HISTORY OF MUSIC, 
THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Music is defined by Roufl'eau, “ the art of combining 
founds in a manner agreeable to the ear.” This combina¬ 
tion may be either iimultaneous or fucceflive: in the firft 
cafe, it conftitutes harmony; in thelad,melody. But though 
the fame founds, or intervals of found, which give plea- 
lure .when heard in lucceflion, will not always produce the 
lame efi'edt in harmony; yet the principles which confti- 
tute the firnpler and more perfect kinds of harmony, are 
aimoft, if not entirely, the fame with thofe of melody. 
By perfect harmony, we do not here mean that plenitude, 
thole complex modifications of harmonic found, which are 
admired in practice; but that harmony which is called 
perfeEl by theoricians. and artifts ; that harmony which re- 
lults from the coalefcence of fimultaneous founds pro¬ 
duced by vibrations in the proportions of thirds, fifths, 
and odtaves, or their duplicates. 
But this art becomes a fcience, which is not only ex- 
tenfive but profound, when geometry is-called in to af- 
certain the principles from whence thefe happy modifica¬ 
tions of found refult, and by which they are determined ; 
the ratio of thefe fenfations, whether mental or corporeal, 
with which they affect us. The ancient definitions of 
mufic are not proportioned in their extent to our prefent 
ideas of that art ; but M. Roulfeau betrays a temerity 
highly inconliftent with the philofophical character when 
from thence lie infers, that their ideas were vague and 
undetermined. Every foul fulceptible of refinement and 
delicacy in tafte or fentiment, mult be confcious that there 
is a mufic in aftion as well as in found ; and that the ideas 
of beauty and decorum, of harmony and fymmetry, are, 
if we may ufe the exprellion, equally conftituent of viii- 
ble as of audible mufic. Thofe illultrious minds, whole 
compreheniive profpedts in every fcience where take and 
propriety prevail took in nature at a tingle glance, would 
behold with contempt and ridicule the narrow and mi- 
crolcopic views of which alone their fuccelfors in philo- 
fophy have difcovered themfelves capable. With thefe 
definitions, however, we are lets concerned, as they bear 
no proportion to the ideas which are now entertained of 
mufic. Nor can we follow Roufl'eau, from whatever vene¬ 
rable fources his authority may be derived, in adopting 
his Egyptian etymology for the word mufic. The ella- 
bliflied derivation from Mnfa could only be queftioned by 
a paradoxical genius. That mufic had been practifed in 
Egypt before it was known as an art in Greece, is indeed 
a tact.which cannot be queftioned ; but it does not thence 
follow that the Greeks had borrowed the name as well as 
the art from Egypt. If the art of mufic be fo natural to 
man, that vocal melody is praf'tiied wherever articulate 
founds are uled, there can be little reafon for deducing 
the idea of mufic from the whittling of winds through the 
reeds that grew on the river Nile. And indeed, when we 
reflect with how eafy a traniltion we may pals from the ac¬ 
cents of lpeaking to diatonic loufids; when we obferve 
how early children adapt the language of their amufe- 
ments to meafure and melody, however rude ; when we 
confider how early and univerfally thefe practices take 
place, there is no avoiding the conclufion, that the idea 
of mufic is connatural to man, and implied in the original 
principles of his conftitution. We have already faid, that 
the principles on which it is founded, and the rules by 
which it is conducted, conftitute a fcience. The fame 
Vol. XVI. No. mi. 
maxims, when applied to practice, form an art; hence its 
firftand moll capital divifion is into Jpecufative and practi¬ 
cal mufic. 
Speculative mufic is, if we may be permitted to ufe the 
expreflion, the knowledge of the nature and ufe of thofe 
materials which compofe it; or, in other w'ords, of all the 
different relations between the high and low, between the 
harfli and the lweet, between the fwift and the flow, be¬ 
tween the ftrong and the weak, of which founds are fuf- 
ceplible; relations which, comprehending all the poflible 
combinations of mufic and found, feem likewife to com¬ 
prehend all the caufes of the imprefiions which their fuc- 
ceflion can make upon the ear and upon the foul. 
Practical mufic is the art of applying and reducing to 
practice, thofe principles which refult from the theory of 
agreeable founds, whether fimultaneous orfucceflive ; or, 
in other words, to conduct and arrange founds according 
to the proportions refulting from confonance, from dura¬ 
tion and fucceflion, in fuch a manner as to produce upon 
the ear the effedt which the compofer intends. This is 
the art which we call compofition. With relpedt to the ac¬ 
tual produition of founds by voices or inftruments, which 
is called execution, this department is merely mechanical 
and operative ; which, only prefuppoling the powers of 
founding the intervals true, of exadtly proportioning their 
degrees of duration, of elevating or deprefling founds ac¬ 
cording to thofe gradations which are prefcribed by the 
tone, and to the value required by the time, demands no 
other knowledge but a familiar acquaintance with the 
charadters ufed in mufic, and a habit of expreifing them 
with promptitude and facility. 
Mufic is at prefent divided more limply into melody and 
harmony; for, iince the introduction of harmony, the pro¬ 
portion between the length and Ihortnefs of founds, or 
even that between the difiance of returning cadences, are 
of lefs confequence amongft us. For it often happens in 
modern languages, that the verfes aflume their meafures 
from the mufical air, and ahnofi entirely lofe the fmall 
ill are of proportion and quantity which in themfelves they 
poflefs. 
By melody, the fucceflions of found are regulated in 
fucli a manner as to produce pleafing airs. Harmony con- 
fills in uniting to each of the founds, in a regular fuccef- 
fion, two or more different founds, which fimultaneoully 
ftriking the ear loothe it by their concurrence. 
It would feem that mufic was one of thofe arts which 
were firft difcovered ; and that vocal was prior to inftru- 
mental mufic, if in the earliefi ages there was any mufic 
which could be faid to be purely inftru mental. For it is 
more than probable, that mufic was originally formed to 
be the vehicle of poetry ; and of confequence, though the 
voice might be fupported and accompanied by inftru¬ 
ments, yet mufic was never intended for inftruments 
alone. See Bard, vol. ii. p. 717. 
We are told by ancient authors, that all the laws, whe¬ 
ther human or divine, exhortations to virtue, the know¬ 
ledge of the characters and adtions of gods and heroes, 
the lives and achievements of illultrious men, were 
written in verfe, and lung pubiicly by-a choir to the 
found of inftruments ; and it appears from the Scriptures, 
that fuch from the earliefi times was the cuftorn among 
the Ifraelites. Nor was it poflible to find means more ef¬ 
ficacious for imprefling on the mind of man the principles 
4. D of 
