298 ' M U S 
when the Chriftian religion firft obtained the countenance 
of power, inftrumental mufic came to be introduced into 
the fervice of the church. In England, according to 
bifhop Stillingfleet, mufic was employed in the church- 
fervice, firft by St. Auguftine, and afterwards much im¬ 
proved by St. Dunftan, who was himfelf an eminent 
tnufician, and who is faid to have firft furniffied the 
Engliflr churches and convents with the organ. The 
organ, the mod majeftic of all inftruments, feems to have 
been an improvement of the hydraulicon, or water-organ 
of the Greeks. The firft organ feen in France, was fent 
from Conftantinople in 757, as a prefent to king Pepin 
from the emperor Conftantine Copronymus VI. In Italy, 
Germany, and England, that inftrument became frequent 
about the 10th century. 
During the dark ages no work of genius or tafte in 
any department of fcience feems to have been produced 
in any part of Europe; and, except in Italy, where the 
cultivation of mufic was rather more the objeft of atten¬ 
tion, that art was neglefted equally with all others. 
There has always been obferved a correfpondence in 
every country between the progrefs of mufic and the 
cultivation of other arts and fciences. In the middle 
ages, therefore, when the moft fertile provinces of Europe 
were occupied by the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and other 
barbarous tribes, whole language was as harfh as their 
manners were favage, little perfeftion, and no improve¬ 
ment, of mufic is to be looked for. Literature, arts,, and 
refinements, were encouraged more early at the courts of 
the Roman pontiffs than in any other country; and 
owing to that circumftance it is, that the fcale, the coun¬ 
terpoint, the beft melodies, the dramas religious and 
fecuiar, the chief graces and elegancies of modern mufic, 
have derived their origin from Italy. In modern times, 
Italy has been to the reft of Europe what ancient Greece 
was to Rome. The Italians have aided the civilization of 
their conquerors, and enlightened the minds of thofe 
whole luperior prowefs had enflaved them. 
Counterpoint, or mufic in parts, feems to be an inven¬ 
tion purely modern. The term harmony meant in the 
language of antiquity what is now underftood by melody. 
Guido, a monk of Arezzo, in Tufcany, is, in the general 
opinion, fuppofed to have entertained the firft idea of 
counterpoint about the year ion: an art which, lince 
his time, has experienced gradual and imperceptible im¬ 
provements^ far exceeding the powers-or comprehenfion 
of any one individual. The term counterpoint, or contra 
mmCtuni, denotes its own etymology and import. Mufical 
notation was at one time performed by final 1 points ; and 
the prefent mode is only an improvement of that praftice. 
Counterpoint, therefore, denotes the notation of har¬ 
mony, or mufic in parts, by points oppofite to each other. 
The ’improvements of this important acquifition to the 
art of mufic kept pace at firft with thofe of the organ ; an 
inftrument admirably adapted to harmony : and both the 
one and the other were till the 13th century employed 
chiefly in facred mufic. It was at this period that facred 
mufic began to be cultivated. 
Giraldus Cambrenlis, otherwife Archbifhop Baldwin, 
ranks the mufical proficiency of the Welfn above that of 
any other nation of the time. It is to be obferved, that 
he wrote about the year 1188. “ In their mufical concerts 
(fays he), they do not fing in unifon, like the inhabitants 
of other countries, but in many different parts; lb that 
In a company of fingers, which one very frequently meets 
with in Wales, you will hear as many different parts and 
voices as there are performers, who all at length unite 
with organic melody, in one confonance, and the loft 
fwcetnefs of B flat. In the northern diftrift of Britain, 
beyond the Humber, and on the borders of Yorkfliire, 
the inhabitants make ufe of the fame kind of fymphonious 
harmony, but with lefs variety; finging only in two 
parts, one murmuring in the bafs, the other warbling in 
the acute or treble. Neither of the two nations has 
acquired this peculiarity by art, but by long habit, which 
1 c. 
has rendered it natural and familiar5 and the practice is 
now fo firmly rooted in them, that it is unufual to hear a 
fimple and lingle melody well lung; and, what is ftill more 
wonderful, the children, even from their infancy, fing in 
the fame manner. As the Englifh in general do not adopt 
this mode of finging, but only in the northern counties, it 
feems probable that thefe parts of the ifland were more 
frequently invaded, and remained longer under the domi¬ 
nion of the Danes and Norwegians, from whom the natives 
contracted their mode of finging, as well as of {peaking.” 
