MUS
Uo 7 )
MUS
^ U i IC \*?^ denCe ,? fSound ' ""^Sf'das capable of as under pertain regular Meafures ami Proportions, by
producing Melody, or Harmony : or, the Art of difpofing and conducting Sounds, confider'd as grave and acute ; and of proportioning them among themlelves, and feparating them by juft Intervals, pleafing to the Senfe. See Sound. Wlt.Malcolm better defines Mafic, a Science that teaches how Sounds under certain Meafures of Tune and Time may be produc'd, and fo order'd or difpos'd, as either in Confonance (J, e, joint Sounding) or Succeffion, or both, as they may raife agreeable Senfations.
which it affeSs the Senfes in an agreeable manner. vx%" f „ M "" on belongs to Bodies, and as Sound is the irrect or Motion, and cannot he without it, but all Motion does not produce Sound ; hence this laft Branch of Mufic became Subdivided.
Where the Motion is without Sound, or as 'tis only the Ubject of Sight, .t was either call'd Mufua Orcheltrm or Sahaana, which contains the Rules for the regular Mo-
tions ot Dancing ; or Mttfica Hypocrhica which rel'neffs the From this Definition, the Science naturally divides itfelf Motion and Gestures of the Pantomimes re, P ect5 me
into two general Parts, Speculative and PraBical.
The firft, the Knowledge of the Materia Mufica, or how to produce Sounds in fuch Relations of Tune, and Time, as mall be agreeable in Confnnance, or Succeffion, or both : By which, we don't mean the actual Production of thefe Sounds by an Inftrument or Voice, which is meerly the mechanical or effective Part; but the Knowledge of the various Relations of Tune and Time, which are the Prin- ciples, out of which the Pleafure fought derives. See Tune.
1 he id, How thefe Principles are to he apply'd ; or how Sounds, in the Relations they bear to Mafic (as thofe are determin'd in the firft part) may he order'd, and variouily put together in Succeffion and Confonance, fo as to anfwer the End : And this we call the Art of Compofition, which is properly the practical Part of Mi fie. See Composition.
Some add a third Branch, viz. the Knowledge of Inftru- ments; but as this depends altogether on the firft, and is only an Application or Exprefiion of it, it cannot come regularly under the Definition, and confequently is no part of the Divifion of the Science.
The firft Branch, which is the contemplative Parr, di- lls itfelf into thefe two, viz. the Knowledge of the aiions and Meafures of Time, and the Doctrine of Time
vid Rel itfelf.
When the Motion is perceiv'd only by the Ear, it el when Sound is the Object of Mafic, there were three Species ; v,z. Harmonica, which confiders the Differences and Pro- portions with refpect to Grave and Acute ; Rythmica, which refpects the Proportion cf the Sounds as to Time, or the Swiftncfs and Slownefs of their Succeffions ; and Metrica, which belongs properly to the Poets, and refpecls the Art of making Verfes.
Arijtides Qjiintilianus, Bacchus, and other antient Wri- ters, define Mific the Knowledge of Singing, and of the Things belonging thete-o ; which he calls the Motions of the Voice and Body: as if the Singing itfelf confided only in the different Tones of the 'Voice.
The fame Author, confidering Mufic in the largeft fenfe of the Word, divides it into Contemplative and ABive, The firft, he fays, is either Natural or Artificial. The Natural is either Arithmetical, becaufe it confiders the Proportion of Numbers; or Phyfical, which examines the Order of the Things of Nature.
The artificial he divides, as above mica, Metrica.
into Harmonica, Ryth-
The active, which is the Application of the artificial is either Enunti.ithe (as in Oratory ;) Orcanical (or Inftrum'en-
tal Performance ;) Odical (for Voice and finging of Ffalms ;) o- Hypocritical, in the Motions of the Pantomimes. To which
_ The former is properly what the Antients call'd Harm; nici, or the Doctrine of Harmony in Sounds, as containing fome add Hydraalic.il, tho' in reality no more than an Explication of the Grounds, with the various Meafures cies of the Organical ; in which, Water is ufed for tr and Degrees of the Agreement of Sounds, in refpefl of ducing or modifying of Sound, heir Tune. See Harmonica
Their
The latter is what they call'd Rythmica, becaufe it treats of the Numbers of Sounds or Notes with refpect to Time ; containing an Explication of the Meafures of long and fhnrt, or fwift and (low, in the Succeffion of Sounds. See Rythmica.
The fecond Branch, which is the practical part, as na- turally divides into two parts, anfwering to the parts of the firft. l
That which anfwers to the Harmonica, the Antients cal- led Melopxia, becaufe it contains the Rules of making Songs, with refpect to Tune, and Harmony of Sounds ; tho we have no reafon to think the Antients had any thing like Coinpoiition in Patts. See Melopoeia.
