1807.] Reply to Dr. Calcott, on Temperament, Sc. in Music. 29 
dered, accounts stated, and regulations 
formed. 
‘No book to be kept for reading more 
than a month, under the forfeiture » of one 
penny per day afterwards, and no Ma- 
pazine, Review, or Pamphlet, to be kept 
more than. five days, under a similar 
penalty. 
The first object ofsuch asociety, should 
be to possess itself of the County Re- 
ports, and other Books, published by 
the Board of Agriculture, of Gregory’s 
Cyclopedia, some of _ Arrows mith’s 
Maps, Dickson’s Agriculture, a System 
of Geography, Mavor’s Universal His- 
tory, Jobhnson’s Dictionary, and Ifume 
and Belsham’s History of Eng! land. It 
should also begin to take in for periodical 
circulation, the Monthly Magazine, the 
Annals of Agricul rare, the Oxiord Review, 
and the Je arnal of Llodern Voyages and 
‘Travels. ; 
Lhe Library fo be? c ee fy as the 
property of the subscribers, and of their 
resident heirs or successors, as eine as 
they shal] continue to pay their quarterly 
contributions within twelve months after 
they fall due; but any parishioner may, 
at apy time, be at liberty to become a 
reader of Eke library on paying three shil- 
lings fora single quarter. 
N.B. Toestablish such a Library, it seems 
only to be requisite that a fair copy of this 
plan should beaffixed to the church door, that 
the Clergyman or Parish-Clerk should solicit 
the names of the chief parishioners5 and as 
soon as a dozen have paid their first subscrip- 
tion, the society might be considered as 
formed. Shouldany Nobleman or Gentleman 
lend his countenance to the plan, and contri- 
bute a donation of ten or twenty pounds, its 
establishment could scarcely fail to be per- 
manent. 
ae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EING perfectly satisfed with Dr. 
) Calcott’s explanation, given in your 
Magazine for May, i it is not with any view 
of having the last ward, that T once more 
take up my pen in het controversy occa- 
casioned by Earl Stanhope’s pamphlet, 
which I do in order more ate to ex- 
plain my meaning, in respect to the mat- 
ter of glee-singers sinking their voices 
when unzccompanied, without altering 
the temperament, in respect to which the 
Doctor and I do not seem perfectly to un- 
derstand one another. 
‘To this extraordinary assertion of mine, 
as lie terins it, he subjoins three queries, 
to the first oF which “ Does this defect 
- 
<o 
of keyed instruments exist in unaccom- 
panied vocal music?” (p. 316) I scruple 
not to answer in the negative, as in na- 
ture, I know of no other temperament ne- 
cessary, than that owing to the difference 
between the major and minor tone, asas- 
certained by the monochord; which tempe- 
rament may be so adjusted as to render 
ae. key equal though not quite perfect, 
and thus exclude all wolves. 
The second query f must confess I do 
not clearly understand, and therefore 
shali not attempt to answer it. To the 
third, however, “‘[ftemperament signifies 
deviation from the just proportion of in= 
tervals, how can voices sink without tem- 
pering?” { thus rey 
When I asserted that singers may sink 
their voices without altering the tempe- 
rament, 1 did not mean to attribute the 
cause to any operation of the Huygenian 
theorem, quoted by the Doctor; as accord- 
tng to that, the voice might be as liable to 
rise as sink; but purely to.an anatomical 
cause, especially 1 in glees, in which the 
upper part is a counter-tenor, which being 
generally carried to the highest extent of 
the voice, the singer, in order to relieve 
himself from the exertion required to keep 
his voice up to the pitch, is apt gradually 
to depress it, and being the leading and 
more predominant part, will induce the 
other singers insensibly to do the same. 
To elucidate this I shall mention a cir- 
cumstance that happened sometime age 
at avmusical party L was at, when, a alee 
in the key of Eb being proposed, “the 
alto of which lay very hig 1, 1 proposed 
its being performedin D. Bat this being 
objected to, on account of a peculiar mo- 
dulation belonging to the key of Ef (as 
was observed) ‘which would lose its effect 
in transposition, it was accordingly per- 
formed in the latter key, at least it began 
in that key, and ended, as I had predict 
ed,inD. Now, althous gh upon a keyed 
instrument, were an air to be played in 
E§ and iminediately a afterwards in Ef a 
reat difference in character would ap- 
pear (from the subdominant of the latter 
key carrying the chord of the great wolf, 
whereas in the former, itis as perfect as 
that of the key note), yet surely Dr. 
Calcott will not assert that singers unuc= 
companied, so sinking gradually from Eq 
o E do therein conform to the peculiar 
emperament of that key, which if they 
6 nof in any degree; my assertion cer 
tainly remains uncontroverted. 
Before I conclude, i canuot let slip the 
opportunity of noticing aa assertion of 
another person onthe subject, whom Dr. 
Calcott, 
