GREEK MUSIC. 



itsv avM, Ti;-: ?!!•£»■;• tx Se kkto) t»); x^atrw;. Introd.'Muf. edit. 

 Ikleibom. p. 2.) We arc told, not only by Alypius, but by 

 Gaudeiitius, p. 23, th;it of the two rows of letters ufed for 

 niufical charadlcrs, the upper h for the words, that is, to be 

 Jung, and the under lo lie flayed. And he afterwards proves 

 them to have been unifons to each other, both by his defini- 

 tions and by placing them oppolite to the fame found in all 

 the fcales. 



In this author, the notes of the great fyftem of the Ly- 

 dian mode in the diatonic genus are arranged in the follow- 

 ing order : 



7. T R * C P M I r !5 Z E n ■& J. M' I 

 h rLFCu '1 <VNZl:. ^ZvJ-.n' <' 



And thefe he defnies in fuch a manner as leaves no room to 

 doubt of the identity of their fignification. 



It is fomewhat ihauge that the notes for the voice in an- 

 cient mufic fliould bo placed aiove thofc for the lyre, and 

 confequently further from the words. Meibomius, in his 

 preface, has, however, given a curious reafon for this cuftom, 

 from a fragment of Bacchius, lenior ; " The upper hne of 

 notes is for the poem, the lower for the lyre ; becaufe the 

 mouth, which alone gives utterance to the words, is placed 

 by nature above the hands, which produce tones from the 

 inllrument. 



ZE-i Projlamhanomenos, an imperfeft Zeta, and Tau placed 

 horizontally. 



1 r Hypate hypaton, an averted Gamma, and a Gamma 

 direft. 



R L Parypate hypaton, an imperfeft Beta, and a Gamma 

 inverted. 



F Hypaton diatonos, a Pki, and a Digamma. 

 C C Hypate mej'on, S/gma and Sigma. 



F O Parypate mcfon, Rho, and Sigma inverted 

 M H Mcfon diatonos, Mu, and a lengthened Pi. 



1 <! Mej'e, Iota, and a horizontal Lambda. 



©V Trite fynemmenon, Theta, and an inverted Lambda. 



V N Synemmenon diatonos. Gamma and Nil. 



tjZ Nete fynemmenon, an inverted Omega and a Zeta. 



Z Ch Paramefe, Zda, and Pi placed horizontally. 



Y. ixTrite diezeugmenon, Epfilon, and an inverted Pi. 



UZ Diexeugmsnon diatonos, as Nete iynemmcnon, which 

 was the fame itring in the lyre. 



■& r, Nete diezengmeron, horizontal Pki, and a fmall Eta 

 lengthened. 



0, / Trite hyperboUoti, an mvertedUp/i/oit, and an imperfcft 

 jf/pha. 



M'n' Hyperbo/aoii diatonos, JlTu, and a lengthened Pi, ac- 

 cented. 



I < ' Nete hyperboLon, Iota, and an accented Lambda, 

 placed horizontally. 



It is from the indefatigable labour of the learned Meibo- 

 mius, in his Commentaries upon the ancient Greek mufi- 

 cians, particularly Alypius, that we are able to decypher 

 thefe characters; which,, before his time, had been fo altered, 

 corrupted, disfigured, and confounded, by the ignorance or 

 negligence of the tranfcvibers of ancient manulcripts, that 

 they were rendered wholly unintelligible. 



With our utmoil ftudy, reading, and contemplation, we 

 .could reduce the Greek notation to no order, nor afcertain 

 whether it was to be read upwards or downwards. The 

 negletl of thefe diftinftions will introduce an univerfal fcep- 

 ticifm concerning every part of ancient mufic. 



Galilei, Zarlino, Bontempi, Tevo, M. Roufleau, Dr. 



Brown, and others have afferted, that the terms high and low 



had different acceptations among the ancients, from thofe in 



which they are underftood by the moderns, without guard- 



7 



ing, as they ought to have done, againft fuch confequences, 

 with refpeit to the fituation of the fcale, as it was natural 

 for the reader to draw from that affertion. 



At length, an infallible rule prefented itfelf to us in the 

 works of the great Euclid, who has been regarded for fo 

 many ages as the legillator of mathematicians, and whofe 

 writings have been their code. In his feftion of the Canon, 

 p. 37, edit Meibom. he re'preknts projlamhanomenos by the 

 ivhole firing : fo that, if any thing concerning ancient mufic 

 can be made certain, it is, that this whole ftring reprefented 

 the loivejl found in the Greek fcale, which, in the Hyper- 



borian mode, was equivalent to the note A *-*-' J_ 



Half the ftring, Mefe, its oftave, a, 



Third part, Nete die'z.eugmenon, fifth of the 

 octave, e, - - - - 



And the fourth part of the firing, Nete hy- 

 pcrboUon, the double ofluve, aa. 



which include all the concords that the ancients admitted. 

 Eight ninths of the ftring are allotted to the found Hypate 

 bareia gravis, which is B in the bufc, one tone higher than 

 pr'flambanomenos, or A. 



This reprefentation of the whole ftring a:id its divifions 

 into harmonic and aliquot parts, nniil put an end to evety 

 doubt concerning the order of the fcale, which may have 

 arifen from the inverted application of the words high and 

 lott; conftantly occurring in all the more ancient and authen- 

 tic Greek writers on mufic. 



Seit. II — Of the three genera. Diatonic, Chromatic, and En-- 

 harmonic. ' See Geneua, Diatonic; Chromatic; and E^--- 

 HAiiMONic refpeftively. 



Sul. III.— 0/ Modes. See Modks. 



Sea. lY.—Of Mutations. See Mutation.s. 



SeS. V Of Meloptein. See Mklopckia. 



Sed.W. Of Rhythm. See RiiVTilM. 



Sea. VI \.— Of the Praaice of Melopaia. See MelOPCEIA. 



Sea. VIII. — H'hether the Aiuients had counterpoint or piufic in 

 parts. 



This is a fubjeft which has given birth to many learned 

 difquifitions and dil'putcs ; and as it long remained a mere 

 matter of opinion, thofe who believed, and thofe who de- 

 nied the point in quellion, confequently treated each other 

 with all due polemic acrimony. The champions for anti- 

 quity thought themfelves involved in the controverfy ; and 

 v^hether they were poficned of mufical knowledge, or were 

 fenfible to the charms of harmony, or not, they determined 

 to regard every man as an enemy to found literature, w ho did 

 not fubfcribe to the articles of their faith. 



A poem, called " Le Siecle de Louis le Grand," written 

 by Charles Pcrrault, of the Academy of Sciences, and 

 brother to Claude Perrault, the famous phyfician and archi- 

 tcft, occafioned the long and acrimonious diipute between 

 him and Boileau, and foon brought on a general war among 

 the learned throughout Europe, concerning the fuperioritv 

 of the ancients or moderns, with relpeci to arts, Iciences, 

 and literature. This piece was firft read by the author at 

 the Academy of Sciences in 1687, and was foon followed 

 by his " Parallcle des Anciens et des Moderncs." The 

 notes to Boileau's tranfjation of Longinus were intended as 

 a reply to Perrault, and are full of bkter inveftives, not 



only 



