656

MUSIC.

such revolutions, the manners and amusements of the people, aswell as their form of government, must have been changed. Inthe age of the Ptolemies , the musical games and contests institutedby those monarchs were of Greek origin, and the musicians whoperformed were chiefly Greeks. “ The most ancient monumentsof human art and industry, at present extant at Rome , are theobelisks brought thither from Egypt , two of which are said to havebeen erected by Sesostris at Pleliopolis, about 400 years before thesiege of Troy. These were by order of Augustus brought toHome after the conquest of Egypt . One of them called gugliarotta, or the broken pillar, which, during the sacking of the cityin 1527, was thrown down and broken, still lies in the CampusMartius. On it is seen the figure of a musical instrument of twostrings, and with a neck. It resembles much the calascione stillused in the kingdom of Naples. This curious relict of antiquityis mentioned, because it affords better evidence than, on the sub-ject of ancient music, is usually' to be met with, that the Egyp-tians, at so very early a period of their historv, had advanced to aconsiderable degree of excellence in the cultivation of the arts.By means of its neck, this instrument was capable, with only twostrings, of producing a great number of notes. These two strings,if tuned fourths to each other, would furnish that series of soundscalled by the ancients heptachord, which consists of a conjuncttetrachord as B, C, D, E : E, F, G, A ; if tuned fifths, they wouldproduce an octave, or two disjunct tetrachords. The calas-cione is tuned in this last manner. The annals of no nationother than Egypt , for many ages after the period of the obe-lisk at Pleliopolis, exhibit the vestige of any contrivance toshorten strings during the performance by a neck or finger-board.Father Montfaucon observes, that after examining 500 ancientlyres, harps, and citharas, he could discover no such thing.”“ The Hermes of the Egyptians, (continues Mr. Morison) sur-named Trismegistus , or thrice illustrious, who was, according toSir Isaac Newton, the secretary of Osiris , is celebrated as the in-ventor of music. No one person ought strictly to be called theinventor of an art which seems to be natural to, and coeval with,the human species; but the Egyptian Mercury is without doubtentitled to the praise of having made striking improvements in music,as well as of having advanced in various respects the civilization ofthe people, whose government was chiefly committed to his charge.”The Monaulos, or single flute, called by the Egyptians pho-tinx, was probably one of the most ancient instruments used eitherby them or any other nation. From various remains of ancientsculpture, it appears to have been shaped like a bull’s horn, andwas at first, it may be supposed, no other than the horn itself. Be-fore the invention of flutes, as no other instrument except (hose ofpercussion were known, music must have been little more thanmetrical. When the art of refining and lengthening sounds wasdiscovered, the power of music over mankind, from the agree-able surprise occasioned by soft and extended notes, was proba-bly irresistible. At a time when all the rest of the world was in-volved in savage ignorance, the Egyptians were possessed of mu-sical instruments capable of much variety and expression. Of thisthe astonishing remains of the citv ci Thebes still subsisting affordample evidence. In a letter from Mr. Bruce, ingrossed in Dr.Burney’s History of Music , there is a particular description of theTheban harp, an instrument of extensive compass, accompaniedwith a drawing taken from the ruins of an ancient sepulchre atThebes , supposed by Mr. Bruce to be that of the father of Si-sos-tris. On the subject of this harp, Mr. Bruce makes the followingstriking observation : It overturns all the accounts of the earlieststate of ancient music and instruments in Egypt , and is altogether,in its form, ornaments, and compass, an incontestable proof, stron-ger than a thousand Greek quotations, that geometry, drawing,mechanics, and music, were at the greatest perfection when thisharp was made. It cannot be doubted, that during the reigns ofthe Pto'emies, music must have been much cultivated. The fa-ther of CDoputra, the last of that race, derived his title of Auletes ,or fluteplayt r, from his excessive attachment to the flute. LikeNero , he used to array himself in the dress of a tibicen, and ex-hibit his performance in the public musical contests. The sacredScriptures atlord almost the only materials from which any know-ledge of Hebrew music can be drawn. Moses, who led the Is-raelites out of Egypt, was educated by Pharaoh ’s daughter, in allthe literature and elegant arts of that country. The taste and

