MUSIC (SACRED). 



115 



tions of the moderns respecting the music of the 

 ancients give us, on the whole, but little light on the 

 subject, and the existing writings of the ancients 

 themselves are, in a great degree, unintelligible, on 

 account of the many contradictions and obscurities in 



them See the collection of the ancient musical 



writers by Meibom Antiques Musicce Scriptores (7 

 vols., Amsterdam, 1656, 4to). and Claud, Ptole- 

 maeus.) Of late, Munch and Von Drieberg have 

 written on the music of the ancients. Chladni 

 (q. v.), however, has opposed their conclusions in 

 many particulars, in the Musical Gazette of Leipsic. 

 Caspar Bartholin has written on the wind-instru- 

 ments of the ancients (De Tibiis P'eferum). The 

 Romans seem to have received the music which they 

 used at sacrifices, together with the religious service, 

 from the Etruscans, but the instrumental music, used 

 on the stage and in war, from the Greeks. Stringed 

 instruments are said to have been introduced into 

 Rome as late as 186 B. C. In general, the Romans, 

 so warlike in their disposition, most cultivated mar- 

 tial music. At an early period of their history, it 

 was a great hinderance to the progress of the art 

 that it was practised only by slaves. With the 

 Romans, canere and carmen signified the musical 

 recitation, which was accompanied by instruments, 

 and which seems to have stood in the same relation 

 to rhetorical recitation as the poetic rhythmus to the 

 numerus of prose ; to which we must add, however, 

 that orators had the intonation given by instruments 

 at the beginning of their speech and during the 

 same. The Romans made use of their capital letters 

 as notes. On the stage, the song was accompanied 

 with flutes. The instruments first preluded, then the 

 actor began ; and, probably, the instrumental accom- 

 paniment continued in simple concords, or made 

 short pauses, and supported or heightened the 

 emphatic expression by recommencing. The choruses 

 seem to have been accompanied differently from the 

 monologue and dialogue. This accompaniment con- 

 sisted of flutes and other wind-instruments, comprised 

 with the Romans under the name of tibia; sometimes, 

 also, of the lyre and cithern. The flutes were dif- 

 ferent, according to the comic or tragic poem which 

 they had to accompany : hence there were tibiae 

 dextra and sinistrce, the former particularly intended 

 for the serious, the latter for the comic, passages, 

 and for comedies. Horace, in his Epistola ad 

 Pisones, says that, formerly, only simple wind-instru- 

 ments, with a few holes, had been used ; no flutes 

 which vied with the trumpets (tubte). Rhythm 

 and melody, he says, had become less strict. At 

 later periods, still louder complaints were raised 

 against the noise of the instruments, which obliged 

 the actor to raise his voice extremely. In all this, 

 the Greeks had preceded the Romans. Under the 

 four emperors, particularly Nero, music was culti- 

 vated as an object of luxury. After his death, 500 

 singers and musicians are said to have been dis- 

 missed. (For the way in which sacred music grew 

 up among the first Christians, see the articles Music, 

 Sacred; also Italian Music, in the article Italy, vol. 

 iv., p. 188.) The solemn church song or hymn, 

 which was first sung in one voice only, or in octaves, 

 is the basis of modern music. It was sung without 

 rhythm or time (in canto fermo). A later invention 

 is the figured music, which, according to some, 

 existed even in the seventh century, in the Roman 

 church ; according to others, was invented by the 

 English monk Dunstan (who died 988). The pro- 

 gress of music was promoted, in the middle ages, by 

 its being consecrated to the service of religion, and 

 belonging to the yuadrivium, the four branches of a 

 learned education, arithmetic, geometry, astron- 

 omy, and music. Several investigations into the 



nature of music were made, which are found in Mart. 

 Gerbert's Scriptores ecclesiastici de Musica Sacra. 

 See, also, Forkel's General Literature of Music (in 

 German, Leipsic, 1792). Guido of Arezzo (whose 

 works on music are also to be found in the collection 

 just mentioned) contributed greatly to the improve- 

 ment of music. The correction and extension of the 

 system of tones, the division of tones into hexachords, 

 the improvement in the manner of writing the notes, 

 by the introduction of the system of lines, the inven- 

 tion of the solmization (q. v.), and of counterpoint, 

 are generally ascribed to him. Johannes de Muris 

 is said to have improved the mode of writing notes 

 in the fourteenth century, and also the figured music. 

 Franco of Cologne, in the eleventh century, is men- 

 tioned as the inventor of the musical time-table, and 

 as the first approved writer on measured music, 

 which the invention of counterpoint and the fugue 

 depended. In the fifteenth century, music was 

 treated scientifically in the Netherlands, France, and 

 Spain. The organ (q. v.) contributed much to the 

 development of harmony. The Flemish school, to 

 which belongs, among others, Orlando Lasso (q. v.), 

 preceded Palastrina, generally called the founder of 

 modern church music. From the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries, there grew up at the courts of 

 monarchs the free chamber style, and, from this, the 

 theatrical style. The invention of the opera, in the 

 sixteenth century, has chiefly contributed to the 

 splendour and variety of modern vocal music, and 

 the astonishing improvement of the most various 

 instruments greatly advanced instrumental music, 

 and, at the same time, harmony, in the latter half of 

 the eighteenth century. (See the history of music in 

 the articles of the various countries.) The merit of 

 the advancement of vocal music is claimed particu- 

 larly by the Italians ; the improvement of instru- 

 mental music by the Germans and French. As to 

 the modern mathematical systems of music, Iluygens, 

 Saveur (about 1701), Rameau (about 1722) and Euler 

 (Mathematical Inquiries respecting Music), deserve 

 to be mentioned as inventors. The history of music 

 has been treated fully by Giamb. Martini (Storin 

 delta Musica, Bologna, 1757 et seq.), by Marpurg 

 (Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Grund- 

 satze der alien und neuern Musifc, Berlin, 1759), by 

 Burney (q. v.),from whose great work that of Busby 

 (London, 1820, 2 vols.) was compiled, by Hawkins, 

 and by J. N. Forkel (Allgemeine Geschichte der 

 Musik, 2 vols., 4to, not finished). Von Hammer 

 gives contributions to the history of Oriental music, 

 from the Persian, in his Fundgruben des Orients (4th 

 vol.); see, also, Pauw's Recherches ; and, for the 

 music of Egypt and Abyssinia, a letter by Bruce, in 

 Burney's General History of Music. 



MUSIC, SACRED. Almost all nations who have 

 an established religious service have made music an 

 important part of it ; and, in a general sense, we 

 might give the name of sacred music to all music 

 employed in religious festivals, even before the 

 Christian era, as that of the Egyptians, Hebrews, 

 Greeks, and Romans, as well as to the religious 

 songs of the bards and scalds. The early Christians, 

 who were led by various passages in their sacred 

 writings to employ religious songs, introduced at 

 their religious meetings, particularly in the Eastern 

 churches, the singing of the psalms and hymns, which 

 are to be found in the books of the Old Testament, 

 and to which the Jewish converts had been already 

 accustomed in their assemblies. They sang, also, 

 at the Lord's supper and at the agapes. At the 

 synod of LaodScea (364), regular songs were intro- 

 duced, which were sung from notes by persons 

 appointed for this purpose. The Western churches 

 received, through Ambrosias (q. v.), bishop of 

 H 2 



