340 M u ; 
the movements of two even notes, if they are Ihort, their 
effect is lively, impetuous, and proper for military dances, 
called Pyrrhics, in which the dancers are armed ; and 
time of which the movement is regulated by poetic feet 
compofed of long fyllables, is more grave, ferious, and fit 
for hymns which are fung in honour of the gods, at fefti- 
vals, and in facriflees; the meafure compofed of a mix¬ 
ture of long and fhort notes, participates of the qualities 
of both thefe laft mentioned. Among the duplicate pro¬ 
portions, the Iambic and Trochaic have the moll vivacity 
and fire, and are peculiarly proper for dancing. Thofe 
called o£0kh and a-oya-vroi, of wliich the arfis anfwers to 
two long fyllables, are full of dignity. Compound mea- 
fures are more pathetic than fimple ; and fuch as are con¬ 
fined to one genus, move the paffions much lefs than thofe 
which pafs from one genus to another.” 
After giving thefe charafteriftics of time, Ariftides pro¬ 
ceeds to prove their reality and foundation in Nature, by 
drawing a parallel between fome particular fpecies of 
rhythm and the gait and aftions of man. He pretends, 
for inftance, “ that the motion which anfwers to the 
Spondaic meafure, is a fign of moderation and fortitude ; 
that Trochaics, or Pteans, indicate a greater degree of fire 
and vivacity ; that the Pyrrhic has fomething low and ig¬ 
noble in it ; that an irregular velocity implies diffolute- 
nefs and diforder; and finally, that a movement refulting 
from all thefe is wild and extravagant.” 
With refpect to the excellence and effefts of ancient 
mtific, it is very difficult to fleer between the extremes of 
credulity and Icepticifm. Such enthufiafts as Ariftides 
Quintilianus, by afferting too much, have thrown a ridi¬ 
cule upon the fubjeft, and inclined us, perhaps, to believe 
too little. The fimplicity of ancient melody, and its flavifh 
dependence upon poetry, may probably have given birth 
to fome of thefe fancies. 
Modern tnufic, by its divifion into equal bars, and its 
unequal fubdivifion of thefe bars by notes of various 
lengths, unites to the pleafure which the ear is by nature 
formed to receive from a regular and even meafure, all 
the variety and expreffion which the ancients feem to have 
aimed at by fudden and convuifive changes of time, and a 
continual confiift of jarring and irreconcileable rhythms. 
Nothing feems more eflential to mufical pleafure, than 
the divifion of melody into equal portions of time, or bars. 
Quintilian attributed to this natural menfuration of the 
ear, the firft produdtion of poetry: “ Poema—aurium 
menfura, et fimiliter decurrentium fpatiorum obfervatione 
efie generatum.” Hexameters and Iambics appear to 
have been the rnoft ancient Greek metres; and the latter, 
if we may credit Horace, (Art. Poet. 255.) were at firft 
pure and uncompounded. The mixture of unequal feet, 
and the dithyrambic licenfe of lyric poetry, were later re¬ 
finements. The progrefs of mufical rhythm was, of courfe, 
the fame. Plutarch exprefsly fays, in the dialogue.de 
Mufica, that the compofitions of Terpander, and other 
old mailers, were let to hexameters, chiefly of Homer ; 
that is, they were in regular common time. The change 
;jnd intermixture of rhythms is fpoken of as the innova¬ 
tion of modern artifts. Plato rejects thefe complicated 
meafures from the mafic of his republic ; and even Ifaac 
Voffius, the great champion of ancient rhythm, who af- 
ferts that “ no man can be a good mufician that is not a 
good drummer ,” owns, (p. 11.) that “ vitiofum et incom- 
pofitum imprimis, fiet carmen, fi dubrum, trium, quatuor, 
pluriumve, temporum pedes, veluti Pyrrichii, Iambi, 
Da&yli, Pfflones, lonici, fimul copulenturthough this 
is done continually, not only in the lyric part, but even 
in the dialogue, of the ancient drama. 
