M U S I C. 
323 
on inftruments, difcovered no knowledge of femitones, 
nor did they feem to have any idea of counterpoint, or 
parts.in mufic.' There was always one melody, however 
great the'number of performers; though, in a few in- 
itances, lome of the inftruments played in the lower oc¬ 
tave, while the reft continued in the upper; apd thus ap¬ 
proached to harmony.” Authentic Account of the Ern- 
baify, &c. voi. ii. p. 262. 410. For farther particulars re¬ 
lative to the Ciiinefe mufic, fee.- the article China, vol. iv. 
p. 466. 
A lhort account of the ftate of mufic among the Cinga- 
lefe, or Singalefe, (for fo the inhabitants of Ceylon are 
called,) has been furnilhed by M. Joinviile, furveyor-gene- 
ral to the government; and forms part of an elfa# On the 
Religion and Manners of the People of Ceylon, pubiifhed 
in the viith vol. of the Afiatic Refearches. “ Mufic ap¬ 
pears to have been formerly cultivated at Singala, or Cey¬ 
lon, and reduced into principles. There are pieces of 
mufic to be feen in regular notes, in fome of the old books 
ill the Pali tongue. The ancients had feven notes, called 
Sa, Hi, Grt, Me, Pa, De, Ni. The gamut was termed 
Septa Sonere. There was no particular fign for thefe 
notes; each of them being formed of as many letters as 
were necelfary for their pronunciation. It is very proba¬ 
ble that this gamut anfwers exadfiy to our’s ; and confe- 
quently, that the beginning of a tune known to all the 
world, w'ould be written in Singalele mufic thus : Sa fa ri 
ni fa ri, Ga ga me ga ri fa, Ri fa ni fa. But, as their mufic 
in notes has been almoft entirely forgotten, I have not 
been able to difeover how they ufed to diftinguifh the half¬ 
tones, the crotchets, meafures, bars, &c. &c. The an¬ 
cient mufic of the Singalefe is in all probability the fame 
as that of the Indians of the continent. Nothing, how¬ 
ever, can be more unpleafant than the Singalefe airs, whe¬ 
ther fung or played on either kind of their guitars. Their 
trumpet produces the mod annoying found I ever heard ; 
yet they are fond of it to diftraftion. They confecrate it 
to the temples and to the king. Its name is koveneve. 
Their horn, called kombove, is as unpleafant as the former. 
They have a kind of hautboy that is not quite fo infup- 
portable as their other inftruments, and which might 
perhaps, in the hands of an able player, be made to give 
lome plealing tones ; it is termed nalave. They have four 
fpecies of drums. The firft, daoul, is long and narrow. 
They beat it with a curved ftick, called daoul kadipoue, 
and ufe only their left hand to it. The taimnetam is a 
kind of kettle covered with a fkin on the top, and beat 
with an inftrument called liaddipow. The rabuni is nearly 
fimilar to our timbrel; but it has no bells. They Aide 
the lingers of the right hand on it, and hold it with the 
left: w omen play on it alfo. They place it on the ground, 
and three or four at once beat it for many hours toge¬ 
ther, without regard to time. The odikie is the bell: of all 
their drums, and is certainly capable of producing a good 
eft’eft in a piece of mufic. It is very narrow confidering 
its length. The two extremities of it afe tied by catgut- 
ftrings to the belt, on which the inftrument hangs ; this 
belt goes over the fhoulder. They fqueeze the drum oc- 
cafionally with the left elbow, and ftrike it with their 
right hand. The preffure on the inftrument, by ftretch- 
ing it more oriels, makes it produce different tones. The 
tammetam is ufed in the feafts of the great, and always 
precedes them in their journeys. It is a necelfary part of 
the mufic to be played before the temple morning and 
evening. In fine, it is an elfentially-neceffary inftrument 
upon all occaiions that can attradl the attention and ccn- 
lideration of the public. The rabani is more adapted for 
the feafts of friends ; the daoul is ufed at all times. But 
the odikie is the inftrument of the men of tafte. A player 
on it is, confequently, paid more liberally than thofe on 
til e.daoul or tammetam. 