That which anfwers to the Rythmica, they call'd Ryth- mopxia, containing Rules for the Application of the Num- bers and Time. See Rythmopoeia.
We find a flrangc Diverfity in the antient Writers, as to the Nature, Office, Extent, Divifion, 5J?c. of Mufic.
The Name is fuppos'd originally form'd from Mufa, Mufe ; the Mufcs being fuppos'd to be the Inventors there- of. Kircher, however, will have it take its Name from an Egyptian Word, as fuppofing its Reftoration after the Flood to have begun there, by reafon of the Reeds, j£c. on the Banks of the Nyle. Hefychius tells us, the Athenians gave the Name Mufic to every Art.
Hermes Trifmeiiftm defines Mufic to be the Knowledge of the Order of all things ; which is alfo the Doctrine of the Pythagorean School, and of the Platonifis, who teach, that every thing in the Univerfe is Mufic.
Agreeable to which wide Senfe, fome divide Mufic into Divine and Mundane.
The fitft refpect ing the Order and Harmony that ob- tains among the Celeftial Minds ; the other, the Relations and Order of every thing elfe in the Univetfe. Plato, however, by the Divine Mufic, underftands that which ex- ifts in the Divine Mind, viz. thofe Archetypal Ideas of Or- der and Symmetry, according to which God formed all things : And as this Order exifts in the Mundane Crea- tures, he calls it Mundane Mufic.
Which laft Species they again fubdivided into fnur, viz. l. Elementary Mufic, or the Harmony of the Elements of Things.
a. Celefiial Mufic, or the Mufic of the Spheres ; compre- hending the Order and Proportions in the Magnitudes, Di- stances and. Motions of the heavenly Bodies, and the Har- mony of the Sounds refulting from thofe Motions.
a Spe- the pro-
Torfhyry makes another Divifion of Mufic, taking it ," n the limited Senfe, as having Motion both dumb and fo- norous for its Object; and without diftinguiihing the Spe- culative and Practical, he makes its Parts thefe fix, viz. Rythmica, for the Motions of Dancing ; Metrica, for the Cadence and Recitation ; Organica, for the Practice of In* fttuments ; Poetica, for the Numbers and Feet of Verfes ■ Hypocrhica, for the Gefturcs of the Pantomimes ; and Har- monica, for Singing.
The Mufical Faculties, as they call them, are Vlelopma, which gives Rules for the Tones of the Voice or Inftru- ment ; Rythmaptcia, for Motions ; and Poefis, for makin? Verfes. "
Mufic appears to have been one of the mod antient of Arts. And of all others, Vocal Mufic muft undoubtedly have been the firft Kind. For Man had nnt only the va- rious Tones of his own Voice to make his Obfervations on before any other Art or Inftrument was found out, but had the various natural Strains of Birds, to give him occafion to improve his own Voice, and the Modulations of Sounds it was capable of.
Of many antient Authors who agree in this Conjecture we ftiall only mention Lucretius, who fays,
At Liquidas Avium Voces imitarier Ore, Ante fait multo quafii levia Carmina Cantii, Concelebrare Homines poffent, Aureifque juvarei
The firft Invention of firing'd Inftruments he afcrihes to the Obfervation of the Winds whiillmg in the hollow Reeds.
As for other kind of Inftruments, there were fo many Occafions for Chords or Strings, that Men could not be long in obferving their various Sounds, which might give Rife to ftring'd Inftruments. See Chord.
And for the pulfatile Inftruments, a£ Drums *nd Cymhals they might atife from the Obfervation of the hollow Noils of concave Bodies.
Plutarch, in one place, afcrihes the firft Invention of iW«- fic to the God Apollo, and in another to Amphion, the Son of Jupiter and Antioj-e. This laft, however, is pretty gene- rally allow'd to have been the firft who brought Mufic into Greece, and to have been the Inventor of the Lyre, The Time he lived in, is not agreed upon. See Lyra.
To him fucceeded Chiron, the Demi-God; Demc-docus - Hermes Trifmegiftus j Olympus ; Orpheus, whom fome make the firft Introducer of Mufic into Greece, and the Inventor
5. Human Mufic, which confifts chiefly in the Harmony of of the Lyre; Phemius; Terpander, who was ContemDorarv
the Faculties of the human Soul, and its various Paffions and is alfo confider'd in the Proportion, Temperament and mutual Dependancc of the Parts of the Body.
4. What, in the proper and limited fenfe of the Word, hcall'd Mufic ; which has for its Object, Motion, confider'd
with Lycurgus, and fet his Laws to Mufic. To him fome attribute the firft Inftitution of Mufical Modes, and the In- vention of the Lyre ; Thales ; and Thamyris, who is faid to have been the firft Inventor of Instrumental Mufic without Singing.
Theft