The Greeks and Romans had but two different degrees of 
long and Ihort notes; and even the old lozenge and fquare 
characters Hill ufed in the canto fermo of the Romiih 
church, under the denomination of Gregorian notes, are 
but of two kinds'. The time of thefe may, indeed, have 
been .accelerated or retarded, but Hill the fame propor¬ 
tion mull have been prel'erved between them; and all 
I c. 
their variety mull have arifen from different combinations 
of thefe two kinds of notes, fuch as any two of ours could 
afford ; as femibreves and minims, minims and crotchets, 
or crotchets and quavers. This accounts for the facility 
with which even the common people of Greece could dif- 
cover the miltakes, if any were committed, in the length 
and Ihortnefs of the fyllables, both with refpeft to the 
poetry and the mufic, a point of hiftory in which all 
writers agree ; for, befides the intervals peculiar to the 
melody, rhythm or time mull have contributed to cha- 
rafterife the modes, though it has no kind of connexion 
with our flat and (harp keys ; and this gives an idea quite 
different from what our modern modes taken as keys, 
and our mufic in general, furnilh. Tartini, upon this 
fubjeCl, fays, that - we make the profody fubfervient to the 
mufic, not the mufic to the profody; and adds, “ that as, 
by the laws prefcribed to the ancient mulicians, they were 
obliged to preferve rigoroully in their mufic the quantity 
of fyllables, it was impoffible to protrafl a vowel, in fing- 
ing, beyond the time which belonged to a fyllable; we, 
on the contrary, prolong the vowels through many bars, 
though in reading they are oftentimes Ihort.” 
Having explained the nature, difference, and properties, 
of ancient rhythm. Dr. Burney bellows a few words on an 
examination of the modern, and endeavours to fiiow what 
it has in common with the ancient, and what peculiar to 
itfelf. We no longer know rhythm under its ancient 
name ; however, it has been continued, with a finall 
change of pronunciation, merely to exprefs the final ca¬ 
dence of verfes, or,the agreement and fimilarity of found 
in the laft fyllables of two or more lines in poetry ; being at 
prefent what we call rhyme-, whereas the proportion lub- 
fifting between the different parts of a melody are called 
time, meafure, movement. And, when we come to imagine 
this proportion, we find that it only confills of two kinds, 
differently modified ; and thefe two are known by the 
names of common, time, confining of equal numbers, and 
triple time, of unequal. 
Tartini has deduced all meafure from the proportions 
of the ofitave and its fifth. ‘■ Common time, or meafure,” 
fays he, “ arifes from the oftave, which is a 1 : 2; triple 
time arifes from the fifth, which is as 2 : 3. Thefe,” adds 
he, “ are the utmoll limits within which we can hope to 
rind any practicable proportions for melody. Indeed 
many have attempte'd to introduce other kinds of mea¬ 
fure, which, inltead of good effedts, have produced no¬ 
thing but the greateft confuiion ; and this mull always be 
the cafe.” 
Ifaac Voffius, in his Differtation “ de Poematum cantu 
et viribus Rhythi,” has attributed to rhythm all the mira¬ 
culous powers of ancient mufic, He adds, that it is now 
above a thoufand years fince mulicians have loll that great 
power over the affedlions which arofe only from the true 
icience and ufe of rhythm ; and he accufes modern mufic 
of fuch a want of time and accent, as to be all of one ll)de 
and colour. We will not defend the age in which Voffius 
w'rote from the charge, nor the mufic of the prefent ferious 
opera in France; but the compofitions of Italy, Germany, 
and England, are certainly free from the cenfure, as mufic 
is now more divided into phrafes, and fentences, than it 
was; time is more marked, and more eafily felt, than it 
has ever been fince the days of Guido. What it was be¬ 
fore, is not very well known ; but it is our opinion, that 
whatever it has comparatively loll in fome particulars it 
has gained in others. 
In the prelent ufe and practice of rhythm, the branches 
necelfary to be confidered are, 1. The Accent, a. The 
Foot. 3. The Csefura. 4. ThePhrafe. 5. The Seftion. 
6. The Period. 
1. Of Accent.— The neceffity of dividing notes into 
equal portions of time, called bars, may be (liown by con- 
fidering the feries of notes in Ex. 1. This cannot be per¬ 
formed, without making Certain divifions on which a 
preilure, called accent, mult be laid. It may be accented' 
two ways in equal time; as at Ex. 2. a, b. But the fame 
nielody 
