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CHAP. XVII.
Of Musick.
LET us now discourse a little concerning Musick, of which among the Grecians, Aristoxenus hath written very largely, asserting that Musick was the Soul of Man; whose Writings Boetius hath Translated into Latine.
Page 55
Now, by Musick I understand that part of Musick which relates to the knowledge of Sounds, and mana∣ges either the Voice or Hand; not that part which teaches the Laws and Rules of Meter and Rythm, more properly term'd Poesie, which, as Alpharabises saith, is carried on not by any method of Speculation or Reason, but with a certain frenzy and madness, as we have before discoursed. Now that part of Musick which consists in Sound, and is the consort of Strings or Voices agreeing in Sounds inoffensive to the Ear, treats more particularly of Sounds, Intervals, Changes of Mood, and variety of Notes. This the Antients have divided into Enharmonick, Chromatick, and Diato∣nick. The first, that is to say, the Enharmonick, by reason of its profound abstruseness, & the impossibility of disco∣very, they altogether laid aside: The second, by reason of its wanton measures, they contemn'd and utterly refused: The last, as agreeing best with the composi∣tion of the world, they onely admitted. Others there are who have distinguish'd the Moods of Musick as deriv'd from sundry Countries, for whose particular Genius they seem'd at first to have been more proper∣ly contriv'd; of which there are three nam'd, the Phrygian, the Lydian, and the Dorick; which, according to the opinion of Polimestres, and Saccadas a native of Argos, are said to be of greatest Antiquity. To these Sappho the Lesbian added a fourth, term'd the Mixolydian, of which others take Tersander, others Py∣thoclides the Piper, to have been the Authors; though Lisias makes Lamprocles the Athenian inventer thereof. These four Moods pass currant under the Seal of Au∣thority. This whole Structure or Fabrick, they call Encyclopedie, or the Sphere of Sciences, as if Musick did comprehend all Sciences, seeing, as Plato observes in his first Book of Laws, that Musick cannot be un∣derstood, without the knowledge of all the other Sci∣ences.
Page 56
Among these four Moods, they approve not the Phrygian, for that it distracts and ravishes the Mind; therefore Porphyrius gives it the name of Barbarous, as exciting and stirring up men to fury and battel: O∣thers give it the appellation of Bacchick, furious, im∣petuous, turbulent; which being generally us'd in A∣napesticks, were those Charms which, as we read, for∣merly incited the Lacedaemonians and Cretans to War. With this sort of Harmony Timotheus incited King Alexander to Arms: and Boetius relates how Tauromi∣nitianus, a young man, was mov'd by sound of this Phrygian Harmony to burn a house where he knew a certain Curtisan lay concealed. The Lydian Mood Plato refuses, as too sharp and shrill, and coming short of the modesty of the Dorian, being most proper for Lamentation; though, as others will have it, most a∣greeable to merry and Jolly dispositions. This made the Lydians, a Merry and Jocund people, to be very much affected with that sort of Musick; which af∣terwards the Tuscans, the Off-spring of the Lydians, were wont to make use of in their dancing. The Dorick, as being more grave, honest, and every way modest, consequently most congruous and agreeable to the more serious affections of the Mind, and graver gestures of the Body, they preferr'd above all the rest; and was therefore held in great esteem among the Cretans, Lacedaemonians, and Arcadians. Agamemnon being to go to the Trojan War, left behinde him, at home, a Dorick Musitian, to the end he might by his grave Spondaick Songs preserve the Chastity of his Wife Clytemnestra, so that it was impossible for Aegy∣sthus to obtain his desires of her, until he had first mur∣der'd the said Musitian. As for the Mixolydian, onely fit for Tragedies, and to move Pity and Compassion; they were of opinion that it had a great power either to quicken or put a damp upon the Spirits, either to
Page 57
raise or depress the Affection, and that it had an abso∣lute dominion over Grief and Sadness. To these four Moods, some there are who have added others, which they call Collateral, the Hypodorian, the Hypolydian, and the Hypophrygian; to the end there might be seven, correspondent to the number of the Planets: to all which Ptolomy adds an eighth, the Hypermixolydian, the sharpest and shrillest of all. But Lucius Apuleius onely names five; the Aeolian, Hyastian, Varian, shrill Lydian, warlike Phrygian, and Religious Dorick. Mar∣cian, according to the tradition of Aristoxenus, num∣bers five principal Moods, and ten Collateral. Now though they confess this Art to contain very much of sweetness and delight, yet the common Opinion is ve∣rifi'd by general experience, that Musick is an Art professed onely by men of deprav'd and loose inclina∣tions, who neither know when to begin, nor when to make an end; as is reported of Archabius the Fidler, to whom they were wont to give more money to leave off, than to continue his play: Of which impertinent Musitians, we finde this Character in Horace.
