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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The World's Earliest Music - Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands - - -Author: Hermann Smith - - - -Release Date: September 13, 2016 [eBook #53039] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC*** - - -E-text prepared by deaurider, turgut, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the 65 original illustrations. - See 53039-h.htm or 53039-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53039/53039-h/53039-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53039/53039-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/worldsearliestmu04smit - - - - - -THE WORLD’S EARLIEST MUSIC. - - -[Illustration: - - APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE. (described page 323. - -_From a marble relief by Praxiteles in the Museum at Athens._] - - - “The eye is blind when the mind does not see.”—_Arab Proverb._ - - -THE WORLD’S EARLIEST MUSIC: - -Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands, -by Collected Evidence of Relics, Records, History, and Musical -Instruments from Greece, Etruria, Egypt, China, through Assyria -and Babylonia, to the Primitive Home, the Land of Akkad -And Sumer. - -by - -HERMANN SMITH. - -Author of “_The Making of Sound in the Organ_,” “_Instruments of the -Orchestra from Old to New_,” “_Modern Organ Tuning_,” _etc._ - -Sixty-five Illustrations. - - - - - - - -London: -William Reeves, 83, Charing Cross Road, W.C. - - - * * * * * * - - _Preparing for Publication._ - - THE - MAKING OF SOUND IN THE ORGAN. - - An Analysis of the work of the Air in the Speaking Organ Pipe of - the various constant types, with an Exposition of the Laws of - Time-distance and of the Tone of the Air, etc., etc., - - THE THEORY OF THE AIR-REED ELUCIDATED. - - ALSO - - INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA, - THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT - AND COMPARATIVE ACOUSTICS, ETC. - - * * * * * * - - - -FOREWORD. - - -A music-trail through many lands, over regions where dwelt the peoples -of the earliest civilizations, this I have followed, attracted -oftentimes to rambles by the way, gathering evidence on all sides in -the course of my journey, picking up whatever seemed to be capable of -throwing light upon the early conditions of music; from rock carvings, -wall paintings, tablets and vases, marbles and sculpture, papyri and -parchments, and records, the treasure-trove and finds of explorers -old and new, who seem to have accounted for at least ten thousand -years of human experience;—yet withal very few musical instruments -of the earlier ages have been recovered, and these for the most -part imperfect and unplayable, and we have to depend chiefly upon -the ancient representations, drawings or carvings for what we know. -Archæologists and antiquarians, unhappily for our quest, have not been -very particular in truthfully copying even the drawings and sculptures, -often leaving out important details, or supplying some imaginatively; -in the absence of insight into the constructive principles of -instruments, indifference may be a natural consequence, and that there -was anything at all in a musical instrument worth thinking about, might -probably never occur to their minds. - -Music is not an isolated fact, it is bound up with the lives, with -the daily routine of peoples and nations; its courses of development, -cannot rightly be judged apart from geography, ethnography, archæology -and history. In the early migrations man’s music went with him as -his language went, his simple instruments he could fashion by the -wayside, and in later eras as men advanced, a craft would organize -itself, determining the progress of the instruments from a rude to a -refined style of construction; thus a kind of Art would be confirmed -and thereout a system of music would arise, which to the people of the -time, at whatever stage of attainment considered, would be as mature to -them as our present system is to us. - -The structure of the instruments defines the possibilities of the -music, and my belief is that a true idea of the character of ancient -musical display can only be arrived at through a practical knowledge of -such structure, its capabilities, its limitations, and the scope of its -technique, since the qualities of tone that are at the command of the -player are always determined by the means of excitation of the sounds, -and by the shape and interior forms of the instruments. - -The ancients had no system of harmony, yet there must have been -harmony in the air, a promiscuous harmony arising through the -variations in a multitude of unisonous effects. - -A study of the Double Flutes, the Greek _Auloi_, has led me to some -original conclusions which may or may not be corroborated by future -discoveries, and I read with eager hopes of a projected International -scheme for the complete excavation of the buried city of Herculanæum, -just announced, which, if carried out, may reveal many things that we -want to know concerning these mysterious instruments. - -Throughout a long life I have been occupied with books and with music, -especially with the instruments that make the music, their construction -and scientific bearings and relations, practically and experimentally, -and thus it has happened that many advantages seldom combined have -favoured the pursuit of the investigations discursively related in the -present volume. - -My thanks are due to Messrs. Cassell and Co., who kindly supplied -several blocks, illustrating the Egyptian and Assyrian sections, used -by them in Nauman’s “History of Music,” and Dr. J. Stainer’s “Music of -the Bible.” - -To the Secretary of the Hellenic Society, Mr. J. Penoyre Baker, I am -indebted for the photograph of the Apollo of Praxiteles brought by him -from Athens, which I use for the frontispiece. - -I was agreeably surprised to find that the late Dr. A. S. Murray, -Keeper of the Greek and Roman Departments of the British Museum, -in his last lectures on Sculpture, delivered by him at Burlington -House, but a few weeks before his lamented death, had selected this -Praxitelean Monument for the subject of his discourses. Referring to -the Apollo Harp he said “it is quite beautiful.” The coincidence of -choice attracted me, and calling to mind the learned Keeper’s courteous -manner, and kindly help in former years, I had planned another -interview, with questions which he from his stores of knowledge would -have satisfied—but it was too late—he had passed through The Open -Gateway. - -Intimations of a proposed sequel to this work will be found in the last -two pages of the volume, new and valuable materials having been brought -to hand by recent discoveries. - -Goethe in his “conversations with Eckermann” said that a book should be -judged, first, by the aim the author proposed to himself—next, by the -degree in which he had succeeded in accomplishing his aim. I may not -have remembered the exact words, “’tis sixty years since” I read them, -but the purport of the saying is there. My aim in writing has been -to give the lover of music a companionable book, full of information -of a kind likely as I think to be of interest to both amateur and -professional. My own enthusiasm on the subject has, I hope, been -tempered by ease in presentation, for I am wishful that the hours given -to the reading of these pages may leave with all readers a pleasant -memory. - - HERMANN SMITH. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - - PAGE. - - AT THE GATES OF THE PAST 1 - - - CHAPTER II. - - IN THE LAND OF MYTH—THE PURSUIT OF THE GODS 14 - - - CHAPTER III. - - IN THE LAND OF EGYPT—THE LADY MAKET AND - HER FLUTES 25 - - - CHAPTER IV. - - IN THE LAND OF EGYPT—MORE EGYPTIAN FLUTES—THE - EVIDENCES OF THE SCALE—THE TEACHINGS - OF EXPERIMENTS 42 - - - CHAPTER V. - - IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA—THE GRECO-ETRUSCAN - DOUBLE FLUTES—THE BULBED OR SUBULO - FLUTES 63 - - - CHAPTER VI. - - IN THE LAND OF GREECE—FROM ETRURIA TO - ATHENS—THE SWEET MONAULOS 82 - - - CHAPTER VII. - - IN THE LAND OF GREECE—THE SILKWORM FLUTES, - OR BOMBYX FLUTES 93 - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - IN OSCAN LAND—ITALIA—FOUND AT POMPEII—THE - GRECO-ROMAN FLUTES 107 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - BACK TO THE LAND OF THE NILE—EGYPT REVEALS - THE SECRET 118 - - - CHAPTER X. - - THE ISLES OF GREECE—MIDAS THE GLORIOUS 126 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - NEAR THE CITY OF CHARITES—THE MYSTERY OF - THE “SLENDER BRASS” 137 - - - CHAPTER XII. - - AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE—THE MUSIC HEARD BY - THE GREEKS 143 - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - IN THE LAND OF CHINA—THE OUTSPREAD PHŒNIX 155 - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE MONGOLS NEW HOME—THE MYTHICAL FINDING - OF THE LÜS 165 - - - CHAPTER XV. - - IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM—THE BIRD’S NEST 180 - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - BY THE YELLOW RIVER—THE EVOLUTION OF THE - SHENG 192 - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - IN THE LAND OF SIAM—THE SIAMESE “PHAN” 208 - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - IN THE LAND OF JAPAN—JAPANESE PITCH PIPES AND - THE JAPANESE CLARIONET AND THE SHO 212 - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - IN ANCIENT CHINA—CEREMONIAL INSTRUMENTS 228 - - - CHAPTER XX. - - IN ANCIENT CHINA—THE FLUTES OF THE CHINESE 236 - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - IN ANCIENT CHINA—THE FAVOURITE OF CONFUCIUS 250 - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - IN ANCIENT CHINA—THE TRUMPETS OF THE - CHINESE 264 - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - THE MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY—THE OLDEST - WRITTEN MUSIC 274 - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE—THE - BOW WITH THE BOAT 285 - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS—THE DELPHIC LYRE 306 - - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - HOW THE MUSIC GREW—IN THE DAYS OF A - THOUSAND YEARS 326 - - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - AT ALEXANDRIA—THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE - SCALE 342 - - - INDEX 343 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - PLATES. - - Apollo with his Lyre, by Praxiteles _Frontispiece._ - - Cane Harp from Borneo, with Tambourine Bells _Facing page 304._ - - FIGURE. PAGE. - - 1 Queen Hatasu’s Three Stringed Egyptian Lyre 13 - - 2 Ancient Greek Players on Flute, and Pan’s Pipes 16 - - 3 Ancient Peruvian Stone Syrinx 17 - - 4 Peruvian Pan’s Pipes, Double Set from a Tomb in Arica 18 - - 5 Pair of Gingroi Flutes found in Lady Maket’s Tomb 31 - - 6 The Egyptian Arghool Reed, Full Size 35 - - 7 The Hautboy Reed, Full Size 35 - - 8 Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes 44 - - 9 Egyptian Player upon Unequal Pipes 45 - - 10 Egyptian Musical Entertainment, from a Tomb-painting - in the British Museum 46 - - 11 The Arghool Reed Pipe with its Drone 56 - - 12 The Egyptian Zummarah 57 - - 13 Player on the Egyptian Seba or Sabi 58 - - 14 Arab Player on the Nay Flute 59 - - 15 Etruscan Player on the Pipes, with Phorbia 70 - - 16 The Satyr Handling the Auloi or Greek Reed Flutes 74 - - 17 The Muse Euterpe Preparing her Flutes 77 - - 18 The Muse Meledosa with her Flutes Complete 79 - - 19 The Greek Mon-Aulos, set in Two Modes 89 - - 20 The Greek Silkworm Flutes 96 - - 21 The Flageolet Proper 98 - - 22 The Pompeian Flutes in the Naples Museum 111 - - 23 The Bulb-head found by M. Maspero 125 - - 24 Midas, the Flute Player, Statue in the British Museum 134 - - 25 The Bronze-ringed Flutes in the British Museum 135 - - 26 The Chinese P’ai-hsiao or Pan’s Pipes 157 - - 27 The Chinese Te-ching or Stone Chime 161 - - 28 The Chinese Sheng or Bird’s Nest 182 - - 29 A Pipe of the Sheng, Full Size 184 - - 30 Diagram of the Plan of the Sheng 202 - - 31 The Siamese Phan with Free Reeds 210 - - 32 Japanese Pitch Pipes, Full Size 213 - - 33 Clarionet of the Japanese, the Hichi-riki 222 - - 34 The Chinese Large Bell, the Po-chung 234 - - 35 The Chinese Gong Chimes or Yung-lo 235 - - 36 The Chinese Dragon Flute 239 - - 37 The Chinese Flute, the Hwang-chong-tche 241 - - 38 Native Chinese Flute Player 243 - - 39 The Krena, a Flute of the Indian Quechas 245 - - 40 The Chinese Violin 251 - - 41 The Ch’in or Scholars Lute, the Favourite of Confucius 255 - - 42 Assyrian Harp with Plectrum 262 - - 43 The Chinese Hwangteih or Trumpet 268 - - 44 The Chinese Haot’ung or Trumpet 268 - - 45 The Chinese La-pa or Trumpet 271 - - 46 The Chinese Yu or Rattling Tiger 272 - - 47 Egyptian Five-stringed Lyre, from Beni-Hassan 288 - - 48 Egyptian Player on the Upright Lyre 289 - - 49 Grand Harp from the Tomb of Rameses III. 290 - - 50 Triangular Egyptian Harp, in the Louvre, Paris 292 - - 51 Lyre Carried by the Stranger in Egypt 293 - - 52 The Kissar or Harp of the Nile 294 - - 53 Harp Players at Nimroud, from the British Museum 290 - - 54 Egyptian Magadis Player with Plectrum 297 - - 55 Small Upright Egyptian Lyre 297 - - 56 Egyptian Lyre, in the Berlin Museum 298 - - 57 Player on the Egyptian Lute or Nefer 300 - - 58 Dancer with the Nefer 301 - - 59 The Cane Harp from Borneo, with Tamburine Bells 304 - - 60 The Chelys or Greek Tortoiseshell Lyre 309 - - 61 The Muse Terpsichore with a Lyre 315 - - 62 Greek Players Tuning the Lyre and Dancing 316 - - 63 The Muse Erato Playing the Psaltery 317 - - 64 The Muse Erato Playing on a Trigon, from a Vase in the - Munich Collection 321 - - -“The true nature of a thing is whatsoever it becomes when the process -of its development is complete.” - - ARISTOTLE. - - - - -THE WORLD’S EARLIEST MUSIC. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -At the Gates of the Past. - - -The human interest in the past never dies, its hold upon us increases -with the growing years, and every gain that is made to the store of -knowledge does but add to the zest with which we search for more; -nation vies with nation for the glory of recovering relics of life that -are strewn along the path of death. - -From the sands and from the tombs, from the paintings and the graven -tablets, and from the faces of the rocks we rehabilitate the vision of -the mighty dead; a recovered name is a page of a people’s history, and -we seek with renewal of eagerness for the pages that should follow or -precede. - -The long buried spoils of temples and palaces excite the imagination, -the grandeur of gold and silver, the wealth of art and ornament, and -the resplendent jewels, appeal to the love of power and of possession, -active or dormant in every heart; yet not less do we treasure the -fragile mementoes, the simplest things, rendered up from the past -that were the surroundings of domestic life, that speak to us of the -household ways, and of the personal pursuits of the men, and of the -adornment of the women who for untold ages have ever sought - - “their pleasure in their power to charm.” - -The instruments of music that in the remoter ages of the past were in -daily use are seldom found, for the nature of the materials of which -they were constructed was adverse to their preservation; those that -have been found are rarely in their original condition, perfect in all -their parts, or suitable for being put to the test of playing, and the -resource left to us is to obtain some approximate condition by means of -models, and then adapt some modern method for eliciting sound, which -method as near as we can judge shall be the counterpart of the original -device. - -My conviction is that to understand the old music the first necessity -is to question the old instruments, that they will best indicate and -tell most clearly what the music must have been. - -Those “findings” then, the treasure trove of explorers, have great -attraction for me, as they have for many other musically-minded people. -The archæologist, it is true, is in no degree concerned with their -musical import, he is content with their presence as antiquities; -paintings and sculpture interest him in many ways as examples of -art, and consequently the musical investigator gains by researches -which yield him pictures of musical instruments in the using, and -representations often in marble and bronze; yet withal I do not imagine -that the enlightenment of the musician has been one of the motives -influencing the archæologist in his care for the preservation of the -treasures recovered from the past. Thus it happens that in published -illustrations the details, upon which so much of the teachable value -depends, are too often inaccurately carried out, or perhaps it may be -are fancifully perfected to accord with some preconceived idea, and -thus the student is misled. In museums likewise, there is no little -difficulty in obtaining accurate information respecting objects -exhibited, and details which are of the first importance, are obscured -by some awkwardness in the placing of the objects. The reason for these -unintentional hindrances is simple enough: we have but to remember -that the antiquarian is not bound to understand the nature of musical -instruments, and as a matter of fact he does not understand them. - -The two chief lands that hold the music of the past are Egypt and -China; yet in how different a manner is the holding of each. Which -nation is the ancientist none can tell. East is East, and West is -West. From some early birthplace the two people diverged. The people -of Egypt have vanished; the people of China remain; they are one fifth -of the existing human race. Both people intellectual; yet the brain -development of the Chinese has had from its original birth-strain a -distinct causation, making its course parallel to that of no other -brain. A sport of nature? ask Darwin or the Dragon! - - -In Egypt we dig and delve and year by year recover the treasures that -she holds. In China there is nothing to recover, nothing to dig for, -all her past is huddled on the surface. Her music and her musical -instruments of the past are here to-day, the same as they ever were, -there are no stages of development and no steps of ascent. - -Thus the treatment of the question of the earliest music of China is -distinct from that of others, and the knowledge of the method of its -foundation is to be gathered from the musical instruments still in use. - -Chaldæan history extends back to a very remote antiquity. Mr. St. -Chad Boscawen, a high authority, states that the working of metal -had been practised as early as 3,000 B.C. in Chaldæa, that there are -inscriptions certainly as ancient as 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C., and -that one of the earliest Chaldæan sculptures contained a representation -of the harp and the pipes which were attributed to Jubal. So that we -have to go back very far indeed up the stream of time to find the -beginnings of music. - -That system of music which is the heritage of all the European races -comes from the people called the Greeks, but the art as practically -pursued by them was lost, or was hidden by an impenetrable cloud. - -Lacroix, in his history of “The Arts of the Middle Ages,” describes -the condition of the early centuries of our era—one brief passage -tells the tale. He says, “Ancient Rome, which had no natural music, -readily adapted Greek music, in the time of the emperors, to all the -usages of public and private, as of civil and religious, life. Art -remained Grecian, and most of the singers and players came from Greece -to take service under the wealthy patricians. The various forms of -Latin prosody were but thinly disguised beneath a veil of Ionic, Doric, -and Lydian melodies, even when the Christians waged a relentless war -upon profane music, not only as an accompaniment to the rites of the -pagan religion, but as played in the circus and other popular resorts -to excite the brutal passions of the multitude, or at the nocturnal -orgies of the aristocracy. The decadence and the disappearance of Greek -music in Italy and the West date from the reign of Theodosius; and when -the games of the Capitol were put down, about the year 384, the Greek -musicians either returned to the East or abandoned their art.” - -The light of Greece suddenly went out, and darkness surrounds all that -relates to the actual characteristics of their musical instruments and -their music, notwithstanding the preservation of learned treatises and -the citation of numerous historical references. Musicians grope in the -dark still, and are unable to realize the musical art of the Greeks. -The lyre and the lute and the flute are before us in numberless -painted designs, are sculptured in enduring marble,—yet they fail to -raise in our minds any adequate idea of the influence of their music -upon the national life. The past has closed the gates of the past, and -the land beyond awaits the explorer. - -Pursuing this line of thought, and taking Greece as the grand junction -whence radiate all the lines of musical art up to the present day -throughout Europe, we find the pathways that have converged to Greece -may be arranged this wise in diagram: - - WESTERN PERSIA. - - CHALDÆA. INDIA. - ASSYRIA. CHINA. - ARABIA. LYDIA. - EGYPT. ETRURIA. - GREECE. - -These are the pathways of music, through which Greece derived her -knowledge by direct or indirect transmission. On the one hand we can -distinctly trace the line back to Chaldæa by way of Egypt; and on -the other hand back to Persia, where indeed the origin of the race -itself can be looked for. Not in any formal method do I wish this -diagram to be understood, for there may have been—and I should infer -were—crossings of influence, as between Chaldæa and Arabia, Egypt and -India, China and Persia, and so forth. Perhaps another plan of diagram -would be by placing Persia central as the source of early tribal -dispersion, with sign post pointing in the different directions to -Arabia, Chaldæa, India, China. Lydia includes the Asiatic coasts of the -Mediterranean. It appears to me that the Chinese influence upon the -Greeks was direct by commerce overland; and that in reference to time -there was a primitive branching off of the two races from some Persian -region. - -The ethnological question is too deep for us to judge of, and we can -only take the guidance of those who are at this day the recognized -authorities. Mr. St. Chad Boscawen traces the Babylonian, the Egyptian, -and the Chinese civilizations to the mountainous regions of Western -Persia. It will be shown in the chapters on Etruscan lore how Greece -derived from Egypt through Etruria before she was in direct constant -intercourse with that land, and then subsequently developed her most -enduring records of musical art in the hands of the Etruscans. As -to China, there may seem at first some difficulty in recognition of -influence; but at all events silk from China had penetrated to the -Mediterranean before the Greeks knew how it was produced in “far -Cathay”; and in the motley gatherings of all peoples and tongues on the -coasts of the blue sea, doubtless the representative of the yellow race -one day found his way. The Greeks were great travellers; and who can -tell where the barrier was fixed that ordered them to turn back. - -Persia has left no musical relics, and Mr. A. J. Ellis states: “Of the -ancient Persian scale we know nothing, but it was most probably the -progenitor of the older Greek.” - -The Greeks undoubtedly had an elaborate system of music; but there -was no evidence of its practical application to the extent that would -have been supposed. Indeed, Pythagoras states that “the intervals -in music are rather to be judged intellectually, through numbers, -than sensibly through the ear.” The view taken of music by the -scholars was demonstrative, and purely on the ground of mathematics. -It was altogether apart from popular practice of the art, vocal and -instrumental. The philosophers regarded music from the side of morals. -In the same way, the Chinese had attained a high degree of knowledge of -music in its demonstrable relations, upon which they in their learned -treatises eloquently discourse. In demonstrations of the laws of pipes, -and in theoretical development of the system of equal temperament, -they have displayed their mental grasp; but beyond that the acquired -knowledge seems to have made little practical impression. Their -philosophers likewise talked of the beneficial influences of music in -controlling the passions, and doing other “et cetera” work. - -My long tarrying with the musical instruments of Celestials has tended -to bring very forcibly before me the great resemblance between the -Chinese and the Greek systems of music. Wide asunder as these people -are racially, yet in their development of the musical art they seem to -have some close kinship, some common source of idea; and little traits -of primitive lore constantly give suggestions of some early centre -whence the two have diverged, or of some point where in the crossing -of the pathways they have supplied themselves from the same fountain, -although each traversed in a different direction its appointed course. - -The possibilities, however, that I have in mind are of some far -earlier impressions from intercourse, how and when constituting the -problem; for the Greeks in their prime were but the infants of a day -in comparison with the peoples under the great monarchies of Chaldæa, -Assyria, Egypt, and China, whose rulers could be traced back two, -three, four—aye five—thousand years before the first block was hewn for -the foundation of the Parthenon, or ever a Venus stept in marble. - -Van Aalst states that “the first invaders of China were a band of -immigrants fighting their way among the aborigines, and supposed to -have come from the south of the Caspian Sea” and the question remains, -where was the earlier track of their wanderings? Is it not also -curious that one of the early mythical Kings of ancient Persia had -the name Houscheng? It was in his reign that the Persians became Fire -Worshippers, adoring flame as the symbol of God. - -Yet it is by way of Chaldæa and Egypt that our chief interests will be -found, where relics of the musical arts had permanence not granted to -them elsewhere. Persia and India yield us less as matter for enquiry, -since it is the class of stringed instruments of light kind that -their peoples have mostly favoured. Some problems are still left in -India which we should like to have solved. The transverse flute is -constantly found in ancient carvings in the hands of Krishna, who is -popularly believed to have been its inventor; but how it came about -that the double flutes should be found on the carvings both of wood -and stone awakens curiosity. What historical significance had they? -Not a survival of any kind is there in the usage of the present time. -Only as it were yesterday, at the British Museum, I was looking over -the series of very old carvings in wood,—friezes which have formed -the risers of the steps to the Tope at Jumal-Garlic in Afghanistan, -crowded with figures of men and women and animals in the uncouth style -so characteristic of the land that was the home of Buddha. In these -scenes, depicting the history of the great Renunciator, I found amongst -the groups of players on instruments several instances of players upon -these double pipes, the counterpart of those graven in the historical -records of Babylon and Nineveh, and painted on vases by Etruscans, and -carved in marble by the Greeks. What does it all mean? How have the -races of mankind been affiliated? We find the double flutes in India; -we do not find them in China. In that intermediate land of Thibet, has -the Grand Lama any evidence or record of them? It is curious that the -Chinese, although they have the earlier Pan’s pipes, have neither the -double pipes nor the lyre—instruments of Greece—yet they have a system -of music essentially the same as the Greeks, and (as will be shown you -in the _Sheng_) a scale consisting of the two conjunct tetrachords, -forming with an added tetrachord an octave and a fourth; the key-note -being the fourth of the scale, equal to the _Mese_ of the Greeks. -The Chinese style of music though lacking the refined ideal of art is -on precisely the same lines, vocal with recitative and instrumental -interposed phrases; and if the hymns of the old Confucian temple be -transcribed side by side with the fragments we have of the worship of -Apollo only exacting criticism could determine the different origin. -They are equally capable of being harmonized with effective dignity. -Further, I would remark also that the Chinese notation, like the Greek, -consists solely of added signs written beside the words of the hymn. -All the details seem to point to a time in a far distant past when -both races were in contact with one source; then came a day of sudden -disruption—one race eastward, one race westward: each pursuing its own -way. So the years rolled on, bearing their records on two distinct -rolls of separate destiny. - -The twofold destruction of the vast library of Alexandria by fire, -the first time by accident the second time by fanaticism, has been an -irreparable loss to music, for there, if anywhere, would have been -treasured those records of the learned men of old, which would have -told us so much that we want to know. - -Now, beyond the paintings and the sculptures, all the knowledge that -remains comes to us through the literature of the Greeks, the sole -inheritors. - -The descent of Music is in direct line from Egypt; and Egypt would -in like manner have derived from some earlier civilisation the first -elements of her own. There are words in an inscription in the Temple -of Dayr-el-Bahari which I think may be taken as shewing Queen Hatasu’s -traditional associations of thought in reference to the origin of her -race. This famous Queen built that magnificent Temple, and dedicated it -in part to Amen the God of Thebes, and in part to Hathor the Beautiful, -the Lady of the Western Mountain, the Goddess-Regent of the Land of -Punt. Hatasu is represented as suckled by the goddess, who is also -the nurse of Horus. In this temple there is a wonderful series of -bas-reliefs sculptured and painted on the walls, a panorama in stone of - - “The five large ships she built in obedience to the will - of Amen, King of the Gods, that they should traverse the - Great Sea on the Good Way to the Land of the Gods.” - -The stone pictures shew these vessels at their departure and return, -with variety of details of loading and cargo, etc. On the mast of -one of the ships a three string lyre or bow-harp is slung. In the -description of one of these vivid pictures, are these words, written as -the Queen Hatasu ordered, and probably taken from her own lips as what -she wished to be set forth - - “We sailed on the Sea, and began a fair voyage towards - the Divine Land, that is to the coast of Arabia, and the - journey to the Land of Punt was happily resumed.” - -The vessels went from the Nile by an ancient water-way, partly canal, -into the Red Sea, and it would seem that we are to understand (for -much of the whole inscription has broken away) that for some special -cause they were diverted and went first across the sea to the coast of -Arabia, a proceeding doubtless of some temerity, but that _happily_ -they escaped danger, and went on to their original destination, and -brought thence the myrrh and the actual trees of _Ana_-sycamore, the -coveted odoriferous trees, the chief object of the voyage being to -secure the costly incense for the service of the white Temple built by -the Queen. It seems to me that Queen Hatasu’s words “the Divine Land” -point to her belief that there in Arabia, and beyond, to that far -eastern horizon where the white mountains meet the blue heavens, there, -was the true home of the Gods, the earlier home whence came her race. -Maybe she cherished the names of Anu and Ishtar, and knew that these -old deities of Chaldæa were those she worshipped under Egyptian names. - -The common course of newer nations is thus, to take and to rename the -old gods. Herodotus considers that the names of nearly all the gods of -Greece are derived from Egypt. To each of the ancient nations it would -seem that the old solar myth was newly told in parable, the esoteric -meaning of it known only to their priests. - -That wonderful piece of wall sculpture may be seen to-day; time and -the tourist have destroyed some portions, yet enough endures to tell -the story which the great Queen left there three thousand four hundred -years ago. Just as it was in the old Chaldæan temples, the sanctuary, -“the Holy of Holies,” is cut in the rock itself, far within, there -light was not needed, “for the gods see everywhere.” This beautiful -white temple rises in three terraces cut out of the limestone cliff, -and once had an avenue of sphinxes three miles long, leading down to -the blue river. - -Looking at the plan of the Temple one sees that the thought of it -was Chaldæan, it is so like the terrace temple of the God Bel by the -Euphrates, and I cannot but think that the three-string lyre hung on -the mast of the ship she sent to “the coast of Arabia” had a meaning -to her own heart, was a simple token that would be understood by all of -her royal race, to show by this symbol that the lyre originally came -from that “divine land” whither her thoughts went, as a child turns to -its mother. - -[Illustration: _The Early three-stringed Lyre of the Egyptians._ - -_Fig. 1. The same Lyre as pictured slung on the mast of Queen Hatasu’s -ship._] - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -In the Land of Myth. - -THE PURSUIT OF THE GODS. - - -In the land of Myth there occur many landmarks that project their -shadows into dim distances, telling with no uncertain indications that -the land of Fact is a much more extensive region, that it environs both -the land of myth and the land of tradition that borders it, and yields -to the explorer many evidences much earlier in racial history, when as -yet the mind of man had not imagined - - “the fair humanities of old religion.” - -In the pursuit of the gods we have to look back far beyond the age -whence the gods emerged. Like the rivers that come to our feet at full -flood so are these very human gods, they represent men in the fulness -of power, and disclose not the long course, the broad expanse of time, -the toilsome difficulties, through which that power has been attained. - -The Greeks attributed to Apollo the invention of the lyre, the -eight-stringed lyre a completed and perfect instrument of music. In -the British Museum there is a magnificent marble statue of Apollo, -and in his hand the sculptor has fashioned a lyre of noblest pattern, -such as his fellow worshippers believed the god had designed and -given to them. We, of later days, well know that so accurate a leap -to perfection does not accord with human experience, and moreover are -able to trace the stages by which in the course of centuries the lyre -had arrived at that complete condition. So by the help of the Greeks -themselves, by their literary records, by their representations in -sculpture and in paintings, I hope that we shall be able to recognise -the process by which men worked in their own day of life from -generation to generation for the accomplishment of their aims in the -art and pleasure of music. - -The great god Pan, beloved of the Greeks, and more widely worshipped -to-day under another name, gave men the little river reed to make their -music with, and marvellously has the gift flourished; the simple tiny -pipe, growing with the growth of centuries, has become a pipe speaking -with the voice of Jove, has reared itself upward until its heighth -would make it fit to stand beside the hand of the great Phidian statue -of the Olympian god. Simple as a Pan’s pipe is the great diapason that -reaches upward to the vaulted roofs of our temples. Not more impossible -to the mind of the ancient Greek the conception of the thing of music -we call an organ, than is to us the realization of the faith in those -divinities of mountains, woods, and streams, of those early dwellers -in a green world. Yet how we linger over the legends of the past, and -almost wish we could believe they once were true. Alas, in our well -worn world, fancy is a poor exchange for faith. The legend of Pan -reads how a nymph, Syrinx by name, whom Pan was pursuing, prayed the -Naiades (the nymphs of the water) to change her into a bundle of reeds, -just as Pan was laying hold of her, who therefore caught the reeds in -his hands instead of the desired nymph. The winds moving these reeds to -and fro caused mournful but musical sounds, which Pan perceiving he cut -them down, and made of them the pipes first known as the Syrinx, and -afterwards called by his name,— - - “The pipe of Pan to shepherds - Couched in the shadow of Menalian pines - Was passing sweet.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 2. Ancient Greek players on Flute and Pan’s -pipes._] - -The Pan’s pipes as a musical instrument made its mark in history; in -almost every land in some form or other it has existed as a popular -instrument, and therefore a source of pleasure. Varied in form, and -with pipes few or many, it is found on ancient sculptures and in -paintings. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America show specimens of the -instrument ancient, and often modern; for the use survives among some -people not yet spoilt by premature civilization. The British Museum -possesses a very peculiar specimen made of stone, which was found -in Central America. Another, of which there is a cast in the Berlin -Museum, was discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb; it was -made of a greenish stone, a kind of talc, and had eight pipes which -gave their notes as in ancient days. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 3._ - -_Ancient Peruvian Stone Syrinx._] - -The British Museum possesses an interesting relic from a tomb at Arica; -this Peruvian _huaraya puhura_ consists of fourteen reed pipes of a -brownish colour tied together in two rows, so as to form a double set -of seven reeds; both sets are of the same dimensions and are placed -side by side, one set being open at the bottom, and the other set -being closed, consequently capable of producing octaves to the open -set; a remarkable feature therefore is the presence of the open set, -indicating a clear perception of the musical relations of the two -distinct forms used. - -The Chinese also have their example in the instrument they call “The -Outspread Phœnix” or the sacred bird, to them the outward symbol of -some myth that had credence from immemorial times. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 4._ - -_Peruvian Pan’s Pipes, Double Set._ - -_From a Tomb in Arica._] - -Whether there has been a migration of races and heritage of -primitive invention, or whether with each people the Pan’s pipes had -spontaneously originated, is a problem upon which curiosity cannot -fail to be awakened when it is noticed how these instruments, almost -identical in make and shape, are found all over the world (_see -forward_ “_In the Land of China_.”) - -The Chinese instrument is an assemblage of pipes of various lengths -from which musical tones of different pitches are produced,—it is a -mouth organ. Our modern organ is likewise an assemblage of pipes, and -differs only from it in respect of number and degree. Perhaps the -blowing across the open end of a pipes was the earliest mechanical -way of producing a flute sound. The little river reed pipe of Pan is -therefore selected as the type of all flutes; the principle is the same -whatever the variation in method of sounding. - -Yet the appearance of Pan marks only one stage in the land of myth, and -that only just within the confines near where the border lines of myth -and history meet. For many thousand years beyond this the imagination -must travel to reach the earliest sources of music. The complete set -of seven pipes claimed by Pan was not the work of a summer’s day, the -scale as seven sounds was not the witchery of a nymph’s voice happily -remembered by a forest God; no, we may be sure the course of life was -more prosaic than that, and the seven-toned instrument had, as a seven -branched river, its beginning from one,—one pipe, ages, it may be, -earlier than the seven. - -What do I make of it? Clearly this,—man IS a measuring animal. Like -other animals he calculates, forecasts and provides, but he alone -possesses the measuring faculty. Rambling again and again through the -region of the past, the thought presses forward for recognition that -man is a measuring animal, and hence his ability to produce instruments -of music. In the beginning they were all founded upon measure, the rude -measure of what suited the fingers; and the habit of so marking off -spaces, as time went on, recorded itself in a system, at first simple -as a child’s wit could compass, and afterwards so growing in complexity -as to tax the ingenuity of the most active brains of full-grown -civilized men to master and utilize, and yet at the last nothing more -than a system of finger activity for the covering of holes and the -touching of strings. Thus your musical scales arose. Had Polyphemus had -the ordering of a musical scale, most surely the intervals would have -been considerably larger; he would have suited his own fingers whether -with lengths of strings or with holes in pipes. - -Imagine yourself a prehistoric man. How would you set about whistling? -The lips are in the control of the imitative faculty; the effect called -whistling would naturally be first elicited by accident of emotion, or -sensibility of one kind or other. The intent to whistle would arise in -desire to imitate; a chance whistle heard from a shell or hollow nut -or reed would attract attention as for imitation. To imitate, is, as -we know, a propensity of monkeydom. How the human animal shares this -propensity as a characteristic of his race, and how society is based -most differentially upon it,—is not that also taught and recognized in -philosophy? - -Beyond the faculty of imitation man possesses that of measuring; he -measures and apportions in his buildings and his bakings: inches and -acres bear relation to each other; he marks off spans and cubits and -inches, and apportions minutely by millet-seeds and barley-corns. -For in earliest times simplest means and methods were as arbitrary -as are now our elaborated mechanisms. It is a truism that music is -ruled by measure, but what I want you to perceive is quite a different -interpretation, and that is that it was the _measuring that ordered the -music_. - -Those who, seeing the holes that are cut upon a common flute, or -oboe, consider that in the origin of the instrument they were so done -in order fitly to comport with a musical scale, are wrong in their -supposition. - -In the primitive making of a flute the holes were cut to suit the -spread of the fingers, and the scales which followed as the result of -the placing the holes, were accepted by primitive man; the ear got to -like the sequence of sounds, and it so worked into the brain of the -race, that ages after, it became an intellectually accepted musical -scale, or relation of notes and was varied by evolution; the structure -of the organ of hearing is the same in every race, so far as we can -ascertain, and the same natural laws are obeyed in its exercise. -Different races, however, have developed the hearing ear differently -as to its choice, because primitively, in the setting out of their -instruments there were differences of relation. The lengths of the -strings, and the distances of the holes spaced for the _convenience -of the fingers_, ordained the musical scales. Contrast the music of -the European and the Asiatic races. Our so-called divine music is to -the Chinese miserable, unscientific stuff; and the sounds which please -Asiatics as entrancing music, are to us distracting din, positively -painful to listen to. The liking of the ear in music is a liking by -inheritance, transmitted as a facial type is. - -The fingers are the fates of the musical art. Curiously enough, six -fingers have been the chief arbiters of the nature of man’s music; and -yet how long it was before that number was brought into use. Earliest -pipe instruments seem to have employed only two fingers; then the thumb -was made available, after that the third finger, and at last the little -finger was brought into service; it was, however, the period of the -ruling of the six fingers, three of each hand, in which the scales were -laid, and the art of music developed. In the stringed instruments there -is evidence of similar advance from one string to many. Men learnt -slowly the marvellous capacities of the lissome fingers they possess. - -We should see a meaning and a purpose in each change and variation in -the shape and adaptation of instruments. It may strike you somewhat -strangely that you should be set thinking of bits of wood, and pipes -and strings, as being aforetime the actual music makers, moulding in -fixed forms our musical tendencies. You fancy they are our servants, -unaware that they have ruled us earlier than we have ruled them. - -My conclusion, curious as it may seem, is put forth seriously, after -much study and after long inquisitive looking into things, possibly -worth thinking about. Very lately I found a pertinent yet undesigned -confirmation of my views in a work by Dr. A. J. Ellis on the “Musical -Scales of Various Nations.” As a result of his extensive investigation, -he says “The final conclusion is, that the musical scale is not -one, not ‘natural,’ nor even founded necessarily on the laws of the -constitution of musical sound, but very diverse, very artificial, very -captious.” He has actually, as it were, caught the scale in the act of -changing by a caprice at the bidding of the finger. On the lute, in the -very early Persian and Arabic scales, the middle finger had nothing to -do, and to find employment for the lazy finger, a ligature was, on the -neck of the lute, tied half way between two existing notes. One Zalzal, -a celebrated lutist, who died eleven centuries ago, tied this ligature -half way, and so added two notes to the scale. “These notes,” Dr. -Ellis says, “became of great importance in Arab music, and effectually -distinguished the older Arabic form from the later Greek.” - -For the coherence of the views I express upon this question, it is -to be implied that pipes and reeds have had an earlier development at -the hands of man than strings had, although the latter furnished the -first tangible means by which musical ratios were demonstrated by Greek -philosophers. In China the first standards of sounds were pipes, and by -them the degrees of the scale were fixed historically, yet too complete -to have had their real origin elsewhere than in the land of Myth. There -also must be placed the origin of the beautiful little “Sheng” to which -the Chinese attribute an unknown antiquity. - -The term flutes, it is necessary to remember, is in ancient usage of -literature applied to include all pipes blown across and likewise those -sounded by means of reeds that the breath sets vibrating. - -All the world over men have found delight in fluting, and the flute -as an instrument appears to be the common property of the human race. -Either of bones of animals or birds, of reeds or alders, of stones or -of clay, the art of man has fashioned flutes from the beginning of -time’s records. - -Seeking to trace man’s earliest musical instruments it will become -plain to us that life moves very slowly. How little is really new; -variation follows variation. See what a long process thought is. It -takes a whole race many centuries to think a new thought, and embody it. - -The Greeks as themselves acknowledged were indebted to the Egyptians -for their chief instruments. The invention of the flute is attributed -to the god Osiris, who lived when the world was young—ages ago; Osiris, -the dead god of the blue river, the ancestor of history, the river -known to all our race as oldest of rivers. When our thoughts dwell -upon “old Nile,” how memory-haunting are the lines in which Leigh Hunt -describes it;—read softly, - - It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands - Like some grave thought threading a mighty dream. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -In the Land of Egypt. - -THE LADY MAKET AND HER FLUTES. - - -The Lady Maket took possession of her latest residence with the -appropriate ceremonials befitting a lady of her position; and as -she had contemplated frequent excursions from her place of abode, -much attention was given to provide her with suitable travelling -attire, and also with numerous things requisite for her use; and, -in addition, certain personal belongings considered necessary to -her comfort—articles of the toilet and other customary aids to the -anxieties of woman’s mind—all such were collected by her attendants. -Nor did they forget to gather together good supplies of fresh fruit, -for there was no knowing the lady’s ultimate destination, except that -she would undoubtedly be ferried over the great blue river; and indeed -some of the officials, who assumed to have intimate knowledge of their -lady’s engagements, gave assurance that she would visit places at very -great distances, even so far as the under side of the world. Since the -early morning every hour had been filled with the noise of a busy -turmoil, and the eager interest of the people only gradually lulled as -time went by and there were signs that no further labour was needed -on the part of any; every work had been performed, the duties of each -had been fulfilled, and then gradually the officials and attendants -retired from the presence of the mistress of the house. The lady was at -last left in quietness. The long day was suddenly over,—the sun went -down,—and the night had come, and the great silence. - -Like all others of her race, the Lady Maket was a fourfold personage. -All her notions of herself were of a tetrachordal state of being. Her -gold seal impressed with her name testified to all men that she was -a being of flesh and blood—really and truly human—and not at all a -mystery, unless to be feminine is so; and that she greatly loved her -burnished metal mirror, and delighted in the dark glory of her hair, -in the coral of her lips, in the flashing light of her eyes, and in -the deftness and musical skill of her almond tipped fingers—all that -is past question. She believed that, besides the bodily state of -her presence, she was possessed of another equally living, although -invisible form, a _double_ called _Ka_, which was as it were a less -solid duplicate of her corporeal being; and after the _double_ came -the _Soul_ (_Bi_ or _Ba_), and after the soul came the _Khoo_ or the -_luminous_, a spark from the fire divine. To keep the fourfold-unity -of being, to preserve it wholly pure and unblemished, and to secure -it against the possibility of separation or dissolution, was to her -the most anxious consideration of her life; and this belief gave the -essential reason for the assumption that the number four was of all -numbers the most sacred, and the idea thereof was ingrained into the -daily life of all her people. - -Paying a visit to another mansion, I made enquiries for Lady Maket, -being much interested in her and her doings; but Mr. F. Petrie, who -then in charge, informed me that it is some three thousand years since -she was seen, and although I could not see the lady, yet he had many -of her belongings which told all that was known of her. I saw the -chair—the last, it was believed—upon which she sat, and the wooden -head-rest (the substitute for a pillow) by which her dark luxuriant -ringlets were preserved from becoming crushed or disordered. I saw the -silver scarab rings she wore, the earrings and bead necklaces, the -combs and perfume holders, the paint and pomade jars, and the bronze -mirror in which she last looked, confessing her delight in her own -beauty. - -Here also were the flutes, the two slender flutes, that plaintively -wailed their music and accompanied her to her last home. Flutes! The -very word has magic in it. Egyptian double flutes, and thirty centuries -passed them by, and they are here. Adonais,—what a find! - -For forty years in this wilderness had I been looking for them. -Pictures of them by the score I had sought out, had seen them on walls -and vases, graven on brass tablets, gems and marbles: yet none seen -in real presence. Now in sober earnest they were laid before my eyes, -given into my hands, perfect as when they were entombed to accompany -that blessed lady to the nether world. Perfect did I say? Yes, but not -complete. How fateful fortune does tantalize us,—clears up for us one -mystery, and leaves another behind. They forgot the reed tongues in -packing up for the journey, or perchance they deliberately withheld -them. Ah! miserable that I am. Mr. Petrie tells me that he could find -none, and he sifted all the dust of that dear lady, and nobody he avers -had been there before him,—not for three thousand years. Think of it! A -rock hewn sepulchre, in eternal night and silence since the days when -Miriam sang her song of youth and triumph. - -Moreover, to my questionings, Mr. Petrie says that he does not believe -that these flutes ever had any reeds to play them, but that they were -blown at the end, and so whistled as one whistles a key. Then, to -crown me with confusion, up rises another archæological investigator -with eyes deeply scrutinizing, and he is certain that they were true -lip blown flutes, and that no reed was ever employed. I looked with -other eyes, and one glance told me that these pipes originally had reed -tongues, reeds of the immemorial kind, and in use to the present day -in the arghool. No, by Adonais, surely I cannot be deceived in this. -Surely these are the _Gingroi_, the wailing flutes, associated with -funeral ceremonies, slender pipes scarcely bigger than a ripened corn -stalk. A fragment of such an one exists in the British Museum, which -often excited my curiosity, but was in so delapidated a condition -that nothing certain could be made of it. The discovery of this pair -of flutes however made clear the relation though the British Museum -possesses but a fragment, and treasures it. - -Curious is it not? A nation takes into its care a broken straw, because -some human hand in the dim past has fashioned it to use and purpose, -and the subtlety of life has not gone out of it yet. - -Very precious are these recovered flutes. They tell us of a people’s -music, definitely fixed and in use, theirs by choice, by tradition, by -religion. They owe their preservation to having been placed within a -larger reed, which was doubtless their ordinary case. They were found -untouched since that last day. Not from mere sentiment were these -flutes placed beside the Egyptian lady in her tomb, but because of a -deeply rooted religious belief that these, together with the other -articles named, were in some way connected with the daily existence -and the comfort and content of the _Ka_, the _double_ or dream body, -which perpetually inhabited the tomb with the embalmed mummy. In point -of fact, it was the _double_ of the flutes that was to prove a source -of musical solace, not the flutes themselves, for they would not be -touched by the dream body. The Egyptians worked out their views with -logical consistency, and believed that all things had their _doubles_, -both animate and inanimate. Even a pictorial representation in default -of the real thing was of almost equal value for the service to be -rendered in the invisible world, and a mere name written had a potency -and could secure the coveted benefits to the _Ka_. For the soul or -_Bi_ was often called upon to follow the gods in the heavens, or to -undergo probationary journeys to the world of darkness below the -earth, and then the _Ka_ was left alone, and occupied itself with the -pursuits common to its earthly life. Thus from this strange belief we -may presume, or may infer that the Lady Maket was not only a lover -of flutes, but might also have held some official position, civil or -religious, connected with the use of them. - -There is a similar instance in the case of a mummy in the British -Museum, where you may see, at the feet of the dead musician, the bronze -cymbals he played when alive, with the people dancing around him. Is -the dream body—the _Ka_—still there, I wonder, coming out at night to -talk with his fellows? Dream bodies like himself, all terribly old, -all listening to the clashing of the ghostly cymbals, and joining in -unheard melodies. All terribly old! - -These flutes, so slender that a breath might almost blow them away, -are undoubtedly of the type pictured in many lands in many ages, and -known as double flutes—double in the sense of being paired. I have seen -such, though of fuller proportions, represented on Egyptian _papyri_ on -walls of tombs and temples of the land of the Nile; and on the brass -plates of the palaces of Nineveh and Babylon; carved on the frieze of -the Parthenon; painted on Etruscan vases, and on the walls of Pompeii -and Herculanæum; and far away on the banks of the Petwa (a tributary of -the Ganges), sculptured on the gate of Sanchi Tope. And yet through all -these instances never have I found any evidence of the means adapted to -produce their sounds; anything that would enable one to form a distinct -judgment as to the kind of mouthpiece employed in blowing. The number -and the positions of the holes have also been involved in doubt. In -some few instances holes are to be found marked, but these might be -conventionally depicted, and could not be relied upon as guidance to -the scale of notes. Then there are the shams and indications put in by -the audacity of restorers, so that altogether the learned or academic -knowledge concerning the ancient instruments can hardly be said to have -emerged from a state of haziness. - -How welcome, then, must be these Egyptian flutes, which at all events -furnish sure evidence of the position of the holes, and of a recognized -musical scale determined at a very early date in the development of -civilisation. The illustration Fig. 5 gives the relative position of -the holes and of the lengths of the flutes, which are shown here one -sixth of the actual lengths. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 5._ - -_The Gingroi, or flutes of wailing._ - - _Found in - Lady Maket’s - Tomb._] - -All pipes that we call _double flutes_ are represented spreading from -the mouth ʌ shaped, held both of them in the mouth, and played -one by the right hand and one by the left. All pipes of the ancients -the writers were accustomed to call flutes, not discriminating the -differences in types, being in fact unaware of the very important -distinctions as in later times perceived by specialists in musical -lore to be necessary between lip-blown instruments and reed-blown. - -One of these instruments is 17-5/8in. in length, and the other -17-6/8in.; and the bore may be considered as 3/16ths of an inch; but -one is a trifle larger than the other, and they are not absolutely -cylindrical, being larger at one end than at the other, which is not -without significance. Also, it should be noted that being of the nature -of corn-stalk, each has a knot 6-5/8in. from one end, and this knot has -been bored through to make each a continuous pipe. There are four holes -in one pipe, and three holes in the other; they are very daintily cut, -and are oval. The pipe with four holes is held by the right hand, and -the pipe with three holes by the left hand; for it was the custom in -ancient times, and still is in eastern lands, to play the treble notes -by means of the fingers of the right hand, and the bass notes with -those of the left hand. - -When looking at these pipes we should remember that in the day when -they were made the feeling for a musical scale was in its infancy; -natural science, young indeed, then, had not touched the question of -the relation of sounds. In that remote past, the barbaric had its sway, -as in the east for the most part it has now; and no idea of harmony, -other than that of a consensus of instruments, and a congregation of -singers following on traditional methods handed down from generation -to generation. Thirty centuries have passed since the calm day when -the workers let down the great stone portcullis sliding in its grooves -closing the tomb against all of human race, leaving the Lady Maket and -her treasures secure in her burial chamber, closed, as they thought, -for ever. - -At that day Homer was not born, and it would be six centuries before -Pythagorus would arrive on this planet, and, destined thereto, turn his -steps to the banks of the Nile. - -Mr. Wm. Chappell in his “History of Music” writing in 1874, describes -the fragment of a pipe which I have referred to, then all that the -museum possessed. - -“In the Egyptian collection at the British Museum is a small reed pipe -of eight inches and three quarters in length. The pipe corresponds so -precisely to the description of the _Gingras_ given by Greek writers, -as to leave hardly a doubt of its identity. The _Gingras_ has four -holes for the fingers. Athenæus says it was employed by the Carians -in their wailings, and that their pipes were called _Gingroi_ by the -Phœnicians from the lamentations for Adonis, ‘for your Phœnicians call -Adonis, _Gingras_, as Democlides tells us.’ So this Adonis pipe was -admittedly of Asiatic origin, and was most likely common to the various -nations of Asia as well as of Egypt.” - -In the previous chapter I laid emphasis on the conclusion that the -fingers were the fates of the musical scale. In these pipes I read the -same lesson, and recognize that the scale was due to digital decision. -The mystery of numbers pervading the thoughts of the people, and ruling -their daily goings, consorted here with convenience of the fingers. -The sacred number “four” took the first place, after that the number -“three,” and—the union of these producing the number “seven”—the -thoughts of numbers moved in an enchanted circle, from which the human -race has not yet escaped. We call it superstition to believe in lucky -threes and sevens; to these old Egyptians, numbers were a sacred power -never to be disregarded. Here, in the four holes of the first pipe we -have the primitive tetrachord, planned before the sounds were heard, -before the issuing notes had names; and it was this tetrachord that was -taken up by the Greeks, and by them moulded into mathematical relations -and blended by art into musical form. A similar primitive tetrachord -was, I conceive, common to all races of men possessing a musical scale. -The second pipe has but three holes; there was room for more,—why -restricted to three? Who can tell? - -It is as easy to have faith in one mystic number as in another; and -when we are inclined to believe in the mystical, nature helps us with -the utmost readiness. - -In using the word “tetrachord” bear in mind that the meaning is a -series of four notes in an order of succession, and not the union of -notes as a compound sound or “chord.” - -Pipes with but two holes are common in pastoral use now, and in early -times doubtless preceded those with three and four holes; and, however -slow the changes, progress could not be absent. In Lady Maket’s pipes -we see evidence of a great change, a tetrachord with an added tone, -and this supplied by another pipe. Who can tell how many centuries of -civilization such progress indicates? - -An interesting speculation centres upon the means by which the sounds -were produced. Were the pipes lip blown at one end, or reed blown; and, -if the latter, by what reed? One of the hautboy kind, or one of the -clarionet type such as the arghool? The first is called a double, and -the other a single reed. Fig. 6 is an illustration of the arghool reed, -full size, as used at this day in the arghool; it is called a beating -reed; the reed tongue is made by cutting a slip at the side and lifting -it a little, and, as it is bound by string at one end, the tip tilts, -allowing passage for the wind through the aperture that the cutting has -left beneath, upon the edges of which it beats in vibrating. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 6._ - -_The Arghool Reed. Full Size._] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 7._ - -_The Hautboy Reed. Full Size._] - -Fig. 7 shews a full size reed of the hautboy type, and above it, -as looking down upon the tip of the reed, is seen the oval form it -assumes after it has been moistened for playing. The two parallel lines -indicate its appearance when dry. The make up of the reed is modern, -but the size is of the old pattern as used by Italian peasants to the -present day, spoken of as the pastoral hautboy. - -Some readers not familiar with the instrument will be glad of this -illustration showing the difference between double and single reeds. In -the double reed, which consists of two slips of reed bound together, -the vibrations take place only at the tips, and are caused by rapid -changes from oval to parallel due to suction by the current of air -driven down between them. It should be understood that in both the -single reed and the double reed the action is the same in kind, and the -vibrations or sounds result from the stream of air being checked in its -progress by closure of the aperture by force of suction alternating -with opening of the same by the resilient power or spring in the form -and material of the reed—in other words vibration is due to shocks of -arrested motion in extremely rapid recurrence—the number of repetitions -of arrest per second constituting what we call the pitch of the notes -or sounds. - -Using either the hautboy reed, or the arghool reed, with these flutes, -a scale of notes of some sort may be elicited. The narrowness of the -bore causes so much difficulty in the obtaining consecutive notes by -lip blowing, that I the least favour the supposition that the pipes -were designed for such a method. The hautboy reed is almost always -associated with a conical pipe; but there are instances, in which it -is used in connection with a cylinder of diameter quite as small as -that of these pipes. We have no intimations that the Egyptians of that -period (1100 B.C.) were familiar with the hautboy reed. - -In any experiments with the hautboy reed the management of the reed -by the muscles of the lips should be prohibited, as being a practice -unknown to the ancients. My definite conclusions are that these pipes -are true specimens of the _di-aulos_ at its earliest stage; that the -slimness betokens a particular ceremonial purpose; that the pipes were -designed for use with reeds of the arghool type; and that the distances -between the holes indicate that the tones proper to the instrument are -those of the four foot octave. - -For the better command in the holding of the pipes the natural lay of -the fingers is with the second joints covering the holes, the tips of -the fingers not being used for the purpose until later times. Peasants -in the wilder parts of Europe and Asia retain the ancient custom. - -All the holes are oval in shape. The divisions of the four holed pipe -are from top hole to fourth 10-5/8 in., to the second 1-3/8 in., -to the third 1-3/8 in., to the fourth 1-1/4 in., to the end 3 in.; -these together making 17-5/8 in. The division of the three holed pipe -are from the top to the first hole 13-1/2 in., to the second hole -1-3/8 in., to the third hole 1-3/8 in., to the end 1-1/2 in.; making -17-6/8 in. The stalk knots of the reed are in each pipe at 6-5/8 in. -distant from the upper end, and a knot is again found at the the -extreme lower end of the four holed pipe, causing the opening to be -partially occluded. This contraction would have a flattening effect and -consequently the three holed (which is free from such a knot) is the -longer of the two, evidently cut with the view to coincide in pitch -with the other. Obviously also each hole from the top is larger than -the one previous; this arises from the fact that, as stated, the pipes -are not truly cylindrical, but narrow toward the bottom, and so they -may require the holes to be enlarged to sharpen the notes; equivalent -this to cutting the holes higher. - -To the musician investigating these matters it is of interest to -observe that the two upper holes of the three-holed pipe coincide in -their position with the two lowest holes of the four-holed pipe and -consequently do not extend the compass of the notes, they merely pair -the other pipe, yet if the reed of either differs, then, in flatness or -sharpness the interval would show variation, and such an effect might -be a designed one, giving a choice to the player. The lowest hole of -the three-holed pipe extends the sounds that limit the tetrachord by -one tone, and this method by extension reappears in aftertime in the -Greek systems as an added tone also. - -It is doubtful whether we are to consider that the open extreme end of -a pipe is intended to produce a sound which is to be taken into the -musical scale, even the least civilised people seeming to regard the -note given as outside the designed series and not to be used; but it is -easy to conceive how a pentatonic scale might have been developed by -bringing it into use. - -Another point to be noticed as affecting the pitch is that the -distance between the fourth and the third holes is an eighth less than -exists between other holes, and it may be that it was so intended to -compensate for flatness, or to make a slight difference of interval. - -The oval holes are not singular; I have several beautiful Japanese -pipes with this feature in their construction. The coinciding holes -of the two pipes may not have been intended to be identical in pitch -or may have been used together to produce a quivering or voix céleste -effect, through the partial shading of one by the fingers, and thus -intended to give new resources to the skilful player. This is probable, -because we find that at the present day the people of eastern climes -are partial to this effect. The Egyptian _zummarah_, consisting of two -unison pipes tied together is played to produce it. It is quite easy to -obtain the waving of pitch to a large extent, by using two reeds that -differ in stiffness. - -That the sounds given by the flute holes originally located by the -spread of the fingers should prove to be distant from each other -approximately by the interval we call a tone, is a mere coincidence -as of numerical relation, the more or less extent being ultimately -adjusted by experience. - -Another consideration I must tell you of because in my studies of old -customs in instruments it has been impressed upon me too strongly to -be neglected, and that is the old world tendency that prevails to make -flat fourths. In the section on Chinese instruments this feature will -be noticed though I do not think any other writer has mentioned it, and -I believe the duplicates of certain fourths are only apparently such -and are intended for the making of fourths of slightly different pitch, -and that there is a practice of using one of these for the ascent and -the other for the descent in the scale. I believe it to be a natural -racial tendency to make flat fourths and that by provision of another -note with a difference, they do a tuning based upon fourths accommodate -the obtaining of the true octave. - -One of those pipes gives a complete tetrachord, a perfect fourth, -the other extends it by a minor third, interveningly the flat fourth -and the augmented fourth may be found within the scale of the two -pipes combined. Not the Greek tetrachord but one of more primitive -arrangement, before laws had been formulated for the relative degrees -of tone and hemitones. There is also a leap interval of a tone and a -half, which characterises the earliest of lyre scales, and may be the -link connecting the evolution of the Greek scale from the Egyptian. -Indeed in Asia and Arabia similar usages still persist, and to the -peoples’ ears give content, they want no other. - -The subject is so interesting to the musician that the further analysis -and investigation to which these valuable relics of a past age have -been submitted, cannot fail of helping to a true understanding of the -significance of the Lady Maket’s flutes, the oldest evidence of the -world’s earliest music. - -And indeed how tenderly human is their appeal across the centuries, for -they bear even now evidences of the touch of the fingers of the dear -lady who played her chosen flute music upon them so long and lovingly, -and cherished them as companions in her life, and destined them also to -befriend her in her dark tomb. Yes, you can plainly see, her fingers -have worn away the rich orange stain from the beautifully shaped oval -holes. For these flutes were finely finished and designed for true -musical service and durability. Originally they had been orange-stained -and wax polished, and when first found held that appearance, but -exposure to the air darkened the wax to a deep brown colour, yet the -holes reveal in lighter tint how they have been worn by the fingers. -Perhaps the lady musician had several other pairs of flutes, apt for -the expression of joy and mirthfulness, and left them to her friends, -taking with her only the one pair with which her _Ka_ would mourn the -loss of friends and the light of the sun. - -A remembrance comes fittingly in this place, of another lady of this -long vanished race. In a royal tomb they found her, at El Amrah, -wrapped round with the mystic robes of a ceremonial, that were to be -her passport to the underworld during an unknown eternity; she was the -daughter of Mena the founder of Memphis, and on her breast was written -in the old hieroglyph letters, this simple message to the unseen power, -who would judge her,— - - “_She was Sweet of Heart._” - -—it was the last testimony of those who loved her. Sweet of heart, how -near it brings her to our own loves. A touching epitaph to endure over -six thousand years,—no woman could desire a more beautiful farewell. - -The flutes that my thoughts so long lingered over are gone. They are -deposited, after their strange travel, in the Ashmolean Museum at -Oxford—a long way indeed from that land where the Lady Maket played -them under a cloudless sky. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -In the Land of Egypt. - -MORE EGYPTIAN FLUTES: THE EVIDENCES OF THE SCALE. - - -The finder of Lady Maket’s flutes, Mr. Flinders Petrie, did not -coincide with me in the opinion I had formed on the method of blowing, -mainly on the ground that no reeds were found with them. The objection -loses its force if we consider that at all periods it has been -customary for reed pipe players to have a reserve of reed tongues, -and that to preserve the tongues after use it was desirable to keep -them covered, that the air should not too rapidly dry up the moisture -acquired during the holding in the mouth. At the present day, the -players of oboes and bassoons remove their reeds from the instruments -directly they cease to use them; and the clarionet player covers his -reed with the cap even during a prolonged pause in the score for his -instrument, for the same reason. Oboes and bassoons, when put aside, -are deprived of the reeds, which are placed carefully in little cases -which the players provide for them, and carry about. So that we should -not expect to find the reeds with the Egyptian pipes. Another reason, -too, might operate; the _reeds_ themselves might not be ceremonially -required, as these flutes might have only a certain representative -character. The learned Mr. A. S. Murray, late keeper of the Greek -treasures in the British Museum, tells us that “it is noticeable that, -among the vases of bronze found in tombs, the metal of some of them is -so thin that they can do little more than stand with their own weight; -they must have been produced expressly for show at funeral ceremonies.” -So long as custom was conformed to, the relatives of the deceased were -not called upon to do more; and the exact significance of what was done -we of a different race cannot estimate. - -Taking a practical view, we are justified in the conclusion that the -Egyptians had boxes for the safe keeping of these reeds, for the -Greeks, who seem to have carried forward the customs of the Egyptians, -had such. Mr. W. Chappell states that these reed boxes, called -_Glossocomeia _, had a sliding lid top like a modern common domino box; -and, according to Hesychius, the small reed tongues agitated by the -breath of the performers were called _glottis_. Dr. Stainer, in his -“Music of the Bible” says:— - - The very existence of the word “tongue box” shows that - the player was accustomed to carry his tongues or reeds - separately from the instrument. The word, it will be - remembered, is used in St. John xii. 6 and xiii. 29, - where it is translated _bag_; but it is quite possible - Judas Iscariot carried the money in a _reed box_, as - implied by the Greek text. - -And we may add, also, that from this explanation the inference may be -drawn that very probably Judas Iscariot was a musician. - -The Lady Maket’s flutes are the true representatives of the double -pipes, called by the Greeks _diaulos_, and by the Romans _tibiæ pares_ -and _tibiæ geminæ_,—the latter a very appropriate name. These twin -flutes are profusely depicted upon Etruscan vases, being introduced -almost invariably in banquet scenes: wine and music inseparable. The -master and guests recline on couches; but the flute player is always -shown standing, as in attendance for their pleasure. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 8._ - -_Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes._ - -_The chaining at the ankles indicates that the players are performing -some act of homage._] - -With the Egyptians it was different; with them chiefly the domestic -alliance was dancing and music, and no doubt this difference in custom -affords us an index of the characters of the two peoples. - -How great the contrast; the wine-loving, laughter-loving, Greeks, -living in the open day, buoyant of life, and always eager for contest -whether of muscle or of brain; and the Egyptians, shadowed through day -and night by the colossal calm of their temples, secluded in family -life, adding store to store, possession to possession, and placidly -working for the day that is, yet ever caring for the morrow after death. - -This player has pipes of unequal length, is evidently taking part in -some ceremonial, and is wearing a trailing scarf of vine leaves, which -had its significance in the sacred rites. The long pipe seen in this -ancient example of use is possibly the prototype of the later form seen -in the Arab arghool, with its long drone pipe, and it has therefore a -very interesting significance. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 9._ - -_Player upon Unequal Pipes._] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 10._ - -_From the Wall Painting to be seen at the British Museum._] - -In the Egyptian wall paintings which we have in the British Museum are -two domestic scenes; and in both the damsels are seen seated on the -ground in oriental fashion, and they are playing on double flutes, -whilst other damsels are dancing to their music. The picture belongs -to the time of the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty, about B.C. 1,600, -and was taken from a tomb at Thebes. The date is five centuries before -Lady Maket was born. This painting is about thirty inches long, and -illustrates a musical entertainment. Girls are dancing, other girls are -seated and are clapping hands to time; and another is seated, in full -face view, playing the double pipes, which are slightly conical, and -reach lower than the elbows of the seated figures. The player has rings -on two fingers of the left hand, and the little finger closes on the -pipe with the second joints of the finger. The pipe appears to be about -twenty-four inches in length, possibly more. The proportion may be -judged, since the seated figure measures from the crown of the head to -floor 8-1/2 in., and the pipes shew 5-1/4 in. long; and the mouthpieces -in white (as if of ivory) to each slender tube; and these may carry -the reed which is hidden in the mouth, for in a custom of later time -we find that ivory reed holders were used. It is curious to note that -the right hand of the player taking the highest position, supports the -right flute between the hollow of the thumb and the forefinger; but the -fingers cross over to play on the left hand flute, whilst the left hand -similarly reverses and plays on the flute of the right. The Egyptians -called these twin flutes “Mamms.” - -In another painting on the same wall a girl is playing the double -pipes, and is accompanied by others with stringed instruments. The -figures are seated with legs folded under and in this position the -pipes reach nearly to the floor. The pipes are but little beyond the -cylindrical form, and evidently have some joining mouthpiece, in this -instance of a reddish yellow colour, and not white. The crossing of the -hands is also found in this picture, and one notices how ingeniously -convenient the method was, and how the grasp by the ball of the thumb -steadied the instruments when playing in such a sitting posture. On -neither of the flutes is there any marking to indicate the finger holes. - -The great length of the flutes in these paintings led me to the -conclusion that, as I have stated, the Lady Maket’s being considerably -shorter and so slim, are properly funereal or wailing flutes. Curiously -enough we already possess a pair of these flutes in the Museum; but -even to my enquiring eyes the truth was not revealed until the Lady -Maket’s flutes taught me what to look for. So true is it that the eye -only sees what it is prepared to see? I knew that three straws with -holes were stuck in a rack; looked at them after I had handled Lady -Maket’s pipes, and saw nothing more than one straw pipe very similar. -At last it suddenly dawned upon me that another straw was very likely -half a pipe, and a further scrutiny leaves no doubt that it is the -complemental pipe, the upper part missing, broken off below the middle -knot. - -With the usual perversity attending the exhibition of musical -instruments, this broken pipe was so placed as to be, in relation to -its companion, as the horse with its tail where its head ought to be, -and was thus passed by without understanding. The length complete, as -near as I could measure is fifteen inches; and if the broken one should -be placed end for end parallel to the perfect one, the relation would -be apparent; the lowest holes of each being the same distance from the -end, three inches, and so corresponding to the Lady Maket measure. - -In the national museums at Leyden, Berlin, Paris and at other -continental museums, there are straw flutes or portions of them; but -how much they are from good condition I do not know. So far as I am -aware the pipes found by Mr. Flinders Petrie are the only existing -_perfect_ specimens of the Gingroi or wailing flutes. - -By the term straw we merely indicate slenderness; the pipes being -truly reeds, called by botanists _Arundo Donax_, and also, _Sativa_. -From this kind of stalk our oboe and other reeds are made, the chief -European supply coming from Fréjus on the Mediterranean. - -When these pipes first came into my hands for examination and -measurement, I at once expressed my belief that they were sounded by -Arghool type of reed; when the right reed, I said, is discovered after -numberless experiments, then we shall have better surety of an exact -scale as heard by Egyptian ears, with perhaps the proviso that somewhat -of the skill of the player of the old race is attained. - - -THE TEACHINGS OF EXPERIMENTS. - -As there are no known existing examples of the _Diaulos_, the -extreme interest attaching to the Lady Maket flutes as the original -representatives of the later use of the Greeks, justifies the fullest -investigation of the scale they give into our hands, with an enduring -testimony of truth, that goes beyond that afforded by painting or -written record. - -Very greatly esteeming the permission given to me to measure and take -the particulars which I have stated, I made all haste to get models -made for me in metal upon which to investigate the scale. - -My experiments were made with arghool reeds and metal pipes, copies of -the originals as nearly as possible the same in bore. I obtained for -the ground tone of the pipes, B in the eight foot octave; and, in this -order, the tones following:— - - 1st pipe B———D—E—F♯—G♯. - - 2nd ” B—C—D—E. - -The pipes being cylindrical in bore with a true transport of air -through them, are subject to the law displayed by the clarionet, -sounding an octave lower than like length open organ pipes or lip-blown -flutes. - -Then for harmonics I obtained the double octaves, with sometimes a -slurred intervening single octave, passingly heard in the rise to the -double octave. This is curious, though not unexpected when one has been -accustomed to the seeming vagaries of reeds. Practically, nature does -not always proceed according to academic rules. When reeds are combined -with pipes, the resulting pitch is due to a compound of two forces -pulling in opposite directions; the reed drawing to high pitch, and -the pipe to low pitch, each acting upon the other. Some reeds will not -yield to the coercive effect of the pipe more than to about the extent -of a fourth, with preservation of real truth of intonation; and at -such limit the reed flies back to the starting pitch and recommences, -or plays false. A free reed will not bear to be drawn down by the pipe -associated with it to more than an octave; and if attempt is made to -cause it to respond lower in the scale (by a greater lengthening of -pipe), then it makes a jump back to its original pitch. After that -there are other curious relations, such as not responding beyond a -fourth, and so on; particulars of which need not here be gone into. -Therefore, discrepancies in experiment need not cause surprise. - -Simultaneously Mr. T. L. Southgate and Mr. J. D. Blaikley, attracted -to the same pursuit, entered upon a course of experiment, the results -of which were set forth at a meeting of the Musical Association. Mr. -Blaikley is well known in connection with wind instruments, and his -judgment upon musical pitch may be absolutely relied upon; and Mr. T. -L. Southgate is also well known as a keen investigator in all musical -matters; and as an aid to his own knowledge and skill he was fortunate -in obtaining as an associate in these experimental researches, the -practical experience of Mr. Finn, who, accustomed to flutes and -hautboy reed instruments, could bring into use the little artifices in -producing sounds from the reeds which the amateur in wind instruments -lacks knowledge of. - -The summary of the results arrived at, shows for the - - 1st pipe E♭———G—A♭—B♭—C♭ - - 2nd ” E♭—F—G—A♭ - -These were obtained with a small straw reed. (The E♭ is the third space -in the bass clef). Nearly all the intervals prove to be less than -ours, and are, as we should term them, flat. The experimenters used -small straw squeaker reeds, and also _Arghool_ and bagpipe reeds, the -results in each case differing. So that, unless we can ascertain more -definitely what sized reed the Egyptians had in use, the pitch notes -arrived at are but approximately right. - -That my own experiments bore a lower estimate of pitch is due to my -using ordinary arghool reeds, heavier than could by any supposition -have been fitted to these little pipes, yet the relative course of the -sounds produced is seen to be the same, and therefore is confirmatory -of the use of that particular kind of reed, and in accordance with -known laws of the reed and pipe, so that my first guess or calculation, -founded upon the length of the pipes, was correct. The length of pipe -17-3/4 inches, to which add 1-1/2 inches for length of reed. This is -the sound of the full length of the pipe, note - -[Illustration: E♭] - -or - -[Illustration: B] - -The relations of the notes, one to another, as ascertained by Mr. -Blaikley, are in close correspondence with the harmonic scale as -elicited from the horn or trumpet, from the high D to G; and also the -scale of the highland bagpipe has its succession of notes in similar -relations of pitch. This harmonic scale is here given, so that by -comparison the relation may be understood. - - _vib._ - The four holed { - pipe gives { E♭ 160 G 194 A♭ 213 B♭ 233 C♭ 257 - - The three holed { - pipe gives { E♭ 160 F 177 G 197 A♭ 215 - - By harmonic - scale E♭ 160 F 177·8 G 195·6 A♭ 213·4 B♭ 231·2 - - (the increment - is 17·8) 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th - -Note by note the natural harmonic scale ascends by an equal increment, -differing essentially from the diatonic, which only doubles its number -of vibrations at the distance of the octave. Thus, although the sounds -of the above are given by name, as near as can be stated, yet it is a -notation for convenience only. - -The general reader will best understand the matter as estimated to me -by Mr. A. J. Hipkins. From E♭ to G is a bagpipe, or neuter third,—from -this G to A♭ is a 3/4 tone,—the A♭ is therefore a perfect fourth from -the E♭. The G being a quarter tone flat, it makes with the C♭ a small -or flat fourth. The fifth lying between F and C♭ is also very flat, -in fact equal to a tritone. The remaining notes are two 3/4 tones, -which land us at C♭, a minor third from the A♭. An arrangement very -appropriate for wailing. The Greeks also it should be remembered had -3/4 tones. - -These particulars have great interest in musical enquiry, and help -us to see how fortuitous has been the growth of the scale, and how -characteristically “_minor_” the music of different races seems to -us, whilst in reality quite outside our scale and distinct from it in -development. The flat fourths I have found to be persistent in Chinese -music, and for very good natural reasons, as will be fully shown in -subsequent chapters on the Chinese ancient instruments. - -The very low sounds given by these flutes are necessarily weak and -have no penetrative power, nothing like what we should expect to be -adequate for ceremonial use, or for the purposes to which we imagine -the flutes applied in public life. A procession, for instance would, -by the mere noise arising from walking drown the sounds, unless the -walkers trod in sand. The conclusion I am driven to is that the skill -of the players was devoted to eliciting the shrill harmonic tones, and -that the low range of tone was seldom brought into requisition. The -length of the pipes suggests this view, and the extreme slenderness -seems to be adopted for the purpose; since it is inimical to volume -of tone, yet favours under strong breath pressure the eliciting of -high tones. Any day some new discovery may confute our speculations; -but still we cannot but indulge in them. We, with modern eyes, look -upon these flutes only as musical instruments; but to the Egyptians -every tone heard alone or in combination, every movement, every gesture -of the player had its mystic meaning, and its occult significance in -association with rituals and observances and ceremonies. - -In these early ages, double flutes appear to have flourished everywhere -amongst neighbouring nations; and the single flute, if the pictured -representations and designs are to guide us, was comparatively rare. -We note the fact, but, as to why the double flute was popular, we are -quite in the dark. Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians,—which nation -first had them? Far back as our spoils from the ancient cities and -tombs and palaces and temples may date, it is very certain that the -double flutes had their origin in far earlier times, and had passed -through periods of evolution from some type ruder than the instruments -which we find depicted. I have remarked how the added tone furnished -by Lady Maket’s flutes indicates a large advance in the progress of -civilization in her day, for probably flutes without such had had their -run of popularity, perhaps centuries earlier. So that, when we speak of -primitive pipes and primitive tetrachords, we think of long anterior -dates, long before the particular instruments were fabricated which we -have cognizance of. Advance is very slow. - -We should remember the great gap of time—two thousand five hundred -years—before men arrived at the idea of a simple lever key to -extend the scale of oboes and flutes by one note; and then think of -the possible interval between the time of early common use of pipes -comprising four tones in their range and the advent of a pipe with one -finger hole and one more added tone. May be in the popular tradition, -some young god invented it. Think of the commotion amongst the Greeks -when a daring innovator added one more string to the lyre! - -The Egyptian double flutes seen in the paintings are of greater length -than those used by the Assyrians, who so far as we can tell, from their -incised tablets seen in the Nineveh Gallery in the British Museum, had -only short ones. It was in the hands of the Greeks that changes began -to be made, the first noticeable feature being the greater diameter of -the pipes. It was not until about five hundred years after the death of -Lady Maket that Egypt was opened up to the Greeks; all foreigners had -been previously most rigidly excluded. The Egyptian instrument called -the _Arghool_ is a comparatively modern instrument, for we never find -a trace of it in ancient paintings; and the drone, which is its chief -feature, was most likely an Arab device founded on the long pipe of the -earlier Egyptian (see page 45, Fig. 9). - -But the _Arghool_ reed itself had a very ancient origin, and we rightly -consider it the oldest of reeds, and as essentially belonging to the -Egyptian double flutes. If you look at the engraving you will see -that, at the top of the pipe itself, a short piece of smaller pipe -is inserted; and, again, a piece of still smaller pipe is added in -which the reed has been cut. Thus there is, as it were, a double step, -ingeniously accommodating the fitting in of the reed in the simplest -way. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 11._ - -_The Arghool with its drone and lengthening pieces._] - -Instead of having pipes with different sets of holes, this has but one -pipe, and it has six holes, therefore employing the fingers of both -hands, the second pipe which is without holes is bound to the shorter -pipe, and has two or more lengthening pieces which are used by the -player, according as the custom has determined for the particular air -played, for this holeless pipe is nothing more than a drone pipe of -deep tone, such as a bagpipe has; some idea of harmony must be involved -since the small lengthening piece increases by about a tone the depth -of pitch attained. One curious custom should be noticed, the attachment -of the portions to one another lest they should be lost; the tongued -reeds that are placed in the players mouth are tied in the same manner -by rough bits of string. In the wilder parts of Asia horsemen travel -carrying with them a hautboy kind of instrument with four or five extra -reeds, strung in a chain fashion and loosely hung round the neck of -the pipe for use when a new reed is required, or a choice of one of -different quality of tone is desired. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 12._ - -_The Egyptian Zummarah._] - -There is another popular native instrument, much more ancient than the -arghool called the _Zummarah_ it consists of two pipes tied together -(not to be called _double pipes_) the holes in each being the same in -position and the same in number, five. Some representations of very -archaic kind, carved, have been found, I do not remember any paintings -in old Egypt, but Mr. Flinders Petrie has discovered two specimens in -the Coptic cemetery at Gurob, complete with the reeds, and the date of -these is given about A.D. 500. The question arises, were such pipes in -use at any period earlier than our era A.D. and if so, how near to the -time of the Lady Maket? - -The tonality is the old Egyptian. - -Another kind of flute in primitive relation is seen figured in Egyptian -paintings; it is a single long pipe, held aslant, and sounded by -blowing across the tip obliquely. It was called _seba_ or _sabi_; and -the open, slant-cut, tip end is thinned off to a feather edge. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 13._ - -_The Seba or Sabi._] - -The representative national pipe now in use is called the “Nay.” This -pipe is about fourteen inches long, and it is only in the method of -blowing that it corresponds to the ancient pipe. - -The various kinds of flutes we see depicted by the Egyptians in their -paintings, were used in concert with other instruments—lyres and grand -harps in pairs, capable of giving fine volume of tone—through which the -flutes would have to be heard, although not perhaps so simultaneous -was the playing, as with us; since there are reasons for believing -that their orchestration was more in the nature of alternation of -instruments, one class leaving off and others taking up the strain and -only occasionally combining for fulness or strength, associated perhaps -with the voices of the multitude in popular acclaim. In later days in -Egypt’s decline, it is on record that Ptolemy Philadelphus employed a -band of 600 musicians to celebrate the feast of Bacchus. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 14._ - -_Arab Player on the Nay._] - -In India we find flutes which seem to show a compromise or blending of -the tip-blown and side-blown methods. In the India Museum some pipes -may be seen with a curiously shaped hollow tip, cut with a slant curve, -across which the player blows. These several ways are but different -illustrations of one and the same principle—that is to say—the stream -of air blown _across_ the hole creates suction in the pipe, which -reaching its limit is constantly broken with a rapidity of action -resulting in periodic vibration of definite sound or pitch. - -On the walls of one of the Vase Rooms in the British Museum are -displayed, running almost the length of the central part of the wall -of the room, two wall paintings. The period is called Archaic, and the -figures have a formality which contrasts with the freedom of design in -a later period. In each painting, which is a facsimile from an Etruscan -tomb at Corneto, there are two male flute players, and women dancing to -their playing; and all the flutes they are using, and which they hold -trumpet like before them, show reeds of the _arghool_ kind, the double -step I pointed out just now being plainly marked, and the upper one in -each instance coloured a brown olive, whilst the pipes are white. Seen -through an opera glass the details are very distinct. One pair of pipes -has three holes in each pipe marked. The pipes are thicker and shorter -than the flutes in the Egyptian wall paintings described above, and -we find that similar proportions are apparent in some Assyrian wall -designs. In the tablets of Assurbanipal, date B.C. 650, the double -pipes are short and are conical, which is quite a distinct feature in -double pipes, and would cause the sounds to be an octave higher in -pitch. - -The two extremes I have cited, during which the double pipes of -the original style are in evidence, cover a long period, the wall -paintings of the time of Thotmes the Third and the carvings on the -Sanchi Tope gate—that is from B.C. 1600 to about A.D. 100. During all -these centuries, the double flutes have entered into the national life -of many peoples, and at various times concurrently one or other of -the varieties I have named have likewise been in popular favour. One -remarkable period, however, there was, when an innovation intervened. -A new Greek invention appeared, and held the field for several -centuries. Etruria, about B.C. 500, seems to have been the place of -origin of the new double flutes; or it may be said that here they come -first into historic presence. On this Italian plain a Greek colony -settled; and we consequently term these flutes Greco-Etruscan flutes, -the distinguishing features of which have been preserved for us on the -marvellously beautiful vases that were buried in their tombs,—death -being the preserver of empictured life. - -Here then we leave the valley of the Nile, and, after an interval of -six centuries from Lady Maket’s decease, view another and a distant -region, amid a new state of civilisation. One lingering touch of -association with the Lady Maket’s flutes is found in Miss A. B. -Edwards’s description of a funeral in Egypt in the year when she -travelled “One Thousand Miles up the Nile.” - - At a funeral in Nubia, the ceremonial with its dancing - and chanting was always much the same, always barbaric - and in the highest degree artificial. The dance is - probably Ethiopian; the white fillet worn by the choir - of mourners is on the other hand distinctly Egyptian. We - afterwards saw it represented in paintings of funeral - processions on the walls of several tombs at Thebes, - where the wailing women are seen to be gathering up - dust in their hands and casting it upon their heads - just as they do now. As for the wail—beginning high and - descending through a scale, divided not by semitones but - thirds of tones, to a final note about an octave and a - half lower than that from which it started—it probably - echoes to this day the very pitch and rhythm of the wail - that followed the Pharaohs to their sepulchres in the - valley of the tombs of the kings. Like the _zaghareet_ - or joy cry which every mother teaches to her little girl - (and which, it is said, can only be acquired in very - early youth), it has been handed down from generation to - generation, through an untold succession of ages. The - song to which the Fellah works his _shadoof_, and the - monotonous chant of the _shakkieh driver_, have perhaps - as remote an origin; but of all mournful human sounds, - the death wail that we heard at Derr is perhaps one of - the very oldest,—certainly the most mournful. - -From this vivid picture of real life we can now understand that our -little wailing flutes, recovered from that rock cut tomb, meant very -much to the old Egyptian race. - -A piece of the old poetic writings comes to me at the time present, -that seems to complete the circle of our thoughts around this long lost -nation—it comes from old Chaldea, the motherland, is one of the choice -and highly valued finds of explorers, recently acquired by the British -Museum,—tablets of popular songs of Chaldea which date at least B.C. -2300, and possibly earlier. These are distinctly called songs. One bard -says,— - - I will sing the song of the Lady of the Gods; - Listen the great ones, - Attend ye warriors, - To the song of the Goddess Mama, - The song which is better than honey and wine. - -In fair reason may we not conceive that through long ages tradition -held its sway amongst the people, and that these pipes were dedicated -to the goddess Mama, were given into the hands of women to play and to -cherish the melodies of songs that belonged to their race, and that -they named the twin pipes _Mamms_, in affectionate reverence for the -“Lady of the Gods” whose song was better than honey and wine. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -In the Land of Etruria. - -THE GRECO-ETRUSCAN DOUBLE FLUTES. - -THE BULBED OR SUBULO FLUTES. - - -The Song of Linus is heard to-day in the land of Egypt; the sacred -melody played on the double flutes in ancient days survives without -change, but no player on these pipes exists; the song is sung in -wailful cadence by lips of another race, for the old race has vanished - - in the long corridors of Time. - -Strange is the irony of history! The dwellers in the land have -forgotten the name of their song, and call it after a Greek myth. Yet, -in its origin, it was a very real song of lament, a true outcome of -human sorrow, age remembered and treasured in the hearts of the old -Egyptian people, and perpetuated by tradition even amongst those who -were strangers in the land, who tilled the soil, and lived in the ruins -of the past. It was a lament for the king’s son, known as the Song of -Maneros, so that grand old interviewer, Herodotus, tells us. He had -thought this Song of Linus to be a famous song of Greek origin. - -This is what he says:—“I have been struck with many things during my -enquiries in Egypt, but with none more than this song, and I cannot -conceive from whence it was borrowed, indeed they seem to have had it -from time immemorial, and to have known it by the name of Maneros, for -they assured me it was so called from the son of their first monarch, -who being carried off by an early death, was honoured by the Egyptians -with a funeral dirge, and this was the first and only song they used at -that early period of their history.” - -Plutarch says Maneros was the child who watched Isis as she mourned -over the body of Osiris. - -Herodotus is constant in admonishing the Greeks that Egypt is the -mother of wisdom, and that for a vast deal of the learning and the -arts they pride themselves upon they are indebted to her by direct -inheritance. What he, a Greek himself, in his day told them we have -found true, and in all the light of modern researches the old historian -is well supported. We are accustomed to locate Egypt on a few hundred -miles on the banks of the Nile, losing sight of the fact that, in the -days of her dominion, her power extended far and her influence was felt -in all the lands bordering the Mediterranean wherever civilization held -sway. Her royal dynasties were a living force for thousands of years. - -One startling record was discovered by Professor A. Sayce. He tells us -that he has read the graven tablets of Tebel-Amarna (now in the Berlin -Museum), which prove to be letters sent from the king or governor of -Jerusalem to the Egyptian sovereign, in the century before the Exodus. -This governor owed allegiance to the Egyptian monarch, and his letters -were dated from “‘the city of the mountain of Urusalem, the city of the -temple of the god Uras, whose name there is Marru.’ Thus long before -the days when Solomon built the temple of Yahveh, the spot on which it -stood had been the site of a hallowed sanctuary.” - -Along the whole Asiatic coast of the Mediterranean the Egyptians had -their military settlements, and consequently there ensued a mingling of -many tribes and races. The Greeks, or as they came to be called, the -Hellenes, were a composite people with a Pelasgic basis. There was, -however, distinct Egyptian colonisation. Cecrops is said to have led -a colony from Sais in Egypt and to have founded Athens in 1556 B.C., -and Danaus, who seems to be a brother of Amunoph III., is also said to -have left Egypt and to have founded Argos, of which he became king, and -died, B.C. 1425. - -The perpetual trading that was going on between the Phœnicians, Greeks, -Italians and Egyptians, brought the land of Tuscia under the influence -of Egyptian ideas, and of this the sepulchres of Etruria give ample -evidence. The domestic life, the industrial arts, the religious rites, -the paintings and sculptures, and even the mode of burial, all are -exhibiting new adaptions of older faith and customs; the different -development being due to differences in race, soil, and climate, to -inheritance and environment. If we look back far enough we shall -find that the geography of the country, the outcome of its geology, -forecasts the destiny of its inhabitants and writes the history of its -peoples. - -Of all the variety of vases fashioned by Greeks and Etruscans, the -types of the different forms we find existed long before in Egypt, and -these vases have been buried in tombs—large underground chambers that -are the counterparts of Egyptian tombs—and they have been placed there -to please the spirits of the dead, by devoting to them the things that -were most loved, most prized, during life. They used the sarcophagus, -though they did not mummify or embalm the dead, but laid out the body -dressed in its garments, or encased in armour of the period, with -strappings of copper and bronze bosses for breastplates, placing it -on a stone bier surrounded by its treasures, often of great value, -and leaving it to moulder into dust by natural decay. The paintings -on the walls of these dwelling rooms of the dead illustrate banquets -and scenes of domestic and public life, and afford us most valuable -indications of the ways and manners of long past days. A large number -of these chambered tombs have been opened, with their treasures -untouched since the day of burial. The first that was discovered was by -the chance pushing aside and uprooting of a bush by a peasant tending -his goats at evening, who, looking through the opening he had made, the -setting sun throwing its light into the chamber, was seized with mortal -fear at the sight his eyes fell upon; rushing home to his people he -described what he saw, the body lying there dressed in the habit as it -lived. The next day, however, no body was there, only the figure of it -in little heaps of dust, and the metal links and the two round breast -bosses fallen, indenting the dust. Those who explored the tomb and -recovered its treasures were inclined to the belief that the peasant -did see the human form, but that, as in similar cases that are known, -it collapsed upon the admission of air and light. - -The tombs were rock hewn, or built of stone and then covered with earth -appearing as mere tumuli. The chambers many of them being twenty feet -by twelve, and superstition asserts that in more than one instance -lamps were found still burning with perpetual fire although fifteen or -twenty centuries had elapsed since they were lighted. - -The painting described in the last chapter, copied from one in a tomb -at Corneto (meaning at the necropolis of Tarquinii, the ancient city) -shows very clearly that the earliest double flutes possessed by these -people were of the Egyptian kind, with a similar form of reed; and this -same design I have also found on one or two vases, and also evidently -the same style is meant in other instances, in which the details are -not worked out, in both paintings and vases. Thus far we trace the -connection between Etruria and Egypt as regards the flutes, with Greece -as a continuing link. - -The people of Etruria were an ancient race, occupying both sides of the -Appenines, they are now believed to have been Pelasgian Tyrrhenians, -they had great naval power, and in origin were related to the old -Egyptian stock, or, as some say, to both Lydian and Lybian. How long -they had inhabited the Tuscan land we do not know; they displaced or -absorbed an earlier race, as is the custom of invaders. They spread -southward as far as the Tiber centuries before Rome was, and founded -a city called Tarquinii about 1040 B.C. Etrurian kings ruled at an -early time in Rome, probably up to about 500 B.C. The immense cemetery -of Tarquinii is all that remains of the ancient city, which is now -succeeded by the Corneto city, built close to the old site. - -The Etruscans it is judged came about 1200 B.C. They attained renown in -bronze work and in pottery (remember here that the Lady Maket flutes -date about 1100 B.C.). Historians state that Greeks from Thessaly -entered Italy from the Adriatic side and introduced by their influence -the higher development of art into Etruscan work. Be that as it may, -there is no doubt cast upon the historical record concerning one -Demaratus, a merchant of Corinth, who made great wealth by trading with -this old city Tarquinii. He migrated 657 B.C. and settled there and -married a lady of noble family. His two sons became famous in Roman -history. He had views upon Art, and brought with him from Greece two -potters and one painter and thus did good service to the land of his -adoption. - -Another influx of Greeks is recorded. This colony of Greeks came, -however, in a peaceful fashion, and settled there, having fled from a -plague or famine in their own land, in Lydia. - -That the Etruscans constantly went to and fro, visiting the chief -cities of Greece, is manifest, since many vases bear official -inscriptions that they were prizes won at the Dionysian festivals, and -at the Panathenæan games. The knowledge of these facts adds wonderfully -to the interest in these vases, and enables us to understand something -of the feelings which induced the burial of things that were valued -personal belongings, and caused on the walls the paintings to be limned -of banquets and races, and wrestling contests and musical contests, in -one or more of which probably the dead man had won renown. - -The musical instruments on which they excelled were the double flutes, -the trumpet, and the lyre, and on these they have conferred an -immortality by the ceramic art which they carried to so high a state of -perfection. - -I have in the matter of dates brought together a few points which -I would have you look upon not as mere antiquarian lore, rather as -connecting our thoughts in a survey of the progress of music, and to -give an idea of the association of these three peoples, Egyptian, -Etruscans, and Greeks, in its development. You should keep distinct in -mind the early Etruscan period under Egyptian influence, and the much -later period when Greek influence had sway from 600 B.C. to 300 B.C. -It is this later period of Art that we are now entering and a very -remarkable one it is. - -Etruria has given us a new thing: this is the _subulo_ flute, the new -Greco-Etruscan flute. It is a mystery that has not been fully solved: -and, although I have my theory about it, as you will find, and have -regarded these flutes very lovingly, scrutinizing every vase with a -most personal affection, yet until some actual specimen is recovered -from the past, I am denied that supreme satisfaction desired by the -ardent investigator,—proof. Before I began many years ago to state my -impressions concerning the indications given by these vases, I do not -know that anyone thought the matter worth notice, or said “Here is a -new invention in flutes.” The peculiar feature of the construction is -the presence of _one_, _or two_, _or three bulbs_, or cocoon shaped -terminations at the upper ends of the two flutes. The peculiarity in -the form was generally supposed to be ornamental, and an artistic way -for lightening the upper part of the pipes; or, at most, a piece of -decorative conventionalism. The learned saw no purpose behind the -appearances, and therefore the idea of device or constructive design -was not to be entertained. The illustrations here given are copied -from figures depicted on the vases in the British Museum, and you will -notice no longer the straight conjunctive tip-pieces of the step-like -pattern the _Arghool_ fashion of Egyptian flutes as displayed in the -Corneto painting. That fashion has become old, it is out of date. -Suddenly a change has come without a sign, in the home settlement in -Tuscany. Centuries probably intervene, and a new influx of settlers -arrives, this time of pure Greeks or Hellenes. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 15._] - -One of the illustrations I give is taken from a representation on a -vase of a flute player at a musical contest. He wears a _phorbia_ or -_capistrum_, which is a kind of leather bandage or bridle, used in -precaution lest he should burst his cheeks in blowing; and the band -has two holes pierced at the mouth for the insertion separately of -the pipes. The fact of the use of the pipes in the band separately is -beyond question, since the actual pattern of the band exists in a relic -from Cyprus in the Cesnola collection at New York, and the holes in it -are not large enough to admit the bulbs, but only the tip portion as -shewn here. This player, as you will notice, is playing one of the new -double flutes,—not an Egyptian flute. - -Female players also used the phorbia in playing. Dennis notes on a vase -“an _auletris_ with black hair, and a _phorbia_ over the mouth, stood -by the bier playing the double pipes”—thus keeping up the Egyptian -custom. - -The reeds are not now taken into the mouth. Drawings of the _Arghool_ -should have shown that each reed was, at the tip, tied to the pipe -by a slack rambling string, for by these bits of string each reed is -connected with its pipe lest it should be lost. This is shown in the -Summarah drawing. Enthusiasts newly trying the _Arghool_ are very ready -to drop it, since they soon feel sick from the unpleasant sensation -of the reeds and the loose bits of string in the mouth, and it is an -experience one remembers. - -Come with me to the Vase Rooms of the British Museum and look at some -of the spoils of Time. Mr. Dennis in his beautiful work on the Vases of -Etruria says “the enormous quantities of the vases that have been found -in Etruscan soil, within the last fifty years alone, may be reckoned -not by thousands but by myriads.” - -In these rooms—and there are three large rooms devoted to these -specimens of fictile art—there are some hundreds of vases. Many hours -I have spent amongst them, brooding over their beauty, and wondering -of the tales they told of a people long passed away and a religion -once the glory of the earth. On numbers of vases flute players male -and female, are depicted, sometimes three or four on one vase; and -the various attitudes I observed, and the indications of purpose they -betokened, led me believe that there was some meaning beyond mere -ornamentation in the cocoon like bulbs of the flute heads. I examined -minutely vase after vase, and discovered at length out of the whole -number three vases on which were delineated players handling their -flutes each in a different manner, and these conveyed clearly to my -mind the conviction that the bulbs were detached pieces which the -player was able to arrange. Then arose the question in my mind, “for -what purpose?” You have the three pictures before you. Now it is very -curious that only by means of the Greco-Etruscan art work are the -_subulo_ double flutes brought to our knowledge (for distinction, it -may be well to give these bulbed flutes the name by which the Etruscan -player was called); and yet the period during which this new invention -was in vogue, comprises that in which Greece was at the height of her -intellectual power. The age of Pericles and Phidias, of Plato and -Euripides, of the rearing of the Parthenon and of the grand Temple of -Jove at Olympia! - -The dates of the vases of the best period, all are included between -440 and 330 B.C.; some earlier, also showing these flutes, date back -fifty years more. Thousands of these recovered vases are distributed -in museums and private collections, and have been of inestimable value -for the insight they have afforded into the domestic life of the Greek -people. Aristophanes in one of his comedies, written about 450 B.C., -makes a bit of satire out of these flutes, causing Micas and another -to say—comically complaining of their master—“Let us weep and wail -like two flutes breathing some air of Olympos.” All that their poets -and other writers told us of their flutes and flute-players fails to -come home to our understanding until associated with these enduring -pictures; and we know at least that _they_ are genuine records, and -that time has allowed no hand to tamper with them. It is evident that -flute music exercised a fascinating influence over these people; the -player is present alike in scenes of mirth and revelry, in solemn -ceremonials and in funeral procession; and yet we are so far away in -thought culture and sentiment, that we are unable to imagine what -that music was that it could give such delight, and be accounted -one of life’s chiefest luxuries. Here, beyond question, we have the -testimony of the eye that it was so; and we know that the natural laws -of sounding pipes are the same to-day as yesterday, and the limits of -capability of four or six holes allowed but a very narrow range for -melody. - -The player was called by the Etruscans “Subulone”: by the Greeks -“Auletris” and the flutes known as “Auloi.” The pipes were formed of -boxwood, lotus wood and sycamore. - -Was it on these double flutes that Lamia played and so ’witched the -world that it built a temple to her, and paid divine honours to her -name? Were these the flutes spoken of as being able to play in three -modes, the famed flutes, the invention of Pronomus the Theban? The date -given of Pronomus is given as about 440 B.C., and is that of the period -of these vases. - -[Illustration: _The Satyr’s Hands and Flutes._ - -_Fig. 16._] - -The sportive fauns and the lush-eyed satyrs of the woods have indeed -learnt the mystery of these pipes and make merry under the vine-leaves. -I have in my mind’s eye now a curly-headed satyr handling the pipes, -and I wish that I knew the charm to bring before you the saucy curious -look with which he is regarding them. All that modern exigencies allow -me I give here, just the hands and the pipes. Notice the expectant -thumb; what is it he is contemplating? What is he about to do? He -intends to press the bulb of the pipe, but evidently something is -wrong, and I am so anxious to know what it can be. Then there is a -short line on the top of the furthest pipe; it was a puzzle to me years -ago, and the satyr and I we are still puzzling over it. Each pipe has -but one bulb, and I think very probably these simple creatures of -nature would be unable to manage more. Four oval holes are given to -each pipe, the artist has so marked them, and the firing that the -vase underwent in the kiln retains them with indelible truth. When -I see on wall paintings that finger holes are marked I am doubtful, -because it may be the work of an overwise restorer, and so of copies -of the wall-paintings on the tombs; and, indeed, I am sorry to know -that modern painters and engravers are not trustworthy in details, but -palm off home made suppositions about the proper finish of musical -instruments, the nature of which they do not comprehend. They are -ignorant even of any necessity for comprehending such simple things. - -I was looking over a valuable book on sculpture yesterday, in which -highly finished delineations were given of the friezes of the -Parthenon; in one engraving four flute players were represented each -playing a single pipe. I was dazed; wondered if my memory had played -me tricks. So I went and looked at the marbles, and sure enough I was -right; the sculptor had carved two hands and two pipes in the natural -way of the double pipes! At that period I should not expect to see the -single pipe, and I do not remember on any Etruscan vase a player on one -pipe only. Neither should one expect to see the bulb form represented -here because the straight form suits best the sculptor’s art; and in -marble vases, also, the double pipes are quite plain as may be seen -on a beautiful vase in the entrance hall of the British Museum. Read -Keat’s poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and then go and look on this -marble picture of - - The happy melodist, unwearied, - For ever piping songs for ever new. - -Or if you are denied that delight, read those five stanzas of a poem -that will be immortal as the memory of our race, and will outlast the -marble beauty it realizes; read it in quietness, and then, in Keat’s -sweet words, - - With eyes, shut softly up alive, - -the scene will grow within you, as that pale singer heard it, singing - - Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard - Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; - Not to the sensual ear, but more endear’d, - Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone; - Fair youth beneath the trees, thou canst not leave - Thy song, nor ever can those leaves be bare; - Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, - Though winning near the goal—yet do not grieve; - She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, - For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! - -Ah, well-a-day! if I allow the pages of “Endymion” to allure me the -hours will run by and no work be done. - -The vase on which the satyr is painted, with his frisky tail, is called -a _Lekythos_, and was especially dedicated to funeral ceremonies -holding oil or perfume; but what the satyr has to do with such, I do -not know, unless it was that the entombed owner had been a jolly old -fellow himself, and liked such company. - -The satyrs are frequently seen playing the double flutes, and I have -noticed that in most instances men players use flutes that have not -more than two bulbs, whilst the flutes that have three bulbs seem to be -of more delicate make and are assigned to the female players; for they, -as we know, were renowned for the highest excellence in the art. - -The muse Euterpe, who presided over pastoral poetry, is represented on -one vase, seated and holding the pipes in her left hand resting on her -knee, whilst with her right hand she encloses the upper part of one of -the pipes and is pressing the tip with her thumb. It was this design -that first arrested my attention. I saw that the fingers held but two -of the bulbs: there was not room in the hand for more, whilst the pipe -that was free had the three bulbs: hence, at that moment, one was -missing. What did it mean? There is no instance ever of a pipe of two -and a pipe of three bulbs being _played_ together as a pair. - -[Illustration: _Euterpe preparing her Flutes_ - -_Fig. 17._] - -The position of the hands of Euterpe and the method of handling -the flutes are shown in Fig. 17. The painting is on a vase called -a _Krater_, a vase intended for mixing the water and the wine, and -its fine breadth of shape is admirably fit for the display of the -paintings. There is a vase close by on which this custom of mixing the -wine is depicted; the usual proportions were three of water to two of -wine, sometimes it was two of water to one of wine; whilst the drinking -of wine without water was accounted vulgar,—a sign of coarseness of -taste, and was in some Greek states prohibited by law. - -The vases called Amphoræ were for containing the measure of oil given -to the victor in the Panathenæan games, and are often inscribed with -the date of the contest, and name of the owner, and the words “One of -the prizes from Athens.” On some vases we see the player in the musical -contest, standing mounted on a low stool. Eratosthenes tells us that -boxing to the sound of flutes was an Etrurian custom. - -On a _Hydria_ the scene depicted is a _Music Lesson_, and very -life-like it is; there are two seated female figures, one has the two -flutes with bulbs, and the other has a _Kithara_ or lyre, a dog plays -his part in it by listening, a panther cat is sitting on a stool, -and a child free as nature leaves him is playing on the floor. It -is a capital picture of Greek domestic life. Another vase presents -the player on two flutes in full face, and distinctly shows that the -second joint of the fingers was used to cover the holes, a custom which -previously I have alluded to is thus confirmed by good evidence. - -Confirming the use of four holed flutes, there is, in a case in the -Greek and Roman saloon, a slab representing in relief two satyrs -treading grapes in a wine press, and a youth lustily blowing the double -flutes to keep them to time in their movements, and most evidently the -right hand flute shows four holes, clearly and roundly cut. - -Another grand vase I found. This was an _Amphora_, on which was -represented a female figure, Meledosa, preparing to play on the double -flute; she holds them in her hand, as in Fig. 18, and as you will -notice, with her forefinger of the right hand lightly pressing the -top of the pipe, each pipe distinctly showing three bulbs; in this -instance, the pipes are each completed ready for playing. Certainly -we cannot regard the tips of the pipes as reeds; the shape does not -correspond in outline to an _Arghool_ reed, and if we imagine an oboe -type of reed in use at that period, this design would not correspond, -for no player would press the tip of a reed of the oboe or the bassoon -kind. What, then? - -[Illustration: _Meledosa’s Flutes Complete._ - -_Fig. 18._] - -My idea is that this bulb form was adopted for the sake of using a -concealed reed. That the bulbs were _hollow_, I am perfectly sure; -because of the witness of a most precious fragment, preserved in a -case in the Greek and Roman saloon, belonging to one of two pipes -of a later date, found in a tomb near Athens. The Greeks called the -double pipes _diaulos_, and these have been considered to be the -representative of such; but they are not so, being distinct pipes used -separately, as I shall have in another chapter to elucidate. Only -about three quarters of a bulb remains, but one pipe still holds a -broken portion. The length of that bulb, I should say, was originally -in about the same proportion to the pipes as we see upon the vases; so -that there is no doubt about the hollow bulb, as a real thing. Now, -considered by itself the one bulb was a distinct invention in art, -and as such it was complete in itself, yet after a time the invention -was carried further, and the wonder is why? what end did it serve to -introduce more? - -The purpose of having two or three bulbs went beyond that of the -original invention of the _subulo_ pattern, and was, I imagine, an -ingenious device to provide that the player should be able to transpose -the reed from one bulb to the other in order to play in a different -mode or key, virtually without altering the disposition of the fingers; -lengthening the pipe by transferring the reed higher, or shortening -the effective sounding length of the pipe by placing the reed in -the next lower or in the lowest bulb of the three: thus the player -would have the choice of three modes or keys, whilst his pipes would -remain outwardly the same. The bulb forms an artificial mouth, as was -the custom many centuries later in the _cap_ of the _cromorne_. The -position of the reed determines the effective length of the pipe; the -difference of pitch would be in each case one tone, as I find that the -length of bulb corresponds with the distance between two finger holes -of the pipe. Does this solve the mystery? Be that as it may, I have -found in these vases a source of ever renewed pleasure. - - Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all - Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. - -Tombs, tombs of a dozen buried cities, once gay with life, full of the -daily sympathy of pleasure, and no less of sorrow. They gave the dead -their gold and silver and jewels; they gave them food, fruits, oil and -wine, and left them to silence and slow time. These lovely _Amphoræ_ -buried, these festal _Kraters_ empty,—and once brimmed with wine! We -think, irresistibly drawn to think of them, with Keats’s longing wish:— - - O for a draught of vintage, that hath been - Cool’d a long age in the deep delvèd earth. - -The chamber had been rifled a thousand years or more; gold and -ornaments gone, only the dust and the skeletons of men and women, young -men and maidens,—the most perishable of things, the vases the most -enduring. The owners bought their burial land “in perpetuity;” and, -like the old Egyptians, they builded for a very brief and rudely broken -eternity. