. We know about the time of Sefoftris, if, as Sir Ifaac Newton: fuppofes, this prince and Sefac were the fame, that in Pales- tine the harp had only ten firings ; but as David, while he played upon it, both danced and lung before the ark, it i§ plain that the inftrument upon which he played, could have been but of fmall volume, we may fuppofe little exceeding in weight our guitar ; though the origin of this harp was pro- bably Egyptian, and from the days of Mofes it had been de- generating in fize, that it might be more portable in the many peregrinations of the Ifraelites. The harp that approaches the neareft to this in antiquity, is reprefented upon a bafib-relievo at Ptolemais, in the Cyrenai- cum, a city built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and it is there twice reprefented. It has fifteen firings, or two complete o&aves ; but the adding thefe two notes has oecafioned likewife the addition of a fore-piece to fuftain the crofs-bar above, fo that its form is- triangular ; the extremity of the bafe is rounded into a ram's- head, which feems to allude to its Theban original ; and I. fhould imagine that this inftrument is likewife Egyptian, as no. harp with fuch a number of firings has ever been feen, that I know of, in Grecian fculpture. As the application of pedals has enabled us to difengage the. modern harp from its multiplicity of firings, and brought it, nearer to Theban fimplicity, I hope our artifts, and Merlin in. particular, will, likewife, endeavour to introduce into its form a. little.: * 224 THE HISTORY OF little of the Theban elegance. It is the favourite of the fair fex, and nothing fhould be fpared to make it beautiful ; for it fhould be a principal object of mankind to attach them by every means to muiic, as it is the only amufement that may be enjoyed to excefs, and the heart ftill remain virtuous and uncorrupted. I fhall lay nothing of the capabilities of this harp, nor what may be proved from it relative to the ftate of mufic, at a time when men were able to make fuch an inftrument ; I fhall with impatience expect this detail from you, better qualified than any one I know now in Europe for this difquifition ; it is a cu- rious one, and merits your utmoft reflection and attention. It overturns all the accounts of the earlieft flate of ancient muiic and inftruments in Egypt, and is altogether in its form, ornaments and compafs, an inconteflable proof, ftronger than a thoufand Greek quotations, that geometry, drawing, mecha- nics and mufic, were at the greater! perfection when this harp was made ; and that what we think in Egypt was the inven- tion of arts, was -only the beginning of the sera of their re- iteration. I am, &c- JAMES BRUCE, With refpect to the lyre refembling a tortoife, which is now in common ufe in the particular province of Abyflinia, called Tigre, I have only two obfervations to make, after the full and fatisfaclory account that has been given of it by Mr. Bruce ; the firft is, that its form exactly refembles the teftudo, which is reprefented in the moil ancient Greek fculpture, and de- fcribed by the molt ancient authors : the fecond is, that it does not appear from hiftory that the Greeks ever penetrated into this country, or had any communication with its inhabitants : for even Alexander the Great never undertook an expedition againft the Ethiopians, though when he confulted the oracle of HEBREW MUSIC. 217 THE HISTORY O F HEBREW MUSIC. IT is not fo much from the hope of being able to throw- any new lights upon the mufic of this ancient people, that I dedicate a chapter to the fubjedr, as out of refpect for the firft and mod venerable of all books, as well as for the reli- gion of my country, and for that of the moft enlightened part of mankind, which has been founded upon it. For notwithstanding the unremitting labours of the firft fa- thers of the church, and the learning and diligence of innu- merable tranflators and commentators, but few materials of great importance can be acquired for this part of my work, except what the Bible itfelf contains ; as the firft periods of the hiftory of the ancient Hebrews, from its high antiquity, can receive no illuftration from cotemporary hiftorians, or from human teftimony. The chief part of what I have to do, therefore, is to collect the paffages relative to thofe early ages of the world, the tranf- a&ions of which are recorded in the facred writings with fuch true and genuine fimplicity, and to arrange them in chrono- logical order ; a talk which, however trivial and eafy it may feem, will not be without its ufe in a General Hiftory of Mufic ; as it will at leaft fhew, that this art has always had admiflion into Vol. I. F f the 2i8 THE HIS-TORY OF the religious ceremonies, public feftivals, and focial amufe- ments of mankind. The conftru&ion and ufe of mufical inftruments have a> very early place among the inventions attributed to the firfb inhabitants of the globe, by Mofes : for, Geneiis chap. iv„. verfe 21, Jubal, the fixth defcendant from Cain, is called " the father of allfuch as handle the harp and organ" But though this circumftance is mentioned fo foon in the- Pentateuch, yet it could have happened but a fhort time be- fore the deluge, A. M. 1656; confequently the world muft have been peopled many centuries before the invention took place (a). No mention, however, is made in the Scriptures of the practice of mufic, till more than fix hundred years after the deluge. But in Genefis xxxi. and 26th and 27th verfes, about 1739 years before Chrift, according to the Hebrew chrono- logy, both vocal and inftrumental. mufic are fpoken of as things in common ufe. " And Laban fa id to Jacob, what haft thou done, that thou, haft ftolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daugh- ters, as captives taken with the fword h " Wherefore didft thou flee away fecretly, and fteal away from me ? and didft not tell me, that I might have fent thee away with mirth and with fo?igs, with tabret, and with harp ?"' I^aban. was a Syrian, and brother to Rebecca, Ifaac's wife; (a) With refpeft to the inftrument nentium in nailio, fciehtium cantium citherce called an organ, in the Englifh verfion of et organi. Nabiion is the Hebrew word this paflage, it muft not be imagined that for harp. The Arabic has tympanum et fu'ch.a noble and complicated machine is citharam ; , and the French has le violon^ there implied, as the prefent inftrument et les orgues. of that name. In the Hebrew it is called Hence it appears, that the tranflators, huggab, which, fay the commentators, ancient and modern, of all parts of the was a kind of Jyrinx, or. fifiula. The world, not knowing what were the real ' Septuagint, inftead of harp and organ, has forms and properties of the Hebrew in»- 4 u\Tr^tot xat xi9a^o>, pfaltry and citbara ; ftruments, have given to them the names the Syriac, citharam et fides ; Chaldean of fuch as were of the mod common ule paraphrafe, ifi/i /kit magifter omnium ca- in their own countries, fo HEBREW MUSIC. 219 fo that the tabret and the harp {hould be ranked among Affy- rian inftruments. After this time the facred text furnifhes no mufical incident, till the year 1491 before Chrift, when we have the firft hymn, or pfalm, to the Supreme Being, upon record. It contains the pious effufions of Mofes, after the paffage of the Red Sea, at the head of the whole people of Ifrael, juft efcaped from bondage. " Then fang Mofes and the children of Ifrael thisyiwg- unto the Lord, and fpake, faying, I will fing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriouily," &c. Exod. xv. Mofes is feconded on this occafion by Miriam, the pro- phetefs, and fifter of Aaron, who " took a timbrel in her hand, ver. 20 ; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." " And Miriam anfwered them, Sing ye to the Lord," &c. Here is an early inftance of loomen being permitted to bear a part in the performance of religious rites, as well as of vo- cal mufic being accompanied by inJirumentaU and by dancing. The dithyrambics, or hymns to Bacchus, of the Greeks, have been fuppofed to originate from Egypt (Jb). Thefe were conftantly accompanied by inftruments, and by dance, even af- ter they were incorporated into tragedy. Now as Miriam was an Egyptian, and juft efcaped from the country where fhe had been educated, it is natural to fuppofe that the dance ufed now, and eftablifhed afterwards by the Hebrews, in the celebration of religious rites, was but the continuation of an Egyptian cuftom. (b) SeeDiflert. SecT:. IX. p. 152. the worfhip of Bacchus ; for the Greeks The abbe Vatry, in an excellent effay are by no means agreed concerning the upon the Origin and Progrefs of Tragedy, perfon who firlt made them acquainted Mem. de Lift, tome XV. fays, that all the with Bacchus ; fome affirming it to have etymologies of the term ditbyrambic, are been Cecrops, fome Melampus, and fome fo forced, that he is firmly of opinion the Orpheus ; but all unite in deriving the word is not Greek, and that both the name worfhip of this God from the ^Egyptians, and thing were brought from iEgypt with F f 2 And 220 THE HISTORY OF And we find mufic and dancing, foon after this ceremony, applied to another, that was indifputably of the fame origin : for the people having obliged Aaron, in the abfence of his brother, to make them a golden calf, in the likenefs of the Egyptian idol, Apis, were found Jin gin g and dancing before it, by Mofes, at his return to the camp (c). The trumpet of the jubilee is likewife ordered to be founded fo foon after the flight from Egypt (d), that it muft have been an Egyptian inftrument. St. Stephen tells us (e), that Mofes, having been educated by Pharaoh's daughter " as her own fon, was learned in all the wifdom of the Egyptians." And Clemens Alexandrinus (J) particularizes his acquirements, by affirming, that " he was inftructed in his maturer age by the Egyptians in all liberal fciences, as arithmetic, geometry, rhythm, harmony, but,, above all, medicine and mufic." However, in the infancy of a ftate, a nation has but little leifure for cultivating mufic any otherwife than it is connected with religious rites, and the military art. Accordingly we find no other mufical inftrument mentioned during the admi- niftration of the great Hebrew legiflator than trumpets, ex- cept the timbrel, ufed by Miriam. Numb. chap. x. 2. he is ordered by divine command to make two trumpets of filver of a whole piece, " for affembling together the people, and for journeying the camps." And in the eight following verfes all the fignals to be founded by one and by two trumpets are re- gulated. But thefe inftruments feem to differ from that of the jubilee, mentioned before, in nothing but the materials of which they were made : as the Hebrew text, and the feveral verfions, agree in calling them all by one common name. The feaft of trumpets inftituted by Mofes, Numb. xxix. 1. in the month of September, is imagined to have been the ce- (c) Exod. xxxii. ver. i8and 19. (e) A&s vii. ver. 21, 22. (d) Levit. xxv. 9. (f) Stromat. lib. i. lebration HEBREW MUSIC. 22"i lebration of harveft home. " And in the feventh month, on the firft day of the month, ye fhall have a holy convocation ; ye fhall do no fervile work ; it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you." The rigid obfervance of the Sabbath upon every feventh day, rendered feven a facred number among the He- brews. Hence, not only the feventh day, but the feventh week., the feventh month, the feventh year, and feven times feventh year, was kept holy : " And on the fiftieth year thou fhalt caufe the trumpet of the jubilee to found throughout the land." Levit. xxv. g. The trumpets of rams horns ufed at the fiege of Jericho, feem to have been lefs mufical inftruments, than military fignals for the affailants to march and fhout by, in order, by their noife, to terrify and difmay the enemy. Upon this occafion all the powers of the number feven were put in practice. "■ Seven prie/is fhall bear before them feven trumpets, and the feventh day ye fhall compafs the city feven tunes, and the priefts fhall blow with the trumpets." Jofh. vi. 4. No further mention is made of mufic, till the fong of De- borah and Barak, Judges v. which feems to have been fung in dialogue, and wholly without inftruments. It was about fifty years after this period, and eleven hundred and forty-three years before Chrift, that the unfortunate daughter of Jephtha, upon hearing of her father's victory over the Ammonites, went out to meet him with timbrels and with dances : Judges, ii. 34. From this time, till Saul was chofen king, 1095, B. C. the facred text is wholly filent about every fpecies of mufic, except that of the trumpet in military expeditions. But here an incident occurs, which feems to merit particular attention. It appears frem many paffages in Scripture, that mufic was as nearly allied to prophe/y as to poetry, . When Samuel, after fecretly anointing Saul king, inftruds the new monarch in the meafures he is to purfue for eftablifh- ing 222 T HE HISTORY OF iog himfelf on the throne, fays, " And it (hall come to pafs, when thou art come to the city (Beth-el), that thou fhalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a pfaltery and tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, and they (hall prophefy. And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou malt prophefy with them {?)." Who is ignorant, fays Quintilian, that mulic in ancient times was fa much cultivated, and held in fuch veneration, that mulicians were called by the names of prophets and fages (h) ? Fates, in Latin, is a common term for prophet, poet, and mvftcian. The oracles of the ancients were delivered in fong ; and the Pythian priefts, who compofed into hexameter verfe the loofe and disjointed expreffions of the agonizing Pythia, were ftyled prophets, st^o^/itki (/). Thefe, according to Plu- tarch (/(•), " were feated round the fandtuary, in order to re- ceive the words of the Pythia, and inclofe them immediately into a certain number of verfes, as liquors are enciofed in bottles." Olen, one of the firft priefts of Apollo, was at once poet and prophet ; and Phemonoe, the firft priefiefs at Delphos, is related to have delivered her oracles in verfe by infpiration only, without ftudy or affiftance. The improvvifatori of Italy are ftill accompanied by an inftru- ment, like the prophets of old ; and Italian poets, who write down verfes, fing at the time of compofing them (/). The examples in Scripture of this union of mufic and pro- phecy are numerous (m). " Moreover, David, and the captains of the hoft, feparated to the fervice of the fons of Afaph, and of ( ■'/?///)?.? (n) 1 Chrotu chap, xxv, (0) Chap. ill. 15.- 18 224- THE HISTORY OF It is fuppofcd by many of the fathers and commentators, that the ancient Hebrews had a college, or fchool, of prophets, which muft likewife have been a fchool of mufic ; as the paf- fages already cited from the facred writings fully prove, that the prophets either accompanied themfelves, or were accompanied by others with mufical inftruments, in the exercife of their functions, David, by having cultivated mufic fo early, feems to have been intended by his family for the profejfion of a prophet. St. Ambrofe fays, that he had always the gift of prophefy, and was chofen by God himfelf, in preference to all other prophets, to compofe pfalms (p). And, according to Eufebius, David carried his harp, or, as this prelate calls it, his lyre, with him, wherever he went ; to conlble him in his affliction, and to fing to it the praifes of God. And in his preface to the Pfalms, he afferts, that this prince, as head of the prophets, was generally in the taber- nacle, with his lyre, amidft the other prophets and fingers, and that each of them prophelied, and fung his canticle, as infpir- ation came on fqj. The Chaldean paraphrafe underftands by prophefying, " ador- ing God, and ringing praifes unto him." The great Sanhedrim, fays the bifhop of Gloucefter (r), feems to have been eftablifhed after the failure of prophefies. And concerning the members of this body, the rabbins tell us, there was a tradition, that they were bound to be fkilled in all fciences. But in order to preferve the chronological chain of mufical events, furnifhed by the facred text, it will be neceffary to re- fume the narrative at the lime when David, on account of his great fkill in mufic, was firft called in to adminifter relief, by the power of his harp, to Saul, afflicted with an evil fpirit. (p) Praf. hi PfaL i. that is, fing praifes, to the accompaniment (q) It feems from a paffage in i Chron. of David's harp, xsv, 2. as if Afaph ufed to prophefy, (r) Biv. Leg. vol. iii. p. 352. if EGYPTIAN MUSIC. *22$ of Jupiter Amraon, one of the firft enquiries he made, was after the fources of the Nile. Ptolemy Euerget.es, indeed, one of his fucceffqrs in Egypt, having a paffionate defire, in com- mon with almoft all the greateft men of antiquity, to difcover the fountains of the Nile, with this view made an irruption into Ethiopia ; but as he foon retreated thence, it is hardly to be imagined, that during a ihort hoftile vifit, he introduced mufic, or any of the arts of peace among the inhabitants : confequently, this inftrument feems to have been originally in- vented in this country, and to have been continued in ufe there ever fince. I have now to fpeak of the "T/ieban Harp, the moft curious and beautiful of all the ancient inftruments.that have come to my knowledge. The number of firings, the fize and form of this inftrument, and the elegance of its ornaments, awaken reflections, which, to indulge, would lead me too far from my chief enquiries, and indeed out of my depth. The mind is wholly loft in the immenie antiquity of the painting in which it is reprefented ; indeed the time when it was executed is fo remote as to encourage a belief, that arts, after having been brought to great perfection, were again loft, and again invented, long after this period ; and there can be no doubt but that human knowledge and refinements have fhared the lame fate as the kingdoms in which they have been cultivated. They have had their gradual rife and declenfion ; and in fome of the countries firft civilized, arts, by the arrival of new invaders, and eftablifhment of new modes, new laws, and new governments, may be faid to have experienced feveral deaths and regenerations ; or, according to the Pythagoric doctrine, their fouls may be faid to have tranf- migrated through feveral bodies, fince they have been inhabit- ants of this world. With refpect to the number of firings upon this harp, if conjectures may be allowed concerning the manner of tuning them, two might be offered to the reader's choice: the firft idea that prefented itfelf at the fight of thirteen firings was, Vol. I. * F f that *226 THE HISTORY OF that they would furnifh all the femitones to be found in mo- dern inftruments, within the compafs of an odtave, as from C to c, D to d, or E to e. The fecond idea is more Grecian, and conformable to antiquity, which is, that if the longeft fixing reprefented Projlambanomenos, or D, the remaining twelve firings would fupply all the tones, femi-tones, and quarter-tones, of the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic ge- nera of the ancients, within the compafs of an octave : but, for my part, I fhould rather incline to the firft arrangement, as it is more natural, and more conformable to the ftrucf. ure of our organs than the fecond : for, with refpecT. to the Genera of the Greeks, though no certain hiftoric teftimony can be pro- duced concerning the invention of the Diatonic and Chromatic, yet ancient writers are unanimous in afcribing to Olympus, the Phrygian, the firft ufe of the Enharmonic [d)\ and though in the beginning the melody of this genus was fo iimple and na- tural as to refemble the wild notes and rude effays of a people not quite emerged from barbarifm, yet, in after-times, it be- came overcharged with finical fopperies, and fanciful beauties, arifing from fuch minute divifions of the fcale,* as had no other merit than the difficulty of forming them. It feems a matter of great wonder, with fuch a model before their eyes as the Theban Harp, that the form and ufe of fuch an inftrument fhould not have been perpetuated by pofterity, but that many ages after, another, of an inferior kind, with fewer firings, fhould take place of it ; yet, if we confider how little acquainted we are at prefent with the ufe, and even conftru&ion of the inftruments which afforded the greateft de- light to the Greeks and Romans, or even with others in com- mon ufe in a neighbouring part of Europe but a few centuries ago (e), our wonder will ceafe ; efpecially if we reflect upon the ignorance and barbarifm into which it is poffible for an in- genious people to be plunged, by the tyranny and devaftation of a powerful and cruel invader. (d) See DiJJertation. many modern mufical inftruments ftill furj- (e) See, in the mufical Tour through filling at Antwerp, of which the. ufe 13. Germany and the Netherlands, an account of wholly unknown, -vol. i, p. 4 r . EGYPTIAN MUSIC. * 227 It is but of fmall importance to us now, perhaps, to know what kind of mufical inftruments were in ufe among the Egyp- tians, in times fo remote from our own ; indeed it is a humi- liating circumftance to reflect how little permanence there is in human knowledge and acquirements ; and, before we attempt to improve our intellects, or refine our reafon, how long and laborious a work it is to devife expedients for fupplying the wants, and defending the weaknefs of our nature. Some ages, and fome countries, have been more fuccefsful in thefe endea- vours than others : however, there feems to be a boundary fet to the fum total of our perfectibility, and, like the ftone of Sifyphus, when we are arrived with infinite toil at a certain height, we are precipitated back to the level from whence we fet off, and the work is to do again ! The arts and fciences of Egypt feem to have been long- loft before profe was written in Greece, as no hiftorian of that country ever faw Egypt in the time of its profperity. Pytha- goras was there a little before, and at the time of the Perfian conquerl, having been taken prifoner by Cambyfes in Egypt, from whence he was fent to Babylon : but of his writings no- thing now remains, except a few apophthegms and fragments, which tradition has given to him. From the time that Pfam- menitus, the laft native king of Egypt, was defeated by Cam- byfes, 525 years B. C. the inhabitants of that country were al- ways under a foreign yoke, and confequently from that period may be dated their ruin, and the utter extirpation of liberty and fcience among them : for honours and emoluments being wholly lavifhed upon foreigners, all expanfion of genius muft have been reftrained among the natives, now become abject and debafed, by neglect, or oppreffion. Indeed, after their volun- tary fubmiflion to Alexander the Great, the dazzling glory of whofe reign and character made them prefer his tyranny to that of the Perfians, they had a race of fplendid princes in the Ptolemies, that cultivated and encouraged arts and fciences, particularly Mufic ; but thefe arts and fciences were wholly *Ff 2 Grecian, * 228 THE HISTORY OF Grecian, and their profeffors Greeks ; for the native inhabit- ants had long loft every thing, but the fuperftitiOCis rites and ceremonies of their religion. They had no books, but hiero- glyphics, which were now no longer intelligible even to the Egyptians themfelves ; and we do not find, after the time of Alexander, that any were^ver written, but in the Greek lan- guage. It may be therefore faid that the Egyptians ceafed to be a people, at leaft a great and free people, before the time of the firft Ptolemy, who founded the kingdom, which fubfifted near 300 years under him and his fuccefTors. The three firft of thefe monarchs, Ptolemy Soter, Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Ptolemy Euergetes, were magnificent princes, who encouraged arts and fciences, and by their bounty attracted to their court at Alex- andria, men of genius and learning from all parts of the world. By thefe, their characters have been handed down to us with perhaps too much tender nefs to their vices and infirmities. Au- guftus, Leo X. and Louis XIV. by rendering themfelves fa- vourites of the Mufes in later times, found means to filence fa- tire, and to have the fair fide only of their characters turned towards pofterity : however, nothing is more certain than that thefe princes were not wholly exempt from human frailties, over which the gauze of flattery has been fpread, by thofe who balked in their fmiles ; but though fuch have been filent as to the defects of the Ptolemies in Egypt, their fubjects in general were not blinded by that magnificence which was fupported at their expence, as moft of the cognomens given to thefe princes were ironical, and intended not to point out the virtues which "they pofleffed, but thofe of which they flood moft in need : as Philadelphus, the lover of his brother ; Euergetes, beneficent j Philopator, the lover of his father ; Philomator, the lover of his ihother ; titles that were given to fovereigns who had been fo unnatural and cruel as to put to death their fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, filters, and children ! During the reigns of thefe, fumptuous and voluptuous princes 'it can hardly be doubted but that mufie was greatly cultivated and EGY-PTIAN -MUSIC. * 229 and encouraged at Alexandria. Athenseus, in his (f) minute description of the celebrated Bacchic Feftival, given by Phil- adelphus, tells us, that more than fix hundred muficians were employed in the chorus, and that among thefe there were three hundred performers on the cithara. Under the feventh Ptolemy, firnamed Phyfcon, from his cor- pulency, and Cacergetes, from his cruelty, the fame author in- forms us (g), that every fpecies of art and fcience was cheriihed and taught in Egypt. For this prince having put to death a great number of the citizens of Alexandria, and banifhed others who had been attached to his brother, from whom he had ufurp- ed the crown, he filled his dominions with Grammarians, Phi- lofophers, Geometricians, Muficians, School-mafters, Painters, Phyficians, and other perfons capable of perfecting the arts; and thefe having no other fubfiftence than the fruits of their labour and diligence, contributed greatly to the propagation of knowledge throughout Egypt (/;). The father of Cleopatra, and the laft of the Ptolemies, de- rived the title of Auletes, or the Flute-player, from his exceffive attachment to that inftrument. Strabo fays of him (/), that be- fides his debaucheries, he applied himfelf in a particular man - ner to playing on the flute. He had fuch an opinion of his, own abilities, as to inflitute mufical contefts at his palaces, and had there the courage to difpute the prize, publicly, with the firft muficians of his time ; and as the drefs of players on the flute among the ancients was peculiar to that profefiion (k), this prince fubmitted to wear the robe, the bufkins, the crown, and even the bandage and veil of a "Tibicen, as may be feen on a. beautiful Amethy ft in the king of France's poflerfion, of in-- (f) Lib. v. Ed. Cafaub. p. 201. people more ftilled in. rauSc than thofe of fig) lb. lib. iv. p. 1S4. Alexandria: for there is not a wretched (b) It was perhaps during this period peafant or labourer among them, who is that the practice of mufic became fuffi- not only able to play upon the lyre, but ciently general among the common people is llkewife a perfect mafter of the. flute." of Egypt, to render credible the following Lib. iv. p. 176. affertion of a -Dipisofophift in Athenanis : (i) Lib. xvii. " It does not appear by the. writings of any (k) There was one alfo for the lyrifts. hjjlorian, fays he, that there ever was. a . eftimable. *2 3 ° THE HISTORY OF eftimable value, which is fuppofed to have been engraved by command of this prince, and worn by him to gratify his vanity •on account of his mufical excellence. Jndeed the firname of Auktes is ferioufly given to him by Cicero, who had an efteem for him, and by Strabo. The firft in his defence of Rabirius Pofthumus (/) ; and the fecond, who was likewife his cotempo- rary, never mentions him but by the title of Auletes {m). He had likewife an opprobrious appellation given to him, by his own fub- jeds, in the Egyptian language, of the fame import, being called Photingos, or PMtin'gios', from Pholinx, Monaulos, or fingle flute. His violent paflion for mufic, and for the company of muficians, gained him the name of NEOS AIONT£Or, the new Bacchus, or patriarch of extravagance. A melancholy truth forces itfelf upon the mind in reading the hiftory of this prince, and that of the emperor Nero, whom he very much refembled, which is, that, if the heart is depraved, mufic has not the power to correct it. And though thefe mu- fical princes obtained prizes in the public games, they acquired no honour to themfelves, nor did they reflecT: any upon the pro- feffion of Mufic. A mufician is fo diftant in character and dig- nity from a fovereign prince, that the one muft ftoop too low, or the other mount too high before they can approximate ; and the public fufFers, with equal impatience, a fovereign who degrades himfelf, or an artift who afpires at a rank above his ftation in the community. An inordinate love of fame, or a rapacious defire of mo- nopolizing all the glory as well as goods of this world to themfelves, muft have incited thefe princes to enter the lifts in comoetition with perfons fo much their inferiors : a paffion that fhould always be diflinguifhed from the love of mufic, which they might have gratified, either from their own per- formance, or from that of others, in private, much more -commodioufly than on a public ftage. (J) Nam ut vcutum eft Ahxandriam ad (m) At^ni; 5 xaS' ypas, turnup iw'tfij; Auletem, &<:. KTiEcra-aTfa; wwnif. Lib. xvii. Notwith- EGYPTIAN MUSIC. *2 3 i Notwithftanding all the proofs that have been already given, and which might be flill produced of the cultivation of mufic by: the Egyptians in very remote antiquity, as well as of the man- ner in which it was afterwards patronized by their fovereigns of Greek extraction, many ancient writers who vifited Egypt after it was made a Roman province, fpeak of the inhabitants as the moft melancholy and abject race of men upon the globe. According to Am.. Marcellinus [n], they were not formed for mirth and pleafure ; they worshipped their Gods with forrow and tears, while the Greeks and Romans made religion an ob- ject of joy and feftivity : and we are not only told by Diodorus Siculus, but by Plutarch, that the cultivation of mufic, an art which the Greeks thought fo neceflary to humanize and ibften mankind, and render them gentle and obedient to the laws, was prohibited by their government. Dio Chryfoftom informs us. that poetry was interdicted among them, as well as mufic ; and Strabo fays that the found of inftruments was not heard in their temples, but that their facrifices were made in fjlence. All this is reconcileable and confonant to the nature of things : for when thefe writers vifited Egypt, its inhabitants were in a ftate of flavery, and had been fo for 500 years before ; and though not, like the Jews, in a ftrange land, yet, like them, " they had hung their harps on the willows." M. Pau (0), however, boldly afferts, that " the Egyptians, from a defeat in the conftruction of their organs, and a want of genius, have never had any mufic but what was as deteft- able as that of the inhabitants of Afia and Africa is at pre- fent. If, continues this author, we confider the formation of a fiftrum, whether of gold or iron, we mull conclude that no- thing but noife could proceed from it, which being united with the found of a coarfe flute, and the bleating of the ox Apis, would conftitute fuch diffonance and jargon, as no ear accu- ftomed to real mufic could fupport. As to the other mufical inftruments of Egypt, fuch as the Flageolet, Horn, Syrinx, Ca- ftagnet, Triangle, and Tambourine, it is eafy, fays he, to ima-> (n) Lib. xxii. cap. 16. lei Chinks. Tome'u p. 243. etfuivanU (0) Recbercbcs Philof. fur les Egypt, et *232 THE HISTORY OF gine what kind of melody could be produced from them. In- deed it was fo contemptible, that the priefts would not allow it admiffion within the walls of their temples, where they fung their facred hymns without being accompanied by any kind of inftrument. But with refpedl to the general ufe of fuch mufic as they had, it feems to have ferved, adds M. Pau, as a ne- ceffary ftimulus to aclion among the inhabitants of this coun- try in ancient times, who were as unable as moft of the Afiatics and Africans are at prefent, to perform any kind of labour, without being excited by icreaming and noife ; for fuch is the natural floth and indolence of thefe people, that they want to be roufed and animated every inftant by the fhrilnefs of flutes, and din of drums ; inftruments that have been found in every region of the two hemiipheres where the climate is hot. Soft tones and graceful melody have no effect upon their obtufe organs ; and this is the reafon why mufic never has been, nor ever can be fuccefsfully cultivated among them." This reafoning, however, does not appear to me fo deeifive as it does to the author. Athenazus {p) gives a lift of fongs that were fung, and tunes that were played by the Greeks of different profefllons ; by which it appears that hardly any kind of work was performed by them without mufic. The Ro- mans on many occafions made a like ufe of it : and the ancient Greeks and Romans were certainly a bold, manly, and robuft people : the modern Scots are the fame ; however the bagpipe and fong regulate all their operations. It feems to admit of but little doubt that the Egyptians had, in the moft flourifhing times of their empire, a mufic and inftruments of their own, far fuperior to thofe of other countries lefs civilized and refined ; that after their fubje£tion by the Perfians, this mufic and thefe inftru- ments were loft : but under the Ptolemies, mufic, together with the other arts of Greece, were brought into Egypt, and encouraged at the court of Alexandria more than at any other place in the known world, till the captivity of Cleopatra, an event iwhich terminated both the empire and hiftory of the Egyptians. (p) -Lil, xiv. p. 618. T H E HEBREW MUSIC. 22,- If it be poffible for mufic to operate medicinally with fuo cefs, it may be imagined a palliative, at leaft, if not a cure, for a troubled fpirit. The human mind, under the preffure of af- fliction, or warped and agitated by the contention of warring paflions, feems a fit fubject for foft and foothing ftrains to work upon, as powerful anodynes. Without having recourfe to a miracle in the cafe of Saul, who had offended the Divinity by his difobedience, the whole of David's power over the diforder of that unfortunate prince* might be attributed to his fkilful and affecting manner of per- forming upon the harp. " And Saul's fervants faid unto him, Behold now, an evil fpirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord command now thy fervants which are before thee, to feek out a man who is a cunning player on an harp fpj. And it fhall come to pafs when the evil fpirit (g) from God is upon thee, that he fhall play with his hand, and thou fhalt be well. And Saul faid unto his fervants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then anfwered one of the fervants, and faid, Behold, I have feen a fon of Jeffe the Beth-lehemite, that is cun- ning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war ; and prudent in matters, and a comely perfon, and the Lord is with him." " Wherefore Saul fent meffengers unto Jeffe, and faid, Send me David thy fon, which is with the fheep. And Jeffe took an afs, laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and fent them by David his fon unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and flood before him. And he loved him greatly, and he became his armour-bearer. And Saul fent to Jeffe, faying, Let David, I pray thee, ftand before me ; for he hath found favour in my fight. And it came to pafs, when the evil fpirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played (p) It fhould feem from this paffage, a common cure for madnefs. that mufic was regarded by the Hebrews as (q) That is, the fit of infanity. Vol. I. G g with 226 THE HISTORY OF with his hand : fo Saul was refrefhed, and was well, and the evil fpirit departed from him (r)v" It was very natural for the power of this medicine to ceafe, when the patient had no more faith in him who adminiftered it, but, on the contrary, regarded him with a jealous eye, as. one afpiring at his crown ; and who, if he did not confpire againft his life, muft look upon it as an impediment to his ex- altation, and impatiently wifh for its termination : for Saul not to have had thefe ideas forced upon his mind, he muft have been more, or lef's, than mortal. The human paffions, thofe gales of life, muft either have been annihilated, or fublimed by angelic refinement. But the hiftory of this prince furnifhes too many inftances of human weaknefs and frailty, to allow us to. fuppofe him either infenfible, or fuperior to his fituation. We muft therefore fuppofe his difeafe now to have become too powerful for fo gentle a remedy as mufic. Nor ought we to imagine that a difeafe, or " an evil fpirit from the Lord, with which he was troubled," was intended to be radically cured by human means, though it had at firft given way to them. Soon after David had manifefted by this inftance his mufical fkill, we find him a volunteer in the army of Saul, and giving extraordinary proofs of his military prowefs, by his victory over Goliah, the champion of the Philiftines, who had ftruck fuch a terror into his countrymen, that they all declined to accept his challenge, regarding him as invincible. David returning from the field of battle after his victory over the giant, was met by the women of all the cities of Ifrael, " finging and dancing, with tabrets, with joy, and with inftruments of mufic." i Sam. xviii. 6 (j-). " And the women anfwered one another, as they played, and faid," &c. This is an indubitable proof of (r) i Sam. chap. xvi. This event hap- Septuagint. But the ancient rabbins, and pened, according to the Bible chronology, modern Jews, are not agreed among them- 1063 years before Chrift. The harp that felves with refpeftto the inftruments men- David ufed upon the occafion, is called in tioned in the Old Teftament ; fo that it the Hebrew cinara. is as vain to attempt at reconciling, as at (s) In tjmpanis latitia et Jijlris, fays the converting them. a chant HEBREW MUSIC. 127 a chant in dialogue, or, a dui cori, being in early ufe : and it was this which probably gave rife to the manner of chanting the Pfalms in the cathedral fervice. Pfalm lxviii. ver. 25, the damfels play with timbrels in the proceflion before the ark. Women, even, fays Don Calmet, whom the apoflle forbids to fpeak in church, had the privilege to fing there in company with the men. But many proofs might be alleged of a per- miflion being given for females to aflift in the performance of facred rites. In 1 Chron. chap. xxv. where the mulical eftab- lifhments for religious purpofes are all enumerated, we are told, that " God gave to Heman fourteen fons, and three daugh- ters. And all thefe were under the hands of their father for Jong, in the houfe of the Lord, with cymbals, pfalteries, and harps." But Miriam, Deborah, Judith, and Anne, the mo- ther of Samuel, are all regarded by the Jews not only as fingers, but as poeteffes and propheteffes. In the reign of king David, raufic was held in the higheft eftimation by the Hebrews. The genius of that prince for mufic, and his attachment to the fludy and practice of it, as well as the great number of muficians appointed by him for the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, could not fail to extend its influence, and augment its perfections : for it was during this period, that mufic was firft honoured, by being admitted in the miniftry of facrifice, and worfhip of the ark ; as well as by being cultivated by a king. " And David, and all the houfe of Ifrael, played before the Lord, on all manner of inftruments, made of firwood (t), even on harps and on pfalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals." 2 Sam. chap. vi. ver. 5 (2/). (t) This fpecies of wood, fo foft in its violin, in prefent ufe, are constantly made nature, and fonorous in its effeiSrs, Teems of fir wood. » have been preferred by the ancients, as (u) Heb. Nablis, etcinncris, etcyrtbaUs, well as the moderns, to every other kind, et tympanis. Septuag. i» ipyctmic *at li u'&ai;, for the conitrucnon of mufical inftruments, h taShatc, lv Tu^mz»ai;, » xt^SaXai?, rail particularly the bellies of them, upon atAoif Vulg. Citbaris et lyris, et tympa- which their tone chiefly depends. Thofe nis, etjijlris, et cymbalis. Syr. David au- 01 {he harp, lute, guitar, harpfichord, and tan omnes Ifraelitx ludebant coram Doming G g 2 l'g n '- s 228 THE HISTORY OF This is related in i Chron. chap. xiii. ver. 8. in nearly the fame words : " And David and all Ifrael played before God, with all their might, and with iinging and with harps, and with pfalteries,, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets (#).'* L"i all the tranflations thefe inftruments are differently named. In the Syriac we are told, that David and all Ifrael fung be- fore the Lord, accompanied by the cithara, pfaltery, cymbal,, and fiftrum fyj. The joy which David fhewed, upon this occafion, in leaping,, dancing, ringing, and playing, almoft naked before the ark, feemed, in the eyes of his queen Michal, to exceed the bounds of moderation, fo much, that when (he faw him from the win- dow, " fhe defpifed him in her heart," 2 Sam. vi. 16, and,, afterwards, upbraided him, in terms not very honourable to* muficians in general. " And Michal, the daughter of Saul, came to meet David, and faid, How glorious was the king of Ifrael to day, who uncovered himfelf in the eyes of the hand-maids of his. fervants, as one of the vain fellows fhamelefsly uncovereth. himfelf !" Now it is much to be feared, that by the vain fellows, the- queen meant Levitical fingers, muficians by trade, who, per- haps, like the ancient pr lefts of the Syrian goddefs, the Galli,. ufed to fing and play in the proceffions naked.. lignis cedrinis et abiegnis, nablis, citharis, if David, though a great king, did not dif- tympanis, fiftris, ac cymbalis. The Tar- dain to perform himfelf the part of maejlro gum, or Chaldee paraphrafe, mentions an di capella, or director of the facred band of inftrument not to be found in the original, muficians ; and, penetrated as he was with or in any of the tranflations : in chinaris, in. the grandeur of the Supreme Being, he nablis, in tympanis, et in quadruplicibus, et never thought he degraded himfelf by cymbalis. Arab. Fidibus, nablis, tympanis finging before the Lord, any more than by quadratis, et cymbalis. Here it mould feem conducting the mufical performers on great to be zjijuare drum. and folemn occafions. (x) Ehn Calmet obferves, that by the (y) In the Arabic, it is with flutes, titles of rnany of the Pfalras, it appears as cymbals, bells, and harps. Itt; HEBREW MUSIC. 229 Tn the fifteenth, fixteenth, and twenty-third chapters of the ilrft book of Chronicles, there is a particular account and enu- meration of all the muiicians appointed by David in the fer— vice of the ark, before a temple was erected. 1 Chron. xxiii. c;. David appoints four thoufand of the Levites to praife the Lord with inftruments ; and chap. xxv. ver. 1 . the number of fuch as were inflrucled, and were cunning in fong, is faid to have been two hundred fourfcore and eight. And, 1 Chron. ix. 33. we are told that " the Jingers, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers, were free : for they were employed in that work day and night." Before this time, it does not appear from the facred writings,- that any other inftruments than trumpets,, or finging than in a general chorus of the whole people, was ufed in the daily ce- lebration of religious rites ; though others are mentioned in* procej/ions, and on occafions- of joy and feftivity. It has ever been the cuftom of legiflators and founders of religion, in compliance with the prejudices of mankind, to re- tain part of the former laws and religious inftitutions. The Egyptians, as has been already related, in the preceding chap-- ter, divided the inhabitants of their country into cajies, or tribes, confining each profeflion to one family. And as mufic waSv many ages confined by them to the priefthood, and to religious purpofes, the Hebrews, who had their arts and fciences from the Egyptians, and who adopted many of their religious rites, as the primitive Chriftians did afterwards thofe of the pagans, in order to conciliate parties, and facilitate the eftablifhment of a new worfhip, made both priefts and muficians hereditary in the tribe of Levi. " And the fons of Aaron the priejls fhall blow with the trumpets, and they fhall be to. you for am ordinance /ir ever throughout your generations (#)." Accord- (a) Numb. x. 8. ingly, , a 3 o THE HISTORY OF ingly, during the life of Mofes, none but the priefts blew the trumpets, whether in peace or war : as, afterwards, in Jo- fhua's adminiftration, both at the fiege of Jericho, and upon all other occaiions, we find the office of blowing the trumpets was ftill confined to the priefthood : and, when David firft regu- lated the mufical eftablifhments, for the fervice of religion, it appears, that not only the felect band of finging men, and ring- ing women, but all the four thoufand performers upon inftru- ments, were chofen from the families of priefts and Levites. Of the Mufical Injlruments mentioned in the Pfalms. To collect and expound all the paflages relative to mufic in the Pfalms of David, would be a ufelefs labour. So many learned commentators have already done this work ; and thefe divine canticles may be imagined to be fo deeply impreffed in the hearts of all fuch as profefs the Chriftian religion, both by education, and by conftantly hearing them in the fervice of their feveral churches, that it would be the higheft prefumption in me to fuppofe myfelf capable of offering any thing new on the fubjecT:. However, the mufical inftruments fo frequently men- tioned in them, and the addrefs prefixed to a great number of the Bible Pfalms, fhall have a few remarks beftowed upon them here ; as the fubjecT:, in a particular manner, feems to belong to the reign of the royal Pfalmift, from whofe piety, and poetic genius, fo many of them are fuppofed to have flowed. The fathers and commentators, however, are of opinion, that David neither was, nor could have been, the author of the whole book of Pfalms ; as many of them were evidently written upon occafions that happened after his death. The learned and diligent Don Calmet, after the moft deliberate inveftigation of the fubje&s of the feveral Pfalms, has arranged them under the following heads : I. Pfalms HEBREW MUSIC. 231 I. Pfalms of which the chronology cannot be fixed : thefe are eight in number : the ]ft, 4th, 19th, 81ft, 91ft, 110th, 139, and 145. It is not known whether David, or Afaph, was author of the firft Pfalm. The 81ft, attributed to Afaph, was fung in the temple upon the Feaft of Trumpets, at the be- ginning of the year, and at the Feaji of Tabernacles. The 1 1 oth is given to David ; the authors of the reft are wholly unknown (b). II. Pfalms compofed by David, during the perfecution of Saul, in number feventeen : thefe are the nth, 31, 34, 56, 16, 54, 52, 109, 17, 22, 35, sj, 58, 142, 140, 14;, 7. III. Such as he compofed at the beginning of his reign, and after the death of Saul, fixteen — which are the 2d,. 9, 24,. 68, 101, 29, 20, 21, 28, 39, 40, 41, 6, 51, 32, 33. IV. Others written by David, during the rebellion of Abfa- lom, amounting to eight — thefe are the 3d, 4th,. 55,62, 70, V. From the death of Abfalom to the captivity, ten ; of which David was the author of only three: the 18th, 30th, and 7 2d. This 1 aft was written upon the eftablifhment of his fon Solomon on the throne, and was probably the laft of which he was the author. VI. The Pfalms compofed during the captivity, which amount to forty, were chiefly by the defcendants of Afaph and Korah. VII. Thofe of joy and thankfgiving, for the permiffion ob- (V) The Englifh tranflators have fol- Hon, differ in the fame manner from the lowed the Hebrew diftribution of the Septuagint and Vulgate, by dividing what Pfalms, by dividing the ninth Pfalm into they call the 1 13th Pfalm into two, which two ; fo that from that to the 1 1 4th our are the 1 1 4th and 1 1 ^th in our Pfalter ; numbers differ from thofe of the Roman fo that our 11 6th Pfalm is only their Gatholics, who have followed the Greek 114th. Here, however, they approximate of the Septuagint, which has made but again, and only differ by one number till one Pfalm of the 9th and 10th. The the 146th, after which all parties agree. Hebrew text likewife, and the Euglifh ver- tained 232 THE HISTORY OF tained from Cyrus to return to Jerufalem, and to rebuild the temple, as well as thofe compofed for its dedication, fifty-one. So that, according to this account, David was author of no more than forty-five of the hundred and fifty Pfalms that are in pfalterio et cithara — tympano et choro — in chordis et organo — in cymbalis benefonanti- bus — in cymbalis jubilationis. Arab. *H E B R E W M U S I C. 233 Arab. Sonitu buccina — pfalterio et-tithard- — -tympana et fijlro * — chordis et organo — fidibus dulcifonis — injinimentis pfalmodice. The Septuagint agrees with the Englifli verfion, except in "the word lute, which is rendered vtx.£\x, nablon. If the leaft ray of hope remain that a true idea of jewifli in- ftruments can ever be acquired, it muft be from the arch of Titus at Rome, where it is fuppofed that the fpoils brought by that emperor from Jerufalem have been exactly reprefented in fculpture. Among thefe are feveral mufical inftruments, particularly the Jilver trumpets, called by the Hebrews chatzo- tzeroth ; and horns, fuppofed to refemble the fhawms, mentioned fo often in the Scripture, called in Hebrew, keranim, or facer- dotal trumpets. But the arch upon which thefe inftruments are fculptured, though, according to Venuti, of excellent workmanfhip, was not erected till after the death of Titus ; and, to fay the truth, the inftruments are of no uncommon form. The trumpets are long, ftrait tubes, as modern trumpets would be, if not folded up, for the convenience of the player ; and the horns are fuch as frequently occur in ancient fculpture. Examples of both may be feen in Blanchini, Bartholinus,:Montfaucon, Padre Martini, and all the writers upon ancient mufic j as well as in plate IV, No. 6 and 8, and plate V. and VI. of this work, en- graved after original drawings, from Titus's arch, from Tra- jan's pillar, and bas-reliefs of ftill more ancient fculpture. Of the Titles prefixed to the Bible Pfolms. Not only many of the fathers of the church, and commen- tators of the Pfalms, but the Jews themfelves, are fo perplexed to find a meaning to thefe titles, that they are obliged to con- fefs their utter ignorance and inability to expound them. How- ever, fome of the moft learned and refpectable interpreters of the facred writings were of opinion, that as feveral of thefe Vol. I. H h titles 234 THE HISTORY O ^ titles were found in the ancient Hebrew manuscripts, they muft have been of divine authority, and coeval with the Pfalms themfelves. They believed likewife, that each was a key to the true fenfe and intention of the poem, and therefore fhould be inviolably retained, and ftudied with all poflible care and ve- neration. St. Theodoret, who was learned in the Hebrew tongue, has proved, that thefe titles were not interpolations of the Septuagint interpreters, but that they found them in the original, which is come down to us from Ezra, to whofe care the collecting the facred writings is faid to have been due;. It is as difficult, however, now, to determine which of thefe titles are genuine, as to explain their true meaning ; for many have been added fince the Septuagint tranflation was made, and fome fince the time of the fathers. The 90th Pfalm, for inftance, has none in the Hebrew ; nor was there one in the Septuagint during the time of Eufebius and Theodoret ; and yet there is one now in the Septuagint, and in the Vulgate. Don Calmet, and before him Flaminius, frankly declare, that they are utterly unable to expound, or interpret, the titles of fome of thefe Pfalms. All the information that can be acquired from the rabbins on the fubject is, that they fufpecl: moft of the terms which are involved in fo much darknefs, were the names of inftruments, or of the melodies, which the Levites fung to thefe hymns in the temple. And' this has determined many tranflators to preferve thefe words in the original He- brew language, without attempting to give equivalents to them in any other. And it was the opinion even of feveral of the' fathers, as well as of the moft learned rabbins, that there was no hope of difcovering the meaning of fome of thefe words, as the ancient Hebrew mufic was then abfolutely loft ; fo that neither the inftruments they ufed, nor the force of the other words in the titles which may relate to their melody or. mea- fure, can be divined, Gen.ebrar.cT' HEBREW MUSIC. 