1800.] 
ment, or indeed to have been generally 
underftood, till fome years fubfequent to 
the beginning of the feventeenth. | 
At the fame time I {hall take fome no- 
tice of the appearance, or non-appearance, 
of other notes and marks, made ufe of in 
printed ae during the fame period. 
Iam, &c. 
July 12, 18006 BIBLICUS. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRy 
T muft furely be an interefting inquiry 
to every lover of wnufic, wiether his 
favourite art is at prefent on the decline 
or ina ftate of improvement. You will 
favour me, therefore, by the infertion of 
the following obfervations on this point, 
in your Magazine. 
Concerning the mufic of the ancients 
we know little or nothing, for want of 
many and authentic examples. The ule 
which they made of their chromatic and 
enharmovic genera is now quite un- 
known; and the whole of the effeét mut 
have been caufed by melody, fince the ar- 
guments in favour of their having had 
counterpoint are fuperfeded by thofe on the 
contrary fide. And perhaps the powers 
of mufic were greatly over rated from her 
infeparable unicn with poetry. 
On the other nand, if the following hy- 
pothefis be admitted, we may be induced 
to entertain a higher opinion of the excel- 
lence of ancient mufic, than can be de- 
rived from any arguments I have hitherto 
feen on the fubject. The hypothefis I 
mean is, that old national tunes are the 
degenerate remaiss of the mufic of the an- 
cients. They bequeathed us their inftru- 
ments, and conf-quently the manner of 
playing on them. With their inftruments 
we neceflarily received their mufic. The 
feale in which the Irifh and Scotch tunes 
are compofed, is the fame with that of 
fome Chinefe infruments and mufic, 
which favours the opinion of its high an- 
tiquity ; the Chinefe being remarkably 
tenacious of old cuftoms, and averfe to 
innovations. This fcale alfo (as Dr. 
Burney happily remarks) bears a ftriking 
refemblance tothe old enharmonic genus, 
which is in fa& the fame notes, only in 
the minor key. The cadence afcending 
to the key note by a whole tone in na- 
tional mufic, is one of the many charac- 
teriftics of antiquity, or of the imitations of © 
antiquity, and is found in the old ecc e- 
fiattical Romith chants (fuppofed remains 
of ancient melody}, and in the few frag- 
Remarks on the prefent State of Mufic. 
193 
ments which are preferved of Greek mu- 
fic.* Old national tancs of moft coun- 
tries may be traced to a very high anti- 
quity, if we choofe to rely on the accuracy 
of traditional veracity as to facts, and of 
traditional accuracy as to the prefervation 
of fuch tunes. 
There is a Scandinavian tune of great 
antiquity, fet to words which are attri- 
buted to Odin himfilf +! This tune con. 
fits of only four notes, E,F,G, A; the 
four firft which were i-venied, and the 
four conftituent founds of the firft in- 
vented tetrachord of the diatonic genusf. 
This and all other ancient tunes will be 
found far more excelient than the lefs an- 
clent tunes manifeltly compofed in imita- 
tion of them. And hence we may, I 
think, very reafonably infer, that, the 
mufic of the ancients was more pure, ex- 
prefive, and fimple, than our’s§ 3 which, 
on the other hand, poffeffes excellencies 
unknown to the ancients--harmony, fugue, 
aod imitation; excellencies which it is 
folly to depreciate. 
After mufic had been deprived of 
rhythm for the ufe of the early Chriftian 
church, it was long ere it arrived at a fe- 
cond ftate of perfection. In ihe chants of 
the Romish church (the fuppoled remains 
of the heathen facred mufic), there was in= 
deed a fublimity in the character and in- 
tervals of the melody, which has never 
fince been equalled ; but which Faliis has 
imitated in his Litany, and on which as 
a canto fermo, Bird, Leo, and other 
great matters, have conftruéted many glo- 
rious compofitions. After the invention 
of harmony, in the eleventh century (for 
the barbarous combinations ufed before 
the time of Guido do not deferve the 
name), its progrefs of improvement was 
very gradual, and aimoft imperceptible ; 
and with whatever veneration we may re- 
gard that great luminary of the fifteenth 
century, and father of harmony, Jofquin 
de Prez, yet, on trying his mutic, we 
mult own that its merit is rather compa- 
rative than pofitive; his fplendour having 
been greatly eclipfed by the bright con- 
fiellations of mufical excellence which arofe 
in the fixteenth century, among which we 
mut regard as luminaries of the firft mage 
nitude, our countrymen, Tallis, Bird, 
and Farrant, the fecond of whem has never 

* See Dr. Burney’s Hiftory of Mufic, vol. i. 
‘—Sir J. Hawkins’s Hiftory, vol i. 
~ + See La Borde’s Effai fur la Mufique An- 
cienne & Moderne. 
t See Dr. Burney’s Hiftory, vol. i. 
§ See Rowfeau’s Dittionary of Mutic. 
been 