“ The Singalefe are very fond of hearing fongs. A 
great man (when travelling) has often one finger before 
and another behind his palanquin. They each in their 
1 
turn ling ftanzas of an indeterminate length ; as it hap¬ 
pens at times that the finger, animated by his iubjeef, 
gives fome verfes extempore. The fongs are either reli¬ 
gious, in which cafe they extol trhe virtues ofBoudhou, 
and other gods; or they are hiftorical, and then they 
praife the virtuous actions of fome of their kings, or re¬ 
late a love-adventure. In all cafes' the air of the longs 
is mournful. I have never heard what can be called gay 
mufic among the Singalefe ; and I think it would be ye.ry 
difficult to put any into note; for the meafure is incel- 
fantly changing, and the .movement remaining the fame, 
always How. It is what is generally called the andante. ' 
Of Intervals. 
A found uttered by itfelf, and without any relation to¬ 
others, is not a tone or a femitone in mufic : it is not a 
note or any part of melody, much lei's of fymphony, as 
long as it dies fingie with the vibration of the air that 
produces it. It may be referred to a parfof an agreed 
diapafon ; it may be C, D, E, or any one of the leven 
tones of the gamut upon the piano-forte, and any other in¬ 
ftrument tuned to the pitch-pipe ; but in itfelf it is a mere 
found without, as yet, any correlation or name. 
Intervals are known in nature relating to the extenfion 
of matter and time; between a foot and a yard; an inch 
and a foot; between a minute and an hour. A third fpe- 
cies of interval has been found between natural founds: 
hence the diftinftion between a tone and a femitone. 
When two founds are emitted fucceflively, it may be 
guefted at what diftance the one is from the other; whe¬ 
ther the diftance be a full tone or a femitone, a third, a 
fourth, a fifth, &c. and the fame if the lbunds are uttered 
limultaneoully. 
An interval then, in mufic, fignifies the diftance or 
fpace between two fixed founds; which is meafured and 
determined by the proportions of thofe founds in the feale. 
Harmony fuppofes the feale to be extended as far as a 
ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, founds; 
which in faft are but repetitions of the fecond, third, 
fourth, fifth, and fixth, parts of the feale, although the 
laws of harmony do not confider them as fuch. 
Having afeertained the precife diftance between any 
two fixed founds; whatever it may be, the following 
figures will lliow how it Ihould be exprelfed. 
11 
regular 
2 
O 
O 
4 
5 
6 
7 8 
9 
1 2 
sharp 
i 
X 
4 
t 
t 
i 
10 
3 
flat 
2b 
b 
4 b 
5 b 
6 b 
7 b 
11 
4 
natural 
2 ^ 
h 
4* 
5 b 
6^ 
7h 
12 I 
5 
imperfect 
5 
13 j 
If founds are regular, as in the diatonic feale, they are 
exprelfed by the figures in the firft line, at 1. When the 
founds become accidentally lharp, flat, or natural, they 
are exprelfed as in the fecond, third, or fourth, line, at a, 
3, 4. As the fifth tone from the ieventh of a major or 
fecond of a minor feale is always imperfect, it is exprelfed 
as it ftands on the fifth line thus, 5. The interval of 
the third, if lharp, flat, or natural, by an exclufive pri¬ 
vilege is exprelfed by the characters %, or bj, and 
not thus, 3*, 3b, 3 1 ?, as very often improperly written. 
The figures 10, n, 12, 13, name rather than exprefs thofe 
intervals. Horizontal lines drawn after any of the above 
_ 8 — 
figures thus 3—, or 5 , or 5—, &c. denote a continuation 
3 3 — 
of the vefpe&ive intervals, or chords. 
The 
