MUSIC. 
345 
Now it is indifpfo table, according to our bed philologifts, 
that chiming implies harmony. Therefore the found of 
hammers, when driking the anvil, had anciently, it they 
have not “ in thefe degenerate days,” (lee p. 292.) a fort 
of correfpondence in found, which, to a well-exercifed 
ear, might conftitute mufical'intervals, and, confequent- 
ly, ratios of harmony. 
If, now, our correfpondent has fucceeded in edabliih- 
ing the probability of fonorous anvils, the refult will be, 
as dated at p. 291, that the weight of the hammers were 
in the proportion of 6, 8, 9, 12; and this refult appears 
to be not only correft, but leading alfo to a new coniide- 
ration of the relative power of founds. But we mud ob¬ 
serve, in limine, that the reafon why this refult has not 
been found corre6t, is, that fome of the ancient and mo¬ 
dern tlieorids have ufed modern means to folve the old 
enio-ma. Aware of this, let us try the tetrachords, and 
the & long-fought-for folution will be found. Let us join 
the following infulated tetrachords: CDEF....GABC 
.D E FG .... afcending from C the lowed to G the 
hi'ghed Then, take this lad to be N° 1. and come down 
to C, which will be N° 12, (as Ex. j. Plate III.) wefhall 
find that 9 (the key-note being i2r=C) will be F the fourth, 
g_G the fifth, and 6 the flat feventh, indead of the oc¬ 
tave as commonly dated by tranflators. In this plain 
ratio calling the lieavied hammer 12ft. the next above 
will be 9ft. that is to fay, of twelve 5 the following in 
afcenflon is 8ft. | of twelve; and the next above 6ft. the 
2- of twelve. But this lad requires explanation. 
2 Referring to p. 317, it will appear diffidently evident 
that the ancients knew nothing about oftaves, fince “ the 
fourth ferved as a boundary to a fyflem of four founds.” 
C, D, E, F.... F, G, A, B. (See Ex. 3. Plate III. as quoted 
at p. 324.) Therefore, tranflating the 6-pounds-weight 
hammer by the word oflave mud be an unpardonable 
miflake or grofs ignorance. In the annexed diagram 
12 
G 
fol 
I 
I I 
F 
fa 
2 
IO 
E 
mi 
3 
9 
D 
re 
4 
8 
C 
ut 
5 
Bb 
7 
B 
fib 
6 
A 
6 
A 
la 
7 
G 
5 
G 
fol 
8 
F 
4 
F 
fa 
9 
E 
3 
E 
mi 
IO 
D 
2 
D 
re 
11 
C 
I 
C 
ut 
12 
flat 7th, or top of the 
teirachord conjoined* 
5th, or 
4th, or 3. 
key-note. 
it will be found, that the figure 6 falls upon the note B, 
which, according to the natural generation of founds, 
mud be Bb, the minor third of G, as F is the minor third 
of D. Now Bb, which is fuppofed to be reprefented by 
N° 6. of the hammers, is the generator of the next mo¬ 
dulation or key in the bemol or flat mode, F. (C, E, G, 
Bb—F, A, C, Eb—&c.) as below : 
--b 
TI — 
3f-1 
'Tb 
“T s— 
0 
J .. 
tTP: 
-3-- 
\-4 
V^-4-s 
JJt 
—L)— 
MS 
—-- 
brings to the key the following:— 
rich, if it proceeds one flep farther, 
" the oflave to its pridine denomina¬ 
tion, but four commas lower, fince C flat, as it would be 
then, is one comma above B natural, as it is generally 
called ; a peculiarity, which, however, owing to the im¬ 
perfection of our mufical organs and indruments, (felix 
culpa,) impreffes a didinftive character on this mode, and 
all thofe originating from it. 
To conclude. It appears indubitable, that Pythagoras 
Von. XVI. No. m6. 
