R A V 



WcHplialia. Tlie approachiiij; congrefs (1814) may pcjffi- 

 bly fix its future (Icllination. 



RAVENSBURG, a town of Bavaria, which anciently 

 belonged to the Gudphs, counts of Altorf ; but it wa"; an 

 imperial town before the time of king Rodolphus, and con- 

 tinued fiicli till the year 1H02, when it was given, among 

 other indemnities, to the cledlor of Bavaria. The Roman 

 Catholics and Lutherans are united with regard to the tem- 

 poral and fpiritual concerns of the place, and the magiitracy 

 is fharcd betwixt them. They have one church in common ; 

 but the Lutherans are exclufively poUeiled of another, and 

 the Roman Catholics have alfo two parilh-churches ; 2 1 miles 

 N.E. of Conftance. N. lat. 47= 41'. E. long. 9"^ 38'. 



Ravensburg, a town of the Rhenilh palatinate, on the 

 Elfafs ; 16 miles W. of Heilbronn. 



RAVENSBURN, afmall llreamof England, which runs 

 into the Thames between Greenwich and Deptford. 



RAVENSCROFT, Thomas, in Biography, an aftive 

 Englifh mufician and pubhfher, who flourifhed from the be- 

 ginning of the 17th century to 1635. He was the editor 

 and compofer of the befl collcftion of pfalm tunes in four 

 parts, which had till then appeared in England. He was 

 a bachelor of mufic, and a profeffor not only well acquainted 

 with the pradtice of the art, but feems to have bedewed 

 much time in the perufal of the beft authors, and in medi- 

 tation on the theory. 



This book, publifhed in fmall oftavo, 162 1 and 1633, 

 contains a melody for every one uf the hundred and fifty 

 pfalms, many of them by the editor himfelf, of which a 

 confiderable number is Hill in ufe ; as Windfor, St. David's, 

 Southwell, and Canterbury. There are others, likewife, 

 which are fung by the German, Nttherlandifli, and French 

 Proteftants. To thefe the bale, tenor, and counter-tenor 

 parts have been compofed by twenty-one Englifh muficians : 

 among whom we find the names of Tallis, Dowland, Mor- 

 ley, Bennet, Stubbs, Farnaby, and John Milton, the fa- 

 ther of our great poet. The tunes which are peculiar to 

 tfe meafure of the loodth pfalm, the 113th, and 119th, 

 were originally Lutheran, or perhaps of flill higher anti- 

 quity. And though Ravenfcroft has affixed the name of 

 Dr. John Dowland to the parts which have been let to the 

 loodth pfalm, yet, in the index, he has ranked the melody 

 itfelf with the French tunes ; perhaps from having leen it 

 among the melodies that were fet to the French verfion of 

 Clement Marot and Theodore Beza's Pfalms, by Goudimel 

 and Claude le Jcune. P.avenfcroft, in imitation of theie 

 harmonifls, always gives the principal melody, or, as he 

 calls it, the p/ayn-fong, to the tenor. This part, indeed, he 

 fometimes erroneoufly terms Faburden. This is a corrup- 

 tion of faux-bniirdon, and falfo bordone, which originally 

 iinplied fuch fimple harmony as arifes from a feries of thirds 

 and fixths to the bafe. His publication is, in iome mea- 

 fure, hiftorical : for he tells us net only who compofed the 

 parts to old melodies, but who increafed the common Hock, 

 by the addition of new tunes ; as well as which of them 

 were orignally Englifh, Welch, Scots, German, Dutch, 

 Italian, French, and imitations of thefe. 



No tunes of triple time occur in Claude le Jeune, and 

 but five in Ravenfcroft : the principal of which are Cam- 

 bridge, Martyrs, Mancheller, and the 8 1 ft. This laft is 

 ftill much ufed, and often played by chimes : it is called an 

 imitation of a foreign tune, and has the name of Richard 

 Allifon prefixed to it. MuUer's German edition of the pfalm 

 tunes at Frankfort is exaftly that of Claude le Jeune, in two 

 parts only ; except that he has tranfpofed fome of the me- 

 lodies, and inferted cafy leading and connective notes, to 

 allift, not only the finger, but fometimes the tunes them-. 



