326 On the Music of the Middle Ages. 
which proceeding as from a plain surface is measured by equal notes 
of short time.”’ And after him comes Jumilliac, who asserts, that 
the essence of this Music consists “in the equality of its notes and 
sounds.” 
I could multiply quotations to the same effect, without limit, but 
to my mind there is no proof of the opinion of the musicians of the 
15th and 16th centuries so strong, as the fact that Palestrina, and 
the great ecclesiastical Harmonists of that period, invariably treat the 
text of the Plain Chant on which they have founded their unrivalled 
Harmonies, as consisting of notes of equal length. Indeed every 
musician knows that the Canto Fermo, as it is termed, is invariably 
used by the great contrapuntal masters as a mere peg whereon to 
display all the ingenious and mazy devices of modern harmony. 
Now I have long thought that even these great authorities could 
not be absolutely relied upon: because, by analogy with language, 
no less than by reference to the Scale itself, I felt satisfied that to 
execute Music without rhythm, (by which I mean a mixture of notes 
of long and short measure,) would not only be intolerable to the 
hearer, but impossible to the performer. Everybody knows that 
each sentence we speak is more or less rhythmical; that we could not, 
even if we would, make every syllable of equal duration; and that 
one of the greatest charms of oratory consists, less in the nicely 
balanced sentences, and well modulated voice of the speaker, than 
in the matter of the oration itself. Nay so universal is this 
rhythmical sentiment, that it is not confined to mere sounds; but it 
extends to every motion of our frame, from the pulsations of the 
heart to the graceful steps of the most accomplished dancer. 
As a further presumptive proof of the artistic character of me- 
dizeval Music, I may refer to the place it held in our university 
courses: for whilst Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectics constituted 
the studies of the Trivium or lower school, Music was associated 
with Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy, in the Quadrivium or 
higher form; not constituting an isolated branch of study, or separated 
from the fundamental principles of the other sciences, but embracing 
a knowledge of the philosophy of language, of Oratory, of Poetry, 
of numbers, and the laws of vibration. How superior must have 