Among their Friends all Singers have this vice,
That begg'd to sing, none are more coy or nice;
Vnbid, they'll never cease—
Musick has been always a Vagrant, wandring up and down after sordid hire; an Art which no grave, mo∣dest, chast, magnanimous, and truly valiant person ever profess'd: therefore the Greeks generally term them Father Bacchus's Artificers, Bacchanal or lewd Artists, generally of loose behaviour, incontinent in their lives, and for the most part in great poverty and want; which is not onely the Mother, but Nurse of Vice. The Kings of the Medes and Persians reckon'd Musitians 〈…〉 of their Jesters, Parasites, and Players,
Page 58
pleasing themselves with their Songs, but contemning their persons. And the wise Antisthenes hearing that one Ismenias kept an incomparable Musitian in his house, quoth he, He is a bad man, for he would not be a Fidler if he were honest: for that is not an Art be∣coming a good and vertuous man, but onely the lazy E∣picure. This made Scipio, Aemylius, and Cato utterly to despise this Science, as being contrary to the Majesty of the Roman Manners. Therefore were Augustus and Nero so much condemn'd for giving their minds so much to Musick. 'Tis true, Augustus being reprehen∣ded, gave it over; but Nero more eagerly pursuing it, was for that cause hated and derided. King Philip when he heard that his Son had sung very finely at a certain Entertainment, burst into a passion, reproaching him in these words: Art thou not asham'd to sing hand∣somely? for it is enough that a Prince will vouchsafe to be present while others sing. Jupiter is never said to sing or play on the Harp, by any one of the Poets: But the learned Pallas is said to hate all manner of Piping. In Homer we read of a Harper to whom Alciones and Vlysses willingly lent their Ears. In Virgil, Iopas both sings and plays, while Dido and Aeneas give attention: Yet when Alexander the Great was singing, his School∣master Antigonus brake his Harp and threw it away, tel∣ling him, It was his business to raign, and not to sing. The Egyptians also, as Diodorus witnesseth, forbad the use of Musick to their Youth, as rendring them luxuri∣ous and effeminate. And Ephorus, according to Poly∣bius, condemns it as an Art invented onely to delude and deceive men. And indeed, what is more unpro∣fitable, more contemptible, more to be avoided, than the society of these Fidlers, Singers, and other kind of Musitians; who with so many sorts of Songs, Dia∣logues, Catches, and Roundelays, more chattering than Rooks or Daws, do but like Syrens bewitch and cor∣rupt
Page 59
the well-dispos'd minds of men, with their lasci∣vious sound of Ribaldry and Debauchery? Therefore the Mothers of the Cycones persecuted Orpheus even to Hell, for effeminating their Males with his charming Harmony. And if there be any authority in Fables, we finde that though Argus had his head guarded with a hundred Eyes, yet they were all charmed asleep with the sound of one single Pipe. It is true, that from hence the Musitians take occasion to extol themselves far above the Rhetoricians, for that their Art has a greater power to move the passions and affection: and to such a hight of madness they are carried, as to affirm that the Heavens themselves do sing; not that they were ever heard so to do, but onely as their drunken Dreams and Imaginations prompt them to believe. Neither was there ever any Musitian that ever descen∣ded from Heaven, who could ever pretend to know all the Consonances of Sound, or the true reason of Proportions: Onely they say, that it is a most compleat Art, and comprehends all other Sciences; nor can be throughly understood by any one not Universally lear∣ned. Yea, they attribute to it the vertue of Divina∣tion, and that thereby men may make a judgement of the habits of the Body, affections of the Minde, and manners of Men. They say moreover, that there is no end of this Art, and that every day produces new discoveries therein; which in another sense Anaxilas wittily hints, that Musick is like Libya, which every year produces some new sort of venomous Creature or other. Athanasius therefore, by reason of its vani∣ty, exiles it from the Church. It is true, St. Ambrose more delighting in Pomp and Ceremony, instituted the use of Singing and Playing in Churches. But St. Au∣stin in the mean betwixt both, makes a great doubt of the lawfulness thereof, in his Confessions.