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -In the Land of Greece. - -FROM ETRURIA TO ATHENS. - - -What a merry lot those _Subulones_ were, piping to song and dance and -good cheer. I have been laughing over an Etruscan picture of one of -these jovial fellows laying down on the grass upon his back, all the -time lustily playing his pipes, and kicking his legs in the air, in -sheer exuberance of merriment. And I have wondered what could that -music be which so evidently was a never failing source of enjoyment to -him, and to his race. - -The old adage says “simple things please simple folk.” Simple the music -must have been, because of the very limited compass of such instruments -as we see delineated; and I have thought that, maybe, the old folk -songs of eastern Europe preserve to us fragments of that ancient music. -Simple, indeed, but to hearers and players in those days representing -the fulness of art. The suitability of such music to such instruments -is clear enough, for the tunes need but a range of a few notes, and -come easily into the compass of rustic voices. Century after century -these old melodies have been cherished, and seem to have perpetual -life. They antedate all histories, and none can trace them to their -earliest springs. How that one haunted Beethoven which he put into his -Ninth Symphony, and made his chief theme,—a simple phrase of a few -notes that seems as if it would go on for ever. For thirteen years -it crops up here and there in his works, until at last he found full -deliverance for it in the crowning effort of his genius. - -In the last chapter, I showed you by illustrations the three distinct -usages of the double pipes as improved by the Etruscans, and I sought -to demonstrate that their new invention comprised, first, a concealed -reed in a hollow bulb; secondly, such a disposition of the reed that -one, or two, or three bulbs were allotted to each pipe, and that the -purpose of such an arrangement was to obtain an adaptability in the -reed, that it might be placed at pleasure in either bulb. I judged -that the invention had three stages, first when there was one bulb, -next when two were used, and finally three. My reasoning is confirmed -by a _Kylix_ in the 2nd Vase Room of the British Museum, it is of the -early or archaic period (B.C. 480-440) and the pipes are with one bulb -only. The player, a female player, has the left-hand pipe longest, thus -evidently indicating a transition period in pipes linked to Egyptian -custom. - -These conditions imply corresponding advances in musical art, for by -the new methods it becomes possible to play in three different modes or -scales; since if we suppose the reed to be placed in the bulb nearest -the pipe, the player would produce, as the lowest note, A; if placed -in the bulb above, he could produce G; and if in the highest bulb, -reach as low as F. Although his fingering would remain the same, the -pitch would include a different range in each case, and, as we should -say, he would thus be able to play in different keys. I reckon by the -relation of the length of the bulb, which is equal to the distance -between two holes, that each change would make a difference of a whole -tone. The art of the player would greatly alter intervals, especially -by partial covering of the holes flattening pitch to required degrees -for the particular mode. - -When we read of the various Greek modes—of the Dorian scale, the -Phrygian, Lydian, Mixo-Lydian, Hypo-Dorian, and others—we should not -forget that one was added to the other in order of time, and the full -system only gradually evolved. And in this Etruscan period, the music -was probably limited to the single tetrachord on three modes, and so -remained for a long time. We, in some instances, see on the vases -that the pipes are marked with three holes each, sometimes with four; -although it is rarely that the holes are indicated at all. - -The Egyptian flutes had three holes to one pipe and four to the other, -which only extended the scale one note higher than the three holed. -In these Etruscan flutes, however, it is by no means clear that the -second flute extended the compass, for the holes seemed to occupy in -each the same position as to distance. It is open to consideration -that a difference in the pitch of the reed itself of one of the pipes, -would possess the power of influencing that pipe to the extent of a -semi-tone, if such entered into the design of the instrument, and so -we find a reason for the second pipe. On my models, I sometimes make -a difference of a whole tone in each note of the scale produced. In -default of any true knowledge of Greek practice, I think that we may -fairly attribute to the artist some such design in the construction of -the pipes. - -It is a natural conclusion that the first invention of man in the -way of flutes would be a single pipe for the production of one, two -or three notes; then with a sense of a scale the four notes. From -the single pipe the double pipe would arise, with a view to some -_variation_ of such a scale, to which the ear was predisposed, and so -the method of double pipes would be fixed by custom. - -We may be quite sure that when double pipes were first adopted there -was a meaning in the method. The assumption that one pipe preceded the -two does not seem to hold in the case of these bulbed flutes with the -four holes, they seem to start as _di-aulos_. - -The Etrurian vases give no instance of single flutes. In truth, -another invention was necessary, and it came in course of aftertime -from the Greek mind. Like most useful inventions, it was marvellously -simple—nothing other than the giving of _six holes to one pipe_, -and fingering the one pipe with fingers of both hands, and with one -thumb added; even that thumb hole may rank as a distinct invention -of intrinsic importance to art. A similar delay we know occurred in -association with key-board instruments, and it was only in Bach’s usage -that the thumb was raised to the rank of efficiency and placed on an -equality with the fingers. - -It is remarkable that in the progress of civilization the later way -of development should have been from the double flute to the single -flute, through perception of the better aid to execution and display -that was afforded by the single flute, and evidently when this change -came, the idea of different modes had gained acceptance, the two pipes -no longer constituting a pair, but each pipe intended to be taken up in -obedience to the choice or change of mode. - -This is a very significant advance. Let us now study the nature of - - -THE SWEET MONAULOS. - -The mon-aulos, “the sweet monaulos,” not seen on the vases or -wall-paintings, but known to have been, and still having a real -existence in two solitary specimens now in the British Museum, and -accompanied by that evidence, which is unique as it is precious, of the -actual hollow bulb that tipped the pipe. The allusions I have made to -these flutes in earlier chapters will be remembered, and now comes the -fitting moment to enter into details. The illustrations fairly give -the proportion as to distances, on a scale of one fourth, sufficiently -clear to enable you to judge how the holes are arranged. The pipes are -very nearly cylindrical, departing from the true figure only in being -of a little larger bore at the upper end than at the lower; which may -have been done by design, or the nature of the drilling means then in -use may have caused the variation of bore. If you go, to look at these -relics of the Greek age, you will not see them as here represented, but -curiously contorted. They were found in a tomb on the road to Eleusis, -near Athens, and the damp of many centuries has twisted and warped -them; and one has been broken, snapped asunder at the middle. They are -made of sycamore, and are very plain simple instruments. What value -they had we cannot in any degree estimate; but I should imagine them to -be of the ordinary kind familiar to every household in which music was -cherished; for the Greeks also, like the Etrurians, followed the old -world custom of burying with the dead the things they had most prized -in life, even as the Egyptians did. - -And these flutes lay beside the youth when they left him there -sorrowing, and thinking how his cherished flutes would comfort him -in his loneliness. Now, not even his dust left; gone, we know not -whither,—to the underworld or to the heights of Mount Olympus. We of -a foreign race think of this nameless youth, because here they have -brought his flutes, and these speak to us of kinship. Not without -strange feelings did I handle them and place my fingers covering the -holes, that all plainly showed how they had been smoothed and warm by -his—_his_ fingers—playing soft Lydian airs: worn fingers that one day -became pale, then cold as marble, and now unsubstantial and vanished -utterly; as soon, indeed, mine will be. And yet we,—shadows, both—clasp -hands over this great gap of time, whilst handling things that were -loved. - -How I hang over that case of treasures every time that I visit the -Museum; foolishly fascinated perhaps, yet irresistibly so, looking and -pondering. The fragment of a bulb that is left—for a fragment it is, -only about three fourths of a whole—is, by the enthusiast’s valuation, -beyond price. In one of the pipes, there is a piece of another bulb -left sticking on the top; and, if you look closely, you will see the -scored lines inside the pipe, and outside and inside the bulb, that -were made so as to ensure close fitting when the bulb was pressed in. -And look again, closely, and you will see at the top of each pipe, -there is a little rim edge, and then a shallow groove about half an -inch broad; and this, no doubt, was bound round with fibre or ivory or -metal to prevent the splitting at the top, where the bulb was pressed -in and made to fit securely, being, perhaps, slightly moistened by the -lips, just as we do now when putting instruments together; and the -operation was frequent, since the reeds, as I have said, were taken out -after playing, and placed safely away in a little box called a tongue -box. - -The pipes are three eights of an inch in bore, and the finger holes are -oval and large, in their smaller diameter quite as large as the bore. I -measured the distance between every hole, and so obtained the correct -length of the instruments as in their original straight condition. - -By the kindness of Mr. A. S. Murray, then the esteemed chief of the -department, I was able to take every particular I wished, and to -calliper the bore of each pipe. The length of the longest pipe is -thirteen and a half inches, and the shorter pipe is twelve inches and -a quarter, just one and a quarter inches difference, which corresponds -to the distance between each hole, showing that in depth of sound the -pitch of the pipes differs by one whole tone. - -The details of measurement are of the greatest interest in the -scientific analysis of these ancient musical instruments, and afford -much valuable insight into the system upon which they were constructed -in conformity with the music for which they were designed, and very -evidently they tell us that the music played by the people was of a -simple character and very limited in compass. - -[Illustration: _The Greek Mon-aulos Set in Two Modes._ - -_Fig. 19._] - -As there are five finger holes and one thumb hole to each, it is clear, -on consideration, that these cannot have been di-aulos, but that they -were used as single pipes requiring two hands to play either; for the -six holes would be unmanageable, and the holding altogether insecure -under one hand. In my view, these are distinctly specimens of the -mon-aulos, “the sweet mon-aulos,” praised by the poets; and there can -be little question that the reeds used were soft and fine, and that the -Greeks had acquired a skill in making them. Probably, they differed -as much from the common _arghool_ as the reeds used by Lazarus in -his clarionet differed from those of the street player on the yellow -clarionet of past days. I have given the names of the notes against the -holes. The thumb holes out of line will be understood as showing what -otherwise is out of sight; but it makes the series of holes clearer. In -the one pipe it is the G hole, in the other it is the A. - -You will notice that there is a curious interval of a minor third, -which doubtless had some special importance in Greek measures. The -pitch is, as we say, double pitch in respect of length of pipe, so that -the low B♭ is truly the four foot note; but we speak, in general terms, -of the scale given by the pipes as a two foot scale. It is a pity that, -as at present disposed in the case, the pipes are unsuitably placed, -being head to tail,—as annoying to look at in an instrumental regard, -as to an archæologist it would be to see a statue exhibited standing on -its head. But perhaps I may get this anomalous relation altered, for -the observer misses the proper relation of the flutes to each other. -The nature of the beating reed greatly affects the scale. That which I -have recorded is given by the particular reed I have used; another reed -might make one or two tones difference. Again, there is the question -whether these pipes had one, or two, or three bulbs, although only one -was found. I am inclined to believe that the originals had but one -bulb, because the two pipes evidently indicate that one flute was used -for one mode, and the other flute for the other mode, with only the -difference of a tone between them. - -On the whole, I think it may be inferred that tenor A was naturally -fixed upon as the starting point of the scale, which had its vocal -foundation in every nation. As regards intonation, the notes specified -are not exact to our tempered scale, but only as near as the actual -pitch heard can be stated in our terms. In the ancient diatonic, all -the tones are major tones. In the soft diatonic, an interval equal to -a tone and a quarter was used, being greater than a major tone but -less than a minor third. In one diatonic genus, the interval of three -fourths of a tone was substituted for the second semitone in ascending. -Authorities tell us that they are not aware that the Greek writers -ever mention the concord of more than two sounds; any concord less -than a fourth was considered dissonant, and so was the sixth. The true -consonant major third was either not discovered, or not admitted to be -consonant, till a very late period; Ptolemy being the earliest author -who speaks of a minor third. There was a double tone nearly equal to -the modern major third, and a tone and a half nearly the same as the -minor third. In the later Greek periods, the system of music became -intricate, and the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic systems were in -vogue, and discoursed upon to their lips’ content by the scholiasts and -their disciples, much the same as in modern days, beclouding knowledge. - -The instruments that we have been interested in were, I should imagine, -those of ordinary use in the social life of the people, associated -with their ceremonies and entertainments; but the steps by which I -have taken you show change in usage and aspiration in the artists. -There was even a striving after fuller command in execution, and after -adaptability to the increasing range of musical theory; and evidently -the stringed instruments, with their power over many modes, excited -rivalry in the flutes. There is a very important and significant -passage, already referred to, by an author—Athenæus, if I remember -aright—that about the 440 B.C. (or earlier), Pronomus the Theban -invented adjustments by which the same set of pipes might be fitted to -all the modes. History upon many matters we know is very elastic, and I -am not quite disposed to think that the flutes depicted on our Etruscan -vases answer to this description. There is yet one other possibility, -beyond that Greco-Etruscan invention, in a later invention of most -ingenious design, aiming at this same power of control, only that -this is a single pipe, and is a development beyond those we have been -considering. Very pleasant it is to trace these workings of genius - - Striving, because its nature is to strive. - -The next chapter affords illustrations and particulars of the -new discovery; for to the Greeks it was new, and we may be sure -interesting. Perhaps to some of them quite as engrossing as a new -statue or the latest scandal! - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -In the Land of Greece. - -THE SILKWORM FLUTES, OR BOMBYX FLUTES. - - -The next development of Greek ingenuity in the construction of flutes -came in a remarkable guise, showing a contrast as great as our ships in -mail and armour present to ships that carried our flag a century ago. -Suddenly as it seems, with no transition stages, the Greek inventor -brought forth his new flute of ivory encased in bronze. Evidently, it -was an age of luxury. The Greeks valued in every respect each art that -was known to them; they lavished wealth upon artists, and paid honours -to orators and singers and players, no less than to sculptors and -painters. No price was too great to pay for their beloved flutes. The -flute of Ismenias, a celebrated Theban musician, cost at Corinth three -talents—a sum equivalent to £581 5s. of our money. No intimation has -ever been left to us of the basis upon which such valuation was made, -whether an adventitious worth was given by encrustations of jewels and -setting of gold, or whether some famous maker acquired a repute so -that, like Stradivarius, every instrument from his hand was sought for -by those able to appreciate artistic excellence; we cannot even guess, -for in acoustic conditions there is no parity of relation between -fiddles and flutes; and for all that we know, the great price quoted -may have been reached in fighting for a rarity, the instinct for which -is perennial in the human race. So delightful a thing is it to possess -that which others covet; so exalting the exultation in having that -which others have not; verily, it is the taproot of all civilisation. -Without it civilisation had never been. - -The particular flutes now under examination must have been costly, -but only moderately so. The Greeks were adepts in metal work of all -kind, and in these flutes their skill in the art is manifest; battered -as they are and grey green with age, they bear the record of the -master hand. The interior tube is of ivory, and the outer or encasing -cylinder is of bronze. At the upper end there is a raised piece of -metal, in the curve of which there is a figure of a reclining Mænad, -still beautiful in figure, and in flowing lines of drapery. The flutes -are the counterparts of each other, differing only in length, and -slightly varying in the distance of the finger holes. The lengths are -respectively eleven and a half inches and ten and a quarter inches; -but the last named pipe has the end fractured, and, therefore, may -have been as long as the first, or longer. The measurements may not be -exact, but are approximately as stated; at all events, sufficiently so -for the needs of our present purpose. It should be understood that the -fragments are pieced together, and with even the most careful handling -one would fear disaster. - -The two instruments bear a relation to each other, very similar to -that of the two sycamore flutes illustrated and described in the last -chapter, and evidently also the player chose one or the other according -to the mode in which he intended to play, or, as we should say, the -key in which the music lay; here, however, in these segmented flute -pipes the method is not the same, the particular mode depends upon the -section arrangements being fixed, and laid out for a succession of -intervals quite distinct for each pipe. - -From the mouthpiece to the lower end the length is the same in each -pipe, but the intervals that could be used in playing are not alike. -Measure off the sections as in one pipe and it will be seen that no -corresponding distances are found on the other; notice how differently -the segments that are longest, representing a tone and a quarter or -a tone and a half, come in each particular arrangement. The elevated -plateau at the upper end is about three quarters of an inch in height, -and the table-land at the top is about a quarter of an inch square, -there being a little circular shaft drilled through the metal, leading -into the body of the flute. This is to all appearance the mouthpiece, -and, without questioning, I had formerly accepted the general notion -that here we had specimens of the lip blown flute. The little aperture -nearly a quarter inch in diameter would undoubtedly serve for blowing -across, with the lip resting against the block. When, however, I came -to examine these treasures of a lost art, with a view to understanding -them, misgivings arose; for how could the scale be constructed, seeing -that, in a lip blown cylindrical flute, the octave note would occur at -the half of the length? At the fourth hole distant from the bottom -opening, the note given would be the octave. No, this could not be. -Moreover, the lay of the finger holes is so like that of the sycamore -flute that one sees directly the correspondence, and is driven to the -conclusion that we have here higher developed specimens of the reed -blown aulos. - -[Illustration: _The Silkworm Flutes._ - -_Fig. 20._] - -Why have I named this the silkworm flute? Because the resemblance -suggests itself. You will notice that the cylinder is segmented, as a -caterpillar looks to be; and we know that the Greeks had a flute so -peculiar that it was given the name of _Bombyx_, which is the name by -which the silkworm caterpillar is known in science. - -Each section had a small loop or ring of metal, by which, being pressed -against, the section was made to revolve, or to be partly turned round -to cover or uncover the finger hole, so that the player threw out of -gear, as it were, any hole not required in the mode he was playing in. -When all the little loops are brought into line along the bottom of -the flute, they look like caterpillars’ feet. Although I venture to -speak of this as the _Bombyx_ flute, I am aware that there are passages -in ancient authors which may seem to claim the appellation for some -other kind; but various statements so mystify us by their incongruity -that we have to withhold belief, and to question how far the author -was practically acquainted with the craft of the flute maker, and -how far he may not have written from mere hearsay, not himself -clearly comprehending all that was signified by the terms employed -nor the various usages they might include. It is so in our own day, -particularly in the matter of musical instruments. An instance in point -occurs in the very case containing these flutes, for there is here -another antique specimen (in kind quite distinct from these), which was -found by Sir Charles T. Newton (our foremost authority on classical -treasures), and he describes this as “a flageolet (_plagiaulos_) -in bone and bronze, with mouthpiece still entire,” found in a tomb -at Halikarnassos. Here are two questionable assertions. First, it -certainly is not a flageolet, for flageolets have whistle mouths; -second, it may or it may not, be the true representative instrument -understood by the ancients as the _plagiaulos_. We are led to suppose -that the meaning of the term is a side blown flute; but, for aught I -know, the silkworm flute may be a true _plagiaulos_; for, obviously, -from a practical point of view, this flute was held sideways, though -blown with a reed, as will presently be explained. A flageolet is not -a side blown flute; but what Sir C. T. Newton discovered is a most -ancient example of a transverse flute—that is to say, blown in the same -way as our orchestral flute, and held in the same position, and so is -side blown. What I should be inclined to contend for, is that we have -in _reed_ flutes the _di-aulos_, the _mon-aulos_, and the _plagiaulos_, -and that they originated in the order here shown. - -[Illustration: _The Flageolet Proper._ - -_Fig. 21._] - - Frequently small flutes are called flageolets by writers - of the present day, but the true flageolet should have a - bulb head. Its invention is ascribed to Juvigny, about - 1581. The old French name is “_flagol_,” the German - “_flaschinet_.” The name flageolet should properly - be confined to those flutes or whistle pipes having - a flask-like head or mouth-piece with a conducting - neck—that is, a small tube inserted into a hollow bulb - (hence the derivation of the name, from the same root - from which “flagon” comes), and within the bulb a small - piece of sponge inserted to collect and condense the - moisture from the breath. - -Adrian, junior, quotes Aristotle on the _Bombyx_ flutes as to the -length of the pipe, and says that “they were blown only with great -exertion.” That they were difficult to perform upon, we may well -believe; and we know that in our own clarionets the low notes require -strength of wind more than the upper notes do; but the recorder or the -translator may be responsible for the implication of great exertion. -The longest flutes that have as yet been discovered are of the kind -now under examination, and so far confirmatory of the right to the -title that I have given them; and one of four (described in the next -chapter) discovered at Pompeii, now in the museum at Naples, exceeds -twenty inches in length, and in the copy of it made by Mr. Victor -Mahillon the loops, being complete in their series, have strangely like -appearance to caterpillars’ feet. I should not omit to remark that in -our specimens, only traces exist here and there of such loops at points -where they were soldered on; but, for verisimilitude, I have indicated -the series on one of the pipes. At the second segment on the upper pipe -marked with a short line—, the evidence is quite plain. - -Whether the interior tube is of ivory, bone, or wood, the condition is -such that the eye cannot judge; but in the Naples instrument I believe -that, without doubt, it was ivory, and the bore three eighths of an -inch, as it seems to be in this case. The great advantage of ivory is -obvious, because the cylinder necessarily fits close, and any swelling -of the inner tube from moisture was a liability to be avoided. - -I have illustrated the square at the top of the mouthpiece, and shown -the hole which is perforated in it and leads down to the body of the -flute; and, looking at the diameter of the perforation—barely more -than one eighth—the unsuitability of such for office of a lip blown -flute, with its bore three times the size, is strikingly obvious. - -Here is another instance of the little reliance that can be placed -upon authority when it goes beyond its own particular line. In this -display which is the greater, its ignorance of the nature and structure -of musical instruments, or its scholastic jumble of science? This -passage I find in “The Life of the Greeks and Romans, by E. Guhl and -W. Koner, translated by Francis Hueffer.” “The aulos proper resembles -our hautboy and clarinet, differing, however, from the latter in the -fact of its lower notes being more important than the higher ones. The -aulos consisted of two connected tubes and a mouthpiece, to the latter -of which belonged two so-called tongues, in order to increase the -trembling motion of the air”; and of the capistrum or head straps, “the -purpose of this bandage was to soften the tone by preventing violent -breathing.” For connected errors of statement of fact, and audacity of -ignorance in drawing inferences, these authorities would be hard to -beat. If one thing is more certain than another on the authority of the -Etruscan vases, it is that the pipes were not in any way connected; and -in a stone head found by Cesnola, at Salamis, the strap passing round -the cheeks is carved, and shows over the mouth two separate apertures -for the pipes. This, already referred to, is absolutely conclusive. - -In the illustration, the raised mouthpiece merely appears to be nearer -the top end in one pipe than in the other; for you should notice that -in the upper one the end is jagged, and I have no doubt that originally -both pipes were as the lower one, in which the end is completely -closed. But whether interiorily the end was blocked near where the -slant perforation entered the body of the pipe, I cannot see; I should -say that it was, because we find it so customarily in flutes of other -nations, both in modern and ancient usage. Here you will see that the -distance from the end to the mouthpiece is quite two inches, and that -end of the bronze cylinder was, I should think, a fixture; because I -perceive that the mouthpiece itself is fitted upon a movable segment. -Very curious that is, and no doubt had its purpose. Perhaps the design -admits of the partial turning round of the segment of bronze to obtain -a different angle of mouthpiece to the fancy of the player. - -Then notice, further, that the top finger hole is but a short distance -from the mouthpiece; and, according to all experience with such pipes -reed blown, I judge that, as that hole gives the octave note to the -lower open end, some additional upper length is in demand, perhaps four -inches or more. So if the distance is reckoned from that hole to the -top of the table of mouthpiece as two inches, we require the reed and -its fittings to occupy a further extent of from two to three inches. -The diameter of the hole bored through the block, being but little more -than an eighth and a sixteenth, shows that reeds must have been used. - -I consider that the stem of the reed was so adjusted and fitted in this -hole that for playing the pipe a length suitable was obtained; and -the reed may or may not have been enclosed in a bulb. I have hitherto -spoken of the form as resembling a bulb, but to the Greeks it may have -suggested a likeness to the silkworm cocoon, and so there was a double -association of thoughts, and both these and the Etruscan flutes may -have had the name _Bombyx_ applied to them. We know in our own times -how very diverse varieties of things rejoice in similarity in name, and -trouble us by being presented under more names than one, as fashion, -fancy, or locality determines. - -Having described these ancient relics as regards their structure, the -chief interest remains. Do we understand them as the Greeks understood -them? I confess that they perplexed me for a long time. Often I looked -at them, asking myself Why did they make them thus? What purpose had -they? What motive? What advantage to gain beyond those sycamore flutes? -I could not be content to regard them as curiosities only. I wanted to -get at the root of the matter,—the because: the cause of being. I hung -over these flutes, trying to drag the mystery out of them; and, after a -time, being in the mood, the guidance came, and I went contentedly to -sleep. - -Before giving my solution of the problem it is necessary to make a -few comments upon the Greek scales. If you would think as a Greek -thought, you should dismiss from your mind all reference to our -system of harmony, our key-note, foundation of the scale, or our -division of the octave. For the points to which I have to call your -attention, it seems desirable that you should now for comparison with -the bronze flutes, refer to the illustration in the last chapter, of -the sycamore flutes. Whatever the elaboration of the theory of music -from Pythagoras to Ptolemy, the musical instruments of the period, -so far as we have evidence in representations or in relics, do not -assure us of the influence of theory to all pervading extent, in the -ordinary practice of music. Certain rules which had grown up in the -schools were necessarily adhered to, because accepted by the popular -taste; or, rather, we may regard such general rules as the exposition -of traditional measures, and methods of inflection and cadence, -consecrated by usage. The demonstrations of the mathematics of music -by the monochord was a fascinating pursuit of the philosopher; yet the -value must have been more intellectual than practical. - -In the Greek scales, the chief strangeness to us is that the keynote -lays not at the beginning, but within the scale; and it was called the -_mese_, or middle note. Nevertheless, its position was not always in -the middle, but was shifted higher or lower in the octave according to -the mode for the time employed. The scale originated in the tetrachord, -and the octave resulted from the combination of two tetrachords; in the -old system these were conjunct, and in the new system disjunct, and the -two systems were exemplified in the octave lyre. The primary rule in -the disjunct system was that the separation between the two tetrachords -should consist of a whole major tone. Another rule insisted upon by -every Greek writer was that there should be an interval of a whole -tone, at least, immediately below the _mese_ note; and, as Aristotle -says, “_Mese_ is the leader and sole ruler of the scale.” - -I make no pretence of discoursing upon the Greek musical systems; -all I desire is to fix your attention upon certain peculiar features -unfamiliar to us, but upon which the _structure of the flutes_ -depended. I have previously alluded to the special importance of a -curious interval of a minimum minor third, and maximum minor third, in -the Greek measures, not our intervals. - -The historic record, together with an exposition of the growth of these -scales, and their bearing upon the development of the system of music, -will be given in a later chapter. - -Now look back at our mon-aulos; it has six holes, and is governed by -the fingers of two hands, with the thumb added, and this is the first -instance of the thumb being employed in flute playing. Now look at -our _Bombyx-plagiaulos_ (if such name be accepted), it has the same -number of holes, and the thumb hole lying underneath between the upper -two holes. One can understand how in the longer _Bombyciæ_ (of which -I shall have to discourse in the next chapter) there was an obvious -advantage in having movable sections of a cylinder to shut off notes, -simply for the reason that the fingers could not manipulate thirteen -open holes. But the puzzle with the shorter _Bombyx_ is that it shows -no advance beyond the mon-aulos in the demand made upon the fingers, -which could cover the holes as required, without any need to have -particular holes shut off mechanically. I could not comprehend, and -the question persistently arose, what was the utility of the new -invention? Look at the relative positions of the two lowest holes -of the mon-aulos; in each instrument the peculiarity of relation is -noticeable, and yet there is a difference in each. Why? The conclusion -I arrive at is that there is something traditionally imperative as to -the unequal division of one tetrachord in the octave; that originally -it was the lower tetrachord that was thus subject to custom; that -afterwards more licence was taken, and, still subject to rule, there -was choice as to where that tetrachord might be; and I find in the -mechanism of the _Bombyx a provision for the varied placings_ of this -unequally divided interval. Here we see the meaning of the rule that -the soft diatonic used an interval of a tone and a quarter, greater -than a major tone and less than a minor third. In all these four -instruments you will notice how one fourth is divided with a large -interval in the upper section in one of each pair of instruments, and -a short interval in the other, thus reversing the upper relation: and -as regards the _Bombyx_ flutes, there is a similar reversal of the -distances between the three lowest holes from the bottom. - -In the sycamore flutes, the fourth divided into two intervals occurs at -the bottom from A♭ to D♭ in one, and alike in the other from B♭ to E♭. -All other distances between holes are regular, so that this is the only -position for the particular effect of only one intervening note. But in -the silkworm flutes, there is the possibility of placing that special -fourth in various positions of the range of holes, by covering the hole -which exists, but is not wanted; not only that, but by rule excluded -from the accident of use. Here, in both cases, the third hole from the -bottom makes with the thumb hole the interval of a fourth, and with the -top hole the interval of a fifth. At a guess, I should read the scale -of the flute placed highest - - A♯ B C♯ D♯⁔F♯ G♯ A♯ - -We really have no notation to express the actual relations of -intervals, which exceed or are short of ours. Remember that the -Greeks had three-quarter tones, one-and-a-quarter tones, and -one-and-three-quarter tones; and combined these so as to make larger -intervals, curiously varying, as you may judge by the eye. - -D♯ otherwise E♭ I reckon to be the keynote. The mouthpiece I named as -probably arranged to shift in position and lean towards the player, -so as not to be exactly in line with the finger holes, and if the -hole in the ivory tube was made larger than the hole entering from -the mouthpiece, that convenience would easily be obtained. I should -imagine that the transverse flute was in vogue at the time, and that -this invention was designed, to afford the _reed flute_ performer the -facility to assume an attitude, which, maybe, was preferred by people -of fashion. - -The remarkable specimen of a _transverse_ flute, found by Sir C. T. -Newton, noticed at page 97, I give a description of in the final -chapter, “How the Music grew.” - -The high significance of these ringed flutes is that we have them as -they were left by the hands that used them, arranged according to -traditional observance of rules proper to the national melodies in -which the people delighted. It is a record that tells us more than -books or treatises teach us. - -An accomplished Greek gentleman played to me to-day some of the -music preserved in the ceremonials of the Greek church; believed to -be the most ancient known, and still heard in wild melodies of the -mountaineers. On the pianoforte it cannot be truly rendered; yet the -character is ineffaceable, the music is indeed beautiful. It seems as -it would never come to a close,—only pause in a divine expectancy. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -In Oscan Land.—Italia. - -FOUND AT POMPEII. - -THE GRECO-ROMAN FLUTES. - - -Four flutes were found at Pompeii, and they were all of one pattern, of -greater length, yet following the same system as in that latest Greek -invention illustrated and described in the last chapter, and indeed -may be considered as the final development attained by the Greeks -in instruments of the flute kind, for nothing has to this day been -discovered in advanced superiority to it for musical capability or for -display of refined workmanship and technical ingenuity. - -These instruments, are, it is true, classed as Greco-Roman, but they -are essentially Greek, although of the period of the Roman dominion. -The body of the flute is ivory, and it is twenty-one inches long, -bored throughout in perfect cylindrical bore three-eighths of an inch -diameter. Think of the skill necessary to accomplish this with most -primitive tools! Then the ivory is surrounded by a closely fitting -series of cylinders of bronze and silver alternately in sections, and -each section possesses just sufficient ease of fitting that it may be -caused to rotate on the ivory by simple pressure of the finger upon a -little metal loop which had been provided for that purpose. The end -sections are fixed to the ivory tube, and thus hold the others in their -positions. The appearance of the instrument is most attractive—bands -of olive-coloured bronze, with bands of silver intervening. The finger -holes, to the number of eleven, are bored in the ivory at the proper -distances, and corresponding holes are made in the bronze tube. -When these holes in the ivory and in the bronze are set in line and -correspond, then the note can be sounded proper to each opening as -related to the sounding lengths of the tube; but the player, by turning -any selected bronze section to the right or left, can close the finger -hole so that the note is left out of the scale. It is a charmingly -simple device, and yet how many ages had to pass before human -intelligence contrived it, and nations of men had passed likewise—gone -back into the dust that they rose out of. - -This city of Pompeii still speaks to us. Its message is of dust and -ashes, very human in its meaning. From the ashes came this silent -record of a dead music. There was a day of garlands and of feasting; -young men and women joining in dance and song, and listening to this -flute piping its well-loved melodies; and the flute was laid down, -warm with the fingers of the player resting awhile from mirth inviting -music, and then—after a long while—it is found just as it was left that -day, with the four notes closed off, which the player wanted not, in -the scale of the mode chosen for that last melody breathed from this -flute by living breath. - -This was the series of notes which the flute was capable of giving, and -the closed-off notes are, as will be seen, each marked with a cross, -Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6: - -[Illustration: No. 1.] - -The depth of pitch may seem cause for surprise when we remember that -our flutes of the present day that are nearest in length of tube to -this Greek instrument do not reach by an octave this extreme low -compass. The difference arises through the means of excitation for -producing sound from a _cylindrical_ pipe; this therefore is a reed -blown, not a lip blown, flute, and properly belongs to the clarionet -species. In pitch, it descends lower than our A clarionet, and we have -to modify the conclusion generally held that the Greeks only used -instruments of high range of tones. - -Now, taking up the remaining three of these four flutes which were -found together in one mansion, on which was written the name, “Caio -Vibio” (as was seen on the day of their discovery, December 10th, -1867), we notice that they also had their lowest note B in the -8-foot octave. The reeds were placed at the top of the instruments, -not branching out aslant as indicated in the specimens illustrated, -earlier, (page 96), of this particular construction; and the instrument -was held in position like our clarionet, only lifted more to the -horizontal probably, for on this point we have not, that I am aware -of, any ancient representation. No. 2 has twelve notes, there being one -note interposed which is not found in No. 1. It is F♮; but the extent -of compass is the same, whilst the closed holes are 4 and 7:— - -[Illustration: No. 2.] - -In No. 3 we find other differences, and this peculiarity, that -the second and fifth sections are not pierced with holes, so that -practically the corresponding notes were permanently closed—there is no -note between B and C♯, no note between D and E. Observe that the first -note in each is marked (0), for this is the note from the open end of -the pipe when all finger holes are closed:— - -[Illustration: No. 3.] - -In No. 4 we find other distinctions and an extended range:— - -[Illustration: No. 4.] - -I have had further correspondence with M. Mahillon, and he out of his -abundant courtesy has added to my obligations to him, by sending to me -his two large photographs of the Pompeian flutes, taken as they are in -the Naples Museum; and I have had these photographed in reduced size, -and engraved. They show the closure rings in the position in which they -were [Illustration: _Fig. 22._ - -_The Pompeian Flute._ - -_1. Front View._ - -_2. Back View._] - -found (refer to final chapter for clearer outline drawings). The large -expanded portion at the top of the pipe is made of ivory, and is cup -shaped, and into this the reed was fitted for playing. Whatever the -original reeds were, they perished in the heat of the lava and ashes -that overwhelmed the city. The cup would have suitably held either -_Arghool_ reeds, or bulbed reeds, enclosing these or other kinds of -reeds. When M. Mahillon first investigated these flutes, he supposed -that the _Arghool_ reed had been used by the players in their day; but -he now tells me that, having in more recent years made the acquaintance -of most of the pipes of the middle ages—the cromornes, the courtauds, -the dolziana, racket and others—he has come to the conclusion that the -Pompeian flutes were blown by some sort of _double_ reed, but differing -from the oboe and bassoon type, which are adapted on a short metallic -tube of small bore; and he considers that probably they were of the -sort now existing in the Japanese pipe called the _Hichirichi_, but -I do not see how this could be, since such have a broad base, quite -half an inch in diameter, to fit into a tube corresponding. Moreover -this explanation or supposition leaves the chief part of the problem -unanswered—what then was the utility and purpose of the three bulbs? -The mystery is there still. Perchance the meaning of it is this—the -era of the concealed reed has closed, and this Pompeian instrument -announces a new departure in flutes, played by a broad double reed -sensitive to a _ligature_ pressed by the lips, the precursor therefore -of all modern reeds that can be accommodated to pitch. - -I have myself one of these interesting little Japanese instruments, and -will in another chapter describe and illustrate it; and the curious -thing about it is that, in the splendid work on Egypt got up by order -of the great Napoleon, such an instrument is figured there complete -in every detail of pipe and reed, full size, and is claimed as an -instrument belonging to Egypt. Did Japan get it from that motherland? -The plot seems to thicken. - -You will notice a curious application of the closure in this last -specimen, No. 4, there being no fewer than seven holes shut off from -speaking, sections 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10; and we cannot well understand -or suppose it likely that during the progress of the piece of music the -setting of the rings was changed. The player on this was able to supply -three notes beyond the compass of the other flutes. - -In reference to specimen No. 3, there is one particular which we -should not omit to refer to. The ring closing the _a_ (section 8), has -a second hole bored at a little distance lower, and so gives a note -flatter than that which the chief opening emits. In fact, we have a -second _g_♯, which is a little higher, and establishes two quarters -of a tone between _g_ and _a_, and the _g_ itself it is remarked is -too low by a quarter of a tone. The various skips fixed by the closed -holes cannot be without meaning. In one instance, we find a skip of a -fourth; and the minor or neuter third, which I remarked upon as common -to the earlier flutes as a fixed interval, and for some reason or other -preserved, is also exemplified; in No. 4, we have D♯ to F♯, and again -all sounds closed for the fourth between F♯ and A♯; and in No. 1, all -sounds closed between D and G. - -One wonders whether we have not some reminiscence of an earlier -pentatonic scale in these, some traits by inheritance and tradition. -Travellers in Persia have remarked that the singers seem to have a -custom of making a drop of a fourth in the two concluding notes of -their song; and the people in that land of the rose and the bulbul are -passionately fond of song, and gather together, sitting out half the -night in the open air, listening to song following song. All national -traits are worth studying, and very often simple things render true -clear light to the investigator. - -All the details respecting the construction, the scales, and the -conditions of these Pompeian flutes, we owe to M. Charles Victor -Mahillon, who, travelling with M. Gevaert, the Director of the -Conservatoire of Music at Brussels, found these unheeded relics of -the musical art in a corner at the Naples Museum; and, fired with -enthusiasm, was able, by his recognized position, to obtain the -necessary permission to fulfil his desire, which was to make copies of -them for a full investigation of their musical nature. He made most -exact copies, down to the minutest details, and so enriched the museum -which has long been under his fostering care, and increased the world’s -knowledge because enthusiasm was allied to practical skill. - -As Nature goes on in the same old way, never changing her laws or her -behaviour, we can hear from these models the same tones as were heard -by the Greeks, centuries ago; the flutes are faithful even to the -pitch, for a pipe preserves its interior diameter, and is a true record -which age does not imperil. In this respect, the wind instruments have -the advantage over the stringed kind. The shapes of the Greek lyres -we know from the vases, and from the paintings and sculpture; but of -the nature of the strings and their tension, and the amount of sound -elicited from the sounding-board, we remain in ignorance, and our best -surmises fail to explain or account for the effects attributed to the -skill of the players on these instruments. - -Whether by some peculiar skill the flute players were able to produce -a series of harmonics, is a puzzling problem. There is no reason to -suppose that they could control the reed, unless they used a reed with -reversed cut of tongue, like that of the old Chalumeau, or some other -kind of reed, or a double reed as just now suggested; not the _Arghool_ -reed. To obtain harmonics merely by hard blowing would be a hazardous -affair, especially in public performance before an audience professedly -merciless to failure. The only harmonics to instruments of this class -are twelfths and possibly fifths. Yet on the other hand, in the -contests between ancient flute players, the especial aim of the rivals -was to outdo each other in producing the highest notes. - -Our players on oboi and clarionets only obtain harmonics with certainty -by pressing the reed with the lip, so as to shorten the reed’s active -portion. On the Egyptian flutes, as stated in a previous chapter, -fifths were obtained in series, and after that octaves. A fine straw -reed tongue was used in this case, and may account for results so -different from modern custom. - -One of these four Pompeian flutes produces three notes beyond the -compass of the others, and there was doubtless some intent in the -distinction; possibly the player who handled it had the dignity of -first flautist. - -There is yet one other example in existence of this type of flute. It -was discovered at Salamis, in the the island of Cyprus, by Cesnola, and -is, I believe, included in that portion of his wonderful collection -which was sent to New York. It is described in his book, “Salaminia,” -and is illustrated. Although in decayed condition, its structure is -apparent. It is of bronze, with sliding cylinders; is about twenty -inches long, and is perforated with fourteen finger holes, three of -which it would seem were closed off. Careful measurements were taken, -and an exact copy made by Messrs. Carte, and they were thus able to -ascertain the original notes of the time worn instrument. The notes are -nearly those of the modern chromatic scale, the lowest note being C in -the bass clef, and the highest G (an octave and a fifth above). These -notes, - - C, C♯, D, D♯, E, F, G, A, B♭, C, E, G, - -were obtained by using an _Arghool_ reed, and—as they vary from the -scale obtained by M. Mahillon, on the Pompeian flutes—there is some -reason to infer that a stiffer reed was used, as anyone who has had -experience with these reeds knows how greatly pitch may differ on the -same pipe when two different reeds are tried; in fact, resultant pitch -is the effect of the combination of pitch of reed with pitch of tube. -Both F♯ and G♯ are missing from this Cyprus specimen. The age of this -flute is not indicated; but the Pompeian flutes are fixed to a year, -almost to a day, in the memorable year 79 of our era, when the gay -city was overwhelmed in the lava of Vesuvius. Thus we may say that -these flutes have been held in safe keeping through that stretch of -years between our own time and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, -an association of thoughts which will come home to many readers more -clearly. - -Pompeii was originally founded by the Oscan people, who had nothing in -common with the Romans, and did not lose their independence until about -90 B.C. The city was the last in the Campania, which was reduced to -submission by the army of Rome. - -These long Pompeian flutes could not have been played with all the -holes uncovered; indeed, I come to the conclusion that one instrument -in its purpose had the same utility as our three clarionets, enabling -the player to take the scale in a lower range. Thus, at one time he -would limit himself to the upper portion, and not use the lower; and -at another time close off the upper notes and extend the range to the -lowest extreme. And such changes might have been made at the end of -any part of the song, or measure of the music; and the rearrangement -in the closing of the holes would easily and quickly be effected. We -should not, I think, imagine that an extensive compass was desired, -as we desire it; for art was limited by precise rules and elaborate -systems, and to ignore them was to offend. Evidently, in this -instrument the capabilities of the Greek and Roman _Auloi_ attained -perfection,—nothing further was achieved; and with this we may consider -that the era of ancient flautists closed. - -At the present time there are several bands of excavators at work on -classical sites. There is rivalry between the savants of four nations -(German and French, English and American), each anxious to unearth the -past, so that any day we may see new treasures that for centuries have -been waiting, - - “Hid from the world in the low delvèd tombs.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -Back to the Land of the Nile. - -EGYPT REVEALS THE SECRET. - - -What! didn’t you know? I thought that everybody knew that. Why not -have asked before? Could have told you at any time. That is the way -that secrets have of coming out,—“promiskuss like,” as they say in -the village. Now it seems that the bulbed mystery that we have been -tantalized about, and which has so worried the lobes of our brain on -sleepless nights, is after all a piece of nature, coaxed by artifice -to be non-natural. A method of waist making was practised in early -life to ensure the result desired; it was an instance not of design -in nature, but of design upon nature, much as the modern young lady’s -waist is. The simplicity of the explanation is charming. There is a -passage in Pliny referred to by Mr. W. Chappell in his History of -Music, and I will quote what he says. What it means I do not know, but -that is by no means an objection, as one mystery is at least left, and -what we shall do when every secret is open is a mystery past finding -out! - - Pliny, in describing the reeds grown in Lake Orchomenus, - in Bœotia, says that one which was pervious throughout - was called the piper’s reed (_Auleticon_). This reed, - says he, used to take nine years to grow, as it was for - that period the waters of the lake were continually on - the increase. If the flood lasted at the full for a year - the reeds were cut for double pipes (_Zeugitæ_), and if - the waters subsided sooner, the reeds were not so fine, - were called _Bombyciæ_, and were used for single pipes. - -There is another account of this furnished by the ever learned Mr. J. -F. Rowbotham, in his so styled “History of Music,” which is no history, -but a monologue (attractive, truly) on the historical progress of the -art of music during some centuries. He says that the whole account is -in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant, IV., 11), and names the lake differently. -The passage runs thus:— - - But most of all was Antigenedes renowned for the care he - took in choosing his flutes. And we hear that he altered - the time of cutting the reeds from September to July or - June. For the reeds of which the flutes were made grew in - the Lake Copais, in Bœotia, which also furnished Pindar - and the Theban flute players with flutes. And this is - the way that the reeds were cut. The flute reed always - grew when the lake was full with a flood, which took - place about once in every nine or ten years. Its time - of growing was when, after a rainy season, the water - had kept in the lake two years or more,—and the longer - the better. And it was a stout, puffy reed, fuller and - more fleshy and softer in appearance than other reeds. - And when the lake was swollen, the reeds increased in - length. And the time of cutting was in the rainy season - in September. And this was the time of cutting, up to - Antigenedes’ time. And he changed the time of cutting - to June or July,—_i.e._, in the heat of summer. And the - pipes cut at this period, they say, became seasoned much - sooner; three years were sufficient to season these, - whilst the others cut in the rainy season took many years - to season. This is what they tell us. But I think that it - was another reason which induced him to cut them in the - dry season. And that was to get the reeds crisper and - shorter and smaller in the bore, and that for this he was - ready to sacrifice even beauty of tone to get them crisp - and small. It was at any rate to get some peculiar and - highly artificial effect. - -Doubtless, the original readers understood the author, and filled in -implied details which we are in the dark about. The ancient writers -avoid telling us what we want most to know. It is, for instance, at -times, doubtful whether the name _reed_ always refers to the body of -the pipe, or at times to the vibrating reed, and a writer or translator -would easily fall into error if without practical knowledge of wind -instruments, just as they do in similar matters of musical detail -at the present time. Some ancient writers, we know, wrote only from -reports on the subject of music, being themselves ignorant upon it, -although they are in several instances our chief authorities for the -learning of the ancients thereon. - -To the description given by Mr. W. Chappell, he adds his own comment: -“these reeds throw out shoots around them, and perhaps each row of -shoots may have been counted as a year’s growth.” I am not so sure -that a reed “pervious throughout” would throw off shoots; some such -are merely sheathed like bulrushes and flags. The contention of Mr. -Rowbotham that Antigenedes “must needs change the time of cutting -flute reeds, in order to get crisp reeds, and reeds with small -bores, and that they might give out these (_Hemiolian Chromatic_) -querulous intervals” is not convincing, and the use of the word -“querulous” betrays that he is “begging the question”; indeed, his -point is that “the age was an age of quibbling and cavilling and -hair splitting, and these subtleties of thought had their parallel -or consequence in other things as well,”—including querulous flutes. -This imagined correspondence between things and thoughts shews the -writer to be clever as a special pleader, but that he is a specialist -in wind instruments does not follow. The question is still open, did -Theophrastus speak of flute reeds or of flute pipes, or of the reeds to -be used for bulbs, or of those for making reed tongues? - -Antigenedes wrote about the year 450 B.C., it is said, that he -increased the number of holes of the flute. It is a curious coincidence -that Ling Lun the Chinese minister of Huang-Ti, was also sent to a -_chosen spot_, called Tahsia (since identified as Bactria, the mother -of cities from its unrivalled antiquity) west of the Kuenlun mountains, -where there is a valley called Chichku where bamboos of regular -thickness grew, that he might there choose the finest sort for music, -and thus set out the true _lus_ or laws and principles. How strangely -the Greeks and Chinese tales agree, that the pipes must be very choice, -and of a particular growth. - -Some years back, when I first entertained the idea that these bulbs -figuring on the vases represented real hollow bulbs, I sought high and -low for evidence of any species of reed growing with such distinct -shape that it could be so employed. I made enquires of curators at -South Kensington botanical departments, and also at Kew, but without -success, and no botanist could afford me the information that I was -anxious for. There was no reed, neither roots of reeds, anywhere -answering the description. - -Yet such reeds grew! It is because the nature of the growth of the -reed has assumed a most interesting importance at the present stage of -our investigations, that I have introduced these quotations from the -ancient writers. - -A very valuable piece of information has recently been obtained -from Egypt, and we owe our knowledge of it to Mr. T. L. Southgate -who read a paper at a Musical Association meeting, upon the pair -of Egyptian flutes found and shown by Mr. Petrie. He had obtained -tidings and measurements of similar pipes in foreign museums, and -gave particulars of experiments as to pitch, and showed a model made -according to details communicated to him by M. Maspero of a so-called -flageolet with eleven holes, found in ancient Panopolis anterior to -the eighteenth dynasty, 1500 B.C. This extraordinary find he stated, -was furnished with a moveable beak of the whistle kind, and it gave -a scale of semitones and two enharmonic intervals; and the scale, he -maintained, corresponded almost exactly with our present chromatic -scale. Thus the musical acquirement of the Egyptians was raised to a -most exalted level, much beyond anything ascribed to that people, and -some head-shakings and symptoms of unbelief became manifest among the -curious musicians assembled. I confess that I was among the doubters. -Neither the flageolet nor the scale seemed to me to conform to the -genius of the people, as shown in their tablets of stone, or papyrus -rolls, or wall paintings. The date 1500 B.C.—four hundred years older -than the Lady Maket flutes—was understood to be fixed by M. Maspero, -and confirmed by other recognised Egyptologists, and the genuineness of -the relic seemed vouched for. - -And now comes the strange part of the discovery. It was found that the -supposed flageolet beak was no flageolet affair at all, neither in form -nor purpose, and that what had been interpreted in the drawing as a -whistle mouth was the representation merely of a patch of pitch or -bitumen that had in ancient days got attached to the original. About -as dumbfounding an experience as that which befel the renowned Mr. -Pickwick at the deciphering of the ever memorable Roman inscription. We -may now sing old Hummel’s chorus:— - - “Light, light in darkness, - The daylight dawns;” - -for the mistake brought out the secret, and the information long -wanted was to be had for the asking, and came out in a very matter -of fact way. M. Maspero says that the head piece found with the pipe -was a hollow piece of reed, bulb shaped, and that it was a custom -to grow such bulbs by subjecting the reed during its early growth -to artificial constraint. Places in the reed would be chosen, round -which, when it was about half an inch in diameter, a string or other -fibre would be wound closely, and the reed so treated left otherwise -to grow to its proper growth of about exteriorly three quarters of an -inch. The artificial waist therefore remained with, say, a quarter -inch interior diameter, whilst the other portion expanded in growth as -usual, and thus these mysterious bulbs were formed. The explanation -is delightfully simple, and the wonder is that no one thought of it -before, for I expect that there are similar practices of reed torture -going on in other parts of the world, which probably even our botanists -could have made us acquainted with. - -The difficulties of obtaining knowledge from those who know is, -however, a common experience; not that knowledge is refused or -withheld, but that the specialist and the neophyte seem unable to -get into the same line of sight, and between the two there is often a -great lack of perceptivity of the actual kind of help wanted, and the -language of reply only perhaps may serve to show us what dumb creatures -we are in our endeavours to understand one another. - -The eleven holed pipe was found in 1888. As M. Maspero has no doubt -about the age of this flute, and maintains that it dates back to the -eighteenth dynasty, and as he is in the front rank of authority as -an Egyptologist, we have to accept his decision, although it throws -previous conclusions into confusion. - -The Chinese are held to have possessed an octave scale of twelve -semitones more than four thousand years ago, but heretofore we had -no hint of an early existence of such amongst the Egyptians, nor of -an intercourse with China which would account for identity. It is -altogether mysterious, and raises new questions of affinities, and of -the evolution of mind in the human race. - -So far the details afforded give a new insight into the nature of the -bulbed flute, they tend to support my idea of the use of the bulb for -holding a concealed reed. - -As it is, Egypt has revealed one secret concerning the subulone flutes, -and shown that the double and triple bulbs depicted on the Etruscan -vases are essentials of the structure of the flutes, and can no longer -be regarded as conventional ornament. - -M. Maspero sent Mr. Southgate a tracing of the bulb piece in his -possession, who has obliged me with a copy of it. The dark irregular -patches are due to accidental adherence of some bitumen. The numerals -indicate merely proportions in the interior diameters. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 23._] - -In the times of the earlier civilizations, men had a wonderfully -direct way of obtaining their ends; they chose the simplest means and -the fittest, and the survival of their method down to our days is the -best proof of a judgment almost as unerring as instinct. With all our -mechanical appliances, we can do little better than modify and develop -the designs we have inherited. In our wind instruments, everywhere the -primitive remains, even as the type of race remains. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -The Isles of Greece. - -MIDAS THE GLORIOUS. - - -“The Glorious!” So Pindar names the flute player Midas the Sicilian, -who had twice obtained the laurel wreath by his performance on the -flutes at the Pythic games. It is in his twelfth ode that Pindar -celebrates the victory of Midas over all Greece upon that instrument -which Athene herself had invented, and he inscribes the ode thus:— - - TO MIDAS OF AGRAGAS, WINNER OF - THE PRIZE FOR FLUTE PLAYING. - -How strangely this sounds to us, and how little able are we to estimate -at its true significance the esteem in which flute players were held by -all the people of Greece. - -Many records there are, telling unmistakably of the passion the Greeks -had for this music; of the wealth lavished on the famous players; of -the temples in which their names were cut in marble with every token -of pride and exultation; and of statues raised to their honour. But -greater tribute than any that was given, or than remains, is this,—that -Pindar thought the flute player worthy of one of his odes, and -immortalized him. His voice was the voice of national feeling, and, as -I have said, it sounds strangely to us. We are so civilized, have gone -so utterly beyond - - “Earth’s early days, - When simple pleasures pleased,” - -that we should not recognize the voice of Saturn; and if - - “The dim echoes of old Triton’s horn” - -reached our brass belaboured ears, how many think you would listen with -reverence? - -Yet surely for a little while we should find some good in letting our -imagination dwell upon the scenes and surroundings that were real in -Greek life; some good also in cherishing the belief that the dead -beliefs of old humanity were once living beliefs. - -Pindar, second only because Homer was first, was revered by the whole -Greek race, and considered their greatest lyric poet. From the pillars -of Hercules to the verge of India, wherever there were Greeks, there -Pindar was amongst them. How high an honour, therefore, it was that -fell to Midas the flute player. - - -STROPHE. - - I pray thee, Queen of Splendour, city of peerless grace, - Persephone’s home; O thou that on thy tower-clad hill - Dwellest, fair Queen, beside the streams of pastoral Agragas! - Propitious greet, with favour of Heaven, and man’s good-will, - The crown, at Pytho’s festival, that glorious Midas won; - And welcome him victorious in that fair Art,—of old, - That Pallas found, ... - -Then come antistrophe, and again strophe and antistrophe, but -without the intervening epode, by which it is known that this was a -processional ode. The poet weaves into his strain numerous allusions -to myths which were in common acceptance, and fully understood by his -hearers, and acclaimed forthwith. Needless, however, to be given here, -although scholars still find interest in them. Pindar goes on to state -how Maiden Athene fashioned the flute with its varied strain, and -bestowed it on man, and concludes with this - - -ANTISTROPHE. - - Through slender brass it flows, through many a reedy quill, - That grew by the Graces town, for choral dance renowned, - In nymph Cephisis’ hallowed haunts; true witness of the dancers’ skill. - Ne’er, save by toiling, mortal aught of bliss hath found; - But all that lacks in our brief day can destiny’s power supply, - What fate ordains none may avoid; needs must a day befall - Of chances unforeseen that spite of all - Man’s scheming, part will grant, and part deny! - -So ends he, with the poet’s right to moralize, by which we may infer -that our glorious Midas had to toil at the pipes, and practice some -hours daily as the price of attaining his great renown. - -Pindar’s lines have been variously translated; one reading is thus -given:— - - Through vocal vent its music flows, - Of brass with slender reed combined, - That near the festive city grows, - Where with light steps the graces move, - Marking the measured dance they wind - In cool Cephisis’ flowery grove. - -That reads pleasantly; but what of this more stately flow in prose? - - When it passes through the slender brass and through the - reeds, which grew near the city Charites, the city with - beautiful places for the dance. - -How charmingly that lingers on the tongue, “the city with beautiful -places for the dance.” When will it be so said of our great city? Is it -a picture past praying for;—past hoping for? - -Pindar, as we know, came of a family of flute players. He was born -at Thebes, or at an adjacent village, about 522 B.C. His family, we -are told, excelled in flute playing, the national art of Bœotia; and -he himself, in one of his odes, boasts of a descent from Spartan -ancestors, and on his mother’s side from an Arcadian nymph, Metope, -mother of Thebe, the mythical foundress of the Theban nation. Through -the country of Bœotia, the river Cephisus ran into the Copaic Lake, -and both river and lake were celebrated for the reed beds, from which -the Theban flute makers obtained their materials. So that our poet -was an authority upon flutes, and a critic in the art of playing the -instruments. A legend records that when a boy, a swarm of bees settled -on his lips whilst he was asleep and filled his mouth with honey. He -was also believed to be a familiar guest with the priests of Delphi, -where an iron chair, on which he sat to conduct his hymns, was shown -as one of the curiosities of the temple; whilst at Athens a statue was -erected to him, and the Rhodians engraved one of his odes in golden -letters on their temple to Minerva, and the site of his house beside -the fountain of Dirce was respected for centuries afterwards. - -Flute playing was believed to be of Phrygian origin, and that it was -brought from Asia Minor into Greece may perhaps be indicated by the -fact that Pindar had in his house at Thebes (Grecian Thebes) a small -temple to the Mother of the Gods and Pan, the Phrygian deities to -whom the first hymns to the flute were supposed to have been sung. -Dion notices that at Thebes all but the Cadmea was in ruins, and that -a small votive statue of Hermes, set up for some victory in flute -playing, still stood up out of the weeds among the ruins in the ancient -Agora. The Pythic contests were held in the plains of Crissa, hard by -which stood the temple and oracle of Apollo, the especial god of the -Dorian race, and the patron of music and the arts. It was in the years -494 and 490 B.C. that Midas won his laurel crowns, and he had also -won once at the Panathenea. Curiously, we find that the first notable -flute player at the Pythian games, Sacadas, was victor on the first -(586 B.C.) and two subsequent occasions after the performance on that -instrument had been introduced as a regular part of the solemnity. - -Pindar’s ode to Midas was sung at Agrigentum when the victor entered -the city in triumphal procession, and the whole town poured out to meet -him. The victor and his friends visited in proud succession the altars -of his religion, and the titular deities of the city were thanked for -their favour, and again his exploits were chanted in notes of solemn -joy. - -We have one or two flute players who possibly have some idea of their -surpassing merits; but they would be aghast if they found themselves -recipients of such public honours as these in a modern city,—we are so -civilized. Yet stay, did we not receive intelligence how that Sarasate -received some such jubilee welcome on returning to his native place in -Spain, not very long ago! What an old-fashioned corner of the earth -that must be, where the old atmosphere remains unsmoked, and where -the peasants remain and get richly browned in the sun, and dance with -goatskins over their shoulders, and to them there are days of out-door -life still going on, such as are by our race clean forgotten. - -To parallel Pindar and Midas, we should have to imagine Tennyson -writing an ode to Sarasate the passionate, the great artist, the dark -browed fiddler on the platform of St. James’s Hall, London! Ah! no, -it will not do; the parallel would be too shaky. We can run excursion -trains, and cram Albert Halls, and our people can shout themselves -hoarse in Fleet Street over the three o’clock winner, and the names of -Patti and Sims Reeves, and Melba, and Jean de Reszke may exhaust our -refined fervour, and the grandeur of heads fitted with unseen crowns -may raise a flickering illusion of glory, and the dazzling crush of -ladies plated with diamonds, may exalt the senses with the pride of -wealth,—but all this, the utmost of the get-up of modern effects, will -pale beside that uprising of citizens, that grand acclaim in open air -over the plain of Crissa to “glorious Midas!” - -One day I do remember,—one day fit to be named with the days of -old. Stay a moment, and think what _was_ in those days. Imagine the -concourse of people from all ends of the world; a small world it was -then, and yet how great in men, aye, and in coming men. There, under -the shadow of the great towering crag of Delphi—the centre or “navel” -of the earth, as the Greek poets termed it—with the world-renowned -temple glowing in lily whiteness in the blue air, there the great -games were held,—duty, religion, race, patriotism, drew all men of -Greek birth or parentage to witness or to share in them. Week after -week, from every state and colony, from isle and creek and dented bay, -the flower of Hellas gathered in national pride to swell the host of -spectators at these Panegyreis, called by them “universal gatherings.” -Hither came statesmen and philosophers, merchants and traders, poets -and priests, and people of every degree; streaming up through gorge and -defile, up through groves of pine and laurel and cypress, up to the -broad, bright plain, - - Around the spot where trod Apollo’s foot. - -In that great day when Midas stood forth to meet the gaze of the vast -assembly, there were, as visitors, some of those who have written -their names indelibly on the pages of Time, some of those who have -made history. Who were they? Pindar, we know, was there,—what other? -At that day, Pythagoras walked upon the earth, and Æschylus was then -in the prime of manhood; Sophocles, a babe but one year old, nestled -in a mother’s arms; and Phidias, a child of seven summers, not yet -dreaming of his great fame, tripped over the grass, gathering garlands -of hyacinth, saffron, and asphodel; and fancy may picture him there -listening to the flutes of Midas, hearing the shout of victory, and -seeing the bestowal of the laurel crown. Imagine him—_one of the young -immortals_—lifted up in the exciting moment, his little heart throbbing -in sympathy with the pulse of the grand enthusiasm that ran through -that sunsmitten multitude! - -Aye, those were glorious days! One such day I do remember, one worthy -to rank with those days of Grecian festivals; the day when our vast -city for a whole day welled out from every street and alley its -thousands, tens of thousands, mile upon mile, from morn to sunset, -to welcome Garibaldi. Then we knew what it was to feel the thrill of -genuine fervour. Then, for one day at least, we rejoiced in being of -human race, and believed in the wide kinship of patriotism. Men and -women counted themselves happy if they could touch but the folds of his -grey cloak. They who had looked into the depths of his calm grey eyes -felt themselves dwellers under a loftier sky and went away, comforted; -and to gaze upon his serene face was to receive into the heart a new -sense of the service of life. He was one of those - - Men whom we - Build our love round, like an arch of triumph, - As they pass us on their way to glory - And to immortality. - -Since glorious Midas won, 2397 years have come and gone, and Pindar’s -verse each year has kept the laurels green. Perhaps in after years -he personified the ideal or master flute player to the popular -imagination, for the statue here represented dates from the time -of Hadrian—that is six hundred years later—and is believed by the -archæologists to be a copy or adaptation of an earlier work, when a -pseudo-archaic style was in fashion. The original they say may, like -other earlier representations of deities, have been clad in actual -drapery. According to Pliny, Midas was the original inventor of the -_plagiaulos_ or side blown flute; but it was so customary to assign to -their heroes the origin of things considered benefits to the people, -that we may class this as a mythical reminiscence. - -The figure is draped in a _chiton_, with sleeves which are fastened -down with studs; a circlet rests upon the head, and the hair falls in -long tresses over the shoulders; the beard is long, and of the peculiar -shape commented upon by ancient writers. The marble is beautifully -worked, the details very graceful, and the expression given to the -face remarkable. The statue was found in the villa of Antoninus Pius, -near Civita Lavinia. The right arm, left hand, the mouthpiece, and -part of the middle of the pipe are restorations; but the artist, being -in the dark as to the actual kind of flute originally represented, -made up a shape of mouthpiece from the fragments, for which his inner -consciousness alone is responsible. - -[Illustration: _Midas the Flute Player_ - -_Fig. 24._] - -The flutes represented are from a photograph of the instruments in the -British Museum, and there can be little doubt that this kind of pipe -was the one given to the player by the sculptor. The reed when placed -in the little tube would stand at half a right angle to the pipe, as -the bore indicates that degree of slant. - -[Illustration: _The Ringed Flutes_ - -_Fig. 25._] - -In taking leave of Greece and her flutes, I am pleased to be able to -quote from recent intelligence one incident which shows the permanence -of national character. - -“Milo, the Island of the Cyclades, in which the famous ‘Venus of -Milo’ was discovered, has again been the scene of the unearthing of a -splendid example of ancient Hellenic art. The new ‘find’ is the marble -statue of a boxer, somewhat above life size, which is almost as perfect -after its burial under the dust of centuries as it was when it came -fresh from the hands of its sculptor. - -“The shipping of the statue to Athens was made the occasion for a -characteristic Greek popular festival. The whole population, headed -by the civil magistrates and a band of musicians, and followed by a -regiment of soldiers, accompanied the newly found treasure in jubilant -procession to the ship, which had been sent from Athens for its -transport to the capital.” - -The old ways remain! The Greeks are a young people yet; they show the -same spontaneity of enthusiasm, the same joy in the face of nature, the -same impulses under the influence of art. Theirs is still a small world -girdled by the sea, and they are not so far as we from the days when - - Conquerors thanked the gods - With laurel chaplets crowned. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -Near the City of Charites. - -THE MYSTERY OF THE “SLENDER BRASS.” - - -This chapter is a pendant to that on “Midas the Glorious.” It is an -afterthought which my long familiarity with free reeds has given birth -to. One day I chanced to buy a child’s toy, a little trombone, perfect -in slide action, and in succession of tones. Following my habit of -experimenting with reeds, pursuing therein the course of a lifetime’s -devotion to such attractions, I naturally desired, childlike, to see -the inside of this trombone. It contained a slide within a tube, -and upon this slide a series of free reeds set tandem fashion; upon -lengthening the trombone, each reed in succession was brought to the -one air hole which alone was provided for the issue of the sounds from -the series of reeds. For so small an instrument, merely a toy be it -remembered, there was great power, and correct pitch. - -By a freak of memory, Midas and his flute came to mind, and words of -Pindar flashed through my brain with a new significance. Was the free -reed used in the flute of Midas? that was the question. Pindar, as was -stated, was himself familiar with the flute; he came of a family of -flute players, and therefore his description has a more than casual -purport, for we may be sure that he had clearly in mind every detail -he directed attention to by his words, and knew everything affecting -the instrument. Pindar, having stated how Maiden Athene fashioned the -flute with its varied strain, and bestowed it on man, then proceeds to -describe it and its musical sound. Of the sound of the flute he writes:— - - Through slender brass it flows. - -It had not occurred to me before to think of any distinct implication -in the words; but now I question very much the pleasantness of a brass -tube taken into the mouth, in length nearly two inches, with its -vibrating tongue in action; not like a cup-piece outside the lips, as -in the trumpet and trombone. - -Fancy it: a brassy taste! Surely this was not the idea he would convey, -of a player’s hot moist lips straining upon a slender tube of brass. We -shall get his words more literally in prose:— - - When it passes through the slender brass and through the - reeds,—which grew near the city Charites, the city with - beautiful places for the dance. - -The flute itself could not be called slender, being interiorly three -eighths of an inch; and, moreover, it was but the casing that was of -brass, and that only with flutes after the invention of that sectional -arrangement of sliding cylindrical pieces over each aperture, the tube -itself being of ivory, or of elder, or of sycamore. Thus, then, the -question arises. What slender brass had Pindar in mind? - -Accepting the prose as the more literal translation, note the “and,” as -if Pindar meant, and _then_ through the reeds, and further it may be of -importance that the _plural_ is given “reeds.” - -Although I have presented the picture of the two flutes that in -style accord with the flute designed by the sculptor as if that upon -such Midas played, I believe that a scrutiny of dates forbids the -supposition; those flutes will prove to be of too late a date, Midas -is certainly more likely to have used the _double_ flutes pictured -upon the vases,—the bulbed flutes, and not the single ones fingered -by the two hands. In the plural case, the two flutes would be rightly -described, being the style with the two reed-pipes, one for each hand. - -Accepting Pindar’s words literally—“slender brass”—I think that we -must believe that he meant to describe the reed as of brass: a reed of -slender metal through which the breath passed on its way, urging the -reed into vibration. Now, what I would suggest is that, if silk reached -Greece from China in those days, why should not the free reed? Actually -it is of slender brass. - -I have made experiments with the free reed upon my copies of the Greek -flutes in the British Museum, and see very clearly the possibility of -the adaptation of the free reed to the hollow cocoon-like bulb pictured -of the flutes in the paintings upon the Etruscan vases, and which, as -you have read, I interpret as being designed to hold a reed within -it; the first, second, or third bulb being selected for the purpose, -according to “the mode” of the particular piece of music that was to -be played. The bulbs are quite large enough for holding the free reed -of the requisite size and flexibility. - -In the Chinese organ “Sheng” the little brass free reed is fixed on a -small quill-like reed stem and is passed through a hole into the _bowl_ -that holds the series of reeds. The position of the reed for sounding -is exactly the same as that which I am supposing for it in the _bulb_. - -Again, it has been supposed from a remark made by an ancient reporter -that a certain flute player in a contest was unable to play because of -an accident by which his flute reed had become bent; that therefore it -may have been a metal reed such as the free reed. - -The question has also an acoustic bearing; according to Weber’s law, -the free reed is amenable to variations of pitch: by its nature it is -able to accommodate itself, and may be taken down an octave in pitch -under the influence of the tube with which it is associated; but upon -that descent of pitch being reached, it starts back again to its own -pitch. Joining such a reed to the flute, I find that its pitch is -lowered as each hole is in succession closed, but that at the last hole -it refuses to speak at all. This shows that a different reed should -be selected that would be flexible enough to accommodate itself to -altered conditions of tube; but to obtain the right reed will demand -a course of arduous experiment upon new ground, the best teacher -being experience. I said that the reed refuses to speak. Here comes a -noticeable fact: by extreme high pressure I can induce it to speak, -and that powerfully. Have we not in this fact some hint—or, may be, -explanation—of that strange demand of the Greeks, as it seems to us, -for a bandage, a _phorbeion_, like a halter over the head, to prevent -the bursting of the cheeks of the player? This intensely produced -note may be the kind of note they wanted,—that which they prized and -acclaimed in Midas. The probability is that the whole series of notes -was produced on this high pressure system, in open air, and intended to -be heard by a vast concourse of people. When I played softly or with -average strength of breath, I found that I could not take the reed -beyond a fourth. Does not this appear to account for the limitation to -four holes which so long prevailed? In our own course of evolution of -instruments from early times progress has been slow; many centuries -passed before the first little brass key was invented and applied to -flutes. With the clarionet it was the same: the sudden burst into new -life being due to one man,—Denner. From the first to the last period -in the development of Greek flutes there were no doubt well marked -transition stages of which we possess no record: new inventions equally -momentous to them as to us, and upon which new players started into -pre-eminence. Midas was credited with the invention of the particular -flute upon which he won renown; and it may have been that Pindar -intentionally specified it, and that it may have consisted in the -application of a free reed of slender brass to obtain a greater range -of notes. - -The free reed in the way that I have suggested was equally applicable -to the double and to the single flute; and therefore, whatever the kind -of flute upon which glorious Midas played, and won his laurel wreaths -and his immortal renown, the special epithet of Pindar would hold true:— - - Through slender brass it flows. - -The little brass reeds are easily made, the metal is very thin, and -three strokes of a tiny chisel cut the reed. To a people so skilled -in the working of metal in jewellery as the Etruscan and Greek, the -making of these fine reeds would present no difficulty. Unfortunately, -the slenderness has been adverse to preservation. These perishable -reeds,—what tomb enshrines the one which is to satisfy our longing to -know! A learned professor tells me that the Pompeiians were of the -Oscan tribe, being in their remotest line called the Sabellic race, -that they belonged to the large ancient group of the “Aryans.” In late -times, these people mixed with the Etruscans, Pelasgians, and Safines, -and their writing was similar to the Greek; and, according to language, -they were related to the Sanskrit and to the Iranian languages,—namely, -the Jadian and Persian. So in all our wanderings we are brought back to -the old home,—to Persia, where the pathways of music begin. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -At the Delphic Temple. - -THE MUSIC HEARD BY THE GREEKS. - - -The latest discovered Delphian tablet can well claim to be the only -authentic record yet brought to light of old Greek music, since it is -the original and not a copy of a copy. Not only is it original and -genuine beyond dispute, but it has also the inestimable value of being -earlier in date by many centuries of any previous record of repute, -and so in the style of its music more nearly representative of the -simplicity of the best period of the tragic and lyric arts of the -Greeks. - -In his “History of Music,” Mr. W. Chappell gives examples of three -Greek hymns with music, the three being in his day the only known -trustworthy remains of Greek music. They were published by Vincenzo -Galilei, the father of the great astronomer, at Florence in 1581, and -had been copied from a Greek manuscript in the library of Cardinal St. -Angelo at Rome. - -A second Greek MS., which included these same hymns, was found in the -library of Archbishop Usher, and from that the hymns were printed by -the Oxford University in 1672. Then, in 1720, a third MS. was found in -the library of the King of France at Paris, which also contained these -three hymns, which supplied three or four missing notes. Although, -as we have the music brought to our notice, it is barred and timed -and otherwise dressed up in modern fashion, we have to remember that -the Greeks knew nothing of such devices. Their notation was only by -letters written above the words, which by their rhythm determined every -musical feature: for the poet ruled the music. The letters had their -significance as instructions according as they were placed—upright, -inverted, jacent both on the back and on the face, turned right -or left, and by broken parts of letters and there were accents in -addition; and consequently were liable to much misconstruction or error -on the part of the copyist. “The time of notes,” says Gaudentius, “is -to be ruled by the rhythm of the poetry.” - -So that the music was not strictly syllabic. “The length of irregular -syllabic quantities has to subserve, and to be fitted into the _arsis_ -and _thesis_, or up and down beats, of a foot of verse in the measure -that has been adopted.” This old custom is familiar to us in our Te -Deum and other chants, and in oratorio recitative, and is in fact -the most ancient as it has been the most universal feature in the -evolution of song. Mr. Chappell quotes a Greek passage “On the Phrasing -of a composition,” by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. “But rhythm and -music diminish and augment the quantities of syllables, so as often -to change them to their opposites. Time is _not to be regulated by -syllables_, but syllables by time.” We know how our modern rhymesters, -who write for the drawing-room or the streets, are given to ricketty -irregularities of metre; but this is from slipshod guiltiness, and is -quite of a different order from the poetic disposition of syllabic -utterance. Read Coleridge’s “Christabel” for the most splendid example -of such word music; or, in later days, Swinburne’s lines, which so -often give marvellous evidence of the mastery of this rhythmic art. - -With these remarks in precaution, we may look at the music to the first -of those three relics, the “Hymn to Calliope” as modernly set forth:— - -[Illustration] - -Many readers will be glad to have this example of Greek music, just to -see what it is like. The words must be left to experts who can sing -them, for it would be of little use to add them here; and whosoever is -disposed for further enquiry will find the adapted harmony by G. A. -Macfarren in Mr. W. Chappell’s book. The above is transposed a fourth -lower than according to the mode assigned to it, and an octave higher -than the pitch as for a man’s voice. The transposition is in accordance -with the system of Claudius Ptolemy, who showed how much too high for -use the Greek hymns were if taken at the pitch that had been assigned -to them. - -The second of the three hymns is a “Hymn to Apollo,” and is less -tunable in style; the third is a “Hymn to Nemesis,” sung to the -sound of the lyre. No one of the manuscripts is older than fourteen -centuries. The authorship of the first two hymns is attributed to -Dionysius; in any case the inferences lead to the placing of the -date not earlier than from the second to the fourth century of our -era. Considering all these indications of the state of our knowledge -of Greek music, we cannot wonder at the great and exciting interest -aroused by the veritable music on marble so fortunately recovered. - -The Greek hymn that was found at Delphi inscribed in marble upon the -inner wall of the ancient treasure house, has been sung at Athens. -After two thousand years the music lives again. But with what a -difference—revivified, yet only strangely alive! Those who incised the -hymn, imperishably as they thought upon the marble surface—they had -themselves given voice to it, had joined in the sacred service, and -felt the thrill of the thousand surrounding voices of a people who -believed in their gods. Who now believes? Apollo and the Muses are far -off, and the great god Pan is dead. No, the music cannot be the same, -for the ears that listen have lost that inheritance of nature which -was the birthright of those early worshippers at the Temple of Delphi. -Neither priest nor oracle speak; our privilege as quite a modern -people, is to listen to _The Times_ own correspondent. We are told that - - The composition is in the Hypo-Dorian mode, and, like - most ancient musical compositions, is in a minor key, and - written in a peculiar time, with five crotchets to the - bar. It was rendered by a quartet of male voices. Some - passages are surprisingly modern in character, and the - whole composition possesses much of the dignity of the - finest German chorales. - -And, further, we hear that the hymn was encored. Think of that! The -first time, no doubt, of being honoured in such a fashion. What would -they have said at Delphi? It is all pastime now, not prayer. And -another correspondent gives assurance that - - The performance, which lasted but half-an-hour, was a - great success; it produced a profound impression on - the audience. Everyone present indeed was ravished by - the charm of the music, and its mingled originality, - simplicity and grandeur. - -Well, I suppose that it is all right; but it is terribly artificial -in the reading. You cannot but note that the restorers have been at -work; the harmonization by M. Reinach has no doubt been well done. But -with that kind of certainty any simple melody of a few notes may be -made impressive. A modern quartet! It sounds incongruous, and makes -one think of a top hat on a marble statue; and you cannot help the -suspicion that the musical composition made tasty was not Greek music. -Although we are condemned by our advancement to see and hear according -to modern ways, the interest in this Greek fragment remains; and we -all of us curiously want to have the music brought within the range of -our own perception, and are presented with the Greek Hymn to Apollo in -modern notation, with an imagined suitable harmonization. - -The adapted harmony must be taken for what it is worth in relation to -music as we require it, and not as upon any evidence in a style likely -to have been that used in the Greek singing of the hymn. Indeed, it is -difficult to understand upon what principle such a concoction can be -justified, for surely the original music has been so dished up to suit -the modern palate that the ancient author would be unable to recognise -his own hand in it. This harmonized version may rank as French -confections in a drawing room entertainment, and help to pass away the -time as the latest novelty; but as for any relation to Greek art, only -as a travesty can it be taken seriously. The value of the find, as I -view it, is that this rescued relic of an elder civilization should -help to enable us to realize the actual nature of Greek art in music, -and its place in Greek life—either that or nothing; the value is lost -if simplicity is lost. - -The melody as melody does not attract us; this, as will be seen, Mr. -J. P. Mahaffy confirms in his critical remarks, and therefore that is -all the more reason why I should plead for sincerity in treatment. Not -a note should be altered, not a note should be added to make the flow -more agreeable, not a sign or modification be permitted for the sake -of smoothness or grace. How eagerly we read a child’s letter; how much -such young effort interests us because it is the genuine presentment -of a child’s thoughts; how utterly insignificant it would be to us if -we knew that it had been vamped up by a teacher. So with this hymn; it -came into existence, when music as an art was young, and we want to -understand it purely and simply in its youthfulness; and for no other -reason than that it was a participant in Greek life, when men believed -in the gods they worshipped. - -Mr. J. P. Mahaffy, in a paper entitled “Recent Archæology,” makes some -interesting remarks upon the chronicled event. He states that - - M. Reinach determined (from Alypius) the scale to be - Phrygian and its component notes, which scale corresponds - to our C minor in its melodic form, with some accidentals - introduced in one passage. The pitch is a more difficult - question. As printed by M. Reinach, the range is too high - for any chest voice; but he believes that the ancient - practical pitch was one third lower than that assigned to - the scale by the late theorists. - -Here authorities, as we have seen, differ; and some make the scale to -be hypo-Dorian instead of Phrygian, and some say it is Dorian (_e_, -_f_, _g_, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_) with _a_ as keynote. Mr. J. P. -Mahaffy goes on to state that - - The time is given by the metre, which is pæonic—a long - syllable and three short (variously placed), or two long - and a short between them, in every case 5-8 in a bar: a - strange measure to us, and very difficult to observe. - As regards the accompaniment or harmonizing of the air, - their is none extant. We turn lastly to the melody, - which is far the most important item in giving us an - insight into an old Greek performance. I grieve to say - that, although there is rhythm and even a recurrence of - phrases to mark the close of the period nothing worthy - of being called melody in any modern sense is to be - found. The notation of Greek music is well established. - It consists of alphabetic letters with or without slight - modifications written over the text. Instrumental notes - are said to have been written under the text, and with a - distinct notation. The poet, tragic or lyric, was also - the composer, and set tunes to his odes. - -The inscription dates from the third century B.C., and this hymn to -Apollo and the Muses consists of phrases equal to eighty bars in modern -reckoning. - -Here then are a few bars of the melody given apart from the French -version harmonised by M.M. Fauré and Reinach, and these will -sufficiently indicate the character of the remaining portion, which the -student, if so inclined can easily obtain. My object in giving these is -in order that you may at the same time compare them with a similarly -brief example of the Chinese music to the Hymn of Confucius, which will -follow. - - -OPENING OF THE HYMN TO APOLLO. - - The time of the blank spaces in the bars is filled by - notes sounded upon some instrument; a kithara, I believe. - -[Illustration] - -Of course, we ought not to introduce bars; but in default of -accentuation determined by the words, we have to avail ourselves of -these indications, imperfect as they must be. Our notation also is, in -some instances, only approximate, as both in the Greek and Chinese -systems the intervals vary from ours to the extent at times of a -quarter tone. - - -CONCLUDING STROPHES OF THE HYMN TO CONFUCIUS. - - The rhythm of the hymn is constructed so as to have - four syllables to a line, and at the end of each line - in the verses (here occupying one bar), and one of the - instruments is appointed to sound three or six times a - sort of _interlude_ as in our recitatives. The music is - simple, as with the Greeks, merely indicated by letters - or signs associated with the words. The time taken very - slow, probably somewhat as our “Old Hundredth” is sung in - village churches according to ancient custom. - -[Illustration] - -Mr. Abdy Williams gives a fragment of a papyrus roll belonging to -the Augustan age, containing the music to chorus from the Orestes of -Euripides (about 408 B.C.), from which it appears that the player -extemporized a short interlude at the end of the verses. This is very -curious, and will not be without significance if we compare this with -the ancient Chinese custom which is so similar. The fragment consists -of many bars; but the whole amounts to little beyond repetitions of the -following, with now and then a slight variation. - -[Illustration] - -A second hymn (key of G, with C♯) travels very monotonously within -these limits. - -[Illustration] - -The compass of the Delphic Greek hymn is one octave and a fourth, and -it is curious that this is exactly the compass of the Chinese _Sheng_ -organ. The pitch is an octave too high for men’s voices, even as we -find is the case with the original pitch of the Greek music. - -Professor Jebb, in his address to the Hellenic Society, speaking of -this Delphian relic—this marble music, says:— - - The fragments at Delphi were fourteen in number. The - principal one contained eighteen lines, and the musical - notes were fairly complete,—only nine being missing out - of two hundred and seven. The signs for the notes were - the ordinary letters of the Greek alphabet, sometimes - turned upside down or tilted. A key to them had been - given by a Greek writer, Olympios, of the time of the - Emperor Julian. He had written an introduction to music, - which was still extant, in which he gave a list of signs - representing notes. There were two distinct systems of - musical notation, for voices and for instruments. Nine of - the fourteen fragments were arranged for voices, and five - for instruments; these were the lyre and the flute, which - were named in the text. The instrumental and vocal music - was always in unison. There was never more than one note. - -Many musical enthusiasts have a fancy for trying to prove that the -Greeks must have used harmony, because they possessed in their scale -the notes that would combine in chords; but all attempts in this -direction have been fruitless, and according to Greek scholars are -likely ever to be so. Grand effects can be obtained by unisonous -chant: and the Greek ear was satisfied. Let us be content to learn -what their music really was, and not import into it our supercivilized -requirements, assured that the dressing up of the antique in modern -clothes is alike repugnant to good taste and refined sentiment, and is -rejected by those who care for the verity of art. - -In remarks on Greek music, Dr. C. Maclean said, “the classical period -of Greece has been called the adolescence of intellectual and modern -man, and a very beautiful adolescence it was. Unfortunately it has -departed,” and he quoted the saying of Goethe:— - - “The May of Life blooms but once.” - -a saying that comes home to the experience of all of us, but only do we -learn its truth when the May flowers that brought joy into our lives -have withered and fallen. - -Hitherto the investigation in earliest music has proceeded upon -evidences of man’s concern with and interest in pipes to make music -with. Clearly at first such use of hollow reeds was the accident of the -day to any passer-by,—as imagined by Lucretius, - - “Fond zephyrs playing on the hollow reeds - First taught the peasant how to use the pipe.” - -Next came the constructive idea, purpose directed to an end in view, -and the development in a very primitive manner of a series of sounds -in some order or regularity of succession; for us this has been the -chief consideration fixing our attention, to trace the evolution of -system in the construction of instruments, therefrom deductively -seeking to arrive at the system of the music. With instruments of all -sorts collected with a view to antiquarian or archæological reference -and study, I have nothing to do, museums may be filled with them, but -unless they show us civilization effective nationally to advance some -musical system, to notice them would but encumber with useless matter -the enquiry such as I have proposed to myself. - -Musical pipes we have traced through several phases of development, -from the simplest and earliest pipe up to the ultimate stage in the -many-ringed flute, as perfected in the hands of the Greek people. -Beyond that it is not necessary to go, because our objective is the -Greek system of music, as left to us to be the source of our own. The -stringed instruments will show a similar course of development from -the one-stringed to the many-stringed. The evidences of this progress -are very numerous, existing still, and I have no doubt that the -investigation will prove to be equally interesting, for it is with the -Greek Lyre that we shall arrive at the _method_ of the music. - -Meantime ancient China claims attention, for the Chinese hold a -parallel course in time with the Egyptians. What has China to tell of -earliest music? - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -In the Land of China. - -THE OUTSPREAD PHŒNIX. - - -The Chinese have always been fond of seeking the similitudes and -contrasts existing between everything in heaven and earth. So far as -they had attained in astronomical knowledge, the number of the planets -was five; consequently there could be only five colours, five points of -the compass, five elements, five primitive sounds, etc. Music was made -the subject of many allegorical comparisons, as twelve moons, twelve -sounds, twelve hours, twelve strings. And this strange propensity -has quite perverted many of their records of history upon art and -science; for whatever remained unknown or doubtful, appears to have -been supplied with the utmost confidence upon some imaginary basis of -affinity or relation of numbers mystically inevitable. The poetry of -the symbol was lost in the pedantry of its exposition. - -Certain facts we may accept, but not the garnishing with which -the Chinese philosophers and teachers have surrounded them. Each -instrument, according to their logical demand, had an inventor, and the -scholastic notion has been to attribute the honour of the invention to -an Emperor, and forthwith to account for every detail in it upon some -system conformable to the wisdom of the scholastic mind. - -Learning has always been greatly honoured in China, and the colleges -of the mandarins held with rigid formalism to the doctrines they had -received from the past, although it may have been a near past compared -with the nation’s history; and so the mystical teachings of similitudes -and affinities, and the occult control of nature by numbers, became -to the students fixed verities of science, not to be questioned. What -concerns us is that these teachings, as regards Chinese music and -musical instruments, confront us with a mass of statements incongruous -and contradictory. Something like our heraldic descents; the centuries -pass, and the links are manufactured to give a factitious coherence to -satisfy the desire for truth. - -The _P’ai-hsiao_, here illustrated, is one of the ancient instruments -belonging to the Chinese, who hold it to be symbolic, and to represent -the phœnix with outspread wings, even as the _Sheng_ represents the -sacred bird sitting upon her nest. In both, no other reason can -be assigned for the particular forms assumed by the instruments, -the mystical idea is evidently deeply rooted in the race, and is -ineffaceable. - -Except for the questions of origin and development, the music of the -Chinese can have but little attraction for us. But what I would point -out as of interest, is that there have been periods of history during -which particular musical systems held sway, with certain instruments -in vogue, and with special methods devised in relation to them. In one -age the tetrachord, in another the pentatone, in another the fusion -of these, and in another the filling in of semitones to complete a -scale seemingly akin to our chromatic. In the earlier periods the wind -instruments prevailed, and determined the musical systems; and in later -times the instruments with strings gave rise to new and elaborate -discriminations. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 26._ - -_The Chinese P’ai-hsiao._] - -The stone chimes and the great bells should be adjudged to very ancient -times, although in the rise and fall of dynasties the traditional -tones have been changed, and perhaps newer traditions have usurped -the old; until in the confusion, systems that in their origin were -many centuries apart became mixed up together as of one growth. -The abstruse theories with which the treatises of the learned are -occupied, and the fantastic accretions of symbolism which seem to form -the foundations of Chinese literature—all these make the way of the -investigator difficult. The rational course is to leave them aside and -go to the facts. The instruments themselves represent the past, and are -valid evidence. - -Père Amiot, of the French Jesuit mission, according to his works, -published in 1780, appeared to be so well grounded in everything -relating to Chinese history and customs that his statements upon -their music passed without contradiction; and, indeed, so intimate a -knowledge did he seem to possess that even confirmation of his views -would have been considered needless. Such misplaced reliance has given -a century’s permanence to misconceptions; and men of sagacity, in -dealing with the matters in question, have blindly followed where Amiot -led, each succeeding writer repeating the errors of former writers. - -Western theorists prejudge questions of Asiatic music by being so -wedded to one particular conception of what a scale ought to exhibit. - -Ideas of octaves and fifths and of minor and major, and tone and -semitone rule at every corner. The fortuitous nature of men’s devices -in art is scarcely conceivable when rule and logic claim to divine -how art developed. Europeans are ever prone to trouble in accounting -for everything, and to desire—almost to design—that facts should -fit theory, whether they will or not. The Asiatic mind is little -understood by the European mind; and human nature being outwardly so -much alike, we are puzzled at ways of thought and innate tendencies -diverging greatly from our own. Whilst acknowledging a difference -in organization, we yet deeming ours to be the proper standard; our -likings to be natural, and foreigners’ likings to be queer, if not -preposterous. John Chinaman’s ear is different to John Bull’s ear, -somehow, if we could only find out how. - -I find that mostly the scientific man is as bigoted as the -superstitious man when he brings himself to talk of the beautiful -fitness of nature’s designs, and of the unerring guidance for our -behoof to be found in her operations, and so forth. Now, I know that it -is customary to vaunt “nature’s _teaching_ of harmony and _the diatonic -scale_,” in the unconscious training she gives us in compounding -quality of tone, and furnishing us with a chain of harmonics in a range -so nearly out of discrimination of our hearing that, in our average -daily life, we are blissfully unaware of the experiences to which -we have been subjected. Backed though this doctrine is by the great -name of Helmholtz, I confess that I find myself unable to admit its -relevance. - -First and foremost in the consideration of Chinese music is the fact -that the Chinese have no care for our harmony: they will have none of -it. Neither will they take to our diatonic scale: it offends their -sense of art. Unisons and concords of two notes (as fourths and thirds, -and their inversions) satisfy their sense of the harmonious. In this, -certain other Eastern nations agree with them. The attempt to find an -equal temperament scale as we understand it, of twelve semitones, fails -as regards the old instruments. - -The _P’ai-hsiao_ is reported of as possessing a scale of twelve equally -tempered semitones; the arrangement being of alternate notes right and -left, the deepest notes being at each end, and the shortest pipes in -the middle,—a plan adopted in organ building. Not having yet had an -instrument of the kind in my hands, I cannot say anything by knowledge; -but certainly the scale set out by Van Aalst is not semitonal. For he -expressly selects five notes, three being a quarter tone lower and two -a quarter tone higher than in a correct scale of the modern type. Even -these named had better, I expect, have been named as only approximately -a quarter tone wrong; there is no intentional quarter, but a fixed -relation to some other notes which by coincidence seem to make -agreement, but only more or less near. It is said that the pipes to the -right hand are the male or _yang-lüs_, and to the left the _yin-lüs_ -or females; each class is in playing kept absolutely to itself, which -is anything but chromatic in its system. There are sixteen pipes, all -the odd numbers being _yang_, and all the even numbers _yin_. The pipes -are arranged upon an ornamental frame; they correspond to the twelve -_lüs_ and the first four _lüs_ of the grave series; and in notes said -to correspond to those of the bell and stone chimes, the highest being -treble _b_. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 27._ - -_The Te-ching, or One of the Chime._] - -The _Pien-ch’ing_, or stone chime, consists of sixteen stones shaped -somewhat as an L; all are of equal length and breadth, and differ only -in thickness: the thicker the stone the deeper the sound. That the -instrument is of very ancient origin cannot be doubted; but if we seek -to place it in its relation to any period of civilisation, we are at -fault for lack of data. Its style and weight indicate its design for -permanency of abode, and it has been and still is devoted to ritual -music. The number of the stones has varied under different dynasties -from fourteen to twenty-four. The use of sonorous stone for chiming -seems to be peculiar to China. The _Te-ching_ or “single sonorous -stone” is in shape similar to a carpenter’s square, and its relative -dimensions are rigorously adhered to. No doubt it was the best shape -for the production of musical sound, and was early discovered by the -Chinese to be so. The pitch is determined by the thickness. The best -stone for musical purposes is said to be jade, a material for which in -the East there is high veneration, though why it should be so esteemed -is not clear. The stone is suspended in a frame by a cord passed -through a hole bored at the angle, and it is the longer side which is -struck by the wooden hammer. The stone chime always takes part with the -bell in the ceremonial. Its use is to give a single note at the end -of each verse “to receive the sound.” It is one of the most ancient -of Chinese musical instruments. When an instrument is composed of a -number of these stones it is called _Pien-ch’ing_. Usually sixteen of -these stones all the same size are placed upon a frame of fantastic -ornamentation, set in two rows; the difference in pitch is secured a -difference in thickness of each: otherwise all are alike throughout the -scale. - -The instrument is exclusively used in court and religious ceremonies, -and it is said that beyond those in the Confucian temples and imperial -palaces it is impossible now to find a complete specimen, though single -stones are sometimes met with. - -There is a tradition that about two thousand years ago a complete -stone chime was found in a pool, and that this model was followed by -imperial decree. But this, if correct, does not afford any accurate -guidance or tell us what kind of stone chime was extant during the -old Hsia, Shang, or Chou dynasties; for not an instrument or book of -those periods escaped the great destruction ordered by the Emperor Che -Huang-ti; at least, there is no certain evidence against this belief. -So that, for the determination of the actual date of the introduction -of the supposed equal tempered twelve semitone scale, we remain in the -dark, without a clue. Moreover, when the existing stone chimes—or, -rather, the _Yün-lo_, or gong chimes constructed to correspond in scale -to the stone chimes upon the same twelve _lüs_ principle—are submitted -to examination of the necessary rigid enquiry by tests, they do not -bear out the true semitonal character that has been asserted. Mr. Ellis -tested two specimens in the South Kensington Museum, but both differed -greatly, and he failed to find anything like the assumed scale; and -such scale as he did find he was unable to give any theory for. Van -Aalst says that - - It has become exceedingly difficult to find a _Yün-lo_ - capable of giving a satisfactory gamut; besides, the - pitch is not uniform, so that two _Yün-los_ rarely agree. - -And of the _Pien-ching_, or stone chimes, he states that - - It is exclusively used in court and religious ceremonies, - and it would be considered a profanation to use it - elsewhere. It is impossible to find a complete instrument - for sale, although separate stones may be found. It is - not known to whom and to what dynasty the _Pien-ching_ - may be attributed, but there is no doubt that it is one - of the most ancient instruments. - -Where then shall we find this semitonal scale, this twelve notes series -comprised within the octave? - -Considering how very ancient the stone chime is, the question may well -arise how the pitch was derived or ascertained, since in the material -and dimensions no certain reliance could be placed. Both the stone -chime and the _Sheng_ are attributed to an era some five thousand years -ago (about the time of Noah), and then in those days the Chinese had -long been a musical people. It would be but natural to conclude that -the _Sheng_ conforms most to the _lüs_ the ancient and the original -determinant of pitch, and we may be quite sure that the pitch given by -my pipe is the same to-day as in that remote age. Neither strings nor -stones can pretend to the same absolute fixity. - -But now listen. “Music in China,” says Van Aalst, “has been known since -the remotest antiquity. The first invaders of China certainly brought -with them certain notions of music. The aborigines themselves had -also some kind of musical system, which their conquerors admired and -probably mixed with their own. These invaders were a band of immigrants -fighting their way among the aborigines, and supposed to have come -from the south of the Caspian Sea; remnants of the original _Li_, the -_Kuei_, and the _Feng_ tribes are said to be still in existence in -south China.” Is there not here the hint of a curious problem? By -what track came the Phœnix and the Pan’s pipes both to Greece and to -China? Dim, through sequestered years we should wander back, to some -immemorial age, moss grown with primæval traditions, long ere these -lands had their names, and in the deep recesses of forests untrodden by -the foot of man, peradventure we should find that dwelling place of the -great god Pan whence in the earliest of days he came bringing his river -reeds and his wild music with him. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -The Mongols’ New Home. - -THE MYTHICAL FINDING OF THE LÜS. - - -In considering questions of early origin and of direction of human -intelligence, there is no point of more importance to bear in mind than -the allowance of long periods for the operation of the process we are -now accustomed to call evolution. When we have traced history to its -utmost verge in the dim past, the civilization we come then in contact -with, in those very ancient days gives evidence of many centuries—aye, -even many tens of centuries—having been necessary for that growth -of adaptations recognised as the outcome of human intelligence and -industry in such communities. So, when I speak of origin, I am thinking -of a time when systems were not; of conditions when devices were more -the result of spontaneous impulse than deliberate invention. - -China, certainly of all existing empires the most ancient, has records -which extend almost unbroken back to a period of 2400 B.C., and -then beyond that lies the haze of a remote past, where the light of -tradition breaks through with no uncertain radiance, revealing points -of distance far, far, away, telling of another 2000 years of the still -immeasurable past of the “black-haired people” who settled along the -banks of the Great Yellow River, and whose descendants in succeeding -centuries spread over the valley of the still greater Yang-tse River, -and pushing southward appropriated territory after territory, and who -to-day outnumber every other nation on the face of the earth. A strange -destiny! to increase, yet not to progress. - -Many little digressions into the history and customs of the Chinese -seem inevitable in attempting an enquiry into the origin and nature of -the musical instruments and music of this singular people. - -Of Chinese musical instruments none that are ancient exist, and yet -the new are still the old, for so far as can be ascertained there has -been no essential difference during the thousands of years of civilized -life that they have been in national use, and in the authentic records -which refer to them, they are described as already old, in periods -that are mythical; the whole family of instruments seem to have been -born at one date, without any order of precedence. The Chinese have no -modern music. The music in use is only their earliest music reappearing -from day to day in immemorial custom, and it is to them a completely -satisfying survival. - -Their system of music is the oldest system that has been placed on -record, and for this reason alone it has a special interest. - -In the chapters “At the Gates of the Past,” and “In the land of myth” I -expressed very clearly the views at which I had arrived concerning the -music of the Chinese and its affiliation to the music of the Greeks, -stating my belief that in a far distant past both races were in contact -with one source, and then came a day of disruption,—one race eastward, -one race westward, each pursuing its own pathway. These two races to us -have been known as Egyptians and Chinese. Greece deriving from Egypt, -I traced the way therefrom across Arabia to the southern part of the -great valley of the Euphrates, called Mesopotamia, Chaldæa, Elam, and -further, to the Iranian mountains. - -In justification of these views, some considerations should here be -advanced as briefly as may be, and although details may have the aspect -of being antiquarian, I anticipate that they will help the general -readers to the better understanding of the place of music in Chinese -history, and in the daily life of the people inhabiting the land -modernly known as China. - -When I started the enquiry I had no idea where the quest would lead -me. It was only afterwards that, prompted by a wider interest in -the subject, I found that independently, I had come to a conclusion -identical with that of modern research in ethnology, philology, and -archæology. My study of the matter is but a simple venture over an -untrodden course, seeking the earliest sources of music, and the -identity of view of learned authorities may, I think, fairly be taken -as strengthening my own. - -A few hints concerning these will answer our purpose. - -In that southern valley of the Euphrates, the first people named in -history were the Akkadians and Sumerians, they came down from the -mountains and built cities; the unnamed settlers earlier than these -had occupied the region and were without bond of union sufficient to -give them a name in common, yet it should not be forgotten that they, -too, had a past, remote in time, though unrecorded as history. - -How then do we connect the Chinese with these? The Chinese constitute -one of the numerous branches of the Mongolian race. Historians state -that the ancient empire of Medea was founded by Mongols. When the first -immigrants of this race entered China colonising the fertile valley of -the Yellow River, they brought with them evidences of a civilization -which it must have taken many, many centuries to have arrived at. -Agriculture they were proficient in; astronomy they possess records -of, that point to events thousands of years earlier; masonry, and -canalization also, in well-developed systems immediately applicable -to their new surroundings; and my argument is that they brought also -a primitive system of music arising from or out of a simple pipe -adoption, having a series of four or five sounds, such as we have found -to be the original basis of Egyptian and Greek music. Ancestor worship -they also brought with them. A formulated religion they had not, -neither had they a priesthood. - -Where can be found a common centre, where a population had existed in -prehistoric times, at which these chief evidences of civilization had -been grouped together in communal or in civic life? - -Research can shew but one—and that, the southern valley of the -Euphrates. - -In his work, “Primitive Civilizations,” Mr. E. J. Simcox writes:— - - “That the Chinese themselves did not learn agriculture - in China is beyond a doubt; the family life of the - Chinese does not go back to a time when the black-haired - people were not agricultural.” - -again as to Astronomy:— - - “The astronomical knowledge of the Chinese was almost - certainly derived from their kinsmen in Mesopotamia.” - -Dr. Edkins was struck by the many ancient customs pointing to a -connection between Western Asia and China, he calls attention to:— - - “the resemblances between Chinese writing and the - pre-cuneiform or linear Akkadian character; ’a deep - relationship undoubtedly between the vocabulary of the - two languages.’” - -Both the Revs. C. J. Ball and M. de Lacouperie agree:— - - “in regarding Chinese as a representative of a much - earlier stage of Turano-Sythic speech than any other - living language and as still including elements going - back _to some source common_ to it, with the founders of - Elamo-Babylonian civilization.” - -Mr. Simcox states that the Akkad religion:— - - “was purely naturalistic, it consisted in the recognition - of a ‘Spirit of Heaven,’ and a ‘Spirit of Earth,’ but - these spirits were not worshipped but ‘conjured’; hence - charms were older than litanies.” - -and as to ancestor worship Mr. Simcox says:— - - “it was the first branch of the Egyptian religion to - become _associated with proprietary ideas_, which - also constitutes the leading feature of the Chinese - religion, the worship of the spirits or manes of deceased - ancestors.” - -On these points we shall notice that much that differentiates the -two peoples will tend to show that the Chinese broke away from -the Euphrates earlier than the Egyptian kindred, before indeed -the anthropomorphic religious ideas became superimposed upon the -naturalistic. This is an important index to the distance in time when -the migration eastward began. Imagine that vast valley peopled as -Berosus the old Babylonian historian states,—“There was originally in -the land of Babylon a multitude of men of foreign race who had settled -in Chaldea.” These people consisted of numerous tribes, previously -dwellers in the forests in the highland range eastwardly bounding the -valley, and through long centuries they had multiplied exceedingly; to -be called in after time by several distinguishing names. In this early -period they were all Akkads from the northern mountains, and Sumerians -from the southern range as these names originally imply. Presumably, -these people would sort themselves into kindreds, so that when the -pressure from increase of population caused them to swarm, they went -off in bodies all of the same type. The Red type we may call Egyptians, -the Yellow type, or black-haired we call Chinese, the great remaining -bulk of dwellers on the soil became the people called Chaldeans, -Babylonians, Assyrians and other names. How long ago was it when “the -black-haired people” swarmed off? The Chinese chronologers go back -43,000 years B.C. for the earliest tidings of their race, and no doubt -their records are but dim traditions, not of China, but of this their -primitive home by the Tigris and the Euphrates. Their astronomical -calculations are shewn not correct for the land of China but must be -referred to the land of Medea and of Southern Asia. The black-haired -people took with them a knowledge which was common with all the tribes -around them in that valley; their religion, the Sumerian, “the Spirit -of Heaven,” “the Spirit of Earth,” nothing more, no gods or goddesses, -agriculture and canalization they learnt there, and the building of -dwellings of the reed-thatched type from which they have not departed, -and the worship of ancestors common to that early world remains with -the Chinese in its most primitive stage, as a traditionary usage -almost instinctively connected with the family claims, as a posthumous -honouring, not as a feeling of religion. The polytheistic ideas -developed later with the other tribes had not then arisen, consequently -we find the Chinese settled in their new home with only simple, vague -notions of “Spirits” good and harmful, and being a people singularly -wanting in imagination, they present still, notwithstanding their long -history, an aspect, as a nation, of archaic survival. - -These considerations help us to understand how it is that in their -music they have shewn so little growth. They drew from the same musical -roots as other nations yet remain stunted; socially and intellectually -the Chinaman of to-day is the same as the man who was obedient to the -rule of Yao, and Hwang-ti, and when the latter formulated the rules -that were held to govern the music, the Chinese were content that for -ever after music was fixed; they appear to delight in keeping things in -a dwarfed state as they take a pride in dwarfed trees, and we of the -Western world find it so difficult to understand them, but we still go -on trying. - -In these hints I think you will find fair justification for my belief -in the very remote antiquity of a musical scale, a set sequence of -sounds by choice adopted, it may be of four or five sounds, common in -its rudimentary stage amongst all the tribes aggregated in Southern -Asia, where we have for many scientific reasons a conviction that -civilization originated. - -The great migrations of peoples were caused by famines, plagues, -inundations, overcrowding of population, but apart from these the -instinctive desire of man to better himself in place and position and -possessions was an ever inciting force. - -An old Akkadian hymn, perhaps the oldest piece of writing in the world, -commences, - - “Mankind is born to wander,” - -a simple sentence—a premonition of all history. Imagine, if you can, -the ages of civilized life necessary to bring the human brain to a -conception so philosophic and true as this. Earth is old now. Earth was -very old then. - - -The Chinese affirm that the Emperor Hwang Ti, the Yellow Emperor, -invented the scale of twelve semitones, called the twelve _lüs_, and -according to the record of date this was 4590 years ago. The pitch of -the notes of all ancient systems was described by lineal measurements; -hence every interval accepted was either the excess or defect resulting -from the division of a greater measure, the octave, or the fourth. In -some way or other the derived proportions have been grateful to human -ears, perhaps because they denote absence of conflict, or presence of -symmetry. - -The discovery by the Yellow Emperor as narrated reads somewhat -fabulous. It is stated that he sent his minister Ling Lun to the valley -west of the Kuênlun mountains, where bamboos of regular thickness grow; -that Ling Lun cut the piece of bamboo which is between the knots, and -the sound emitted by this tube when blown across he considered the bass -or tonic; that is our way of naming, not his. The length was equal to -one Chinese foot. He then cut a second pipe two thirds of the length -of the first, which gave a sound a fifth higher, and continued similar -relations from pipe to pipe, and so on, he completed the series of -twelve sounds according to the idea of his master, and for evermore -fixed the musical scale handed down from generation to generation -through thousands of years. - -I have shown that Amiot misled us in assigning it to the _Sheng_, and -I expect he has given currency to other errors. What I do note, and -have assigned the cause for in the argument of the previous chapter, -is the peculiar crowding of the scale with intervals less than a -semitone between _f_ and _a_; and perhaps this crowding has helped -towards inducing the belief, without question, that the semitonal -scale was intended, but that the making of the instrument was not -done with due exactness, or that the instrument was out of order -if it did not bear out the theory of an equal tempered semitonal -succession through an octave. The theoretical existence of such a scale -is not here called in question: my contention is that the ancient -instruments give no confirmation of having been planned in view of -such a principle. Stranger still, the very scheme to which the learned -writers refer as the basis of the principle, and carefully guarded -by them as an authentic ancient treasure, gives a complete denial to -the whole assumption. I take their own statements, the evidence of -their own authorities, and wonder, when I examine the twelve _lüs_, -why they never examined them, why from curiosity alone they sought no -corroboration of their statements from the _lüs_ themselves. - -In Van Aalst’s book the scheme is fully set out in diagram, the twelve -_lüs_ figured, and all the curious details inserted of the moons and -the hours to which each pipe belongs by some mystical relation which -the Chinese mind perceives; the pipes are arranged in the order -in which they bear to the longest one, which is the prime genitor. -Also there is another diagram, elaborately designed to display the -affinities in a circle, having twelve compartments springing from a -common centre; the _kung_ or fundamental sound being placed as the hub -of a wheel with the other sounds rayed round, each sound being named. -The diagram of pipes shows how the _lüs_ generate one another, whereas -the circle or wheel diagram gives the notes as they follow in a series. -I think that I remember seeing these diagrams in Amiot’s sixth volume. -Very likely Van Aalst has taken them from the same source. Again, he -says, “The _lüs_ are a series of bamboo tubes, the longest of which -measures nine inches, and which are supposed to render the twelve -chromatic semitones of the octave.” It appears to me that the great -source of misunderstanding has been in the European persistence in -regarding “the twelve _lüs_” as meaning “twelve semitones”: whereas the -Chinese name _lüs_ means laws or principles. - -I have examined these pipes by measures and do not find them in any -way corroborating the semitonal relation; and simply taking the names -accorded to the _lüs_ and set forth in these diagrams, if we arrange -the notes in successive order, neither do they bear out the scale -claimed for them. Let us see: this is how they stand. Twelve semitones -forsooth! - - ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯♯ - _a_—_d_—_e_—_f_‿_g_‿_g_‿_a_‿_a_‿_b_—_c_—_d_—_f_ - -Thus the development of the scale shows only a central crowding of -semitones, and not even an octave relation, plainly indicating an -ancient growth through the tetrachord. The diagram showing how the -_lüs_ generate one another states that the longest pipe is nine inches; -yet in the letterpress Van Aalst says that - - The first tube was one foot in length in reality, but - that the foot was considered as being only nine inches, - because nine is perfectly divisible by three, whereas ten - is not. - -And further, that - - The twelve _lüs_ were used by the Chinese merely to - regulate the instruments and give a uniform pitch to - the music. The diameter of all the tubes must be the - same. Mêne K’ang says that the circumference of all the - tubes diminishes according to their length; but this is - explicitly contradicted by Tas’i Tzü, who quotes Chêng - K’ang-chêng and Ts’ai Yung (two great wine bibbers and - famous writers on music), and he flatly declares that - Mêne K’ang and his adherents know nothing about music. - The tubes were all of the same thickness, circumference - and diameter; only the length varied according to the - sounds. - -And so on, which shows how almost European the Chinese are in their -humanity. - -I have quoted largely from J. A. Van Aalst’s “Chinese Music” to -which I am much indebted. The author is learned in the ways and in -the literature of the Chinese, being himself in the Chinese Imperial -Customs Service, and his work is published by order of the Inspector -General of Customs, Shanghai. - -The first tube in the diagram bears this inscription:— - - _Huang-Chung_, or yellow bell, corresponds to the - eleventh moon and the eleventh hour, emits the sound - _kung_ (modernly called _yo_), is a _yang-lü_, was the - first tube cut, and served as genitor to all the others. - It measured one Chinese foot long, and contained exactly - twelve hundred grains of millet. Two thirds of its length - form the next tube. _Lin-Chung_, or forest bell, gives a - note a fifth higher, etc. - -Description follows, in the same style of quaint symbolism, upon each -of the twelve. At the third pipe, however, which it says ought to -be two-thirds of the preceding length, a change comes, which it is -important to notice,—viz., “that the sound would be too high compared -with _kung_, and so the tube is to be doubled, and four thirds taken -instead of two thirds.” This virtually introduces the three fourths -relation, the fourth instead of the fifth; and in the remainder of the -pipes some are calculated some way, and some the other. There is no -twelve fifth scheme carried out as supposed. - -Pursuing the investigation, I cut slips on the system laid down, and -found that the lengths and the pitches did not agree; and I also tried -working out the _Sheng_ on a basis of fifths instead of fourths, of -the relation 2/3 instead of 3/4, and found that the result did not -correspond with the speaking lengths of the _Sheng_ pipes. - -The tale told of the twelve _lüs_ bears every evidence of being an -invention; and I fancy that the fable originated in a scholastic -endeavour to account for the existence of the perfected instrument -the _Sheng_, so old that none knew how it came into being. The twelve -_lüs_ comprised a scale of an octave and a fourth, and the scale of -the _Sheng_ is also an octave and a fourth in compass; but neither -constituted a semitonal scale, which was an idea of much later date. -So also the making of a scale out of a succession of twelve fifths was -a notion of the pedants, the men learned in book knowledge, and they -fixed upon Ling Lun the credit of cutting each pipe by a succession of -two-third lengths, on the principle of the fifth. - -The question has been raised whether the pipes were open or stopped, -and the authorities say they were stopped, and they make their drawings -of the pipes corroborate their view, but if so, what becomes of the -affirmation that Ling Lun cut the bamboos _between_ the knots unless to -secure an open tube? - -Although I may seem to have been wandering from the track, I have not -lost sight of the central point to which my cogitations tend. I wished -to impress the evidence of evolution in the appropriation of bamboo -pipes for musical purposes, in the use of such bamboos in the earliest -periods, all of similar diameters, and to show that variation in the -diameters was an after development, even as was the use of metal pipes -instead of the natural growth of bamboo or reed. - -If you have read the first part of this volume you will have understood -that I take the view that the earliest musical notions of man in his -primitive state were derived from the industry of his fingers, and the -relations of a musical scale had the same basis, becoming afterwards -hereditary. The Chinese foot is equal to a hand-span of a ruler or -emperor, and has ten divisions equal each to a thumb’s breadth. The -standard pipe is 9-7/8in. of our measure. Taking a pipe that length -and halving it, or taking one half that length, the notes obtained -are what we call tonic and its octave; but being of the same diameter -the octave will be flat. This we find to be a peculiarity in Chinese -music. Taking a pipe three quarters the length of the whole, a note is -obtained from it which is a fourth; and this, the same diameter being -kept, will be inevitably a flat fourth; hence the existence of a flat -fourth in the ancient musical instruments of the Chinese and Japanese. -And so everywhere, unless the diameters have varied as the lengths have -varied, the intervals cannot then have been the exact intervals that -we set down for our musical relations. Yet, strange it is: showing -the persistence of heredity and tradition. The Chinese in later times -perfectly well knew, as I shall show, the relations of the diameters -of pipes according to geometrical laws. - -Music with the Chinese, itself as an art so unprogressive, has from -the first taken a unique position in the national life. Dr. Wagener -tells us that the weights and measures that have been in use these -4600 years in the Chinese empire are based upon Lyng-lun’s work -in determining the musical standards of the _lüs_. The first pipe -which he cut as the foundation of his scale was the longest, and it -was found to contain 1200 grains of millet seed. He chose a sort of -millet, the _sorghum rubrum_, which is of a dark brown colour, as -being harder and more uniform than the gray and other kinds. One -hundred of these was made by him the unit of weight, and this was -divided and subdivided on a decimal system until a single grain became -the lowest weight of all. The length of this pipe was equal to 81 of -these seeds placed lengthwise; but breadth-wise, it took 100 grains -to make the same length: hence the double division 9 + 9 and 10 + 10 -was naturally arrived at. This musical foot thus became the standard -measure with decimal subdivisions. The breadth of a grain of seed -was 1 _fen_ (line), 10 _fen_ = 1 _tsun_ (inch), 10 _tsun_ = 1 _che_ -(foot), 10 _che_ = 1 _chang_, 10 _chang_ = 1 _ny_. Lyng-lun also fixed -the dimensions of the interior of the pipe at 9 grains breadth. The -contents of the tube proved to be 1200 grains, and the weight of 100 -grains was made by him the unit of weight. The pipe was thus made the -basis of the musical system, and equally so the basis of the system for -lineal measure, dry measure, and weight; ultimately for coinage. - -Another interesting fact is that the Chinese had ascertained the -geometrical relation of musical pipes. The problem had been thoroughly -examined by a certain Prince Tsai-Yu (1596). In practical and -scientific hydrodynamics, the relation of the diameters of pipes to -the volume contained was well known; but it appears that, as applied -to sounding pipes, the Prince Tsai-Yu was the first clearly to record -its demonstration. Of two musical pipes of the same diameter, one two -feet long and the other one foot long, the latter does not, as assumed, -give a note the higher octave of the former, for the note will be flat. -Neither if we halve the diameter, even as we halve the length, will the -note prove true. The common practice with us in organ building is to -give the half diameter to the seventeenth pipe; but this is merely an -empirical decision. The prince, without explaining theoretically why, -showed that the proper dimensions relatively of length and diameter -were as follows. Assuming a pipe of 2ft. length to have an interior -diameter of 5 lines, then correctly the pipe of 1ft. length should have -a diameter of 3 lines 53 cent., and a pipe of 6in. length a diameter of -2 lines 50 cent. - -Our organ pipe custom is solely a determination of ear, or feeling, as -regards the aggregate of sounds; for we gain in brightness and fluency -by not delaying the acceptance of the half diameter until the second -octave, which geometrically would be its true position,—viz., at the -twenty-fifth note. Thus, and by holding control in regard to the amount -of wind, and regulating by voicing, we are able to blend the total -accord of sounds in harmony, in the way pleasurable to the trained ear -or cultivated taste, according to the perceptivities of the Western -peoples. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -In the Flowery Kingdom. - -THE BIRD’S NEST. - - -Music by inspiration. Yes, that is it,—the very thing we want, what we -are all longing for; so little of the truly inspired music comes newly -to refresh us as the birth of the days we live in. Only the old seems -the ever new. How inspiring it is to listen to the themes of the old -masters, and feel the old melodies pass through us like a current of -life, awakening thrills of delight, the memory of the first hearing -of them blending with and enhancing the emotions of the present. To -inspire, “to drink in.” How we drink in the life renewing melodies -of Beethoven and Schubert: their potency never fails, and in our -exultation we call them divine. How strangely inevitable are the ideas -we associate with the words “divine” and “inspiration.” Apply them as -we will to frail human effluences, there is no escape from the higher -exalted sense, from the ideal signification. Inspiration,—it is a grand -word. Somehow the ideal clings around words, in however “matter o’ -fact” way they come to be used; like the eastern vase that has been -filled with roses, in after time - - “The scent of the roses will cling round it still.” - -One thought leads to another thought. I have a little instrument before -me, dignified by the name “organ,”—a very little organ, but the name -comes to it because it is one of the earliest of the race from which -our present day organ has sprung. Was its inventor a genius? A poor -human nomad wandering the wilds of Tartary, inspired to begin the -foundations of that which was to be an empire of sound,—one of those - - “Who builded better than he knew,” - -Was he inspired, I wonder? True it is that the invention has been -claimed for some emperor, but that is so natural an appropriation that -we give no heed to it. Certainly it is the unknown man who is the true -great man, though history has obliterated his name and graven a royal -cartouche in its place. The mythical is always later than the real. - -This curious instrument: what a juggle of words it has led me to. The -inspiration I have to talk of is done by inspiring,—its music is made -as the lark’s music is, by inspirating. Note you how the bird sings by -drawing in breath, by _inspiring_; and higher and higher he mounts, -filling the air with melody for a half mile around him; soaring, -singing and singing as he soars, never tiring for the hour together, -because every effort invigorates the little body instead of exhausting -its strength; he drinks in oxygen at every note, and so is refreshed -by singing. Would that human singing were equally refreshing to the -singer and the hearer! - -[Illustration: _Fig. 28._ - -_The Chinese Sheng._ - -(_Quarter Size._)] - -The _Sheng_ was formerly called the “bird’s nest,” and the peculiar -arrangement of its pipes—the longest of which pipes exceed -considerably the real sounding length—is held by the Chinese to -represent the tail of the phœnix as she sits upon her nest; indeed, -unless we accept the symbolism, the method shown in the construction is -unaccountable. - -According to the Chinese there are eight sound giving bodies -corresponding to the eight symbols of Fu Hsi, which they believe are -the expression of all the changes and permutations which take place in -the universe. These eight are stone, metal, silk, bamboo, wood, skin, -gourd, clay, with symbolic relations to the eight points of the compass -and the eight seasons of the year. The _Sheng_ is the representative of -the gourd principle. Originally the bowl was formed of a portion of a -gourd or calabash, although in later times made of wood and lacquered. -This gourd is in shape like a teacup, the top of which is covered by -the insertion of a circle of wood, having a series of holes around -the margin, into which the pipes are fixed; then there is a neck or -mouthpiece shielded by an ivory plate, through which the performer -draws the wind. My instrument is an old one, has been in this country -eighty years or more; and as it has been here photographed to a scale -of one fourth, all the proportions are preserved in the engraving. The -instrument is placed to the mouth with the pipes slanting to the right -shoulder, the right hand forefinger being placed within the opening -seen in the circle of pipes, and the thumb so placed as to be ready -to cover the hole seen on the second pipe, counting to the left from -this opening. The bowl is held in the hollow of the left hand, with the -fingers reaching upwards to the pipes. - -A noticeable feature is that it is the left hand that fingers the -instrument, indicating a very early custom, in that respect. The pipe -engraved here is of full size, and shows the little metal free reed -affixed, which also is drawn at the side full size in its frame. The -slot determining the speaking length of the pipe is at the back, and is -here indicated at the proper position by the side diagram, the length -of pipe above the slot having no particular relation except an average -one of about the same length as the bottom portion reckoned from the -lowest end of the cut. The pipes numbers 3 and 4 have their holes at -the inside or back of the pipes in a position to be covered by the -forefinger of the right hand. - -[Illustration: _Diagram of the Length of Slot at the Back._ - -_Fig. 29._ - -_A Pipe of the Sheng_ (_Full Size._)] - -The little free reed is of copper, is of very delicate workmanship, -the tongue is about half an inch long having its tip slightly loaded -with beeswax, and the corners rounded off, thus leaving passage way for -the air, otherwise the tongue would not be set in vibration, since the -reed tongue is quite level with its frame, a condition in which modern -reeds would not speak. It is a peculiarity worth noticing. Another -strange contrivance is that the hole which we see on each pipe a short -distance above the cup, is designed to prevent the pipe from speaking; -is not the opening for the sound of the note as in other pipes is the -usual purpose; although the air drawn in comes simultaneously through -all the pipes, not a single pipe will sound that has not the side hole -covered by a finger. The position of the hole has no relation to nodal -distance, it effects its purpose by breaking up the air column when -it is open, and so prevents the pipe from furnishing a reciprocating -relation to the pitch of the reed. Over these holes the four fingers -play in the order the music requires. - -[Illustration: _The Reed_ (_Full Size._)] - -The _Sheng_ is considered to be one of the most important of the -Chinese musical instruments; no other is so perfect either for -sweetness or delicacy of construction. It is indispensable in the -ritual music of their temples. - -At the Confucian ceremonies there are six _Sheng_, three on the -east and three on the west side of the hall. They play exactly the -same music as the _ti-tza_ or flute, yet they are not used in the -popular orchestras. At nuptial and funeral processions the _Sheng_ is -played, but it is then merely for form’s sake, in accordance with the -requirements of the rites, and the hired coolie who carries it simply -simulates playing. - -One rarely hears the _Sheng_ now-a-days, on account, some say, of a -curious superstition that a skilful performer becomes so wedded to its -music, that he is ever playing, and that, as the instrument is played -by suction or drawing in of the breath, a long continuance in practice -brings on inflammation of the lungs; so no performer is believed -to live more than forty years! Others however, and these are the -philosophers, maintain that the ancient music and the ancient methods -of playing are lost, and the construction of the instrument after the -ancient plan is a lost art. This one can well believe of an instrument -belonging in its prime to so early a period of history. Of all the -ancient music nothing remains but abstruse theories. Van Aalst says:— - - The Emperor Che Huang-ti B.C. 246 the destroyer of - books came. He ordered the annihilation of all books - with the exception of works on medicine, agriculture, - and divination. The decree was obeyed as faithfully - as possible by an uneducated soldiery, who made it a - pretext for domiciliary visits, exactions, and pitiless - destruction. Music books and instruments shared the - same fate as every object which could give rise to - remembrance of past times; and a long night of ignorance - rested on the country to such an extent that at the rise - of the Han dynasty the great music master Chi, whose - ancestors had for generations held the same dignity, - scarcely remembered anything about music but the noise of - tinkling bells and dancers’ drums. - -I have possessed four of these little _Sheng_ organs (pronounced -“sung”) and it became to me a fascinating problem how the instrument -originated. I compared one with the other, and where one was imperfect, -the other possessed the notes to perfect the scale. At that time but -little was known of the instrument, for we had only some flowery -accounts given in Chinese history, and one description of it very -fully set out in Père Amiot’s work on the Chinese, published in Paris, -1780, in six vols. The description is found in the sixth volume, but -I soon discovered that the good father had but very imperfect means -at his command, and that the scale he gave was not to be relied upon. -For my own satisfaction I was led to make a closer examination of the -instrument, and to glean whatever particulars I could for the better -understanding of the organ and its place in history. - -We are accustomed to regard the Chinese as a very conservative people, -unchangeable in modes and customs, and indisposed to vary in routine -after tradition has fixed it. Closer view of their history shows that -this is a mistake, and we have been drawn into it because the range -of their change has been limited; and in their inventions, numerous -and important as they have been, they nevertheless seem not to have -the aptitude to advance them to higher grade of utility. Their musical -scales have been constantly fixed, and have been as constantly -changing. Mr. A. J. Ellis has shown that at B.C. 1300 the scale had -only five notes, that the invading Mongols introduced an additional -scale, that Kublai Khan A.D. 1259 combined the two, that in the -thirteenth century the Ming dynasty excluded all semitones, that the -Tsing dynasty (which has existed from 1644), reverted to the former -scale; and these are comparatively modern changes. And yet one may -say that ages earlier changes began, and this _Sheng_ has at various -periods been subject to change; at one time it had nineteen pipes, -at another twenty-four pipes, and now has settled down to the form, -still very ancient, which is illustrated here with seventeen pipes, -two of these being dummies—as some modern organ fronts are—and two are -duplicates of others for convenience, leaving therefore eleven sounding -pipes to represent the working scale of the instrument. - -For the origin of the _Sheng_ we must go back beyond these periods of -change. Its history begins with a woman, as is proper in tradition, -and the invention is attributed to a female sovereign in the mythical -age known as Nu-wo. Eve is said to have brought “woe” into the world, -but this lady evidently by her name was of later date, ancient though -that date is. She succeeded the Emperor Fu Hsi, who reigned 4745 years -ago, and who was the reputed father of music, for the Chinese are a -people who naturally consider that there is no music of any account -besides their own. Then Hwang Ti “the Yellow Emperor,” follows, and he -takes credit for the invention, its a way men have: this was about one -hundred and fifty years after the death of the lady aforesaid. Then the -great Emperor Shun four centuries later, he lays some claim; but the -probability is that these two emperors regulated the laws, which till -then had not been formulated into fixed rule. Indeed each emperor had -his own system, and did not agree with his predecessor’s systems. There -can be no doubt that the _Sheng_ is of great antiquity; it is often -mentioned in the great poetical books of the Chinese, the _She_ and -the _Shoo-king_, and the commentators on ancient musical instruments -invariably mention the great age of the _Sheng_, and seem to delight in -speaking of it as evidence of the inventive genius and musical talent -of the Chinese. - -In my desire to place you abreast with the Chinese knowledge of the art -of music, I give you this beautiful elucidation from the treatise of J. -A. van Aalst:— - - According to the Chinese ideas, music rests on two - fundamental principles,—the _shên-li_, or spiritual - immaterial principle; and the _ch’i-shu_, or substantial - form. All natural productions are represented by unity; - all that requires perfecting at the hands of man is - classed under the generic term, _wan_, plurality. Unity - is above, it is heaven; plurality is below, it is - earth. The immaterial principle is above,—that is, it - is inherent in natural bodies, and is considered their - _pên_, basis, origin. The material principle is below; - it is the _hsing_, form or figure of the _shên-li_. The - form is limited to its proper shape by _shu_, number, - and it is subjected to the rule of the _shên-li_. - Therefore, when the material principle of music—that is, - the instruments—is clearly and rightly illustrated, the - corresponding spiritual principle—that is, the essence, - the sounds of music—becomes perfectly manifest and the - State’s affairs are successfully conducted. - -You will now be able thoroughly to understand something of the Chinese -systems of music, and their rigidly scholastic basis; and should -you think that the explanation that you have read requires to be -supplemented by explication, I may say that the authorities at the -British Museum have now shelved for public use in the King’s Library -the five thousand and twenty volumes of the Chinese Encyclopædia, to -which I refer you. - -This is said to be the only complete copy known in Europe of a work -commenced how many centuries ago I forget; and as the Chinese had at -hand four hundred and eighty-two learned treatises on music, no doubt -the subject is exhaustively drawn out, and will repay your search in -the various sections and sub-sections. It is said that in 2277 B.C. -there were twenty-two authors on dance and music, twenty-three on -ancient music, twenty-four on the playing of the _kin_ and the _chi_, -twenty-four on solemn occasions, and twenty-six on scale construction. -The sages alone comprehend the canons, and the mandarins of music are -considered superior to those of mathematics. The College of Mandarins -at Pekin is within the imperial palace. The head musician in China -represents the five capital virtues,—humanity, justice, politeness, -wisdom and rectitude. How very old these people are! Certainly, we have -colleges—a few!—but for some reason or other we are not sufficiently -advanced to have such a head musician; and, in consequence of lack of -such representation, the profession may possibly be minus some of the -virtues in these ways: which, as the saying goes, accounts for it. - -You know that old Confucius wrote about the ancient music in the -_Shoo-king_, and that was about 551 B.C., or about the time when Ezra -was occupied in collecting the parchments of the laws of Moses. In the -great destruction of books all copies of Confucius disappeared, but -happily one complete copy was found secreted in the wall of the house -that he dwelt in; and that was in 140 B.C., when the house was pulled -down. But you must think of a time far back, far as the times of the -Pharaohs who built the pyramids, a time when the Chinese were already -writing learned works on the music and the instruments, the existence -of which necessarily implied long periods of early civilization. The -earliest Chinese book that we know of is “The Book of Changes,” 1150 -B.C. Ah, and what changes since! All history is a record of changes. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -By the Yellow River. - -THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHENG. - - -The _Sheng_ as the parent of organs, the original exemplar of free -reeds, always greatly interested me, and I was desirous of obtaining -a knowledge of its scale and methods; but I found such contradictory -statements, such confusion of different systems of succeeding times, -that the unravelling seemed hopeless. No doubt, as time went on, -certain accommodations were made to conform to new orders and imperial -decrees, and the pedants of the schools seem to have been chiefly -concerned in the demonstration of doctrines of similitude, and -contrasts, and affinities, and mystical comparisons with all things in -heaven and earth, and abstruse relations with numbers; sometimes one -set of teachings gaining prominence, only to be overturned in favour of -the next set that forced its way into law or custom. - -The curious principle of inspiring in order to obtain the action of -the reed, and the still more peculiar characteristic of closing the -aperture at the side before the sound could form itself in the tube, -raised a multitude of questions of origin and purpose, and therefore I -set about the investigation with the idea of working out the evolution -of the _Sheng_ from the evidence, so to speak, of its own skeleton that -to-day is living. - -I want to take you back in imagination ages beyond these dates, to find -the man who made this little organ, this little _Sheng_ that to-day -can arrest our attention with absorbing interest. There was some first -dreamer, inventor, originator; some one who played and toyed with -the bamboos that grew beside his path, and thought out this little -thing that was to descend from generation to generation, and become a -household name in huts and palaces and temples. In the far east the -bamboo is everywhere the resource of man for the supply of his daily -needs. With it he hunts and fishes, and builds his house and ploughs -his land; he is as much beholden to it now as in most primitive days of -nomadic life. - -There are whole forests of bamboo in China and immense quantities are -floated down the great rivers to the towns and cities; the province -of Shantung is celebrated for the small hard sort, which for certain -uses has a preference. Just as in Greece we alluded to a kind specially -sought for musical purposes. It would, we can understand, be natural -for the early tribes to settle down beside the river; and, when a plot -of land was selected, the house was built with bamboo, and furnished -with domestic articles of bamboo, and the implements of husbandry and -fishing were all made of this wonderful plant. With the river to give -him fish, and the land to yield him crops of millet and rice, the -man was happy. The custom obtains to the present day to devote some -portion of land round the house on which to cultivate the bamboo. -This portion is surrounded by a ditch filled with water supplied from -the river by a tiny canal, and here these luxuriant grasses grow; for -the bamboo is but a gigantic grass, and the domestic wants find this -grove a perpetual storehouse of supply. Conceive such a picture: the -man after his day’s toil sitting beside this grove, not in lazy ease, -but intently engaged upon a heap of little bamboo sticks, measuring, -cutting, comparing, and pondering over some problem, some scheme upon -which his mind is fixed; only now and then looking upward and catching -sight of the grey turtle doves and their little rose coloured feet -clinging to the branch stems above him. No sound disturbing the great -silence of the plain, only the doves mildly cooing as if in answer to -the sounds that come from his lips in intervals of meditative musing; -and the sounds of the bees in the flowers; and the softer sounds of the -flowing of the broad river in the distance. As the sunshine lights up -his good humoured face, what is the thought that makes it brighten with -his smile, and tells of satisfied attainment? Well may he feel content. -He has perfected an idea; he has laid the foundation of the _Sheng_. -And a very simple process it is, as I shall show you; for although it -occasioned him serious pondering, once the idea had risen in his mind, -the working out of the scheme was assured. - -Some tribes in remote places in the east still have a rude prototype of -the instrument, consisting of a hollow lump of clay with four or five -pipes irregularly stuck in, and beyond that they have not proceeded; -and such may have been the stage at which our ideal man with an order -loving brain set about thinking. Now, truth to tell, I imagined myself -to be this Chinaman, and wondered how, in such a position as his, -and with only his means and his purposes, I should evolve such an -instrument. Curiously enough, as it turned out, I hit upon the right -idea, or as near proof of rightness as imagination need come to. Until -I had worked out the scheme on this primitive basis, the instrument -had been a puzzle to me, and it did not seem to me that any writer -rightly understood it; and even the descriptions by musical experts -were obviously erroneous when examined without prepossessions of the -scholastic kind. The first instrument that came into my hands was -perfect in structure, but incomplete in reeds, not more than four or -five metal tongues remaining. The pitch of these I ascertained, and the -relations happened to be useful for comparative deductions. It had long -been a creed with me that disease and death are our best teachers; they -cause us to question natural mechanism, injury and disorder, and make -us desire to know relation and purpose in artificial mechanism also. -Thus my poor _Sheng_ incited me to wish to know its structural meaning, -to ask how it came to be what it is. - -Music was a pastime ages before it became an art. Religion is earlier -than priesthood. I go therefore to the man who first made this form -of instrument; question why he made it, how he took his first step, -how he came to take his second, how he by process of thinking formed -an instrument for himself and for others to play. His ancestors, I -consider, came from the south, and in the early period would have used -reeds with tongues cut in them after the fashion of the _Arghool_; -but this man is an artificer, has more civilised ways in communities -of industry, and is influenced by the beginnings of commerce. China is -rich in mines of iron and copper and zinc, and her people were a deft -fingered race, expert in delicate working of metals, and, at this stage -of advance in simple arts the tongues of reed would be superseded by -tongues of metal, thin and elastic, and free from the disadvantages of -swelling by moisture and of the need of frequent renewals. Hence, in -cutting such substitutes by the minute chisels they are so clever in -using, the tongue or reed would naturally, and without design, turn -out to be a _free reed_. A discovery having far reaching consequences, -albeit long limited to the land of this peculiar people, due to the -special deftness they have in the fine working of copper; for these -reed plates are of little more than paper thickness. Just three cuts of -a thin chisel, and the tongue is formed in the little brass plate; and -the plate is fixed in its place with beeswax. - -Let us imagine our worker to live at this particular period of growth -of a civilised community, when music was scarcely more than a chirping -of birds, or the aimless sounds which arose as rhythmical ebullition -in dancing; when musical art was personal, unformed and any system of -musical sounds as yet unthought of. Such a time there must have been -in the history of every early race. Always, as I imagine, that the -instrument coming, before the system, originates that liking in the -human sentiency which heredity and custom confirm. The peculiarity of -Chinese music corroborates this notion of mine; for although, so far as -we can tell, the structure of musical ears is the same—yet likings of -the ear vary widely with the difference in race. - -One of the first needs of men in relation to one another in communities -is a standard of measure of length, such as a cubit, a foot, etc. -The oldest standard with the Chinese is the thumb’s breadth, and ten -thumbs’ breadths make one Chinese foot; and they had a measure of -millet seed, as we have our three barley corns making one inch. Our -worker then had his measure of the foot, for that is the standard he -sets out with for his longest pipe, from which all the rest originate. -It is 9-7/8in. of our measure; and by the same custom the longest pipe -of the twelve _lüs_ which are mythically attributed to the Yellow -Emperor, is of like length. So the Chinese foot predetermined the -standard both for the reed pipe of bamboo with a tongue of metal, and -for the reed pipe blown across as the pandean pipe is blown across: -which pipe from immemorial days has remained in the imperial archives, -as the unalterable standard of pitch—unalterable because nature does -not alter. - -I had a metal organ-pipe made to the precise length and diameter of -this imperial standard, and it proved to be what we call _e_ flat; -which, as I found out, has a significant relation, for our free reed -pipe of this length gives a sound one fourth lower exactly—namely B -flat. And this relation of the fourth dominates everything in the -evolution of music. Our worker found this out; though knowing nothing -of the interval of the fourth, he fixed it by natural evolution,—by -measure, not by music: yet the measure afterwards made the music and -the law of the music. I see him cut reeds as our country boys do from -our grasses and spiers, and split a tongue on the side of one, as his -ancestors had done centuries before, and make a piping-bird sound from -it. He has some knowledge of the working of metals; is an adept at -it; has by socialisation and its wants become an artificer in brass. -The split reed becomes spoilt after frequent use, so he conceived the -thought of making a substitute in metal. - -Let us picture him first as taking a bamboo reed, cutting it a foot -long in Chinese length (9-7/8in.), and from this obtaining a note; -then cutting other reeds promiscuously, until at last he is attracted -by one exactly half its length, giving a baby note exactly the same in -seeming as the other, and blending into it. This is what we call the -octave,—a civilized perceptivity not yet dawning on his mind; to him it -is the man’s voice and then the woman’s voice. The higher repetition of -the same sound. He has halved the length and obtained unwittingly the -octave; why not halve the other half between? This he does, and from -the three quarter length of pipe obtains a new sound, which, sounded -with his prime gives a pleasing concord; thus, he begins to recognise -the new fact,—the family relationship. - -After this fashion of halving and quartering I imagined that the -_Sheng_ grew and became an instrument; and, placing myself in this mood -of representative thought, I also try and work the thing as he would -have worked it out, and see if I can get coinciding results. The half -and the half again seem to me so natural; the repetition is so akin to -the Chinese tendency. A two thirds is a more artificial notion, and -comes of later discernment. How natural too, it is on finding more that -two pipes inconvenient within the mouth, to seek the first substitute -similar to the mouth in size, such as a little bowl, a half gourd, or -perhaps the same calabash that served him for a drinking cup. Except -the four or five reeds that spoke in my specimen, I did not know what -the notes should be as the scale of the instrument; I only knew that -the scheme as told me by the writers with authority was wrong, and was -also misleading; for the comparative speaking length of the pipes was -at variance with the assumed musical system, and I could not make head -or tail of the instrument until I resorted to the question of primitive -design. Then everything fell into proper place with unlooked-for -significance. So I took a number of slips of wood (easier to cut than -bamboo), and proceeded to transmigrate myself into a dweller in “far -Cathay.” - -Adopting the measure of the Chinese foot to start with, I cut a slip -to that length, and then cut one to half of that, and then cut one -between these at the half of the half, and so on by progressive steps -halving and half halving and doubling, and obtained a connected series -of thirteen slips to represent the speaking pipes of my most mysterious -little _Sheng_. I argued with myself that in some such simple way our -worker would have evolved the instrument; that it was by no means the -outcome of a system of music, but was built up on a visible relation -of proportions; that the eye made it and that the ear accepted it. -Steadied by faith, I drew my bow at a venture, and, lo and behold!—my -arrow went home true, and I was astonished as one who sees his prophecy -fulfilled and wonders how it came to pass. For when I came to compare -and to measure the actual pipe lengths, they corresponded length for -length with the series I had evolved by my archaic process. I confess -that the situation was bewildering as I gazed upon the evidence before -me, for it seemed too good to be true, and one had a fleeting suspicion -of magic or hallucination of some kind. But no; reason and time only -increased the strength of my conviction that in this process the -_Sheng_ was constructively worked out; indeed, I do not see how by any -other way the peculiar scale of the instrument could have originated. - -[Illustration: SEQUENCE OF EVOLUTION OF THE PIPES OF THE SHENG.] - -Remember that at the time of my investigation—now thirty years ago—I -had no means of knowing what the scale should be, and I had to -calculate from the relative lengths of the thirteen slips what the -notes of the speaking pipes would be; and when in after years I came -to possess other specimens of the instrument, I found that all my -conclusions had been correct. - -A very impressive result is the discovery that the old Chinese musical -basis was that of the Greeks,—the tetrachord; and the complete scale -of this, one of the most ancient of Chinese instruments, consists of -two conjunct tetrachords and one disjunct tetrachord; which scale, as -I have said, being founded upon a natural law of progression from or -through a connected series of proportional lengths, exhibits unchanged -its record of evolution. For pipes of certain length give now the same -tones and the same actual pitches as they gave thousands of years -ago. They do not change, though modes and customs, peoples and empires -change. How remarkably suggestive is this taken with the presence of -the Pan’s pipes and the Phœnix, to which your attention was given in a -previous chapter, as pointing to a common origin in some ancient era -ere history began. Helmholtz notes that Olympos (_circa_ B.C. 660-620), -who introduced Asiatic flute music into Greece and adapted it into -Greek tastes, transformed the Greek Doric scale into one of five tones, -the old enharmonic scale, - - _b_‿_c_— —_e_‿_f_— —_a_ - -This, he says, seems to indicate that he brought a scale of five tones -with him from Asia. And this same scale you will find in the scale -of the _Sheng_. I gave all this evidence respecting the scale of the -_Sheng_ more than twenty-five years ago, to Mr. Ellis; but it was a -long time before he could bring himself to believe that Amiot and other -leading writers had given altogether misleading statements. He went -and pored over the big folio volumes of Amiot’s “Mémoires des Chinois” -(1780), utterly confused; and only in later times, when investigating -for his work of marvellous patience, “On the Musical Scales of Various -Nations,” did he see that truly the tetrachord was the basis of Asiatic -music as it was of Greek music. - -How was it that Amiot, living with the Chinese, gave a wrong drawing of -the free reed used in the _Sheng_? How came he to say with authority -that its thirteen pipes were a succession of semitones? How came he -to select _f_ as the tonic of the scale? Engel falls into the same -notion of thirteen pipes giving the same octave of semitones as -ours, but says that the _e_ and _b_ were exceptional notes, only used -occasionally. - -[Illustration: ORDER OF THE PIPES AS THEY STAND IN THE SHENG. - -_Fig. 30._ - -_The illustration gives the series of holes into which the pipes are -fitted on the top of the covered bowl. Pipes 1, 9, 16, 17 are mutes, -only placed for symmetry. Be careful in references not to confuse the -numerals as to order of pipes with those of the sequence and scale._] - -[Illustration: SCALE OF THE SOUNDS OF THE SHENG. - -_These numbers indicate the sequence in evolution of pipe lengths by -the process described._] - -The scale really comprises one octave and a fourth and the _master -pipe_ is the _e_♭, it being so marked on every instrument I have -handled, as shown in the illustration at pipe 14. This is the pipe -giving the note corresponding in pitch to the imperial standard pipe, -yet it is one fourth less than that in length, because, though both -are cylindrical, the one is whistle or flute blown and the other reed -blown—such is the law of these reed pipes—whilst the real standard -length standing beside it, No. 15, gives a sound a fourth lower, and is -the lowest in sound in the scale. - -Yet _b_♭ is not the tonic; the Chinese have not in their music our kind -of reckoning; but their _e_♭, at the junction of the two tetrachords, -corresponds to the _mese_ or middle note of the Greek scale. And in -passing let me say that in the middle tetrachord you leave out in -descending the notes 10 and 4, and in ascending leave out 12 and 13, -according as the conjunct tetrachords are formed in the upper or in -the lower part of the scale; and thus the conditions required by the -tetrachord are maintained. Although, to make exposition easy, the notes -are here presented in our modern notation, you should still bear in -mind that the relations of note to note are not the same, are not exact -in ratios; most of the notes are flatter or sharper than indicated, -for the simple reason that there is no other ratio of interval than the -fourth taken in relation to intervening upper or lower octaves; and -since two fourths will not comprise an octave, each successive step in -fourths that are perfect takes us away from diatonic accuracy. Thus the -_g_ given as a fourth above _d_♭ looks odd; yet it is from that actual -pitch _length_, as one may say, that the _c_ above is derived. The _c_ -is a flat note not expressed by our notation, but we have to signify -the notes in the nearest terms we can for convenience, none being quite -accurate. A very curious puzzle, you will answer; but very clear I can -assure you when you have once found your way through the labyrinth. - -Writers upon the _Sheng_ all say that the pipes in the range numbered -2 and 6 are mere duplicates, and also 4 and 8. But they are altogether -mistaken; they give not any intimation whatever why they exist. If -it had been so then speaking lengths would have been in duplicate, -which they are not. But I can demonstrate why they are there; and -that they are not duplicates either as regards length or in pitch, -but are necessary in the evolution. There is nothing fantastic in the -arrangement; all the notes come naturally from one to the other; they -are necessary; not one too many to complete the idea, not one left out; -and, in truth, that _last_ one in the sequence given of evolution—which -I have marked ♭^v_{a}, to indicate an extra flatness—has every -suggestion of being an afterthought. For the pipe No. 2 in the order -exists for no other reason than to make an A♭ that shall be a true -fourth to the high D♭; a sounding pipe, for which a place is found -where otherwise a second mute pipe would have been, corresponding with -that on the opposite side. Why are there two pipes with the ventage -hole turned inwards to be closed by a finger of the right hand? Because -the thumb ranges over several pipes, but could not properly close more -than one at a time; and to meet the difficulty, pipes 3 and 4 have the -closure operating behind. So that when required for making fourths or -thirds with 2 or 5 or 6 or 7, in the order that comes under the thumb -of the right hand, then the finger comes to aid in producing the simple -concords desired. Certainly the contrivance in its directness and -efficiency is very clever. - -The scale therefore is, after casting out the alternatives not required -in ascending, as follows. See how very Greek it is. - - - ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ - _b_—_c_‿_d_—_e_—_f_‿_g_—_a_ _b_—_c_‿_d_—_e_ - - \——————v—————/\—————v————/ \——————v—————/ - -And in the alternative:— - - ♭ ♭ ♭ x ♭v ♭ ♭ ♭ - _b_—_c_‿_d_—_e_ _f_—_g_‿_a_—_b_—_c_‿_d_—_e_ - - \——————v——————/ \—————v————/\—————v————-/ - -Here the _f_x makes a perfect fourth to ♭_b_, but would not to _c_ -below; and ♭_a_^v makes a perfect fourth to ♭_d_ above, but would not -to ♭_e_ below. Each _c_ is to be taken as much nearer the _b_♭ than -in our notation. The pentatonic is obtained by skipping over the half -tones. These mysteries you can unravel if you care to take the trouble -to cut strips of paper as I did of wood. Number them all at the bottom, -and from the 9-7/8in. length you will get its fourth,—that is to say, -three quarters of its original. Write on each the name of the note. And -so on, getting octaves and fourths above or below, in the sequence I -have given. As you go on, cut the strips to the lengths found and fold -each strip in length into four; and then when you lay them out these -curious tonal relations are made manifest. Thus you see why the sounds -are what they are. The true lengths would prove in sounds perfect -fourths if the diameters of the pipes had carried the geometrical law. - -Strangest of all remains the fact that my blind sticks proved true -prophets, and led me in the way of evolution, the pitches of the pipes -corroborating at every step. - -Reverting now to the details of the _Sheng_, there is one little -hint too important to be omitted if any reader should happen to have -the opportunity of measuring the actual pipes. He will find that the -pipe that is longest in the speaking length—that is to say reckoning -from the lower end of the slot—will be 10-1/8in. in length, instead -of 9-7/8in. This excess of a quarter of an inch is common to all -the pipes, and is that portion extended beyond the hollowed part of -the foot which only reaches to the base of the metal tongue, and is -therefore the real limit of the column of air. Consequently, this -quarter should be allowed _off each pipe_ when measured, because if -computed in the speaking length it would affect the accuracy of the -half lengths. In my first analysis, I found difficulties arose when -comparisons were instituted between the pipes themselves and the slips -of wood of the lengths evolved as a problem; because, as I soon became -aware, upon halving the total lengths as taken actually from the pipes, -the half of this quarter inch was entering into every calculation, and -was of course misrepresenting by an eighth of an inch the real speaking -length to be credited to the half length and the three fourths length; -and with the shortest of the pipes the discrepancy became serious. - -Time also, I found, had occasioned a little variation, as the bamboos -in drying lengthen a little; but it is a mere trifle. - -One or two points I must not forget to direct attention to. Notice that -the reeds in the _Sheng_ have their faces turned to the wall of the -bowl, and in this way a reflecting surface acts to the advantage of the -reed; the air also acts less wildly than might be the case if the reeds -were turned toward the centre of the bowl. The reed tongues are very -thin, and are not lifted from the level of the plates; consequently -they may be caused to sound both by drawing with the breath and by -blowing, although the latter is prohibited in practice, as the moisture -from blowing condensing on the reed alters the pitch, and corrodes the -metal. Any excessive forcing of the tone the reeds are not liable to, -because the air is passing at the same time through all the pipes, -those that are sounding and those that are not. - -Fairly, then, I think that I may claim to have transformed myself into -an early Chinaman, and to have shown that I possess a sympathetic, -inquisitive, barbarian sort of a mind, and ought to have lived years -ago. The plan that I hit upon in a wild, instinctive way appears to -be identical with the plan upon which the _Sheng_ was evolved; for no -other seems so easy and natural as this, alike in regard to the origin -of the instrument and to the development of the music. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -In the Land of Siam. - -THE SIAMESE “PHAN.” - - -Geographically the three empires of China, Japan and Siam, may be -considered as one region, and therefore, without doubt the _Sheng_, the -_Sho_, and the _Phan_ have a common origin; and within the confines of -these lands this kind of instrument has its home. There is no other -type of the free reed, nor does it seem to have strayed beyond its -home until after the lapse of many centuries—how many we cannot with -any certainty say. Somewhere in the land of China the free reed had -its origin; the first instance, too, of the employment of metal as a -vibrating tongue to produce musical sound; and, as I said, the reed -stamped out in metal was bound to be a free reed. Yet it is curious -that no other nation had for music a metal reed, when we note that, -as Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen has stated, the working of metal had been -practised as early as 3000 B.C. in Chaldea. He tells us of earliest -Chaldean inscriptions being certainly as ancient as 4000 to 5000 -B.C., and that one of our earliest Chaldean sculptures contained a -representation of the harp and the pipes which were attributed to -Jubal. The last half dozen lines are a repetition from the first -chapter, merely because it is desirable to have the facts they set -forth born in mind in this part of the exposition also. - -The instrument here illustrated, the Siamese _Phan_, is of the same -family as the Chinese _Sheng_ and the Japanese _Sho_. The principle -is the same as regards the production of sounds in each instrument. -Although the _Phan_ in appearance is so different, yet details of its -construction are the same,—viz., a collection of bamboo tubes forming -a related series of pipes for a succession of musical sounds; a bowl -into which these pipes are inserted, the bowl having an aperture for -breathing purposes; and each pipe possessing a little free reed cut in -a plate metal, and the sounds of the pipes only to be elicited when a -small lateral aperture at the side of each pipe is closed by the finger -of the player. The pipes are also slotted, and are of superfluous -length, so much so that one is at a loss to account for the purpose -or the advantage supposed to be derived from the excessive length; in -fact, the illustration does not show the length to which some of the -bamboos actually extend. The Siamese may be able to give a reason, but -we are not; and the instrument being rarely found in this country, -there are no facilities for investigation of the musical effects. - -The instrument is apparently a rude survival of an early period when -China alone was the civilising influence upon the natives of Siam; -the little free reeds used presume access to an already established -industry in the working of metals, and may have been obtained by the -natives by way of barter. - -[Illustration: _The Siamese Phan_ - -_Mouthpiece_ - -_Fig. 31._] - -An instrument in the Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments is -described by Mr. Victor Mahillon, and the scale is set out as below. -The tubes are fourteen in number, fixed in two parallel rows of seven, -as will be seen; and upon the right hand is the flat face of the bowl -where the player places his mouth, and inspires the air from the -interior, setting the reeds in motion in any of the pipes the lateral -hole whereof shall have been closed. These are the notes:— - -SCALE OF THE PHAN. - - Pipes to the left hand of orifice of bowl:— - - [Illustration] - - To the right hand:— - - [Illustration] - -Notice the prominent relation of the fourth ♭_a_, ♭_d_, and that there -are two notes alike,—♭_e_. These would, I expect, if tested, prove -to be slightly different, so that one might be a true fourth to ♭_a_ -above, and the other a true fourth to ♭_b_ below; each derived by -a different progression, in the way that I have pointed out in the -evolution of the _Sheng_. - -The Phan belongs to the same family as the _Sheng_, and it is for that -reason only that it has been brought to notice here. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -In the Land of Japan. - -JAPANESE PITCH PIPES AND THE JAPANESE CLARIONET AND THE SHO. - - -The Japanese are a curious people, blending as they do in their manners -and customs, in their ways of thought and mental tendencies, in their -childish acceptances and intellectual eagerness, naive simplicity and -artistic perceptivity; a strange union of the primitive, the ancient, -and the modern, all instinct with present vitality. In their musical -system and musical practice, they inherit a long past, prehistoric; -and, in their way upward through the centuries, seem to have developed -an absorbing power, enabling them to acquire the new without foregoing -the ancient, and to blend all that they acquire with a spontaneous ease -that is less art than happy nature, making in every sense the best of -everything. Adhering to the traditional, yet unfettered by the pedantic -formality which so cripples the progress of the Chinese, they are able -to advance with freedom, and to affiliate whatever seems to them -good. In the Japanese musical system, we find the ancient pentatonic -scale, the old Greek scales, and the equal semitonal division of the -octave, all coexisting; the latter being to them indistinguishable -from our equal temperament, which we assume to be so modern. Hence our -pianoforte is naturally acceptable to them for its progression of -scale, although their ears do not yet make the demand for harmony which -is characteristic of the western nations. - -[Illustration: _Japanese Pitch Pipes._ - -_Full Size._ - -_Fig. 32._] - -The illustration given is full size. It is of a set of Japanese pitch -pipes, consisting of six little bamboo tubes, threaded at the middle -on a copper wire, which, merely flattened at the ends, serves to hold -all the pipes together. At each end of each pipe is a little hollow -plug, which fits in tightly; and at the point which is cut on the slant -a small brass plate is fixed, as shown in the sketch at top, which is -drawn twice the size of the original; and in the middle of the plate is -a tiny reed, cut in the plate by a fine chisel. This reed lifts up its -tip in a fine delicate curve, like the curve of “my ladye’s eyelash”; -and each of these minute hairlike reeds is formed to give the desired -pitch for one of the twelve semitones of the compass of the octave. -To obtain exactness, the tips of some of the reeds have a tiny bit of -beeswax, loading them to the degree of the slower movement of vibration -which the artist’s ear demands. - -The plate itself is fixed on the point of the bamboo plug by -beeswax,—nothing more; so simple and efficient is this primitive -construction, yet answering every purpose of the musician. At the -twelve ends are the names of the notes in gold, stamped in Japanese -characters; but these the engraver has not attempted, lest unknowingly -some bend or twist or dot might be such as to give some signification -not fit for ears polite: for we are aware in our own language how the -omission or insertion of a single vowel may alter the whole meaning -and be a source of lamentable error. The pipes turn on the copper rod, -permitting either end of each pipe to be brought round to the lips as -wanted. The reeds only sound by suction: you draw the breath through, -and that sets the reed vibrating and sounding, whilst the note on -an instrument is being tuned. To blow through on to the reeds would -horrify the native musician, because the moisture of the breath would -lodge and injure the durability of the reed. To have a set of pipes -as these, is as it would be to us if we had a dozen tuning forks in a -case to tune our pianos by for ourselves. All the stringed instruments -in Japan require to be properly tuned every time they are played; so -one can appreciate the utility of this pretty little companion in -its simple case, and dagger fastening all complete for the pocket. -Or, as one should say, for the sleeve; since it is the sleeve that -is the receptacle for all the odds and ends, the impedimenta, which -civilization carries with it in every land. - -The scale as nearly as we can represent it is:— - - A Sharp Fourth. - +———————————+ - D, E♭, E, F♯, G, G♯, A♭, A, B♭, B, C, C♯. - +——————————————-+ - * * - A Flat Fourth. - -We must not look at these as we do at our fourths and fifths. The -intention in the scale is that the player, according as he is going -_up or down_, should by _some traditional rule_ be able to substitute -a sharp interval for a flat one. Thus, he takes in the course of his -melody a flat fourth D to G, or by taking G♯ gets a sharp fourth; or -again a flat fifth from C♯ down to G; and the flat fourth B down to -to F♯ seems a favourite essential interval. We should remember that -the harmony or concord is confined to octaves, fourths and fifths, and -that, the tones of the instruments being faint and quickly vanishing, -a mistuned fourth or fifth is little worse than perfect intervals. The -sharp thirds are not unpleasant, but have a peculiar breezy effect -heard upon the _Sheng_, and the Sho. - -There is a great tendency in Eastern scales to make flat fourths and -sharp fifths. This same flat fourth is given by my set of Chinese -bells, and I remember how Sir F. Gore Ouseley caught it instantly when -he heard it. He had the keenest ear for pitch that I ever met. The -A and A♭ depart from our relation of pitch. But the Japanese are so -accustomed to freedom in altering their scales that the _Koto_, though -tuned accurately, is during playing altered to the passing fancy of -the player, who is allowed to pull the strings below the bridge or to -press them just as the moment dictates, sharpening or flattening any -interval. The classical scales used in religious and royal ceremonials -and the popular scales are quite distinct, which shows how in course of -time the music itself has changed. - -My bells above named give F♯, A, B, C♯; the F♯ to C♯ making a fifth, -the F♯ to B making a flat fourth, the A to C♯ a sharp major third. We -may reckon bells to be true carriers of pitch, scarcely, if anything, -affected by age. - -Mr. A. J. Ellis traces the old Greek tetrachords in the Japanese -scales, and remarks upon one, “it is interesting to observe that -this _hiradio-shi_ scale, which consists of a tone and two conjunct -tetrachords, each divided approximately into a semitone and its -defect from a fourth, presents us with a survival of the oldest Greek -tetrachord. Perhaps Olympos himself tuned no better than the Japanese -musician I heard.” He also infers that the pentatonic scale was later -than that of the tetrachord. He says “that China and Japan introduced -nothing new beyond the original limitation of the scale to five notes, -which arose in fact from divisions of tetrachords _into two parts -only_. For instance, a semitone and major third, like those of Olympos -(whose very division we find in the popular music of Japan), or else -into a tone and a minor third; the thirds arising in each case as -defects of the first interval of a fourth. Such tetrachords were then -either conjunct or disjunct; but they were always capable of being -completed into Greek scales, as has been actually done in Japan and -China. On the other hand, Japan at least, and China also, have attained -a system of twelve more or less exact equal semitones.” - -The Japanese have twelve semitones to the octave, as the Chinese have, -the root of their civilization being the same. But in music ancient -equal temperament and modern equal temperament are not quite the same -thing; nevertheless, the approachments come very near. The scale, -however, is not used to play music proceeding by semitones, but is used -for the purpose of transposition of melody to high or low position, -which changes never trespass beyond a range of fourteen sounds for such -melody. Our necessity for equal temperament arose in like manner from -the desire for transposition, but it was for the needs of harmony. -This distinction we should never forget when considering Eastern -systems of music. Moreover, our modern method of counting from the low -note upwards seems to be an inversion of the more primitive method, -which proceeded from above downward. Hence when the fourth below was -taken it has been our custom to assume that the note was obtained as -a fifth upwards from the octave note below, and much confusion of -interpretation has resulted therefrom. There is a significant passage -in Mr. A. J. Ellis’s notes to Helmholtz: - - The fact that the Greek scale was derived from the - tetrachord or divisions of the fourth, and _not_ the - fifth, leads me to suppose that the tuning was founded on - the fourth, not the fifth.... It is most convenient for - modern habits of thought to consider the series as one of - fifths; but I wish to draw attention to the fact that in - all probability it was historically a series of fourths. - -I often had arguments with Mr. Ellis upon these points, and after the -study of Arabic and Persian scales for his comparative examination of -“The Musical Scales of Various Nations” he came at last to the same -conclusion. The fourth always seemed to me the most naturally selected -interval for the origin of the primitive scales. It prevails in Arabia, -Persia, China, and the East generally. - -The instrument which is here illustrated is Japanese, and is called a -clarinet on account of the similarity in the relation of its sounds, -its second series being 12ths, not octaves. The most noticeable -peculiarity of the little instrument is its reed, which is as broad -as the tip of our bassoon reed; but unlike that, is broader at the -bass end, which is inserted in the pipe (as you will understand by the -drawing, which shows the reed cut through at mid-section). - -The vibrating portion is at the tip, to the extent downward of three -eighths of an inch, which evidently has been pinched together and then -dried in some particular way. The two lips from the centre expand -outwardly under moisture, and leave a fine ovate opening, which, under -the suction of the passing stream of air closes, and then reopens by -its own elasticity. The reed does not consist of two separate parts -bound together, but is itself tubular, its diameter at the bottom -being three eighths of an inch. - -Then a little clip of cane with bound ends forms a ligature to keep -the lips of the reed in proper relation during blowing; and as it is -pressed down tightly or loosely, affects in some degree the pitch. Also -the lower end of the reed is bound with a strip of soft paper, where it -fits into the pipe; and so, whether it is allowed to be set far into -the pipe or not, will likewise affect the pitch considerably. This will -account for some discrepancies in the statements as to the normal pitch -of the _Hichi-riki_. Again, in China, the same kind of instrument is -found differing in length, and having the name _Kwan-tze_, The Japanese -instrument is no doubt a refined copy of the Chinese model, which -itself is so ancient that it may have been brought from some region -of the Caucasus. My own instrument measures in pipe length 8in., and -with the reed fitted in, 9-1/8in. In the Brussels Museum, one is noted -which is 8-5/8in. in pipe length, and the lowest note is F; but this -instrument has another thumb hole between the third and fourth holes -in addition to the hole which appears in my pipe between the sixth and -seventh hole. - -The pipe also, it should be remarked, is not cylindrical, but in a -musical sense is more so; since, by its being a cone inverted, the -flattening influence of form on the pitch is increased. As it was in -the old German flute, which, like this, was an inverted cone, and so -conduced to the better production of the lowest notes. - -The scale of the _Hichi-riki_, on the authority of the Musical -Institute of Tokio, is given with the following tablature:— - -[Illustration] - -The open pipe length for the lowest note would therefore be twice the -length of this pipe, so we say that the _Hichi-riki_ speaks double -depth tone. And when blown with higher pressure, the first series -of harmonics is not one of octaves, but of twelfths. An interesting -circumstance is that when a smaller reed such as we use for the oboe is -inserted, then the tone leaps a fourth (not an octave) higher, and its -harmonic series is one of octave relation; in fact, it is the original -twelfth acting, slightly modified by being elicited by a smaller reed, -and hence emphasizing the compound nature of results from pipe and reed -associated. With one reed, I remember that the pipe rose a fifth, its -twelfth being then really transfigured only, yet becoming its octave, -being, as elicited, the same note. - -Another curious fact connected with the _Hichi-riki_ is that—if the -upper end of the pipe is placed full within the mouth, and is blown -through without any reed whatever, and without any action of the -lips—clear and powerful notes are elicited, varied as the openings -of the holes are varied; provided one of the upper holes is left -open. Then the pitch of the issuing notes corresponds to such as are -calculated according to the length between the distant holes as an -open pipe length. It is, further, indifferent whether the end of wide -diameter or that of narrow diameter is taken into the mouth; either way -sounds are readily produced. The upper finger hole thus corresponds to -the twelfth hole in the clarionet—according to the argument upon this -question in a previous chapter—and the length of pipe above it is to be -disregarded. - -Within my knowledge there is no other pipe instrument that, blown -through, will produce sound in this fashion with no visible vibrating -agent. It appears reasonable to estimate that the air issuing from the -upper hole takes upon itself the vibratory action of a reed or lamina; -and very likely the shape of the hole (which is a long oval), and the -thinness of the substance of the tube (which is cane or bamboo), may -both be favourable to such action. The instrument is very simple, yet -it is of beautifully finished workmanship, and is altogether curious -and interesting. - -This illustration shows the cap of the reed of the _Hichi-riki_ -separately. The cap is merely a piece of soft wood very deftly hollowed -to fit the reed, and the curves of the opening will show you the shape -that is presented by the tip of the reed which the cap is intended to -preserve. The two lips have during playing absorbed moisture, and have -expanded to the shape shown in these curves; but immediately after -playing the cap is placed on the tips, and then these lips in drying -set together in a pressed form, as two straight lines closely adhering, -again taking the curvature as soon as moistened. We often find -reed instruments with caps and covers, but rarely I think fulfilling -this office of preserving the form in suitable state in which the -reed is best left to dry gradually. The caps upon the old cromornes, -pibgorns, and stockpipes, although they tended to preserve the -reeds, were otherwise different in purpose, being used to convey -air to the reed, which was not placed in the mouth. Compared with -modern instruments, these Japanese instruments are very simple; -but there is a wonderful sense of fitness about the arrangements, -and the workmanlike finish of the instruments makes the handling of -them delightful. - -[Illustration: _This oval indicates the thumbhole at the back._ - -_Clarionet of the Japanese, called the Hichi-riki._ - -_Cap of Reed._ - -_Section of the Reed._ - -_Fig. 33._] - -Three reeds are provided for each pipe, and the reeds are each -differently cut at the tip; one being cut straight at the edge, another -with curved margin, another almost semicircular; the object being to -cause variety in the quality of tone,—one being suited for songs of -martial character, another for dance, another for songs of love. - -It is noteworthy that the oval hole is preferred by eastern peoples. -The Greek _auloi_ preserved in the British Museum possess oval holes, -as do the pipes of Egypt, the _arghool_ pipes, the Lady Maket pipes; -and in truth the oval is the form naturally derived by cutting upon a -circular surface, and it is also well adapted to the fingers; nothing -but a formality for elaborating could have induced the modern habit -of making round holes. Primitive instruments were often so played as -that the holes were covered, not by the tips of the fingers but by -the fleshy part of the second joint of the finger, as may be seen at -the present day among the rural population of Italy and Spain. In the -grand work on Egypt (fifteen folio volumes) published by order of -Napoleon the First, this same instrument is depicted full size, with -section of reed and all details, and is given as a native Egyptian -instrument. - -From a recent publication by “The Egypt Exploration Fund” I find that -a six-holed pipe has been discovered in a temple in Egypt (Diospolis -Parva), made from the horn of some small deer, and very possibly was -of this kind, although from the imperfect state of the mouthpiece we -cannot say for certain, and this pipe is as old as about 1500 B.C. The -photograph of it shows the same peculiarity of form of tube, the lower -end being of the smaller diameter, and the indications to the expert -eye are that a reed set up the vibrations. So the type is undoubtedly -Egyptian, and we see how natural it was to derive the inverted cone -form of tube from the adaptation of the horn. - -At the same time it would accord with the view I have taken of the -common source of origin of the Chinese and Egyptians, to consider this -instrument to have been developed by the Egyptians independently, and -the Chinese to have developed theirs, alike from some prototype common -to both at an early prehistoric era. - -The Japanese seem to have carried the workmanship of their instruments -to a higher degree of refinement than the Chinese, and to have a much -keener musical perception, and a sense of the fitness and relation of -things in art and mechanism. - -You will remember that in describing the reeds of the Japanese pitch -pipes, I likened the delicate upward bend of the dainty little reeds -to the curve of my ladye’s eyelashes; well, I can find no truer -similitude, and you would say so if you saw them,—the reeds, I mean, -not the eyelashes, which must be left to imagination. The practical -purport of the device is what I would have you notice, because it -shows the intuitive sense of fitness which guided the designer; for -the tongue is so curved upward that it will not reverse and bend -the opposite way as the flat reed does. Thus it is secure against -fluctuations of pitch, a very requisite provision, since in this case -each pipe is designed to be sounded alone, and is subjected to the full -force of whatever suction may be brought to bear upon it. A small reed -of straight tongue could not be relied upon for pitch under such a -stress: hence experience taught the designer by a happy device how to -secure the end he had in view. - -In Japan, we find the _Sho_, which is there a national instrument, is -practically the same as the _Sheng_, only differing in that two of the -mute pipes are made available to extend the scale, and that there is a -little humouring in the pitch, probably from a familiarity with modern -equal temperament; because this is, after all, only a reversion to a -system with which scholastically their teachers were well acquainted in -theory. - -The _Sho_ maintains its traditional office in ritual and in ceremonial -affairs, and its scale, with little differences, is the same as that of -the _Sheng_: hence we may infer that the tunes in use, which have been -handed down from a very early date, are common to both. - -The Japanese recognise in their music two systems, the classical and -the popular, and these are in everyday use. The scales are essentially -traditional, and are kept quite distinct. In the main they are Chinese, -as also are the instruments; yet there is a strange mingling of the -ancient and the modern in everything connected with the Japanese. In -art, the Japanese are undoubtedly superior to the Chinese; the _Sho_ -that I once had and gave to a friend was most beautifully made, and -in every particular delightfully finished. A large Japanese _Koto_, a -thirteen stringed instrument that I possess, is a marvel of beauty, -with lovely lac pictures running along the sides, and inlays of ivory -and tortoiseshell and variegated woods in thousands of pieces, silver -bosses, bronze dragons, and silk tassels, altogether a delight to the -eye. The _Koto_ of Japan, though carried to more artistic perfection, -is the same in construction as the musical instrument called the _Sê_ -in China, and will be found further described in the section given to -the Chinese Kin, the favourite of Confucius. - -The Japanese have several other instruments both of the wind and string -classes, but only those which I have introduced seem tributary to the -purpose of this treatise. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -In Ancient China. - -CEREMONIAL INSTRUMENTS. - - -Bells, Chimes and Gongs are held in high esteem by the Chinese, they -are indispensable in their Ceremonies and Ritual, in their Festivities, -national and social. So ancient is their use that the order of their -coming into existence, or the date of origin are mythical, each kind -of instrument seems equally old, still they had to be accounted for in -Chinese logic of history. - -One of the most curious traits in the character of the human animal -is an unfeigned delight in super-exaggerated noise. Other animals are -affrighted at noise, but the human animal makes a deliberate orgie -of noise as a special means by arrangement for obtaining a sensual -satisfaction of the ear. Amongst savage tribes and barbarous nations, -and amongst nations emerged from barbarism well banded in social -communities, everywhere we find that this sheer delight in noise, -called music, is manifest and on record. Not merely called so, but -dignified and accepted as music. ’Tis true that the Indian savage says -his music is to frighten away devils and evil spirits, and the Chinaman -tells us that his earsplitting distracting music is to make night -horrible to the dragons threatening to devour the moon; but depend upon -it, the devils and dragons are quite subsidiary to the main desire for -indulgence in noise; and the excuse, we, perfectly well knowing the -innate hypocrisy of the human animal, can complacently allow to pass. -The love of noise belongs to us. Nature’s gift—like the love of art for -art’s sake, is a love of noise for noise’ sake; it is only a change -of phrase. We should not decry this, nor should we plume ourselves -upon our civilization as freeing ourselves from this original taint of -barbarism. I confess to thoroughly enjoying a thunderstorm, my nature -is absorbed in an energy greater than the individual, and I revel in -it. Man’s love of power is the basis of such satisfaction. - -Into this mood of meditation I was drawn the other evening after -listening to Wagner’s “Procession of the Gods.” How the music takes -hold of you, dips you in a sea of noise, and makes you feel alive all -over. For this reason Wagner’s grand music is grand,—is greater than -you. Your whole frame is plunged into an elemental excitement to which -every nerve fibre thrills, and you feel conscious that latent impulses -native to your being are awakened into activity; the barbaric strain -in us responds, and exalts us beyond our conventional state. Noise or -music? Well, technically we make a distinction. Ask a casuist what is -the difference between virtue and vice, and he will tell you it all -depends,—one may be as bad as the other. So of noise and music, one -may be as bad as the other; aye, even worse. By all accounts much music -is; but that may be prejudice. I have heard that some people decry -Wagner’s music as a saturnalia of hubbub and noise. But it has one -redeeming folly,—it lives: hence the censors, being human, often live -to pardon. - -Our scientific definitions of noise and music serve the purpose -of science, but the truth is that with nature noise and music are -identical in origin. There is orderly noise and disorderly noise, -and music is of the orderly kind,—that is all. Discording noise, -undiscording noise. Milton understood this, writing of singing - - With melodious noise, - -and replying - - With undiscording voice. - -I want to emphasize this teaching, want to impress you with the -conviction that all the excitement we are seeking in our most modern -style of music is but a reversion to our original instinctive desire -for a dynamical excitement,—not an excitement merely æsthetical and -phychical, but actually moving, forceful, elemental; a true barbaric -love of stir and thrill,—and rightly so. If you think, you will find -in all our modern ways a tendency to this reversion to a belief in and -a culture of our original instincts. The realism of the day is the -expression of a desire to understand life as it is to the individual. -The hideousness of a merely conglomerate community is making itself -felt upon every plane of society, and the concurrent aspiration is to -be more human. - -Culture will one day exhaust the conventional, and in music the -tendency is apparent. The vast volume of choral sound we listen to -stirs us with contagious emotion. Our pleasure in grand organs with -their roll of diapasons and arresting challenge of trumpets and tubas; -our willing yielding up of ourselves to be swayed hither and thither -for hours in the power of the massive orchestra, that wonderful machine -of nerves and muscles,—what does it mean? It is all dynamical, all -barbaric. It is not only the ear that is concerned in listening, the -whole being is under strain and stress. Do I hence imply that it is -wrong, is reprehensible so to employ music? By no means. The moral -of it is that the strong innate tendencies of our nature are best -recognized, and used; nay, that they will be, will force themselves to -the surface, and that under culture we may train them to our advantage. -For civilization must go forward, is not content to-day with that which -contented it yesterday. The appetite grows by that it feeds on; more -and more we ask for intensity of excitement. - -A scientific writer of an earlier generation, I think it was Leslie, -defined the ear as an organ of touch, which we now under the -evolutionary investigation of development understand it to be; and -this is what I would have you recognise, that sound is able _to touch -us_, able to awaken a net-work of nerve organization, to make the lip -tense, to cause the eyelids to quiver and the heart to throb; the -breath to come and go in accord with the aërial pulsations,—as a hand -that is laid upon us to arrest or to exalt, to invigorate or to soothe. -_Hearing_ is an exalted _feeling_. - -The Chinese, long before Englishmen existed, found delight in the -dynamical influences of great sounds. Their largest and most potent -sources of music were bells and chimes, gongs and drums. These supplied -them with that excitement which is afforded us by the masses of sound -from our large orchestras and grand organs. We say that their music -is nothing more than deafening noise. They say that our music is no -music; it is bad noise. So it is only matter of choice how you shall -be stimulated. It’s all the same,—opium or whisky: purely a racial -question. - -Very early the Chinese attained great skill in the making of bells; and -it may be that among these people the art of Bell Founding originated, -and from the east extended over Europe. Bells are particularly -associated with religious ceremonials in all countries, and have -generally superstitious credentials. The Chinese frighten dragons with -them; and the Christians exorcise devils with them. The Russians, who -bridge the earth between Europe and China, are especially reverential -to bells. The great bell at the Kremlin, Moscow—over 21ft. in height -and 67ft. in circumference—is world famous, as we have known since we -were boys. - -The inevitable _Ling Lun_ was ordered to cast twelve bells to -correspond to the twelve _lüs_. Metal, the Chinese say, is one of -the five elements, and necessarily has its place in music. The bell -metal is composed of six parts of copper and one of tin. When melting, -the alloy appears to be of an impure dark colour, soon changing into -a yellowish white, which gradually passes to a greenish white, and -when this last has become green the metal is ready for pouring into -the mould. There is in the South Kensington Museum a large and very -handsome bell from a Japanese Buddhist temple, which is a fine example -of the colour desired. The bells have not clappers, but are struck with -wooden mallets. - -Smaller bells, however, have clappers, and the little “_Fêng-ling_” -or “wind-bells,” which hang at the eaves of houses and pagodas, are -ingeniously contrived to secure effect, light silk ribbon streamers -being attached to their clappers so that the softest breezes awakened -the sweet sounds. The wind-bells were often hung in halls and corridors -for sake of these effects. - -Bells of all sizes, from those weighing fifty tons down to the small -ones which swing on the eaves of pagodas, used to be found all over -China. Some are ornamented with characters, some with designs and -symbols; some are round, some are square; and all are mainly used for -religious purposes. At the door of each Buddhist temple a bell is seen -which the believers on entering strike “to call the attention of the -sleeping gods.” - -The most ancient Chinese bells were quadrate in form. Bells belonged -originally to the Confucian religion, but the Buddhists also adopted -their use, and they are commonly to be found in the temples of both. At -the temple of Confucius is a great bell which the Chinese say is made -to correspond with the very big drum; the one is not used without the -other, for the drum had to give the signal to begin, and the bell had -to announce the end of the hymn at the ceremonies. This bell is called -the _Yung Chung_. There is another suspended upon a single frame, -which has to give the note at the beginning of each verse in order “to -manifest the sound” or give the pitch. This bell is called the _Po -Chung_, and is here illustrated. The shape, as will be noticed, differs -from that of modern bells. - -[Illustration: _The Chinese Po-Chung._ - -_Fig. 34._] - -All their bells are cast to produce a sound definite in pitch, and in -their sets of smaller bells and gongs the primitive scale of sounds and -its successive order was intended to be kept to so far as the means at -command enabled them to secure accuracy, or as near as ceremonial usage -required them to be—for with these people ceremonial is religion. - -The next illustration is of the _Yung-lo_ or “gong chimes,” composed -of ten little gongs suspended upon a frame by silk cords. In making -gongs the Chinese are marvellously expert, and specimens of the genuine -ancient sort are highly prized here; the tone has a richness and -endurance which moderns fail to equal. These little gongs are all of -the same diameter, but differ in thickness. The _Yung-lo_ is used at -court, mainly on joyful occasions. The larger sized gongs—sometimes -they are two feet in diameter—are remarkably fine, and are very -generally in use in processions and at various social functions, as -well as in temples to waken the gods. He must be a rare sleeper who -would be deaf to such a call. - -[Illustration: _The Yung-lo or Gong Chimes_. - -_Fig. 35._] - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -In Ancient China. - -THE FLUTES OF THE CHINESE. - - -Flutes I hold to be without doubt the earliest of wind instruments. -They are found all over the world; no race however ancient, no tribe -however rude, but possesses some instrument of this class. And if we -may credit some stated example in museums, they may belong to the -prehistoric age, the bones of bird or beast being adapted by man to -whistling or fluting. There are two distinct styles common to flutes: -the one is blown at the end, and is of the sort we use and call pipes -or whistles; and the other is blown across a side hole near a closed -end, and is with us the flute proper, or _flûte traversière_. But in -addition to these, the Chinese have a flute which is quite unique, -being an open tube, blown across centrally. - -Given a land where river reeds are to be found, or a land where -the bamboo flourishes, and we need no myths of origin nor tales of -inventions to be assured that savage man would by observation of -nature be led to convert the tubes to the purpose of producing sounds; -and the gradual development from a simple pipe to one with additional -side holes would in process of time be unavoidable. Travellers tell us -that in the bamboo forests the rushing wind makes a wild music as it -passes the stems of broken bamboos. The Pan’s pipes might well have -been in its earliest form a collection of such broken tubes. Here up -to this stage, therefore, nature was the guide. The Chinese were, it -is said long in making the advance to the next stage,—that of cutting -or piercing holes, to obtain more sounds from one tube by temporarily -closing two or more holes. The first step counts for much; and with -most races a long period may have elapsed before this step was taken, -inevitable as it was. - -Indeed the change from the use of two fingers of each hand to the use -of three fingers must be regarded as a very significant advance. A long -stretch of time was doubtless necessary before a pipe of six holes took -a position in musical performance or supplanted the four holed pipe, -for it could not be otherwise than an educational advance. - -The bamboo is ranked by the Chinese as a product of special class, -being neither tree nor plant; but intermediate by nature, and of -peculiar value to human wants. Hence the bamboo occupies one of the -divisions in their scheme of natural sonorous bodies, and in music -is dedicated to flutes; although often flutes are made of marble, of -jadestone, and of copper. - -The dancers’ flute (called the _Yueh_) was a short flute and probably -one of the most ancient. It had but three holes, recalling our flute -of European usage, which was played accompanied with the tabor for -dancing, and for marking time by rhythm. At present this Chinese flute -is but a rudimentary survival, being held as a stick or _bâton_ for -directing the movements of the dancers. There is a shepherd’s flute -_Ch-iang-ti_, and one _Heng-ti_; both blown traversely. The _Hsiao_, -said to have been invented by Yeh Chung during the Han dynasty, is a -flute of dark brown bamboo, about twenty inches in length, having five -holes on the upper surface and one at the back. The use of this is now -restricted to ritual music, being played at the Confucian ceremonies on -the “Moon Terrace,” six being played simultaneously. There are various -flutes with four, five, seven, or eight holes, both for popular and for -ritual use. - -The most popular of flutes is the _Ti-tzu_; it is bound with several -rings of waxed silk to preserve the bamboo from splitting. It has eight -holes, one for embouchure, six for the fingers, and one covered with -a thin membrane peeled off the interior of reeds; this membrane, like -that which our recorder flute had, is intended to give a particular -character to the tone; and it is curious how often we find such an -adaptation, although in our modern custom quite obsolete. The _Ti-tzu_ -is frequently ornamented with long silk tassels when possessed by the -wealthy people. It is used alike in theatrical performances, in funeral -and in marriage processions, and is indispensable to every Chinese -orchestra. - -The Dragon flutes, ornamented with a dragon’s head and tail, are -essentially for ritual service, and not permitted for ordinary use. The -illustration shows the awe inspiring aspect of these instruments. - -[Illustration: _The Chinese Dragon Flute._ - -_Fig. 36._] - -Pictures of the Chinese show performers playing upon flutes with an -embouchure at the middle of the length, and with holes both to the -right and left of the embouchure. This flute is peculiar to the -Chinese, and was described by Father Amiot. But, though the appearance -of the style is maintained, the integrity of the instrument is seldom -adhered to; so that it had come to be a doubt whether such a flute was -playable, or even had been actually observed by Father Amiot. For, in -modern hands, a plug near the middle converted it into a double ended -flute of the ordinary method of playing only requiring a few holes in -addition. M. J. A. Van Aalst names this flute _Ch-ih_; says that the -number of holes varies from six to ten, and even more. But M. Victor -C. Mahillon, describing more elaborately the ancient instrument, names -it _Hwang-chông-tché_ and reproduces a description of it given by -Prince Tsai-Yu, in 1596; and to this I am indebted for details, and -also for the illustration, which I copy from that by M. Victor Mahillon -in his most interesting catalogue of the Brussels Museum of Musical -Instruments. - -I remember seeing one of these flutes at the Chinese Court at the -Fisheries or other of the Kensington exhibitions years ago, and -wondered, much perplexed, how the playing was to be accomplished. If my -memory serves, there is a specimen now at the South Kensington Museum; -though for all practical enquiry, many instruments might as well be -absent, there being no sufficient light to enable the visitor to see -what he is in quest of in that department either by night or day. - -Prince Tsai-Yu states that this flute is very difficult to play; which -would account for its neglect, so that now the playing is a lost art. -He says that it was constantly in use during the period of the three -first dynasties (2205-1122 B.C.). It is fully described in “Tcheu-ly,” -an old volume treating of the ceremonial of the Tcheou during the rule -of the dynasty occupying the throne of China in those early days. So -that this instrument takes us back more than four thousand years. Its -scale consists, according to M. Mahillon’s investigation, of six equal -tempered semitones:— - -[Illustration] - -This curious flute necessitates a peculiar attitude on the part of the -player. The flute is open all through; and, as you see, in order fairly -to distribute his energies, the performer should place himself between -the two ends, playing a scale by alternating the fingering, producing -the notes in order, first from one hand and next from the other hand, -according to the figures accompanying the illustration. - -[Illustration: _Mouth Hole._ - -_Fig. 37._ - -_Chinese Flute. Hwang-chong-tche._] - -The instrument was constructed by M. Mahillon after the indications -of the ancient writers, and found by him to be so exact in accordance -with them, that he has no doubt that it was intended to be a standard -of measurement for the pitch of the instruments provided by imperial -decree for ceremonial use. The circumference of this flute equals that -of the coins bearing the imprint _Kai-Yuen_, and the length is that -given by fourteen of these coins placed in line one beyond the other. -The diameter of the coins inscribed _Kai-Yuen_ is one thumb’s breadth, -ten of these being the length of the ancient Chinese foot measure, and -consequently the length of the flute is one foot and four thumbs. The -interior diameter of the tube is seven lines, and the embouchure is one -half of that, whilst the lateral holes are again one half of diameter -of embouchure. The question of dimensions is of great importance in -respect of all matters of pitch; since the larger the embouchure the -higher will be the degree of power exercised and acting upon the column -of air in the interior of the tube, and consequently the sharper the -pitch of tone elicited. So that for estimating a standard of pitch -great accuracy in dimensions is of paramount necessity. The embouchure -is placed precisely at the middle of the length. The holes marked 5 and -6 occupy points corresponding to one third of the length. Those, 3 and -4, are placed at one quarter the length, and 1 and 2 represent exactly -one sixth of the length. - -This picture is by a native artist. It is quite modern yet the archaic -air about it seems at once to take us into an older world. The -modernity of the artist is evident, he has represented a degenerated -type of the flute “tche,” not the ancient authentic. The white spaces -are not intended for holes, they merely show the intervals between the -rings of dark silk which are customary as preventing the bamboo from -splitting. Correctly, the player should be shown with one hand to the -right of the mouth and one to the left, the fingers covering either -side three holes. So you will have to imagine the still more curious -picture that would have been presented by a Chinese performer in the -olden time. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 38._] - -This symmetry in proportions is very remarkable and interesting. -When the flute is blown across, with the six holes closed, a note is -produced which was, estimated as _d_, but is really _e_♭; and when, -in addition, the thumbs close the end orifices, then the note is an -octave lower, nearly. Absolute precision we should not expect except -from an expert Chinese player, as a different management of the lip may -be an important factor in deciding the actual tone intended, and may -differ as much from the European mode of management as the voices of -the Chinese differ in character from those of Europeans. For, however -exact in design such standards of pitch may be, experience teaches -us that scientific exactitude in pitch can only be secured when the -pressure of wind producing the note is weighed, as in our organ pipes. -With lip blown flutes, when a certain pressure is exceeded, the pipe -blows its octave and thus no doubt the player is warned, and custom -enables him to restrain his breath to the correct force. The Chinese -are wonderfully methodical in their systems, but they have not in -these matters ever attained to the accuracy of practical scientific -demonstration. It should be remarked that E♭[Illustration] is the -standard of pitch according to another pipe which was described by -Amiot; and, as I have shown in my investigation, was the leading pitch -note in the system of the _Sheng_. A pipe which I had made to the -dimensions of that standard pipe, but made with organ pipe mouth, also -gave the same note; and a fourth below that is the lowest in that scale. - -The aforesaid standard pipe of the imperial archives is blown after -another fashion. It is an open pipe, and is blown at one end in such -a way that the lip of the player forms the base, corresponding to the -languid in the organ pipe, a semi-oval or V shaped piece being -cut away from the end of the pipe, over which the stream of air is -directed; the opening taking, in fact, the function of the mouth of the -organ pipe. The mode of blowing is not altogether, or peculiarly, a -Chinese method, for the Egyptian _Nay_ may be considered an approach to -similarity; but there is a little pipe found in Bolivia, in use among -the Indian Quechas, which is exactly the counterpart of the Chinese -_Lu_ pipe as regards construction, and the mode of blowing is the same. - -The little pipe is called the _Krena_; it is made of bamboo, and has -six holes, the successive opening of which gives the notes following, -the lowest being the end note of the pipe:— - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: _The Krena._ - -_Fig. 39._] - -Here is an illustration of the _Krena_; it is of one in the Brussels -Museum. Being recently in the British Museum, I lighted upon an -instrument on this principle, having two holes only, but in other -respects the same; comes from Donga in the Niger region, and is called -the _Lera_. The Japanese have a flute called the _Siaku-hachi_ which -is of this nature, and is evidently traceable to the Chinese. The fact -of a pipe cut in this particular fashion being adopted as the standard -by authority for music, and for measures, indicates a very early usage -for this kind of flute pipe; perhaps it came next in succession to the -Pan’s pipes. Indeed, I have seen some specimens of Pan’s pipes, found -with the people in the Malay Archipelago, which are double cut in this -way. - -The Rev. F. W. Galpin, the well-known enthusiastic collector of musical -instruments, possesses some of this type obtained from Indian tribes of -the North West of America, which I have heard him play as to the manner -born. The wide diffusion of this type raises curious questions of the -dispersion of races, as against that of a common instinct leading to -similar development. - -The _Tche_ is undoubtedly an instrument concerning which, both -practically and historically, a fuller knowledge is to be desired; -it involves some curious acoustical problems which would form an -interesting study. Certified as being one of the most ancient of -Chinese musical instruments, it indicates that when it first was -introduced a high degree of civilization must have been attained, and a -very keen intelligence have been directed to musical problems, before -so complete a system of relation of tones, and measurement of pipes, -could have been worked out on a fixed method. - -In the accounts received from travellers who attempt to estimate -the scales and character of the native music heard by them, we are -accustomed to find a prevalence of the minor mode always affirmed, -and the statement is generally accepted as one based upon definite -knowledge. It seems to be considered that the mournful and the -plaintive in song and in music reflect the temperament of the people, -and are its natural expression. I am inclined to question this; for I -may doubt the keenness of the observer, doubt his musical capability -of ear or mental power of analysis, may perceive a tendency of mind to -take a stand on foregone conclusions, and may not be satisfied that -the writer is competent upon the subject upon which he writes very -positively. - -Experience has shown me how frequently statements of this kind are not -borne out by facts, although the statements have been made in perfect -good faith. In this aspect there is a paper by J. F. Fillmore (an -American author) which has a peculiar significance. He made a study -of the music of the Indian tribes in America, having very special -facilities for his work; and he also harmonised many of the melodies, -with much satisfaction to the Indians. He says that,— - - In short, all melodic and harmonic resources to be found - in our music, even the most modern and advanced, are also - to be found in the primitive music of a people who have - no musical notation, no theory of music, no systematized - knowledge of it whatever. - -And then at the end we have this _naïve_ conclusion:— - - Long before the first week was over, all my preconceived - notions of the significance of the incomplete scales, and - of the importance of the plain major and minor chords as - related to acoustic problems, had wholly disappeared. - -The truth is that scales are so elusive that they may be read so as -to mean anything a system maker desires, and such scrutiny is about -as reliable as the reading of character and destiny by the systems of -astrology and palmistry. - -Chinese melodies are never definitely major or minor; are never -intended to be so. The intervals are not the same as ours, and our -notation does not express them with accuracy such as scientific -analysis requires. - -On the subject of the growth of scales my conclusions have been -previously recorded, but I think that here, at the end of the pipe -investigation, a brief repetition is desirable to impress the memory -with the special view which is of importance to the musician’s survey. - -Whether in the east the tetrachord or the pentatone had priority in -development cannot be determined, for it may well have been that both -were developed independently; I favour the idea that the pentatonic -is the rudest in character, and originated with the wilder tribes of -the east in a very primitive era, whereas the tetrachord seems by its -nature to accord with early pastoral life. I am only concerned with -the question of scales from the instrumentalist’s point of view; and I -explain the prevalence of the pentatonic scale as growing out of the -nature of the _instrument_,—first for the pipe there was one note, then -there were two, and so on. Voices and pipes imitated one another, and -the perception of the relation we call an octave seems to have been -everywhere an instinctive perception. - -I suppose it will generally be conceded that man is naturally -lazy. Well, he will not exert his voice more than is necessary for -his immediate purpose; so he takes more easily to the interval of -the fourth, for to rise to the fifth means greater effort. Place -your fingers on a pipe; the spread is not equal, there is a marked -enlargement of space between first and second fingers. If holes are -cut to correspond with this finger difference, then the result is -contrary to the pipe’s need, for nature for equal tone interval wants -the upper holes of the pipe to be nearer together: so the note turns -out to be a tone and a half higher instead of the one tone distance. -As with our keyboard, a long time passed before the thumb was brought -into recognition to do finger work; so in the pipe, the use of the -thumb was an after thought. Thus on the under side of the pipe a hole -was introduced dividing equally or unequally this wide upper interval, -itself forming another wide interval with the second note below; and -in effect an overlapping arises in the pentatonic structure whereby -the pentatone can be dissected into two tetrachords within the octave. -Sometimes the distance of the first hole from the lower end of the -pipe is greater, and makes the interval (a neuter third) appear at the -beginning or end, according as we reckon the progression. In whatever -way it may be, the pipe in the beginning made the scale. - -There are many varieties of pentatonic construction, and the wide -intervals may be in any position. Our best representative is found in -the black keys of the pianoforte. We may commence on either F♯ or C♯, -and thus vary the relations in progression of the scale. - -A plaintive character in the music of native melodies is greatly due -to the existence in the instrument of those imperfect intervals, the -three-quarter tones, and the little leaps of tones that seem to fail to -attain their aim, and never satisfy the listening ear of the European. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -In Ancient China. - -THE FAVOURITE OF CONFUCIUS. - - -The stringed instruments which are of Chinese origin are but few in -number, and they are not capable of producing any great volume of -sound. They have several forms of guitar—a “balloon guitar,” a “moon -guitar,” and an octagonal guitar. These possess four strings each, -and are fitted with frets, and are struck either by the finger nail -or by a plectrum. They have also a three stringed guitar with a long -neck, but without frets. But compared with European instruments of the -same class, they are poor and rude, both in tone and workmanship, and -scarcely seem to have advanced beyond the primitive condition as to -musical value. Similarly we notice their so-called violins, consisting -of a bowl of some kind—half a cocoanut shell, or part of a gourd, or -hollow piece of bamboo—to which a long bent neck is fitted, and with a -drum kind of top of snake-skin covering the open bowl. The bow used is -little more than a bent stick, strung as a bow is for arrow shooting. -In playing, it passes between the strings. Sometimes there are four -strings, but the most popular instrument has only two, and is almost -devoid of resonance. The wonder to us is how a people so ingenious -should have left their most popularly used instruments without -improvement in any direction. It is true that some little attempt at -decoration is made, but there is no lavishing of skill, no lifting of -the commonplace to the region of art. - -[Illustration: _Chinese Violin._ - -_Fig. 40._] - -Very different, however, is the treatment of another class of -instrument, represented by the _Ch’in_ and the _Sê_. These are -“many-stringed” and may be called oblong in shape, and many specimens -are really beautiful in ornamentation. The art worker with illimitable -patience, bestows upon them the resources of industrial skill and the -loving care of artistic designing in many coloured woods, and ivories -and lac, and metal. Perhaps because these instruments are used in -temples and palaces, and in the abodes of the great ones of the nation. -The art of playing upon them is only acquired after the devotion of -much time in learning “systems” overloaded with complicated directions, -many of them associated with allegorical meanings, inattention to which -would make the music of none effect, the “system” being as onerous as -state etiquette. - -The instruments described in an earlier chapter are classed by -the Chinese—“the stone chime” as representative of Winter, and -distinctively as stone, the first of sonorous bodies; and the “bell -chime” as belonging to Autumn, and as the second of sonorous bodies, -“metal.” The stringed instruments do not come, as we should expect, -under the heading, “wood,” but are allotted to Summer, under the -heading of “silk,” because the silk strings are the sound producers, -and silk is third in rank of natural productions. So you will see by -this how very logical the Chinese are, notwithstanding the fantastic -notions with which they embroider every kind of knowledge. The strings -are made of many strands of silk, and the numbers of the strands to -be dedicated to each particular string are stated to be subjected to -written laws. Thus, the thickest string was to have 240 threads, and -represented the sovereign; the second and fourth strings each to have -206 threads; and the third and fifth, 172 threads; and the reasons -are given for such allotments according to poetical affinities and -symbolical meanings. This essential formalism in the Chinese character -has been the hindrance to artistic, as it has been to the industrial, -development in the nation; and yet, strange to say, the rigid -injunctions which verbally still rule, are in practice, outside the -circle of authority, only nominally regarded. - -Instruments of the dulcimer class have wire strings,—brass or copper -drawn very fine: but they—although good specimens are to be seen, some -highly ornamented—are not considered national Chinese instruments, but -as in some sense foreign intruders. The dulcimers are more related -to Assyria, and in point of fact that land may be held to be their -original home. Yet, as we shall see, there has been some intimate -association with Assyria and Babylonia in very early times, for the -instrument, the _Ch’in_ or _Kin_, here illustrated, betrays in one -particular feature a resemblance which can hardly be supposed to have -arisen accidentally. - -The _Ch’in_, or scholar’s lute, is so called because it was the chief -favourite of their great law giver, Confucius. In his time it was of -great antiquity, and is frequently named in the classical works and -in the annals of the first rulers of China. It was invented by Fu Hsi -(2852, B.C.), and its name implies “restriction” or “prohibition,” -because “its influence checks the evil passions, rectifies the heart -and guides the actions of the body.” The dimensions, number of strings, -the form, and whatever is connected with the instrument, had their -principles in nature. Thus the _Ch’in_ measured 3·66 ft., or 366/10 of -an inch, because the year contained a maximum of 366 days. - -The number of the strings was five, to agree with the five elements. -The upper part was round to represent the firmament. The bottom was -flat to represent the ground. The thirteen studs stood for the twelve -moons, and the intercalary moon; and so on. - -In view of its design, it certainly, simple as it is, is a most perfect -instrument, and its simplicity is its beauty. The upper surface, from -end to end, is not round, but presents a hollow curve, being rounded -only across. But as no bridges are employed in playing the instrument, -this curve is finely laid, so that wherever the strings are pressed, -they nowhere else touch, and are free to vibrate to the pluck of the -finger. At the wide end, at the extreme length of the strings, there is -a fixed bridge, generally for all the strings, which is of solid form, -arched; behind it the strings pass through to the back, where they -are attached to the drilled wood stems, from which long scarlet silk -tassels depend. The strings do not conform to their primary limit; some -wise philosopher increased their number to seven. - -The instrument which I possess has seven strings, and I have had it -many years, as also had its former possessor; and the nacre studs are -arranged, not in the formal relation here depicted, but at distances -corresponding to the half of the string, to two thirds, to three -fourths, to four fifths, and so on. Any division of the string can, -however, be made at the pleasure of the performer, these studs serving -only as guides; for the strings are tuned at will, and kept taut only -by tying on two large pegs fixed in the back. The back, half an inch in -thickness, seems to be of camphor wood, and it still sends forth its -fragrance inherited from generations long ago. - -[Illustration: _The Ch’in or Kin_ - -_Fig. 41._] - -Now comes a curious detail in the fitness of the instrument to its -design, which I have not seen noted at all. The upper surface -consists of thin wood, black japanned, and under this a layer of -cork. It was a scholar’s lute, for meditative hours, for no other -hearers,—the playing upon it being almost in the nature of religious -exercise—secluded from the world, alone. This was Confucius’s idea of -its purpose, and it is the recorded tradition that he was so enraptured -with its tones that he could neither eat nor drink; lovesick with -melody, he lived for weeks shut up in his room listening to the music -that had a voice for him alone, and spoke only under his own fingers. - -I do not wonder that this was the favourite companion of Confucius, -especially when I reflect that with this reverend teacher, as with -Buddha, the mood of meditation was invited and sought for, as the -highest exaltation of human being. When I have chanced to while away -an hour questioning this instrument, I must confess to the fascination -that it has, how it grows upon one in an atmosphere of silence,— - - It is so quiet there; a world apart - Where none intrudes. Serenely we enclose - A sanctuary, where in silence and repose - The gentle flow of sound soothes the tired heart. - -There is a certain weirdness in the low tones that seems to tell of -depths beyond possibility of present experience; exciting a quiet -longing, heard with a listening ear for something beyond, which has -been left incomplete; full of mysterious breathing like the soft -“susurrus” of the wind dreamily stirring the leaves of the forest. If -I say it seems to suggest to me that I should like to hear a movement -from one of Beethoven’s symphonies or a Schubert’s played upon a -“consort” of these simple instruments, do not laugh—I really mean -it; for the sounds, faint as they are, gather about them an infinite -suggestiveness of the unattainable, which is the behest of the highest -music to evoke in our nature. We talk of “unheard music,” and the -cynic smiles; but we well know what we mean, and I say that this music -of the sacred _Ch’in_ is the nearest approach to,—indeed, takes us to -the very borderland of—the unheard. - -The _Sê_ is a larger instrument, is in fact the largest stringed -instrument in use among the Chinese, and had originally fifty strings. -Tradition goes that a certain professional young lady was one day -performing, and attracted the attention of the Emperor Huang Ti. The -music impressed him so sorrowfully that he forthwith ordered the number -to be reduced one half. A sensible ruler was Huang Ti. If we could -reduce our sorrows and vexations by one half on the same principle, -what a wonderful relief it would be; probably to the extent of halving -the insanity of the country. So the _Sê_ now in use has twenty-five -strings, and these are divided amongst five colours; but instead of -colouring the strings, they colour the bridges,—five blue, five red, -five yellow, five white and five black. For although the _Sê_, like -the _Ch’in_, is an instrument to be plucked, the strings are not -subjected to pressure to bring them to playing pitch; but are lifted -on to bridges, one for each string, which bridges the player places -according to judgment, to determine the various vibrating lengths under -demand. The bridges are placed in a general order, but have not a fixed -position like frets, since the tension of the string at the times of -playing can be, and is made variable; so each bridge is moved to the -point that satisfies the ear as to the particular pitch required for -each string. On removal of the bridges the strings are comparatively -slack, at all events are safely lowered in tension. - -Four kinds of _Sê_ are in use, they differ only in size, and in number -of strings, the principle being the same; and it is customary that -they should give the sound of two notes at the same time, generally -octaves, so that on state occasions no doubt the effect is imposing, -as the instruments possess considerable resonance. That which seems to -be the most permanent variety has thirteen or fourteen strings only, -quite sufficient for the modern skill and modern musical requirements. -In this form it is preserved by the Japanese, with whom it is named the -_Taki-Koto_. The example in my possession I have more than once made -mention of, and recounted some of its beauties. Its breadth is 10in., -its length 6ft. 4in., depth 1-3/4 in. The wood is nearly half an inch -thick, both the upper and the lower planks; there is no thinning of the -wood, but the upper one is made to arch over in its breadth by having -the under side of it fluted. This fluting process is marvelously well -adapted for the end in view; the thickness of the sound-board, as we -immediately recognize it, is the opposite of that which we pursue in -stringed instruments. The wood is of a beautiful mellow brown, and is -a riven plank. No plane has touched it; it remains as it was riven -from the tree, showing as it were an embossed fibre,—so clear it is, -and so purely natural. It has splendid resonance, remarked by every -hearer for lovely quality of tone. A thick silk cord is laid upon the -end-bearing bridge, and the strings set on this cord, so that the -vibration is communicated only through the moveable bridges belonging -to each string. At the ends of the cord are silk tassels of a quiet -green colour, with some strands of pale buff intermixed: all in perfect -harmony with the inlaid woods and ivories. The strings are plucked by -the aid of two little ivory plectra, shaped like a half filbert or -almond, stayed upon the fingers by a narrow band of leather: thus the -silk strings escape being affected by moisture. - -The choice of thick wood intuitively by the Chinese is a lesson in -acoustics for moderns. If we try woods of thickness with a tuning fork, -the resonance obtained is often finer than any derived from thin cut -pieces of the same. - -The sonorousness of these large instruments marks by contrast the -evident purpose of the designer of the _Ch’in_ and concerning the -latter there are yet some interesting particulars to mention to bring -its nature clearly before those who have not had an example under hand. - -We observe in old Chinese illustrations of the instrument that, for the -time of playing, the _Ch’in_ is placed upon a table, which it overlays, -so that the tassels hang down. The instrument is not allowed to touch -the table, but is supported on two soft pad rolls, so that no resonance -may be communicated or be enhanced by contact with its surface. It -is very remarkable, this layer of cork lining the upper surface, for -I have never seen it mentioned that such was the construction. My -usual curiosity prompted me to place my hand inside, and feel what the -substance of the wood was, and by the yielding to the indentation of -the finger nails I discovered that instead of being wood the material -was cork; and a most admirable subduer it is. The consequence is that -not only is the quality of tone most delicately soft, but it is devoid -of that fringe of sound, that twang which accompanies the alliance of -vibrations of wood with string when strings are plucked. - -The case of my _Ch’in_ has a painting in gold, showing ladies playing -the _Koto_. They are in the open air, seated on the ground and -evidently having a merry time. One lady is singing, another playing, -another listening, and an attendant is handing cups of tea. I cannot -tell how old this case is, but I see that the head dresses of two of -the ladies are precisely in the same fashion as the hats trimmed here -in London. Truly the world moves in circles, and old things become new. - -On grand days at the Confucian festivals, six _Ch’in_ are used at the -ceremonies of the temple, three on the east side of the hall and three -on the west. - -The _Ch’in_, though very easily played, is nevertheless a difficult -instrument to learn according to the Chinese requirements, long study -being necessary to master all the subtle distinctions which determine -how the strings should be sounded; whether for a particular note -a string should be plucked to the right or to the left, and which -strings are allowed to be sounded together; and quite a vocabulary of -instructions to learn, in order to be accomplished in an elegant style -after the dictation of the pedants and guardians of the laws. - -The strings were in ancient times tuned - - _c_——_d_——_e_———_g_——_a_———_c_——_d_ - -They are said to be in the present day tuned - - _g_——_a_———_c_——_d_——_e_———_g_——_a_ - -Whatever the tension of the strings, the little inlaid nacre studs -serve to indicate the relative divisions. They guide the player but -do not restrict him; since, if a string gets slack he can judge by -ear how much difference to make in distance,—thus shortening the -sounding length in order to obtain the pitch required for conformity -to the other strings. Also a firmer pressure on the string will -raise the pitch, and the practice is resorted to by the player as an -embellishment often desirable. - -The strings are of silk, and are set at very low tension, and are -merely pulled by the hand up to pitch and tied with an ordinary knot on -to two pegs at the back on the left hand, four grouped to one peg and -three to the other,—most primitive, but apparently quite satisfactory. -On the right hand the strings are knotted on to thick green silk cords, -each cord being threaded through a little drilled cylinder of wood in a -manner effectually preventing slip. Each of these little drilled stems -carries a scarlet silk tassel thirteen inches long. Consequently these -little ornamental cylinders serve as hitch pins for the strings; the -strings are first drawn, tightly bearing on these when set for playing, -yet slack as regards tuning, and in that state may be left when unused, -just as a violin needs to have its strings slackened when out of -immediate use. Then each string is brought to tune by ear, the cylinder -being pressed down to a right angle, at which it stays, clipping the -string downwards a quarter of an inch, and thus increasing the tension -to the degree that practice has determined to be required for playing. -After playing, the cylinder can be tipped back to the slack position. -Simple and ingenious, since silk strings, although waxed are, like -those of gut, affected by atmospheric changes, against which some -provision has to be made. - -The tasselled end of the instrument, it should be observed, is placed -to the right hand of the player. - -[Illustration: _Assyrian Harp with Plectrum._ - -_Fig. 42._] - -Why tassels? Well, these Asiatic people have a great fondness for such -ornaments. My two Japanese flutes have heavy crimson silk tassels quite -eighteen inches long. Curiously, too, we find in very early Assyrian -representation of hand harps on monumental slabs in the British Museum, -exactly the same set of tassels—seven or eight in a series—depending -from the bar upon which the strings are tied: knotted in fact to the -tassels. And thereupon we wonder what community of intercourse was -there between the ancient Assyrians and the Chinese that this same -custom should be adhered to by both people, in times so very far back: -for Fu Hsi, the inventor, ruled 4746 years ago, and the instrument, -bespeaks a very high civilization as then existing, and a refined state -of learning and philosophy. It is worth reflecting upon; a simple fancy -such as that perpetuated for well nigh fifty centuries. - -The Assyrians have passed away utterly, and the Chinese crowd the -earth, to this day reproducing the old traditional forms, the veritable -instruments decorated after inherited customs, the music limited to the -simplicity of primitive aims. No great nation was ever so barren of -monuments as the Chinese. But what monuments need they? They themselves -are the permanent archaic, and livingly represent their ancestors. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -In Ancient China. - -THE TRUMPETS OF THE CHINESE. - - -Trumpets are amongst the very earliest of musical instruments, yet -remote as is their date they throw no light on musical scales of the -period of their use. Nevertheless for their very ancientness we cannot -well pass them by without reference. Pictures of them appear in Egypt -and in Assyria, but beyond that Old Time is chary of yielding evidence. -The workers in metal in very early times undertook the fashioning of -imitations of the horns of sheep, antelopes and oxen, and thus made -they were used in primitive musical effects in relation to sovereignty -or ceremonial. How strongly the aims of all royal and priestly offices -determined the development even of the minutiæ of civilisation and -the tendencies of domestic and industrial life, we are hardly able to -appreciate with our modern notion of the individual assertiveness, -limited only by the general good of the community. So it is well that, -in considering the position of the worker, we should remember that -he worked in order to fulfil the demand or behest of the king or the -priest; for both were to him equally sacred, and often indeed in one -man the two offices were combined. - -Music may have remained with the people, as an instinct which in simple -ways found its gratification; but as an art to be cultivated it had its -beginnings to order. The musical instrument had a definite purpose to -fulfil; and, under royal or priestly guidance, so long as that purpose -was accomplished, little further thought was given to it. Under such -conditions there was the perpetual tendency to stagnation; progress was -not only unacceptable, but to the old conservatism, as in later days, -the new thing was unnecessary; since, if it were desirable, it would -have been thought of before by the proper responsible persons. Only -under such like estimate can we understand the lack of resource, the -poverty of invention, through many centuries during the sway of ancient -monarchies, as regards musical instruments. - -The possibilities of the various types of instruments, as we know them, -were unimaginable in those days; for the human ear had not so far -progressed in sensitiveness as to be able to comprehend the feeling -for tone, for colour, for range, or for expressiveness, as we by long -use have grown accustomed to and look upon almost as our heritage. -Yet how short a period has it been since anything like a collection -of instruments represented by our modern orchestra attained even a -passable mechanical development! And what are the two last centuries -we look back upon in comparison with the thousands of years during -which the primitive instruments remained in their crude, barbaric -immaturity; unimproved, and with neither want nor longing that they -should be improved! - -As instancing this blank, imperceptive state of mind and feeling, the -trumpet is very noticeable. An ancient instrument for ages: perhaps -nothing more than a ram’s horn, or horn of animal killed in the chase. -Musically, to be ranked as a tooter or hooter. Then it became in ruling -hands a means of signal: by sense of rhythm it conveyed to the hosts in -field or fortress the message that was equal to words; and in royal and -religious processions and ceremonies it communicated the intelligence -for which the countless thousands waited; to inspire them, to uplift -them in a contagious sympathy of exultation, or to bow them to the -ground in common feeling of awe or adoration. When wealth accumulated, -the pomp of ceremony increased. Then came the worker in metal, copying -the product of nature, yet not venturing much beyond it. - -The old monarchies of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, with their tablets -and monuments and paintings, afford no evidence of a stage of musical -advance from the early horn; and we have but to contrast the wide -range of our trumpet with the few notes producible on a cow’s horn, to -recognise how, in the absence of higher aim inciting to achievement -which we call art, the dormant possibilities of a marvellous instrument -should have been unevoked: empires passed away, and the trumpet -remained a horn. Do not be mystified by a misconception to which words -may lead. The horn as we know it was an unknown thing in those far -away times; its quality of tone not approached even, nor its chief -constructive feature identified. The ram’s horn is the original parent -of both trumpets and horns, and in the consideration of type belongs -to that of trumpets more specifically. The shape of the _mouthpiece_ -of the trumpet determines the character of the instrument, and the old -horns present only the same shallow cup. It is a matter to be noted how -comparatively recent is the long, conical form of mouthpiece absolutely -essential as it is to the quality of tone as we have it in the French -horn used in our orchestras. - -As seen in the Assyrian and Egyptian forms, the bell is evidently an -added piece of funnel shaped metal, the first departure from the animal -form; afterwards in the progress of music the shape was expanded with -perception of its importance, until at last the bell became a marked -configuration of symmetry associated with quality of tone, refined, -penetrating, and sonorous. We have the old form still preserved to us -in our fog horns, and some ancient horns of the town in our market -place. In old Greek and Roman times some of the trumpets depicted -possess very beautiful outlines; but there is nothing to indicate any -great advance in musical evolution, and it scarcely seems probable -that even then the production of harmonic notes went much beyond those -common to the old trumpet horns. For an extended scale, much greater -length than any we see given would be necessary: else the harmonic -series could not be built up. Our old coach horn would about represent -the limit of the musical value attained; gradually, however, longer -tubes came to be used, and variety in shape and purpose awakened the -perceptive faculty to the possibilities of higher things. - -Yet how strangely dull is human inventiveness, unless the ideal -aspiration precedes the routine of the worker, unless handicraft is -stimulated by demand going before, of “saying give me the power to -accomplish more; feed my ambition.” So we traverse the course of long -ages, finding it barren of improvements. - -[Illustration: _The Hwangteih._ - -_Fig. 43._] - -[Illustration: _The Haot’ung._ - -_Fig. 44._] - -The Chinese furnish a remarkable instance of a nation inventive yet -stagnant; for although this people had the prototypes of almost -everything that with Europeans has become of infinite value to -modern civilization, the Chinese made nothing of them in practical -development. Midway in time—how, when, and where, there is no -information to guide us—the Chinese suddenly evolve a new thing, -a telescope trumpet, a slide trumpet, the latent principle of the -trombone; yet nothing came of it in their hands: it does not seem even -to have been devised for any musical aim, nor to have a purpose beyond -convenience. - -The two trumpets here illustrated, called _Hwangteih_ by some -authorities, but by Van Aalst (that of the pattern we should in a -modern house take to be a hearth broom) is named _Haot’ung_; but -really Chinese names have such a never changing likeness that they are -as difficult to distinguish as Chinese faces; and as for remembering -them, my advice is, Do not try. These trumpets are on the sliding tube -system. The _Hwangteih_ is in three parts, and the _Haot’ung_ in two -parts, the first named being of very slender dimensions; the latter is -often made of wood covered with copper, but when for military use it -is of copper only. And here we should notice the feature peculiar to -all trumpets in these Eastern lands, the extremely shallow disc like -mouthpiece, with only the faintest indication of a cup,—throughout -India, Burmah, Siam, and in fact the whole Asian regions contiguous. -The effect of a shallow cup is the easier production of high, shrill -notes; and it may be that the lip muscles are in these races thin and -tense, the expanse of the disc merely exercising pressure, leaving only -a minute portion of the lips for vibration equal to the diameter of the -very narrow aperture entered by the stream of wind. The actual force -and vigour of the breath would thus have a more predominant influence -than any calculated variation of the lip muscles by will. The whole -character of the music which satisfies these semi-civilized people -seems to corroborate such a view. Shrillness and ear piercing intensity -were the effects aimed at. - -These trumpets are made in several sizes; but as the proportions differ -from those which we find necessary for full harmonic development, it -does not appear that more than three or four notes are obtained by -ordinary playing. The globular ornaments upon the tubes serve the same -purpose as they do in European instruments, they enable the player to -press the tube to his lips with strength; and evidently the notion is -a very old one,—showing us how little is really modern. It is curious -too that years ago in the British Museum I found a little bronze statue -of a trumpeter of the Roman period, the trumpet being shaped at the end -like the _Hao-t’ung_. At the time I wondered at the singularity, trying -to find out some meaning and purpose in such configuration, but was -baffled; and it is only in the presence of the Chinese instrument that -one sees in it a survival of an Asian original type brought by Greek or -Roman into Europe after far Eastern incursions. - -The _Hwang-teih_ and the _Hao-t’ung_ are reserved for marriage and -funeral ceremonies, in which they have a formal part assigned to -them; but it is chiefly for the marking of time or progress in the -ceremony. Some authors say that the _Hao-t’ung_ is only used in funeral -functions, and that it gives a grave befitting note, prolonged and -wailing. - -The _La-pa_ is another trumpet with telescope slide, and is, one would -suppose, the most modern of the three. It is the military trumpet, -and it gives four notes, differently estimated by different writers. -It is singularly like the ancient Roman Lituus, and I conceive it -probable that the players were in advance of the procession, and that -the return curve of the bell was made with the intent that the sounds -or signals should be thrown backward for the better hearing by the -hosts following. The itinerant knife-grinders are stated, by ancient -privilege, to be accustomed to use the trumpet to proclaim their -calling in the streets. - -[Illustration: _The La-pa._ - -_Fig. 45._] - -Of the drums used by the Chinese, little need be said; drums are much -alike all the world over. The Chinese have them of great size, and as -large as five feet in in diameter. They are highly ornamented. Various -sizes are ordained to be used in the Confucian temple, each with some -specially allotted service; thus one placed on the Moon Terrace is -struck six times at the end of each verse, giving two beats in answer -to three beats of the larger drum. So orderly is everything arranged -and traditionally kept up. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 46._ - -_The Yü or Tiger._] - -There is one instrument—the _Yü_—so singular and original in character, -that it is worth serious consideration whether it would not be well to -introduce it into our orchestra, to further the Wagnerian development -of the music of the future. We have great use in our day for triangles -and cymbals, but they cannot reach the effect produced by the _Tiger_, -a Chinese picture of which is here given. The animal is somewhat -idealised, it must be admitted; almost as much so as permitted in a -photograph. Mark the singularly fascinating expression of the face -embodying pain, possibly torture; and then the reposeful attitude of -the tail; the whole figure symbolising the two conditions under which -music exists. In the musical scheme of the Chinese the normal state of -the animal is quiescent, but its voice is indispensable to the winding -up of the finale. You see that the _Tiger_ rests upon a resonant box, -about three feet long and twenty inches or so wide; and it has on its -back twenty-seven teeth, neither more nor less—an elaborate mystical -engarnishment much resembling a saw. - -At the end of the grand Confucian Hymn performed in the presence of the -Emperor and all his Court, attended by his feather-swinging dancers, -the chief officer assigned to this service strikes the _Tiger_ on -the head three times; three fateful knocks (thus let it be noticed -anticipating Beethoven’s ominous device). Then with a vigorous swish -he passes his stick three times along the projections on the _Tiger_’s -back to announce the end of the strophe; three weird screeches are -heard succeeding each other (to the great delight of Straussians) rapid -as flashes of lightning, and in a hideous screech the scene ends. - -And,—the Emperor retires. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -The Music Heard in Far Cathay. - -THE OLDEST WRITTEN MUSIC. - - -Wherever man is molested by dreams of the night, there, in every land, -will be found some form of pacification of the spirits of the dead, -that they may not cause harm to survivors in the land of the living. -The earliest form is generally by conjuration, by magical aid, and then -the mind grown bolder as the years advance, resorts to threats, and the -invocation of curses upon the unfortunate dead should he not hear and -heed; the stage that follows is the intercessory stage when some one is -brought in to render service, one who knows all the powerful magic of -ceremony to compel the spirits, and who making it a special work, is -paid for undertaking the responsibility of pacifying the spirits at due -times and seasons. The person thus called in to render service, whether -known to the people of the tribe as witch, magician, medicine man, or -priest or priest-king, became, in this order necessary and inevitable -in the growth of a civilized life. As the centuries progressed the -secret ceremonies were exalted into pageants, and later took the form -recognised as “Ancestor Worship,” the shifting grades of which over -the known world are innumerable. From various causes familiar to the -student of history, Ancestor Worship, which had its origin as a private -arrangement, was at length transformed into a public function of the -highest importance, with elaborate ceremonials and ritual observances, -wherein such music as was possessed by the people naturally held a -predominant influence. - -The Chinese worship “the Spirit of Heaven” and “the Spirit of -Earth,” and in their earlier times having no priest, they delegated -the heavenly part of the observances to their Emperor, and busied -themselves only with the earthly cares, and made the “worship” of their -own particular ancestors the chief of their investments; so onerously -does this observance press upon them that their outlay often beggars -them, the observance has a superstitious hold upon the race, seems to -be strong as heredity, ineradicable. We may smile at the Chinese, but -have we not rife in our own population, superstition equally strong -regarding fortune-telling and charms and palmistry, and the deeply -ingrained belief in the virtue of fine funerals. - -The chief duty imposed upon the Emperor is that of rigidly observing -the traditionally prescribed ceremonies of “The Worship of Ancestors” -at which the greatest display of Chinese music, with full orchestra -is made, everything connected therewith being minutely regulated; the -number of musicians, of dancers, of instruments, of vases, and all -kinds of music and genuflexions, and even words rigorously fixed. -Dancing was also associated with the music as equally sacred; in -ancient times it held a conspicuous place in worship, having been first -introduced into the ceremonies by the Emperor Shun, 2255 B.C. - -We read that in “the Chinese Classics” a great Duke of one of the Royal -Dynasties, TAN FOO, who lived 1325 B.C., is written of, and in the -ode it is related among other things that “he charged his Minister of -Instruction with the building of the houses and the Ancestral Temples.” -By this confirming the antiquity of Ancestor Worship at a date, far off -as old Egyptian dates, when customs, so similar, existed. - -The great age of the Chinese Classics is undoubted, and Mr. Simcox says -even “the most recent document in the Shoo-King belongs to the seventh -century B.C., and of the famous ‘Bamboo Books’ that ‘the annals of the -Bamboo Books’ may rank with the Babylonian Chronicles in authority.” -These books were found after they had been buried 600 years in the -grave of King Seang of Wei, who died 295 B.C. His choicest treasures, -entombed with him according to ancient custom, of which we were -reminded by the recent find of the royal chariot of bronze and gilded -ornaments in the Tomb of Thotmes IV. - -Ancient Chinese texts were _printed_ as early as 593 B.C. In a report -by Imperial order at the beginning of our era, the royal library held -165 collections of books on Music, from sixteen different editors. - -My habit is to secure dates, knowing them to be of utmost value in an -enquiry such as this. For a due estimate of the relation of Chinese -music to that of other early nations it is well that you should -compare these with the dates occurring in the previous chapters. Not -a shred of knowledge exists of recorded music of Egypt or Babylonia, -the earliest Greek example, the Delphic marble, dates from the third -century B.C. In all countries no doubt certain folk-tunes exist by -tradition of centuries, may be of ages, which ultimately are set down -and put into modern notation. - -In China the music of the past was looked after by “The Sect of the -learned” and the responsibility for authenticity rested with the -Emperor, who by dynastic right was chief of the Sect. - -The Chinese attribute to an unknown antiquity the music performed at -their great Confucian celebrations, and it may well be that this music -is the oldest written music in the world. - -Some musically-minded folk have besought me for specimens of Chinese -music, wanting to see how it looks. This demand I cannot supply, for -Chinese type would be necessary and Chinese compositors; moreover it -would not enlighten, would to us look as columns of hieroglyphs. - -This is a bit of Chinese ritual music. It is called the Guiding March, -and is played by two _Sheng_, four other instruments also in pairs, two -drums, and two pair of castanets. The music is played when the emperor, -with the princes, dignitaries, and attendants, passes the second gate -to enter the temple. The circles and dots at the side of several of the -notes are signs that the drums and castanets are to sound. As you would -not understand the march by the Chinese symbols, I have done it into -English, and you have to read from the top of the right hand column, -and then down each column beyond in succession—the gaps only indicate -the holding on longer of the note preceding:— - - |go.|Do |co.|A |C. |a |d | - | | |a | |ao |co |d. | - | | |co.|go | |d |a | M - | |Co |d |f. |d |co |co | A - | |ao.|co |D |co |a |d | R - | |C |a. |Co.|a | | | C - | |Do.| |ao |co.|go | | H - | |C |go | |d |f |d. | - | |ao.|f. |d. |co.|D |co | - -The small letters are notes within the treble and the capitals for -notes below it. Looks like a very early anticipation of tonic sol-fa. -If you write this down on the treble stave you soon become proficient -in Chinese scoring,—that is, provided you translate the Chinese -characters correctly, and comprehend also the multitude of little signs -used in addition, which to the native are easy of recognition. - -I take up a little book that I have of Japanese songs and open it, -beginning at the end, which with them is the commencement, and it -looks, as I scan the page, very much the same in fashion as the English -columns which I have set up before you. The characters are printed in -black, and the signs in vermilion, on a beautiful silkworm paper that -glistens with silvery sheen like a cocoon, and has impressed lines -separating each column of characters; and each page is as a double -page without inner margins, six columns to a page. Strange to say, -the little book, although it measures only six inches by two inches -and five eighths, is quite six feet long, for it folds backwards and -forwards after the fashion of the child’s Jacob’s ladder. And this is -the little book that a little Japanese maiden will take out of her -sleeve and therewith caress her thoughts with music, opening it to -and fro as her fancy leads her, and perhaps finding there her song of -songs, where hiddenly folding there, too, may be felt some flower token -that she cherishes for remembrance, even as we treasure crushed pansies -and violets. Be sure, the nature that we call human nature is much the -same all the world over; in one land it is but a variant of that which -it is in another. The love songs as usual come first in interest, and -occupy a large share in the national music, both of Japan and China; -but sentiment expends itself in many ways. One song is entitled the -“Haunts of Pleasure,” it is an early composition and a still popular -work, the theme of which is ever new in London as in Kyoto and Peking. -Then in due course sentiment displays itself in nuptial songs and in -songs of domestic life,—life, its comedies, tragedies, and what not; -and then in funeral odes and lamentations. I notice how old the custom -is of giving one or two lines of song for the voice, followed by an -interlude for orchestra. - -The ritual music of the Chinese is held to rest upon tradition mainly -for its due performance, as there are no distinguishing signs for time -and movement, and little or no attempt at expression; indeed, all -meaning is left to be shown by the attitude of the singers, and what we -should call theatrical movement. - -All their music is, in fact, subordinated to the vocal performer, -singer, or reciter; for dancing is with them as much a religious -function as it was to the tribes of Israel in the days of Miriam or -David. The singing as always in unison, or attempted unison, relieved -occasionally by a few fourths. For of harmony they have no idea; no -feeling for it. These people have no conception of the purpose of an -orchestra, as we understand it. The Chinese orchestra is merely a -combination of instruments which for ceremonial use alternate with the -vocal music, each instrument having its allotted place for sounding -at the end of some strophe or line of the hymn, and comes in much as -our snatches of instrumental melody or harmony in recitative. There -is generally some mystic reference understood by the hearers, as -well as the indication of the particular point reached in the ritual -ceremony; such as is conveyed, for instance, in the Catholic service -when bells are sounded a precise number of times, or when at certain -places only is the organ allowed to be heard. So with the Chinese, only -at a certain stage of the progress of the ceremony are the stringed -instruments ordered to play, and at another only the wind instruments, -and at others the instruments of percussion of which they have so many -varieties,—drums and chimes, gongs and cymbals, castanets and tambours, -and tigers. The music exists for the ceremony; not for itself. - -The popular love of music is displayed everywhere in daily life, -bands of musicians parade the streets, all the domestic festivals -are celebrated with music, and children in their play are constantly -singing. Girls are taught to play the moon-shaped guitar, and the -balloon-shaped, and the three-stringed guitar, whilst they sing the -ballads which the Chinese say are thousands of years old. - -The singing is very peculiar, being a kind of singsong extremely -nasal; so little have the lips to do with the enunciation that it can -hardly be called vocalisation. This we find almost everywhere the -characteristic of barbaric song; the savage and the semi-civilised -seldom get beyond a high pitched nasal chant. Yet, when civilisation -has progressed, the strong conservative instinct remains, and this same -twang is a delicious indulgence, and a sign of long descent and high -breeding. I am told by those who have had the experience, that the only -opportunities of hearing the natural voice of the Chinese and Japanese -in singing are when groups of workmen are starting off to work, or when -soldiers are passing; and then some good musical effect is produced in -unison, the singers joining in their quaintly sounding and well known -melodies, which have been handed down for generations. No decent, -self-respecting, or respectability-loving Chinese would condescend to -the vulgarity of singing in the natural voice: they use invariably -falsetto, emitted mostly through the nose, the mouth almost shut. Male -and female alike cultivate this evidence of gentility. - -The music of the hymn in honour of “The Most Holy Ancient Sage -Confucius” is very interesting when we consider the time during which -it has been preserved and handed down, and the national importance -attached to it. It is performed twice a year with great pomp on the -“lucky days” chosen for the worship of Confucius and the spirits of -departed sages in the spring and autumn of each year. Superstition -assigns to the music a particular keynote, in which the hymn is to -be sung, according to the month of the moon; so that in the second -month the _lu_ is _chia-chung_, and in the eighth month the keynote is -_nan-lu_. - -This is the first strophe of the hymn to Confucius which they play. - -[Illustration] - -That is to say, it is as near as our notation can give it. See also -page 151 ante for concluding strophe. - -It is called the “Sacrificial Hymn to Confucius,” the altar being -loaded with offerings of meats, grain, fruits, wine, silk, spices and -incense. A characteristic of Chinese worship is the firm inculcated -belief that the spirits in whose honour a ceremony is performed descend -from heaven to receive the offerings prepared for them. - -The hymn has six stanzas, divided to accompany the ceremonial stages, -thus,— - - 1. Receiving the approaching Spirit. - 2. First presentation of offerings. - 3. Second presentation. - 4. Third and last presentation. - 5. Removal of the viands. - 6. Escorting the Spirit back. - -As in Old Chaldea, the people of that vast valley of Mesopotamia, and -from far up in Assyria, crowded their dead to Erech, their primitive -home, and the burial place of all their race; century after century all -who could do so sent their dead down the great river ways to repose -near the mouth of the Euphrates, to Erech the sacred city of the dead. -The dying trusted their kinsfolk to do this last duty. Even to-day the -Chinaman will take his coffin and perhaps a small handful of earth with -him, when he leaves his country for Australia or California, and looks -to some of his kin to send him home when he dies in a foreign land, and -they perform the trust, labelling their countryman’s coffin “dry goods” -to get him home at the cheapest rate. - -This worship of ancestors is not only the chief feature of the Chinese -religion; it pervades the daily life of millions, and is believed in -with a strength of sentiment and in a way which we find it difficult -to comprehend. Yet, as we know, ancestor worship is perpetuated with -us to this day,—witness “Almanac de Gotha,” and “Debrett’s Peerage.” -Oddly enough comes slipping into my memory a reminiscence of a day -long past, hearing of an old dame I knew saying to her grandson: “Ah, -Willie, my boy, if your father had only married Miss B—— instead of -your mother; your life would have been very different; you might have -been riding in a carriage.” And she, poor simple old soul, she wondered -why the laugh went round. Yes, the “might have been” is a haunting idea -from which few altogether escape in life. Would you know my thought? -I was thinking that had I lived in antique times—and some would say, -how know you that you did not so live?—then verily I should have been -irresistibly impelled to the worship of one’s ancestors, and should -have comprehended how it entered into the heart and the conscience, -and with music and symbolism set up a real and binding obligation not -to be gainsaid; instead of which I am drawn to worship the offspring -of somebody else’s ancestors, and find that to be the greater mystery. -Ah, me! what a queer topsyturveydom civilization brings about. Did -you ever ever try to get behind a child’s mind, to see into the inner -recesses of its realistic consciousness? Watch the little girl with her -favourite inanimate doll, how she holds important serious conversations -with her; how the doll has to be good, attentive to her lessons, -dressed and undressed, with a most serious belief in its participations -in eating and drinking and playing day after day. What if no words come -in response; if the food prepared is not eaten? The belief suffers -nothing; the little lady will supply the fitting speeches in reply, -and will eat up the offerings of sweets herself. Yes, the bewitching -creature will go on believing. She lives in a world of lunacy all her -own, with which our bigger world has nothing to do; and unless we can -become as little children, it passes our understanding. This is the -stage of mind at which the Chinese stay—checked, undeveloped. The -development of the mind of the child life that is growing around our -feet we watch with never-failing interest, well knowing that childish -things will be put away, and its illusionary world will fade and be as -a world of dream. Yet the future of the Chinese we cannot so interpret -by any signs of the present outlook, nor imagine how many centuries -must pass before their minds can be fitted to work in parallel grades -with European thought and culture. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -Evolution of the Lyre, Harp, and Lute. - -THE BOW WITH THE BOAT. - - -Art is always the superfluous. Food and shelter are the first -necessaries, they drive man into direct courses of activity; he becomes -a fruit gatherer, a hunter in forests, a hut builder, or cave dweller; -his intelligence prompts him to the making of bows and to using of -arrows, and this is an advance in mechanical perception; beyond the -mere force of darts or spears in this new aid to his strength. After -his chief wants are satisfied he has leisure, and his instinct, after -rest, is towards activity of some kind, and what he does then is -pass-time. To please himself, that is the object of his exertion, -willingly he undergoes much to this end. - -The man who first fixed a second string to his bow began the art of -making stringed instruments of music. In the chase this second string -is of no use to him. He put it there solely for his pleasure. Many a -morn preparing his bow for the chase, many an eve, ere setting it -aside unstrung, he has “heard the tense string murmur,” has listened -and the sound has pleased him; it is the voice of the string; a chance -wish comes into his quiet mood, and from desire to gain another sound, -he adds another string to please him more. - -The beginning of a lyre is in the bow; but something beyond is needed -for the endurance of the sounds, and the aid required is found in -the boat allied with the bow. When the hunter came down from the -mountains and the dark forests, into the vast fertile valleys of the -great rivers, he naturally turned his industry to cultivation of the -land, and here, amongst the water-courses set himself to the task of -constructing boats, that he might go hither and thither. Perhaps the -bark of old fallen trees prompted his first ventures, or as native -races do at this day, he made a boat of papyrus stems, plaiting -them together; the flowering ends of the stalks closely gathered -up, naturally curved forming the prow, and in this way, leaving the -after portions to be spread out, filled in between a floor of reeds -in such a fashion as would produce a floating raft, or a carrying -vessel capable of bearing him and the produce he would convey upon the -waters. Singularly enough this simple craft presents an appearance that -may have furnished the idea of a prow. The prow is so persistent a -feature in the build of ancient vessels, that possibly its ornamental -retainment maybe due to the early rudimentary possession. - -Sir Harry Johnston saw this kind of papyrus boat in Uganda, floating -on a little lake in the forest, making so pretty a picture that he -photographed it. - -Trees were hollowed by burning out the interior, long before tools had -been devised, and the next suggested stage would be when young trees -riven, yielded planks that could be bent into form for boat-building. -Soon after he had attained this mastery we should find that the -original cave-dweller became in course of time a boat dweller. Thus we -imagine it happened that the earliest lyre took the form of a boat, or -rather of a half-boat, the dwelling half, roofed or covered in, wherein -the family lived mainly, as has been the immemorial custom in the great -river regions—a custom existing even to this day. The skill acquired in -developing the lines in boat-building was precisely the skill that was -applied to equal advantage in lyre-building, and thus the sounds were -housed. - -To understand aright the process of evolution I think it very desirable -that the imagination should have free play, and take us into the -scenery and into the time in which it was going on, and if we can, by -any chance glow of fancy, get the very atmosphere about us. - -The earliest lyre of which we have any representation is the -three-stringed lyre. Such a lyre is seen at page 13, the same as was -slung on the mast of Queen Hatasu’s ship that she sent to the coast of -Arabia. - -Next in advance is the four-stringed lyre of the same pattern. In the -British Museum there are two ancient examples of these. (_Fig. 47_). -They usefully make clear the construction. The upper figure shews the -complete instrument; the lower figure shews the interior part of the -construction, the skin or parchment covering of the top of the boat -being absent. The framework was covered over with thin wood or with -skin, lizard skin for choice. Some illustrations of examples of this -kind of lyre show that the end of the bow where the pegs are inserted, -was cut to receive the strings, exactly as in later ages in violins. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 47._] - -This summer at Burlington House, Mr. Garstang exhibited a five-stringed -lyre of this pattern which in his exploration he had recovered from one -of the tombs at Beni-Hassan, which had not been in daylight for more -than three thousand years. The strings naturally had perished long ago. - -In the earliest times after the Egyptians had begun to depict the -incidents of their daily life, and to make record of their nation’s -history on the walls of tombs and temples, we find three distinct -types of musical stringed instruments possessed by them; sometimes the -representations of these are given in relief carved in stone, sometimes -incised only and painted. Not decoration but history their minds were -set upon; each man who had power held his own individual history to be -of supreme importance, and thus there has been left to us a picture -book of priceless veracity. - -In the times when these pictures were made they already had the -instruments in a high state of development, say from 4000 to 6000 -years ago, and we are left to guess how long a course of time must have -been necessary before from the primitive rude state they could have -reached the perfected state the paintings disclose to us. - -To make clear the way of evolution I recognise but three types, and -class these as,— - - 1. The boated lyre; half-boat form. - 2. The cross-bar lyre; a two-horned form. - 3. The lute; paddle form. - -The boated lyre preserves always the hollow shape and form of half a -boat covered in, and is built up in planks or ribs, and the strings are -bow-strung and strained from point to point. - -[Illustration: _Upright Lyre (half boat)._ - -_Fig. 48._] - -The shape is seen in many of the representations of the larger boats -used at the time. Two of these harps laid lengthwise together, joined -at the thickest part, will give the shape I refer to, showing by -comparison how naturally evolved. - -[Illustration: _Harp from the Tomb of Rameses III._ - -_Fig. 49._] - -Harps are indeed lyres of larger growth, and in the reign of Rameses -the Third had attained their full development, as seen in the grand -painting in the tomb at Thebes discovered by the famous traveller -Bruce; posterity, has given it the name of Bruce’s harp. In Sir Gardner -Wilkinson’s wonderful storehouse of knowledge on Egyptian things, -large full-page delineations are given of this and its companion harp. -Musicians frequently remark upon the absence of a front pole, their -impression being that consequently the tension of the strings must have -been so weak that the tone would be dull and ineffective; this however -is an impression only, a practical acquaintance with woodworking and -bending elastic ribs to shape, would reveal a high state of resistance -particularly effective for the purposes of resonance, and would fully -justify the old Egyptian craftsmen in their choice. - -Many of their harps had from ten to seventeen strings and some even -twenty-one and twenty-two. - -The harps were frequently the heighth of a man; they were painted -tastefully with lotus and other flowers, and richly ornamented and -inlaid. The tuning was by means of pegs, sometimes two rows of pegs are -shewn. There were long slit holes at the back for giving freedom to the -air, exactly as found in modern harps. - -No instance has been found of harp with supporting pole or pillar. The -strings were always of gut. One harp has been discovered with strings -which though they had been buried more than 3000 years still sounded on -being touched. A curiously formed harp is shewn in the Paris collection -having twenty-one strings, or places for strings, enough left to -exhibit a manner of tying the strings (see enlarged design of this mode -given on next page). - -That the style had a vogue is evident since another example exists in -the Leyden collection, though less complete in condition; the framework -still retains the fine green colour as originally painted. Sometimes -the woodwork was covered with leather, green or red. This instrument -is built five sided in section, and at the back has three sound holes. -The resonance should be very strong. The string-bar is well supported -by its double bearings and for the kind of music demanded, I should -not consider that the tuning would be of the difficulty some writers -suppose. - -[Illustration: _The Paris Lyre._ - -_Fig. 50._] - -As the boated lyre betokens a river influence, so the lyres of Class -II. indicate a pastoral origin, and this is well portrayed in the -Egyptian painting discovered by Sir Gardner Wilkinson in a tomb at -Beni-Hassan. It is a painting representing the arrival of strangers -in Egypt, and one portion of it introduces a lyre having six strings, -the man holding it in the primitive fashion, and playing it with the -plectrum, he is preceded by an ass bearing a burden. - -The true origin is undoubtedly Asiatic, it came, perhaps, by way of -Arabia into the central Nile region, and the parent form is best shown -in the illustration next following (_Fig. 52_). In this shape it has -existed from time immemorial, and down to the present it is found in -use by native tribes, in Nubia, Ugandi, Abysinnia, and other regions. -Sir Harry Johnston, in his splendid work on Uganda, gives a picture of -a native, a Kavibondo, playing this same kind of lyre, eight-stringed. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 51._] - -He also gives an illustration of a native Mbuba playing on a strung -bow, and holding the string between his teeth thrumbing it the while -(he by frequently altering the shape of the mouth-cavity varied the -sounds to agree with the changing resonance), in fact, making a jew’s -harp of it, which is a singular confirmation of the view I take, -tracing the origin of stringed instruments to the bow. - -[Illustration: _The Kissar._ - -_Fig. 52._] - -The picture of a _Kissar_ here given is taken from a fine specimen -presented to the South Kensington Museum by the late Viceroy of Egypt, -it has strings of camel gut, and a plectrum made of horn, which is -used alone or associated with the fingers. All harps it should be -remembered are, as occasion may require, subject to the use of one hand -for damping the strings, which else would continue sounding too long -for the right effect in the performance of the music. - -From a rude instrument of this kind the true Greek lyre was in course -of time evolved. I trace the intermediate stages still by the banks of -the Nile. They call it in Nubia the _Kisirka_, and by other kindred -names in the heart of Africa. That the bar slants is particularly a -feature to be noticed, and that the tops of the uprights or horns pass -through this bar. The construction of the sounding body is arranged -in a square form as of a stretching framework of reeds or rods, and -is covered by a skin usually. In fact the frame suggests to me the -coracle or fishing punt, seen in the sculptured slabs from Assyria and -Babylonia. The idea of the instrument may be originally based upon a -shallow coracle, the supporting seat in the interior affording fixture -for the uprights, in the same way as we have seen in boats. (_Fig. 47_). - -One of these slabs contains representations of three players upon harps -having the same slant bar for the strings, the particular utility of -which is in its enabling players to tune the strings by pushing them -higher up, or pressing them a little lower in position, thus changing -the tension as they desired for the pitch of any string, a method which -we find was retained in Egypt during long periods. - -The slab from which this illustration is taken is one recovered from -the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal at Nimroud. The slabs possessed by the -British Museum date some of them as far back as 875 B.C., so that they -are not nearly so old as the Egyptian pictures, although the character -is apparently more archaic. Nevertheless the Babylonian Antiquities -range back to dates almost as ancient, that is to 4500 B.C. So that -there is justification for the belief that these harps were in use in -that region in a very remote period, the relics whereof have perished; -soil, and climate, and custom, have been favourable to the preservation -of relics telling of the musical instruments of past life in Egypt -from earliest times, advantages which Babylonia had not. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 53._] - -At the hands of the Egyptian the instrument soon took a refined -ornamental form (_Fig. 54_), whilst still retaining its particular -slant bar, and the horizontal method of holding, and the plectrum to -sound it by. This is generally considered to be “_the magadis_,” but -I do not see it so. I see only a square sounding box, with ornamental -lines, but no pressure bar additional. More will be found upon -“_magadizing_” further on. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 54._] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 55._] - -The next transition undergone proves to be one of great importance and -significance in history, the old method is discarded, and an upright -position adopted (_Fig. 55_), the fingers of both hands being brought -into use as in the larger lyres of the boat type. Thus the two styles -are brought into accordance also, the performers benefitting by the -change. Likewise we should notice that the number of the strings has -increased to eleven or twelve, and there is a constant tendency in this -direction, so that lyres become hand harps, light and portable, yet -having many strings. - -[Illustration: _The Berlin Lyre._ - -_Fig. 56._] - -In the Marbles from the North West Frieze of the Parthenon at the -British Museum, harps of this kind are represented, and are seen -carried in the same way as in _Fig. 55_; though the remains are -fragmentary the lyres are still clearly standing out in relief, and -close beside them the flutes, and though but little of the carving of -these remains, yet looked at from beneath, the under cut plainly shews -that the flutes are double flutes as I mentioned earlier (_page 75_). - -This pattern was further improved, artists exercised their skill in -new designs, decorative, and constructive, the greater fulness of the -sounding body of the instrument augmenting the sounds in like degree. - -Fortunately two complete specimens are existing, one in the Berlin, the -other in the Leyden collection, is perfectly preserved with exception -of the strings. Here places for 13 strings are shewn. The body of the -instrument is of thin wood and is ten inches high, the total height -being two feet. The air holes are at the bottom of the lyre. - -The Lute is a very distinct type and equally ancient, except that -we may infer it to have arisen after the Boated and the Bar types, -inasmuch as it bespeaks a higher order of skill and intelligence that -comprehends and grasps a musical system; the design of the instrument -was conceived accidentally perhaps, but the idea of obtaining a series -of sounds from proportional measurements upon one string was an advance -in the mechanics of music making. - -I distinguish Class III. as of the lute form or the paddle form, -originating maybe, in association with the coracle, used by the man to -move himself about in water-courses and lakes in his daily business of -fishing. The coracle, exactly like those of ancient British build, is -depicted on the Babylonian slabs. - -The Egyptian name for this lute is the _Nefer_, so ancient is the -_Nefer_ that it is found in paintings in tombs of the VI. dynasty, B.C. -2000. - -Many paintings show this little instrument, it is small and flat, is -from three to four feet in length, and has from two to five strings, -and always this form suggestive of its paddle origin; the pole, called -by us a long neck, has at the top pegs which are turned to bring -the strings into tune; the instrument is played with the plectrum. -Sometimes it is shown played with the fingers only. Often we meet with -the statement that the _Nefer_ finger-board had frets, but I am myself -not quite satisfied upon this point, because the lines that in black -and white look like frets, yet when inspected in the large coloured -fac-simile productions given by Rosellini and others, appear as -nothing other than lines of the decorative patterns inlaid on the flat -finger-board. - -[Illustration: _The Nefer supported by a silk band._ - -_Fig. 57._] - -That such fancy designings should be a guide to the player seems very -probable, but I do not think that the idea of a raised fret had then -arisen; in later times there is no question that frets were adopted -when precise relations of pitch were sought for in the closer study of -the art of playing. In their rudest form pieces of camel gut are tied -on the neck to act as frets. - -[Illustration: _Dancer with the Nefer._ - -_Fig. 58._] - -It is still a vexed question whether the Egyptians required, from -even their many stringed harps, anything more than certain runs -or conventional sequences of tones, little simple tunes that were -traditionally retained, and reiterated rhythms, or possessed the -knowledge of harmony as a science, and used their instruments in -pursuance of aims to produce effects of sound regulated by laws based -upon science. They had a great variety of instruments we know, and that -the fingers of both hands were used to pluck the strings of the harps, -and it seems hard to deny such a claim to a people so skilful and -intelligent. Mr. W. Chappell strenuously insisted that the Egyptians -understood and practiced harmony, and some other writers support the -claim. The most learned authorities take the adverse view and say that -nothing yet discovered by investigation warrants such a supposition. -All that can be conceded is that the simple consonances of two sounds -were known and practised. The present state of Asiatic nations tells -very plainly that a large number of instruments may be used in -combination without, through the course of ages, any idea of harmony -being evolved. The Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese Orchestras are a -standing witness of this fact in the history of human races. - -A little cane harp, used by the natives of Borneo I believe, came into -my possession many years past, and is probably nearly a century old. -This simple instrument shows how easily satisfied the ear is with -pleasing sounds when the people have continued in an early stage of -civilization, and still represent the primitive state of nations that -have passed away. The harp is 13-1/2 inches by 9, and is constructed of -pieces of cane, 29 in number, lashed together raft-fashion. The strings -are formed of the outer silicious layer of the cane; a double incision -is made on the surface of each rod to within an inch of each end, and -the strip thus severed is lifted up to form a string: the opposite side -of the rod is treated in the same way: the strips vary in width from a -sixteenth of an inch, less or more. The 29 rods are laid together and -firmly braided with a wire-like fibre, making a flat, raft-like form, -shewing the strips or strings back and front; then rods are slipped -under the strips, making bridges for them at each end, all the front -strings sound, but the strips at the back merely exercise a counter -strain against the pull of the front, and are interlaced criss-cross in -threes, so as to admit a pair of tension bars, which act as required -to tighten or slacken the front strings as a whole, since when unused -the tension should be lowered as is the case with gut strings. The -ingenuity of the construction of this instrument is admirable in its -simplicity, and the work is beautifully done. All the Malagasy are -expert in this braiding which to them is a fine art. The instrument -is well worthy of illustration, speaking to us of the past within the -present. (_See plate inserted_). - -This cane-harp yields sounds bright and delicate and clear, it is held -tambourine fashion over the head, and played by the finger nails of the -right hand gliding at will over the strings, producing a succession of -sounds rhythmical and wild, incessantly varied: four or five sounds -repeatedly renewed over the series of strings, and intermingled with -these, little bells strung on cords at each side, rattle against them. -Imagine the native scene, groups of young girls decked with flowers, -their brown skins flashing with the sunlight, dancing with the abandon -of youthful vigour, in full exuberance of the joy of living, striking -their uplifted harps in a wild frequency of orderly confusion, guided -by instinct yet the while obeying the rules their mothers had taught -them, dancing in heedless delight in the ways made imperative by -tradition, rushing hither and thither, in and out, and around, weaving -circle within circle, a dazzling maze of lithe bodies, of rapid feet, -and laughing voices, eyes flashing as jewels, brown arms and hands -swinging a cloud of harps over a restless sea of sound,—bring to -the mind’s eye a scene like this, then you will understand how the -multitudinous music of the ancient days, simple as were its means, -satisfied by the wealth of sensuous excitement it created in young and -old. - -The Kings of old had a pride in the number of their trained musicians, -as in the number of their horsemen and war-chariots. Music added to the -pomp of ceremonial days; it testified to greatness, the throne and the -temple alike demanded its aid. In the intervals when wars had ceased, -the court had to be provided with music for pastime, and the people to -be gratified with spectacles and feastings. The priesthood seem to have -been the managers of the shows and to have held control of the music to -be played, they being the men of learning; yet so far as I am aware, -no record remains to tell what that music was, no indication exists, -no hint even that it ever was written down, or a method of notation -devised for the guidance of the multitude of players. Surmises there -have been that some unexplained markings occurring in Egyptian writings -have reference to musical usages, but later authorities do not favour -the guesses, which have led to nothing. The temple being the focus of -the musical life the music would have been chiefly of the processional -kind, and the wonder to us is how it was managed unless there had been -an Art of Music in force in those days, remote though they were. How -did King Solomon manage his four thousand musicians? - - -[Illustration: - - THE CANE HARP FROM BORNEO, WITH TAMBURINE BELLS. - -_Fig. 59_ (described page 302-4.)] - -Babylon and Nineveh have left a few slabs with pictures of -musicians—that is all. In Egypt we come into the possession of a -knowledge considerably wider in range than other ancient lands together -have yielded. Through the sacrilege of Time we have been admitted -to Tombs and Temples, have shared the prerogative of the gods, seeing -the hidden things and life-stories meant for their gaze only, in the -darkness that to them was light. A marvellous faith. Those harps were -supposed to play though no hand touched them, those pipes to pipe sweet -tones that lost themselves in the silence. - -Egypt bred men of great genius in the art of war, of great genius in -the art of architecture, surely she must have had men great in the art -of music. How were these musicians ruled? The beneficent conductor had -not then been invented. In truth _one_ would have been of little avail -in their grand festival processions, would have been lost amidst the -lofty columns of their vast temples. Not a hieroglyph anywhere to tell -us how the master musician controlled his hosts “of harpers harping -with their harps.” - -These old-world pictures speak no words; they shew us six or eight -men following in a line, clapping their hands to regulate the accents -and rhythm of the musicians; thus they were led, and that is all we -know—may be indeed all that we are likely to know. Thus as Keats tells -us, the past— - - ————“doth tease us out of thought, - As doth eternity.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -The Choice of the Greeks. - -THE DELPHIC LYRE. - - -The fingers of the hand upon the pipes having decreed in a practical -way the first scale of musical sounds, very naturally it would come to -pass that an instrument with strings, in the time of beginnings, would -be set to copy the same order of sounds, which, simple as it was, had -an importance that held the character of law, something to be abided -by. Imitation is the beginning of conservatism, all history tells us -that the crudest and the most limited attainments are those that set up -the sternest barriers against innovation. - -When the string time came, the method resorted to for obtaining -differences in sounds from strings was that of varying the lengths; -next the differences gained by varying the strain upon them were -perceived; and ultimately the advantages from the use of strings -manufactured of various thicknesses. This last method implies the -cultivation of a trade or an industrial production of sheepgut treated -for the purpose of the musical use of it. Probably the advance from -the first step to the last was a slow process; it was progress, and -progress is slow. - -The Egyptian lyres and harps that are the subject of illustration in -the chapter previous, show very clearly the custom of reliance upon -differences in lengths, and strain in varying degrees, the sloping -bar particularly indicating the simplest mode of effecting change of -strain, but as yet there is not evidence of the practice of uniformity -in the lengths of the strings of lyres. That the Egyptians had attained -skill in making strings of various sizes, gauging them, in fact, to -suit the positions of each, may fairly be inferred, at least for late -developments in the larger harps, but not, I think, for instruments of -the very early periods. - -With the Greeks the contrary is the rule, they come into the temple of -history ready equipped with the portable open-handed lyre, the strings -of uniform length. They are late comers it is true, and derive their -arts from both Egypt and Asia, and I should assume that, in this case, -the particular form of their lyres was due to Asia. - -It was the lyre of the strangers visiting Egypt. Fig. 51, page 293, -that was the choice of the Greeks, it may have been Lydian, or Lycian, -or Phrygian, or Lesbian, as thus the ancient writers named several -modifications of style in lyres, but the essential design is the same -in all. - -We should not forget that development was going on simultaneously -for thousands of years in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. -An instrument like that shown in Fig. 52 I consider to have been -the prototype of all cross-bar lyres, both of the sloping and the -horizontal bars, the latter the latest form because, as I said, -implying an industry of skill in making the strings; the original home -of the prototype, Mesopotamia, the instrument working its way up into -Asia Minor, a region where empires came and went, yet this type of lyre -remained through all vicissitudes, fixed in the people’s choice by -immemorial custom of age after age. - -The Greek lyre is first mentioned by Homer. His words have a deep -significance of the intimate influence it had on Greek life. He speaks -of the player,— - - “How he comforts the heart - With the sound of the lyre.” - -In the bronzes-room of the British Museum there is a disc with a -relief representing Hermes making the lyre. One lyre he holds in -his left hand; another is beside the altar. The strings of both are -inlaid with silver. The fable concerning the origin of the lyre in the -tortoise-shell is told in many ways. In the Hymn to Hermes, according -to Mr. Lang’s version, it is told how Hermes,— - - “cut to measure stalks of reed and fixed them in through - holes bored in the stoney shell of the tortoise, and - cunningly stretched round it the hide of an ox, and - put in the horns of the lyre, and to both he fixed the - bridge and seven harmonious cords of sheepgut. Then took - he his treasure when he had fashioned it, and touched - the strings in turn with the plectrum, and wondrously - it sounded under his hand, and fair sang the God to the - notes, improvizing his chant as he played.” - -—this version is elegant, some readers would prefer to have the more -literal description given by Dr. Burney:— - - “the invention of the lyre is attributed to the Egyptian - God Hermes or Thoth.... Hermes walking along the banks - of the Nile, happening to strike his foot against the - shell of a dried tortoise, was so pleased with the sound - it produced that it suggested to him the first idea of - a lyre, which he afterwards constructed in the form of - a tortoise, and strung it with the dried sinews of dead - animals.” - -The myth will be useful in accounting for the very frequent appearance -of the tortoise-shell lyre in the classical designs of the Greek -artists in their vases, bronzes and sculpture. - -[Illustration: _The Chelys or tortoise-shell lyre._ - -_Fig. 60._] - -This illustration will represent the finished style so often seen, with -the shell and the twisted horns. The ancient artist evidently did not -know how the instrument was constructed, and has exaggerated the size -of the shell, and curtailed the strings, in a wise ignorance of musical -effects depending upon resonance. - -The Chelys (from _chelus_, a shell) is the typical form of the Greek -lyre, there is no trace of it in Egyptian paintings, they have the -more primitive slant-bar style with the square-shaped body, but the -Greeks coming much later in date appropriated the method of uniform -length of the strings, and although we often read of “the shortest and -the longest strings,” the evidences of such in use are hard to find. -That many-stringed lyres became accepted in certain circles of society -cannot be doubted, the names of many such being current, and the extent -over which the series of notes ranged being likewise stated, yet on -their vases and marbles and in the best period of classic art, we find -the Chelys, and the various modifications of it up to the perfected -lyre in the hands of Apollo, alone thought worthy of representation. -The abundance of these is marvellous, and the imagination conjures up -visions of numberless treasures still waiting beneath the native soil. - -Not only was the Chelys the lyre of the gods, it was also the domestic -lyre; the tortoise lyre was everywhere at home. The British Museum -possesses one of these, alas, one must say, fragments of one, and -reckons this poor wreck of musical feeling and devotedness (for it -was found in a tomb) a rare and choice treasure. This Chelys is of -sycamore and is light and of very simple make, the cross-bar is forked -at each end, and so formed it slips over the trimmed points of the -two uprights, and rests on notches cut on each side for the purpose; -the uprights are shaped to well-known curves and the lower ends were -fixed in the tortoise shell, which covering a piece of wood formed a -soundboard. Only a portion of the shell remains. The crossbar still -retains the black marks made by the strings that in life were wound -round it, and tightened there, that the lyre might make music to the -fingers of the youth it had comforted, and was lovingly placed in the -tomb that it might still continue to comfort him. - -As it lay in the case under glass, the measurements as near as I could -take them were,—length of arms or uprights 15 inches, the crossbar -fixing three inches below the tips of these, and extending 1-1/2in. -beyond, between the arms the width at the crossbar 7-1/2in. increasing -in the curves to 8-1/2in., the shell with soundboard I reckon as about 7 -by 3-1/2in., thus the whole length appears to be 22 inches. The general -look of it gives the idea of graceful slimness, the wood is sycamore, -and the construction of the lyre so simple that it might have been -home-made. - -The original lyre of Apollo is of this style, fashioned in the same -simplicity, a little more slim, since four strings only were at first -given. Looking over the 3,000 gems in the British Museum, the bronzes, -and the Sculptures, and the multitude of Vases, from earliest to -latest periods, and amidst varied and ornate styles in advanced art, -we see that still the same simple form remains a cherished favourite -not to be displaced from the people’s choice by the newer patterns, -religion and tradition had made this the companion of the ever youthful -Apollo, and we find that the artists kept up the association in their -representations of the well-known Homeric chronicles of gods and men. - -From the way in which the lyre is praised by Homer (or by other -poets under his great name), it is evident that the instrument was -already ancient. Olympus the elder, and Orpheus the Thracian, were -centuries earlier than Homer; two centuries later Terpander comes into -recognition historically, and his lyre had but four strings when he -gained the prize in his first musical contest at the feast of Apollo -in Sparta, B.C. 676, so that from these dates we learn that for many -centuries the lyre had remained a simple instrument of four strings, -producing but four sounds. Some say that these elder musicians limited -themselves to three strings, and that one Linus by name it was who -added the fourth string. However Terpander as he grew in renown became -dissatisfied, and greatly daring increased the number of the strings to -seven. Cleonidas in the _Introduction to Music_ (ascribed to Euclid), -has preserved for us two lines from a poem as spoken by Terpander -himself, which Mr. Wm. Chappell translates as follows:— - - “But we loving no more the tetrachordal chant - Will sing aloud new hymns to a seven-toned lyre.” - -Sappho used a lyre of six strings, Pythagorus about B.C. 520 added an -eighth string, Phrynis added a ninth, Anacreon a tenth, his lyre was -supposed to be a Lydian _magadis_, capable of so dividing the string in -playing that by an intermediate bar, against which each string could -be pressed, octave sounds could be given; then we hear of Timotheus -(the younger) in B.C. 446 adding four strings to the Spartan lyre, an -audacity which was so great an affront that the Spartan Ephori cut away -the four strings, confiscated the lyre and suspended it in the temple -as a warning to all innovators, and there it was to be seen by citizens -and by travellers in the round building known as the _Skeias_. - -Concerning these inventions there are other claimants, and many -conflicting statements; the legendary lore also comes in to the -confusion of dates, Hermes the old Egyptian God is one of the reputed -inventors of the lyre, and he furnished it offhand with the _seven -strings_ obtained from the land tortoise, so that chronology is a -hazardous topic, baffling the most patient of investigators. The -Egyptians themselves only admit of three strings being in the original -invention, these representing the three seasons into which their year -was divided. - -The instrument has many forms, little differences in structure giving -rise to new names. The Phorminx, Cithara, Kitharis, Chelys, Barbitos, -Psalterion, Trigon, and numerous others; the principle being the same -in all I class them under the general term, lyre. - -The information given to us in ancient treatises on musical matters -affords very little light upon the structure, manipulation, tuning and -other details which we in these days are curious about. It is indeed -difficult to arrive at reasonable conclusions, having, in default -of the actual examples of the Greek Lyres, to rely upon artistic -representations often, as we notice, conventional only, as in our day, -for artists are ruled by the eye, and seek little beyond appearance; -hence fixed types suit them, and this sufficiency accounts for the -absence of representations of many instruments which we know by verbal -reference alone. - -How were the instruments strung? How were they tuned? How played? The -utmost obscurity clouds these enquiries. - -In order to show the steps in development that took place, I have -selected a few illustrations, each change, no doubt had a purpose -although there is no record left to enlighten us. The writers of -the ancient treatises on music busied themselves with scholastic -subtleties concerning scales and tetrachordal divisions, and if they -were musicians, perhaps were as indifferent as our composers and -musicians too generally have shewn themselves to be to the practical -comprehension of the nature and construction of the instruments they -used. Much that was written we cannot understand, probably because the -terms they used had to them meanings and associations of ideas other -than those obvious to modern interpreters. The makers of lyres and -the skilled players, those who knew the things we would learn did not -write, and the writers who did not know,—they explained things, or -undertook to do so, which is another matter, and the consequence is -that no man at the present day can speak with certainty upon the most -interesting questions connected with these Greek instruments. - -Seeking amongst the representations on vases and gems for hints of -design and purpose, questioning each one, saying, what can you tell me? -I one day found my attention directed to the marked distinction between -the ornamental ends of the cross-bar of lyres, how that the designer -had drawn the end projecting at the right hand much larger than the -end shewing at the left hand. Surely, I thought, that feature in -construction indicates handling for some practical end; what can it be -but that the cross-bar has been converted to be used as lute and lyre -pegs had previously been used—it could be turned. - -Then, the eye, being prepared to see, was quickened to observe; I -looked around and found so many instances in which this particular -distinction of the right hand from the left was dominant in the -construction, that the conclusion arrived at was confirmed. The -advantage given to the players right hand was that of a better grasp -in turning this long peg, evidently the peg by intent fitted very -tightly. - -[Illustration: _Terpsichore with a Lyre._ - -_Fig. 61._] - -Now arose a point of great difficulty. Here was a peg a long bar -carrying seven or eight strings, and if its office was to tune the -strings, the twisting of the peg would affect the whole series -simultaneously, an extension of its office certainly, but in like -degree a limitation of its powers. It appeared to me upon close -consideration that only a partial twist was allowed to it, and that the -intention of it and real purpose of it was to guard the strings against -breaking, which would be likely to occur if the strings were under -constant tension, subject at the same time to changes of temperature -and of moisture. Thus each string would be strained to its desired -pitch, and fixed at the bottom holding, and when the instrument was set -aside after playing, a slight turn of the peg would slacken the whole -series, which again would be tightened, when required, by a partial -turn in the opposite direction. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 62._] - -Fortunately there exists a monument which will greatly help us in -understanding the practice of the lyre, for it shows us the player in -the act of tuning her lyre by this cross bar-peg. The central figure -is dancing and playing at the same time, and we should notice the band -by which it was the custom to support the lyre from the left arm. The -figure to the left of the engraving has already had her dance and is -readjusting her strings which have been disturbed in pitch by the -plucking of the fingers; the figure on the right is preparing for her -turn and is tightening the strings ready for playing. This illustration -(_Fig. 62_) was given in “Hope’s Costume of the Ancients,” a work -published in 1812, the subject of which did not promise anything -for music, but it is a bit of treasure trove very important in the -elucidation of the art of the lyre. That block appeared in Nauman’s -History of Music, and perhaps is passed by with but a casual glance -from musical readers. - -[Illustration: _Erato with the Psaltery._ - -_Fig. 63._] - -The lyre held by Terpsichore (_Fig. 61_), shews a variation in -construction, it has below the cross-bar a second bar which would seem -in itself to be intended to define more strictly the lengths of the -strings when the peg carrying the series were fixed in its correct -position, but an examining the larger lyre or Psaltery (_Fig. 63_) -carried by Erato, “the lovely one,” as the Greeks called this muse, -this addition will be seen to assume a more important relation, and the -appearance is as of platform attached to the crossbar through which -the strings are threaded, and they do not pass to wind round the bar. -This platform is more or less a puzzle. It might be designed to throw -the strings more forward of the body of the instrument; Erato’s lyre is -curved evidently with that purpose in view. Many representations shew -this little platform. I have noticed instances of the loose ends of -strings shewn above it, although the rule seems to have been for those -ends to be at the bottom of the lyre where the tuning of each string -was regulated. Erato’s lyre is of advanced pattern, being hollow like a -violin, and doubtless it was of high sonority. - -In the gem room of the British Museum there is another painting from -Herculanæum, in which a new idea is manifest; the platform is replaced -by levers at right angles to the bar to which the strings are attached. -M. Victor Mahillon gives a rough drawing of this, but it is hardly -convincing as to how such levers or rollers can be brought into use. -I have brooded over this painting, searched it intently with opera -glasses, seeking time and again to read its mystery, and still it is -clouded in mist, the actual construction not to be made out. - -There are several illustrations of lyres having a number of loose rings -upon the bar; Dr. Burney gives one where one long string is threaded -through a series of them from top to bottom of lyre. But the idea is an -impossible one for practical validity, since the tension could not be -regulated to differ for each note, and the string being continuous from -one to the other, to affect one note would be to affect all. - -Rings and loops on the bar are often seen, details of strings being -omitted, and there is doubt how much the painter knew of the instrument -he presumed to depict; modern artists shew themselves equally -presumptuous, seldom or never caring to know or to enquire into the -mode of playing, or to understand the design of the construction. - -Some little light, I think, is given in a description of an ancient -lyre which, in a mutilated state, was recovered by Lord Elgin from a -tomb at Athens. - - “It was in fifty pieces, but the fragments could be so - put together as to leave no doubt of its figure and - action. The wood is of cedar, and in size similar to that - held in the hand of Apollo. Having laid in the earth - about three thousand years, it was surprising that the - woodwork was not all decayed, for the metallic parts - were completely dissolved. This lyre evidently had eight - strings, from the number of little rollers which had - turned upon the cross bar. On each roller there was a - small projecting peg, upon which the string was looped; - and then by turning the roller it was raised in pitch, - and the mode of fixing it was by slipping the end of the - roller, which was notched, upon a fastened piece of wood - of corresponding shape.” - -This clearly was a clutch method, and a fairly good mechanical -invention, and possibly some details are wanting, if fine tuning -according to our notions was required; and we are led to suppose that -the Greeks were very exacting about pitch. Yet for all the ancient -writers tell of subtle divisions of tones, I have my doubts of the -practical exercise of discrimination of pitch to the imagined degree -of sensitiveness of ear, generally assumed to be a natural gift of -the people of Greece; the instruments were not fitted with sufficient -mechanical exactness to produce and retain such fine distinctions. - -Another advance in lyre-making consisted in the adaptation of a -projecting box affixed to the front of the larger body of the lyre; -this was an Egyptian invention, for which, see _ante_ Fig. 56. The -strings were attached to this little box, and it is probable that -within it there were means for tightening and relaxing the tension of -each. This was also a useful device for bringing the strings forward -from the face of the instrument. Let us hope that some forgotten tomb -still holds a perfect lyre in its keeping. - -Greek writers make mention of lyres of many strings, with strange -sounding names, but examples are rare of such, indeed they are more -Asian than Greek. Pompeii and Herculanæum have preserved for us -pictures of some, but the period is late. - -There is an instrument which may stand as a representative of the many -stringed, and as indicating the class of so-called _Trigons_, almost -letter D shape. It is depicted upon an ancient vase in the Munich -collection (Fig. 64). It is supposed to be in the hands of Erato, she -holds it against her left shoulder, not as is the custom with our -modern players of harps, resting on the right shoulder; obviously the -custom in each case is the one best suited to the convenience of the -player and to the different demands upon the instruments in ancient and -in modern use. The vase is Etruscan, but the lyre is Egyptian in origin -and Asian in style, witness the leopard skin spread upon the seat. The -artist was at fault in his drawing. The lyre is of the Egyptian model, -the bulk or thick portion of the boat-form being thrown upward above -the shoulder, and this as a sounding-board should have been made plain. -This particular development of style I should surmise to be Lydian, or -perhaps, more southern in origin, possibly Assyrian. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 64._] - -Plato and Plutarch both comment upon many-stringed lyres, condemning -their use and advocating a return to the ancient simplicity. Old -Pausanias, who wrote at a much later period “a Description of Greece,” -shews himself familiar with the many-stringed by a simile he uses, -stating that “in Egypt he had seen the pyramids, had beheld with -wonder the colossal statue of Memnon at Thebes, and had heard the -musical sound, like the breaking of a lyre string, which the statue -emitted at sunrise.” The breaking of strings is thus known to be an -old-world trouble, and no doubt Pausanias had often heard the sound, -else this reference would not have come to him so naturally as a -fitting illustration; only a large or many stringed-lyre would give a -noticeably musical sound; an instrument with short strings equal to -our violin strings would give but a brief snap, not in any degree a -musical sound. Desiring a personal experience I suggested to a friend a -realistic test, and he kindly strained a string of his violoncello to -breaking point. So we knew that the sound heard in this catastrophic -incident of to-day, was certainly not of the nature that the great -travellers of past days were attracted to as one of the wonders of -the world. A many stringed harp somewhat of the capacity of modern -harps would, however, under the shock communicate a thrill over the -whole range, finding out a sympathetic resonance from vibration of -those strings that happened to be in accord with the pitch of the -sounding-body, and this kind of response on the breaking of a string -was probably that which furnished old Pausanias’s memory with so -pertinent a simile. Whoever has heard one of the higher pianoforte -strings break will understand fairly enough the nature of the sound. -The statue was 69 feet high, and it was reared by Amenhotep III., about -1450 B.C. - -With testimony so absolute from an ear-witness, the Memnon is no -fable. Silent that voice has been through many centuries, yet we may -well believe that in older days, ere time had worked its inevitable -changes, the sounds heard were in resemblance more truly vocal; and -although then mysterious to hearers, now under science such musical -vibrations are easy of explanation as a natural phenomenon. - -The wonder-inspiring statue is still seated there, - - “moulded in colossal calm,” - -looking across that desert-destined land which remaineth for ever, as -Shelley named it,— - - “a desolation deified.” - -Seeking an example of Apollo’s lyre, as it existed when Greek art was -at its highest period, I found it, I think, in a marble relief carved -by the hand of Praxiteles; it is an authentic witness of the form of -the lyre in his day, and it seems to carry out the description given -of the lyre discovered by Lord Elgin (see page 319). The artist gives -a representation of the lyre as he saw it, and as no doubt used in the -worship of the ever-youthful Sun-God. - -This marble is in the National Museum at Athens. It was found at -Mantinea, in Arcadia, and it represents the contest of Apollo and -Marsyas; Apollo on the lyre and Marsyas on the flutes, or double pipes. -The marble has been finely photographed by the well-known M. Rhomaides, -of Athens, an enthusiast in his art. I copy this for the Apollo; -the quiet dignity of the seated figure is remarkable. According to -proportionate relation, the instrument may be estimated as being about -twenty-six or twenty-seven inches in height, and the acting length of -the strings about eighteen or twenty inches, the frame about two inches -deep, with the interior hollow, so that although the strings should be -only plucked by the fingers, the instrument we should expect would give -a good and a rich resonance. The strings, seven in number, being each -tuned separately by their rollers or rings. - -The Apollo lyre was the nursling of the Greeks, never absent from -the Greek life; present in the home and in the temple, heard in the -green meadows, and upon the mountain-side, and by the sapphire sea, -gladdening the heart at household feasts, and inspiring the voice on -the great days of rejoicing. - -Those vast processions carved upon marble friezes speak to us of an -existent life when to the people Apollo was “an evident god”; days when -through the shaded valleys, and along the terraced mountain-sides, -young men and maidens with dance and song made a delighted way,— - - “touched piously the Delphic lyre,” - -and to the sacrificial altar eager throngs pressed onward and -upward,—as in his word-magic Keats pictures it;— - - “with trumpets blown - Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival, - Voices of soft proclaim, and silver stir - Of strings on hollow shells, ... - ... and the mysterious priest, - Leading that heifer lowing at the skies, - And all her silken flanks with garlands drest.” - -That busy stir of life has gone past, faded now into the viewless air, -to be seen no more by man; the dryads and the naiads, the satyrs and -the fauns left their dedicated haunts, and the muses too all vanished, -all hushed silently away, what time the,— - - “great Apollo - Let his divinity o’erflowing die - In music, through the vales of Thessaly.” - -The fateful land remains as of old, remains unchanged through -milleniums of change,—the traveller to-day may see the lofty Delph -glistening white with snow and great Parnassus towering high above -it; may visit grand Olympus, find the goats browsing yet upon Mount -Helicon, watch the bees gathering honey from the creeping thyme upon -Hymettus, or stop to gaze on the wonderful purple glow that comes -over it at evening light; Hippocrene, faithful to its ancient renown, -runs cool and bright, that whoso will may drink therefrom and pause -to meditate on Time’s concurrent freshness, ever-passing: the ear -is charmed with sounds, the winds waken the soft susurrus from the -pine-forests on the heights, it wanders down the pathways of the hills -to mingle with the drowsy hum of bees, and the tinkling of the goats -bells, and with luscious song of hidden nightingales in pale green -olive groves. The land we look upon is the same; it is man’s world -therein that has changed, sadly changed. From the white mountains to -the valleys, ruin calls to ruin; linger as you will in shade or sun, - - “Round every spot where trod Apollo’s foot,” - -his music is now unheard,—in his own land his lyre unknown. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -How the Music Grew. - -IN THE DAYS OF A THOUSAND YEARS. - - -“Most things in Greece are subjects of dispute,” so wrote Pausanias, -and his word for it may be accepted freely. As it was in his day -(writing in 174 A.D.) so it is in ours; learned authorities so differ -on simplest points that the wayfarer asking questions has no little -difficulty in deciding whom he shall heed, whose directions he should -follow. - -The evolution of the musical scale should be of interest even to -musicians who would not make the subject a study. How step by step our -diatonic scale developed, how it has become what it is gradually by -slow degrees—does anybody know? Certainly. Wise men in their libraries -find much; the erudition is deep and they can expound it in their -own way, but it is the way for the plodding student, not intended to -attract the general reader. Moreover the wise men do not agree, and -the wayfarer in literature after reading many books fails to obtain -the clear account which he has been seeking. Having had occasion to go -into the matter of the Greek system on the historical side, I saw how -confused it was, and how necessary to examine author against author, -to try to arrive at some orderly assignment of steps and changes made -in those distant times, and to endeavour to bring home to the mind the -conception of a chain of historic facts. - -Traditions embody general beliefs in stated facts, or supposed facts, -and history makes record of these, giving to them more or less -credence. The statements concerning the earliest developments of the -Greek scale are based upon traditions, since it was not until after the -lapse of many centuries that anything was written. - -The recorded periods of civilization that held good in ancient -chronology have many of them been displaced by the newest explorers, -whose work within the last few years has been prolific in discoveries -affecting calculations of the relations of time in the past. The dates -I adopt will therefore have to be considered authentic only so far as -the learned choose to agree concerning them. - -Old historians stated that Athens was founded in 1556 B.C. by Cecrops, -who led a colony from Sais, in Egypt, and established the kingdom -of Athens. Neith, or Nit, was the deity of Sais, her name also was -Minerva, the patron goddess of Athens. In less than fifty years -after, Danaus, who was accounted a brother of Amenhotep III. (by some -Egyptologists called Amunoph) left Egypt 1400 B.C. and founded Argos, -of which he became king, and died 1425 B.C. - -These are highly important dates in the perspective of history. -Egypt, through the wars of Thotmes III. and the later expeditions -of the Amenhotep Pharaohs, had been raised to the height of empire; -Mesopotamia and Syria had been brought under her rule and her armies -were constantly traversing and retraversing that extensive region -tributary to her (known now by us as Asia Minor), reaching along that -coast of the Mediterranean and even to Cyprus, Crete and other isles. - -By a few touches of history and a chain of dates, it may be possible -to bring before you life as it was, to excite your imagination to -realise in a broad view the state of the then known world, when in all -that vast territory, the high civilization to which Egypt had attained -could not have failed to influence the daily lives of those myriads of -peoples, busy with their tradings, and little ambitions, and religions, -and domestic wants, and pleasures. It was a very composite population, -tribes, clans and races, or by whatever names we class them, full of -jealousies and antagonisms, only held in abeyance from fighting by the -prospect of greater gain by trading with one another. - -The musical instincts of the whole of these peoples probably followed -one channel common to all, their music differing but little from what -we call “folk-song”; and even varieties of language need not have -raised barriers in musical feeling, as the instance of the Song of -Linus referred to by Herodotus (see pages 63-4 ante) clearly shews. - -The truth is that the founders of Athens, and Argos, and other great -cities, were leaders of bands of military adventurers, and these -when they left Egypt took with them the common popular music such as -themselves and their families had been accustomed to, they had no -need or use for any other; we should not expect of them that they -would represent the musical culture of the motherland, already so -highly developed. Hence the simple tetrachord of ages past, produced -upon their reed pipes, satisfied them for all that they sought, it was -their system of music, and had not been extended. In the early state -of the music of the Greeks there had been a double influence, the -Egyptian influence, and the older Asiatic influence, both as I imagine -proceeding from the same Mesopotamian source in a remote age. - -We have to remember that there was a prehistoric Greece and an older -Mycenœan Greece. Of Athens, we should say “the refounding,” for -there had been five “Athens,” each city built upon the ruins of a -former one. “Athens,” says Mr. H. R. Hall in his book, “The oldest -civilization of Greece, has existed as an inhabited place from the -earliest post-neolithic times, perhaps before 2500 B.C. to the present -day,” a fact that may be very usefully recognised, it bears with it -an important value, reminding us that an immigrant people almost -invariably displaces earlier peoples, or absorbs them. Might ruled -then, as now. - -In the realms of myth and legend the chief progenitors of music -appear; Pan and Apollo, Mercury, Athene, and others; then tradition -brings forward many names of poet-musicians who, it cannot be doubted, -veritably existed in the flesh. Certain dates do not seem to be -questioned, although they are prior to the Trojan War, which is -supposed to have taken place between the periods 1500 and 1200 B.C. -Homer himself being given a date about 900 B.C. In musical history as -generally found, little is noted before Terpander 700-650 B.C., and it -is assumed that up to his time only a four-stringed lyre had been in -use by the Greeks; it is as if there had been averred a stagnation in -music for many centuries. - -A closer investigation, however, must cause a revision of such a -conclusion, and I repeat, it may well be that we should think of Greek -music as having had two courses of usage, running parallel, even as in -our own history. These are not as opposed but as distinct, the temple -or academic music very strictly conservative, and the popular music -with its mingled Asiatic influences, inherited, and untrammelled by -priests or philosophers. Very naturally it would come to pass that -literature occupied itself with the orthodox and academic views and -systems of music, even as by learned musicians our ecclesiastical music -has been regarded with almost exclusive attention, whilst the old -English songs and ballads have, as it were, existed upon sufferance, -kept in being by popular feeling and tradition. - -If this twofold strain in the origin of Greek music is borne in mind -I believe it will solve many difficulties that constantly trouble -enquiry, and will reconcile conflicting accounts given by different -authorities, for there is very much that is vague even in the -originals, and various translators have but added to the confusion, -because they in default of understanding the subject, too often became -dogmatic upon guesswork. - -Tradition comes upon fairly solid ground with Hyagnis about 1506 B.C. -and Marsyas his son, and Olympus the elder, his pupils. Musæus the -Athenian, 1426 B.C. was taught by Orpheus and was chief of the Elusian -mysteries instituted in Greece in honour of Ceres; his hymns were used -in the celebrations. Orpheus also taught Thamyris, and Linus, who -taught Hercules, and Amphion, and so on. Then there was Thaletes, the -poet-musician mentioned by Strabo, whose old pæans Pythagoras loved to -sing; he lived about 300 years after the Trojan War. Other names might -be recalled but these suffice to shew that amongst the people of the -various Greek States the art of music never at any time was without -honour and esteem. - -The musical system of the Tetrachord having become known to us through -the writings of certain Greek philosophers, fragments of which had been -preserved by authors of later centuries, has therefore been assigned -to the Greeks, and the development of this musical system has been -recorded only in their language, yet the origin of it has undoubtedly -to be placed long before the time of the Greeks. Possibly with good -reason it might be claimed for the primitive Akkadian, as found by him -in the finger holes of the simple reed-pipe. - -Although there is clear evidence of the early existence of the -tetrachord in pipes, the attention of philosophers has always been -given to string instruments, pipes having had no share in their regard, -possibly because the playing of pipes was a professional art in which -good training was necessary, whereas any philosopher could twang -strings and discourse upon laws and proportions. - -The lyre of Mercury, so tradition asserts, had three strings only, -tuned as - - _e_——-_a_——-_e_, or, _e_——-_b_——-_e_, - -thus comprising fourth, fifth and octaves according to our terminology, -though doubtless the god was ignorant of such things. Emerging from -the mists of fable we arrive at traces of a period at which it is -said the octave became disused, and nothing remained but the fourth in -its rudimentary condition, divided next into two steps, and after that -separated in three divisions resulting in an interval comprising two -tones and a lesser tone, or two steps and a half, so that the whole is -marked by four sounds; this series was then undesignated, but after -a time a stage was arrived at when it _was_ designated, and known -thereafter by the word “tetra” signifying “four” and the inclusive -system was called a tetrachord, and therefore the commencement of the -evolution of a musical scale. - -The ending of the word in “chord,” has given rise to the notion of -a chord as of harmony, and again of cords as another name for the -strings. But these are misconceptions, the meaning of “tetrachord” is, -a series of four sounds, in an order of succession so that the extreme -sounds comprise a fourth. The terms fourth, and fifth, and octave, -are quite artificial, are signs founded on _vision_ or the counting -of the strings of the lyre; the fourth in music is not a fourth part -of anything, is not a fourth part or proportion of the octave, it was -called by the Greeks “diatessaron,”—_right through_ or _over, four_. - -One most ancient form may be represented thus, considering the extreme -sounds to embrace the interval,— - - _e_ ‿ _f_———_a_ - -it was the initiatory stage afterwards completed as,— - - _e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_ - -only that it should be read from right to left, because with the -Greeks the reading was from the high note downwards thus— - - _a_———_g_———_f_ ‿ _e_ - -to us occularly confusing, yet it was the way of Greek thought. - -(The sign —— indicates whole tone, and ‿ semitone). - -The man’s voice was the guide, and from time immemorial the _a_ has -been the standard of pitch, by ruling of the ear. - - (The _A_ below middle C, top line, bass clef). - -From father to son, from teacher to scholar the tradition of pitch -was carried on. The string affected by heat and moisture and by the -strain when twanged, never remains accurately to pitch. Although pipes -and strings have run a parallel course, we do not find that the lyre -players actually cared to refer to pipes as guiding them in setting -the pitch. Yet it was the custom, so Plutarch tells us, for _reciters_ -and orators to have a pitch pipe sounded by an attendant to keep their -voices to a prescribed pitch, and he mentions an ivory pipe being used -for the practice. On the contrary it would seem that from the earliest -times lyrists of all sorts, and players on stringed instruments of -every nation, even up to the present day have found the habit of the -ear sufficient for the purposes of their art, that indeed to the -soloist, the musical ear relies upon itself for tuning. - -By the Greeks music as an art was regarded as an aid to regulate by -rule the inflections of the voice, to mark the places of emphasis and -to define the pauses in the recitation of their epic poetry; and the -rhythm of their songs followed strictly laws that had been laid down, -innovation was reprehended, and even prohibited. The lyre itself was -held subordinate to the voice, accompanying it and filling in the -pauses according to a conventional fashion, which the hearers judged, -critically and keenly. - -We import our modern ways of speech upon musical subjects into the -considerations of these matters, and necessarily so, but it is -essential to a right apprehension to remember that the Greeks had no -way of naming the sounds except by certain names given by them to the -strings of the lyre, thus the forefinger string was called “lichanos” -and the others had their distinctive appellations. They had no sense of -a _tonic_ as we have, no system of harmony, no musical stave, no use -of letters, a, b, c, etc., to denote their music. In late times they -devised a kind of letter-note method, curiously crude yet elaborate, -of letters standing upside down, letters lying on the side, letters -mutilated and signs for instrumental sounds different from those for -the sounds of the voice, altogether 1,062 varied characters are stated -as used, and this knowledge of their written music was by the merest -accident preserved to us in a solitary manuscript, by Alypius, 115 A.D. - -The only date known in the life of Terpander was the year when -he gained the prize in the competition for singing, B.C. 676, at -the Pythian games; some say that he also won at four festivals in -succession. He may have been known to that Demaratus, mentioned _page_ -68 ante, as the date connects them as contemporary. Some time later -than this victory he is credited with having increased the number of -strings from four to seven, but statements upon this question are very -conflicting. Helmholtz says that he added but one string to the Cithara -of six strings. - -According to some ancient writers Chorebus, son of Altis, King of -Lydia, he it was who commenced innovation by adding a fifth string. -Hyagnis, who in the sixteenth century B.C. invented the Phrygian mode, -added a sixth string; Terpander a seventh, and Lychasos an eighth; but -Pliny says, Terpander added three strings to the orthodox four, that -Simonides added an eighth and Timotheus a ninth. Anacreon as before -stated had ten strings, and Timotheus increased the seven strings of -the Spartan lyre to eleven. Pythagoras, by equal authority, was the -reputed father of the eight-stringed lyre. - -Through the maze of such traditions (and other statements I could -quote, increasing the intricacy for the benefit of research) I have had -to make my way, and decide as best I could, upon a line of connected -record. - -So, pending an alternative view to be offered presently, I elect to -follow Pliny and allow to Terpander the claim to the increase of the -scale of the tetrachord by a trichord above _a_, the highest sound of -the four-stringed lyre. - -Our scale system is based on a _tonic_ sound, and we read upward, but -the Greeks in their music thought downwards, and by the laws, the tonic -was, in the structure of tetrachords, barred out, for the _a_ was the -master tone, and between it and _g_ no semitone was allowed, though -what necessity existed for this essential feature of the formation, no -explanation is apparent. - -The three sounds above this formed with the _a_ another tetrachord, -_conjunct_, as it was termed. - -[Illustration: _The Added Trichord_ - - _d_ - | tone - | - _c_ tone - | - _b_♭ - ) hemitone - *_a_ - | tone - | - _g_ - | tone - | - _f_ - ) hemitone - _e_ - -_The Original Tetrachord_] - -Continuing to plot out the scale on a vertical plan would not be of any -advantage. The habit of the eye would perhaps require a diagonal line -of ascent; I think, however, that showing the growth of the scale on a -level line will best suit our general convenience. - -This then let us call the Terpander scheme for the scale to which the -_seven-stringed lyre_ or Cithara was tuned. As we shall see, this -became the classical lyre of Apollo, throughout the glorious period of -Greek Art. - - ╭————————^———————╮╭————————^————————╮ - _e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_ ‿ _b_♭———_c_———_d_ - * - - -The _a_ I have marked with a star. It was called the _mese_ or -_middle-note_, was considered the master-note of the lyre, and was -compared to the sun as being the centre of the musical system. The -original names of the strings of the four string lyre are lost, but it -is quite obvious that until the extra three strings were introduced -there could have been no _mese_ or middle string, so that the name -originated with this condition, with this perfecting of the system. - -Before systems exists methods and rules have sway; and out of these -methods and rules systems are constituted. The great poet-musicians -renowned in the land, in teaching their successors in art according to -their own practical experiences, and teaching _viva voce_, no doubt -insisted upon the observance of certain methods, and laid down rules -which on their authority as chief masters, became the traditions of the -profession. - -The great repute of Terpander would have caused him to be regarded -as one who spoke with authority, and I have sometimes thought that -discrepancies in the accounts given by different authors, who wrote -many centuries after the time of this musician, and from whom alone -we have any knowledge of the doings in such early period, might be -reconciled by the surmise that perhaps it was Terpander who first -showed how the two tetrachords should be disposed and the tuning of the -enlarged series of strings be regulated in the best way for the art -of music, so that instead of being left to the caprice of different -teachings, an uniform method should prevail. Some one in authority by -his recognised supreme skill, would have been necessary to reduce to -order the practices of the day as taught by the wandering minstrels in -the land of Greece, and in the numerous settlements in Asia Minor, and -it seems reasonable to suppose that Terpander may have been the first -to formulate definite laws for the structure of the tetrachord in Greek -music. - -Very binding indeed were these laws, and they have exercised an -important, indeed, an imperishable influence upon the musical art in -all the centuries that have followed. - -The methods of the great master-players of the cithara were in course -of time resolved into forms, very simple they were and very definite. -These are the laws of the tetrachord:— - - 1—between the two extremes of the strings of the - four-stringed lyre there shall be a consonance in sound - called a diatessaron. - - 2—between the string the highest in pitch and the string - next to it lower in pitch there shall be a separation in - the sounds equal to not less than one full tone. - - 3—between the third string (reckoning from the highest) - and the fourth string there shall always be a separation - in pitch equal to one hemitone. - -There remained therefore the neutral ground between the second and the -third string—equal to a tone—but variable, according to the selection -of a maximum beyond the “_not less_ than a full tone” affirmed by law -2; there might be two full tones in succession, or the upper might be -increased at the expense of the lower, or on the contrary the lower -might part with some of its own fulness to increase the hemitone. - -We should not imagine a written law at that early time ruling the -craft, the oral tradition would be sufficient. - -Giving an account of the growth of the scale, I have put the matter in -my own way, in words, that as I think, will best fix the attention of -the general reader. Evidently for many centuries the orthodox Greek -lyre was restricted to four strings, notwithstanding the popular -adoption from time to time of an increased number of strings according -to the prevalence of Asiatic influences. - -A time however came when authority accepted an increase to seven -strings. Whether Terpander, or Archilocus, or Tyrtæus, or other -poet-musicians got the innovation accepted is a question that will -remain unsolved; hearsay or history favours Terpander. Terpander let it -be. - -Olympus, who was a Phrygian, and—about 630 B.C., brought asiatic flute -music into Greece,—changed this as follows, and obtained the octave on -the seven strings. - - ╭————————^————————╮ ╭———————^—————-╮ - _e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_———_b_ ‿ ———_d_———_e_ - * - -Notice particularly the interval _b_ ‿ ———_d_ as it plays an important -part in the history of music. It was a flute-pipe interval, older than -Terpander. Olympus was the first to introduce the disjunct form, and -from _b_ to _e_ he compasses a tetrachord. - -Olympus was a contemporary of Terpander, and we may consider that the -two scales were in favour at the same time, one as the orthodox and the -other as the secular system. - -Pythagoras about 530 B.C., added an eighth string, and it is evident -that the string he introduced was that of the missing _c_, since, as to -extent, the octave already existed on the lyre. - - ╭————————^————————╮ ╭————————^————————╮ - _e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_———_b_ ‿ _c_———_d_———_e_ - * x - -Therefore two complete tetrachords, but _disjunct_. It is plainly to be -seen that he wanted a fifth to the _f_, to make his scheme of fifths -perfect. It was a marked advance. The doings of Pythagoras with the -monochord though of great interest, need not be told here, as they -belong to another branch of investigation, to be treated subsequently. - -Ion of Chios, about 430 B.C., enlarged the scale of the lyre to ten -sounds, and was the author of the Conjunct or Lesser System complete. -It consisted of three tetrachords conjoined and one note added, to -complete the octave below, from _mese_ the middle note _a_. Greek names -would bewilder, and it will be the best plan to keep to the method of -distinguishing the notes by letters. - - 3 1 2 - ╭———————^————————╮╭————————^——————-╮╭—————————^————————-╮ - _a_———_b_ ‿ _c_———_d_———_e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_ ‿ _b_♭———_c_———_d_ - * - -Notice the return to the Terpander scale with the _b_ flat. I have seen -the addition of the three notes below _e_ attributed to Terpander, but -considering the period the statement is not convincing. The eleven -notes here given may possibly be those of the Lesbian lyre of Timotheus -the celebrated poet-musician who according to Pausanias excited the -Spartan censure (mentioned page 312 ante), by his eleven strings. The -low _a_ first seen in the system was called the _proslambanomenos_, -meaning a note taken into the scale to complete the octave. - -This was the state at which after two hundred years the Greek scale had -arrived. After Ion there came a period of controversy. - -Archytas, 400 B.C., challenged the Pythagorean third, which was -extremely sharp, and he was the first to shew that _c_——_e_ should bear -the ratio 5/4. - -Aristoxenus 350-320 B.C., a pupil of Aristotle, disavowed the whole -Pythagorean scheme, and the philosophers ranged themselves in two -opposing schools, the Pythagoreans who determined intervals by -proportional numbers, and the Aristoxenians who relied upon the -judgment of the ear. - -Somewhere in the period embraced by the lives of Ion and Aristoxenus, -for it was a period of high intellectual activity with the Greeks -(Sophocles, Pericles, Plato, Aristotle and other famous men were -living), somewhere we have to place the Disjunct, or Greater System -Complete. It consists of fifteen notes,— - - 3 1 - ╭———————-^——————-╮╭————————^————————╮ - _a_———_b_ ‿ _c_———_d_———_e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_ - * - - 2 4 - ╭————————^———————╮╭————————^———————-╮ - ———_b_ ‿ _c_———_d_———_e_ ‿ _f_———_g_———_a_ - - -then there was an alternative arrangement ultimately admitted, making -conjunction at _a__{*}, allowing _b_ flat instead of _b_, causing that -tetrachord to end on _d_, and placing the tone of disjunction between -the _d_ and _e_. Very noticeable this as shewing how popular feeling -hankered after the old way of Terpander. This later arrangement of the -Greek scale, comprising the two octaves, comes to us from Euclid’s -reputed treatise on Music, now attributed to Cleonidas, writing about -120 A.D. - -Thus was the scale completed. The order of the growth of the scale is -shewn by the figures, 1, 2, 3, 4 over the several tetrachords. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -At Alexandria. - -THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALE. - - -The structure of the Scale so far as was necessary for the development -of the Greek modes was comprised in The Disjunct or Greater System -Complete; yet at various times the extent of the diatonic scale by -degrees was increased, tetrachord was added to tetrachord until in the -days of Plato its compass was stated to have been made to comprehend -four octaves, a fifth, and a tone. - -Archytas and Aristoxenus were both of Tarentum, a noted Greek colony -in Southern Italy, founded by Sparta about 705 B.C. Archytas was -a contemporary of Plato (_b_ 429 _d_ 347). The period was one of -artistic luxury, the Parthenon had been completed, and Greece had her -golden age of Art, Science, and Philosophy. Here Praxiteles, the great -sculptor, second only to Phidias, comes upon the scene, and we may with -confidence accept his design of Apollo’s Lyre as a true representation -of the instrument as it existed in his day, and, it may be assumed as -used in Apollo’s Temple, and by the master-musicians. The date of this -sculptor has not been ascertained precisely, Prof. E. A. Gardner gives -in a guarded way 400 B.C. - -Aristoxenus was a musician, the son of a musician, he came at a time -when great mathematicians were engaged in battle over fine distinctions -in Pythagorean systems, to them of superlative interest and importance. -Aristoxenus opposed the Pythagoreans and held that “it was absurd -to aim at an artificial accuracy in gratifying the ear beyond its -own power of distinction,” a decision very natural, coming from a -musician. He was a great writer and theorist, wrote it was said more -than four hundred treatises, all of which have been lost except three -on “Harmonic Elements,” and this is the oldest musical work at present -known. - -In those years from Archytas to Aristoxenus the evolution of Greek -music had passed from the poet-musicians, the real masters of the lyre, -into the hands of philosophers and disputants, men learned in all the -subtleties of Pythagorean lore, who busied themselves with recondite -demonstrations of the proportions of numbers, and applied them to the -theoretical division of the octave, to an extent which transcended -altogether the range of the practical art of the cithara players, -nevertheless the labour was not wholly lost, since it went to the -strengthening of the foundations of the _science of music_. - -A new era had arrived, Greece lost her position and became a dependency -in the Macedonian empire. The centre of Greek life and thought had -been transferred to Alexandria, and here at the great library which -had been founded B.C. 332 by Alexander the Great, Eratosthenes was -librarian, and his name figures largely in the mathematics of Music. -His lifetime extended from 276 to 196 B.C. - -Two other Alexandrians complete the record so far as the present simple -treatment of the development of the scale is concerned. They lived -within the Christian era. - -Didymus, A.D. 60, introduced the minor tone into the scale, and -consequently the practical major third. He demonstrated the lesser -or _minor tone_ to be necessary to the right division of fourths and -fifths. - -Claudius Ptolemy, A.D. 130, accepted the scheme, but altered the -arrangement of the tones. - -Didymus and Claudius Ptolemy, the two latest philosophers who sought to -perfect the diatonic scale, achieved highly important results by simple -means; whereas the octochord as left by Pythagoras, comprised but two -kinds of divisions, the tone and the hemitone (not exactly half a -tone, it was the overplus after the measurement of the two whole tones -in the tetrachord)—and these, taking C as the starting point for our -convenience, may be represented thus:— - - C......D.......E......F.......G.......A.......B.....C - major major hemi major major major hemi - tone tone tone tone tone tone tone - -this was constructed from a series of fifths. - -Didymus shewed that the stricter mathematical division (not by fifths) -required a lesser or minor tone in place of _one_ major, and the amount -of decrease went to increase the hemitone to a semitone, thus:— - - C.......D.......E......F.......G.......A.......B......C - minor major semi minor major major semi - tone tone tone tone tone tone tone - -Claudius Ptolemy seventy years later altered this, transposing the -minor tone to the second place,— - - C D E F G A B C - I I I I I I I I - major minor semi major minor major semi - tone tone tone tone tone tone tone - -as he left the _diatonic octave scale_, so it remains, practically the -same in the teachings of the theorists since: some scholiasts have -thought that preferably the minor tone should be placed between A and -B, transferring the major tone between G and A. - -This distinguished astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, like -Pythagoras, was the child of his time, given to much fanciful -speculation and mysticism, finding music analogies in the virtues, and -the sciences, in the parts of the human soul, and in the zodiac. He -wrote largely, and completed the foundations upon which European music -had been constructed, yet he had no conception of the structure that -would be raised by coming generations. The Greeks had in their scale -the elements of harmony yet they fell short of the realization, and it -must ever be a wonder that, intellectual as they were, they missed it. -Evolution was the destined way,—but it is so slow—so slow. - -Except to the chosen few these questions of the scales fail to maintain -their interest, however fascinating such studies of the calculation -of theoretical niceties of numbers and ratios undoubtedly are to some -minds, gifted with an aptitude for figures, yet with the general body -of musicians a broad survey tells that old formalisms in study are -fast becoming obsolete. The advance of the System of Equal Temperament -in these later years throughout the two worlds will render necessary a -reconcilement between theory and practice, now widely at variance. - -Historically the settlement of scale had its importance, although it -came too late in time to be for the Greeks an effective force in their -national music. The glory of Greece was fast departing, century after -century in the course we have looked upon during our survey, empires -had risen, empires had fallen, and in the disrupted state of social -conditions, chaos often came, the Greek race itself was worn down -and ultimately became absorbed amongst strangers, conquering races, -and in the end we have to speak of her Art as Greco-Roman. Out of -all these world changes we have isolated Music. To apprehend aright -the slow march along the path of progress, we should now and then -lift our thoughts to take account of the atmosphere and glance at the -environment. - -The final scale was the triumph of the mathematicians, they gained -their ideal. Beyond this, however, nothing was accomplished,—nothing -for actual Music. Harmony was not discovered, no great composer arose, -certain lyrists and auloi-players we know of, whose deeds excited -enthusiasm, but in what kind of display their art consisted no evidence -exists, beyond the music to a few hymns, the melodic phrases of -which do not commend themselves to us as examples of musical genius -or talent. The irresistible charms exercised by the citharists upon -the multitudes assembled to hear them, whether they sang by rule or -improvised their melodies must be attributable in the main to the -character of the singer’s voice, combined with the purport of the words -sung. When with the modern knowledge of musical instruments we examine -the nature of those which they had in their command, we have every -reason to doubt the practical application of those fine distinctions -of the pitches of the musical notes insisted upon by their learned -theorists. The instruments simply could not give them, the exactness -was beyond their staying and playing powers. The strings of a lyre had -not the delicate permanence of pitch requisite for such claims, and -certainly the flutes could not have rendered intervals so accurate. To -set the intervals by bridges on the Kanon or monochords, by patient -adjustment to marked divisions, was quite another matter, a mental -recreation. - -The trophy secured in the long march of music the thousand upon -thousand years is the simple diatonic scale of five major tones and -two semitones,—that is all. Up to the setting in of the Christian era -that was the utmost attainment of the human race in the art of music, -two formal tetrachords with a disjunct tone between; and if you will -think of it this one fact has a mighty significance. What instinct of -the race brought out this particular selection and arrangement, what -in-dwelling demand of the ear impelled the choice, apparently from -earliest impulses, we cannot tell,—there it is—the bed-rock upon which -our system of harmony is founded; and the curiosity of the thing is -that other races have for ages settled down upon a pentatonic system -and still manifest an inborn aversion to harmony. We adjudge tones by -means of calculated vibrations, ascertained by mechanism, the Greeks -made their determinations by the measuring of strings, the artist is -always satisfied by the verdict of the ear. - -To have established a tetrachord, and after centuries of intellectual -strife to have secured a double tetrachord forming merely a simple -scale of one octave, and that, the scale of _A minor_, may seem a -small matter as a record of human history and of mental achievement. -There is a saying of Aristotle which will justify a more inspiriting -estimate,—the philosopher wrote,— - - “The true nature of a thing is whatsoever it becomes when - the process of its development is complete.” - -To use a familiar illustration, expressing potentiality,—As the oak -lies in the acorn, so all the after developments of our European music, -their beauty, grandeur, massiveness, lie in that little scale of A -minor; repeat it in transpositions of pitch from each note, repeat -it in duplications above and below, and we know that we have therein -the whole range of tones comprehensible by the human ear. Mr. W. -Chappell, it is true, shews that the Greeks had no major scale, yet all -conceivable scales are there, that one being the plasmic germ of all. - -The process of the development of music from the reed pipe and from the -string of a bow may seem insignificant as a subject of enquiry, but the -philosopher will not think so. There is an apt parallel or analogy in -“_wheat_”—“the staff of life,” which I cannot omit reference to. Wheat -was not found in the predynastic tombs of Egypt nor was it indigenous -to that land, but was introduced into the Nile valley from the East. De -Candole in his botanical researches, “The Origin of Cultivated Plants,” -has shewn that the indigenous home of wheat was in the western slopes -of the Persian mountains. Thence the cereal has spread in the course -of ages over the whole earth. To this centre of human origin, to Iran -and Media (now called Persia) the indications of my search all point -for the source of music, here in this primal region the rude beginnings -of the art of music were first heard, and the sounds thereof have gone -out into all lands. - -Greece, as was fitting, has occupied a large share of attention in -these pages, her history seems a part of ours; her heroes are our -heroes, her philosophers our philosophers, her poets our poets. The -names of Homer and Pindar have come down the great highway of time, -hailed and recognised as the names of chief Masters in Song, givers to -whom the world is indebted; yet I think that to the man in the street -who cares for music, there are two other names that would come to -mind to stand first as the representatives of Greek song,—Sappho and -Anacreon,—the man may not have known even the sound of the language in -which they sung, yet English Song has made these names household words. - -So when I see Sappho with her lyre pictured on the vases, and memory -revives her story, or when, on an amphora, I see Anacreon depicted, -trudging along, with his lyre slung on a stick across his shoulder, -like a rustic traveller carrying his day’s provender, and with his dog -following,—they appeal to me as familiar friends. Then, too, I remember -how a Greek poet apostrophised Anacreon,— - - O lover of the lovely lyre, - Who as thy sweet will sped, - Hast sailed through all the seas of life, - With passion and with song. - -Still we linger over the land of Greece, its haunting charm persists -from youth to old age. Mr. F. G. Frazer, in his Pausanias, recalls the -beautiful thought of Schiller, how, like that poet, the traveller, - - “Might have seen as in a vision - The bright procession of the Gods - Winding up the long slope of Olympus, - Sometimes pausing to look back sadly - At a world where they were no longer needed.” - -A glance at the map of Asia will show you a long trend of mountains -from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. This vast plateau lies like a -great backbone across Asia; the Caucasus, the Armenian mountains, the -Zagros mountains, the Iranian mountains; on the eastern slope of these -the Hindoo Cush, and the great Divide. - -It is a curious fact worth thinking about that the Lute crossed over -the ranges of the Hindoo Cush to the Valley of the Indus and to the -Ganges and became the parent of the Ravanastron, or Indian Violin, and -other tribes of bowed string instruments. The Lyre and the Harp never -passed, nor the double flutes (except as left by Alexander the Great -after his conquest) and the same with China. The feeling of the Hindoos -has settled upon instruments with many frets and moveable bridges, and -unfortunately the relics of the real old days of that land have not -been preserved. - -On the Western side of this mountainous range I have shewn the type -of stringed instruments that prevailed, from Chaldea and Babylonia to -Egypt, from Assyria and Asia Minor to Greece, the chief feature of the -lyre and the harp being an _open frame_ with a body that is founded on -a boat-shape. These open-frame instruments are not found on the Eastern -side. Why? it remains an open question. Yet the long-necked Lute or -Nefer became acclimatised there in India. Was the instrument the cause -of the character developed in their music? It is easy to see how it -would lend itself to minute division, originating twenty intervals -within an octave. Race, climate, and geography, are the great factors -in the developments of the art of music. - - -Here, with reluctance I bring this volume to a close, for its pages -have already extended in number much beyond the limit of the original -intent. During the progress of the work new materials have come to -hand giving an additional interest to the subject, information and -illustrations acquired too late for incorporation in their relevant -places, and too important in their bearing upon the investigation to -be lightly sketched in, with but scant recognition of value. There is -much yet to be added to the search for the origin of the Apollo Lyre; -both the three-stringed and the four-stringed I have found depicted on -a vase, of a date at least 900 B.C., and Dr. A. J. Evans has favoured -me with a drawing of a pictograph seal, representing an eight-stringed -lyre, found in his explorations at Knossos in Crete, and he writes me -that he now places the date 2,000 B.C. From Egypt there comes a picture -of large cross-string harps, a construction undreamt of as an ancient -idea, but veritably so, discovered by Dr. Flinders Petrie at Abydos, in -the Tombs of the Kings. The illustration which he has given me is of -great interest. - -Then the American explorers in Babylonia have unearthed a tablet -sculptured in relief showing musicians, and one sitting, playing a -harp of eleven strings; Mr. St. Chad Boscawen gives the date of this -slab _circa_ B.C. 3,000, it was found at Tel-lo, the ancient Sirpurra. -Another valuable find, much earlier in date, was a terra-cotta relief -depicting a shepherd seated playing his lute, and his dog with a curly -tail standing beside him (probably this lute-lover was an earlier -Anacreon), the lute so like the Egyptian Nefer, and the attitude in -holding the instrument exactly the same; for so remote a time the -drawing of the figures is little less than marvellous. This relic was -found in the schoolroom attached to the temple library at Nippur, it -confirms the conjecture I put forth that the Nefer form was derived -from Babylonia—I called it the paddle form. - -Each year fresh treasures may be unearthed, so energetic are the new -explorers, sons of nations, all rivals in archæological work, each -emulating the other in adding new riches to the Museums to hold in -trust for the world’s coming ages, adding to the known past other more -distant millenniums. - -With so much material accumulating throwing new light upon the subject, -I contemplate a sequel to this volume, to be ready, if health aids the -fulfilment of my wish, by the coming Christmas, and to be entitled -“Our Musical Inheritance.” - -INDEX. - - - A, the master note in Greek pitch, 335 - - Aalst, Van, on Migration of the Chinese, 8, 163 - Semi-tonal scale, 160 - on Gong chimes, 162 - Stone chimes, 163 - diagram of Lüs, 173-5 - Books destroyed, 186 - ideas of, 189 - - Abydos Tombs, Petrie’s discovery of cross-string Harps, 351 - - Abysinnian Kissar Harp, 294 - - Adonis, Phœnicean, 33 - - Afghanistan, carvings of double flutes, 9 - - Agriculture, of early Chinese, 168 - - Akkad, the early settlement, 167-172 - - Akkadean Language, 169 - religion, 169 - Hymn, 172 - tetrachord surmised, 331 - - Alexander the Great, 350 - - Alexandrian Library, 10, 342-3, - philosophers, 343-4 - - Alypius, his scales, 149 - characters used for notes in Greek music, 334 - transposition of his scales by Ptolemy, 146 - - Amenhotep, 111 - Statue of called the Memnon, 322 - - Amiot, Pere, Chinese Music, 158 - reeds of Cheng, 173, 187 - misled A. J. Ellis, 201 - on flutes, 240 - - Amphoræ, Vases for oil, 78 - - Anacreon, his ten stringed lyre, 312, 335 - his songs, 349 - - Ancestor Worship the religion of China, 168-9 - orchestra for the rites, 275 - Confucian Hymn, Music of, 282 - - Antigenedes on reed growth, 119-121 - - Apollo, his invention of the lyre, 14 - statue of, 15 - oracle of, 130 - hymns to, 130 - his temples, 130 - the Delphic tablets and hymn, 146-150 - lyre by Praxiteles, 323-342 - tetrachord scheme of his - lyre 336, - Cretan seal of lyre 350 - - Arabia the Divine land 11, 161 - - Archilochus, musician 339 - - Archytas, his major third 340, - contemporary with Plato 342-3 - - Arghool, Egyptian reed flute 35-36, - its reeds 71, - description 55 - - Arica, Peruvian flutes from 18 - - Aristophanes on flutes 73 - - Aristotle, on the Bombyx flutes 99, - on _Mese_ 103, - Aristoxenus his pupil 341, - on development 348 - - Aristoxenus, musician and philosopher 341, - his works 343 - - Art is the superfluous 285 - - Arunda Donax, for reeds 49 - - Ashmolean Museum, the Lady Maket pipes now in 41 - - Asia Minor 238, - minstrels in 337 - - Asiatic music distracting 21 - - Assur-ban-ipal, slabs at British Museum 295 - - Assyrian, Double pipes 55, 60, - Dulcimers 253, - harp, representation of 262, - route to Greece 350 - - Athenæus Pronomus 92 - - Athene, the Goddess, 128, 138 - - Athens, founding of 327 - - Athens Museum, Apollo 322 - - Auletris, flute player 73 - - Auloi, Greek flutes 73 - - - Babylon, Berosus on 170 - - Babylonia 304, 314 - - Bach, J. S., use of the thumb 85 - - Bailey, J., Festus quoted 133 - - Ball, Rev. J. C., Turano Sythic speech 169 - - Bamboo Books, The ancient Chinese 276 - - Bamboo Forests in China 193 - - Bark, boats made of 286 - - Beethoven, his folk song themes 83, - his melodies 180, - his famous three knocks of Fate 273 - - Berlin Museum, Egyptian lyre in 298 - - Berosus on Babylon 170 - - Bird’s Nest or Chinese Sheng 10, 182 - - Blaikley, J. D., experiments on Egyptian flutes 57 - - Bombyx flutes 99, 102 - - Book of Changes, Chinese 191 - - Borneo, Cane Harps from 303-4 - - Boscawen, St. Chad, on Chaldea 4, - on Persia 6, - metal working 208, - Lute on slab from Tello 352 - - Bow with boat form of early lyres 285, 289 - - Boxing, Etruscan to sounds of flutes 78 - - British Museum, relics in: - Apollo, Statue of 15 - Pans Pipes or Syrinx 17 - Peruvian Pan pipes 18 - Peruvian Stone Syrinx 17 - Egyptian Gingras, part of 28-33, 48 - Cymbals found in Egyptian mummy 29 - Wall painting of Egyptian ladies playing the double pipes 46 - Copy of a Corneto painting 60-67 - Song on a Chaldean tablet 62 - Fragment of flute bulb 80 - Greek Monaulos, two specimens 84 - Chinese Encyclopia shelved there 190 - Leva flute pipe 246 - Harps on Assyrian slabs 262 - Roman Cornu and Trumpets 270, - Litmus 271 - Egyptian Boated lyres, 288 - Three thousand gems, 311 - Bronze of Hermes, 308 - Chelys lyre, parts of, 310 - Herculanæum, painting of Apollo with harps, 318 - Calliope, Hymn to the Muse, 145, 163 - - Bruce, the Traveller, Grand Harp painting found by, 290 - - Brussels Museum, Catalogue of, 240 - Krena Flute from, 246 - - Buddha and Confucius, 256 - - Bulb found by Maspero, 124-5 - - Bulbs for flute mouthpiece shewn on vases, 121 - fragment of, in British Museum, 80 - - Burney, Dr., on Hermes lyre, 308 - his picture of one kind of lyre, 318 - - - Caspian Sea Mountains, 350 - - Capistrum for flute player, 70 - - Caucasian Mountains, 219, 350 - - Cecrops, founder of Athens, 65, 327 - - Cephisis, River of, 128-9 - - Cesnola collection at New York, 71, 100 - his Salamis flute, 115 - - Chaldea, land of, 6, 8 - Songs, 62 - - Chaldean Race, 170, 350 - Sculpture by, 4, 208 - - Chappell, W., on fragment of Egyptian pipe, 33 - on the tongue box, 43 - reed growth, 120 - Greek hymns, 143-4 - harmony in Egyptian music, 302 - Cleonidas quoted, 312 - no Greek major scale, 348 - - Charites, City of, 128, 137 - - China, her past, 3, 4 - - Chinese Musical Instruments. - Outspread Phœnix, 18, 157, 160 - Bird’s Nest or Sheng, 152, 176, 203 - Stone Chime, 160, 163 - Gong chime, 162, 235 - Yellow Bell and Forest, 175 - Tetrachord of Bells, 216 - Clarionet or Kwant-ze, 219 - Monster Bell, 233, 234 - Flutes, 236, 237, 244, 246 - Dragon flute, 239 - Se, 227, 251, 257 - Hwang-chong-tche, 241, 243 - Guitars, 250, 280 - Violin of gourd or cocoanut, 251 - Dulcimers, 253 - Kin or C’hin, 259, 260, 261 - Trumpets, 264, 268 - Rattling Tiger, 272 - Drums, 272 - - Chinese Notation, 10 - Flat-fourths, 39, 53, 177, 205 - Confucian hymn, 151 - Ear for pitch, 159 - Scale of P’ai-hsiao, 159 - Chronology, 170 - Foot measures, 172, 177 - Measures and Weights, 178, 197 - Enormous Encyclopedia, 190 - Book of Changes, 191 - Yellow Emperors foot, 196 - Old Ritual, 228 - Bell foundry, 232-233 - Coins, 242 - Strings, 252 - Classics, 276 - King Seang Wei, his buried books, 276 - Duke Tan Foo ancestral temples, 276 - Ritual Music, 277 - Sect of the learned, 277 - Love songs, 279 - Orchestras, 280 - Oldest written music, 282 - - Chord, as a musical term, 332 - - Chorebus, the poet musician, 335 - - Citharist players, The charm of, 346 - - Civilization, Primitive, 168 - Origin of, 171 - - Clarionet, Japanese, 112 - Chinese, 219 - - Cleonidas on seven stringed lyre, 313 - His writings, 341 - - College of Mandarins, 190 - - Confucius, Hymn to, 151 - on music, 190 - his favourite instrument the Kin, 255, 259 - ancient celebrations, 277 - sacrificial hymn to, 282 - - Corneto Etruscan painting, 60, 67 - - Cretan Seal of Apollo’s Lyre, 351 - - Crete, stepping stone to Greece, 328 - - Crissa, Plains of, 130 - - Cromornes, their caps, 224 - - Cyprus, held by Egypt, 328 - - - Danaus, founder of Argos, 65, 327 - - Dayr-el-Bahari Temple of, 10 - - De Candole, origin of wheat, 348 - - Debrett’s peerage Ancestor Worship, 283 - - Delphi, Temple of, 131 - Pindar, his Iron chair at, 132 - Pythagorus Sophocles Æschylus and Phideas at, 132 - Music Tablets, 143 - lyre, 306 - - Demaratus, Merchant of Corinth, 68 - in Terpanders time, 334 - - Dennis on Etruscan Vases, 71 - - Diagram of Nations, 5 - - Diatesseron, The Greek fourth, 332 - - Diaulos, Greek flutes, 49, 80-85 - - Didymus, his minor tone, 344 - his diatonic scale, 344 - - Dion, Statue of Hermes, 130 - - Dionysius on rhythm, 144 - Greek hymn by, 146 - - Diosopolis Parva, Horn from, 225 - - Dirce, Fountain of, 129 - - Disjunct or Greater System, 341 - - Dragon, Chinese, 3 - flute, 239 - - Dulcimer, Chinese, 253 - - - Ear, Artists habit of reliance on, 333 - - Edkins, Dr., Akkadian and Chinese languages, 169 - - Edwards, Miss, at a Nubian funeral, 61 - - Egypt, Exploration Fund, 225 - - Egyptian Music unwritten, 304 - Egyptian chant of Thotmes IV., 276 - player on the Nay, 59 - method compared with Chinese, 245 - - Egyptian Musical Instruments. - Mamms or Twin flutes, 47, 62 - Nay, 58 - Seba, 58 - Lyres, 13, 287-289, 297 - Zummarah, 38, 57 - Arghool reed flute, 35-36 - its reeds, 55, 71 - - Elam, Land of, 167 - - Elgin, Lord, Lyre from Athens, 319, 323 - - Ellis, Dr. A. J., on Persian Scale, 7 - the lutist Zalzal, 22 - Arabic music, 22 - test of Gong Chimes, 162 - scale of Kublai Khan, 188 - on Amiot, 201 - scales of various nations, 201 - on Japanese scales, 216-217 - Greek scales founded on the fourth, 218 - - Emerson on the Builder, 181 - - Emperors Chinese. - Fu-Hsi, 183, 188, 253, 263 - Huang Che, the destroyer of books, 186 - Hwang-ti, 171, 188, 197, 257 - Shun, 188, 276 - Yao, 171 - - Empress, Chinese, Nu-wo, 188 - - Encyclopedia of the Chinese, 190 - - Engel, Carl, on the Sheng, 201 - - Equal Temperament System of, 346 - - Erato, The Muse her Psaltery, 317 - and Trigon, 321 - - Eratosthenes, writings on music, 344 - on flutes with boxing, 78 - - Erech, city of the dead, 283 - - Etrurian Kings of Rome, 67 - - Etruscan double flutes, 60 - Subulones, 69 - tomb opening of, 66 - vases, 68 - - Euphrates Valley and River, 167, 168, 169-170, 307 - - Euterpe, the Muse playing her flutes, 77 - - Evans, A. J., Knossos lyre seal, 351 - - Experiments with the Sheng pipes, 199 - - Ezra and Moses, 190 - - - Feng tribes early in China, 163 - - Filmore, J., on Indian melodies, 247 - - Finding the Chinese Lüs, 165 - - Fingers, the fates of music, 21, 33 - - Flageolet pipe, 98 - - Flute of Ismenias, 93 - - Flute player with Phorbia, 70 - - Flutes. - Diaulos, 49, 75 - Subulo, 69 - Bombyx, 93, 99, 102-5 - Plagiaulos, 97, 104 - Cyprian, 115 - Egyptian, 11 - holed, 122 - Pindar’s, 129 - Midas, 129, 139 - Pompeian, 99, 106, 110 - Bronze ringed, 135 - Sycamore, 105 - Meledosa’s, 79 - Wailing, 28, 31 - Theban, 129 - Pronomus, 73, 92 - - Fourths, Ancient flat, 30, 53 - - Free reeds, Midas flutes, 138 - Weber’s laws of, 140 - - Funeral in Nubia, Wailing music at, 61 - - - Galpin, Rev. F. W., his museum, 246 - - Gardner, E. A., date of Praxiteles, 343 - - Garibaldi’s welcome, 133 - - Gaudentius on rhythm, 144 - - German flute, conical, 219 - - Gingroi, Lady Maket’s, 4, 28, 33 - - Glossocomeia, reed box, 43 - - Gods, Sleeping, 233 - procession on Olympus, 350 - - Goethe, J. W., on May of life, 153 - - Greco-Etruscan flutes, 69 - - Greek Church, Music of, 106 - - Greek Music, Modes their growth, 84 - tonal division, 91 - notation, letter note, 144, 334 - Doric scale, 201 - twofold strain of, 330 - - Greek people, composite race, 65 - - Greek Vases. - Greco-Etruscan, 66, 72 - Lekythos for funeral oil, 76 - Krater for mixing wine with water, 77, 81 - Hydria for drawing water, 78 - Amphora for Prize Winners Oil, 78 - Kylix, wine cup, 83 - - Guitar, Chinese, 251 - - - Hall, H. R., oldest Athens, 329 - - Harp, Evolution of, 285 - - Harps, Chaldean, 4 - Egyptian Assyrian, 262 - Abyssinian, 294 - Abydos, cross string, 351, 290 - Borneo cane, 302 - - Hathor, The Goddess beautiful, 11 - - Hautboy, reed, 35 - Asiatic, 57 - - Hellenes or Greeks, 65 - - Helmholtz on harmonics, 159 - scale of Olympos, 201 - Ellis’s notes to on scales, 218 - on Terpanders, 335 - - Hemitone of Pythagoras, 336 - - Hermes, God on the Nile, 309, 312 - Statue of, 130 - - Herodotus, Song of Maneros, 64 - - Hichi-richi, Japanese Clarinet, 112, 220 - - Hindoo Cush, 350 - - Hindoos, frets and bridges, 350 - - Hipkins, A. J., Scale of Gingroi, 53 - - Hippocrene water, 325 - - Homer and Pindar, 127, 349 - on the lyre, 308, 311 - Trojan War, 329 - - Hope, Costume of Greeks, 316 - - Horn, pipe of, 225 - - Horns, Assyrian, Egyptian, 266 - Greek and Roman, 267 - - Houscheng, Persian King, 8 - - Hunt, Leigh, on old Nile, 24 - - Hyagnis, Poet Musician, 330, 335 - - Hydria, Greek vase, 78 - - Hymettus, glow of, 325 - - Hymn to Calliope, 145 - to Nemesis, 146 - to Confucius, 10, 288 - to Hermes, 308 - - - India, carvings of flutes, 9 - Ravanastron on violin, 350 - - Indians, North West Americans, flutes of, 246 - in Bolivia, 245 - - Indus and Ganges rivers, 350 - - Ion of Chios, his conjunct system, 340 - - Iranian Mountains, 167, 349, 350 - - Iscariot, Judas, a musician, 43 - - Ismenias, his costly flute, 93 - - - Jade, Chinese, 161 - - Japanese clarionet, 112, 220, 223 - flat fourths in their music, 177 - fine work, 225, 227 - the Sho, 209 - its scale, 215, 226 - pitch pipes, 212 - reed curve of, 225 - Koto, 216, 227, 258 - - Jebb, Prof. on Delphian tablet, 152 - - Johnston, Sir H., Uganda boat, 286 - the Kavibondo Harp, 293 - - Jubal, pipes of, 4, 209 - - - Kanon or monochord, 347 - - Keats, John, on a Grecian Urn, 76 - on beauty, 81 - on cool vintage, 81 - treasures hid, 117 - teasing thought, 305 - Delphic Festival, 324 - Apollo, 325 - - Kin or Scholar’s Lute, 253 - cork soundboard of, 255 - its softness of sound, 256 - - Kissar, Abyssinian Harp, 294 - - Kissirka lyre, 295 - - Knife Grinders Chinese Trumpet, 271 - - Koto, Japanese, 227 - - Krater Greek Vase, 71, 81, 83 - - Krena, pipe, 245 - - Krishna, a flute player, 9 - - Kuênlun Mountains, 172 - - Kylix, Greek Vase, 83 - - - Lacroix, Decadence of Greek Musical Art, 4 - - Lamia and her flutes, 73 - - Lang, Hymn of Hermes, 308 - - Languages. - Chinese and Akkadian, 169 - - Lekythos, Satyr and flutes on, 76 - - Lesbian Lyre, 340 - - Leslie, Prof., on the Ear, 231 - - Leyden Museum, Harp at, 291, 299 - - Lichanos, finger for, 334 - - Ligature of Japanese Clarionet, 219 - - Ling-lun, his quest, 121 - the Chinese lüs, 173, 176, 178 - his twelve bells, 232 - - Linus, Song of, 63, 331 - - Lucretius on wind and reeds, 153 - - Lute or Nefer, form of, 289, 299, 351 - from Nippur, 352 - - Lychanos, his added string, 335 - - Lyres. - Queen Hatasu’s three stringed, 13 - at British Museum four stringed, 288 - Upright form, 289 - boated and cross bar, 289 - in Paris Collection, 292 - open frame lyre of the Stranger’s, 293, 294, 307 - Abyssinian, 294 - Magadis, 297 - Hermes, 308, 312 - Greek Chelys, 309 - Act of Tuning, 316 - subordinate to Voice, 333 - Lesbian, 340 - Apollo’s, 14, 318 - by Praxiteles, 323, 336, 342, 350 - - - Maclean, Dr., on Greek music, 153 - - Magadis lyre, 297 - - Mahaffy, J. P., on Delphic Tablet, 149 - - Mahillon, C. V., on Pompeian flutes, 99, 110, 112, 114, 116 - Siamese scale of Phan, 211 - Chinese Dragon flute, 240 - Apollo lyre, 318 - - Maket, the Lady, her Egyptian flutes, 50 - - Malagasy braiding, 313 - - Malay pipes, 246 - - Mamms or Twin flutes, 47 - Goddess Mama, 63 - - Man a measurer, 19 - - Mandarin’s College at Pekin, 190 - - Maneros, Song of, 64 - - Mantinea in Arcadia, 323 - - Marsyas, the elder, 330 - - Marsyas contest with Apollo, 323 - - Maspero, on bulb forming for flutes, 122, 123 - flute found with eleven holes, 124 - - Measures of Organ pipes, 179-197 - - Medea founded by Mongols, 168 - home of early races, 349 - - Meledosa the Muse, her flutes, 79 - - Memnon, Singing Statue of, at Thebes, 322 - - Mercury, scale of lyre, 331 - - Mese or middle note, Aristotle on, 103 - called the Sun, 336 - - Mesopotamia, 167, 169, 308, 328 - - Midas the glorious, 126 - statue of, 134 - flutes, 134 - brass reed, 138 - - Migrations of Chinese, 8 - - Milton on noise, 230 - - Minor tone of Didymus, 344 - - Monaulos, the single flute, 86 - specimen in British Museum, 89 - - Mongolian race, 168 - - Mongols new home, 165 - - Monochord of Pythagoras, 103, 105, 347 - - Murray, A. S., on Tomb treasures, 43 - his help, 88 - - Musæus, poet musician, 330 - - Museums. - Ashmolean, 41 - Athens, 323 - Berlin, 48, 299 - British, 17, 33, 45, 59, 62, 70, 71, 86, 87, 134, 189, 246, 270, - 287, 295, 298, 308, 310, 311 - Brussels, 211 - India, 59 - Leyden, 48, 291, 299 - Munich, 320 - Naples, 99 - Paris, 48, 292 - South Kensington, 232, 240, 294 - - Musical Scale by Measures, 19, 20 - by Vibrations, 347 - - Mycenœan Greece, 329 - - - Napoleon, work on Egypt, 225 - - Nations, diagram of, 5 - - Nauman, History of Music, 317 - - Nay, Egyptian flute, 58 - player on, 59 - - Nefer or lute, 299 - player on, 300 - dancers with, 301 - Shepherd with, 351 - - Neith, the goddess Egyptian, 327 - - Nemesis, Hymn to, 146 - - Neuter Third, 53 - - Newton, Sir C., flute from Halikarnassos, 97 - - Nile, Leigh Hunt on, 24 - - Nineveh, slabs from, 304 - - Noah, era of, 163 - - Noise love of, 229 - Milton on, 230 - - Notation, Greek method of, 144, 334 - - Nubian funeral wailing, 60 - Kissirka lyre, 295 - - - Olympos, his scale, 201, 216, 311, 330 - - Olympus Mountain, 325 - procession of the Gods, 350 - - Olympus, the Phrygian, disjunct scale, 339 - - Orestes of Euripides, 151 - - Organ pipes, 16 - measuring of, 179 - - Orpheus, cithara of, 311 - hymn to, 330 - - Oscan people, 116, 142 - - Osiris Egyptian God, 23 - - Ouseley, Sir F. G., ear for pitch of Chinese Bells, 216 - - Outspread Phœnix, Chinese, 17 - - Oval holes of ancient pipes, 224 - - - Panopolis, flute from, 122 - - Pan’s pipes, 16, 164, 201, 237, 246 - - Parnassus, 325 - - Parthenon, Friezes, 75 - harps on, 298 - Temple completed, 342 - - Pausanias on Greece, 321 - on the Memnon, 322 - on history, 326 - Frazer on, 350 - - Pelasgians, 67 - - Persia fire worship, 8 - - Persian scale from the Greek fourth, 113 - mountains, 6, 350 - - Pentatonic scale origin in the tetrachord, 248 - - Peruvian Pan’s pipes, 17-18 - Stone Syrinx, 18 - - Petrie, J. Flinders, discovery of flutes, 27 - specimen of Zummarah, 57 - cross-string harps, 351 - - Phan, Siamese reeds, 208 - - Phideas, sculptor, 342 - - Phœnician Adonis, 33 - - Phœnix, 164, 201 - - Phorbia or Capistrum, 70, 140 - - Phrygian mode, 335 - - Phrynis, added string, 312 - - Pindar, Ode to Midas, 126 - at Delphi, 109 - city of Charites, 138 - pipe of brass, 138 - and Homer, 349 - - Pipes, pastoral, 34 - primitive, 168 - how played, 224, 248 - - Pitch pipes of Japanese, 214 - - Plagiaulos Greek pipe, 97, 133 - - Plato, many stringed lyres, 321 - compass of lyres, 342 - - Pliny on reed growth, 119 - on Terpander, 335 - - Plutarch, on song of Maneros, 64 - reciting pipes, 333 - - Polyphemus, fingers, 19 - - Polytheistic ideas, 171 - - Pompeian flutes, 107 - Mahillon’s discovery, 110-117 - - Pompeii, buried city, 107, 320 - - Praxiteles, Sculptor, his Apollo, 322, 342 - - Pronomus, his flutes, 73, 92 - - Proslambanomenos, 340 - - Ptolemy, Claudius, on minor tone, 91 - transposition of Alypius scales, 146 - diatonic complete scale, 345 - - Ptolemy Philadelphus, his Band, 58 - - Punt, the land of, 11 - - Pythagoras, on intervals, 7 - at the Nile, 33 - his added string, 312, 335 - songs he loved, 331 - his disjunct scale, 339, 340 - his fancies, 345 - - Pythic games, 126, 130, 334 - - - Quechas, Indian pipe of, 245 - - Queen Hatasu, her Temple, 10-12 - ships of, 12 - her lyre, 13, 287 - - - Ravanastron, Indian, 350 - - Red Sea, Canal to, 11 - - Reed, the arghool, 35, 55 - - Reed, Hautboy, 35 - - Reeds and pipes earlier than strings, 23 - growth of, 119 - - Reinach, harmonization of Delphic music, 147 - - Religion of Akkadians, 169 - of Chinese, 168 - - Rhodians ode to Pindar, 129 - - Rhomaides, his photo of Apollo, 323 - - Rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, 170 - Cephisis, 128 - - Rosellini’s Egypt, 300 - - Rowbotham, J. T., Musical History, 120 - - Russians, their Bells, 232 - - - Sacadas, the flute player, 130 - - Sappho, her lyre, 312 - songs, 349 - - Sarasate, Jubilee at Athens, 130 - - Satyr playing Double pipes, 74 - - Sayce, A., on Tel Amarna Tablets, 64 - - Scales in music by finger measure, 19 - Chinese Lüs, 174 - early, 188 - traditional Greek, 327 - - Schiller’s procession of the Gods, 350 - - Schubert Music, 180 - Symphony, 256 - - Seba, Egyptian flute, 58 - - Sepulchres of Etruria, 65 - - Shelley, on Egypt, 323 - - Sheng, Chinese, 9 - scale of, 176, 182, 200, 209, 244 - compared with Greek scale, 205 - evolution of, 192, 203 - primitive maker, 193 - free reeds, 185, 196 - experiments with the pipes, 199 - Chinese tetrachord, 200 - pipes described, 184 - order of, 202 - - Sho, Japanese reeds, 227 - - Siamese Phan, 208, 211 - - Silkworm flutes of bronze, 94, 96 - scale of, 105 - - Simcox, E. J., on early Chinese, 168 - worship of spirits, 169 - Chinese classics, 277 - - Solomon, King, his musicians, 304 - - Song, of the goddess Mama, 62 - of Linus, 63 - of Miriam, 279 - of Sappho, 349 - - Southgate, T. L., experiment with flutes, 51 - Panopolis flute, 122 - Bulb from M. Maspero, 124 - - Spartan lyre, 335 - - Spirit of Earth and Heaven, 169, 171, 275 - - Stainer, Dr. J., on Reed Box, 43 - - Sticks, the true prophets of Sheng, 206 - - Stradivarius, 94 - - Subulone flutes, 69 - players, 73, 82 - - Sumerian Race, 167 - religion, 170 - - Sycamore flutes, Greek, 89, 95 - - - Tak-Koto, Japanese, 208 - - Tarentum in Sicily, 342 - - Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari, 10 - of the God Uras at Urasalem, 65 - - Terpander, prize lyre, 311, 312, 315, 329 - Pythic games at, 334, 345 - his scheme for scale, 336, 337, 339 - - Tetrachord Greek, 34 - Egyptian, 39, 329 - early, 332 - meaning of, 332 - conjunct and disjunct, 336 - trichord added, 336 - laws of, 338 - instinct for, 347 - - Thaletes poet musician, 331 - - Thamyris poet musician, 331 - - Thebe, foundress of the Theban Nation, 129 - flutes of, 129 - - Thebes, tomb painting, 46 - - Theodosius, Emperor, 5 - - Theophrastus on reed growth, 119 - - Thibet no evidence, 9 - - Thotmes, 60, 111 - his wars, 327 - - Timotheus, poet musician, lyre of, 312 - strings added, 335, 340 - - Tokio Musical Institute, 219 - - Tonic, Greeks had not, 334 - - Tope at Jumal Garlic, 9, 60 - - Traditions of the Scale, 327 - - Trigon, Greek Harp, 321 - - Trojan War, 329, 331 - - Trombone, infantile, 137 - - Trumpets, Assyrian and Egyptian, 264 - Chinese, 268, 271 - - Tuning of lyres, 314 - - Tyrtæus, poet musician, 339 - - - Uganda Boat, 286 - Kavibondo Harp, 293 - - - Violins, Chinese, 251 - Indian Ravanastron, 350 - - - Wagener, Dr., Chinese weights and measures, 178, 197 - - Wagner, Procession of the Gods, 229 - - Wailing flutes or Gingroi, 28 - - Weber, law of Free Reeds, 140 - - Wheat, De Candole upon its origin, 348 - not in pre-dynastic Egypt, 349 - - Wilkinson, Sir J. G., Egypt, 290, 293 - - Williams, Abdy, Euripides Chorus, 151 - - - Yellow Bell, Chinese, 175 - - Yellow Emperor, 172, 197 - - Yellow River, 166, 168 - - - Zagros Mountains, 350 - - Zummarah, Egyptian, 38 - description of the, 57 - - -Printed by W. REEVES, 83, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. - -ERRATA. - - - Page 5 line 16 _for_ kythara _read_ lute. - - ” 22 ” 28 ” B.C. ” ago. - - ” 43 ” 21 ” glossoocmeia ” glossocomeia. - - ” 52 ” 15 ” B 233 ” B♭ 233 - - ” 72 ” 11 _after_ length, _add_,—out of the whole number. - - ” 75 ” 2 ” indellible _read_ indelible. - - ” 87 ” 19 ” worn ” warm. - - ” 92 ” 8 ” third century ” 440 B.C. - - ” 219 ” 17 ” Cancasus ” Caucasus. - - ” 225 ” 7 ” Diosopolis ” Diospolis. - - ” 230 ” 22 ” physical ” psychical. - - ” 312 ” 11 ” poem _insert_,—as spoken. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC*** - - -******* This file should be named 53039-0.txt or 53039-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/0/3/53039 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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} - h4 { text-align: center; - clear: both; } - hr.full { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The World's Earliest Music, by Hermann Smith</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: The World's Earliest Music</p> -<p> Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands</p> -<p>Author: Hermann Smith</p> -<p>Release Date: September 13, 2016 [eBook #53039]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4>E-text prepared by deaurider, turgut,<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - <a href="https://archive.org/details/worldsearliestmu04smit"> - https://archive.org/details/worldsearliestmu04smit</a> - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="apollo" id="apollo"> -<img src="images/firstpage.jpg" width="300" height="133" alt="APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE." /></a> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<table summary="apollo"><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2"> -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_f02b.jpg" width="500" height="788" alt="APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE." /></div></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><small>APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE.</small></td><td class="tdr"><small>(described page <a href="#Page_323">323.</a></small></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><small><i>From a marble relief by Praxiteles in the Museum at Athens.</i></small></td> -</tr></table> - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">iv</a></span></p> - -<p class="center f08">“The eye is blind when the mind does not see.”—<i>Arab Proverb.</i></p> - -<h1><small><small>THE</small></small><br /> -<span class="smcap">World’s Earliest Music</span>:<br /> -<small><small><small><small>TRACED TO ITS BEGINNINGS</small></small></small></small><br /> -<small><small><span class="gesperrt">IN ANCIENT LANDS,</span></small></small></h1> - -<p class="center f07">BY COLLECTED<br /> -EVIDENCE OF RELICS, RECORDS,<br /> -HISTORY, AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS<br /> -FROM GREECE, ETRURIA, EGYPT, CHINA, THROUGH ASSYRIA<br /> -AND BABYLONIA, TO THE PRIMITIVE<br /> -HOME, THE LAND OF AKKAD<br /> -AND SUMER.</p> - -<p class="center"><small><small>BY</small></small><br /> -<span class="smcap"><big><big>Hermann Smith</big></big></span>.<br /> -<small><small>Author of “<i>The Making of Sound in the Organ</i>,” “<i>Instruments of the<br /> -Orchestra from Old to New</i>,” “<i>Modern Organ Tuning</i>,” <i>etc.</i></small></small></p> - -<p class="center"><b>Sixty-five Illustrations.</b></p> -<p> </p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><small>London:</small></span><br /> -WILLIAM REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"><i>Preparing for Publication.</i></p> - -<p class="center">THE<br /> -<big>MAKING OF SOUND IN THE ORGAN.</big><br /> -<small><small>An Analysis of the work of the Air in the Speaking Organ Pipe of<br /> -the various constant types, with an Exposition of the Laws of<br /> -Time-distance and of the Tone of the Air, etc., etc.,<br /><br /> -THE THEORY OF THE AIR-REED ELUCIDATED.</small></small><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="center"><small><span class="smcap">Also</span></small><br /> -<br /> -<big>INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA,</big><br /> -<small>THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT<br /> -AND COMPARATIVE ACOUSTICS, <span class="smcap">etc.</span></small></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"> </a></span></p> - -<h2><b>FOREWORD.</b></h2> - -<p>A music-trail through many lands, over regions -where dwelt the peoples of the earliest civilizations, -this I have followed, attracted oftentimes to rambles -by the way, gathering evidence on all sides in the -course of my journey, picking up whatever seemed to -be capable of throwing light upon the early conditions -of music; from rock carvings, wall paintings, tablets -and vases, marbles and sculpture, papyri and parchments, -and records, the treasure-trove and finds of -explorers old and new, who seem to have accounted -for at least ten thousand years of human experience;—yet -withal very few musical instruments of the earlier -ages have been recovered, and these for the most part -imperfect and unplayable, and we have to depend -chiefly upon the ancient representations, drawings -or carvings for what we know. Archæologists and -antiquarians, unhappily for our quest, have not been -very particular in truthfully copying even the drawings -and sculptures, often leaving out important details, or -supplying some imaginatively; in the absence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">vi</a></span> -insight into the constructive principles of instruments, -indifference may be a natural consequence, and that -there was anything at all in a musical instrument -worth thinking about, might probably never occur -to their minds.</p> - -<p>Music is not an isolated fact, it is bound up with -the lives, with the daily routine of peoples and nations; -its courses of development, cannot rightly be judged -apart from geography, ethnography, archæology and -history. In the early migrations man’s music went -with him as his language went, his simple instruments -he could fashion by the wayside, and in later eras -as men advanced, a craft would organize itself, -determining the progress of the instruments from a -rude to a refined style of construction; thus a kind -of Art would be confirmed and thereout a system of -music would arise, which to the people of the time, at -whatever stage of attainment considered, would be as -mature to them as our present system is to us.</p> - -<p>The structure of the instruments defines the -possibilities of the music, and my belief is that a true -idea of the character of ancient musical display can -only be arrived at through a practical knowledge of -such structure, its capabilities, its limitations, and the -scope of its technique, since the qualities of tone -that are at the command of the player are always -determined by the means of excitation of the sounds, -and by the shape and interior forms of the instruments.</p> - -<p>The ancients had no system of harmony, yet there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span> -must have been harmony in the air, a promiscuous -harmony arising through the variations in a multitude -of unisonous effects.</p> - -<p>A study of the Double Flutes, the Greek <i>Auloi</i>, -has led me to some original conclusions which may or -may not be corroborated by future discoveries, and I -read with eager hopes of a projected International -scheme for the complete excavation of the buried city -of Herculanæum, just announced, which, if carried -out, may reveal many things that we want to know -concerning these mysterious instruments.</p> - -<p>Throughout a long life I have been occupied with -books and with music, especially with the instruments -that make the music, their construction and scientific -bearings and relations, practically and experimentally, -and thus it has happened that many advantages seldom -combined have favoured the pursuit of the investigations -discursively related in the present volume.</p> - -<p>My thanks are due to Messrs. Cassell and Co., who -kindly supplied several blocks, illustrating the Egyptian -and Assyrian sections, used by them in Nauman’s -“History of Music,” and Dr. J. Stainer’s “Music of -the Bible.”</p> - -<p>To the Secretary of the Hellenic Society, Mr. J. -Penoyre Baker, I am indebted for the photograph of -the Apollo of Praxiteles brought by him from Athens, -which I use for the frontispiece.</p> - -<p>I was agreeably surprised to find that the late -Dr. A. S. Murray, Keeper of the Greek and Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">viii</a></span> -Departments of the British Museum, in his last lectures -on Sculpture, delivered by him at Burlington House, -but a few weeks before his lamented death, had selected -this Praxitelean Monument for the subject of his discourses. -Referring to the Apollo Harp he said “it is -quite beautiful.” The coincidence of choice attracted -me, and calling to mind the learned Keeper’s courteous -manner, and kindly help in former years, I had planned -another interview, with questions which he from his -stores of knowledge would have satisfied—but it was -too late—he had passed through The Open Gateway.</p> - -<p>Intimations of a proposed sequel to this work will be -found in the last two pages of the volume, new and -valuable materials having been brought to hand by -recent discoveries.</p> - -<p>Goethe in his “conversations with Eckermann” said -that a book should be judged, first, by the aim the -author proposed to himself—next, by the degree in which -he had succeeded in accomplishing his aim. I may not -have remembered the exact words, “’tis sixty years -since” I read them, but the purport of the saying is there. -My aim in writing has been to give the lover of -music a companionable book, full of information of -a kind likely as I think to be of interest to both -amateur and professional. My own enthusiasm on the -subject has, I hope, been tempered by ease in presentation, -for I am wishful that the hours given to the -reading of these pages may leave with all readers -a pleasant memory.</p> - -<p class="right padr2"> -HERMANN SMITH.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span></p> - -<h2><b>CONTENTS.</b></h2> - -<table summary="Contents"><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">At the Gates of the Past</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Myth—The Pursuit of the Gods</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1">CHAPTER III.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Egypt—The Lady Maket and -her Flutes</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1">CHAPTER IV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Egypt—More Egyptian Flutes—The -Evidences of the Scale—The Teachings -of Experiments</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1">CHAPTER V.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Etruria—The Greco-Etruscan -Double Flutes—The Bulbed or Subulo -Flutes</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1"><span class="pagenum">x</span>CHAPTER VI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Greece—From Etruria to -Athens—The Sweet Monaulos</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1">CHAPTER VII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Greece—The Silkworm Flutes, -or Bombyx Flutes</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In Oscan Land—Italia—Found at Pompeii—The -Greco-Roman Flutes</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Back to the Land of the Nile—Egypt Reveals -the Secret</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">The Isles of Greece—Midas the Glorious</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Near the City of Charites—The Mystery of -the “Slender Brass”</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">At the Delphic Temple—The Music heard by -the Greeks</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of China—The Outspread Phœnix</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum">xi</span>CHAPTER XIV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">The Mongols New Home—The Mythical Finding -of the Lüs</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Flowery Kingdom—The Bird’s Nest</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">By the Yellow River—The Evolution of the -Sheng</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In the Land of Siam—The Siamese “Phan”</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"> -<span class="smcap">In the Land of Japan—Japanese Pitch Pipes and -the Japanese Clarionet and the Sho</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In Ancient China—Ceremonial Instruments</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In Ancient China—The Flutes of the Chinese</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In Ancient China—The Favourite of Confucius</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">In Ancient China—The Trumpets of the -Chinese</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2"> -<span class="pagenum">xii</span>CHAPTER XXIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"> -<span class="smcap">The Music heard in Far Cathay—The Oldest -Written Music</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Evolution of the Lyre, Harp, and Lute—The -Bow with the Boat</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">The Choice of the Greeks—The Delphic Lyre</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">How The Music Grew—In the Days of a -Thousand Years</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc padt1" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">At Alexandria—The Final Settlement of the -Scale</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Index</span></p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td> -</tr></table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">xiii</a></span></p> - -<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> - -<table summary="Illustrations" width="100%" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Plates.</span></td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdl">Apollo with his Lyre, by Praxiteles</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#apollo"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Cane Harp from Borneo, with Tambourine Bells</p></td><td class="tdr"><i>Facing page <a href="#Page_304">304.</a></i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Figure.</span></td><td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page.</span></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">1</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Queen Hatasu’s Three Stringed Egyptian Lyre</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Ancient Greek Players on Flute, and Pan’s Pipes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">3</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Ancient Peruvian Stone Syrinx</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr vertt">4</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Peruvian Pan’s Pipes, Double Set from a Tomb in Arica</p></td><td class="tdr vertb">18</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">5</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Pair of Gingroi Flutes found in Lady Maket’s Tomb</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">6</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Egyptian Arghool Reed, Full Size</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">7</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Hautboy Reed, Full Size</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">8</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">9</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Player upon Unequal Pipes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr vertt">10</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Musical Entertainment, from a Tomb-painting -in the British Museum</p></td><td class="tdr vertb"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">11</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Arghool Reed Pipe with its Drone</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">12</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Egyptian Zummarah</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">13</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Player on the Egyptian Seba or Sabi</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">14</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Arab Player on the Nay Flute</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">15</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Etruscan Player on the Pipes, with Phorbia</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">16</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Satyr Handling the Auloi or Greek Reed Flutes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">17</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Muse Euterpe Preparing her Flutes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">18</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="pagenum2">xiv</span>The Muse Meledosa with her Flutes Complete</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">19</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Greek Mon-Aulos, set in Two Modes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">20</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Greek Silkworm Flutes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">21</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Flageolet Proper</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">22</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Pompeian Flutes in the Naples Museum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">23</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Bulb-head found by M. Maspero</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">24</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Midas, the Flute Player, Statue in the British Museum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">25</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Bronze-ringed Flutes in the British Museum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">26</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese P’ai-hsiao or Pan’s Pipes</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">27</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Te-ching or Stone Chime</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">28</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Sheng or Bird’s Nest</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">29</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">A Pipe of the Sheng, Full Size</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">30</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Diagram of the Plan of the Sheng</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">31</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Siamese Phan with Free Reeds</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">32</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Japanese Pitch Pipes, Full Size</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">33</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Clarionet of the Japanese, the Hichi-riki</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">34</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Large Bell, the Po-chung</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">35</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Gong Chimes or Yung-lo</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">36</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Dragon Flute</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">37</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Flute, the Hwang-chong-tche</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">38</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Native Chinese Flute Player</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">39</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Krena, a Flute of the Indian Quechas</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">40</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Violin</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr vertt">41</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Ch’in or Scholars Lute, the Favourite of Confucius</p></td><td class="tdr vertb"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">42</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Assyrian Harp with Plectrum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">43</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Hwangteih or Trumpet</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">44</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Haot’ung or Trumpet</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">45</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese La-pa or Trumpet</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">46</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chinese Yu or Rattling Tiger</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">47</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Five-stringed Lyre, from Beni-Hassan</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">48</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Player on the Upright Lyre</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">49</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Grand Harp from the Tomb of Rameses III.</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">50</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Triangular Egyptian Harp, in the Louvre, Paris</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">51</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent"><span class="pagenum2">xv</span>Lyre Carried by the Stranger in Egypt</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">52</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Kissar or Harp of the Nile</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">53</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Harp Players at Nimroud, from the British Museum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">54</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Magadis Player with Plectrum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">55</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Small Upright Egyptian Lyre</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">56</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Egyptian Lyre, in the Berlin Museum</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">57</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Player on the Egyptian Lute or Nefer</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">58</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Dancer with the Nefer</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">59</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Cane Harp from Borneo, with Tamburine Bells</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_304">304</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">60</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Chelys or Greek Tortoiseshell Lyre</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">61</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Muse Terpsichore with a Lyre</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">62</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Greek Players Tuning the Lyre and Dancing</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">63</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Muse Erato Playing the Psaltery</p></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr vertt">64</td><td class="tdl"><p class="indent">The Muse Erato Playing on a Trigon, from a Vase in the -Munich Collection</p></td><td class="tdr vertb"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> -</tr></table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="h">xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</span>“The true nature of a thing is -whatsoever it becomes when the process -of its development is complete.”</p> - -<p class="right"> -<span class="smcap">Aristotle.</span><br /> -</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> - -<p class="center f16">THE WORLD’S EARLIEST MUSIC.</p> - -<hr class="short" /> - -<h2>CHAPTER I.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>At the Gates of the Past.</b></small></h2> - -<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE human interest in the past never dies, its hold -upon us increases with the growing years, and -every gain that is made to the store of knowledge -does but add to the zest with which we search for more; -nation vies with nation for the glory of recovering relics -of life that are strewn along the path of death.</p> - -<p>From the sands and from the tombs, from the paintings -and the graven tablets, and from the faces of the -rocks we rehabilitate the vision of the mighty dead; a -recovered name is a page of a people’s history, and we -seek with renewal of eagerness for the pages that should -follow or precede.</p> - -<p>The long buried spoils of temples and palaces excite -the imagination, the grandeur of gold and silver, the -wealth of art and ornament, and the resplendent jewels, -appeal to the love of power and of possession, active<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> -or dormant in every heart; yet not less do we treasure -the fragile mementoes, the simplest things, rendered up -from the past that were the surroundings of domestic -life, that speak to us of the household ways, and of the -personal pursuits of the men, and of the adornment of -the women who for untold ages have ever sought</p> - -<p class="center f09">“their pleasure in their power to charm.”</p> - -<p>The instruments of music that in the remoter ages of -the past were in daily use are seldom found, for the -nature of the materials of which they were constructed -was adverse to their preservation; those that have been -found are rarely in their original condition, perfect in -all their parts, or suitable for being put to the test of -playing, and the resource left to us is to obtain some -approximate condition by means of models, and then -adapt some modern method for eliciting sound, which -method as near as we can judge shall be the counterpart -of the original device.</p> - -<p>My conviction is that to understand the old music the -first necessity is to question the old instruments, that -they will best indicate and tell most clearly what the -music must have been.</p> - -<p>Those “findings” then, the treasure trove of explorers, -have great attraction for me, as they have for -many other musically-minded people. The archæologist, -it is true, is in no degree concerned with their -musical import, he is content with their presence as -antiquities; paintings and sculpture interest him in -many ways as examples of art, and consequently the -musical investigator gains by researches which yield -him pictures of musical instruments in the using, and -representations often in marble and bronze; yet withal -I do not imagine that the enlightenment of the musi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span>cian -has been one of the motives influencing the -archæologist in his care for the preservation of the -treasures recovered from the past. Thus it happens -that in published illustrations the details, upon which -so much of the teachable value depends, are too often -inaccurately carried out, or perhaps it may be are -fancifully perfected to accord with some preconceived -idea, and thus the student is misled. In museums likewise, -there is no little difficulty in obtaining accurate -information respecting objects exhibited, and details -which are of the first importance, are obscured by -some awkwardness in the placing of the objects. The -reason for these unintentional hindrances is simple -enough: we have but to remember that the antiquarian -is not bound to understand the nature of musical -instruments, and as a matter of fact he does not understand -them.</p> - -<p>The two chief lands that hold the music of the past -are Egypt and China; yet in how different a manner is -the holding of each. Which nation is the ancientist -none can tell. East is East, and West is West. -From some early birthplace the two people diverged. -The people of Egypt have vanished; the people of -China remain; they are one fifth of the existing human -race. Both people intellectual; yet the brain development -of the Chinese has had from its original -birth-strain a distinct causation, making its course -parallel to that of no other brain. A sport of nature? -ask Darwin or the Dragon!</p> - -<p class="tb">In Egypt we dig and delve and year by year recover -the treasures that she holds. In China there is nothing -to recover, nothing to dig for, all her past is huddled on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> -the surface. Her music and her musical instruments -of the past are here to-day, the same as they ever were, -there are no stages of development and no steps of ascent.</p> - -<p>Thus the treatment of the question of the earliest -music of China is distinct from that of others, and the -knowledge of the method of its foundation is to be -gathered from the musical instruments still in use.</p> - -<p>Chaldæan history extends back to a very remote antiquity. -Mr. St. Chad Boscawen, a high authority, states -that the working of metal had been practised as early as -3,000 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> in Chaldæa, that there are inscriptions certainly -as ancient as 4,000 to 5,000 years <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and that -one of the earliest Chaldæan sculptures contained -a representation of the harp and the pipes which were -attributed to Jubal. So that we have to go back very -far indeed up the stream of time to find the beginnings -of music.</p> - -<p>That system of music which is the heritage of all the -European races comes from the people called the -Greeks, but the art as practically pursued by them was -lost, or was hidden by an impenetrable cloud.</p> - -<p>Lacroix, in his history of “The Arts of the Middle -Ages,” describes the condition of the early centuries of -our era—one brief passage tells the tale. He says, -“Ancient Rome, which had no natural music, readily -adapted Greek music, in the time of the emperors, to -all the usages of public and private, as of civil and -religious, life. Art remained Grecian, and most of the -singers and players came from Greece to take service -under the wealthy patricians. The various forms of -Latin prosody were but thinly disguised beneath a veil -of Ionic, Doric, and Lydian melodies, even when the -Christians waged a relentless war upon profane music,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> -not only as an accompaniment to the rites of the pagan -religion, but as played in the circus and other popular -resorts to excite the brutal passions of the multitude, -or at the nocturnal orgies of the aristocracy. The decadence -and the disappearance of Greek music in Italy -and the West date from the reign of Theodosius; and -when the games of the Capitol were put down, about -the year 384, the Greek musicians either returned to -the East or abandoned their art.”</p> - -<p>The light of Greece suddenly went out, and darkness -surrounds all that relates to the actual characteristics of -their musical instruments and their music, notwithstanding -the preservation of learned treatises and the -citation of numerous historical references. Musicians -grope in the dark still, and are unable to realize the -musical art of the Greeks. The lyre and the lute -and the flute are before us in numberless painted designs, -are sculptured in enduring marble,—yet they -fail to raise in our minds any adequate idea of the influence -of their music upon the national life. The past -has closed the gates of the past, and the land beyond -awaits the explorer.</p> - -<p>Pursuing this line of thought, and taking Greece as -the grand junction whence radiate all the lines of -musical art up to the present day throughout Europe, -we find the pathways that have converged to Greece -may be arranged this wise in diagram:</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Western Persia.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Chaldæa.</span><span class="h">xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</span><span class="smcap">India.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Assyria.</span><span class="h">xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</span><span class="smcap">China.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Arabia.</span><span class="h">xxxxxxxxxxxxxx</span><span class="smcap">Lydia.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Egypt.</span><span class="h">xxxxxx</span><span class="smcap">Etruria.</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">GREECE.<span class="h">xx</span></span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span></p> - -<p>These are the pathways of music, through which -Greece derived her knowledge by direct or indirect -transmission. On the one hand we can distinctly trace -the line back to Chaldæa by way of Egypt; and on the -other hand back to Persia, where indeed the origin of -the race itself can be looked for. Not in any formal -method do I wish this diagram to be understood, for -there may have been—and I should infer were—crossings -of influence, as between Chaldæa and Arabia, -Egypt and India, China and Persia, and so forth. -Perhaps another plan of diagram would be by placing -Persia central as the source of early tribal dispersion, -with sign post pointing in the different directions to -Arabia, Chaldæa, India, China. Lydia includes the -Asiatic coasts of the Mediterranean. It appears to me -that the Chinese influence upon the Greeks was direct -by commerce overland; and that in reference to time -there was a primitive branching off of the two races from -some Persian region.</p> - -<p>The ethnological question is too deep for us to judge -of, and we can only take the guidance of those who are -at this day the recognized authorities. Mr. St. Chad -Boscawen traces the Babylonian, the Egyptian, and -the Chinese civilizations to the mountainous regions of -Western Persia. It will be shown in the chapters on -Etruscan lore how Greece derived from Egypt through -Etruria before she was in direct constant intercourse -with that land, and then subsequently developed her -most enduring records of musical art in the hands of -the Etruscans. As to China, there may seem at first -some difficulty in recognition of influence; but at all -events silk from China had penetrated to the Mediterranean -before the Greeks knew how it was produced in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> -“far Cathay”; and in the motley gatherings of all -peoples and tongues on the coasts of the blue sea, -doubtless the representative of the yellow race one day -found his way. The Greeks were great travellers; and -who can tell where the barrier was fixed that ordered -them to turn back.</p> - -<p>Persia has left no musical relics, and Mr. A. J. Ellis -states: “Of the ancient Persian scale we know nothing, -but it was most probably the progenitor of the older -Greek.”</p> - -<p>The Greeks undoubtedly had an elaborate system of -music; but there was no evidence of its practical -application to the extent that would have been supposed. -Indeed, Pythagoras states that “the intervals -in music are rather to be judged intellectually, through -numbers, than sensibly through the ear.” The view -taken of music by the scholars was demonstrative, and -purely on the ground of mathematics. It was altogether -apart from popular practice of the art, vocal -and instrumental. The philosophers regarded music -from the side of morals. In the same way, the Chinese -had attained a high degree of knowledge of music in its -demonstrable relations, upon which they in their -learned treatises eloquently discourse. In demonstrations -of the laws of pipes, and in theoretical development -of the system of equal temperament, they have -displayed their mental grasp; but beyond that the -acquired knowledge seems to have made little practical -impression. Their philosophers likewise talked of the -beneficial influences of music in controlling the passions, -and doing other “et cetera” work.</p> - -<p>My long tarrying with the musical instruments of -Celestials has tended to bring very forcibly before me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> -the great resemblance between the Chinese and the -Greek systems of music. Wide asunder as these -people are racially, yet in their development of the -musical art they seem to have some close kinship, some -common source of idea; and little traits of primitive -lore constantly give suggestions of some early centre -whence the two have diverged, or of some point where -in the crossing of the pathways they have supplied -themselves from the same fountain, although each -traversed in a different direction its appointed course.</p> - -<p>The possibilities, however, that I have in mind are -of some far earlier impressions from intercourse, how -and when constituting the problem; for the Greeks in -their prime were but the infants of a day in comparison -with the peoples under the great monarchies of Chaldæa, -Assyria, Egypt, and China, whose rulers could be -traced back two, three, four—aye five—thousand years -before the first block was hewn for the foundation of -the Parthenon, or ever a Venus stept in marble.</p> - -<p>Van Aalst states that “the first invaders of China -were a band of immigrants fighting their way among -the aborigines, and supposed to have come from the -south of the Caspian Sea” and the question remains, -where was the earlier track of their wanderings? Is it -not also curious that one of the early mythical Kings -of ancient Persia had the name Houscheng? It was in -his reign that the Persians became Fire Worshippers, -adoring flame as the symbol of God.</p> - -<p>Yet it is by way of Chaldæa and Egypt that our -chief interests will be found, where relics of the musical -arts had permanence not granted to them elsewhere. -Persia and India yield us less as matter for enquiry, -since it is the class of stringed instruments of light kind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> -that their peoples have mostly favoured. Some problems -are still left in India which we should like to have -solved. The transverse flute is constantly found in -ancient carvings in the hands of Krishna, who is -popularly believed to have been its inventor; but how -it came about that the double flutes should be found on -the carvings both of wood and stone awakens curiosity. -What historical significance had they? Not a survival -of any kind is there in the usage of the present time. -Only as it were yesterday, at the British Museum, I -was looking over the series of very old carvings in wood,—friezes -which have formed the risers of the steps to -the Tope at Jumal-Garlic in Afghanistan, crowded -with figures of men and women and animals in the -uncouth style so characteristic of the land that was the -home of Buddha. In these scenes, depicting the history -of the great Renunciator, I found amongst the groups -of players on instruments several instances of players -upon these double pipes, the counterpart of those graven -in the historical records of Babylon and Nineveh, and -painted on vases by Etruscans, and carved in marble -by the Greeks. What does it all mean? How have -the races of mankind been affiliated? We find the -double flutes in India; we do not find them in China. -In that intermediate land of Thibet, has the Grand -Lama any evidence or record of them? It is curious -that the Chinese, although they have the earlier Pan’s -pipes, have neither the double pipes nor the lyre—instruments -of Greece—yet they have a system of music -essentially the same as the Greeks, and (as will be -shown you in the <i>Sheng</i>) a scale consisting of the two -conjunct tetrachords, forming with an added tetrachord -an octave and a fourth; the key-note being the fourth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> -of the scale, equal to the <i>Mese</i> of the Greeks. The -Chinese style of music though lacking the refined ideal -of art is on precisely the same lines, vocal with recitative -and instrumental interposed phrases; and if the -hymns of the old Confucian temple be transcribed side -by side with the fragments we have of the worship of -Apollo only exacting criticism could determine the -different origin. They are equally capable of being -harmonized with effective dignity. Further, I would -remark also that the Chinese notation, like the Greek, -consists solely of added signs written beside the words -of the hymn. All the details seem to point to a time -in a far distant past when both races were in contact -with one source; then came a day of sudden disruption—one -race eastward, one race westward: each pursuing -its own way. So the years rolled on, bearing their -records on two distinct rolls of separate destiny.</p> - -<p>The twofold destruction of the vast library of -Alexandria by fire, the first time by accident the second -time by fanaticism, has been an irreparable loss to -music, for there, if anywhere, would have been -treasured those records of the learned men of old, -which would have told us so much that we want to -know.</p> - -<p>Now, beyond the paintings and the sculptures, all -the knowledge that remains comes to us through the -literature of the Greeks, the sole inheritors.</p> - -<p>The descent of Music is in direct line from Egypt; -and Egypt would in like manner have derived from -some earlier civilisation the first elements of her own. -There are words in an inscription in the Temple of -Dayr-el-Bahari which I think may be taken as shewing -Queen Hatasu’s traditional associations of thought in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> -reference to the origin of her race. This famous Queen -built that magnificent Temple, and dedicated it in part -to Amen the God of Thebes, and in part to Hathor the -Beautiful, the Lady of the Western Mountain, the -Goddess-Regent of the Land of Punt. Hatasu is represented -as suckled by the goddess, who is also the nurse -of Horus. In this temple there is a wonderful series of -bas-reliefs sculptured and painted on the walls, a -panorama in stone of</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“The five large ships she built in obedience -to the will of Amen, King of the Gods, -that they should traverse the Great Sea on -the Good Way to the Land of the Gods.”</p></div> - -<p>The stone pictures shew these vessels at their departure -and return, with variety of details of loading and cargo, -etc. On the mast of one of the ships a three string lyre -or bow-harp is slung. In the description of one of these -vivid pictures, are these words, written as the Queen -Hatasu ordered, and probably taken from her own lips -as what she wished to be set forth</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>“We sailed on the Sea, and began a fair -voyage towards the Divine Land, that is -to the coast of Arabia, and the journey to -the Land of Punt was happily resumed.”</p></div> - -<p>The vessels went from the Nile by an ancient water-way, -partly canal, into the Red Sea, and it would seem -that we are to understand (for much of the whole -inscription has broken away) that for some special cause -they were diverted and went first across the sea to the -coast of Arabia, a proceeding doubtless of some temerity, -but that <i>happily</i> they escaped danger, and went on -to their original destination, and brought thence the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> -myrrh and the actual trees of <i>Ana</i>-sycamore, the coveted -odoriferous trees, the chief object of the voyage being -to secure the costly incense for the service of the white -Temple built by the Queen. It seems to me that -Queen Hatasu’s words “the Divine Land” point to her -belief that there in Arabia, and beyond, to that far -eastern horizon where the white mountains meet the -blue heavens, there, was the true home of the Gods, -the earlier home whence came her race. Maybe she -cherished the names of Anu and Ishtar, and knew that -these old deities of Chaldæa were those she worshipped -under Egyptian names.</p> - -<p>The common course of newer nations is thus, to take -and to rename the old gods. Herodotus considers that -the names of nearly all the gods of Greece are derived -from Egypt. To each of the ancient nations it would -seem that the old solar myth was newly told in parable, -the esoteric meaning of it known only to their priests.</p> - -<p>That wonderful piece of wall sculpture may be seen -to-day; time and the tourist have destroyed some portions, -yet enough endures to tell the story which the -great Queen left there three thousand four hundred years -ago. Just as it was in the old Chaldæan temples, the -sanctuary, “the Holy of Holies,” is cut in the rock -itself, far within, there light was not needed, “for the -gods see everywhere.” This beautiful white temple -rises in three terraces cut out of the limestone cliff, and -once had an avenue of sphinxes three miles long, leading -down to the blue river.</p> - -<p>Looking at the plan of the Temple one sees that the -thought of it was Chaldæan, it is so like the terrace -temple of the God Bel by the Euphrates, and I cannot -but think that the three-string lyre hung on the mast of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> -the ship she sent to “the coast of Arabia” had a meaning -to her own heart, was a simple token that would be -understood by all of her royal race, to show by this -symbol that the lyre originally came from that “divine -land” whither her thoughts went, as a child turns to -its mother.</p> - -<table summary="Lyre"><tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>The Early<br />three-stringed<br />Lyre of the<br />Egyptians.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p013.jpg" width="350" height="462" alt="The same Lyre as pictured slung on the mast of -Queen Hatasu's ship." /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 1. The same Lyre as pictured slung on the mast of -Queen Hatasu’s ship.</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Myth.</b><br /><br /> - -THE PURSUIT OF THE GODS.</small></h2> - -<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>N the land of Myth there occur many landmarks -that project their shadows into dim distances, telling -with no uncertain indications that the land of Fact -is a much more extensive region, that it environs both -the land of myth and the land of tradition that borders -it, and yields to the explorer many evidences much -earlier in racial history, when as yet the mind of man -had not imagined</p> - -<p> -“the fair humanities of old religion.”<br /> -</p> - -<p>In the pursuit of the gods we have to look back far -beyond the age whence the gods emerged. Like the -rivers that come to our feet at full flood so are these -very human gods, they represent men in the fulness of -power, and disclose not the long course, the broad expanse -of time, the toilsome difficulties, through which -that power has been attained.</p> - -<p>The Greeks attributed to Apollo the invention of the -lyre, the eight-stringed lyre a completed and perfect in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>strument -of music. In the British Museum there is a -magnificent marble statue of Apollo, and in his hand -the sculptor has fashioned a lyre of noblest pattern, -such as his fellow worshippers believed the god had -designed and given to them. We, of later days, well -know that so accurate a leap to perfection does not -accord with human experience, and moreover are able -to trace the stages by which in the course of centuries -the lyre had arrived at that complete condition. So by -the help of the Greeks themselves, by their literary -records, by their representations in sculpture and -in paintings, I hope that we shall be able to recognise -the process by which men worked in their own day of -life from generation to generation for the accomplishment -of their aims in the art and pleasure of music.</p> - -<p>The great god Pan, beloved of the Greeks, and more -widely worshipped to-day under another name, gave -men the little river reed to make their music with, and -marvellously has the gift flourished; the simple tiny -pipe, growing with the growth of centuries, has become -a pipe speaking with the voice of Jove, has reared itself -upward until its heighth would make it fit to stand -beside the hand of the great Phidian statue of the -Olympian god. Simple as a Pan’s pipe is the great -diapason that reaches upward to the vaulted roofs of our -temples. Not more impossible to the mind of the -ancient Greek the conception of the thing of music we -call an organ, than is to us the realization of the faith -in those divinities of mountains, woods, and streams, of -those early dwellers in a green world. Yet how we -linger over the legends of the past, and almost wish we -could believe they once were true. Alas, in our well -worn world, fancy is a poor exchange for faith. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> -legend of Pan reads how a nymph, Syrinx by name, -whom Pan was pursuing, prayed the Naiades (the -nymphs of the water) to change her into a bundle of -reeds, just as Pan was laying hold of her, who therefore -caught the reeds in his hands instead of the desired -nymph. The winds moving these reeds to and fro -caused mournful but musical sounds, which Pan perceiving -he cut them down, and made of them the pipes -first known as the Syrinx, and afterwards called by his -name,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i5">“The pipe of Pan to shepherds</div> -<div class="line">Couched in the shadow of Menalian pines</div> -<div class="line">Was passing sweet.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p016.jpg" width="400" height="294" alt="Ancient Greek players on Flute and Pan’s pipes." /> -<div class="caption"><p><i>Fig. 2. Ancient Greek players on Flute and Pan’s pipes.</i></p></div> -</div> - -<p>The Pan’s pipes as a musical instrument made its -mark in history; in almost every land in some form or -other it has existed as a popular instrument, and therefore -a source of pleasure. Varied in form, and with -pipes few or many, it is found on ancient sculptures and -in paintings. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America show -specimens of the instrument ancient, and often modern; -for the use survives among some people not yet spoilt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> -by premature civilization. The British Museum possesses -a very peculiar specimen made of stone, which -was found in Central America. Another, of which -there is a cast in the Berlin Museum, was discovered -placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb; it was made -of a greenish stone, a kind of talc, and had eight pipes -which gave their notes as in ancient days.</p> - -<table summary="Syrinx." width="100%" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdl"><i>Fig. 3<br /><br />Ancient<br />Peruvian<br />Stone<br />Syrinx.</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p017.jpg" width="400" height="324" alt="Ancient Peruvian Stone Syrinx." /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>The British Museum possesses an interesting relic -from a tomb at Arica; this Peruvian <i>huaraya puhura</i> -consists of fourteen reed pipes of a brownish colour tied -together in two rows, so as to form a double set of -seven reeds; both sets are of the same dimensions and -are placed side by side, one set being open at the -bottom, and the other set being closed, consequently -capable of producing octaves to the open set; a -remarkable feature therefore is the presence of the open -set, indicating a clear perception of the musical relations -of the two distinct forms used.</p> - -<p>The Chinese also have their example in the instrument -they call “The Outspread Phœnix” or the sacred bird,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> -to them the outward symbol of some myth that had -credence from immemorial times.</p> - -<table summary="Pan's Pipes" width="100%"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 4.<br /><br />Peruvian<br />Pan’s Pipes,<br />Double Set.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p018.jpg" width="150" height="465" alt="From a Tomb in Arica." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>From a<br />Tomb in<br />Arica.</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Whether there has been a migration of races and -heritage of primitive invention, or whether with each -people the Pan’s pipes had spontaneously originated, is -a problem upon which curiosity cannot fail to be -awakened when it is noticed how these instruments, -almost identical in make and shape, are found all over -the world (<i>see forward</i> “<i>In the Land of China</i>.”)</p> - -<p>The Chinese instrument is an assemblage of pipes of -various lengths from which musical tones of different -pitches are produced,—it is a mouth organ. Our modern -organ is likewise an assemblage of pipes, and differs only -from it in respect of number and degree. Perhaps the -blowing across the open end of a pipes was the earliest -mechanical way of producing a flute sound. The little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> -river reed pipe of Pan is therefore selected as the type -of all flutes; the principle is the same whatever the -variation in method of sounding.</p> - -<p>Yet the appearance of Pan marks only one stage in -the land of myth, and that only just within the confines -near where the border lines of myth and history meet. -For many thousand years beyond this the imagination -must travel to reach the earliest sources of music. The -complete set of seven pipes claimed by Pan was not the -work of a summer’s day, the scale as seven sounds was -not the witchery of a nymph’s voice happily remembered -by a forest God; no, we may be sure the course of life -was more prosaic than that, and the seven-toned instrument -had, as a seven branched river, its beginning from -one,—one pipe, ages, it may be, earlier than the -seven.</p> - -<p>What do I make of it? Clearly this,—man <span class="smcap lowercase">IS</span> a -measuring animal. Like other animals he calculates, -forecasts and provides, but he alone possesses the -measuring faculty. Rambling again and again through -the region of the past, the thought presses forward for -recognition that man is a measuring animal, and hence -his ability to produce instruments of music. In the -beginning they were all founded upon measure, the -rude measure of what suited the fingers; and the habit -of so marking off spaces, as time went on, recorded -itself in a system, at first simple as a child’s wit could -compass, and afterwards so growing in complexity as to -tax the ingenuity of the most active brains of full-grown -civilized men to master and utilize, and yet at the last -nothing more than a system of finger activity for -the covering of holes and the touching of strings. Thus -your musical scales arose. Had Polyphemus had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> -ordering of a musical scale, most surely the intervals -would have been considerably larger; he would have -suited his own fingers whether with lengths of strings -or with holes in pipes.</p> - -<p>Imagine yourself a prehistoric man. How would -you set about whistling? The lips are in the control of -the imitative faculty; the effect called whistling would -naturally be first elicited by accident of emotion, or -sensibility of one kind or other. The intent to whistle -would arise in desire to imitate; a chance whistle heard -from a shell or hollow nut or reed would attract attention -as for imitation. To imitate, is, as we know, a -propensity of monkeydom. How the human animal -shares this propensity as a characteristic of his race, -and how society is based most differentially upon it,—is -not that also taught and recognized in philosophy?</p> - -<p>Beyond the faculty of imitation man possesses that of -measuring; he measures and apportions in his buildings -and his bakings: inches and acres bear relation to each -other; he marks off spans and cubits and inches, -and apportions minutely by millet-seeds and barley-corns. -For in earliest times simplest means and -methods were as arbitrary as are now our elaborated -mechanisms. It is a truism that music is ruled by -measure, but what I want you to perceive is quite -a different interpretation, and that is that it was the -<i>measuring that ordered the music</i>.</p> - -<p>Those who, seeing the holes that are cut upon a -common flute, or oboe, consider that in the origin of -the instrument they were so done in order fitly to -comport with a musical scale, are wrong in their -supposition.</p> - -<p>In the primitive making of a flute the holes were cut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> -to suit the spread of the fingers, and the scales which followed -as the result of the placing the holes, were accepted -by primitive man; the ear got to like the sequence of -sounds, and it so worked into the brain of the race, that -ages after, it became an intellectually accepted musical -scale, or relation of notes and was varied by evolution; -the structure of the organ of hearing is the same in -every race, so far as we can ascertain, and the same -natural laws are obeyed in its exercise. Different races, -however, have developed the hearing ear differently -as to its choice, because primitively, in the setting out -of their instruments there were differences of relation. -The lengths of the strings, and the distances of the holes -spaced for the <i>convenience of the fingers</i>, ordained the -musical scales. Contrast the music of the European -and the Asiatic races. Our so-called divine music -is to the Chinese miserable, unscientific stuff; and -the sounds which please Asiatics as entrancing -music, are to us distracting din, positively painful to -listen to. The liking of the ear in music is a liking by -inheritance, transmitted as a facial type is.</p> - -<p>The fingers are the fates of the musical art. Curiously -enough, six fingers have been the chief arbiters of the -nature of man’s music; and yet how long it was before -that number was brought into use. Earliest pipe -instruments seem to have employed only two fingers; -then the thumb was made available, after that the -third finger, and at last the little finger was brought -into service; it was, however, the period of the ruling -of the six fingers, three of each hand, in which the -scales were laid, and the art of music developed. In -the stringed instruments there is evidence of similar -advance from one string to many. Men learnt slowly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> -the marvellous capacities of the lissome fingers they -possess.</p> - -<p>We should see a meaning and a purpose in each change -and variation in the shape and adaptation of instruments. -It may strike you somewhat strangely that you should -be set thinking of bits of wood, and pipes and strings, -as being aforetime the actual music makers, moulding -in fixed forms our musical tendencies. You fancy they -are our servants, unaware that they have ruled us -earlier than we have ruled them.</p> - -<p>My conclusion, curious as it may seem, is put forth -seriously, after much study and after long inquisitive -looking into things, possibly worth thinking about. -Very lately I found a pertinent yet undesigned confirmation -of my views in a work by Dr. A. J. Ellis on the -“Musical Scales of Various Nations.” As a result of -his extensive investigation, he says “The final conclusion -is, that the musical scale is not one, not ‘natural,’ -nor even founded necessarily on the laws of the -constitution of musical sound, but very diverse, very -artificial, very captious.” He has actually, as it were, -caught the scale in the act of changing by a caprice at -the bidding of the finger. On the lute, in the very early -Persian and Arabic scales, the middle finger had nothing -to do, and to find employment for the lazy finger, -a ligature was, on the neck of the lute, tied half way -between two existing notes. One Zalzal, a celebrated -lutist, who died eleven centuries ago, tied this ligature -half way, and so added two notes to the scale. “These -notes,” Dr. Ellis says, “became of great importance in -Arab music, and effectually distinguished the older -Arabic form from the later Greek.”</p> - -<p>For the coherence of the views I express upon this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> -question, it is to be implied that pipes and reeds have -had an earlier development at the hands of man than -strings had, although the latter furnished the first -tangible means by which musical ratios were demonstrated -by Greek philosophers. In China the first -standards of sounds were pipes, and by them the -degrees of the scale were fixed historically, yet too -complete to have had their real origin elsewhere than -in the land of Myth. There also must be placed the -origin of the beautiful little “Sheng” to which the -Chinese attribute an unknown antiquity.</p> - -<p>The term flutes, it is necessary to remember, is in -ancient usage of literature applied to include all pipes -blown across and likewise those sounded by means of -reeds that the breath sets vibrating.</p> - -<p>All the world over men have found delight in fluting, -and the flute as an instrument appears to be the -common property of the human race. Either of bones -of animals or birds, of reeds or alders, of stones or of -clay, the art of man has fashioned flutes from the -beginning of time’s records.</p> - -<p>Seeking to trace man’s earliest musical instruments it -will become plain to us that life moves very slowly. -How little is really new; variation follows variation. -See what a long process thought is. It takes a whole -race many centuries to think a new thought, and -embody it.</p> - -<p>The Greeks as themselves acknowledged were indebted -to the Egyptians for their chief instruments. -The invention of the flute is attributed to the god -Osiris, who lived when the world was young—ages -ago; Osiris, the dead god of the blue river, the ancestor -of history, the river known to all our race as oldest of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> -rivers. When our thoughts dwell upon “old Nile,” -how memory-haunting are the lines in which Leigh -Hunt describes it;—read softly,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands</div> -<div class="line">Like some grave thought threading a mighty dream.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p024.jpg" width="150" height="139" alt="Tailpiece" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Egypt.</b><br /><br /> - -THE LADY MAKET AND HER FLUTES.</small></h2> - -<p>The Lady Maket took possession of her latest residence -with the appropriate ceremonials befitting a lady -of her position; and as she had contemplated frequent -excursions from her place of abode, much attention -was given to provide her with suitable travelling attire, -and also with numerous things requisite for her use; -and, in addition, certain personal belongings considered -necessary to her comfort—articles of the toilet -and other customary aids to the anxieties of woman’s -mind—all such were collected by her attendants. Nor -did they forget to gather together good supplies of -fresh fruit, for there was no knowing the lady’s ultimate -destination, except that she would undoubtedly be -ferried over the great blue river; and indeed some of -the officials, who assumed to have intimate knowledge -of their lady’s engagements, gave assurance that she -would visit places at very great distances, even so far -as the under side of the world. Since the early morning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> -every hour had been filled with the noise of a busy -turmoil, and the eager interest of the people only -gradually lulled as time went by and there were signs -that no further labour was needed on the part of any; -every work had been performed, the duties of each had -been fulfilled, and then gradually the officials and -attendants retired from the presence of the mistress -of the house. The lady was at last left in quietness. -The long day was suddenly over,—the sun went -down,—and the night had come, and the great -silence.</p> - -<p>Like all others of her race, the Lady Maket was a -fourfold personage. All her notions of herself were of -a tetrachordal state of being. Her gold seal impressed -with her name testified to all men that she was a being -of flesh and blood—really and truly human—and not at -all a mystery, unless to be feminine is so; and that she -greatly loved her burnished metal mirror, and delighted -in the dark glory of her hair, in the coral of her lips, in -the flashing light of her eyes, and in the deftness and -musical skill of her almond tipped fingers—all that is -past question. She believed that, besides the bodily -state of her presence, she was possessed of another -equally living, although invisible form, a <i>double</i> called -<i>Ka</i>, which was as it were a less solid duplicate of her -corporeal being; and after the <i>double</i> came the <i>Soul</i> -(<i>Bi</i> or <i>Ba</i>), and after the soul came the <i>Khoo</i> or the -<i>luminous</i>, a spark from the fire divine. To keep the -fourfold-unity of being, to preserve it wholly pure and -unblemished, and to secure it against the possibility of -separation or dissolution, was to her the most anxious -consideration of her life; and this belief gave the -essential reason for the assumption that the number four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> -was of all numbers the most sacred, and the idea thereof -was ingrained into the daily life of all her people.</p> - -<p>Paying a visit to another mansion, I made enquiries -for Lady Maket, being much interested in her and her -doings; but Mr. F. Petrie, who then in charge, informed -me that it is some three thousand years since she was -seen, and although I could not see the lady, yet he had -many of her belongings which told all that was known -of her. I saw the chair—the last, it was believed—upon -which she sat, and the wooden head-rest (the substitute -for a pillow) by which her dark luxuriant ringlets were -preserved from becoming crushed or disordered. I saw -the silver scarab rings she wore, the earrings and bead -necklaces, the combs and perfume holders, the paint -and pomade jars, and the bronze mirror in which she -last looked, confessing her delight in her own beauty.</p> - -<p>Here also were the flutes, the two slender flutes, that -plaintively wailed their music and accompanied her to -her last home. Flutes! The very word has magic in -it. Egyptian double flutes, and thirty centuries passed -them by, and they are here. Adonais,—what a find!</p> - -<p>For forty years in this wilderness had I been looking -for them. Pictures of them by the score I had sought -out, had seen them on walls and vases, graven on brass -tablets, gems and marbles: yet none seen in real presence. -Now in sober earnest they were laid before my -eyes, given into my hands, perfect as when they were -entombed to accompany that blessed lady to the nether -world. Perfect did I say? Yes, but not complete. -How fateful fortune does tantalize us,—clears up for us -one mystery, and leaves another behind. They forgot -the reed tongues in packing up for the journey, or perchance -they deliberately withheld them. Ah! miserable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> -that I am. Mr. Petrie tells me that he could find none, -and he sifted all the dust of that dear lady, and nobody -he avers had been there before him,—not for three thousand -years. Think of it! A rock hewn sepulchre, in -eternal night and silence since the days when Miriam -sang her song of youth and triumph.</p> - -<p>Moreover, to my questionings, Mr. Petrie says that he -does not believe that these flutes ever had any reeds to -play them, but that they were blown at the end, and so -whistled as one whistles a key. Then, to crown me -with confusion, up rises another archæological investigator -with eyes deeply scrutinizing, and he is certain -that they were true lip blown flutes, and that no reed -was ever employed. I looked with other eyes, and one -glance told me that these pipes originally had reed -tongues, reeds of the immemorial kind, and in use to -the present day in the arghool. No, by Adonais, surely -I cannot be deceived in this. Surely these are the -<i>Gingroi</i>, the wailing flutes, associated with funeral ceremonies, -slender pipes scarcely bigger than a ripened -corn stalk. A fragment of such an one exists in the -British Museum, which often excited my curiosity, but -was in so delapidated a condition that nothing certain -could be made of it. The discovery of this pair of -flutes however made clear the relation though the British -Museum possesses but a fragment, and treasures it.</p> - -<p>Curious is it not? A nation takes into its care a -broken straw, because some human hand in the dim -past has fashioned it to use and purpose, and the subtlety -of life has not gone out of it yet.</p> - -<p>Very precious are these recovered flutes. They tell -us of a people’s music, definitely fixed and in use, -theirs by choice, by tradition, by religion. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> -owe their preservation to having been placed within -a larger reed, which was doubtless their ordinary -case. They were found untouched since that last -day. Not from mere sentiment were these flutes -placed beside the Egyptian lady in her tomb, but -because of a deeply rooted religious belief that these, -together with the other articles named, were in some -way connected with the daily existence and the comfort -and content of the <i>Ka</i>, the <i>double</i> or dream body, which -perpetually inhabited the tomb with the embalmed -mummy. In point of fact, it was the <i>double</i> of the -flutes that was to prove a source of musical solace, not -the flutes themselves, for they would not be touched by -the dream body. The Egyptians worked out their -views with logical consistency, and believed that all -things had their <i>doubles</i>, both animate and inanimate. -Even a pictorial representation in default of the real -thing was of almost equal value for the service to -be rendered in the invisible world, and a mere -name written had a potency and could secure the coveted -benefits to the <i>Ka</i>. For the soul or <i>Bi</i> was often called -upon to follow the gods in the heavens, or to undergo -probationary journeys to the world of darkness below -the earth, and then the <i>Ka</i> was left alone, and occupied -itself with the pursuits common to its earthly life. -Thus from this strange belief we may presume, or may -infer that the Lady Maket was not only a lover of flutes, -but might also have held some official position, civil or -religious, connected with the use of them.</p> - -<p>There is a similar instance in the case of a mummy -in the British Museum, where you may see, at the feet -of the dead musician, the bronze cymbals he played -when alive, with the people dancing around him. Is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> -the dream body—the <i>Ka</i>—still there, I wonder, coming -out at night to talk with his fellows? Dream bodies -like himself, all terribly old, all listening to the clashing -of the ghostly cymbals, and joining in unheard melodies. -All terribly old!</p> - -<p>These flutes, so slender that a breath might almost -blow them away, are undoubtedly of the type pictured -in many lands in many ages, and known as double -flutes—double in the sense of being paired. I have seen -such, though of fuller proportions, represented on -Egyptian <i>papyri</i> on walls of tombs and temples of the -land of the Nile; and on the brass plates of the palaces -of Nineveh and Babylon; carved on the frieze of the -Parthenon; painted on Etruscan vases, and on the -walls of Pompeii and Herculanæum; and far away on -the banks of the Petwa (a tributary of the Ganges), -sculptured on the gate of Sanchi Tope. And yet -through all these instances never have I found any -evidence of the means adapted to produce their sounds; -anything that would enable one to form a distinct -judgment as to the kind of mouthpiece employed in -blowing. The number and the positions of the holes -have also been involved in doubt. In some few -instances holes are to be found marked, but these might -be conventionally depicted, and could not be relied upon -as guidance to the scale of notes. Then there are the -shams and indications put in by the audacity of restorers, -so that altogether the learned or academic knowledge -concerning the ancient instruments can hardly be said -to have emerged from a state of haziness.</p> - -<p>How welcome, then, must be these Egyptian flutes, -which at all events furnish sure evidence of the position -of the holes, and of a recognized musical scale deter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>mined -at a very early date in the development of -civilisation. The illustration Fig. 5 gives the relative -position of the holes and of the lengths of the flutes, -which are shown here one sixth of the actual lengths.</p> - -<table summary="The Gingroi" width="100%"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 5.<br /><br />The Gingroi,<br />or flutes of<br />wailing.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p031.jpg" width="200" height="487" alt="The Gingroi, or flutes of wailing." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Found in<br />Lady Maket’s<br />Tomb.</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>All pipes that we call <i>double flutes</i> are represented -spreading from the mouth, <big><big>ʌ</big></big> shaped, held both of them -in the mouth, and played one by the right hand and one -by the left. All pipes of the ancients the writers were -accustomed to call flutes, not discriminating the differences -in types, being in fact unaware of the very -important distinctions as in later times perceived by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> -specialists in musical lore to be necessary between lip-blown -instruments and reed-blown.</p> - -<p>One of these instruments is 17-5/8in. in length, and the -other 17-6/8in.; and the bore may be considered as 3/16ths -of an inch; but one is a trifle larger than the other, and -they are not absolutely cylindrical, being larger at one -end than at the other, which is not without significance. -Also, it should be noted that being of the nature of -corn-stalk, each has a knot 6-5/8in. from one end, and this -knot has been bored through to make each a continuous -pipe. There are four holes in one pipe, and three -holes in the other; they are very daintily cut, and are -oval. The pipe with four holes is held by the right -hand, and the pipe with three holes by the left hand; -for it was the custom in ancient times, and still is -in eastern lands, to play the treble notes by means of -the fingers of the right hand, and the bass notes with -those of the left hand.</p> - -<p>When looking at these pipes we should remember -that in the day when they were made the feeling for a -musical scale was in its infancy; natural science, young -indeed, then, had not touched the question of the relation -of sounds. In that remote past, the barbaric had -its sway, as in the east for the most part it has now; -and no idea of harmony, other than that of a consensus -of instruments, and a congregation of singers following -on traditional methods handed down from generation -to generation. Thirty centuries have passed since the -calm day when the workers let down the great stone -portcullis sliding in its grooves closing the tomb against -all of human race, leaving the Lady Maket and her -treasures secure in her burial chamber, closed, as they -thought, for ever.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> - -<p>At that day Homer was not born, and it would be -six centuries before Pythagorus would arrive on this -planet, and, destined thereto, turn his steps to the -banks of the Nile.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wm. Chappell in his “History of Music” writing -in 1874, describes the fragment of a pipe which I have -referred to, then all that the museum possessed.</p> - -<p>“In the Egyptian collection at the British Museum -is a small reed pipe of eight inches and three quarters in -length. The pipe corresponds so precisely to the -description of the <i>Gingras</i> given by Greek writers, as to -leave hardly a doubt of its identity. The <i>Gingras</i> -has four holes for the fingers. Athenæus says it was -employed by the Carians in their wailings, and that -their pipes were called <i>Gingroi</i> by the Phœnicians from -the lamentations for Adonis, ‘for your Phœnicians call -Adonis, <i>Gingras</i>, as Democlides tells us.’ So this -Adonis pipe was admittedly of Asiatic origin, and was -most likely common to the various nations of Asia as -well as of Egypt.”</p> - -<p>In the previous chapter I laid emphasis on the conclusion -that the fingers were the fates of the musical -scale. In these pipes I read the same lesson, and -recognize that the scale was due to digital decision. -The mystery of numbers pervading the thoughts of the -people, and ruling their daily goings, consorted here -with convenience of the fingers. The sacred number -“four” took the first place, after that the number -“three,” and—the union of these producing the number -“seven”—the thoughts of numbers moved in an enchanted -circle, from which the human race has not yet -escaped. We call it superstition to believe in lucky -threes and sevens; to these old Egyptians, numbers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> -were a sacred power never to be disregarded. Here, in -the four holes of the first pipe we have the primitive -tetrachord, planned before the sounds were heard, -before the issuing notes had names; and it was this -tetrachord that was taken up by the Greeks, and by -them moulded into mathematical relations and blended -by art into musical form. A similar primitive tetrachord -was, I conceive, common to all races of men -possessing a musical scale. The second pipe has but -three holes; there was room for more,—why restricted -to three? Who can tell?</p> - -<p>It is as easy to have faith in one mystic number as in -another; and when we are inclined to believe in the -mystical, nature helps us with the utmost readiness.</p> - -<p>In using the word “tetrachord” bear in mind that -the meaning is a series of four notes in an order of -succession, and not the union of notes as a compound -sound or “chord.”</p> - -<p>Pipes with but two holes are common in pastoral use -now, and in early times doubtless preceded those with -three and four holes; and, however slow the changes, -progress could not be absent. In Lady Maket’s pipes -we see evidence of a great change, a tetrachord with -an added tone, and this supplied by another pipe. -Who can tell how many centuries of civilization such -progress indicates?</p> - -<p>An interesting speculation centres upon the means by -which the sounds were produced. Were the pipes lip -blown at one end, or reed blown; and, if the latter, by -what reed? One of the hautboy kind, or one of the -clarionet type such as the arghool? The first is called -a double, and the other a single reed. Fig. 6 is an -illustration of the arghool reed, full size, as used at this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> -day in the arghool; it is called a beating reed; the -reed tongue is made by cutting a slip at the side and -lifting it a little, and, as it is bound by string at one end, -the tip tilts, allowing passage for the wind through the -aperture that the cutting has left beneath, upon the -edges of which it beats in vibrating.</p> - -<table summary="Arghool." width="100%"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 6.<br /><br />The<br />Arghool<br />Reed.<br />Full<br />Size.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p035.jpg" width="250" height="505" alt="The Hautboy Reed." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 7.<br /><br />The<br />Hautboy<br />Reed.<br />Full<br />Size.</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Fig. 7 shews a full size reed of the hautboy type, -and above it, as looking down upon the tip of the reed, -is seen the oval form it assumes after it has been -moistened for playing. The two parallel lines indicate -its appearance when dry. The make up of the reed is -modern, but the size is of the old pattern as used by -Italian peasants to the present day, spoken of as the -pastoral hautboy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> - -<p>Some readers not familiar with the instrument will -be glad of this illustration showing the difference between -double and single reeds. In the double reed, -which consists of two slips of reed bound together, the -vibrations take place only at the tips, and are caused -by rapid changes from oval to parallel due to suction -by the current of air driven down between them. It -should be understood that in both the single reed and -the double reed the action is the same in kind, and the -vibrations or sounds result from the stream of air being -checked in its progress by closure of the aperture by -force of suction alternating with opening of the same -by the resilient power or spring in the form and material -of the reed—in other words vibration is due to shocks -of arrested motion in extremely rapid recurrence—the -number of repetitions of arrest per second constituting -what we call the pitch of the notes or sounds.</p> - -<p>Using either the hautboy reed, or the arghool reed, -with these flutes, a scale of notes of some sort may be -elicited. The narrowness of the bore causes so much -difficulty in the obtaining consecutive notes by lip -blowing, that I the least favour the supposition that -the pipes were designed for such a method. The hautboy -reed is almost always associated with a conical pipe; -but there are instances, in which it is used in connection -with a cylinder of diameter quite as small as that of -these pipes. We have no intimations that the Egyptians -of that period (1100 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>) were familiar with the hautboy -reed.</p> - -<p>In any experiments with the hautboy reed the management -of the reed by the muscles of the lips should -be prohibited, as being a practice unknown to the -ancients. My definite conclusions are that these pipes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> -are true specimens of the <i>di-aulos</i> at its earliest stage; -that the slimness betokens a particular ceremonial purpose; -that the pipes were designed for use with reeds -of the arghool type; and that the distances between -the holes indicate that the tones proper to the instrument -are those of the four foot octave.</p> - -<p>For the better command in the holding of the pipes -the natural lay of the fingers is with the second joints -covering the holes, the tips of the fingers not being -used for the purpose until later times. Peasants in the -wilder parts of Europe and Asia retain the ancient -custom.</p> - -<p>All the holes are oval in shape. The divisions of the -four holed pipe are from top hole to fourth 10-5/8 in., to -the second 1-3/8 in., to the third 1-3/8 in., to the fourth 1-1/4 in., -to the end 3 in.; these together making 17-5/8 in. The -division of the three holed pipe are from the top to the -first hole 13-1/2 in., to the second hole 1-3/8 in., to the third -hole 1-3/8 in., to the end 1-1/2 in.; making 17-6/8 in. The -stalk knots of the reed are in each pipe at 6-5/8 in. distant -from the upper end, and a knot is again found at the -the extreme lower end of the four holed pipe, causing -the opening to be partially occluded. This contraction -would have a flattening effect and consequently the -three holed (which is free from such a knot) is the -longer of the two, evidently cut with the view to coincide -in pitch with the other. Obviously also each hole from -the top is larger than the one previous; this arises -from the fact that, as stated, the pipes are not truly -cylindrical, but narrow toward the bottom, and so they -may require the holes to be enlarged to sharpen the -notes; equivalent this to cutting the holes higher.</p> - -<p>To the musician investigating these matters it is of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> -interest to observe that the two upper holes of the -three-holed pipe coincide in their position with the two -lowest holes of the four-holed pipe and consequently do -not extend the compass of the notes, they merely pair -the other pipe, yet if the reed of either differs, then, in -flatness or sharpness the interval would show variation, -and such an effect might be a designed one, giving a -choice to the player. The lowest hole of the three-holed -pipe extends the sounds that limit the tetrachord -by one tone, and this method by extension reappears in -aftertime in the Greek systems as an added tone also.</p> - -<p>It is doubtful whether we are to consider that the -open extreme end of a pipe is intended to produce a -sound which is to be taken into the musical scale, even -the least civilised people seeming to regard the note -given as outside the designed series and not to be used; -but it is easy to conceive how a pentatonic scale might -have been developed by bringing it into use.</p> - -<p>Another point to be noticed as affecting the pitch is -that the distance between the fourth and the third holes -is an eighth less than exists between other holes, and it -may be that it was so intended to compensate for flatness, -or to make a slight difference of interval.</p> - -<p>The oval holes are not singular; I have several -beautiful Japanese pipes with this feature in their construction. -The coinciding holes of the two pipes may -not have been intended to be identical in pitch or may -have been used together to produce a quivering or voix -céleste effect, through the partial shading of one by the -fingers, and thus intended to give new resources to the -skilful player. This is probable, because we find that -at the present day the people of eastern climes are -partial to this effect. The Egyptian <i>zummarah</i>, con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>sisting -of two unison pipes tied together is played to -produce it. It is quite easy to obtain the waving of -pitch to a large extent, by using two reeds that differ in -stiffness.</p> - -<p>That the sounds given by the flute holes originally -located by the spread of the fingers should prove to be -distant from each other approximately by the interval -we call a tone, is a mere coincidence as of numerical -relation, the more or less extent being ultimately -adjusted by experience.</p> - -<p>Another consideration I must tell you of because in -my studies of old customs in instruments it has been -impressed upon me too strongly to be neglected, and -that is the old world tendency that prevails to make -flat fourths. In the section on Chinese instruments -this feature will be noticed though I do not think any -other writer has mentioned it, and I believe the duplicates -of certain fourths are only apparently such and are -intended for the making of fourths of slightly different -pitch, and that there is a practice of using one of these -for the ascent and the other for the descent in the scale. -I believe it to be a natural racial tendency to make -flat fourths and that by provision of another note -with a difference, they do a tuning based upon fourths -accommodate the obtaining of the true octave.</p> - -<p>One of those pipes gives a complete tetrachord, a perfect -fourth, the other extends it by a minor third, interveningly -the flat fourth and the augmented fourth may -be found within the scale of the two pipes combined. -Not the Greek tetrachord but one of more primitive -arrangement, before laws had been formulated for the -relative degrees of tone and hemitones. There is also -a leap interval of a tone and a half, which characterises<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> -the earliest of lyre scales, and may be the link connecting -the evolution of the Greek scale from the Egyptian. -Indeed in Asia and Arabia similar usages still persist, -and to the peoples’ ears give content, they want no -other.</p> - -<p>The subject is so interesting to the musician that the -further analysis and investigation to which these -valuable relics of a past age have been submitted, -cannot fail of helping to a true understanding of the -significance of the Lady Maket’s flutes, the oldest -evidence of the world’s earliest music.</p> - -<p>And indeed how tenderly human is their appeal across -the centuries, for they bear even now evidences of the -touch of the fingers of the dear lady who played her -chosen flute music upon them so long and lovingly, and -cherished them as companions in her life, and destined -them also to befriend her in her dark tomb. Yes, you -can plainly see, her fingers have worn away the rich -orange stain from the beautifully shaped oval holes. -For these flutes were finely finished and designed for -true musical service and durability. Originally they -had been orange-stained and wax polished, and when -first found held that appearance, but exposure to -the air darkened the wax to a deep brown colour, yet -the holes reveal in lighter tint how they have been -worn by the fingers. Perhaps the lady musician had -several other pairs of flutes, apt for the expression of -joy and mirthfulness, and left them to her friends, -taking with her only the one pair with which her <i>Ka</i> -would mourn the loss of friends and the light of -the sun.</p> - -<p>A remembrance comes fittingly in this place, of -another lady of this long vanished race. In a royal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> -tomb they found her, at El Amrah, wrapped round -with the mystic robes of a ceremonial, that were to be -her passport to the underworld during an unknown -eternity; she was the daughter of Mena the founder of -Memphis, and on her breast was written in the old -hieroglyph letters, this simple message to the unseen -power, who would judge her,—</p> - -<p class="center f09">“<i>She was Sweet of Heart.</i>”</p> - -<p>—it was the last testimony of those who loved her. -Sweet of heart, how near it brings her to our own loves. -A touching epitaph to endure over six thousand years,—no -woman could desire a more beautiful farewell.</p> - -<p>The flutes that my thoughts so long lingered over are -gone. They are deposited, after their strange travel, -in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford—a long way -indeed from that land where the Lady Maket played -them under a cloudless sky.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p041.jpg" width="150" height="159" alt="Tailpiece" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Egypt.</b><br /><br /> - -MORE EGYPTIAN FLUTES: THE EVIDENCES OF THE -SCALE.</small></h2> - -<p>The finder of Lady Maket’s flutes, Mr. Flinders -Petrie, did not coincide with me in the opinion I -had formed on the method of blowing, mainly on -the ground that no reeds were found with them. The -objection loses its force if we consider that at all periods -it has been customary for reed pipe players to have a -reserve of reed tongues, and that to preserve the tongues -after use it was desirable to keep them covered, that -the air should not too rapidly dry up the moisture acquired -during the holding in the mouth. At the present -day, the players of oboes and bassoons remove their -reeds from the instruments directly they cease to use -them; and the clarionet player covers his reed with the -cap even during a prolonged pause in the score for his -instrument, for the same reason. Oboes and bassoons, -when put aside, are deprived of the reeds, which -are placed carefully in little cases which the players<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> -provide for them, and carry about. So that we should -not expect to find the reeds with the Egyptian pipes. -Another reason, too, might operate; the <i>reeds</i> themselves -might not be ceremonially required, as these -flutes might have only a certain representative character. -The learned Mr. A. S. Murray, late keeper -of the Greek treasures in the British Museum, tells us -that “it is noticeable that, among the vases of bronze -found in tombs, the metal of some of them is so thin -that they can do little more than stand with their own -weight; they must have been produced expressly for -show at funeral ceremonies.” So long as custom was -conformed to, the relatives of the deceased were not -called upon to do more; and the exact significance of -what was done we of a different race cannot estimate.</p> - -<p>Taking a practical view, we are justified in the conclusion -that the Egyptians had boxes for the safe keeping -of these reeds, for the Greeks, who seem to have -carried forward the customs of the Egyptians, had -such. Mr. W. Chappell states that these reed boxes, -called <i>Glossocomeia</i>, had a sliding lid top like a modern -common domino box; and, according to Hesychius, -the small reed tongues agitated by the breath of the -performers were called <i>glottis</i>. Dr. Stainer, in his -“Music of the Bible” says:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The very existence of the word “tongue box” shows that the -player was accustomed to carry his tongues or reeds separately -from the instrument. The word, it will be remembered, is used -in St. John xii. 6 and xiii. 29, where it is translated <i>bag</i>; but it -is quite possible Judas Iscariot carried the money in a <i>reed box</i>, -as implied by the Greek text.</p></div> - -<p>And we may add, also, that from this explanation the -inference may be drawn that very probably Judas -Iscariot was a musician.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p> - -<p>The Lady Maket’s flutes are the true representatives -of the double pipes, called by the Greeks <i>diaulos</i>, and -by the Romans <i>tibiæ pares</i> and <i>tibiæ geminæ</i>,—the latter -a very appropriate name. These twin flutes are profusely -depicted upon Etruscan vases, being introduced -almost invariably in banquet scenes: wine and music -inseparable. The master and guests recline on couches; -but the flute player is always shown standing, as in attendance -for their pleasure.<br /><br /></p> - -<p class="center f09"><i>Fig. 8.</i></p> -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p044.jpg" width="400" height="239" alt="Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes." /></div> -<p class="caption"><i>Egyptian Player on the Double Pipes.</i><br /> -<i>The chaining at the ankles indicates that the players are -performing some act of homage.</i></p> - -<p>With the Egyptians it was different; with them -chiefly the domestic alliance was dancing and music, -and no doubt this difference in custom affords us an -index of the characters of the two peoples.</p> - -<p>How great the contrast; the wine-loving, laughter-loving, -Greeks, living in the open day, buoyant of life, -and always eager for contest whether of muscle or of -brain; and the Egyptians, shadowed through day and -night by the colossal calm of their temples, secluded -in family life, adding store to store, possession to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> -possession, and placidly working for the day that is, -yet ever caring for the morrow after death.<br /><br /></p> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 9.</i></p> -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p045.jpg" width="250" height="332" alt="Player upon Unequal Pipes." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Player upon Unequal Pipes.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>This player has pipes of unequal length, is evidently -taking part in some ceremonial, and is wearing a trailing -scarf of vine leaves, which had its significance in the -sacred rites. The long pipe seen in this ancient -example of use is possibly the prototype of the later -form seen in the Arab arghool, with its long drone -pipe, and it has therefore a very interesting significance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p046.jpg" width="500" height="298" alt="From the Wall Painting to be seen at the British Museum." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 10.<br /><br /> -From the Wall Painting to be seen at the British Museum.