341 MUSIC. 
played, in the orcheftra of Covent-garden theatre, a mi¬ 
nuet of Haydn’s, which reads the fame forwards, back¬ 
wards, and upfide down. 
Hounds alfo, or catches, have been written in the form 
of canons, and called fuch, particularly by the modern 
Italians. A round is a vocal compofition in three or more 
parts, all written in the fame clef, the performers of 
which are to ling each part in fucceffion, as indicated by 
the figures at the beginning and end of each line, viz. the 
firft voice is to fing the fird, fecond, and third, parts in 
fuccefiion, and then the fird again, &c. The fecond voice 
is to begin the fird line when the fird voice begins the fe¬ 
cond ; and, when the fird voice begins the third line, the 
third voice is to begin the fird line, and the fecond voice 
the fecond line. See Ex. 15. That this does not anfwer 
the definition of a canon is obvious ; yet it is frequently 
made to referable a canon in unifon, by writing it at full 
length. But, if the mere following of the parts in the 
manner of a round conditute a canon ; any piece of mufic 
may be converted into a canon by performing the parts in 
rotation. 
A circular canon begins like any other, and goes as far 
as one round ; but, when it is repeated, the intervals are 
a little altered, fo as to gain an additional (harp or flat, by 
which means the circle of the twelve keys may be ob¬ 
tained. See Ex. 16. 
But the mod tremendous of all canons, is the Canon 
Polijmorphvs, a kind of (acred mufic corn pok'd for feveral 
choirs. It feems as if the primitive Chridians had had no 
conceptions more fublime of the employment of the bled 
in the celedial abodes, than that they were eternally fling¬ 
ing. The ancient hymn, “ Te Deum laudamus,” dill 
retained in the church, appears to have furniflied the poet 
Dante with a model of the 28th canto of his Paradifo ; 
where, under three different hierarchies, confiding each 
of three choirs, or chorufes, the heavenly hod of cherubim 
and feraphim are finging perpetual hofannahs. Milton 
has afligned them the fame employment: 
Their golden harps they took : 
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their fide 
Like quivers hung, and with preamble fweet 
Of charming fymphony they introduce 
Their facred fong, and waken raptures high; 
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join 
Melodious part;—fuch concord is in heaven. Farad, loft. 
Orazio Benevoli compoled, in the 17th century, a mafs 
for the ceffation of the plague at Rome, upon the fame 
idea, for fix choirs, of four parts each, the (core confid¬ 
ing of twenty-four different parts : it was performed in 
St. Peter’s church, of which he was maedro di capella, ami 
the fingers, amounting to more than two hundred, were 
arranged in diderent circles of the dome; the fixth choir 
occupying the Cummit of the cupola. 
At Ex. 17. is a canon, compofed by Mich. Romanos, for 
nine choirs in 36 parts. The folution in notes would ex¬ 
tend to many plates: the following is a brief deicription 
of it. 
ill. Choir.—The bafs and tenor begin together; the 
bafs as it is written, the tenor at the twelfth above, and 
by contrary motion. The counter-tenor, after one femi- 
breve red, begins in the oftave above, and the treble be¬ 
gins at the fame time by the twelfth above, and by con¬ 
trary motion. 
2d. Choir.— The bafs and tenor begin together like 
the preceding, but after a paufe of 2 femibreves-. The 
counter-tenor and treble do the fame, after a paufe of 3 
femibreves. 
3d. Choir.— The bafs and tenor begin after 4 femi¬ 
breves red, and the counter-tenor and treble, after a paule 
of 5 femibreves. 
4th. Choir.—The bafs and tenor begin after 6 femi¬ 
breves, and the counter-tenor and treble after 7 femi¬ 
breves,. The other choirs begin in fucceflion one femi- 
breve after each, other, till the whole is finilhed. 
At Ex. 18. is another canon of the fame kind, com¬ 
pofed by Valentini, for 96 voices and 24 choirs ! This 
canon is called by Berardi Solomon's Knot, and by Kir- 
cher the Labyrinth. The folution is much the lame as 
the preceding. Marpurg has exhibited one more by the 
fame author, fufceptible of 2000 folutions, and upon 
which Valentini himfelf has written a large folio volume 
under the title of Canoni Muficali, which was printed at 
Rome in the year 1655. 
Since the printing of p. 291. in which we delivered our 
opinion on the hammers and anvils of Pythagoras, we 
have been favoured with the following remarks upon that 
fubjeft, by a gentleman to whom we are indebted for the 
expofition of the Greek modes, included in this article 
at p. 323. Now, although it is of no great import to the 
mufical world to know whether Pythagoras was right or 
wrong refpefting his theory of founds as grounded upon 
the different effefts of hammers ftriking on an anvil ; yet, 
as the opinion of a man who defervedly obtained the re¬ 
putation, and received the name, of the molt profound 
philofopher among a holt of learned men at his period 
of time, ought to be of great weight in the ftudy of ab- 
ltrufe fciences, it would be unfair to keep back any ex¬ 
planation that may help us to the underftanding of his 
fyllem, concerning the generation of lounds or their mu¬ 
tual relation. 
It certainly appears ridiculous, prima facie, to fuppofe, 
that the different weights of hammers can produces dif¬ 
ference in found ; (fee p 292.) But do weexaftly know 
how the anvils of the ancients were conftrucled ? The 
name incus has no other meaning than its thema aider c, 
“ to ftrike ;” and the Greek appellation of ay.p.oiv fignifies 
only, that the anvil is indefatible in bearing the repeated 
ftrokes of the hammers. But it is not improbable that 
anvil is derived from ancile, “ a ffmall round (hield,” or 
perhaps vice-versa, ancile from anvil. Whence we may 
perhaps conclude, that the ecy-pm of the Greek refembled 
in fliape the round buckler with a convex furface. In 
this cafe, where is the impoflibility of the anvil becoming 
refponfive in found to the refpeftive weights of the ham¬ 
mers ? This convexity might have afted like the found¬ 
ing-board of an inflrument. Befides, the companion 
which has been adduced between hammers and anvils, 
and firings and bows, or clappers and bells, does not ap¬ 
ply; for, if wine-glafles, for inftance, are ftruck againft 
a key, a candlellick, a decanter, or any other body, they 
mod certainly give various founds according to their va¬ 
rious fliapes, capacities, and weights. So that the clap¬ 
per of a bell in this lituation is wrongly compared to 
the hammer; for in fa ft, the clapper is the anvil in mo¬ 
tion againlt the Heady hammer. Let us place a number 
of bells, each of a different found, upon a lcrew-lhaped 
barrel, and let them ftrike fucceflively a fixed knob of any 
hard fubftance; will they not give the fame variety of 
founds as if (mail hammers were let to ftrike upon them ? 
will they not play the part of clappers and hammers, in- 
llead of bells and anvils ? The fame reafoning applies to 
firings and bows; which laft, upon experiment, will cer¬ 
tainly and invariably emit different founds, according to 
the different (ize and length of the cord. Dryden feems 
to have been of opinion that there exiftsa fort of chiming 
in the ftrokes of hammers upon anvils; for, in his tranl- 
lation of the EEneid of Virgil, in bookviii. v. 593. eager 
to reprefent the harmony contained in theie beautiful lines 
of the original; 
IIli inter fefe magna vl brachia tollunt, 
In numerum verlimt-que tepaci forcipe ferrum; 
where the cadence is fo forcibly expreffed, that Pytha¬ 
goras (could lie have anticipated it) might have brought 
it as a lupport for his ft.itement; the Englifli poet lays. 
By turns their arms advance in equal time ; 
By turns their hands defeend, and hammers chime. 
x 
Now, 
