GREEK MUSIC. 



(Laborde.) And we hare heard his prefeiit majclly, at fix 

 o'clock prayers in St. George's chapel at Windfor, 

 officiate iilone as clerk ; repeating the refponfes, and reading 

 the pfalnis aloud verfe for verfe, with the miniller, and utter- 

 ing the amen in the clerical ftyle. 



Mufic has been veiT^ much cultivated at Peterfljurgh in the 

 Imperial chapel and metropolitan church during the lad cen- 

 tury, as well as in the theatre. And though no inllruments 

 are admitted in the Greek church, any more than in the 

 SilHne or pontifical chapel at Rome, yet every vocal refine- 

 ment, both in compofition and performance, that can with 

 propriety be allowed in ecclefiallical mufic, has been re- 

 ceived in the church fervice at Peterfburgh, in the Imperial 

 chapel and cathedral of which capital, near a hundred 

 voices are daily employed ; and at Mofcow, in feveral 

 churches, when the fovereign is there, forty or fifty. 



The mufic of the Hymnologia of the Ruffian ambaffa- 

 dor's chapel in London, is fung to figurative mufic in three 

 and four parts, dllliMtt f;om the intonations or canto fcrmo. 

 It confills of (liort, elegant, and fimple ilrains or movements, 

 in the Italian ftyle, in plain counterpoint, compofed to Slavo- 

 rian words, by Bortnianiki, who was lent to Italy, early in 

 life, by the em prefs Catherine, to ftudy compofition. 



The taiie for good mufic pafled from the theatre to the 

 church. The plain chant of the modem Greeks is different 

 from that of other Chriftian churches. It is more varied 

 than the Gregorian chant ; and that of the hymns rather re- 

 fembles the figurative mufic of motets, than canto fermo. 

 The emprefs Elizabeth, who was well acquainted with the 

 kind of counteVpoint a capella, and had great pleafure in 

 uniting her voice with the choir, would never allow the 

 Italian Jlorld Jong to have admilfion in the facred fervice ; 

 but fays the Gotha Almannje, in an abridged hillory of the 

 mufic of Ruifia, 1772, " Italian mufic has invaded even 

 the Greek church as well as the Roman.'' This voice of 

 complaint borders on croahing. We have taken confiderable 

 pains to obtain information on the fubjeft, and have heard 

 the fervice of the Greek church performed in feveral parts 

 of Europe ; and we have been favoured with a fcore of 

 fome of the mufic in prefent ufe in that fervice, compofed 

 by BortniauHvi, a native of Petei'fburgh, and find that it is 

 neither fo bald and dry as canto fermo, nor fo florid and 

 flighty as that of the Italian theatre. It is plain counter- 

 point, non fugalo, in which the words feem well accented, 

 the parts moving all together ; fo that there is meafure, clear- 

 nefs, tranquil and foothing air, pure harmony, and natural 

 and fimple modulation. Nothing vulgar occurs, nor any 

 thing to remind us of the opera houfe, yet the Ilrains are 

 not without grace or gravity. It feems to excite attention 

 by its fweetnefs and fimplicity, more than by the art of 

 fugue, or extraneous modulation. 



GiiCEK Mufic, Anaent. We Ihall here introduce fome 

 obfervations on the fubjcct, extraded from a dilfertation 

 written leveral years ago. 



Section I. — Of the Notation or Talhture of Anc'iint Muf.c, 

 including its Scales, Intei'vals, Svflcms, and Diagrams. 



The mufic of the ancients, according to Euclid, Aly- 

 pius, and Martianus Capella, was divided into feven conlti- 

 tuent parts : thefe were founds, intervals, ffems, genera, 

 modes, mutations, and melopsia, or the compofition of 

 melody. To thefe divifions, which comprehended only 

 what was denominated harmonics, or the fcience of mufic, 

 ftriftly fo called, were added five other requifites, no lels 

 elTential for a mufician to know, than the preceding feven : 

 and thefe were, rhythm, or the regulation of cadences in all 

 kinds of movement ; metre, or tlie meafure of vcries ; organic, 

 or the initrumental art ; hypocriiic, or gefture ; and poetic, or 



the compofition of vtrles. And ftiU to thcfc divii.ous 

 Arillidcs Quintihamis, and fome other nuifical writer*, add 

 oJicum, or the art of iinging ; whicli, indectJ, fccn.» of 11 oie 

 importance to mufic, llian either the organic or hypocrhic ari. 