235 Genebrard is of the fame opinion. He fays, the Hebrew words in the titles of the Pfalms, are generally terms of the ancient Hebrew mufic, at prefent unknown to us : and that they ferved as keys for the tones in which the feveral canticles were fung. However, maifter William Tindale, one of the firft tranf- lators of the Bible into Engliih, had more courage, if not more learning and fagacity than other expounders ; for he boldly tells us that Neginoth, ufed in the title to the 4th, 54th, 55th, 61ft, 67th, and 76th Pfalms, fignifieth the tune, or note of the injlrumentes, wher after the Pfalmes before whyche it is prefyred were fonge. For the Pfalmes were fonge at certen in" Jlrumentes, but fo that the fwete tune and infrumente, pre- pared the mynde more perfeSlly to receyue the words of the holy DiSlie. This fhould feem fomething like the prefent cuftom of giv- ing out a pfalm-tune upon the organ, in our parifh churches. The fame expounder informs us, that the Hebrew word Ne- hiloth, ufed in the title to Pfalm 5, fgnifyeth, by interpre- tation, beretrages j or, as feme wyll, a certen injirumente of mufcke. Pfalm vi. Sheminith — This worde fgnifyeth an eight, or an infrumente of mufcke that hathe eight fringes. Pfalm viii. To the chief mufician upon Gitith. After fome this worde fgnifyeth, an infrumente of mufcke. Pfalm xvi. Michtam of David. Meaneth nobilitie, or ho- nour of chivalrie, or an injirumente of mufcke. Pfalm. xxiL Aijeleth Shahar. A certen infrumente of mu- fcke s or as fome wyll, a certayn kind of melodie ', divers au- t hours do diverfy expound it, &c. (c). {c) This Bible was printed in blaclc letter, 1549. H h 2 Lamnatzeach. 236 THE HISTORY OF Lamnatzeach. Moft of the modern commentators join the rabbins in think- ing, that Lamnatzeach implies, to the mufic majier, or chief of the band ; to the principal of the Levites who fung in the temple,. The Hebrew word Mnatzeach, the primitive of Lamnat- zeach, is ufed for the overfeer, or fuperintendant of any body of workmen ; to preiide over, or conduct a band of finging men and finging women, or performers upon inftruments. In the Jewifh temple, a great number of Levites were em- ployed wholly in finging, and playing upon inftruments. All the Levitical families either filled thefe offices, or others about the temple. Each family had a prefident, or chief, who had a great number of officers under his direction. A lift of thefe has been already given : the principal were, Afaph, Hemah, Ethan, and Jeduthun. Afaph and his brethren, not only fung thefe divine canticles, but compofed others themfelves. For we are informed that they were prophets and infpired, as well as excellent muficians. Each band, therefore, in the fervice of the temple, was diftinguifhed from the reft, by the inftruments upon which they played ; and a performer of diftinguifhed abi- lities was placed at the head of each. This leader was called Mnatzeach. Cheneniah is highly extolled in Chronicles for the power and fweetnefs of his voice ; he was the prejidenty or mafter of melody, and led off the canticles. In the Bible Pfalms, the title of the fourth Pfalm runs thus ;. " To the chief mufician on Neginoth." Tindale's title of this fame Pfalm is " To the Chaunter in Neginoth :" which in his notes he expounds as follows : " The which is here tranflated,. to the chaunter, is in Hebrue Lamnatzeach, which word after Efra and David Kimki (expofitoures in Hebrue) fignifyeth to the chief of the fyngars, whom we commonly cal in Englifhe, the father of the quyre or chaunter. This interpretation alfo do. HEBREW MUSIC. 237 do boeth the mode number, and the beft lerned of the Lati- niftes, beft alowe." Dr. Wallis defines Lamnatzeach, magiflro Jymphomcz, aut prce- feffo mufic the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermillion, girded with gir- dles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads ; all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Baby- lonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity : fhe doated upon them".— B. C 595. (!) Pfalra exxxvii. HEBREW MUSIC. 243 A well known paffage in Daniel puts it likewife out of all doubt that mujlc was cultivated, and brought to a conhderable degree of perfection among them, if we may judge by the number and variety of the inftruments mentioned in it, of which the names of two occur now, for the firft time, in the facred writings. " Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whofe height was threefcore cubits, and the breadth thereof iix cu- bits — Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the found of the cornet, flute, harp, Jacbut, pfaltery, dulci- mer (w), and all kinds of mufic, ye fall down and worfhip the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar the king hath fet up." Dan. ch. iii. But to return to the unfortunate Hebrews : — At the end of the captivity, 536 B. C. an effort was made, by permiffion of Cyrus, to rebuild the temple, reftore it to its former grandeur, and to re-eftablifh its worfhip upon the ancient footing. But when the number of " the fingers, the children of Afaph," was taken, it amounted to no more than a hundred and twenty- eight, and with their affiftants, out of fifty thoufand people, they could only mufter " two hundred finging men and iinging wo- men ;" among which the inftrumental performers muft have been included, as no mention is made of them among the other Levites and fervants of the temple. Indeed, though the Jews from this period, till the deftruc- tion of the Temple by Titus Vefpafian, and their total difper- fion, continued to be a diftinct nation, they were not only tributary, by turns, to the Perfians, the Egyptians, the (m) So various have been the conjectures expounders feem to advance opinions of commentators concerning the Jaclrut and merely to confute them; and after car- pj'altcry, as they are called in the Englifn lying the reader into a fea of trouble verfion, that fcarce any inflruments have leave him without (ail or rudder to o-et ever been heard of that have not fur- out as well as he can. nifked names lor them. Thefe learned I l 2 Syrians, 2 4 4 THE HISTORY OF Syrians, and the Romans, but inceffanfly torn by intefline feds and fadions, whole inveterate rancour never fubfided in the midft of the moil imminent dangers from a common and fo- reign foe ; a calamity peculiar to this wretched people ! who- thus contributed more to their own deftrudion, than all the efforts of their moil determined and powerful enemies. Though there is no condition fo abjed, or bodily labour fo- oppreffive to the fpirits, if the mind is undifturbed, but mufic. will burfl through, and foothe ; yet it is not among the tur- bulent and unhappy that we muil feek the arts of peace, and confequences of that contentment, which arifes from public and private felicity. During the civil wars of Rome, no fcience was improved but that of deftrudion : and at home, in more modern times, dur- ing the ftruggles of York and Lancafter, and of the royalifts and republicans, or the religious maffacres of France, what elfe was in meditation, but rapine, rage, revenge, and ilaughter ! But, the temple of Janus once fhut, what ftrides did not man- kind make towards that degree of perfedion of which they are capable, in the reigns of Auguftus, of Leo the tenth, of Louis the fourteenth, and of our own Charles the fecond ! Nay, keep but the enemy at a diilance, with union at home, and even war will not flop the progrefs of the human mind ; fince the brighteil conftellation of men of genius, that ever enlightened our own country, confeffedly appeared in the reign of queen Anne, when we fupported with dignity, a long and glorious war on the continent. A few words wUl fufKce to remind the reader of the deplor- able fituation of the Jews, when they had loft their liberty and; independence. After remaining feventy years at Babylon, in a ilate of flavery, at the expiration of that time, though Cyrus, the Perfian monarch, treated them with mildnefs, fuffered them to return to their native country, and even contributed himfeif to-. wards HEBREW MUSIC. 245; wards the rebuilding of their city and temple, yet they conti- nued a tributary province to that empire, till the year 320 B. C. when the city was taken and plundered by Ptolemy, one of Alexander's captains, who carried captive into Egypt a hundred thoufand of its inhabitants. From that time, till 170, they continued to be oppreffed and plundered by the kings of Egypt and Syria by turns, when Antiochus Epiphanes, the fovereign of Syria, took the city by ftorm, ftripped the tem- ple, and flaughtered upwards of forty thoufand people, and: fold as many more for flaves. Soon after this period the brave family of the Maccabees began to exert uncommon prowefs and abilities in attempts to recover their country's long loft independency ; but the powers with which they had to contend were fo fuperior in ftrength and refources, that nothing but a conftant fucceffion of mira- culous efforts, and unexpected events, could keep the conflict alive, and protract their mifery, merely by poftponing destruc- tion, more than a hundred years. At length, this heroic fa- mily, ftill more diftreffed and perfecuted by their own coun- trymen, than by the common enemy, funk under the preffure of accumulated woes ; when the Jews, feeing the extenhve power of the Romans over almoft every part of the globe then known, called in Pompey to their affiftance, againft Antiochus ; who, after draining their public treafures and private purfes, by the bribes and contributions, which he extorted from them, became their open foe ; and in the year 63 B. C. befieged and took Jerufalem, which, with all Judaea, remained ever after de- pendent on the tyranny and oppreflion of the Roman government. For more than twenty years after this event, the Jews were under the jurifdic~tion of the Roman governors of Syria and Egypt ; but, in the year 40 B. C. Herod, by taking a journey to Rome, and by flattering and bribing Mark Anthony, during the triumvirate, had the addrefs to acquire from the Roman fe— nate. the nominal dignity of king of the Jews. His long reigns was;- 246 THE HISTORY OF was one continued tiflue of crimes that are {hocking to huma- nity ; the lead of which was ftripping his people of all their mo ft valuable pofleflions, to fatiate the inordinate rapacity of his tyrant mafters at home. But Herod, finding money inef- ficient for this purpofe, had recourfe to a fpecies of adulation and flattery, unknown before in his own country : for, in the year 26 B. C. in order to ingratiate himfelf with Auguftus, he inftituted public games, in honour of that emperor, after the Pa- gan manner ; a meafure fo repugnant to the Mofaic laws, and cuftoms of the jews, that, inftead of affording them plea- fure, they were regarded with the utmoft horror and detefta- tion. We have an account in Jofephus both of thefe games and others, inftituted by this prince, feven years before the nativity, but in fo flight and im per feci: a manner, that all we can learn is, that befides wreftlers, gladiators, wild beafts, &c. the moftfkil- ful muficians were invited from all parts of the world to per- form at them. However, as thefe exhibitions were manifeftly in imitation of the public games of Greece, it is natural to fup- pofe that the muficians were chiefly from that country, and from Alexandria, in Egypt, where arts and fciences were then much cultivated and cherifhed, by the Ptolemies. The Jewifh mu- ficians, who were all among the priefthood, certainly could not, nor would, affift at thefe contefts : fo that whatever glory may have been derived to the victors, the Jews were intitled to no fhare of it, neither as a nation, nor as individuals. Indeed lit- tle could be acquired by conquefts, to which no native of Ju- drea could afpire, without offending againft the religion, laws, ufages, and public opinion, of his country. The fequel of the Jewifh hiftory from this period, to the to- tal difperfion of the nation, feventy-three years after the birth of our Saviour, is too generally known to render the extenfion ef this fummary necefiary. And with refpecf to mufic, the par- ticular HEBREW M U S I C 247 ticular fubje6t of my enquiries, the little mention made of it in the New Teftament is but juft fufficient to authorize its ule in the church, where its eftablifhment and progrefs will be tra- ced hereafter. I fhould therefore terminate the account of an- cient Hebrew mulic in this place, but that it feems neceffary to add a few remarks upon fome pafiages in the book of Job, of which the chronology is fo doubtful, that I was unable to determine where, in the courfe of my narrative, to give them a place. This venerable book has been fuppofed by many of the fa- thers to be the production of Mofes : by fome it is called the moft ancient book in the world ; the firft Arabian regular hif- tory ; the oldeft poetical compofition, in a dramatic form : and as to the time when Job flouriihed, great pains have been taken to fhew the probability of its being but little later than that of Abraham. The language too in which it was originally writ- ten has given birth to many different opinions : whether Syriac, Chaldaic, Hebrew, or Egyptian. But the bifiiop of Gloucefter is of opinion that it was the work of Ezra (mj. Now as the Bible chronology places Job 1520 years before Chrift, and Ezra but 457, this opinion occafions a difference of near eleven hundred years : however, the prophet Ezekial chap. 14. men- tions Job twice, after Noah and Daniel (n) -, and chronologers fix the time when Ezekiel flourifhed, near one hundred and fifty years before Ezra. However doubtful it may be who was the author of the book of Job, or when it was written, it is very certain that mufic is frequently mentioned in it, as an art in general ufe. " They fend forth their little ones like a flock, and their chil- dren dance ; they take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the found of the organ," 21. 11. " My harp alfo is tuned to (m) See Div. Leg. v. 2. ftiould deliver but their own fouls, by their (n) " Though thefe three men, Noah, righteoufhefs, faith the Lord God." Daniel and Job were in it [the land,] they mourning, 248 THE HISTORY OF mourning, and my organ unto the voice of them that weep." 3°' 3 1 - <°) This feems to allude to funeral mufic : and of the ufe that was made of mullc at the funerals of the Jews, we have a proof in Matthew, ix. 23. " While he fpake thefe things unto them, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, faying, My daughter is even now dead ; but come and lay thy hand on her, and fhe (hall live. — And when Jeius came into the ruler's houfe, and faw the minftrels [p) and the people making a noife, he faid unto them, Give place, for the maid is not dead, but fleepeth." Befides the ufe of flutes in funeral ceremonies, a female was hired to weep, whence the title of chief mourner. The rab- bin Maimonides tells us, c. 14. feci. 23. that " The hufband, upon the death of a wife, was obliged to provide mourners to weep at her funeral, according to the cuftom of the country. — That the poorer! perfons among the Ifraelites, never engaged lefs than two flutes and one mourner ; and, if rich, the ex- pence and pomp of the ceremony were proportioned to the dig- nity of the hufband." This account is confirmed by the Tal- mud, which orders that " The pooreft among the Ifraelites fhould never at the funeral of a wife engage lefs than two flutes and one mourner." (q) jofephus tells us that the pomp and expence of funerals among the Jews were carried to a ruinous excefs, 1. iii. c. 9. The number of flute players who led the proceflions amount- ing fometimes to feveral hundred : and guefts were invited, («) One circuraftance is neceflary to be raffoioj, an inflrument maker; and Icyan- remembered with refpecl to the word or- wotia., the fabrication of an inflrument. gan, ufed here, and frequently in the And, in all the Greek mufical theorifts, Pfalms, which is, that the term was taken organic is a general term applied to inferu- from the Greek tranflation ; but the an- mental mujic. cient Greeks had no particular mufical {/>) Heb. Vulg. Syr. Arab. Tibicines. inflrument called an organ, for ofyamv, with Perlic. ftentes. iEthiopic. Lamentatrices. them, was a general name tor an inftrn- (q) In Cbctbubbotb, cap. 4. te£t. 6. ment, a i\!orh, or an implement of any aptid Spencer. kind : hence ogyznxo;, injlrumental ; o^-yec- not HEBREW MUSIC. 249 not only among their relations, but friends and neighbours, for thirty days fucceffively, in order to attend thefe folemnities. As early even as the death of Jacob, funeral rites were fplen- did and of long duration. His fon Jofeph, '« With all his bre- thren, with all the fervants of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, attended this funeral, which lafted, with a great and very fore lamentation, for feven days." Gen. L. And we find, that the Egyptians mourned for this patriarch threefcore and ten days. The nenia, or fong, which David compofed on the death of Saul and Jonathan, is imagined by the commentators to have been fung at the funeral of thofe princes. Thus, at the deceafe of Jofiah, " All Judah and Jerufalem mourned for Jofiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Jofiah, and all the finging men and finging women fpake of Jofiah in their lamentations unto this day, and made them an ordinance in Ifrael." (r) All that has hitherto been collected relative to the mufic of the Hebrews, only (hews that it was in general ufe among them, from the time of their quitting Egypt, till they ceafed to be a nation ; but what kind of mufic it was with which they were fo much delighted, no means are now left to determine. That they had their firfl: mufic and inflruments, whatever they were, from the Egyptians, appears to admit of no doubt ; but thefe feemed to have remained in a very rude ftate till the reigns of David and Solomon, when, perhaps, they were more im- proved in quantity than quality ; for the great number of Le- vites, of finging men and finging women, as well as of trum- pets, lhawms, cornets, facbuts, cymbals and timbrels, could only augment the noify cry of joy, or the clamour of petition. As the Hebrew language had originally no vowels, it muft have been very unfavourable to mufic : and after the introduc- tion of vowel points, the many ftrong afperates ufed inftead of (r) 2 Chron.xxxv. 24. Vor. I. K k the 250 THE HISTORY OF the clear and open vowels of other languages, muft have cor- rupted found, which, by the difficulty of producing it from fuch harfh words, would, of neceffity, be very coarfe and noify. The mufic of the ancient Hebrews muft, therefore, have been rough, not only from their language, but mufical inftruments, chiefly of percuffion ; from the number of performers, amount- ing by the order of David to four thoufand, and, according to Jofephus, at the dedication of Solomon's temple, to two hun- dred thoufand ; and, from the manner of finging at prefent in the fynagogues, of which the chorus is compofed of clamour and jargon. Thefe circumftances muft, therefore, have efcaped thofe who have highly extolled the ancient Hebrew mufic, or they muft have been utterly ignorant of the art of finging. However, we have no authentic account of any nation, ex- cept the Egyptians, where mufic had been cultivated fo early as the days of David and Solomon, the brighteft period of the Jewifh hiftory, the Greeks at that time having hardly invent- ed their rudeft inftruments : for Homer and Hefiod, the refiners, if not the inventors, of Greek poetry ; and Orpheus, Mufeus^ and Linus, to whom they attribute the invention of their mu- fic and inftruments, all flourifhed after thefe Hebrew mp- narchs. Bafnage fays " the Jews had nothing to diftinguifh them from other nations : they wholly applied themfelves to till the ground, and feed their flocks ; but neglected the ftudy of arts and fciences. Whereas the Egyptians, under whofe bondage they groaned, had wit, learning, and ingenuity, and pretended to an origin of much higher antiquity (r)v But tn ^ s writer fhould have excepted mufic. Sculpture and painting were, in- deed, utterly precluded by the Mofaic law, which was fo rigid againft that idolatry, to which all other nations were then ad- ilicfed. But it was, perhaps, by this idolatry, and by the fre- er; Hijl. ~ cs m X^Ll^—I^ ^♦♦^- Q^: u±^5 -3 ^ » t. ♦-^i—a- ♦-»-♦-•- -a- * 9 4 Another, to Pfalm XVI. (Lat. XV.) K » * » ^3: rTT! > rT l "T l "" J J4lg ^ j-rrts Fe=£ ^-f 5 -!^ Chant of the Spanifh Jews, to Pfalm XVII. (Lat. XVI.) as cuP pP rf P o"»fy r— I H p-iS^T* ffT rfT * I Qj ift'Pi ff fff pf^ Another, to Pfalm XVIII. (Lat. XVII. f L &-^ jR -..:■• i^ ^l^gMii^^ -?r t^flM+^s Sg^^^ Chant of the German Jews, to Pfalm XXII. (Lat. XXI.) 33T gp m£=5r 1 ? Another, to Pfalm XXIII. (Lat, XXII.) ^AJLA XJ tUU JL bigg: €f-# ^gP cn jK f- -p-#- i f? , a -0- -@—sr -#-■#- Melody to the Title of the LI. Pfalm, or Lamnatzeach, as fung by the Spanifh Jews, -a O * —&- - 4 $ ♦ $ $ -4> t ? » : £ r H^M^^^ Notation of fome of the Hebrew Musical Accents, in the manner Kircher pretended they were fung during his time in the Italian and German Synagogues, at the end of a verfe in the Pfalms, or clofe of a fentence in the Prophets. -i- — e , \ c * ~^" Q ,». , -^ . „ . ^ o ~Q~ o ,.^ ^ o -Q- Qi i ~ir^ T r P ^ > o n a :H=£r jsr^-ri -€h ST TVirr^- ma Karne Pliarah Pazer "If 3 Katon Talflia Segla rhwhvf Sbilfhcleth . 1TZ Pt St iq: :n =^ -0_ft_Q_ -o- =3: :H: zs: o o o St 2SZ§=^ _DI -*- ^=2T pen XI cnp- Lcgormiah NP"IT Zarka unmnn Etnalihta bru spf ZakepU Gadol pop spf h*aip Nnt^fl a>rv Zakcpli Katon Kadma Paflita Jathib Shene GcnOiin ^ GREEK MUSIC. 253 THE HISTORY O F GREEK MUSIC. CHAP. I. Of Mujic in Greece during the Refdence of Pagan Divinities t of thefirjl Order., upon Earth. THERE are no human tranfa&ions upon record, how- ever ancient, in which a love for mufic does not ap- pear. For, as the firft muficians were alfo poets, philofophers, and hiflorians, no fragments of ancient poetry, philofophy, or hiftory, can be found, without fome veftiges of the paffion which mankind had for mufic, at the time when they were written. It is well known, that the origin of every people, empire, and kingdom, in prophane hiftory, is involved in darknefs, which no human light can penetrate : fo that the fables which national vanity has given birth to, and the poetical ficlions with which they have been embellifhed, are all the materials which high antiquity has left us to work upon. However, as the fables of ancient hiflorians, and the wild imaginations of mythologifts, have employed the fagacity of the .254 THE HISTORY OF the wifeft and mod refpe&able writers of modern times, to di- geft into fyftem, and to conftrue into fomething rational and probable, I fhall not wholly neglect them, but, with the af- fiftance of fuch guides, fhall travel through the dark labyrinth of remote antiquity, with all poflible expedition. It has already been obferved (a), that the Theogony of the Egyptians is, in fome meafure, connected with my fubject. : and that of the Greeks, from their paflion for arts and fciences in general, will appear to be flill more fo ; for there are very few of their divinities who have not been regarded as inven- tors, or protestors of mufic {b). But as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, and many other of the moft venerable writers of antiquity, have fpoken of thefe divinities as mere human beings, who, having while they refided on earth either taught mankind the neceflary arts of life, or done them fome other important fervice, were deified after death, and regarded as protectors of thofe arts which they had invented when living, as well as of their profeflbrs, I fhall likewife venture to huma- nize them (c) : and if they are only fuppofed to have been powerful and benign terreftrial princes, we may ftrip their hif- tory of the marvellous, and find mankind under their reigns, emerging from ignorance and barbarifm by natural and flow degrees, in much the fame manner, and without the interpo- (a) See p. 207. 'Twas virtue only, or in arts or arms, (I) The bellowing thefe inventions upon Diffufing bleflings, or averting harms, their divinites by the Pagans, is abun- The fame which in a fire the fons obey'd, dandy fuflicient, fays the hilTiop of Glou- A prince the father of a people made. — cefter, to prove their high antiquity; for On him, their fecond providence, they the ancients gave nothing to the Gods, of nun g> whofe original they had any records : but Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. where the memory of the invention was He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the loft, as of feed-corn, wine, writing, mufic, food, &c. then the gods feized the property, by Taught to command the fire, controul the that kind of right, which gives ftrays to flood, the lord of the manor. Div. Leg. vol. Draw forth the monllers of t'h' abyfs pro- iii. found, (c) Pope has admirably defcribed the Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.^ origin of thefe firft deifications. EJJliy en Man, Ep. iii. fition GREEK MUSIC. 255 fition of miraculous affiftance, as every other people have fince done, who have arrived at wealth and power, and have after- wards had leifure to attend to luxury and refinement. Diodorus Siculus tells us, that according to the mythology of the Cretans, moil of the Gods of the Greeks were born upon their ifland, efpecially thofe that have acquired divine honours by the benefits they have conferred an mankind : however, as to the exigence of thefe perfonages, the whole is doubtful now. New fyftems of mythology are but a feries of new conjectures, as difficult to afcertain and believe as the old legends. And as thefe legends have been long received by the wifeft men, and greateft writers of antiquity, and are at leaft as probable as the hypothefes of modern mythologifts, I mail adhere to them, not only as being more amufing and ingenious than fancied analo- gies and etymologies drawn from Phoenician and Hebrew roots by Bochart, the Abbe de la Pluche, and others ; but, becaufe the minds of moft readers will have accommodated themfelves by long habit to claffic opinions, imbibed during their tender years of education and credulity (d). (d) The bifhop of Gloucefter has a paf- from agriculture : all he wants, then, is to- fage fo replete with wit, humour, and fa- pick out, (confonant to the Greek proper tire,, that I fhall make no apology for names) Hebrew words which fignify a inferting it at full length. In fpeaking flow, tillage, or ears of corn ; and fo his of THiJloirc du Cicl by de la Pluche, he bufinefs is done. Another comes, let it bo afics, " on what, then, is this author's Fourmont, and he brings news that the paradox fupported ? On the common foun- Greek Gods were Mofes or Abraham, and dation of mod modern philologic fyftems, the fame ductile founds produce from the etymologies ; which, like fungous excref- fame primitive words, a chief, a leader, or cefcences, fpring up from old Hebrew a true belt 'ever ; and then, to ufe his words, roots, mythologically cultivated. To be Nier qu'il s'agijje ici du feul Abraham, e'efl let into this new method of improving etre aveugle d' efprit, & a , un aveuglement barren fenfe, we are to underftand, that irremediable* A third and fourth appear in the ancient Oriental tongues, the few npon the fcene, fuppofe them Le Clerc primitive words muft needs bear many dif- and Banier ; who, prompted by the learn- ferent fignifications, and the numerous ed Bochart, fay that the Greek Gods were derivatives be infinitely equivocal. Hence only Phoenician voyagers ; and then, from, any thing may be made of Greek proper the fame ready fources, flow navigation y names, by turning them to Oriental Jhifs, and ncgociators ; and when any one founds, fo as to fuit every fyftem, paft, is at a lofs in this game of crambo, which prefent, and to come. To render this fami- can never happen but by being duller than liar to the reader, by example, M. Pluche's ordinary, the kindred dialefts of the fyftem is, that the Gentile Gods came Chaldee and Arabic lie always ready to* make 2- 5 6 T HE HISTORY OF Sir Ifaac Newton tells us from Herodotus (), there is a paflage in Athenxus from Euhemerus, the Vanink of his time, which tells us, that fhe- was by profeffion, a player on the Jiute, and in the fervice of the prince of Zidon, previous to her departure with Cadmus. This circumftance, however, might encourage a belief, that," as Cadmus brought letters into Greece,, his wife brought harmony thither, as the word apfima, harmonia, has been faid to have- no other derivation than from her name ; which makes it very (m) Tacit. 1. ii. c. 14. and Plin. vii. (p ) According to Diod. Sic. 1. y. fhe 56. was daughter of Jupiter and Eleftra, and, (a) Chronol. p. 13, grand-daughter of Atlas, (0) lb. p. 131. difficult GREEK MUSIC. 259 difficult to afcertain the fenfe annexed to it by the Greeks in their mufic ; for it has no roots by which it can be decom- pounded, in order to deduce from them its etymology (q). Diodorus Skulus (r), has given a very circumftantial ac- count of the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia in Samo- thrace, at which all the pagan divinities were prefent ; and tells us, that this was the firft hymenaeal feftival which the gods deigned to honour with their prefence. " Ceres, who was ten- derly attached to Jafion, the brother of the bride, prefented corn to the new married couple ; Mercury, brought his lyre ; Minerva, her famous buckler, her veil, and her flute ; Electra, the mother of the bride, celebrated there the myfteries of Cy- bele, the mother of the gods, and had the orgies danced to the founds of drums and tymbals. Apollo afterwards played on the lyre, the Mufes accompanied him with their flutes, and all the other divinities ratified their nuptials with acclamations of joy." This feems to be the outline of a dramatic reprefenta- tion, which was perhaps exhibited by the priefts at fome fef- tival, or myftical celebration, in order to commemorate the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia. No ancient authors difpute letters and arts having been brought out of Phoenicia by Cadmus, and the Idaei DacTyli ; but Diodorus is not of opinion that Cadmus invented the letters which he brought into Greece, or that the Grecians had no letters before his arrival. He rather fuppofes that Cadmus introduced a new (q) The common account of the. word, among them, as the metal which her huf- however, that is given by lexicographers, band invented received his name. Agenor, and generally adopted by the learned, does the father of Cadmus, was an Egyptian ; >not confirm this opinion. The word is and Cadmus is faid by many ancient writers generally derived, in dictionaries, from to have received his education in Egypt. -d^jM^u, and this from theold verb 'a%u, apto, Harmonia may likewife have come from to fit, to join. And yet as the flute upon that country ; however, her wild flute has which Harmonia played was a Angle in- never been laid to have fumifhed the itrument, capable of melody only, and as Greeks with their mufieal fcale ; but there fhe was faid to be the firft who performed is nothing more extraordinary in a barbae .upon that inftrument in Greece, the in- rpus people having i.iufic without a gamut, habitants of that country perhaps called by than language without an alphabet. her name the art which fhe had introduced (i) Lib. v, L 1 2 alphabet 260 THE HISTORY OF alphabet amongft them, which they prefixed to the ancient Pelafgian characters that had been in ufe long before. How- ever that may have been, many great inventions are attributed to the people of Phoenicia, a province of Syria beft known in the Hebrew authors of Scripture by the name of Canaan. Bo- chart, with incredible labour, has endeavoured to prove, that they have fent colonies, and left veftiges of their language, in almoft all the iflands of the Mediterranean. They firft opened the commerce of the Britifh ifles. Some moderns, indeed, give this honour to the Greeks ; but, befides the uncertainty of the Greeks ever having been there, Strabo fays, in exprefs terms, that the Phoenicians began this trade, and carried it on alone, without rivals, which deftroys all conjecture to the contrary. The Phoenicians were fucceflively under the Afiyrians, Chal- deans, Perfians, Greeks, and Romans. Their principal cities were Sidon, Tyre, Ptolemaidas, Ecdippas, Sareptus, Berythia* Biblis, Tripoli, &c. Carthage was a Phoenician colony. Lucan (s) has celebrated their invention of letters in verfes,. that have been often tranflated and paraphrafed, Phaenicesprimi, fatna Ji creditur, aufi* Menfuram rudibus vocem Jignarefiguris.. Phoenicians firft, if ancient fame be true, , The facred myftery of letters knew ; They firft by found in various lines defign'd, ; Exprefs'd the meaning of the thinking mind ; The power of words by figures rude convey'd, And ufeful fcience everlafting made. Rows. . C'efi de lui (t) que nous vient cet art ingenieux., De peindre la parole et de parler aux yeux, Et par les traits divers de figures trades, Donner de la couleur, et du corps aux penfees. Brebeuf.. (s) Lit. ifi", 0) Cadmus. The GREEK. MUSIC. 26* The noble art from Cadmus took its rife, Of painting words, and fpeaking to the eyes : He firfb in wond'rous magic fetters bound The airy voice, and ftopt the flying found ; The various figures by his pencil wrought, Gave colour and a body to the thought. Hon. Mifs Molesworth-. We know but little, however, of the Phoenicians, except from the Theogony and Cofmogony of Sanconiatho,. a prieft of Berytha, who is fuppofed to have flourifhed before the Trojan war ; works that are come down to us very imperfectly, in a. tranflation interpolated by Philo Biblos. It is to Eufebius that we are indebted for this fragment ; the learned are much di- vided as to its authenticity. Dr. Dodwell endeavoured to prove the whole of this work to be fuppofititious ; but many writers of eminence are of a contrary opinion, particularly Dr. Cum- berland, bifhop of Peterborough, who has built an hypothefis upon the writings attributed to Sanconiatho. Cadmus appears to have been cotemporary with the Cretan. Jupiter, from the fable, which makes him carry away his fifter Europa from Sidon, in the fhape of a bull, by which the ex- pounders of ancient mythology underftand the enfign of the fhip in which they failed together. The Phoenicians, upon their firft coming into Greece, gave the name of yao-pater, Jupiter, to every king, as every Egyptian monarch was called Pharaoh, and Roman emperor, Csefar ; and thus both Minos and his father were Jupiters. But though Cadmus and his companions were called Idau Dactyli, and Curetes, they feem not to have been the firft who came into Greece ; for both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus tell us, that " the Curetes, who introduced mufic, poetry, dancing, and arts, and attended on the facrifiees, were no lefs active about religious inftitutions ; and for their fkill, knowledge, and myftical practices, were ac* counted wife men and conjurers by the vulgar ; that thefe, when.i 262 THE HISTORY OF when Jupiter was born, in Crete, were appointed by his mo- ther Rhea, to the nurfing and tuition of him in a cave of mount Ida, where they danced about him in armour, with great noife, that his father Saturn might not hear him cry («). And when he was grown up, thefe affifted him in his con- quefts, were appointed his priefts, and inftituted myfteries, in memory of the fhare which they had in his education." This wild ftory, collected from all the beft profe writers of Greece, is told by Sir Ifaac Newton in his Chronology. It ferved his purpofe, in fupport of his chronological hypothecs ; and it is quoted here, in order to fhew the fimple ftate which mufic was in at its firfl introduction into Greece. No inftruments are mentioned to have been ufed by the Idaei Dacfyli, who attended Jupiter in Crete, but drums and cymbals, inftruments of per- ■cuffion, which affording but one tone, require little art in the player, or knowledge in the hearer (x). Thefe reprefent the armed priefts, who ftrove To drown the tender cries of infant Jove ; By dancing quick they made a greater found, And beat their armour, as they danc'd around. Creech. But Virgil applies this rude and artlefs mufic to a lefs noble purpofe than quieting the infant Jupiter in his cradle (y ). Now liften, while the wond'rous powers I fing, And genius giVn to bees, by Heav'n's almighty king, Whom, in the Cretan cave, they kindly fed, By cymbal's found, and clafhing armour led. Warton. (u) There is fbmething fo peculiarly Armati in numerum pulfarent aril us ara. Jifgufting in the quarrels between Jupiter Lucret. 1. ii. v. 633. and his father, that I hav« purpofely re- (y) Nunc age, naturas apibvs quas Ju- frained from mentioning them. piter ipfe (x) DiElaos refcrunt curctas : qui Jovis Addidit, cxpediam : pro qua mercede, canoros ilium Cure turn fonitus crepitant iaque arafecutee., Vagitum in Crcta quondam occultajje fe- Diittso cali regem paver e fub autre. runtur; Georg. U iv. v. 149. Cum pueri circum pucrum pernice chorea Ariftotle G R E E K ■ M tT S I C z% Ariftotle has thought it worth recording, that Archytas of Tarentum, the famous mathematician, invented a rattle for children ; and Perrault fays, if we confider the mulic of the ancients according to the idea which, the early writers give us of it, we mall find it to have been a kind of noife fuitable to the infa?icy of the world, as the firft inftruments were certainly little better than rattles, or corals, fit only for children. And, indeed, the Phoenicians may be laid to have brought into Greece time, rather than tune ; but rhythm is of fuch con- fequence both to poetry and to mufic, that this was no incon- fiderable prefent. As the firft mufic mentioned in the Grecian hiftory, is that?; 'of the Idcei DaSiyli, after the birth of Jupiter, which confifted of a rhythmical clafh of fwords, as modern morice-dancers de- light in the clafh of ftaves ; it is not unnatural to fuppofe, when this prince was grown up, had conquered his enemies, and was peaceably eftablifhed on his throne, that arts and fciences were cultivated and rendered flourifhing, particularly mufic, through the fkill and influence of Apollo, and his other fons ;, and this perhaps was found to be the moft effectual means of taming and polifliing a rude and favage people. Minerva. Among the • dii majorum gentium, fbme of the female divi* nities laid claim to a fhare in mufical difcoveries. Of this num- ber was Minerva, or Pallas, the daughter of Jupiter, who is fome- times called Mujica, or themufician, a name (he acquired from her ftatue made by Demetrius, in which, when the ferpents of the Gor- gon were ftruck, they refounded like a lute (z). She is alfo ho- noured with the invention of chariots, together with having firft ufed trumpets, and invented the flute (a). The vouchers forherr (z) Banier, tom.i'i. p. ,308. {a) lb. 309..- mufical; 264. TH'E HISTORY OF Tnufical talents are Paufanias, Plutarch, and Fulgentius, among ihe profe writers ; and Pindar, Nonnus, Dionyf. Ovid, Hy- ginus, Propertius, and Claudian, among the poets. The flute that (he invented, is faid by Ovid to have been made of box [6)i and by Hyginus of bone (c). Foramina vara, with few holes, it is natural to fuppofe. In- deed the fyrinx, fee plate IV, No. 1 1. faid to have been in- vented by Pan, was found inconvenient. It confifted of a number of pipes of different lengths, tied together, or fattened by wax, which were played on, according to Lucretius (d), by blowing in them one after the other, moving the inftrument fideways, for the admiffion of wind into the feveral tubes ; and it was to the fagacity and penetration of Minerva, that it was found practicable to produce the fame variety of tones with a fingle pipe, by means of ventiges or holes, which had the effect of lengthening or fhortening the tube, by a quick alter- ation of the column of air which was forced through it. Two other circumftances are related of Minerva with refpedt to the flute ; fhe is faid by Hyginus to have found herfelf laughed at by her mother and lifter, Juno and Venus, when- ever fhe played the flute in their prefence : this fuggefted to her the thought of examining herfelf in a fountain, whieh ferving as a mirror, convinced her that fhe had been juftly derided for the diftortion of her countenance, occafioned by fwelling her cheeks in the act of blowing the flute. This is one reafon given for her throwing afide that inftrument, and adopting the lyre, (e) However, a better caufe, and one more worthy of her wifdom, is afligned for her throwing afide the flute, upon feeing Apollo playing on the lyre ; for by having (b) Prima tcrehrato per rara foramina (cj Minerva tibias dicitur prima ex ofle buxo, cervino fecijji. TJt claret, effeci, tibia longa fonos. (d) Et fupra calamos unco perctirrert Fail. 1. vi. labro. By me * at firft the hollow'd box was found, With curving lip run fwiftly o'er the reeds. When piere'd, to give variety of found. (e) Plutarch. Be Ira cohib. * Minerva /peaks. his GREEK MUSIC. 265 his mouth at liberty, fhe found that it enabled him to fing at the fame time as he played, which afforded him an opportunity of joining inftruction to pleafure. There is nothing improbable or puerile in thefe accounts. Indeed many of the ancient fables and allegories are fo inge- nious, and conceal fo delicate a moral, that it would difcover a tafte truly Gothic and barbarous, to condemn, or reject them. Of fuch as thefe muft our hiftory confift, during the dark ages of antiquity, which furnifh few authentic materials : indeed, we have as yet no other records to confult, than thofe of poets and mythologifts. Having traced the ufe of inftruments of percuffion as high as the birth of Jupiter, and ihewn that the ancient Greeks attributed the origin of wind inftruments to Minerva, it now remains to fpeak of the third fpecies of inftruments, the tones of which are produced by firings ; and among thefe, the firft in order and celebrity is the lyre, of which the invention is given, both by the Egyptians and Greeks, to Mercury. Of the Egyptian Meroury ample mention has been already made, in fpeaking of the mufic of that country : it now remains to give fome account of the Hermes of Greece. Mercury. Moft of the actions and inventions of the Egyptian Mer- cury have likewife been afcribed to the Grecian, who was faid to be the fon of Jupiter and Maia, the daughter of Atlas. No one of all the heathen divinities had fo many functions allotted to him as this God : he had conftant employment both day and night, having been the common minifler and meffenger of the whole Pantheon, particularly of his father, Jupiter, whom he ferved with indefatigable labour, and fometimes, indeed, in a capacity of no very honourable kind. Lucian is very pleafant upon the multitude of his avocations ; and, according to the Vol. I. Mm confeffion 266 THE HISTORY OF confeffion of the emperor Julian, Mercury was no hero, but rather one who infpired mankind with wit, learning, and the ornamental arts of life, than with courage (c). The pious em- peror, however, omits fome of his attributes ; for this God was not only the patron of trade, but alfo of theft and fraud. Amphion is faid, by Paufanias (d), to have been the firlt that erected an altar to this God, who, in return, inverted him with fuch extraordinary powers of mufic (and mafonry), as to enable him to fortify the city of Thebes in Boeotia, by the mere found of his lyre. Horace gives us the befl part of his character [e). Thou god of wit, from Atlas fprung, Who by perfuafive power of tongue, And graceful exercife, refin'd The lavage race of human kind, Hail ! winged meflenger of Jove, And all th' immortal powr's above. Sweet parent of the bending lyre, a Thy praife fhall all its founds infpire. Artful and cunning to conceal Whate'er in fportive theft you fteal, When from the God who gilds the pole, E'en yet a boy, his herds you ftole ; With angry voice the threat'ning pow'r Bad thee thy fraudful prey reftore, But of his quiver too beguil'd, Pleas'd with the theft, Apollo fmil'd. You were the wealthy Priam's guide, When fafe from Agamemnon's pride, Through hoftile camps, which round him fpread. Their watchful fires, his way he fped. (c) "£p/)j? h t« e-METampo. (/.ct^Xoii, ri nh- (c) Od. x. lib. I. Mcrcuri, facunde m~ uyfoTifa. Ap. S. Cyril. Co/it.. Jul. pos Atlantis, &c. (d) Lib. is. cap. 5. Unfpotted GREEK MUSIC. 267 Unfpotted fpirits you confign To blifsful feats and joys divine, And, powerful with thy golden wand, The light, unbodied crowd command ; Thus grateful does thy ofEce prove To Gods below, and Gods above. Francis. This Ode contains the fubftance of a very long hymn to Mercury, attributed to Homer. Almoft all the ancient poets relate the manner in which the Grecian Mercury difcovered the lyre ; and tell us that it was an infbrument with /even firings-, a circumftance which makes it effentially different from that laid to have been invented by the Egyptian Mercury, which had but three. However there have been many claimants be- fides Mercury to the /even ftringed lyre, of which there will be occafion to fpeak hereafter ; all that feems neceffary to be added here is, that the great number of different muficians, to whom the fame inventions have been given in Greece, is but a proof that inftruments refembling each other in form and pro- perties, may have had many inventors. A fyrinx, or fijlula paws, made of reeds tied together, exactly refembling that of the ancients, has been lately found to be in common ufe in the ifland of New Amfterdam, in the South Seas, as flutes and drums have been in Otaheite and New Zealand ; which indif- putably prove them to be inftruments natural to every people emerging from barbarifm. They were firft ufed by the Egyp- tians and Greeks, during the infancy of the mufical art among them ; and they feem to- have been invented and pra&ifed at all times by nations remote from each other, and between whom it is hardly poflible that there ever could have been the leafl intercourfe or communication. The Greeks, however, when they deified a prince or hero of their own country, ufually had recourfe to the Egyptian theo- gony for a name, and with it adopted all the actions, attributes, M m 2 and 268 THE HISTORY OF and rites of the original, which they generoufly bellowed up- on their new divinity. And not only the Greek and Roman poets, but hiflorians, fpeak of their Mercury as the inventor of muiic and the lyre. Apollodorus, as related before, p. 209, is almofi; the only one who lays the fcene of this tranlaction in Egypt. Don Calmet, in his DiiTertation on the Mufical Inftruments of the Hebrews, has given us an account of this difcovery from Homer's hymn to Mercury, in which he tranflates ITA^- Tgov, plectrum., by the French word arcliet, a bow, without cit- ing a fingle authority for it from ancient authors. What kind of implement the pleftrum was, will be difcuffed hereafter ; but it is moft certain that the boio now in ufe, was utterly un- known to the ancients. Vincenzio Galilei (J') has collected the various opinions of the feveral Greek writers who have mentioned the invention of the clielys or teftudo ; and the late Mr. Spence has done the fame in a very circumftantial, but ludicrous manner (g). The moft ancient reprefentations of this inftrument agree very well with the account of its invention : the lyre, in par- ticular on the oldceleftial globes, was reprefented as made of the entire ihell of a tortoife, and that of Amphion in the celebrated groupe of the Dirce, or Toro, in the Farnefe palace at Rome,. (f) Dial, della Mufica Ant. e Mod. He had poffibly been cunning enough to (?) " Horace talks of Mercury as a won- find out that a thong pulled ftrait and faf- dertul mulician, and represents him with tened at each end, when ftruck by the fin- a lyre. There is a ridiculous old legend ger, made a fort or' mufical found. How- relating to this invention, which informs ever that was, he went immediately to us that Mercury, after Healing fome bulls work, and cut feveral thongs out of the from Apollo,, retired to a fecret grotto, hides he had lately ltolen, and fattened which he ufed to frequent at the foot ot them as tight as he could to the ihell of a mountain, in Arcadia. Juit as he was this tortoife ; and, in playing with them, going in, he found a tortoife feeding at made a new kind of muiic with them to the entrance of his cave : he killed the divert himfelf in his retreat. This, con- poor creature, and, perhaps, eat the flefh fidered only as an account of the firft in- of it ; as he was diverting himfelf with vention of the lyre, is not altogether fo the ihell, he was mightily pleafed with unnatural." Poljmct, Dial. viii. she noift itgave from its concave, figure. . which. GREEK MUSIC. 