Horace, Serm. I. 111. 6. fays of Tigellius; Ufque ad mala citaret, Io Bacche, modò fummâ i. e. He fang fometimes in the note of the upper ftring, fometimes in that of the lowest ftring of the tetrachord. The Tetrachord here is to be confidered, not as a particular inftrument, but as four ftrings, bearing a certain mufical proportion to each other; of which in the diatonic fcale, the fecond was a femitone, the third a tone, and the laft a tone, and a fourth to the first, as the natural notes, B, C, D, E. The first and fourth, in all tetrachords, were fixed and immoveable, (było divno) and one of them was called Tln, fumma, the highest; the other Nin, ima, the lowest. The highest was that chord which gave the deepest or graveft found, the lowest that which gave the acuteft found; and therefore, what we call ASCENDING, they called DESCENDING. Thus, for example, if you compare the open strings of a violin to the tetrachord, (though their proportions are not the fame,) the ftring which founds G, would have been with them the higheft, and that which founds E, would have been the lowest. As in their tetrachord, their lowest was a fourth to their higheft, the fenfe of Horace is, that Tigellius fang the air Io Bacche, and then would fing it over again, what we call, a fourth higher. Vox fumma is the bafs, and vor ima the treble. Apply this to the Mufic of the Spheres. The old planetary system may be confidered as an heptachord, an inftrument with feven ftrings, anfwering to the seven notes in mufic. The diameter of the orbit of each planet is the ftring: Saturn, who is the remoteft, and hath the longest chord, and gives the deepest found, is the mufical Táln, or highest; and he is fo defcribed by Pliny, and fo called by Nicomachus. But in fettling this celeftial harmony, the ancients are by no means agreed: which indeed is no wonder; for sense is uniform, and nonfenfe admits of endlefs variations. The concords of the ancients were the fourth, fifth, and eighth. The third, major, or minor, they held to be a difcord; and in concert they seem to have only admitted the eighth. The ancient diatonic fyftem was a, b, c, d, e, f, g, A, b, c, d, e, f, g; a answering to the natural notes of the harpfichord; with two femitones, and five tones, in an octave. Of this fyftem, our a-mi-la, or a-la-mi-re was the Mion, the middle, or center. Their feven modes, or tones, in the diatonic system, seem to have been reducible, in reality, to one mode, taken higher or lower; or to have been B 2 been fix tranfpofitions of one natural, origmal, and fundamental mode (which you may call the mode of A,) and confequently, as C natural is a minor third to a-mi-la, fo all thefe modes must have had a minor third. Sanadon and Cerceau, in their obfervations on Horace, Carm. v. 9. Sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyrá, Hac Dorium, illis Barbarum? affirm that the modus dorius anfwered exactly to our a-mi-la, with a minor third; and the modus phrygius to our a-mi-la with a major third: but furely this is a mufical error, and a dream from the ivory gate. Two modes (with the fame tonic note) the one neither acuter nor graver than the other, make no part of the old fyftem of modes. Suppofe the ftrings of an harpfichord are too low exactly by a whole tone. Strike the keys, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, † A. • Dacier and Sanadon have published elaborate and ufeful commentaries upon Horace, for which they deferve commendation; but, if it may be permitted to fay the plain truth, they too often made free with the property of others, and were compillagers, poachers, and fmugglers in the republic of literature. As reputation is ufually the only reward which the learned obtain for their labours, it is the more fit that it should be impartially bestowed. If this rule were obferved, fome who ride in Fame's chariot, would be obliged to trudge on foot, or to get up behind it. ↑ 4-la-qui-re. and you will have the founds of g, a, b b, c, d, e ħ, f, g. The nominal keys, and the intervals will remain; the musical powers and founds will be changed. Or elfe, if the harpfichord is in tune, in the ufual pitch, ftrike * g, a, b b, c, d, e b, f, g: and call them, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, A. This seems to be the mystery of the ancient modes: they are all to be confidered as a, b, c, d, e, f, g, A. Or, in other words, they are all, firft, a note; fecond, a tone; third, a femitone; fourth, a tone; fifth, a tone; fixth, a femitone; feventh, a tone; eighth, a tone. Or they are, a note; a fecond; a minor third; a fourth; a fifth; a minor fixth; a minor seventh; an eighth. But when the mode is changed, the founds are altered, lower or higher, acuter or graver. • This reminds me to ask you a question,—Whether there be in Mufic any rule and standard for a true pitch? In the names of the feven modes, and in the flats, fharps, and naturals, which will correfpond to them, when they are reduced to our modern mufical fyftem, the writers and commentators on ancient mufic are not agreed: but ftill the fyftem, upon the whole, the proportions, and the intervals. are the fame. Now, fuppofe two inftruments of the ancients. founding together, and playing the fame air, one in one mode, and one in another; they must have founded all along, either feconds, or thirds, or fourths, or fifths, or fixths, or fevenths. But if the ancients would admit none of thefe, not even fifths in concert, (which the learned, I think, take to have been the cafe) there remains nothing befides unifons; and octaves, fimple or double, for their concerts. Seneca thus defcribes a concert or chorus: "Non vides, quam multorum vocibus chorus conftet? unus tamen ex omnibus fonus redditur. Aliqua illic acuta eft, aliqua gravis, aliqua media. Accedunt viris feminæ, interponuntur tibiæ. Singulorum illic latent voces, omnium apparent." Epift.. 84. And Elian on Timæus, and the writer De Mundo, and in general all who have treated of this fubject, reprefent 'Αρμονίαν and Συμφωνίαν, harmony and fymphony, as confifting in the mixture and union of founds, which are and Capes, acute and grave. |