 In order to communicate to our reader* all the ii.fonnatioi. 

 we arc able, upon fo dark and difficult a fubjcct, «c lluJl 

 confider the mufic of the ancient Grcck= under fuch heads 

 only as abfidutely concern mufic, according to our accepta- 

 tion of the word ; for it is plain tlial feveral of its ancient 

 i^ivilions more immediately belonged to potlr)-. Indn-J 

 thefe two arts were at firK fo intimately coiuiccicd, and fo 

 dependent on each other, that rules fur pottrv were, i» gtiJc- 

 ral, rules for mufic, and tiie properties and 'l-STlCU of Wli 

 were fo much confounded together, that it is extremely dif- 

 ficult to difentangle them. 



Leaving, therefore, for tiie prefent, all other diain£tioni, 

 divilions, and fnb-divifions, with v\!iich .-.ncieiit mufical trca- 

 tifcs abound, we fliall proceed to fulfil tl,e title of tlii» dftion 



In the fludy of modern imific, the firft objtcli of cnouiry 

 are the names by which the feveral founds 10 the fcalc are 

 exprefTed ; and, if we regard mufic as a language, tlw fcalc 

 or gammut may be called its alphabet. 



Plutarch fays, that it is not fiiflicieiit for a mufician to 

 know what kind of miif;^ fliould be fet to any partirillar 

 poem ; he ihould likewife know how to write it down in ail 

 the genera, that is to fay, in the dia/oni^- or natural fcale, 

 confining of tones and femitoncs as at prefent ; in the dra- 

 matic, in which the fcale was divided into femitoncs and 

 minor thirds ; and in the enharmonic genus moving by quarter 

 tones, and major thirds, as will be explained hereafter. 



It d()es not appear from hillory, that the Egyptians, 

 Phoenicians, Hebrews, or any ancient people, who culti\-atid 

 the arts, except the Greeks and Romans, had mufical ita- 

 raaers ; and thefe had no other fymboli, of found than llic 

 letters of their alphabet, which likewife fcrred them for 

 arithmetical numbers and chro ological dates. 



As the notation of the Grei ks was imagined in the in- 

 fancy of the art of mufic, when the flute had but few holei, 

 and the lyre but few firings, the fimplicity of cxprcfFing the 

 odave of any found by the fame fign, as in modem mufic, 

 was not thought of ; the moll ancient and conilant boundary 

 of mufical tones having been the diatejferon, or foiirtli, the 

 extremes of which interval were fixed, though the inter- 

 mediate founds were mutable : and in the manner of tuning 

 thefe confided the difference of intervals in the leveral genera. 



The Greek fcale, in the time of Arilloxenus, the uldril 

 writer upon mufic, whole works are come down to us, ex- 

 tended to two oftaves, and was called ftjlcma perftSum, 

 maximum immutatum ; the great, the perfect, the in.mutable 

 fydem ; becaufe its extremities formed a perfect confonancc, 

 including all the fimple, double, direct, and inverted concords, 

 with all the particular fyllems ; and it was the opinion of 

 the ancients that this dildiapalon, or double octave, wai the 

 greated interval which could be received in melody. 



This w liole fyllem was compofed of live tetrjchorJs, or dif- 

 ferent ferics of four founds, and one note added at the bottom 

 of tiie fcale to complete the double ocla\e ; w hence the llrin'' 

 which produced this found was called Tf-xr\»_.«aK!fin V, prc% 

 lambanomenos, or note fubjoined to the fcale ; for though'thij 

 was conllantly the lowed found in all the modes, it was not 

 included ifl the tetrachords. 



All thefe founds had diifercnt denominations in the fvftcm, 

 like our gammut, A re, B mi, C fa ut, &c. belidcs two 

 different characters, one vocal, and the other inllrumenja), 

 appropriated to each found in the feveral modes and genera, 

 for the purpofe of writing down melodies. 



That the foi^rth was a favourite and important inter\-al in 

 + >>^ ^ the 