269 which is of exquifite Greek fculpture, and very high antiquity, is figured in the fame manner. I had a front and fide view of this lyre drawn under my own eye, and have fmce had them eagnajtfed for this work, Plate V. No. 1 and 2, in order to furnifh the reader with "an idea of the form given to the inftrument by ancient fculptors, upon the Strength of this legend. Apollo. There is fomefhing pleating in the idea of realizing, or even of finding the flighteit foundation in hiflory for the fables with which we have been amukd in our youth. I believe there are few of my countrymen, who have not, during childhood, read the Li r e of Robinfon Grufoe, and the Adventures of Lemuel Gulir 'ir, as authentic hiftories, and who have not relinquished thai thought, in riper years, with fome degree of reluctance. It has, doubtlefs, been the fame with the ingenious fables of antiquity., fo elegantly told, and embellifhed with all the flow- ers of poetry, and warm colouring of imagination. Of all the divinities of Paganifm, there was no one by whom the polite arts were faid to have been, in fo particular a man- ner, cherifhed and protected, as by Apollo. Cicero mentions four of his name, the moil ancient of whom was the fon of Vulcan ; the fecond a fon of Corybas, and born in Crete ; the third an Arcadian, called Nomian, from his being a great le- giilator ; and the laft, to whom the greateft honour is afcribed,. the fon of Jupiter and Latona. Apollo had a variety of other names, either derived from his principal attributes, or the chief places where he was wor- fhipped. He was called the Healer, from his enlivening warmth and cheering influence; and Puod Apollo ejjet et coma beri, priufquam tibias acciperet infittre, prius intonfus, et gcnis gratv.s, et corpore glabel- de ft et Apolline qiuedam deli-amenta bar- /us, et arte multifcius, et fortuna opuletitus. . bare cjj'utit'it : laudans fej'e quod erat et coma Rifere Mufce, cum audirent hoc genus ^ relicinus, et barbafquallidus, et peilore bir- crimina. Apuleius Floridor. p. 341. futus, et artetibiccm, ct fortuna egcnus, con- (r) De Legib. Antiquity s 7 '3 THE HISTORY OF Antiquity has furnifhed us with feveral monuments of the punifhment inflicted upon him by Apollo. He may be feen in Berger, in Maffei, and in Du Choul. The ftory is likewife well and fully reprefented in one of the ancient pictures dug out of Herculaneum (r). Here the vanquished mufician is hound to a tree, the executioner ftanding by him with a knife in his hand, only waits for orders from the victor to flay him alive*. Apollo is feated at a diftance, with his lyre in one hand, a plectrum in the other, and a Mufe by his fide, preparing a garland for him in token of vicfory. A young man, on his knees, appears to implore his mercy : this is thought to be Olympus, the fcholar of Marfyas, afking pardon for his maf- ter, or, perhaps, permiffion to give him funeral obfequies, which, as we learn from Hyginus, he obtained. There is alio a magnificent ftatue at Rome, where Marfyas is reprefented fattened to a tree with his arms extended. Others may be feen where Apollo holds a knife in his right hand, and the fkin of Marfyas in his left, which ferves to confirm the opinion, that fome of the ancients thought Apollo flead him himfelf. In fome of the ftatues, Marfyas is fculptured with the ears and tail of fawns and fatyrs ; of this kind, is the figure in the grand duke's gallery at Florence. There was an- ciently to have been feen in the citadel at Athens, a ftatue of Minerva chaftifing the fatyr Marfyas, for appropriating to him- felf the flutes which the goddefs had rejected with contempt. Thefe flutes of Marfyas had been confecrated in the temple of Apollo at Sicyon, by a fhepherd who had collected them. At Mantinea, in the temple of Latona, was alfo to be feen a Mar- fyas playing upon the double flute ; and he was not forgotten in the famous picture of Polygnotus, defcribed by Paufa- nias (/). Among the inventions of Marfyas is numbered likewife the bandage made of leather thongs, ufed by the ancients in play- (s) AxticL cTErcolano. torn. ii. tav. 19. (t) Lib. x. cap. 30. GREEK MUSIC. 279- ing the flute, in order to keep the cheeks and lips firm, and- prevent the diftortion of the countenance, fo common in play- ing upon wind-inftruments. This contrivance, which left only a fmall aperture between the lips, juft fufficient to receive the. mouth-piece of the flute, augmented likewife the force of the performer (it). Servius, the grammarian, aflerts, that moft free towns had. in the public places a ftatue of Marfyas, which was a fymbol of their liberty, becaufe of the clofe connection between Mar- fyas, taken for Siienus and Bacchus, known to the Romans by the name of Liber. There was in the Forum at Rome one of thofe ftatues, with a tribunal erected by it, where juftice was- adminiftered- The advocates who gained their caufe, took care- to crown this ftatue, as it were to thank Marfyas for the fuc- cefs of their eloquence, and to engage his favour to them in quality of an excellent player on the flute : for, in ancient times, it is well known how great an influence the found of that, and other inftruments, had in declamation, and what power the flute, in particular, had, in animating orators and actors. However, notwithftanding the many teftimonies of ancient authors concerning Marfyas having been flead alive, among, which is that of Herodotus, who fays he faw the fkin of this unfortunate mufician hanging up at Celaena2, in the public fquare, in the form of a, bladder, or foot-ball ; there are au- thors who take the whole ftory to be an allegory founded upon the river Marfya, which ran through the city Celsense, making a harfh and difagreeable noife to the ear ; or, rather, if we may believe Fortunio Liceti (x), the fable had its rife from this, that, before the invention of the lyre, the flute was in higher favour than any other rnufical inftrument, and enriched all thofe who • were able to play upon it; and as the lyre brought the flute. (u) This bandage was called QopGtta, or tholinus has had engraved in his tre-itife mifiro^'oiy capiftrum. It is mentioned in - de Tibils f^eterum, and in Plate VI. No. i. Plutarch's Sympofiacs, in- the Scbollqft of of this work. Ariftophancs, and elfewhere ; and maybe (x) Hierog. cap. 109. ft-en in fame ancient fculpture, which Bar- into 280 THE HISTORY OF into fuch difcredit that nothing was to be gained by it, Apollo was faid to have ftripped off the fkin of Marfyas, the beft per- former on the flute of his time ; which was the better ima- gined, as the money of thole days was of leather ( y). This punifhment has frequently been inflicted in modern times upon inferiority, not only by rival muficians of great talents, but by fafhion. The next incident to be mentioned in the hiftory of Apollo is bis defeat of the ferpent Python. The waters of Deucalion's deluge (s), fays Ovid (#), which had overflowed the earth, left a fhme, from whence fprung innumerable monflers, and among others the ferpent Python, which made great havock in the country about Parnaflus. Apollo, armed with his darts, put him to death ; which phy- fically explained, implies, that the heat of the fun having dif- fipated the noxious fleams, thofe monflers foon difappeared ; Or, if this fable be referred to hiftory, the ferpent was a robber, who haunting the country about Delphos, and very much in- fefting thofe who came thither to facrifice ; a prince, who bore the name of Apollo, or one of the priefts of that God, put him to death. This event gave rife to the inftitution of the Pythian games, fo frequently mentioned in the Grecian hiftory. They were ce- lebrated at firft once in eight or nine years ; but in procefs of time were repeated every four years. Mufic and poetry were in a particular manner, fubjects of contention in thefe games, which were inftituted in honour of that divinity, who was the immediate patron and protector of thofe arts. And if, as Ovid informs us, they owe their inftitution to Amphictyon, the fon of Deucalion, foon after the deluge, which bears the name of his father, they were the moft ancient of all the four great (y) Pollux, Hi. iv. cap. 10. according to Sir Ifaac Newton, and Dr. (z) This event happened, according to Prieftley, but 1046. the Parian Marbles, and Dr. Blair, 1503 (a) Met. lib. i. years before the Chriftian ./Era, though, games GREEK MUSIC. kfti games of Greece : for Paufanias tells us that the Olympic games were firft celebrated by Clymenus, a defcendant of Her- cules, fifty years after the deluge of Deucalion. However, the fame writer, who, in his travels through Greece, was particu- larly folicitous to inform himfelf of every circumftance relative to thefe inftitutions, tells us, that Diomedes, the fon of Tydeus> having efcaped a dangerous tempeft in returning from Troy, dedicated a temple to Apollo, and founded the Pythian games in his honour. After being difcontinued for fome time, they were renewed by the brave Eurylochus of Theffaly, whofe va- lour and exploits acquired him the name of the new Achilles. This renewal of the Pythic games happened in the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, 586 before Chrift ; after which time they ferved as an aera to the inhabitants of Delphos, and the neighbourhood. Thefe mufical contefts will be particularly difcuffed here- after, with the other games of Greece, when we have quitted the mythological maze of fable and allegory, and are arrived at the (trait road of hiftory. It was from the legend of Apollo's victory over the Python, that the God himfelf acquired the name of Pythius, and his prieftefs that of Pythia. The city of Delphos, where the fa- mous oracles were fo long delivered, was likewife frequently ftyled Pytho. The decrees of this oracle were not only uttered in hexameter verfe, but, if we may believe Lucan, were Jung if). And, according to Plutarch, in his difcourle on the Pythian Prieftefs no longer rendering her prophecies in verfe, the ancient oracles were not only delivered in verfe, and in a pompous ftyle, but were fung likewife to the found of the flute \c). (b) Sin/«i?fa, Div. Leg. voice, and Quintilian latinizes the fame book iv. feet. 4-. Vol. L O o The 282 THE HISTORY OF The oracle of Dodona was founded by the Palafgi, in the time of Cecrops, 1550 years before Chrift ; that of Delphos was, however, more ancient ; for, according to Paufanias, it fubfifted before Deucalion's deluge. Archbifhop Potter fays fd), it is as certain as any thing io diftant can be, that this oracle was very ancient, and flourifhed about 1 00 years before the Trojan war : and Sir Ifaac Newton fays (e), " a prieftefs of Jupiter Ammon, being brought by Phoenician merchants into Greece, fet up the oracle of Jupiter at Dodona. This gives a beginning to oracles in Greece : and by their dictates, the worfhip of the dead is every where in- troduced (J ')." Coretas is the name given by Plutarch to the goat-herd who firft difcovered and felt the infpiration at Delphos. It is by raoft authors fuppofed, that fome intoxicating vapours iffued from a fiffure in the earth, the x a - (7 F- ci > or chafm, where goats firft experienced their effects, where the tripod of the Pythia was afterwards placed, and upon which fpot the famous temple was erected (g). As the temple of Apollo was the firft of the kind, it was alfo the laft which was abandoned upon the ceffation of oracles, or, rather, when they ceafed to be in repute. Plutarch upon this fubject fays, that oracles were generally delivered in verfe, preceded by the found of kettles ; which furnifhes no very exalted idea of the ftate of mufic in remote antiquity, any more than what one of the interlocutors in the fame author's Dialogue on the Pythia, fays of her verfes, does of poetry. " I have often wondered, faid Diogenian, at the meannefs, and aukward roughnefs of the verfes, which COn- fy,) Archaol. Grac. luftrious mortals after their deceafe. (e) Chronology, p. 19. (g) I do not remember to have feen in (f) By the worfhip of the dead, I fup- any author, a parallel between the effefts pofe, Sir Ifaac means the pagan religion of the air emitted from this cavern, and in genera], which confifted, as has been that of the Grotta de' Cam, near Na- already obferved, in ; the deification of il- pies., veyed GREEK MUSIC. 283 veyed the ancient oracles to mankind. And yet Apollo is called the leader of the Mufes, and God of poetry, as well as of mufic ; and therefore it feems natural to fuppofe, that he would attend as much to elegance and beauty in the ftyle and lan- guage of poetry, as to the voice and manner of finging it." All that pagan piety could offer in defence of Apollo, was to fay, that the God only furnilhed infpiration with refpect to the knowledge of future events, but gave himfelf no trouble about the voice, founds, words, or metre, that this knowledge was delivered in, all which proceeded from the prieftefs. And yet how the God of mufic could bear the founding brafs, and worfe than tinkling cymbals, with which he was constantly ftunned, is not eafy to imagine. In after-times the Pythia had in her miniftry profeffed pro- phets ; and thefe had poets under them, whofe bufmefs was to put the oracles into verfe. However, poets had no fuch em- ployment in earlier times. Herodotus tells us, that Olen of Lycia was at once both prophet and poet : the moft ancient hymns known to have been ufed at Delos, in honour of Apollo, were of his compofition ; and the Greeks acknowledge him to have been the firft that applied poetry to the purpofe of praifing the Gods ; indeed it feems as if hymns were the moft ancient of all poetical compofitions (/;). Olen was the firft prieft of Apollo at Delos, in the temple erected there to this God, by the northern people called Hyper- boreans. Who thefe Hyperboreans were, ancient authors are (h) The rhetorician Menander enu- and to others were prefixed the names of meraces eight different fpecies of hymns. the moft ancient poets, who had fignalized In this author, and in the notes of the themfelves in this fpecies or writing: fuch learned Spanheim upon Callimachus, it as Olen, Pamphus, Thamyris, Orpheus, appears, that the moft ancient of thefe Anthes, and Homer. Burette's Notes on canticles were thought to have been die- Plutarch. tated by the Gods themfelves, or, at leail, Longinus, in a beautiful fimile, com- t>y men truly infpired. Seme of them re- pares the effects of reading the beft an- ■ceived their names from the ditferent di- cient authors, to the facred vapours with vinities to whom they were addrefied, and which the Pythian prieftefs was infpired •the occasions upon which they were fung ; on the tripod. O o 2 not s84 THE HISTORY OF not very well agreed. Diodorus Siculus calls them a people of Alia, near the north, who inhabited a raoft fertile iiland, equal in fize to that of Sicily. This was the birth place of Latona, the mother of Apollo, on which account the iflanders had a particular veneration for her fon. They were aimoft all priefls of that God, and continually finging hymns to his honour. They confecrated an extenfive territory to him upon the ifland, in the midft of which was a magnificent temple, in an oval form, always abounding with rich offerings. Their city was even confecrated to the God, and filled with muficians of all kinds, who every day celebrated his praifes. The particular worfhip of Apollo in that iiland is fuppofed to have originated from the arrival of the Egyptian conqueror, Sefoftris. The birth of a God in any country, fays He- rodotus, denoted only the introduction of his worfhip there* Thus Jupiter was faid to have been born in Crete, and Apollo in Delos. But to return to the oracle at Delphos. The moll celebrated of all the Pythias was Phcemonoe, who was not only the firft prieflefs of Apollo, but, according to Plutarch and Paufanias, the firft who pronounced oracles in hexameter verfe. In after-times there were five principal priefts of facrifice ap- pointed. They were called oerwi, holy ; and whatever was facri- ficed at their reception was called ctnuTyg, the viSlim. Thefe mi- nifters were perpetual, and hereditary in their children. They were believed to be defcended from Deucalion. Befides a great number of inferior priefts, there were many players upon mufical inftruments, and heralds who proclaimed the public feafts, to which, fometimes, all the inhabitants of Delphos were invited. To thefe were joined chorufTes of youths and virgins, who fung and danced at the feftivals of Apollo. Plutarch, in his Dialogue on Mujic, tells us, that Philammon had celebrated the birth of Latona, Apollo, and Diana, in lyric verfes ; and that he was the inventor of the dances that were ufed in the temple of Apollo. GREEK MUSI C. 285 As Apollo was the God of the fine arts, thofe who culti-- vated them were called his fons. Of this number was Philam- inon of Delphos, whom the poets and mythologifts make the twin brother of Autolychus, by the nymph Chione, and Apollo and Mercury. It is pretended that both thefe divinities were favoured by the nymph on the fame day ; and that their fires were known from their different talents. Philammon, a great poet and mufician, was reported to be the offspring of the God who prefides over thofe arts ; and Autolychus, from the craf- tinefs and fubtilty of his difpofition, was faid to have fprung from Mercury, God of theft and fraud. Philammon is one of the firft, after Apollo, upon fabulous record, as a vocal perfor-- mer, who accompanied himfelf with the found of the lyre ; his fon was the celebrated Thamyris. Tatian ranks Philam- mon among the writers who flourifhed before the time of' Homer ; and the fcholiaft of Apollonius Rhodius, from Fhe- recydes, affirms, that it was this mufical poet, and not Or- pheus, who accompanied the Argonauts in their expedition. If this circumftance could be depended upon, there would be no difficulty in fixing the time when he lived, as the chrono- logies place this expedition in the century immediately preced- ing the Trojan war. There can be no doubt but that Apollo was more generally revered in the pagan world than any other deity ; having in almoft every region of it, temples, oracles, and feftivals, as innumerable as his attributes : the wolf and hawk were con- fecrated to him, as fymbols of his piercing eyes ; the crow and the raven, becaufe thefe birds were fuppofed to have by in- ftindr. the faculty of prediction ; the laurel, from a perfuafion that thofe who flept with fome branches of that tree under their heads, received certain vapours, which enabled them to pro- phefy. The cock was confecrated to him, becaufe by his crow- ing he announces the rifing of the fun; and the grafshopper, , on account of his finging faculty, which was fuppofed to do honour. 236 THE HISTORY OF honour to the God of Mufic. Mod of the ancient poets have celebrated this tuneful infect, but none better than Anacreon, Ode 43. Plato fays that the grafshopper fings all fnmmer without food, like thofe men who, dedicating themfelves to the Mufes, forget the common concerns of life. The fwan was regarded by the ancients as a bird facred to Apollo in two capacities ; firfl, as being, like the crow and raven, gifted with the fpirit of prediction (/) ; and, fecondly, for his extraordinary vocal powers. The fweetnefs of his fong, efpecially at the approach of death, was not only extolled by all the poets of antiquity, but by hiftorians, philofophers, and fages (/i) ; and to call a great writer the fwan of his age and nation, was a full acknowledgement of his fovereignty. Thus Horace calls Pindar, the Thebanjwan flj. We do not, how- ever, find that Jupiter, when he aflumed the figure of a fwan, acquired the good graces of Leda by his vocal powers. The univerfality with which the talent of this bird for fong was allowed by antiquity, has furnifhed M. Morin with the fubject of a pleafant Differtation upon this queftion, Why /wans fang Jo well formerly, and why they fng fo ill, or rather why they have wholly ceafed to fng, now (/;/) f The author a{ks if it is the want of hearing mufic as they formerly did, on the banks of the Cayfter and Meander ? But, if they had imitative powers, the concerts fo frequently performed on the Seine and the Thames, are furely fufficient to provoke them to the exercife of thofe powers. Are they degenerated in northern climates ? (1) Commemorat (Socrates) id cygni, qui famuli, jam migraturi. Sed quia Phcebo fa- nan fine caufa, Apollini dicati funt, fed quod cri funt, ut arliitror, divinatione praditi, ab eo divinationcm habere •videantur, qua prafagiunt alterius viL-e bona ; idcoquc can- providentcs quid in morte boni fit : cxm cantu tant alacrius, gejliuntque ea die quam fu- et ■voluptate moriantur. Cicero Tufcul. periori tempore. Plato in Phaedro, vel de Quielt. lib. i. 59. Anima, p. §ot;. (k) Illi quidem (Cygni) quando fe brevi (I) Direcum Icvat aura eyenum. Lib. \Y. fintlunt morituros, tune magis admodum did- Ode 2. v. z;. eius eanunt, quam antea confueveririt, con- (m) Mem. de VAcad. des In/irip. torn. r. gratulania quod ad Deum fint, cujus crant This GREEK MUSIC. 287- This queftion is fully anfwered by iElian («), who afferts, that among the Hyperboreans, or inhabitants of the moji northern parts of the globe, who had a celebrated temple to Apollo, at a iblemn feftival in honour of the God, which was annually kept at a great expence, as foon as the prieft had begun the cere- mony, by a proceffion, afperfions, and luftrat ions, a large flock of fwans inftantly defcended from the top of Mount Riphseus ; and after having croaked and cackled in the air, round the tem- ple, to make a kind of lufbration, in their manner, they en- tered the choir, and gravely took their places among the prieils and muficians, who were preparing to fing a facred hymn in honour of this feftival ; after which they performed their parts with the utmoft precilion, neither iinging out of tune, nor breaking time ; and when this was done, they retired in great order from the temple- " Here are fwans for you, fays M. Morin, who fung pfalms in a northern climate, as well as in Greece, in the prefence of a whole people, and an infinite number of fpeclators of all na- tions, who were drawn together by the foiemnity ; which fhews, that, according to the opinion of thofe times, fwans always, and in every place, retained the power and dignity of fongfters, iru feparable from their kind. However, iElian confefles that he had the ftory from tradition, having never been able to acquire any proof of their mufical powers from experience ; and that all he knew of this matter, was, that the ancients held it as a certainty, that before they died, thefe birds fung a kind of air, which was on that account called \hefwaris air.'' Perhaps the idea of fwans having the power of iinging, was originally fuggefted by the magnificent length of their necks, which feem as capable of divifions, trills, and fhakes, as any of our wind-inftruments. Lucian (0) is the only ancient writer who has dared to doubt of the mufical abilities of fwans. He tells us, with his ufual pleafantry, that he tried to afcertain the - (aj> Lib.'ii. cop. I. (») De RUB. feu Cvgnis. faa 5 . 288 THE HISTORY OF fad, by making a voyage on the coafts of Italy ; and relates, that being arrived at the mouth of the Po, he and his friends had the curiofity to fail up that river, in order to afk the wa- termen and inhabitants concerning the tragical fate of Phaeton ; and to examine the poplars, defendants of his lifters, whom they expected to fhed amber inftead of tears ; as "well as to fee the fwans reprcfent the friends of this unfortunate prince, and hear them fing lamentations and forrowful hymns, night and day, to his praife, as they ufed to do, in the character of fflti- ficians, and favourites of Apollo, before their change. How- ever, theie good people, who never had heard of any fuch me- tamorphofes, freely confeffed, that they had indeed fometimes feen fwans in the marines near the river, and had heard them croak and fcrcam in fuch a difagreeable manner, that crows and jays would be firens, compared with them, in a mufical capacity ; but that they had never even dreamed of fwans finging a fingle note that was pleating, or fit to be heard. But to return once more to Apollo. Plutarch, who was him- fclf a prieft of that God, impreffed with the higheft refpect and veneration for him and formufic, in his Dialogue upon that art, makes one of his interlocutors fay, that an invention fo ufeful and charming could never have been the work of man, but muft have originated from fome God ; fuch as Apollo, the inventor of the flute and lyre, improperly attributed to Hyagnis, Mar- iyas, Olympus, and others ; and the proofs he urges in fupport of this affertion, fhew, if not its truth, at leaft that it was the common and received opinion. All dances and facrifices, fays he, ufed in honour of Apollo, are performed to the found of flutes : the ftatue of this God at Delos, erected in the time of Hercules, had in its right hand a bow, and on the left flood the three Graces, who were fur- nifhed with three kinds of inftruments : the lyre, the flute, and fyrinx. The youth alfo, who carries the laurel of Tempe to Del- phos, is accompanied by one playing on the flute : and the fa- cred GREEK MUSIC. 289 cred prefents formerly fent to Delos by the Hyperboreans, were conducted thither to the found of lyres, flutes, and fhepherds' pipes. He fupports thefe fails by the teftimonies of the poets Alcazus, Alcmon, and Corinna. It feems as if the account of Apollo could not be concluded by any thing that is left to offer on the fubjecT:, fo properly, as by part of the celebrated hymn of Callimachus, which during many ages was performed and heard by the moft polifhed peo- ple on the globe, with the utmoft religious zeal, at the feftivals inftituted to this God. What has already been faid may, per- haps, throw fome light upon this beautiful compofition, wdiich, in return, will explain and confirm the reafons already afligned for the high veneration in which this divinity was held by antiquity. HYMN to APOLLO. Hah ! how the laurel, great Apollo's tree, And all the cavern fhakes ! far off, far off, The man that is unhallow'd : for the God Approaches. Hark ! he knocks : the gates Feel the glad impulfe : and the fever'd bars Submiffrve clink againft their brazen portals. Why do the Delian palms incline their boughs, Self-mov'd : and hov'ring fwans, their throats releas'd From native filence, carol founds harmonious ? Begin, young men, the hymn : let all your harps Break their inglorious filence ; and the dance, In myftic numbers trod, explain the mufic. But firft by ardent pray'r, and clear luftration Purge the contagious fpots of human weaknefs ; Impure no mortal can behold Apollo. So may you fiourim, favour'd by the God, In youth with happy nuptials, and in age With filver hairs, and fair defcent of children ; Vol. I. P p So 290 THE HISTORY OF So lay foundations for afpiring cities, And blefs your Spreading colonies' encreafe. Pay facred rev'rence to Apollo's fong ; Left watchful the far-fhooting God emit His fatal arrows. Silent Nature Hands ; And feas fubfide, obedient to the found Of Io ! lo Paean ! nor dares Thetis Longer bewail her lov'd Achilles' death : For Phoebus was his foe. Nor muft fad Niobe In fruitlefs forrow perfevere, or weep- Even thro' the Phrygian marble. Haplefs mother ! Whofe fondnefs could compare her mortal offspring To thofe which fair Latona bore to Jove. Io ! again repeat ye, Io ! Paean ! Recite Apollo's praife till night draws on, : The ditty Hill unfiniih'd ; and the day Unequal to the Godhead's attributes Various, and matter copious of your fongs. Sublime at Jove's right hand Apollo fits, And thence diftributes honour, gracious king, And theme of verfe perpetual. From his robe Flows light ineffable : his harp, his quiver, And Ly&ian bow, are gold : with golden fandals. His feet are fhod. How rich ! how beautiful ! Beneath his fteps the yellow min'ral rifes ; And earth reveals her treafures. Youth and beauty Eternal deck his cheek : from his fair head Perfumes diftil their fvveets ; and chearful Health, - His duteous hand-maid, through the air improv'd With lavifh hand diffufes fcents ambrofiaL The fpearman's arm by thee, great God, directed. Sends forth a certain wound. The laurel'd bard. Infpir'd. by thee, compofes verfe immortals Taught GREEK MUSIC. 291 Taught by thy art divine, the fage phyfician Eludes the urn, and chains, or exiles death. Perpetual fires fhine hallow'd on thy altars, When annual the Carnean feaft is held : The warlike Libyans, clad in armour, lead The dance, with clanging fwords and fhields, they beat The dreadful meafure : in the chorus join Ti.eir women, brown but beautiful ; fuch rites To thee well -pleafing. The mon'ftrous Python Durft tempt thy wrath in vain ; for dead he fell, To thy great ftrength, and golden arms unequal. to ! while thy unerring hand elanc'd Another and another dart, the people Joyfully repeated Io ! lo Pean ! Elance the dart, Apollo : for the fafety And health of man, gracious thy mother bore thee ! Prior, The MUSES. After the enquiries that have been made, perhaps with too much minutenefs, concerning the origin of that worlhip which antiquity paid to Mercury and Apollo, it feems neceflary to fay fomething of other pagan divinities, among whofe attributes mufic has a place. Of this clafs, as moil: intimately connected with the God of Song, are the Mufes, thofe celebrated female muficians, fo dear to men of genius, and lovers of art, that it is hardly pofiible for them to hear their names mentioned without feeling a fecret and refined pleaiure. The Mufc-s were originally only fingers and muficians, in the fervice of Ofiris, or the great Egyptian Bacchus, under the inftruction and guid- ance of his fon Orus ; but in fucceeding times they were called the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemofyne, or Memory. P P 2 Thefc 292 THE HISTORY OF Thefe are the only pagan divinities whofe worfhip has been; continued through all fucceeding changes in the religion and fentiments of mankind. Profeflbrs of every liberal art in all the countries of Europe, Hill revere them, particularly the poets, who feldom undertake the ilighteft work, without in- voking their aid. Sir Ifaac Newton tells us, that the fmging women of Ofiris- were celebrated in Thrace by the name of the Mufes ; and that the daughters of Pierus, a Thracian, imitating them, were ce- lebrated by the fame name (/>). Diodorus Siculus informs us (g), that Alcman of Meffene, a lyric poet, who flourifhed in the twenty-feventh Olympiad, 670 years B. C. makes them the daughters of Uranus and Terra. It has been afferted by fome ancient writers, that at firft they were only three in number ; but Homer, Hefiod, and other profound mythologifts, admit of nine (r). In his Hymn to Apollo, Homer fays By turns the Nine delight to fing. And Hefiod, in his Theogony, names them all. They are laid feverally to prefide over fome ar-t or fcience, as mufic, poetry, dancing, aftronomy. By fome they are called virgins,, becaufe the virtues of education appear unalterable : they are called Mufes from a Greek word (1), which fignifies to explain myfteries, becaufe they have taught things the moft curious and important to know, and which are above the comprehen— fion of vulgar minds. Each of their names is faid to include fome particular allegory ; Clio, for inftance, has been thus called, becaufe thofe who are praifed in verfe:, acquire immortal- fame ; Euterpe, on account of the pleafure accruing to thofe (p) See Ovid's Metavi. lib. v. fab. 5. tuarie3 to make each of them flames of for the conteft of the Pierides with the the three Mufes, they were all fo well ex— Mufes. ecuted, that they did not know which to (q) Lib. iv. chufe, but erected all the nine, and thar (r) ft has been faTd, that when the ci- Hefiod and Homer only gave them names.. (kens, of Sicyon. directed three fkilful fta- (s) Mvu, j/.vta. who. GREEK MUSIC. 293 who hear learned poetry ; Thalia implies for ever flourifhing ; Melpomene, that her melody infinuates itfelf into the inmoft re- cedes of the foul ; Terpjichore marks the pleafure which thofe receive who are verfed in the liberal arts ; Erato feems to in- dicate that the learned command the efteem and friendfhip of all mankind ; Polyhymnia., that many poets are become immor- tal by the number of hymns which they have addreffed to the Gods ; Urania, that thofe whom fhe inftructs elevate their con- templations and celebrity to the heavens and the ftars ; and laftly, the exquifite voice of Calliope has acquired her that appel- lation, as the inventrefs and guardian of eloquence and rhetoric. An epigram of Callimachus gives the attributes of the Mufes in as many lines. Calliope the deeds of heroes firtgs ; Great Clio fweeps to hiftory the firings ; Euterpe teaches mimes their filerit fhow ; Melpomene prefides o'er fcenes of woe ; Terpjichore the flute's foft pow'r difplays ; And Erato gives hymns the Gods to praife ; Po/ymnia's fkill infpires melodious ftrains j ") Urania wife, the ftarry courfe explains ; >■ And gay Thalia's glafs points out where folly reigns (t). J This epigram does not, however, exactly correfpond with the ideas of other poets, or of the ancient painters, in cha- racterising the attributes of the Mufes. Among the capital pictures dug out of Herculaneum, are portraits of Apollo, and the Mufes, his companions : from which engravings have been published in the fecond volume of Le Pitture antiche d'Ecolano. (f) Calliope rcpsrit Japientes prtmida Terpfichore. Divumque Erato mox protu- c ant us lit bymnos. Heroum. Clio citharam clarijjima. P~oce?n Harmonium cunftifque Polyinnia cantibus Mimorum Euterpe tragicis latata qmrelii, addlt. Melpomene dulccvi mortalibus addidit ipfa Euranie call motus atque aftra nptavit. Barbiton. Et fuavis tibi tradita tibia Comica vita tibi eft, morefque Thalia reperti* fertur Nat. Comes. Portrait 294 THE HISTORY OF Portrait I. The God is feated on a throne, with a cithara of eleven firings in his left hand, in the character of Mufagetes, or conductor of the Mufes [u). II. Clio, feated, her head crowned with laurels ; in her left hand fhe holds an open volume, in which fhe appears to be reading. On the outfide is written KLEIX1. ICTOPIAN. Clio the hijlorian. At her feet are fix other rolls, or antique vo- lumes, inclofed in a cylindrical cafe. The picture of Euterpe had been fo much injured by time, that it could not be engraved. But the poets ufually give her the flute, as her fymbol. Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe jlatibus urget. Aufon. Idyl. 20. III. 0AA6IA KaMOAIAN. Thalia the Comedian, with a co- mic mafk in her left hand. See Plate IV. No. 3. IV. MSAIIOMGnH TPAr-wAIAN. Melpomene, the proteSlrefs of Tragedy, with a tragic mafk in her left hand. V. TSPTIXOPH AYPAN. Terpfichore the Lyrijl. The in- ftrument which fhe holds is fmall, and has but feven firings. The belly of it is in a round form. It is difputed whether this lyre is the fame as the cithara, or teftudo. The belly and fides are fomething like thofe of the latter. But whatever name this kind of inflrument had in earlier times, there can be no doubt of lyre being the general appellation for it when it was painted. See Plate V. No. 3. VI. GPATw TAATPIAN. Erato with a Pfaltery, or long lyre of nine firings. This inflrument is more than twice the length of that in the hand of Terpfichore. See Plate V. No. 4. The Mufe holds a plectrum in her right hand, and feems playing with the fingers of her left. (ft) Mythology chofe Apollo to prefide diffufes grace and pleafure, arts and fci- over arts and fciences, but gave him the ences would have been productive of no- nine Mufes for his companions, becaufe thing but difguft and melancholy to man- the ancients were perfuaded, that without kind. the concurrence of a fex which every where vii. no- GREEK MUSIC. 295 VII. nOATMNIA- MT0OTC Polhymnia the Fabulift. She is here reprefented as the patronefs of mimes, with her finger on her mouth, in token of filence. The painter differs in cha- racterising this Mufe from moft of the poets and mythologifis, who make her the inventrefs of hymns to the Gods. How- ever, there are etymologifis, among whom are Plutarch and Nonnus, who derive her name from Mrnipti, tradition, alluding to the fables and tales of antiquity, which the mimes and dancers ufually made the fubjedts of their performance. Non- nus Dionyf. V. v. 104, et feq. fays, Sweet Polhymnia,. fee advance^, Mother of the graceful dance : She who taught th' ingenious art,. Silent language to impart : Signs for fentiment fhe found, Eloquence without a found : Hands loquacious fave her lungs, All her limbs are fpeaking tongues. VIII. Urania, with a. globe in her hand, as the patronefs of aflronomy. IX. KAAAIOnfT nOIHMA, Calliope the Poetefs ; with a roll of paper, or volume in her hand, as the Mufe who prefides over heroic verfe, or epic poetry. The author of a famous epi- gram in the Anthoiogia, fays, }LxXXt07ft]- ). Diodorus Siculus informs us (q), that Alcman of Melfene, a lyric poet, who flourifhed in the twenty-feventh Olympiad, 670 years B. C. makes them the daughters of Uranus and Terra- It has been aflerted by fome ancient writers, that at iirft they were only three in number ; but Homer, Hefiod, and other, profound mythologifts, admit of nine (r). In his Hymn to Apollo, Homer fays By turns the Nine delight to h*ng. And Hefiod, in his Theogony, names them alL They are- faid feverally to prefide over fome art or fcience, as mufic,. poetry, dancing, aftronomy. By fome they are called virgins 3 becaufe the virtues of education appear unalterable : they are called Mufes from a Greek word (s), which fignifies to explain myfteries, becaufe they have taught things the moft curious and important to know, and which are above the comprehen- fion of vulgar minds. Each of their names is faid to include fome particular allegory ; C//o, for inftance, has been thus called, becaufe thofe who are praifed in verfe, acquire immortal' fame ; Euterpe, on account of the pleafure accruing to thofe (p) See Ovid's Melard. lib^v..fab~$.. tuaries to make each of them flames of" for the contelt ot the Pierides with the the three Mules, they were all fo well ex— Males. ecuted, that thev did not know which to (q) Lib, iv. chufe, but erefted all the nine, and that (r) It has been faid, that when the ci- Hefiod and Homer only gave them names., azeas. of Sicyou dire&ed three ikiltuL Ibi- (sj &»«, y.vim. who; GREEK MUSIC. 293 who hear learned poetry ; Thalia implies for ever fiourifhing ; Melpcmene, that her melody infinuates itfelf into the inmoft re- cedes of the foul ; Terpjichore marks the pleafure which thofe receive who are verfed in the liberal arts ; Erato feems to in- dicate that the learned command the efteein and friendfhip of all mankind ; Polyhymnia, that many poets are become immor- tal by the number of hymns which they have addreffed to the Gods ; Urania, that thofe whom fhe inftructs elevate their con- templations and celebrity to the heavens and the ftars ; and laftly, the exquiiite voice of Calliope has acquired her that appel- lation, as the inventrefs and guardian of eloquence and rhetoric. An epigram of Callimachus gives the attributes of the Mufes. in as many lines. Calliope the deeds of heroes fings ; Great Clio fweeps to hiftory the firings ; Euterpe teaches mimes their filent fhow ; Melpomene prefides o'er fcenes of woe ; Terpjichore the flute's foft pow'r difplays ; And Erato gives hymns the Gods to praife ; Polym?iia , s fkill infpires melodious ftrains j 1 Urania wife, the ftarry courfe explains ; > And gay Thalia's glafs points out where folly reigns (t). J This epigram does not, however, exactly correfpond with the ideas of other poets, or of the ancient painters, in cha- racterifmg the attributes of the Mufes. Among the capital pictures dug out of Herculaneum, are portraits of Apollo, and the Mufes, his companions : from which engravings have been publifhed in the fecond volume of Le Pitture antiche d'Ecolano. (t) Calliope reperit fapicntcs promida Terpnchore. Divumque Erato max frotw canttes lit hymnos. Heroum. Clio citbaram clarijfima. J^ocem Harmoniam cunBifque Polymnia ca/itibus- Mimorum Euterpe tragleis Icetata querela. adilit. Melpomene dulccm mortalibus qddidit ipfa Euranie call ?notus atque aftra rwfa-vit. Bai'biton- Kt Juavis tibi tradita- tibia, Comica vita tibi rjl, ??wrefque Thalia reperti* fartm- Nat. Comes.- Portrait 294 THE HISTORY OF Portrait I. The God is feated on a throne, with a cithara of eleven firings in his left hand, in the chara&er of Mujagetes, or conductor of the Mufes (?/). II. Clio, feated, her head crowned with laurels; in her left hand ftie holds an open volume, in which fhe appears to be reading. On the outfide is written KLELQ. ICTOPIAN. Clio the hijlorian. At her feet are fix other rolls, or antique vo- lumes, inclofed in a cylindrical cafe. The picture of Euterpe had been fo much injured by time, that it could not be engraved. But the poets ufually give her the flute, as her fymbol. Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe jiatibus urget. Aufon. Idyl. 20. III. 0AA6IA KwMOAIAN. Thalia the Comedian* with a co- mic maik in her left hand. See Plate IV. No. 3. IV. MSAnOMGNH TPAr\wAlAN. Melpomene, the proteBrefs of Tragedy, with a tragic mafk in her left hand. V. T6PTIXOPH ATPAN. Terpjichore the Lyrijl. The in- flrument which fhe holds is fmall, and has but feven firings. The belly of it is in a round form. It is difputed whether this lyre is the fame as the cithara, or tefludo. The belly and fides are fomething like thofe of the latter. But whatever name this kind of inftrument had in earlier times, there can be no doubt of lyre being the general appellation for it when it was painted. See Plate V. No. 3. VI. GPATa YAATPIAN. Erato with a Pfaltery, or long lyre of nine firings. This inftrument is more than twice the length of that in the hand of Terpfichore. See Plate V. No. 4. The Mufe holds a plectrum in her right hand, and feems playing with the fingers of her left. (u) Mythology chofe Apollo to prefide diffufea grace and pleafure, arts and fci- over arts and fciences, but gave him the ences would have been productive of no- nine Mufes for his companions, becaufe thing but difguft and melancholy to man- the ancients we're perfuaded, that without kind. the concurrence of a fe>: which every where vii. no- GREEK MUSIC. 295 VII. nOAYMNIA- MYeOYC. Polhymnia the Fubulijl. She is here reprefented as the patronefs of mimes, with her finger on her mouth, in token of filence. The painter differs in cha- racterifing this Mufe from moft of the poets and mythologifts, who make her the inventrefs of hymns to the Gods, How- ever, there are etymologifts, among whom are Plutarch and Nonnus, who derive her name from Mv^vj, tradition., alluding to the fables and tales of antiquity, which the mimes and dancers ufually made the fubjects of their performance. Non- nus Dionyf. V. v. 104, et J'eq, fays, Sweet Polhymnia, fee advance, Mother of the graceful dance : She who taught th' ingenious art, Silent language to impart : Signs for fentiment fhe found, Eloquence without a found : Hands loquacious fave her lungs, All her limbs are fpeaking tongues. VIII. Urania, with a globe in her hand, as the patronefs of aftronomy. IX. KAAAIOIIH nOIHMA, Calliope the Poetefs ; with a roll of paper, or volume in her hand, as the Mufe who prefides over heroic verfe, or epic poetry. The author of a famous epi- gram in the Anthologia, fays, Calliope th' heroic canto found. The ancients had numberlefs ingenious and fanciful ideas concerning the Mufes ; Fulgentius informs us, from the tef- timony of various ancient authors, that Apollo was painted with a cithara of ten jtrings, as a fymbol of the union of the God with the nine Mufes, and to fhew that the human voice is compofed of ten parts ; of which the four firft. are the front: teeth^ 296 THE HISTORY OF teeth, placed one againft the other, fo ufeful for the appulfe of the tongue, in forming founds, that, without any one of them, a whittle would be produced inftead of a voice ; the fifth and iixth are the two lips, like cymbals, which, by being ftruck againft each other, greatly facilitate fpeech ; the feventh is the tongue, which ferves as a plectrum to articulate founds ; the eighth is the palate, the concave of which forms a belly to the inftrument ; the ninth is the throat, which performs the part of a flute ; and the tenth the lungs, which fupply the place of bellows. Pythagoras, and, afterwards, Plato, make the Mufes the foul of the planets in our fyftem ; from whence the imaginary mufic of the fpheres (.v). The Pythagoreans and Platonicians fuppofed the univerfe it- felf, and all its parts, to be formed by the principles of har- mony. And this fuppofition does not feem to have been merely figurative ; there are traces of the harmonic principle fcattered up and down fufficient to make us look on it as one of the great and reigning principles of the inanimate world ; and though we have no proof, or indeed any reafon to believe, that the Greeks were acquainted with the foundation of fome of their philofophical opinions, yet what that very fagacious phi— lofopher, Mr. Madaurin, obferves (j/)> concerning the aftro- nomy of Pythagoras, feems highly probable. " When we find, fays he, their accounts (i. e. of the Greeks) to be very imperfect, it feems reafonable to fuppofe they had fome hints only, from fome more knowing nations, who had made greater advances in philofophy." Thofe more knowing nations I fuppofe to have been the Egyptians, from whom the firft and great outlines of every art and fcience originally came. Maclaurin gives us one inftance (.\) The companion and union of the is attributed to Orpheus, be genuine. See elements of allronomy and mulic are ot Of^Ew; Tp«, p. 226. much higher antiquity than the time of (y) Phil. Difcov. ofNqwton, Sec. p. Pythagoras, if the hvmn to Apollo, which 35. of GREEK MUSIC. 297 of the Pythagorean doctrine, which could hardly be fuppofed to be of Greek original, the har?no7iy of the Jpheres, and which, in conformity with Dr. Gregory, he explains as fol- lows : " If we fhould fuppofe mufical chords extended fron^ the fun to each planet, that all thefe chords might become uni- fon, it would be requifite to encreafe or diminifh their tenfions, in the fame proportions as would be Sufficient to render the gra- vities of the planets equal ; and from the fimilitude of thofe proportions, the celebrated doctrine of the harmony of the fpheres is fuppofed to have been derived." Certain as this har- monic coincidence is now become, till Sir Ifaac Newton de- monftrated the laws of gravitation in relation to the planets, it muft have paffed for the dream of an Utopian philofopher (2). Bacchus. This perfonage feems to have acted too important a part in mu- fical mythology to be omitted : for though he is feldom named in modern times but as a fenfual encourager of feaft and jollity, he was regarded in a more refpedtable light by the ancients, who worshipped him in different countries under the follow- ing appellations : in Egypt, he was called OJiris ; in Myfia, Fanaces ; in India, T)ionyJius ; Liber, throughout the Roman dominions ; Adoneus, in Arabia ; and Pentheus, by the Lu- canians. Mythologifts furnifh reafons for all thefe different names given to the fame God, which may be feen in the fe- cond volume of Banier's Mythology. It is natural to fuppofe that the Greeks and Romans, as ufual, bellowed upon the one Bacchus which they worfhipped, the Se- veral actions and attributes of the many divinities known by that name, and by other equivalent denominations in different countries. However, antiquity chiefly diftinguifhed two Gods (%) See Principles and Po'xir of Harmony, p. 1^.6. Vol. L Q^q under 2 9 3 THE HISTORY OF under the title of Bacchus : that of Egypt, the fon of Amnion^ and the fame as Ofiris ; and that of Thebes in Bseotia, the fon: of Jupiter and Semele. The Egyptian Bacchus was brought up at Nyfa, a city of Arabia Felix, whence he acquired the name of Dionyjius, or the God of Nyfa, and this was the conqueror of India. Though, this Bacchus of the Egyptians was one of the elder Gods of Egypt, yet the fon of Semele was the youngeft of the Gre- cian deites. Diodorus Siculus tells us, that Orpheus firft deified the fon of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appointed his ceremonies in Greece, in order to render the family of Cadmus,, the grandfather of the Grecian Bacchus, illuftrious. The Great Bacchus, according to Sir Ifaac Newton (uintil. de Inft. Orator, lib. i. Et fatur arenti primum eft modulatus avena cap. 10. and Cicero de Orat. lib. iii. are Carmen, ut ornatos dicere-t ante Decs, very full upon this fubjech Hence GREEK MUSIC. 313 Hence the difficulty of difcriminating the effects attributed to mulic, from thofe of poetry and the other arts, which were then fo much connected with mufic, as to conftitute an effentiai and indifpenfable part of it. Every thing that depended on proportion was included in the fcience of Harmony. Hence every man of fcience was neceflarily a mufician, as the ftudy of Har- mony, according to its ancient and extenfive fignification, rauft have employed a very confiderable part of the time fpent in the education of thofe who were intended to fill important and confpicuous employments in the temple, the fenate, or the field. This being premifed, I fhall proceed to fpeak of the ufe of mufic in the times which the Greeks diftinguifhed by the epithet heroic, which may more properly be called poetic times ; for though little better than a blank in hiftory and chronology, they have notwithftanding been filled up by the poets and fa- bulifts with wonderful events, in the fame manner as the va- cuity in parts of the Pacific ocean have been filled up by navi- gators and geographers with whales, with dolphins, and with lea monfters. In this chapter I fhall confider what ancient authors furnifh relative to our fubjecT: in the times of the Theban Chiefs, the Argonauts, and the Trojans, the richeft and mod fertile pe- riods in all antiquity for poetic and dramatic events, though they are fomewhat barren with refpect to mufic. But as little can be faid with certainty concerning the mufic of this period, I fhall chiefly confine my enquiries to mufcians, whofe names are upon record ; and ftripping their biography of fiction and al- legory, 1 fhall relate only the few hiftorical facts which are to be found concerning them, in authentic remains of antiquity. So many fables have been devifed concerning the firft poets and muficians, that a doubt has been thrown even upon their exiftence. Chiron, Amphion, Orpheus, Linus, and Mufxus, are fpoken of by the poets and mythologifts fo hyperbolically, that the time when, and place where they flourifhed, will ap- Vol. I, S s pear 3H THE HISTORY OF pear to many as little worth a ferious enquiry as the genealogy of Tom Thumb, or the chronology of a fairy tale. However, though I am ready to part with the miraculous powers of their mufic, I am unwilling that perfons, whofe talents have been fo long celebrated, fhould be annihilated, and their a&ions can^ celled from the records of part times. " Ev'n from the tomb the voice of nature cries, Ev'n in their afties live their wonted fires." But there are characters in hiftory fuperior to the devaluations of time ; like thofe high rocks in the ocean, againft which the winds and waves are for ever, in vain, expending their fury. Nor can the fame of Orpheus, Linus, and Mufeus, ever be wholly configned to oblivion, as long as any one alphabet re- mains in ufe among mankind. Their works may be deftroyed* and their exiftence doubted, but their names muft be of equal duration with the world. The memory of few tranfactions of importance to mankind has been loft fince letters have been found : and if we are ignorant of the hiftory of the Egyp- tian, Aflyrian, and Perfian monarchies, it is from their having preceded that period. The firft preceptors of mankind, fuch as are now the fubjecT: of my enquiries, had too much bufinefs upon their hands in civilizing their favage cotemporaries, to write either the hiftory of their anceftors, or their own. Learning was then in too few hands for all its departments to be filled ; but fince its general diffufion, nothing worth recording has been left, untold. It is impoffible to particularize within the limits of this work, or even to enumerate, in a General Hiftory of an art which has fubfifted fo many ages as mufic, all thofe who have been fuccefsful in its cultivation. This would require a biogra- phical work, more voluminous than that of Moreri, or Bayle ; for as all the firft poets were likewife muficians, they cannot be feparated during the union of their profeffions. Indeed an- tiquity GREEK MUSIC. 315 tiquity has left ample materials fcattered throughout all litera- ture, for writing the lives of its favourite bards, many of which have been collected by the indefatigable labour of the learned Fabricius () Sir Ifaac Newton fays, in proof of pedition, in which he had two grandfons. the conftellations being formed by Chiron CbronoL p. 15 1. and Mufaeus for the ufe and honour of the (i) Vac. Xnpus. Argonauts, that nothing later than that (k) Bib. Grtec. vol. i. .expedition was delineated on the original (I) P. 202. fphere ; according to the fame author, (711) Prap. K-vang- Chiron lived till after the Argonautic ex- wrote GREEK MUSIC. 