THE NEW MONTHLY BELLE ASSEMBLÉE. MARCH, 1850. A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. CHAP. III. We now come to the era of the Trojan war, a period of which our chief knowledge is derived from the poems of Homer, the " great sire of song." The date of this event, as well as the age of Homer, is a disputed point amongst chronologists. The weight of evidence, however, seems to place the date of this celebrated siege about 1185 B.C. The diversity of opinion as to dates does not appear to affect the statements of the poet, either as to men or things; for implicit reliance appears to have been always placed in them. Music is mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey upwards of fifty times, and always with rapture. It is, however, invariably, so closely connected with Poetry, that it is difficult to discriminate to which science the poet's praises belong. The lyre, indeed, is constantly in the hands of the bard, but merely as an accompaniment to the voice. Of mere instrumental music, no traces appear in the works of Homer. Even dancing seems to have been accompanied by the voice: "Then to the dance they form the vocal strain, Till Hesperus leads forth the starry train." Odyssey, book 15. The probable real state of Music in Homer's time will be most accurately ascertained by the enumeration of the only instruments mentioned in the original poems. These are the three ancient favourites already described-the syrinx, the flute, and the lyre; we may justly conclude, therefore, that no others were known at the time of the Trojan war. That the Greeks, and before them the Egyptians and Hebrews, employed music in solemn sacrifices, as well as upon joyful occasions, is so certain and well known, that illustrations are almost unnecessary. Death was the only god whom it was impossible to propitiate; and, consequently, we learn that he was the only one to whom no altar was erected, and no hymns were sung." mentioned by Homer in a simile; yet it is agreed With respect to military music, the trumpet is that it was unknown to the Greeks during the Trojan war, though perhaps in common use in the poet's time. Heralds performed the trumpet's office during the siege of Troy; and the vociferous Stentor is immortalized by Homer as the most illustrious throat-performer of antiquity. "Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs, Whose throat surpassed the noise of fifty tongues." Iliad, book 5. The use of music in private life occurs continually in Homer's poems. In his time it was considered so essential an accomplishment for princes, that both Achilles and Paris are represented as performers on the lyre. The former, when in resentment for the loss of his mistress, and visited during his retirement by his friends, is found in his tent, soothing his irritated feelings by singing and playing on the harp : "Amus'd at ease the godlike man they found, Pleas'd with the solemn harp's harmonious sound." Iliad, book 9. Not only the heroes of Homer are musical, but some of his divinities. He seems to have been peculiarly sensible of the charms of music, of which, and its effects, the Iliad and the Odyssey contain many exquisite descriptions. In the rapturous language which he employs on the subject, and the variety of his beautiful allusions to it, he, more nearly than any other K poet, approaches our Shakspere, the unrivalled | Funeral Games celebrated in honour of Achilles. eulogist of Music. Homer has celebrated several bards in his poems; and from what he says of them, it is quite evident that they resembled the Scalds or Bards of the northern nations of Europe. They sang their poems extempore, in the streets of cities, and palaces of princes, where they were treated with the greatest respect; and they claimed for themselves the powers of inspira tion. Thucydides says, that in very remote antiquity there were games of bodily exercise, and of music, in which cities exhibited their respective choruses." At Olympia, however, poetical and musical contests were subordinate to the athletic and gymnastic exercises; though even these were accompanied by the flute; as was also the chariot-race; while the trumpet was used during the horse-race. In the 96th Olympiad (396 B.C.), a prize was instituted at the Olympic Games, for the best performer on the trumpet; so that we may suppose this to have been the first solo instrument in use among the ancients. Yet the performers on the trumpet seem to have been merely heralds, who sounded signals at the public Games and religious ceremonies; for which purpose we may judge that the greatest As a further proof that musical contests formed a part of the exhibitions at the Olympic games, we need only observe that the Emperor Nero, who regarded every great musician as his rival, disputed the prize in music there, in all its forms, submitting to all the preparatory discipline and rigorous laws during performance. From Homer to Sappho (who flourished upwards of 600 B.C.) there is nearly a total blank in the annals of the Arts; but in the interval we know that several eminent musicians lived, and that a great