MUSIC. 



Mr.su;. 



ft pleamrable imertinn; and this, Sir John Hersohel observes, "is 

 perhaps the only lasiaaoi of a situation for whos* pleasing impression 

 distinct aad intelligible reason can be assigned." 



Dr. Beattie does not think it absurd to suppose that the body may 

 be mechanically affected by sound, " If," he says, " in a church one 

 feels the floor and the pew tremble, to certain tones of the organ ; if 

 one string vibratos of its own accord when another is sounded near it, 

 of equal length, tension, and thickness ; if a person speaks loud in the 

 neighbourhood of a harpsichord, and often hears the strings of the 

 instrument murmur in the same tone, wo need not wonder that some 

 of the finer fibres of the human frame should be put in a tremulous 

 motion when they happen to be in unison with any notes proceeding 

 from external objects. 



The surprising connection between form and vibrations producing 

 musical sounds, so beautifully shown in Chladui's experiments on 

 plates of glass strewed with sand, and put into sonorous vibration, 

 thereby throwing the sand into various symmetrical figures, may be 

 here incidentally mentioned. Though it does not seem to shed any new 

 light on the subject before us, nevertheless, by proving something like 

 sympathy, and of a much more extraordinary kind than that between 

 two strings, in mere matter, it may at a future period lead to interesting 

 : .- . ;.' 



The effect of rhythm, or measure, is universally felt and admitted : 

 the most polished inhabitants of Europe, and the most barbarous 

 natives of the arctic regions, are alive to its influence; it is that 

 which reduces unmeaning sounds to order, converts them into 

 melody, and bestows on them proportion and a power to charm. The 

 chirping, or whistling, or singing, as it is called, of most birds, being 

 devoid of rhythm, affords no pleasure but what is derived from asso- 

 ciation ; while the single note of a drum, beaten in time, combining 

 sound and measure, is gratifying in a certain degree to every hearer. 

 Indeed, with the ancients rhythm was of paramount importance, if not 

 almost everything, in what they denominated music, a term under 

 which was included much that it does not imply hi modern language. 

 Aristides Quintilianus, the best of the seven Greek writers on music 

 collected by Meibomius, remarks that rhythm is the object of three 

 tenses, namely, the sight, as in dancing ; the hearing, as in music ; 

 and the touch, as in the pulsations of the arteries. 



Much of the effect of music on the mind is ascribed to imitation, 

 which is either direct or indirect. And it must be understood that we 

 are still speaking of music strictly instrumental, not vocal. The power 

 of direct imitation is confined within narrow limits, though composers 

 have often attempted to enlarge the boundaries at the risk of exposing 

 their own weakness and that of their art. The song of some birds, the 

 whistling of winds, the roaring of the tempest, the sound of cannon, 

 the ringing and tolling of bells, and the tones of the human voice 

 expressive of certain emotions, are considered as legitimate objects of 

 direct imitation ; but it has been affirmed that the rattling of hail, the 

 fall of snow, the motions of animals, actions at sea, battles on land, &c., 

 are not only unrepresentable by any kind of musical instrument at 

 present known, but unfit for imitation if instruments could be con- 

 structed for the express purpose. Of all the powers of music, in the 

 opinion of a good critic, the Rev. Thos. Twining, that of the raising of 

 ideas by direct resemblance is the weakest and least, important. " It 

 is indeed so far from being essential to the pleasure of the art, that 

 unless used with great caution, judgment, and delicacy, it will destroy 

 the pleasure by becoming offensive or ridiculous. The highest power 

 of music, and that from which it derives its greatest efficacy, is 

 undoubtedly its power of raising emotions." 



Indirect Imitation is that by which some quality common to music 

 and the thing imitated is indicated by sounds, strong or weak, quick or 

 low. Bageisloud, anger is harsh, lore and pity are gentle; therefore 

 load and harsh sounds raise ideas of the former passions and others of 

 the same class ; soft and tranquil sounds raise ideas of the latter and 

 others of a similar charactrr. Hence it will be seen, as before observed, 

 that the hearer may interpret music in a manner corresponding in 

 soon* degree to the state of mind in which it shall find him, but under 

 certain restrictions from which be cannot be released. If agitated by 

 any turbulent passion, he will find it impossible to convert smooth and 

 dnhrMi music into a language in unison with his irritated feelings ; and 

 if under the softening influence of some tender attachment, or of sorrow 

 for the loss of one beloved or valued, he will be unable to construe 

 bold and brilliant sounds a* expressions of sympathy. But music that 

 is not of a decided character will prove more or less convertible. 



a seeri scion, which has so large a ahsre in the operations of the human 

 contributes much to toe effect of music. Indeed some 

 no intrinsic merit, owe their influence solely to this 

 . and "among tfeese the famous HOLM dm 1WA, which, in times 

 ' goo* by, acted with such irresistible force on th* expatriated 

 oklier. It was many years after the battle of Culloden, awl 

 not till all fear* of toe ITetender had subsided, that the Scotch 

 Bgpipm ventured to play any of the Jacobite tunes, which, when 

 revived, were beard with delight, though hardly one of them would 

 have continued to be listened to but as connected with th* history of 

 th. country. 



