MUS 
Thalia, flourishing; Melpomene, attracting; 
Terpsichore, rejoicing tlie heart; Erato, the 
amiable; Polyhymnia, a multitude of songs; 
Urania, the heavenly; and Calliope, sweet- 
ness of voice. To Clio, they attributed the 
invention ot history ; to Melpomene, tra- 
gedy; to Thalia, comedy; to Euterpe, the 
use of the flute ; to Terpsichore, the harp ; 
and to Erato, the lyre and lute ; to Cal- 
liope, Jieroic verse ; to Uiania, astrology; 
and to Polyhymnia, rhetoric. 
MUSHROOM. See Agahic. 
MUSIC. Any succession of sounds, 
however much they may vary in regard to 
duration, or however much they may par- 
take of various modes or keys, provided 
that succession be agreeable, and excites, 
in a well tuned ear, certain agreeable sen- 
sations, is called music. Hence, it is obvi- 
ous that all persons are not competent 
Judges ; for we often lind individuals who 
have not only a natural defect in what we 
call tJie taste for music, but who cannot 
even sing three notes together without 
offending the ears of those who are happily 
blessed with that perfect formation of their 
organs which disposes to the duly receiving, 
and of correctly expressing, the most unde- 
viating pureness of melody. 
Although we certainly may meliorate 
our taste, and indeed improve the ear, by 
constantly attending to correct sounds, and 
by making a rule never to allow the small- 
est trespass on the part of our voices, &c. ; 
yet it may be generally said that the pas- 
sion, and the capability for music, must be 
innate. We could quote many instances of 
mere infants, even before they could speak, 
being perfectly competent to judge of what 
is commonly called “ Music in or out of 
tune.” All animals, however fiirious, ap- 
pear delighted with music, which affects 
them differently, according to their several 
dispositions. Birds are even fascinated by 
the upper notes of a fine voice, and at all 
times we find such as have agreeable notes 
of their own, peculiarly attentive to every 
pleasing succession of sounds. 
The most indispensable points in music 
are tune and time. The former relates to 
that perfect intonation of every sound 
which gives its proper degree of sharpness, 
or otherwise, proportioned to its situation, 
and to its relation to those sounds which 
precede, or which follow. The latter is 
the art, or rather the talent of bestowing 
the proper extent of each note’s duration, 
according to the situation in which it is 
placed, and according to its relative value, 
MUS 
as ascertained by tliat regular appreciation 
ascribed to it in the bar, according to esta- 
blished laws on whicli tlte time table is 
founded, as will be shewn in its proper 
place. It may be necessary, however, to 
state that one exception is made from this, 
otherwise immutable, rule : namely, in vo- 
cal music, where the singer indulges in the 
prolongation of a note at pleasure; but 
such is only to be tolerated when a shake, 
a cadence, &c. allow the digression, with- 
out trespassing on the execution of the 
accompaniments, or violating that chaste 
adherence to the eharacter of the piece, 
which should ever regulate the singer. 
This, however, is a point from which many 
of our first performers, both vocal and in- 
strumental, deviate in a niost unwarrant- 
able manner; often destroying the best 
effects of composition, by an indulgence in 
the most ouM and inappropriate flourishes. 
In speaking of tune we are necessarily 
to proceed by comparison; thus we call 
those shrill sounds which pierce the ear, 
acute or high ; to this class appertain the 
natural tones of infantine voices, while the 
intonations of manhood vibrate with less 
shrillness upon the ear, and appertain to 
that class we term grave or low sounds. 
This will be more clearly understood when 
we state, that singers are divided into vari- 
ous elasses, which accord with the sup- 
posed division of the voices of mankind 
into six different species, viz. the bass, 
which is the lowest of all ; the basitdno, or 
tenor-bass; the tenor and counter-tenor, 
which are the two middle species, of which 
the generality of mens’ voices partake ; the 
mezzo-soprano, which is the pitch of wo- 
men’s voices in general, and the soprano, 
i. e. the treble or uppermost, which in some 
women reaches to a great height, and in 
our cathedral service, &c. is usually allotted 
to young boys. 
■ The voices of women, and of children, 
are, with very few exceptions (and those 
exceptions always appear unnatural, and 
are displeasing to the ear) a whole octave 
above the voices of men. The voices of 
girls do not suffer by puberty, at least not 
as to the acuteness of their sounds, tliough 
they often lose their clearness^ and a portion 
of the extent upwards ; but that arises from 
an injury done to the oi gans, often by over- 
straining while young, or by a want of prac- 
tice, &c. whence the facility of inflexion 
and of modulation, are essentially impaired. 
But with males the case is very differ- 
ent; for, so soon as they arrive at puberty a 
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