Of Musick.
LET us now discourse a little concerning Musick, of which among the Grecians, Aristoxenus hath written very largely, asserting that Musick was the Soul of Man; whose Writings Boetius hath Translated into Latine.
Page 55
Now, by Musick I understand that part of Musick which relates to the knowledge of Sounds, and mana∣ges either the Voice or Hand; not that part which teaches the Laws and Rules of Meter and Rythm, more properly term'd Poesie, which, as Alpharabises saith, is carried on not by any method of Speculation or Reason, but with a certain frenzy and madness, as we have before discoursed. Now that part of Musick which consists in Sound, and is the consort of Strings or Voices agreeing in Sounds inoffensive to the Ear, treats more particularly of Sounds, Intervals, Changes of Mood, and variety of Notes. This the Antients have divided into Enharmonick, Chromatick, and Diato∣nick. The first, that is to say, the Enharmonick, by reason of its profound abstruseness, & the impossibility of disco∣very, they altogether laid aside: The second, by reason of its wanton measures, they contemn'd and utterly refused: The last, as agreeing best with the composi∣tion of the world, they onely admitted. Others there are who have distinguish'd the Moods of Musick as deriv'd from sundry Countries, for whose particular Genius they seem'd at first to have been more proper∣ly contriv'd; of which there are three nam'd, the Phrygian, the Lydian, and the Dorick; which, according to the opinion of Polimestres, and Saccadas a native of Argos, are said to be of greatest Antiquity. To these Sappho the Lesbian added a fourth, term'd the Mixolydian, of which others take Tersander, others Py∣thoclides the Piper, to have been the Authors; though Lisias makes Lamprocles the Athenian inventer thereof. These four Moods pass currant under the Seal of Au∣thority. This whole Structure or Fabrick, they call Encyclopedie, or the Sphere of Sciences, as if Musick did comprehend all Sciences, seeing, as Plato observes in his first Book of Laws, that Musick cannot be un∣derstood, without the knowledge of all the other Sci∣ences.
Page 56
Among these four Moods, they approve not the Phrygian, for that it distracts and ravishes the Mind; therefore Porphyrius gives it the name of Barbarous, as exciting and stirring up men to fury and battel: O∣thers give it the appellation of Bacchick, furious, im∣petuous, turbulent; which being generally us'd in A∣napesticks, were those Charms which, as we read, for∣merly incited the Lacedaemonians and Cretans to War. With this sort of Harmony Timotheus incited King Alexander to Arms: and Boetius relates how Tauromi∣nitianus, a young man, was mov'd by sound of this Phrygian Harmony to burn a house where he knew a certain Curtisan lay concealed. The Lydian Mood Plato refuses, as too sharp and shrill, and coming short of the modesty of the Dorian, being most proper for Lamentation; though, as others will have it, most a∣greeable to merry and Jolly dispositions. This made the Lydians, a Merry and Jocund people, to be very much affected with that sort of Musick; which af∣terwards the Tuscans, the Off-spring of the Lydians, were wont to make use of in their dancing. The Dorick, as being more grave, honest, and every way modest, consequently most congruous and agreeable to the more serious affections of the Mind, and graver gestures of the Body, they preferr'd above all the rest; and was therefore held in great esteem among the Cretans, Lacedaemonians, and Arcadians. Agamemnon being to go to the Trojan War, left behinde him, at home, a Dorick Musitian, to the end he might by his grave Spondaick Songs preserve the Chastity of his Wife Clytemnestra, so that it was impossible for Aegy∣sthus to obtain his desires of her, until he had first mur∣der'd the said Musitian. As for the Mixolydian, onely fit for Tragedies, and to move Pity and Compassion; they were of opinion that it had a great power either to quicken or put a damp upon the Spirits, either to
Page 57
raise or depress the Affection, and that it had an abso∣lute dominion over Grief and Sadness. To these four Moods, some there are who have added others, which they call Collateral, the Hypodorian, the Hypolydian, and the Hypophrygian; to the end there might be seven, correspondent to the number of the Planets: to all which Ptolomy adds an eighth, the Hypermixolydian, the sharpest and shrillest of all. But Lucius Apuleius onely names five; the Aeolian, Hyastian, Varian, shrill Lydian, warlike Phrygian, and Religious Dorick. Mar∣cian, according to the tradition of Aristoxenus, num∣bers five principal Moods, and ten Collateral. Now though they confess this Art to contain very much of sweetness and delight, yet the common Opinion is ve∣rifi'd by general experience, that Musick is an Art professed onely by men of deprav'd and loose inclina∣tions, who neither know when to begin, nor when to make an end; as is reported of Archabius the Fidler, to whom they were wont to give more money to leave off, than to continue his play: Of which impertinent Musitians, we finde this Character in Horace.
