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Opinions of Pythagoras.-Musical ratios.-Discoveries of Euclid.

as divine music, mundane music, elementary music, and many other divisions and subdivisions, upon which the old writers never fail to expatiate with wonderful complaisance.

Pythagoras is said, by the writers of his life, to have regarded music as something divine, and to have had such an opinion of its power over the human affections that, according to the Egyptian system, he ordered his disciples to be waked every morning, and lulled to sleep every night, by sweet sounds. He likewise considered it as greatly conducive to health, and made use of it in diseases of the body as well as those of the mind. His biographers and secretaries even pretend to tell us what kind of music he applied for these purposes. Grave and solemn, we may be certain; and vocal, say they, was preferred to instrumental; and the lyre to the flute, not only for its gravity, but because instruction could be conveyed to the mind, by means of singing at the same time the ear was delighted. This was said to have been the opinion of Minerva. In very high antiquity, mankind gave human wisdom to their gods, and afterwards took it from them to bestow it upon mortals.

As Pythagoras was the discoverer of musical ratios, by the subdivision of a monochord, or single string, which before, a tradition only had preserved, Euclid was the first who wrote upon the subject, and reduced these divisions to a mathematical demonstration. Of all the writings upon ancient music that have come down to us, his seem to be the most correct and compressed.

Euclid was the first who demonstrated that an octave is somewhat less than six whole tones. What Aristoxenus called a half-tone, Euclid proved to be a smaller interval, in the proportion of 2, 5, 6, to 2, 4, 3. Didymus, cotemporary with Nero, was the first who introduced the minor tone into the scale, and, con

Ptolemy.-Music of the early Romans.

sequently, the practical major 3d 4-5th, which harmonized the whole system, and pointed out the road to counterpoint, an honour that most critics have bestowed upon Ptolemy, he seems to have a better title to the invention of modern harmony, or music in parts, than Guido.

Ptolemy having a facility, and, perhaps, a pleasure, in calculating, seems to have sported with the scale, and wantonly to have tried confusions, by dissecting and torturing it in all possible ways; and, though one of his many systems suits our present practice, it is not to be imagined that it was designedly calculated for the use of counterpoint, which was far from his thoughts. It seems, however, as if music in parts was first suggested by this arrangement of the interval; for the 3ds and 6ths, which were before so harsh and crude as to be deservedly ranked among the discords, were now softened and sweetened into that grateful coincidence with which modern ears are so much delighted. It was impossible, after hearing them, for lovers of music not to feel the charms arising from the combination and succession of these consonances; and it was from this time that the seeds of that harmony, which may be said, in a less mysterious sense than that of Pythagoras, to be implanted in our nature, began to spring up. They were certainly of slow growth, as no good fruit was proluced from them for more than one thousand years after; but arts, like animals to whom great longevity is allowed, have a long infancy and childhood, before adolescence and maturity

come on.

The Romans had, in very high antiquity, a rude and coarse music of their own, and had imitated the Etruscan musical establishments, both in their army and temples.

The first Roman triumph, according to Dionysius, was that of Romulus over the Caninenses; in which, clad in a purple

Etruscan remains.

robe, he was drawn in a chariot by four horses; the rest of the army, horse and foot, followed, ranged in three several divisions, hymning their gods in songs of their country, and celebrating their general in extemporary verses. This account affords a very venerable origin to the improvisatori of Italy; as the event happened in the fourth year of Rome, 749 years before Christ, and fourth year of the seventh Olympiad.

Servius Tullius, who began his reign 578 B. C., ordained that two whole centuries should consist of trumpeters, blowers of the horn, &c., and of such as, without any instruments, sounded the charge. This shows the number and the importance of military musicians in the Roman state, nearly 600 years before Christ.

With respect to Etruscan music, whoever regards the great number of instruments represented in the fine collection of antiquities, published under the patronage of Sir William Hamilton, must be convinced that the ancient inhabitants of Etruria were extremely attached to music; for every species of musical instrument that is to be found in the remains of ancient Greek sculptre is delineated on the vases of these collections; though the antiquity of some of them is imagined to be much higher than the general use of the instruments represented upon them in Greece

Early Church Music.

WITH respect to the music that was first used by the Christians or established in the church by the first emperors that were converted, as no specimens remain, it is difficult to

Chanting the Psalms.—Lyric hymns.—Ambrosian chants.

determine of what kind it was. That some part of the sacred music of the apostles, and their immediate successors, in Palestine and the adjacent countries, may have been such as was used by the Hebrews, particularly in chanting the Psalms, is probable; but it is no less probable, that the music of the hymns which were first received in the church, wherever Paganism had prevailed, resembled that which had been for many ages used in the temple worship of the Greeks and Romans. Of this, the versification of those hymns affords an indisputable proof, as it by no means resembles that of the Psalms, or of any other Hebrew poetry; and examples may be found in the breviaries, missals, and antiphonaries, ancient and modern, of every species of versification which has been practised by the Greek and Roman poets, particularly the lyric; such as the Alcmanian, Alcæic, and Sapphic. And Eusebius, in speaking of the consecration of churches throughout the Roman dominions, in the time of Constantine, says, that "there was one common consent in chanting forth the praises of God; the performance of the service was exact; the rights of the church decent and majestic; and there was a place appointed for those who sung psalms." It was during this reign the the Ambrosian chant was established in the church at Milan. St. Augustine speaks of the great delight he received on hearing the psalms and hymns sung there, at his first entrance into the church after his conversion. The voices," says he, "flowed in at my ears, truth was distilled in my heart, and the affection of piety overflowed in sweet tears of joy." He afterwards gives an account of the origin of singing in the church service, at Milan, in the eastern manner. "The church of Milan," says he, "had not long before begun to practise this way of mutual consolation and exhortation, with a joint harmony of voices and hearts."

Antiphonal singing.-Pope Gregory.

Music is said by some of the fathers to have frequently drawn the Gentiles into the church through mere curiosity; many of whom liked its ceremonies so well, that they were baptized before their departure.

St. Ignatius who had conversed with the apostles, is generally supposed to have been the first who proposed to the primitive Christians in the East, the method of singing psalms or hymns alternately, or in dialogue; dividing the singers in two bands or choirs, placed on different sides of the church. This is called antiphona; and the custom soon prevailed in every place where Christianity was established.

Ecclesiastical writers seem unanimous in allowing, that it was the learned and active pope, Gregory the Great, (who began his pontificate in 590,) who collected the musical fragments of such ancient hymns and psalms, as the first fathers of the church had approved, and recommended them to the primitive Christians; and, that he selected, methodized, and arranged them in the order which was long continued at Rome, and soon adopted by the chief part of the western church. It is probable, that Pope Gregory was rather a compiler than a composer of ecclesiastical chants, as music had been established in the church long before his time.

After the most diligent inquiry concerning the time when instrumental music had admission into the ecclesiastical service, there is reason to conclude, that, before the reign of Constantine, as the converts to Christianity were subject to frequent persecution and disturbance in their devotion, the use of instruments could hardly have been practicable, and by all that can be collected from the writings of the primitive Christians, they seem never to have been admitted. But after the full establishment of Christianity, as the national religion of the whole Roman empire, they were used in great festivals.

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