improvement took place in Grecian Music. The following are the most distinguished musicians of this period:-Thaletes, of Crete, who was an excellent flutist and singer; Eume-noise was considered the greatest excellence! lus, who wrote the history of his country in the shape of an historical ballad; Archilochus, of Paros, who is considered to have been the inventor of lyric poetry, and dramatic melody; Olympus, the Phrygian, said to have been a descendant of the first Olympus, already mentioned; Terpander, and Tyrtæus: the former is looked upon as the inventor of musical notation, an art of the utmost importance for ascertaining and preserving melody, which before his time was traditional, and wholly dependent on memory. His name is also rendered illustrious by his hymns for the cithara in heroic verse, as well as by his performances both upon that instrument and the flute, by which he successively won four prizes at the Pythic games. Tyrtaus, an Athenian general, and musician, is celebrated by all antiquity for the composition of military songs and airs, as well as the performance of them. The Spartans paid him the greatest honours; and it was their practice that the soldiers, before going on a military expedition, were summoned to the king's tent, to listen to his warlike songs. On one occasion, when the battle was going against the Lacedæmonians, to whom he was acting the part of a musician, he suddenly quitted the soft Lydian mode, and began to play in the bold Phrygian, which so re-animated the retiring troops, that they returned to the charge, and gained the victory. This account is given by the Greek historian, Thucydides. The institution of the Pythic Games has already been hinted at, when the god Apollo was the subject before us. They consisted at the first of poetical and musical contests only, and the prize was adjudged to him who had written and sung the best hymn in honour of Apollo. At the first celebration of these Games, it is said that Hesiod was refused admission among the candidates, on account of his inability to accompany himself on the lyre; and that Homer, though he went to Delphos to consult the oracle, yet on account of his blindness and infirmities, made but little use of his talent of singing and playing upon the lyre at the same time. Hence it appears, that though musical contests were, perhaps, not ranked among the regular and established exercises of the Olympic Games, no others were admitted in the Pythic during the first ages of their celebration. However, about 591 B.C., several other kinds of combats were united with the musical contests at Delphos, and afterwards constantly repeated in the second year of each Olympiad. Dr. Burney, quoting from Pausanias, says, "From this time there were prizes, not only for the musicians who sung best to the accompaniment of the cithara, the only object of contention at the original institution of these Games, but others, both to such as should sing best to the accom paniment of the flute, and to those who, with the greatest precision and taste, played on that instrument alone, without singing. Here began In the year 776 B.C., the Olympic Games be- the separation between Music and Poetry; all gan to be regularly celebrated once in about four previous trials of skill having been confined to years. "All the Grecian games," says Dr. Bur- vocal music, accompanied indeed by instruments, ney, seem to have originated from the honours but where poetry was materially concerned. paid to deceased heroes by their surviving friends The chief poets and musicians of this period at their obsequies;" but in process of time they were Sappho, Simonides, and Pindar-names became of general importance to all the states of too well known to need any comment. Greece. "Though Homer does not mention | No proofs need be cited of Music having the Olympic Games, he minutely describes the been used at the Nemean and Isthmian Games, We are now insensibly led to consider what share Music had in the four principal or Sacred Games of the ancient Greeks-the Olympic, the Pythic, the Namaæan, and the Isthurian Games. A very superficial glance, however, is all we shall be able to bestow upon this copious subject. 66 for the fact seems sufficiently authenticated and admitted; and as the accounts of these given by Dr. Burney and others, present neither persons nor events of consequence or interest, we shall pass on to the two solemn festivals of Athens, known under the denomination of Panathencan Games. These were of very high antiquity, their institution being ascribed to Orpheus, in honour of the goddess Minerva, the patroness of that city. Foot and horseraces, athletic exercises, and poetical and musical contests, took place on these occasions. The last are said to have been founded by Pericles. Singers of the greatest eminence, accompanied by performers on the flute and cithara, exercised their talents here upon subjects prescribed by the directors of these exhibitions. Premiums were likewise given to players on the flute-an instrument in the highest esteem throughout Greece, but in particular request at