</i></p></div> - -<p>In the Egyptian wall paintings which we have in the -British Museum are two domestic scenes; and in both -the damsels are seen seated on the ground in oriental -fashion, and they are playing on double flutes, whilst -other damsels are dancing to their music. The picture -belongs to the time of the eighteenth or nineteenth -dynasty, about <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 1,600, and was taken from a tomb -at Thebes. The date is five centuries before Lady -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>Maket was born. This painting is about thirty inches -long, and illustrates a musical entertainment. Girls are -dancing, other girls are seated and are clapping hands -to time; and another is seated, in full face view, playing -the double pipes, which are slightly conical, and -reach lower than the elbows of the seated figures. The -player has rings on two fingers of the left hand, and -the little finger closes on the pipe with the second joints -of the finger. The pipe appears to be about twenty-four -inches in length, possibly more. The proportion -may be judged, since the seated figure measures from -the crown of the head to floor 8-1/2 in., and the pipes -shew 5-1/4 in. long; and the mouthpieces in white (as if -of ivory) to each slender tube; and these may carry -the reed which is hidden in the mouth, for in a custom -of later time we find that ivory reed holders were used. -It is curious to note that the right hand of the player -taking the highest position, supports the right flute -between the hollow of the thumb and the forefinger; -but the fingers cross over to play on the left hand -flute, whilst the left hand similarly reverses and plays -on the flute of the right. The Egyptians called these -twin flutes “Mamms.”</p> - -<p>In another painting on the same wall a girl is playing -the double pipes, and is accompanied by others with -stringed instruments. The figures are seated with legs -folded under and in this position the pipes reach nearly -to the floor. The pipes are but little beyond the cylindrical -form, and evidently have some joining mouthpiece, -in this instance of a reddish yellow colour, and not -white. The crossing of the hands is also found in this -picture, and one notices how ingeniously convenient the -method was, and how the grasp by the ball of the thumb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> -steadied the instruments when playing in such a sitting -posture. On neither of the flutes is there any marking -to indicate the finger holes.</p> - -<p>The great length of the flutes in these paintings led -me to the conclusion that, as I have stated, the Lady -Maket’s being considerably shorter and so slim, are -properly funereal or wailing flutes. Curiously enough -we already possess a pair of these flutes in the -Museum; but even to my enquiring eyes the truth was -not revealed until the Lady Maket’s flutes taught me -what to look for. So true is it that the eye only sees -what it is prepared to see? I knew that three straws -with holes were stuck in a rack; looked at them after I -had handled Lady Maket’s pipes, and saw nothing more -than one straw pipe very similar. At last it suddenly -dawned upon me that another straw was very likely -half a pipe, and a further scrutiny leaves no doubt that -it is the complemental pipe, the upper part missing, -broken off below the middle knot.</p> - -<p>With the usual perversity attending the exhibition of -musical instruments, this broken pipe was so placed as -to be, in relation to its companion, as the horse with -its tail where its head ought to be, and was thus passed -by without understanding. The length complete, as -near as I could measure is fifteen inches; and if the -broken one should be placed end for end parallel to the -perfect one, the relation would be apparent; the lowest -holes of each being the same distance from the end, -three inches, and so corresponding to the Lady Maket -measure.</p> - -<p>In the national museums at Leyden, Berlin, Paris -and at other continental museums, there are straw -flutes or portions of them; but how much they are from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> -good condition I do not know. So far as I am aware -the pipes found by Mr. Flinders Petrie are the only -existing <i>perfect</i> specimens of the Gingroi or wailing flutes.</p> - -<p>By the term straw we merely indicate slenderness; -the pipes being truly reeds, called by botanists <i>Arundo -Donax</i>, and also, <i>Sativa</i>. From this kind of stalk our -oboe and other reeds are made, the chief European -supply coming from Fréjus on the Mediterranean.</p> - -<p>When these pipes first came into my hands for examination -and measurement, I at once expressed my belief -that they were sounded by Arghool type of reed; -when the right reed, I said, is discovered after -numberless experiments, then we shall have better -surety of an exact scale as heard by Egyptian ears, -with perhaps the proviso that somewhat of the skill of -the player of the old race is attained.<br /><br /></p> - -<h3><span class="smcap lowercase">THE TEACHINGS OF EXPERIMENTS.</span></h3> - -<p>As there are no known existing examples of the -<i>Diaulos</i>, the extreme interest attaching to the Lady -Maket flutes as the original representatives of the later -use of the Greeks, justifies the fullest investigation of -the scale they give into our hands, with an enduring -testimony of truth, that goes beyond that afforded by -painting or written record.</p> - -<p>Very greatly esteeming the permission given to me to -measure and take the particulars which I have stated, I -made all haste to get models made for me in metal -upon which to investigate the scale.</p> - -<p>My experiments were made with arghool reeds and -metal pipes, copies of the originals as nearly as possible -the same in bore. I obtained for the ground tone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> -of the pipes, B in the eight foot octave; and, in this -order, the tones following:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">1st pipe<span class="h">iixx</span>B–——D—E—F♯—G♯.</div> -<div class="line">2nd<span class="h">x</span>”<span class="h">xxxxi</span>B—C—D—E.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The pipes being cylindrical in bore with a true transport -of air through them, are subject to the law displayed -by the clarionet, sounding an octave lower than -like length open organ pipes or lip-blown flutes.</p> - -<p>Then for harmonics I obtained the double octaves, -with sometimes a slurred intervening single octave, -passingly heard in the rise to the double octave. This -is curious, though not unexpected when one has been -accustomed to the seeming vagaries of reeds. Practically, -nature does not always proceed according to -academic rules. When reeds are combined with pipes, -the resulting pitch is due to a compound of two forces -pulling in opposite directions; the reed drawing to -high pitch, and the pipe to low pitch, each acting upon -the other. Some reeds will not yield to the coercive -effect of the pipe more than to about the extent of a -fourth, with preservation of real truth of intonation; -and at such limit the reed flies back to the starting -pitch and recommences, or plays false. A free reed -will not bear to be drawn down by the pipe associated -with it to more than an octave; and if attempt is made -to cause it to respond lower in the scale (by a greater -lengthening of pipe), then it makes a jump back to its -original pitch. After that there are other curious -relations, such as not responding beyond a fourth, and -so on; particulars of which need not here be gone into. -Therefore, discrepancies in experiment need not cause -surprise.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> - -<p>Simultaneously Mr. T. L. Southgate and Mr. J. D. -Blaikley, attracted to the same pursuit, entered upon a -course of experiment, the results of which were set -forth at a meeting of the Musical Association. Mr. -Blaikley is well known in connection with wind instruments, -and his judgment upon musical pitch may be absolutely -relied upon; and Mr. T. L. Southgate is also -well known as a keen investigator in all musical -matters; and as an aid to his own knowledge and skill -he was fortunate in obtaining as an associate in these -experimental researches, the practical experience of Mr. -Finn, who, accustomed to flutes and hautboy reed -instruments, could bring into use the little artifices -in producing sounds from the reeds which the amateur -in wind instruments lacks knowledge of.</p> - -<p>The summary of the results arrived at, shows for the</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">1st pipe<span class="h">x</span>E♭———G—A♭—B♭—C♭</div> -<div class="line">2nd<span class="h">x</span>”<span class="h">xxi</span>E♭—-F—G—A♭</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>These were obtained with a small straw reed. (The -E♭ is the third space in the bass clef). Nearly all the -intervals prove to be less than ours, and are, as we -should term them, flat. The experimenters used small -straw squeaker reeds, and also <i>Arghool</i> and bagpipe -reeds, the results in each case differing. So that, unless -we can ascertain more definitely what sized reed the -Egyptians had in use, the pitch notes arrived at are but -approximately right.</p> - -<p>That my own experiments bore a lower estimate of -pitch is due to my using ordinary arghool reeds, heavier -than could by any supposition have been fitted to these -little pipes, yet the relative course of the sounds produced -is seen to be the same, and therefore is con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>firmatory -of the use of that particular kind of reed, and -in accordance with known laws of the reed and pipe, so -that my first guess or calculation, founded upon the -length of the pipes, was correct. The length of pipe -17-3/4 inches, to which add 1-1/2 inches for length of reed. -This is the sound of the full length of the pipe, note</p> - -<table summary="E or B"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p052a.jpg" width="182" height="50" alt="E or B" /> -</div></td> -<td class="tdc">or</td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p052b.jpg" width="164" height="51" alt="E or B" /> -</div></td></tr></table> - -<p>The relations of the notes, one to another, as ascertained -by Mr. Blaikley, are in close correspondence -with the harmonic scale as elicited from the horn -or trumpet, from the high D to G; and also the scale -of the highland bagpipe has its succession of notes -in similar relations of pitch. This harmonic scale is -here given, so that by comparison the relation may be -understood.</p> - -<table summary="harmonic scale" border="0"><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr"><i>vib.</i></td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2">The four holed<br />pipe gives</td><td><big><big><big><big>{</big></big></big></big></td><td> E♭ 160 </td><td> </td><td> G 194</td><td> A♭ 213</td><td> B♭ 233</td><td>C♭ 257</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2">The three holed<br />pipe gives</td><td><big><big><big><big>{</big></big></big></big></td><td>E♭ 160</td><td> F 177</td><td> G 197</td><td> A♭ 215</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2">By harmonic<br />scale</td><td> </td><td>E♭ 160</td><td> F 177·8 </td><td> G 195·6</td><td> A♭ 213·4 </td><td>B♭ 231·2</td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2">(the increment<br />is 17·8)</td><td> </td><td class="tdr2">9th </td><td class="tdr2">10th </td><td class="tdr2">11th </td><td class="tdr2">12th </td><td class="tdr2">13th </td><td> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Note by note the natural harmonic scale ascends by -an equal increment, differing essentially from the -diatonic, which only doubles its number of vibrations -at the distance of the octave. Thus, although the -sounds of the above are given by name, as near as can -be stated, yet it is a notation for convenience only.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p> - -<p>The general reader will best understand the matter -as estimated to me by Mr. A. J. Hipkins. From E♭ to -G is a bagpipe, or neuter third,—from this G to A♭ is -a 3/4 tone,—the A♭ is therefore a perfect fourth from the -E♭. The G being a quarter tone flat, it makes with the -C♭ a small or flat fourth. The fifth lying between F -and C♭ is also very flat, in fact equal to a tritone. The -remaining notes are two 3/4 tones, which land us at C♭, a -minor third from the A♭. An arrangement very appropriate -for wailing. The Greeks also it should be remembered -had 3/4 tones.</p> - -<p>These particulars have great interest in musical -enquiry, and help us to see how fortuitous has been the -growth of the scale, and how characteristically “<i>minor</i>” -the music of different races seems to us, whilst in reality -quite outside our scale and distinct from it in development. -The flat fourths I have found to be persistent -in Chinese music, and for very good natural reasons, -as will be fully shown in subsequent chapters on the -Chinese ancient instruments.</p> - -<p>The very low sounds given by these flutes are necessarily -weak and have no penetrative power, nothing -like what we should expect to be adequate for ceremonial -use, or for the purposes to which we imagine -the flutes applied in public life. A procession, for -instance would, by the mere noise arising from walking -drown the sounds, unless the walkers trod in sand. -The conclusion I am driven to is that the skill of the -players was devoted to eliciting the shrill harmonic -tones, and that the low range of tone was seldom -brought into requisition. The length of the pipes -suggests this view, and the extreme slenderness seems -to be adopted for the purpose; since it is inimical to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> -volume of tone, yet favours under strong breath pressure -the eliciting of high tones. Any day some new -discovery may confute our speculations; but still we -cannot but indulge in them. We, with modern eyes, -look upon these flutes only as musical instruments; but -to the Egyptians every tone heard alone or in combination, -every movement, every gesture of the player -had its mystic meaning, and its occult significance -in association with rituals and observances and -ceremonies.</p> - -<p>In these early ages, double flutes appear to have -flourished everywhere amongst neighbouring nations; -and the single flute, if the pictured representations and -designs are to guide us, was comparatively rare. We -note the fact, but, as to why the double flute -was popular, we are quite in the dark. Egyptians, -Assyrians, Babylonians,—which nation first had them? -Far back as our spoils from the ancient cities and tombs -and palaces and temples may date, it is very certain -that the double flutes had their origin in far earlier -times, and had passed through periods of evolution -from some type ruder than the instruments which we -find depicted. I have remarked how the added tone -furnished by Lady Maket’s flutes indicates a large -advance in the progress of civilization in her day, for -probably flutes without such had had their run of -popularity, perhaps centuries earlier. So that, when -we speak of primitive pipes and primitive tetrachords, -we think of long anterior dates, long before the particular -instruments were fabricated which we have -cognizance of. Advance is very slow.</p> - -<p>We should remember the great gap of time—two -thousand five hundred years—before men arrived at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> -idea of a simple lever key to extend the scale of oboes -and flutes by one note; and then think of the possible -interval between the time of early common use of pipes -comprising four tones in their range and the advent of a -pipe with one finger hole and one more added tone. May -be in the popular tradition, some young god invented it. -Think of the commotion amongst the Greeks when a -daring innovator added one more string to the lyre!</p> - -<p>The Egyptian double flutes seen in the paintings are -of greater length than those used by the Assyrians, who -so far as we can tell, from their incised tablets seen -in the Nineveh Gallery in the British Museum, had -only short ones. It was in the hands of the Greeks -that changes began to be made, the first noticeable -feature being the greater diameter of the pipes. It -was not until about five hundred years after the death -of Lady Maket that Egypt was opened up to the -Greeks; all foreigners had been previously most -rigidly excluded. The Egyptian instrument called the -<i>Arghool</i> is a comparatively modern instrument, for we -never find a trace of it in ancient paintings; and the -drone, which is its chief feature, was most likely an -Arab device founded on the long pipe of the earlier -Egyptian (see page <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, Fig. 9).</p> - -<p>But the <i>Arghool</i> reed itself had a very ancient origin, -and we rightly consider it the oldest of reeds, and as -essentially belonging to the Egyptian double flutes. -If you look at the engraving you will see that, at the -top of the pipe itself, a short piece of smaller pipe is -inserted; and, again, a piece of still smaller pipe -is added in which the reed has been cut. Thus there -is, as it were, a double step, ingeniously accommodating -the fitting in of the reed in the simplest way.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Arghool"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 11.<br /><br />The Arghool<br />with its<br /> -drone and<br /> -lengthening<br /> -pieces.</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p056.jpg" width="300" height="509" alt="Th Arghool" /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Instead of having pipes with different sets of holes, this -has but one pipe, and it has six holes, therefore employing -the fingers of both hands, the second pipe which is without -holes is bound to the shorter pipe, and has two or more -lengthening pieces which are used by the player, according -as the custom has determined for the particular air played, -for this holeless pipe is nothing more than a drone pipe -of deep tone, such as a bagpipe has; some idea of -harmony must be involved since the small lengthening -piece increases by about a tone the depth of pitch -attained. One curious custom should be noticed, the -attachment of the portions to one another lest they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> -should be lost; the tongued reeds that are placed in the -players mouth are tied in the same manner by rough -bits of string. In the wilder parts of Asia horsemen -travel carrying with them a hautboy kind of instrument -with four or five extra reeds, strung in a chain fashion -and loosely hung round the neck of the pipe for use when -a new reed is required, or a choice of one of different -quality of tone is desired.</p> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 12.<br /><br /> -The Egyptian Zummarah.</i></p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p057.jpg" width="500" height="94" alt="The Egyptian Zummarah." /> - -</div> - -<p>There is another popular native instrument, much -more ancient than the arghool called the <i>Zummarah</i> -it consists of two pipes tied together (not to be called -<i>double pipes</i>) the holes in each being the same in position -and the same in number, five. Some representations -of very archaic kind, carved, have been found, I do not -remember any paintings in old Egypt, but Mr. Flinders -Petrie has discovered two specimens in the Coptic cemetery -at Gurob, complete with the reeds, and the date of -these is given about <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 500. The question arises, were -such pipes in use at any period earlier than our era <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> -and if so, how near to the time of the Lady Maket?</p> - -<p>The tonality is the old Egyptian.</p> - -<p>Another kind of flute in primitive relation is seen -figured in Egyptian paintings; it is a single long pipe, -held aslant, and sounded by blowing across the tip<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> -obliquely. It was called <i>seba</i> or <i>sabi</i>; and the open, -slant-cut, tip end is thinned off to a feather edge.</p> - -<table summary="Seba"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 13.<br /><br />The<br />Seba<br /> -or<br />Sabi.</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p058.jpg" width="250" height="219" alt="The Seba -or Sabi." /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>The representative national pipe now in use is called -the “Nay.” This pipe is about fourteen inches long, -and it is only in the method of blowing that it corresponds -to the ancient pipe.</p> - -<p>The various kinds of flutes we see depicted by -the Egyptians in their paintings, were used in concert -with other instruments—lyres and grand harps -in pairs, capable of giving fine volume of tone—through -which the flutes would have to be heard, although not -perhaps so simultaneous was the playing, as with us; -since there are reasons for believing that their orchestration -was more in the nature of alternation of -instruments, one class leaving off and others taking up -the strain and only occasionally combining for fulness or -strength, associated perhaps with the voices of the -multitude in popular acclaim. In later days in Egypt’s -decline, it is on record that Ptolemy Philadelphus employed -a band of 600 musicians to celebrate the feast -of Bacchus.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Arab Player"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 14.<br /><br />Arab<br />Player<br /> -on the<br />Nay.</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p059.jpg" width="400" height="425" alt="Arab Player" /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>In India we find flutes which seem to show a compromise -or blending of the tip-blown and side-blown -methods. In the India Museum some pipes may be -seen with a curiously shaped hollow tip, cut with a -slant curve, across which the player blows. These -several ways are but different illustrations of one and -the same principle—that is to say—the stream of air -blown <i>across</i> the hole creates suction in the pipe, which -reaching its limit is constantly broken with a rapidity -of action resulting in periodic vibration of definite -sound or pitch.</p> - -<p>On the walls of one of the Vase Rooms in the British -Museum are displayed, running almost the length of -the central part of the wall of the room, two wall -paintings. The period is called Archaic, and the -figures have a formality which contrasts with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> -freedom of design in a later period. In each painting, -which is a facsimile from an Etruscan tomb at Corneto, -there are two male flute players, and women dancing -to their playing; and all the flutes they are using, and -which they hold trumpet like before them, show reeds -of the <i>arghool</i> kind, the double step I pointed out just -now being plainly marked, and the upper one in each -instance coloured a brown olive, whilst the pipes are -white. Seen through an opera glass the details are very -distinct. One pair of pipes has three holes in each -pipe marked. The pipes are thicker and shorter than -the flutes in the Egyptian wall paintings described -above, and we find that similar proportions are apparent -in some Assyrian wall designs. In the tablets of -Assurbanipal, date <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 650, the double pipes are short -and are conical, which is quite a distinct feature in double -pipes, and would cause the sounds to be an octave -higher in pitch.</p> - -<p>The two extremes I have cited, during which the -double pipes of the original style are in evidence, cover -a long period, the wall paintings of the time of Thotmes -the Third and the carvings on the Sanchi Tope gate—that -is from <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 1600 to about <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 100. During all -these centuries, the double flutes have entered into the -national life of many peoples, and at various times -concurrently one or other of the varieties I have named -have likewise been in popular favour. One remarkable -period, however, there was, when an innovation intervened. -A new Greek invention appeared, and held the -field for several centuries. Etruria, about <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 500, -seems to have been the place of origin of the new -double flutes; or it may be said that here they come -first into historic presence. On this Italian plain a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> -Greek colony settled; and we consequently term these -flutes Greco-Etruscan flutes, the distinguishing features -of which have been preserved for us on the marvellously -beautiful vases that were buried in their tombs,—death -being the preserver of empictured life.</p> - -<p>Here then we leave the valley of the Nile, and, after -an interval of six centuries from Lady Maket’s decease, -view another and a distant region, amid a new state of -civilisation. One lingering touch of association with -the Lady Maket’s flutes is found in Miss A. B. Edwards’s -description of a funeral in Egypt in the year when she -travelled “One Thousand Miles up the Nile.”</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">At a funeral in Nubia, the ceremonial with its dancing and -chanting was always much the same, always barbaric and in -the highest degree artificial. The dance is probably Ethiopian; -the white fillet worn by the choir of mourners is on the other -hand distinctly Egyptian. We afterwards saw it represented -in paintings of funeral processions on the walls of several tombs -at Thebes, where the wailing women are seen to be gathering -up dust in their hands and casting it upon their heads just -as they do now. As for the wail—beginning high and descending -through a scale, divided not by semitones but thirds of -tones, to a final note about an octave and a half lower than -that from which it started—it probably echoes to this day the -very pitch and rhythm of the wail that followed the Pharaohs -to their sepulchres in the valley of the tombs of the kings. -Like the <i>zaghareet</i> or joy cry which every mother teaches to her -little girl (and which, it is said, can only be acquired in very -early youth), it has been handed down from generation to -generation, through an untold succession of ages. The song to -which the Fellah works his <i>shadoof</i>, and the monotonous chant -of the <i>shakkieh driver</i>, have perhaps as remote an origin; but of -all mournful human sounds, the death wail that we heard at -Derr is perhaps one of the very oldest,—certainly the most -mournful.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">From this vivid picture of real life we can now -understand that our little wailing flutes, recovered from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> -that rock cut tomb, meant very much to the old -Egyptian race.</p> - -<p>A piece of the old poetic writings comes to me at the -time present, that seems to complete the circle of our -thoughts around this long lost nation—it comes from old -Chaldea, the motherland, is one of the choice and highly -valued finds of explorers, recently acquired by the -British Museum,—tablets of popular songs of Chaldea -which date at least <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 2300, and possibly earlier. -These are distinctly called songs. One bard says,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">I will sing the song of the Lady of the Gods;</div> -<div class="line i5">Listen the great ones,</div> -<div class="line i5">Attend ye warriors,</div> -<div class="line">To the song of the Goddess Mama,</div> -<div class="line">The song which is better than honey and wine.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In fair reason may we not conceive that through long -ages tradition held its sway amongst the people, and -that these pipes were dedicated to the goddess Mama, -were given into the hands of women to play and -to cherish the melodies of songs that belonged to their -race, and that they named the twin pipes <i>Mamms</i>, in -affectionate reverence for the “Lady of the Gods” -whose song was better than honey and wine.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Etruria.</b><br /><br /> - -THE GRECO-ETRUSCAN DOUBLE FLUTES.</small></h2> - -<p class="center">THE BULBED OR SUBULO FLUTES.</p> - -<p>The Song of Linus is heard to-day in the land of -Egypt; the sacred melody played on the double flutes -in ancient days survives without change, but no player -on these pipes exists; the song is sung in wailful -cadence by lips of another race, for the old race has -vanished</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">in the long corridors of Time.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Strange is the irony of history! The dwellers in the -land have forgotten the name of their song, and call -it after a Greek myth. Yet, in its origin, it was -a very real song of lament, a true outcome of human -sorrow, age remembered and treasured in the hearts of -the old Egyptian people, and perpetuated by tradition -even amongst those who were strangers in the land, -who tilled the soil, and lived in the ruins of the past.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> -It was a lament for the king’s son, known as the Song -of Maneros, so that grand old interviewer, Herodotus, -tells us. He had thought this Song of Linus to be -a famous song of Greek origin.</p> - -<p>This is what he says:—“I have been struck with -many things during my enquiries in Egypt, but with -none more than this song, and I cannot conceive from -whence it was borrowed, indeed they seem to have had -it from time immemorial, and to have known it by the -name of Maneros, for they assured me it was so called -from the son of their first monarch, who being carried -off by an early death, was honoured by the Egyptians -with a funeral dirge, and this was the first and only -song they used at that early period of their history.”</p> - -<p>Plutarch says Maneros was the child who watched -Isis as she mourned over the body of Osiris.</p> - -<p>Herodotus is constant in admonishing the Greeks -that Egypt is the mother of wisdom, and that for a vast -deal of the learning and the arts they pride themselves -upon they are indebted to her by direct inheritance. -What he, a Greek himself, in his day told them we -have found true, and in all the light of modern researches -the old historian is well supported. We are -accustomed to locate Egypt on a few hundred miles on -the banks of the Nile, losing sight of the fact that, in -the days of her dominion, her power extended far and -her influence was felt in all the lands bordering the -Mediterranean wherever civilization held sway. Her -royal dynasties were a living force for thousands of -years.</p> - -<p>One startling record was discovered by Professor A. -Sayce. He tells us that he has read the graven tablets -of Tebel-Amarna (now in the Berlin Museum), which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> -prove to be letters sent from the king or governor of -Jerusalem to the Egyptian sovereign, in the century -before the Exodus. This governor owed allegiance to -the Egyptian monarch, and his letters were dated from -“‘the city of the mountain of Urusalem, the city of the -temple of the god Uras, whose name there is Marru.’ -Thus long before the days when Solomon built the -temple of Yahveh, the spot on which it stood had been -the site of a hallowed sanctuary.”</p> - -<p>Along the whole Asiatic coast of the Mediterranean -the Egyptians had their military settlements, and consequently -there ensued a mingling of many tribes and -races. The Greeks, or as they came to be called, the -Hellenes, were a composite people with a Pelasgic -basis. There was, however, distinct Egyptian colonisation. -Cecrops is said to have led a colony from Sais in -Egypt and to have founded Athens in 1556 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and -Danaus, who seems to be a brother of Amunoph III., -is also said to have left Egypt and to have founded -Argos, of which he became king, and died, <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 1425.</p> - -<p>The perpetual trading that was going on between the -Phœnicians, Greeks, Italians and Egyptians, brought -the land of Tuscia under the influence of Egyptian -ideas, and of this the sepulchres of Etruria give ample -evidence. The domestic life, the industrial arts, the -religious rites, the paintings and sculptures, and even -the mode of burial, all are exhibiting new adaptions of -older faith and customs; the different development -being due to differences in race, soil, and climate, to -inheritance and environment. If we look back far -enough we shall find that the geography of the country, -the outcome of its geology, forecasts the destiny of its -inhabitants and writes the history of its peoples.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p> - -<p>Of all the variety of vases fashioned by Greeks and -Etruscans, the types of the different forms we find existed -long before in Egypt, and these vases have been buried -in tombs—large underground chambers that are the -counterparts of Egyptian tombs—and they have been -placed there to please the spirits of the dead, by devoting -to them the things that were most loved, most prized, -during life. They used the sarcophagus, though they did -not mummify or embalm the dead, but laid out the -body dressed in its garments, or encased in armour of -the period, with strappings of copper and bronze bosses -for breastplates, placing it on a stone bier surrounded -by its treasures, often of great value, and leaving it to -moulder into dust by natural decay. The paintings on -the walls of these dwelling rooms of the dead illustrate -banquets and scenes of domestic and public life, and -afford us most valuable indications of the ways and -manners of long past days. A large number of these -chambered tombs have been opened, with their treasures -untouched since the day of burial. The first that was -discovered was by the chance pushing aside and uprooting -of a bush by a peasant tending his goats at -evening, who, looking through the opening he had -made, the setting sun throwing its light into the -chamber, was seized with mortal fear at the sight his -eyes fell upon; rushing home to his people he described -what he saw, the body lying there dressed in the habit -as it lived. The next day, however, no body was there, -only the figure of it in little heaps of dust, and -the metal links and the two round breast bosses fallen, -indenting the dust. Those who explored the tomb and -recovered its treasures were inclined to the belief that -the peasant did see the human form, but that, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> -in similar cases that are known, it collapsed upon the -admission of air and light.</p> - -<p>The tombs were rock hewn, or built of stone and -then covered with earth appearing as mere tumuli. -The chambers many of them being twenty feet by -twelve, and superstition asserts that in more than one -instance lamps were found still burning with perpetual -fire although fifteen or twenty centuries had elapsed -since they were lighted.</p> - -<p>The painting described in the last chapter, copied -from one in a tomb at Corneto (meaning at the necropolis -of Tarquinii, the ancient city) shows very clearly -that the earliest double flutes possessed by these people -were of the Egyptian kind, with a similar form of reed; -and this same design I have also found on one or two -vases, and also evidently the same style is meant in -other instances, in which the details are not worked -out, in both paintings and vases. Thus far we trace -the connection between Etruria and Egypt as regards -the flutes, with Greece as a continuing link.</p> - -<p>The people of Etruria were an ancient race, occupying -both sides of the Appenines, they are now believed -to have been Pelasgian Tyrrhenians, they had great -naval power, and in origin were related to the old -Egyptian stock, or, as some say, to both Lydian and -Lybian. How long they had inhabited the Tuscan land -we do not know; they displaced or absorbed an earlier -race, as is the custom of invaders. They spread southward -as far as the Tiber centuries before Rome was, -and founded a city called Tarquinii about 1040 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> -Etrurian kings ruled at an early time in Rome, probably -up to about 500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> The immense cemetery of Tarquinii -is all that remains of the ancient city, which is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> -now succeeded by the Corneto city, built close to -the old site.</p> - -<p>The Etruscans it is judged came about 1200 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> They -attained renown in bronze work and in pottery (remember -here that the Lady Maket flutes date about -1100 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>). Historians state that Greeks from Thessaly -entered Italy from the Adriatic side and introduced by -their influence the higher development of art into -Etruscan work. Be that as it may, there is no doubt -cast upon the historical record concerning one Demaratus, -a merchant of Corinth, who made great wealth -by trading with this old city Tarquinii. He migrated -657 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> and settled there and married a lady of noble -family. His two sons became famous in Roman history. -He had views upon Art, and brought with him -from Greece two potters and one painter and thus did -good service to the land of his adoption.</p> - -<p>Another influx of Greeks is recorded. This colony -of Greeks came, however, in a peaceful fashion, and -settled there, having fled from a plague or famine in -their own land, in Lydia.</p> - -<p>That the Etruscans constantly went to and fro, visiting -the chief cities of Greece, is manifest, since many -vases bear official inscriptions that they were prizes -won at the Dionysian festivals, and at the Panathenæan -games. The knowledge of these facts adds wonderfully -to the interest in these vases, and enables us to understand -something of the feelings which induced the -burial of things that were valued personal belongings, -and caused on the walls the paintings to be limned of -banquets and races, and wrestling contests and musical -contests, in one or more of which probably the dead -man had won renown.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span></p> - -<p>The musical instruments on which they excelled -were the double flutes, the trumpet, and the lyre, and -on these they have conferred an immortality by the -ceramic art which they carried to so high a state of -perfection.</p> - -<p>I have in the matter of dates brought together a few -points which I would have you look upon not as mere -antiquarian lore, rather as connecting our thoughts in a -survey of the progress of music, and to give an idea of -the association of these three peoples, Egyptian, Etruscans, -and Greeks, in its development. You should -keep distinct in mind the early Etruscan period under -Egyptian influence, and the much later period when -Greek influence had sway from 600 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> to 300 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> It -is this later period of Art that we are now entering and -a very remarkable one it is.</p> - -<p>Etruria has given us a new thing: this is the <i>subulo</i> -flute, the new Greco-Etruscan flute. It is a mystery -that has not been fully solved: and, although I have -my theory about it, as you will find, and have regarded -these flutes very lovingly, scrutinizing every vase with -a most personal affection, yet until some actual specimen -is recovered from the past, I am denied that -supreme satisfaction desired by the ardent investigator,—proof. -Before I began many years ago to state my -impressions concerning the indications given by these -vases, I do not know that anyone thought the matter -worth notice, or said “Here is a new invention in -flutes.” The peculiar feature of the construction is the -presence of <i>one</i>, <i>or two</i>, <i>or three bulbs</i>, or cocoon shaped -terminations at the upper ends of the two flutes. The -peculiarity in the form was generally supposed to be -ornamental, and an artistic way for lightening the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> -upper part of the pipes; or, at most, a piece of decorative -conventionalism. The learned saw no purpose -behind the appearances, and therefore the idea of device -or constructive design was not to be entertained. The -illustrations here given are copied from figures depicted -on the vases in the British Museum, and you will -notice no longer the straight conjunctive tip-pieces of -the step-like pattern the <i>Arghool</i> fashion of Egyptian -flutes as displayed in the Corneto painting. That -fashion has become old, it is out of date. Suddenly a -change has come without a sign, in the home settlement -in Tuscany. Centuries probably intervene, and -a new influx of settlers arrives, this time of pure -Greeks or Hellenes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p070.jpg" width="500" height="309" alt="Fig. 15." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 15.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>One of the illustrations I give is taken from a -representation on a vase of a flute player at a musical -contest. He wears a <i>phorbia</i> or <i>capistrum</i>, which is a -kind of leather bandage or bridle, used in precaution -lest he should burst his cheeks in blowing; and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> -band has two holes pierced at the mouth for the insertion -separately of the pipes. The fact of the use of the -pipes in the band separately is beyond question, since -the actual pattern of the band exists in a relic from -Cyprus in the Cesnola collection at New York, and the -holes in it are not large enough to admit the bulbs, but -only the tip portion as shewn here. This player, as -you will notice, is playing one of the new double -flutes,—not an Egyptian flute.</p> - -<p>Female players also used the phorbia in playing. -Dennis notes on a vase “an <i>auletris</i> with black hair, -and a <i>phorbia</i> over the mouth, stood by the bier playing -the double pipes”—thus keeping up the Egyptian -custom.</p> - -<p>The reeds are not now taken into the mouth. Drawings -of the <i>Arghool</i> should have shown that each reed -was, at the tip, tied to the pipe by a slack rambling -string, for by these bits of string each reed is connected -with its pipe lest it should be lost. This is shown in -the Summarah drawing. Enthusiasts newly trying the -<i>Arghool</i> are very ready to drop it, since they soon feel -sick from the unpleasant sensation of the reeds and the -loose bits of string in the mouth, and it is an experience -one remembers.</p> - -<p>Come with me to the Vase Rooms of the British -Museum and look at some of the spoils of Time. Mr. -Dennis in his beautiful work on the Vases of Etruria -says “the enormous quantities of the vases that have -been found in Etruscan soil, within the last fifty years -alone, may be reckoned not by thousands but by -myriads.”</p> - -<p>In these rooms—and there are three large rooms -devoted to these specimens of fictile art—there are some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> -hundreds of vases. Many hours I have spent amongst -them, brooding over their beauty, and wondering of -the tales they told of a people long passed away and a -religion once the glory of the earth. On numbers of -vases flute players male and female, are depicted, -sometimes three or four on one vase; and the various -attitudes I observed, and the indications of purpose -they betokened, led me believe that there was some -meaning beyond mere ornamentation in the cocoon -like bulbs of the flute heads. I examined minutely -vase after vase, and discovered at length out of the whole number three vases -on which were delineated players handling their flutes -each in a different manner, and these conveyed clearly -to my mind the conviction that the bulbs were detached -pieces which the player was able to arrange. Then -arose the question in my mind, “for what purpose?” -You have the three pictures before you. Now it is -very curious that only by means of the Greco-Etruscan -art work are the <i>subulo</i> double flutes brought to our -knowledge (for distinction, it may be well to give these -bulbed flutes the name by which the Etruscan player -was called); and yet the period during which this new -invention was in vogue, comprises that in which Greece -was at the height of her intellectual power. The age -of Pericles and Phidias, of Plato and Euripides, of the -rearing of the Parthenon and of the grand Temple of -Jove at Olympia!</p> - -<p>The dates of the vases of the best period, all are -included between 440 and 330 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>; some earlier, also -showing these flutes, date back fifty years more. Thousands -of these recovered vases are distributed in museums -and private collections, and have been of inestimable -value for the insight they have afforded into the domestic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> -life of the Greek people. Aristophanes in one of his -comedies, written about 450 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, makes a bit of satire -out of these flutes, causing Micas and another to say—comically -complaining of their master—“Let us weep -and wail like two flutes breathing some air of Olympos.” -All that their poets and other writers told us of their -flutes and flute-players fails to come home to our understanding -until associated with these enduring pictures; -and we know at least that <i>they</i> are genuine records, and -that time has allowed no hand to tamper with them. It -is evident that flute music exercised a fascinating influence -over these people; the player is present alike in -scenes of mirth and revelry, in solemn ceremonials and -in funeral procession; and yet we are so far away -in thought culture and sentiment, that we are unable -to imagine what that music was that it could give such -delight, and be accounted one of life’s chiefest luxuries. -Here, beyond question, we have the testimony of the -eye that it was so; and we know that the natural -laws of sounding pipes are the same to-day as yesterday, -and the limits of capability of four or six holes allowed -but a very narrow range for melody.</p> - -<p>The player was called by the Etruscans “Subulone”: -by the Greeks “Auletris” and the flutes known as -“Auloi.” The pipes were formed of boxwood, lotus -wood and sycamore.</p> - -<p>Was it on these double flutes that Lamia played and -so ’witched the world that it built a temple to her, and -paid divine honours to her name? Were these the -flutes spoken of as being able to play in three modes, -the famed flutes, the invention of Pronomus the Theban? -The date given of Pronomus is given as about 440 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, -and is that of the period of these vases.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> - -<table summary="The Satyr"><tr> -<td class="tdc"> -<i>The<br />Satyr’s<br />Hands<br />and<br />Flutes.</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter" style="width: 225px;"> -<img src="images/i_p074.jpg" width="225" height="290" alt="Fig. 16. The Satyr’s Hands and Flutes." /></div></td> -</tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 16.</i></p> - -<p>The sportive fauns and the lush-eyed satyrs of the -woods have indeed learnt the mystery of these pipes -and make merry under the vine-leaves. I have in my -mind’s eye now a curly-headed satyr handling the pipes, -and I wish that I knew the charm to bring before you -the saucy curious look with which he is regarding them. -All that modern exigencies allow me I give here, -just the hands and the pipes. Notice the expectant -thumb; what is it he is contemplating? What is he -about to do? He intends to press the bulb of the pipe, -but evidently something is wrong, and I am so anxious -to know what it can be. Then there is a short line on -the top of the furthest pipe; it was a puzzle to me -years ago, and the satyr and I we are still puzzling over it. -Each pipe has but one bulb, and I think very probably -these simple creatures of nature would be unable to -manage more. Four oval holes are given to each pipe, -the artist has so marked them, and the firing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> -the vase underwent in the kiln retains them with -indelible truth. When I see on wall paintings that -finger holes are marked I am doubtful, because it -may be the work of an overwise restorer, and so of -copies of the wall-paintings on the tombs; and, indeed, -I am sorry to know that modern painters and engravers -are not trustworthy in details, but palm off home made -suppositions about the proper finish of musical instruments, -the nature of which they do not comprehend. -They are ignorant even of any necessity for comprehending -such simple things.</p> - -<p>I was looking over a valuable book on sculpture yesterday, -in which highly finished delineations were given of -the friezes of the Parthenon; in one engraving four -flute players were represented each playing a single pipe. -I was dazed; wondered if my memory had played me -tricks. So I went and looked at the marbles, and sure -enough I was right; the sculptor had carved two hands -and two pipes in the natural way of the double pipes! At -that period I should not expect to see the single pipe, and -I do not remember on any Etruscan vase a player on one -pipe only. Neither should one expect to see the bulb form -represented here because the straight form suits best the -sculptor’s art; and in marble vases, also, the double -pipes are quite plain as may be seen on a beautiful vase -in the entrance hall of the British Museum. Read -Keat’s poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” and then go and -look on this marble picture of</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i2">The happy melodist, unwearied,</div> -<div class="line">For ever piping songs for ever new.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Or if you are denied that delight, read those five stanzas -of a poem that will be immortal as the memory of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> -race, and will outlast the marble beauty it realizes; -read it in quietness, and then, in Keat’s sweet -words,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">With eyes, shut softly up alive,</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>the scene will grow within you, as that pale singer -heard it, singing</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard</div> -<div class="line i1">Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;</div> -<div class="line">Not to the sensual ear, but more endear’d,</div> -<div class="line i1">Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone;</div> -<div class="line">Fair youth beneath the trees, thou canst not leave</div> -<div class="line i1">Thy song, nor ever can those leaves be bare;</div> -<div class="line">Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,</div> -<div class="line i1">Though winning near the goal—yet do not grieve;</div> -<div class="line">She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,</div> -<div class="line i1">For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Ah, well-a-day! if I allow the pages of “Endymion” -to allure me the hours will run by and no work be -done.</p> - -<p>The vase on which the satyr is painted, with his -frisky tail, is called a <i>Lekythos</i>, and was especially -dedicated to funeral ceremonies holding oil or perfume; -but what the satyr has to do with such, I do not know, -unless it was that the entombed owner had been a -jolly old fellow himself, and liked such company.</p> - -<p>The satyrs are frequently seen playing the double -flutes, and I have noticed that in most instances men -players use flutes that have not more than two bulbs, -whilst the flutes that have three bulbs seem to be of more -delicate make and are assigned to the female players; -for they, as we know, were renowned for the highest -excellence in the art.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span></p> - -<p>The muse Euterpe, who presided over pastoral poetry, -is represented on one vase, seated and holding the pipes -in her left hand resting on her knee, whilst with her -right hand she encloses the upper part of one of the pipes -and is pressing the tip with her thumb. It was this -design that first arrested my attention. I saw that the -fingers held but two of the bulbs: there was not room -in the hand for more, whilst the pipe that was free had -the three bulbs: hence, at that moment, one was -missing. What did it mean? There is no instance -ever of a pipe of two and a pipe of three bulbs being -<i>played</i> together as a pair.</p> - -<table summary="Euterpe."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Euterpe<br />preparing<br />her Flutes</i></td> -<td><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p077.jpg" width="300" height="288" alt="Fig. 17. Euterpe preparing her Flutes" /></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 17.</i></p> - -<p class="tb">The position of the hands of Euterpe and the method -of handling the flutes are shown in Fig. 17. The painting -is on a vase called a <i>Krater</i>, a vase intended for -mixing the water and the wine, and its fine breadth of -shape is admirably fit for the display of the paintings. -There is a vase close by on which this custom of mixing -the wine is depicted; the usual proportions were three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> -of water to two of wine, sometimes it was two of water -to one of wine; whilst the drinking of wine without -water was accounted vulgar,—a sign of coarseness of -taste, and was in some Greek states prohibited by law.</p> - -<p>The vases called Amphoræ were for containing the -measure of oil given to the victor in the Panathenæan -games, and are often inscribed with the date of the -contest, and name of the owner, and the words “One -of the prizes from Athens.” On some vases we see the -player in the musical contest, standing mounted on a -low stool. Eratosthenes tells us that boxing to the -sound of flutes was an Etrurian custom.</p> - -<p>On a <i>Hydria</i> the scene depicted is a <i>Music Lesson</i>, -and very life-like it is; there are two seated female -figures, one has the two flutes with bulbs, and the -other has a <i>Kithara</i> or lyre, a dog plays his part in it -by listening, a panther cat is sitting on a stool, and a -child free as nature leaves him is playing on the floor. -It is a capital picture of Greek domestic life. Another -vase presents the player on two flutes in full face, and -distinctly shows that the second joint of the fingers -was used to cover the holes, a custom which previously -I have alluded to is thus confirmed by good evidence.</p> - -<p>Confirming the use of four holed flutes, there is, in a -case in the Greek and Roman saloon, a slab representing -in relief two satyrs treading grapes in a wine press, and -a youth lustily blowing the double flutes to keep them -to time in their movements, and most evidently the -right hand flute shows four holes, clearly and roundly -cut.</p> - -<p>Another grand vase I found. This was an <i>Amphora</i>, -on which was represented a female figure, Meledosa, -preparing to play on the double flute; she holds them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> -in her hand, as in Fig. 18, and as you will notice, with -her forefinger of the right hand lightly pressing the top -of the pipe, each pipe distinctly showing three bulbs; -in this instance, the pipes are each completed ready for -playing. Certainly we cannot regard the tips of the -pipes as reeds; the shape does not correspond in outline -to an <i>Arghool</i> reed, and if we imagine an oboe type of -reed in use at that period, this design would not correspond, -for no player would press the tip of a reed of the -oboe or the bassoon kind. What, then?</p> - -<table summary="Meledosa."><tr> -<td><div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/i_p079.jpg" width="300" height="450" alt="Fig. 18. Meledosa's Flutes Complete." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Meledosa’s<br />Flutes<br />Complete.</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 18.</i></p> - -<p>My idea is that this bulb form was adopted for the -sake of using a concealed reed. That the bulbs were -<i>hollow</i>, I am perfectly sure; because of the witness of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> -most precious fragment, preserved in a case in the -Greek and Roman saloon, belonging to one of two -pipes of a later date, found in a tomb near Athens. -The Greeks called the double pipes <i>diaulos</i>, and these -have been considered to be the representative of such; -but they are not so, being distinct pipes used -separately, as I shall have in another chapter to -elucidate. Only about three quarters of a bulb remains, -but one pipe still holds a broken portion. -The length of that bulb, I should say, was originally in -about the same proportion to the pipes as we see upon -the vases; so that there is no doubt about the hollow -bulb, as a real thing. Now, considered by itself the -one bulb was a distinct invention in art, and as such -it was complete in itself, yet after a time the invention -was carried further, and the wonder is why? what end -did it serve to introduce more?</p> - -<p>The purpose of having two or three bulbs went beyond -that of the original invention of the <i>subulo</i> pattern, and -was, I imagine, an ingenious device to provide that the -player should be able to transpose the reed from one -bulb to the other in order to play in a different mode -or key, virtually without altering the disposition of the -fingers; lengthening the pipe by transferring the reed -higher, or shortening the effective sounding length of the -pipe by placing the reed in the next lower or in the lowest -bulb of the three: thus the player would have the choice -of three modes or keys, whilst his pipes would remain -outwardly the same. The bulb forms an artificial mouth, -as was the custom many centuries later in the <i>cap</i> -of the <i>cromorne</i>. The position of the reed determines the -effective length of the pipe; the difference of pitch -would be in each case one tone, as I find that the length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> -of bulb corresponds with the distance between two -finger holes of the pipe. Does this solve the mystery? -Be that as it may, I have found in these vases a source -of ever renewed pleasure.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all</div> -<div class="line">Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Tombs, tombs of a dozen buried cities, once gay with -life, full of the daily sympathy of pleasure, and no less -of sorrow. They gave the dead their gold and silver -and jewels; they gave them food, fruits, oil and wine, -and left them to silence and slow time. These lovely -<i>Amphoræ</i> buried, these festal <i>Kraters</i> empty,—and -once brimmed with wine! We think, irresistibly -drawn to think of them, with Keats’s longing wish:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">O for a draught of vintage, that hath been</div> -<div class="line">Cool’d a long age in the deep delvèd earth.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The chamber had been rifled a thousand years or more; -gold and ornaments gone, only the dust and the -skeletons of men and women, young men and maidens,—the -most perishable of things, the vases the most enduring. -The owners bought their burial land “in -perpetuity;” and, like the old Egyptians, they builded -for a very brief and rudely broken eternity.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Greece.</b><br /><br /> - -FROM ETRURIA TO ATHENS.</small></h2> - -<p>What a merry lot those <i>Subulones</i> were, piping to -song and dance and good cheer. I have been laughing -over an Etruscan picture of one of these jovial -fellows laying down on the grass upon his back, all the -time lustily playing his pipes, and kicking his legs in -the air, in sheer exuberance of merriment. And I have -wondered what could that music be which so evidently -was a never failing source of enjoyment to him, and to -his race.</p> - -<p>The old adage says “simple things please simple -folk.” Simple the music must have been, because of -the very limited compass of such instruments as we see -delineated; and I have thought that, maybe, the old -folk songs of eastern Europe preserve to us fragments -of that ancient music. Simple, indeed, but to hearers -and players in those days representing the fulness of -art. The suitability of such music to such instruments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> -is clear enough, for the tunes need but a range of a few -notes, and come easily into the compass of rustic -voices. Century after century these old melodies have -been cherished, and seem to have perpetual life. They -antedate all histories, and none can trace them to their -earliest springs. How that one haunted Beethoven -which he put into his Ninth Symphony, and made his -chief theme,—a simple phrase of a few notes that seems -as if it would go on for ever. For thirteen years it -crops up here and there in his works, until at last he -found full deliverance for it in the crowning effort of -his genius.</p> - -<p>In the last chapter, I showed you by illustrations the -three distinct usages of the double pipes as improved -by the Etruscans, and I sought to demonstrate that -their new invention comprised, first, a concealed reed -in a hollow bulb; secondly, such a disposition of the -reed that one, or two, or three bulbs were allotted to -each pipe, and that the purpose of such an arrangement -was to obtain an adaptability in the reed, that it might -be placed at pleasure in either bulb. I judged that the -invention had three stages, first when there was one -bulb, next when two were used, and finally three. -My reasoning is confirmed by a <i>Kylix</i> in the 2nd Vase -Room of the British Museum, it is of the early or archaic -period (<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 480-440) and the pipes are with one bulb -only. The player, a female player, has the left-hand -pipe longest, thus evidently indicating a transition -period in pipes linked to Egyptian custom.</p> - -<p>These conditions imply corresponding advances in -musical art, for by the new methods it becomes possible -to play in three different modes or scales; since if we -suppose the reed to be placed in the bulb nearest the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> -pipe, the player would produce, as the lowest note, A; -if placed in the bulb above, he could produce G; and -if in the highest bulb, reach as low as F. Although -his fingering would remain the same, the pitch would -include a different range in each case, and, as we should -say, he would thus be able to play in different keys. I -reckon by the relation of the length of the bulb, which -is equal to the distance between two holes, that each -change would make a difference of a whole tone. The -art of the player would greatly alter intervals, especially -by partial covering of the holes flattening pitch to -required degrees for the particular mode.</p> - -<p>When we read of the various Greek modes—of the -Dorian scale, the Phrygian, Lydian, Mixo-Lydian, -Hypo-Dorian, and others—we should not forget that -one was added to the other in order of time, and the -full system only gradually evolved. And in this -Etruscan period, the music was probably limited to the -single tetrachord on three modes, and so remained for -a long time. We, in some instances, see on the vases -that the pipes are marked with three holes each, sometimes -with four; although it is rarely that the holes are -indicated at all.</p> - -<p>The Egyptian flutes had three holes to one pipe and -four to the other, which only extended the scale one -note higher than the three holed. In these Etruscan -flutes, however, it is by no means clear that the second -flute extended the compass, for the holes seemed to -occupy in each the same position as to distance. It is -open to consideration that a difference in the pitch of -the reed itself of one of the pipes, would possess the -power of influencing that pipe to the extent of a semi-tone, -if such entered into the design of the instrument,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> -and so we find a reason for the second pipe. On my -models, I sometimes make a difference of a whole tone -in each note of the scale produced. In default of any -true knowledge of Greek practice, I think that we may -fairly attribute to the artist some such design in the -construction of the pipes.</p> - -<p>It is a natural conclusion that the first invention of -man in the way of flutes would be a single pipe for the -production of one, two or three notes; then with a sense -of a scale the four notes. From the single pipe the -double pipe would arise, with a view to some <i>variation</i> -of such a scale, to which the ear was predisposed, and -so the method of double pipes would be fixed by -custom.</p> - -<p>We may be quite sure that when double pipes were -first adopted there was a meaning in the method. The -assumption that one pipe preceded the two does not -seem to hold in the case of these bulbed flutes with the -four holes, they seem to start as <i>di-aulos</i>.</p> - -<p>The Etrurian vases give no instance of single flutes. -In truth, another invention was necessary, and it came -in course of aftertime from the Greek mind. Like most -useful inventions, it was marvellously simple—nothing -other than the giving of <i>six holes to one pipe</i>, and -fingering the one pipe with fingers of both hands, and -with one thumb added; even that thumb hole may -rank as a distinct invention of intrinsic importance to -art. A similar delay we know occurred in association -with key-board instruments, and it was only in Bach’s -usage that the thumb was raised to the rank of efficiency -and placed on an equality with the fingers.</p> - -<p>It is remarkable that in the progress of civilization the -later way of development should have been from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> -double flute to the single flute, through perception of the -better aid to execution and display that was afforded by -the single flute, and evidently when this change came, the -idea of different modes had gained acceptance, the two -pipes no longer constituting a pair, but each pipe -intended to be taken up in obedience to the choice or -change of mode.</p> - -<p>This is a very significant advance. Let us now study -the nature of<br /><br /></p> - -<h3><span class="smcap lowercase">THE SWEET MONAULOS.</span></h3> - -<p>The mon-aulos, “the sweet monaulos,” not seen on -the vases or wall-paintings, but known to have been, and -still having a real existence in two solitary specimens -now in the British Museum, and accompanied by that -evidence, which is unique as it is precious, of the actual -hollow bulb that tipped the pipe. The allusions I have -made to these flutes in earlier chapters will be remembered, -and now comes the fitting moment to enter into -details. The illustrations fairly give the proportion as -to distances, on a scale of one fourth, sufficiently clear -to enable you to judge how the holes are arranged. -The pipes are very nearly cylindrical, departing from -the true figure only in being of a little larger bore at -the upper end than at the lower; which may have been -done by design, or the nature of the drilling means -then in use may have caused the variation of bore. If -you go, to look at these relics of the Greek age, you will -not see them as here represented, but curiously contorted. -They were found in a tomb on the road to -Eleusis, near Athens, and the damp of many centuries -has twisted and warped them; and one has been -broken, snapped asunder at the middle. They are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> -made of sycamore, and are very plain simple instruments. -What value they had we cannot in any degree -estimate; but I should imagine them to be of the -ordinary kind familiar to every household in which -music was cherished; for the Greeks also, like the -Etrurians, followed the old world custom of burying -with the dead the things they had most prized in life, -even as the Egyptians did.</p> - -<p>And these flutes lay beside the youth when they left him -there sorrowing, and thinking how his cherished flutes -would comfort him in his loneliness. Now, not even -his dust left; gone, we know not whither,—to the -underworld or to the heights of Mount Olympus. We -of a foreign race think of this nameless youth, because -here they have brought his flutes, and these speak to us -of kinship. Not without strange feelings did I handle -them and place my fingers covering the holes, that all -plainly showed how they had been smoothed and warm -by his—<i>his</i> fingers—playing soft Lydian airs: worn -fingers that one day became pale, then cold as marble, -and now unsubstantial and vanished utterly; as soon, -indeed, mine will be. And yet we,—shadows, both—clasp -hands over this great gap of time, whilst handling -things that were loved.</p> - -<p>How I hang over that case of treasures every time that -I visit the Museum; foolishly fascinated perhaps, yet -irresistibly so, looking and pondering. The fragment -of a bulb that is left—for a fragment it is, only about -three fourths of a whole—is, by the enthusiast’s valuation, -beyond price. In one of the pipes, there is a piece -of another bulb left sticking on the top; and, if you -look closely, you will see the scored lines inside the -pipe, and outside and inside the bulb, that were made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> -so as to ensure close fitting when the bulb was pressed -in. And look again, closely, and you will see at the -top of each pipe, there is a little rim edge, and then a -shallow groove about half an inch broad; and this, no -doubt, was bound round with fibre or ivory or metal to -prevent the splitting at the top, where the bulb was -pressed in and made to fit securely, being, perhaps, -slightly moistened by the lips, just as we do now when -putting instruments together; and the operation was -frequent, since the reeds, as I have said, were taken -out after playing, and placed safely away in a little -box called a tongue box.</p> - -<p>The pipes are three eights of an inch in bore, and -the finger holes are oval and large, in their smaller -diameter quite as large as the bore. I measured the distance -between every hole, and so obtained the correct length -of the instruments as in their original straight condition.</p> - -<p>By the kindness of Mr. A. S. Murray, then the -esteemed chief of the department, I was able to take -every particular I wished, and to calliper the bore of -each pipe. The length of the longest pipe is thirteen -and a half inches, and the shorter pipe is twelve inches -and a quarter, just one and a quarter inches difference, -which corresponds to the distance between each hole, -showing that in depth of sound the pitch of the pipes -differs by one whole tone.</p> - -<p>The details of measurement are of the greatest interest -in the scientific analysis of these ancient musical instruments, -and afford much valuable insight into the -system upon which they were constructed in conformity -with the music for which they were designed, and very -evidently they tell us that the music played by the people -was of a simple character and very limited in compass.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Mon-aulos" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p089.jpg" width="225" height="648" alt="Fig. 19. Greek -Mon-aulos Set in Two Modes." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 19.</i></div></td> -<td class="tdc">The<br /> -Greek<br /> -Mon-aulos<br /> -Set in<br /> -Two<br /> -Modes.</td></tr></table> - -<p>As there are five finger holes and one thumb hole -to each, it is clear, on consideration, that these cannot -have been di-aulos, but that they were used as single -pipes requiring two hands to play either; for the six -holes would be unmanageable, and the holding altogether -insecure under one hand. In my view, these -are distinctly specimens of the mon-aulos, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>“the sweet -mon-aulos,” praised by the poets; and there can be -little question that the reeds used were soft and fine, -and that the Greeks had acquired a skill in making -them. Probably, they differed as much from the -common <i>arghool</i> as the reeds used by Lazarus in his -clarionet differed from those of the street player on the -yellow clarionet of past days. I have given the names -of the notes against the holes. The thumb holes out of -line will be understood as showing what otherwise -is out of sight; but it makes the series of holes clearer. -In the one pipe it is the G hole, in the other it is -the A.</p> - -<p>You will notice that there is a curious interval of a -minor third, which doubtless had some special importance -in Greek measures. The pitch is, as we say, -double pitch in respect of length of pipe, so that the -low B♭ is truly the four foot note; but we speak, in -general terms, of the scale given by the pipes as a two -foot scale. It is a pity that, as at present disposed in -the case, the pipes are unsuitably placed, being head to -tail,—as annoying to look at in an instrumental regard, -as to an archæologist it would be to see a statue exhibited -standing on its head. But perhaps I may get -this anomalous relation altered, for the observer misses -the proper relation of the flutes to each other. The -nature of the beating reed greatly affects the scale. -That which I have recorded is given by the particular -reed I have used; another reed might make one or two -tones difference. Again, there is the question whether -these pipes had one, or two, or three bulbs, although -only one was found. I am inclined to believe that the -originals had but one bulb, because the two pipes -evidently indicate that one flute was used for one mode,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> -and the other flute for the other mode, with only the -difference of a tone between them.</p> - -<p>On the whole, I think it may be inferred that tenor -A was naturally fixed upon as the starting point of the -scale, which had its vocal foundation in every nation. As -regards intonation, the notes specified are not exact to -our tempered scale, but only as near as the actual pitch -heard can be stated in our terms. In the ancient diatonic, -all the tones are major tones. In the soft diatonic, an -interval equal to a tone and a quarter was used, being -greater than a major tone but less than a minor third. -In one diatonic genus, the interval of three fourths of a -tone was substituted for the second semitone in ascending. -Authorities tell us that they are not aware that -the Greek writers ever mention the concord of more -than two sounds; any concord less than a fourth was -considered dissonant, and so was the sixth. The true -consonant major third was either not discovered, or -not admitted to be consonant, till a very late period; -Ptolemy being the earliest author who speaks of a -minor third. There was a double tone nearly equal to -the modern major third, and a tone and a half nearly -the same as the minor third. In the later Greek -periods, the system of music became intricate, and the -diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic systems were in -vogue, and discoursed upon to their lips’ content by -the scholiasts and their disciples, much the same as in -modern days, beclouding knowledge.</p> - -<p>The instruments that we have been interested in were, -I should imagine, those of ordinary use in the social life -of the people, associated with their ceremonies and -entertainments; but the steps by which I have taken -you show change in usage and aspiration in the artists.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> -There was even a striving after fuller command in -execution, and after adaptability to the increasing -range of musical theory; and evidently the stringed -instruments, with their power over many modes, excited -rivalry in the flutes. There is a very important -and significant passage, already referred to, by an author—Athenæus, -if I remember aright—that about the -440 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> (or earlier), Pronomus the Theban -invented adjustments by which the same set of pipes -might be fitted to all the modes. History upon many -matters we know is very elastic, and I am not quite -disposed to think that the flutes depicted on our Etruscan -vases answer to this description. There is yet one -other possibility, beyond that Greco-Etruscan invention, -in a later invention of most ingenious design, aiming at -this same power of control, only that this is a single -pipe, and is a development beyond those we have been -considering. Very pleasant it is to trace these workings -of genius</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Striving, because its nature is to strive.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The next chapter affords illustrations and particulars -of the new discovery; for to the Greeks it was new, -and we may be sure interesting. Perhaps to some -of them quite as engrossing as a new statue or the -latest scandal!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Greece.</b><br /><br /> - -THE SILKWORM FLUTES, OR BOMBYX FLUTES.</small></h2> - -<p>The next development of Greek ingenuity in the -construction of flutes came in a remarkable guise, -showing a contrast as great as our ships in mail and -armour present to ships that carried our flag a century -ago. Suddenly as it seems, with no transition stages, -the Greek inventor brought forth his new flute of -ivory encased in bronze. Evidently, it was an age -of luxury. The Greeks valued in every respect each -art that was known to them; they lavished wealth -upon artists, and paid honours to orators and singers -and players, no less than to sculptors and painters. No -price was too great to pay for their beloved flutes. -The flute of Ismenias, a celebrated Theban musician, -cost at Corinth three talents—a sum equivalent to -£581 5s. of our money. No intimation has ever been left -to us of the basis upon which such valuation was made, -whether an adventitious worth was given by encrustations -of jewels and setting of gold, or whether some famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> -maker acquired a repute so that, like Stradivarius, -every instrument from his hand was sought for by those -able to appreciate artistic excellence; we cannot even -guess, for in acoustic conditions there is no parity of -relation between fiddles and flutes; and for all that we -know, the great price quoted may have been reached in -fighting for a rarity, the instinct for which is perennial -in the human race. So delightful a thing is it to -possess that which others covet; so exalting the -exultation in having that which others have not; -verily, it is the taproot of all civilisation. Without it -civilisation had never been.</p> - -<p>The particular flutes now under examination must -have been costly, but only moderately so. The Greeks -were adepts in metal work of all kind, and in these -flutes their skill in the art is manifest; battered as they -are and grey green with age, they bear the record -of the master hand. The interior tube is of ivory, and -the outer or encasing cylinder is of bronze. At the -upper end there is a raised piece of metal, in the curve -of which there is a figure of a reclining Mænad, still -beautiful in figure, and in flowing lines of drapery. -The flutes are the counterparts of each other, differing -only in length, and slightly varying in the distance of -the finger holes. The lengths are respectively eleven -and a half inches and ten and a quarter inches; but the -last named pipe has the end fractured, and, therefore, -may have been as long as the first, or longer. The -measurements may not be exact, but are approximately -as stated; at all events, sufficiently so for the needs of -our present purpose. It should be understood that the -fragments are pieced together, and with even the most -careful handling one would fear disaster.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span></p> - -<p>The two instruments bear a relation to each other, -very similar to that of the two sycamore flutes illustrated -and described in the last chapter, and evidently -also the player chose one or the other according to the -mode in which he intended to play, or, as we should -say, the key in which the music lay; here, however, -in these segmented flute pipes the method is not the -same, the particular mode depends upon the section -arrangements being fixed, and laid out for a succession -of intervals quite distinct for each pipe.</p> - -<p>From the mouthpiece to the lower end the length is the -same in each pipe, but the intervals that could be used -in playing are not alike. Measure off the sections as in -one pipe and it will be seen that no corresponding distances -are found on the other; notice how differently -the segments that are longest, representing a tone and -a quarter or a tone and a half, come in each particular -arrangement. The elevated plateau at the upper end is -about three quarters of an inch in height, and the table-land -at the top is about a quarter of an inch square, -there being a little circular shaft drilled through the -metal, leading into the body of the flute. This is to all -appearance the mouthpiece, and, without questioning, I -had formerly accepted the general notion that here -we had specimens of the lip blown flute. The little -aperture nearly a quarter inch in diameter would -undoubtedly serve for blowing across, with the lip -resting against the block. When, however, I came to -examine these treasures of a lost art, with a view to -understanding them, misgivings arose; for how could -the scale be constructed, seeing that, in a lip blown -cylindrical flute, the octave note would occur at the -half of the length? At the fourth hole distant from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> -the bottom opening, the note given would be the -octave. No, this could not be. Moreover, the lay of -the finger holes is so like that of the sycamore flute -that one sees directly the correspondence, and is driven -to the conclusion that we have here higher developed -specimens of the reed blown aulos.</p> - -<table summary="Silkworm Flutes."><tr> -<td class="tdc">The<br /> -Silkworm<br /> -Flutes.</td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p096.jpg" width="350" height="484" alt="Fig. 20. The Silkworm flutes." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 20.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>Why have I named this the silkworm flute? Because -the resemblance suggests itself. You will notice that -the cylinder is segmented, as a caterpillar looks to be; -and we know that the Greeks had a flute so peculiar -that it was given the name of <i>Bombyx</i>, which is the name -by which the silkworm caterpillar is known in science.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span></p> - -<p>Each section had a small loop or ring of metal, by -which, being pressed against, the section was made to -revolve, or to be partly turned round to cover or -uncover the finger hole, so that the player threw out of -gear, as it were, any hole not required in the mode he -was playing in. When all the little loops are brought -into line along the bottom of the flute, they look like -caterpillars’ feet. Although I venture to speak of this -as the <i>Bombyx</i> flute, I am aware that there are passages -in ancient authors which may seem to claim the -appellation for some other kind; but various statements -so mystify us by their incongruity that we have -to withhold belief, and to question how far the author -was practically acquainted with the craft of the flute -maker, and how far he may not have written from mere -hearsay, not himself clearly comprehending all that was -signified by the terms employed nor the various usages -they might include. It is so in our own day, particularly -in the matter of musical instruments. An instance -in point occurs in the very case containing these -flutes, for there is here another antique specimen (in kind -quite distinct from these), which was found by Sir Charles -T. Newton (our foremost authority on classical treasures), -and he describes this as “a flageolet (<i>plagiaulos</i>) in bone -and bronze, with mouthpiece still entire,” found in -a tomb at Halikarnassos. Here are two questionable -assertions. First, it certainly is not a flageolet, for -flageolets have whistle mouths; second, it may or it -may not, be the true representative instrument understood -by the ancients as the <i>plagiaulos</i>. We are led to -suppose that the meaning of the term is a side blown -flute; but, for aught I know, the silkworm flute may -be a true <i>plagiaulos</i>; for, obviously, from a prac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>tical -point of view, this flute was held sideways, though -blown with a reed, as will presently be explained. A -flageolet is not a side blown flute; but what Sir C. T. -Newton discovered is a most ancient example of a -transverse flute—that is to say, blown in the same way -as our orchestral flute, and held in the same position, -and so is side blown. What I should be inclined to -contend for, is that we have in <i>reed</i> flutes the <i>di-aulos</i>, -the <i>mon-aulos</i>, and the <i>plagiaulos</i>, and that they -originated in the order here shown.</p> - -<table class="table1" summary="Flageolet Proper." border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc">The<br /> -Flageolet<br /> -Proper.</td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/i_p098.jpg" width="100" height="399" alt="Fig. 21. The Flageolet Proper." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 21.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>Frequently small flutes are called flageolets by writers of -the present day, but the true flageolet should have a bulb head. -Its invention is ascribed to Juvigny, about 1581. The old -French name is “<i>flagol</i>,” the German “<i>flaschinet</i>.” The name -flageolet should properly be confined to those flutes or whistle -pipes having a flask-like head or mouth-piece with a conducting -neck—that is, a small tube inserted into a hollow bulb (hence -the derivation of the name, from the same root from which -“flagon” comes), and within the bulb a small piece of sponge -inserted to collect and condense the moisture from the breath.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span></p> - -<p>Adrian, junior, quotes Aristotle on the <i>Bombyx</i> flutes -as to the length of the pipe, and says that “they were -blown only with great exertion.” That they were -difficult to perform upon, we may well believe; and we -know that in our own clarionets the low notes require -strength of wind more than the upper notes do; but -the recorder or the translator may be responsible for -the implication of great exertion. The longest flutes -that have as yet been discovered are of the kind now -under examination, and so far confirmatory of the -right to the title that I have given them; and one -of four (described in the next chapter) discovered at -Pompeii, now in the museum at Naples, exceeds -twenty inches in length, and in the copy of it made -by Mr. Victor Mahillon the loops, being complete in -their series, have strangely like appearance to caterpillars’ -feet. I should not omit to remark that in our -specimens, only traces exist here and there of such -loops at points where they were soldered on; but, for -verisimilitude, I have indicated the series on one of the -pipes. At the second segment on the upper pipe marked -with a short line—, the evidence is quite plain.</p> - -<p>Whether the interior tube is of ivory, bone, or wood, -the condition is such that the eye cannot judge; but in -the Naples instrument I believe that, without doubt, it -was ivory, and the bore three eighths of an inch, as it -seems to be in this case. The great advantage of ivory -is obvious, because the cylinder necessarily fits close, -and any swelling of the inner tube from moisture was -a liability to be avoided.</p> - -<p>I have illustrated the square at the top of the mouthpiece, -and shown the hole which is perforated in it and -leads down to the body of the flute; and, looking at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> -the diameter of the perforation—barely more than one -eighth—the unsuitability of such for office of a lip -blown flute, with its bore three times the size, is strikingly -obvious.</p> - -<p>Here is another instance of the little reliance that can -be placed upon authority when it goes beyond its own -particular line. In this display which is the greater, its -ignorance of the nature and structure of musical instruments, -or its scholastic jumble of science? This passage -I find in “The Life of the Greeks and Romans, by -E. Guhl and W. Koner, translated by Francis Hueffer.” -“The aulos proper resembles our hautboy and clarinet, -differing, however, from the latter in the fact of its lower -notes being more important than the higher ones. The -aulos consisted of two connected tubes and a mouthpiece, -to the latter of which belonged two so-called -tongues, in order to increase the trembling motion of -the air”; and of the capistrum or head straps, “the -purpose of this bandage was to soften the tone by preventing -violent breathing.” For connected errors of -statement of fact, and audacity of ignorance in drawing -inferences, these authorities would be hard to beat. If -one thing is more certain than another on the authority -of the Etruscan vases, it is that the pipes were not in -any way connected; and in a stone head found by -Cesnola, at Salamis, the strap passing round the cheeks -is carved, and shows over the mouth two separate -apertures for the pipes. This, already referred to, is -absolutely conclusive.</p> - -<p>In the illustration, the raised mouthpiece merely -appears to be nearer the top end in one pipe than in the -other; for you should notice that in the upper one the -end is jagged, and I have no doubt that originally both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> -pipes were as the lower one, in which the end is completely -closed. But whether interiorily the end was -blocked near where the slant perforation entered the body -of the pipe, I cannot see; I should say that it was, -because we find it so customarily in flutes of other -nations, both in modern and ancient usage. Here you -will see that the distance from the end to the mouthpiece -is quite two inches, and that end of the bronze -cylinder was, I should think, a fixture; because I perceive -that the mouthpiece itself is fitted upon a movable -segment. Very curious that is, and no doubt had its -purpose. Perhaps the design admits of the partial -turning round of the segment of bronze to obtain a -different angle of mouthpiece to the fancy of the player.</p> - -<p>Then notice, further, that the top finger hole is but a -short distance from the mouthpiece; and, according to -all experience with such pipes reed blown, I judge that, -as that hole gives the octave note to the lower open end, -some additional upper length is in demand, perhaps four -inches or more. So if the distance is reckoned from that -hole to the top of the table of mouthpiece as two inches, -we require the reed and its fittings to occupy a further -extent of from two to three inches. The diameter of -the hole bored through the block, being but little more -than an eighth and a sixteenth, shows that reeds must -have been used.</p> - -<p>I consider that the stem of the reed was so adjusted -and fitted in this hole that for playing the pipe a length -suitable was obtained; and the reed may or may not -have been enclosed in a bulb. I have hitherto -spoken of the form as resembling a bulb, but to the -Greeks it may have suggested a likeness to the silkworm -cocoon, and so there was a double association of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> -thoughts, and both these and the Etruscan flutes may -have had the name <i>Bombyx</i> applied to them. We -know in our own times how very diverse varieties of -things rejoice in similarity in name, and trouble us by -being presented under more names than one, as fashion, -fancy, or locality determines.</p> - -<p>Having described these ancient relics as regards their -structure, the chief interest remains. Do we understand -them as the Greeks understood them? I confess -that they perplexed me for a long time. Often I -looked at them, asking myself Why did they make -them thus? What purpose had they? What motive? -What advantage to gain beyond those sycamore flutes? -I could not be content to regard them as curiosities -only. I wanted to get at the root of the matter,—the -because: the cause of being. I hung over these flutes, -trying to drag the mystery out of them; and, after a -time, being in the mood, the guidance came, and I -went contentedly to sleep.</p> - -<p>Before giving my solution of the problem it is necessary -to make a few comments upon the Greek scales. -If you would think as a Greek thought, you should -dismiss from your mind all reference to our system of -harmony, our key-note, foundation of the scale, or our -division of the octave. For the points to which I have -to call your attention, it seems desirable that you -should now for comparison with the bronze flutes, -refer to the illustration in the last chapter, of the -sycamore flutes. Whatever the elaboration of the -theory of music from Pythagoras to Ptolemy, the musical -instruments of the period, so far as we have evidence -in representations or in relics, do not assure us of the -influence of theory to all pervading extent, in the ordin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>ary -practice of music. Certain rules which had grown -up in the schools were necessarily adhered to, because -accepted by the popular taste; or, rather, we may -regard such general rules as the exposition of traditional -measures, and methods of inflection and cadence, consecrated -by usage. The demonstrations of the mathematics -of music by the monochord was a fascinating -pursuit of the philosopher; yet the value must have -been more intellectual than practical.</p> - -<p>In the Greek scales, the chief strangeness to us is -that the keynote lays not at the beginning, but within -the scale; and it was called the <i>mese</i>, or middle note. -Nevertheless, its position was not always in the middle, -but was shifted higher or lower in the octave according -to the mode for the time employed. The scale -originated in the tetrachord, and the octave resulted -from the combination of two tetrachords; in the old -system these were conjunct, and in the new system -disjunct, and the two systems were exemplified in the -octave lyre. The primary rule in the disjunct system -was that the separation between the two tetrachords -should consist of a whole major tone. Another rule -insisted upon by every Greek writer was that there -should be an interval of a whole tone, at least, immediately -below the <i>mese</i> note; and, as Aristotle says, “<i>Mese</i> -is the leader and sole ruler of the scale.”</p> - -<p>I make no pretence of discoursing upon the Greek -musical systems; all I desire is to fix your attention -upon certain peculiar features unfamiliar to us, but -upon which the <i>structure of the flutes</i> depended. I -have previously alluded to the special importance of a -curious interval of a minimum minor third, and maximum -minor third, in the Greek measures, not our intervals.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p> - -<p>The historic record, together with an exposition of -the growth of these scales, and their bearing upon the -development of the system of music, will be given in a -later chapter.</p> - -<p>Now look back at our mon-aulos; it has six holes, -and is governed by the fingers of two hands, with the -thumb added, and this is the first instance of the -thumb being employed in flute playing. Now look -at our <i>Bombyx-plagiaulos</i> (if such name be accepted), -it has the same number of holes, and the thumb hole -lying underneath between the upper two holes. One -can understand how in the longer <i>Bombyciæ</i> (of -which I shall have to discourse in the next chapter) -there was an obvious advantage in having movable -sections of a cylinder to shut off notes, simply for the -reason that the fingers could not manipulate thirteen -open holes. But the puzzle with the shorter <i>Bombyx</i> -is that it shows no advance beyond the mon-aulos in -the demand made upon the fingers, which could cover -the holes as required, without any need to have particular -holes shut off mechanically. I could not comprehend, -and the question persistently arose, what was the -utility of the new invention? Look at the relative -positions of the two lowest holes of the mon-aulos; in -each instrument the peculiarity of relation is noticeable, -and yet there is a difference in each. Why? The -conclusion I arrive at is that there is something traditionally -imperative as to the unequal division of one -tetrachord in the octave; that originally it was the -lower tetrachord that was thus subject to custom; that -afterwards more licence was taken, and, still subject to -rule, there was choice as to where that tetrachord -might be; and I find in the mechanism of the <i>Bombyx<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> -a provision for the varied placings</i> of this unequally -divided interval. Here we see the meaning of the rule -that the soft diatonic used an interval of a tone and a -quarter, greater than a major tone and less than a -minor third. In all these four instruments you will -notice how one fourth is divided with a large interval -in the upper section in one of each pair of instruments, -and a short interval in the other, thus reversing the -upper relation: and as regards the <i>Bombyx</i> flutes, there -is a similar reversal of the distances between the three -lowest holes from the bottom.</p> - -<p>In the sycamore flutes, the fourth divided into two -intervals occurs at the bottom from A♭ to D♭ in one, -and alike in the other from B♭ to E♭. All other distances -between holes are regular, so that this is the -only position for the particular effect of only one -intervening note. But in the silkworm flutes, there is -the possibility of placing that special fourth in various -positions of the range of holes, by covering the hole -which exists, but is not wanted; not only that, but by -rule excluded from the accident of use. Here, in both -cases, the third hole from the bottom makes with the -thumb hole the interval of a fourth, and with the top -hole the interval of a fifth. At a guess, I should read -the scale of the flute placed highest</p> - -<p class="center">A♯ B C♯ D♯ <sup>⁔</sup> F♯ G♯ A♯</p> - -<p>We really have no notation to express the actual relations -of intervals, which exceed or are short of ours. -Remember that the Greeks had three-quarter tones, -one-and-a-quarter tones, and one-and-three-quarter -tones; and combined these so as to make larger intervals, -curiously varying, as you may judge by the eye.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span></p> - -<p>D♯ otherwise E♭ I reckon to be the keynote. The -mouthpiece I named as probably arranged to shift in -position and lean towards the player, so as not to be -exactly in line with the finger holes, and if the hole in -the ivory tube was made larger than the hole entering -from the mouthpiece, that convenience would easily be -obtained. I should imagine that the transverse flute was -in vogue at the time, and that this invention was designed, -to afford the <i>reed flute</i> performer the facility to -assume an attitude, which, maybe, was preferred by -people of fashion.</p> - -<p>The remarkable specimen of a <i>transverse</i> flute, found -by Sir C. T. Newton, noticed at page 97, I give a -description of in the final chapter, “How the Music -grew.”</p> - -<p>The high significance of these ringed flutes is that we -have them as they were left by the hands that used them, -arranged according to traditional observance of rules -proper to the national melodies in which the people -delighted. It is a record that tells us more than -books or treatises teach us.</p> - -<p>An accomplished Greek gentleman played to me to-day -some of the music preserved in the ceremonials of -the Greek church; believed to be the most ancient -known, and still heard in wild melodies of the mountaineers. -On the pianoforte it cannot be truly rendered; -yet the character is ineffaceable, the music is indeed -beautiful. It seems as it would never come to a close,—only -pause in a divine expectancy.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In Oscan Land.—Italia.</b><br /><br /> - -FOUND AT POMPEII.</small></h2> - -<p class="center">THE GRECO-ROMAN FLUTES.</p> - -<p>Four flutes were found at Pompeii, and they were all -of one pattern, of greater length, yet following the -same system as in that latest Greek invention illustrated -and described in the last chapter, and indeed -may be considered as the final development attained -by the Greeks in instruments of the flute kind, for -nothing has to this day been discovered in advanced -superiority to it for musical capability or for display -of refined workmanship and technical ingenuity.</p> - -<p>These instruments, are, it is true, classed as Greco-Roman, -but they are essentially Greek, although of the -period of the Roman dominion. The body of the flute -is ivory, and it is twenty-one inches long, bored -throughout in perfect cylindrical bore three-eighths of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> -an inch diameter. Think of the skill necessary to -accomplish this with most primitive tools! Then the -ivory is surrounded by a closely fitting series of cylinders -of bronze and silver alternately in sections, and -each section possesses just sufficient ease of fitting that -it may be caused to rotate on the ivory by simple -pressure of the finger upon a little metal loop which had -been provided for that purpose. The end sections are -fixed to the ivory tube, and thus hold the others in their -positions. The appearance of the instrument is most attractive—bands -of olive-coloured bronze, with bands of -silver intervening. The finger holes, to the number of -eleven, are bored in the ivory at the proper distances, and -corresponding holes are made in the bronze tube. When -these holes in the ivory and in the bronze are set in -line and correspond, then the note can be sounded -proper to each opening as related to the sounding lengths -of the tube; but the player, by turning any selected -bronze section to the right or left, can close the finger -hole so that the note is left out of the scale. It is a -charmingly simple device, and yet how many ages had -to pass before human intelligence contrived it, and -nations of men had passed likewise—gone back into the -dust that they rose out of.</p> - -<p>This city of Pompeii still speaks to us. Its message -is of dust and ashes, very human in its meaning. From -the ashes came this silent record of a dead music. -There was a day of garlands and of feasting; young -men and women joining in dance and song, and listening -to this flute piping its well-loved melodies; and the -flute was laid down, warm with the fingers of the player -resting awhile from mirth inviting music, and then—after -a long while—it is found just as it was left that day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> -with the four notes closed off, which the player wanted -not, in the scale of the mode chosen for that last -melody breathed from this flute by living breath.</p> - -<p>This was the series of notes which the flute was -capable of giving, and the closed-off notes are, as will -be seen, each marked with a cross, Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6:</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p109.jpg" width="500" height="92" alt="Music score. No. 1." /> -</div> - -<p>The depth of pitch may seem cause for surprise when -we remember that our flutes of the present day that are -nearest in length of tube to this Greek instrument do -not reach by an octave this extreme low compass. The -difference arises through the means of excitation for -producing sound from a <i>cylindrical</i> pipe; this therefore -is a reed blown, not a lip blown, flute, and properly -belongs to the clarionet species. In pitch, it descends -lower than our A clarionet, and we have to modify the -conclusion generally held that the Greeks only used -instruments of high range of tones.</p> - -<p>Now, taking up the remaining three of these four -flutes which were found together in one mansion, on -which was written the name, “Caio Vibio” (as was -seen on the day of their discovery, December 10th, -1867), we notice that they also had their lowest note B -in the 8-foot octave. The reeds were placed at the top -of the instruments, not branching out aslant as indicated -in the specimens illustrated, earlier, (page 96), -of this particular construction; and the instrument was -held in position like our clarionet, only lifted more to -the horizontal probably, for on this point we have not,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> -that I am aware of, any ancient representation. No. 2 -has twelve notes, there being one note interposed which -is not found in No. 1. It is F[n]; but the extent of compass -is the same, whilst the closed holes are 4 and 7:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p110a.jpg" width="500" height="88" alt="Music score. No 2." /> -</div> - -<p>In No. 3 we find other differences, and this peculiarity, -that the second and fifth sections are not pierced with -holes, so that practically the corresponding notes were -permanently closed—there is no note between B and -C♯, no note between D and E. Observe that the first -note in each is marked (0), for this is the note from the -open end of the pipe when all finger holes are closed:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p110b.jpg" width="500" height="87" alt="Music score. No 3." /> -</div> - -<p>In No. 4 we find other distinctions and an extended -range:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p110c.jpg" width="500" height="89" alt="Music score. No 4." /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span></p> -<table summary="Pompeian Flute"><tr> -<td class="tdc padl5"><i>The<br /> -Pompeian<br /> -Flute.<br /><br /> -1. Front View</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p111.jpg" width="225" height="765" alt="Fig. 22. Pompeian Flute, front and back views." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 22.</i></div></td> -<td class="tdc"> <br /><br /> - <br /><br /> - <br /><br /> -<i>2. Back View.</i><br /><br /></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>I have had further correspondence with M. Mahillon, -and he out of his abundant courtesy has added to my -obligations to him, by sending to me his two large -photographs of the Pompeian flutes, taken as they are -in the Naples Museum; and I have had these photographed -in reduced size, and engraved. They show -the closure rings in the position in which they were -found (refer to final chapter for clearer outline drawings). -The large expanded portion at the top of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> -pipe is made of ivory, and is cup shaped, and into this -the reed was fitted for playing. Whatever the original -reeds were, they perished in the heat of the lava and -ashes that overwhelmed the city. The cup would have -suitably held either <i>Arghool</i> reeds, or bulbed reeds, -enclosing these or other kinds of reeds. When -M. Mahillon first investigated these flutes, he supposed -that the <i>Arghool</i> reed had been used by the players in -their day; but he now tells me that, having in more -recent years made the acquaintance of most of the pipes -of the middle ages—the cromornes, the courtauds, the -dolziana, racket and others—he has come to the conclusion -that the Pompeian flutes were blown by some -sort of <i>double</i> reed, but differing from the oboe and -bassoon type, which are adapted on a short metallic -tube of small bore; and he considers that probably -they were of the sort now existing in the Japanese pipe -called the <i>Hichirichi</i>, but I do not see how this could -be, since such have a broad base, quite half an inch in -diameter, to fit into a tube corresponding. Moreover -this explanation or supposition leaves the chief part of -the problem unanswered—what then was the utility -and purpose of the three bulbs? The mystery is there -still. Perchance the meaning of it is this—the era of -the concealed reed has closed, and this Pompeian instrument -announces a new departure in flutes, played -by a broad double reed sensitive to a <i>ligature</i> pressed -by the lips, the precursor therefore of all modern reeds -that can be accommodated to pitch.</p> - -<p>I have myself one of these interesting little Japanese -instruments, and will in another chapter describe and -illustrate it; and the curious thing about it is that, in -the splendid work on Egypt got up by order of the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> -Napoleon, such an instrument is figured there complete -in every detail of pipe and reed, full size, and is claimed -as an instrument belonging to Egypt. Did Japan get -it from that motherland? The plot seems to thicken.</p> - -<p>You will notice a curious application of the closure in -this last specimen, No. 4, there being no fewer than seven -holes shut off from speaking, sections 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, -10; and we cannot well understand or suppose it likely -that during the progress of the piece of music the setting -of the rings was changed. The player on this was able to -supply three notes beyond the compass of the other flutes.</p> - -<p>In reference to specimen No. 3, there is one particular -which we should not omit to refer to. The ring closing -the <i>a</i> (section 8), has a second hole bored at a little -distance lower, and so gives a note flatter than that -which the chief opening emits. In fact, we have a -second <i>g</i>♯, which is a little higher, and establishes two -quarters of a tone between <i>g</i> and <i>a</i>, and the <i>g</i> itself it -is remarked is too low by a quarter of a tone. The -various skips fixed by the closed holes cannot be without -meaning. In one instance, we find a skip of a -fourth; and the minor or neuter third, which I remarked -upon as common to the earlier flutes as a fixed interval, -and for some reason or other preserved, is also exemplified; -in No. 4, we have D♯ to F♯, and again all -sounds closed for the fourth between F♯ and A♯; and -in No. 1, all sounds closed between D and G.</p> - -<p>One wonders whether we have not some reminiscence -of an earlier pentatonic scale in these, some traits by -inheritance and tradition. Travellers in Persia have -remarked that the singers seem to have a custom of -making a drop of a fourth in the two concluding notes -of their song; and the people in that land of the rose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> -and the bulbul are passionately fond of song, and gather -together, sitting out half the night in the open air, -listening to song following song. All national traits -are worth studying, and very often simple things -render true clear light to the investigator.</p> - -<p>All the details respecting the construction, the scales, -and the conditions of these Pompeian flutes, we owe to -M. Charles Victor Mahillon, who, travelling with -M. Gevaert, the Director of the Conservatoire of Music -at Brussels, found these unheeded relics of the musical -art in a corner at the Naples Museum; and, fired with -enthusiasm, was able, by his recognized position, to -obtain the necessary permission to fulfil his desire, -which was to make copies of them for a full investigation -of their musical nature. He made most exact -copies, down to the minutest details, and so enriched -the museum which has long been under his fostering -care, and increased the world’s knowledge because -enthusiasm was allied to practical skill.</p> - -<p>As Nature goes on in the same old way, never changing -her laws or her behaviour, we can hear from these -models the same tones as were heard by the Greeks, centuries -ago; the flutes are faithful even to the pitch, for -a pipe preserves its interior diameter, and is a true -record which age does not imperil. In this respect, the -wind instruments have the advantage over the stringed -kind. The shapes of the Greek lyres we know from -the vases, and from the paintings and sculpture; but of -the nature of the strings and their tension, and the -amount of sound elicited from the sounding-board, we -remain in ignorance, and our best surmises fail to -explain or account for the effects attributed to the -skill of the players on these instruments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> - -<p>Whether by some peculiar skill the flute players were -able to produce a series of harmonics, is a puzzling -problem. There is no reason to suppose that they -could control the reed, unless they used a reed with reversed -cut of tongue, like that of the old Chalumeau, -or some other kind of reed, or a double reed as just now -suggested; not the <i>Arghool</i> reed. To obtain harmonics -merely by hard blowing would be a hazardous affair, -especially in public performance before an audience -professedly merciless to failure. The only harmonics to -instruments of this class are twelfths and possibly fifths. -Yet on the other hand, in the contests between ancient -flute players, the especial aim of the rivals was to outdo -each other in producing the highest notes.</p> - -<p>Our players on oboi and clarionets only obtain harmonics -with certainty by pressing the reed with the -lip, so as to shorten the reed’s active portion. On -the Egyptian flutes, as stated in a previous chapter, -fifths were obtained in series, and after that octaves. A -fine straw reed tongue was used in this case, and may -account for results so different from modern custom.</p> - -<p>One of these four Pompeian flutes produces three -notes beyond the compass of the others, and there was -doubtless some intent in the distinction; possibly the -player who handled it had the dignity of first flautist.</p> - -<p>There is yet one other example in existence of this -type of flute. It was discovered at Salamis, in the -the island of Cyprus, by Cesnola, and is, I believe, included -in that portion of his wonderful collection which -was sent to New York. It is described in his book, -“Salaminia,” and is illustrated. Although in decayed -condition, its structure is apparent. It is of bronze, -with sliding cylinders; is about twenty inches long,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> -and is perforated with fourteen finger holes, three -of which it would seem were closed off. Careful -measurements were taken, and an exact copy made by -Messrs. Carte, and they were thus able to ascertain the -original notes of the time worn instrument. The notes -are nearly those of the modern chromatic scale, the -lowest note being C in the bass clef, and the highest G -(an octave and a fifth above). These notes,</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="gesperrt2">C, C♯, D, D♯, E, F, G, A, B♭, C, E, G,</span></p> - -<p>were obtained by using an <i>Arghool</i> reed, and—as they -vary from the scale obtained by M. Mahillon, on the -Pompeian flutes—there is some reason to infer that a -stiffer reed was used, as anyone who has had experience -with these reeds knows how greatly pitch may differ on -the same pipe when two different reeds are tried; in -fact, resultant pitch is the effect of the combination of -pitch of reed with pitch of tube. Both F♯ and G♯ are -missing from this Cyprus specimen. The age of this -flute is not indicated; but the Pompeian flutes are -fixed to a year, almost to a day, in the memorable year -79 of our era, when the gay city was overwhelmed in -the lava of Vesuvius. Thus we may say that these -flutes have been held in safe keeping through that -stretch of years between our own time and the destruction -of Jerusalem by Titus, an association of thoughts -which will come home to many readers more clearly.</p> - -<p>Pompeii was originally founded by the Oscan people, -who had nothing in common with the Romans, and did -not lose their independence until about 90 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> The -city was the last in the Campania, which was reduced -to submission by the army of Rome.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span></p> - -<p>These long Pompeian flutes could not have been -played with all the holes uncovered; indeed, I come to -the conclusion that one instrument in its purpose had -the same utility as our three clarionets, enabling the -player to take the scale in a lower range. Thus, at one -time he would limit himself to the upper portion, and -not use the lower; and at another time close off the -upper notes and extend the range to the lowest extreme. -And such changes might have been made at the end of -any part of the song, or measure of the music; and the -rearrangement in the closing of the holes would easily -and quickly be effected. We should not, I think, -imagine that an extensive compass was desired, as we -desire it; for art was limited by precise rules and -elaborate systems, and to ignore them was to offend. -Evidently, in this instrument the capabilities of the -Greek and Roman <i>Auloi</i> attained perfection,—nothing -further was achieved; and with this we may consider -that the era of ancient flautists closed.</p> - -<p>At the present time there are several bands of excavators -at work on classical sites. There is rivalry -between the savants of four nations (German and -French, English and American), each anxious to unearth -the past, so that any day we may see new treasures -that for centuries have been waiting,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“Hid from the world in the low delvèd tombs.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>Back to the Land of the Nile.</b><br /><br /> - -EGYPT REVEALS THE SECRET.</small></h2> - -<p>What! didn’t you know? I thought that everybody -knew that. Why not have asked before? Could have -told you at any time. That is the way that secrets -have of coming out,—“promiskuss like,” as they say -in the village. Now it seems that the bulbed mystery -that we have been tantalized about, and which has so -worried the lobes of our brain on sleepless nights, is -after all a piece of nature, coaxed by artifice to be non-natural. -A method of waist making was practised in -early life to ensure the result desired; it was an instance -not of design in nature, but of design upon nature, -much as the modern young lady’s waist is. The -simplicity of the explanation is charming. There is a -passage in Pliny referred to by Mr. W. Chappell in his -History of Music, and I will quote what he says. -What it means I do not know, but that is by no means -an objection, as one mystery is at least left, and what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> -we shall do when every secret is open is a mystery past -finding out!</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">Pliny, in describing the reeds grown in Lake Orchomenus, in -Bœotia, says that one which was pervious throughout was -called the piper’s reed (<i>Auleticon</i>). This reed, says he, used to -take nine years to grow, as it was for that period the waters of -the lake were continually on the increase. If the flood lasted at -the full for a year the reeds were cut for double pipes (<i>Zeugitæ</i>), -and if the waters subsided sooner, the reeds were not so fine, -were called <i>Bombyciæ</i>, and were used for single pipes.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">There is another account of this furnished by the -ever learned Mr. J. F. Rowbotham, in his so styled -“History of Music,” which is no history, but a monologue -(attractive, truly) on the historical progress of -the art of music during some centuries. He says that -the whole account is in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant, IV., -11), and names the lake differently. The passage -runs thus:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">But most of all was Antigenedes renowned for the care he -took in choosing his flutes. And we hear that he altered the -time of cutting the reeds from September to July or June. For -the reeds of which the flutes were made grew in the Lake -Copais, in Bœotia, which also furnished Pindar and the Theban -flute players with flutes. And this is the way that the reeds -were cut. The flute reed always grew when the lake was full -with a flood, which took place about once in every nine or ten -years. Its time of growing was when, after a rainy season, the -water had kept in the lake two years or more,—and the longer -the better. And it was a stout, puffy reed, fuller and more -fleshy and softer in appearance than other reeds. And when -the lake was swollen, the reeds increased in length. And the -time of cutting was in the rainy season in September. And this -was the time of cutting, up to Antigenedes’ time. And he -changed the time of cutting to June or July,—<i>i.e.</i>, in the heat of -summer. And the pipes cut at this period, they say, became -seasoned much sooner; three years were sufficient to season -these, whilst the others cut in the rainy season took many years -to season. This is what they tell us. But I think that it was -another reason which induced him to cut them in the dry season. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span>And that was to get the reeds crisper and shorter and smaller -in the bore, and that for this he was ready to sacrifice even -beauty of tone to get them crisp and small. It was at any rate -to get some peculiar and highly artificial effect.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">Doubtless, the original readers understood the author, -and filled in implied details which we are in the dark -about. The ancient writers avoid telling us what we -want most to know. It is, for instance, at times, -doubtful whether the name <i>reed</i> always refers to the -body of the pipe, or at times to the vibrating reed, and -a writer or translator would easily fall into error if -without practical knowledge of wind instruments, just -as they do in similar matters of musical detail at the -present time. Some ancient writers, we know, wrote -only from reports on the subject of music, being themselves -ignorant upon it, although they are in several -instances our chief authorities for the learning of the -ancients thereon.</p> - -<p>To the description given by Mr. W. Chappell, he -adds his own comment: “these reeds throw out shoots -around them, and perhaps each row of shoots may -have been counted as a year’s growth.” I am not so -sure that a reed “pervious throughout” would throw -off shoots; some such are merely sheathed like bulrushes -and flags. The contention of Mr. Rowbotham -that Antigenedes “must needs change the time of cutting -flute reeds, in order to get crisp reeds, and reeds with -small bores, and that they might give out these (<i>Hemiolian -Chromatic</i>) querulous intervals” is not convincing, -and the use of the word “querulous” betrays that he -is “begging the question”; indeed, his point is that -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>“the age was an age of quibbling and cavilling and -hair splitting, and these subtleties of thought had their -parallel or consequence in other things as well,”—including -querulous flutes. This imagined correspondence -between things and thoughts shews the writer to -be clever as a special pleader, but that he is a specialist -in wind instruments does not follow. The question is -still open, did Theophrastus speak of flute reeds or of -flute pipes, or of the reeds to be used for bulbs, or -of those for making reed tongues?</p> - -<p>Antigenedes wrote about the year 450 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, it is said, -that he increased the number of holes of the flute. -It is a curious coincidence that Ling Lun the Chinese -minister of Huang-Ti, was also sent to a <i>chosen spot</i>, -called Tahsia (since identified as Bactria, the mother of -cities from its unrivalled antiquity) west of the Kuenlun -mountains, where there is a valley called Chichku -where bamboos of regular thickness grew, that he might -there choose the finest sort for music, and thus set out -the true <i>lus</i> or laws and principles. How strangely the -Greeks and Chinese tales agree, that the pipes must be -very choice, and of a particular growth.</p> - -<p>Some years back, when I first entertained the idea -that these bulbs figuring on the vases represented real -hollow bulbs, I sought high and low for evidence of -any species of reed growing with such distinct shape -that it could be so employed. I made enquires of -curators at South Kensington botanical departments, -and also at Kew, but without success, and no botanist -could afford me the information that I was anxious for. -There was no reed, neither roots of reeds, anywhere -answering the description.</p> - -<p>Yet such reeds grew! It is because the nature of the -growth of the reed has assumed a most interesting importance -at the present stage of our investigations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> -that I have introduced these quotations from the -ancient writers.</p> - -<p>A very valuable piece of information has recently -been obtained from Egypt, and we owe our knowledge -of it to Mr. T. L. Southgate who read a paper at a -Musical Association meeting, upon the pair of Egyptian -flutes found and shown by Mr. Petrie. He had obtained -tidings and measurements of similar pipes in foreign -museums, and gave particulars of experiments as to pitch, -and showed a model made according to details communicated -to him by M. Maspero of a so-called flageolet with -eleven holes, found in ancient Panopolis anterior to the -eighteenth dynasty, 1500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> This extraordinary find -he stated, was furnished with a moveable beak of the -whistle kind, and it gave a scale of semitones and two -enharmonic intervals; and the scale, he maintained, -corresponded almost exactly with our present chromatic -scale. Thus the musical acquirement of the -Egyptians was raised to a most exalted level, much -beyond anything ascribed to that people, and some -head-shakings and symptoms of unbelief became manifest -among the curious musicians assembled. I confess -that I was among the doubters. Neither the flageolet -nor the scale seemed to me to conform to the genius of -the people, as shown in their tablets of stone, or papyrus -rolls, or wall paintings. The date 1500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>—four -hundred years older than the Lady Maket flutes—was -understood to be fixed by M. Maspero, and confirmed -by other recognised Egyptologists, and the genuineness -of the relic seemed vouched for.