K A V 



felvei ; which, without them, would now be very bald and 

 uncouth. Many of thefe old melodies arc ftill fung to Ger- 

 man hymns as well as pfalms. 



In 1614 Ravenfcroft pnWifhed " A briefe Difcourfe of 

 the true, hut neglefted, Ufe of charafterizing the Degrees 

 by their I'erfeftion, Imperfcftion, and Diminution in mea- 

 furable Muficke, againft the common PraiStice and Cuftomc 

 of the Times," 4to. 



Ravenfcroft had been educated in St. Paul's choir, under 

 Mr. Edward Pierce, and was particularly converfant with 

 old authors ; he, therefore, wifhed to revive the ufe of thofe 

 proportions in time, which, on account of their intricacy, 

 had been long difcontinued. 



Ravenfcroft praclifed thefe exploded doflrines inef- 

 feftually, though to his Difcourfc he added examples to il- 

 luftrate his precepts, exprefied in the harmony of four 

 voices, concerning the pleafurc of the five ufual recreations 

 of hunting, hawking, dancing, drinking, and enamouring. 

 He was not always very fuccefsful in his attempts at imi- 

 tative harmo'.iy ; and melody was then fo crude and uncouth 

 throughout Europe, as to afford little afliftance in imitative 

 ftrains. 



Ravenfcroft was alfo the author of a coUeAion of fongs, 

 entitled " Melcimata, Mufical Phancies, fitting the Court, 

 City, and Country Humours, in three, four, and five 

 Voyces," publiihed in the year 161 1. 



Ravenscroft, John, one of the waits of the Tower 

 Hamlets, and in the band of the Goodman's-fields play- 

 houfe, was a ripieno violin ; yet, notwithftanding fo humble 

 a ftation, he was a performer of fufficicnt abihties to lead 

 in any Inch band as that juft mentioned ; and could perform 

 with great lirmnefs a concerto of Corelli, or an overture of 

 Handel. He .was in great requeft at balls and dancing 

 parties ; but excelled moft others, not only in playing horn- 

 pipes with the true failor's Jiang, but in compofing them : 

 and there are two ct his compofitions, that a tar, if he had 

 any leg to ftand on, would irrefiftibly be impelled to darfce, 

 the moment he heard them. 



RAVENSPUR, or Ravenser, in Geography, was for- 

 merly a noted fea-port at the mouth of the Humber. It 

 is celebrated by our hiftorians for the defcents of Henry IV. 

 A.D. 1399, and of Edward IV. A.D. 147 '> '^^'"•f" thefe 

 princes came to contend for the crown of England. It 

 was fhortly after, however, fwallowed up by the ocean, 

 together with many villages in its vicinity. The precife fpot 

 on which it ftood is now unknown ; but it is ufually fup- 

 pofed to have been placed very near to Spurn Head, the 

 Oeellum Promontorium of Ptolemv. For fome additional 

 account of the coaft here, fee Patrington. 



RAVENSTAIN, a town of Saxony, in the circle of 

 Erzgeburg ; 8 miles N.N.W. of Wolkenftein. — Alfo, a 

 town of Hinder Pomerania ; 7 miles E.S.E. of Zachan. 



RAVESTEIN, a town of Brabant, on the S. fide of 

 the Meufe, the capita! of a figniory, including 14 towns and 

 villages ; 15 miles N.E. of Bois le Due. 



RAVI, a name, in Sanfcrit, of Surya, the Hindoo re- 

 gent of the fun. It means the Rifer, and has perhaps otlier 

 meanings. See SuRYA. 



RAVIERES, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Yonne ; 27 miles E. of Auxerre. 



RAUJESHI, a circar of Bengal, bounded N. by Ra- 

 jemal, E. by Bettooriah, S. by Mahmudihi, Shahjole, and 

 Kifhenagur, and W. by Birboom and Hindooa ; about 

 55 miles long, and 18 broad. The capital is MsorOiedabad ; 

 wliich fee. 



RAVILLE, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Mofelle ; 5 miles S. of Bouley. 



3 O 2 RAVILLY, 



