NOTE VI. referred to in p. 305.

A Letter addressed to Mrs. Edward Jerningham,
on Ancient and Modern Music.

MADAM,

I SIT down to perform my promise, of committing to paper, some observations on music. With this view, I shall have the honour to offer you some miscellaneous observations,-I. On the Greek and Roman music : II. On the music of the Middle Ages: in which, 1st, its notation; 2dly, the stave; 3dly, the gamut and hexachords of Guido; 4thly, the division of notes; 5thly, musical bars; and 6thly, music in parts, will be successively mentioned: III. Advancing to modern music, 1st, the Flemish,-2dly, the Italian,—3dly, the German, --and 4thly, the French schools of music will be noticed; -5thly, then the English school of music, adverting occasionally to the anthem, the serious glee, and the oratorio: IV. I shall then notice the attempts in this country to imitate the Italian style of singing: V. And afterwards give some account of the Gregorian chaunt; here I shall mention its chief peculiarities; 1st, that it is confined to unison; 2dly, that it almost absolutely rejects adventitious sharps and flats; 3dly, that the tonic or final note of all its melodies is confined to four notes of the octave; 4thly, its division into eight ecclesiastic tones; 5thly, the peculiar nature of their respective dominant notes; 6thly, the want in each of some tone or semitone, which modern music would require in the series of notes nearest corresponding with it; 7thly, I shall then offer some general remarks: VI. And finish my letter with

our common wish for the restoration of the Gregorian chaunt in the roman-catholic chapels.

I must observe that, in every part of this letter, I speak of the Gregorian chaunt according to the state in which it was left by the first pope of that name; and that, by modern music, I mean that which was introduced in consequence of the hexachords of Guido, and which has been gradually improved from that time to the present. I fear, that I meditate a great trial of your patience.

I.

Greek and Roman Music.

THE Greek music consisted of consecutive tetrachords. In their nomenclature, a tetrachord denoted a series of notes, each of which was a tone, or a half tone. Two consecutive tetrachords are generally exemplified by supposing two series of them; the second placed immediately after and immediately ascending above the first: the lowest note of the lower series being ut, its highest fa: the lowest note of the upper series being sol, its highest ut. The two series, thus placed, compose the modern

octave.

The tetrachord was divided into three scales: the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic. In each, ut and fa, and sol and ut, were permanent or stationary. In the diatonic, the notes, as in the modern scale, were ut, re, mi and fa; or sol, la, si, and ut; and thus consisted of two full tones, and a semitone; in the chromatic, the notes were ut, ut sharp, re and fa; or sol, sol sharp, la and ut ́; and thus consisted of the first note, a semitone, a second semitone, and a minor third. In the enharmonic, the notes were ut, ut raised by a quarter tone, ut raised by a further quarter tone, and fa; or sol, sol raised by a quarter tone, sol raised by a further quarter tone, and ut; and

thus consisted of the first note, the first note raised by a quarter tone, the first note raised by a further quarter tone, and a major third. They were thrown into numerous subdivisions; but these, probably, were rather objects of mathematical research, than rules for practice.

The author of the Young Anacharsis,-(a better scholar than myself would cite a graver authority),-transcribes a passage from a Greek musician, which seems to indicate that the Greeks found it very difficult to sing in the enharmonic scale. At present, it is considered a great difficulty: few voices can rise or fall, without some intermediate gradation, to the quarter tone of a distant note, One of the most scientific musicians in England told me, that he thought it doubtful whether any performer could sound, at once distinctly and rapidly, two consecutive tetrachords in the enharmonic scale.

But the difficulty, however great, was subdued by the Greeks, as the quarter tone regularly occurs in their scale. This, it is extremely difficult to comprehend; and it has been found impossible to adapt a frequency of quarter tones for any practical purpose. The work, in which the Greek system of music appears to be best explained, is a paper of sir George Shuckburgh, (No. 441,) in the Philosophical Transactions. But, without intense study, it is impossible to comprehend it. A few months before he died, doctor Burney said to me, that "he himself "never understood the Greek music, or found any one "that did understand it."

The Romans adopted from the Greeks the diatonic scale; and, partially, at least, the chromatic: but they rejected the enharmonic, and many of the subdivisions of the two other scales.

All modern music is in the diatonic scale, with the occasional admixture of the chromatic semitone, and the enharmonic quarter tone: but the last is very seldom introduced. One is naturally led to suppose, that the

Grecian music admitted a similar admixture; but it seems to be agreed that their airs were either altogether in the diatonic, the chromatic, or the enharmonic scale. every modern ear this must appear impossible.

To

The first of the following diagrams represents the tetrachord in the diatonic scale; the second represents it in the chromatic; the third, in the enharmonic:

But here we must take care to attend to an important distinction in semitones; particularly as those, whose experience in music does not extend beyond keyed instruments, and practising the voice by them, seldom understand it; though, for accurate singing, or accurate performance on a stringed instrument, particular attention to it is absolutely necessary.

In keyed instruments, the short key between the two long keys, serves to represent both the sharp of the note below, and the flat of the note above: but there is a material difference between them; the interval from ut natural to re flat, being greater than that from ut natural to ut sharp. Thus, if we suppose a tone to be divided into eight commas, (which is sufficiently accurate for the purpose under consideration), the interval between ut natural and re natural, will consist of all the eight: and then, the interval between ut natural and re flat, will comprehend five of the eight, and the interval between ut natural and ut sharp, will comprehend three. But we have seen, that, in keyed instruments, the same key serves both for ut sharp and re flat. To remedy, in a certain degree, this imperfection, the tones from sol to la, and from re to mi, are divided in the Temple organ, and on some other organs, into three parts, by two distinct keys, one for sol sharp, and the other for la flat; and one for re sharp, the, other for mi flat.

This general imperfection of keyed instruments has made some professors think that persons, whose singing it is intended to carry to the utmost perfection of which it is susceptible, should be taught by a violin, and not by a forte piano. Mara, it is said, was instructed in this manner. It is to be observed, that the only keyed instrument, which expresses a quarter tone, is the clavichord, an instrument scarcely known in this country; but frequently found on the tables of foreign professors, and in the cells of nuns. It is very portable, and does not disturb the inmates of an adjoining apartment. Accustomed as we are to the grand piano-forte, we think contemptuously of the clavichord: but it was upon the clavichord that the elder Bachs performed their wonders.

II.

The Music of the Middle Ages.

Few things show more than the gamut, how greatly art enters into combinations, apparently natural. Most persons, who have not attentively considered the subject, suppose that the gamut consists of sounds naturally of the power, and naturally rising and falling in the order in which they now stand: so that a child, as soon as his voice is formed, would, of himself, and without the least tuition, sing the gamut both in the ascending and descending series; and make the lowest note of the octave, or, which is the same, the lowest note of the tetrachord, if he sang in the descending series, and the highest of either, if he sang in the ascending series, its ultimate or final note. But, to form the gamut, great mathematical research, and many experiments, were necessary. It was not till the 9th century, that the hexachord was raised to a septenary, and it was not till the 17th, that