</p> - -<p>And now comes the strange part of the discovery. -It was found that the supposed flageolet beak was no -flageolet affair at all, neither in form nor purpose, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> -that what had been interpreted in the drawing as a -whistle mouth was the representation merely of a patch -of pitch or bitumen that had in ancient days got -attached to the original. About as dumbfounding an -experience as that which befel the renowned Mr. Pickwick -at the deciphering of the ever memorable Roman -inscription. We may now sing old Hummel’s chorus:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i04">“Light, light in darkness,</div> -<div class="line">The daylight dawns;”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>for the mistake brought out the secret, and the information -long wanted was to be had for the asking, and -came out in a very matter of fact way. M. Maspero -says that the head piece found with the pipe was a -hollow piece of reed, bulb shaped, and that it was a -custom to grow such bulbs by subjecting the reed during -its early growth to artificial constraint. Places in -the reed would be chosen, round which, when it was -about half an inch in diameter, a string or other fibre -would be wound closely, and the reed so treated left -otherwise to grow to its proper growth of about exteriorly -three quarters of an inch. The artificial waist -therefore remained with, say, a quarter inch interior -diameter, whilst the other portion expanded in growth -as usual, and thus these mysterious bulbs were formed. -The explanation is delightfully simple, and the wonder is -that no one thought of it before, for I expect that there -are similar practices of reed torture going on in other -parts of the world, which probably even our botanists -could have made us acquainted with.</p> - -<p>The difficulties of obtaining knowledge from those who -know is, however, a common experience; not that knowledge -is refused or withheld, but that the specialist and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> -the neophyte seem unable to get into the same line of -sight, and between the two there is often a great lack of -perceptivity of the actual kind of help wanted, and the -language of reply only perhaps may serve to show us -what dumb creatures we are in our endeavours to -understand one another.</p> - -<p>The eleven holed pipe was found in 1888. As -M. Maspero has no doubt about the age of this flute, -and maintains that it dates back to the eighteenth -dynasty, and as he is in the front rank of authority -as an Egyptologist, we have to accept his decision, -although it throws previous conclusions into confusion.</p> - -<p>The Chinese are held to have possessed an octave scale -of twelve semitones more than four thousand years ago, -but heretofore we had no hint of an early existence of -such amongst the Egyptians, nor of an intercourse with -China which would account for identity. It is altogether -mysterious, and raises new questions of affinities, -and of the evolution of mind in the human race.</p> - -<p>So far the details afforded give a new insight into -the nature of the bulbed flute, they tend to support my -idea of the use of the bulb for holding a concealed -reed.</p> - -<p>As it is, Egypt has revealed one secret concerning -the subulone flutes, and shown that the double and -triple bulbs depicted on the Etruscan vases are essentials -of the structure of the flutes, and can no longer -be regarded as conventional ornament.</p> - -<p>M. Maspero sent Mr. Southgate a tracing of the bulb -piece in his possession, who has obliged me with a copy -of it. The dark irregular patches are due to accidental -adherence of some bitumen. The numerals indicate -merely proportions in the interior diameters.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/i_p125.jpg" width="300" height="529" alt="Fig. 23. Bulbed flute" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 23.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In the times of the earlier civilizations, men had a -wonderfully direct way of obtaining their ends; they -chose the simplest means and the fittest, and the survival -of their method down to our days is the best proof of a -judgment almost as unerring as instinct. With all our -mechanical appliances, we can do little better than -modify and develop the designs we have inherited. In -our wind instruments, everywhere the primitive remains, -even as the type of race remains.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER X.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>The Isles of Greece.</b><br /><br /> - -MIDAS THE GLORIOUS.</small></h2> - -<p>“The Glorious!” So Pindar names the flute player -Midas the Sicilian, who had twice obtained the laurel -wreath by his performance on the flutes at the Pythic -games. It is in his twelfth ode that Pindar celebrates -the victory of Midas over all Greece upon that instrument -which Athene herself had invented, and he -inscribes the ode thus:—</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To Midas of Agragas, winner of<br /> -the Prize for Flute Playing.</span></p> - -<p>How strangely this sounds to us, and how little able -are we to estimate at its true significance the esteem in -which flute players were held by all the people of -Greece.</p> - -<p>Many records there are, telling unmistakably of the -passion the Greeks had for this music; of the wealth -lavished on the famous players; of the temples in -which their names were cut in marble with every token<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> -of pride and exultation; and of statues raised to their -honour. But greater tribute than any that was given, -or than remains, is this,—that Pindar thought the flute -player worthy of one of his odes, and immortalized him. -His voice was the voice of national feeling, and, as I -have said, it sounds strangely to us. We are so civilized, -have gone so utterly beyond</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i4">“Earth’s early days,</div> -<div class="line">When simple pleasures pleased,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>that we should not recognize the voice of Saturn; and if</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“The dim echoes of old Triton’s horn”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>reached our brass belaboured ears, how many think you -would listen with reverence?</p> - -<p>Yet surely for a little while we should find some good -in letting our imagination dwell upon the scenes and -surroundings that were real in Greek life; some good -also in cherishing the belief that the dead beliefs of old -humanity were once living beliefs.</p> - -<p>Pindar, second only because Homer was first, was -revered by the whole Greek race, and considered their -greatest lyric poet. From the pillars of Hercules to -the verge of India, wherever there were Greeks, there -Pindar was amongst them. How high an honour, -therefore, it was that fell to Midas the flute player.</p> - -<p class="center f9 padt1"><span class="smcap">Strophe.</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">I pray thee, Queen of Splendour, city of peerless grace,</div> -<div class="line">Persephone’s home; O thou that on thy tower-clad hill</div> -<div class="line">Dwellest, fair Queen, beside the streams of pastoral Agragas!</div> -<div class="line">Propitious greet, with favour of Heaven, and man’s good-will,</div> -<div class="line">The crown, at Pytho’s festival, that glorious Midas won;</div> -<div class="line">And welcome him victorious in that fair Art,—of old,</div> -<div class="line">That Pallas found, ...</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span></p> - -<p>Then come antistrophe, and again strophe and antistrophe, -but without the intervening epode, by which -it is known that this was a processional ode. The poet -weaves into his strain numerous allusions to myths -which were in common acceptance, and fully understood -by his hearers, and acclaimed forthwith. Needless, -however, to be given here, although scholars still -find interest in them. Pindar goes on to state how -Maiden Athene fashioned the flute with its varied -strain, and bestowed it on man, and concludes with -this</p> - -<p class="center f9 padt1"><span class="smcap">Antistrophe.</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Through slender brass it flows, through many a reedy quill,</div> -<div class="line">That grew by the Graces town, for choral dance renowned,</div> -<div class="line">In nymph Cephisis’ hallowed haunts; true witness of the dancers’ skill.</div> -<div class="line">Ne’er, save by toiling, mortal aught of bliss hath found;</div> -<div class="line">But all that lacks in our brief day can destiny’s power supply,</div> -<div class="line">What fate ordains none may avoid; needs must a day befall</div> -<div class="line">Of chances unforeseen that spite of all</div> -<div class="line">Man’s scheming, part will grant, and part deny!</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p class="tb">So ends he, with the poet’s right to moralize, by which -we may infer that our glorious Midas had to toil at the -pipes, and practice some hours daily as the price of -attaining his great renown.</p> - -<p>Pindar’s lines have been variously translated; one -reading is thus given:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Through vocal vent its music flows,</div> -<div class="line i1">Of brass with slender reed combined,</div> -<div class="line">That near the festive city grows,</div> -<div class="line i1">Where with light steps the graces move,</div> -<div class="line">Marking the measured dance they wind</div> -<div class="line i1">In cool Cephisis’ flowery grove.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>That reads pleasantly; but what of this more stately -flow in prose?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>When it passes through the slender brass and through the -reeds, which grew near the city Charites, the city with beautiful -places for the dance.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">How charmingly that lingers on the tongue, “the city -with beautiful places for the dance.” When will it be -so said of our great city? Is it a picture past praying -for;—past hoping for?</p> - -<p>Pindar, as we know, came of a family of flute players. -He was born at Thebes, or at an adjacent village, -about 522 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> His family, we are told, excelled in -flute playing, the national art of Bœotia; and he himself, -in one of his odes, boasts of a descent from Spartan -ancestors, and on his mother’s side from an Arcadian -nymph, Metope, mother of Thebe, the mythical -foundress of the Theban nation. Through the country -of Bœotia, the river Cephisus ran into the Copaic Lake, -and both river and lake were celebrated for the reed -beds, from which the Theban flute makers obtained -their materials. So that our poet was an authority -upon flutes, and a critic in the art of playing the instruments. -A legend records that when a boy, a swarm of -bees settled on his lips whilst he was asleep and filled -his mouth with honey. He was also believed to be a -familiar guest with the priests of Delphi, where an iron -chair, on which he sat to conduct his hymns, was -shown as one of the curiosities of the temple; whilst -at Athens a statue was erected to him, and the Rhodians -engraved one of his odes in golden letters on their -temple to Minerva, and the site of his house beside the -fountain of Dirce was respected for centuries afterwards.</p> - -<p>Flute playing was believed to be of Phrygian origin, -and that it was brought from Asia Minor into Greece -may perhaps be indicated by the fact that Pindar had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> -in his house at Thebes (Grecian Thebes) a small temple -to the Mother of the Gods and Pan, the Phrygian -deities to whom the first hymns to the flute were supposed -to have been sung. Dion notices that at Thebes -all but the Cadmea was in ruins, and that a small -votive statue of Hermes, set up for some victory in flute -playing, still stood up out of the weeds among the -ruins in the ancient Agora. The Pythic contests were -held in the plains of Crissa, hard by which stood the -temple and oracle of Apollo, the especial god of the -Dorian race, and the patron of music and the arts. It -was in the years 494 and 490 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> that Midas won his -laurel crowns, and he had also won once at the Panathenea. -Curiously, we find that the first notable flute -player at the Pythian games, Sacadas, was victor on -the first (586 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>) and two subsequent occasions after -the performance on that instrument had been introduced -as a regular part of the solemnity.</p> - -<p>Pindar’s ode to Midas was sung at Agrigentum when -the victor entered the city in triumphal procession, and -the whole town poured out to meet him. The victor -and his friends visited in proud succession the altars of -his religion, and the titular deities of the city were -thanked for their favour, and again his exploits were -chanted in notes of solemn joy.</p> - -<p>We have one or two flute players who possibly have -some idea of their surpassing merits; but they would -be aghast if they found themselves recipients of such -public honours as these in a modern city,—we are -so civilized. Yet stay, did we not receive intelligence -how that Sarasate received some such jubilee welcome -on returning to his native place in Spain, not very long -ago! What an old-fashioned corner of the earth that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> -must be, where the old atmosphere remains unsmoked, -and where the peasants remain and get richly browned -in the sun, and dance with goatskins over their -shoulders, and to them there are days of out-door life -still going on, such as are by our race clean forgotten.</p> - -<p>To parallel Pindar and Midas, we should have to -imagine Tennyson writing an ode to Sarasate the passionate, -the great artist, the dark browed fiddler on the -platform of St. James’s Hall, London! Ah! no, it -will not do; the parallel would be too shaky. We can -run excursion trains, and cram Albert Halls, and our -people can shout themselves hoarse in Fleet Street -over the three o’clock winner, and the names of Patti -and Sims Reeves, and Melba, and Jean de Reszke may -exhaust our refined fervour, and the grandeur of heads -fitted with unseen crowns may raise a flickering illusion -of glory, and the dazzling crush of ladies plated with -diamonds, may exalt the senses with the pride of -wealth,—but all this, the utmost of the get-up of -modern effects, will pale beside that uprising of citizens, -that grand acclaim in open air over the plain of Crissa -to “glorious Midas!”</p> - -<p>One day I do remember,—one day fit to be named -with the days of old. Stay a moment, and think what -<i>was</i> in those days. Imagine the concourse of people -from all ends of the world; a small world it was then, -and yet how great in men, aye, and in coming men. -There, under the shadow of the great towering crag of -Delphi—the centre or “navel” of the earth, as the -Greek poets termed it—with the world-renowned -temple glowing in lily whiteness in the blue air, there -the great games were held,—duty, religion, race, -patriotism, drew all men of Greek birth or parentage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> -to witness or to share in them. Week after week, from -every state and colony, from isle and creek and dented -bay, the flower of Hellas gathered in national pride to -swell the host of spectators at these Panegyreis, called -by them “universal gatherings.” Hither came statesmen -and philosophers, merchants and traders, poets -and priests, and people of every degree; streaming up -through gorge and defile, up through groves of pine -and laurel and cypress, up to the broad, bright plain,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Around the spot where trod Apollo’s foot.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In that great day when Midas stood forth to meet the -gaze of the vast assembly, there were, as visitors, some -of those who have written their names indelibly on the -pages of Time, some of those who have made history. -Who were they? Pindar, we know, was there,—what -other? At that day, Pythagoras walked upon the -earth, and Æschylus was then in the prime of manhood; -Sophocles, a babe but one year old, nestled in a -mother’s arms; and Phidias, a child of seven summers, -not yet dreaming of his great fame, tripped over the -grass, gathering garlands of hyacinth, saffron, and -asphodel; and fancy may picture him there listening -to the flutes of Midas, hearing the shout of victory, and -seeing the bestowal of the laurel crown. Imagine him—<i>one -of the young immortals</i>—lifted up in the exciting -moment, his little heart throbbing in sympathy with -the pulse of the grand enthusiasm that ran through -that sunsmitten multitude!</p> - -<p>Aye, those were glorious days! One such day I do -remember, one worthy to rank with those days of -Grecian festivals; the day when our vast city for a -whole day welled out from every street and alley its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> -thousands, tens of thousands, mile upon mile, from -morn to sunset, to welcome Garibaldi. Then we knew -what it was to feel the thrill of genuine fervour. Then, -for one day at least, we rejoiced in being of human -race, and believed in the wide kinship of patriotism. -Men and women counted themselves happy if they -could touch but the folds of his grey cloak. They who -had looked into the depths of his calm grey eyes felt -themselves dwellers under a loftier sky and went away, -comforted; and to gaze upon his serene face was to -receive into the heart a new sense of the service of life. -He was one of those</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i8">Men whom we</div> -<div class="line">Build our love round, like an arch of triumph,</div> -<div class="line">As they pass us on their way to glory</div> -<div class="line">And to immortality.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Since glorious Midas won, 2397 years have come and -gone, and Pindar’s verse each year has kept the laurels -green. Perhaps in after years he personified the ideal -or master flute player to the popular imagination, for the -statue here represented dates from the time of Hadrian—that -is six hundred years later—and is believed by -the archæologists to be a copy or adaptation of an -earlier work, when a pseudo-archaic style was in fashion. -The original they say may, like other earlier representations -of deities, have been clad in actual drapery. -According to Pliny, Midas was the original inventor of -the <i>plagiaulos</i> or side blown flute; but it was so -customary to assign to their heroes the origin of things -considered benefits to the people, that we may class -this as a mythical reminiscence.</p> - -<p>The figure is draped in a <i>chiton</i>, with sleeves which -are fastened down with studs; a circlet rests upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> -head, and the hair falls in long tresses over the shoulders; -the beard is long, and of the peculiar shape commented -upon by ancient writers. The marble is beautifully -worked, the details very graceful, and the expression -given to the face remarkable. The statue was found -in the villa of Antoninus Pius, near Civita Lavinia. -The right arm, left hand, the mouthpiece, and part of -the middle of the pipe are restorations; but the artist, -being in the dark as to the actual kind of flute originally -represented, made up a shape of mouthpiece from the -fragments, for which his inner consciousness alone is -responsible.</p> - -<table summary="Midas"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Midas<br /> -the<br /> -Flute<br /> -Player</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p134.jpg" width="300" height="435" alt="Fig. 24. Midas the Flute Player" /><br /> -<i>Fig. 24.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>The flutes represented are from a photograph of the -instruments in the British Museum, and there can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> -little doubt that this kind of pipe was the one given to -the player by the sculptor. The reed when placed in -the little tube would stand at half a right angle to the -pipe, as the bore indicates that degree of slant.</p> - -<table summary="Ringed Flutes" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Ringed<br /> -Flutes</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p135.jpg" width="400" height="158" alt="Fig. 25. The Ringed Flutes" /></div></td></tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 25.</i></p> - -<p>In taking leave of Greece and her flutes, I am pleased -to be able to quote from recent intelligence one incident -which shows the permanence of national character.</p> - -<p>“Milo, the Island of the Cyclades, in which the -famous ‘Venus of Milo’ was discovered, has again been -the scene of the unearthing of a splendid example of -ancient Hellenic art. The new ‘find’ is the marble -statue of a boxer, somewhat above life size, which is -almost as perfect after its burial under the dust of centuries -as it was when it came fresh from the hands of -its sculptor.</p> - -<p>“The shipping of the statue to Athens was made the -occasion for a characteristic Greek popular festival. -The whole population, headed by the civil magistrates -and a band of musicians, and followed by a regiment -of soldiers, accompanied the newly found treasure in -jubilant procession to the ship, which had been sent -from Athens for its transport to the capital.”</p> - -<p>The old ways remain! The Greeks are a young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> -people yet; they show the same spontaneity of enthusiasm, -the same joy in the face of nature, the same -impulses under the influence of art. Theirs is still a -small world girdled by the sea, and they are not so far -as we from the days when</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Conquerors thanked the gods</div> -<div class="line">With laurel chaplets crowned.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/i_p136.jpg" width="200" height="193" alt="Tailpiece" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>Near the City of Charites.</b><br /><br /> - -THE MYSTERY OF THE “SLENDER BRASS.”</small></h2> - -<p>This chapter is a pendant to that on “Midas the -Glorious.” It is an afterthought which my long -familiarity with free reeds has given birth to. One -day I chanced to buy a child’s toy, a little trombone, -perfect in slide action, and in succession of tones. -Following my habit of experimenting with reeds, pursuing -therein the course of a lifetime’s devotion to such -attractions, I naturally desired, childlike, to see the -inside of this trombone. It contained a slide within a -tube, and upon this slide a series of free reeds set -tandem fashion; upon lengthening the trombone, each -reed in succession was brought to the one air hole -which alone was provided for the issue of the sounds -from the series of reeds. For so small an instrument, -merely a toy be it remembered, there was great power, -and correct pitch.</p> - -<p>By a freak of memory, Midas and his flute came to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> -mind, and words of Pindar flashed through my brain -with a new significance. Was the free reed used in the -flute of Midas? that was the question. Pindar, as was -stated, was himself familiar with the flute; he came of -a family of flute players, and therefore his description -has a more than casual purport, for we may be sure -that he had clearly in mind every detail he directed -attention to by his words, and knew everything affecting -the instrument. Pindar, having stated how Maiden -Athene fashioned the flute with its varied strain, and -bestowed it on man, then proceeds to describe it and -its musical sound. Of the sound of the flute he writes:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Through slender brass it flows.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It had not occurred to me before to think of any distinct -implication in the words; but now I question -very much the pleasantness of a brass tube taken into -the mouth, in length nearly two inches, with its vibrating -tongue in action; not like a cup-piece outside the -lips, as in the trumpet and trombone.</p> - -<p>Fancy it: a brassy taste! Surely this was not the -idea he would convey, of a player’s hot moist lips -straining upon a slender tube of brass. We shall get -his words more literally in prose:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>When it passes through the slender brass and through the -reeds,—which grew near the city Charites, the city with beautiful -places for the dance.</p></div> - -<p>The flute itself could not be called slender, being interiorly -three eighths of an inch; and, moreover, it -was but the casing that was of brass, and that only -with flutes after the invention of that sectional arrangement -of sliding cylindrical pieces over each aperture, -the tube itself being of ivory, or of elder, or of syca<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>more. -Thus, then, the question arises. What slender -brass had Pindar in mind?</p> - -<p>Accepting the prose as the more literal translation, -note the “and,” as if Pindar meant, and <i>then</i> through -the reeds, and further it may be of importance that the -<i>plural</i> is given “reeds.”</p> - -<p>Although I have presented the picture of the two -flutes that in style accord with the flute designed by the -sculptor as if that upon such Midas played, I believe -that a scrutiny of dates forbids the supposition; those -flutes will prove to be of too late a date, Midas is certainly -more likely to have used the <i>double</i> flutes pictured -upon the vases,—the bulbed flutes, and not the -single ones fingered by the two hands. In the plural -case, the two flutes would be rightly described, being -the style with the two reed-pipes, one for each hand.</p> - -<p>Accepting Pindar’s words literally—“slender brass”—I -think that we must believe that he meant to -describe the reed as of brass: a reed of slender metal -through which the breath passed on its way, urging the -reed into vibration. Now, what I would suggest is -that, if silk reached Greece from China in those days, -why should not the free reed? Actually it is of slender -brass.</p> - -<p>I have made experiments with the free reed upon my -copies of the Greek flutes in the British Museum, and -see very clearly the possibility of the adaptation of the -free reed to the hollow cocoon-like bulb pictured of the -flutes in the paintings upon the Etruscan vases, and -which, as you have read, I interpret as being designed -to hold a reed within it; the first, second, or third bulb -being selected for the purpose, according to “the -mode” of the particular piece of music that was to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> -played. The bulbs are quite large enough for holding -the free reed of the requisite size and flexibility.</p> - -<p>In the Chinese organ “Sheng” the little brass free -reed is fixed on a small quill-like reed stem and is -passed through a hole into the <i>bowl</i> that holds the -series of reeds. The position of the reed for sounding is -exactly the same as that which I am supposing for it -in the <i>bulb</i>.</p> - -<p>Again, it has been supposed from a remark made by -an ancient reporter that a certain flute player in a contest -was unable to play because of an accident by which -his flute reed had become bent; that therefore it may -have been a metal reed such as the free reed.</p> - -<p>The question has also an acoustic bearing; according -to Weber’s law, the free reed is amenable to variations -of pitch: by its nature it is able to accommodate itself, -and may be taken down an octave in pitch under the -influence of the tube with which it is associated; but -upon that descent of pitch being reached, it starts back -again to its own pitch. Joining such a reed to the flute, -I find that its pitch is lowered as each hole is in succession -closed, but that at the last hole it refuses to speak -at all. This shows that a different reed should be -selected that would be flexible enough to accommodate -itself to altered conditions of tube; but to obtain the -right reed will demand a course of arduous experiment -upon new ground, the best teacher being experience. -I said that the reed refuses to speak. Here comes a -noticeable fact: by extreme high pressure I can induce -it to speak, and that powerfully. Have we not in this -fact some hint—or, may be, explanation—of that -strange demand of the Greeks, as it seems to us, for a -bandage, a <i>phorbeion</i>, like a halter over the head, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> -prevent the bursting of the cheeks of the player? This -intensely produced note may be the kind of note they -wanted,—that which they prized and acclaimed in -Midas. The probability is that the whole series of -notes was produced on this high pressure system, in -open air, and intended to be heard by a vast concourse -of people. When I played softly or with average -strength of breath, I found that I could not take the -reed beyond a fourth. Does not this appear to account -for the limitation to four holes which so long prevailed? -In our own course of evolution of instruments from -early times progress has been slow; many centuries -passed before the first little brass key was invented and -applied to flutes. With the clarionet it was the same: -the sudden burst into new life being due to one man,—Denner. -From the first to the last period in the -development of Greek flutes there were no doubt well -marked transition stages of which we possess no record: -new inventions equally momentous to them as to us, -and upon which new players started into pre-eminence. -Midas was credited with the invention of the particular -flute upon which he won renown; and it may have -been that Pindar intentionally specified it, and that it -may have consisted in the application of a free reed of -slender brass to obtain a greater range of notes.</p> - -<p>The free reed in the way that I have suggested was -equally applicable to the double and to the single flute; -and therefore, whatever the kind of flute upon which -glorious Midas played, and won his laurel wreaths and -his immortal renown, the special epithet of Pindar -would hold true:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Through slender brass it flows.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The little brass reeds are easily made, the metal is very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> -thin, and three strokes of a tiny chisel cut the reed. -To a people so skilled in the working of metal in -jewellery as the Etruscan and Greek, the making of -these fine reeds would present no difficulty. Unfortunately, -the slenderness has been adverse to preservation. -These perishable reeds,—what tomb enshrines the one -which is to satisfy our longing to know! A learned -professor tells me that the Pompeiians were of the -Oscan tribe, being in their remotest line called the -Sabellic race, that they belonged to the large ancient -group of the “Aryans.” In late times, these people -mixed with the Etruscans, Pelasgians, and Safines, and -their writing was similar to the Greek; and, according -to language, they were related to the Sanskrit and to the -Iranian languages,—namely, the Jadian and Persian. -So in all our wanderings we are brought back to the -old home,—to Persia, where the pathways of music -begin.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>At the Delphic Temple.</b><br /><br /> - -THE MUSIC HEARD BY THE GREEKS.</small></h2> - -<p>The latest discovered Delphian tablet can well claim -to be the only authentic record yet brought to light of -old Greek music, since it is the original and not a copy -of a copy. Not only is it original and genuine beyond -dispute, but it has also the inestimable value of being -earlier in date by many centuries of any previous record -of repute, and so in the style of its music more nearly -representative of the simplicity of the best period of the -tragic and lyric arts of the Greeks.</p> - -<p>In his “History of Music,” Mr. W. Chappell gives -examples of three Greek hymns with music, the three -being in his day the only known trustworthy remains of -Greek music. They were published by Vincenzo -Galilei, the father of the great astronomer, at Florence -in 1581, and had been copied from a Greek manuscript -in the library of Cardinal St. Angelo at Rome.</p> - -<p>A second Greek MS., which included these same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> -hymns, was found in the library of Archbishop Usher, -and from that the hymns were printed by the Oxford -University in 1672. Then, in 1720, a third MS. was -found in the library of the King of France at Paris, -which also contained these three hymns, which supplied -three or four missing notes. Although, as we have the -music brought to our notice, it is barred and timed -and otherwise dressed up in modern fashion, we -have to remember that the Greeks knew nothing -of such devices. Their notation was only by letters -written above the words, which by their rhythm determined -every musical feature: for the poet ruled the -music. The letters had their significance as instructions -according as they were placed—upright, inverted, -jacent both on the back and on the face, turned right -or left, and by broken parts of letters and there were -accents in addition; and consequently were liable to -much misconstruction or error on the part of the -copyist. “The time of notes,” says Gaudentius, “is -to be ruled by the rhythm of the poetry.”</p> - -<p>So that the music was not strictly syllabic. “The -length of irregular syllabic quantities has to subserve, -and to be fitted into the <i>arsis</i> and <i>thesis</i>, or up and down -beats, of a foot of verse in the measure that has been -adopted.” This old custom is familiar to us in our Te -Deum and other chants, and in oratorio recitative, and -is in fact the most ancient as it has been the most -universal feature in the evolution of song. Mr. Chappell -quotes a Greek passage “On the Phrasing of a -composition,” by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>“But -rhythm and music diminish and augment the quantities -of syllables, so as often to change them to their -opposites. Time is <i>not to be regulated by syllables</i>, but -syllables by time.” We know how our modern rhymesters, -who write for the drawing-room or the streets, -are given to ricketty irregularities of metre; but this is -from slipshod guiltiness, and is quite of a different -order from the poetic disposition of syllabic utterance. -Read Coleridge’s “Christabel” for the most splendid -example of such word music; or, in later days, Swinburne’s -lines, which so often give marvellous evidence -of the mastery of this rhythmic art.</p> - -<p>With these remarks in precaution, we may look at -the music to the first of those three relics, the “Hymn -to Calliope” as modernly set forth:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p145.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="Music score." /> -</div> - -<p>Many readers will be glad to have this example of -Greek music, just to see what it is like. The words -must be left to experts who can sing them, for it would -be of little use to add them here; and whosoever is dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>posed -for further enquiry will find the adapted harmony -by G. A. Macfarren in Mr. W. Chappell’s book. The -above is transposed a fourth lower than according to -the mode assigned to it, and an octave higher than the -pitch as for a man’s voice. The transposition is in -accordance with the system of Claudius Ptolemy, who -showed how much too high for use the Greek hymns -were if taken at the pitch that had been assigned -to them.</p> - -<p>The second of the three hymns is a “Hymn to -Apollo,” and is less tunable in style; the third is a -“Hymn to Nemesis,” sung to the sound of the lyre. -No one of the manuscripts is older than fourteen -centuries. The authorship of the first two hymns is -attributed to Dionysius; in any case the inferences lead -to the placing of the date not earlier than from the -second to the fourth century of our era. Considering all -these indications of the state of our knowledge of Greek -music, we cannot wonder at the great and exciting -interest aroused by the veritable music on marble so -fortunately recovered.</p> - -<p>The Greek hymn that was found at Delphi inscribed -in marble upon the inner wall of the ancient treasure -house, has been sung at Athens. After two thousand -years the music lives again. But with what a difference—revivified, -yet only strangely alive! Those who -incised the hymn, imperishably as they thought upon -the marble surface—they had themselves given voice to -it, had joined in the sacred service, and felt the thrill -of the thousand surrounding voices of a people who -believed in their gods. Who now believes? Apollo -and the Muses are far off, and the great god Pan is -dead. No, the music cannot be the same, for the ears<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> -that listen have lost that inheritance of nature which -was the birthright of those early worshippers at the -Temple of Delphi. Neither priest nor oracle speak; -our privilege as quite a modern people, is to listen to -<i>The Times</i> own correspondent. We are told that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">The composition is in the Hypo-Dorian mode, and, like most -ancient musical compositions, is in a minor key, and written in -a peculiar time, with five crotchets to the bar. It was rendered -by a quartet of male voices. Some passages are surprisingly -modern in character, and the whole composition possesses much -of the dignity of the finest German chorales.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">And, further, we hear that the hymn was encored. -Think of that! The first time, no doubt, of being -honoured in such a fashion. What would they have -said at Delphi? It is all pastime now, not prayer. -And another correspondent gives assurance that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">The performance, which lasted but half-an-hour, was a great -success; it produced a profound impression on the audience. -Everyone present indeed was ravished by the charm of the -music, and its mingled originality, simplicity and grandeur.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">Well, I suppose that it is all right; but it is terribly -artificial in the reading. You cannot but note that the -restorers have been at work; the harmonization by -M. Reinach has no doubt been well done. But with -that kind of certainty any simple melody of a few notes -may be made impressive. A modern quartet! It -sounds incongruous, and makes one think of a top hat -on a marble statue; and you cannot help the suspicion -that the musical composition made tasty was not -Greek music. Although we are condemned by our -advancement to see and hear according to modern -ways, the interest in this Greek fragment remains;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> -and we all of us curiously want to have the music -brought within the range of our own perception, and -are presented with the Greek Hymn to Apollo in modern -notation, with an imagined suitable harmonization.</p> - -<p>The adapted harmony must be taken for what it is -worth in relation to music as we require it, and not as -upon any evidence in a style likely to have been that -used in the Greek singing of the hymn. Indeed, it is -difficult to understand upon what principle such a concoction -can be justified, for surely the original music -has been so dished up to suit the modern palate that -the ancient author would be unable to recognise his own -hand in it. This harmonized version may rank as -French confections in a drawing room entertainment, -and help to pass away the time as the latest novelty; but -as for any relation to Greek art, only as a travesty can it -be taken seriously. The value of the find, as I view it, -is that this rescued relic of an elder civilization should -help to enable us to realize the actual nature of Greek -art in music, and its place in Greek life—either that or -nothing; the value is lost if simplicity is lost.</p> - -<p>The melody as melody does not attract us; this, as -will be seen, Mr. J. P. Mahaffy confirms in his critical -remarks, and therefore that is all the more reason -why I should plead for sincerity in treatment. Not a -note should be altered, not a note should be added to -make the flow more agreeable, not a sign or modification -be permitted for the sake of smoothness or grace. -How eagerly we read a child’s letter; how much such -young effort interests us because it is the genuine presentment -of a child’s thoughts; how utterly insignificant it -would be to us if we knew that it had been vamped up -by a teacher. So with this hymn; it came into exist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span>ence, -when music as an art was young, and we want to -understand it purely and simply in its youthfulness; and -for no other reason than that it was a participant in Greek -life, when men believed in the gods they worshipped.</p> - -<p>Mr. J. P. Mahaffy, in a paper entitled “Recent -Archæology,” makes some interesting remarks upon the -chronicled event. He states that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">M. Reinach determined (from Alypius) the scale to be Phrygian -and its component notes, which scale corresponds to our C -minor in its melodic form, with some accidentals introduced in -one passage. The pitch is a more difficult question. As printed -by M. Reinach, the range is too high for any chest voice; but he -believes that the ancient practical pitch was one third lower than -that assigned to the scale by the late theorists.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">Here authorities, as we have seen, differ; and some -make the scale to be hypo-Dorian instead of Phrygian, -and some say it is Dorian (<i>e</i>, <i>f</i>, <i>g</i>, <i>a</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, <i>d</i>, <i>e</i>) with <i>a</i> as -keynote. Mr. J. P. Mahaffy goes on to state that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">The time is given by the metre, which is pæonic—a long syllable -and three short (variously placed), or two long and a short -between them, in every case 5-8 in a bar: a strange measure to -us, and very difficult to observe. As regards the accompaniment -or harmonizing of the air, their is none extant. We -turn lastly to the melody, which is far the most important -item in giving us an insight into an old Greek performance. -I grieve to say that, although there is rhythm and even a -recurrence of phrases to mark the close of the period nothing -worthy of being called melody in any modern sense is to -be found. The notation of Greek music is well established. It -consists of alphabetic letters with or without slight modifications -written over the text. Instrumental notes are said to have been -written under the text, and with a distinct notation. The -poet, tragic or lyric, was also the composer, and set tunes -to his odes.</p></div> - -<p>The inscription dates from the third century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and -this hymn to Apollo and the Muses consists of phrases -equal to eighty bars in modern reckoning.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span></p> - -<p>Here then are a few bars of the melody given apart -from the French version harmonised by M.M. Fauré -and Reinach, and these will sufficiently indicate the -character of the remaining portion, which the student, -if so inclined can easily obtain. My object in giving -these is in order that you may at the same time compare -them with a similarly brief example of the Chinese -music to the Hymn of Confucius, which will follow.</p> - -<p class="center">OPENING OF THE HYMN TO APOLLO.</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The time of the blank spaces in the bars is filled by notes -sounded upon some instrument; a kithara, I believe.</p></div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p150.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="Music score." /> -</div> - -<p>Of course, we ought not to introduce bars; but in -default of accentuation determined by the words, we -have to avail ourselves of these indications, imperfect -as they must be. Our notation also is, in some instances,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> -only approximate, as both in the Greek and Chinese -systems the intervals vary from ours to the extent at -times of a quarter tone.</p> - -<p class="center padt1">CONCLUDING STROPHES OF THE HYMN TO -CONFUCIUS.</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The rhythm of the hymn is constructed so as to have four -syllables to a line, and at the end of each line in the verses -(here occupying one bar), and one of the instruments is -appointed to sound three or six times a sort of <i>interlude</i> as -in our recitatives. The music is simple, as with the Greeks, -merely indicated by letters or signs associated with the words. -The time taken very slow, probably somewhat as our “Old -Hundredth” is sung in village churches according to ancient -custom.</p></div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p151.jpg" width="500" height="274" alt="Music score." /> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Abdy Williams gives a fragment of a papyrus -roll belonging to the Augustan age, containing the -music to chorus from the Orestes of Euripides (about -408 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>), from which it appears that the player -extemporized a short interlude at the end of the verses. -This is very curious, and will not be without significance -if we compare this with the ancient Chinese custom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> -which is so similar. The fragment consists of many -bars; but the whole amounts to little beyond -repetitions of the following, with now and then a slight -variation.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p152a.jpg" width="500" height="76" alt="Music score." /> -</div> - -<p>A second hymn (key of G, with C♯) travels very -monotonously within these limits.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p152b.jpg" width="500" height="63" alt="Music score." /> -</div> - -<p>The compass of the Delphic Greek hymn is one octave -and a fourth, and it is curious that this is exactly the -compass of the Chinese <i>Sheng</i> organ. The pitch is an -octave too high for men’s voices, even as we find is the -case with the original pitch of the Greek music.</p> - -<p>Professor Jebb, in his address to the Hellenic Society, -speaking of this Delphian relic—this marble music, -says:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">The fragments at Delphi were fourteen in number. The -principal one contained eighteen lines, and the musical notes -were fairly complete,—only nine being missing out of two hundred -and seven. The signs for the notes were the ordinary letters of -the Greek alphabet, sometimes turned upside down or tilted. -A key to them had been given by a Greek writer, Olympios, of -the time of the Emperor Julian. He had written an introduction -to music, which was still extant, in which he gave a list of signs -representing notes. There were two distinct systems of musical -notation, for voices and for instruments. Nine of the fourteen -fragments were arranged for voices, and five for instruments; -these were the lyre and the flute, which were named in the text. -The instrumental and vocal music was always in unison. There -was never more than one note.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span></p> - -<p>Many musical enthusiasts have a fancy for trying to -prove that the Greeks must have used harmony, because -they possessed in their scale the notes that would combine -in chords; but all attempts in this direction have -been fruitless, and according to Greek scholars are -likely ever to be so. Grand effects can be obtained by -unisonous chant: and the Greek ear was satisfied. Let -us be content to learn what their music really was, and -not import into it our supercivilized requirements, -assured that the dressing up of the antique in modern -clothes is alike repugnant to good taste and refined -sentiment, and is rejected by those who care for the -verity of art.</p> - -<p>In remarks on Greek music, Dr. C. Maclean said, -“the classical period of Greece has been called the -adolescence of intellectual and modern man, and a very -beautiful adolescence it was. Unfortunately it has -departed,” and he quoted the saying of Goethe:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“The May of Life blooms but once.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>a saying that comes home to the experience of all of -us, but only do we learn its truth when the May -flowers that brought joy into our lives have withered -and fallen.</p> - -<p>Hitherto the investigation in earliest music has proceeded -upon evidences of man’s concern with and interest -in pipes to make music with. Clearly at first -such use of hollow reeds was the accident of the day to -any passer-by,—as imagined by Lucretius,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i04">“Fond zephyrs playing on the hollow reeds</div> -<div class="line">First taught the peasant how to use the pipe.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Next came the constructive idea, purpose directed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> -an end in view, and the development in a very primitive -manner of a series of sounds in some order or -regularity of succession; for us this has been the chief -consideration fixing our attention, to trace the evolution -of system in the construction of instruments, therefrom -deductively seeking to arrive at the system of the music. -With instruments of all sorts collected with a view to -antiquarian or archæological reference and study, I -have nothing to do, museums may be filled with them, -but unless they show us civilization effective nationally -to advance some musical system, to notice them would -but encumber with useless matter the enquiry such as I -have proposed to myself.</p> - -<p>Musical pipes we have traced through several phases -of development, from the simplest and earliest pipe up -to the ultimate stage in the many-ringed flute, as perfected -in the hands of the Greek people. Beyond that -it is not necessary to go, because our objective is the -Greek system of music, as left to us to be the source of -our own. The stringed instruments will show a similar -course of development from the one-stringed to the -many-stringed. The evidences of this progress are very -numerous, existing still, and I have no doubt that the -investigation will prove to be equally interesting, for it -is with the Greek Lyre that we shall arrive at the -<i>method</i> of the music.</p> - -<p>Meantime ancient China claims attention, for the -Chinese hold a parallel course in time with the -Egyptians. What has China to tell of earliest music?</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of China.</b><br /><br /> - -THE OUTSPREAD PHŒNIX.</small></h2> - -<p>The Chinese have always been fond of seeking the -similitudes and contrasts existing between everything -in heaven and earth. So far as they had attained in -astronomical knowledge, the number of the planets was -five; consequently there could be only five colours, five -points of the compass, five elements, five primitive -sounds, etc. Music was made the subject of many -allegorical comparisons, as twelve moons, twelve -sounds, twelve hours, twelve strings. And this strange -propensity has quite perverted many of their records of -history upon art and science; for whatever remained -unknown or doubtful, appears to have been supplied -with the utmost confidence upon some imaginary basis -of affinity or relation of numbers mystically inevitable. -The poetry of the symbol was lost in the pedantry -of its exposition.</p> - -<p>Certain facts we may accept, but not the garnishing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> -with which the Chinese philosophers and teachers -have surrounded them. Each instrument, according to -their logical demand, had an inventor, and the scholastic -notion has been to attribute the honour of the invention to -an Emperor, and forthwith to account for every detail -in it upon some system conformable to the wisdom of -the scholastic mind.</p> - -<p>Learning has always been greatly honoured in China, -and the colleges of the mandarins held with rigid -formalism to the doctrines they had received from -the past, although it may have been a near past compared -with the nation’s history; and so the mystical -teachings of similitudes and affinities, and the occult control -of nature by numbers, became to the students fixed -verities of science, not to be questioned. What concerns -us is that these teachings, as regards Chinese music and -musical instruments, confront us with a mass of statements -incongruous and contradictory. Something like -our heraldic descents; the centuries pass, and the links -are manufactured to give a factitious coherence to -satisfy the desire for truth.</p> - -<p>The <i>P’ai-hsiao</i>, here illustrated, is one of the ancient -instruments belonging to the Chinese, who hold it to -be symbolic, and to represent the phœnix with outspread -wings, even as the <i>Sheng</i> represents the sacred -bird sitting upon her nest. In both, no other reason -can be assigned for the particular forms assumed by the -instruments, the mystical idea is evidently deeply -rooted in the race, and is ineffaceable.</p> - -<p>Except for the questions of origin and development, -the music of the Chinese can have but little attraction for -us. But what I would point out as of interest, is that -there have been periods of history during which particular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> -musical systems held sway, with certain instruments in -vogue, and with special methods devised in relation to -them. In one age the tetrachord, in another the pentatone, -in another the fusion of these, and in another -the filling in of semitones to complete a scale seemingly -akin to our chromatic. In the earlier periods the -wind instruments prevailed, and determined the musical -systems; and in later times the instruments with strings -gave rise to new and elaborate discriminations.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p157.jpg" width="500" height="376" alt="Fig. 26. The Chinese P’ai-hsiao." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 26.<br /><br /> -The Chinese P’ai-hsiao.</i></p></div> - -<p>The stone chimes and the great bells should be -adjudged to very ancient times, although in the rise and -fall of dynasties the traditional tones have been changed, -and perhaps newer traditions have usurped the old; -until in the confusion, systems that in their origin were -many centuries apart became mixed up together as of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> -one growth. The abstruse theories with which the -treatises of the learned are occupied, and the fantastic -accretions of symbolism which seem to form the foundations -of Chinese literature—all these make the way of -the investigator difficult. The rational course is to -leave them aside and go to the facts. The instruments -themselves represent the past, and are valid evidence.</p> - -<p>Père Amiot, of the French Jesuit mission, according -to his works, published in 1780, appeared to be so -well grounded in everything relating to Chinese history -and customs that his statements upon their music -passed without contradiction; and, indeed, so intimate a -knowledge did he seem to possess that even confirmation -of his views would have been considered needless. -Such misplaced reliance has given a century’s permanence -to misconceptions; and men of sagacity, in dealing -with the matters in question, have blindly followed -where Amiot led, each succeeding writer repeating the -errors of former writers.</p> - -<p>Western theorists prejudge questions of Asiatic music -by being so wedded to one particular conception of -what a scale ought to exhibit.</p> - -<p>Ideas of octaves and fifths and of minor and major, and -tone and semitone rule at every corner. The fortuitous -nature of men’s devices in art is scarcely conceivable -when rule and logic claim to divine how art developed. -Europeans are ever prone to trouble in accounting for -everything, and to desire—almost to design—that facts -should fit theory, whether they will or not. The Asiatic -mind is little understood by the European mind; -and human nature being outwardly so much alike, we are -puzzled at ways of thought and innate tendencies -diverging greatly from our own. Whilst acknowledg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span>ing -a difference in organization, we yet deeming ours to -be the proper standard; our likings to be natural, and -foreigners’ likings to be queer, if not preposterous. -John Chinaman’s ear is different to John Bull’s ear, -somehow, if we could only find out how.</p> - -<p>I find that mostly the scientific man is as bigoted as -the superstitious man when he brings himself to talk of -the beautiful fitness of nature’s designs, and of the unerring -guidance for our behoof to be found in her -operations, and so forth. Now, I know that it is -customary to vaunt “nature’s <i>teaching</i> of harmony and -<i>the diatonic scale</i>,” in the unconscious training she gives -us in compounding quality of tone, and furnishing us -with a chain of harmonics in a range so nearly out of -discrimination of our hearing that, in our average daily -life, we are blissfully unaware of the experiences to -which we have been subjected. Backed though this -doctrine is by the great name of Helmholtz, I confess -that I find myself unable to admit its relevance.</p> - -<p>First and foremost in the consideration of Chinese -music is the fact that the Chinese have no care for our -harmony: they will have none of it. Neither will they -take to our diatonic scale: it offends their sense of art. -Unisons and concords of two notes (as fourths and -thirds, and their inversions) satisfy their sense of the harmonious. -In this, certain other Eastern nations agree -with them. The attempt to find an equal temperament -scale as we understand it, of twelve semitones, fails as -regards the old instruments.</p> - -<p>The <i>P’ai-hsiao</i> is reported of as possessing a scale -of twelve equally tempered semitones; the arrangement -being of alternate notes right and left, the deepest -notes being at each end, and the shortest pipes in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> -middle,—a plan adopted in organ building. Not -having yet had an instrument of the kind in my hands, -I cannot say anything by knowledge; but certainly the -scale set out by Van Aalst is not semitonal. For he expressly -selects five notes, three being a quarter tone -lower and two a quarter tone higher than in a correct -scale of the modern type. Even these named had -better, I expect, have been named as only approximately -a quarter tone wrong; there is no intentional quarter, -but a fixed relation to some other notes which by -coincidence seem to make agreement, but only more or -less near. It is said that the pipes to the right hand are -the male or <i>yang-lüs</i>, and to the left the <i>yin-lüs</i> or -females; each class is in playing kept absolutely to -itself, which is anything but chromatic in its system. -There are sixteen pipes, all the odd numbers being -<i>yang</i>, and all the even numbers <i>yin</i>. The pipes are arranged -upon an ornamental frame; they correspond -to the twelve <i>lüs</i> and the first four <i>lüs</i> of the grave -series; and in notes said to correspond to those of the -bell and stone chimes, the highest being treble <i>b</i>.</p> - -<table summary="Te-ching."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Te-ching,<br /> -or One<br /> -of the<br /> -Chime.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p161.jpg" width="350" height="280" alt="Fig. 27. The Te-ching, or One of the Chime." /></div></td></tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 27.</i></p> - -<p>The <i>Pien-ch’ing</i>, or stone chime, consists of sixteen -stones shaped somewhat as an L; all are of equal -length and breadth, and differ only in thickness: the -thicker the stone the deeper the sound. That the instrument -is of very ancient origin cannot be doubted; -but if we seek to place it in its relation to any period of -civilisation, we are at fault for lack of data. Its style -and weight indicate its design for permanency of abode, -and it has been and still is devoted to ritual music. -The number of the stones has varied under different -dynasties from fourteen to twenty-four. The use -of sonorous stone for chiming seems to be peculiar to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> -China. The <i>Te-ching</i> or “single sonorous stone” is in -shape similar to a carpenter’s square, and its relative -dimensions are rigorously adhered to. No doubt it was -the best shape for the production of musical sound, -and was early discovered by the Chinese to be so. The -pitch is determined by the thickness. The best stone -for musical purposes is said to be jade, a material for -which in the East there is high veneration, though why -it should be so esteemed is not clear. The stone is -suspended in a frame by a cord passed through a hole -bored at the angle, and it is the longer side which is -struck by the wooden hammer. The stone chime -always takes part with the bell in the ceremonial. Its -use is to give a single note at the end of each verse “to -receive the sound.” It is one of the most ancient of -Chinese musical instruments. When an instrument is -composed of a number of these stones it is called -<i>Pien-ch’ing</i>. Usually sixteen of these stones all the -same size are placed upon a frame of fantastic orna<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span>mentation, -set in two rows; the difference in pitch is -secured a difference in thickness of each: otherwise -all are alike throughout the scale.</p> - -<p>The instrument is exclusively used in court and religious -ceremonies, and it is said that beyond those in -the Confucian temples and imperial palaces it is impossible -now to find a complete specimen, though single -stones are sometimes met with.</p> - -<p>There is a tradition that about two thousand years -ago a complete stone chime was found in a pool, and -that this model was followed by imperial decree. But -this, if correct, does not afford any accurate guidance -or tell us what kind of stone chime was extant -during the old Hsia, Shang, or Chou dynasties; for -not an instrument or book of those periods escaped the -great destruction ordered by the Emperor Che Huang-ti; -at least, there is no certain evidence against this belief. -So that, for the determination of the actual date of the -introduction of the supposed equal tempered twelve -semitone scale, we remain in the dark, without a clue. -Moreover, when the existing stone chimes—or, rather, -the <i>Yün-lo</i>, or gong chimes constructed to correspond in -scale to the stone chimes upon the same twelve <i>lüs</i> principle—are -submitted to examination of the necessary -rigid enquiry by tests, they do not bear out the true semitonal -character that has been asserted. Mr. Ellis tested -two specimens in the South Kensington Museum, but -both differed greatly, and he failed to find anything like -the assumed scale; and such scale as he did find he was -unable to give any theory for. Van Aalst says that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">It has become exceedingly difficult to find a <i>Yün-lo</i> capable of -giving a satisfactory gamut; besides, the pitch is not uniform, -so that two <i>Yün-los</i> rarely agree.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span></p> - -<p>And of the <i>Pien-ching</i>, or stone chimes, he states that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">It is exclusively used in court and religious ceremonies, and -it would be considered a profanation to use it elsewhere. It is -impossible to find a complete instrument for sale, although -separate stones may be found. It is not known to whom and -to what dynasty the <i>Pien-ching</i> may be attributed, but there is -no doubt that it is one of the most ancient instruments.</p></div> - -<p class="tb">Where then shall we find this semitonal scale, this -twelve notes series comprised within the octave?</p> - -<p>Considering how very ancient the stone chime is, the -question may well arise how the pitch was derived or -ascertained, since in the material and dimensions no -certain reliance could be placed. Both the stone chime -and the <i>Sheng</i> are attributed to an era some five thousand -years ago (about the time of Noah), and then in those days -the Chinese had long been a musical people. It would -be but natural to conclude that the <i>Sheng</i> conforms most -to the <i>lüs</i> the ancient and the original determinant of -pitch, and we may be quite sure that the pitch given by -my pipe is the same to-day as in that remote age. -Neither strings nor stones can pretend to the same -absolute fixity.</p> - -<p>But now listen. “Music in China,” says Van Aalst, -“has been known since the remotest antiquity. The -first invaders of China certainly brought with them -certain notions of music. The aborigines themselves -had also some kind of musical system, which their conquerors -admired and probably mixed with their own. -These invaders were a band of immigrants fighting -their way among the aborigines, and supposed to have -come from the south of the Caspian Sea; remnants of -the original <i>Li</i>, the <i>Kuei</i>, and the <i>Feng</i> tribes are said -to be still in existence in south China.” Is there not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> -here the hint of a curious problem? By what track -came the Phœnix and the Pan’s pipes both to Greece -and to China? Dim, through sequestered years we -should wander back, to some immemorial age, moss -grown with primæval traditions, long ere these lands -had their names, and in the deep recesses of forests untrodden -by the foot of man, peradventure we should -find that dwelling place of the great god Pan whence -in the earliest of days he came bringing his river reeds -and his wild music with him.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/i_p164.jpg" width="200" height="202" alt="Tailpiece." /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>The Mongols’ New Home.</b><br /><br /> - -THE MYTHICAL FINDING OF THE LÜS.</small></h2> - -<p>In considering questions of early origin and of -direction of human intelligence, there is no point of -more importance to bear in mind than the allowance of -long periods for the operation of the process we are now -accustomed to call evolution. When we have traced -history to its utmost verge in the dim past, the civilization -we come then in contact with, in those very -ancient days gives evidence of many centuries—aye, -even many tens of centuries—having been necessary -for that growth of adaptations recognised as the outcome -of human intelligence and industry in such -communities. So, when I speak of origin, I am thinking -of a time when systems were not; of conditions when -devices were more the result of spontaneous impulse -than deliberate invention.</p> - -<p>China, certainly of all existing empires the most -ancient, has records which extend almost unbroken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> -back to a period of 2400 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and then beyond that -lies the haze of a remote past, where the light of tradition -breaks through with no uncertain radiance, revealing -points of distance far, far, away, telling of another -2000 years of the still immeasurable past of the “black-haired -people” who settled along the banks of the Great -Yellow River, and whose descendants in succeeding -centuries spread over the valley of the still greater -Yang-tse River, and pushing southward appropriated -territory after territory, and who to-day outnumber -every other nation on the face of the earth. A strange -destiny! to increase, yet not to progress.</p> - -<p>Many little digressions into the history and customs -of the Chinese seem inevitable in attempting an enquiry -into the origin and nature of the musical instruments -and music of this singular people.</p> - -<p>Of Chinese musical instruments none that are ancient -exist, and yet the new are still the old, for so far as can -be ascertained there has been no essential difference -during the thousands of years of civilized life that they -have been in national use, and in the authentic records -which refer to them, they are described as already old, -in periods that are mythical; the whole family of -instruments seem to have been born at one date, without -any order of precedence. The Chinese have no modern -music. The music in use is only their earliest music -reappearing from day to day in immemorial custom, -and it is to them a completely satisfying survival.</p> - -<p>Their system of music is the oldest system that has -been placed on record, and for this reason alone it has -a special interest.</p> - -<p>In the chapters “At the Gates of the Past,” and “In -the land of myth” I expressed very clearly the views at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> -which I had arrived concerning the music of the Chinese -and its affiliation to the music of the Greeks, stating my -belief that in a far distant past both races were in -contact with one source, and then came a day of disruption,—one -race eastward, one race westward, each -pursuing its own pathway. These two races to us have -been known as Egyptians and Chinese. Greece deriving -from Egypt, I traced the way therefrom across Arabia -to the southern part of the great valley of the Euphrates, -called Mesopotamia, Chaldæa, Elam, and further, to -the Iranian mountains.</p> - -<p>In justification of these views, some considerations -should here be advanced as briefly as may be, and although -details may have the aspect of being antiquarian, -I anticipate that they will help the general readers to the -better understanding of the place of music in Chinese -history, and in the daily life of the people inhabiting the -land modernly known as China.</p> - -<p>When I started the enquiry I had no idea where the -quest would lead me. It was only afterwards that, -prompted by a wider interest in the subject, I found -that independently, I had come to a conclusion -identical with that of modern research in ethnology, -philology, and archæology. My study of the matter is -but a simple venture over an untrodden course, seeking -the earliest sources of music, and the identity of view of -learned authorities may, I think, fairly be taken as -strengthening my own.</p> - -<p>A few hints concerning these will answer our purpose.</p> - -<p>In that southern valley of the Euphrates, the first -people named in history were the Akkadians and -Sumerians, they came down from the mountains and -built cities; the unnamed settlers earlier than these had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> -occupied the region and were without bond of union -sufficient to give them a name in common, yet it should -not be forgotten that they, too, had a past, remote in -time, though unrecorded as history.</p> - -<p>How then do we connect the Chinese with these? -The Chinese constitute one of the numerous branches -of the Mongolian race. Historians state that the ancient -empire of Medea was founded by Mongols. When the -first immigrants of this race entered China colonising -the fertile valley of the Yellow River, they brought -with them evidences of a civilization which it must -have taken many, many centuries to have arrived at. -Agriculture they were proficient in; astronomy they -possess records of, that point to events thousands of -years earlier; masonry, and canalization also, in -well-developed systems immediately applicable to their -new surroundings; and my argument is that they -brought also a primitive system of music arising from -or out of a simple pipe adoption, having a series of -four or five sounds, such as we have found to be the -original basis of Egyptian and Greek music. Ancestor -worship they also brought with them. A formulated -religion they had not, neither had they a priesthood.</p> - -<p>Where can be found a common centre, where a -population had existed in prehistoric times, at which -these chief evidences of civilization had been grouped -together in communal or in civic life?</p> - -<p>Research can shew but one—and that, the southern -valley of the Euphrates.</p> - -<p>In his work, “Primitive Civilizations,” Mr. E. J. -Simcox writes:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p class="tb">“That the Chinese themselves did not learn agriculture in -China is beyond a doubt; the family life of the Chinese does not -go back to a time when the black-haired people were not -agricultural.”</p></div> - -<p>again as to Astronomy:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“The astronomical knowledge of the Chinese was almost -certainly derived from their kinsmen in Mesopotamia.”</p></div> - -<p>Dr. Edkins was struck by the many ancient customs -pointing to a connection between Western Asia and -China, he calls attention to:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“the resemblances between Chinese writing and the pre-cuneiform -or linear Akkadian character; ’a deep relationship undoubtedly -between the vocabulary of the two languages.’”</p></div> - -<p>Both the Revs. C. J. Ball and M. de Lacouperie -agree:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“in regarding Chinese as a representative of a much earlier stage -of Turano-Sythic speech than any other living language and as -still including elements going back <i>to some source common</i> to it, -with the founders of Elamo-Babylonian civilization.”</p></div> - -<p>Mr. Simcox states that the Akkad religion:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“was purely naturalistic, it consisted in the recognition of a -‘Spirit of Heaven,’ and a ‘Spirit of Earth,’ but these spirits were -not worshipped but ‘conjured’; hence charms were older than -litanies.”</p></div> - -<p>and as to ancestor worship Mr. Simcox says:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“it was the first branch of the Egyptian religion to become -<i>associated with proprietary ideas</i>, which also constitutes the leading -feature of the Chinese religion, the worship of the spirits or -manes of deceased ancestors.”</p></div> - -<p>On these points we shall notice that much that -differentiates the two peoples will tend to show that -the Chinese broke away from the Euphrates earlier -than the Egyptian kindred, before indeed the anthropomorphic -religious ideas became superimposed upon the -naturalistic. This is an important index to the distance -in time when the migration eastward began. Imagine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> -that vast valley peopled as Berosus the old Babylonian -historian states,—“There was originally in the land of -Babylon a multitude of men of foreign race who had -settled in Chaldea.” These people consisted of numerous -tribes, previously dwellers in the forests in the highland -range eastwardly bounding the valley, and through long -centuries they had multiplied exceedingly; to be called -in after time by several distinguishing names. In this -early period they were all Akkads from the northern -mountains, and Sumerians from the southern range as -these names originally imply. Presumably, these -people would sort themselves into kindreds, so that -when the pressure from increase of population caused -them to swarm, they went off in bodies all of the same -type. The Red type we may call Egyptians, the -Yellow type, or black-haired we call Chinese, the great -remaining bulk of dwellers on the soil became the -people called Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians and -other names. How long ago was it when “the black-haired -people” swarmed off? The Chinese chronologers -go back 43,000 years <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> for the earliest tidings -of their race, and no doubt their records are but dim -traditions, not of China, but of this their primitive home -by the Tigris and the Euphrates. Their astronomical -calculations are shewn not correct for the land of China -but must be referred to the land of Medea and of -Southern Asia. The black-haired people took with -them a knowledge which was common with all the -tribes around them in that valley; their religion, the -Sumerian, “the Spirit of Heaven,” “the Spirit of -Earth,” nothing more, no gods or goddesses, -agriculture and canalization they learnt there, and the -building of dwellings of the reed-thatched type from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> -which they have not departed, and the worship of -ancestors common to that early world remains with the -Chinese in its most primitive stage, as a traditionary -usage almost instinctively connected with the family -claims, as a posthumous honouring, not as a feeling of -religion. The polytheistic ideas developed later with -the other tribes had not then arisen, consequently we -find the Chinese settled in their new home with only -simple, vague notions of “Spirits” good and harmful, -and being a people singularly wanting in imagination, -they present still, notwithstanding their long history, -an aspect, as a nation, of archaic survival.</p> - -<p>These considerations help us to understand how it is -that in their music they have shewn so little growth. -They drew from the same musical roots as other -nations yet remain stunted; socially and intellectually -the Chinaman of to-day is the same as the man who was -obedient to the rule of Yao, and Hwang-ti, and when the -latter formulated the rules that were held to govern the -music, the Chinese were content that for ever after -music was fixed; they appear to delight in keeping -things in a dwarfed state as they take a pride in dwarfed -trees, and we of the Western world find it so difficult to -understand them, but we still go on trying.</p> - -<p>In these hints I think you will find fair justification -for my belief in the very remote antiquity of a musical -scale, a set sequence of sounds by choice adopted, it may -be of four or five sounds, common in its rudimentary -stage amongst all the tribes aggregated in Southern -Asia, where we have for many scientific reasons a -conviction that civilization originated.</p> - -<p>The great migrations of peoples were caused by -famines, plagues, inundations, overcrowding of popula<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>tion, -but apart from these the instinctive desire of man -to better himself in place and position and possessions -was an ever inciting force.</p> - -<p>An old Akkadian hymn, perhaps the oldest piece of -writing in the world, commences,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“Mankind is born to wander,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>a simple sentence—a premonition of all history. Imagine, -if you can, the ages of civilized life necessary to bring the -human brain to a conception so philosophic and true -as this. Earth is old now. Earth was very old then.</p> - -<p class="tb">The Chinese affirm that the Emperor Hwang Ti, the -Yellow Emperor, invented the scale of twelve semitones, -called the twelve <i>lüs</i>, and according to the record of -date this was 4590 years ago. The pitch of the notes -of all ancient systems was described by lineal measurements; -hence every interval accepted was either the -excess or defect resulting from the division of a greater -measure, the octave, or the fourth. In some way or -other the derived proportions have been grateful to -human ears, perhaps because they denote absence of -conflict, or presence of symmetry.</p> - -<p>The discovery by the Yellow Emperor as narrated -reads somewhat fabulous. It is stated that he sent -his minister Ling Lun to the valley west of the -Kuênlun mountains, where bamboos of regular thickness -grow; that Ling Lun cut the piece of bamboo -which is between the knots, and the sound emitted by -this tube when blown across he considered the bass or -tonic; that is our way of naming, not his. The length -was equal to one Chinese foot. He then cut a second -pipe two thirds of the length of the first, which gave a -sound a fifth higher, and continued similar relations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> -from pipe to pipe, and so on, he completed the series of -twelve sounds according to the idea of his master, and -for evermore fixed the musical scale handed down from -generation to generation through thousands of years.</p> - -<p>I have shown that Amiot misled us in assigning it to -the <i>Sheng</i>, and I expect he has given currency to other -errors. What I do note, and have assigned the cause -for in the argument of the previous chapter, is the -peculiar crowding of the scale with intervals less than -a semitone between <i>f</i> and <i>a</i>; and perhaps this crowding -has helped towards inducing the belief, without question, -that the semitonal scale was intended, but that the -making of the instrument was not done with due -exactness, or that the instrument was out of order if it -did not bear out the theory of an equal tempered semitonal -succession through an octave. The theoretical -existence of such a scale is not here called in question: -my contention is that the ancient instruments give no -confirmation of having been planned in view of such a -principle. Stranger still, the very scheme to which the -learned writers refer as the basis of the principle, and -carefully guarded by them as an authentic ancient -treasure, gives a complete denial to the whole assumption. -I take their own statements, the evidence of -their own authorities, and wonder, when I examine -the twelve <i>lüs</i>, why they never examined them, why -from curiosity alone they sought no corroboration of -their statements from the <i>lüs</i> themselves.</p> - -<p>In Van Aalst’s book the scheme is fully set out -in diagram, the twelve <i>lüs</i> figured, and all the curious -details inserted of the moons and the hours to which -each pipe belongs by some mystical relation which the -Chinese mind perceives; the pipes are arranged in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> -order in which they bear to the longest one, which is -the prime genitor. Also there is another diagram, -elaborately designed to display the affinities in a circle, -having twelve compartments springing from a common -centre; the <i>kung</i> or fundamental sound being placed as -the hub of a wheel with the other sounds rayed round, -each sound being named. The diagram of pipes shows -how the <i>lüs</i> generate one another, whereas the circle -or wheel diagram gives the notes as they follow in a series. -I think that I remember seeing these diagrams in Amiot’s -sixth volume. Very likely Van Aalst has taken them -from the same source. Again, he says, “The <i>lüs</i> are a -series of bamboo tubes, the longest of which measures -nine inches, and which are supposed to render the twelve -chromatic semitones of the octave.” It appears to me that -the great source of misunderstanding has been in the -European persistence in regarding “the twelve <i>lüs</i>” as -meaning “twelve semitones”: whereas the Chinese -name <i>lüs</i> means laws or principles.</p> - -<p>I have examined these pipes by measures and do not -find them in any way corroborating the semitonal -relation; and simply taking the names accorded to the -<i>lüs</i> and set forth in these diagrams, if we arrange the -notes in successive order, neither do they bear out the -scale claimed for them. Let us see: this is how they -stand. Twelve semitones forsooth!</p> - -<table summary="semitones" border="0"><tr> -<td> </td><td>♯</td><td> </td><td>♯</td><td> </td><td>♯</td><td> </td><td>♯</td><td> </td><td>♯</td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td><i>a</i>—<i>d</i>—<i>e</i>—</td><td><i>f</i></td><td><sup> ‿ </sup><i>g</i><sup> ‿ </sup></td><td><i>g</i></td><td><sup> ‿ </sup><i>a</i><sup> ‿ </sup></td><td><i>a</i></td><td><sup> ‿ </sup><i>b</i>—</td><td><i>c</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>d</i></td><td>—<i>f</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Thus the development of the scale shows only a -central crowding of semitones, and not even an octave -relation, plainly indicating an ancient growth through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> -the tetrachord. The diagram showing how the <i>lüs</i> -generate one another states that the longest pipe is nine -inches; yet in the letterpress Van Aalst says that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The first tube was one foot in length in reality, but that the -foot was considered as being only nine inches, because nine is -perfectly divisible by three, whereas ten is not.</p></div> - -<p>And further, that</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The twelve <i>lüs</i> were used by the Chinese merely to regulate -the instruments and give a uniform pitch to the music. The -diameter of all the tubes must be the same. Mêne K’ang says -that the circumference of all the tubes diminishes according to -their length; but this is explicitly contradicted by Tas’i Tzü, -who quotes Chêng K’ang-chêng and Ts’ai Yung (two great wine -bibbers and famous writers on music), and he flatly declares -that Mêne K’ang and his adherents know nothing about music. -The tubes were all of the same thickness, circumference and -diameter; only the length varied according to the sounds.</p></div> - -<p>And so on, which shows how almost European the -Chinese are in their humanity.</p> - -<p>I have quoted largely from J. A. Van Aalst’s “Chinese -Music” to which I am much indebted. The author is -learned in the ways and in the literature of the Chinese, -being himself in the Chinese Imperial Customs Service, -and his work is published by order of the Inspector -General of Customs, Shanghai.</p> - -<p>The first tube in the diagram bears this inscription:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p><i>Huang-Chung</i>, or yellow bell, corresponds to the eleventh -moon and the eleventh hour, emits the sound <i>kung</i> (modernly -called <i>yo</i>), is a <i>yang-lü</i>, was the first tube cut, and served as -genitor to all the others. It measured one Chinese foot long, -and contained exactly twelve hundred grains of millet. Two -thirds of its length form the next tube. <i>Lin-Chung</i>, or forest bell, -gives a note a fifth higher, etc.</p></div> - -<p>Description follows, in the same style of quaint symbolism, -upon each of the twelve. At the third pipe, -however, which it says ought to be two-thirds of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> -preceding length, a change comes, which it is important -to notice,—viz., “that the sound would be too high -compared with <i>kung</i>, and so the tube is to be doubled, -and four thirds taken instead of two thirds.” This virtually -introduces the three fourths relation, the fourth -instead of the fifth; and in the remainder of the pipes -some are calculated some way, and some the other. -There is no twelve fifth scheme carried out as supposed.</p> - -<p>Pursuing the investigation, I cut slips on the system -laid down, and found that the lengths and the pitches -did not agree; and I also tried working out the <i>Sheng</i> on a -basis of fifths instead of fourths, of the relation 2/3 instead -of 3/4, and found that the result did not correspond with -the speaking lengths of the <i>Sheng</i> pipes.</p> - -<p>The tale told of the twelve <i>lüs</i> bears every evidence of -being an invention; and I fancy that the fable originated -in a scholastic endeavour to account for the existence of -the perfected instrument the <i>Sheng</i>, so old that none -knew how it came into being. The twelve <i>lüs</i> comprised a -scale of an octave and a fourth, and the scale of the -<i>Sheng</i> is also an octave and a fourth in compass; but -neither constituted a semitonal scale, which was an idea -of much later date. So also the making of a scale out of -a succession of twelve fifths was a notion of the pedants, -the men learned in book knowledge, and they fixed upon -Ling Lun the credit of cutting each pipe by a succession -of two-third lengths, on the principle of the fifth.</p> - -<p>The question has been raised whether the pipes were -open or stopped, and the authorities say they were -stopped, and they make their drawings of the pipes -corroborate their view, but if so, what becomes of the -affirmation that Ling Lun cut the bamboos <i>between</i> the -knots unless to secure an open tube?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span></p> - -<p>Although I may seem to have been wandering from -the track, I have not lost sight of the central point to -which my cogitations tend. I wished to impress the -evidence of evolution in the appropriation of bamboo -pipes for musical purposes, in the use of such bamboos -in the earliest periods, all of similar diameters, and -to show that variation in the diameters was an after -development, even as was the use of metal pipes instead -of the natural growth of bamboo or reed.</p> - -<p>If you have read the first part of this volume you will -have understood that I take the view that the earliest -musical notions of man in his primitive state were -derived from the industry of his fingers, and the relations -of a musical scale had the same basis, becoming afterwards -hereditary. The Chinese foot is equal to a hand-span -of a ruler or emperor, and has ten divisions equal -each to a thumb’s breadth. The standard pipe is 9-7/8in. of -our measure. Taking a pipe that length and halving -it, or taking one half that length, the notes obtained -are what we call tonic and its octave; but being of the -same diameter the octave will be flat. This we find to -be a peculiarity in Chinese music. Taking a pipe -three quarters the length of the whole, a note is -obtained from it which is a fourth; and this, the same -diameter being kept, will be inevitably a flat fourth; -hence the existence of a flat fourth in the ancient musical -instruments of the Chinese and Japanese. And so -everywhere, unless the diameters have varied as the -lengths have varied, the intervals cannot then have -been the exact intervals that we set down for our musical -relations. Yet, strange it is: showing the persistence -of heredity and tradition. The Chinese in later -times perfectly well knew, as I shall show, the rela<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span>tions -of the diameters of pipes according to geometrical -laws.</p> - -<p>Music with the Chinese, itself as an art so unprogressive, -has from the first taken a unique position in the -national life. Dr. Wagener tells us that the weights -and measures that have been in use these 4600 years in -the Chinese empire are based upon Lyng-lun’s work in -determining the musical standards of the <i>lüs</i>. The first -pipe which he cut as the foundation of his scale was -the longest, and it was found to contain 1200 grains of -millet seed. He chose a sort of millet, the <i>sorghum -rubrum</i>, which is of a dark brown colour, as being -harder and more uniform than the gray and other -kinds. One hundred of these was made by him the -unit of weight, and this was divided and subdivided -on a decimal system until a single grain became the -lowest weight of all. The length of this pipe was equal -to 81 of these seeds placed lengthwise; but breadth-wise, -it took 100 grains to make the same length: -hence the double division 9 + 9 and 10 + 10 was -naturally arrived at. This musical foot thus became -the standard measure with decimal subdivisions. The -breadth of a grain of seed was 1 <i>fen</i> (line), 10 <i>fen</i> = 1 -<i>tsun</i> (inch), 10 <i>tsun</i> = 1 <i>che</i> (foot), 10 <i>che</i> = 1 <i>chang</i>, -10 <i>chang</i> = 1 <i>ny</i>. Lyng-lun also fixed the dimensions -of the interior of the pipe at 9 grains breadth. The -contents of the tube proved to be 1200 grains, and the -weight of 100 grains was made by him the unit of -weight. The pipe was thus made the basis of the -musical system, and equally so the basis of the system -for lineal measure, dry measure, and weight; ultimately -for coinage.</p> - -<p>Another interesting fact is that the Chinese had as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>certained -the geometrical relation of musical pipes. -The problem had been thoroughly examined by a -certain Prince Tsai-Yu (1596). In practical and scientific -hydrodynamics, the relation of the diameters of -pipes to the volume contained was well known; but it -appears that, as applied to sounding pipes, the Prince -Tsai-Yu was the first clearly to record its demonstration. -Of two musical pipes of the same diameter, one -two feet long and the other one foot long, the latter -does not, as assumed, give a note the higher octave of -the former, for the note will be flat. Neither if we -halve the diameter, even as we halve the length, will -the note prove true. The common practice with us in -organ building is to give the half diameter to the seventeenth -pipe; but this is merely an empirical decision. -The prince, without explaining theoretically why, -showed that the proper dimensions relatively of length -and diameter were as follows. Assuming a pipe of 2ft. -length to have an interior diameter of 5 lines, then -correctly the pipe of 1ft. length should have a diameter -of 3 lines 53 cent., and a pipe of 6in. length a diameter -of 2 lines 50 cent.</p> - -<p>Our organ pipe custom is solely a determination -of ear, or feeling, as regards the aggregate of sounds; -for we gain in brightness and fluency by not delaying -the acceptance of the half diameter until the -second octave, which geometrically would be its true -position,—viz., at the twenty-fifth note. Thus, and by -holding control in regard to the amount of wind, and -regulating by voicing, we are able to blend the total -accord of sounds in harmony, in the way pleasurable -to the trained ear or cultivated taste, according to the -perceptivities of the Western peoples.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Flowery Kingdom.</b><br /><br /> - -THE BIRD’S NEST.</small></h2> - -<p>Music by inspiration. Yes, that is it,—the very thing -we want, what we are all longing for; so little of the -truly inspired music comes newly to refresh us as the -birth of the days we live in. Only the old seems the ever -new. How inspiring it is to listen to the themes of the -old masters, and feel the old melodies pass through us -like a current of life, awakening thrills of delight, the -memory of the first hearing of them blending with and -enhancing the emotions of the present. To inspire, -“to drink in.” How we drink in the life renewing -melodies of Beethoven and Schubert: their potency -never fails, and in our exultation we call them divine. -How strangely inevitable are the ideas we associate -with the words “divine” and “inspiration.” Apply -them as we will to frail human effluences, there is no -escape from the higher exalted sense, from the ideal -signification. Inspiration,—it is a grand word. Some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span>how -the ideal clings around words, in however “matter -o’ fact” way they come to be used; like the eastern -vase that has been filled with roses, in after time</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“The scent of the roses will cling round it still.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>One thought leads to another thought. I have a little -instrument before me, dignified by the name “organ,”—a -very little organ, but the name comes to it because -it is one of the earliest of the race from which our -present day organ has sprung. Was its inventor a -genius? A poor human nomad wandering the wilds of -Tartary, inspired to begin the foundations of that -which was to be an empire of sound,—one of those</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“Who builded better than he knew,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Was he inspired, I wonder? True it is that the invention -has been claimed for some emperor, but that is so -natural an appropriation that we give no heed to it. -Certainly it is the unknown man who is the true great -man, though history has obliterated his name and -graven a royal cartouche in its place. The mythical is -always later than the real.</p> - -<p>This curious instrument: what a juggle of words it -has led me to. The inspiration I have to talk of is done -by inspiring,—its music is made as the lark’s music is, -by inspirating. Note you how the bird sings by drawing -in breath, by <i>inspiring</i>; and higher and higher he -mounts, filling the air with melody for a half mile -around him; soaring, singing and singing as he -soars, never tiring for the hour together, because -every effort invigorates the little body instead of exhausting -its strength; he drinks in oxygen at every -note, and so is refreshed by singing. Would that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> -human singing were equally refreshing to the singer -and the hearer!</p> - -<table summary="Chinese Sheng."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Chinese<br /> -Sheng.<br /> -(Quarter<br /> -Size.</i>)</td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p182.jpg" width="300" height="1011" alt="Fig. 28. The Chinese Sheng." /><br /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 28.</i></p></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>The <i>Sheng</i> was formerly called the “bird’s nest,” and -the peculiar arrangement of its pipes—the longest of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> -which pipes exceed considerably the real sounding -length—is held by the Chinese to represent the tail of -the phœnix as she sits upon her nest; indeed, unless we -accept the symbolism, the method shown in the construction -is unaccountable.</p> - -<p>According to the Chinese there are eight sound giving -bodies corresponding to the eight symbols of Fu Hsi, -which they believe are the expression of all the changes -and permutations which take place in the universe. -These eight are stone, metal, silk, bamboo, wood, skin, -gourd, clay, with symbolic relations to the eight points -of the compass and the eight seasons of the year. The -<i>Sheng</i> is the representative of the gourd principle. -Originally the bowl was formed of a portion of a gourd -or calabash, although in later times made of wood and -lacquered. This gourd is in shape like a teacup, the -top of which is covered by the insertion of a circle of -wood, having a series of holes around the margin, into -which the pipes are fixed; then there is a neck or -mouthpiece shielded by an ivory plate, through which -the performer draws the wind. My instrument is an -old one, has been in this country eighty years or more; -and as it has been here photographed to a scale of one -fourth, all the proportions are preserved in the engraving. -The instrument is placed to the mouth with -the pipes slanting to the right shoulder, the right hand -forefinger being placed within the opening seen in the -circle of pipes, and the thumb so placed as to be ready -to cover the hole seen on the second pipe, counting to -the left from this opening. The bowl is held in the -hollow of the left hand, with the fingers reaching -upwards to the pipes.</p> - -<p>A noticeable feature is that it is the left hand that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> -fingers the instrument, indicating a very early custom, -in that respect. The pipe engraved here is of full size, -and shows the little metal free reed affixed, which also -is drawn at the side full size in its frame. The slot determining -the speaking length of the pipe is at the back, -and is here indicated at the proper position by the side -diagram, the length of pipe above the slot having no -particular relation except an average one of about the -same length as the bottom portion reckoned from the -lowest end of the cut. The pipes numbers 3 and 4 have -their holes at the inside or back of the pipes in a position -to be covered by the forefinger of the right hand.<br /><br /></p> - -<p class="center padl22 f09"><i>Diagram of the<br /> -Length of Slot at the Back.</i></p> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p184.jpg" width="500" height="101" alt="Length of Slot at the Back." /></div> -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%"> -<img src="images/i_p185.jpg" width="500" height="128" alt="Fig. 29. A Pipe of the Sheng" /> -<p class="caption padl20"><i>The Reed</i> (<i>Full Size.</i>)</p></div> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 29.<br /><br /> -A Pipe of the Sheng</i> (<i>Full Size.</i>)</p> - -<p>The little free reed is of copper, is of very delicate -workmanship, the tongue is about half an inch long -having its tip slightly loaded with beeswax, and the -corners rounded off, thus leaving passage way for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> -air, otherwise the tongue would not be set in vibration, -since the reed tongue is quite level with its frame, -a condition in which modern reeds would not speak. -It is a peculiarity worth noticing. Another strange -contrivance is that the hole which we see on each pipe -a short distance above the cup, is designed to prevent -the pipe from speaking; is not the opening for the -sound of the note as in other pipes is the usual purpose; -although the air drawn in comes simultaneously through -all the pipes, not a single pipe will sound that has not -the side hole covered by a finger. The position of the -hole has no relation to nodal distance, it effects its -purpose by breaking up the air column when it is open, -and so prevents the pipe from furnishing a reciprocating -relation to the pitch of the reed. Over these holes the -four fingers play in the order the music requires.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span></p> - -<p>The <i>Sheng</i> is considered to be one of the most important -of the Chinese musical instruments; no other is -so perfect either for sweetness or delicacy of construction. -It is indispensable in the ritual music of their -temples.</p> - -<p>At the Confucian ceremonies there are six <i>Sheng</i>, -three on the east and three on the west side of the hall. -They play exactly the same music as the <i>ti-tza</i> or flute, -yet they are not used in the popular orchestras. At -nuptial and funeral processions the <i>Sheng</i> is played, but -it is then merely for form’s sake, in accordance with -the requirements of the rites, and the hired coolie who -carries it simply simulates playing.</p> - -<p>One rarely hears the <i>Sheng</i> now-a-days, on account, -some say, of a curious superstition that a skilful performer -becomes so wedded to its music, that he is ever -playing, and that, as the instrument is played by -suction or drawing in of the breath, a long continuance -in practice brings on inflammation of the lungs; so no -performer is believed to live more than forty years! -Others however, and these are the philosophers, maintain -that the ancient music and the ancient methods of -playing are lost, and the construction of the instrument -after the ancient plan is a lost art. This one can well -believe of an instrument belonging in its prime to so early -a period of history. Of all the ancient music nothing -remains but abstruse theories. Van Aalst says:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The Emperor Che Huang-ti <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 246 the destroyer of books -came. He ordered the annihilation of all books with the exception -of works on medicine, agriculture, and divination. The -decree was obeyed as faithfully as possible by an uneducated -soldiery, who made it a pretext for domiciliary visits, exactions, -and pitiless destruction. Music books and instruments shared -the same fate as every object which could give rise to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>remembrance of past times; and a long night of ignorance -rested on the country to such an extent that at the rise of the -Han dynasty the great music master Chi, whose ancestors had -for generations held the same dignity, scarcely remembered -anything about music but the noise of tinkling bells and dancers’ -drums.</p></div> - -<p>I have possessed four of these little <i>Sheng</i> organs -(pronounced “sung”) and it became to me a fascinating -problem how the instrument originated. I compared -one with the other, and where one was imperfect, the -other possessed the notes to perfect the scale. At that -time but little was known of the instrument, for we had -only some flowery accounts given in Chinese history, -and one description of it very fully set out in Père -Amiot’s work on the Chinese, published in Paris, 1780, -in six vols. The description is found in the sixth -volume, but I soon discovered that the good father had -but very imperfect means at his command, and that the -scale he gave was not to be relied upon. For my own -satisfaction I was led to make a closer examination of -the instrument, and to glean whatever particulars I -could for the better understanding of the organ and its -place in history.</p> - -<p>We are accustomed to regard the Chinese as a very -conservative people, unchangeable in modes and -customs, and indisposed to vary in routine after tradition -has fixed it. Closer view of their history shows -that this is a mistake, and we have been drawn into it -because the range of their change has been limited; -and in their inventions, numerous and important as -they have been, they nevertheless seem not to have the -aptitude to advance them to higher grade of utility. -Their musical scales have been constantly fixed, and -have been as constantly changing. Mr. A. J. Ellis has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> -shown that at <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 1300 the scale had only five notes, -that the invading Mongols introduced an additional -scale, that Kublai Khan <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 1259 combined the two, -that in the thirteenth century the Ming dynasty -excluded all semitones, that the Tsing dynasty (which -has existed from 1644), reverted to the former scale; -and these are comparatively modern changes. And yet -one may say that ages earlier changes began, and this -<i>Sheng</i> has at various periods been subject to change; -at one time it had nineteen pipes, at another twenty-four -pipes, and now has settled down to the -form, still very ancient, which is illustrated here -with seventeen pipes, two of these being dummies—as -some modern organ fronts are—and two are duplicates -of others for convenience, leaving therefore eleven -sounding pipes to represent the working scale of the -instrument.</p> - -<p>For the origin of the <i>Sheng</i> we must go back -beyond these periods of change. Its history begins -with a woman, as is proper in tradition, and the -invention is attributed to a female sovereign in the -mythical age known as Nu-wo. Eve is said to have -brought “woe” into the world, but this lady evidently -by her name was of later date, ancient though that -date is. She succeeded the Emperor Fu Hsi, who -reigned 4745 years ago, and who was the reputed father -of music, for the Chinese are a people who naturally -consider that there is no music of any account besides -their own. Then Hwang Ti “the Yellow Emperor,” -follows, and he takes credit for the invention, its a way -men have: this was about one hundred and fifty years -after the death of the lady aforesaid. Then the great -Emperor Shun four centuries later, he lays some claim;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> -but the probability is that these two emperors regulated -the laws, which till then had not been formulated into -fixed rule. Indeed each emperor had his own system, -and did not agree with his predecessor’s systems. There -can be no doubt that the <i>Sheng</i> is of great antiquity; it -is often mentioned in the great poetical books of the -Chinese, the <i>She</i> and the <i>Shoo-king</i>, and the commentators -on ancient musical instruments invariably -mention the great age of the <i>Sheng</i>, and seem to delight -in speaking of it as evidence of the inventive genius and -musical talent of the Chinese.</p> - -<p>In my desire to place you abreast with the Chinese -knowledge of the art of music, I give you this beautiful -elucidation from the treatise of J. A. van Aalst:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>According to the Chinese ideas, music rests on two fundamental -principles,—the <i>shên-li</i>, or spiritual immaterial principle; -and the <i>ch’i-shu</i>, or substantial form. All natural productions -are represented by unity; all that requires perfecting at the -hands of man is classed under the generic term, <i>wan</i>, plurality. -Unity is above, it is heaven; plurality is below, it is earth. The -immaterial principle is above,—that is, it is inherent in natural -bodies, and is considered their <i>pên</i>, basis, origin. The material -principle is below; it is the <i>hsing</i>, form or figure of the <i>shên-li</i>. -The form is limited to its proper shape by <i>shu</i>, number, and it -is subjected to the rule of the <i>shên-li</i>. Therefore, when the -material principle of music—that is, the instruments—is clearly -and rightly illustrated, the corresponding spiritual principle—that -is, the essence, the sounds of music—becomes perfectly -manifest and the State’s affairs are successfully conducted.</p></div> - -<p>You will now be able thoroughly to understand -something of the Chinese systems of music, and their -rigidly scholastic basis; and should you think that the -explanation that you have read requires to be supplemented -by explication, I may say that the authorities -at the British Museum have now shelved for public use -in the King’s Library the five thousand and twenty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> -volumes of the Chinese Encyclopædia, to which I refer -you.</p> - -<p>This is said to be the only complete copy known in -Europe of a work commenced how many centuries ago -I forget; and as the Chinese had at hand four hundred -and eighty-two learned treatises on music, no doubt the -subject is exhaustively drawn out, and will repay your -search in the various sections and sub-sections. It is -said that in 2277 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> there were twenty-two authors -on dance and music, twenty-three on ancient music, -twenty-four on the playing of the <i>kin</i> and the <i>chi</i>, -twenty-four on solemn occasions, and twenty-six on -scale construction. The sages alone comprehend the -canons, and the mandarins of music are considered -superior to those of mathematics. The College of -Mandarins at Pekin is within the imperial palace. The -head musician in China represents the five capital -virtues,—humanity, justice, politeness, wisdom and -rectitude. How very old these people are! Certainly, -we have colleges—a few!—but for some reason or other -we are not sufficiently advanced to have such a head -musician; and, in consequence of lack of such representation, -the profession may possibly be minus some -of the virtues in these ways: which, as the saying goes, -accounts for it.</p> - -<p>You know that old Confucius wrote about the ancient -music in the <i>Shoo-king</i>, and that was about 551 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, or -about the time when Ezra was occupied in collecting -the parchments of the laws of Moses. In the great -destruction of books all copies of Confucius disappeared, -but happily one complete copy was found secreted -in the wall of the house that he dwelt in; and that was -in 140 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, when the house was pulled down. But you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> -must think of a time far back, far as the times of the -Pharaohs who built the pyramids, a time when the -Chinese were already writing learned works on the -music and the instruments, the existence of which -necessarily implied long periods of early civilization. -The earliest Chinese book that we know of is “The -Book of Changes,” 1150 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> Ah, and what changes -since! All history is a record of changes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p191.jpg" width="150" height="154" alt="Tailpiece." /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> - -<small><b>By the Yellow River.</b><br /><br /> - -THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHENG.</small></h2> - -<p>The <i>Sheng</i> as the parent of organs, the original -exemplar of free reeds, always greatly interested me, -and I was desirous of obtaining a knowledge of its -scale and methods; but I found such contradictory -statements, such confusion of different systems of succeeding -times, that the unravelling seemed hopeless. -No doubt, as time went on, certain accommodations -were made to conform to new orders and imperial -decrees, and the pedants of the schools seem to have -been chiefly concerned in the demonstration of doctrines -of similitude, and contrasts, and affinities, and mystical -comparisons with all things in heaven and earth, and -abstruse relations with numbers; sometimes one set of -teachings gaining prominence, only to be overturned in -favour of the next set that forced its way into law or -custom.</p> - -<p>The curious principle of inspiring in order to obtain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> -the action of the reed, and the still more peculiar characteristic -of closing the aperture at the side before the -sound could form itself in the tube, raised a multitude -of questions of origin and purpose, and therefore I set -about the investigation with the idea of working out -the evolution of the <i>Sheng</i> from the evidence, so to -speak, of its own skeleton that to-day is living.</p> - -<p>I want to take you back in imagination ages beyond -these dates, to find the man who made this little organ, -this little <i>Sheng</i> that to-day can arrest our attention -with absorbing interest. There was some first dreamer, -inventor, originator; some one who played and toyed -with the bamboos that grew beside his path, and -thought out this little thing that was to descend from -generation to generation, and become a household name -in huts and palaces and temples. In the far east the -bamboo is everywhere the resource of man for the -supply of his daily needs. With it he hunts and fishes, -and builds his house and ploughs his land; he is as -much beholden to it now as in most primitive days of -nomadic life.</p> - -<p>There are whole forests of bamboo in China and immense -quantities are floated down the great rivers to -the towns and cities; the province of Shantung is celebrated -for the small hard sort, which for certain uses -has a preference. Just as in Greece we alluded to a -kind specially sought for musical purposes. It would, -we can understand, be natural for the early tribes -to settle down beside the river; and, when a plot of -land was selected, the house was built with bamboo, -and furnished with domestic articles of bamboo, and the -implements of husbandry and fishing were all made of -this wonderful plant. With the river to give him fish,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> -and the land to yield him crops of millet and rice, the -man was happy. The custom obtains to the present -day to devote some portion of land round the house on -which to cultivate the bamboo. This portion is surrounded -by a ditch filled with water supplied from the -river by a tiny canal, and here these luxuriant grasses -grow; for the bamboo is but a gigantic grass, and the -domestic wants find this grove a perpetual storehouse -of supply. Conceive such a picture: the man after his -day’s toil sitting beside this grove, not in lazy ease, but -intently engaged upon a heap of little bamboo sticks, -measuring, cutting, comparing, and pondering over -some problem, some scheme upon which his mind -is fixed; only now and then looking upward and -catching sight of the grey turtle doves and their little -rose coloured feet clinging to the branch stems above -him. No sound disturbing the great silence of the -plain, only the doves mildly cooing as if in answer to -the sounds that come from his lips in intervals of -meditative musing; and the sounds of the bees in the -flowers; and the softer sounds of the flowing of the -broad river in the distance. As the sunshine lights up -his good humoured face, what is the thought that -makes it brighten with his smile, and tells of satisfied -attainment? Well may he feel content. He has perfected -an idea; he has laid the foundation of the <i>Sheng</i>. -And a very simple process it is, as I shall show you; -for although it occasioned him serious pondering, once -the idea had risen in his mind, the working out of the -scheme was assured.</p> - -<p>Some tribes in remote places in the east still have a -rude prototype of the instrument, consisting of a hollow -lump of clay with four or five pipes irregularly stuck in,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> -and beyond that they have not proceeded; and such -may have been the stage at which our ideal man with -an order loving brain set about thinking. Now, truth -to tell, I imagined myself to be this Chinaman, and -wondered how, in such a position as his, and with only -his means and his purposes, I should evolve such an -instrument. Curiously enough, as it turned out, I hit -upon the right idea, or as near proof of rightness as imagination -need come to. Until I had worked out the -scheme on this primitive basis, the instrument had been -a puzzle to me, and it did not seem to me that any -writer rightly understood it; and even the descriptions -by musical experts were obviously erroneous when -examined without prepossessions of the scholastic kind. -The first instrument that came into my hands was perfect -in structure, but incomplete in reeds, not more -than four or five metal tongues remaining. The pitch -of these I ascertained, and the relations happened to be -useful for comparative deductions. It had long been a -creed with me that disease and death are our best -teachers; they cause us to question natural mechanism, -injury and disorder, and make us desire to know relation -and purpose in artificial mechanism also. Thus -my poor <i>Sheng</i> incited me to wish to know its structural -meaning, to ask how it came to be what it is.</p> - -<p>Music was a pastime ages before it became an art. -Religion is earlier than priesthood. I go therefore to -the man who first made this form of instrument; -question why he made it, how he took his first step, -how he came to take his second, how he by process of -thinking formed an instrument for himself and for -others to play. His ancestors, I consider, came from -the south, and in the early period would have used reeds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> -with tongues cut in them after the fashion of the -<i>Arghool</i>; but this man is an artificer, has more civilised -ways in communities of industry, and is influenced by -the beginnings of commerce. China is rich in mines of -iron and copper and zinc, and her people were a deft -fingered race, expert in delicate working of metals, and, -at this stage of advance in simple arts the tongues of -reed would be superseded by tongues of metal, thin and -elastic, and free from the disadvantages of swelling by -moisture and of the need of frequent renewals. Hence, -in cutting such substitutes by the minute chisels they -are so clever in using, the tongue or reed would naturally, -and without design, turn out to be a <i>free reed</i>. -A discovery having far reaching consequences, albeit -long limited to the land of this peculiar people, due to -the special deftness they have in the fine working of -copper; for these reed plates are of little more than -paper thickness. Just three cuts of a thin chisel, and -the tongue is formed in the little brass plate; and the -plate is fixed in its place with beeswax.</p> - -<p>Let us imagine our worker to live at this particular -period of growth of a civilised community, when music -was scarcely more than a chirping of birds, or the aimless -sounds which arose as rhythmical ebullition in -dancing; when musical art was personal, unformed -and any system of musical sounds as yet unthought of. -Such a time there must have been in the history of -every early race. Always, as I imagine, that the -instrument coming, before the system, originates that -liking in the human sentiency which heredity and -custom confirm. The peculiarity of Chinese music -corroborates this notion of mine; for although, so far -as we can tell, the structure of musical ears is the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>—yet -likings of the ear vary widely with the difference -in race.</p> - -<p>One of the first needs of men in relation to one another -in communities is a standard of measure of length, such -as a cubit, a foot, etc. The oldest standard with the -Chinese is the thumb’s breadth, and ten thumbs’ -breadths make one Chinese foot; and they had a -measure of millet seed, as we have our three barley -corns making one inch. Our worker then had his -measure of the foot, for that is the standard he sets -out with for his longest pipe, from which all the rest -originate. It is 9-7/8in. of our measure; and by the -same custom the longest pipe of the twelve <i>lüs</i> which -are mythically attributed to the Yellow Emperor, is of -like length. So the Chinese foot predetermined the -standard both for the reed pipe of bamboo with a tongue -of metal, and for the reed pipe blown across as the -pandean pipe is blown across: which pipe from immemorial -days has remained in the imperial archives, -as the unalterable standard of pitch—unalterable -because nature does not alter.</p> - -<p>I had a metal organ-pipe made to the precise length -and diameter of this imperial standard, and it proved -to be what we call <i>e</i> flat; which, as I found out, has -a significant relation, for our free reed pipe of this length -gives a sound one fourth lower exactly—namely B flat. -And this relation of the fourth dominates everything in -the evolution of music. Our worker found this out; -though knowing nothing of the interval of the fourth, -he fixed it by natural evolution,—by measure, not by -music: yet the measure afterwards made the music and -the law of the music. I see him cut reeds as our -country boys do from our grasses and spiers, and split<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> -a tongue on the side of one, as his ancestors had done -centuries before, and make a piping-bird sound from it. -He has some knowledge of the working of metals; is -an adept at it; has by socialisation and its wants -become an artificer in brass. The split reed becomes -spoilt after frequent use, so he conceived the thought of -making a substitute in metal.</p> - -<p>Let us picture him first as taking a bamboo reed, cutting -it a foot long in Chinese length (9-7/8in.), and from -this obtaining a note; then cutting other reeds promiscuously, -until at last he is attracted by one exactly half -its length, giving a baby note exactly the same in -seeming as the other, and blending into it. This is -what we call the octave,—a civilized perceptivity not -yet dawning on his mind; to him it is the man’s voice -and then the woman’s voice. The higher repetition of -the same sound. He has halved the length and obtained -unwittingly the octave; why not halve the other half -between? This he does, and from the three quarter -length of pipe obtains a new sound, which, sounded -with his prime gives a pleasing concord; thus, he -begins to recognise the new fact,—the family relationship.</p> - -<p>After this fashion of halving and quartering I imagined -that the <i>Sheng</i> grew and became an instrument; and, -placing myself in this mood of representative thought, -I also try and work the thing as he would have worked -it out, and see if I can get coinciding results. The half -and the half again seem to me so natural; the repetition -is so akin to the Chinese tendency. A two thirds is -a more artificial notion, and comes of later discernment. -How natural too, it is on finding more that two pipes -inconvenient within the mouth, to seek the first substitute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> -similar to the mouth in size, such as a little bowl, a -half gourd, or perhaps the same calabash that served -him for a drinking cup. Except the four or five reeds -that spoke in my specimen, I did not know what the -notes should be as the scale of the instrument; I only -knew that the scheme as told me by the writers with -authority was wrong, and was also misleading; for the -comparative speaking length of the pipes was at variance -with the assumed musical system, and I could not -make head or tail of the instrument until I resorted -to the question of primitive design. Then everything -fell into proper place with unlooked-for significance. -So I took a number of slips of wood (easier to cut than -bamboo), and proceeded to transmigrate myself into a -dweller in “far Cathay.”</p> - -<p>Adopting the measure of the Chinese foot to start -with, I cut a slip to that length, and then cut one to -half of that, and then cut one between these at the half -of the half, and so on by progressive steps halving and -half halving and doubling, and obtained a connected -series of thirteen slips to represent the speaking pipes of -my most mysterious little <i>Sheng</i>. I argued with myself -that in some such simple way our worker would have -evolved the instrument; that it was by no means the -outcome of a system of music, but was built up on a -visible relation of proportions; that the eye made it -and that the ear accepted it. Steadied by faith, I drew -my bow at a venture, and, lo and behold!—my arrow -went home true, and I was astonished as one who sees -his prophecy fulfilled and wonders how it came to pass. -For when I came to compare and to measure the actual -pipe lengths, they corresponded length for length with -the series I had evolved by my archaic process. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> -confess that the situation was bewildering as I gazed -upon the evidence before me, for it seemed too good to -be true, and one had a fleeting suspicion of magic or -hallucination of some kind. But no; reason and time -only increased the strength of my conviction that in this -process the <i>Sheng</i> was constructively worked out; -indeed, I do not see how by any other way the peculiar -scale of the instrument could have originated.