845 



MUSIC, HISTORY OF. 



MUSIC, HISTORY OF. 



816 



indicated by the poetry. Handel was the first who endeavoured to 

 excite the idea of light through the agency of musical sounds : his 

 chorus in the oratorio of ' Samson,' " first created beam ! " was written 

 with this design ; and moreover suggested to Haydn that grand com- 

 position on the same subject which is admitted to be one of his noblest 

 triumphs. But the still bolder attempt of the former great master 

 was to convey to the mind, through the same medium, a notion of 

 darkness. With this view he composed the sublime chorus in ' Israel 

 in Egypt,' beginning, " He sent a thick darkness over all the land," the 

 accompaniments to which, assisted by the words, produce on persons 

 susceptible of musical impressions all that solemnity of effect, not 

 unmixed with awe, intended by the author. The same may be said of 

 the remaining plagues, in which the instrumental is the imitative and 

 suggestive portion of the music, while the vocal portion is frequently 

 but a simple plaintive air. The accompaniment to the words " There 

 came all manner of flies," is wonderfully expressive of myriads of 

 flitting, buzzing, fluttering, humming insects in motion ; and the 

 description of the entrance of the frogs even into the king's chamber, 

 is rendered vivid by the measured leap performed by hundreds of 

 instruments, and that without the slightest approach to the ludicrous. 

 That grand chorus which announces the congealing of the waters, is 

 mainly indebted for the extraordinary sensations which it produces to 

 the marvellous accompaniments, which seem to betoken a solidifying 

 stiffening process, gradually extending over the whole orchestra and 

 over the listeners. Some of the grandeur of these effects is due to the 

 greatly increased orchestras of the present day, which go far to realise 

 the composer's original idea. A full orchestra in former days contained 

 perhaps 100 performers, whereas at the present time 1500 skilled 

 musicians may take part in these choruses. 



Haydn, though sometimes ambitious of achieving by musical means 

 more than the art can accompli ih, was often most happy in indirect 

 imitation by instrumental accompaniments ; witness the magnificent 

 burst of sound in the first chorus to which we have just alluded in 

 ' The Creation,' at the words, " and there was light." Witness also his 

 musical picture, in the same oratorio, of the rising sun, the slow swell 

 of the instruments in ascending notes describing the gradual progress 

 of the luminary towards the horizon, and the full power of the band 

 depicting its refulgent splendour. And how beautifully the composer 

 contrasts with the solar blaze, the soft, serene beams of the compara- 

 tively small orb which reflects its borrowed light ! 



Music, which is both a science and an art, is divided into Speculative 

 or theoretical, and Practical. Speculative Music explains the nature of 

 musical sounds ; shows, by demonstrating their ratios, how they are 

 related to each other ; and investigates their physical and moral effects 

 when in a simple or in a combined state : it is, in few words, the phi- 

 losophy of the art. Practical Music is the application of theoretical 

 principles, the proper conduct of sounds as to their progression, 

 duration, union, and adaptation to words, voices, and instrument, and 

 is the art of composition. The performer, who merely executes, stands 

 in the same relation to music as the actor does to the drama, or the 

 reciter to the poem : though he requires, in order to excel, consider- 

 able knowledge of the subject and superior taste, yet he is but an 

 operator a singer or a player, and not, strictly speaking, a musician. 



Speculative Music is subdivided into Acoustical, Mathematical, and 

 Metaphysical. [ACOUSTICS ; HARMONICS ; SOUND ; TEMPERAMENT.] 

 Practical Music into Vocal and Instrumental, the several kinds of which 

 are noticed under their respective heads. The chief component parts 

 of practical music are, MELODY, HARMONY, and RHYTHM, to which we 

 refer. See likewise ACCENT, AIR, CHORD, COMPOSITION, COUNTERPOINT, 

 MODULATION, THORODOH-BASE, TIME, &c. 



MUSIC, HISTORY OF. The origin of music is involved in an 

 obscurity which no ingenuity, no labour, has hitherto been able to 

 dispel ; analogy and conjecture, therefore, have supplied the want of 

 facts, in the absence of any assistance except what doubtful histories 

 and the fables of mythologista have afforded, which at best have held 

 out but a dim light, and more often misled than aided the inquirer in 

 his researches. 



It has been supposed by some writers whose names stamp a value on 

 all that has proceeded from them, that song and speech are coeval, an 

 opinion which will hardly be disputed, if by song are meant sounds 

 which, though vocal and sustained, are devoid of rhythm, governed by 

 no scale, and consequently productive of no melody, in the modern 

 acceptation of the word ; but if the term is intended to signify a 

 regular system of tunable measured notes, then we shall not hesitate 

 to say that such advance towards art could only have been made by 

 people proceeding fast in civilisation, and communing through the 

 medium of a language adequate to all the ordinary purposes of man in 

 a social state. 



We are told by Lucretius, in a passage often quoted from the fifth 

 book of his poem ' De Rerum Natura,' that the birds taught man to 

 sing, and that the invention of musical instruments of the iuflatile kind 

 was suggested to him by the sounds produced from reeds when the 

 western wind blew over them : 



' the birds instructed man, 



And taught him songs before his art began. 

 And while soft evening gales blew o'er the plains, 

 And shook the sounding reeds, they taught the swains ; 

 And thus the pipe was fram'd, and tuneful reed." 



