114 



MUSIC (HISTORY). 



of all nations, the character of poet and singer united 

 in tlu> smne individual, and with them we also find 

 the alternating chorus. The musical instruments 

 which accompanied these songs were harps, citherns, 

 trumpets, and drums. One of the oldest songs, with 

 instrumental accompaniments, is that which Miriam 

 (sister of Moses) sung, after the passage of the Red 

 sea. At the time of David and Solomon, music had 

 reached its highest perfection among the Hebrews, 

 and part of their religious service consisted in chant- 

 ing solemn psalms, with instrumental accompaniment. 

 As well as we can judge, from the information handed 

 down to us, and even from the structure of Hebrew 

 poetry itself, of which a certain parallelism or repeti- 

 tion of the main idea in the different members of a 

 sentence was the chief characteristic, it had a very 

 distinct rhythm, a varied melody, but a monotonous, 

 though strong accompaniment, as was the case with 

 the music of most ancient nations. They had also 

 proper musical signs, which were put over the musi- 

 cal text, and which served to guide the recitation. 

 (See George Ventzky's Thoughts on the Notes, or 

 Musical Signs, of the ancient Hebrews, in Mitzler's 

 Musical Library, 3d volume, in German; and Anton's 

 Essay towards deciphering the Melodies of the ancient 

 Hebrew Songs, in Paulus's New Repertory for Bibli- 

 cal and Oriental Literature, 1st and 2d vol., in Ger- 

 man.) Their music, however, was employed not only 

 in the celebration of religious service, in which, par- 

 ticularly since the time of David, a great number of 

 singers, male and female, and instrumental perfor- 

 mers, were employed, but also at profane festivals, 

 such as large entertainments. At this time, the dif- 

 ferent kinds of instruments were increased, among 

 which the kinnor (triangular harp), and the cymbal, 

 'are mentioned particularly. (See Herder, On the 

 Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, 2d vol.; Pfeiffer, On the 

 Music of the ancient Hebrews, Erlangen, 1779, in 

 German.) Pauw (in his Recherches, vol. i. p. 244) 

 has gone too far in asserting that the Egyptians are 

 not known to have had either music, or poetry. The 

 tradition that Thout or Thot (the genius of science 

 and art, according to Creuzer) invented music, proves, 

 indeed, nothing ; but, in the tomb of Osymandyas, 

 near Thebes, musical instruments have been found, 

 and it has been concluded that the Fgyptians must 

 have l>een acquainted with music 2000 years B. C. 

 That the Hebrews received the art from them would 

 not, however, be proved by that circumstance, though 

 it may be, for various reasons, probable. We pass 

 over the mythological accounts respecting the origin 

 and perfection of the art of music among the Greeks. 

 The traditions indicate that they received this art, or, 

 at least, great improvements in the execution of it, 

 from Lydia, where Amphion is said to have learned 

 music, and Arcadia, where the shepherds practised 

 on the pipe, flute, and cithern. From the provinces 

 of Asia Minor, the different modes (q. v.) of Greek 

 music the Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, yKolian, and 

 Ionian are derived. Their song, as it would appear 

 from what we can gather from the ancient authors, 

 consisted in a musical recitation, accompanied by one 

 or more instruments to support the rhythm. From 

 the sixth century B. C., music seems to have been 

 studied scientifically, and particularly the tones were 

 measured. Lasus of Hermione, in the Peloponnesus, 

 who lived about 546 B. C., and was the teacher of 

 Pindar, is said to have written something on the theory 

 of music. Pythagoras (q. v.), who is said to have 

 learned music from the Egyptian priests (which, how- 

 ever, is considered improbable), occupied himself 

 with the mathematical relations of tones. The in- 

 strument which he invented for the mathematical 

 determination of sounds was called the Pythagorean 

 canon. He is also said to have added the eighth 



chord to the harp, to which several others were after- 

 wiinls added. Damon is mentioned as one of the 

 most distinguished teachers of music in the times of 

 Pericles and Socrates. Plato asserted that his music 

 could not be changed without changing the constitu- 

 tion of the state itself. Plato and Aristotle considered 

 music useful as a means of education. In their time, 

 the scale was considerably increased ; but, at the same 

 time, complaints arose against the degeneracy of 

 music and of the national manners through its in- 

 fluence. A similar complaint was made against 

 Phrygius, who lived in the time of Socrates. Proba- 

 bly the cause of it was the application of music to 

 the expression of the more tender feelings, as love, 

 &c., while it had been previously used chiefly to 

 awaken patriotic or religious feeling, as with the 

 Lacedaemonians. The division into theoretical and 

 practical music was probably known even then. 

 Theoretical music comprised as well the arithmetical 

 calculations respecting the proportions of sound and 

 tones, as the doctrine of harmony, which teaches the 

 general rules of all the various concords. Composi- 

 tion and song depended upon this branch. The lat- 

 ter, and thus music in general, was divided, according 

 to the proportions of the tones required in the differ- 

 ent sorts of music, into the diatonic, enharmonic, and, 

 at a later period, the chromatic. In regard to the 

 tones, which were the basis of the compositions, cer- 

 tain modes were adopted, denominated, as has been 

 already stated, from the countries whence they chiefly 

 came. Music was divided, also, in respect of com- 

 position, into, 1. melpoeia (the art of composing the 

 song, that is, the art of giving to poetry the proper 

 song, or mode of recitation, because the recitation, 

 or declamation, was also indicated by notes); 2. into 

 rhythmopoeia (the art of giving a proper rhythm to 

 the motion of the body or the voice) ; and, 3. into 

 poetics (the technical part of poetry, connected inti- 

 mately with music in those times) : to this belonged 

 metrics. As to execution, music was divided into 

 organic (instrumental music), asodic (vocal music) 

 and hypocritic (pantomimic action in connexion with 

 music). At the time of Alexander the Great, Aris- 

 toxenes, a pupil of Xenophilus and Aristotle, dis- 

 tinguished himself. He wrote a great number of 

 treatises on music, of which three are still extant, and 

 extended the scale to eighteen chords, which were 

 divided according to tetrachords and pentachords. 

 His pupils (called the Aristoxenians) rejected the 

 strict proportions of Pythagoras, and made use of the 

 intervals of whole and half tones, guided merely by 

 feeling. Aristoxenus also introduced the chromatic 

 music, the invention of which belongs to this time, 

 instead of the enharmonic. Euclid (277 B. C.) is 

 the first writer who treated the mathematical doctrine 

 of sounds. With the decline of liberty, music also 

 sunk, like the other arts. But the inference drawn 

 from the perfection of the other fine arts among the 

 Greeks, that music had attained a corresponding 

 advancement, is very problematical, and is not 

 confirmed by the information which has been 

 handed down to us. It rather appears that Greek 

 music was not possessed of harmony in its whole 

 fullness, and of that splendour and variety which 

 the art attained after the perfection of instrumen- 

 tal music. The many stories of the miraculous 

 effects of music prove nothing. Very simple and 

 poor music may be considered as excellent by a 

 nation which knows of none better: witness the 

 glowing description of beautiful music in the tales of 

 the East, notwithstanding the low state of the art in 

 that quarter of the globe. The Greek song seems to 

 have been a rhythmical recitation, with a simple 

 accompaniment, in which the tones had less a musi- 

 cal than rhetorical duration. The many investiga- 