319 wrote before the time of Mofes. Diodorus Siculus, who is very diffufive in his account of Linus (»), tells us, from Dio- nyfius of Mitylene, the hiftorian, who was cotemporary with Cicero, that Linus was the firft among the Greeks who in- vented verfe and mufic, as Cadmus firft taught them the ufe of letters. The fame writer likewife attributes to him an account of the exploits of the firft Bacchus, and a treatife upon Greek Mythology, written in Pelafgian characters, which were alfo thofe ufed by Orpheus, and by Pronapides, the preceptor of Homer. Diodorus fays that he added the firing. Lichanos to the Mercurian lyre, and gives to him the invention of rhythm and melody, which Suidas, who regards him as the moft an- cient of lyric poets, confirms ( fuch poet as Orpheus, anterior to Homer, or that the verfes vulgarly called Orphical, were not written by Orpheus. How- ever, if it fhould be granted that Ariftotle had denied the exift- ence of fuch a man, there feems to be no reafon why his fingle teftimony fhould preponderate againft the univerfal confent of all antiquity, which agrees, that Orpheus was the fon of Oeager, by birth a Thracian, the father, or chief founder of the mytho- logical and allegorical theology amongft the Greeks, and of all their moft facred religious rites and myfteries ; who is com- monly fuppofed to have lived before the Trojan war, that is* in the time of the Ifraelitifh judges, or at leaft to have been fe- nior both to Hefiod and Homer, and to have died a violent death, moft affirming, that he was torn in pieces by women.. For which reafon, in the vifion of Herus Pamphylius, in Plato, Orpheus's foul pafiing into another body, is faid to have chofen that of a fwan, a reputed mufical animal, on account of ths great hatred he had conceived for all women, from the death which they had inflicted on him. And the hiftoric truth of Orpheus was not only acknowledged by Plato, but alfo by IfcK crates* who lived before Ariftotle, in his oration in praife of Buiiris ; and confirmed by the grave hiftorian Diodorus Si=> cuius (x), who fays,, that Orpheus diligently applied himfelf to literature, and when he had learned to, pv&o\oyvp,svx, or the my- thological part of theology, he travelled into Egypt, where he foon became the greateft proficient, among the Greeks, in the myf- teries of religion, theology, and poetry. Neither was this hif- tory of Orpheus contradicted by Origen, when fo juftly pro-? voked by Celfus, who had preferred hirn to our Saviour ; and, according to Suidas, Orpheus the Thracian was the firft invent tor of the religious myfteries of the Greeks, and that religion-. (x) t,{i.\y, cap. 25,, was GREEK MUSIC. 323 was thence called Threjkeia, as it was a Thracian invention. On account of the great antiquity of Orpheus, there have been numberlefs fables intermingled with his hiftory, yet there ap- pears no reafon that we fhould difbelieve the exiftence of fuch a man." The bifhop of Gloucefter fyj fpeaks no more doubtfully of the exiftence of Orpheus, than of Homer and Hefiod, with whom he ranks him, not only as a poet, but alfo as a theolo- gian, and founder of religion. This learned author has thrown new lights upon the character of Orpheus ; our purfuits are fomewhat different ; it was his bufinefs to introduce him to his readers as a philofopher, a legiflator, and a myftagogue ; and it is mine, after eftablifhing his exiftence, to rank him among the firft cultivators of mulic and poetry, and to give him that exalted and refpectable ftation among illuftrious bards, which has been allowed him by almoft all antiquity. . The family of Orpheus is traced by Sir Ifaac Newton for fe- veral generations : " Sefac pairing over the Hellefpont, con- quers Thrace, kills Lycurgus, king of that country, and gives his kingdom, and one of his finging-women to Oeagrus, the fon of Tharops, and father of Orpheus ; hence Orpheus is faid to have had the Mufe Calliope for his mother." He is allowed by molt ancient authors to have excelled in poetry and mufic, particularly the latter, and to have early cul- tivated the lyre, in preference to every other inftrument ; fo that all thofe who came after him were contented to be his imita- tors ; whereas he adopted no model, fays Plutarch ; for before his time no other mufic was known, except a few airs for the flute. Mufic was fo clofely connected in ancient times with the moft fublime fciences, that Orpheus united it not only with philosophy, but with theology. He abftained from eating ani- mal food, and heW eggs in abhorrence as aliment, being per- suaded that the egg fubfifted before the chicken, and was the (y) Div. Leg. book ii. feft. l. T t 2 principle 324 THE HISTORY OF principle of all exiftence : both his knowledge and prejudices* it is probable, were acquired in Egypt, as well as thofe of Py- thagoras, many ages after. With refpect to his abftaining from the flefh of oxen, Gefner fuppofes it may have proceeded from the veneration fhewn to that animal fo ufeful in tillage, in the Eleufinian myfteries, in- ftituted in honour of Ceres, the Goddefs of Agriculture. He might have added that, as thefe myfteries were inftituted in imitation of thofe eftablifhed in Egypt, in honour of Ofiris and Ifis, this abftinence from animal food was of the like origin, and a particular compliment to Apis. But the abbe Fraguier, in an ingenious Diflertation upon the Orphic Life (z), gives ft ill more importance to the prohibition ; for as Orpheus was the legiilator and humanizer of the wild and favage Thracians, who were canibals, a total abolition of eating human flefh could only be eftablifhed by obliging his countrymen to abftain from that of every thing that had life. With refpect to theology, Diodorus Siculus tells us, that his father Oeagrus gave him his firft inftrudtions in religion, im- parting to him the myfteries of Bacchus, as they were then pra&ifed in Thrace. He became afterwards a difciple of the Idaei Daclyli in Crete, and there acquired new ideas concerning religious ceremonies. But nothing contributed fo much to his {kill in theological matters as his journey into Egypt, where being initiated into the myfteries of Ifis and Ofiris, or of Ceres and Bacchus, he acquired a knowledge concerning initiations, expiations, funeral rites, and other points of religious worfhip, far fuperior to any one of his age and country, And being much connected with the defcendants of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes in Basotia, he refolved, in order to honour their ori- gin, to tranfport into Greece the whole fable of Ofiris, and ap- ply it to the family of Cadmus. The credulous people eafily received this tale, and were much flattered by the inftitution of (z) Man* dts Infcrip.. torn. v. p.. 1 1 7. the GREEK MUSIC. 32-5- the ceremonies in honour of Ofiris. Thus Orpheus, who was held in great veneration at the Grecian Thebes, of which he was become a citizen, admirably adapted this fable, and ren- dered it refpeclable, not only by his beautiful verfes, and man- ner of finging them, but by the reputation he had acquired of being profoundly {killed in all religious concerns. At his return into Greece, according to Paufanias (a), he was held in the higheft veneration by the people, as they imagined he had difcovered the fecret of expiating crimes, purifying cri- minals, curing difeafes, and appeafing the angry Gods. He formed and promulgated an idea of a hell, from the funeral ce- remonies of the Egyptians, which was received throughout all Greece [b). He inftituted the myfteries and worfhip of Hecate among the Eginetes (<:•, and that of Ceres at Sparta. Juftin Martyr fays, that he introduced among the Greeks near three hundred and fixty Gods ; Hefiod and Homer pur- fued his labours, and followed the fame clue, agreeing in the like doctrines, having all drank at the fame Egyptian fountain,- Profane authors look upon Orpheus as the inventor of that fpecies of magic, called evocation of the manes, or raifing ghofts ; and indeed the hymns which are attributed to him are moftly pieces of incantation, and real conjuration. Upon the death of his wife Eurydice, he retired to a place in Thefprotia, called Aornas, where an ancient oracle gave anfwers to fuch as evoked the dead. He there fancied he faw his dear Eurydice, and at his departure flattered himfelf that fhe followed him ; but upon looking behind him, and not feeing her, he was fo afflicted, that he foon died of grief (d). There were perfons among the ancients who made public profeflion of conjuring up ghofts, and there were temples where the ceremony of conjuration was to be performed. Paufanias (e\ (a) Lib. vs. cap. 30. (d) Id. lib. vs. (b) Diod. Sic. lib. i. (e) In Baot. (\) faufan. lib. ii., cap. 30, fpeaks 326 THE HISTORY OF fpeaks of that which was in Thefprotia, where Orpheus went to call up the ghoft of his wife Eurydice. It is this very jour- ney, and the motive, which put him upon it, that made it be- lieved he went down into hell. But it is not only the poets who fpeak of conjuring up fpi- rits ; examples of it are to be found both in facred f/J and pro- fane hiftory. Periander, the tyrant of Corinth, vifited the Thef- protians, to confult his wife about fomething left with her in truft ; and we are told by the hiftorians, that the Lacedaemo- nians having ftarved Paufanias their general to death, in the temple of Pallas, and not being able to appeafe his manes,. which tormented them without intermiflion, fent for the ma- gicians from ThefTaly, who, when they had called up the ghofts of his enemies, fo effectually put to flight the ghoft of Paufa- nias, that it never more chofe to {hew its face. The poets have embellifhed this ftory, and given to the lyre of Orpheus, not only the power of filencing Cerberus, and of fufpending the torments of Tartarus, but alfo of charming even the infernal deities themfelves, whom he rendered fo far propitious to his entreaties as to reftore to him Eurydice, upon condition that he would not look at her, till he had quitted their dominions ; a bleffing which he foon forfeited, by a too eager and fatal curiofity. All dangers paft, at length the lovely bride In fafety goes, with her melodious guide ; Longing the common light again to fhare, And draw the vital breath of upper air : He firft, and clofe behind him follow'd fhe, For fuch was Proferpine's fevere decree. When ftrong defires th' impatient youth invade, By little caution, and much love betray'd : ,(f) Witch of Eador, i Sam. chap, xxviii. ver. n and iz. A fault Plate JH. i , ». GREEK MUSIC. 327 A fault which eafy pardon might receive, Were lovers judges, or could hell forgive. For near the confines of etherial light, And longing for the glimm'ring of a fight,. Th' unwary lover caft a look behind, Forgetful of the law, nor mafter of his mind.. Straight all his hopes exhal'd in empty fmoke ; And his long toils were forfeit for a look. Dryden's Virgil (g), Tzetzes (h) explains the fable of his drawing his wife Eury- dice from hell by his great fkill in medicine, with which he prolonged her life, or, in other words, fnatched her from the grave. iEfculapius, and other phyficians, have been faid to have raifed from the dead* thofe whom they had recovered from dangerous difeafes. The bifhop of Gloucefter, in his learned, ample, and admir- able account of the Eleufinian myfteries, fays, " While thefe myfteries were confined to Egypt, their native country, and" while the Grecian law-givers went thither to be initiated, as a kind' of defignation to their office, the ceremony would be na- turally defcribed in terms highly allegorical. — This way of fpeaking was ufed by Orpheus, Bacchus, and others; and con- tinued even after the myfteries were introduced into Greece, as appears by the fables of Hercules, Caftor, Pollux, and The- feus's defcent into hell j but the allegory was fo circumftanced, as to- difcover the truth concealed under it. So Orpheus is faid to get to hell by the power of his harp, Ihreicia jretus cithard, Jidibufqae canon's. Virg. Mn. VI. ver. no* that is, in quality of law-giver ; the harp being the known fymbol of his laws, by which he humanized a rude and bar- barous people. — Had an old poem, under the name of Orpheus, (g). G.eqrgic IV. . (/->) Chiliad. I. Hift. 54. He flourished about 1 170. entitled: 2 3 THE HISTORY OF ■entitled A Defcent into Hell, been now extant, it would per- haps have fiiewn us, that no more was meant than Orpheus's initiation" Many ancient writers in fpeaking of his death, relate, that the Thracian women, enraged at being abandoned by their huf- bands, who were difciples of Orpheus, concealed themfelves in the woods, in order to fatiate their vengeance; and, notwifhftand- ing they postponed the perpetration of their defign fome time through fear, at length, by drinking to a degree of intoxica- tion, they fo far fortified their courage as to put him to death. And Plutarch (/) allures us, that the Thracians ftigmatized their women, even in his time, for the barbarity of this action (k). Our venerable bard is defended by the author of the Divine Legation, from fome infinuations to his difadvantage in Diogenes Laertius. " It is true, fays he, if uncertain report was to be believed, the myfteries were corrupted very early ; for Orpheus himfelf is faid to have abufed them. But this was an art the debauched myftse of later times employed to varnifh their enor- mities ; as the detefted pederafts of after-ages, fcandalized the blamelefs Socrates. Befides, the ftory is fo ill laid, that it is de- tected by the fureft records of antiquity : for in confequence of what they fabled of Orpheus' in the myfteries, they pre- tended he was torn in pieces by the women ; whereas it ap- peared from the infeription on his monument at Dium in Ma- cedonia, that he was {truck dead with lightning, the envied death of the reputed favourites of the Gods." This monument, at Dium, confifting of a marble urn on a pillar, was ftill to be feen in the time of Paufanias. It is faid, however, (i) Be Ser. Num. Vind. tyrant, bought it afterwards of the priefts, (k) It is related, that after he had been imagining, that by merely touching this torn to pieces by the Thracian women, inftrument, he fhould draw after him trees his lyre happening to fall into the Hebrus and rocks : it is true he fucceeded no other- during the fcuffle, was carried to Lefbos, wife than by provoking the dogs in the where it was taken up, and depofited in neighbourhood to tear him to pieces. But the temple of Apollo. But, according to though he could not mare the fame, he Lucian, Neanthus, the fon of Pythacus the fhared the fate of the unfortunate Orpheus. that GREEK MUSIC. 3 2 9 that his fepulchre was removed from Libethra, upon mount Olympus, where Orpheus was born, and from whence it was •transferred to Dium by the Macedonians, after the ruin of Li- bethra, by a fudden inundation, which a dreadful ftorm had occafioned. This event is very minutely related by Paufanias (/). Virgil beftows the firfl: place in his Elyfium upon the legis- lators, and thofe who brought mankind from a Jiate of nature into fociety : Magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis. At the head of thefe is Orpheus, the moft renowned of the European law-givers ; but better known under the character of poet : for the firfl laws being written in meafure, to allure men to learn them, and, when learnt, to retain them, the fable would have it, that by the force of harmony, Orpheus foft- ened the favage inhabitants of Thrace : Threic/us longa cum vejie facer dos Obloquitur numeris feptem d'fcrimina vocum : famque eadem digitis., jam pecline pulfat ebur?io [m). iEn. lib. vi. ver. 645. (I) Llh. ix. (m) It is curious to obferve how inac- curately the moft elegant writers, and fub- lime poets, fpeak of fubjecTs tor which they have no tafte, and in which they have acquired no knowledge. Our great poet, Dryden, though he has extended Virgil's three lines into four, has but ill exprefled the original. The Thracian bard furrounded by the reft, There ftands confpicuous in his flowing veft ; His flying fingers, and harmonious quill, Strike feven diftinguilh'd notes, and fev'n at once they fill. The latter part of this laft verfe fays no- thing to a mufician, and, indeed, but little to any one elfe : the four fingers and thumb of one hand, and the pleftrum in the other, could Jill at moft but fix notes. Mr. Pitt is ftill more unhappy in hisverllon ■: Vol. I. There Orpheus, graceful in his long attire, Inj'cve/i-JiviJioris ftrikes the founding lyre. Now, a dlvljioji is, unluckily, a technical term in mufic, which implies a rapid flight, either with a voice or inftrument : when applied to ringing, it tells us that a great number of notes are given to one fylla- ble ; but we are as certain as we can be about any thing that concerns ancient mufic, that neither the Greeks nor Ro- mans had either the word or tiring in the fenfe which we annex to dii/ifion : and it is but an aukward way of defcribino- an inftrument with feven diftinft firings, or founds, to fay that it had feven divilions. It feems as if the poet meant no more, by the whole paflage, than that " the Thra- cian prieft (Orpheus) fung to the fcven- jlringed Lyre, upon which he fometimes played with his fingers, and fometimes with the ivory ple&rum," U u The 330 THE HISTORY OF The feven firings given by the poet in this paffage to the* lyre of Orpheus, is a circumflance fomewhat hiftorical. The- firfl Mercurean lyre had, at moft, but four firings. Others were afterwards added to it by the fecond Mercury, or Amphion, but according to feveral traditions preferved by Greek hiflo- rians, it was Orpheus who completed the fecond tetrachord, which extended the fcale to a heptachord, or feven joiinds, im- plied by the feptem difcr-imina vocum. For the affertion of many writers that Orpheus added two new firings to the lyre, which before had feven, clafhes with the claims of Pythagoras to the invention of the octachord, or addition of the found ProJIambano- menos to the heptachord, of which almofl all antiquity allows him to have been the inventor. And it is not eafy to fuppofe, that the lyre fhould have been reprefented in ancient fculpture with, four or five firings only, if it had had nine fo early as the time of Orpheus, who liourifhed long before fculpture was known in, Greece (»). With refpect to the writings of Orpheus, he is mentioned by Pindar as author of the Argonautics, and Herodotus fpeaks of. his Orphics (o). His hymns, fays Paufanias, were very fhort, and but few in number; the Lycomides, an Athenian family,, knew them by heart, and had an exclufive privilege of finging them, and thofe of their old poets, Mufseus, Onomacritus, Pamphus, and Olen, at the celebration of the Eleufinian myf- teries ; that is, the prieflhood was hereditary in this family (p). Iamblicus tells us, that the poems under the name of Or-* pheus were written in the Doric dialect, but have fmce been (n) What is here faid concerning the was born 47 7 years B. C. and the comic poet . progrefiive improvements of inftrumental was his cotemporary. Beiides thefe, Apol- mufic, mufl.be wholly confined to Greece; lonius Rhodius, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, for proofs have already been given of the Valerius Flaccus, among the poets ; and Egyptians having been inpoffeffion of more Plato, Ifocrates, Diodorus Siculus, Pau- perfeft inftruments than thofe juft men- . fanias, Apollodorus, Hyginus, Plutarch, tioned, long before the time when Or-, and many other phi'ofophers, hiftorians, pheus is fuppofed to have flourifhed. and mythologifts, cite his works, and fpeak (o) Pindar was born 521 B. C. and of him without throwing the lealt doubt Herodotus 484. Euripides and Arifto- upon his exiftence. phanesboth quote Orpheus ;, the tragedian . (f) Suidas gives to Orpheus a foe, of ths. ti R E E K M U S I C. 331 trans- dialected, or raodernifed. It was the common opinion in antiquity that they were genuine ; but even thofe who doubted of it, gave them to the earlieft Pythagoreans, and fome of them to Pythagoras himfelf, who has frequently been called the follower of Orpheus, and been fuppofed to have adopted many of his opinions {q). If I have felected with too much fedulity and minutenefs whatever ancient and modern writers furnifh relative to Or- pheus, it has been occafioned by an involuntary zeal for the fame of this mufical and poetical patriarch ; which, warm at firft, grew more and more heated in the courfe of enquiry ; ■and, ftimulated by the refpe£t and veneration which I found paid to him by antiquity, I became a kind of convert to this myftagogue, and eagerly afpired at initiation into his myfte* ries in order to reveal them to my readers. MUSiEUS is more celebrated by ancient writers as a philo- fopher, aftronomer, epic poet, and prieft of Ceres, than as a mufician ; however, he lived in fo remote a period, and has fo far furvived his cotemporaries, that he is one of the few me- lancholy remains of his age, of which pofterity has cherifhed the name of Leos, whom Paufanias makes were compofed by Orpheus, tells us, that, the head of owe of the great Athenian though lefs elegant, they had been preferred tribes ; who, by the counfelof the oracle, for religious purpofes to thofe of Homer, •devoted his three daughters, A».o(m, Pfa- III. be Lapidibus, a poem on precious rithea, Eunopca, and Eubula, to the fafety ftones. of the ftate. IV. Fragments, colle&ed by Henry (q) Of the poems that are ftill fubfift- Stevens, ing under the name of Orpheus, which Orpheus has been called the inventor, ■were collected and publifhed at Nurem- or at leaf): the propagator, of many arts berg, 170:, by Andr. (Thrift. Efchenbach, and doftrines among the Greeks, and which have been fince reprinted at 1, The combination of letters, or the art Leipfic, 1764, under the title of OP- of writing. 2. Mufc, the lyre, or cithara, ■EHE AnANTA, feveral have been at- of feven firings, adding three to that of tributed to Onimacritus, an Athenian, Mercury. 3. Hexameter vcrfe. 4. Myf- who flourifhed under the Pyfiftratidae, a- teries and theology. 5. Medicine. 6. Ma- hout 500 years B. C. Their titles are gic and divination. 7. Aftrolovv. Ser- I. The Argonautics, an epic poem. vius upon the lixth jEneid, p. 45c, fays II. Eighty-fix hymns, which are fo Orpheus firft inftituted the harmony of full of incantations, and magical evoca- the fpheres. 8. He is faid likewife to tion, that Daniel Heinfius has called them have been the firft who imagined a pin- ■veram fatana liturgiam, the true liturgy rality of worlds, or that the moon and pla- ■of the devil. Paufanias, who made no nets were inhabited, ■doubt that the hymns fubfifting in his time U u 2 the 33 2 THE HISTORY OF the memory ; he therefore cannot, without injuftice, be omitted : for whoever looks into the ingenious and well-digefted biogra- phical chart of Dr. Prieftley, will find Linus, Orpheus, and Mufseus, placed in fuch barren regions of hiftory, that, like the once beautiful cities of Palmyra and Balbec, they now ftand in a defert ; but great and exalted characters are buoyed up by time, and refill the ftream of oblivion, which foon fweeps away all fuch as have not eminently diftinguifhed them- felves. Mufseus, according to Plato and Diodorus Siculus, was arn Athenian, the fon of Orpheus, and chief of the Eleufinian myfteries, inftituted at Athens in honour of Ceres ; or., accord- ing to others, he was. only the difciple of Orpheus ; but from the great refemblance which there was between his character and talents, and thofe of his mafter, by giving a ftronger out- line to the figure, he was called his fon, as thofe were ftyled the children of Apollo, who cultivated the arts, of which he was the titular Godl Mufseus is allowed to have been one of the firft poets who A'erfified the oracles. He is placed in the Aurundelian marbles, Epoch 15. 1426 B. C. at which time his hymns are there faid- to have been received in the celebration of the Eleufinian myf- teries. Laertius tells us (r), that Mufseus not only compofed a Theogony, but formed a Sphere for the ufe of his companions ; yet, as this honour is generally given to Chiron, it is more natural to fuppofe, with Sir Ifaae Newton, that he enlarged it with the addition of feveral conftellations after the conquer! of the Golden Fleece. The fphere itfelf fhews that it was deli- neated after the Argonautic expedition,, which is defcribed in the afterifms, together with feveral other more ancient hiftories of the Greeks, and without any thing later : for the fhip Argo was the firft long veflel which they had built ; hitherto they had ufed round fhips of burthen, and kept within fight of the {hore : but now, by the dictates of the oracle, and confent of (r) Proem. Hi. i. the GREEK MUSIC. 333 the princes of Greece, the flower of that country fail rapidly- through the deep, and guide their fhip by the ftars (s). Mujkus is celebrated by Virgil in the character of Hiero- phant, or prieft of Ceres, at the head of the moft illuftrious mortals who have merited a place in Elyfium. Here he is made the conductor of iEneas to the recefs, where he meets the made of his father, Anchifes (/). A hill near the citadel of Athens was called Mufaeum, ac- cording to Paufanias, from Mufaeus, who ufed to retire thither to meditate, and compofe his religious hymns, and at which place he was afterwards buried. The works which went under his name, like thofe of Orpheus, were by many attributed to Onomacritus. Nothing remains of this poet now, nor were any of his writings extant in the time of Paufanias, except a hymn to Ceres, which he made for the Lycomides {u). And as thefe hymns were likewife fet to mufic, and fung in the myf- teries by Mufseus himfelf, in the character of prieft, he thence, perhaps, acquired from future times, the title of muiician, as well as of poet, the performance of facred mufic being, pro- bably, at firft confined to the priefthood in thefe celebrations," as it had been before in Egypt, whence they originated. How r - ever, he is not enumerated among ancient muficians by Plu- tarch ; nor does it appear that he merited the title of fon and fucceffor to Orpheus for his mufical abilities, fo much as for his poetry, piety, and profound knowledge in religious myf- teries. But notwithstanding the numberlefs teftimonies come down to us from the beft and moft ancient writers of Greece and Rome, concerning Linus, Orpheus, and Mufceus y Voffius', in the true fpirit of fyftem, and licentioufnefs of an etymolo- gift, as well as from an ambition of being thought deeply verfed in the Eaftern languages, particularly the Phoenician, pretends (s) C.hrcnol. of the Greeks, p. 84. flourished before the Trojan war ; the (t) Mitjlium ante omnes. — JEn, lib. vi. other, who was much younger, and an ver. 667. Ephefian, is fuppofed by many to have (it) There were two other poets in an- been the author of a poem ftill extant, tiquity of the name of Mufasus, of which called Hero and Leamhr, whence OWd one was a Theban, the fon of Philammon enriched his epiftle, which bears the fame - and Thamyra, who, according to Suidas, title. to 334 THE HISTORY OF ■to refolve thofe names, which have been known and revered by all antiquity, into words iignifying things, not perjons : as Li- nos, a Song ; Mofa, art, aifcipiine ; Orpheo, Science. But it this fancy were generally practifed upon ancient authors, there would be little chance of one among them efcaping annihil- ation („v). Though Eumolpus and Melampus are names which frequently occur among thofe of the firft poets and muficians of Greece, it does not appear that they rendered mufic any particular fer- vice ; they were both, indeed, priefts of Ceres, and both wrote hymns for the ufe of her worflup, which, perhaps, they like- wife fet to mufic, and fung themfelves, in the celebration of the myfteries ; but there are no memorials of their performance upon the inftruments then in ufe, or cultivation of mufic, apart from its alliance with poetry and religion. Eumolpus, according to the Oxford marbles, was the fon of Mufeus, and, at once, prieft, poet, and mufician, three cha- racters that were conftantly united in the fame perfon, during the firft ages of the world. He was the publisher of his fa- ther's verfes, and, like him, having travelled into Egypt for the acquifition of knowledge, he afterwards became fo eminent at Athens, as hierophant in the Eleufinian myfteries, that, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, the priefts and fingers, at Athens, were afterwards called Eumolpides, from Eumolpus^ whom they regarded as the founder of their order. And we learn from the fame writer, that Melampus was enu- merated among thofe early civilizers of Greece, who thought it neceftary to travel into Egypt to qualify themfelves for the (x) De Art. Poet. Nat. cap. xiii. §.3. quod gramniadcum eft commentum ; fed ah Puto enim, tfhumvir.os iftospoefios, Orphsa, Helrao y1X\i helin, murmurare, unde Mufaeum, Linum, non fuiffe : fed ejfe no- TVlTlT^i telounah, querela, murmuratio. mina ab antiqua Pbcenicnm lingua, qua ufi Ut Linus nomen pacta Jit lugubria canentis. Cadmus, ct aliqK.and.htt pofleri. Sand Ai»o; Mufasus ahfque dubio a Mu'fa, five Muau, carmen, five canticum, ac prccipue lugubre : quod a 1 DID, Mofar, ars, difciplina. Or- ut ex Atbetueo, Euflatio, Suida coiiflat. No- pheus itidem a fcientia nomen babucrit, a uneit, tit puto, non quia Linum eo deplorarcr.t, Orteo. high GREEK MUSIC. 335 High employments at which they afpired in their own country. Orpheus proceeded thence a legiflator and philofopher ; and Me-- lampus, who had different views, commenced, at his return, phyfician and diviner, arts which in Egypt were profeffed to* gether. Apollodorus fays, that he was the firft who cured dif- eafes by medicinal potions. Phyfic had its miraculous powers during the infancy of the art, as well as mufic ; and life and health being efteemed more precious and folid bleffings than the trantient pleafures of the ear, bore a much higher price : for though bards were often diftinguifhed by royalty, and their talents recompenfed by gifts and honours, yet we do not find in ancient records that any one of them ever experienced fuch munificence as Melampus. It is related by Paufanias, that hav- ing cured the daughters of Prsetus, king of Argos, of an atra- bilarious diforder, with hellebore, he was rewarded with one of his royal patients for wife, and a third part of her father's king- dom in dowry. I now come to the TROJAN WAR, the fecond important epoch in the Grecian Hiitory (y). Antiquity has paid fuch re- flect to the perfonages mentioned in the poems of Homer, as never to have doubted of the real exiftence of any one of them. The poets and muficians, therefore, who have been celebrated by this great fire of fong are ranked among the bards of Greece who fiourifhed about the time of the Trojan War, and of whofe works, though nothing entire remains, yet the (y) In fettling the time of this memor- firft, tells us, from Cato, that Rome was able event, though there is a confiderable built 432 years after the taking of Troy, difagreement among the chronologers, and the interval from the building of Rome yet, by ftating the difference, and taking to the birth of Chrift, according to Varro, the mean, an idea may be formed of the being 7 $3 years, it places the fiege of Troy diftance between that period and the 1185 before the chriftian sera, which near- • Chriftian sera, when certain chronology ly reconciles the chronology of the Oxford - begins, and the difputes, of hiitorians con- marbles, Archbifhop Ulher, and Dr. Blair. . cerning the dates of great events and However, Sir Ifaac Newton, who is fol- - tranfactions upon the globe, are termi- lowed by Dr. Prieftley, fixes this period - nated. only 904 B. C. and the building of Rome : Dionyfius . Hallicarnaffeniis, book- the 627,. names s 336 THE HISTORY OF names, and even fragments of fome of them are to be found In feveral ancient authors pofterior to Homer (z.) Homer was, in general, fo accurate with refpect to cojiume, that he feldom mentioned perfons or things that we may not conclude to have been known during the times of which he •writes ; and it was Mr. Pope's opinion that his account of peo- ple, princes, and countries, was purely hiftorical, founded on the real transactions of thofe times, and by far the moft valuable piece of hiftory and geography left us concerning the ftate of Greece in that early period. His geographical divifions of that country were thought fo exact, that we are told of many con- troversies concerning the boundaries of Grecian cities, which have been decided upon the authority of his poems. The works of Homer were the bible of the Greeks : and what claffical reader will be fo fceptical now as to doubt of what Homer fays ? Indeed, as the firft written memorials of human tranfactions were in verfe, Poetry mull be Hi/lory, till Profe can be found. 1 fliall, therefore, give a fhort account of each bard that is mentioned in the Iliad and OdyfTey, in order to fill up the interval between the Argonautic expedition, and the regular ce- lebration of the Olympic games. But, previous to this, it may be neceifary to take a view of the ftate of Grecian arts and fciences in general, during this early period, and, afterwards, to confider the ufe of mufic in particular, as far as it was connected with religion, war, poetry, public feajis and banquets, and private life. In the Odyfley, book the 17th, Homer fpeaks of arts in fuch terms of refpect and enthufiafm, as could only flow from a mind truly fenfible to their charms and utility. Round the wide world are fought thofe men divine, "Who public ftru&ures raife, or who dehgn ; \z) Dr. Blair places the time when after the taking of Troy, and near 1000 Homer flourifhed, about 900 B. C. Dr. B. C. and all agree that he lived above 4.00 Prieitly^o. The Arundelian marbles 300 years before Plato and Ariftotle. Thofe GREEK. MUSIC. 337 Thofe to whofe eyes the gods their ways reveal. Or blefs with falutary arts to heal ; But chief to poets fuch refpecl: belongs, By rival nations courted for their fongs ; Thefe flates invite, and mighty kings admire, Wide as the fun difplays his vital fire. " This is an evidence, fays Mr. Pope, of the great honour anciently paid to perfons eminent in mechanic arts : the archi- tect and public artifans, Syptzpfot, are joined with the prophet, phyfician, and poet, who were efteemed almoft with a religious veneration, and looked upon as public bleffings." Homer certainly gives us higher ideas of the arts than the ptogrefs which the Greeks had made in them at the time of the Trojan war, or even in his own time, will allow, parti- cularly Fainting. Pope, in fpeaking of the fhield of Achilles, feems to confider it as a complete idea of that art, and a fketch for what may be called a unrcerfal piSlure ; but he is obliged to confers that Homer in this, as in other arts, comprehended whatever was known in his own time, and that it is even highly probable that be extended his ideas yet further, and gave & more enlarged notion of it. For there is fcarce a fpecies or branch of this art which is not be found in the defcription of this fhield (a). In fupport of this reafoning, Mr. Pope was obliged to oppofe his own opinion to that of all antiquity ; forgetting that there was an ealier folution of .the difficulties which lay in the way of his hypothecs : for as Homer had travelled into Egypt, it may be fuppofed that he had t/iere acquired ideas of the arts in general, far fuperior to fhofe which his own country fur- nifhed ; particularly painting, fculpture, and architecture, which we are certain, from what ftill remains of them in Egypt, (a) See Pope's Obfervations en the Shield of Achilles. I'tlad, B. iS. Vol. I. -X x were 333 THE HI STORY OF were cultivated, and greatly advanced towards perfection,, be- fore the time of Homer, or even the Trojan war ; and .Mr. Pope, on another occafion, allows him to have drawn his know- ledge from that fource. " Magic, fays he, is fuppofed to have been firft practifed in Egypt, and to have fpread afterwards among the Chaldeans : It is very evident that Homer had. been in Egypt, where he might hear an account of the wonders performed by it (<£);" With refpect to mufic, we find it mentioned with a degree of rapture in more than fifty places of the Iliad and OdyfTey. However it is in fuch clofe union with poetry, that it is dif- ficult to difcriminate to which the poet's praifes belong. The lyre indeed is conftantly in the hands of the bard, but merely as an inftrument of accompaniment to the voice. So that I fear, mufic and the lyre were frequently only vehicles through which Homer celebrated the power of poetical numbers. Singing there is without inftruments, but of inftrumental mufic without vocal, there does not appear the leaft trace in the writings of Homer. Even dancing was accompanied by the voice, according to the following paffage : Then to the dance they form the vocal ftrain, Till Hefperus leads forth the ftarry train (c). It feems as if nothing would convey to the- reader a more juft and clear idea of the ftate of mufic in the time of the Tro- jan war, or at leaft of Homer, than a lift of the inftruments mentioned in the original ; thefe are the lyre, the flute, and the fyrinx (d). The lyre has been called by tranflators, lute, harp, cithara, and teftudo, juft as. the convenience of verfifi- (i) Notes to the Odyfley, b. x. Homer, tpoffity^, x&ap*, xf&uii are. the (c) OdyJJly, b. xv. See likevvifc b. >v. Greek names for flringed inftruments an? v. 25. fwering to lyre, harp, cithara, chclys, or (d) Indeed the word Avpa, lyre, never teftudo. Ariftophanes is the oldeft Greek occurs in the Iliad, Odyffey, or -Hymns of writer in vvhofe works hvpx appears. cation : GREEK MUSIC. 339 cation required ; and if thefe and the lyre were not in ancient times one and the fame inftrument, they were certainly all of the fame kind (e). The flute and fyrinx have already been faid to be of Egyp- tian origin, and of great antiquity. Thefe inftruments are fpe- cified by Homer in a paflage where they do not appear in Mr. Pope's verfion. Now o'er the fields, dejected, he furveys From thoufand Trojan fires the mounting blaze ; Hears in the pafling wind the tnufic blow, And marks diftinct the voices of the foe {f). Under whatever idea or denomination the public worfhip of the Supreme Being has been eftabliftied, mufic appears, at all times and in every place, to have been admitted in the celebration of Religious Rites and Ceremonies. That the Greeks, and before them the Egyptians and Hebrews, ufed mufic in folemn facri- fices, as well as in feftivals of joy, is fo certain and well known, that proofs are here unneceflary. A paflage has already been cited from the Iliad, on another occafion, page 187, which puts the ufe of hymns and fongs of piety in fupplicating Apollo, out of doubt ; and, according to a paflage given from iEfchylus, by Euftathius, notwithftanding the multiplicity of the Grecian divinities, " Death was the only God who could neither be moved by offerings, nor conquered by facrifices and oblations ; and therefore he was the only one to whom no altar was erected, and no hymns were Jung {g)." (e) Euftathius tells us that the appel- a fanciful etymology for the lute, which is lation of te%z came from >,vr(a, a fay- certainly a much more modern inftrument mcnt, or indemnification, alluding to its than the harp or lyre, having been given by Mercury to Apollo, (_/") Av*.m, e-vfipyut Ttmirw, opuSet raw to make him amends for the oxen that he §i^mm. II. K. 13. had ftolen from him. The inftrument, long (g ) Mora; Siut §<*i«to; s Safut £§a, before it received this name, was called Ov$' an tiSu«», hV ernvmmn *«£<»;, yjbvi, ebelys, tejludo. This feems to furnilh Qvl' ts - ( jJw^of, bJe w«i»»^t«». X x 2 With 34o THE HISTORY OF With refpecT: to Military Mi/Jic, the trumpet is mentioned by- Homer in a fimile ; yet it is agreed by all the critics that it was unknown to the Greeks during the Trojan war, though it was in common ufe in the time of the poet. According to Archbi- ihop Potter (/?), before the invention of trumpets, the firft fig- n-als of battle in primitive wars were lighted torches ; to thefe fucceeded fhells of fifhes, which were founded like trumpets. We find, likewife, that heralds performed this office during the fiege of Troy. Neftor fays to Agamemnon before a battle : Now bid thy heralds found the loud alarms, And call the fquadrons fheath'd in brazen arms (/). The vociferous Stentor is celebrated by Homer as the moll illuftrious Throat-performer, or herald of antiquity : Stentor the ftrong, endued with brazen lungs, Whofe throat furpafs'd the noife of fifty tongues (&}. Mr. Pope obferves on this paffage, that " there was a ne- ceffity for cryers whofe voices were ftronger than ordinary, in thofe ancient times, before the ufe of trumpets was known in their armies. And that they were in efteem afterwards, may be feen from Herodotus, where he takes notice that Darius had in his train an Egyptian, whofe voice was louder and ftronger than that of any other man of his age." That Poetry was infeparable from Mufic has already been fre- quently obferved ; and in the time of Homer as a poet was conftantly ftyled a Jinger^ fo there was no other appellation for a poem, but that of Jong. I fhall only felect one paffage here, from among the many that are to be found in the Iliad and Odyffey, relative to the union of found and fenfe. Agamem- non meeting with Achilles in the fhades, relates to him how much his fall had been lamented by the Grecians at Troy : (b) Arcbxologla Graca, vol, II. ch. ix. (i) II. book ii. (£) Ihid. book v. Round GREEK MUSIC. 341 Round thee, the Mufes, with alternate ftrain, In ever confecrating verfe complain. Each warlike Greek the moving mufic hears, And iron-hearted heroes melt in tears (/). Among the numerous public feafls and banquets defcribed by Homer, there is not one without mufic and a bard. And, ac- cording to the ideas of that poet, the Gods themfelves upon fuch occaiions, receive delight from the voice and lyre of Apollo and the Mufes. Thus the bleft Gods the genial day prolong In feafts ambrofial, and celeflial fong ; Apollo tun'd the lyre (m), the Mufes round With voice alternate, aid the filver found (n). Again, in the laft book of the Iliad, Juno, fpeaking of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and exercifing her irrafcible. difpofition upon almoft all the celeftial fynod, fays, To grace thofe nuptials, from the bleft abode Yourfelves were prefent, where this minftrel God ( 344- THE HISTORY OF to tire the reader if I gave them all. However, fome of them are of too much importance to the fubjecl: to be paft unnoticed. Among thefe, for the honour of mufic, it muft be remarked, that he thought it fo much an accomplifhment for princes, as to make both Achilles and Paris performers on the lvre. In the folemn embafly lent by Agamemnon to Achilles, during his retirement, after he had quitted the Grecian camp in difguft, it is faid by Homer of the delegates, that Amus'd at eafe, the godlike man they found, Pleas'd with the folemn harp's harmonious found. (The well-wrought harp from conquer'd Thebas came, Of polifh'd filver was its coftly frame) ; With this he fooths his angry foul, and fings Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings (;-). Paris, when he declined the combat with Menelaus, is up- braided by Hector for his beauty, effeminacy, and fondnefs for drefs, and for mafic. Thy graceful form inftilling foft defire, Thy curling treffes, and thy filver lyre [s\ " It is ingenioufly remarked by Dacier, fays Pope, that Homer, who celebrates the Greeks for their long hair, and Achilles for his fkill on the harp, makes Hector in this place .object them both to Paris. The Greeks nourifhed their hair to appear more dreadful to the enemy, and Paris to pleafe the eyes of women. Achilles fung to his harp the acts of heroes, (>■) Iliad, book ix. of fmall importance, and yet it feems to (s) Ibid: book iii. I know not whether conftitute the fame kind of difference be- lt has ever been remarked, that in the tween the two inflruments, as there was original the instrument ufed by Achilles is between the two heroes who ufed them ; called. by the fame name, pofwtyf, as that the citbara may in ancient times have been which the poet always gives to Apollo ; thought inferior to the phorminx, as the and that with which Hector upbraids Pa- modern guitar is efteemed at prefent a tri- •ris, which in the tranflation is ftyled the vial and effeminate inikument, when com- filver lyre, is called xiflaga by Homer. pared with the double harp. This diftiii&ion may perhaps be thought and GREEK MUSIC. 345 slid Paris the amours of lovers. The fame reafon which made HecT:or here difpleafed at them, made Alexander afterwards re- fufe to fee this lyre of Paris, when offered to be {hewn to him, as Plutarch relates the ftory in his oration of the fortune of Alexander." Not only the heroes of Homer are mufical, but fome of his divinities, particularly Calypfo and Circe ; both of whom are found finging by Hermes and Ulyffes (t). And a ftill further confirmation of the importance of mufic in the opinion of Homer is, that it has a place in four of the twelve compart- ments, into which his defcription of the fhield of Achilles has been divided by the critics. 1, A town in peace : Here facred pomp, and genial feaft delight, And folemn dance, and hymeneal rite : Along the ftreet the new made brides are led, With torches flaming to the nuptial bed ; The youthful dancers in a circle bound To the foft flute, and cittern's filver found («). 2. Shepherds piping on reeds (x) : 7. Song and dance accompanied by the lyre, during the time of vintage fyj. 4. A figur'd dance fucceeds : fuch one was feen In lofty Gnoffus, for the Cretan queen, Form'd by Dsedalean art ; a comely band Of youths and maidens, bounding hand in hand ; The maids in foft cymarrs of linen dreft ; The youths all graceful in the gloffy veft ; Of thofe, the locks with flow'ry wreath enroll'd ; Of thefe, the fides adorn'd with fwords of gold, That, glitt'ring gay, from filver belts depend. Now all at once they rife, now all defcend, (?) OJyf. book v. and x, (x) E»?«yf«. («) Iliad, book xviii. (y) Iliad, book xviii* Vol, I, Y y With 346 THE HISTORY OF With well-tauglit feet : now fhape, in oblique ways* Confus'dly regular the moving maze : Now forth at once, too fwift for fight they fpring, And undiftinguiuVd Wend the flying ring : So whirls a wheel, in giddy circle toft, And rapid as it runs, the fingle fpokes are loft. The gazing multitudes admire around ; Two active tumblers in the centre bound, j Now high, now low, their pliant limbs they bend, And general fongs the fprightly revel end (z)*. Dancing has been at all times, and in all places, fa infepar- able from mufic, that, like poetry, the hiftory of the one ne- ceflarily involves that of the other. It was this union which tempted me to infert the whole defcription of a dance from Homer, as it paints in fo ample, and animated a manner, the ftate of dancing in Greece during his time. Mr. Pope in his notes on this paffage, fays, that " there were two forts of dances, the Pyrrhic, and the common dance :, Homer has joined both in this defcription. We fee the Pyr- rhic, or military, is performed by youths who have fwords on,. the other by virgins crowned with garlands. " Here the ancient fcholiaft fays, that whereas before it was the cuftom for men and women to dance feparately, the con- trary cuftom was afterwards brought in by feven youths, and; as many virgins, who were faved by Thefeus from the laby- rinth ; and that this dance was taught them by Dasdalus : to which Homer here alludes. " It is worth obferving that the Grecian dance is ftill per- formed in this manner in the oriental nations : the youths and; maids dance in a ring,, beginning flowly ;. by degrees the mufic plays a quicker time, till at laft they dance with the utmoffc :lwiftnefs : and. towards the conclufion, they fing, as it is faid ; (?s) Iliad, book xvti.. hexen GREEK MUSIC. 347 here, in a general chorus." In this manner, likewise, the re- ligious dance of the dervifes is performed in the Turkifh mofques. I have now to fpeak of the Bards, or Rhapfodifts, whom the writings of Homer have immortalized. Fabricius has given a lift of more than feventy poets, who were fuppofed to have flouriihed before the time of Homer. Of twenty among thefe, fragments of their writings are ftill to be found difperfed through Greek literature ; and near thirty of them have been celebrated by antiquity as improvers of the art of mufic, and of mufical inftruments. I fhould here infert the names of all thefe ante-Homerian muficians, and relate what has been recorded concerning them in ancient authors ; but as the plan of my work is limited to two volumes, it would be encroaching on that place which muft be referved for perfons and tranf- actions of more modern times, and of greater certitude. In- deed feveral of them have been mentioned already, and as the reft may force themfelves in my way during the courfe of my narrative, I fhall here confine myfelf to the bards of the Iliad and Odyffey. Among thefe, the feer TIRESIAS feems the moft ancient, though he is only mentioned in the Odyffey, which relates no events but fuch as happened to Ulyffes after the Trojan war. Mufic, Poetry, Prophecy, and the Priefthood, feem infeparable employments in high antiquity (a). The Egyptians, Hebrews, and early Greeks certainly united them : and, among the laft, Orpheus, Mufaaus, Eumolpus, and Melampus, have been in- ftanced already. Tirefias was the moft celebrated prophet in the Grecian annals. Ulyffes is ordered by Circe to confult him in the (hades, (a) The priefts in Roman catholic fifes that have been printed in Italy, have countries are ftill obliged by their function been compofed by churchmen ; as thofe to cultivate mufic as well as theology j of Franchinus, Pietro Aaron, Zarlino, and moft or the numerous mufical trea- and Kircher, Yy 2 There 3i 8 THE HISTORY OF There feek the Theban bard depriv'd of fight, Within irradiate with prophetic light (h). But, befides the honour done to him by Homer, Sophocles makes him act a venerable and capital part in his tragedy of Oedipus. Callimachus afcribes to Minerva the gift of his fii- perior endowments ; the pre-eminence of his knowledge is likewife mentioned by Tully in his firft book of Divination (c). And not only Tirefias is celebrated by Diodorus Siculus [d) t but his daughter Daphne, who, like her father, was gifted with a prophetic fpirit, and was appointed prieftefs at Delphos. She wrote many oracles in verfe, from whence Homer was re- ported to have taken feveral. lines, which he interwove in his poems. As fhe was often feized with a divine fury, fhe ac- quired the title of Sify/, which fignifies enthufiaft. She is the firft on whom it was beftowed : in after times this denomina- tion was given to feveral other females, that were, fuppofed to be infpired, and who uttered and. wrote their predictions in verfe, which verfe being fung, their function may be juftly faid to unite the priefthood with prophecy, poetry, and mufic. THAMYRIS is called by Homer KtBetgigye, one who fmgs to the cithara. Plutarch, in his Dialogue on Mii/ic, tells us, that he was born in Thrace, the country of" Orpheus, and had the fweeteft and moft fonorous voice of any bard of his time. He was the fon of Philammon, of whom mention has already been made. Homer in his Catalogue of Ships, where he fpeaks of the cities under the dominion of Neftor, mentions Dorion as the place where Thamyris contended with the Mufe.s, whom he had the arrogance to challenge to a trial of Ikill in poetry and mufic. The conditions and confequences of this contention are fully defcribed by the poet. (b) dhf. book ii. them from a matrimonial conteft between. (c) Ovid in his Metamorpbofes, gives a Jupiter and Juno, very jocular reafon for the blindnels and (d) Lib, iv. prophetic knowledge of Tireiias, deriving And GREEK MUSIC. 