This has certainly the merit of being very poetical, whatever reliance 

 the historian may place on it. The same notion concerning wind instru- 

 ments is found in Ovid's beautiful account of the transformation of the 

 nymph Syrinx into reeds. But Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelic doctor," 

 cited by Padre Giambattista Martini, in his ' Storia della Musica,' dis- 

 dains to follow the example of the heathen author of the ' Metamor- 

 phoses," or the disciple of Epicurus, and leave the origin of music to 

 chance ; on the contrary, the noble Italian saint informs us that the 

 first man was endowed by the Creator with every kind of knowledge, 

 and that he excelled in music, as well as in all other arts and sciences. 



But quitting the ingenious guesses and fictions of poets and the 

 reveries of enthusiasts, we find Jubal, the seventh in descent from 

 Adam, mentioned in Scripture as " the father of such as handle the 

 harp and organ." These terms, however, must not be understood 

 quite literally ; they are generic, and signify all instruments of the 

 stringed and tube kind. The different versions vary in the translation 

 of the original : the French render the word harp by riolon. Though 

 the earliest authentic record of music extant is that in Genesis, yet it 

 is nearly certain that the Jews acquired their knowledge of it from the 

 Egyptians. The whole generation of the Iraelites led forth by Moses 

 from their captivity were born in Egypt, in which it seems to be 

 agreed music as an art originated ; though Diodorus Siculus even 

 denies that it was ever practised there : but his assertion is not only in 

 opposition to Herodotus, and at utter variance with what Plato says, 

 who travelled into that country to become acquainted with the arts 

 and sciences, but is proved by modern discoveries to be the very 

 reverse of truth. The fresco painting of a harp, found by Bruce in an 

 ancient tomb near the ruins of Thebes, which is undoubtedly of very 

 high antiquity, is an indisputable proof of the progress made by the 

 early Egyptians in music. In form, dimensions, and ornament, this 

 instrument might be mistaken for one of modern date, insomuch that 

 when a drawing of it was first shown in London considerable doubts 

 were entertained of its fidelity. Forty years after, however, M. Denon 

 bore testimony to the truth of Bruce's description and the accuracy of 

 his sketch, since which Rosellini's ' Monument! dell' Egitto ' and 

 Wilkinson's ' Ancient Egypt ' have confirmed all that the two former 

 had said on the subject. Other instruments have been found sculp- 

 tured or painted on Egyptian monuments, several of which are in the 

 British Museum, and they furnish evidence of the state of music in 

 Egypt in the remotest times. These are J sufficient proofs of early 

 Egyptian knowledge in the musical art. That it continued to be 

 cultivated in Egypt under the Macedonian dynasty there can be no 

 doubt. Athenams, in his account of a Bacchic festival given by Ptolemy 

 Philadelphus, the munificent patron of all the liberal and useful arts, 

 who made Egypt the mart of the world, tells us that more than 600 

 musicians were employed in the chorus, and that among these were 300 

 performers on the cithara, or lyre. 



Of the music of the Hebrews, nearly all that is known is to be 

 collected from the Scriptures, and the Bible is in the possession of 

 every one. There we meet with the first recorded song, which Moses 

 sang at the head of the tribes, after the miraculous passage of the Red 

 Sea. To this responded Miriam the prophetess, having a timbrel or 

 tambourine in her hand, and being attended by all the women, carrying 

 the same instruments, and dancing. Music formed an essential part of 

 every Jewish ceremony. The priesthood were musicians by office, 

 which was hereditary : they were 4000 in number, divided into bodies, 

 each of which had its chief or leader. At the dedication of Solomon's 

 temple a prodigious band of priests, blowing trumpets, attended. 

 Josephus tells us that 200,000 musicians were engaged ; but as his 

 statement is unsupported by scriptural history, we may venture to 

 consider it as a mistake arising from some misapprehension, or else as 

 a manuscript error. A Hebrew writer enumerates 36 musical instru- 

 ments that were kept in the sanctuary, all of which, he says, the 

 prophet-king David could play. These are reduced to 33 by another 

 account. It is worthy of remark that many of them, under other 

 names, are still met with in the East and in Egypt, and, as far as can 

 be ascertained, very little changed from their original form. Martini 

 has given, from a manuscript of 1599, what he believes to be speci- 

 mens of the melodies sung by the Jews to certain Psalms ; but they 

 are printed in the obsolete notation, without bars, and having no words 

 added to them by which the measure might perhaps have been made 

 out, it is impossible to enter thoroughly into their meaning. 



The music of the Greeks has engaged the notice of so many searching 

 antiquaries and patient mathematicans such profound learning and 

 unwearied labour have been bestowed on it it has provoked so much 

 controversy, and the dispute has proved so barren, that we enter on 

 the subject reluctantly, if not fearfully. But before proceeding further, 

 we think it right to say that, after a diligent investigation of the sub- 

 ject, on which we entered with an unprejudiced mind, it is our decided 

 opinion that what is now called Greek music has hitherto proved per- 

 plexing chiefly, if not solely, on account of the term having been 

 misunderstood. We believe that by mvfarike (/aoucri/rf)) the Greeks 

 meant poetry sung, with some sort of accompaniment, and that the 

 moderns have fallen into error by overrating the importance of the 

 melodic part, treating this as the principal, and poetry only as an ally. 



Music was a comprehensive term with the Greeks, embracing, among 

 other things which we shall have occasion to mention, melody (melopma, 

 literally the making, or composition, of the song) and poetry. There 



