335 • SKETCPI OF THE HISTORY OF THE 



MUSICA NHu BERORI^TH." 



** The following: manufcript is the mufic of the Britains, aa 

 *' fettled by a congrefs or meeting of the mailers of raufic by' 

 ** order of Gryffydd ap Cynan, prince of Wales, about A. D. 

 *' iioo, with fume of tlie mofl ancient pieces of the Britains, 

 " fuppofcd to have been handed to us from the Britifli Druids. 



" In two parts (tliat is, bafs and treble) for the harp. 



*' This manufcript was wrote by Robert ap Hawof Bodwigan, 

 ** In Anglefey, in Charles tlie Firll's time. 



** Some part of it copied then out of Wm. Penllyn's book." 



If the Welfh people expect to prove the antiquity 

 of thofe fweet melodies fo M^ell known in the prefent 

 day, from this book of acknowledged authority, they 

 will be greatly difappointed. Thefe rude lefTons are 

 fuch in their melody as might be expected in ages 

 when not mufic only, but when all the arts, in our 

 countries, were in a flate of infancy. Having had 

 the perufal of this manufcript, I found the mufic ex- 

 preifed by letters of the alphabet, with certain other 

 marks which cannot perhaps at this day be explained. 

 Double IT appears to be the loweft note, after which 

 the firft feries feems to be gi, ai, bi, ci, di, ei, fi, 

 and the next f, g, a, b, ", d, e, written in charac- 

 ters fimilar to the following fac-fimiles. It is impoili- 

 ble to fay that thefe letters ftand for the fnne founds 

 as the like letters In the modern mufic : this is how- 

 ever of little confequence in the proof that I would 

 infllrute. If they do, we find fome of the chords 

 .that are admitted into our harmony, but ethers oc- 

 cur that are mere jargon. The melodies whether 

 thefe reprefent our founds or not, are extremely un- 

 couth 



