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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 75., June 6. '67. 



" J. P., Lincoln's Inn," and admits that at Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge hitherto there had been no 

 graduating school, and no board of examiners ; 

 that the degree is not an honorary one, being the 

 result of certificate and exercise without residence 

 or examination, and therefore resembling degrees 

 from Giessen or Gottingen, Universities which 

 act upon certificates and exercises without resi- 

 dence or examination. M.A., Oxon. also follows 

 J. P., and observes that my remark on the want 

 of musical education in the Universities is per- 

 fectly just, and that the present Professor is 

 doing all in his power to remedy this defect. 

 Mr. Jebb, in the Number for May 9, contends 

 that the power of the University to grant the 

 degree, though improperly exercised, is in itself 

 legitimate. He admits that although hitherto the 

 education has been very defective (education 

 there was none), he does not see how it is either 

 anomalous or illegal, and asks how I support my 

 proposition that " to supersede education is to re- 

 sign the degree ; " and he requests to be informed 

 of the ground I take in maintaining the remark, 

 *' by what moral or legal right can an examiner 

 inquire into that over which the University has 

 no control, and of which it has no knowledge?" 

 I cannot claim any originality in these arguments. 

 They are not mine. It must be in recollection 

 that some time ago there appeared in the Edin- 

 iurgh Review some spirited articles on the Uni- 

 versity degrees, and these articles have been very 

 generally attributed to a distinguished scholar now 

 high in Her Majesty's Council. That which Ser- 

 geant Miller, Dr. Monk, Mr. Heywood, and other 

 writers had advanced with respect to University 

 degrees, the writer in this review concentrated in 

 his happiest manner, and thereby drew such at- 

 tention to the grievance that steps have been 

 taken for its amelioration. It was argued that 

 "the degrees were solemn testimonials that the 

 graduate had accomplished a regular course of 

 study in the public schools ; had been exercised 

 and examined ; that the University afforded the 

 education, and certified by grant of faculty that 

 this education had been effectually received." 

 That although degrees are ostensibly accorded in 

 all the faculties, they are now empty, or rather 

 delusive distinctions. Of ten degrees granted in 

 Oxford, nine are in law and reason utterly worth- 

 less. The Law degree is conferred without in- 

 struction or examination ; the Physician is turned 

 loose on society with odious privileges, without 

 education or guarantee for his skill. (Miller and 

 Monk.) Although with respect to Law and 

 Phyaic this state of things has been altogether 

 changed, yet with respect to Music little or nothing 

 that I am aware of has been done at Cambridge. 

 At Oxford the appointment of a Music Professor 

 at a salary of 250Z. per annum, and also the recog- 

 nition of a Choragus, and further, the creation of 

 a new officer in the person of the Coryphaeus, are 



facts of a certain interest, the issue of which all 

 lovers of music await with more or less curiosity. 

 Mr. Jebb will be so kind as to recollect that 

 public education is ordered by statute, maintained 

 by lectures, and that the scholars are subject to 

 the tuition of some master of the schools, and that 

 " the sphere of examination for degrees is neces' 

 sarily correlative to the sphere of instruction, for the 

 examiner has no right to seek into what he knows 

 has never been taught." I do not quite understand 

 whether Mr. Jebb considers the University mu- 

 sical degree to be honorary or not. One thing is 

 clear, if it be not an honorary degree the Univer- 

 sity is acting contrary to its charter and its sta- 

 tutes in granting such degree, ivhilst it refuses to 

 afford the education. Without education under 

 the Professor, the Choragus, and the Coryphaeus, 

 — without the advantage of their direction, con- 

 trol, and knowledge, — see what a situation any 

 student seeking a degree may be placed in. For 

 instance, an under-graduate might be sent abroad 

 and placed under a great master, and his parents 

 having spent something like a thousarid pounds in 

 his education, send him on his return to Oxford, 

 and the issue would in all probability be a return 

 to his father's house minus his reputation and the 

 degree he sought. Let it be supposed that Pro- 

 fessor Ouseley still adopts the class-book of Dr. 

 Crotch, and that Drs. Corfe and Elvey think with 

 him on this matter. I affirm most solemnly that 

 any well-taught student would laugh in the faces 

 of the examinators ; for how is it possible to adopt 

 such teaching as the following ? 



1. "Melody is a succession of single notes, but » 

 in scientific music it is considered as forming the 

 accompaniment, or else the bass of some harmony 

 either expressed or understood." 



2. " Harmony is a succession of chords." 



3. " Some successions have become obsolete ; " 

 and after giving examples of such successions 

 (every one of which Meyerbeer uses), he adds, 

 " these are peculiar to ancient music, and to be 

 avoided, unless writing in the Church style." 



4. " Progressions from F to E, E to D, D to 

 C, are only fit for Church music." " Rubbish may 

 be shot here ! " 



5. " The principal use of the study of harmonics 

 is, that they constitute the scales of the trumpet 

 and horn." 



6. " The themes of old Church music are sub- 

 lime, and are probably fragments derived from 

 the temple worship of the pagans." 



Of course I am aware of all that Wood and 

 Fuller have written, and that the ancient faculty 

 of Arts consisted of the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, 

 and Rhetoric), and of the Quadrivium (Arith- 

 metic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music), making, 

 as they were called, the seven liberal arts. I find 

 the following in my note-book : " Degrees were 

 formerly given in Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, 

 Geometry, and in each particular art, but the 



