SONG. 



vocal terminations, can only have been occafioned by fome Ensrlifh verfification. This may have. contributed to im- 

 particular and radical tendency in the vulgar and plebeian prove our lyric poetry ; but to confefs the truth from the 

 lan^uaffe of each country from very high antiquity. few parts of the firll clafs throughout Europe, who, at the 



While thi' languaffe was forming, no mufic feems to have beginning of the fixteenth century, condefcended to write 

 been cultivated in Italv,exceptthecai)tofermo of the church; madrigah and fongs for mufic, it feems that the rage for 

 and unluckily no written melody can be found to the Can- canon, fugue, multiplied parts, and diffimilar melodies, 

 zon'i of Dante,' the fonnets of Petrarca, or the fongs of Boc- moving at the fame time, had fo much employed the com- 

 caccio, the three great founders of the Itahan tongue. Yet pofers, and weaned the attention of the hearer$ of thefe 

 thefe 'we are told, were all fet to fome kind of mufic or learned, or, as fome call them, Gothic contrivances, from 

 other, and fung even in the ftreets. See the biographical poetry, that the words of a fong feem to have been only a 

 articles of thefe lyric poets, particularly that of Boccaccio ; pretence for finging ; and as the poets of the two or three 

 whofe " Decamerone" has always been regarded as a natural laft centuries were in little want of mufic, muficians, in their 

 and faithful delineation of the manners and cultoms of Italy, turn, manifefledas little rcfped for poetry; for in thefe 



elaborate compofitions, the words are rendered utterly unin- 

 teUigible by repetitions of particular members of a verfe ; by 

 each part finging different words at tlie fame time ; and by- 

 an utter inattention to accent. 



In the " Effays on Song-writing," published with a col- 

 leftionof Englifh fong? (we need not name the author, whom 



at the time when it was written. 



With refpeft to mufic, whether the perfonages wliich lie 

 affen-.bles together after the plague at Florence 1348, and 

 the ftories they tell, are real or imaginary, the amufements 

 he afiigns them in his ritual mull have been fuch as were 

 ufual to the Florentines, among whom he lived at that time ; 

 and indeed the poems that are pretended to have been fung, he lias not named himfelf, nor given the date of the publi- 



and the inftruments with whicli they were accompanied, 

 fubfiftcd before this period, and ftill fubfift. 



Boccaccio tells us, at the end of his prima giornala, or 

 firft day, that " after fupper the inftruments were called in, 

 when the queen, for the day, ordained that there fliuuld be 

 a dance ; and after one had been led offby Lauretta, Emilia 

 fung a fong, in which fhe was accompanied by Dion, a gen- 

 tleman of the party, on the lute." There is nothing new or 

 extraordinary in this quotation. But in Italy, whence all the 

 liberal arts have travelled to the rell of Europe, it is curious 

 to know in what rank mufic was held at this early period, 

 and what ufe was made of it in polite affemblies, by tl:e in- 

 habitants- And here a writer, juftly celebrated for the cx- 

 aftnefs with which he has defcribed the culloms of his con- 

 temporaries in all fituations, tells us, that in an adembly of 

 perfons of birth and education, who paiTed ten days together 



during fummer in a conllant fucceffion of innocent amufc- cannot be too fimple. 



cation) there are many judicious and excellent reflexions; 

 and the fongs are admirably feledled, and form the bell col- 

 leftion in our language, under the three following heads : 

 " On Song-writing in general ;" " On Ballads and palloral 

 Songs ;" " On paffionate and defcriptive Songs." 



We can perceive, however, that the author of thefe in- 

 genious eflays loves poetry better than mufic ; a perfonagc 

 whom he does not treat with common civility, when he fays, 

 " the heroine Poetry mult give place to the harlot Mufic," 

 notwithftanding her claim to the title of a laJy of fafh'ton. 

 But we think the two ladies fhould rule and tie. There are 

 fongs wliere the poetry fiiould be refpefted, and the mufic 

 fubordinate ; and others, where mufic is entitled to pre- 

 eminence. 



We wifh not fine poetry to have fine mufic, nor fine 

 mufic to be manacled by laboured poetry. Lyric poetry 



ments, each evening was clofed by dance and fong ; in which 

 the whole company, confifling of feven ladies and three 

 gentlemen, of different charafters and acquirements, were able 

 ' to perform their parts. 



When we are told, that the lady who fang was ac- 

 companied by the lute, we know not of what this accom- 

 paniment confiltcd, whether it only fortified the voice- 

 part bv playing the fame melody, or more elaborately 

 furnifhed a bafe and a different treble, arifing out of its 

 harmony. 



On the fccond day we find, tliat one of the company lead- 

 ing cflP 3 carol, a f mg was fung by another, which was an- 

 fwered in a kind of chorus by the reft. 



At the clofe of tlie fecoad day B-^ccaccio tells us, that 

 after the fting, of which he gives the words, had been per- 

 formed, many others were fung, and many dances danced to 

 different tunes, by which we may gatlier, that befides carols 

 and ballads, the finging of which marked the ftep^ of a dance, 

 there were at this time fongs without dances, and tunes with- 

 out fongs. 



Whoever reads the hiflory of the moft ancient inhabitants 

 of this ifland, the Cambrc-Britons, will find innumerable 

 inftances of the reverence which they paid to ther poct- 

 muficians, the bards both of Pagan and Chriftian times ; and 

 fongs of very high antiquity have been preforved in the 

 Welfh language, though not all the tunes to which they 

 were fung. 



We are told (Mifcel. Anliq. vol. ii. p. 8.) that fir Thomas 

 ^'^yatt was the firft who introduced Italian numbers into 



9 • 



The author allows the primitive meaning of a fong to 

 fignify fomething to he fung : and when he fays, " a fong, 

 as a poetical compofition, may be defined a ftiort piece, 

 divided into returning portions of meafures, and formed 

 uoon a fingle incident, thought, or fentiment," we readily 

 fubfcr^be to the definition. Indeed it was our opinion, (fee 

 Italian Tour,) long before we had the pleafure to perufe 

 thefe well written eflays ; and it is an opinion to wliich 

 Metaftafio ha? conftantly adhered, in all his admirable 

 mufical dramas. 



With regard to paftoral fongs, though the Sicilian paf- 

 toral is not natural to our chmate, yet we produce better 

 fruit for the table in our hot-houfes, than the fouthern con- 

 tinent of Europe can boatt. An opera fong is a hot-houfe 

 plant. Paftoral fongs may have paftor.il mufic, as the 

 Siciliana movement has been happily treated more frequently, 

 by Handel, and many of our beft national compofers, fuch 

 as Arne and Boyce, than any other. And as for fimple 

 ballad tunes for hiftorical and narrative fongs, and common 

 ditties, there can be no fcarcity ; as a colleftor of our ac- 

 quaintance, many years ago, had amaffed a fufficient number 

 of foiig^ fet to mufic, and printed on a fingle folio half-fheet, 

 from the latter end of the 1 7th century, to fill twelve 

 volumes. 



For defcriptive and paffionate fongs, we have pifturefqiie 

 and paffionate mufic ; and we hope this intelligent and ele- 

 gant writer will allow the lady Mttjic to be tricked out a 

 little in paffionate and defcriptive fongs. Haydn, in his 

 " Seafons," has defcribed very happily, we think, rural 



fports 



