MUSIC, BISTORT OF. 



MUSIC, HISTORY OF. 



if DO no. M. Yillobwu remarks, who, after an attentive perusal of the 

 ancient writer*, u not convinced that eloquence, poetry, and melody 

 were in early tame* governed by musical principle*, that they were 

 taught by the same maiter, and that the three arU were but one 

 ttttttK* The Greek* never separated poetry from melody ; the poet 

 hinuelf act the notes to hi* own venes, and in the early time* sang 

 them at the public games and festivals. The Greek tragedies were 

 opmu, observe* -Payne Knight, meaning, we presume, that they were 

 in a kind of recitative ; and be is borne out in hi* assertion by the best 

 authorities. Aristotle, in hi* treatise on poetry, considers the mneit of 

 tragedy as one of its most essential parts. The nature of this mutic 

 is indicated by several writers, but is more clearly pointed out by 

 Philodemus than by any other, in his work in abuse of music (one of 

 the papyri found in Herculaneum, unrolled and published at Naples 

 in 1793), wherein it is described as a melody nearly approaching ordi- 

 nary speech ; that i* to say, recitative. Horace calls Apollo the linger. 

 The ancient poet* give us to understand that their verse* were tuny, 

 and thi* is to be construed literally in the case of the Greek poets. 

 Homer, according to tradition, sang hi* own epics. But it is needless 

 to multiply proofs of a fact so generally received. 



Admitting, then, that Greek poetry of all kinds religious, epic, 

 dramatic, tc. was really sung, let u* imagine what was meant by the 

 word tioyiog. It ia not to be imagined that Homer, Tyrtsous, Pindar, 

 Ac., were singers, in our acceptation of the word ; the supposition is 

 too absurd to be entertained for a moment. But even allowing them 

 to have been as perfect in the vocal art as the moderns are, would they 

 have condescended to deliver their poetry in long flights of notes, in 

 divioions, in trills, and in passages that render it difficult, and some- 

 times impossible, to get at the sense ? If, however, they had attempted 

 to make their " heaven-bred poesy " subservient to song, would they 

 have found a patient audience! Assuredly not; for the animating 

 appeal, the interesting narrative clothed in poetical language, the 

 pathetic description, were what the Greeks delighted in, and certainly 

 would not have surrendered for the sake of a tune. Moreover, it must 

 be recollected, and is a very important consideration, that when the art 

 of printing was unknown, and manuscript copies of poems, &c., were 

 unattainable by the people at large, on account of the expense, the 

 multitude had no means of becoming acquainted with the productions 

 of their poet* but by hearing them recited; and as crowds assembled for 

 this purpose, the best mode of rendering the voice of the reciter 

 audible to many, and these congregated in open places, was, to pitch it 

 rather high, and confine it to a small number of fixed musical notes. 

 Such is still the practice, and with the same intent, iu all cathedrals, 

 and is called chanting a usage which has doubtless been transmitted 

 from the remotest ages. Such, too, is the method adopted by the 

 improtvaaiori, whose art, we are persuaded, is of the highest antiquity, 

 and whose singing, it U our belief, much resemble* that of the ancient 

 Greeks in delivering their verses. Those extemporaneous poets always 

 require an instrumental accompaniment of a simple kind, to keep the 

 voice in tune, and, as they confess, to animate them. The Greek 

 reciters also were accompanied either by the lyre or the flute, and 

 probably for the same purpose*. The flute was the companion of elegiac 

 poetry ; the lyre of the epic and the ode. 



By what U called Greek music, therefore, we understand the union 

 of poetry and music, the former of the two exercising the greatest sway 

 over the mind, because expressing noble sentiments, gracefully incul- 

 cating religion and morality, teaching obedience to the laws, exciting 

 generous feelings, and inspiring patriotism and courage by the praise 

 of thoie who had distinguished themselves by their public services and 

 their valour. It i* thus we account for the effects said to have been 

 wrought by ancient music ; for it is impossible that Plato should have 

 been thinking of mere vocal melody and the sounds of mean and 

 imperfect instruments, when he said that no change can be made in 

 music without affecting the constitution of the *tate an opinion in 

 which Aristotle acquiesced, and which Cicero afterwards adopted. It 

 it not to be credited that the laws of Lycurgus, set to measured sounds 

 by Terpander, were turned into a song, or that this Lesbian n 

 quelled a sedition in Sparta by singing some pretty air to the mob. It 

 is absurd to suppose that when Polybius tells us of a savage nation 

 civilised by music, he means to say, by coarse pipes and guitars ; and 

 not less ridiculous is it to imagine that men were raised to the rank of 

 chiefs and the dignity of legislator*, solely on account of their taste in 

 singing, or their skill on the lyre and the flute. 



We cannot quit the subject of the vocal music of Greece without 

 adding a few words concerning the Greek AV/mw and ."Win. The 

 former (from 4/u>t, nomos, a law] were so called, says Plutarch, because 

 they were not allowed to transgress certain melodic rule* by which 

 they were characterised, and were at first hymns to the Gods. The 

 latter were songs of a lea* restrained kind, sung at banquets and enter- 

 tainment*, by great proficients; hence Hesychiu* derive* the term from 

 ajoAiii (akolioe, difficult to tiny). But other* think that the word 

 should be rendered literally, erooltd, /allotting a tortiuna coune, 

 because, at table, it did not pass regularly, but only to those who were 

 skilful singer*. Plutarch, on the authority of Pindar, tells us that the 

 seotts) wen invented l.y Terpander. Muller, in hi* ' History of the 

 Literature of Ancient Greece,' considers Terpander to " have been pro- 

 psriy the founder of Greek music." He also invented the seven-stringed 

 'yre, and was probably the first to set poetry to music. 



