23. Guido, the author of these important inventions, which have rendered his name so celebrated in the history of music, was a monk of the order of St. Benedict, at Arezzo in Italy: hence he is called Guido Aretintis. He flourished in the beginning of the eleventh century. So great a change did these inventions make on the study of music, that as he himself says, the boys under his care were able to accomplish in three days, what they could not have done by any other method, in as many weeks. " By divine assist ance," says he, " I have pointed out such a method of no tation, that by a little help from a master at first, an intelli gent and studious person inay easily acquire the rest by him self. And if any one should suspect my veracity, let him come to our convent—let him make the experiment—let him exa mine the children under my care, and he will find, that though they are still severely punished for their ignorance of the Psahns, and their blunders in reading, they can now sing correctly, without a master, the chants to those Psalms of which they can scarce pronounce the words." Guido's me rit was acknowledged in his own day. In the year 1022, Pope Benedict the VIII. sent for him to Rome, and treated him with great kindness. The successor of Benedict, John the XXIII, also sent for him, and condescended to become his scholar; and found by personal experience the truth of those reports which he could hardly believe.
24. Guido's method of solmisation by hexachords, is to this day practised at Naples, where some of the greatest singers whom Europe has produced, have been formed. In England, since the beginning of the seventeenth century, it has been the general practice to use only four syllables, omitting ut and re ; so that the octave is divided into two tetracholds as among the Greeks; the interval nil, fa, being always the semitone. In France and Italy a seventh sylla ble si has been added to Guido's syllables, in order to com plete the diatonic scale; the Italians also have for ut substi tuted do, as more fit for singing; and this method in Eng land has latterly prevailed over that by four syllables. The French have, however, entirely forsaken Guido's principles, by using the syllables not as denoting the diatonic scale, whatever may be the pitch of the key-note, but as fixed sounds. Thus they say of a piece of music, in the key of C, that it is in Eft; in D, that it is in Re, and so on; for which they are with justice severely censured by Rousseau. (Dict. art. Solfier.) 25. Guido has been very generally said to have invented or the harmony of simultaneous sounds. The word counterpoint, which is derived from Guido's notation, in which sounds to be sung simultaneously were sinified by points or notes placed opposite each other in the same staff, has probably given occasion to that general belief. The
word counterpoint, however, was not even introduced till a succeeding age; and the practice of harmony, rude indeed, and such as would be even shocking to our ears, may be traced several ages before his time.
26. The invention of the organ, and its introduction into the service of the church, is an important era in musical his tory; for there can be no doubt that this noble instrument gave birth to music in consonance, and had a most material influence on the progress of that art towards perfection. The organ blown by bellows, is an improvement of the hydraulic organs of the ancients; but at what period, or by whom this improvement was made, is unknown. It is generally agreed, that organs were first introduced into the service of the church by Pope Vitalian, in the year 666. About the be ginning of the ninth century, they had become pretty gene ral over Europe. The organ, no doubt, was first used as a unison accompaniment to voices, but the facility which it furnishes of sounding several notes at once, would soon lead to the observation of the agreeable effect ofsome consonances. Octaves, fifths, and fourths, were the first intervals used in con sonance; and the first accompaniments consisted of successions of those concords running parallel with the voice. *When, in imitation of such accompaniments, these concords were given to voices, this was called organizare, and an accompaniment to the canto-fermo for the voice, was called organnm ; a clear proof of the true origin of the practice. In an ancient manuscript, written by John Cotton, nearly about the time of Guido, the wortls diaplionia and organum are used as synonymous. " This kind of singing," says he, " is com monly termed organant, because the human voice soundinIT double notes, resembles the effect produced by the instrument which is called an organ." 27. flubald, a monk of St. Amand in Flanders, who flourished in the age prececlinif that of Guido, was the author of' a treatise on music, out of which Dr. Burney has given specimens of the crude harmony of those days, consisting entirely of fourths or fifths. Ile has, however, one idea, " that while one voice remains on the satne tone, the other may wander about at its pleasure," which, as Dr. Burney says, shows him to have been a man of genius and enlarged views, who could penetrate beyond the miserable practice of his time into our organ points, and multifarious harmony upon a holding note, and suggest the principle, at least, or the boldest modern harmony. It does »ot appear that Guido made any great improvements in the art of counterpoint, or organizing as he calls it. The fourth is still the favourite interval; thirds are sparingly admitted; and what is very sin gular, he rejects, and even forbids the use of the fifth.