Athens; perhaps from the legendary account of its invention by Minerva, the protectress of that city. information concerning several particulars relative to her father Nereus, and the watery element, that are quite out of my ken, I was in hopes of obtaining some satisfaction from this fish; but he tells me that he is too young and ignorant to be able to satisfy my curiosity, and refers me to that grown gentleman before your majesty, who is much better acquainted with aquatic affairs." The tyrant understood him, and had the complaisance to send him the turbot. But though, from this instance, he appears to have been high in favour with Dionysius, he afterwards proved so awkward a courtier, that he preferred the labour of carrying stones from a quarry to the disgust of praising the bad verses of his patron. Antigenides was, in his youth, flute-player in ordinary to Philoxenus, and accompanied him in the musical airs which he had set to his own verses. It was therefore no wonder that he should have, in his turn, disciples of the first class himself, and be caressed by the greatest The institution of prizes for instrumental princes. Plutarch attributes to him the transmusic, must have eminently promoted the im- porting Alexander to such a degree by his perprovement of that branch of the Art. It is cer- formance at a banquet, that he seized his arms, tain, however, that very soon a noisy and vo- and was on the point of attacking his guests. ciferous style of music was introduced at these The Lacedæmonians had a song, which said, Games. Lucian speaks of a young flute-player, that "a good performer on the flute would make a named Harmonides, who, on his first public ap- man brave every danger, and face even IRON pearance at thein, began a solo with so violent a itself." Notwithstanding this musician was so blast, intending to surprise and elevate the audi- high in reputation, he seemed to regard public ence, that he breathed his last breath into his favour as a precarious possession, and was never flute, and died on the spot. And it is also re-elated by the applause of the multitude. He corded, that the trumpet-players at these exhibitions were overjoyed when they found they had neither rent their cheeks nor burst their blood-vessels by their exertions; and they used a capistrum, or bandage, extending round the head, under the ears, with a hole for the mouth, and supported by a transverse piece going over the crown of the head. This was to prevent their cheeks from swelling. Had Shakspere the terrible blasts of these flute-players in his memory, when he penned the line "Blow winds, and crack your checks!" endeavoured to inspire his disciples with the same sentiments; and in order to console one of them, who, though possessed of great abilities, had received but little applause from his audience; "The next time you play," said he, shall be to me and the Muses." Antigenides was so fully persuaded of the coarse taste of the common people, that one day, hearing at a distance a violent burst of applause to a player on the flute, he said, "there must be something very bad in that man's performance, or those people would not be so lavish of their approbation." Antigenides was author of many novelties upon the flute. He increased the number of holes, which extended the compass of the instrument, and probably rendered its tones more flexible, and capable of greater variety. The most noted musicians in connexion with the Athenian Games, were Philoxenus, Antigenides, Dorion, Ismenias, and Lamia-a fluteplayer of the highest merit. Philoxenus was not only a celebrated poet-musician, but also an in- Dorion is mentioned by Plutarch as a flutenovator in music; and ancient musical inno-player who had made several changes in the vators were generally improvers of their art. For instance, Timotheus was publicly censured, and banished from Sparta, for adding three strings to the lyre! Philoxenus seems to have been as much celebrated for his jests as for his musical skill. Being served with a small fish at the table of Dionysius of Syracuse, and seeing an enormous turbot placed before the tyrant, he put the head of the little fish close to his mouth, and pretended to whisper to it; then placed it close to his ear, as if to receive the answer more distinctly. Upon being asked by Dionysius for an explanation of this mummery, he said, "I am writing a poem, sir, upon Galatea, one of the Nereids; and as I want music of his time, and who was the head of a sect of performers, opponents to another sect, of which Antigenides was the chief. Dorion, though much celebrated as a great musician and poet, is better known to posterity as a voluptuary. Both his music and poetry are lost; however, many of his pleasantries are preserved. Supping one night with Nicocreon, in the island of Cyprus, and admiring a rich gold cup that was placed on the sideboard, "The goldsmith will make you just such another," says the prince, "whenever you please." "He'll obey your orders much better than mine, sir," says Dorion; "so let me have that, and do you bespeak another." Upon hearing the description |
