M U S 
Jl-ood now to be placed. Til mentioning thefe names, 
we mult not be underftood as making any companion in¬ 
jurious toothers. The lift might be largely increafed : 
but we are willing to take thofe only whole works may be 
faid to pretend to a higher character. The oratorio of the 
Mount of Olives, the work of Beethoven, recently pro¬ 
duced in this country, appears to us to combine more ex¬ 
cellencies of different kinds than any other piece of the 
fame nature which we ever-heard performed. The lubjeft 
of it, indeed, violates lome of the fober feelings com¬ 
monly entertained by us : but, in fpite of that objedtion, 
the rlchnefs and variety of the fame rnufic will always 
place it among the mod admired fpecimefls in the liigheft 
branch of the art. Dr. Crotch too, has been fcarcely 
lefs fuccefsful in his noble oratorio of Paleftine. 
Mulic, indeed* has of late run into a great variety of 
ftyles. The operas and the oratorios,of Handel were very 
fnnilar to each other; fo much that, we believe, feveral off 
the pieces were occafionally interchanged by him; and, 
in particular, the fine air of “ Lord ! remember David,” is 
well known to have been originally adapted to the pro¬ 
fane words of a fong in an Italian opera. That great 
mailer was certainly no accurate diftinguilher of ftyles: 
a charadfer of uniformity pervades all his works; and it 
is related of him, that he was in the habit of keeping 
pieces ready made, and adapting and introducing them as 
occafion required. In the lighter ftyles of mulic, fuited 
to the theatre and the chamber, we cannot doubt the 
fuperiority of the modern fchool. Not, indeed, that we 
can much compliment the modern Englifli fchool in thefe 
particular departments.- Our theatres are obliged perpe¬ 
tually to recur to the works of Arne and his contempo¬ 
raries ; and our concerns are largely indebted to Purcell, 
Pepufch, Harrington, &c. but it is chiefly to the Italian 
fchool that we are to look for excellence of thefe kinds. 
There, indeed, a ftyle of mufic has grown up which, in 
our opinion, is fuperior to any thing of which the ancient 
fchool can boaft. Theoperas of Mozart, Cimarola, Winter, 
Paer, Guglielmi, and Ferrari, carry the art and l'cience of 
mufic to its greateft poflible height, and exhibit it with 
its greateft poflible varieties. In their works, every thing 
feems fo naturally conceived, that we are apt to imagine 
forne real connexion between the mufic and the lenfe, till 
the exiftence of any fuch connexion is difproved by their 
ufing the fame airs for different words, and producing the 
fame natural effedt in all. In the compofition of mufic 
for the chamber, the Cramers, Clementi, Afioli, Shield, 
Webbe, Danby, and Callcot, (moll of them Englifn 
artifts,) with feveral of thofe foreigners who have been 
previoufly named, are pre-eminent. 
The revolutions which have taken place in the progrefs 
of this art are worthy of attention. In the earlieft age 
of compofition, we find it ftridl in fcience, and Ample but 
not very interefting in ftyle ; of this age we have little to 
quote but the chants of the Chriftian churches. The art, 
like moll others, was entirely in the hands of the monks. 
In the next ftage, we find conceits of various deferiptions 
prevailing in mufic; this was the age of madrigals, 
rounds, canons, &c. and it was alfo that of acroftics, and 
thofe other conceits for which the Italian fchool of poetry 
was then fo cenfurable. Many of thefe are exquifitely 
beautiful: but it is well known that their difficulty is 
fuch, that they are feldom w'ell performed; and in the 
generality of them the art and labour are fo obvious as to 
caufe a difagreeable rather than a pleafant effedl. Out of 
this evil, however, the next ftage produced ftridl and free 
fugues, imitations, and other pieces of that kind, in 
which the natural and the artificial effect are more agree¬ 
ably combined than in moft other forts of compofition. 
Throughout the whole, fimplieity of effect has continued 
gradually to gain -ground. In England, the mulic of 
Purcell, perhaps, led the way ; Corelli and the other Ita¬ 
lian mailers of his age followed. Something of air and 
accompaniment was then pradtifed; and, at the next ftep, 
we meet with tlje great point of union of all ityles in 
I C. 311 
Har.del and his contemporaries. Of the works of Handel* 
indeed, fome are more remarkable for fcientific compofi¬ 
tion and ingenious contrivance than for fimplieity of ef¬ 
fect : but the obfervation will not hold as a general rule. 