Among their Friends all Singers have this vice,
That begg'd to sing, none are more coy or nice;
Vnbid, they'll never cease—
Musick has been always a Vagrant, wandring up and down after sordid hire; an Art which no grave, mo∣dest, chast, magnanimous, and truly valiant person ever profess'd: therefore the Greeks generally term them Father Bacchus's Artificers, Bacchanal or lewd Artists, generally of loose behaviour, incontinent in their lives, and for the most part in great poverty and want; which is not onely the Mother, but Nurse of Vice. The Kings of the Medes and Persians reckon'd Musitians 〈…〉 of their Jesters, Parasites, and Players,
Page 58
pleasing themselves with their Songs, but contemning their persons. And the wise Antisthenes hearing that one Ismenias kept an incomparable Musitian in his house, quoth he, He is a bad man, for he would not be a Fidler if he were honest: for that is not an Art be∣coming a good and vertuous man, but onely the lazy E∣picure. This made Scipio, Aemylius, and Cato utterly to despise this Science, as being contrary to the Majesty of the Roman Manners. Therefore were Augustus and Nero so much condemn'd for giving their minds so much to Musick. 'Tis true, Augustus being reprehen∣ded, gave it over; but Nero more eagerly pursuing it, was for that cause hated and derided. King Philip when he heard that his Son had sung very finely at a certain Entertainment, burst into a passion, reproaching him in these words: Art thou not asham'd to sing hand∣somely? for it is enough that a Prince will vouchsafe to be present while others sing. Jupiter is never said to sing or play on the Harp, by any one of the Poets: But the learned Pallas is said to hate all manner of Piping. In Homer we read of a Harper to whom Alciones and Vlysses willingly lent their Ears. In Virgil, Iopas both sings and plays, while Dido and Aeneas give attention: Yet when Alexander the Great was singing, his School∣master Antigonus brake his Harp and threw it away, tel∣ling him, It was his business to raign, and not to sing. The Egyptians also, as Diodorus witnesseth, forbad the use of Musick to their Youth, as rendring them luxuri∣ous and effeminate. And Ephorus, according to Poly∣bius, condemns it as an Art invented onely to delude and deceive men. And indeed, what is more unpro∣fitable, more contemptible, more to be avoided, than the society of these Fidlers, Singers, and other kind of Musitians; who with so many sorts of Songs, Dia∣logues, Catches, and Roundelays, more chattering than Rooks or Daws, do but like Syrens bewitch and cor∣rupt
Page 59
the well-dispos'd minds of men, with their lasci∣vious sound of Ribaldry and Debauchery? Therefore the Mothers of the Cycones persecuted Orpheus even to Hell, for effeminating their Males with his charming Harmony. And if there be any authority in Fables, we finde that though Argus had his head guarded with a hundred Eyes, yet they were all charmed asleep with the sound of one single Pipe. It is true, that from hence the Musitians take occasion to extol themselves far above the Rhetoricians, for that their Art has a greater power to move the passions and affection: and to such a hight of madness they are carried, as to affirm that the Heavens themselves do sing; not that they were ever heard so to do, but onely as their drunken Dreams and Imaginations prompt them to believe. Neither was there ever any Musitian that ever descen∣ded from Heaven, who could ever pretend to know all the Consonances of Sound, or the true reason of Proportions: Onely they say, that it is a most compleat Art, and comprehends all other Sciences; nor can be throughly understood by any one not Universally lear∣ned. Yea, they attribute to it the vertue of Divina∣tion, and that thereby men may make a judgement of the habits of the Body, affections of the Minde, and manners of Men. They say moreover, that there is no end of this Art, and that every day produces new discoveries therein; which in another sense Anaxilas wittily hints, that Musick is like Libya, which every year produces some new sort of venomous Creature or other. Athanasius therefore, by reason of its vani∣ty, exiles it from the Church. It is true, St. Ambrose more delighting in Pomp and Ceremony, instituted the use of Singing and Playing in Churches. But St. Au∣stin in the mean betwixt both, makes a great doubt of the lawfulness thereof, in his Confessions.