MUSIC. The science which treats of the number, time, division, succession, and com bination of sounds, so as to produce harmony. It is divided into Theoretical Music, which inquires into the properties of concords and discords, and explains their combinations and proportions for the production of melody and harmony; and Practical Music, which is the art of applying the theory of music in the composition of all sorts of tunes and airs. MUSIC, HISTORY or. The first traces of music are to be found in Egypt, where musical instruments, capable of much variety and ex premion, existed at a time when other nations were in an uncivilized state. The invention of the lyre is by them ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, the Mercury of the Egyptians, which is a proof of its antiquity ; but a still greater proof of the existence of musical in struments among them at a very early period is drawn from the figure of an instrument said to be represented on an obelisk, erected, as is supposed, by Sesostris at Heliopolis. This instrument, by means of its neck, was capable, with only two strings, if tuned fourths, of furnishing that series of sounds called by the ancients a heptachord; and if tuned fifths, of producing an octave. As Moses was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians, it is probable that the Israelites, who interwove music in all their religious ceremonies, borrowed much from that people. That the Greeks took their first ideas of music from the:wians is clear from this: that they ascribedthe invention of the lyre to Mercury, although they made Apollo to be the god of music, and gate him that instru ment to play upon. In no country was music so much cultivated as in Greece. The muses, as well as Apollo, Barth% and other gods and demigods, practised or promoted it in some way or other. Their poets are supposed to have been like the Celticand German bards, and the scalds of Iceland and Scandinavia, who went about singing their poems in the streets, and the palaces of princes. In this manner did Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, and others, recite their verses; and in after times, on the institution of the games, Sims aides, Pinder, and other poets, celebrated in public the exploits of the victors. The in struments known in the time of Homer were, the lyre, flute, syrinx, and trumpet. The in vention of notation and musical characters is ascribed to Terpander, a poet and musician, who flourished 671 years before Christ. We afterwards find philosophers, as well as pods,. among the number of those who admir.ed and cultivated music theoretically as well as practically, as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Aristexams, Euclid, and many. others. Py
thagoras is celebrated for his discoveries in this science ; namely, for that of musical ratios, and the addition of an eighth string to the lyre. The former of these he is supposed to have derived from the Egyptians. He also explained the theory of sounds, and re duced it to a science. .Aristoxenus is the most ancient writer on music of whose works there are an remains. Euclid followed up the idea of Pythagoras' ratios, which he re duced to mathematical demonstration. To this list of Greek writers may be added Niche machus Gerasenus, Alypius, Gaudentius, Bacchins senior, Ptolemy the astronomer, and Aristides Quintilian, whose works are still extant. These wrote under the Roman emperors, many of whom cultivated music and followed the theory of the Greeks. Among the Roman writers may be reckoned ritru vies, who, in his architecture, touches lightly on this subject ; also Martianus Capella and Boethi us, who wrote on the decline of the empire. After them some centuries elapsed before the science of music met with any par. dealer attention. Its introduction into the church service prevented it from falling, like other arts, into total neglect. Instrumental music was introduced into the public service of the church under Constantine the Great. The practice of chanting the psalms was be gun in the western churches by St. Ambrose about 350 years after Christ ; three hundred years after, the method of chatting was im proved by St. Gregory the Great. It was probably introduced into England by St. Au gustine, and greatly improved by St. Dunstan. The use of the organ probably commenced in Greek church, where it was called by ; draulicon, or the water-organ. The first organ known in Europe was sent as a present to King Pepin from the Emperor Constantine Copronymns. It came into general use in France, Germany, and England, in the tenth century. Soon after this, music began again to be cultivated as a science, particularly io Italy, where Guido, a monk of Arezzo, first conceived the idea of counterpoint, or the division of music into parts by points set op posite to each other, and formed the scale afterwards known by the name of the gamut. This was followed by the invention of the timetable, and afterwards by regular compo sitions of music. But the exercise of the art was for a long time confined to sacred music, during which period secular music was fol lowed by itinerant poets and musicians, after the manner of the ancients. Of this descrip tion were the troubadours in France, the Welsh bards or harpers in England, and the Scorch minstrels.