2D1 
MUSI C. 
reflore the temple to all its ancient fplendour. And lie Jet 
the Levites in the hovje of the Lord with cymbals, with pj'al- 
leries, and with harps, according to the commandment of 
David. And the Levitesflood with the inflruments of David, 
and the priefls with the trumpets. But the priefls were too 
few to perform all the ceremonies formerly folemnizecl in 
"the temple. However, there was now great joy in Jernfalem; 
for fince the time of Solomon there was not the like in Je.ru- 
jitlem. 2 Chron. xxix. xxx. 
But this happy period was of Ihort continuance; new 
fchifms and new misfortunes foon put an end to it. And 
in the year 606 B. C. the Hebrew nation was fubdued ; 
the temple plundered and deftroyed ; and, foon after, both 
king and people were, by Nebuchadnezzar, fent captives 
to Babylon. During the feventy years captivity, it is 
natural to fuppofe that the Hebrews were denied the ce¬ 
lebration of their religious rites; nor could they have 
much time or inclination for domeftic amufements or 
fellivity; fo that mufic, the child of leifure and happinefs, 
and the parent of innocent pleafure, mud have been ne¬ 
glected, and fhut out of their houles, as an unwelcome 
gueft. The idea of every thing that awakened recollec¬ 
tion of former felicity, mull have been painful in a ftate 
of flavery. By the waters of Babylon we fat down and 
ivept, when we remembered thee, O Sion. As for our harps, 
we hanged them up upon the trees that are therein. For they 
that led us away captives required of us then a Jong, and me¬ 
lody in our heavinefs: Sing ns one of the fongs of Sion. How 
Jhall we flag the Lord's Jong in a flrange land? If I forget 
thee, O Jernfalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 
Pfalm cxxxvii. Thefe are the natural fentiments and 
feelings of a people, but lately fallen from a ftate of pro- 
fperity and happinefs into that of bondage and mifery. 
All that has been hitherto collected relative to the mufic 
of the Hebrews, only Ihows that it was in general ufe 
among them, from the time of their quitting Egypt, till 
they ceafed to be a nation ; but what kind of mufic it 
was with which they W'ere fo much delighted, no means 
are now left to determine. That they had their firft mufic 
and inftruments, whatever they were, from the Egyptians, 
appears to admit of no doubt; but thefe feemed to have 
remained in a very rude ftate till the reigns of David and 
Solomon ; and even then, perhaps, they were more im¬ 
proved in quantity than quality; for the great number of 
Levites, of finging-men and finging-women, as well as of 
trumpets, ftiawms, cornets, facbuts, cymbals, and tim¬ 
brels, could only augment the noify cry of joy, or the 
clamour of petition. 
However, we have no authentic account of any nation, 
except the Egyptians, where mufic had been cultivated 
fo early as the days of David and Solomon, the brighteft 
period of the Jewilh hiftory, the Greeks at that time hav¬ 
ing hardly invented their rudeft inftruments : for Homer 
and Hefiod, the refiners, if not the inventors, of Greek 
poetry ; and Orpheus, Mufaeus, and Linus, to whom they 
attribute the invention of their mufic and inftruments; 
all flouriftied, according to fir Ifaac Newton, after thefe 
Hebrew monarchs. 
With refpeft to the modern Jewilh mufic, (fays Dr. Bur¬ 
ney,) we have been informed by a Hebrew high-prieft, 
that all inftrumental and even vocal performances have 
been baniflied the fynagogue ever fince the deftruftion of 
Jerufalem; that the little finging now ufed there is an in¬ 
novation, and a modern licenfe; for the Jews, from a 
paffage in one of the prophets, think it unlawful, or at 
leaft unfit, to fing or rejoice before the coming of the 
Mefiiah, till when they are bound to mourn and repent 
in filence. But the only Jews now' on the globe, who have 
a regular mufical eftablifliment in their lynagogues, are 
the Germans, who fing in parts; and thefe preferve fome 
old melodies, or fpecies of chants, w'hich are thought to 
be very ancient. And Padre Martini has inlerted, from 
the Eftro-Poetico-Armonico of Marcello, 1724, and from 
an inedited manuscript by the cavaglier Ercole Bottrigari, 
called II Tnmerone de Fondamenti Armonici, 1599, a 
great number of fuch Hebrew chants as were fung in the 
fynagogues of different parts of Europe, at the time udien 
thefe works were compofed. But, as no two Jewilh con¬ 
gregations fing thefe chants alike, if tradition has been 
faithful in handing them down from the ancient Hebrews 
to any one fynagogue, who lhall determine to which fuch 
permanence can be attributed ? 
