ODINGTON. 
bridge which was to direct their path. Monthly Review, 
vol. xxvii. p. 38: 2. See Eppa, and Mallet’s North. Antiq. 
bia i. ch.iv. a 
DINGTON, Water, in Biography, a monk of Eve- 
fha are Worcelterhhire, of whofe writing a treatife is pre- 
ferved in the library of Bene’t college, pens that is 
Ce) rane and complete, with refpect to every part of 
mufic when it was written; that1f all other mufical tra&ts, 
from the time of Boethius to Franco and John Cotton, 
were loit, our knowledge would not be much diminithed, if 
is MS. was —. 
ork was eminent in the 
ing the reign of 
is 
e 
Henry III. not 0 profound knowledge in pe 
but aftr y, and mathematics in general. ranf- 
Jator and continuator of Dug Moadticon. eek 
of ‘hi g learned 
i of the order of St. Be- 
nner 
«¢ Walter, monk of Evefham, aman of a facetious wit 
who applying himfelf to literature, left he fhould fink un nder 
the labour of the day, the watc hing at night, and continual 
obfervance of regular difcipline, ufed at fpare hours to di- 
vert himfelf with the decent and commendable diverfion of 
mufic, to render himfelf the more chearful for other duties.”? 
This apology, however, for the time he beftowed on mufic, 
was neediefs ; for it was, and is ftill, fo much the bufinefs of 
a Romifh prieft, that to be ignorant of it difqualifies him for 
his profeffion. And at all times, where an ecclefiaftic thought 
it neceffary to trace the whole circle of the feiences, mufic 
oe the fecond or third rank, could not be ne 
t what this otter adds farther concerning Odington is 
but there appears of his than a Ae en- 
tiled «¢ Of the cae er of Mutick.”” Yet we are told 
anner, Moreri, and all his beeen that 
otibus Planetarum, et de Mu 
? as well as on other learned fubjeéts. As Walter 
of Evefham lived at a period which furnifhes but few records 
am mere 
minute in defcribing its contents, and pointing out its pecu- 
The fir page, only, has been injured by time, and fome 
vacuities have been left by the fcribe, which feem intended to 
have been filled up with a ink. Thé work is divided into 
fix parts, or books. 
firft, «* De Inequalitate Numerorum et eorum habi- 
tudine,”” contains ten chapters, on the divifioa of the fcale, 
and harmonical proportions. 
e fecond part confilts of eight8en chapters. In the 
elon to this part he calls the concords Prnphentir, 
which is frequently the language of Hubald, Odo, 
Guido. The firit chapter is an “ Eulogium upon Mie 
in which he enumerates the nine Mufes and their attributes ; 
{peaks of David’s power over the evil fpirit of Saul, by means 
of his harp; quotes Clemens Alexandrinus, but not in Greek ; 
and after giving the invention of inftruments to Tubal, re- 
lates the manner in which Pythagoras difcovered harmonical 
e fhrill cries of the in- 
dying groans of an old man 
mentions not thofe “of the eviratii/ Accounts for the thirds 
a ordi or the lefs Menke double founds; and thefe he 
: the minor and major third; the diapente cum 
rs or major fi fixth ; the two tenths, or bGaves of the thirds ; 
and the diapafon and diateffaron, or el 
The third part is chiefly ff eculative, and co 
pe nfined to har- 
monics : formin ng t the feale, and dividin 
cients, he eee his ope by the aichoriy of Ni 
machus. Greek mufical authors, or at leaft their do@rines 
and technical terms, feem familiar to Odington, who quoted 
ie firft book of Euclid at the beginning of his work, and 
in this third part he gives the charafters and names of the 
notes in the Greek fcale, and tranflates them into the fame 
Fnguage as Martianus Capella and Boethius. In his chap- 
“« De Organis componendi,” he gives a diagram of num- 
ee and intervals, in naming which by the - of the al- 
ate t he begins with the a T, and on from 
S. t the fide e diagram he entions the 
f the feveral tetrachords and confonances ; 
with the numbers, tones, and femitones. All this 
a for the proportions of pipes in the inftrument called 
organ, no m, or fecond voice part in difcant, 
of which he treats in his laft book, as will apnear farther 
on. ‘This, and his ‘De Cymbalis faciendis,’’ or 
‘ chapter * De 
cafting of bells, are curious, and the fir 
the kind = we have ever feen among the MSS of the 
ge 
and figures occur in this work of fuch notes as 
were in vale i in the Weftern church before the invention of 
lines, many of which were not merely characters to Palen 
the elevation and depreffion of founds, but, acco pas to 
Odington, thefe a ag extended their import to in. 
fleétions of the voice Imoft every fpecies of eal 
while groups of ei were expreffed by a fingle term of 
art 5 = as but few fuch charaéters and technical term 
occur 1 other author, we fhall infert, - the fatisfaGtion 
of curious nacre the foltowing fpecimea 
_ > Apoftropha fer vse 
oa fa Bifpun@um ha 
Biftropha $$ Bivergie ai ak 
Tripundtum Fo —- Trittropha POSE 
Trivergia a pls 
Virga Biconpun&tis vx aK Oe Virga Tricon- 
punctis — condiateflaries, condiapentis, &c. &c. ny gives 
examples of all thefe in fimilar charaGters ; that is, in breves 
with a long, as far as fix notes, or a hexachord aleending 
and deicending, but ‘without calling them by thofen 
Puncium 
Virga 