Hoare’s Tranflation of the Itinerary of Archbifhop 
Baldwin, p. 320. 
Before the invention of characters for a time, mufic in 
parts mult have confifted entirely of fimple counterpoint, or 
note againlt note, as is ftill praCtifed in pfalmody. But 
the happy dilcovery of a time-table extended infinitely 
the powers of combined founds. The ancients had no 
other relource to denote the time and movement in mufic 
except two characters, (" ), equivalent to a long and a 
fliort lyllable. But time is of inch importance in mufic, 
that it can impart meaning and energy to the repetition 
of the fame found. Without it, variety of tones has no 
efteCt with relpeCt to gravity and acutenefs. The inven¬ 
tion of the tune-table was long aferibed to John de Muris, 
(fee Muris, p. 223.) who flouriihed about the year 1330; 
but it is now clearly proved that the inventor was Magifter 
Franco, of Cologne, author of a treatife De Muiica Men- 
furabili, about the year 1080, two hundred and fifty years 
before Muris was born, in which the form of the notes is 
given, and their relative value explained. This'very fcarce 
treatife is preferved in the Bodleian library, 84.2. f. 49. 
In the ancient primitive time-table, the fliorteft notes then 
in ufe are thole which are now' the longeft, namely, the 
iemibreve and minim ; and thefe, only, as now, were open ; 
the other, longer, notes, were black,dike our fliort notes 
at prefent. 
During almoft two centuries after the arrangement of 
the lcale attributed to Guido, and the invention of the 
time-table alcribed to Franco, no remains of fecuiar mufic 
can be difeovered, except thofe of the troubadours or 
Provencal poets. I11 the fimple tunes of thefe bards no 
time indeed is marked, and but little variety of notation 
appears. It is not difficult, however, to difeover in them 
the germs of the future melodies, as well as the poetry, of 
France and Italy. 
2n the 13th century melody feems to have been little 
more than plain fong, or chanting. The notes were fq.uare, 
and written on four lines only, like thofe of the Romifli 
church, in the cliff C, and without any marks for time. 
It was not till towards the end of St. Louis’s reign (1269) 
that the fifth line began to be added to the Have. 
As the lyre is the favourite inftrument in Grecian 
poetry, fo the harp held the fame place in the eftrmation 
of the poets who liourifhed in the period of which we at 
prefent fpeak. A poet of the 14th century, Machau, 
wrote a poem on the l'ubject of the harp alone ; in which 
he affigns to each of its 25 ftrings an allegorical name; 
calling one liberality, another wealth, &c. The inftrument 
which frequently accompanied, and indeed difputed the 
pre-eminence with, the harp, was the viol. Till the 16th 
century this inftrument was furnifhed with frets ; after that 
period it was reduced to four ftrings; and ftill, under the 
denomination of violin, holds the firft place among the 
treble inftruments. The viol was played with a bow, and 
differed entirely from the vielle, the tones of which were 
produced by the fridlion of a wheel: the wheel performed 
the part of a bow. 
Britifh harpers were famous long before the conqueft: 
Giraldus Cambrenlis (writing in 1188) fays, that the 
Welfli bards, and fingers, or reciters, have the genealogies 
of their princes, ivritten in the Welffi language, in their 
ancient and authentic books, and alfo retain them in 
their memory, from Roderic the Great, from whom they 
afeend to Sylvius, Afcanius, JEneas, and thence to Adam ! 
IIw. re's Itinerary of Archbijhop Baldwin, The harp con¬ 
tinued 
