First instrument.-Improvement of vocal and instrumental music.

and music, two arts founded on measured time, were at first intimately connected, as we find still to be the case among most, perhaps all, tribes in a state of infancy. By degrees the song was separated from the dance, and instruments, which at first only served to accompany the song, became also the objects of a separate art. Tones in themselves, apart from the dance or words, were cultivated; the laws according to which they must be connected, so as best to express the language of feeling, were more and more investigated, the application of these laws further and further extended, until music was developed to that degree of perfection which we admire in the works of the greatest masters.

Perhaps the first instrument invented was the pipe of the shepherd, who, in his life of leisure, heard the wind whistle among the reeds. It seems probable that shepherds first cultivated music as an art; while warriors may have made use of the exciting war-cry and war-song before.

From the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there grew up at the courts of monarchs the free chamber style, and from this the theatrical style. The invention of the opera in the sixteenth century has chiefly contributed to the splendor and variety of modern vocal and instrumental music. The merit of the advancement of vocal music is claimed particularly by the Italians; the improvement of instrumental music by the Germans and French.

Egyptian instruments.

Ancient Music.*

MOST of the ancient musical instruments were of Egyptian invention as the triangular lyre; the monanlos, or single flute; the kettle-drum; and the sistrum, an instrument of sacrifice. The profession of music was hereditary among the Egyptians, as was the case with every other profession. This custom was imitated by the Hebrews and Dorians. And as we are told by Plato, that not only the music but the sculpture of the Egyptians was circumscribed by law and continued invariable for many ages, which accounts for the little progress they made in either, it seems that, during the time that the arts were thus rendered stationary, new music was prohibited, and that the old was sacred and so connected with religion, that it was forbidden to be used on light and common occasions.

"At the end of the passage into a sepulchre near Thebes," says James Bruce, "is the picture of a man playing upon the harp, painted in fresco, and quite entire. To guess by the detail of the figure, the painter should have had about the same degree of merit as a good sign-painter of the present day; yet he has represented the action of the musician in a manner not to be mistaken. His left hand seems employed in the upper part of the instrument among the notes in alto, as if in an arpeggio; while, stooping forwards, he seems with his right hand to be beginning with the lowest string, and promising to ascend with the most rapid execution; this action, so obviously rendered by

The following account of the progress of music is chiefly condensed from Dr. Burney's elaborate work on the subject.

Description of the Theban harp.

an indifferent artist, shows that it was a common one in his time, or, in other words, that great hands were then frequent, and consequently that music was well understood and diligently followed.

"If we allow the performer's stature to be about five feet ten inches, then we may compute the harp in its extreme length to be something less than six feet and a half. It seems to support itself in equilibrio on its base, and needs only the player's guidance to keep it steady. It has thirteen strings; the length of these, and the force and liberty with which they are treated, show that they are made in a very different manner from those of the lyre.

"This instrument is of a much more elegant form than the triangular Grecian harp. It wants the forepiece of the frame opposite to the longest string, which certainly must have improved its tone, but must likewise have rendered the instrument itself weaker and more liable to accidents.

"The principles upon which the harp is constructed are rational and ingenious; the ornamental parts are likewise executed in the very best manner. Besides the elegance of its form, we must observe how near it approached to a perfect instrument; for it wanted only two strings of having two complete octaves in compass. Whether these were intentionally omitted, we cannot now determine, as we have no idea of the music or taste of that time; but if the harp be painted in the proportions in which it was made, it might be demonstrated that it could not bear more than the thirteen strings with which it was furnished. Indeed, the cross-bar would break with the tension of the four longest, if they were made of the size and consistence, and tuned to the pitch that ours are at present."

This instrument is probably the Theban harp, before and at

Music of the Hebrews.-Earliest musicians.

the time of Sesostris, who adorned Thebes, and probably caused it to be painted there, as well as the other figures in the sepulchre of his father.

There is little doubt that the Egyptians had, in the most flourishing times of their empire, a music and instruments of their own, far superior to those of other countries less civilized and refined; that after their subjugation by the Persians, this music and these instruments were lost: but under the Ptolemies, music, together with the other arts of Greece, were brought into Egypt and encouraged at the court of Alexandria, more than at any other place in the known world, till the captivity of Cleopatra, an event with which both the empire and the history of the Egyptians ceased.

MUSIC OF THE HEBREWS.

Jubal is the only musician before the flood, whose name is recorded. The next mention of music in the Scriptures, is in the time of Laban the Syrian, who, reproaching his son-in-law Jacob for carrying away his daughters as captives taken with the sword, says, Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me? and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp ?"

The instruments of music mentioned in the Psalms, are the trumpet, harp, tabret, pipe, lute, cymbals, sackbut, shawm, cornet, and timbrel, though some of these are doubtless different translations for the same instrument.

If the least hope remain, that a true idea of Jewish instruments can ever be acquired, it must be from the arch of Titus, at

Arch of Titus.-Modern Jewish music-Grecian music.

Rome, where it is supposed that the spoils brought from Jerusalem by that emperor, have been exactly represented in sculpture. Among these are several musical instruments, particularly the silver trumpets, called by the Hebrews, chatzolzeroth; and horns, supposed to resemble the shawms, mentioned so often in the Scripture, called in Hebrew, keranim, or sacerdotal trumpets. But the arch upon which these instruments are sculptured, though, according to Venuti, of excellent workmanship, was not erected till after the death of Titus; and, to say the truth, the instruments are of no uncommon form. The trumpets are long, straight tubes, as modern trumpets would be if not folded up for the convenience of the player; and the horns are such as often occur in ancient sculpture.

With regard to modern Jewish music, instrumental and vocal performances have been almost banished since the destruction of Jerusalem, and the little music now used is a modern license; for the Jews, from a passage in one of the prophets, think it unfit to sing or rejoice before the coming of the Messiah, till then, they are bound to mourn and repent in silence: the only Jews who have a regular musical establishment in their synagogues, are the Germans, who sing in parts; and these preserve some old melodies, or species of chants, which are thought to be very

ancient.

GRECIAN MUSIC.

The earlier Greek musicians, Chiron, Amphion, Orpheus, Linus, and Musæus, were also poets who sang their verses to the sound of the lyre, thus instructing mankind in the rude traditions of their times. It has been imagined, with great appearance of truth, that the occupation of the first poets and musicians of