B L A 



B L A 



cent'.iry, without fiiccefs ; but abandoning the prcdke of 

 harmony or co npofit'on, in order to try his force in the 

 theory, in 1751, he pro.!c!ced " I/Harmonie thcorico-pr;ic- 

 tico ; in 1754, " L'Efprit de I'Art Mufical ;" in 1765, 

 " L'Hiftoire g-eiierale, critique, et pliilologique de la Mu- 

 fique." Thefe works are no better than his fymphonie;. 

 Thev are compilations without tafte, which teach nothing 

 new to thofe who know any thing about mnfic already ; and 

 not enough to tliofe who know nothing. In 1 75 1, he had 

 the courage to publilh as a difcover)' a pretended ne-j) vio^e, 

 a key different from the major and minor, which, he faid, 

 was neither major nor minor, but /nixed ol both. He com- 

 pofed a fymphony in this new mode, and had it performed 

 at the Concert Spirituel, which gave birth to inanv difierta- 

 tions and dilcufiions, &c. Laborde, Effai fur la Mufique, 

 torn. iii. p. 577. 



" Who (hall decide, when doctors difagree '." 

 The neiL) mode, as it was called, was attacked by the in- 

 genious and fpeculative writer on mufic, M. Seric of Geneva, 

 and defended by Rouffeau in his Dictionary. Thirty years 

 after, it became the fubieift of a \ery long article in M. La- 

 borde's Eflai fur la Mulique, merely to attack Rouffeau for 

 having defended it. In this attack of the dead lion, the abbe 

 Roufiier was boltle-holder to his friend Laborde. 



All thefe gentlemen feem utterly ignorant of the church 

 mufic of the 15th and i6th ceuturj', built on the ancient 

 ecclefiallical modes, in which notiiing was more common 

 in the maffes of the old mafters, than for a movement begin- 

 ning in A minor to end on the fifth of that key, with a rtiarp 

 third, which would be called now z. femi-cadcnce. The me- 

 lody of the feveral parts is equally in the fcale of C and A 

 natural, which, without accidental flats or fliarps, produces 

 nothing but different fpecies of oflaves in the key of C na- 

 tural. But calling E the key note inilead of A, it has a 

 peculiarity in the fecond, which, inilead of being a tone 

 major above the key note, is only a major femitone. 



Now Dr. Pepufch, who rigidly adhered to the laws of 

 the ecclefiaftical modes in his " Treatiie on Harmony," fo 

 late as 1 731, in fpeaking of the key of E as formed of one 

 of the fpecies of octave in the fcale of C natural, has ex- 

 plained the properties of this key with only a major femi- 

 tone fo" its fecond, much better than Blainville, or any of 

 his defenders or opponents, and terminates his remarks on 

 this key, by faying that " it differs from all others ; for 

 they are introduced by the femitone major Ichiv them, btit 

 this is by the femitore mnj<r aba'ae it ; they by 'Ct\e-vc JeDcnth 

 major, but this by its fecond, which happen, to be minor ; 

 that is from F downwards to E. It is becaufe of this differ- 

 ence and peculiarity in its modtdation, which makes what is 

 compofed in it to be very JoL-mn, that this key is as it were 

 appropriated to church-muhc, and called by the Italians 

 tuoN'? di chi-Jii.^' p. 65. 



But the doftor does not call it a new iey, for it is as old 

 as counterpoint ; and we fiioidd fnppofe that Blainville had 

 either feen Dr. Pepufch's treatifc, or found in fome old mafs 

 a movement that ended on the fiith, inilead of the key note, 

 and wifhed to pafs for an inventor. But it is plain, that all 

 the French gentlemen, who took a part in this controverfy, 

 were difputing about the denl iPor, before they had afcer- 

 tained its exillence. In examining the maffes of Jofquin, 

 Paltftrina, and the cantiones of Taliif md Bird, we find 

 movements of the defcription of Dr. Pepufch's tuono di chi- 

 efa. And in Padre ^Iartini's " Saggio di Contrepunto," 

 torn. I. p. 42. he calls this mode il terzo Inono autentico, the 

 third authentic inode, which Blainville calls the neiv or mixed 

 mode ; and P. Martini even calls u ierzo tuono miilo del 

 quarto fiio placate, p. 44. He gives the fame natural fcale 

 for its intervals as Rouffeau and Blainville, EFGABCDe, 



p. 51. An example of this in'ixtd mo&t is given from Pa- 

 Icftrina, in which no accidental fliarps are marked, though 

 it modulates into G major, A minur, C q, and G a fecond 

 time. A fharp only is given to G upon the clofe note, as 

 fiiarp third to the final E. 



