Worcester daily spy., 1871-08-15
Old Music.

we can judge somewhat of the character of
ancient music by the improvements that have
been made in the science in comparatively modern
times. These are, in reality, so important as to
aIect tne very character or nature of music ITSELF
Ihus, II we are unable to tell what ancient music
was, we can tell llwhat was not In the first place
IL was not marked by one of the great character
lStlcs OF modern music, time All the musi-
clans of old, including the great harpsts, from
David down to Alfred, did not know a crotchet
rom quaver, nor minim from a semibreve,
Tor the very conclusive reason conveyed by
slightly parodying an old song:
"pCause semibreves in oden times
Ihey hadn't been invented"
1t was not before the middle of the eleventh
century that the learned and ingenious Franco.
of Cologne, invented characters for time. Be.
fore this, written music depended more upon the
syllable arrangements of words than upon the
pulsatons now SO accurately marked by our
metronomes, and indicated by the forms of our
musical notes. Next, in regard to harmony
the ancents were so deficient in a knowledge of
this branch of music, that their efforts in the
matter would give pain rather than pleasure to
the modern ears. Those who are pleased with
the drone of the bagpipe, or the hum of the
hurdy-gurdy, may class themselves as admirers
OF one form OF ancient harmony. Another fea-
ture of this was the regular progression of per.
feet concords, which is nowadays regarded as
intolerable.
".
remains to be noticed. Are we able to Judge
whether the ancients were gifted with the power
of melodyp Did music develop itself in their
natures by readiness or facility of invention and
beauty of melody2 1t would be difficult to
answer this question affirmatiyely, if we NAV
Judge from the scale in use in olden times Our
major scale seems so PLAIN, so natural if we NAV
thus term it, as to be almost intuitive. We
cannot fancy human ears to be satisfied with
any other-leaving the minor mode for the pres
ent out of the question-and cannot help associ-
ating the singing of this scale in any other man.
ner than that now adopted with painful effort.
Yet the ancients were either ignorant of this
scale, or purposey Shut their ears to its effects.
The old Greek system of the tetrachord was
abolished by Gregory in favor of the natural
system OF the octave; but even this most music
al of Popes arranged the scale so as to be per-
formed in every way but the right Que. OF
course the ancients were ignorant of the division
OF the octave into twelve SemItoneS as eXempli-
fed by the white and black keys of piano, but
they knew the position of tone and semitone as
produced by the white keys of piano. In play
ing these notes we should fancy that every child
would soon find the resting sound, or KEYNOTE
as we call it, which on the piano we call c.
NOW, the curious part of the matter is this that
the ancients always began on the wrong note.
The four authentic tones or scales introduced
by Ambrose began respectively on d, L, F.,
and G-uSing the intervals of the diatonic
scale of G, as on the white keys of the piano, as
we have already mentioned. To these Pope
Gregory added four Others known as Plaqal
tones, beginning on the remaining notes of the
scale-that is, on A, B, c and d respectively.
Among these it would seem impossible but that
one should be right. Now, the sixth plagal begins
correctly enough on G; but, instead of reeog-
nizing as the key note, they-the ancients-
used f, the fourth below, as the fundamental or
key note of this scale
Notwithstanding papal denunciations and
ecclesiastical opposition, music made its way,
and in no country more so than in England,
Improvement was naturally slow where any
change was deprecated as innovation; aud the
early examples leading to our present system of
notation are rude and almost undecipherable
1t is to the honor of England, however that il
possesses the most remarkable specimen of this
early notation. This is the celebrated manu-
script forming No. 97S of the Harleian colIec-
ton in the British museum, and is the earliest
known specimen of harmonized melody. or
part-song, as it is now generally termed. 1t is
called SuTeer is tcunlen in, and its date is not
later than the middle of the thirteenth century.
and thus pTecedes by at least century any
similar production of any other country. This
song although containing harmony as obsolete
as the words, is admirable as an example of
melody, and forms the beginning of Moore's
popular song, erich and Rare."- CaSSeUS Mag
dzine