TO ALL
Lovers of MUSICK.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
ersons of Eminence, Rank, Quality, and a distinguishing Taste in any particular Art or Science, are always in View of Authors who want a Patron for that Art or Science, which they endeavour to recommend and promote. No wonder therefore, I should have fix'd my Mind on You, to patronize the following Treatise.
If there are Charms in Musick in general, all the reasonable World agrees, that the Vocal has the Pre-eminence, both from Nature and Art above the Instrumental: From Nature because without doubt it was the first; from Art, because thereby the Voice may be brought to express Sounds with greater Nicety and Exactness than Instruments.
The Charms of the human Voice, even in Speaking, are very powerful. It is well known, that in Oratory a just Modulation of it is of the highest Consequence. The Care Antiquity took to bring it to Perfection, is a sufficient Demonstration of the Opinion they had of its Power; and every body, who has a discerning Faculty, may have experienced that sometimes a Discourse, by the Power of the Orator's Voice, has made an Impression, which was lost in the Reading.