532 CALLOTECHNICS. 



in Egypt, in very remote times. The invention of the lyre, which 

 at first had only three strings, is ascribed to the Egyptian Thoth or 

 Mercury ; and the harp, of a superior construction, is found pictured 

 in the ancient Sepulchres of the Kings, near Thebes.* 



The Greeks ascribed the invention of the pipe to Pan ; and that 

 of the flute to Marsyas ; but the honor of inventing the lyre, they 

 reserved for Mercury, or Apollo. The number of its strings was 

 increased, they state, by Orpheus, Linus, Thamyris, Amphion or 

 Terpander ; and the eighth was added by Pythagoras, to complete 

 the octave ; which he is said to have discovered. The Grecian scale 

 of musical sounds, was made up of tetrachords, or series of four notes 

 each ; the highest being a minor fourth to the lowest : and as the 

 upper tetrachord began with the highest note of the lower, making 

 only seven notes in the two, the eighth note was placed below these 

 seven, and hence called proslambanomenos, or the added note. The 

 five modes, called the Dorian, Ionian, Phrygian, ^Eolian, and Lydian, 

 appear to have designated the pitch, or key note, with which the 

 piece commenced ; the last named mode being the highest and softest. 

 The modern diatonic scale, is said to have been invented by Ptolemy, 

 the astronomer and geographer; about 130 years after the Christian 

 Era. It is doubtful whether the Greeks understood counterpoint or 

 harmony ; as their singing appears to have been only a recitative, 

 accompanied by instruments to support the rhythm. 



The use of Sacred Music, in the Christian Church, was coeval 

 with its foundation. As early as the first century, the Jewish prac- 

 tice of antiphonal singing was adopted by Ignatius, at Antioch ; 

 different singers responding to each other, or to the patriarch himself. 

 This practice was introduced in the west, by Ambrose, bishop of 

 Milan, author of the Ambrosian chant. Pope Gregory the Great, 

 about A. D. 600, reformed the style of church music, and established 

 the graver style, with notes of equal length, still preserved in the Gre- 

 gorian chant. The introduction of the organ in churches, (p. 477), 

 led to the invention of counterpoint, or the writing and performing 

 of different parts together, so as to combine harmony with melody. 

 This invention has been ascribed to Guido Aretinus, (of Arezzo), 

 about A. D. 1020; but probably belongs to an earlier age. Guido 

 introduced the musical staff, in which the notes are written both on 

 lines and spaces ; and he was the inventor of solmization, or the use 

 of certain syllables, to designate the notes of the hexachord, then in 

 vogue. These he selected from a hymn to St. John ; using the 

 initial syllables in each hemistich of the following stanza. 



" UT queant laxis REsonare fibris 

 Mira gestorum FAmuli tuorum 

 SOLVC polluti LAbii reatum, 



Sancte Johannes." 



A seventh syllable, si has since been added, it is said, by Maire 

 of Paris, to complete the octave ; and the first syllable, ut has been 

 changed to do, by the Italians. The theory of counterpoint, or har- 

 mony, was much improved by Franco of Cologne, about 1050 ; and 



* A brief notice of musical instruments will be found in the chapter on Furniture, 

 (p. 479. 