349? And Dorion, fam'd for Thamyris' difgrace, Superior once of all the tuneful race, Till, vain of mortals empty praife, he ftrove To match the feed of cloud-compelling Jove ! Too daring bard ! whofe unfaccefsful pride Th' immortal Mufes in their art defy'd : Th' avenging Mufes of the light of day Depriv'd his eyes, and fnatchM his voice away ; No more his heav'nly voice was heard to fing, His hand no more awak'd the filver firing (), may be gathered from his defcription of Demodocus and Phemius, whom he has introduced to celebrate his pro- feffion. Homer feems particularly folicitous to preferve the honour of Phemius, by informing us that he was preffed into the fervice of the fuitors of Penelope, for the amufement of whom he was obliged to exercife his talents in the midfl of riot and debauchery. To Phemius was confign'd the chorded lyre, Whofe hand reluctant touch'd the warbling wire : Phemius, whofe voice divine could fweetefl fing High llrains refponfive to the vocal firing (q). From the inftrudtions which Penelope gives to the Bard, we may, however, form fome idea of the kind of fongs that were ufually performed at the banquet of princes. Phemius ! let acts of Gods, and heroes old, What ancient Bards in hall and bow'r have told, Attemper'd to the lyre, your voice employ ; Such the pleas 'd ear will drink with filent joy (r). That poetry was regarded, during the time of Homer, as immediate infpiration from the Gods, has been already re- (j>) EJJhy on Homer, fed. ii. (q) Otfyfey, book i. (r) Ibid. Z z 2 marked 356 THE HISTORY OF marked in the preceding article : and it is evident that his bards fung extempore> either upon a given fubjec~t, or one of their own choice ; nor does it ever appear that any of the poets or muficians, mentioned by Homer, fung verfes which had been previoufly written or compofed. And yet Homer makes Ulyffes himfelf inform us, that there was no convivial affembly without a Bard : I fee the fmokes of facrifice afpire, And hear, what graces every feaji^ the lyre (j 1 ). And in the twenty-fecond book of the Odyffey, Phemius alone the hand of vengeance fpar'd,, Phemius the fweet, the heav'n-inftructed Bard. The fpeech which he makes to the avenging Ulyffes, in order to deprecate his wrath, is fo fine an eulogium upon poetry and mufic in general, that I cannot better clofe this chapter than by tranfcribing it entire. O king ! to mercy be thy foul inclin'd, And fpare the Poet's ever gentle kind. A deed like this thy future fame would wrong, For dear to Gods and men is facred fong. Self-taught I fing, by Heav'n, and Heav'n alone The genuine feeds of poefy are fown ; And, what the Gods beftow, the lofty lay To Gods alone, and God-like worth, we pay.. Save then the Poet, and thyfelf reward, Tis thine to merit, mine is to record (/). (s) Odyf. book xvii. " ings of this author, nor was it known- (t) It may be of fome importance to " during his time." We fee it however mufic to remark here, that Mr. Pope, in very frequently in the tranjlatian, where his Life of Homer, informs us, " The the original only has «o^os, Bard, Minjlrel,, " word^w/ does not occur in all the writ- Singer. e h: a f.. GREEK MUSIC- 357 CHAP. IV. Of the State of Mufc in Greece^ from the Time of Homer, till it was fubdued by the Romans, including the Mujical Contejls at the Public Games. IT has been imagined, with great appearance of truth, that the occupation of the firft Poets and Muficians of Greece very much refembled that of the Bards among the Celts, and Germans and the Scalds in Iceland, and Scandinavia ; Chanters,, who iung their works in great cities, and in the palaces of princes, where they were treated with much refpect, and re- garded as infpired perfons. Such, at firft, were likewife the Troubadours of Provence and Languedoc, and the Minjlrels of other countries, till they became too numerous and licentious to create wonder or efteem. However, it is well known that a great number of hiftorical events are preferved in the writings of thefe ancient poets ; and that the pictures they have left of the times when they flourifhed, are fimple and genuine. If the writings of the ancient Romancers, or Troubadours of Greece, pofTeffed the fame merit, which we have great reafon to be- lieve they did, the hiftorians of after-times, who had no other fource to draw information from than their fongs, did well to avail themfelves of fuch materials. Unfortunately, for my prefent enquiries, from the time of Ho- mer till that of Sappho, there is almoft a total blank in litera- ture ; for though feveral names of poets and muficians are re- corded between thofe periods, yet, of their works, only a few fragments remain. Nor are any literary productions preferved entire, between the time of Sappho and Anacreon, who flou- rifhed at the diftance of near a hundred years from each other ; and between the poems of Anacreon and Pindar, there is another chafm. of near a century. After this, the works which: 358 THE HISTORY OF ■which ftill fubfift of the three great tragic poets, iEfchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides ; and of the hiftorians, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon ; together with thofe of Plato, Ariftotle, Ariftoxenus, Euclid, Theocritus, Callimachas, Po- lybius, and many others, all produced within the fpace of lefs than three hundred years; mark this as one of thofe illuftrious and uncommon periods, in which all the powers of human nature and genius feem to have been called forth and exerted, in or- der to furnifh light and inftruction to mankind in intermediate ages of darknefs, indolence, calamity, and barbarifm. With refpect to the arts, we learn from Paufanias, that fculpture was brought to the higheft perfection between the fifty-fecond or fifty-third Olympiad, and the eighty-third ; that is, in about a hundred and twenty years, from Daedalus to Phidias, in which ftate it continued to the time of Alex- ander the Great, the celebrated epoch of perfection in all the arts and fciences ; after which they began to decline (a). It was then that Eloquence, Poetry, Hifiory, Mufic, Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture, like flowers of the climate, fprung up, and bloomed at once, feemingly without labour and without attention, till the artifts were no more ; after which the whole univerfe agreed in admiring their productions, and deploring their lofs. As poetry and mufic, in the early ages of thofe arts, were {o much united, that all the lyric, elegiac, and even epic Bards, were neceflarily and profefledly muficians, I fhall give an ac- count of the principal of them, in chronological order. Indeed, the diligence of editors and commentators has made the li- terary world, in general, fo well acquainted with the moft in- teresting circumftances relative to the lives and writings of every poet whofe works are preferved, that I fhall have little occafion to fwell the biographical part of my work with fur- fa) Phidias died 43 2 years B. C. and riod of perfection in the arts was but of Alexander 323. So that the whole pe- 1 09 years duration. ther GREEK MUSIC 359 ther particulars concerning them. But there are other illuf- trious names upon record, of Bards, who, though dear to their eotemporaries, and long refpected by fucceeding ages, have furvived the ravages of time, only in a few fcattered fragments. And as antiquity has preferved feveral incidents relative to the lives, talents, and productions of thefe, I {hall endeavour to. collect them ; and from the fcanty materials to be gathered in. ancient authors, afllgn to each the inventions and improve- ments attributed to him, in Poetry and Mufic, while thofe two arts continued fo infeparable, as to conftitute one and the fame profeffion. The Oxford Marbles {b) inform us, that HYAGNIS, & native of Celaense, the capital of Phrygia, and cotemporary with Erichthonius, who inftituted the Panathensean games at Athens, 1506 B. C. was the inventor of the Flute, and Phry- gian mode ; as well as of the JSIomes y or airs, that were fung to the mother of the Gods, to Bacchus, to Pan* and to fame other divinities and heroes of that country. Plutarch (c) and Nonnus [d) both tell us that he was the father of Marfyas ; and Athenanis (e Legib. (i) Politic, lib. viii, cap. 5. lib. iiu (k) De Mufua. troduces GREEK MUSIC. 361 troduces the two generals, Demofthenes, and Nicias, traveflied into valets, and complaining of their mafter, makes them fay, " Let us weep and wail like two Flutes, breathing fome air of Olympus" Plutarch afcribes to him feveral Nomes or Airs, that are frequently mentioned by ancient writers : fuch as the Minerva ; the Harmatian, Curule, or Chariot air, juft men- tioned ; and the Spondean, or Libation air. THALETAS of Crete is the next Poet-mufician upon re- cord, after Hefiod and Homer. This Bard has been con- founded by fome writers with Shales, the celebrated Milefian philofopher ; but, according to Plutarch (/), he was cotempo- rary with Lycurgus, the Spartan legiflator, and lived about three hundred years after the Trojan war. Plutarch alfo in- forms us, that though Thaktas was only flyled a lyric poet and mufician, he was likewife a great philofopher and politi- cian ; in fo much that Lycurgus brought him from Crete, when he returned from his travels, to Sparta, in order to have af- fiftance from him, in eftablifhing his new form of govern- ment. His Odes, continues Plutarch, were fo many exhor- tations to obedience and concord, which he enforced by the fweetnefs of his voice and melody. Plato, likewife, defcribes his captivating manner of finging ; and Plutarch, in his Dia- logue on Mufic, afcribes to 'Thaktas many mufical compofi- tions and inventions : fuch as Paans, and new Meafures in verfe, as well as Rhythms in mufic, which he had acquired from the flute-playing of Olympus, whom he at firfl: had imi- tated. Porphyry, in his Life of Pythagoras, fays, that this philofopher ufed to amufe himfelf with finging the old Paans of Thaktas ; and Athenasus likewife tells us (;»), that the Spartans long continued to fing his Airs ; and, according to the Scholiaft on Pindar, this poet-mufician was the firfl; who com- pofed the Hyporchemes for the armed, or military dance (n). (!) In Lycurg. of poetry compofed, not only to hefung to (m) Lib. xv. the found of flutes and citharas, but to be (n) The Greeks called iVop^jj/xa, a kind danced, at the fame time. The Italian Vol. I. A a a term ^ 62 THE HISTORY OF There was another poet and mufician of the name of Tha-° letas, who was likewife a Cretan, that flourifhed much later than the cotemporary and friend of Lycurgus. Sir Ifaac Newton has named him among the early victors at the Pythic games, and Dr. Blair places him 673 years B. C. This is the Thaletas whom Plutarch makes cotemporary with Solon, and of whom it is related, that he delivered the Lacedaemonians from the peftilence, by the fweetnefs of his lyre *. The name of EUMELUS occurs next among the early poets of Greece, though but little is known concerning his talents or productions. He is quoted, indeed, both by Paufanias and Athenseus ; by the former, to fhew the great antiquity of mu- fical contefts among the Meffenians, and, by both, as an Hif- torian. But if he was author of a hiftory of his own country^. Corinth, as thefe writers have faid, it muft have been cora- pofed in Verfe, an hifiorical Ballad \ profe-writing having been unknown in Greece, fo early as 744 years B. C. the time when he is faid, by G. Voflius, to have flourished. Philofophy and hiftory had no other language than poetry, till the time of Cadmus Milefms, and Pherecydes of Scyros, who were cotem- poraries, and the firft who wrote concerning either hiftory or philofophy, in Profe. Epimenides of Crete, Abaris the philo- fopher, and Anacharfis the legiflator, both Scythians, as well as F.umelus of Corinth, and innumerable others, are faid to have made verfe the vehicle of their inftru&ions and records. Thefe all acquired the title of Sage (0), which, originally, was beftowed not only on the wife and learned, who held com- merce with the Mufes, but on all thofe who had diftinguifhed, themfelves, by their abilities in any art or fcience. term Ballata, the French Ballade, and the idea that dancing, if not anterior to Poctiy Englifh word Ballad, had formerly the and Mnjic, had a very early and intimate tame import; implying, feverally, a fong, connection with them both. The poet Si- the melody of which was to regulate the monides denned Poetry an eloquent Dance : time of a dance. And the different mea- and Dancing, zjilent Poctiy. fares of poetry being called feet, both in * See p. 1 86. ancient and. modern languages, fuggeftsan (o) Eopoj. ARCHILO CHITS- GREEK MUSIC. 363 ARCHILOCHUS has been already mentioned, (p ) as the inventor of Dramatic Melody, or the melody ufed in declama- tion ; which, in modern language, might be termed Recitative to JlriSl meafure, fuch as the voice-part obferves in many modern pieces of accompanied recitative. Herodotus makes him co- temporary with Candauies and Gyges, kings of Lydia, who flourifhed about the fourteenth Olympiad, 724 years B. C. But modern chronology places him much later (q). Accord- ing to Plutarch, there is no Bard of antiquity, by whom the two arts of Poetry and Mufic have been fo much advanced, as by Archilochus. He was born at Paros, one of the Cyclades. His father Teleficles was of fo high a rank, that he was chofen by his countrymen to confult the oracle at Delphos, concerning the fending a colony to Thafos : a proof that he was of one of the moft diftinguifhed families upon the ifland. However, he is faid to have fullied his birth by an ignoble marriage with a flave called Enipo, of which alliance, our poet- mufician was the fruit. Though Archilochus fhewed an early genius and attachment to poetry and mufic, thefe arts did not prevent his going into the army, like other young men of his birth ; but in the firft engagement at which he was prefent, the young poet, like Horace, and like our own Suckling, loft his buckler, though hefaved his life by the help of his heels ; neither of which, luckily, had fared fo ill in the battle, as that of Achilles at Troy. It is much eajier, faid he, to get a new buckler, than a new exiftence. This pleafantry, however, did not fave his reputa- tion ; nor could his poetry or prayers prevail upon Lycambes, the father of his miftrefs, to let him marry his daughter, though {he had been long promifed to him. After thefe mortifications, his life feems to have been one continued tiflue of difgrace and refentment (r). There is a great refemblance between the inci- (p) P. 157^ The rage of Archilochus was proverbial (q) Blair 686 ; Prieftley 660 B. C. in antiquity; which compared the pro- Xr) Archilochum propria rabies armavit voking this fatyrift, to the treading upon a lamio. Hor. ferpent. A companion not very fevere, A a a z if 304 THE HISTORY OF dents of his life, and thofe of the poet RoufTeau : both were equally unfortunate in love, friendfhip, and in death ; both were at war with the world, and the world with them ; nor was either admired, till he ceafed to be feared. A peevilh, fatirical, and irafcible difpofition, foured the public, and embittered their own exiftence. A general fatirift, like Codes on the bridge, ftands alone, againft a whole army of foes. All the particular circumftances of this Greek fatirift, which cannot with propriety have admiflion here, have been care- fully collected in the courfe of the prefent century by three able biographers (s). His mufical and poetical difcoveries are what chiefly concern this Hiftory ; and among thefe, Plu- tarch (t) attributes to him the Rhythmopceiaoi Trimeter Iambics ; the fudden tranfition from one rhythm to another of a dif- ferent kind (u) ; and the manner of accompanying thofe irre- gular meafures upon the lyre ; with feveral other inventions of the fame kind, which, to tranfcribe, would only be giving the reader words without ideas, or ideas which it is not certain the words were intended to convey. Now, as the meafure of verfe rigoroufly governed the melody to which it was fet and fung, new Numbers in poetry, muft have generated new Airs in mufic Heroic poetry, in hexameter verfe, feems to have been folely in ufe among the more ancient poets and muficians ; and the tran- fition from one rhythm to another, which lyric poetry re- quired, was unknown to them ; fo that if Archilochus was the firft author of this mixture, he might with propriety be ftyled the Inventor of Lyric Poetry, which, after his time, became a fpecies of verification wholly diftincT: from heroic [x] . if it be true that Lycambes, and, as fome (t) De Mujtca.. fay, his three daughters, were fo morti- (a) That is, of a different time ; as fied by his fatire, as to be driven to the from Iambic rhythm, or triple time, to confolation of a halter. Daftylic, or common time. (s) Bayle, in his Dictionary ; the Abbe (x) See Differt. p. *86, note (m). Sevin ; and M. Burette,in Mem. de Litt.t. x. To GREEK MUSIC. 365 To Archilochus is likewife afcribed the invention of Epodes : the word, in its moft common acceptation, implies a number of lyric verfes of different conftruction, comprifed in a fingle ftanza, which, in odes, were fung immediately after the two other ftanzas, called Strophe and Antiftrophe (y). But the name of Epode was likewife given to a fmall lyric poem, com- pofed of Trimeter-Iambics, of fix feet, and Dimeters of four feet, alternately. Of this lad kind were the Epodes of Archi- lochns, mentioned by Plutarch ; and thofe of the fifth book of the Odes of Horace. And, in after-times, the fignification of the word Epode was extended to every poem which had a fhort verfe, placed at the end of feveral longer verfes (s). Our poet-mufician is generally ranked among the firft vic- tors of the Pythic games ; and we learn from Pindar (a), that his Mufe was not always a Termagant : for though no mortal efcaped her rage, yet fhe was, at times, fufHciently tranquil and pious to dictate hymns in praife of the Gods, and Heroes. One, in particular, written in honour of Hercules, acquired him the acclamations of all Greece ; for he fung it in full affembly at the Olympic games, and had the fatisfaction of receiving from the judges, the crown of victory, confecrated to real merit. This hymn, or ode, was afterwards fung in honour of every victor at Olympia, who had no poet to celebrate his particular exploits. The names of Homer and Archilochus were equally revered and celebrated in Greece, as the two moft excellent poets which the nation had ever produced. This appears from an epigram in the Anthologia, and from Cicero, who ranks him with the poets of the firft elafs, and in his Epiftles tells us, that the grammarian Ariftophanes, the moft rigid and fcrupulous critic of his time, ufed to fay, that the longeft poem of Archilochus always appeared, to him, the moft excellent. (y) Idem, ibidem, p. 1 66. rages B^Archiloque, Par 1'Abbe Sevin. (z) Recbercbesjur la Vie et fur Us Ouv (a) Olimf. 9. The 366 THE HISTORY OF The Lacedaemonians, though a military people, of auftere manners, appear at all times to have invited eminent mufi- cians into their country, and to have encouraged muhc ; not only in order to regulate the fteps, and animate the courage of their troops, but to grace their feftivals, and fill their hours of leifure in private life *. TYRTiEUS, an Athenian General, and Mufician, is celebrated by all antiquity for the compofition of military fongs and airs, as well as the performance of them. He was called to the affiftance of the Lacedaemonians, in the fe- cond war with the Meffenians, about 685 B. C and a memor- rable viclory which they obtained over that people, is attributed by the ancient fcholiafts upon Horace, to the animating found of a new military Flute, or Clarion, invented and played upon by Tyrtceus. Plutarch tells us that they gave him the freedom of their city ; and that his military airs were conftantly fung and played in the Spartan army, to the laft hour of the re- public. And Lycurgus, the orator, in his oration againft Leo- crates, fays, " The Spartans made a law, that whenever they were in arms, and going out upon any military expedition, they mould all be firft fummoned to the king's tent, to hear the fongs of Tyrtasus ;" thinking it the belt means offending them forth in a difpofition to die with pleafure, for their country [b). He was likewife the author of a celebrated fong and dance performed at feftivals by three choirs ; the firft of which was compofed of old men, the fecond of fuch as were arrived at maturity, and the third of boys. The firft chorus began by this verfe : In youth our fouls with martial ardor glow d. The 2d. We prefent glory feek — point out the road. The 3d. Though now with children we can only clafs, "We hope owl future deeds will your's furpafs () Fragments of this poetry, in elegiac &c. verfe, are prefervsd in Stobaus, Lycur- (c) The abbe Sevin has likewife colleft- g:ts Orat. In Fufoius Urfmus, at the end ed all the moll interelling particulars to be found GREEK MUSIC. 367 All ancient writers who mention the progreffive ftate of mufic in Greece, are unanimous in celebrating the talents of TERPANDER ; but though there is fuch an entire agreement among them concerning the obligations which the art was under to this mufician in its infant ftate, yet it is difficult to find any two accounts of him, which accord in adjufting the time and place of his birth. It does not, however, feem ne- ceffary to lead the reader over hedge and ditch with chrono- logers, after a truth, of which the fcent has fo long been loft. The Oxford Marbles, which appear to me the beft authority to follow, tell us, in exprefs terms, that he was the fon of Derdeneus of Lefbos, and that he flourished in the 381ft year of thefe records (d) ; which nearly anfwers to the twenty- fe- venth Olympiad, and 671ft year B C. The Marbles inform us likewife, that he taught the Nomes, or Airs, of the Lyre and Flute, which he performed himfelf upon this lafi inftrument, in concert with other players on the Flute [e). Several writers tell us that he added three firings to the lyre, which before his time had but four ; and in confirmation of this, Euclid (f) and Strabo (g) quote two verfes, which they attribute to ¥er~ pander himfelf (/z). The Tetrachord's reftraint we now defpife, The feven-ftring'd lyre a nobler ftrain fupplies. If the hymn to Mercury, which is afcribed to Homer, and: in which the feven-ft ringed lyre is mentioned, be genuine, it robs Terpander of this glory. The learned, however, have great doubts concerning its authenticity (/). But if the lyre found in ancient authors, relative to the life (i) See Clarke's Notes on Homer. The and writings of Tyrtaus. See Mem. de Hymn to Apollo has indeed better autho- Litt, torn. viii. rity ; for it is quoted by Thucydides, (d) Marm. Oxon. Epoch. 35. p. 166. whole teftimony is of great weight ; but as (e.) TOTE N6MOTE TOYS AYPAE KAI neither the word x^ v (> nor *«f*' ai ' e t0 oe AYAflN EAIAAEEN, OYS KAI AYAHTAIS found in the Iliad, Odyffey, or in this XYNHYAHIE. Hymn, and as both occur in that to Mer- ( f) Introd. Harm. p. 19. Edit. Meilom. cury, it feeins to furniih a proof of its be- (g) Lih. xiii. ing fpurious, which has hitherto efcaped {b) *Hf*Ei; toi rerpttyvfmi ana-tfl-urrtt; koi^ijv, the commentators. The mention of /even., 'E,irrunv!f (po^iyft us; xtKa$r;ccpty C'^na;. concordant jtrings— Eirix h av\t.tpmti% oi'oui 3 68 THE IL I S T O R Y OF had been before his time furrithed with feven firings, in other parts of Greece, it feems as if Terpander was the firft who played upon them at Lacedsemon. The Marbles tell us that the people were offended by his innovations. The Spartan difcipline had deprived them of all their natural feelings ; they were rendered machines, and whether Terpander difturbed the fprings by which they ufed to be governed, or tried to work upon them by new ones, there was an equal chance of giving offence. The new firings ', or new melodies, and new rhythms, upon the old firings, muft have been as intolerable to a Lace- daemonian audience, at firft hearing, as an Organ, and chear- ful mufic would have been, to a Scots congregation fome years ago, or would be to a Quaker's meeting now. " It is not at all furprifing, fays Alcibiades, that the Lacedsemonians feem fearlefs of death in the day of battle ; fince death would free them from thofe laws which make them fo wretched (/£)." Plutarch, in his Laconic Inflitutions, informs us, that Ter- pander was fined by the Ephori for his innovations. However, in his Dialogue on Mufic, he likewife tells us, that the fame rau- h-xtvavxro x°$ x ^ v. el. in this laft Hymn, faid, " how much you muft admire a brave is a curious circumftance ; but unlefs man, who can beftow fuch praife upon a the time when it was written could be at- harper ?" And when a mufician was re- certained, no concluiions can be drawn commended to the fame prince, as a man from it. It may be worth oblerving, how- who compofed excellent mufic, he faid, ever, that the words mm%o$tts in this verfe, turning to his cook, " and this man can tell us, that the firings of the Mercurian make good broth." The particular kind of lyre were Jbeep-Jtrings, that is, made of merit in which perfons of narrow minds ex- Jhccfs boivels, as violin firings are at pre- eel, is, with them, the firft of all qualifica- fent, and not of cat-gut, as is generally tions. The Spartans had brought the art of imagined. killing their neighbours, and of defending (k) jElian. lib. xiii. c. 38. Thefe pco- themfelves, to great perfection, and they pie feem to have made life one continued were unwilling to allow that any other ac- pennance, from the beginning to the end compliihment was neceffary. Plutarch, in of it, by constantly counteracting nature hisLite of Lycurgus, tells us, however, that in all her operations. They were invete- they would not fuffer their flaves to fing ei- rate Fanatics, equally enemies to comfort ther the fongs of Terpander or Alcman. and elegance in their way of living, with And that fome of the Helots, or flaves, being the molt gloomy Methodifts of modern taken prifoners by the Thebans, and afked times. It is given by Plutarch, as a ban ?not to fing them, faid, they are the fongs of of one of their kings, that when a mufi- our mafias, we dare not fng them. eian was highly extolled for his feill, he fician G R E E K M U S I C, 3 6g ilcian appeafecl a fedition at Sparta, among the fame people, by the perfiiafive {trains which he fung and played to them upon that occafion. There feems no other way of reconciling thefe two accounts, than by fuppofing that he had, by degrees, refined the public tafte, or depraved his own to the level of his hearers. Among the many fignal fervices which Terpander is faid to have done to mufic, none was of more importance than the Notation that is afcribed to him for alcertaining and preferring melody, which before was traditional, and wholly dependent on memory («). The invention, however, of Mufic a I Characters lias been attributed by Alypius and Gaudentius, two Greek writers on mufic, and, upon their authority, by Boethius, to Pythagoras, who flourifhed full two centuries after Terpander. It will be necefiary therefore to tell the reader upon what grounds this ufeful difcovery has been beftowed upon him. Plutarch (o), from Heraclides of Pontus (p), allures us that Terpander, the inventor of Nomes for the Cithara, in Hexame- ter verfe, yi,fefl. I. drew the hiftorical part or his Dialogue (o) Be Mnfica. on Mujic. (p) A voluminous writer upon Mufic, (q) MeXij irepmQara, literally, cloatbed as well as upon many other fubjefts ; he them in melody, was cotemporary with Plato, and his difci- (r) Strom, lib. i. pie. The works of Heraclides of Pontus (s) MsXoiTsavirpuz'^-inpiiBtixiT i{ voirfAoat : are frequently cited by Plutarch, and, firfifet melody to poems. with the Records at Sicyon, and Regifiers (t) Ubi fuprti. of the ViSlors at the /acred Games, feemto (b) npcsiiua xi6«;«ftjMs. Vol. I. Bbb were 37° THE HISTOR.Y OF were ufed in after-times, by the Rhapfodifts, as prologues or, in- trodu&ions, to the poems of Homer, and other ancient writers. But Terpander rendered his name illuftrious, no lefs by his Per- formance, both upon the Flute, and Cithara, than by his Com- pofitions. This appears by the Marbles, already mentioned ; by a paflage in Athena?us, from the hiftorian Hellanicus, which informs us that he obtained the firft prize in the Mufical Con- tends at the Carnean Games (,v) ; and by the teftimony of Plu- tarch, who fays, that " no other proof need be urged of the excellence of Terpander., in the art of playing upon the Cithara, than what is given by the Regifter of the Pythic Games, from which it appears, that he gained four prizes, fucceiTively, at thofe folemnities (y)." After fpeaking of the victories obtained by this venerable Bard, at the Piiblic Games, it feems neceffary to be fomewhat minute in defcribing thefe memorable inftitutions, as far as they concern Mufic. And, in order to convey to the reader as clear an idea as I am able, of the rank which Mufic and Mu- ficians held at thefe affemblies, I fhall give fome account of each of the four principal, or Sacred Games, feparately : and firft, Of the Olympic Games. Though it is not my deflgn to infert all the irre- concileable accounts of ancient authors, concerning the origin of thefe inftitutions, yet I fhall be the more parti- {x) Thefe were inftituted at Sparta, a- head of them. Hellanicus died 41 i B. C. bout the 26th Olympiad, 676 B. C. in He was a Lefbian, and the firft Hiftorian. order to avert the anger of Apollo for the who computed time according to the years death of Camus, one of his priefts, mur- of the. prieftejfes of ' Argos ; as Timaeus was dered bv the Dorians. Athenanis, lib. xiv. the firft who reckoned by Olympiads. tells us, that Hellanicus, in his Treatife (y) Ibid. Thefe muft have been obtain- nponVerjification, had inferted an exaft lift ed at the cafual celebration of the Pythic of the feveral vicTore at the Carnia, from games, long before their regular eftablifh-- the firft celebration of thofe feftivals, to his ment, own time ; and that Terpander was at. tjie cular GREEK MUSIC. 371 cular in tracing them, not only as many Poets and Muficians difplayed their fkill and abilities at them, but as they conftitute the moft memorable jEra of pagan antiquity, upon which all Chro- nology and Hiftory depend. Hiftorians have, indeed, the great- eft obligations to thefe Epochs, which have thrown a light upon the chaos of remote events, and enabled them to diftinguim and afcertain them. All the Grecian Games fecm to have originated from the ho- nours paid to deceafed heroes, by their furviving friends at their Obfequies. Homer, who mentions not the Olympics, is very minute in defcribing the Funeral Games, celebrated in honour of Patroclus and Achilles (a). They are likewife to be found in the Argonautics, attributed to Orpheus ; and in Apollonius Rhodius. Games of a different kind are, however, defcribed by Homer, not only fuch as were exhibited for the amufement of Ulyffes at the court of Alcinous (6), but others at Delos, that were connected with religion, in which it feems as if Homer himfelf had performed. Thucydides (c) tells us, that in very remote antiquity, there were " Games of bodily exer- cife, and of Mujic* in which cities exhibited their refpective Chorujfes-" and, in teftimony of this, he quotes the following verfes from Homer's Hymn to Apollo : '•' To thee, O Phoebus, moft the Delian ifle Gives cordial joy, excites the pleafing fmile ; When gay Ionians flock around thy fane ; Men, women, children, a refplendent train, Whofe flowing garments fweep the facred pile, Whole grateful concourfe gladdens all the ifle, Where champions fight, where dancers beat the ground, Where chearfid Mujic echoes all around, Thy feaft to honour and thy praife to found." \ (■a) //.book xsiii. aad' Odyff. book (b) OJ^. book v'ui. *?"""' (c; Lib. iii. cap. 104, B b b 2 « That 372 THE HISTORY OF. " That there was alfo, continues Thucydides, a Mufical Game*. to which artifls reforted to make Trials of Jkill, Homer fully fhows in other verfes to be found in the fame Hymn : for hav- ing fung the Delian chorus of females, he clofes their praife with thefe lines, in which he makes fome mention of him- felf; " Hail ! great Apollo, radiant God of day ! Hail Cynthia, goddefs of the lunar fway ! Henceforth on me propitious fmile ! and you, Ye blooming beauties of the ifle, adieu ! When future guefts mall reach your happy more,. And refug'd here from toils, lament no more; When focial talk the mind unbending chears, And this demand fhall greet your friendly ears — ■- Whb was the Bard, e'er landed on your coajl, That fung the fweetef, a?id that pleafed you mofl T. — >■■ With voice united, all ye blooming fair, Join in your anfwer, and for me declare ; Say — The blind Bard the fweetefl notes may boajl, He lives at Chios, and he fleas' d us mofl" Smith's Thucydides. I cannot help pointing out another circumftance in this Hymn, which is really curious, as it implies the cultivation of a talent for imitation, at a time when fimplicity and original genius feem mofl likely to have fubfifted, pure and untainted, by ludicrous fimilitudes. Homer, in i62d verfe, defcribing the employment of the Delian priefteffes, or Nuns of the order of Saint Apollo of De- los, tells us, that they were great adepts in the art of Mimickry, and that part of the entertainment which they afforded to the numerous people of different nations, who formed their con- gregation, was, as the poet expreffes it, from their being Jkilled to GREEK MUSIC. 373 to imitate the voices and the pulfation (d), or meafure, of all na- tions : and Jo exactly was their Jong adapted, that every man would think he himfelf was Jinging (e). Homer feems to fketch out the order of the performance in thefe old pagan Confervatorios ; v. 158. firft they fung a hymn in praife of Apollo : then another in praife of Latona and Dia- na : then they defcended to the celebration of human Heroes and Heroines of ancient times ;. and it feems to have been in this part of their performance, that they exerted their mimetic powers, and charmed the nations (f). It appears, even from the difcordant accounts of chronolo- gers, that the Olympic Games had at firft been only celebrated occafionally, at very diftant and irregular periods, in order to folemnize fome great events ; but as no two writers are agreed con- cerning either the times or occafions of thefe early exhibitions, I fhall enter upon no difcuffion concerning them, anterior to ■• the year 776, before Chrift, at which time they firft began to be regularly celebrated once in fifty months, or the fecond month after the expiration of four years, and to ferve as epo- chas to ail Greece. Coraebus, the Elean, was the vi&or in this Olympiad, which chronologers have unanimoufly agreed to- call the firft. Thefe Games were particularly dedicated to Olympian 'Jupiter, and had their name either from that circum- ftance, or from the city Olympia, near which they were cele- brated. V/ith whatever defign they were at firft inftituted, whether for religious or civil purpofes, in procefs of time they became of fuch general importance to all the ftates and cities of Greece, that there was no one of them which did not think itfelf deep- ((/) K^fiSaAiaru , Sircpitum. national melody, or, at moft, national dia- (c) By the expreffion mamuv a.tfywgm lefts, and inflexions of fpeech ; and xoifj.- p«».*s, literally, the voices of all mtn, is 6*Xiart«. National Rhythm, which, in all hardly meant that thefe ladies were in pof- probability, was the moft linking charac- feffion of Mr. Foote's talent, and tool off teriftic in thofe early ages of mufic. ir.dividi.uls. Owwts feeina only to imply (f) ©iKy^vh. ) Weft's Dif. on the OJymp. Games, § 16. But GREEK MUSIC. 399 But, as fome conquerors were not fo fortunate as to have Poets for their friends, or fo rich as to be able to purchafe odes on their particular victories, . which were rated very high by- Bards of the firft clafs ; in honour of fuch, the old Hymn to Hercules, of Archilochus, was fung by the friends of the con- querors only, if they could not afford to engage a band of profeff- ed muficians. The fcholiaft on Pindar's 9th Olympic tells us, that to fupply the want of a Citharift, Archilochus framed a word in imitation of the found of a Cithara, which word (Tenella, TVe/.Aa), when there happened to be no Muficiati prefent, the leader of the chorus chanted forth, and was an- fwered by the reft of- the chorus, in the words of the Hymn, £1 KaXXlviKs, jga&ps, O glorious Victor, hail ! at every comma, or paufe of which, this burden was again repeated (c). Pindar, in his fecond lfthmian Ode, has apologized for the mercenary cuftom among Poets, of receiving money for their Compositions " The world, fays he, is grown interefted, and thinks in general with the Spartan philofopher, Ariftodemus, that money only makes the man : a truth which this fage him- felf experienced, having with his riches loft all his friends." It is fuppofed that Pindar here alludes to the avarice of Simonides, who firft allowed his Mufe to fell her favours to the beft bid- der. But if the rich want wit and fame, and the Poet wants money, the commutation feems as fair as any that is carried on upon the Exchange of London or Amfterdam. It is in (c) Ibid. Are we to fuppofe from this chord were imitated, and by what inter- TriJyllaUe, ferving as a reprefentation of vals, and tone of voice, the word Tenella the twang of a lyre, that the instrument could have been made a true Arpeggia- had only three firings in the time of Ar- tura ? Suidas tells us, that this word had chilochus ? Indeed, as this poet lived be- no fignification, but was ufed as an imita- fore either Terpander or Pythagoras had tion of a particular way of ltriking the loaded it with feven or eight firings, a lyre (a kind of ul- Jc-rol &omi(h), when a Tetrachord, or four founds, were its ut- victor was declared at the Games ; and the mod extent in his time. Now it would be words nnXhx,, ttaT&mxe, feem to have be- a refearch truly worthy the curiofity of come, from this Hymn of Archilochus, a fome profound mufical antiquary, to try to common form of congratulation, or rather difcover which three founds of the Tetra- acclamation ; the bravijjimo ! of the Greeks. the 4 oo THE HISTORY OF the true fpirit of commerce to barter fuperfluities for what we ltand mod in need ; and it can never be called a ruinous or lofing trade, but when the rich, for want of judgment or tafte, vpurchafe had Poetry, or the Poet is ill paid, for good. Gratian, among his maxims for railing a man to the moft confummate greatnefs, advifes hirn to perform extraordinary a&ions, and to fecure a good Poet. There is no great Poet or Mufician in antiquity, whofe moral character has been lefs cenfured than that of Pindar. Plutarch has preferved a fingle verfe of his Epicedium, or Dirge, that was fung at his funeral, which fhort, and fimple as it is, implies great praife. This man was pleafing tojlrangers, and dear to his fellow citizens {d). His works abound with precepts of the pureft morality ; and it does not appear that he ever traduced even his enemies ; comforting himfelf, for their malignity, by a maxim which he inferted in his firft Pythic, and which afterwards became proverbial, That it is better to be envied than pitied [e). Paufanias fays, that the character of Poet was truly confe- crated, in the perfon of Pindar, by the God of verfe himfelf, who was pleafed, by an exprefs oracle, to order the inhabi- tants of Delphos to fet apart, for Pindar, one half of the firft- fruit offerings, brought by the religious to his fhrine, and to allow him a confpicuous place in his Temple ; where, in an iron chair, he ufed to fit and fing his Hymns in honour of that God. This chair was remaining in the time of Paufanias, feveral centuries after, and fhewn to him as a relic, not un- worthy of the fanctity and magnificence of that place. A Bard who fung like Pindar, would be heard with the fame rapture in a pagan Temple, as a Farinelli in an Italian church : and, as both would draw together crowded congre- gations, both would be equally careffed and encouraged by the priefts. (d) Afjiixos v,n liitoio-iv utyif> ah, x«i ipifo; (t) K^ta in the Pythic Games, flattered Lyfander fo far as to tell him, that if ever he gained another victory, he would be publicly proclaimed his difciple and fervant. This was after the Spar- tan had taken the city of Athens, beaten down the walls, and burned all the fhips in the harbour, to the found of Flutes ; an event which happened in the 94th Olympiad, 404 years B. C. Indifputable teftimonies are to be found in ancient authors, of the continuation of Mufical Contefts at thefe Games, till their final abolition after the eftablifhment of the chriftian re- ligion. I fhall only mention the victory which Paufanias (/) informs us was gained there by Pylades, upon the Cithara, ■ about the 94th Pythiad, 21 x years before Chrift : the Pythic Laurel, which both Suetonius and Dio Caffius inform us," Nero, as a Citharcedift, who had been victor at thofe Games, brought out of Greece, 66 years after the fame. i£ra : and the two Pythic victories, recorded in the Oxford Marbles, (h) Kt8«f«& s . (i) In Jrcad. lib. viii. among GREEK MUSIC. 403 among innumerable others, which C. Ant. Septimius Publius, the Citharoedift, obtained during the reign of the emperor Sep- timius Severus, about the end of the fecond century. To the mufical premiums given at Delphos, according to Plutarch (k)> was added, in later times, one for Tragedy ; and, by degrees, various other contefts were admitted ; among which, an exhibition for Painters appears to have had a place (/) : and, if no premium was given to be difputed by Sculptors, the great number of victors, whofe ftatues they had to erect at the public coft, muft have been a fufficient incitement to them to aim at excellence in their profeflion {m). But an account of any other art or artifts, than Mufic and Muficians, would lead me far beyond the limits of my plan. I fhall clofe this article, therefore, by obferving, that Games in honour of Apollo, and called Pythic, were inftituted, not only at Delphos, but at Miletus in Ionia, at Magnefia, Sida, Perga, and Theflalonica ; and in all thefe, Mujic and Poetry were the chief fubjects of conteft («.) Of the Nemean Games. Thefe Games, which had their name from Nemea, a village and grove in Arcadia, were of fuch high antiquity, that the ancients themfelves, in the time of Paufanias, were not agreed concerning the origin of their inftitution. Some afTert them to have been a funeral folemnity, inftituted in honour of Arche- morus, by the feven champions who led the army to Thebes : others, that they were founded by Hercules, in honour of Ju- piter, after he had flain the Nemean lion. The exercifes (&) Sympof. maining was prodigious, without enu- (l) "Pli/i. 35.9. merating thofe which had been placed (»;) Nero took thence five hundred there to commemorate the merit of' Athle- bronze ftatues of Gods and illuftrious per- tics, Muficians, and Poets, in their parti- fonages ; and yet, after this robbery, in cular profeffions. the time of Paufanias, the number ftill re- (n) Meuriius, Gracl-a feriata. F f f 2 were 4 o4 THE HISTORY O F were nearly the fame as at Olympia, as appears from the fub- jecls of the Nemean Odes of Pindar. However, that Mufical Performances ufually conftituted a part of the exercifes and amufements at this folemnity, is a fact fo fully afcertained by a paffage in Plutarch's life of Philopsemen, and corroborated by Paufanias, that I mall give the narration entire, and leave it to fpeak for itfelf. " Philopcemen being elected a fecond time general of the Achasans, foon after he had gained the celebrated battle of Mantinea, entered the theatre at the Nemean Games, while the Muficians were difputing the Mufical Prize. At the moment that Philopcemen entered, the Mufician Pylades, of Megalopo- lis, happened to be finging to the Lyre, the beginning of a fong compofed by Timotheus, called the Perfians : Behold the hero, from whofe glorious deeds Our greatefl blefling, liberty, proceeds [o) ! The fubjed of the verfe, the energy with which it was ut- tered, and the beauty of the finger's voice, (truck the whole affembly. They inftantly caft their eyes on Philopcemen, and, with the moft violent applaufe and acclamation, animated with the hopes of recovering their former dignity, they affumed their ancient fpirit and confidence of victory. Paufanias adds, that they unanimoufly cried out, that nothing could be more [ applicable than this poem was to the brave general, who had: undertaken to command their army (/>)." (o) It is remarkable, that the original of the very author of the verfe in queftion, as thefe lines is an Hexameter, a proof of it ; who, though he was an in- KXeikjv sXEuSspia; teiti^w [i.iya.ii EXXaJi y.ocfj.w. novator, yet did not venture to compofe which confirms what has been advanced (p. his firft Nomes entirely in Dithyrambic, or 364.) concerning the priority of this verfe, irregular meafures, but mixed them with and, confequently, of regular and unmix- Hexameters, hoping to take, as it were ed Mufical Rhythms, to metres of unequal byfap, the ears of old connoiffeurs, fo vi- feet, and Mufic of unequal bars. Indeed, gilant and well fortified againic the irrup- Plutarch afferts, exprefsly, [de Muf.) that tion of new pleafures. the Nomes made to be fung to the Cithara, (*) This event happened in the third were originally compofed entirely of year of the 143d Olympiad, 206 years HexameteK ; and he alleges, Timotheus, B. C. Though GREEK MUSIC. 405 Though no other particulars are preferved concerning the Mufician Pylades, than what Plutarch and Paufanias furnifh, in relating this circumftance, ye.t concerning Timotheus, whofe verfes he fung, many incidents are come down to us, to fome of which I fhall give a place here. TIMOTHEUS, one of the mod celebrated Pbet-Muficians of antiquity, was born at Miletus, an Ionian city of Caria, 446 years B. G. He was cotemporary with Philip of Macedon, and Euripides, and not only excelled in Lyric and Dithyrambic Poetry, but in his performance upon the Cithara. According to Paufanias (q), he perfected that inftrument, by the addition of four new firings to the feweix which it had before ; though Suidas fays it had nine before, and that Timotheus only added two, the tenth and eleventh, to that number. The hiftorical part of this work has hitherto confided more of biographical anecdotes, than dry difcuffions concerning the dark and difputable points of ancient Mufic, which were pur- pofely thrown into the DifTertation, to keep off, as much as poffible, that laflitude and difguft. which minute enquiries into matters, ufually thought more abftrufe than interesting, pro- duce in the generality of readers. I muft, however, now beg leave to flop the narrative a little, in order to ftate the Se- veral claims made in favour of different perfons, who have been faid to have extended the limits of the Greek Mufical Scale. Many ancient and refpectable writers tells us, that before the time of Terpander, the Grecian Lyre had only four firings ; and, if we may believe Suidas, it remained in this ftate 856 years, from the time of Amphion, till Terpander added to it three new firings, which extended the Mufical Scale to a Hep- tachord^ or feventh, and Supplied the player with two conjoint Tetrachords. It was about 150 years after this period, that Pythagoras is faid to have added an eighth ftring to the Lyre, in order to ( q) Lil>. Hi. cap; 12. com- 4 o6 THE HISTORY OF complete the octave, which confifted of two dhjunSi Tetra- chords. Thefe dates, of the feveral additions to the Scale at fuch diftant periods, though perhaps not exact, may, however, if near the truth, fhow the flow progrefs of human knowledge, and the contented ignorance of barbarous times. But if we wonder at the Mufic of Greece remaining fo many ages in this circumfcribed flate, it may be afked, why that of China and Perfia is not better now, though the inhabitants of thofe coun- tries have long been civilized, and accuftomed to luxuries and refinements. Boethius gives a different hiftory of the fcale, and tells us, that the fyftem did not long remain in fuch narrow limits as a Tetrachord. Choraebus, the fon of Athis, or Atys, king of Lydia, added a fifth firing, Hyagnis a fixth, Terpander a fe- venth, and, at length, Lychaon of Samos, an eighth. But all thefe accounts are irreconcileable with Homer's Hymn to Mer- cury, where the Chelys, or Teftudo, the invention of which he afcribes to that God, is faid to have had feven firings (;-). There are many claimants among the muficians of ancient Greece, to the firings that were afterwards added to thefe, by which the fcale, in the time of Ariftoxenus, was extended to two oclaves. Athenseus, more than once, fpeaks of the nine- Jlringed-injlrument (s) ; and Ion of Chios, a tragic and lyric poet, and philofopher, who firft recited his pieces in the 8 2d Olym- piad, 452 B. C. mentions, in fome verfes quoted by Euclid, the ten-ftringed Lyre (t) ; a proof that the third conjoint tetra- chord was added to the fcale in his time, which was about fifty years after Pythagoras is fuppofed to have conftructed the oc- tachord (z/). (r) Seep. 367. the fimpleft of infhruments had a compafs (j) Ewrajcogiov oqyccm. LAh. iv. fef xiv. of nine founds, Theocritus, Id. viii. fpeaks of a Syrinx {t) AExa^opow Xvpa. with nine notes, av^iyfa tnaftmt ; but con- (u) Ion died, according to Fabricius iidering the extenfion ot the Scale in his vol. i. p. 681, 419 years B. C. and 78 time, 262 B. C. it is no great wonder if after Pythagoras. Belides Tragedies and Dithy- GREEK MUSIC. 