This progreflion 
brings the whole o 
had in view the key-note, its fourth, fifth, and flat feventh, 
in the numbers 6, 8, 9, 12, refulting from the comparative 
weight of the hammers ; and that he came to the dilution 
of his problem by uniting three tetrachords, and counc- 
ing down from the top note to the lowed. 
Of MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, and their Scales. 
I. Of the Egyptians. Plate XIII. 
At p. 288. we have alluded to thofe mod ancient mo¬ 
numents of human art, at prefent extant at Rome, the 
obelilks brought thither from Egypt, two of which are 
faid to have been ereCted by Sefodris at Heliopolis, four 
hundred years before the fiegeof Troy. Thefe were, by 
the order of Augudus, brought to Rome after the conquelfc 
of Egypt. One of them called Guglia Rotta, or the 
Broken Pillar, which, during the facking of the city in 
1527 was. thrown down and broken, dill lies in the Cam¬ 
pus Martius. On it is feen the figure of a mufical indru- 
ment of two firings, and with a neck. It refembles much 
the calafcione dill ufed in the kingdom of Naples. It is 
reprefented on Plate XIII. fig. 1. 
This curious relic of antiquity affords better evidence 
than, on the fubjeCt of ancient mute, is ufually to be met 
with, that the Egyptians, at fo very early a period of their 
hidory, had advanced to a confiderable degree of excel¬ 
lence in the cultivation of the arts. By means of its 
neck, this indrument was capable, with only two firings, 
of producing a great number of notes. Thefe two firings, 
if tuned fourths to each other, would furnifh that feries 
of founds called by the ancients heptachord, which confids 
of two conjunct tetrachords as B, C, D, E; E, F, G, A ; 
if tuned fifths, they would produce an odtave, or two 
disjunct tetrachords. The calafcione is tuned in this lad 
manner. The Ruffians alfo have a guitar with two firings, 
called batalailia. The indrument reprefented in our plate, 
which was drawn of the exaCt dimenfions in Dr. Burney’s- 
prefence, is 21 inches long, of which the neck is 12 ; and 
its breadth in the widedpartis 5 inches. A dichord very 
fimilar to this, appears in an antique painting which dill 
fubfids in a fepulchral grotto near the ancient Tarquinia, 
and was communicated to Dr. Burney by Mr. Byers of 
Rome. The annals of no nation other than Egypt, for 
many ages after the period of the obelifk at Heliopolis, 
exhibit the vedige of any contrivance to ihorten firings 
during performance by a neck or finger-board. Father 
Montfaucon obferves, that, after examining five hundred 
ancient lyres, harps, and citharas, he could dilcover no 
fuch thing. 
Egypt indeed feems to have been the fource of human 
intelligence, and the favourite refidence of genius and 
invention. From that celebrated country did the Greeks 
derive their knowledge of the fird elements of thofe arts 
and fciences in which they afterwards fo eminently ex¬ 
celled. From Greece again did the Romans borrow their 
attainments in the fame purfuits. And from the records 
of thofe different nations have the moderns been enabled 
to accompliffi fo wonderful an improvement in fcience. 
The monaulos, or Angle flute, called by the Egyptians 
pliotinx, was probably one of the mod ancient indruments 
ufed either by them or any other nation. From various 
remains of ancient fculpture, it appears to have been 
ffiaped like a bull’s horn ; and was at fird, it may be fup¬ 
pofed, no other than the horn itfelf. Before the inven¬ 
tion of flutes, as no other indrument except thofe of per- 
cuffion were known, mufic mud have been little more than 
metrical. When the art of refining and lengthening 
founds was fird difeovered, the power of mufic over man¬ 
kind, from the agreeable furprife occafioned by foft and 
extended notes, was probably irrelidible. 
At a time when all the red of the world was involved 
in favage ignorance, the Egyptians were poflefied of mufi¬ 
cal indruments capable of much variety and expreffion. 
Of this the adonifliing remains of the city Thebes dill 
4 T fubfiding 
