The Romans acquired all their knowledge of the arts and sciences from the Greeks ; their music therefore in no way differs from that of the latter ; though they must have had some kind of song before any direct intercourse had taken place between them and the polished nations of Greece. It 1.9 certain that the art was never advanced by that warlike people, notwithstanding the share it had in all their religious ceremonies and public games, and the use made of it to animate their troops and add effect to their triumphs, and though it formed an essential part of their theatrical exhibitions of every kind, and was even adopted, or affected to be adopted, as a profession by one of their emperors.
The importance of music in the estimation of the early Romans is shown by a regulation attributed to Servius Tullius, who, in dividing the people into classes, directed that two whole centuries should con sist of trumpeters, blowers of the horn, &e., and such as, without any other instrument, sounded the charge. It is further proved by a law of the Twelve Tables, which limited the number of players on the flute at funerals to ten. And another of those laws enacted, that at the praises of honoured men in the assemblies of the people, there should be viournful songs accompanied by a flute.
That the Roman drama was in some way musical, is proved by the title, or didascalia, prefixed to each of Terence's plays. A further proof of this is found in the Institutes of Quintilian, where, after showing the necessity of instructing children in music, he adds, "that he does not desire that they should learn such music as prevails on the stage, the modulations of which are so intermixed with impudence and wantonness, that they may justly be charged with having extin guished the poor remains of manly courage which had been left." That the theatrical music of the Romans was similar to that of the Greeks there seems to be little doubt ; that it was distorted by the performers in Quintilian's time is very likely.
It is remarked by Dr. Burney, that even during the Augustan age the Romans had no sculptor, painter, or musician, and but one archi tect, Vitruvius ; those, he says, "who have been celebrated in the arts at Rome having been Asiatics or European Greeks, who came to exercise such arts among the Latins as the Latins had not among themselves. This custom was continued under the successors of Augustus; and those Romans who were prevented from going into Greece contrived in a manner to bring Greece to Rome, by receiving into their service the most able professors of Greece and Asia in all the arts." The Roman writers on music are few, and almost worthless. Vitru vius, in his work on architecture, treats of the sound of the voice, of reverberating vases, and of a water-organ ; but no one has yet been able to discover what he means by this instrument. He also endea vours to make plain the harmonical system of Aristoxenus, though he acknowledges the difficulty of the task. St. Augustine wrote on rhythm and metre ; Boethius devotes five books to music, merely to explain the principles of harmonies; and Aurelius Cassiodorus treats of music, among other things, but his work, or sketch, is said to consist of little more than some general definitions and divisions.
There is every reason to conclude that music remained stationary till the 10th or 11th century. The Romans, having borrowed the art from Greece, seem to have been convinced of its perfection in the state in which they received it, for there is no evidence of their having attempted to enlarge its narrow boundaries, or in any way to improve it ; though a people of more ingenuity and taste would have advanced it at least a few steps towards that point which, however slowly, it has now attained.
In the primitive Christian church the service consisted partly of music, which is supposed to have been chiefly that of the Greeks, with an admixture of Hebrew melody. Menestrier conjectures that the early ecclesiastical manner of singing was like that of the ancient theatre, and Dr. Burney concurs in this opinion ; though we cannot but think it more likely that the " songs of Zion," as performed in the Jewish temple, and the chanting of the hymns at the Pagan altars, were chosen as vocal models for devotional purposes, rather than the airs, or recitatives, in which the comedies of Plautus and Terence were delivered. Towards the end of the 4th century, St. Ambrose digested a musical service for the church of Milan, which is called the Am brosian chant, and was founded on four of the Greek modes. About the year 600 Gregory the Great enlarged and much improved the chant of the church, by the admission of four other modes, and gave it that form which it still retains in the Roman Catholic service, and in which it is known by his name. According to Bishop Stillingfleet, music was introduced into the English church by St. Augustine, in the latter part of the 6th century, and was subsequently much improved by St. Dunstan, an excellent musician, who, it is said, furnished some few churches with ari organ.
The organ—the most majestic and comprehensive of all musical instruments in its present almost perfect state— is supposed to have been an improvement of the hydraulicon, or water-organ, of the Greeks.
The first mentioned in musical history was sent, in 757, as a present to King Pepin, from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Copronymus.
In the 10th century the organ was in use in several parts of Europe ; but it is reasonable to conclude that it was then exceedingly simple, possessing little power, and rude in mechanism : nevertheless, it may fairly be assumed that the invention of the organ hastened the dis covery or practice of harmony. [ORGAN.] To Guido, of Arezzo, we are indebted for many of those improve ments in music which led to our present system ; though the origin of counterpoint has been erroneously ascribed to that active and ingenious ecclesiastic. [Gum°, in Broo. Div.] Magister Franco, a member of the cathedral of Cologne in the 11th century, is considered as the inventor of what in the middle ages was called Cantus Mensurabilis, which meant, notes showing, by their forms, their time or duration.
Most of those, however, have fallen into disuse, for the shortest iu his table is the semibreve. Nevertheless his system, carried out further by De Muris, and by degrees extended, is that of the present day, and is so sound in principle that it probably will never be abandoned.
From the 11th to the 15th century, scarcely anything is known of the progress of music. For its history from the latter period, we refer to the biographical sketches of its most eminent professors which appear in the Biographical Division of our work ; —to the articles ACADEMY, CONCERT, OPERA, ORATORIO, &e. ;—to 010 names of musical instruments ; and to all the terms under which musical compositions of every kind are described. From these sources may be gathered much of the information, if not all, that will be required by the general reader.