407 The different claimants among the Greeks to the fame mu- fical difcoveries, only prove that mufic was cultivated in dif- ferent countries ; and that the inhabitants of each country in- vented and improved their own inflruments, fome of which happening to refemble thofe of other parts of Greece, ren- dered it difficult for hiflorians to avoid attributing the fame in- vention to different perfons. Thus the fmgle Flute was given to Minerva, and to Marfyas ; the Syrinx, or Fiflula, to Pan, and to Cybele ; and the Lyre, or Cithara, to Mercury, Apollo, Amphion, Linus, and Orpheus. Indeed, the mere addition of a firing or two to an inftrument without a neck, was fo ob- vious and eafy, that it is fcarce poffible not to conceive many people to have done it at the fame time. With refpect to the number of firings upon the lyre of Ti- motheus, the account of Paufanias and Suidas is confirmed in the famous Senatus-Confultum againft him, already flightly mentioned in the DifTertation, but of which I fhall give a more particular account. This curious piece of antiquity is preferved at full length in Boethius [x). Mr. Stillingfleet (y) has lately given an extract from it, in proof of the fimplicity of the ancient Spartan mufic. The fact is mentioned in Athenaeus ; and Cafaubon, in his notes upon that author (2), has inferted the whole ori- ginal text from Boethius, with corrections, to which I refer the learned reader. I fhall here, however, give a faithful tranfla- tion of this extraordinary Spartan Act of Parliament. " Whereas Timotheus the Milefian, coming to our city, has dishonoured our ancient mufic, and, defpi/ing the Lyre of feven jlrings, has, by the introduction of a greater variety of notes, cor- rupted the ears of our youth ; and by the number of his firings, Dithyrambics, Ion compofed Odes, Pagans, fhefe founds : BCDE, EFGA, ABb c d. Hymns, and Scolia, or convivial fongs. (x) De Mufca, cap. i. The three conjoint Tetracbords, Mef. Sy- (y) Prin. and Povjer of Harm. § 185. nem. and Diez. with which the Decacbor- (zj Animad, in Atben. p. 386. don was fumilhed, confifted, perhaps, of and 4 o3 THE HISTORY O F and the novelty of his melody, has given to our mujic an effemi- nate and artificial drefs, injlead of the plain and orderly one in which it has hitherto appeared ; rendering melody infamous, by compojing in the Chromatic, injlead of the Enharmonic faj ; — The Kings and the Ephori have, therefore, refolved to pafs cenfure upon Timotheus for thefe things : and, farther, to oblige him to cut all the fuperfluous firings of his eleven, leaving only the feven tones ; and to bani/Jj him from our city ; that men may be warned for the future, not to introduce into Sparta any unbecoming cu/loms" ] The fame flory, as related in Athenasus, has this additional eircumftance, that when the public executioner was on the point of fulfilling the fentence, by cutting off the new firings, Timotheus, perceiving a little flatue in the fame place, with a lyre in his hand, of as many firings as that which had given the offence, and fhewing it to the judges, was acquitted. Indeed the decree only informs us, that the ufe of a lyre, with more than feven firings, was not allowed at this time by the Lacedaemonians ; but does not prove that the reft of Greece had confined their mufic within the compafs of feven notes; nor, confequently, afcertain how many of the eleven firings were additions peculiar to Timotheus. That the outcry againfl the novelties of this mufician was, however, not confined to Sparta, appears from a paffage in Plutarch's Dialogue, where he gives a lift of the innovators, who had corrupted and ener- vated the good old melody, by additional notes both upon the Flute and Lyre (b). " Lafus of Hermione, fays he, by changing mufical Rhythms to the Dithyrambic irregularity of movement, and, at the fame (a) This part of the original is very (b) Plutarch accufes Lafus of imitating corrupt : the meaning, however, appears the many founds, the mo\uivEv otvXotc. — Greece has declared that Thebes wins the prize upon the Flute. So that this ftatue is ftill (land- ing in the old public fquare, among the ruins (d)." Pronomus, mentioned already (e), as the inventor of a Flute, upon which he could play in three different Modes, was a Theban. Before his time, there was a particular Flute for every Mode or Key : and fo out of time are the generality of modern Flutes, it were almoft to be wifhed that the cuftom had ftill continued. The words and Mufic of a Hymn, compofed by Pronomus for the inhabitants of Chalcis, when they went to Delos, were fubfifting in the time of Paufanias, as was like- wife the ftatue of this Mufician, erecfed by the citizens of Thebes, near that of Epaminondas [f). Antigenides being, therefore, originally an inhabitant of a city in which the Flute was held in fuch honour, and the fon of a perfon who had diftinguifhed himfelf upon it, was the more likely to become eminent in the fame art ; and he is faid to have brought it to greater perfection than any one of his time, by the leffons he received from PHILOXENUS. This celebrated Poet-Mufician, was a native of Cythera, and author of a great number of Lyric poems, which are entirely loft. His innovations in Mufic are ftigmatized by Plutarch, and the comic Poets of his own time. Fie was fo great an epicure, that he is faid to have wifhed for a throat as long as that of a crane, and all palate, in order to prolong the relifh of the de- licious morfels he fwallowed. He was, however, as much cele- {d) Orat. 7. p. 123. Edit. Pari/. (f) Paitfan, in Bszotic. cap. xii. \e) P. 64. bratecl GREEK MUSIC. 419 "brated for his jefls as his gluttony. Being ferved with a fmall fifh, at the table of Dionyfius of Syracufe, and feeing an enor- mous turbot placed before the tyrant, he put the head of the little fifh. clofe to his mouth, and pretended to whifper it : then placed it clofe to his ear, as if to receive the anfwer more diflin&ly. Upon being afked by Dionyfius for an explana- tion of this mummery, he faid, " I am writing a poem, Sir, upon Galatea, one of the Nereids ; and as I want information concerning feveral particulars relative to her father Nereus, and the watry element, that are quite out of my ken, I was in hopes of obtaining fome fatisfaftion from this fifh ; but he tells me, that he is too young and ignorant to be able to fatisfy my curiofity, and refers me to that grown-gentleman before your majefty, who is much better acquainted with aquatic affairs." The tyrant underftood him, and had the complaifance to fend the turbot (g). But though, from this inftance, he appears to have been high in favour with Dionyfius, he afterwards proved fo awkward a courtier, that he preferred the labour of carrying {tones from a quarry, to the difguft of prailing the bad verfes of his patron. Antigenides was, in his youth, according to Suidas, Flute-player in ordinary (h) to Philoxenus, and accompanied him in the mufical airs which he had fet to his own verfes. Inftrucled by fuch a mafter, it was no wonder that he fhould have, in his turn, difciples of the firft clafs himfelf, and be careffed by the greateft princes. Pericles, who had under- taken the education of his nephew Alcibiades, appointed An- tigenides for his Flute-mafter. But Aulus Gellius relates, "from the Hiftory of Mufic, in thirty Books, by Pamphila, that (g) It was of this glutton, that Maclion, A falmon's belly, Helluo, was thy fate ; the comic Poet, cited by Athenieus, The doctor call'd, declares all help too late: told the ftory which has furnifhed la Fon- " Mercy ! cries Helluo, mercy on myibul ! taine with a fubject for one of his tales, Is there no hope? — Alas — then bring the and Pope with a point, at the end of one of jowl." Ep. I. his charafters. (b) Aifr.u$a$. H h h 2 his 420 THE HISTORY OF his fcholar Alcibiades fetting up for a fine gentleman, and talc-- ing the utmoft care of his perfon, was foon difgufted with his inftrument, as Minerva herfelf had been before ; for hap- pening to fee himfelf in a mirror, while he was playing, he was> fo ihocked at the diftortion of his fweet countenance, that he broke his Flute, in a tranfport of paffion, and threw it away, which brought this inftrument into great difgrace among the young people of rank at Athens. However, this difguft did' not extend to the found of the Flute itfelf, fince we find by Plutarch, that the great performers upon it continued long after to be much followed and admired (/). It was Antigenides, according to Athenseus (A), who played" upon the Flute at the nuptials of Iphicrates, when that Athe- nian general efpoufed the daughter of Cotys, king of Thrace : and Plutarch attributes to him the tranfporting Alexander to fuch a degree, by his performance of the Harmatian Air, at a banquet, that he feized his arms, and was on the point of at- tacking his guefls. The fame ftory has been told of Timo* theus. The Lacedaemonians had a fong which faid, that " a good performer on the Flute would make a man brave every danger, and face even iron itfelf" Notwithstanding this Mufician was fo high in reputation, he feemed to regard public favour as a precarious poffeflion, and was never elated by the applaufe of the multitude. He endea- voured to infpire his difciples with the fame fentiments ; and in order to confole one of them, who, though poffeffed of great abilities, had received but little applaufe from his au- (i) Ariflotle, after fpeaking of the irr- Perhaps by moral, he meant fuch an in- troduction and progrefs of the Flute in ftrument as the Lyre, to which Poetry and Greece, and of its univerfal ufe, gives a morality could be united by the perfon different reafon for its being lefs in repute who performed upon it. But if we reflect during his own time, than formerly. upon the influence of falhion, and the va- " The Flute is now, fays he, regarded as nity of imitating the great, the caufe af- unfit for young gentlemen, becaufe not a figned by A. Gellius for the difgrace of the moral inftrument, adapted to enthufiaf- Flute, is more likely to have been the true tic, and paffionate Mufic, fuch as is pro- one, than that given by Ariftotle. per for the fober purpofes of education." (kj Lib. iv. dience, GREEK MUSIC. 421 dience, " the next time you play, fays he, fhall be to me and the Mufes (/)." Antigenides was fo fully perfuaded of the coarfe tafte of the common people, that one day, hearing at a diftance a violent burft of applaufe, to a player on the Flute, he faid, " there muft be fomething very bad in that man's perform- ance, or thofe people would not be fo lavifh of their approba^- tion." Antigenides was author of many novelties upon the Flute, He encreafed the number of holes, which extended the compafs of the inftrument, and, probably, rendered its Tones more flexi- ble, and capable of greater variety. Theophraftus, in his Hiftory of Plants, has recorded how and at what feafon, Antigenides cut the reeds for his Flute, differently from former players on that inftrument, in order to have fuch as would exprefs all the delicacy and refinements of his new Mufic; and Pliny has tranflated the paffage (m). This Mufician had great occafion for flutes, upon which he could eafily exprefs minute intervals and inflexions of found, fince, according to Apuleius, he played upon them in all the modes : upon the iEolian and Ionian, remarkable the one for fimplicity, the other for variety ; upon the plaintive Lydian \, upon the Phrygian, confecrated to religious ceremonies ; and upon the Dorian, fuitable to warriors («),. The innovations of Antigenides were not confined to the flute only : they extended to the robe of the performer ; and he was the firft who appeared in public with delicate Milefian flippers, and a. robe of faffron-colour, called crocoton (o). Plu- tarch has preferved a bon mot of Epaminondas, relative to An- tigenides. This general, upon being informed, in order to alarm him, that the Athenians hadfent troops into the Pelo- (/) Cic. Brut:—Val. Max. feu AJium variunt, feu Lydium querulum, (m) Lib. xvi. feu Pbrygium religiofum, feu Curium belli- («) Tibieen quidam fuit Antigenides, om- cofum. Florida, §4, vis •voeuLe mcllens, ct idem onmis modi peri- (0) Suidas s Antigenid. tits modificator : feu tu velles sEoliitmfmpk.Y, ponnefus, At: THE HISTORY OF ponnefus, equipped with entire new arms ; afked " whether An- tigenides was difturbed when he faw new flutes in the hands of Tellis ?" who was a bad performer. DORION is mentioned by Plutarch as a Flute-player who had made feveral changes in the Mufic of his time, and who was head of a feet of performers, that militated againft an- other feci of practical muficians, of which Antigenides was the chief; a proof that thefe two mailers were cotempora- ries and rivals (o). Dorion, though much celebrated as a great Mufician, and Poet, by Athenseus, is better known to pofterity as a voluptuary. Both his Mufic and Poetry are loft, however, marry of his pleafantries are preferved. Being at Milo, a city of Egypt, and not able to procure a lodging, he en- quired of a prieft who was facrificing in a chapel, to what divinity it was dedicated, who anfwered, to "Jupiter and to Neptune. How mould I be able, fays Dorion, to get a lodging in a place where the Gods are forced to lie double ? Supping one night with Nicocreon, in the ifland of Cyprus, and ad- miring a rich gold cup that was placed on the fide- board, the goldfmith will make you juft fuch another, fays the prince, whenever you pleafe ; i vmt u.t,ts. Vol. I. I i i the 4 z6 THE HIST OR Y O F the crowd, and feem to demand attention. And among thefe*, as a particular refpect feems due to Inventors, who, by genius or ftudy, have extended the limits of theoretical or practical Mufic, Clonas muft not be pafled by unnoticed. Plutarch (<'), the only author by whom he is mentioned, tells us, that Clonas lived foon after the time of Terpander, and was the firft who compofed Nomes for the Flute, of which he fpecifies three that were much celebrated in antiquity, under the names of Apothetos, Schtenion, and Trimeres. Thefe were, probably, tunes for the Flute alone, without the voice ; for both Plutarch and the Marbles tell us, that there were Nomes in the time of Terpander, which he fung to the accompaniment of the Flute and Cithara (f). Polymnejies, of Colophon in Ionia, was a compofer for the Flute, as well as an improver of the Lyre ; and it appears to have been no uncommon accomplifhment for thefe ancient Muficians to perform equally well upon both thofe inftru- ments. Polymneftes is faid to have invented the Hypolydian Mode. This Mode being half a Tone below the Dorian, which was the loweft of the five original Modes (g), was, perhaps, the fir ft extenfion of the fcales downwards., as the Mixolydian was, upwards. Plutarch, who afligns to him this invention, fays, that he relaxed and tightened the firings more than had been done before ; that is, altered their tenfion, by new tun- ings, relaxing them for his new Mode ; and, on the contrary, when he played in the old Modes, tightening them again [h). Telepahanes was a celebrated performer on the Flute in the time of Philip of Macedon. According to Paufanias he was (e) He Mujtea. He has likewife, in his long note upon (f) See p. 36-'. this paflage, changed the place of all the (g) See p. 48. Modes, without giving a reafon for it, by (b) M. Burette, Mem, de Litt. torn. xv. making the Dorian Mode correfpond with has expended rnuchleamingupon thewords E natural, infteadofD; fo that the Ly- cKhvaii and tjtSoAu to rery little purpofe, if dian. which this author has himfelf fre- they mean firnply relaxation and tenfion, quently told his readers was F$, is now as the paflage in Plutarch feems to imply. mounted up to G^. a na- GREEK MUSIC. 427 a native of Samos, and had a tomb erected to him by Cleo- patra, the fifter of Philip, in the road between Megara and Corinth, which was ftill fubfifting in his time (z). Tele- phanes was clofely united in friendship with Demofthenes, who has made honourabls mention of him in his harangue againft Midias, from whom he had received a blow, in public, during the celebration of the feaft of Bacchus. As this was a kind of mufical quarrel, I fhall relate the caufe of it. Demofthenes having been appointed by his tribe to furnifh. a Chorus (/&), to difpute the prize at this feftivai ; and as this Chorus was to be inftructed by a mafter (/), Midias, in order to difgrace Demofthenes, bribed the mulic mafter to neglect his function, in order that the Chorus might be unable to perform their feveral parts properly before the public, for want of the neceflary teaching and rehearfals. But Tele- phanes, who had difcovered the defign of Midias, not only chaftifed and difmirTed the mufic- mafter, but undertook to inftruct the Chorus himfelf. After fpeaking of fo many Flute-players of the male fex, it is but juftice to fay that they did not monopolize the whole glory ariling from the cultivation of that inftrument ; as the performing upon it was ranked, in high antiquity, among fe- male accomplifhments. Its invention was afcribed by the Poets to a Goddefs ; it was the Symbol of one of the Mufes ; and it was never omitted in the reprefentation of the Sirens. How- ever, the fame reafon which provoked Minerva to throw it afide, has luckily inclined modern ladies to cultivate inftru- ments, in performing upon which, their natural charms, in- (l ) The Epitaph upon this Mufician, Great Homer, with his heav'nly ftrain, which is preferved in the Anthologia, Could foften rocks, and quiet pain : — equals his talents to thofe of the greatell Here lies Telephones, whofe Flute names in antiquity. Had equal pow'r o'er man and brute. Orpheus, whom Gods and men admire, Surpafs'd all mortals on the Lyre : (k) See p. 423. Nejtor with eloquence could charm, (I) AiWx). The Simicum of thirty-five firings, mentioned by Athenseus, mull have been of this kind, like the arch-lute, double-harp, or double-harp- fichord. Crexus, perhaps, fhould have an honourable place here, be- ing recorded by Plutarch as the author of a confiderable In- vention ; that of an inflrument al accompaniment^ under the Jong (q) : whereas, before, fays Plutarch, the accompaniment was note for note (r). Phrynis has already been mentioned (s) as the fir (l who gained the prize on the Cithara at the Panathensean Games. Accord- ing to Suidas, he was originally king Hiero's cook ; but this prince, chancing to hear him play upon the Flute, placed him under the inflructions of Arifloclides, a defcendant of Ter- pander. Phrynis may be regarded as one of the firfl Inno- (o) P. 192. Bourdon, or Drone-Bafc, under the voice (p) See p. 137. part. A fenfe which appears to be fup- C q) K^bo-i; ino rr.t wJi)t. ported by the uie of the fame phrafe, in a (r) Ufoax°ftu- As Plutarch plainly op- Prob. of Ariftotle, (the 40th; where he pofes this accompaniment to that which fpeaks of the accompaniment, and the was in ufe before the time of Crexus, it voice ending together. San .only be uaderilood as a kind of (/J P. 415. vators GREEK MUSIC. 431^ vators upon the Cithara in antiquity (t). He is faid to have; played in a delicate and effeminate ftyle, which the comic Poets, Ariftophanes and Pherecrates, ridiculed upon the flage. The former in his comedy of the Clouds, and the latter in the piece already mentioned [11). Plutarch, who frequently applies the fame ftory and apophthegm to different perfons, tells us (x) y that when Phrynis offered himfelf as a candidate at the public Games in Sparta, he had two firings cut off his Lyre by the magistrates, in order to reduce them to the ancient number, A iimilar difgrace to that which had happened to Terpander before, and to which Timotheus was forced to fubmit foon- after. Having now given an account of the principal, and moil- celebrated Poet-Muficians of ancient Greece, it does not feem neceffary to interrupt the hiftory of the Mufical art with more biographical articles, as too much or too little is known of all that have been omitted. For fuch as Anacreon, iEfchylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Theocritus, who all flourifhed be- fore the total feparation of Mufic and Poetry, though they muffc have been Muficians, are omitted by defign, as their lives have been fo frequently publiihed in their works. And of fuch obfcure names as Anthes, Polyides, Xeno- demus, Xenocritus, Telefilla, Rhianus, Ibycus, and other Lyrics, no memorials remain that are fufficiently interefting to entitle them to a particular niche in the Delphic grove. Between the time of Alexander the Great, and the con- quer!: of Greece by the Romans, but few eminent Muficians are upon record. The Grecian ftates never enjoyed true li^- (t) See p. 410. If any one of them pretended to fin'g in a («i In this piece, Jujlice gives the fol- ridiculous manner, or to introduce fuch lowing account of the education of youth, divilions and flourifhes as abound at pre- in former times. " They went together fent in the airs of Phrynis, he was fe"- to the houfe of the Cithaieedift.— Where verely punifhed." they learned to fing hymns to the invin- Thefe flourimes are called, in the origi- cible Pallas, or fome other Canticles, fet to nal, ■SWxoXoMzu.Trroi, and lunxxp.7rT.t. the fimple Melody ufed by their ancestors, (x) In Agid, berty 432 THE HISTORY OF berty and independence after the victory obtained over them at Cheronea, by Philip, the father of Alexander. The chief of thefe ftates remaining after the death of thefe princes, under the Macedonian yoke, till they called in the Romans to their affiftance ; who, under Flamininus, as already related, reflored to them the fhadow of liberty, which was gradually diminilhed by the victories and devaluations of Mummius, Sylla, and other commanders, till the time of "Vefpafian, who reduced all Greece to a Roman province. The refult of fuch enquiries as I have been able to make, is, that Mufic was progreffive in Greece, as well as Painting, Poetry, and Sculpture ; though it advanced towards perfection by much flower degrees than any of the other arts. Our curiofitv, however, concerning Greek Mufic is ftimulated, and our pa- tience is enabled to purfue its improvements through a dull detail of circumftances, by its being connected with thofe ef- forts of ancient genius, tafte, and refinement in other arts, of which fufficient fpecimens remain to authenticate the accounts of what is loft. For if no more fubftantial proofs were now fubfifting of the excellence of the Poetry, Eloquence, Sculp- ture, and Architecture of ancient Greece, than of its Mufic, we mould, probably, be as incurious and incredulous about them, as we are, at prefent, concerning the Mufic of the Spheres. Before 1 conclude this chapter, perhaps a fhort recapitulation of the moft remarkable events in the hiftory of this art in Greece, of which the chain has been often unavoidably broken by biographical articles, may fave the reader the trouble of re- collection. It is natural to fuppofe that the firft attempts at Mufic in Greece, as well as in other countries, muft have been rude and fimple; and that Rhythm, or Time, was attended to, be- fore Tone or Melody. We accordingly find that inftruments of percuflion preceded all others, and that the Jleps in the dance, and xh&feet in Poetry, were regulated and marked with pre- cifion GREEK MUSIC. 433 cifion long before founds were fuftained or refined. When thefe two circumftances firft engaged attention, the Flute imi- tated, and the Lyre accompanied the voice in its inflexions of joy and forrow. In finging poetry, as little more was at firft attempted than to prolong the accents of the language, and of paflion, the Flute required but few holes, and the Lyre but few firings. As the Flute was the eldeft, and long the fa- vourite inflrument of the Greeks, its compafs was firft ex- tended ; and the Lyre was many ages confined to a Tetrachord, after the Flute had multiplied its founds. One of the moft extraordinary circumftances in the hiftory of this art, to modern comprehenfion, is, that the Enharmonic Genus, even with the die/is, or quarter-tone, was almoft ex- clufively in ufe before the time of Ariftoxenus, the cotempo- rary of Alexander the Great ; in fo much that it was cuftom- ary with the old mafters to give their fcholars Diagrams to praclife of condenfed fcales, divided into quarter-tones, as ne- ceflary exercifes for the hand, or voice. Of thefe fcales ex- amples are ftill remaining in the writings of Ariftoxenus, Eu- clid, and Ariftides Quintilianus (y). In the time of Ariftoxenus, however, the Enharmonic was upon the decline, and the Chromatic daily encreafing in fa- vour (2). But the moft important event in the hiftory of Mu- fic, was the eftablifhment.of Injlrumenta/ contefts at the Pythic Games (a). The Abbe Arnaud, in an excellent -Dijfertation on the Ac- {y) My own aftonifnment, at the ufe of many other curious particulars, I find that this Genus, and the execution of thefe the Arabian Scale of Mulic is divided into Scales, in antiquity, is confiderably abated Quarter tones ; and that an Octave, which by a letter which the zeal and kindnefs of upon our keyed inftruments is only divid- Dr. Ruffel has lately procured me from ed into twelve Semi-tones, in the Arabian Aleppo, in anfwer to fome queries which Scale confifts of twenty-four, for all which he was fo obliging as to fend for me to there are particular denominations, that city, concerning the preient ftate of (z) Ariitox. p. 2 3* Mufic in Arabia. In this letter, befides (a) See p. 382. Vol. I. K k k cent* 434 THE HISTORY OF cents of the Greek 'Tongue (&), is of opinion, that the irregula- rities we find in the verfification of the later Greek Poets, par- ticularly the Lyric, of a redundancy, or deficiency of one or two fyllables in a verfe, were admitted in order to indulge the inftru- mental performer, who would naturally difcover new mea- fures, as his hand and inftrument advanced towards perfection. While inftruments were confined to the meafure of the verfe, thefe liberties produced fome variety in the Rhythm, without deftroying the accent of the language ; but as foon as Mu- ficians were freed from the laws of Profbdy and Metre* they multiplied the firings of the Lyre, and the holes of the Flute, introducing new movements more compli- cated and varied, with new intervals and uncommon mo- dulations. Lafus, Melanippides, Timotheus, Phrynis, and fome others, are mentioned by Plutarch among the firft who dared to apply thefe licences to fong. However, they could only have been fuggefted to them by great practice in inftru- mental Mufic, infinitely more free than vocal, in every coun- try, be the language what it will, but efpecially in Greece, where the Meafures and accents of the language were governed by fuch rigid laws. " I difapprove, fays Ariftotle, of all kinds of difficulties ia the practice of inftruments, and indeed in Mufic in general. I call artificial and difficult, fuch tricks as are practifed at the public Games, where the Mufician, inftead of recollecting what is the true object of his talent, endeavours only to flat- ter the corrupt tafte of the multitude (c)." Thefe were the fentiments of the learned, long after the feparation of Mufic and Poetry, and thefe are the objections that ftill recur, and ever will recur, to thofe who regard Mufic as a flave to fyllables, forgetting that it has a language of its (l) Menu de Litterafttre, tern., xxxii. p. (r) Repuh. III. viii. cap, 6. own GREEK MUSIC. 435 own with which it is able to fpeak to the paffions, and that there are certain occafions when it may with propriety be al- lowed to be a free agent. From this time Mufic became a diftincl: art; the Chorufes, which till now had governed the melody of the Lyrift and Tibicen, became fubordinate to both [d). Philofophers in vain exclaimed againft thefe innovations, which they thought would ruin the morals of the people, who, as they are never difpofed to facrifice the pleafures of the fenfes to thofe of the under- ftanding, heard thefe novelties with rapture, and encouraged the authors of them. This fpecies of Mufic, therefore, foon paned from the Games to the Stage, feizing there upon the principal parts of the drama, and from being the humble com- panion of Poetry, becoming her fovereign. With refpecT: to the period of greateft perfection in the Mufic of Greece, it is a fubject which merits fome difcuflion. Plato, Ariftotle, Ariftoxenus, and Plutarch, were for ever complaining of the corruption and degeneracy of Mufic. The pious Plato, indeed, regarded it as fit only for the Gods, and their celebration in religious ceremonies, or as a vehicle for religious and moral lectures in the education of youth ; and with a methodiftical fpirit cenfured all fuch as was ufed in theatres, focial feftivity, or domeftic amufement : but modern divines might, with equal propriety, declaim againft the pro- fane ufe of bread as an aliment, becaufe it is adminiftered in the moft folemn rite of our religion. A line mould certainly be drawn between the Mufic of the church and of the theatre ; but totally to filence all mufical found, except upon folemn occafions, feems to border upon downright fanaticifm. {d) Athenanis has preferved a little had accompanied the Tibicines ; re? auto- poem by Pratinas, or the Hyporchcma ta.% pn cvictviu* toi; x"^' a ** a Ta > X"P^ ■kind, where he gives vent to his indig- trvtaSav toi? av>.r,r>.iq : literally, " The nation, on account of fome theatrical per- Flute-players did not flay to the Chorus, formance, in which, inftead of the tibi- but the Chorus fttrtg to the Flute-play - ■ciues accompanying the Choru?, the Chorus ers." K k k 2 With 436 THE HISTORY OF With refpect to perfection and depravity, there is nothing fo common among mufical difputants, as for the favourers of one feci: to call that Degeneracy, which thofe of another call Refinement . But Plato feems to have been always too fond of ideal excellence in every thing, to be fatisiied with any other (if). It has been faid by many writers, both ancient and modern,, that Plato was deeply {killed in the Mufic of his time ; but it does not appear that his claims to fkill in this art extend fur- ther than to mere Theory, or very little more. Plutarch, in- deed, in his Dialogue, proves his profound mufical fcience ; but how ? By a long paffage from his Timseus, in which he applies mufical ratios to the foul (f) ! However this may have been, it is difficult to refrain from numbering this philofopher, together with Arifiotle, Arifto- xenus, and Plutarch, though fuch illuftrious characters, and, in other particulars, fuch excellent writers, among the mufical Grumblers and Croakers of antiquity. They all equally lament the lofs of good Mufic, without confidering that every age had, probably, done the fame, whether right or wrong, from the beginning of the world ; always throwing mufical per- fection into times remote from their own, as a thing never to (e) His complaints of the degeneracy of being prefcribed,. it was not allowable to Mufic, may be feen in his third Book of ufe one fpecies of Melos for another. Laws. The Poets, indeed, never fail to But, in procefs of time, the Poets chargethe corruption of Mufic upon its pro- firft introduced an unlearned licence, feflbrs, yet Plato throws the blame upon the being poetic by nature, but unlkilled in Poets themfelves. " The Mufic ot our fore- the rules of the fcience, trampling upon, fathers, fays he, was divided into certain its laws, over attentive to pleafe, mixing fpecies and figures. Prayers to the Gods the Threni with the Hymns, and the were one fpecies of fong, to which they Pseones with the Dithyrambi, imitating gave the name of Hymns : oppofed to this the Mufic of the Flute upon the Cithara, was another fpecies, which, in particular, and confounding all things with all." might be called Threni ; another, Pseones ; Plat, de Legibus, as tranflated by Sir F- and another, thebirthof Dionyfius, which H. E. Stiles. J hold to be the Dithyrambus : there were (/) What connection is there between alfo Citharcedic Nomi, fo called, as being Dr. Smith's Harmonics, and his tafte and fiill another fong. Thefe, and fome others, knowledge in Practical Mujic ? be GREEK MUSIC. 437 be known but by tradition. The golden age had not its name from thofe who lived in it. Ariftotle, indeed, complains of degeneracy in a more li- beral way : " Every kind of Mufic, fays he, is good for fome purpofe or other ; that of the theatres is neceifary for the amufement of the mob ; the theatrical tranfitions, and the tawdry and glaring melodies (g) in uie there, are fuited to the perverfion of their minds and manners, and let them enjoy them." The complaints of Ariftoxenus are more natural than thofe of Plato and Ariftotle ; for he was not only lefs a Philofopher, but more a Mufician ; and, as a profeflbr, and an author on the fubject of Mulic, he muft have had rivals to write down. Hefiod fays, that bards hate bards, and beggars beggars (/z). And it has been the practice for writers on Mufic, in all ages, to treat their cotemporaries with feverity and contempt. Gaf- par Printz (/) inferts in his book a canzonet in four parts, in which every rule of compofition is violated, and calls it mo- dern ; as if error was always new. But betides a natural ten- dency in human nature, or at leaft in the nature of authors, towards envy and malignity, Ariftoxenus had a.fyjlem to fup- port, which is ufually done at the expence of moderation, truth, and every thing that ftands in its way [k) ; for, like the tyrant Procrufl.es, the builder of a fyftem, or the defender of an hypothefis, cuts fhorter what is too long, and ftretches to his purpofe whatever is too fhort. The mufic of the Greeks, in the time of Ariftoxenus, was too remote from perfection to be much injured by innovation and refinement ; and yet Athenasus (/) gives a paflage from a work of this writer that is now loft, in which he makes the following complaints : " I, and a few others, recollecting what (g) MfXn wafaxep^awftEva. Polit, 8. (k) " Neither Gods nor men can ftand (b) Life and Writings of Plato. before a fyftem." Dim. Leg. vol. iii. (ij Phrynidis, ^fitter £l)eil- p- 26. (!) Lib. xiv../i 632. Mufic 43 S THE HISTORY OF Mufic once was, and confidering what it now is, as corrupted by the theatre, imitate the people of Poffidonium, who an- nually celebrate a feftival after the Greek manner, in order to keep up the memory of what they once were ; and before they depart, with tears deplore the barbarous ftate into which they are brought by the Tufcans and Romans (?»)•" Plutarch frequently fpeaks of Mufic having been corrupted by the Theatre, particularly in his Dialogue, where he fays, " If we look back into remote antiquity, we (hall find that the Greeks were unacquainted with theatrical mufic. The only ufe they made of this art, was in praifing the Gods, and edu- cating youth. The idea of a theatre had not then entered their thoughts, and all their Mufic was dedicated to facrifices, and to other religious ceremonies, in which they fung Hymns in honour of the Gods, and Canticles in praife of great and good men." It fhould be remembered here, that Plutarch was a prieft of Apollo; and, moreover, that what he, Plato, and Ariftox- enus fay, concerning the injuries which Mufic had received from the theatre, favours very much of cant and prejudice. Athenseus, on the contrary, tells us, that notwithftanding the complaints of Ariftoxenus againft theatrical corruption, others were of opinion, that Mufic derived its principal improve- ments in Greece from the theatre : and it feems natural, that the hope of applaufe, and the fear of cenfure fhould ope- rate more powerfully on the induftry and faculties of a com- pofer, or performer, than the idea of private praife, or blame. And, if we may judge of ancient times by the prefent, the theatre feems the place to develope all the powers of Mufic, (m\ Though Ariftoxenus lived with with other arts in its improvements : at Alexander the Great, with Plato, and leaft, it did not in Italy ; nor, indeed, in with Ariftotle, when all other arts and England or France, if we compare the fc'.ences had arrived at their greateft de- Poetry of Milton with the Mufic of Henry ^ree of force and refinement, yet Mufic, Lawes, or the writings of Racine and Boi- from whatever caufe, does not frem, at leau, with the competitions of Lully. that, or at any time, to have kept pace and GREEK MUSIC. 439 and to expand the talents of its profeflbrs. For it is at the Mufical Theatre, the modern temple of Apollo and the Mufes, that perfection of various kinds is more frequently found, than any where elfe. But old things do get violently praifed, par- ticularly Mufic, after it ceafes to give pleafure, or even to be heard ; and old people exclufively praife what pleafed them in their youth* without making allowance, for their own want of judgment and experience at that time, which, perhaps, joined to the difpofition of youth to be eafily pleafed, occafioned their former delight. It is natural to fuppofe that Greek Mufic, like other arts, and other things, had its infancy, maturity, and decrepitude ; and that in fecond childhood, as its effects were more feeble, its purfuits would be more trivial, than before its decline. Few great a&ions were achieved by the Greeks after their total fub- jection. However, they cultivated Mufic under the Roman emperors, under their own, and are ftill delighted with it un- der the Turkifh government; but their Mufic is now fo far from being the (landard of excellence to the reft of the world, that none but themfelves are pleafed with it. CHAP. V. Of ancient Mufical SecJs, and Theories of Sound* IN the Dijfertation (a), the reader is promifed a fhort hiftory of Temperament, and of the Philofophy of Sound, commonly called Harmonics, as far as they appear to have been known to the Greeks ; and this feems to be the place to treat of thefe matters. No part of Natural Phibfophy has, 1 believe, been more fruitful of different Theories, or prefented a more perplexing (a) Page 13^, variety 44° THE HISTORY OF variety of opinions to our choice, both in ancient and modern times, than that which has Mufical Sound for its object. The Greeks were divided into numerous feds of Mulical fpeculators before, and after, the time of Ariftoxenus : the Epigonians, Damonians, Eratoclians, Agenorians, and many others enu- merated by Porphyry, in his Commentary upon the Harmonics of Ptolemy. Of thefe, however, all we know is, that they differed; it is perhaps little to be lamented that we no longer know about ivhat. The two great and principal fects were the Pythagoreans, and Ariftoxenians : the founders of thefe, with Lafus, Euclid, and Ptolemy, were the moft illuftrious Mufical Theorifts of antiquity. Of thefe, therefore, and their doc- trines, I fhall fpeak feparately. PYTHAGORAS. Pofterity has been very liberal to this Philofopher in be- ftowing upon him fuch inventions as others had neglected to claim, particularly in Mufic ; for there is fcarce any part of it, as a fcience, with which he has not been inverted by his ge- nerous followers and biographers. Mufical Ratios have been affigned to him, with the method of determining the gravity or acutenefs of founds by the greater or lefs degree of velocity in the vibrations of Jirings ; the addition of an eighth, firing to the Lyre («) ; the Harmony of the Spheres [o) ; and the Greek Mujical Notation ( p). His right indeed to fome of thefe dif- coveries has been difputed by feveral authors, who have given -them to others with as little reafon, perhaps, as they had been before beftowed upon him. But there is one difcovery, relative to Mufic, that has, at all times, been unanimoufly affigned to him, which, how- ever, appears to me extremely doubtful, not only whether it («) Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 22. Cenforinus, (0) See p. 296. cap. xiii. /. 82. (p) Diff. fed. V, and p. 389. was GREEK MUSIC 441 was made by him, but whether, in the manner it is related, it was ever made by any one. . We are told by Nieomaehus, Gaudentius, Jamblicus, Ma- crobius, and all their commentators, " that Pythagoras, one day meditating on the want of fome rule to guide the ear, analogous to what had been ufed to help the other fenfes, chanced to pafs by a blackfmith's fhop, and obferving that the hammers, which were four in number, founded very har- monioufly, he had them weighed, and found them to be in the proportion of 6, 8, 9, and 12. Upon this, he fufpended four firings of equal length and thicknefs, &c. faftened weights, in the above-mentioned proportions, to each of them refpe£tively, and found that they gave the fame founds that the hammers had done ; viz. the fourth, fifth, and odtave to the gravefl tone ; which lafl interval did not make part of the mufical fyflem before ; for the Greeks had gone no farther than the Heptachord, or feven firings, till that time (q)-" This is the fubflance of the account, as it has been lately abridged by Mr. Stillingfleet, who points out many incredible circumflances with refpecl to the weights, 6, 8, 9, 12, not giving the intervals pretended ; but feems not to have feen the leafl difficulty in the facl, relative to different hammers pro- during different founds upon the fame anvil (r), But, though both hammers and anvil have been fwallowed by ancients and moderns, and have paffed through them from one to another, with an oflrich-like digeflion, upon examination and experiment it appears, that hammers of different fize and weight will no more produce different tones upon the fame an- vil, than bows, or clappers, of different fizes, will from the fame firing or bell{s). (q) Principles and Power, of Harmony, (s) Indeed, both the hammers and an- P # 8, vils of antiquity mud: have been of a con- {r) The frontifpiece to M. Marpurg's ftru&ion very different from thofe of Hift. of Mufic, reprefents the Samian fage our degenerate days, if they produced any '& the aft of weighing the hamme rs . tones that were ftriftly Mufical, Of Vol. I, L 1 I th - p 442 THE HISTORY OF The long belief of this ftory proves that philofophers them* felves have ibmetimes taken fads upon truft, without verifying them by experiment. And as the tone of the hammers was alferted without proof, fq was the effect of their different weights, fattened to firings ; this Galileo difcovered (t). And Bontempi, in trying the power of weights upon firings in the Pythagoric proportions of 6, 8, 9, 1 2, found, that inftead of giving the 4th, 5th, and Sth of the gravefl tone, they pro- duced only the minor 3d. major 3d. and tritonus ; fo that the whole account falls to the ground. But though modern in- credulity and experiment have robbed Pythagoras of the glory of difcovering muflcal ratios by accident, he has been allowed the fuperior merit of arriving at them by meditation and de- fign. At leafl the invention of the Harmonica/ Canon, or Mo- nochord, has been afcribed to him both by ancient and modern writers (u). the millions of well - organized mor- tals, who have paffed by blackfmith's fhops, fmce the time of Pythagoras, I be- ' lieve no one was ever detained by a Jingle note, much lefs by an harmonious concord, from thole Vulcanian instruments. A different kind of noife, indeed, will be produced by hammers of different weights and lizes ; but it feems not to be in the power of the moft fubtle ear to difcover the leaft imaginable difference, with refpeft to gravity or acutenefs. But though dif- ferent noifei may be produced from different bodies, in proportion to their fize and fo- Hdity, and every room, chair, and table, in a houfe, has a particular tone, yet thefe noifes can never be afcertained like Mufical Tones, which depend upon re- iterated and regular vibrations of the alU quot parts of a firing, or other elaftic body ; and in wind-inftruments, upon the undulations of the air conveyed into a tube. Noife may, indeed, be forced from a mufical firing, or inrtrument, by vio- lence ; but noife proceeding from bodies non-elafiic, or immufical, can never be foftemd into found. M. Roufleau has in- genioufly imagined that noife is of the fame nature as found, with this difference, that to produce found, the Harmonies of the whole tone itfelf Ihould only be heard ; fuch as the Sth, 1 2th, 1 5th, and 17th; where- as noife is the compound of a confufed multitude of jarring founds, of which the vibrations never coincide ; fuch as the 7th, 9th, 1 ith, &c. See Ditt. de Mtf. Art. Bruit. (f) The numbers 6, 8, 9, 1 2, applied to different lengths of firings, would, indeed, give the intervals mentioned. But It is proved, that to produce thoie intervals, by the tenfion of different weights, the weights muft be the fquares of thofe num- bers :_ that is, 36, 64, 81, 144.. It is aftonilhing how the blunder had been e- choed from author to author, without ex- periment, till the time of Galileo. (a) Vide Ariftid. Quint, p. 116. Priri, and Potvcr of Hann. Hiji. des Matbcm. par Montucla. Euler, Tentatnen nova Tbeor. Muf and all the writers upon Har- monics and Temperament. The Monocbord was an inftrument of a . (ingle firing, furniihed with moveable bridge*- GREEK MUSIC. 443 I fhall enter no deeper into this fubject here, than is abfo- lutely neceffary to explain the nature of the difcovery attri- buted to Pythagoras, to which Muilc is indebted for the ho- nourable appellation of Science ; referving for the fecond volume what ufe has been made of it by modern theorifls. Pythagoras fuppofed the air to be the vehicle of found, and the agitation of that element occafioned by a fimilar agitation in the parts of the founding body, to be the caafe of it. The vibrations of a firing, or any other fonorous body, being com- municated to the air, affected the auditory nerves with the fenfation of found; and this found, according to him, was acute or grave, in proportion as the vibrations were quick or flow. It was alfo known, by experiment, that of two firings equal in every thing but length, the fhorter made the quickeft vibrations, and gave the acuter found ; in other words, that the number of vibrations made in the fame time by two firings of different lengths, were inverfely as thofe lengths ; that is, the greater the length, the fmaller the number of vibrations in any given time. By thefe difcoveries it was that found, confidered in the vibrations that caufe it, and the dimenfions of the vibrating or fonorous body, was reduced to quantity, and as fuch, became fubject to calculation, and expreffible by numbers. Thus, for inrtance, the two founds that form an octave, are expreffed by the numbers 1 and 2 ; which repre- ient either the number of vibrations in a given time, or the length of the firings ; and mean nothing more myflerious than that the acuter found vibrates twice, while the graver vibrates once ; or, that the firing producing the lower found, is twice the length of that which gives the upper. If we confider the bridges, and contrived for the meafuring ltant ufe among the ancients, as the only and adiufting the ratios of muiical inter- means of forming the ear to the accurate vals, by accurate divilxons. Ariit. Quint. perception, and the voice to the true in* iavs, that this inftrument was recom- tonation of thofe minute and difficult in- mended by Pythagoras on his death-bed, tervals which were then praftifed in Me- as the muiical iuveitigator, the criterion of lody. .truth. It appears to have been in con- h 1 I 2 vibra- 4 44 THE HISTORY OF vibrations the higher found isas 2, the lower as 1 : the reverfe, if we confider only the lengths. In the fame manner, and in the fame fenfe, the 5th is expreffed by the ratio of 2 to 3, and the 4th by that of 3 to' 4. Such was the ancient philofophy of founds, of which Py- thagoras is recorded as the firft teacher. But how much of this theory was founded on experiment and dcmonftration, and how much of it upon hypothefis ; how much of it was known, and how much taken for granted, cannot certainly be deter- mined. The ftory juft now difcuffed is too much embarrafled with abfurdiiies and impoffibilities to guide us to any probable conjecture, as to the method by which Pythagoras acliially arrived at his conclufions (x). Indeed it was fo late as the beginning of the prefent cen- tury (y), before this ancient theory of found was fully con- firmed, and the laws of vibrations, and the whole doctrine of mufical firings, eftablifhed upon the folid bafis of mathematical demonflration. The fecond mufical improvement attributed to Pythagoras, was the addition of an eighth firing to the Lyre, which, be- fore his time had only feven, and was thence called a Hep- tachord. It is fuppofed by feveral ancient writers that the fcale of this inftrument, which was that of Terpander, confifled of two conjoint Tetrachords : EFGAB b CD ; and' that Pythagoras, by adding an eighth found, at the top, and altering the tuning of the fifth, formed this fcale : (x) The difcovery, as far as it relates which Pythagoras got fafely over. Ex- to the lengths of firings, was eafily made r periment, here, is out of the queftion ; becaufe it depended upon an obvious ex- tor the floweft vibrations that produce- periment. It was, likewife, eafily per- mufical found are far too quick to be ceived, that a fliort firing vibrated with counted or diftinguilhed. The inference, , more velocity than a long one ; but be- however, was natural, though it does not tween the certainty of this general taft, appear that the ancients were able to fup- and the certainty that the vibrations were port it by Uriel: 'and fcientific proof, in a ratio exactly the inverfe of the lengths, (y) 1714. See Phil. Tranf. and Me- there is a confiderable gulph. (See Smith's thodus incremmtorum diretfa et bivcrfa, by Harmonics, feft. I. art. 7. and note f.) Dr. Brook Taylor. We have no account of the bridge upon EFGAv GREEK MUSIC. 445 EFGA, BCDe, or a fimilar fcale, confirming of two disjunft Tetrachords {%). After mufical ratios were difcovered and reduced to num- bers, they were made by Pythagoras and his followers, the type of order and juft proportion in all things : hence virtue, friendship, good government, celeftial motion, the human foul, and God himfelf, were Harmony. This difcovery gave birth to various fpecies of Mufic, far more ftrange and inconceivable than Chromatic and Enhar- monic : fuch as Divine Mufic, Mundane Mufic, 'Elementary Mufic, and many other divifions and fubdivifions, upon which Zarlino, Kircher, and almoft all the old writers, never fail to expatiate with wonderful complacence. It is, perhaps, equally to the credit and advantage both of Mufic and Philofophy, (z) How this fcale was generated by the Triple progrcj/lon, or feries of perfect ^ths, the Abbs Rouffier has lately very well difcufled, in his Mcmoire fur la Mufique ties Anciens. I (hall endeavour to explain what is meant by the triple progrejjion in Mufic, which is the bails of this ingenious hypothefis ; referring the reader to the Me- moire\\.{yo^. Haft explains by the word AjOupaCoawi, (f) Called cyxviann %ofwv. Dithyrambic Poets ; for both the Poetry (g) In ai'ib.verf. 1 403. and Mufic of thefe dances, performed (h) The compofers of the Mufic and round the altar, were Dithyrambic. poetry, for thefe kinds of dances, were, has GREEK MUSIC. 449 has been the receptacle of lojl tilings. This author fpeaks of a Hymn written by Lafus without the ufe of xhejigma, or let- ter S. He likewife mentions one of his Odes, called the Cen- taurs, remarkable for the omiffion of the fame conformant. Thefe inftances of his being a Lipogra?nmatiJl, or letter-dropper, and of his particular enmity to the hiffing letter S, are greater proofs of his patience and delicacy of ear, than of his genius or good tafte. The late Dr. Fepufch (/) gave rules for com- pofing in all keys without the intervention of flats or fharps; but fuch is the obftinacy of the great poets and compofers of this age, that all the letters of the alphabet are indilcrimi- nately ufed, and flats and fharps are become more numerous than ever ! With refpect to the mufical difcoveries of Lafus, both in theory and pra&ice, all that we know of them may be reduced to three heads. 1 ft. Ariftoxenus (k), in fpeaking of the nature of found, attributes to him, in common with certain Epigonians, a he- terodox opinion, that -found had a latitude {J). Meibomius is perplexed by the paffage, but is inclined to think it means only that in fuftaining a note, the voice varied a little up and down, and did not JlriSlly keep to one mathematical line of tone. This explication, however, is not fatisfactory ; for the expreflion naturally leads to the idea of a Temperament ; and feems to fay that the intonation of the fcale admitted of fome variety; in other words, that the exacT: ratio of intervals might be departed from without offending the ear [m). And what is faid of Lafus by Plutarch, in his Dialogue on Mufic, renders (i) Treatife on Harmony, 173 1 . the accurate tuning is one, and individual; (k) IJb.'i. p. 3. but the practical tuning, ttXowo; e;/ei, aJ- {!) n?uaiTo; 'fxf"- ""ts of latitude." This paffage, which is (m) This idea is greatly confirmed by the curious throughout, is quoted by Salinas, fame expreflion, otA«to; ej/ei, occurring in to prove that the ancients had in practice a paffage of Galen, quoted by Dr. Smith, a temperament, though it did not gome in p. 47, of his Harmonies, 1 ft Edit. " It is the way of theorifts to fpeak of it in their probable, fays Galen, that in the Lyre, fcientifical books. Vol. I. M m m this 450 THE HISTORY OF this idea ftill more probable. He is there mentioned as a great innovator, who imitated the compafs and variety of wind-in- ftruments ; as well as Epigonius, who was the inventor of the inftrument of forty firings («). Among the corruptions com- plained of in the new Mufic, the frequent and licentious tran- fitions from one mode and genus to another, was not the leaf!:. If therefore the objedt of this multiplication of firings may be fuppofed to have been the convenience of having an inftru- ment ready tuned for all the modes, like our Harpfichords, it feems probable that both Lafus and Epigonius might have been Temperersy and have accommodated their doSlrine to their practice. 2dly. Theon of Smyrna teftifies that Lafus, as well as the Pythagorean Hippafus of Metapontus, made ufe of two vafes of the fame fize and tone, in order to calculate the exact ratio or proportions of concords. For by leaving one of the vafes empty, and filling the other half full of water, they became Octaves to each other : and filling one a 4th part full, and the other a 3d, the percuffion of the two veffels produced the concords of 4th and 5th : from which procefs refulted the proportions of thefe three concords contained in the numbers i» 2, 3, 4(0). 3 >) WEpi a.v7\wv nai ogyavw. (n) Uept Tcxyaai^ o%xyiattix$. tyj Hipi uvXut rfiatu;. alt GREEK MUSIC. 