RHYTHM, 



rafters ftill ufed in the canto fermo of the Romifh church, 

 under the denomination of Gregorian notes, are but of two 

 kinds ; the time of thefe may, indeed, have been acce- 

 lerated or retarded, but ftill the fame proportion muft have 

 been preferved between them ; and all their variety muft 

 have arifen from different combinations of thefe two kinds 

 of notes, fuch as any two of ours could afford ; as femi- 

 breves and minims, minims and crotchets, or crotchets and 

 quavers. 



This accounts for the facility with which even the common 

 people of Greece could difcover the miftakes, if any were 

 committed, in the length and fhortnefs of the fyilables, both 

 with refpect to the poetry, and the mufic, a point of hif- 

 tory in which all writers agree ; for befides the intervals 

 peculiar to the melody, rhythm, or time, muft have con- 

 tributed to characterize the modes, though it has no 

 kind of connection with our flat and iharp keys ; and 

 this gives an idea quite different from what our modern 

 modes, taken as keys, and our mufic, in general, furnifh. 

 Tartini, upon this iubject, fays, that we make the profody 

 fubfervient to the mufic, not the mufic to the profody ; and 

 adds, " that as by the laws prefcribed to the ancient mufi - 

 cians, they were obliged to preferve rigoroufly in their 

 mufic the quantity of fyilables, it was impoffible to protract 

 a vowel, in finging, beyond the time which belonged to a 

 fyllable ; we, on the contrary, prolong the vowels through 

 many bars, though in reading they are oftentimes fhort." 



Tartini, however, in pure courtefy, allows to the an- 

 cients a difcretionary power of making fyilables longer or 

 fhorter than rigorous time would admit, in order to diversify 

 exprefiion, and to enforce thepafiion implied by the words ; 

 but if time was rigoroufly beaten, in the manner the ancients 

 have related, it is not very eafy to fubfcribe to this opinion. 



Having explained the nature, difference, and properties 

 of ancient rhythm, Dr. Burney bellows a few words on an 

 examination of the modern, and endeavours to fhew what it 

 has, in common with the ancient, and what peculiar to 

 itfelf. 



We no longer know rhythm jow under its ancient name ; 

 however, it has been continued, with a fmall change of 

 pronunciation, merely to exprefs the final cadence of verfes, 

 or the agreement and fimilarity of found in the laft fyilables 

 of two or more lines in poetry ; being at prefent what we 

 call rhyme ; whereas the proportion fubfiiting between the 

 different pa - ."ts of a melody are called time, meafure, move- 

 ment. 



And when we come to examine this proportion, we find 

 that it only confilts of two kinds, differently modified ; and 

 thefe two are known by the names of common time, confiiling 

 of equal numbers, and triple time, of unequal. 



Tartini has deduced all meafure from the proportions of 

 the octave and its fifth. "Common time, or meafure," 

 fays he, " arifes from the octave, which is as I : 2 ; triple 

 time arifes from the fifth, which is as 2 : 3. Thefe," adds 

 he, " are the utmoft limits within which we can hope to find 

 any practicable proportions for melody. Indeed many have 

 attempted to introduce other kinds of meafure, which, in- 

 ilead of good effects, have produced nothing but the 

 greatefi confufion ; and this muft always be the cafe. Mufic 

 has been compofed of five equal notes in a bar, but no 

 mufician has yet been found that is able to execute it." 



By the improvement of inftrumental mufic, and indeed 

 by the liberties which we have taken with poetry in finging, 

 we have multiplied notes, and accelerated the meafure. In- 

 ftead of one found to one fyllable, or one portion of time 

 fur a fhort fyllable, and two for a long one, we frequently 

 divide and fubdivide the time of thefe feveral portions into 



7 



all their aliquot parts, and fometimes into incammenfurable 

 quantities. 



After the invention of mufical characters for time, different 

 from thofe in poetry, the ftudy of their relations became 

 one of the moil laborious and perplexed parts of a mufician's 

 bufinefs. Thefe characters were of different value and Te- 

 locity, according to other characters placed at the beginning 

 of a mufical compofition, and likewiie frequently occurring 

 in the courfe of a piece, to announce a change of meafure ; 

 as from common time to triple, from quick to flow, or the 

 contrary. Thefe characters were called moods, but they 

 were fo extremely embarrafiing and ill underftood, till the 

 invention of bars, by which mufical notes were divided into 

 equal portions, that no two theorifts agreed in the definition 

 ot them. 



Thefe modes, by which the kind of movement, with 

 refpect to quick and flow, as well as the proportions of the 

 notes, ufed to be known, fince the ufe of technical terms, 

 chiefly taken from the Italian language and mufic, has 

 been adopted, ferve no other purpofe than to mark the num- 

 ber and kind of notes in each bar. 



But by this invention of mufical characters for time, and 

 the ufe of bars, we have certainly advanced in the per- 

 formance of inftrumental mufic, by giving to it more energy 

 and accentuation ; it has now a cadence and feet of its own, 

 more marked and fenfible than thofe of poetry, by which 

 it ufed to move. 



We have alfo, in our airs, a difiinct fpecies of mufic for 

 poetry, wholly different from recitative and chanting ; for 

 in thefe we are no more tied down to ftated meafure than the 

 ancients, but are governed by the accent and cadence of the 

 words. However, our florid-fong, it cannot be diffembled, 

 is not always fufficiently fubfervient to poetry ; for in apply- 

 ing mufic to words, it frequently happens that the fined 

 fentiments and moft pOlifhed verfes of modern languages are 

 injured and rendered unintelligible, by an inattention to pro- 

 iody. Even the fimple and plain rules of giving a fhort 

 note to a fhort fyllable, a long to a long ; and of ac- 

 centuating the mufic by the meafure and natural cadence of 

 the verle, which the mere reading would point out to a good 

 ear and underftanding, are but too frequently neglected. 



Modern melody requires, perhaps, more than a fingle 

 found to a fingle fyllable ; and a fine voice deferves, now and 

 then, a long note to difplay its fweetnefs ; but this fhould 

 be done upon long fyilables, and to open vowels, and, per- 

 haps, in general, after the words have been once fimply and 

 articulately fung, for the hearer to know what paffion 

 is intended to be expreffed, or fcntiment enforced, by future 

 divifions. 



Expletives, particles, and words of fmall importance, 

 are forced into notice by carelefs or ignorant compofers, 

 who, only intent upon mere mufic, pay no regard to her 

 filter, poetry. But then, poetry, in revenge, is as little 

 felicitous about mufical effefts ; for fymmetry of air, or 

 iimplicity of defign, are generally fo little thought of, that 

 every heterogeneous idea, which can be hitched into rhyme, 

 is indiferiminately crowded into the fame fong. Indeed 

 mufic and poetry, like man and wife, or other affociates, 

 are beft afunder, if they cannot agree ; and on many oc- 

 cafions, it were to be wifhed, that the partnerfhip were 

 amicably diffolved. 



Salinas tells us, from St. Auguftine, that poets and 

 muficians have ever been at ftrife concerning long and fhort 

 fyilables, accents, and quantity, fince they have ceafed ta 

 be united in one and the fame perfen, and have fet up dif- 

 ferent interefts. 



There is feme poetry fo replete with meaning, fo philo- 



■ fephical, 



