MUSIC , [ftovo-cw, Gr.] the art of combining sounds in a man-ner agreeable to the ear. This combination may be either simul-taneous or successive : in the first case it constitutes harmony ; intlie last, melody. Hut though the same sounds, or intervals ofsound, which give pleasure when heard in succession, will not al-ways produce the same effect in harmony ; yet the principleswhich constitute the simpler and more perfect kinds of harmonyare mostly, if not entirely, the same with those of melody. Byperfect harmony, we do not here mean that plenitude, those com-plex modifications of harmonic sound, which are admired in prac-tice ; but that harmony which is called perfect by theoricians andartists ; that harmony which results from the coalescence of simul-taneous sounds produced by vibrations in the proportions of thirds,filths, and octaves, or their duplicates. The principles upon whichthese various combinations of sound are founded, and by whichthey are regulated, constitute a science, which is not only exten-sive but profound, when we would investigate ihe principles from'vhich these happy mollifications of sound result, and bv whichthey are determined ; or when we would explore the sensations,whether mental or corporeal, with which they affect us. The firstand most capital division of this science is into speculative andpractical music.
Speculative Music is the knowledge of the nature and useof (hose materials w hich compose it; or of all the different rela-tions between the high and low, between the harsh and the sweet,between the swift and tlie slow, between the strong and the weak,of which sounds are susceptible : relations which, comprehendingall the possible combinations of music and sounds, seem likewiseto comprehend all the causes of the impressions which their suc-cession can make upon the ear and upon the soul.
Practical Music is the art of applying and reducing to prac-tice those principles which, result from the theory of agreeablesounds, whether simultaneous or successive ; or of conducting andarranging sounds according to the proportions resulting from con-sonance, duration, and succession, so as to produce upon the earthe effect which the composer intends. 'Phis is the art which wccall composition. With respect to the actual production of soundsby voices or instruments, which is called execution, this depart-ment is merely mechanical and operative: which, only’presup-posing tiie powers of sounding the intervals true, demands noother knowledge, but a familiar acquaintance with the charactersused in music, and a habit of expressing them with promptitudeWild facility.
_ Speculative Music is likewise divided into two departments;v iz. the knowledge of the proportions of sounds or their intervals,a nd that of their relative durations ; that is to say, of measure andof time. The first is wind among the ancients seems to have beencalled harmonica! music. Jl shews in what the nature of air ormelody consists; and discovers what is consonant or discordant,agreeable or disagreeable, in (lie modulation. It discovers theeffects which sounds produce on the ear by their nature, theirforce, and their intervals ; which is equally applicable to theirConsonance and succession. The second has been called rhyth-mical, because it treats of sounds with resard to their time 'andQuantity. It contains the explication of their continuance, of theirproportions of their measures, whether long or short, quick orslow, of the different modes of time, and the parts into which theyj? re divided, that to these the succession of sounds may be con-formed.
Practical Music is likewise divided into two departments,I ’ich correspond to the two preceding. That which answers toborinonical music, and which the ancients called melopfee, teachesle rules for combining and varying the intervals, whether conso-Rant or dissonant, in an agreeable and harmonious manner. Thesecond, which answers to the rhythmical music, and which they^ ; dleci rhythmopee, contains the rules for applying the differentRhodes of time, tor understanding the feet by which verses were‘Canned, and the diversities of measure ; in a word, for the prac-*ce ol the rhythmus.
Music is at present divided more simply info melody and har-mony ; for since the introduction of harmony the proportion be-tween the length and shortness of sounds, or even that between thedistance of returning cadences, are of less consequence. For itoften happens in modern languages, that the verses assume theirmeasures from the musical air, and almost entirely lose the smallshare of proportion and quantity which in themselves they possess.By melody the successions of sound are regulated in such a man-ner as to produce pleasing airs. Harmony consists in uniting toeach of tlie sounds, in a regular succession, tivo or more differentsounds, which simultaneously striking the ear soothe it by their-concurrence. See Harmony .
The ancient history of music, even among the most cultivatednations, is now entirely lost, or so unhappily obscured, that wecan make but few certain or satisfactory discoveries in it. And asno annals could be transmitted to posterity of that music whichprevailed among such people as are called barbarous, our accountsof it must be still less authentic and satisfactory than those of theformer. Even at periods which are more recent, and may there-fore be thought more withiu the sphere of our investigation, wcare at a loss both for the tsras and the authors of some essential im-provements in music. Kircher and many others inform us, thatmusic prevailed in Egypt before it was known in Greece . Theseauthors derive its name from a word which is primitive in theEgyptian language, and attribute tlie invention of the art to the: stridulous murmur of the winds whistling through reeds, or othervegetable tubes, which grew up on the banks of the river Nile .But if this legendary account of the discovery merits any atten-tion, it must relate to instrumental music alone ; for it cannot beimagined that mankind, if in the least attentive to the natural mo-dulation of their own voices, would have recourse for their ideasof melody to objects so extrinsic and so contingent as the whist-ling of winds through reeds. “ The origin of instrumental music(says a writer in the English Encyclopaedia, ) appears to have beenat a period much prior to the date of authentic history ; and whenwe look for its epocii or its discoverer, we are curried at once intothe wild regions of fable and mythology. The god Mercury, orHermes , is said to have been the inventor of the lyre, by r distend-ing strings of different tensions and diameters upon the shell of atortoise which he found upon the shore. See. Lyre . The firstexhibition of the fistula, or shepherd’s-pipe, is ascribed to Pan.But of these persons and their actions, little or nothing can he as-certained with proper evidence.” In fact, we do not need to ran-sact mythology or fabulous history for the origin of this science.We have the most authentic accounts ot the origin of instrumentalmusic, that the most scrupulous antiquarian can desire. Mosesexpressly records, that musical instruments were made before tlietlood ; and that Jubal, the seventh in descent from Adam, by hiseldest son Cain, “ was the father (or instructor) of all such as han-.die the bar]) and organ.” (G en. iv. 21.) The ingenious WilliamMaxwell M orison, lE.q. is therefore evidently mistaken, when heaffirms, in his History of Music prefixed to that article in the En-cyclopedia Britannic?, that, because ” No nation has been ableto produce proofs of antiquity so indisputable as the Egyptians,'itwould be vain to attempt tracing music higher than the history-ofEgypt .” We may safely, however, put confidence in whaGfol-lows, of that ingenious gentleman's in.-tory at this art— rc By com-paring the accounts (he adds,) of Diodorus Siculus and of Plato ,there is reason to supoose, that in very ancient times tiie study ofmusic in Egypt was ei.dined to the priesthood, who used it onlyon religious and solemn occasions; that, as well as sculpture, itwas circumscribed by law; tiiat it was esteemed sacred, and for-bidden to be employed on light or common occasions ; and thatinnovation in it was prohibited : but what the style or relative ex-cellence of this verv ancient music was, there are no traces bvwhich we can form an accurate judgement. Alter the reigns ofthe Pharaohs , the Egyptians fell bj’ turns under the dominion ofthe Ethiopians,, the Persians , the Greeks,, and tlie Romans- By
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