453 all which is done in Xhtjirft book. It is likewife full of re- petitions. There appears, however, through the cloud of bad readings, and all kinds of corruptions in the text, to be an ac- curacy and an Ariftotelian precifion in thefe old books, which are not to be found in later writers, who feem to have all the negligence and inaccuracy of compilers. As Pythagoras and Ariftoxenus were heads of the two moft numerous and celebrated mufical feels in antiquity, I fhall en- deavour to make fuch of my readers as are curious in thefe mat- ters, acquainted with their different tenets. The Pythagoreans, by thqir rigid adherence to calculation, and the accurate divifions of the Monochord, may be faid to have trufted more to the judgment of the Eye, concerning the perfection of confonance, than to that of the Ear (x). In- tervals, according to them, were confonant or dijjonant, in proportion as the ratios of the vibrations were fimple or com- plex. Thus the octave was more perfect than the 5th, be- caufe the ratio of r to 2 is more fimple, and more eafily per- ceived, than that of 2 to 3 : and the 5th, for the fame reafon, was more perfect than the 4th, i-. It was upon this principle that they allowed of no deviation from the ftrict ratios of founds. They left nothing to the uncertain judgment of the ear, which they thought no more able to determine a perfect confonance without a Monochord, than the eye to form a perfect circle without compaffes. Ariftoxenus, on the contrary, referred every thing to the ear.. He thought the fenfes fufficiently accurate for Mufical,. though not for Mathematical purpofes ( y) ; and that it was abfurd to aim at an artificial accuracy in gratifying the ear, beyond its own power of diftin&ion. The philofophy of the PytUigo- {#) The Pythagoreans were diftinguiih- their taking only the ear and praftice for ed in antiquity, by the appellation of Ca- their guides. Porfhyr. ex verf. If'ulUs, nvnici, as being governed by the Mono- Opcr.Mathem.tom.ux.p, 207. chord, or Harmonic-Canon ; and the Arif- (j/) Arillox. p. 33. tojf.enians by that of Muficj, on account of peans, 454 THE HISTORY OF reans, their velocities, vibrations, and proportions he rejected with contempt (z), as being foreign to the JubjeSl ; fubftituting abjlratt caufes In the room of experience, and making Mufic lefs the object of fenfe than of intellect. According to thefe principles, his doctrine maintained, that concords were to be taken by the judgment of the ear only, and other intervals of which the ear was lefs able to determine the perfection, by the difference, or him total of concords [a). Thus the Tone was the difference between the 4th and 5th : the Ditone was taken by alternate 4ths and 5ths, as Ea,aD, DG, GC (3). Had he flopped here, nothing could rea- fonably have been alledged againft him. But taking the Tone as a well known interval, of which the ear from the com- parifon of 4th and 5th, could judge with fufficient exactnefs, he made it the meafure of all other intervals ; of the greater by addition, and of the lefs by divifion. Thus the 4th con- tained, according to him, two Tones and a half; the 5th, 3 and i ; the Octave, confequently, 5 Tones and 2 femi-tones, or 6 Tones. And, further, the Tone he divided into 2, 3, and 4 equal parts. By this procefs, as it is juftly objected to him by Ptolemy, he acted inconfiftently with his own prin- ciples ; pretending to truft folely to the ear, and to exclude reafon and calculation, at the fame time that he was making a parade of both, in a way either totally ufelefs and nugatory, or more complicated and difficult than that which he had re- jected. If the ear is unable to determine the exact ratio of a concord, flill lefs is it able accurately to bifect a tone ; and that a tone cannot be numerically divided into two, or more tqual parts, has long been demonftrated (c). It can only be done {z) Ibid. p. 32. lower of Arifroxenus, in his ItitroduBla (a) Ihid. 5^. Harmonica. To divide the tone | into {b) This was not our confcnant major two equal parts, is to find a mean pro- 3d, but a difibnant interval, compofed of portional between 8 and 9 ; which mean, two major tones 4 x |. being the fquare root of 72, is an Irra- (c) This was demonftrated by Euclid, tional, or furd quantity. See Dr. Smith's ia his SeSio Canonis, thpagh a clofe fol- Harm, p. 100, note A>). And Ekm. de Muf, GREEK MUSIC. 455 by geometrical and lineal methods, more operofe than the cal- culations of Pythagoras, and which, if accomplished, would give only falfe, incommenfurable, and tempered intervals (d). Ariftoxenus feems to have been led into this inconfiftence by his defire of diftinguifhing himfelf from the mere practical. Muficians of his time, of whofe inaccuracy and want of fcience he frequently fpeaks with great contempt. The Pythagoreans, on the other fide, were not without: their errors. Their principles were right, but they carried them too far, and forgot that they could no ofherwife be known to be right, than as they were confirmed by the plea- fure of the ear. How, for inftance, did they know that the ratio from 2 to 3 was that of a perfect fifth but by the ear,, which, upon repeated trial, found that interval moft har- monious when produced by firings in that proportion I But it was the peculiar character of the Pythagorean philofophy, to erect abftract numbers and proportions into phyfical caufes. Not content with purfuing their principle of the fimplicity of ratios, as far as experience warranted, and the ear approved^ they fet it up as an a priori principle, and rejected intervals which the ear pronounces to be concords, merely becaufe they did not fall within the proportions which they chofe to ad- mit. The compound interval, for inftance, of the 8th and 4th, though undoubtedly concord, they would not admit as fuch y becaufe its ratio 3 : 8, is neither multiple, nor fuperparticular, the only proportions they admitted as confonant, on account of their fimplicity (e). They are, befides, charged both by Ptolemy and Ariftox- enus, with fometimes afligning fuch ratios to intervals as the ear did not approve; but no inftance is given, Jt would be Muf. par M. D'Alembert, Part I. Chap. contains the lefs, a number of times, as Ttii. 1 : 2, 1 : 3, 1 : 4 ; fuperparticular, where (J) See Differt. p. 15 :. the difference is only 1; as 2 ; 3, 3:4, («; Multiple is, where the greater term Sec. in- 456 THE HISTORY OF injuftice, however, to quit thefe famous mufical theories with- out acknowledging that their phyfical doctrines concerning the production of found, and the caufes of gravity and acutenefs, have been confirmed, by modern philofophy, and their meta- phyfical fpeculations concerning the caules of confonancc, adopted by modern writers of no inconfiderable reputation (J). EUCLID. As Pythagoras was the firft who found out mufical ratios, by the divifion of a Monochord, or fingle firing, a difcovery •which tradition only had preferved (g), Euclid was the firft who wrote upon the fubject, and reduced thefe divifions to mathe- matical demonftration. This great geometrician flouriflied in the time of Ptolemy Lagus, that is, about 277 B. C. His Elements were firft pub- lifhed at Bafil, in SwiiTerland, 1533, by Simon Grynasus, from two MSS. the one found at Venice, and the other at Paris. His Introduction to Harmonics (//), which in fome MSS. was at- tributed to Cleonidas, is in the Vatican copy given to Pappus ; Meibomius, however, accounts for this, by fuppofing thofe copies to have been only two different MS. editions of Eu- clid's work, which had been revifed, corrected, and reftored from the corruptions incident to frequent tranfcription by Cleonidas and Pappus, whofe names were, on that account, prefixed. It firft appeared in print with a Latin verfion, in 14.98, at Venice, under the title of Cleonidce Harmonicum In- troduBorium : who Cleonidas was, neither the editor, George (f) Defcartes, Euler, Tent, praf.p. if, and vibrations, being known to the Chal- 12. Buffon, torn, vi p. 54, 55, 8vo. deans, as Plutarch informs us, de Proc. (g) Indeed it is more than probable that Anim. is a ftrong proof that the Pythao-o- Pythagoras acquired all his mufical phi- reans did not fit ft difcover thofe propor- lofophy in Egypt, where he refided twenty- tions. two years ; and the numbers 6, 8, 9, 1 ?, [h) Etaayoyi) k^omiri. which are exaftly right, applied to lengths Valla, GREEK MUSIC. 457 Valla, nor any one elfe pretends to know. It was John Pena, a mathematician in the fervice of the king of France, who firft publifhed this work at Paris, under the name of Euclid, in 1557. After this, it went through feveral editions with his other works. His Section of the Canon (/) follows his Introduction ; it went through the fame hands, and the fame editions, and is mentioned by Porphyry, in his Commentary on Ptolemy, as the work of Euclid. This tract chiefly contains fhort and clear definitions of the feveral parts of Greek Mufic, in which it is eafy to fee that mere Melody was concerned ; as he begins by telling us, that the fcience of Harmonics confiders the nature and ufe of Melody, and confifts of feven parts : Sounds, Inter- vals, Genera, Syftems, Keys, Mutations, and Melopceia ; all which have been feverally confidered in the Differtation. Of all the writings upon ancient Mufic, that are come down to us, this feems to be the moft correct and comprefled : the reft are generally loofe and diffufed ; the authors either twift- ing and diftorting every thing to a favourite fyftem, or filling their books with metaphyfical jargon, with Pythagoric dreams, and Platonic fancies, wholly foreign to Mufic. But Euclid, in this little treatife, is like himfelf, clofe, and clear; yet fo ma- thematically fhort and dry, that he bellows not a fyllable more upon the fubject than is abfolutely neceflary (k). \ According to Dr. Wallis (/), Euclid was the firft who demon- ftrated that an octave is fomewhat lefs thanyfrc whole tones; and this he does in the 1 4th Theorem of his Section of the Canon. (i) KciTsmu.* y.oucioq. fufed, obfcure, and indigefied ; but M. (k) His object feems to have been the D'Alembert extracting the eflence of his compreffing into a fcientific and elemen- contufed ideas, methodized his fyltem of tary abridgment, the more diftuied and a Fundamental Bafe, and comprefled, into fpeculative treatifes of Ariftoxenus. Ke the compafs of a pamphlet, the fubftance was the D'Alembert of that author ; ex- of many volumes. See Elemens de Mit* plaining his principles, and, at the fame Ji<[ue, fuivans le; Principes de Ramcau, time, feeing and demonstrating his errors. (/) Phil. Tra/if. No. 242, and Lovv- The mufical writings of Rameau were dif- thorp's Abridg. vol. i. Vol. I. N n n In 458 THE HISTORY OF In the 1 5th Theorem, he demonftrates that a fourth is lefs than two tones and a half, and a fifth lefs than three and a half; but though this proves the neceffity of a temperament upon fixed inftruments, where one found anfwers feveral purpofes, yet he gives no rules for one, which feems to furnifh a proof that fuch inftruments were at leaft, not generally known or ufed by the ancients. What Ariftoxenus called a half-tone, Euclid demonftrated. to be a fmaller interval, in the proportion of 256 to 243. This he denominated a limma, or remnant ; becaufe giving to the fourth, the extremes of which were called Son) Stabiles, and were re- garded as fixed and unalterable, the exact proportion of 4 to 3, and, taking from it two major tones f x 7 % the Limma was all that remained to complete the Diatef/'aron. This divifion of the Diatonic Genus [m) being thus, for the firft time, eftablifhed upon mathematical demonftration, continued in favour, fays Dr. Wallis, for many ages. But this will be further explained under the fubfequent articles. D I D Y M U S Was an eminent Mufician of Alexandria, and, accord- ing to Suidas, cotemporary with the emperor Nero, by whom he was much honoured and efteemed. This proves him to have been younger than Ariftoxenus, and more ancient than Ptolemy, though fome have imagined him to have preceded Ariftoxenus. He wrote upon Grammar and Medicine, as well as Mufic ; but his works are all loft, and the whole that we know at prefent of his harmonical doctrines is from Ptolemy, who preferved and difputed them. However, this author confefles him to have been well verfed in the canon and har- monic divifions, and if we may judge from the teftimony (m) See Dijfcrt. fed. II. even GREEK MUSIC. 459 even of his antagonift, he mufl have been not only an able theorift in Mufic, but a man of confiderable erudition. As this Mufician preceded Ptolemy, and was the Jirjt who intro- duced the minor tone into the fcale, and, confequently, the practical major 3d. f, which harmonized the whole fyftem, and pointed out the road to counterpoint, an honour that moft critics have bellowed on Ptolemy, he feems to have a better title to the Invention of modern harmony, or mujic in parts, than Guido. " The beft fpecies of Diapafon, fays Doni, and that which is the moft replete with fine harmony, and chiefly in ufe at prefent, was invented by Didymus. . . . His method was this : after the major femitone EF. ij-, he placed the minor tone in the ratio of '-% between F G, and afterwards the major tone *-, between GA («) ; but Ptolemy, for the fake of innovation* placed the major tone where Didymus placed the minor (-) The intervals in our key of C na- Major Kty and Counterpoint had been in tural, when made perfect, are in the fol- queftion ; but, as the Abbe Rouilier juft- lowing proportions, afcending : i,-f' J (it) To juftify this account, and to give ed by the Abbe Rouflier, Mem. fur la the reader fome idea of the licentioufnefs Muf. des Anc.-^. 16:. of thefe ancient Tunings, or Temperaments, (/) In what manner this deviation be- I (hall only mention, that, inftead of the came neceifary, will be related in the fe- two tones, and two femi -tones, to which cond vol. of this work, where the fubjeft modern theory is confined, the ancients of Temperament will be more particularly admitted four kinds of tones, and eleven explained. femi-tones ; and, of thefe fifteen different ratios. GREEK MUSIC. 463 Ariftoxenus did not confine himfelf even to this rule; for his equal divisions were neither reducible to rational numbers, nor were the vibrations of his intervals, if they could have been put in practice, commenfurable. Mufic, however, was more obliged to him for the invention of a method which it muft be allowed left every thing to the guidance of the ear, uncertain as it may be, than to thofe mathematical fpeculators who furnifhed it with fo many accurate and demonflxable rules for being infallibly out of tune (x). Ptolemy having a facility, and perhaps a pleafure, in cal- culating, feems to have fported with the fcale, and wantonly to have tried confufions, by diffe&ing and torturing it in all poffible ways ; and though one of his many fyftems fuits our prefent practice, it is not to be imagined that it was de- fignedly calculated for the ufe of counterpoint, which was far from his thoughts (y). It feems, however, as if Mnjic in parts was firft fuggefted by this arrangement of the intervals ; for the 3ds and 6ths, which were before fo harfh and crude as to be defervedly ranked among the difcords, were now foft- ened and fweetened into that grateful coincidence with which ratios, eleven are impracticable in Har- five fourths of a tone. mony, and rejected by theory, and by 2. The fljarp Diatonic, of which the the ear : but, fays M. Rouffeau, ccji pen/re three intervals were a minor femi-tone, and fon terns, & abufcr de celui da lecicur, que two major tones. de Ic promener par toutes ccs divifious. Art. 3. The flat Chromatic, of one third of a Syntonique. tone ; another ditto ; a tone and a half; (a-) Indeed, it is probable, that among and a third of a tone, the ancients, as well as the moderns, many 4. The fcfquialterate Chromatic, of a fuch untuneable divilions, ferved more to Diefis, or quarter tone and half; ditto; amufe Theorifts, than to guide practical and feven Diefes, or quarter tones. Muficians. 5. "Thejharp Chromatic, of a femi-tone - (y) That he was not the only one, how- a femi-tone, and a tone and half. ever, who broke the fcale on the wheel, It has been already remarked p. appears from a note of M. Burette, upon 15 c, that the numbers and pro'por- a paffage in Plutarch's Dialogue on Mufic ; tions of the ancients are inadmiflable in for the divifions of the Tetiachord upon our counterpoint ; and I beg leave to aflc the Flute, without the Enharmonic, in the learned in Harmonics, as well as prac- very high antiquity, were five. tical Muficians, what pleafing effects can 1. The flat Diatonic, confining of a pofTibly be produced, even in Melody, from fcmi-tone,. three quarters of a tone, and fuch ftrange intervals as thefe? modern. 464 THE HISTORY OF modern ears are fo much delighted. It was impoffible, after hearing them, for lovers of mufic not to feel the charms arifing from the combination and fucceffion of thefe confo- nances; and it was from this time that the feeds of that har- mony which may be faid, in a lefs myfterious fenfe than that of Pythagoras, to be implanted in our nature, began to fpring up. They were certainly of flow growth, as no good fruit was produced from them, for more than iooo years after : but arts, like animals to whom great longevity is allowed, have a long infancy and childhood, before adolefcence and maturity come on. CHAP. VI. Of the Scolia, or Soncs, of the ancient Greeks. VOCAL Mufic is of fuch high antiquity, that its origin feems to have been coeval with mankind ; at lead, the lengthened tones of pleafure and pain, of joy and affliction, muft long have preceded every other language, and Mufic. The voice of pafflon wants but few articulations, and mufl have been nearly the fame in all human creatures ; differing only in gravity or acutenefs, according to age, fex, and orga- nization, till the invention of words, by particular conventions, in different focieties, weakened, and, by degrees, rendered it unintelligible. This primitive and inftindtive language, or cry of nature, is ftill retained by animals, and univerfally un- derftood, while our artificial tongues are known only to the fmall part of the globe, where, after being learned with great pains, they are fpoken. " We talk of love and of hatred, fays M. de Voltaire, in general terms, without being able to exprefs the different degrees of thofe paffions. It is the fame with ref- pe£t to pain and pleafure, of which there are fuch innumerable fpecies. GREEK MUSIC. 465 fpecies. The fhades and gradations of volition, repugnance, or compulfion, are equally iudiftincr. for want of colours." This cenfure fhould, however, be confined to written language ; for though a word can be accurately expreffed in writing, and pronounced but one way, yet the different tones of voice that can be given to it, in the utterance, are infinite. A mere negative or affirmative may even be uttered in flich a manner, as to convey ideas diametrically oppofite to the original import of the word. Mufic, confidered then as the language of the paffions, is moft expreflive when its movements are leaft impeded by dif- ficult articulations ; and this accounts for the preference of one language to another, for mufical purpofes, and for the pleafure we receive from inftrumental Mufic, of the moft exquifite kind, and from divifions in airs that are well executed by the voice. It has already been obferved, that Songs preceded the ufe of letters, and ferved not only for amufement, but fupplied the place of hiftory in after-ages. Laws were originallyya/z^, to be the better retained in memory, and prayers offered up to the Gods were chanted, in order to add to their folemnity and energy. The firft public ufe, therefore, of Mufic, was in the fervice of religion ; and the firft private ufe, to alleviate labour and care, or to exprefs hilarity during fecial happinefs. Theurgic Hymns, or Songs of Incantation fuch as fhofe afcribed to Orpheus, which were performed in the myfteries upon the moft folemn occafions, were the firft and moft ancient of which we have any account in Greece ; and thefe are fuppofed to have originated in Egypt. The fecond fpecies confifted of poetical and popular Hymns, that were fung at the head of an army, or in praife of feme divinity, during the public worfhip of the Gods in temples ; and thefe were diftinguifhed by particular appellations, accord- ing to the perfonages to whom they were addreffed ; as Paeans to Apollo and Mars, and Dithyrambics to Bacchus. Thefe, however, in procefs of time, were lavifhed upon heroes, kings, and generals. Vol. I. Ooo , There 466 THE HISTORY OF There was ftill a third clafs, diftinct from thefe, which may be denominated philofophic, or allegorical Hymns, in which the attributes of the fupreme Being, as the apologifts for Pa- ganifm pretended, were celebrated under fome fable or virtue perfonified. Of all the different kinds of Scolia, or fejlive So7igs that were in ufe among the inhabitants of Greece, and that were diftinct from religious Hymns, thofe of which we have any remains, are chiefly fuch as were fung at table, during the time of banquets, or repafts. We are told, however, by Plutarch, Athenasus, Lucian," and other Greek writers, that in the Jirft ufe of thefe, they were real Pceans, facred Canticles, or Hymns, fung by the whole company to fome divinity (2). It afterwards was the cuftom for each of the guefts to fing alone, alternately, one of thefe fongs, holding a branch of myrtle in his hand, which he paffed about to his next neighbour, as we do the bottle ; and this- may be called the fecond manner of performing thefe fongs (a). The third was to the accompaniment of the Lyre, and required profefled Muficians, Singers, and Citharazdifts ; for Mufic was now arrived at a greater degree of perfection among artifis, who made it their chief employment, than gentlemen who applied themfelves to it, among other exercifes in the general courfe of education, only as an amufement (h). As there were three feveral ways of performing thefe Scotia^ the fubjecfs upon which they were compofed may be likewife arranged under three ClaJJes. The Jirft clafs confifted of moral Songs, of which feveral are preferved by Athenasus.. {■A The Gods were not then, fays M. to all others, for their eafe and Jtmpliclty, Rouffeau, regarded as kill-joys, and (hut when it was cuftomary for gentlemen to out of convivial meetings; the Greeks perform in Dithyrambic Chorufes ; which, were not afraid to let them be of the Problem not only (hews that there was a party. time when Mufic in Greece, from its fim- (a) In procefs of time, to Sing to the plicity, and being made part of a liberal. Myrtle, became a proverbial expreffion for education, did not require profeiTbrs who ignorance ; as thofe who had a hand em- fhould make it their fole employment, and ployed in holding the branch were unable diftinguifh themfelves by their execution to accompany themfelves on the Lyre, ot difficulties ; but likewife fortifies the which required application and talents, opinion advanced in the Diflertation, re-. (b) Ariftotle, Prob.xv. mentions En- lative to eafy Enharmonic, harmonic plelodics being formerly prelerred la GREEK MUSIC 467 In the following Scolium, Timocreon gives his opinion of riches. Vile riches fhould no favour find, By land or fea, among mankind ; But fhould be fent with fiends to dwell, Down in the deepeft, blackeft hell : For 'tis from them, ere fince the world began, The greateft ills have fprung, which torture man. And Plato, Athenseus, and Lucian, have all quoted a Song up- on the pre-eminence of worldly bleffings : The firft of human gifts is health, The next on beauty s pow'r attends ; The third, poffeffing well- ear n'd wealth ; The fourth is youth, enjoy'd with friends. Phocylides has given the fame fentiment, in different words. And Ariftotle, having brought it from Delphos, has done it the honour to place it at the head of his Moral Writings. Anaxandrides, however, according to Athenseus, was not fo partial to it j but, on the contrary, difputed the fentiments it contained. That health is xhejirft of all bleffings below, Is a truth which no logic can fairly confute ; But the fecond on perfonal charms to beflow, And on riches the third, I beg leave to difpute : Next to health, give me riches ; for beauty, though bright, In hunger and rags is a villainous fight. The fecond Clafs of Scolia, comprehends mythological hymns, and hiftorical fongs. Of thefe I fhall give the following, from Athenasus, as fpecimens merely of the fentiments which thefe kinds of compofitions contained ; for as to the Meafare and Mufic, they are now equally irrecoverable. O o o 2 To 4 6S THE HISTORY OF To the Divinities that prefide over Riches and Abundance* At the genial board I fing, Pleafures which from plenty fpring : While the wreath adorns our brows, Ceres well deferves our vows. Plutus too, thy name I'll join, And thy fifter Proferpine. Ye our focial joys augment, From your bounty flows content. Blefs our city with increafe, And our fong fhall never ceafe. On Latona and her Offspring. Latona once, on Delos' ifle, Gave to the world a mining pair ; Apollo, who makes nature fmile, Whofe moulders glow with golden hair ;. And Dian', goddefs of the chace, Whofe fhafts unerring ever fly, Sole fov'reign of the female race, Nocturnal emprefs of the fky. On PAN. O Pan, delight of nymphs and fwains, Protector of Arcadian plains, Who lead'ft the frolic dance ; The laughing fair, who play the prude 3 But fly from thee to be purfu'd, Their favours to enhance. They love thy ruftic oaten reed ; They know thy vigour, force, and fpeed,- And feign a modeft fear. Our jocund {trains fhall fwell for thee, And render, by their mirth and glee,. Thy name for ever dear. Among GREEK MUSIC. 469 Among the hiftoric, or patriotic Songs, there are none more frequently mentioned by ancient authors, than thofe upon Har- modius and Ariftogiton, who fignalized their courage againfl Hipparchus and Hippias, the fons and fucceflbrs of Pififtratus, king of Athens. Hipparchus having publicly infulted the After of Harmodius, he, in conjunction with his friend Arifto- giton, flew him at the Panathensean Games, which event was the fignal to the natives of Athens for recovering their liberty- The following are fragments of popular fongs, in honour of > Harmodius. 1 ft Fragment. Cover'd with myrtle-wreaths I'll wear my fword, ., Like brave Harmodius, and his patriot friend - Ariftogiton, who the laws reftor'd, The tyrant flew, and bade oppreflion end. 2d Fragment. Harmodius dear ! thou art not dead, Thy foul is to Elyfium fled ; Thy virtue there a place has won, With Diomede, great Tydeus' Ion ; With fwift Achilles, too, thou art join'd. And ev'ry friend of human kind. Ariftotle honoured his friend and kinfman, Hermias, prince of Atarnea, with a Hymn, or Canticle, which is preferved in Athensus (d), and in Diogenes Laertius () Tla.7 TA«(xft>yo$ Ai»i» a^f*o3T#, teyity {i) Oris cevdoa (p^Kot y.ri TTpo^octy, (XEyaArjp £5 Tjatxii u^rtt J/\GiiV Aataut fxtr' A;\;tMs«' Ton e^ei T((*a» Em BpoToij, Em Seoictu, *«t' £/*»» not. H I S- ROMAN M U S I C. 473 HISTORY OF THE MUSIC of the ROMANS. IN defcribing the Mufic and mufical inftruments of the Greeks, thofe of the Romans have been included ; yet, in order to preferve a kind of hiftorical chain, and to conned; diftant times together, it is as neceffary to give a chapter to Roman Mufic, as, in vifiting diftant regions, it is, fometimes, to pafs through large tracls of defert country, in order to ar- rive at places better worth examining. But though the Ro- mans were obliged to the Greeks for raoft of their arts, fciences, and refinements ; yet, as there is no country fo favage, where men aflbciate together, as to be wholly without Mufic, it ap- pears that the Romans had in very high antiquity a rude and coarfe Mufic of their own, and had imitated the Etrufcan Mu- fical Eftablifhments, both in their army and temples. Dionyfius Halicarnaffeniis (a), fpeaking of the anti- quity of the Pelafgians, the inhabitants of Falerii and Fefcenniae, two ancient cities of Etruria, built in the Greek form, lays, " the manner of their religious ceremonies was the fame as thofe of Argos. Holy women ferved in the Temple, and a girl unmarried, called Canephoros, or bafket- bearer, began the facrifice, befides Chornfes of virgins, who hymned the Goddefs in fongs of their country." Now as the (a) Lib. i. Vol. I, P p p Romans 474 THE HISTORY -OF Romans had an earlier communication with the Etrufcans than with the Greeks, this paifage renders it very probable that they were obliged to the people of Etruria for their reli- gious ceremonies, and for vocal Mufic (b). And the fame au- thor informs us, that " the Arcadians were the firft who brought into Italy the ufe of Greek letters (c), and injlrumental Mufic, performed on the Lyre, and thofe inftruments called the Trigon and the Lydian [d) : for the fhepherd's pipe was the only inftrument in ufe before that time. They are faid, alfo, to have inftituted laws; to have brought mankind over from the favagenefs which then generally prevailed, to a fenfe of humanity ; and likewife, to have introduced arts and fciences, and many other things conducive to the public good. — This was the fecond Greek nation, that came into Italy after the Pelafgi; and living in common with the Aborigines, fixed their habitation in the beft parts of Italy (<>).'* Dionyfius likewife fays (/'), many old authors afferted that Romulus and Remus, after they were weaned, were fent by thofe who had the charge of their education to Gabii, a town not far from Palatium, to be inftructed in Greek learning ; and that there they were brought up by fome perfons with whom Fauftulus the fhepherd had a private intercourfe of hofpitalityv (¥) Strabo, dc hello Punico, fays in ex- to be found of Greek words incorporated prefs terms, that the public mufic, efpe- in the Latin language, they no more prove cially fuch as was ufed in facrifices, came it to have been originally Greek than thofe from Etruria to the Romans. See alfo to be found, in perhaps greater number, in Livy, lib. xxxix. the Englifti language, will give toourtongue (r) The late Mr. Spelman,whofe tranf- fo honourable an origin. The Romans Iation is ufed here, was of opinion, as had an intercourfe with Greece, and an many others have been, that the Roman acquaintance with the literature of the language was originally Greek. And as Greeks, long before the time of Dionyfius, the Arcadians were one of the firft Greek and in adopting their arts they could not colonies that fettled in Italy, the jEoUc help adopting the language in which they dialed mull have been brought thither by received them from the original invent- them. Mr. Spelman in proof of this opi- ors. nion compares the following words of the (J) This was probably an inftrument Latin language with its mother Greek : for which the Greeks were indebted to their Fama, ). (m) The modem Italians are full fond LVDEIS- ACENSO- LICTOREBOS- oiSahatori, and employ them in their Ope- QVE- OETITOR- EN- DO- FONERE- ras. TRIBOS- RICINEIS- RICA- PORPO- (n) This account affords no very fplen- REA- DECEMQVE- TIBICINIBOS- did idea of the Roman dancing, any more OETIER- LICETO- HOC- PLVVS- than it does of their Mufic. Singing and NEI* FACITO- Tranfcribed from Ful- dancing together daring iuch violent ex- vius Urfinus, as they were originally ertions of activity and agility, mull have written, infeebled both. I. Prtcco funus indicito. Dominus fuiic- (0) Dionyf. Halic. from Fabius. and ris inlndis accenfo UBorilufque utitor. In Livy, Lib- \ cap. 45. funere tribus riciniis, ricd purpurea, decem- (p) I. PRAECO- FONTS- ENDEI- pie, Tibicinibus Mi licito. Hoc plus nc fa- CITO' DOMINOS- FONERIS- EN- cito. 12, 47 8 THE HISTORY O F XII. Let the praifes of honoured men be difplayed in an af- fembly of the people; and let mournful Songs, accompanied with a Flute, attend thofe praifes {q). According to Servius, Macrobius, and Horace, Nuptial Songs, which were afterwards refined and polifhed into Epitha- lamiums, were firft ufed by the people of Fefcennium, a city of Etruria, and therefore called Verfus Fefcennini. This kind of Poetry, in its original, was grofs and obfcene, though long authorized by cuftom. Young people, inftead of throwing the flocking, in the manner of our villagers, fung the Fefcennia before the apartment of the new married pair. Livy (r) gives a kind of hiflory of the Roman Drama, which, as well as the Grecian, was infeparable from Mufic. The patTage is fo full and curious, that 1 lhall infert it entire. " The plague continued, fays Livy, to rage this year (s) t and the following, during the confulate of C. Sulpicius Peti- cus, and C. Licinnius Stolo. The raoft remarkable occurrence during this period was, that, in order to obtain mercy of the Gods, a public feafl: called Ledlijlernium was celebrated for them, which was the third entertainment of this kind that had been made fince the building of the city (t). But the magistrates finding that the violence of the peftilence was neither abated by human prudence nor Divine afliftance, and having their minds filled with fuperftition, among other means which (a) XII. HONORATOROM- VIRO- beds, placed about a table, and covered ROM- LAVDES- EN- DO- CONTI- with magnificent carpets, purple cufhions, ONE- MEMORANTOR- EASQVE- and hangings of tapeftry. Duumviri, Tri- NAENIAE AD- TIBICINEM- PRO- vtmiirL, and in procefs of time Septcmviri, SEQV VNTOR. named Epidoncs, prefided at theie feafts, XII. Honoratorum virorum laudes in con- and eat the meat that was ferved up before done memorantor ; eafque adnten'uv adTili- the flames. Yet not by Health, in the cinem profeqmintor. fneaking manner that was practrfed at (r) Lib. vii. cap. 2. Babylon, by the prielts of Bel (fee Hiftory (s) 364 B. C. of Bel and the Dragon) but openly, and in (t) The word LcBifternium is derh-ed the face of day. In the firft of the three from Jfcmere, tofprcadox make, and leftus, beds lay Apollo, Diana, and Latona; in a led. The flatties of the Gods were ta- the fecond, Hercules and Mercury, and ken down from their niches, and laid on in the third, Neptune. were ROMAN MUSIC. .479 were tried in order to appeafe the incenfed Deities, they are faid to have inftituted the games called Scenici («), which were amufements entirely new to a warlike people, who, be- fore this time, had none but that of the Circus. Thefe theatri- cal reprefentations, like the beginnings of moft other things, were at firft inconfiderable, and borrowed from foreigners : for actors were fent for from Etruria, who, without verfes, or any action expreffive of verfes, danced, not ungracefully, after the Tufcan manner, to the Flute. In procefs of time the Roman youth began to imitate thefe dancers, intermixing raillery in unpolifhed verfes, their geftures correfponding with the fenfe of the words. Thus were thefe plays received at Rome, and being improved and refined by frequent performances, the Ro- man actors acquired the name of Hijlriones, from the Tufcan word Hijier^ which fignifies a flage -player. But their dia- logue did not conuft of unpremeditated, and coarfe jefts, in fuch rude verfes as were ufed by the Fefcennini, but of fatires, accompanied with Mufic, fet to the Flute, and recited with fuit- able geftures (x). And fome years after, Livius Andronicus feft ventured to abandon fatires, and write plays with a regu- lar and connected plot (y). After fatires, which had af- forded the people fubject of coarfe mirth and laughter, were, by this regulation, reduced to form, and acting, by degrees, became an art, the Roman youth left it to players by profeffion, and began, as formerly, to act farces at the end of their regu- lar pieces. Thefe dramas were foon after called Exodia, and were generally interwoven with the Atillane comedies (z). {u) Thefe fcenic fliews took their name (x) Thefe Satura or Satira were a kind from the Greek word cxwri, which figni- of wild, mifcellaneous drama, without re- fes a fhady place, or arbor, made with gular plot, or fubjeft. The reader may- branches or boughs of trees, with which fee the word well explained in an elegant> the ancients covered their ftages. After- note of Mr. Harris's P hilofophical • Ar' wards, the fcene of the theatre of the an- rangements, p 460. cients implied all thofe buildings which (y) See DiJJert. p. irg. were reprefented to the fpe&ators on the (z) Atilla, according to Cluver, was flage, when it was adorned with fuch deco- fituated near Averfa, in Campania, be- jajions as Vitruvius calls/Jew.!, tween Capua and Naples. They 48'o . THE HISTORY F They were borrowed from the Ofci (a), and always acted by the Roman youth, who would not allow them to be difgraced by profeifed actors. Hence it has been a rule for thofe who performed in fuch pieces not to be degraded from their tribe, and they were allowed to ferve in the army as if they never had appeared on the itage." The circumftance of thefe plays having been firft reprefented on account of" the plague, proves theatrical exhibitions to have been originally religious mjiiturions among the Romans, as well as the ancient Greeks ; and the importance of Mufic in reli- gious ceremonies is put out of all doubt by another curious paf- i'zge in Livy (b) where he has recorded the effects of refent- ment in the Roman Muficians, who ufed to perform at facri- fices, and who, upon an imaginary affront, left the city in a body. The relation of the hiftorian feems to merit a place here, without abridgment. " I mould omit a circumftance, fays he, hardly worth mentioning, if it did not feem connected with religion. The Tibiclnes, or Flute-players, taking offence at the preceding cen- fors refuting them the privilege of eating in the Temple of Jupiter, according to traditional cuftom, withdrew in a body to Tibur (c), fo that there were no performers left to play before the facrifices. This created religious fcruples in the minds of the fenators, and ambaffadors were fent to'Tibm to endeavour to perfuade the fugitives to return to Rome. The Tiburtines readily promifed to ufe their utmoft endeavours to this end, and firft fummoning them before their fenate, exhorted them to return to Rome ; but finding them deaf to reafon or intreaty, they had recourfe to an artifice well Juited to the difpo/itions of thefe men. For upon a certain feftival, they were all invited (a) The original inhabitants of Campa- were loofe in their manners. Tacitus tells nia. They were anciently called Opifci, us that fome pieces called Atillaiia, writ- ?nd, by contraction, Ofci; whence, fay ten in the fpirit and language of the old the Etymologifts, the word Obfaenus came, Ofci, were afted in his time. as thefe people had the character of being (b) Lib. vs.. cap. 30. ■is licentious in their difcourfes; as they (c) TivoU. by ROMAN MUSIC. 481 by different perfons, under pretence of their affifting in the ce- lebration of a feaft. As men of this profeffion are generally much addicted to wine, they were fupplied with it, till being quite intoxicated, they fell faft afleep, and in this condition were flung into carts, and carried to Rome ; where they pafled the remaining part of the night in the Forum, without per- ceiving what had happened (d). The next day, while they were full of the fumes of their late debauch, upon opening their eyes they were accofted by the Roman people, who flocked about them, and having been prevailed upon to flay in their native city, they were allowed the privilege of {broiling through all the ftreets in their robes (e), three days in every year, playing upon their Inftruments, and indulging themfelves in thofe licentious excefles which are pracT:ifed upon the fame occafion to this day [f). The privilege of eating in the temple was alfo reftored to fuch of them as fhould be employed in playing before the facrifices. *' This adventure happened 309 years B. C. while the Romans were preparing for two very dangerous wars (g). (d) The Tibicines were frequently ce- lebrated by ancient writers, not only for their love of good cheer, but for their cor- pulency. Virgil, Georg. ii. 193. fays, Iiiflaint cum Pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad Aras. When the fat Tufcans horn has call'd the God. This, according to the -commentators, and old fcholiafts, was owing to the good dinners they obtained at facrifices. And as the Greeks had a proverb, fee p. 425. relative to perfons of this profeffion liv- ing at the coll: of others, fo, to run about like a Flute-player, .was a proverbial ex- preffion, among the Romans : Tranfire Ti- bicinis Latini modo fays Cic. pro Mk- rosna ; from their attendance at different facrifices on Feftivals. (e) Thefe Muficians had a long, gown peculiar to their profeffion ; Horace fpeaks of their trailing it along the ftage {Art. Poet.) and this is what Ovid means by the ftola longa. Vol. I. cQ. (/) Livy was cotemporary with Au- guftus. Ovid, Fafti, Lib. vi. relates the fame ftory, and tells us further, that the Tibicines celebrated the anniverfary of their return to Rome on the 13th of June; at which time they difguifed them- ielves in women's apparel, and marched through the ftreets in proceffion to the Temple of Minerva, inventrefs of the Flute, and protectrefs or fuch as played upon it, -ringing jovial Songs. Et canere ad I'riercs 'verba jocofa modos. See, like- wife, Plutarch's Roman Problems. Cg) The Roman Flute-players were in- corporated and formed into a College, or Company, and had, it may be imagined, their Common-Halls, or meetings, their bye laws, and privileges. Val. Max. Lib. ii. cap. c. ar.d Plut. in Numa, both fpeak of the College of Pipers. Ovid likewife has expreifed their importance, and diffe- rent provinces in the Temple, the Theatre, and at Funeral', in the following lines, 1 1 Tcmporibtis 482 THE HISTORY O F But notwithftanding the importance of thefe Flute-p'ayers. to the celebration of religious rites, Mufic feems to have ar- rived at no very great degree of refinement or perfection, or ta have been much in ufe on other occafions, till after the conqueft. of Antiochus the Great, King of Syria ; and it is mentioned by Livy (//), as a memorable aera of luxury, that the cuftom was, then firft introduced at Rome of having- Pjahria, or. female. Muficians, to attend and perform at feafts and banquets in the. Aliatic manner (/). Indeed the Romans were later in cultivating Arts and Sciences,,. than any other great and powerful people ; and none of them feem to have been the natural growth of the foil, except the art. of war ; all the reft were brought in by conqueft. For it has been fhewn already, that before their acquaintance with the Greeks, they had all their refinements from the Etrufcans, a people very early civilized and polifhed. Cicero, in his fecond Book of Laws, tells us that before Greece and her arts were well known to the Romans, it was a cuftom for them to fend tlieir fons for inftru&ion into Etruria. And thence they had the firft ideas, not only of Religion, but of Poetry, Painting, and Mufic, according to the confeffion even of their own hifto- rians. With refpect to Etrufcan Mufic, whoever regards the great number of inftruments reprefented in the fine collection of an- tiquities publifhed under the patronage and inflection of Sir William Hamilton, as well as in that lately publifhed at Rome by PafTerio, muft be convinced that the ancient inhabitants of Etruria were extremely attached to Mufic j for every fpecies of mufical inftrument that is to be found in the remains of Temporibus veterum Tibicinis ufus avo- (i ) PfaJtria was a general appellation rum for a girl that fung, and played upon fome Magnus, et in magno Temper honore ./»//. rtringed-inftrument : a Minftrel. And the Cantabat fanis, cantahat tibia ludis, luxury of which Livy complains, was the Cantabitt mosftis tibia funeribus. addition of this entertainment to feafls j Faft. Lib. vi. Addita epulis. See p. 429. lb) Lib. xxxix. cap. 6. ancient ROMAN MUSIC. 483 ancient Greek fculpture is delineated on the vafes of thefe collections ; though the antiquity of fome of them is imagined to be much higher than the general ufe of the inftruments re- prefented upon them wis, even in Greece. Yet, with all the advantages of vicinity to Etruria, and in- tercourfe with its inhabitants, it is well known how ignorant the Romans were of Painting, Sculpture, and all the fine arts, long after they were arrived at the higheft perfection in Greece. For when Mummius had put Rome in poffeffion of fome of the fineft productions of art which had rendered Greece fo fa- mous, after laying wafte a great part of that country, and, like a true barbarian, wantonly burning Corinth, the capital of Achaia, though he entered it without refiftance ; this rude conqueror, according to Pliny, being offered by king Attalus 600,000 fefterces, a fum equal to 4843/. 15J. for a picture of Bacchus painted by Ariftides, had fo little of the connoif- feur about him, that imagining the picture muft contain fome fecret virtue, by the price that was fet on it, would not part with it, but fent it to Rome among other fpoils : expofing, however, his own ignorance in thefe matters by telling the commander of the fhip, that he had beft take care of this piece, for if it was either loft or fpoiled, he mould oblige him to furnifh fuch another. Befides the obligations which the Romans had to the Etruf- cans and Greeks for their tafte and knowledge in the fine arts, the conqueft of Sicily 200 years before the Chriftian iEra, con- tributed greatly to their acquaintance with them. Indeed there was no ftate of Greece which produced men of more emi- nence in all the Arts and Sciences, than Sicily, which was a part of Magna Grcecia, and which having been peopled 7 1 9 years B. C. by a colony of Greeks from Corinth, their dependents long after cherifhed and cultivated Science of all kinds, in which they greatly diftinguifhed themfelves, even under all the tyranny of government with which they were opprefTed. Fa- •Q^q q 2 bricius 484 T HE HISTORY OF bricius {£) gives a lift of 70 Sicilians who have been cele~- brated in antiquity for learning and genius, among whom we- find the well known names of iEfchylus, Diodorus Siculus, Empedocles, Gorgias, Euclid, Archimedes, Epicharmus, and Theocritus. To the Sicilians is given not only the invention of Paftoral Poetry, but of the Wind Inftruments with which the fhepherds and cowherds ufed to accompany their rural Songs. After the conqueft of Greece, the Romans had the tafte to admire and adopt the Grecian arts. And the prefident Mon- tefquieu remarks, with refpect to the military art, that one of the chief caufes of the Roman grandeur, was their method of abandoning their ancient cuftoms, and adopting thofe of the people whom they had vanquiihed, whenever they found them fuperior to their own (t). In the time of Cicero, though the chief part of Greece was fubdued by the Romans, and rendered tributary to them, yet the Greeks preferved a kind of fovereignty over the minds of their mafters ; and the greateft of the Romans, even of con- fular dignity, whofe power was fo unbounded in the feveral provinces under their command, chearfully fubmitted to go to fchool at Athens, and to become difciples of Greek tutors, in philofophy, mathematics, and the polite arts. During the reign of Auguftus, except Vitruvius, it does not appear that the Romans had one Architect, Sculptor, Painter, or Mufician : thofe who have been celebrated in the arts at Rome, having been Afiatics, or European Greeks, who came to exer- cife fuch arts among the Latins,- as the Latins had not among themfelves : this cuftom was continued under the fucceffors of Auguftus, and thofe Romans who were prevented by more important concerns from going into Greece, contrived in a manner to bring Greece to Rome, by receiving into their fer- ■ (k) Bib. Grac. Vol. xiv. p. 27. fuccejjvuement contre tons les peuples, lis o?it (I) On doit remarquer que ce qui a le tou/ours rcnonce a leurs vfages Jitot qiiils en plus contrlbue a rendre les Remains les out trowve de meillcurs. Grand, et Decad. maitres du »to?ide, ceji, qiiayant combattu des^Romains, chap. 1. vice ROMAN MUSIC. 485 vice the moft able profeflbrs of Greece and Afia, in all the arts. We find too, not only that each of the belt Roman writers was an imitator of fome great Grecian model, but are certain that the fineft remains in painting, fculpture, and architecture, which ftill fubfift in Italy, were either brought thither from Greece, or were the works of Greek artifts, who had left their own ruined and oppreffed country, to bafk in the warm fun- fhine of power and affluence, at Rome. It cannot be diflembled, or paned over in filence here, that arts and fciences have been frequently charged with contribut- ing to precipitate both the Roman and Grecian ftates into ruin, by rendering the minds of the people effeminate, involving the Great in idle and ufelefs expence and luxury, and by calling off their attention from military and political concerns, which alone can acquire and preferve dominion. In the infancy of a ftate, or in times of danger and calamity, this may be true : but that man was defigned for no other purpofes than to en- flave or deflroy his fellow creatures, or to live a gloomy life of inanity and penance, never compofed a part of my creed. A nation become affluent by conqueft and commerce, mull have amufements in time of peace. The queftion is, whether thefe amufements fhall be merely corporeal and fenfual, or whe- ther elegance, refinement, and mental pleafure, fhall bear a part in them (m) ? Another queflion may ftill be afked : whe- ther any other efforts of Greek and Roman genius are ftill fo much admired and imitated, as thofe which are feen in the re- mains of their works in literature and the polite arts ? It is difficult to acquire wealth by fair means, but it is much more difficult to ufe it rationally. And, in our own country, and times, there are at leaft ten men who have talents of accu- mulation fufficient to amafs great riches, to one who diftributes (m) UAmiifanent eft uti des hefohis de amufement fhould b^jinnocent : the next, Phomntefays M. de Voltaire. The firft con- that it be not below the dignity of a ra- lideration with a legiflator Is, that this tional creature. them- 486 THE HISTORY O F them among his fellow citizens, with benevolence, tafie, and judgment. Permanence is not allowed to human infiitutions : and the • longevity of a ftate has its bounds, as well as the life of man. It is more confonant with our duty to endeavour, than with ex- perience to expect to keep all corruption and depravity from our own. The Spartan virtue, and felf-denial, could not pre- clude them. The cultivation of Arts and Sciences in a great and flou- rifhing kingdom is expected by its neighbours, and a debt to posterity. It was long the fate of our own country, like that of the ancient Romans, to admire the polite arts more than to cultivate them. We imported the productions of foreign painters, fculptors, and muficians, at an enormous expence, without conceiving it poffible to raife a fchool for the advance- ment of thofe arts at home. With refpect to the two firft, all Europe now allows that genius, diligence, and travel, un- der the aufpices of royal protection and public patronage, have made wonderful ftrides within the laft ten years towards per- fection, and the forming a fchool in our own country ; but, as for Mufic, we have little that we can call our own, and though more money is expended upon this favourite art in England, than in any other kingdom upon the globe, we acquire by it neither honour from our neighbours, nor profit to our natives. Both take wing together ! and without a fcarcity of genius for contributing to the pleafures of the ear, we purchafe them with as -little neceffity as we mould corn at a dear and foreign market, while our own lands lay fallow. With refpect to the mufical inftruments ufed by the Romans, as they invented none themfelves, all that are mentioned by their writers, can be traced from the Etrufcans and Greeks. Indeed the Romans had few authors who wrote profeffedly upon the fubjedt of Mufic, except St. Auguftine, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and Caffiodorus; who, though they lived in ROMAN M U S I C. 487 la the decline of the empire, yet made ufe of Greek principles, and explained thofe principles by Greek mufical terms (V. Vitruvius, in his Treatife upon Architecture, has inferted a chapter upon Mufic, in which he has given the Harmonical Syflem of Ariftoxenus ; but he introduces it with a complaint of the unavoidable obfcurity of mufical literature, on account of the deficiency of terms in the Latin tongue, to explain his ideas. " Thefcience of Mufic, in itfelf obfcure, fays he, is par- ticularly fo to fuch as underftand not the Greek language ( And figure of the shell of a tortoise.] Paufanias, In Arcad. ad Cdlcem, fays, that " there was an excellent breed of tortoifes, for the purpofe of making the bellies of Lyres, upon Mount Parthenius ; but that the inhabitants fuppofing thefe animals facred to Pan, would neither ufe them, nor fuffer Grangers to take them away." This is a proof that the practice of applying the fhell of the tortoife to the Lyre, was once com- mon in Greece, as well as Abyfiinia and Egypt. P. * 226. No OTHER MERIT THAN THE DIFFICULTY OF FORMING them. J Another conjecture concerning the tuning of the thirteen firings of the Theban Harp, is, that they furnifiied the four tetrachords, Hypaton, Mefon, Synemmenon, and Diezeugmenon, with Profambanomenos at the bottom. Thus : P. 222. Vates, in Latin, is a common term for prophet, poet, and musician.] Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom, v. p. 634, defcribing the different kinds of Egyptian priefts, and their functions, fays, that the principal of them were called Prophets. >-»-©- ^i •-a: I. »i 3. 4> S, <5, 7j 8, 9. 10, "1 >*, I3-, P. 237. Without injuring the sense of the text.] M. Four- mont, Mem. de Lift. torn. iv. has not only difcovered that the Pfalms, and other pieces of Hebrew poetry, are in rhyme, but that Sela had the fame force in Hebrew Mufic, as bis, or a double bar pointed, has in modern Chriftian mufic. -This perfpicacious critic, with equal fagacity, has found out, that in order to make matters even in the verification, in which he unwillingly allows the lines to be of different lengths, the Hebrews fung their poetry in Fugue ! P. 238. The fifth part gold, and the fourth part silver.^ This paffage was baftily taken from l'Eftrange's tranflation of Jofephus, who, in the original, only fays, that the Trumpets were made of Eleclrum ; a metal, of which, according to Pliny, lib. 33. cap. 4, four parts were gold, and the fifth part was filver. P. 249» 5 04 ADDITIONAL NOTES. P. 249. As the Hebrew language had originally no vowels.] This affertion muft appear very bold, without the fupport of authority ; for it feems impoflible for any language to fubfift without vowels. " The He- brew alphabet, (ay the authors of the Encyclopedic, Art. Hebraique, is compofed of twenty-two letters, all regarded as confonants, without excepting even the aleph, be, vau, and jod, which we call vowels, but which among the Hebrews have no fixed found or power, without punctuation ; for that alone contains the true vowels of this language." Now as points are gene- rally allowed to be of modern invention, if, in times anterior to their ufe, it was doubtful to which of the confonants the power of a vowel was given, or, indeed, whether any fuch power exifted, the language muft have been very harfh and unmufical ; which is all that I intended to fay on the fubjedt. P. 277. The seven-tongued Lyre.] Though Pindar calls the Lyre feven- tongued, yet we are told that Pythagoras, who lived before him, added -an eighth firing to that inftruenent. But, perhaps, this new firing was not in general ufe, in Pindar's time. P. 294.. Clio the historian.] The literal translation of thefe in- fcriptions would run thus : Clio invented Hiftory ; Thalia invented Comedy, &c. ; the accufative cafe in them all being elliptic. 0AAE1A KX1MO- AIAN, fhould be KuuuSiav. The word, however, has been faithfully tranferibed from the plate in the Antiquities of Herculaneum, where it is faid to be erroneoufly written in the original infeription upon the bafe of the ftatue ; a proof that there were artifts among the ancients who could not fpell, as well as among the moderns. P. 330. Allows him to have been the inventor.] It was too haftily faid that almoft all antiquity agreed in allowing to Pythagoras the in- vention of the found Proflambanomenos ; an eighth found to the Heptachord, which made the fcale confift of two disjunct, inflead of two conjunct Tetra- chords, is all that antiquity allows him. Another confequence of hafte appears in the fame page, in fpeaking of the writings of Orpheus : Pindar only fays that he was one of the Argonauts ; and Herodotus by Orpines, rcc OotpiKa, means only the Orphic myjleries, not a poem fo called. The pafTage in Pindar concerning Orpheus, is, however, curious : in fpeaking of the Argonauts, he fays, " Orpheus joins thefe heroes ; Or- pheus father of the Lyre and of fong ; Orpheus whom the whole univerfe celebrates, and whofe fire is Apollo,,'' ADDITIONAL NOTES. 505 P. 338, Note (d). Aristophanes is the oldest Greek writer, in whose works Avftt appears.] This likewife was too haftily faid, by truft- ing to the diligence and exactitude of lexicographers j for Cnce this note was printed, I have found the word in the Hymn to Mercury, which is attri- buted to Homer ; in a fragment of Alcaeus ; and in the firft Ode of Ana- creon. P. 340. Which were sounded like Trumpets.] " Nothing was more ufeful, fays Plutarch, than mufic, to ftimulate mankind to virtuous actions, particularly in exciting that degree of courage, which is neceflary to brave the dangers of war. To this end fome have ufed the Flute, and others the Lyre. The Lacedaemonians played upon the Flute, in approaching the enemy, the air or melody that wa3 fet to the fong or hymn, addrefTed to Caftor ; and the Cretans played their military marches for many ages on the Lyre." The Thebans and Lacedaemonians had a Flute upon their enfigns, the Cretans, a Lyre ; and many ancient nations and cities have imprefTed the Lyre upon their coins, as their particular fymbo!. The city of Rhegium, for inftance, had a woman's head on one fide, and on the reverfe a Lyre. In a medal infcribed Caleno, the Minotaur is feen, with the addition of the Lyre. The Thefpians had one of the Mufes and a Lyre ; the Lapithaj, a Diana, and on the reverfe a Lyre ; the ifle of Chios, Homer on one fide, and on the other a Sphynx, with a Lyre in its paw. The ifle of Tenedos had on one fide of their coins a head with two faces, and on the reverfe an ax with a bunch of grapes, the fymbol of Bacchus, near it on one fide ; and a Lyre, the fymbol of Apollo, on the other. The Lyre with thirteen firings is likewife to be feen on two Roman coins in Montfaucon, Suppl. p. 74. P. 369. A written melody.] Cafaubon tells us, in his annotations upon Athenaeus, lib. viii. cap. 12. that Stratonicus, a mufician whom Athe- na?us frequently celebrates for his wit and humour, invented Diagrams, or Gamuts, and gives for his authority Erefius Phanias, the Peripatetic ; but the invention of mufical characters feems to include the formation of a fcale, and Stratonicus flourifhed long after both Terpander and Pythagoras, to whom different writers have afcribed the firft ufe of alphabetic characters, as types of mufical founds. P. 377. And without a capistrum or muzzle.] I {hall infert here, for the fatisfaction of the learned reader, the original epigram from the Ono- mafticon of Julius Pollux, lib. iv. cap. 12. as it is not, I believe, in the Anthologia of Stephens, nor has it been cited by any modern author that I know of, except Ifaac VoiEus. Vol. I. T t t 'rgAa vtx, re MiaryyeTyv, jcam Attx.vxiy£, Fi/lula, Calamus ; and 'TSpxvXog, Hydraulicon. The Second clafs included the (£>opuiy%, KtQxpo:-, Cithara ; XzXvg, Chelys, Tejludo ; Avgx, Lyra, Fides; YxXrypiov, Pfalte- rium, &c. which, in Englifh, are indifcriminately called Harp, Cithara, Lyre, and Pfaltery. The Third clafs comprehended the TvfZ7Tixvov, Tym- panum ; Tvp,7rizviov, Parvum Tympanum, Tympanulum ; KufA.Gu.Xov, Cymbar lum ; KpOTCtXov, Crotalum, K.ooouuov, Campanum as, or Drums, Cym*» bals, Crotola, and Bells. Of thefe three genera the fpecies were innumerable ; however, I fhall fpeak only of the principal of each genus, and firft of wind inftruments. The two inftruments of this kind which nature has conftru&ed, ani from which mankind, taught perhaps by the whiffling reeds, firft tried to produce mufical founds, feem to have been the (hells of nfh.es, and the horns of quadrupeds; and the yiovavXog, or fingle pipe, appears in fculp r ture to have been a mere horn in its natural form. (See p. 211.) Then fucceeded the Avena, or fingle oaten ftalk ; the Calamus, or fingle reed, or cane ; and afterwards the Syrinx, or Fijlula, compofed. of a number of reeds of different lengths tied together. Thefe fimple inftruments preceded the invention of Foramina, or holes, by which different founds could be pro- duced from the fame pipe. The Tibia was originally a Flute made of the fliank, or fhin-bone of an animal ; and it feems as if the wind inftruments Of ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 509 of the ancients had been long made of fuch materials as nature had hollow- ed, before the art of boring Flutes was difcovered. That once known, they were formed of box-tree, laurel, brafs, filver, and even of gold. There are certain epithets applied to theatrical Flutes in the titles to the Comedies of Terence, which have extremely embarraffed the critics : fuch as Pares, Impares, Dextra, Sinijlrts ; and it has long been doubted whether Pares and Impares meant double and ilngle Flutes, or equal and unequal in point of length and fize. But though in preferring either of thefe accepta- tions, fome fenfe and meaning is acquired, yet I fhould incline to the latter. For in none of the reprefentations in ancient painting or fculpture, which I have yet feen, does it appear that the Tibicen, either at facrifices or in the theatre, plays on a Jingle Flute, though we as often fee double Flutes of different lengths in his hands, as of the fame length ; and as harmony or mufic in different parts, does not appear to have been praclifed by the an- cients, the Flutes of equal length may naturally be fuppofed to imply uniz- fans ; and unequal, fuch as are oclaves to each other. But as to the distinc- tion between right-handed and left-handed Flutes, I muft own myfelf far from being poffeffed of any clear and decifive idea concerning it. The firff, and moft obvious meaning of the words right and left, applied to the hands that hold the Flutes, cannot afford a fatisfadtory' explanation : for as all the theatrical Flutes that I have ever feen are double, the holding them in the right or left hand can make no difference to the audience. It has been imagined by the abbe du Bos, that when the theatrical Flutes were unequal, a drone bafe was performed on the largeft ; an idea to which I can by no means fubfcribe : for the neceffity of a clear and undifturbed elocution on, the frage, joined to the tendernefs of the ancients for poetry, would have rendered the noife and confufion of a drone bafe more offenfive to fuch as attended to the intereft of the drama, than the moft florid and complicated counterpoint. It is no uncommon thing to fee one of the un- equal Flutes ufed upon thefe occafions ftrait, and the other curved at the end. (See Plate VI.) Hefychius, as quoted by Bartholinus, (p. 46.) fays, that the horned Flute was for the left hand, the ftrait one for the right* That the longefl of the two inftruments was for the left hand, Pliny feems to prove, when he fpeaks of cutting the reeds with which they were made ; for he fays the part next the ground being the widelt, ferves for the left-hand Flutes, &c. Thefe paffages, however, furniih no proofs of their being defr lined for different parts, or any thing more than oclaves to each other. Moft af the double Flute-players, reprefented in fculpture, appear to grafp the in- ftruments >! 5io REFLECTIONS on the CONSTRUCTION itruments, without any motion of the fingers ; nor indeed in many of them are there any holes in fight to employ them, which makes it probable that they were modulated by the mouth like trumpets and horns. Another difficulty occurs about thefe Flutes being always double, that is, two fingle tubes held in different hands, or uniting in one mouth-piece. But as I have never feen more than one performer at a time reprefented in painting or fculpture, accompanying the actors on the ftage, or the prieft at the altar, where thefe double, or Phrygian Flutes were chiefly ufed, they may perhaps have been preferred for their fuperior loudnefs ; for force moil not only be neceffary to the voice in a large temple or theatre, but alfo to the inftruments that accompanied it, in order to the being heard by fuch a nu- merous audience as was ufually afTembled there. Juft as the actor's voice was augmented by a mafk, and his height encreafed by ftilts *. The muzzles, and bloated cheeks in reprefentaiions, correfponding with verbal defcriptions, prove that quantity of found was the principal object of the ancients, This might be confirmed by flories of Flute-players and Trumpeters burfting themfelves in trials of fkill, and even in the common exercife of their profefiion. Heliodorus, jEthiop. lib. ii. as Barthol/nus trans- lates the pafDige, p. 97, defcribes a Flute-player with eyes inflamed, and itarting out of their fockets. Oculis incenfis, ac fun fede excedentibus 5 and this is analogous to the whole fyflem of the ancient theatre. The defects, however, peculiar to wind inftruments, feem to have been as well known to the ancients as the moderns ; and Ariftoxenus complains of them in ftrong terms. Among many expedients to which he fays perform- ers had recourfe, in order to palliate thefe defects in the intervals, the ufe of wax, occafionally, in the holes of their inftruments was one. This ex- pedient muft, however, have been ufed, in order to fupply the want of fkill in boring Flutes ; and the wax, in warm climates, would be too fubjeit to fufion for a performer to depend much upon its afliftance in the beat of ac- tion. An inftrument of the Baflbon kind, called the Courtaut, with two rows of projecting apertures, refembling thofe in No. 3. PI. VI. is defcribed by Merfennus, De Injlrum. Harmon, lib. ii. who tells us that the Tetines, as he calls the projections, were not moveable, but fixtures, and when thofe on one fide were ufed, thofe on the other were Jlopt with wax. The pipes of the Fiflula Pan's, being compofed of reeds or canes cut juft below the joint, -were all Jlopt-pipes, like thofe in the ffopt diapafon of the Organ, in which * Sec pijjin. fed. IX, OF ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 511 the wind is emitted at the fame place where it enters ; and as it has a double motion to make, twice the length of the tube, the tone is an oclave lower of a.j1opt-pipe, than of an open one of the fame length and diameter. The Fijlula Panis of the ifland of New Amfterdam in the South Seas, is made of canes cut below the joints, and confequently of Jlopt pipes ; and the pipes of an Arabian inftrument of the fame kind, which I have lately received from Aleppo, are all ftopt at the end with wax. In all my refearches I have not been able to difcover that the ancients had Reeds for any of their wind injlruments. They had Flutes made of na- tural reeds, and of canes ; but no fuch artificial reeds as we ufe for our Balloons, Hautbois, and Clarinets. They had indeed a fmall pipe or fif- tula which they applied to their Flutes occafionally, in order to alter the tuning, like the crooks, or mouth-pieces, which we ufe for Trumpets and Horns. Thefe were fixed higher or lower, in order to lengthen or fhorten the whole tube as the middle-pieces of German Flutes are fometimes drawn, out to flatten, and prejfed into the fockets, to fharpen the tone of the whole inftrument. The proofs for this ufe of the Syrinx, or little pipe, are, firff, a paflage in Plutarch's dialogue, which informs us that Telephanes (fee p. 426.) had fuch an averiion to the ufe of thefe pipes that he would never fuffer the Flute-makers to apply them to his inftruments ; and this was the principal reafon why he never entered the lifts at the public games, where thefe crooks or mouth-pieces were much in ufe; and if their effect rendered the intervals of his inftruments as falfe as thofe of our Flutes are by drawing out the middle-pieces, it was a proof of his judgment and deli- cacy of ear. A fecond proof that it was a Jingle pipe, and very fmall, appears- from all the ufes and applications of the word Zvotyg. It was merely a- little Flageolet, or whijlling pipe. The Fijlula Panis was compofed of a number of fyringes faftened together ; each of which was properly a (Tvpty^. Third proof, that its ufe was to alter the pitch of the inftrument to which it was applied appears from a paflage in another work of Plutarch, Ne fuaviter quidem vivi pojfe Secund. Epicuri decreta, who theregives it as a mufical problem, " Why the Flute when the Syrinx is drazun up, is fiarpened in all its founds, or its whole pitch raifed, and when it is let down is again flat- tened ?" Thefe pafiages are fufEcient proofs that the word avoty^ could not- mean a Reed, though M. Burette has tranflated it Hanche, which is equiva- lent to the word ned in Englifh. Thefe yKoTT^ig, lingula, tongues, or Fipples, were carried about by the performers in boxes, yXcoTTOvouax, tongue- cafes, as reeds are at prefent. Barthol, p, 344. The- S i2 REFLECTIONS on the CONSTRUCTION The laft wind inftrument of which I fhall fpeak is the Hydraulicon, or Water-Organ, that was played, or at Ieaft blown, by a cataraft, or fall of water. Indeed it has been much difputed whether it was played with fingers, by means of levers or keys ; and yet the defcription of it by Claudian feems fuch a one as would fuit a modern Organ, only blown by water inftead of bellows. Vel qui magna levi detrudens murmura taclu Innumeras voces fegetis moderator a'enes Intonet erranti digito, penitufque trabali Vecle laborantes in carmina concitet undas. In Athenasus, lib. iv. p. 174. there is a hiftory and •defcription of this inftra- ment. He tells us that it was invented in the time of the Second Ptolemy Euergetes, by Ctefibius, a native of Alexandria, and by profeflion a barber ; or rather, it was improved by him, for Plato furnifhed the firft idea of the Hydraulic Organ, by inventing a night-clock, which according to Perrault, Vitruv. lib, 10. was a Clepfydra, or water-clock, which played upon Flutes the hours of the night at a time when they could not be feen on the index. The anecdote in Athenasus concerning the mechanical amufements of the wreat ideal philofopher is curious. What a condefcenfion in the divine Plato to ftoop to the invention of any thing ufeful ! This mufical clock mufthave been wholly played by mechanifm. But neither the defcription of the Hy- draulic Organ in Vitruvius, nor the conjectures of his innumerable com- mentators, have put it in the power of the moderns either to imitate, or perfectly to conceive the manner of its confirmation ; and it flill remains a doubt whether it was ever worthy of the praifes which poets have bellowed upon it, or fuperior to the wretched remains of the invention ftill to be feen in the grottos of the vineyards, near the city of Rome. In the collection of antiquities bequeathed by Chriftina Queen of Sweden to the Vatican, there is a large and beautiful medallion of Valentinian, on the reverfe of which is r^eprefented an Hydraulic Organ, with two men, one on the right, and one on the left, who feem to pump the water which plays it, and to liften to its found. It has only eight pipes, placed on a round pedeftal, and as no keys or performer appear, it is probable that it was played by me- chanifm. The Organ blown by bellows, and furniftied with keys, fuch as are in prefent ufe, though a defcendant perhaps of the Hydraulicon, does not fo properly belong to this place as to the fecond volume, where its inven- tion will be difcufled, and its improvements traced among thofe of modern inftruments. Second Of ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 513 Second genus, or Stringed inflruments. The idea of producing found from a firing, afcribed to Apollo, was, according to Cenforinus, De Die Nat. cap. 22. fuggefted to him by the twang of his filter Diana's bow. ¥tt.\Xsiv is ftrictly to twang a firing, and faXuog the found which the bow-firing produces at the emiflion of the arrow. Euripides in Bacch. v. 782. ufes it in that fenfe, -to%uv x e S> fccXXaci vevpctc;. Who twang the nerve of each elaftic bow. Father Montfaucon fays it is very difficult to determine in what the Lyre, Cithara, Chelys, Pfaltery and Harp differed from each other ; as he had examined the reprefentations of 600 Lyres and Citharas in ancient fculpture, all which he found without a neek, and the firings open as in the modern Harp, played by the fingers. Antiq. Expl. torn. iii. lib. 5. cap. 3. But though ancient and modern authors ufually confound thefe inftruments, yet a manifeft diftindtion is made by Arifi. Quintil. in the following paffage, p. 101. After difcufling the characters of wind inftruments, he fays, " Among the ftringed inftruments, you will find the Lyre of a character analogous to mafculine, from the great depth or gravity, and roughnefs of its tones ; the Sambuca of a feminine character, weak and delicate, and from its great acutenefs, and the fmallnefs of \ts firings, tending to dijfolve and ener- vate. Of the intermediate inftruments, the Polypthongum partakes moft of the feminine ; but the Cithara differs not much from the mafculine characler of the Lyre." Here is a fcale of ftringed inftruments ; the Lyre and Sam- buca at the extremes ; the Polypthongum and Cithara between ; the one next to the Sambuca, the other next to the Lyre. He afterwards juft mentions that there were others between thele. Now it is natural t-o infer, that as he conftantly attributes the manly character to gravity of tone, the Cithara was probably the more acute inftrument of the two ; lefs loud and rough, and ftrung with fmaller firings. Concerning what difference there might be in the form and ftrudlure of the inftruments, he is wholly filent. The paf- fage, however, is curious as far as it goes, and decifive. The Cithara may perhaps have been as different from the Lyre as a fingle Harp from a double one ; and it feems to be clearly pointed out by this multiplicity of names, that the Greeks had two principal fpecies of ftringed inftruments ; one, like our Harp, of full compafs, that refted on its bafe ; the other more portable, and flung over the fhoulder like our fmaller Harp and Guitar, or like the an- cient Lyres reprefented in fculpture. Vol. I. U u u The 5 J4 REFLECTIONS on the CONSTRUCTION The ufe of the Pborminx in Homer leads rather to the rough, manly, Harp-like character [a). But a line in Orpheus, Argon. 381. feems to make Pborminx the fame as Chelys, the Lutiform inflrument of Mercury. It is faid of Chiron, that he " fometimes (hikes the Cithara of Apollo ; fome- times the .Jh ell-re founding Pborminx of Mercury." This line is curious; and if the Argonautics were not written by Orpheus himfelf, they have all the. appearance of great antiquity. The belly of a Theorbo, or Arch-Lute, is ufually made in the fhell- form, as if the idea of its origin had never been loft; and the etymology of the word Guitar feems naturally deducible from Cithara : it is fuppofed that the Roman C was hard, like the modern K, and the Italian word Cbitarra is manifeftly derived from Kidccpx, Cithara. In the hymn to Mercury, afcribed to Homer, Mercury and Apollo are faid ; to play with the Cithara under their arms, ver, 507. v7Tu\eviov KidxpiPev, fub ulna Cithara-ludebat. " played with the Cithara under bis arm." So in- ver. 432. E7TCt)\eviov, at his arm, fhould, according to the critics, be V7raXe- viov, as it is afterwards. This feems to point out a Guitar more than a Harp ; but the ancients had Lyres, Citharas, and Teftudos of as different fhape3 from each other, as our Harp, Spinet, Virginal, and Piano Forte. Thefe paflages in old authors are a kind of antique drawings, far more fatisfaclory than thofe of ancient fculpture ; for I have feen the Syrinx, which had a regular feries of notes afcending or defcending, reprefented with feven pipes, four of one length, and three of another, which of courfa would furnifb no more than two different founds. The Cymbals too, which were to be {truck againft each other, are placed in the hands of fome antique figures in fuch a manner, that it is impoffible to bring them in con- tact with the neceffary degree of force, without amputating, or at leaft vio- lently bruifing the thumbs of the performer. And it is certain that artifls continued to figure inftruments in the moft fimple and convenient form for their defigns, long after they had been enlarged, improved, and rendered more complicated. An inftance of this in our own country will confirm the afiertion. In the reign of George the Second a marble ftatue was erect- ed to Handel in Vauxhall gardens. The mufician is reprefented playing upon a Lyre. Now if this ftatue fhould be preferved from the ravages of time and accident 12 or 1400 years, the Antiquaries will naturally conclude that the inftrument upon which Handel acquired his reputation was the (a) See p. 344, Lyre j Of ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 515 Lyre j though we are at prefent certain that he never played on, or even faw a. Lyre, except in wood or ftone. In one of the ancient paintings at Portici, I faw a Lyre with a Pipe or Flute for the crofs-bar, or bridge, at the top ; whether this tube was ufed as a wind inftrument to accompany the Lyre, or only as a pitch-pipe, 1 know not ; nor, within the courfe of my enquiries, has any example of fuch a junction occurred elfewhere. There are two expedients for producing found from the firings of mo- dern inftruments with which the ancients feem to have been wholly unac- quainted : thefe are the Bow and Keys. It has long been a difpute among the learned, whether the Violin, or any inftrument of that kind, as now played with a bow, was known to the ancients. The little figure of Apollo, playing on a kind of violin, with fomething Hie a. bow, in the Grand Duke's Tribuna at Florence, which Mr. Addifon and others fuppofed to be antique, has been proved to be modern by the Abbe Winckelmann, and Mr.Mings. S» that, as this was the only piece of fculpture reputed ancient, in which any thing like a bow could be found, nothing more remains to be difculTed re- lative to that point. With refpect to an inftrument with a neck, befides that on the broken obelifk at Rome, fee p. 204, and one from a fepulchral grotto in the ancient city of Tarquinia, which will be defcribed hereafter, there is in an antique painting in the collection of William Locke, Efq. which confifts of a fingle figure, fuppofed to be a Mufe, an inftrument nearly in the form of 3 modern Violin, but the neck is much longer, and neither bow nor plectrum are difcoverable near it. This may have been a Chelys, which was a fpecies of Guitar, either thrummed by the fingers, or twanged with a quill. The painting was ftolen out of the Navoni fepulchre, commonly called Ovid's tomb, and had been near 200 years in the Majfima palace at Rome, when Mr. Locke purchafed it. Bianchini, De Injlrum. vet. gives only one inftru- ment in this form. Tab. iv. No. 7. but never mentions the ufe of a bow. He calls it the Chelys, or reformed Lyre of Mercury, which, fays he, p. 28. " having the power of fhortening the firings by means of a neck, varied the found of the fame firing, like feveral magueies. Its form may be feen on an ancient vafe, which is now in the Giujliniani palace at Rome ; it was pub- lifhed byBoiffard, torn, ii. p. 145. and in the new edition of Gruter, p. 816. It was played on fometimes by the hand, and fometimes with a plectrum. See Scalig, in Manil. p. 384." U u u % Indeed, 516 REFLECTIONS on the CONSTRUCTION, & c . Indeed, the ancients had, inftead of a Bnv, the Plefirum, but in all the reprefentations which painting and fculpture have preferved of this imple- ment, it appears tooclumly to produce from the firings tones that had either thef weetnefs or brilliancy of fuch as are drawn from them by means of the bow or quill. But notwithftanding it is reprefented fo maflive, I fhould ra- ther fuppofe it to have been a quill, or piece of ivory in imitation of one, than a flick or blunt piece of wood or ivory. Indeed Virgil tells us, JEn. vi. 647. that it was made of ivory. (See note m, p. 329.) Third genus : Injiruments of percujjion. Among thefe it does not appear that the ancients had the long Cylindrical Drum, fuch as is now ufed in our armies ; nor had they Tymbals or Kettle Drums, an invention which came from the Turks. All the antique Drums feeni of the flat Tambour de Bafque form ; but the fide Drum is fo inconvenient for fculpture that it may have exifted without being copied by artifts. Lampe De Cymb. Vet. flightly glances at the fubje£r, lib. ii. cap. 12. where he gives a curious paflage from the Baccha: of Euripides, to prove that antiquity afcribed the invention of the Drum to the Corybantes '. the defcription he ufes is an exact definition of a Timbrel, or Tabor. He calls it (3va(T0T0V0v KVxXupx, " a circle with a fkin or parchment ftretched over it," which points out the Timbrel form as well as the drawing. With refpect to bells, though fmall ones were certainly known in very high antiquity, as frequent mention is made of them in the Bible ; yet thofe of a large fize, hung in towers, and rung by ropes, were unknown till about the fixth century. The modern Greeks have none in their churches, not from principle, but compulfion, having been prohibited the ufe of them by their conquerors, the Turks. A bell is called by Thucydides kuouv; by Diodorus Siculus and Suidas TVKotrccyt\ ; Ariftophanes has kloqqvicu, I ring ; and other Greek writers call it H^eiov, a vafe. Plautus, Ovid, Ti- bullus, Statius, and feveral other Latin writers mention bells under the de- nominations of Tintinnabula and founding brafs. An account of the intro- duction of Bells into churches will be given in the fecond volume. A LIST LIST and DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES to VOL. I. PLATE I. A POLLO and the Nine Mufes. To face the Title. PLATE II. Mercury ptefenting the Lyre to Apollo, whom a Mufe is crowning. To face p. ij£. PLATE IIL. Orpheus and Eurydice. The inftrument with a neck, in the hand of Orpheus, though delineated from fancy, very much refembles that in an ancient painting, iathe poffeffion of William Locke, Eiq. fee p. 515. Thefe exquifite engravings by Mr. Bartolozzi, from the elegant defigns of Mr. Ci- priani, though they may have been feen by a few of my fubfcribers, while they were the property of Mr. Giardini, yet, as far as I have been able to learn, that tranfient view of them produced no other effect than what it is ufual for beauty to excite : a defire not only to view, but to appropriate. With refpect to mere embellilhments, it is hoped, as none were promifed in the propo- fals, that thofe which my ambition, to render the work as acceptable to the public as L was able, has tempted me to add, at a confiderable expence, will be the more welcome to my readers, from their appearing unexpectedly. After each of thefe plates had fulfilled its deftination of ferving as a concert ticket for one performance only, it feemed a hardlhip upon the admirable artifts who defigned and engraved them, as well as upon the public, that fuch productions mould be buried in ob- livion. This idea, and the want of fufficient time to have others executed, fuggefted to me a defire of ornamenting my Hiftory with them, and a wiih to publiih and preferve them in a work to which they feem naturally to belong. PLATE IV. No. 1, z, and 3. Antique Majks, defcribed p. 1^4, and 1 i^y, Note {/), 4. A Bacchanal playing on two Flutes of the fame pitch, Tibia Pares. From an an - eient vafe in the Giuftiniani palace, at Rome. y. The figure of a Cupid playing on tiuo Flutes with Stopples, or plugs. From an an- cient painting in the Mufeo at Portici. The ufe of thefe floppies feems.to have, been to flap- £i* LIST and DESCRIPTION of the PLATES. flop or open the holes of a Flute before a piece began, in order to accommodate the fcale to fome particular mode, or genus. See further account of them, No. z, Plate VI. 6. Pan playing on the Syrinx, from an ancient BaJJo Relievo of Greek fculpture, in the Giuftiniani palace at Rome, reprefenting the nuriing of Jupiter by Amalthea. This figure holds in one hand the Syrinx, and in the other a Horn, refembling the Sbmvm re- prefented upon the Arc or Titus, among the Hebrew inftruments, fuppofed to have been copied from thofe which this emperor had brought from Jerufalem. 7. A Citbarifirta, or female minftrel, from an ancient picture reprefenting a marriage, in the Aldobrandini palace at Rome. The inftrument is flung over the moulder of the performer by a ribbon, and is played without a plectrum. This celebrated painting was found during the time of Pope Clement VIII. in the gardens of' Mecenas. 8. The Tuba, or long trumpet, called by the Hebrews the Trumpet of the Jubilee. It may be feen in feveral pieces of ancient fculpture at Rome, particularly on the Arc ot Titus, and on Trajan's Pillar. The drawing, whence this was engraved, was made from a Bajjb Relievo at the Capitol, reprefenting the triumph of Marcus Aurelius. 9. A Timbrel, or Tambour de Bafque. 10. A double Lituus. The Lituus was a crooked military inftrument, in the form of the augural ftafF, whence it had its name. It was a fpecies of Clarion, or oftave Trum- pet, made of metal, and extremely loud and fhrill, ufed for horfe, as the ftrait Trumpet was for foot. Horace diftinguifhes it from the Tuba or Trumpet : Multos caftrajuvant, ct Lituo Tuba Permijlusfouitus, Od. i. I, 2j. as Claudian does from the Flute. Tibia pro Lituis, & pro clangors Tubarun Molle Lyra, faujlumque ednant. The two laft inftruments were taken from an ancient bas-relief in the Vitalefchi palace at Rome, reprefenting a facrifice. 11. rz, and 15, are all taken from the fame piece of ancient fculpture, or bas-relief, in the Gbi^i palace at Rome, reprefenting a group ot muficians finging an epithalamiuni. Ofthefc, 1 1 and 1 2 are Lyres or Harps of different conftruftion, but both furnifhed with too great a number of firings to have been of very high antiquity. There is fom'e- thing Angularly animated and pleating in the pofition of the performer's right arm, No. 1 2; where it feems as if, after having touched a firing with fome force, fhe was caf- . vying it round with a kind of flourifb. The difficulty of expreffing motion in a drawing is fo great, that without fuggefting this idea the action of the figure may be mifundef- flood, and appear aukward as a fixed -attitude or pofition, though as a tranjient attitude and moving pofition, it is very eafy, light, and graceful. 13, is a. double Flute, or two tubes in imifon with each other, blown with one mouth-piece. It may be neceflary to apprize the reader that all the figures and inftruments on this plate are, as ufual, reverfid in printing, and that the bufinefs which appears to have been performed by the right hand in the original, and drawings made from it, feems now to have been done by the left. PLATE V. No. 1, and 2, are reprefentations of the T-ftuJo, or Lyre of Amphion, in front and profile, as it appears on the bafe of the celebrated ToroFarnefe at Rome. See page 268, ■and 269, This admirable -work, coniiiting of foilf figures birger than the life, befides the LIST and DESCRIPTION of the PLATES. 519 the Toro, or bull, was found in Caracalla's baths, where the Farnrfe Hercules was likewife difcovered; and, except the Laocoon, is the only piece of Greek fculpture mentioned by Pliny, that is now remaining. The wo projections near the bottom of No. 1, feem to have been faltenings tor the ib'ings, and to have anfwered the purpofe of tail-pieces in modern inltruments. 3 . The Lyre held by Tertfichore, in the picture of that Mufe, dug out of Herculaneum„ 4, The Pfaltery, as it is delineated in the ancient picture of the Mufe Erato, dug like- wile out of Herculaneum. See p. 294. Don Calmet fays the Pfaltery was played upon by a Bozv, or pleftrum : now, befides the almoft certainty of the bow being unknown to the ancients, the form of this Pfaltery is fuch as makes it impoilible to be played upon with a bow. The Hebrew Pfaltery, however, mull: have been an inltrument of a different form from this. It had originally ten firings, and is called frequently the Teu-ftringed Harp, by David in the Pfalms. The Hebrew name for it is Nebcl, or Ncbel NaJJbr, whence the Greek NaQxiov, and Latin NabltJim. fide Bianchini De Tribus Gen. In)}. Muf. Vet. Org. p. 3;. Kircher imagines it to have been a horizontal Harp, played with a plectrum, and that it furnilhed the firft idea of aHarpfichord. But there malt have been two kinds of Pfaltery in antiquity, as Athenaeus, lib. v. cap. 25. mentions the -^xXrr,ctov opflioK, the upright Pfidtery, of which kind mull: have been that under conlideration in the hands of the Mufe Erato. j». A Trigonum, or Triangular Harp. It is taken from an ancient painting in the Mu~ fe.um of the king of Naples, in which it is placed on the moulder of a little dancing Cu- pid, who fupports the inltrument with his left hand, and plays upon it with his right. . The Trigonum is mentioned by Athenaeus, lib. iv. and by Julius Pollux, lib. iv. cap. g. According to Athenaeus, Sophocles calls it a Phrygian inltrument, and one of his Dipno- fophitts tells us, that a certain mufician of the name of Alexander Alexandrinus was fo admirable a performer upon it, and had given fuch proofs of his abilities at Rome, that he made the inhabitants uxo-oi/mkiv, mufically mad. It may not be unworthy of remark, that this little inltrument refembles the Theban Harp, PI. VIII. in the circumftance of wanting one fide to complete the triangle. The performer too, being a native of Alex- andria, as his name implies, makes it probable that it was an Egyptian inltrument upon which he gained his reputation at Rome. 6. The Abyfftnian Tejludo, or Lyre in ufe at prefent in the province of Tigre. From a drawing of Mr. Bruce. See p. 217*. 7. The Cymbalum, or Crotalo. This inftrument is frequently to be feen in the Bac- chanalian facrifices and proceffions reprefented in ancient fculpture. It is ltill in general ' ufe in ealtern countries, and has lately been introduced among the troops of al'moft all the- princes of Europe, on account of its utility In marking the iteps of die foldiers, with force and precifion during their march. The prefent engraving was made from an an- tient painting at Portici, in which it is placed in the hands of aHaccante, who beats time upon it to her own dancing. Though Crotalo is the modern Italian name for this in- ltrument, x^otoJW in Greek, and Crota/um Latin implied one that was different from the Cymbalum; a kind of Cajianet. Vide Cic. in Plfa.11. Q. 8. A Hexachord, or Lyre of fix firings, in the hand of a Grecian Apollo, in the Ca- pitoline Mufaeum, at Rome. The three openings at the bottom feem defigned toanfwer. the purpofe of found-holes in the belly of the inftrument. 9. A Dicbord, or inltrument of t-vjo firings, with a neck, refemblirig that upon the. great Egyptian obelilk in the Campus Martius at Rome. Seepage 204. and fig. "VI r.' facing page 205. The prefent reprefentation was taken from an antique painting, which 5 2o LIST and DESCRIPTION of the PLATES. ftill fubfifts in a fepulchral grotto, near the ancient Tarquinia, and obligingly commu- nicated to me for the ufe of this work by Mr. Byers of Rome, who intends pubiifhing the antiquities ot that city. 10. An Etrufcan Lyre, with feven firings, in the collection of Etrufcan, Greek, and Pvoman Antiquities, publifhed from the cabinet of the Hon. Sir William Hamilton, Vol. I. Naples 1766. PI CIX. With refpect to this instrument, it is worthy of observa- tion, that though the vale upon which it is reprefented is of fuch indifputable and remote antiquity, the tail-piece, bridge, belly, and found-holes have a very modern appearance, and manifeft a knowledge in the confirmation of mulical inftruments among the Etrufcan! fuperior to that of the Greeks and Romans, in much later times. The lower part of the inftrument has much the appearance of an old Bafe-Viol, and it is not difficult to difco- ver in it more than the embryo ot the whole Violin family. The firings lie round, as if intended to be played on with a bo-zv ; and even the crofs lines on the tail-piece are fuch as we frequently Ice on the tail-pieces of old Viols. 1 1. The Tripodian Lyre of Pythagoras the Zacynthian, from a bas-relief in the Maf- fei palace at Rome, reprefenting the whole choir of the Mufes. Athenseus gives the following account of this extraordinary inftrument, lib. xiv. cap. 15. p. 637. " Many ancient inftruments are recorded, lays Artemon, of which we have fo little " knowledge, that we can hardly be certain ot their exiftence ; fuch as the Tripod of 41 Pythagoras the Zacynthian, which, on account of its difficulty, continued in ufe but a *' fnort time. It refembled in form the Delphic Tripod, whence it had its name. The " le^s were equidiftant, and fixed upon a moveable bafe that was turned by the foot of " the player; the llrings were placed between the legs of the flool ; the vafe at the top " ferved for the purpofe of a found-board, and the firings of the three fides of the inftru- " ment were tuned to three different modes, the Doric, Lydian, and Phrygian The " performer fate on a chair made on purpofe. Striking the firings with the fingers of " the left hand, and ufing the pleilrum with the righ:, at the fame time turning the in- " ftrument with his foot to whichever of the three modes he pleafed ; fo that by great " practice he was enabled to change the modes with fuch velocity, that thofe who did " not fee him, would imagine they heard three different performers playing in three " different modes. After the death of this admirable mufician, no other inftrument of *' the fame kind was ever conftrutted." iz. A Lyre in the famous ancient picture dugout of Hercuianeuf-i, upon which Chi- ron is teaching the young Achilles to play. See_ p 317- 1 3. The Siftrum, an Egyptian inftrument of facrifice ; and one that is flill ufed in reli- gious ceremonies by the inhabitants of Abyffinia. See p. Z17*. This reprefentation was drawn from an ancient Sifirum preferved in the library of St. Genevieve at Paris. It has been difputed by the Abbe Winckelmann whether the Siftrum was of very high rnti- quity in Egypt, b:caufc it did not appear in the hands of fuch Egyptian ftatutes as he had feen at Rome ; but as there isone in the handoi" a very ancient ftatuteof Ifis which Doctor ''ococke brought into England from Egypt, it puts that point of mufical hillory out of all difpute. The Sifirnm appears in the IJtac Tabic ; and Apuleius m«kes an" old Greek invoke an Egyptian prieft " by the flars in the firmament ; by the infernal divinities; by the elements which compofe the univerfe ; by the filence of the night ; by the fanftuary in the temple of Coptos ; by the increafe of the Nile ; by the mys- teries of Memphis ; and by the Sifirum of Pharos." By Pharos, an Egyptian ifland, was here figuratively meant, all Egypt. 14. A LIST and DESCRIPTION of the PLATES. 5 = 1 14. A Lyre richly ornamented : it is placed on the ftump of a tree, by the tide of an antique ftatue of Apollo, formerly in the Salviati collection at Rome, but now in the poffeffion of General Valmoden, in Germany. The Apollo leans on the Lyre. PLATE VI. No, 1. The head of a Tibicen, or Flute-flayer, to fhew the $t>}£ax, Capiftrum, or Ban- dage, ufed for the purpofe of augmenting the force of the wind, and for preventing the fwelling of the cheeks of the performer. See p. 278. Thefe Flutes are equal in dia- meter and length, and as no holes are viiible in them, they muft have been of the Trum- pet kind. The drawing of this number was made from a vafe in Sir William Hamilton's collection of Etrufcan antiquities, Vol. I. PI. 124. 2. A double Flute, of an uncommon kind, on a Bas-relief in the Farncfe collection at JLome. Thefe tubes of different lengths and keys or ftoppels, are blown at once by a fe- male bacchanal. Voffius, DePoemai. Cant. p. no. fays from Proclus, that every hole of the ancient Flute furnifhed at leaft three different founds, and if the «rajaTfu7njftaTa, or holes, were opened, ftill more than three. Arcadius Grammaticus fays, that the inventors of the holes of the Flute contrived a method of flopping and opening them at pleafure^ by certain horns, or pegs, which, by turning them in and out, and moving them up and down, multiplied founds, according to Voffius, like different firings upon a. Lyre.. But that could not be the cafe in this inftrument, at leaft,. during performance, as moft of the plugs or floppies were out of the reach of the mufician's hand ; belides, the hands were employed in fupporting the inftrument ; and though, in our Baffbon, and even Hautbois and German Flute, we are able, by means of keys, to open and clofe holes which the fingers cannot reach, yet, as no fuch expedients appear in the reprefentations of ancient wind inftruments, it is difficult to affign any other ufe to thefe plugs or floppies than that already mentioned, of adjufting the fcale to fome par- ticular mode or genus before performance, as our Trumpets and Horns are tuned to keys of different pitch by means of crooks, and our Flutes by middle pieces of different lengths. It feems as if the longeft of the two tubes in this number had a Horn joined to the end of it, which gives it the form of a Lituus. Bartholinus, Be Tib. F~et. makes this cur- vature at the end the characteriftic of the Phrygian Flute. P. 48, he gives two Flutes of this kind, with plugs ; one ftrait and the other curved, and tells us from Ariftotle that loudnefs and clearnefs were acquired by the addition of the Horn : Cornua refonanda inftrumentorum fonos reddunt clariores. It is moft likely too that it rendered the tube to which it was added an oftave lower than the other. 3, and 4, are both taken ftom the beautiful Sarcophagus in the Cdtnpidoglio, or Capito- line Mufeum, at Rome, where each of them is placed in the hand of a Mufe. It is neceffary, however, to inform the reader that, by a miftake, they are engraved in this- plate with the wrong end uppermoft. The three rows of holes in No. 4, it is proba- ble, were for the three Genera, or, at leaft, for three different modes, which both Paufanias and Athenseus tell us Pronomus firft contrived to exprefs by one and the fame Flute. See p. 64. This inftrument has a mouth-piece with a Fipple like our common Flute, which feldom appears in reprefentations of ancient inftruments. . £. Tibia TJtricularis, or Bag-pipe, taken from a bas-relief in the, court of the Santa. Croce palace at Rome. This inftrument was not unknown to the Greeks, who called it « fir turned, r. traced. P. 21, 1. 15, r. Nomenclature, lb. 1. 26, r. wen. P. 30, 1. 21, for intervals, r, founds. P. 39, 1. 22, add the iubfcriptum to crTrovJstetxaj, and to tfgWw. P, 40, J. 14, for Trite, r. Nete. P. 42, I. 4 from the bottom, and I aft line, fir intervals, r. founds, P. 47, Note \a) dele Moiof. P. 48, in the Table of Modes, for grave Phrygian, r. grave Hypophrygian. Ibid. The fiats at the clef of the Misolydian Mode jbsuld be placed on the fecond line, and third /pace. P. 61, 1. io, r, occafions. P. 63, Note (d), r. « ( «itov(s?. P. 64, !. 10, for the genera, r. thefe three modes. P. 6S, I. 25, r. Hypate. P. 72, I. 30, fir with, r. to. P. 74, 1„ 17, r, numeri. P. 76, 1, 19, fir always accompanied with melody, r, compofed of entire feet. Ib« 1. 21, be- fore the word, reft, add ihort 5 and after fimplicity, add, but is lefs noble. P. 83, I. 20, dele the ufe of. lb. 1« 25, £t/ore the word performance, add, compofition and. lb. 1. 32, for no more, r. lefs. lb. fir but are go- verned, r. and are only governed. P. 86, Note (d), fir dure, r. dur. P. 88, 1. 19, for of, r. to. P. 92, 1. a, r. A^f«. P. 94, 1. 3, r. Kwtj'ftW* &«a. lb. 1. 4, r. e A xtffa. P. 99, 1. 9, /or future, r. other. P. ioo 3 Note (r), fir always, r. generally. P. 114, 1. 27, r. Armonicse difciplina?. P. 127, 1. 6. r_ Platonifts. P« 1 3 I > 1' 5» <*A' r languages, <«W, in which. P. 133, 1. 24, r. EjLt/^eXet;. P. 134, 1. 4, /or not, r, hardly. P. 136, 1. 28, r. Ej^EigfSfoy. P. 140, 1. 14, /or E^£, r. F$£. P. 14^, in the third line of mufic, place the Baft C/ef at the beginning, and make the laft note C inftead of E. P. 148, 1. 24, dele that. P. 157, |. 17 and iS, r. Cithara. P. 158, 1. 21, fir alone, r. only. P. 159, I. 23, Jor Titus, r. Livius. lb. 1. 27, fir encored, r, often called for. P. 160, 1. I, r. vigenti. P. 163, Note («), r. ipfafque. P. 165, 1. 11, fir in- terlocutors, r. performers, lb. 1. 23, fir by, r. fiom. P. 174, 1. 15, r. Hampton. P. 179, 1, 21, r. Polypous. P. 187, I. 17, r. Chryfeis. P, 197, I. 27, fir of which, r. where. P. 205, Note (j) r. Comte. P. 207, i. 22, r. Thefmophora. P. 208, I, 15, dele and, at the beginning of the line, and infert it before, this. P. 209, Note (c), after, occurs in, add, Homer, Od. K. 191 ; in a fragment of Orpheus j and in. P. 2ii, Note (/), r. 'ajXa.ytav^ov, lb. r. EOgETQff. P. *226, 1. 6, after would, add, more than. Ibid* for Phrygian, r. Myfian, P. *228, 1. 31, r. Philometor. P. 21.8, Note (a), r. KtBagav — Fides— -cithara. P* 222, Note (A), dele note of interrogation after Mulicen, and place it at the end of the ftntence. P. 226, Note {r),fir Cinara, r. Kinnor. P. 227, Note (u), r. (Jinyris. P. 229, 1. 9, for that, r. of. P. 260, 1. 21, r. Manfuram. P. 264, 1, 13, for to, r. by. P. 270, r. Phanes. P. 277, Note'fy), r. deridiculo— occiperet — Tibicen. P. 279, after Silenus, place a comma. P. 281, Note (c), r. Plafmate efYeminata, P. 286, Note (/), r. Cygnis — after fit, st comma, inftead of a colon — after moriantur, a dajk*. — lb- Note (k), r. Phcedone. P, 295* I. 23, fir a, r. the $ and I. 24, after Anthologia, add, juft quoted. P. 299, laft line but one, r. Trieterica. P. 305, 1. 13, after than, infert, from, P. 310, 1. 14, r. Caprea:. P. 312, after Poetics, dele lib. viii. P. 315, 1. laft, dele, U of the fame opinion, and add, afenbes to him, however, the invention of Mufic, and of the Cithara. P. 317, 1. 7, r. Medua. P. 318, 1. 11, r. (7r7na*rgixov. lb. next 1. dele laft fix words, and r, he derived his name of Centaur. P. 330, 1. 11, dele the, before found, and Proflambanomenos, after it, and r. an eighth found. P* 331, Note {q), r. Onomacritus, and Pififrratidse. P. 332, 1. 20, r, Arundelian. P. 334, Note (x), r. Orphea. P. 341, Note (/), fir Iliad, r. OdyfT. P. 346, I. 11, after dancing, r. like poetry, arj dele tbofe words, next line. P. 348, 1. 20, for fings to, r. plays on. P. 367, Note (h), r. rBTgsfyngvv. P, 384, I. zS s fir beauties, r. branches. P. 387, Note (t), after /3tfAi,«e;, add, the appetite of. P- 413, 1. 27, fir abforbed, r. obftrucled. P, 420, Note (i), after inftrument, infert, but ; and fir proper, r. improper. P. 421, Note ( n )y fir Conum. r. Dorium. P. 426, r. Polymneftus. P. 419, 1. 16, fir which, r. whom, P. 430, I. 3, r. Ambracia. P. 435, Note (d), r, a-vvatetv. P. 442, Note {s), near the end, r. Harmonic9, and, next line, dele, whole. P. 445, Note (%), fecond period, dele comma after the word o£tave, in tw> places. P. 460, 1. zo t r. Hypodorian. P. 461, Note [r), after 5th to the 6th a minor tone ; add, from the 6th to the 7th a major tone. P. 463, Note {y ), for minor femitone, r. Ltmma ; and two lines lower dele femicolon after half. P. 472, No:e (b), r. Se hvTBgav ; and Note (i), ergo St