With respect to the origin of music, we need seek for no other cause than the natural constitution of man. He is so formed, as to receive a mechanical delight from the perception of sweet and melodious sounds, whether heard in conjunction or in succession. The causes of this pleasure admit of a philosophical analysis. It is shewn to depend upon established proportions between the vibrations from which the related tones arise. These vibrations may be exactly measured ; and the proportions of those which agree, and those which disagree, may be fixed with mathematical precision. Thus the laws of concord and discord, of harmony and of melody, are founded in the natural constitution of man : and the same thing may be said of rhythm, or the proportional duration or length of musical sounds, compared with each other ; for in this also there is a natural relation, or a principle of comparison, deducible from the fixed and determinate laws of order and proportion. Man, therefore, may be said to seek as naturally for the gra tification of music, as for food to allay his hunger, or drink to quench his thirst ; it is the natural delight and pleasure of the car; and it has a striking superiority over all the pleasures of sense, in this respect, that it can hardly be indulged in to excess, or carried so far as to jade and impair the power of sensibility.
Man being thus predisposed to take delight in musi cal sounds, would embrace the first hint that might suggest any method of producing them artificially. The whistling of the wind through a hollow reed, might suggest the idea of a flute or pipe, which appears to have been a musical instrument of great antiquity. The horns of animals, when blown into, produce a powerful sound ; and have been employed, by all savage nations, as instruments for martal, or other music. The ancient trumpet was nothing but an imitation of these horns in metal ; and seems to have been invented in the very earliest ages. The only instruments of music spoken of in scripture, as in use during the patriarchal ages, were the pipe or flute, the trumpet, and a kind of ket tle drum called tympanum, the outside of which was of copper, of an oblong figure, and it was covered with skin only at one end, and beat either with sticks or with the hand. Stringed instruments seem to have been a much later invention.
It is not improbable that vocal music, or some kind of singing, was of still greater antiquity than instrumen tal. This is so natural to man, that it is practised every even among the most rude and barbarous na tions : but if a model were wanting to suggest the art, it is provided by nature in the sweetness and variety of the singing of birds ; which might have prompted men to try the melody of their voices, as they are so much inclined to imitation. The inherent laws of concord and discord, would direct them to those inflections and mo dulations of the voice, which alone fir' capable of afford ing pleasure to the car. And thus the various modes of musical intonation, would be practically made known, long before their essential principles and laws were subjected to investigation.
No sooner would vocal music assume any form and consistency, than poetry would be invented. It is not natural to sing without words ; and as all music is of a regulated measure, or consists of a succession of lung and short notes, between which there is a stated pro portion, the words of a song would naturally be disposed into verse, or a regular succession of long and short syllables. Music and poetry, as we have just mentioned, mutually aid each other ; and their joint effect is more than equal to the sum of their separate influences. In rude ages, it is probable that they were never disjoined ; so as then to constitute, in fact, but a single art. It is only in modern times of refinement, that arts, as well as trades, are divided and subdivided, without end ; so that each subordinate department may be carried to its greatest perfection. Yet even now, in compliance with the phraseology of ancient times, we speak of the poet as uttering his inspirations to the accompaniment of his lyre ; and we can confer no higher honour upon him, than by classing him with those ancient wandering mu sicians, the bards and minstrels.
Among the most refined and enlightened of all ancient nations, the Greeks, music was never disjoined from poetry. The sounds of the lyre were never heard but as the echoes of the voice of the bard, and were sub jected to a strict observance of the melody and rhythm deemed most suitable to the verses which they accom panied. There was in fact no other rhythm in Greek music, as far as we can now ascertain, than that which belonged to the accompanying poetry. The Greek verse, it is well known, consisted of a variety of regu lar combinations of long and short syllables, the long being reckoned equal to two of the short ; and such precisely was the rhythm of the Greek music. Its notes were lengthened or shortened, according to the proper length of the accompanying syllable ; and thus the pro portional duration of the feet of the verse was exactly preserved in the music conjoined with it. These facts would seem to lead to the conclusion, that among the Greeks poetry was the elder art; and that music was only accessory and subordinate ig dignity. Yet it would not be difficult to give plausibility to the supposition, that the Greek music was at least as ancient as the Greek poetry ; and that the rhythm of the music ori ginally controuled and regulated that of the verse. The idea of long and short notes in music, is certainly much more natural and obvious, than that of long and short syllables in words : and it is not easy to conceive, that in a barbarous and unlettered age, or even in the age of Homer and Simonides, the proportional lengths of the syllables of verse should have been settled by rule, and formed into a system, had it not been governed by the more obvious and impressive proportion, which the ear naturally demands in the notes of music. The investi gation of this question, however, would at present lead us too far from our purpose.