After all , however, that ha* been written awl said , from the days of 

 Aristotle down to the present period, of music as a imitative art, it 

 MW o oowoGQSB IBM OKXniMwva OQMM PIMM, py MHDO nystcnotu 



many to whom they present no imitation of anything, material 

 or immaterial, and who associate with them no other idea than 

 melody or of harmony. 



Thus far our attention has been directed to instrumental music, or 

 that which is dependent on no auxiliary for effect, on m> words to 

 explain its meaning, on no gesticulation or scenery to illiistrtt. it. u 

 have now to consider music as produced by the human voice in alliance 

 with language, whether poetical or prose, and with or without instru- 

 mental accompaniment. 



Vocal music is entirely devoid of that ambiguity which some think a 

 merit in instrumental music, and some consider a defect. Words fix 

 the intention of musical sounds, leaving nothing for the hearer t 

 jecture; for though the more or less of truth in the expression will 

 depend on the skill of the composer, yet ho must be utterly destitute 

 of reason to give to revenge the tones of love, or to joy those of 

 despair. It is true that he does not always read with discriminating 

 judgment the words selected by him, or committed to his charge- 

 that in emphasis he is sometimes erroneous, and in accentuation fre- 

 quently faulty ; and for these failings in the artist, the art lUelf has 

 been unjustly condemned by writers whose repute gives weight t 

 censure. But the heaviest charge brought against composers of vocal 

 music, and that which has exposed them to the keenest ridicule, IH t heir 

 eagerness to express the literal meaning of a particular word rather than 

 the sentiment, the sense of the entire passage. This exceedingly vulgar 

 kind of imitation, which has not inaptly been called musical pi' 

 may be traced to a gross misapprehension of the rule, that " the sound 

 should seem an echo to the sense," and is the vice not only of composers 

 of an inferior order, but occasionally of some of the highest class. The 

 great Handel himself is not wholly exempt from its influence. In the 

 fine chorus, "Wretched lovers, quit your dream" (in ' Acis and 

 Galatea'), when the line "Hark! how the thund'ring giant roan" 

 occurs, he makes the bases roar in a long division, till they nearly gasp 

 for breath. But this is a verb that proves very seductive to composers ; 

 in two of our best glees it sets the voice a-roaring through several 

 bars : in the one, because the poet (Ossian) asks, " Who comes so 

 dark from ocean's roar I" In the other, because the poet (Gray) says, 

 " The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar .' " I i 

 favourite air, " What passion cannot music raise and quell ? " from 

 Dryden's 'Ode to St. Cecilia's Day,' sends the voice tumbling down a 

 full octave at the words "faces fell." In the same work the singer is 

 condemned to ascend to a note which few can reach, and none can 

 sustain without lungs of very unusual capacity, merely because the 

 author says, " The trumpet shall be raised on hiijh." Our greatest 

 English composer, Purcell, could not resist the temptation offere.1 by 

 the words " They that go down to the sea in ships," from the 1 "7th 

 Psalm, in setting which he commits the baas voice to so very low a 

 deep, that there was only one man in his day who could sing the 

 anthem. "Some eminent musicians," Sir William Jones observes, 

 " have been absurd enough to think of imitating laughter and 

 noises; but if they had succeeded, they -would not have made am. -mis 

 for their want of taste in attempting it; for such ridiculous imii 

 must necessarily destroy the spirit and dignity of the finest poems." 

 This discerning and elegant writer most likely points at the song and 

 chorus, " Haste thee, nymph," in Handel's setting of Milton's ' L' Allegro,' 

 in which is tho line, " And Laughter holding both his sides." The 

 singers in this, it must be allowed, never baulk the intention of the 

 composer, but affect to laugh almost convulsively. Many other instances 

 of similar mistskm efforts at direct imitation might be adduced from 

 the works of Handel, and that great composer's supremacy in the art 

 renders him especially liable to animadversion when misled by an 

 erroneous conception of the words; but he has been charged wifli 

 many supposed imitations which he never contemplated, such as the 

 mlii/i/iiiiy-fknruf, the rool-i*(/-chorut, &c. We have however said as 

 much as is necessary on this part of our subject. 



In the accompaniment to vocal music, much greater freedom of 

 imitation is allowable than in the voice part : kept within those 

 bounds which good sense and cultivated taste preacrilxs it affords very 

 efficient aid, by giving greater force to the poetry, and contributing to 

 the completion of the general design. It also adds harmony to 

 most important, if not an indispensable support. Nearly all that 

 imitation can do, should as the elder Dr. (ir.p'iv. of K.linlmivh, in 

 some admirable remarks on music, has observed be assigned to the 

 accompaniments, as these, on account of the greater compass and 

 of instrument", are better adapted to such a purpose than the 

 which ought to be left at liberty to express the sentiments. If Handel 

 has sometimes failed in imitations by the voice, he has often succeeded 

 in those by the acoompanying instruments. We need but refer in 

 proof to his beautiful song in ' II I'enseroso' 



" Oft on n plot of ridnff rronnd 

 I hear tbe fur-off curfew sound," 



where he has imitated the bell by the deep-toned strings of the bases, 

 confining the voice to those notes of pleasing, contemplative melan- 

 choly, the idea of which the words so completely excite. The same 

 skill and dincrimination an shown in the song of Galatea, " Hush I ye 

 pretty warbling quire," in which ti >iUtes the birds, 1 



th* singer t* express in simple sounds that languishing tenderness 