He was fond of imitative accompaniment, of which his Acis 
and Galatea affords the finell fpecimen throughout. The 
talle of lucceeding mailers has been more fparing of this 
ftyle. Among thofe mailers, the name of Mozart will 
ever Hand as one of the moft confpicuons; fin'ce, with a 
llridtnefs not inferior to that of Handel or the older com- 
pofers, but with a genius mere fertile and unreftrained, 
lie has fucceeded in producing the utinoll novelty and 
variety of effedl, with the clofelt and moil ftriclly allowed 
materials. 
Of the miraculous Powers aferihed to Mufic. 
The wonderful ftories of the effedls of mulic, as re¬ 
lated by the moft refpedtable hiftorians, a re To numerous, 
that they would fill a volume. Plutarch, in his Dialogue 
on Mulic, tells us, that Terpander appealed a violent 
ledition among the Lacedemonians by the alfiftance of 
mufic ; and, in his Life of Solon, he relates, that this cele¬ 
brated legiflator excited the Athenians to invade and 
recover the ifie of Salamis, by finging an elegy of his own 
writing. Peace had been reftored between them and the 
Megareans, and they were forbidden even to mention 
the renewing of the war, on the pain of death ; but, by 
the power of his fong, they were fo roufed to glorious 
deeds, that they made another effort, and never relied till 
they had recovered Salamis, the object of the war. This 
circutnftance is iikewife recorded by feveral other liilto- 
rians. Pythagoras, we are informed, flopped a yohng 
ftranger, who was intoxicated, from fetting fire to the 
houfe of his miftrefs in a fit of jealoufy; ’and by order¬ 
ing the tibicina, or female performer, to play in a calm 
plaintive ftyle, cooled the impetuofity of his pa’ffion, and 
reftored him to his reafon. Empedocles is faid to have pre¬ 
vented murder by the found of his lyre. 
We may, however, very reafonably admit that the 
words of Solon’s elegy were as powerful towards inciting 
the Athenians to arms as the mufic; and that Pytha¬ 
goras’s Hopping the young man from fetting fire to the 
houfe of his miftrefs, Terpander’s appeafing a violent 
fedition, and Empedocles’ having prevented murder by 
the power of mulic, mean nothing more than that they ' 
were brought to moderation by good advice, conveyed 
through poetry, allifted by her lifter art. The llory of 
Amphion’s building the walls of Thebes with the found 
of the lyre, is without doubt allegorical. Dr. Burney has 
given the following ingenious folution : “ The fweetnefs 
of Amphion’s poetical numbers, and the wifdom of his 
counfel, prevailed upon a rude and barbarous people to 
fubmit to law and order, to live in fociety, and to defend 
themlelves from the infults of lavage neighbours, by- 
building a wall round the town.” 
The medicinal effeSls attributed to mufic are fo nume¬ 
rous, and fome of them fo well authenticated, that to 
rejell them totally would be to deny credibility to many 
refpedtable hiftorians, philofophers, and phyficians. Mar- 
tianus Capella allures us that fevers were removed by 
fong, and that Afclepiades cured deafnefs by the found of 
the trumpet. Plutarch fays that Thelates the Cretan de¬ 
livered the Lacedemonians from the peftilence l>y the 
fweetnefs of his lyre. Many of the ancients fpeak of 
mufic as a recipe for every kind of malady. M. Buretti, 
an eminent phyfician, who made the mufic of the ancients 
his particular itudy, thinks it not only poflible, but even 
probable, that mufic, by repeated itrokes and -vibrations 
given to the nerves, fibres, and animal lpirits, rnay lome- 
times alleviate the bufferings of epileptics and lunatics, and 
even overcome the moft violent paroxyfms of thofe dif- 
orders. (Mem. des Infcriptions & Belles Lettres.) Bu¬ 
retti is by no means fingular in his opinion; for many 
modern philofophers and phyficians, as well as ancient 
poets and iiiitoriansj have declared that they have no 
doubt 
