THE MUSICIAN.
1. The word Music, in its modern application, has reference to the science which treats of the combination of sounds. It is founded upon the law of our nature, that every leading passion has its peculiar tone or note of expression understood by all human beings. Music, therefore, may be supposed to have been practised in the earliest ages; although it must have been a long time before it arose to the importance of a science.
2. According to the Mosaic records, Jubal, one of the descendants of Cain, played upon musical instruments, many hundred years before the flood. In the early period of the nations of antiquity, and in fact among all semi-barbarous people of later periods, the character of poet and singer were united in the same individual; and the voice was frequently accompanied by musical instruments. The oldest song which has descended to our times, and which is stated to have been exhibited in this manner, was that sung by Miriam, the sister of Moses, on the occasion of the passage of the Red Sea by the children of Israel.
3. The Hebrews employed music in their celebration of religious worship, which consisted, in part, in chanting solemn psalms with instrumental accompaniments. It was also used by them on the occasion of entertainments, as well as in the family circle. It reached its greatest perfection amongst the Jews, in the days of David and Solomon. It is supposed, that the priests of Egypt were versed in music, before the settlement of the family of Jacob in that country; but how far the Israelites were indebted to them for a knowledge of this pleasing art, is altogether uncertain.
4. Music was held in very high estimation among the Greeks, who attributed to it incredible effects. They even assure us that it is the chief amusement of the gods, and the principal employment of the blessed in heaven. Many of their laws, and the information relative to the gods and heroes, as well as exhortations to virtue, were written in verse, and sung publicly in chorus to the sound of instruments.
5. It was the opinion of the philosophers of Greece, that music was necessary to mould the character of a nation to virtue; and Plato asserts, that the music of his countrymen could not be altered, without affecting the constitution of the state itself. But in his time and afterwards, complaints were made of the degeneracy in this art, and a deterioration of national manners through its influence. The degeneracy probably consisted in its application to the expression of the tender passions; it having been previously applied, in most cases, to awaken patriotic and religious feeling.
6. The invention of music and of musical instruments, as in the cases of most of the arts and sciences among the Greeks, was attributed by the poets to some of the gods, or else to individuals of their own nation. It appears, however, from their traditions, that they received this art, or at least great improvements in its execution, from Phœnicia or Asia Minor. It began to be cultivated scientifically in Greece about 600 years before the advent of Christ.
7. The Romans seem to have derived the music which they employed in religious services from the Etruscans, but that used in war and on the stage from the Greeks. At an early period of their history, it was a great impediment to the progress of the art, that it was practised only by slaves.
8. The Roman orators pitched their voice, and regulated the different intonations through their speech, by the sound of instruments; and on the stage, the song, as well as part of the play itself, was accompanied with flutes. Wind-instruments of various kinds, comprised under the general name of tibiæ, and sometimes the cythera and harp, accompanied the chorus. In all these applications of music, the Romans had been preceded by the Greeks.
9. The Hebrews employed accents to express musical tones, but most other nations of antiquity used letters of the alphabet for this purpose; and, as they had not yet conceived the idea of the octave or parallel lines, to express a variety of tones in a similar manner by the aid of a key, they required a number of notes that must have been exceedingly perplexing.
10. The Greeks are said to have had about one thousand notes, half of which were for vocal, and the other half, for instrumental music. All these were expressed by placing the letters of their alphabet, or parts of them, in different positions. Accents were also used, partly by themselves, and in connexion with the letters.
11. The lines of a poem, set to music, were placed under the letters expressing the tones. The letters for the instrumental part were placed first, and under them those for the voice. The notes of the Greeks and Romans were not required to indicate the time in which they were to be pronounced, since in general the syllables of their language had a natural and distinct quantity. In the cases in which there was a liability to mistake, the syllables were marked with A, if long, and with B, if short.
12. The Romans expressed the fifteen chief tones of the Greeks with the fifteen first letters of the Latin alphabet; and these were reduced to seven, by Pope Gregory I., towards the end of the sixth century; so that the first seven capital letters were used for the first octave, the small letters for the higher octave, and the small letters doubled, for the highest octave. Parallel lines were soon after invented, on which the letters were written.
13. Musical sounds were expressed in this manner until the year 1024, when, according to some authors, Guido Aretine, a monk of Arezzo, invented points and rhombuses. He also introduced the use of five parallel lines, upon and between which his notes were written. The seven letters which had formerly been used as notes, now became clefs.
14. Still, however, the means of determining the duration of sound belonging to each note, without consulting the quantity of syllables in the verses to be sung, were yet to be provided. This desideratum was supplied by one Franco, a German of Cologne, who lived towards the end of the eleventh century. Some, however, attribute this improvement to John de Murs. The division of one note into others of less value was invented, in the sixteenth century, by Jean Mouton, chapel-master to King Francis I. of France.
15. The knowledge of music, as a science, was preserved in Europe, after the overthrow of the Western empire, through the influence of the Church. The apostles, and Hebrew converts generally, had been accustomed to the sacred music of the Jews; and, on this account, it was easy to continue the use of the same psalms and hymns in the Christian Church.
16. Many of the Grecian and Roman melodies were also set to words adapted to Christian worship. In regard to the manner of singing, in the early days of the Church, it was sometimes in solo, sometimes in alternate strains, and at other times in chorus; in which the whole assembly joined, repeating what had been before sung or read. In the fourth century, with the view of securing the proper execution of this part of divine worship, precentors were instituted, who were considered regular officers of the Church.
17. Pope Gregory I., surnamed the Great, distinguished himself by establishing a new singing-school, which became a model for many others, in the western division of the Church. In consequence of these schools, the singing became more artificial; and this, together with the circumstance that the hymns were in Latin, which had become obsolete, at length excluded the people from any participation in this part of the public worship.
18. Gregory also made a selection of the existing songs of the Church, and introduced a chant, which, through his influence, and that of his successors, was at length extended throughout Europe. It received the appellation of the Gregorian chant from his name. It was also called the choral song, because it was sung by a choir. This chant is said to be the foundation of our present church-music.
19. Music, in distinct parts, was not known until after the introduction of the improved method of writing music, invented, as before stated, by Guido Aretine and Franco. The development of harmony, in four parts, was assisted by the choral; but it was more particularly advanced by musical instruments, and especially by the organ. In the fifteenth century, music began again to be treated scientifically.
20. The Reformation produced great changes in the character of sacred music. Before that event took place, this part of religious worship was confined to a few fixed forms of texts, as in the mass, and this is still the case in the Roman Catholic Church; but the Protestants allow great variety both in the poetry and music. Luther's agency in the production of these changes was very considerable. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, church music became continually more brilliant, and always more corrupted, by the intermixture of profane music.
21. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there grew up, at the courts of the European monarchs, the free chamber style, from which arose that which was afterwards used in the theatre. The opera, which originated with three young noblemen at Florence in 1594, has contributed especially to the splendor and variety of modern vocal music, the advancement of which is claimed particularly by the Italians, as that of the instrumental kind is claimed by the Germans and French.
22. The composition of music, and its execution either vocally or instrumentally, as well as the business of imparting a knowledge of it to others, are embraced in the employment of the musician; although it is seldom, that all these branches are practised by one and the same individual. Music is one of the fine arts, and, during the middle ages, was one of the branches of what was then considered a learned education.
23. Since the scientific revival of music, the art has had so many distinguished professors, that we will not even attempt to give a list of their names. Their number was increased, and the art greatly perfected, by the singing-schools, called conservatories, established especially in Italy, either at the public expense, or by the liberality of individuals.