In 1756, Blainville publiHied what he called "A general, 

 critical, and philological Hiffor)- of Mufic ;" a work for 

 which the author's materials feem to have been fo fcai-ty, 

 that he was reduced to fill two thirds of his thin quarto vwt'i 

 an indigclled treatife on con-ipofition. 



Blainvii-le, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of La Manchc, or the Channel, and chief phxe 

 of a canton, in the diftrict of Coutanccs, 5 miles wclt of 

 Coutances, and 13 north of Granville. 



Bl.i.invili,e fur I'Eau, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Menrte, and chief place of a canton, in 

 the diilri£l of Luneville, 4 miles S.W. of Luneville, a-d 

 12 S.E. of Nancy. 



BLAIR, John, in Biography, a chronologcr and geo- 

 grapher, v.as born in Scotland, and educated at Edinburgh. 

 Upon his liril arrival in England, he was ulher at a private 

 fchool ; an-.', firft appeared with fingular advantage before the 

 public bv publifniag, in i 754, a work intitled " The Chro- 

 nology and Hillory of the World, from the Creation to the 

 year ol Chriil; i'53, iiluftrated in 56 tables, of which four 

 are introductory, and cont:'.in the centuries prior to the firil 

 olympiad ; and each of the remaining 52 contains in one ex- 

 panded view 50 years, or half a century ; by the Rev. John 

 Blair, L.I>.D." This comprehenfive work, on which the 

 author mull have bellowed a ver)- great degree of attention 

 and labof.r, was pnblidied by fubfcription, and dedicated to 

 lord Hardwicke ; and the author acknowledges great obli- 

 gations to the earl of Bath. Dr. Bhir appears at this time 

 to have taken orders in the Englifh church; in 1755, he 

 was elefted fellow of the Royal Society, as he was of the 

 Antiquarian Society in 1761. In 1756, he publifhed a 

 fecond edition of his Tables ; and in 1757, he was appointed 

 chaplain to the princefs dowager of Wales, and mathema- 

 tical tutor to the duke of York. In 1761, he obtained a 

 prebendal ftall at Weftminller, and feveral church prefer- 

 ments in very quick fuccefGon. From the vicarage of Hinck- 

 ley, in Leicefterfhire, which he held, by difpenfation, with 

 the reftory of Burton Coggles, in Lincohidiire, he was pro- 

 moted firll to the vicarage of St. Bride's, in London, in 

 1771, and, in 1776, to the reftor)' of St. John the Evan- 

 gelill in Wellminller, with which he held that of Horton 

 near Colebrooke, in Bnckinghamffiire. During the years 

 1763 and 1764, he accompanied the duke of York in his 

 travels on the continent. In 1768, he publilhed an improved 

 edition of his " Chronological Tables," which he dedicated 

 to the princefs-dowager ; and to this edition he annexed 14 

 maps of ancient and modern geography, and prefixed a dif- 

 fertation on the rife and progrefs of this fcience, which was 

 alio printed feparately in i2mo. His death, which happened 

 June 24th 17S2, was probably accelerated by the ffiock that 

 attended the news of his brother, captain Blair's death in 

 the memorable fea-fight of April 12, 1782; more efpe- 

 cially as he then was feverely afflicled with an epidemic in- 

 fluenza. After his death, in 1785, his " Lednres on the 

 canon of the Scriptures, comprehending a differtation on 

 the Srptuagint verfion," were publifhed ; and a new edition 

 of his " Chronological Tables," extended'to the year X790, 

 appeared in that year. Biog. Dift. 



Blair, Patrick, praftifed phyfic and furger^- at Dun- 

 dee, in Scotland, where he was probabl) born. He firil be- 

 came known in 1 7c 5, by his account of the anatomy of an 

 elephant, which he had the opportunity of diffcfting there. 

 It was pubUilied in the Pliilofophical Tranfadlions, Nos. 326 



Y2 



and 



