C8397) 
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N°... XVIL 
New Notation of Mufic, in a letter to Francis Hopr- 
KINSON, Esq. by Mr. R. PATTERSON. : 
4 
Read Mar. HE happy influence of mufic on the human 
etiowg character ts univerfally acknowledged: what- 
ever, therefore, may have a tendency to facilitate the pro- 
grefs of this fcience will not, Iam perfuaded, be thought 
unworthy of your notice. 
I have long regretted that the art of printing, which 
more than any other modern invention, has contributed 
to the progrefs of ufeful knowledge among men, has, in 
the fcience of mufic, been hitherto exercifed in fo limited 
a degree. It is true there is a method of printing mufic, 
by types made for the purpofe; few printers, however, 
efpecially in America, are furnifhed with founts of this 
kind, and in general, when one would publifh a piece of 
mufic, he is obliged to have recourfe to the troublefome 
and expenfive mode of a copperplate impreflion ; and hence 
it is that publications of this kind are fo very rare among 
us: and yet, I apprehend, that no good reafon can be giv- 
en why mufical founds might not be reprefented by the 
common alphabetical characters, as well as the articulate 
founds of a language. | 
In mufical founds, two things, you know Sir, are 
chiefly to be confidered; namely, tone and time. The 
latter, according to the common notation, is denoted by 
peculiar charaéters appropriated to the different lengths 
or intervals of the mufical founds, and the tones them- 
felves by lines and fpaces on which the aforefaid charac- 
ters are placed. Muficians have been long agreed to de- 
nominate thefe lines and fpaces by the feven firft letters 
of the alphabet: now if the tones of mufical notes, ee 
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