As to the instrumental music of the Greeks, we confess our inability 

 to treat the subject in a satisfactory manner. The accounts given of it 

 by the ancient writers are either so suspicious or so indefinite, that 

 nearly all our labour in endeavouring to gain some knowledge of ita 

 nature has been expended in vain. Having Bianchini's learned work 

 on ancient instruments before us, we are enabled to form some opinion 

 of their capabilities, and our opinion is not in their favour. They 

 appear to have been rude, and suited only to music of the simplest 

 description. 



The musical scale, or disdiapaaon, of the Greeks comprised two 

 octaves, the lowest note of which was A, the first space iu the base of 

 the moderns. Thi* was divided into five Tetrachord*, or subdivisions 

 of four sounds in each, the extremes being at the distance of a f.mrtli. 



< HORD.] The notes or sounds were represented by the 

 of the alphabet, great and small, which, in order to extend their appli- 

 cation and distinguish the various modes, were placed in il 

 positions the direct, the averted, the inverted, and the horizontal; 

 and these were, as occasion required, altered in form. The time or 

 duration of the notes was known by the long and short syllables to 

 which they were set ; the long syllable was in duration as two, the 

 short as one. But we know only the comparative times of these ; of 

 the positive lengths of notes we remain in ignorance. The movement 

 however of Greek music is supposed to have been slow. The modes 

 were, according to Alypius, fifteen in number : ArUtoxenus makes 

 them thirteen, each a semitone distant from the next in order. I 

 the word MODE we have given the table of Alypius ; that of Aristoxcnus, 

 the oldest of the Greek writers on music, commences with the I 

 dorian, the lowest, and varies considerably in the key-note from t ' 

 Alypius, and there are no certain means of reconciling the > 



By the word JM'AOS (me/on) the Greeks generally signified what we 

 call air, or something like it ; but sometimes, Twining remark*, 

 " they used it in the sense of affnoi'ia, that is, milwly abstracted from 

 rhythm, or time ; sometimes for measured mdwiit ; and sometimes as 

 equivalent to song, including melody, rhythm, and words." By apuovia 

 (liarmonia) they intended simply to express, as we have in a former 

 article observed, the proper relationship of one sound to another the 

 pleasing agreement of intervals ; that is to say, melody. Metostasio 

 believes that by this term the Greeks signified what we main by 

 melody, founding his opinion ou the following passage from Plato (' De 

 Legib.', lib. ii.) : The rr;/ul<iti<in of the inurement it called rhythm ; 

 but the regulation of the voice it called harmony. 



The long-coutested question, whether the Greeks understood counter- 

 point, or music in parts, seems now to be set at rest, and determined 

 in the negative by a preponderating weight of authority and a large 

 majority of voices. To what we have before remarked on this subject 

 [HARMONT], we now add, that further inquiry and reflection have only 

 confirmed the opinion we have long entertained, namely, that though 

 the ancients, by mere accident, if not from experiment, must have 

 been acquainted with the effect of simultaneous sound*, nevertheless 

 that which we call harmony formed no part of their musical art, either 

 theoretically or practically. And we repeat our belief, that in the 

 union of poetry and song, which undeniably operated with such 

 amazing force on all classes of the people, which inflamed them with 

 ardour, softened them into obedience, and melted them into pity, 

 music was but the ally of verse. 



Of their instrumental music, or music without the voice, we are told 

 that the flute-players by profession who certainly were exceedingly 

 encouraged and moat extravagantly paid for their services in the later 

 times of Greece piqued themselves chiefly on the strength of the 

 sounds they could produce from the instrument; and that the 

 trumpeters thought themselves fortunate if, in their contest* at the 

 public games, they escaped without the rupture of a blood-vessel by 

 the violence of their exertions. It is to such performances Aristotle 

 must allude in saying, " I disapprove all kind-* of difficulties in the use 

 of instruments, and, indeed, in music generally ; I mean such tricks as 

 are practised at the public games, where the musician, insf 

 recollecting what is the true object of his art. end. .ivours only to 

 flatter the corrupt taste of the multitude." Facts and remarks like 

 these do not lead to any favourable opinion of Grecian performer*. It 

 is likely however that they pleased most when they played the airs set 

 to the favourite poems and popular verses. And there seems some 

 reason to believe that they extended these by additions, sometimes 

 studied, but often extemporaneous, resembling what are in modern 

 language called variations, or an amplification of the theme. 



M a tradition that Cadmus, with his Phoenicians, introduced 

 music into Greece. But Plutarch, in his ' Dialogue on Music,' first 

 makes Lycias, a professor of the art, repeat the statement of 

 Heraclides, that Amphion, the son of Jupiter and Autiope, taught the 

 Greeks to compose and sing lyric poetry : then, by a second inter- 

 locutor, Soteriohus, contradict* the first, assigning to Apollo the merit 

 of having converted Greece into a musical nation. The invention of 

 the lyre of three string* is given to the Egyptian Mercury, c.r Thoth ; 

 that of seven strings, to the second or Grecian Mercury. Chiron, the 

 centaur, taught Achilles music. Orpheus was the musical pupil of 

 Linus, and master of Hercules. Then came Olympus, TCI 

 others. Terpander is said to have appeased an insurrection in 

 Lacedffimon by hi* songs. He rendered a most important service t > 

 the art by inventing a method of representing musical sounds. Till 