Among the Greeks, the paftion for arts and fciences 
was greater than that of molt other nations, for molt 
of their divinities were regarded as inventors of mufic. 
Almoft all the ancient philoftophers wrote treatiles on 
mufic, efpecially the difcipies of Pythagoras, Plato, and 
Ariftotle. The firft poets and muficians of Greece, fung 
their works in great cities, and in the palaces of princes, 
and were looked upon as infpired perfons; they gained 
the wonder and poffeffed the affe£tions of the people, till 
by degrees they became numerous; and, the art being 
confidered of eafy acquisition, their reputation funk in 
the public opinion. Scarcely any kind of work was per- 
formed by the people of this country without mufic, and 
every profeflion had in ufe its peculiar fongs. 
As for Pythagoras, pofterity has been very liberal to 
him, in bellowing upon him all fuch inventions as others 
had neglected to claim, particularly in mufic ; for there is 
Scarcely any part of it, as a Science, with w'hich he has 
not been inverted by his generous followers. Thus, muii- 
cal ratios have been aftigned to him, with the method of de¬ 
termining the gravity or acutenefs of founds by the greater 
or lefs degree of velocity in the vibrations of firings ; the 
addition of an eighth firing to the lyre, (Pliny, lib. ii. 
cap. 2.) the harmony of the Spheres, (Plato;) and the 
Greek mufical notation, (Boethius.) His right, indeed, 
to fome of thefe difcoveries, has been difputed by Several 
authors, who have given them to others with as little rea- 
fon, perhaps, as they had been before bellowed upon him. 
But there is one dilcovery, relative to mufic, that has, at 
all times, been unanimoully aftigned to him, which, how¬ 
ever, appears to us extremely doubtful, not only whether 
it was made by him, but whether, in the manner it is re¬ 
lated, it was ever made by any one. We are told by Ni- 
comachus, Gaudentius, Jamblichus, Maerobius, and all 
their commentators, “ that Pythagoras, one day medi¬ 
tating on the want of fome rule to guide the ear, analo¬ 
gous to what had been ufed to help the other l’enfes, 
chanced to pafs by a blackfinith’s Ihop ; and, obferving 
that the hammers, which were four in number, founded 
very harmonioully, he had them weighed, and found them 
to be in the proportion of 6, 8, 9, and 12. Upon this he 
fufpended four firings, of equal length and thicknefs, See. 
fattened weights, in the above-mentioned proportions, to 
each of them refpeftively, and found that they gave the 
fame founds that the hammers had done ; viz. the fourth, 
fifth, and oftave, to the gravell tone ; which laft interval 
did not make part of the mufical fyltem before; for the 
Greeks had gone no farther than the heptachord, or feven 
firings, till that time.” This is the fubftance of the 
account, as it has been abridged by Mr. Stillingfleet, 
who points out many incredible circumftances with re¬ 
fpeft to the llory in general, and denies that the weights 
6, 8, 9, 12, would give the intervals pretended; but feems 
not to have feen the leaft difficulty in the fail, relative to 
different hammers producing different founds upon the 
fame anvil. The frontilpiece to M. Marpurg’s Hiftory 
of Mufic, reprefents the Samian fage in the aft of weigh¬ 
ing the hammers. 
But, though both hammers and anvil have been fwal- 
lowed by ancients and moderns, and have palled through 
them from one to another, with an ollrich-like digeftion, 
upon examination and experiment it appears, that ham¬ 
mers of different fize and weight will no more produce 
different tones upon the fame anvil, than bows or clap¬ 
pers of different fizes will from the lame firing or bell. 
Indeed, both the hammers and anvils of antiquity mull 
4 ' have 
