The early Christians used the Jewish psalms in their worship, which would almost certainly be sung to their traditional temple music. G. B. Martini, says (Storia Bella Musica, t. i. p. 35 r) : This is the Hebrew chant of the psalmodies which ever since the time of David and Solomon have been transmitted from one generation to another, and [therefore] goes beyond the first half of the first age of the church. These have not materially varied, but have been substantially preserved by the Hebrew nation. Is it not, then, sufficient to convince us, that the apostles who were born Hebrews, brought up in the customs of their nation, wont to frequent the temple and engage in the prayers and divine praises therein recited, should retain the same method and use the same chants with which the people used to respond to the Levitical choir.' Forkel (Geschichte der Musik, vol. ii. p. 188) says, This mode of reading the Scriptures with cantillation or chant has been adopted in the Christian church from the Temple, and is still preserved in the mode of chanting the collects, responses, etc. See also Dr. Saalschiitz, Geschichte and Wiirdigung der Musik bei den Hebrderu, sec. 61.
So that while the destruction of the Temple, and the dispersion of the Jews suspended Jewish wor ship, the singing of the psalms and the traditions of their melodies would be preserved in the Chris tian church. If, therefore, we possess any vestiges of Jewish music at all, they are to be found in the Ambrosian or Gregorian tones. The Rev. J. W. Blakesley (Four Months in Algeria, p. 36) visited a synagogue in Algiers, and was surprised to find that the air to which the Psalms were chanted coincided almost exactly with one of the Gregorian tones.' Hardly can we suppose that the early Christians either originated a new music, or adopted heathen music.
We have no record of the introduction into the Christian church of uninspired hymnody. It would be only very gradually that Greek hymns, with corresponding music, would come into rise. At first, probably, Christian hymns would be little more than centos of the Hebrew psalms, or evan gelical imitations of them, or compositions after their model—the angels' song at the nativity, and the songs of Zacharias and Simeon leading the way. The earliest Christian hymns seem to have been simple glorifications of Christ.
Eusebius intimates that private individuals wrote hymns to Christ as God, which were generally sung (H. E., book v., ch. 28 ; vii. 24 ; ii. I7). In his letter to Trajan, Pliny says, the Christians are accustomed to sing alternately between them selves, and to praise Christ as a God' (Pliny, Epist., lib. x. ep. 39), alluding probably to the Gloria in Excelsis,' the morning hymn of the early church.
The earliest extant fragment of Greek hymnody is found in the Pedagogue of Clemens Alexandrinus (Op., pp. 312, 313. Potter's ed.) Bunsen says, however, that this was never used in the public worship of the church (Christianity and Mankind, vol. ii. p. 156).
Three early Christian hymns are preserved in the venerable Alexandrine MS. as an appendix to the O. T. psalms. The first is the morning hymn of the primitive church, commencing with the introductory verse of the nativity song of the angels, hence called the Angelical Doxology. It is found in the liturgy of the Greek Church, whence, about the year 380, it was transferred by Hilary to the communion service of the Latin Church, thence again to the communion service of the Eng lish Church.
The other two are another short morning hymn in which the verse occurs, Vouchsafe, 0 Lord, to keep us this day without sin,' afterwards incor porated in the Latin Te Deum ; and an evening psalm, consisting of a cento of verses of the O.
T. Psalms.
Besides these, there is an evening hymn of the Greek Christians, "IP kwor roil Xvxmori, the Hymn of the Kindling of the Lamp,' corresponding to the Ave Maria' hymns of Italy ; concerning which Basil says, it is 'so ancient that he knows not who is the author of it' (Bingham, B. xiii. c. 5, sec. 5, 6).
The Ter Sanctus, or Seraphic Hymn, also be longs to the first three centuries, and is found in almost all the ancient liturgies. It is little more than the Trisagium of the seraphim in Is. vi. See Palmer's Orgines Litztrgice, vol. ii. p. 126.
These are the only fragments of Greek hymnody that have been presented to us. Of course they are rhythmical, and would require a rhythmical tune or chant. Much of early Christian song was probably antiphonal; Socrates, H. E., lib. vi. cap. ; Theodoret, IL E., lib. ii. cap. 24 ; as also Hahn, Ueber den Gesang in der Syrischen Kirche, P. 54.
The hymnody of the Syrian churches was much more copious. They had an ampler music, and poets of higher inspiration. Its invention is attri buted by Ephrxm Syrus to the Gnostic Bardesanes. Hom. ad Heret., 53, quoted by Dr. Burgess in his Introd. to the Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephram Synts, p. 3o. Metres were called after his name. Next to him as an author of Syrian hymnody stands his son Harmonius, who is said to have invented new metres. Eplimem Syrus flourished in the .4th century. For an account of his contributions, see Burgess's Metrical Hymns, and Introd. The Benedictine preface to the works of Ephnem Syrus, vol. v., says, While the Greeks reduced their sacred hymnology to about eight tunes, and to this day confine themselves to these limits, the Syrians expatiate on two hundred and seventy-five, which their ecclesiastical books exhibit here and there, inscribing the proper tunes at the beginning of individual hymns' The Syrians are said to have possessed a hymnology of twelve or fourteen thousand hymns.
Great use was Made of hymnody by the early heretics ;—by the Gnostic Bardesanes, who en deavoured to supersede the Hebrew Psalter by one of his own, containing also one hundred and fifty psalms (Theodoret, Hard. Fab. 209) ;—by Paul of Samosata, who largely beguiled the faithful by his captivating hymns and music (Euseb. H. E., lib. vii. cap. 3o) ;—hy the Donatists in Africa, who adapted their hymns to common airs of a wild and passionate character, thereby inflaming the siasm of the people as with a trumpet (August. Confess.) ;—and by Arius, who made the streets of Constantinople resound with ballads written to well-known and seductive melodies, sung in torch light processions.
Patristic notices of early Christian hymnology are very numerous ' • our limits forbid more than mere references to a few in addition to those already given. Justin Martyr, Apol. ii.; Tertullian, Apol. Contra Gent., c. 39 ; De Anima, c. 3 ; De yunio Cyprian, Epist. ad Donal. ; Origen, Contra Cels., lib. viii. c. 67 ; Eusebius, E. H., lib. ii. c. 17, lib. v. c. 28, lib. vii. C. 24, lib. viii. c. 9 ; Apart. Coast., lib. xx. c. 57 •, Athanasius, Ep. 7, ad List. ; Basil in Psalmos • Gregory of Nyssa, Ps. ii. ; Jerome, Comm. lib. iii. c. 5 ; Epist. 17 ad Marcell. ; Epist. ad Uxorem, lib. ii. c. 8 ; Ambrose, Hexam.,. lib. iii. c. 5; Augustine, Confess., lib. ix. sec. 14, 15, 31, lib. x. sec. 49, ; Chrysostom on 41st Ps. ;' Hilary, quoted by Bingham, book xiii. c. 5, sec. 7. See also Neander, Kurtz, and other church his tories; Milman's History of Christianity, vol. iii. book ii. c. 3, 4 ; Bingham, Orig. Eccl., book xiv. c. 2. [MUSIC ; MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ; PSALMS.] —H. A.