style of Egyptian music would therefore be infused into that of theHebrews. Music appears to have been interwoven through thewhole tissue of religious ceremony in Palestine. The priesthoodseem to have been musicians hereditarily and by office. Theprophets accompanied their inspired effusions with music ; andevery prophet seems to have been accompanied by a musical in-strument. Music, vocal and instrumental, constituted a greatpart ofthe funeral-ceremonies of the Jews . The number of llute-players in the processions amounted sometimesto several hundreds,and Ihe attendance of the guests continued frequently for 30 days.(Josephus. 1. 3, c. 9.) The Hebrew language abounds with con-sonants, and has so few vowels, that in the original alphabet theyhad no characters. Their instruments of music were chiefly thoseof percussion ; so that, both on account of tire language and theinstruments, the music must have been coarse and noisy'. Thevast numbers of performers too, whom they collected together,could with such language and such instruments produce nothinghut clamour and jargon. Josephus says, there were 200,000 mu-sicians at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. Cadmus , with thePhoenician colony which he led into Greece , imported at the sametime various arts into that country. That chief discovered gold inThrace and copper at Thebes , where it is still termed Cadmia.Of these materials, and of iron, they formed instrumens of war.These they struck against each other during their dances at sa-crifices, by which they first obtained the idea of instrumental mu-sic. Such is the origin of that species of music in Greece , pro-duced by instruments of percussion. The invention of wind-in-struments is attributed to Minerva; and to the Grecian Mercuryis assigned the honour of many discoveries probably due to theEgyptian Hermes , particularly the invention of stringed instru-ments.” See Lyre . The Grecian lyre, though invented byMercury, was cultivated principally by Apollo , who first playedupon it with method, and accompanied it with the voice. Thecelebrated contest between him and Marsyas is mentioned by va-rious authors; in which, by conjoining the voice with his lyre,his music was declared superior to the tiute of Marsyas . Diodo-rus Sir ulus says, “The Muses added to the Grecian lyre the stringcalled mese ; Linus that of lichanos ; and Orpheus and ThamyraS those strings which are named hypate and parhypate.” The lyreinvented by the Egyptian Merrury had but three strings. Mese,in the Greek music, is the fourth sound of the second tetrachordofthe great system, and first tetrachord invented by the ancients,answering to our A, on the fifth line in the base. If this soundthen was added to the former three, it proves that the most ancienttetrachord was that from E. in the base to A ; and that the threeoriginal strings in the Mercurian and Apollonian lyre were tunedE, F, G, which the Greeks call hypate meson, parhypate meson,and meson diatonos : the addition, therefore, of mese to thesecompleted the first and most ancient tetrachord, E, F, G, A. 'I hestring lichanos again being added to these, and answering to oufD on the third line in the base, extended the compass downwards?and gave the ancient lyre a regular series of five sounds. The twostrings hypate and parhypate, corresponding with our B and C 111the base, completed the heptachord or seven sounds, b, c, d, e ’ (f, g, a; a compass which received no addition till after the days oiPindar . It has been imagined, that the occupation of the fi rs fpoets and musicians of Greece resembled that of the Celtic au tlGerman Bards, and the Scalds of Iceland and Scandinavia. '1 b<Tsung their poems in the streets of cities and palaces of princes-They were treated with high respect, ami regarded as inspire 4 *'Such was the employment of Homer . His poems exhibit tl* cmost authentic picture of the times of which he wrote, and in whichhe lived. Music is always named throughout the Iliad an*Odyssey with rapture. The instruments most frequently nam etare the lyre, the (lute, and thc r •.imivirs n° .

ic syrinx. The trumpet appears nos siege of Troy. From thetiin*’ 0

to have been known at the siege ot 1 roy. ...

Homer till that of Sappho , only a few fragments remain ot tl^works of those poets and musicians, who flourished bet ween thoseperiods. During the century which elapsed between Sappho anAnacreon , no literary productions are preserved entire. I’, 10 .",Anacreon to Pindar there is another chasm of near a century', kusequent to this time, the works still extant of ./Esehylus, Sophoch.s?Euripides, Plato, Aristotle , Arisloxenus, Euclid, Theocriffi?Callimachus , Polybius, See. produced all within less than 3years, distinguish this illustrious period, as that in which the wl)°