</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sequence of Evolution of the Pipes of the Sheng.</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p200.jpg" width="500" height="110" alt="Music score." /></div> - -<p>Remember that at the time of my investigation—now -thirty years ago—I had no means of knowing -what the scale should be, and I had to calculate from -the relative lengths of the thirteen slips what the notes -of the speaking pipes would be; and when in after years -I came to possess other specimens of the instrument, I -found that all my conclusions had been correct.</p> - -<p>A very impressive result is the discovery that the old -Chinese musical basis was that of the Greeks,—the -tetrachord; and the complete scale of this, one of the -most ancient of Chinese instruments, consists of two -conjunct tetrachords and one disjunct tetrachord; -which scale, as I have said, being founded upon a -natural law of progression from or through a connected -series of proportional lengths, exhibits unchanged its -record of evolution. For pipes of certain length give -now the same tones and the same actual pitches as they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> -gave thousands of years ago. They do not change, -though modes and customs, peoples and empires change. -How remarkably suggestive is this taken with the -presence of the Pan’s pipes and the Phœnix, to which -your attention was given in a previous chapter, as -pointing to a common origin in some ancient era ere -history began. Helmholtz notes that Olympos (<i>circa</i> -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 660-620), who introduced Asiatic flute music into -Greece and adapted it into Greek tastes, transformed -the Greek Doric scale into one of five tones, the old -enharmonic scale,</p> - -<p class="center"> -<i>b</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> <i>c</i>— —<i>e</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> <i>f</i>— —<i>a</i><br /> -</p> - -<p>This, he says, seems to indicate that he brought a scale -of five tones with him from Asia. And this same scale -you will find in the scale of the <i>Sheng</i>. I gave all this -evidence respecting the scale of the <i>Sheng</i> more than -twenty-five years ago, to Mr. Ellis; but it was a long -time before he could bring himself to believe that -Amiot and other leading writers had given altogether -misleading statements. He went and pored over the -big folio volumes of Amiot’s “Mémoires des Chinois” -(1780), utterly confused; and only in later times, when -investigating for his work of marvellous patience, “On -the Musical Scales of Various Nations,” did he see that -truly the tetrachord was the basis of Asiatic music as it -was of Greek music.</p> - -<p>How was it that Amiot, living with the Chinese, gave -a wrong drawing of the free reed used in the <i>Sheng</i>? -How came he to say with authority that its thirteen -pipes were a succession of semitones? How came he to -select <i>f</i> as the tonic of the scale? Engel falls into the -same notion of thirteen pipes giving the same octave of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> -semitones as ours, but says that the <i>e</i> and <i>b</i> were exceptional -notes, only used occasionally.</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Order of the Pipes as they Stand in the Sheng.</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p202.jpg" width="500" height="537" alt="Order of the Pipes as they Stand in the Sheng." /> - -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 30.</i></p></div> - -<div class="blockquot2"> -<p><i>The illustration gives the series of holes into which the pipes are fitted on the -top of the covered bowl. Pipes 1, 9, 16, 17 are mutes, only placed for symmetry. -Be careful in references not to confuse the numerals as to order of pipes with -those of the sequence and scale.</i><br /><br /></p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span></p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scale of the Sounds of the Sheng.</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p203.jpg" width="500" height="112" alt="Music score." /> - -<p class="caption"><i>These numbers indicate the sequence in evolution of pipe lengths by the -process described.</i></p></div> - -<p>The scale really comprises one octave and a fourth -and the <i>master pipe</i> is the <i>e</i>♭, it being so marked on -every instrument I have handled, as shown in the illustration -at pipe 14. This is the pipe giving the note -corresponding in pitch to the imperial standard pipe, -yet it is one fourth less than that in length, because, -though both are cylindrical, the one is whistle or flute -blown and the other reed blown—such is the law -of these reed pipes—whilst the real standard length -standing beside it, No. 15, gives a sound a fourth -lower, and is the lowest in sound in the scale.</p> - -<p>Yet <i>b</i>♭ is not the tonic; the Chinese have not in their -music our kind of reckoning; but their <i>e</i>♭, at the junction -of the two tetrachords, corresponds to the <i>mese</i> -or middle note of the Greek scale. And in passing let -me say that in the middle tetrachord you leave out in -descending the notes 10 and 4, and in ascending leave -out 12 and 13, according as the conjunct tetrachords are -formed in the upper or in the lower part of the scale; -and thus the conditions required by the tetrachord are -maintained. Although, to make exposition easy, the -notes are here presented in our modern notation, you -should still bear in mind that the relations of note to -note are not the same, are not exact in ratios; most of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> -the notes are flatter or sharper than indicated, for the -simple reason that there is no other ratio of interval -than the fourth taken in relation to intervening upper -or lower octaves; and since two fourths will not comprise -an octave, each successive step in fourths that are -perfect takes us away from diatonic accuracy. Thus -the <i>g</i> given as a fourth above <i>d</i>♭ looks odd; yet it is -from that actual pitch <i>length</i>, as one may say, that the -<i>c</i> above is derived. The <i>c</i> is a flat note not expressed -by our notation, but we have to signify the notes in the -nearest terms we can for convenience, none being quite -accurate. A very curious puzzle, you will answer; but -very clear I can assure you when you have once found -your way through the labyrinth.</p> - -<p>Writers upon the <i>Sheng</i> all say that the pipes in the -range numbered 2 and 6 are mere duplicates, and also -4 and 8. But they are altogether mistaken; they give -not any intimation whatever why they exist. If it had -been so then speaking lengths would have been in -duplicate, which they are not. But I can demonstrate -why they are there; and that they are not duplicates -either as regards length or in pitch, but are necessary -in the evolution. There is nothing fantastic in the -arrangement; all the notes come naturally from one to -the other; they are necessary; not one too many -to complete the idea, not one left out; and, in truth, -that <i>last</i> one in the sequence given of evolution—which -I have marked ♭<sup>v</sup>_{a}, to indicate an extra flatness—has -every suggestion of being an afterthought. For the -pipe No. 2 in the order exists for no other reason than -to make an A♭ that shall be a true fourth to the high -D♭; a sounding pipe, for which a place is found where -otherwise a second mute pipe would have been, corres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span>ponding -with that on the opposite side. Why are there -two pipes with the ventage hole turned inwards to be -closed by a finger of the right hand? Because the -thumb ranges over several pipes, but could not properly -close more than one at a time; and to meet the difficulty, -pipes 3 and 4 have the closure operating behind. -So that when required for making fourths or thirds -with 2 or 5 or 6 or 7, in the order that comes under the -thumb of the right hand, then the finger comes to aid -in producing the simple concords desired. Certainly -the contrivance in its directness and efficiency is very -clever.</p> - -<p>The scale therefore is, after casting out the alternatives -not required in ascending, as follows. See how -very Greek it is.</p> - -<table summary="The scale" border="0"><tr> -<td><table summary="the scale" border="0"><tr> -<td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td colspan="2">♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td> -</tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5em;"> -<td><i>b</i></td><td>— <i>c</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> </td><td><i>d</i></td><td>—</td><td colspan="2"><i>e</i></td><td>— <i>f</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> </td><td><i>g</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>a</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td colspan="5"><img src="images/para90.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td colspan="5"><img src="images/para80.jpg" width="80" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr></table></td> -<td> </td> -<td><table summary="the scale" border="0"><tr> -<td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td> -</tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5em;"> -<td><i>b</i></td><td>— <i>c</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> </td><td><i>d</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>e</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td colspan="5"><img src="images/para90.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr></table></td></tr></table> - -<p>And in the alternative:—</p> - -<table summary="the scale" border="0"><tr> -<td><table summary="the scale" style="line-height: .7em;" border="0"><tr> -<td>♭</td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td> -</tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5em;"> -<td><i>b</i> — <i>c</i> <sup> ‿ </sup></td><td><i>d</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>e</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td colspan="5"><img src="images/para90.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr></table></td> -<td> </td> -<td><table summary="the scale" border="0"><tr> -<td>x</td><td> </td><td>♭v</td><td> </td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td><td> </td><td>♭</td> -</tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5em;"> -<td><i>f</i></td><td>— <i>g</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> </td><td><i>a</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>b</i></td> -<td>— <i>c</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> </td><td><i>d</i></td><td>—</td><td><i>e</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td colspan="5"><img src="images/para90.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td colspan="4"><img src="images/para80.jpg" width="80" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr></table></td></tr></table> - -<p>Here the <i>f</i>x makes a perfect fourth to <sup>♭</sup><i>b</i>, but would not -to <i>c</i> below; and ♭<i>a</i><sup>v</sup> makes a perfect fourth to ♭<i>d</i> above, -but would not to ♭<i>e</i> below. Each <i>c</i> is to be taken as -much nearer the <i>b</i>♭ than in our notation. The pentatonic -is obtained by skipping over the half tones. -These mysteries you can unravel if you care to take the -trouble to cut strips of paper as I did of wood. Number -them all at the bottom, and from the 9-7/8in. length you -will get its fourth,—that is to say, three quarters of its -original. Write on each the name of the note. And so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> -on, getting octaves and fourths above or below, in the -sequence I have given. As you go on, cut the strips to -the lengths found and fold each strip in length into -four; and then when you lay them out these curious -tonal relations are made manifest. Thus you see why -the sounds are what they are. The true lengths would -prove in sounds perfect fourths if the diameters of the -pipes had carried the geometrical law.</p> - -<p>Strangest of all remains the fact that my blind sticks -proved true prophets, and led me in the way of evolution, -the pitches of the pipes corroborating at every step.</p> - -<p>Reverting now to the details of the <i>Sheng</i>, there is -one little hint too important to be omitted if any reader -should happen to have the opportunity of measuring the -actual pipes. He will find that the pipe that is longest -in the speaking length—that is to say reckoning from -the lower end of the slot—will be 10-1/8in. in length, -instead of 9-7/8in. This excess of a quarter of an inch is -common to all the pipes, and is that portion extended -beyond the hollowed part of the foot which only reaches -to the base of the metal tongue, and is therefore the -real limit of the column of air. Consequently, this -quarter should be allowed <i>off each pipe</i> when measured, -because if computed in the speaking length it would -affect the accuracy of the half lengths. In my first -analysis, I found difficulties arose when comparisons -were instituted between the pipes themselves and the -slips of wood of the lengths evolved as a problem; -because, as I soon became aware, upon halving the -total lengths as taken actually from the pipes, the half -of this quarter inch was entering into every calculation, -and was of course misrepresenting by an eighth -of an inch the real speaking length to be credited to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> -half length and the three fourths length; and with -the shortest of the pipes the discrepancy became -serious.</p> - -<p>Time also, I found, had occasioned a little variation, -as the bamboos in drying lengthen a little; but it is a -mere trifle.</p> - -<p>One or two points I must not forget to direct attention -to. Notice that the reeds in the <i>Sheng</i> have their faces -turned to the wall of the bowl, and in this way a -reflecting surface acts to the advantage of the reed; -the air also acts less wildly than might be the case if -the reeds were turned toward the centre of the bowl. -The reed tongues are very thin, and are not lifted from -the level of the plates; consequently they may be -caused to sound both by drawing with the breath and -by blowing, although the latter is prohibited in practice, -as the moisture from blowing condensing on the reed -alters the pitch, and corrodes the metal. Any excessive -forcing of the tone the reeds are not liable to, because -the air is passing at the same time through all the -pipes, those that are sounding and those that are not.</p> - -<p>Fairly, then, I think that I may claim to have transformed -myself into an early Chinaman, and to have -shown that I possess a sympathetic, inquisitive, barbarian -sort of a mind, and ought to have lived years ago. -The plan that I hit upon in a wild, instinctive way -appears to be identical with the plan upon which the -<i>Sheng</i> was evolved; for no other seems so easy and -natural as this, alike in regard to the origin of the -instrument and to the development of the music.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Siam.</b><br /><br /> - -THE SIAMESE “PHAN.”</small></h2> - -<p>Geographically the three empires of China, Japan -and Siam, may be considered as one region, and -therefore, without doubt the <i>Sheng</i>, the <i>Sho</i>, and the -<i>Phan</i> have a common origin; and within the confines -of these lands this kind of instrument has its home. -There is no other type of the free reed, nor does it -seem to have strayed beyond its home until after the -lapse of many centuries—how many we cannot with -any certainty say. Somewhere in the land of China the -free reed had its origin; the first instance, too, of the -employment of metal as a vibrating tongue to produce -musical sound; and, as I said, the reed stamped out in -metal was bound to be a free reed. Yet it is curious -that no other nation had for music a metal reed, when -we note that, as Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen has stated, -the working of metal had been practised as early as 3000 -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> in Chaldea. He tells us of earliest Chaldean -inscriptions being certainly as ancient as 4000 to 5000 -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and that one of our earliest Chaldean sculptures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> -contained a representation of the harp and the pipes -which were attributed to Jubal. The last half dozen -lines are a repetition from the first chapter, merely -because it is desirable to have the facts they set forth -born in mind in this part of the exposition also.</p> - -<p>The instrument here illustrated, the Siamese <i>Phan</i>, -is of the same family as the Chinese <i>Sheng</i> and the -Japanese <i>Sho</i>. The principle is the same as regards the -production of sounds in each instrument. Although the -<i>Phan</i> in appearance is so different, yet details of its -construction are the same,—viz., a collection of bamboo -tubes forming a related series of pipes for a -succession of musical sounds; a bowl into which these -pipes are inserted, the bowl having an aperture for -breathing purposes; and each pipe possessing a little -free reed cut in a plate metal, and the sounds of the -pipes only to be elicited when a small lateral aperture -at the side of each pipe is closed by the finger of the -player. The pipes are also slotted, and are of superfluous -length, so much so that one is at a loss to account -for the purpose or the advantage supposed to be derived -from the excessive length; in fact, the illustration does -not show the length to which some of the bamboos -actually extend. The Siamese may be able to give a -reason, but we are not; and the instrument being -rarely found in this country, there are no facilities for -investigation of the musical effects.</p> - -<p>The instrument is apparently a rude survival of an -early period when China alone was the civilising influence -upon the natives of Siam; the little free reeds -used presume access to an already established industry -in the working of metals, and may have been obtained -by the natives by way of barter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Phan"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Siamese<br /> -Phan</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p210.jpg" width="150" height="892" alt="Fig. 31. The Siamese Phan." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 31.</i></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><i>Mouthpiece</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span></p> - -<p>An instrument in the Brussels Museum of Musical -Instruments is described by Mr. Victor Mahillon, and -the scale is set out as below. The tubes are fourteen -in number, fixed in two parallel rows of seven, as will -be seen; and upon the right hand is the flat face of the -bowl where the player places his mouth, and inspires -the air from the interior, setting the reeds in motion in -any of the pipes the lateral hole whereof shall have -been closed. These are the notes:—</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scale of the Phan.</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>Pipes to the left hand of orifice of bowl:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p211a.jpg" width="500" height="89" alt="Scale of the Phan." /> -</div> - -<p>To the right hand:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p211b.jpg" width="500" height="94" alt="Scale of the Phan." /> -</div></div> - -<p>Notice the prominent relation of the fourth ♭<i>a</i>, ♭<i>d</i>, and -that there are two notes alike,—♭<i>e</i>. These would, I -expect, if tested, prove to be slightly different, so that -one might be a true fourth to ♭<i>a</i> above, and the other -a true fourth to ♭<i>b</i> below; each derived by a different -progression, in the way that I have pointed out in the -evolution of the <i>Sheng</i>.</p> - -<p>The Phan belongs to the same family as the <i>Sheng</i>, -and it is for that reason only that it has been brought -to notice here.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In the Land of Japan.</b><br /><br /> - -JAPANESE PITCH PIPES AND THE JAPANESE CLARIONET -AND THE SHO.</small></h2> - -<p>The Japanese are a curious people, blending as they -do in their manners and customs, in their ways of -thought and mental tendencies, in their childish acceptances -and intellectual eagerness, naive simplicity and -artistic perceptivity; a strange union of the primitive, -the ancient, and the modern, all instinct with present -vitality. In their musical system and musical practice, -they inherit a long past, prehistoric; and, in their way -upward through the centuries, seem to have developed -an absorbing power, enabling them to acquire the new -without foregoing the ancient, and to blend all that -they acquire with a spontaneous ease that is less art -than happy nature, making in every sense the best of -everything. Adhering to the traditional, yet unfettered -by the pedantic formality which so cripples the progress -of the Chinese, they are able to advance with freedom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> -and to affiliate whatever seems to them good. In the -Japanese musical system, we find the ancient pentatonic -scale, the old Greek scales, and the equal semitonal -division of the octave, all coexisting; the latter being -to them indistinguishable from our equal temperament, -which we assume to be so modern. Hence our pianoforte -is naturally acceptable to them for its progression -of scale, although their ears do not yet make the -demand for harmony which is characteristic of the -western nations.</p> - -<table summary="Japanese"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Japanese<br /> -Pitch<br /> -Pipes.<br /><br /> -Full<br /> -Size.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p213.jpg" width="350" height="548" alt="Fig. 32. Japanese Pitch Pipes." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 32.</i></div></td> -</tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span></p> - -<p>The illustration given is full size. It is of a set of -Japanese pitch pipes, consisting of six little bamboo -tubes, threaded at the middle on a copper wire, which, -merely flattened at the ends, serves to hold all the pipes -together. At each end of each pipe is a little hollow -plug, which fits in tightly; and at the point which is -cut on the slant a small brass plate is fixed, as shown -in the sketch at top, which is drawn twice the size of the -original; and in the middle of the plate is a tiny reed, -cut in the plate by a fine chisel. This reed lifts up its -tip in a fine delicate curve, like the curve of “my -ladye’s eyelash”; and each of these minute hairlike -reeds is formed to give the desired pitch for one of the -twelve semitones of the compass of the octave. To -obtain exactness, the tips of some of the reeds have a -tiny bit of beeswax, loading them to the degree of the -slower movement of vibration which the artist’s ear -demands.</p> - -<p>The plate itself is fixed on the point of the bamboo -plug by beeswax,—nothing more; so simple and -efficient is this primitive construction, yet answering -every purpose of the musician. At the twelve ends are -the names of the notes in gold, stamped in Japanese -characters; but these the engraver has not attempted, -lest unknowingly some bend or twist or dot might be -such as to give some signification not fit for ears polite: -for we are aware in our own language how the omission -or insertion of a single vowel may alter the whole -meaning and be a source of lamentable error. The -pipes turn on the copper rod, permitting either end of -each pipe to be brought round to the lips as wanted. -The reeds only sound by suction: you draw the breath -through, and that sets the reed vibrating and sounding,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> -whilst the note on an instrument is being tuned. To -blow through on to the reeds would horrify the native -musician, because the moisture of the breath would -lodge and injure the durability of the reed. To have a -set of pipes as these, is as it would be to us if we had a -dozen tuning forks in a case to tune our pianos by for -ourselves. All the stringed instruments in Japan -require to be properly tuned every time they are played; -so one can appreciate the utility of this pretty little -companion in its simple case, and dagger fastening all -complete for the pocket. Or, as one should say, for the -sleeve; since it is the sleeve that is the receptacle for -all the odds and ends, the impedimenta, which civilization -carries with it in every land.</p> - -<p>The scale as nearly as we can represent it is:—</p> - -<table summary="the scale" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">A Sharp Fourth.<br /> -<img src="images/para120b.jpg" width="120" height="10" alt="The scale." /></td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td>D, E♭, E,</td><td>F♯, G, G♯,</td><td> A♭, A, B♭, B, C, C♯.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc2 vertt padr3" colspan="2"><img src="images/para150.jpg" width="150" height="10" alt="Buttom horizontal paranthesis" /><br /> -A Flat Fourth</td> -</tr></table> - -<p>We must not look at these as we do at our fourths and -fifths. The intention in the scale is that the player, -according as he is going <i>up or down</i>, should by <i>some -traditional rule</i> be able to substitute a sharp interval for -a flat one. Thus, he takes in the course of his melody -a flat fourth D to G, or by taking G♯ gets a sharp fourth; -or again a flat fifth from C♯ down to G; and the flat -fourth B down to to F♯ seems a favourite essential -interval. We should remember that the harmony or -concord is confined to octaves, fourths and fifths, and -that, the tones of the instruments being faint and -quickly vanishing, a mistuned fourth or fifth is little -worse than perfect intervals. The sharp thirds are not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> -unpleasant, but have a peculiar breezy effect heard -upon the <i>Sheng</i>, and the Sho.</p> - -<p>There is a great tendency in Eastern scales to make -flat fourths and sharp fifths. This same flat fourth is -given by my set of Chinese bells, and I remember how -Sir F. Gore Ouseley caught it instantly when he heard -it. He had the keenest ear for pitch that I ever met. -The A and A♭ depart from our relation of pitch. But -the Japanese are so accustomed to freedom in altering -their scales that the <i>Koto</i>, though tuned accurately, is -during playing altered to the passing fancy of the -player, who is allowed to pull the strings below the -bridge or to press them just as the moment dictates, -sharpening or flattening any interval. The classical -scales used in religious and royal ceremonials and the -popular scales are quite distinct, which shows how -in course of time the music itself has changed.</p> - -<p>My bells above named give F♯, A, B, C♯; the F♯ to -C♯ making a fifth, the F♯ to B making a flat fourth, the -A to C♯ a sharp major third. We may reckon bells to -be true carriers of pitch, scarcely, if anything, affected -by age.</p> - -<p>Mr. A. J. Ellis traces the old Greek tetrachords in the -Japanese scales, and remarks upon one, “it is interesting -to observe that this <i>hiradio-shi</i> scale, which consists of -a tone and two conjunct tetrachords, each divided approximately -into a semitone and its defect from a -fourth, presents us with a survival of the oldest Greek -tetrachord. Perhaps Olympos himself tuned no better -than the Japanese musician I heard.” He also infers -that the pentatonic scale was later than that of the -tetrachord. He says <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span>“that China and Japan introduced -nothing new beyond the original limitation of the scale -to five notes, which arose in fact from divisions of -tetrachords <i>into two parts only</i>. For instance, a semitone -and major third, like those of Olympos (whose -very division we find in the popular music of Japan), -or else into a tone and a minor third; the thirds arising -in each case as defects of the first interval of a fourth. -Such tetrachords were then either conjunct or disjunct; -but they were always capable of being completed into -Greek scales, as has been actually done in Japan and -China. On the other hand, Japan at least, and China -also, have attained a system of twelve more or less -exact equal semitones.”</p> - -<p>The Japanese have twelve semitones to the octave, -as the Chinese have, the root of their civilization -being the same. But in music ancient equal temperament -and modern equal temperament are not quite -the same thing; nevertheless, the approachments come -very near. The scale, however, is not used to play -music proceeding by semitones, but is used for the purpose -of transposition of melody to high or low position, -which changes never trespass beyond a range of fourteen -sounds for such melody. Our necessity for equal -temperament arose in like manner from the desire for -transposition, but it was for the needs of harmony. -This distinction we should never forget when considering -Eastern systems of music. Moreover, our -modern method of counting from the low note upwards -seems to be an inversion of the more primitive method, -which proceeded from above downward. Hence when -the fourth below was taken it has been our custom to -assume that the note was obtained as a fifth upwards -from the octave note below, and much confusion of -interpretation has resulted therefrom. There is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> -significant passage in Mr. A. J. Ellis’s notes to -Helmholtz:</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>The fact that the Greek scale was derived from the tetrachord -or divisions of the fourth, and <i>not</i> the fifth, leads me to suppose -that the tuning was founded on the fourth, not the fifth.... -It is most convenient for modern habits of thought to consider -the series as one of fifths; but I wish to draw attention to the -fact that in all probability it was historically a series of fourths.</p></div> - -<p>I often had arguments with Mr. Ellis upon these points, -and after the study of Arabic and Persian scales for his -comparative examination of “The Musical Scales of -Various Nations” he came at last to the same conclusion. -The fourth always seemed to me the most -naturally selected interval for the origin of the primitive -scales. It prevails in Arabia, Persia, China, and -the East generally.</p> - -<p>The instrument which is here illustrated is Japanese, -and is called a clarinet on account of the similarity in -the relation of its sounds, its second series being 12ths, -not octaves. The most noticeable peculiarity of the little -instrument is its reed, which is as broad as the tip of our -bassoon reed; but unlike that, is broader at the bass -end, which is inserted in the pipe (as you will understand -by the drawing, which shows the reed cut through -at mid-section).</p> - -<p>The vibrating portion is at the tip, to the extent -downward of three eighths of an inch, which evidently -has been pinched together and then dried in some particular -way. The two lips from the centre expand -outwardly under moisture, and leave a fine ovate opening, -which, under the suction of the passing stream of -air closes, and then reopens by its own elasticity. The -reed does not consist of two separate parts bound to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>gether, -but is itself tubular, its diameter at the bottom -being three eighths of an inch.</p> - -<p>Then a little clip of cane with bound ends forms -a ligature to keep the lips of the reed in proper relation -during blowing; and as it is pressed down tightly or -loosely, affects in some degree the pitch. Also the -lower end of the reed is bound with a strip of soft -paper, where it fits into the pipe; and so, whether it is -allowed to be set far into the pipe or not, will likewise -affect the pitch considerably. This will account for -some discrepancies in the statements as to the normal -pitch of the <i>Hichi-riki</i>. Again, in China, the same -kind of instrument is found differing in length, and -having the name <i>Kwan-tze</i>, The Japanese instrument -is no doubt a refined copy of the Chinese model, -which itself is so ancient that it may have been brought -from some region of the Caucasus. My own instrument -measures in pipe length 8in., and with the reed fitted -in, 9-1/8in. In the Brussels Museum, one is noted which -is 8-5/8in. in pipe length, and the lowest note is F; but -this instrument has another thumb hole between the -third and fourth holes in addition to the hole which -appears in my pipe between the sixth and seventh -hole.</p> - -<p>The pipe also, it should be remarked, is not cylindrical, -but in a musical sense is more so; since, by its being a -cone inverted, the flattening influence of form on the -pitch is increased. As it was in the old German flute, -which, like this, was an inverted cone, and so conduced -to the better production of the lowest notes.</p> - -<p>The scale of the <i>Hichi-riki</i>, on the authority of the -Musical Institute of Tokio, is given with the following -tablature:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p220.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="The scale of the Hichi-riki." /> -</div> - -<p>The open pipe length for the lowest note would therefore -be twice the length of this pipe, so we say that the -<i>Hichi-riki</i> speaks double depth tone. And when blown -with higher pressure, the first series of harmonics is not -one of octaves, but of twelfths. An interesting circumstance -is that when a smaller reed such as we use for -the oboe is inserted, then the tone leaps a fourth (not -an octave) higher, and its harmonic series is one of -octave relation; in fact, it is the original twelfth acting, -slightly modified by being elicited by a smaller reed, -and hence emphasizing the compound nature of results -from pipe and reed associated. With one reed, I -remember that the pipe rose a fifth, its twelfth being -then really transfigured only, yet becoming its octave, -being, as elicited, the same note.</p> - -<p>Another curious fact connected with the <i>Hichi-riki</i> -is that—if the upper end of the pipe is placed full -within the mouth, and is blown through without any -reed whatever, and without any action of the lips—clear -and powerful notes are elicited, varied as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> -openings of the holes are varied; provided one of the -upper holes is left open. Then the pitch of the issuing -notes corresponds to such as are calculated according -to the length between the distant holes as an open pipe -length. It is, further, indifferent whether the end of -wide diameter or that of narrow diameter is taken into -the mouth; either way sounds are readily produced. -The upper finger hole thus corresponds to the twelfth -hole in the clarionet—according to the argument upon -this question in a previous chapter—and the length of -pipe above it is to be disregarded.</p> - -<p>Within my knowledge there is no other pipe instrument -that, blown through, will produce sound in this -fashion with no visible vibrating agent. It appears -reasonable to estimate that the air issuing from the -upper hole takes upon itself the vibratory action of a -reed or lamina; and very likely the shape of the hole -(which is a long oval), and the thinness of the substance -of the tube (which is cane or bamboo), may both be -favourable to such action. The instrument is very -simple, yet it is of beautifully finished workmanship, -and is altogether curious and interesting.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span></p> - -<table summary=" Hichi-riki." border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><i>This oval<br /> -indicates the thumbhole<br /> -at the back.</i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></td> -<td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> -<img src="images/i_p222b.jpg" width="100" height="633" alt="Fig. 33. Clarionet of the Japanese." /><br /> -<i>Clarionet<br /> -of the Japanese,<br /> -called the Hichi-riki.<br /><br /> -Fig. 33.</i></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> -<img src="images/i_p222c.jpg" width="75" height="45" alt="Cup of reed." /><br /> -<i>Cap of<br /> -Reed.</i></div></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 50px;"> -<img src="images/i_p222d.jpg" width="50" height="149" alt="Section of the reed." /><br /> -<i>Section<br /> -of the<br /> -Reed.</i><br /><br /><br /></div></td></tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span></p> - -<p>This illustration shows the cap of the reed of the -<i>Hichi-riki</i> separately. The cap is merely a piece of -soft wood very deftly hollowed to fit the reed, and the -curves of the opening will show you the shape that is -presented by the tip of the reed which the cap is -intended to preserve. The two lips have during playing -absorbed moisture, and have expanded to the shape -shown in these curves; but immediately after playing -the cap is placed on the tips, and then these lips in -drying set together in a pressed form, as two straight -lines closely adhering, again taking the curvature -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> -as soon as moistened. We often find reed instruments -with caps and covers, but rarely I think fulfilling this -office of preserving the form in suitable state in which -the reed is best left to dry gradually. The caps upon -the old cromornes, pibgorns, and stockpipes, although -they tended to preserve the reeds, were otherwise -different in purpose, being used to convey air to the -reed, which was not placed in the mouth. Compared -with modern instruments, these Japanese instruments -are very simple; but there is a wonderful sense of -fitness about the arrangements, and the workmanlike -finish of the instruments makes the handling of them -delightful.</p> - -<p>Three reeds are provided for each pipe, and the reeds -are each differently cut at the tip; one being cut -straight at the edge, another with curved margin, -another almost semicircular; the object being to cause -variety in the quality of tone,—one being suited for -songs of martial character, another for dance, another -for songs of love.</p> - -<p>It is noteworthy that the oval hole is preferred by -eastern peoples. The Greek <i>auloi</i> preserved in the -British Museum possess oval holes, as do the pipes of -Egypt, the <i>arghool</i> pipes, the Lady Maket pipes; and -in truth the oval is the form naturally derived by cutting -upon a circular surface, and it is also well adapted -to the fingers; nothing but a formality for elaborating -could have induced the modern habit of making round -holes. Primitive instruments were often so played as -that the holes were covered, not by the tips of the -fingers but by the fleshy part of the second joint of the -finger, as may be seen at the present day among the -rural population of Italy and Spain. In the grand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> -work on Egypt (fifteen folio volumes) published by -order of Napoleon the First, this same instrument is -depicted full size, with section of reed and all details, -and is given as a native Egyptian instrument.</p> - -<p>From a recent publication by “The Egypt Exploration -Fund” I find that a six-holed pipe has been discovered -in a temple in Egypt (Diospolis Parva), made -from the horn of some small deer, and very possibly -was of this kind, although from the imperfect state of -the mouthpiece we cannot say for certain, and this -pipe is as old as about 1500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> The photograph of it -shows the same peculiarity of form of tube, the lower -end being of the smaller diameter, and the indications -to the expert eye are that a reed set up the vibrations. -So the type is undoubtedly Egyptian, and we see how -natural it was to derive the inverted cone form of tube -from the adaptation of the horn.</p> - -<p>At the same time it would accord with the view I -have taken of the common source of origin of the -Chinese and Egyptians, to consider this instrument to -have been developed by the Egyptians independently, -and the Chinese to have developed theirs, alike from -some prototype common to both at an early prehistoric -era.</p> - -<p>The Japanese seem to have carried the workmanship -of their instruments to a higher degree of refinement -than the Chinese, and to have a much keener musical -perception, and a sense of the fitness and relation of -things in art and mechanism.</p> - -<p>You will remember that in describing the reeds of -the Japanese pitch pipes, I likened the delicate upward -bend of the dainty little reeds to the curve of my -ladye’s eyelashes; well, I can find no truer similitude,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span> -and you would say so if you saw them,—the reeds, I -mean, not the eyelashes, which must be left to imagination. -The practical purport of the device is what I -would have you notice, because it shows the intuitive -sense of fitness which guided the designer; for the -tongue is so curved upward that it will not reverse and -bend the opposite way as the flat reed does. Thus it -is secure against fluctuations of pitch, a very requisite -provision, since in this case each pipe is designed to be -sounded alone, and is subjected to the full force of -whatever suction may be brought to bear upon it. A -small reed of straight tongue could not be relied upon -for pitch under such a stress: hence experience taught -the designer by a happy device how to secure the end -he had in view.</p> - -<p>In Japan, we find the <i>Sho</i>, which is there a national -instrument, is practically the same as the <i>Sheng</i>, only -differing in that two of the mute pipes are made available -to extend the scale, and that there is a little -humouring in the pitch, probably from a familiarity with -modern equal temperament; because this is, after all, -only a reversion to a system with which scholastically -their teachers were well acquainted in theory.</p> - -<p>The <i>Sho</i> maintains its traditional office in ritual and -in ceremonial affairs, and its scale, with little differences, -is the same as that of the <i>Sheng</i>: hence we may infer -that the tunes in use, which have been handed down -from a very early date, are common to both.</p> - -<p>The Japanese recognise in their music two systems, -the classical and the popular, and these are in everyday -use. The scales are essentially traditional, and are -kept quite distinct. In the main they are Chinese, as -also are the instruments; yet there is a strange mingling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> -of the ancient and the modern in everything connected -with the Japanese. In art, the Japanese are undoubtedly -superior to the Chinese; the <i>Sho</i> that I once -had and gave to a friend was most beautifully made, -and in every particular delightfully finished. A large -Japanese <i>Koto</i>, a thirteen stringed instrument that I -possess, is a marvel of beauty, with lovely lac pictures -running along the sides, and inlays of ivory -and tortoiseshell and variegated woods in thousands -of pieces, silver bosses, bronze dragons, and silk -tassels, altogether a delight to the eye. The <i>Koto</i> of -Japan, though carried to more artistic perfection, is the -same in construction as the musical instrument called -the <i>Sê</i> in China, and will be found further described in -the section given to the Chinese Kin, the favourite of -Confucius.</p> - -<p>The Japanese have several other instruments both of -the wind and string classes, but only those which I -have introduced seem tributary to the purpose of this -treatise.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIX.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In Ancient China.</b><br /><br /> - -CEREMONIAL INSTRUMENTS.</small></h2> - -<p>Bells, Chimes and Gongs are held in high esteem by -the Chinese, they are indispensable in their Ceremonies -and Ritual, in their Festivities, national and -social. So ancient is their use that the order of their -coming into existence, or the date of origin are mythical, -each kind of instrument seems equally old, still they -had to be accounted for in Chinese logic of history.</p> - -<p>One of the most curious traits in the character of the -human animal is an unfeigned delight in super-exaggerated -noise. Other animals are affrighted at noise, -but the human animal makes a deliberate orgie of -noise as a special means by arrangement for obtaining -a sensual satisfaction of the ear. Amongst savage -tribes and barbarous nations, and amongst nations -emerged from barbarism well banded in social communities, -everywhere we find that this sheer delight in -noise, called music, is manifest and on record. Not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> -merely called so, but dignified and accepted as music. -’Tis true that the Indian savage says his music is to -frighten away devils and evil spirits, and the Chinaman -tells us that his earsplitting distracting music is to make -night horrible to the dragons threatening to devour the -moon; but depend upon it, the devils and dragons are -quite subsidiary to the main desire for indulgence in -noise; and the excuse, we, perfectly well knowing the -innate hypocrisy of the human animal, can complacently -allow to pass. The love of noise belongs to us. -Nature’s gift—like the love of art for art’s sake, is a love -of noise for noise’ sake; it is only a change of -phrase. We should not decry this, nor should we -plume ourselves upon our civilization as freeing ourselves -from this original taint of barbarism. I confess -to thoroughly enjoying a thunderstorm, my nature is -absorbed in an energy greater than the individual, and -I revel in it. Man’s love of power is the basis of such -satisfaction.</p> - -<p>Into this mood of meditation I was drawn the other -evening after listening to Wagner’s “Procession of the -Gods.” How the music takes hold of you, dips you in -a sea of noise, and makes you feel alive all over. For -this reason Wagner’s grand music is grand,—is greater -than you. Your whole frame is plunged into an elemental -excitement to which every nerve fibre thrills, -and you feel conscious that latent impulses native to -your being are awakened into activity; the barbaric -strain in us responds, and exalts us beyond our conventional -state. Noise or music? Well, technically -we make a distinction. Ask a casuist what is the -difference between virtue and vice, and he will tell you -it all depends,—one may be as bad as the other. So of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> -noise and music, one may be as bad as the other; aye, -even worse. By all accounts much music is; but that -may be prejudice. I have heard that some people -decry Wagner’s music as a saturnalia of hubbub and -noise. But it has one redeeming folly,—it lives: hence -the censors, being human, often live to pardon.</p> - -<p>Our scientific definitions of noise and music serve the -purpose of science, but the truth is that with nature -noise and music are identical in origin. There is -orderly noise and disorderly noise, and music is of the -orderly kind,—that is all. Discording noise, undiscording -noise. Milton understood this, writing of -singing</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">With melodious noise,</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>and replying</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">With undiscording voice.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>I want to emphasize this teaching, want to impress you -with the conviction that all the excitement we are -seeking in our most modern style of music is but a -reversion to our original instinctive desire for a -dynamical excitement,—not an excitement merely -æsthetical and phychical, but actually moving, forceful, -elemental; a true barbaric love of stir and thrill,—and -rightly so. If you think, you will find in all our modern -ways a tendency to this reversion to a belief in and a -culture of our original instincts. The realism of the -day is the expression of a desire to understand life as it -is to the individual. The hideousness of a merely conglomerate -community is making itself felt upon every -plane of society, and the concurrent aspiration is to be -more human.</p> - -<p>Culture will one day exhaust the conventional, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> -in music the tendency is apparent. The vast volume -of choral sound we listen to stirs us with contagious -emotion. Our pleasure in grand organs with their roll -of diapasons and arresting challenge of trumpets and -tubas; our willing yielding up of ourselves to be -swayed hither and thither for hours in the power of the -massive orchestra, that wonderful machine of nerves -and muscles,—what does it mean? It is all dynamical, -all barbaric. It is not only the ear that is concerned -in listening, the whole being is under strain and stress. -Do I hence imply that it is wrong, is reprehensible so to -employ music? By no means. The moral of it is that -the strong innate tendencies of our nature are best -recognized, and used; nay, that they will be, will force -themselves to the surface, and that under culture we -may train them to our advantage. For civilization -must go forward, is not content to-day with that which -contented it yesterday. The appetite grows by that it -feeds on; more and more we ask for intensity of -excitement.</p> - -<p>A scientific writer of an earlier generation, I think it -was Leslie, defined the ear as an organ of touch, which -we now under the evolutionary investigation of development -understand it to be; and this is what I would -have you recognise, that sound is able <i>to touch us</i>, able -to awaken a net-work of nerve organization, to make -the lip tense, to cause the eyelids to quiver and the -heart to throb; the breath to come and go in accord -with the aërial pulsations,—as a hand that is laid upon -us to arrest or to exalt, to invigorate or to soothe. -<i>Hearing</i> is an exalted <i>feeling</i>.</p> - -<p>The Chinese, long before Englishmen existed, found -delight in the dynamical influences of great sounds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> -Their largest and most potent sources of music were -bells and chimes, gongs and drums. These supplied -them with that excitement which is afforded us by the -masses of sound from our large orchestras and grand -organs. We say that their music is nothing more than -deafening noise. They say that our music is no music; -it is bad noise. So it is only matter of choice how you -shall be stimulated. It’s all the same,—opium or -whisky: purely a racial question.</p> - -<p>Very early the Chinese attained great skill in the -making of bells; and it may be that among these people -the art of Bell Founding originated, and from the east -extended over Europe. Bells are particularly associated -with religious ceremonials in all countries, and -have generally superstitious credentials. The Chinese -frighten dragons with them; and the Christians exorcise -devils with them. The Russians, who bridge the -earth between Europe and China, are especially reverential -to bells. The great bell at the Kremlin, -Moscow—over 21ft. in height and 67ft. in circumference—is -world famous, as we have known since we -were boys.</p> - -<p>The inevitable <i>Ling Lun</i> was ordered to cast twelve -bells to correspond to the twelve <i>lüs</i>. Metal, the -Chinese say, is one of the five elements, and necessarily -has its place in music. The bell metal is composed of -six parts of copper and one of tin. When melting, the -alloy appears to be of an impure dark colour, soon -changing into a yellowish white, which gradually -passes to a greenish white, and when this last has become -green the metal is ready for pouring into the -mould. There is in the South Kensington Museum a -large and very handsome bell from a Japanese Budd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>hist -temple, which is a fine example of the colour -desired. The bells have not clappers, but are struck -with wooden mallets.</p> - -<p>Smaller bells, however, have clappers, and the little -“<i>Fêng-ling</i>” or “wind-bells,” which hang at the eaves -of houses and pagodas, are ingeniously contrived to -secure effect, light silk ribbon streamers being attached -to their clappers so that the softest breezes awakened -the sweet sounds. The wind-bells were often hung in -halls and corridors for sake of these effects.</p> - -<p>Bells of all sizes, from those weighing fifty tons -down to the small ones which swing on the eaves of -pagodas, used to be found all over China. Some are -ornamented with characters, some with designs and -symbols; some are round, some are square; and all are -mainly used for religious purposes. At the door of each -Buddhist temple a bell is seen which the believers on entering -strike “to call the attention of the sleeping gods.”</p> - -<p>The most ancient Chinese bells were quadrate in -form. Bells belonged originally to the Confucian -religion, but the Buddhists also adopted their use, and -they are commonly to be found in the temples of both. -At the temple of Confucius is a great bell which the -Chinese say is made to correspond with the very big -drum; the one is not used without the other, for the -drum had to give the signal to begin, and the bell had -to announce the end of the hymn at the ceremonies. -This bell is called the <i>Yung Chung</i>. There is another -suspended upon a single frame, which has to give the -note at the beginning of each verse in order “to manifest -the sound” or give the pitch. This bell is called -the <i>Po Chung</i>, and is here illustrated. The shape, as -will be noticed, differs from that of modern bells.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Po-Chung"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Chinese<br /> -Po-Chung.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/i_p234.jpg" width="400" height="404" alt="Fig. 34. The Chinese Po-Chung." /><br /> -<i>Fig. 34.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>All their bells are cast to produce a sound definite in -pitch, and in their sets of smaller bells and gongs the -primitive scale of sounds and its successive order was -intended to be kept to so far as the means at command -enabled them to secure accuracy, or as near as ceremonial -usage required them to be—for with these people -ceremonial is religion.</p> - -<p>The next illustration is of the <i>Yung-lo</i> or “gong -chimes,” composed of ten little gongs suspended upon a -frame by silk cords. In making gongs the Chinese are -marvellously expert, and specimens of the genuine -ancient sort are highly prized here; the tone has a -richness and endurance which moderns fail to equal. -These little gongs are all of the same diameter, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> -differ in thickness. The <i>Yung-lo</i> is used at court, -mainly on joyful occasions. The larger sized gongs—sometimes -they are two feet in diameter—are remarkably -fine, and are very generally in use in processions -and at various social functions, as well as in temples to -waken the gods. He must be a rare sleeper who would -be deaf to such a call.</p> - -<table summary="Yung-lo"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Yung-lo<br /> -or<br /> -Gong<br /> -Chimes</i>.</td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/i_p235.jpg" width="200" height="287" alt="Fig. 35. The Yung-lo" /><br /> -<i>Fig. 35.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XX.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In Ancient China.</b><br /><br /> - -THE FLUTES OF THE CHINESE.</small></h2> - -<p>Flutes I hold to be without doubt the earliest of wind -instruments. They are found all over the world; no -race however ancient, no tribe however rude, but possesses -some instrument of this class. And if we may -credit some stated example in museums, they may -belong to the prehistoric age, the bones of bird or -beast being adapted by man to whistling or fluting. -There are two distinct styles common to flutes: the one -is blown at the end, and is of the sort we use and call -pipes or whistles; and the other is blown across a side -hole near a closed end, and is with us the flute proper, -or <i>flûte traversière</i>. But in addition to these, the Chinese -have a flute which is quite unique, being an open tube, -blown across centrally.</p> - -<p>Given a land where river reeds are to be found, or a -land where the bamboo flourishes, and we need no -myths of origin nor tales of inventions to be assured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> -that savage man would by observation of nature be led -to convert the tubes to the purpose of producing sounds; -and the gradual development from a simple pipe to one -with additional side holes would in process of time be -unavoidable. Travellers tell us that in the bamboo -forests the rushing wind makes a wild music as it passes -the stems of broken bamboos. The Pan’s pipes might -well have been in its earliest form a collection of -such broken tubes. Here up to this stage, therefore, -nature was the guide. The Chinese were, it is said -long in making the advance to the next stage,—that of -cutting or piercing holes, to obtain more sounds from -one tube by temporarily closing two or more holes. -The first step counts for much; and with most races -a long period may have elapsed before this step was -taken, inevitable as it was.</p> - -<p>Indeed the change from the use of two fingers of each -hand to the use of three fingers must be regarded as a -very significant advance. A long stretch of time was -doubtless necessary before a pipe of six holes took a -position in musical performance or supplanted the four -holed pipe, for it could not be otherwise than an -educational advance.</p> - -<p>The bamboo is ranked by the Chinese as a product of -special class, being neither tree nor plant; but intermediate -by nature, and of peculiar value to human -wants. Hence the bamboo occupies one of the divisions -in their scheme of natural sonorous bodies, and in music -is dedicated to flutes; although often flutes are made -of marble, of jadestone, and of copper.</p> - -<p>The dancers’ flute (called the <i>Yueh</i>) was a short flute -and probably one of the most ancient. It had but -three holes, recalling our flute of European usage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> -which was played accompanied with the tabor for -dancing, and for marking time by rhythm. At present -this Chinese flute is but a rudimentary survival, being -held as a stick or <i>bâton</i> for directing the movements of -the dancers. There is a shepherd’s flute <i>Ch-iang-ti</i>, and -one <i>Heng-ti</i>; both blown traversely. The <i>Hsiao</i>, said -to have been invented by Yeh Chung during the Han -dynasty, is a flute of dark brown bamboo, about -twenty inches in length, having five holes on the upper -surface and one at the back. The use of this is now -restricted to ritual music, being played at the Confucian -ceremonies on the “Moon Terrace,” six being played -simultaneously. There are various flutes with four, -five, seven, or eight holes, both for popular and for -ritual use.</p> - -<p>The most popular of flutes is the <i>Ti-tzu</i>; it is bound -with several rings of waxed silk to preserve the bamboo -from splitting. It has eight holes, one for embouchure, -six for the fingers, and one covered with a thin membrane -peeled off the interior of reeds; this membrane, -like that which our recorder flute had, is intended -to give a particular character to the tone; and it is -curious how often we find such an adaptation, although -in our modern custom quite obsolete. The <i>Ti-tzu</i> is -frequently ornamented with long silk tassels when -possessed by the wealthy people. It is used alike -in theatrical performances, in funeral and in marriage -processions, and is indispensable to every Chinese -orchestra.</p> - -<p>The Dragon flutes, ornamented with a dragon’s head -and tail, are essentially for ritual service, and not permitted -for ordinary use. The illustration shows the -awe inspiring aspect of these instruments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Chinese Dragon"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Chinese<br /> -Dragon<br /> -Flute.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p239.jpg" width="150" height="554" alt="Fig. 36. The Chinese Dragon Flute." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 36.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>Pictures of the Chinese show performers playing -upon flutes with an embouchure at the middle of the -length, and with holes both to the right and left of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> -embouchure. This flute is peculiar to the Chinese, and -was described by Father Amiot. But, though the appearance -of the style is maintained, the integrity of the -instrument is seldom adhered to; so that it had come -to be a doubt whether such a flute was playable, or -even had been actually observed by Father Amiot. -For, in modern hands, a plug near the middle converted -it into a double ended flute of the ordinary method -of playing only requiring a few holes in addition. -M. J. A. Van Aalst names this flute <i>Ch-ih</i>; says that the -number of holes varies from six to ten, and even more. -But M. Victor C. Mahillon, describing more elaborately -the ancient instrument, names it <i>Hwang-chông-tché</i> and -reproduces a description of it given by Prince Tsai-Yu, -in 1596; and to this I am indebted for details, and also -for the illustration, which I copy from that by M. Victor -Mahillon in his most interesting catalogue of the Brussels -Museum of Musical Instruments.</p> - -<p>I remember seeing one of these flutes at the Chinese -Court at the Fisheries or other of the Kensington exhibitions -years ago, and wondered, much perplexed, -how the playing was to be accomplished. If my -memory serves, there is a specimen now at the South -Kensington Museum; though for all practical enquiry, -many instruments might as well be absent, -there being no sufficient light to enable the visitor to -see what he is in quest of in that department either by -night or day.</p> - -<p>Prince Tsai-Yu states that this flute is very difficult to -play; which would account for its neglect, so that now -the playing is a lost art. He says that it was constantly -in use during the period of the three first dynasties -(2205-1122 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>). It is fully described in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>“Tcheu-ly,” -an old volume treating of the ceremonial of the Tcheou -during the rule of the dynasty occupying the throne of -China in those early days. So that this instrument takes -us back more than four thousand years. Its scale consists, -according to M. Mahillon’s investigation, of six -equal tempered semitones:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p241a.jpg" width="500" height="71" alt="ms" /> -</div> - -<p>This curious flute necessitates a peculiar attitude on the -part of the player. The flute is open all through; and, -as you see, in order fairly to distribute his energies, the -performer should place himself between the two ends, -playing a scale by alternating the fingering, producing -the notes in order, first from one hand and next from -the other hand, according to the figures accompanying -the illustration.</p> - -<table summary="Mouth Hole"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Mouth Hole.</i><br /> -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_p241b.jpg" width="500" height="69" alt="Fig. 37. Chinese Flute. Hwang-chong-tche." /></div><br /> -<i>Fig. 37.</i><br /><br /> -<i>Chinese Flute. Hwang-chong-tche.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>The instrument was constructed by M. Mahillon -after the indications of the ancient writers, and found -by him to be so exact in accordance with them, that he -has no doubt that it was intended to be a standard -of measurement for the pitch of the instruments provided -by imperial decree for ceremonial use. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> -circumference of this flute equals that of the coins -bearing the imprint <i>Kai-Yuen</i>, and the length is that -given by fourteen of these coins placed in line one -beyond the other. The diameter of the coins inscribed -<i>Kai-Yuen</i> is one thumb’s breadth, ten of these being the -length of the ancient Chinese foot measure, and consequently -the length of the flute is one foot and four -thumbs. The interior diameter of the tube is seven -lines, and the embouchure is one half of that, whilst -the lateral holes are again one half of diameter of embouchure. -The question of dimensions is of great importance -in respect of all matters of pitch; since the -larger the embouchure the higher will be the degree of -power exercised and acting upon the column of air in -the interior of the tube, and consequently the sharper -the pitch of tone elicited. So that for estimating a -standard of pitch great accuracy in dimensions is of -paramount necessity. The embouchure is placed precisely -at the middle of the length. The holes marked -5 and 6 occupy points corresponding to one third of -the length. Those, 3 and 4, are placed at one quarter the -length, and 1 and 2 represent exactly one sixth of -the length.</p> - -<p>This picture is by a native artist. It is quite modern -yet the archaic air about it seems at once to take us -into an older world. The modernity of the artist is -evident, he has represented a degenerated type of the -flute “tche,” not the ancient authentic. The white -spaces are not intended for holes, they merely show -the intervals between the rings of dark silk which are -customary as preventing the bamboo from splitting. -Correctly, the player should be shown with one hand to -the right of the mouth and one to the left, the fingers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> -covering either side three holes. So you will have to -imagine the still more curious picture that would have -been presented by a Chinese performer in the olden time.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p243.jpg" width="400" height="532" alt="Fig. 38." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 38.</i></p></div> - -<p>This symmetry in proportions is very remarkable and -interesting. When the flute is blown across, with the -six holes closed, a note is produced which was, es<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>timated -as <i>d</i>, but is really <i>e</i>♭; and when, in addition, -the thumbs close the end orifices, then the note is -an octave lower, nearly. Absolute precision we should -not expect except from an expert Chinese player, -as a different management of the lip may be an -important factor in deciding the actual tone intended, -and may differ as much from the European mode -of management as the voices of the Chinese differ -in character from those of Europeans. For, however -exact in design such standards of pitch may be, -experience teaches us that scientific exactitude in pitch -can only be secured when the pressure of wind producing -the note is weighed, as in our organ pipes. -With lip blown flutes, when a certain pressure is -exceeded, the pipe blows its octave and thus no doubt -the player is warned, and custom enables him to -restrain his breath to the correct force. The Chinese -are wonderfully methodical in their systems, but they -have not in these matters ever attained to the accuracy -of practical scientific demonstration. It should be -remarked that E♭ <img class="inline" src="images/i_p244.jpg" alt="E flat." /> -is the standard of pitch according -to another pipe which was described -by Amiot; and, as I have shown in my investigation, -was the leading pitch note in the system of -the <i>Sheng</i>. A pipe which I had made to the dimensions -of that standard pipe, but made with organ pipe mouth, -also gave the same note; and a fourth below that is the -lowest in that scale.</p> - -<p>The aforesaid standard pipe of the imperial archives -is blown after another fashion. It is an open pipe, and -is blown at one end in such a way that the lip of the -player forms the base, corresponding to the languid in -the organ pipe, a semi-oval or V shaped piece being cut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> -away from the end of the pipe, over which the stream of -air is directed; the opening taking, in fact, the function -of the mouth of the organ pipe. The mode of blowing -is not altogether, or peculiarly, a Chinese method, -for the Egyptian <i>Nay</i> may be considered an approach -to similarity; but there is a little pipe found in Bolivia, -in use among the Indian Quechas, which is exactly the -counterpart of the Chinese <i>Lu</i> pipe as regards construction, -and the mode of blowing is the same.</p> - -<p>The little pipe is called the <i>Krena</i>; it is made of -bamboo, and has six holes, the successive opening -of which gives the notes following, the lowest being -the end note of the pipe:—</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p245a.jpg" width="400" height="71" alt="ms" /> -</div> - -<table summary="Krena"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Krena.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> -<img src="images/i_p245b.jpg" width="75" height="375" alt="Fig. 39. The Krena." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 39.</i></td> -</tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span></p> - -<p>Here is an illustration of the <i>Krena</i>; it is of one in -the Brussels Museum. Being recently in the British -Museum, I lighted upon an instrument on this principle, -having two holes only, but in other respects the same; -comes from Donga in the Niger region, and is called -the <i>Lera</i>. The Japanese have a flute called the <i>Siaku-hachi</i> -which is of this nature, and is evidently traceable -to the Chinese. The fact of a pipe cut in this particular -fashion being adopted as the standard by -authority for music, and for measures, indicates a very -early usage for this kind of flute pipe; perhaps it came -next in succession to the Pan’s pipes. Indeed, I have -seen some specimens of Pan’s pipes, found with the -people in the Malay Archipelago, which are double cut -in this way.</p> - -<p>The Rev. F. W. Galpin, the well-known enthusiastic -collector of musical instruments, possesses some of this -type obtained from Indian tribes of the North West of -America, which I have heard him play as to the -manner born. The wide diffusion of this type raises -curious questions of the dispersion of races, as against -that of a common instinct leading to similar development.</p> - -<p>The <i>Tche</i> is undoubtedly an instrument concerning -which, both practically and historically, a fuller knowledge -is to be desired; it involves some curious -acoustical problems which would form an interesting -study. Certified as being one of the most ancient of -Chinese musical instruments, it indicates that when it -first was introduced a high degree of civilization must -have been attained, and a very keen intelligence have -been directed to musical problems, before so complete -a system of relation of tones, and measurement of pipes, -could have been worked out on a fixed method.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span></p> - -<p>In the accounts received from travellers who attempt -to estimate the scales and character of the native music -heard by them, we are accustomed to find a prevalence -of the minor mode always affirmed, and the statement -is generally accepted as one based upon definite knowledge. -It seems to be considered that the mournful -and the plaintive in song and in music reflect the temperament -of the people, and are its natural expression. -I am inclined to question this; for I may doubt the -keenness of the observer, doubt his musical capability -of ear or mental power of analysis, may perceive a -tendency of mind to take a stand on foregone conclusions, -and may not be satisfied that the writer is -competent upon the subject upon which he writes very -positively.</p> - -<p>Experience has shown me how frequently statements -of this kind are not borne out by facts, although the -statements have been made in perfect good faith. In -this aspect there is a paper by J. F. Fillmore (an -American author) which has a peculiar significance. -He made a study of the music of the Indian tribes in -America, having very special facilities for his work; -and he also harmonised many of the melodies, with -much satisfaction to the Indians. He says that,—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>In short, all melodic and harmonic resources to be found in our -music, even the most modern and advanced, are also to be -found in the primitive music of a people who have no musical -notation, no theory of music, no systematized knowledge of it -whatever.</p></div> - -<p>And then at the end we have this <i>naïve</i> conclusion:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>Long before the first week was over, all my preconceived -notions of the significance of the incomplete scales, and of the -importance of the plain major and minor chords as related to -acoustic problems, had wholly disappeared.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span></p> - -<p>The truth is that scales are so elusive that they may -be read so as to mean anything a system maker desires, -and such scrutiny is about as reliable as the reading of -character and destiny by the systems of astrology and -palmistry.</p> - -<p>Chinese melodies are never definitely major or minor; -are never intended to be so. The intervals are not the -same as ours, and our notation does not express them -with accuracy such as scientific analysis requires.</p> - -<p>On the subject of the growth of scales my conclusions -have been previously recorded, but I think that here, -at the end of the pipe investigation, a brief repetition is -desirable to impress the memory with the special view -which is of importance to the musician’s survey.</p> - -<p>Whether in the east the tetrachord or the pentatone -had priority in development cannot be determined, for -it may well have been that both were developed independently; -I favour the idea that the pentatonic is the -rudest in character, and originated with the wilder -tribes of the east in a very primitive era, whereas the -tetrachord seems by its nature to accord with early -pastoral life. I am only concerned with the question -of scales from the instrumentalist’s point of view; and -I explain the prevalence of the pentatonic scale as -growing out of the nature of the <i>instrument</i>,—first for -the pipe there was one note, then there were two, and -so on. Voices and pipes imitated one another, and the -perception of the relation we call an octave seems to -have been everywhere an instinctive perception.</p> - -<p>I suppose it will generally be conceded that man is -naturally lazy. Well, he will not exert his voice more -than is necessary for his immediate purpose; so he -takes more easily to the interval of the fourth, for to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> -rise to the fifth means greater effort. Place your -fingers on a pipe; the spread is not equal, there is a -marked enlargement of space between first and second -fingers. If holes are cut to correspond with this finger -difference, then the result is contrary to the pipe’s need, -for nature for equal tone interval wants the upper holes -of the pipe to be nearer together: so the note turns -out to be a tone and a half higher instead of the one -tone distance. As with our keyboard, a long time -passed before the thumb was brought into recognition -to do finger work; so in the pipe, the use of the thumb -was an after thought. Thus on the under side of the -pipe a hole was introduced dividing equally or unequally -this wide upper interval, itself forming another -wide interval with the second note below; and in -effect an overlapping arises in the pentatonic structure -whereby the pentatone can be dissected into two tetrachords -within the octave. Sometimes the distance of -the first hole from the lower end of the pipe is greater, -and makes the interval (a neuter third) appear at the -beginning or end, according as we reckon the progression. -In whatever way it may be, the pipe in the -beginning made the scale.</p> - -<p>There are many varieties of pentatonic construction, -and the wide intervals may be in any position. Our -best representative is found in the black keys of the -pianoforte. We may commence on either F♯ or C♯, and -thus vary the relations in progression of the scale.</p> - -<p>A plaintive character in the music of native melodies -is greatly due to the existence in the instrument of -those imperfect intervals, the three-quarter tones, and -the little leaps of tones that seem to fail to attain their -aim, and never satisfy the listening ear of the European.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXI.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In Ancient China.</b><br /><br /> - -THE FAVOURITE OF CONFUCIUS.</small></h2> - -<p>The stringed instruments which are of Chinese -origin are but few in number, and they are not capable -of producing any great volume of sound. They have -several forms of guitar—a “balloon guitar,” a “moon -guitar,” and an octagonal guitar. These possess four -strings each, and are fitted with frets, and are struck -either by the finger nail or by a plectrum. They have -also a three stringed guitar with a long neck, but -without frets. But compared with European instruments -of the same class, they are poor and rude, both -in tone and workmanship, and scarcely seem to have -advanced beyond the primitive condition as to musical -value. Similarly we notice their so-called violins, -consisting of a bowl of some kind—half a cocoanut -shell, or part of a gourd, or hollow piece of bamboo—to -which a long bent neck is fitted, and with a drum -kind of top of snake-skin covering the open bowl. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> -bow used is little more than a bent stick, strung as a -bow is for arrow shooting. In playing, it passes -between the strings. Sometimes there are four strings, -but the most popular instrument has only two, and -is almost devoid of resonance. The wonder to us -is how a people so ingenious should have left their -most popularly used instruments without improvement -in any direction. It is true that some little attempt at -decoration is made, but there is no lavishing of skill, -no lifting of the commonplace to the region of art.</p> - -<table summary="Chinese Violin."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Chinese<br /> -Violin.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p251.jpg" width="150" height="394" alt="Fig. 40. Chinese Violin." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 40.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>Very different, however, is the treatment of another -class of instrument, represented by the <i>Ch’in</i> and the <i>Sê</i>. -These are “many-stringed” and may be called oblong -in shape, and many specimens are really beautiful in -ornamentation. The art worker with illimitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> -patience, bestows upon them the resources of industrial -skill and the loving care of artistic designing in many -coloured woods, and ivories and lac, and metal. -Perhaps because these instruments are used in temples -and palaces, and in the abodes of the great ones of the -nation. The art of playing upon them is only acquired -after the devotion of much time in learning “systems” -overloaded with complicated directions, many of them -associated with allegorical meanings, inattention to -which would make the music of none effect, the -“system” being as onerous as state etiquette.</p> - -<p>The instruments described in an earlier chapter are -classed by the Chinese—“the stone chime” as representative -of Winter, and distinctively as stone, the first -of sonorous bodies; and the “bell chime” as belonging -to Autumn, and as the second of sonorous bodies, -“metal.” The stringed instruments do not come, as we -should expect, under the heading, “wood,” but are -allotted to Summer, under the heading of “silk,” -because the silk strings are the sound producers, and silk -is third in rank of natural productions. So you will see -by this how very logical the Chinese are, notwithstanding -the fantastic notions with which they embroider -every kind of knowledge. The strings are made of -many strands of silk, and the numbers of the strands to -be dedicated to each particular string are stated to be -subjected to written laws. Thus, the thickest string -was to have 240 threads, and represented the sovereign; -the second and fourth strings each to have 206 threads; -and the third and fifth, 172 threads; and the reasons -are given for such allotments according to poetical -affinities and symbolical meanings. This essential -formalism in the Chinese character has been the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> -hindrance to artistic, as it has been to the industrial, -development in the nation; and yet, strange to say, -the rigid injunctions which verbally still rule, are in -practice, outside the circle of authority, only nominally -regarded.</p> - -<p>Instruments of the dulcimer class have wire strings,—brass -or copper drawn very fine: but they—although -good specimens are to be seen, some highly ornamented—are -not considered national Chinese instruments, but -as in some sense foreign intruders. The dulcimers are -more related to Assyria, and in point of fact that land -may be held to be their original home. Yet, as we -shall see, there has been some intimate association -with Assyria and Babylonia in very early times, for -the instrument, the <i>Ch’in</i> or <i>Kin</i>, here illustrated, -betrays in one particular feature a resemblance which -can hardly be supposed to have arisen accidentally.</p> - -<p>The <i>Ch’in</i>, or scholar’s lute, is so called because it -was the chief favourite of their great law giver, -Confucius. In his time it was of great antiquity, and -is frequently named in the classical works and in the -annals of the first rulers of China. It was invented by -Fu Hsi (2852, <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>), and its name implies “restriction” -or “prohibition,” because “its influence checks the evil -passions, rectifies the heart and guides the actions of the -body.” The dimensions, number of strings, the form, -and whatever is connected with the instrument, had -their principles in nature. Thus the <i>Ch’in</i> measured -3·66 ft., or 366/10 of an inch, because the year contained a -maximum of 366 days.</p> - -<p>The number of the strings was five, to agree with the -five elements. The upper part was round to represent -the firmament. The bottom was flat to represent the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> -ground. The thirteen studs stood for the twelve moons, -and the intercalary moon; and so on.</p> - -<p>In view of its design, it certainly, simple as it is, is a -most perfect instrument, and its simplicity is its beauty. -The upper surface, from end to end, is not round, but -presents a hollow curve, being rounded only across. -But as no bridges are employed in playing the instrument, -this curve is finely laid, so that wherever the -strings are pressed, they nowhere else touch, and are -free to vibrate to the pluck of the finger. At the wide -end, at the extreme length of the strings, there is -a fixed bridge, generally for all the strings, which -is of solid form, arched; behind it the strings pass -through to the back, where they are attached to the -drilled wood stems, from which long scarlet silk tassels -depend. The strings do not conform to their primary -limit; some wise philosopher increased their number -to seven.</p> - -<p>The instrument which I possess has seven strings, -and I have had it many years, as also had its former -possessor; and the nacre studs are arranged, not in the -formal relation here depicted, but at distances corresponding -to the half of the string, to two thirds, to three -fourths, to four fifths, and so on. Any division of the -string can, however, be made at the pleasure of the -performer, these studs serving only as guides; for the -strings are tuned at will, and kept taut only by tying -on two large pegs fixed in the back. The back, half an -inch in thickness, seems to be of camphor wood, and it -still sends forth its fragrance inherited from generations -long ago.</p> - -<table summary="Ch'in"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Ch’in<br /> -or<br /> -Kin</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/i_p255.jpg" width="250" height="726" alt="Fig. 41. The Ch’in or Kin" /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 41.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>Now comes a curious detail in the fitness of the -instrument to its design, which I have not seen noted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> -at all. The upper surface consists of thin wood, black -japanned, and under this a layer of cork. It was a -scholar’s lute, for meditative hours, for no other hearers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span>—the -playing upon it being almost in the nature of -religious exercise—secluded from the world, alone. -This was Confucius’s idea of its purpose, and it is the -recorded tradition that he was so enraptured with -its tones that he could neither eat nor drink; lovesick -with melody, he lived for weeks shut up in his room -listening to the music that had a voice for him alone, -and spoke only under his own fingers.</p> - -<p>I do not wonder that this was the favourite companion -of Confucius, especially when I reflect that -with this reverend teacher, as with Buddha, the mood -of meditation was invited and sought for, as the highest -exaltation of human being. When I have chanced to -while away an hour questioning this instrument, I must -confess to the fascination that it has, how it grows -upon one in an atmosphere of silence,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">It is so quiet there; a world apart</div> -<div class="line i1">Where none intrudes. Serenely we enclose</div> -<div class="line i1">A sanctuary, where in silence and repose</div> -<div class="line">The gentle flow of sound soothes the tired heart.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>There is a certain weirdness in the low tones that seems -to tell of depths beyond possibility of present experience; -exciting a quiet longing, heard with a -listening ear for something beyond, which has been left -incomplete; full of mysterious breathing like the soft -“susurrus” of the wind dreamily stirring the leaves of -the forest. If I say it seems to suggest to me that I -should like to hear a movement from one of Beethoven’s -symphonies or a Schubert’s played upon a “consort” -of these simple instruments, do not laugh—I really mean -it; for the sounds, faint as they are, gather about them -an infinite suggestiveness of the unattainable, which is -the behest of the highest music to evoke in our nature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> -We talk of “unheard music,” and the cynic smiles; -but we well know what we mean, and I say that this -music of the sacred <i>Ch’in</i> is the nearest approach to,—indeed, -takes us to the very borderland of—the unheard.</p> - -<p>The <i>Sê</i> is a larger instrument, is in fact the largest -stringed instrument in use among the Chinese, and had -originally fifty strings. Tradition goes that a certain -professional young lady was one day performing, and -attracted the attention of the Emperor Huang Ti. The -music impressed him so sorrowfully that he forthwith -ordered the number to be reduced one half. A sensible -ruler was Huang Ti. If we could reduce our sorrows -and vexations by one half on the same principle, what -a wonderful relief it would be; probably to the extent -of halving the insanity of the country. So the <i>Sê</i> now -in use has twenty-five strings, and these are divided -amongst five colours; but instead of colouring the -strings, they colour the bridges,—five blue, five red, -five yellow, five white and five black. For although -the <i>Sê</i>, like the <i>Ch’in</i>, is an instrument to be plucked, -the strings are not subjected to pressure to bring them -to playing pitch; but are lifted on to bridges, one for -each string, which bridges the player places according -to judgment, to determine the various vibrating lengths -under demand. The bridges are placed in a general -order, but have not a fixed position like frets, since the -tension of the string at the times of playing can be, and -is made variable; so each bridge is moved to the point -that satisfies the ear as to the particular pitch required -for each string. On removal of the bridges the strings -are comparatively slack, at all events are safely lowered -in tension.</p> - -<p>Four kinds of <i>Sê</i> are in use, they differ only in size,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> -and in number of strings, the principle being the same; -and it is customary that they should give the sound of -two notes at the same time, generally octaves, so that -on state occasions no doubt the effect is imposing, as -the instruments possess considerable resonance. That -which seems to be the most permanent variety has -thirteen or fourteen strings only, quite sufficient for the -modern skill and modern musical requirements. In -this form it is preserved by the Japanese, with whom it -is named the <i>Taki-Koto</i>. The example in my possession -I have more than once made mention of, and -recounted some of its beauties. Its breadth is 10in., -its length 6ft. 4in., depth 1-3/4 in. The wood is nearly -half an inch thick, both the upper and the lower planks; -there is no thinning of the wood, but the upper one is -made to arch over in its breadth by having the under -side of it fluted. This fluting process is marvelously -well adapted for the end in view; the thickness of the -sound-board, as we immediately recognize it, is the opposite -of that which we pursue in stringed instruments. -The wood is of a beautiful mellow brown, and is -a riven plank. No plane has touched it; it remains as -it was riven from the tree, showing as it were an -embossed fibre,—so clear it is, and so purely natural. -It has splendid resonance, remarked by every hearer -for lovely quality of tone. A thick silk cord is laid -upon the end-bearing bridge, and the strings set on -this cord, so that the vibration is communicated only -through the moveable bridges belonging to each string. -At the ends of the cord are silk tassels of a quiet green -colour, with some strands of pale buff intermixed: all -in perfect harmony with the inlaid woods and ivories. -The strings are plucked by the aid of two little ivory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> -plectra, shaped like a half filbert or almond, stayed -upon the fingers by a narrow band of leather: thus -the silk strings escape being affected by moisture.</p> - -<p>The choice of thick wood intuitively by the Chinese -is a lesson in acoustics for moderns. If we try woods -of thickness with a tuning fork, the resonance obtained -is often finer than any derived from thin cut pieces of -the same.</p> - -<p>The sonorousness of these large instruments marks by -contrast the evident purpose of the designer of the -<i>Ch’in</i> and concerning the latter there are yet some -interesting particulars to mention to bring its nature -clearly before those who have not had an example -under hand.</p> - -<p>We observe in old Chinese illustrations of the instrument -that, for the time of playing, the <i>Ch’in</i> is placed -upon a table, which it overlays, so that the tassels hang -down. The instrument is not allowed to touch the -table, but is supported on two soft pad rolls, so that no -resonance may be communicated or be enhanced by -contact with its surface. It is very remarkable, this -layer of cork lining the upper surface, for I have never -seen it mentioned that such was the construction. My -usual curiosity prompted me to place my hand inside, -and feel what the substance of the wood was, and by the -yielding to the indentation of the finger nails I -discovered that instead of being wood the material -was cork; and a most admirable subduer it is. The -consequence is that not only is the quality of tone most -delicately soft, but it is devoid of that fringe of sound, -that twang which accompanies the alliance of vibrations -of wood with string when strings are plucked.</p> - -<p>The case of my <i>Ch’in</i> has a painting in gold, showing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> -ladies playing the <i>Koto</i>. They are in the open air, -seated on the ground and evidently having a merry -time. One lady is singing, another playing, another -listening, and an attendant is handing cups of tea. I -cannot tell how old this case is, but I see that the head -dresses of two of the ladies are precisely in the same -fashion as the hats trimmed here in London. Truly -the world moves in circles, and old things become new.</p> - -<p>On grand days at the Confucian festivals, six <i>Ch’in</i> -are used at the ceremonies of the temple, three on the -east side of the hall and three on the west.</p> - -<p>The <i>Ch’in</i>, though very easily played, is nevertheless -a difficult instrument to learn according to the Chinese -requirements, long study being necessary to master all -the subtle distinctions which determine how the strings -should be sounded; whether for a particular note a -string should be plucked to the right or to the left, and -which strings are allowed to be sounded together; and -quite a vocabulary of instructions to learn, in order to be -accomplished in an elegant style after the dictation of -the pedants and guardians of the laws.</p> - -<p>The strings were in ancient times tuned</p> - -<p class="center"><i>c</i>——<i>d</i>——<i>e</i>——<i>g</i>——<i>a</i>——<i>c</i>——<i>d</i></p> - -<p>They are said to be in the present day tuned</p> - -<p class="center"><i>g</i>——<i>a</i>——<i>c</i>——<i>d</i>——<i>e</i>——<i>g</i>——<i>a</i></p> - -<p>Whatever the tension of the strings, the little inlaid -nacre studs serve to indicate the relative divisions. -They guide the player but do not restrict him; since, if -a string gets slack he can judge by ear how much -difference to make in distance,—thus shortening the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> -sounding length in order to obtain the pitch required -for conformity to the other strings. Also a firmer -pressure on the string will raise the pitch, and the -practice is resorted to by the player as an embellishment -often desirable.</p> - -<p>The strings are of silk, and are set at very low -tension, and are merely pulled by the hand up to pitch -and tied with an ordinary knot on to two pegs at the -back on the left hand, four grouped to one peg and -three to the other,—most primitive, but apparently -quite satisfactory. On the right hand the strings are -knotted on to thick green silk cords, each cord being -threaded through a little drilled cylinder of wood in a -manner effectually preventing slip. Each of these -little drilled stems carries a scarlet silk tassel thirteen -inches long. Consequently these little ornamental -cylinders serve as hitch pins for the strings; the -strings are first drawn, tightly bearing on these when -set for playing, yet slack as regards tuning, and in -that state may be left when unused, just as a violin -needs to have its strings slackened when out of immediate -use. Then each string is brought to tune by -ear, the cylinder being pressed down to a right angle, -at which it stays, clipping the string downwards a -quarter of an inch, and thus increasing the tension to -the degree that practice has determined to be required -for playing. After playing, the cylinder can be tipped -back to the slack position. Simple and ingenious, since -silk strings, although waxed are, like those of gut, -affected by atmospheric changes, against which some -provision has to be made.</p> - -<p>The tasselled end of the instrument, it should be -observed, is placed to the right hand of the player.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span></p> - -<table summary="The Assyrian Harp"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Assyrian<br /> -Harp<br /> -with<br /> -Plectrum.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p262.jpg" width="400" height="415" alt="Fig. 42. Assyrian Harp with Plectrum." /></div></td></tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 42.</i></p> - -<p>Why tassels? Well, these Asiatic people have a great -fondness for such ornaments. My two Japanese flutes -have heavy crimson silk tassels quite eighteen inches -long. Curiously, too, we find in very early Assyrian -representation of hand harps on monumental slabs in -the British Museum, exactly the same set of tassels—seven -or eight in a series—depending from the bar -upon which the strings are tied: knotted in fact to the -tassels. And thereupon we wonder what community -of intercourse was there between the ancient Assyrians -and the Chinese that this same custom should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> -adhered to by both people, in times so very far back: -for Fu Hsi, the inventor, ruled 4746 years ago, and the -instrument, bespeaks a very high civilization as then -existing, and a refined state of learning and philosophy. -It is worth reflecting upon; a simple fancy such as that -perpetuated for well nigh fifty centuries.</p> - -<p>The Assyrians have passed away utterly, and the -Chinese crowd the earth, to this day reproducing the -old traditional forms, the veritable instruments decorated -after inherited customs, the music limited to -the simplicity of primitive aims. No great nation was -ever so barren of monuments as the Chinese. But -what monuments need they? They themselves are -the permanent archaic, and livingly represent their -ancestors.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> -<img src="images/i_p263.jpg" width="150" height="146" alt="Tailpiece" /> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>In Ancient China.</b><br /><br /> - -THE TRUMPETS OF THE CHINESE.</small></h2> - -<p>Trumpets are amongst the very earliest of musical -instruments, yet remote as is their date they throw no -light on musical scales of the period of their use. -Nevertheless for their very ancientness we cannot -well pass them by without reference. Pictures of -them appear in Egypt and in Assyria, but beyond -that Old Time is chary of yielding evidence. The -workers in metal in very early times undertook the -fashioning of imitations of the horns of sheep, antelopes -and oxen, and thus made they were used in -primitive musical effects in relation to sovereignty or -ceremonial. How strongly the aims of all royal and -priestly offices determined the development even of the -minutiæ of civilisation and the tendencies of domestic -and industrial life, we are hardly able to appreciate -with our modern notion of the individual assertiveness, -limited only by the general good of the community.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> -So it is well that, in considering the position of the -worker, we should remember that he worked in order -to fulfil the demand or behest of the king or the priest; -for both were to him equally sacred, and often indeed -in one man the two offices were combined.</p> - -<p>Music may have remained with the people, as an -instinct which in simple ways found its gratification; -but as an art to be cultivated it had its beginnings to -order. The musical instrument had a definite purpose -to fulfil; and, under royal or priestly guidance, so -long as that purpose was accomplished, little further -thought was given to it. Under such conditions there -was the perpetual tendency to stagnation; progress -was not only unacceptable, but to the old conservatism, -as in later days, the new thing was unnecessary; since, -if it were desirable, it would have been thought -of before by the proper responsible persons. Only -under such like estimate can we understand the lack of -resource, the poverty of invention, through many -centuries during the sway of ancient monarchies, as -regards musical instruments.</p> - -<p>The possibilities of the various types of instruments, -as we know them, were unimaginable in those days; -for the human ear had not so far progressed in sensitiveness -as to be able to comprehend the feeling for -tone, for colour, for range, or for expressiveness, as we -by long use have grown accustomed to and look upon -almost as our heritage. Yet how short a period has it -been since anything like a collection of instruments -represented by our modern orchestra attained even -a passable mechanical development! And what are -the two last centuries we look back upon in comparison -with the thousands of years during which the primitive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> -instruments remained in their crude, barbaric immaturity; -unimproved, and with neither want nor longing -that they should be improved!</p> - -<p>As instancing this blank, imperceptive state of mind -and feeling, the trumpet is very noticeable. An ancient -instrument for ages: perhaps nothing more than a -ram’s horn, or horn of animal killed in the chase. -Musically, to be ranked as a tooter or hooter. Then it -became in ruling hands a means of signal: by sense of -rhythm it conveyed to the hosts in field or fortress the -message that was equal to words; and in royal and -religious processions and ceremonies it communicated -the intelligence for which the countless thousands -waited; to inspire them, to uplift them in a contagious -sympathy of exultation, or to bow them to the ground -in common feeling of awe or adoration. When wealth -accumulated, the pomp of ceremony increased. Then -came the worker in metal, copying the product of -nature, yet not venturing much beyond it.</p> - -<p>The old monarchies of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, -with their tablets and monuments and paintings, afford -no evidence of a stage of musical advance from the early -horn; and we have but to contrast the wide range of -our trumpet with the few notes producible on a cow’s -horn, to recognise how, in the absence of higher aim -inciting to achievement which we call art, the dormant -possibilities of a marvellous instrument should have -been unevoked: empires passed away, and the trumpet -remained a horn. Do not be mystified by a misconception -to which words may lead. The horn as we -know it was an unknown thing in those far away times; -its quality of tone not approached even, nor its chief -constructive feature identified. The ram’s horn is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> -original parent of both trumpets and horns, and in the -consideration of type belongs to that of trumpets more -specifically. The shape of the <i>mouthpiece</i> of the -trumpet determines the character of the instrument, -and the old horns present only the same shallow cup. -It is a matter to be noted how comparatively recent is -the long, conical form of mouthpiece absolutely essential -as it is to the quality of tone as we have it in the French -horn used in our orchestras.</p> - -<p>As seen in the Assyrian and Egyptian forms, the bell -is evidently an added piece of funnel shaped metal, the -first departure from the animal form; afterwards in the -progress of music the shape was expanded with perception -of its importance, until at last the bell became a -marked configuration of symmetry associated with -quality of tone, refined, penetrating, and sonorous. -We have the old form still preserved to us in our fog -horns, and some ancient horns of the town in our market -place. In old Greek and Roman times some of the -trumpets depicted possess very beautiful outlines; but -there is nothing to indicate any great advance in musical -evolution, and it scarcely seems probable that even then -the production of harmonic notes went much beyond -those common to the old trumpet horns. For an extended -scale, much greater length than any we see given -would be necessary: else the harmonic series could not -be built up. Our old coach horn would about represent -the limit of the musical value attained; gradually, -however, longer tubes came to be used, and variety in -shape and purpose awakened the perceptive faculty to -the possibilities of higher things.</p> - -<p>Yet how strangely dull is human inventiveness, unless -the ideal aspiration precedes the routine of the worker,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> -unless handicraft is stimulated by demand going before, -of “saying give me the power to accomplish more; -feed my ambition.” So we traverse the course of long -ages, finding it barren of improvements.</p> - -<table summary="Hwangteih."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Hwangteih.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> -<img src="images/i_p268a.jpg" width="75" height="563" alt="Fig. 43. The Hwangteih." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><i>Fig. 43.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Haot’ung.</i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter padt5" style="width: 75px;"> -<img src="images/i_p268b.jpg" width="75" height="630" alt="Fig. 44. The Haot'ung." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 44.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>The Chinese furnish a remarkable instance of a nation -inventive yet stagnant; for although this people had -the prototypes of almost everything that with Europeans<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> -has become of infinite value to modern civilization, the -Chinese made nothing of them in practical development. -Midway in time—how, when, and where, there -is no information to guide us—the Chinese suddenly -evolve a new thing, a telescope trumpet, a slide trumpet, -the latent principle of the trombone; yet nothing came -of it in their hands: it does not seem even to have been -devised for any musical aim, nor to have a purpose -beyond convenience.</p> - -<p>The two trumpets here illustrated, called <i>Hwangteih</i> -by some authorities, but by Van Aalst (that of the -pattern we should in a modern house take to be a -hearth broom) is named <i>Haot’ung</i>; but really Chinese -names have such a never changing likeness that they -are as difficult to distinguish as Chinese faces; and as -for remembering them, my advice is, Do not try. -These trumpets are on the sliding tube system. The -<i>Hwangteih</i> is in three parts, and the <i>Haot’ung</i> in two -parts, the first named being of very slender dimensions; -the latter is often made of wood covered with copper, -but when for military use it is of copper only. And -here we should notice the feature peculiar to all -trumpets in these Eastern lands, the extremely shallow -disc like mouthpiece, with only the faintest indication -of a cup,—throughout India, Burmah, Siam, and in -fact the whole Asian regions contiguous. The effect of -a shallow cup is the easier production of high, shrill -notes; and it may be that the lip muscles are in these -races thin and tense, the expanse of the disc merely exercising -pressure, leaving only a minute portion of the -lips for vibration equal to the diameter of the very -narrow aperture entered by the stream of wind. The -actual force and vigour of the breath would thus have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> -a more predominant influence than any calculated -variation of the lip muscles by will. The whole -character of the music which satisfies these semi-civilized -people seems to corroborate such a view. -Shrillness and ear piercing intensity were the effects -aimed at.</p> - -<p>These trumpets are made in several sizes; but as the -proportions differ from those which we find necessary -for full harmonic development, it does not appear that -more than three or four notes are obtained by ordinary -playing. The globular ornaments upon the tubes -serve the same purpose as they do in European instruments, -they enable the player to press the tube to his -lips with strength; and evidently the notion is a very -old one,—showing us how little is really modern. It -is curious too that years ago in the British Museum I -found a little bronze statue of a trumpeter of the -Roman period, the trumpet being shaped at the end -like the <i>Hao-t’ung</i>. At the time I wondered at the -singularity, trying to find out some meaning and purpose -in such configuration, but was baffled; and it is -only in the presence of the Chinese instrument that one -sees in it a survival of an Asian original type brought -by Greek or Roman into Europe after far Eastern -incursions.</p> - -<p>The <i>Hwang-teih</i> and the <i>Hao-t’ung</i> are reserved for -marriage and funeral ceremonies, in which they have a -formal part assigned to them; but it is chiefly for the -marking of time or progress in the ceremony. Some -authors say that the <i>Hao-t’ung</i> is only used in funeral -functions, and that it gives a grave befitting note, prolonged -and wailing.</p> - -<p>The <i>La-pa</i> is another trumpet with telescope slide,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> -and is, one would suppose, the most modern of the -three. It is the military trumpet, and it gives four -notes, differently estimated by different writers. It is -singularly like the ancient Roman Lituus, and I conceive -it probable that the players were in advance of -the procession, and that the return curve of the bell -was made with the intent that the sounds or signals -should be thrown backward for the better hearing by -the hosts following. The itinerant knife-grinders are -stated, by ancient privilege, to be accustomed to use -the trumpet to proclaim their calling in the streets.</p> - -<table summary="La-pa."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -La-pa.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;"> -<img src="images/i_p271.jpg" width="125" height="475" alt="Fig. 45. The La-pa." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 45.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span></p> - -<p>Of the drums used by the Chinese, little need be said; -drums are much alike all the world over. The Chinese -have them of great size, and as large as five feet in -in diameter. They are highly ornamented. Various -sizes are ordained to be used in the Confucian temple, -each with some specially allotted service; thus one -placed on the Moon Terrace is struck six times at the -end of each verse, giving two beats in answer to three -beats of the larger drum. So orderly is everything -arranged and traditionally kept up.</p> - -<table summary="The Yü"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p272.jpg" width="500" height="299" alt="Fig. 46. The Yü or Tiger." /></div><br /> -<i>Fig. 46.</i><br /><br /> -<i>The Yü or Tiger.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>There is one instrument—the <i>Yü</i>—so singular and -original in character, that it is worth serious consideration -whether it would not be well to introduce it -into our orchestra, to further the Wagnerian development -of the music of the future. We have great use in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> -our day for triangles and cymbals, but they cannot -reach the effect produced by the <i>Tiger</i>, a Chinese picture -of which is here given. The animal is somewhat -idealised, it must be admitted; almost as much so -as permitted in a photograph. Mark the singularly -fascinating expression of the face embodying pain, -possibly torture; and then the reposeful attitude of the -tail; the whole figure symbolising the two conditions -under which music exists. In the musical scheme of -the Chinese the normal state of the animal is quiescent, -but its voice is indispensable to the winding up of the -finale. You see that the <i>Tiger</i> rests upon a resonant -box, about three feet long and twenty inches or so wide; -and it has on its back twenty-seven teeth, neither more -nor less—an elaborate mystical engarnishment much -resembling a saw.</p> - -<p>At the end of the grand Confucian Hymn performed -in the presence of the Emperor and all his Court, -attended by his feather-swinging dancers, the chief -officer assigned to this service strikes the <i>Tiger</i> on the -head three times; three fateful knocks (thus let it be -noticed anticipating Beethoven’s ominous device). -Then with a vigorous swish he passes his stick three -times along the projections on the <i>Tiger</i>’s back to -announce the end of the strophe; three weird screeches -are heard succeeding each other (to the great delight of -Straussians) rapid as flashes of lightning, and in a -hideous screech the scene ends.</p> - -<p>And,—the Emperor retires.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>The Music Heard in Far Cathay.</b><br /><br /> - -THE OLDEST WRITTEN MUSIC.</small></h2> - -<p>Wherever man is molested by dreams of the night, -there, in every land, will be found some form of pacification -of the spirits of the dead, that they may not -cause harm to survivors in the land of the living. The -earliest form is generally by conjuration, by magical -aid, and then the mind grown bolder as the years -advance, resorts to threats, and the invocation of curses -upon the unfortunate dead should he not hear and heed; -the stage that follows is the intercessory stage when -some one is brought in to render service, one who -knows all the powerful magic of ceremony to compel the -spirits, and who making it a special work, is paid for undertaking -the responsibility of pacifying the spirits at due -times and seasons. The person thus called in to render -service, whether known to the people of the tribe -as witch, magician, medicine man, or priest or priest-king, -became, in this order necessary and inevitable in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> -the growth of a civilized life. As the centuries progressed -the secret ceremonies were exalted into pageants, and -later took the form recognised as “Ancestor Worship,” -the shifting grades of which over the known -world are innumerable. From various causes familiar -to the student of history, Ancestor Worship, which had -its origin as a private arrangement, was at length -transformed into a public function of the highest -importance, with elaborate ceremonials and ritual -observances, wherein such music as was possessed by -the people naturally held a predominant influence.</p> - -<p>The Chinese worship “the Spirit of Heaven” and -“the Spirit of Earth,” and in their earlier times having -no priest, they delegated the heavenly part of the -observances to their Emperor, and busied themselves -only with the earthly cares, and made the “worship” -of their own particular ancestors the chief of their -investments; so onerously does this observance press -upon them that their outlay often beggars them, the -observance has a superstitious hold upon the race, seems -to be strong as heredity, ineradicable. We may smile -at the Chinese, but have we not rife in our own -population, superstition equally strong regarding -fortune-telling and charms and palmistry, and the -deeply ingrained belief in the virtue of fine funerals.</p> - -<p>The chief duty imposed upon the Emperor is that of -rigidly observing the traditionally prescribed ceremonies -of “The Worship of Ancestors” at which the greatest -display of Chinese music, with full orchestra is made, -everything connected therewith being minutely regulated; -the number of musicians, of dancers, of instruments, -of vases, and all kinds of music and genuflexions, -and even words rigorously fixed. Dancing was also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> -associated with the music as equally sacred; in ancient -times it held a conspicuous place in worship, having -been first introduced into the ceremonies by the -Emperor Shun, 2255 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>We read that in “the Chinese Classics” a great Duke -of one of the Royal Dynasties, <span class="smcap">Tan Foo</span>, who lived -1325 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, is written of, and in the ode it is related -among other things that “he charged his Minister of -Instruction with the building of the houses and the -Ancestral Temples.” By this confirming the antiquity -of Ancestor Worship at a date, far off as old Egyptian -dates, when customs, so similar, existed.</p> - -<p>The great age of the Chinese Classics is undoubted, -and Mr. Simcox says even “the most recent document -in the Shoo-King belongs to the seventh century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, -and of the famous ‘Bamboo Books’ that ‘the annals -of the Bamboo Books’ may rank with the Babylonian -Chronicles in authority.” These books were found -after they had been buried 600 years in the grave -of King Seang of Wei, who died 295 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> His -choicest treasures, entombed with him according to -ancient custom, of which we were reminded by the -recent find of the royal chariot of bronze and gilded -ornaments in the Tomb of Thotmes IV.</p> - -<p>Ancient Chinese texts were <i>printed</i> as early as -593 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> In a report by Imperial order at the beginning -of our era, the royal library held 165 collections of -books on Music, from sixteen different editors.</p> - -<p>My habit is to secure dates, knowing them to be of -utmost value in an enquiry such as this. For a due -estimate of the relation of Chinese music to that of -other early nations it is well that you should compare -these with the dates occurring in the previous chapters.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> -Not a shred of knowledge exists of recorded music of -Egypt or Babylonia, the earliest Greek example, the -Delphic marble, dates from the third century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> In -all countries no doubt certain folk-tunes exist by -tradition of centuries, may be of ages, which ultimately -are set down and put into modern notation.</p> - -<p>In China the music of the past was looked after by -“The Sect of the learned” and the responsibility for -authenticity rested with the Emperor, who by dynastic -right was chief of the Sect.</p> - -<p>The Chinese attribute to an unknown antiquity the -music performed at their great Confucian celebrations, -and it may well be that this music is the oldest written -music in the world.</p> - -<p>Some musically-minded folk have besought me for -specimens of Chinese music, wanting to see how it -looks. This demand I cannot supply, for Chinese type -would be necessary and Chinese compositors; moreover -it would not enlighten, would to us look as -columns of hieroglyphs.</p> - -<p>This is a bit of Chinese ritual music. It is called the -Guiding March, and is played by two <i>Sheng</i>, four other -instruments also in pairs, two drums, and two pair of -castanets. The music is played when the emperor, -with the princes, dignitaries, and attendants, passes the -second gate to enter the temple. The circles and dots -at the side of several of the notes are signs that the -drums and castanets are to sound. As you would not -understand the march by the Chinese symbols, I have -done it into English, and you have to read from the top -of the right hand column, and then down each column -beyond in succession—the gaps only indicate the holding -on longer of the note preceding:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span></p> - -<table summary="guiding march" style="border-collapse:collapse;" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl">g<small><small>o.</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">D<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o.</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">A</td><td class="tdl2 bl">C.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">a</td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">a</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">a<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">d.</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o.</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">g<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl">a</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> M</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">C<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl">f.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl"> A</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">a<small><small>o.</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">D</td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">a</td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> R</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">C</td><td class="tdl2 bl">a.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">C<small><small>o</small></small>.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">a</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl"> C</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">D<small><small>o</small></small>.</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">a<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small>.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">g<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl"> H</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">C</td><td class="tdl2 bl">g<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">d</td><td class="tdl2 bl">f</td><td class="tdl2 bl">d.</td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl2 bl"> </td><td class="tdl2 bl">a<small><small>o</small></small>.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">f.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">d.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small>.</td><td class="tdl2 bl">D</td><td class="tdl2 bl">c<small><small>o</small></small></td><td class="tdl2 bl"> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>The small letters are notes within the treble and the -capitals for notes below it. Looks like a very early -anticipation of tonic sol-fa. If you write this down on -the treble stave you soon become proficient in Chinese -scoring,—that is, provided you translate the Chinese -characters correctly, and comprehend also the multitude -of little signs used in addition, which to the native -are easy of recognition.</p> - -<p>I take up a little book that I have of Japanese songs -and open it, beginning at the end, which with them is -the commencement, and it looks, as I scan the page, -very much the same in fashion as the English columns -which I have set up before you. The characters are -printed in black, and the signs in vermilion, on a beautiful -silkworm paper that glistens with silvery sheen -like a cocoon, and has impressed lines separating each -column of characters; and each page is as a double -page without inner margins, six columns to a page. -Strange to say, the little book, although it measures -only six inches by two inches and five eighths, is quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> -six feet long, for it folds backwards and forwards after -the fashion of the child’s Jacob’s ladder. And this is -the little book that a little Japanese maiden will take out -of her sleeve and therewith caress her thoughts with -music, opening it to and fro as her fancy leads her, and -perhaps finding there her song of songs, where hiddenly -folding there, too, may be felt some flower token that -she cherishes for remembrance, even as we treasure -crushed pansies and violets. Be sure, the nature that -we call human nature is much the same all the world -over; in one land it is but a variant of that which it is -in another. The love songs as usual come first in interest, -and occupy a large share in the national music, -both of Japan and China; but sentiment expends itself -in many ways. One song is entitled the “Haunts of -Pleasure,” it is an early composition and a still popular -work, the theme of which is ever new in London as in -Kyoto and Peking. Then in due course sentiment displays -itself in nuptial songs and in songs of domestic -life,—life, its comedies, tragedies, and what not; and -then in funeral odes and lamentations. I notice how -old the custom is of giving one or two lines of song for -the voice, followed by an interlude for orchestra.</p> - -<p>The ritual music of the Chinese is held to rest upon -tradition mainly for its due performance, as there are -no distinguishing signs for time and movement, and -little or no attempt at expression; indeed, all meaning -is left to be shown by the attitude of the singers, and -what we should call theatrical movement.</p> - -<p>All their music is, in fact, subordinated to the vocal -performer, singer, or reciter; for dancing is with them -as much a religious function as it was to the tribes of -Israel in the days of Miriam or David. The singing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> -as always in unison, or attempted unison, relieved -occasionally by a few fourths. For of harmony they -have no idea; no feeling for it. These people have no -conception of the purpose of an orchestra, as we understand -it. The Chinese orchestra is merely a combination -of instruments which for ceremonial use alternate -with the vocal music, each instrument having its -allotted place for sounding at the end of some strophe -or line of the hymn, and comes in much as our snatches -of instrumental melody or harmony in recitative. There -is generally some mystic reference understood by the -hearers, as well as the indication of the particular -point reached in the ritual ceremony; such as is conveyed, -for instance, in the Catholic service when bells -are sounded a precise number of times, or when at -certain places only is the organ allowed to be heard. -So with the Chinese, only at a certain stage of the -progress of the ceremony are the stringed instruments -ordered to play, and at another only the wind instruments, -and at others the instruments of percussion of -which they have so many varieties,—drums and chimes, -gongs and cymbals, castanets and tambours, and tigers. -The music exists for the ceremony; not for itself.</p> - -<p>The popular love of music is displayed everywhere in -daily life, bands of musicians parade the streets, all the -domestic festivals are celebrated with music, and children -in their play are constantly singing. Girls are -taught to play the moon-shaped guitar, and the balloon-shaped, -and the three-stringed guitar, whilst they sing the -ballads which the Chinese say are thousands of years old.</p> - -<p>The singing is very peculiar, being a kind of singsong -extremely nasal; so little have the lips to do with the -enunciation that it can hardly be called vocalisation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> -This we find almost everywhere the characteristic of -barbaric song; the savage and the semi-civilised seldom -get beyond a high pitched nasal chant. Yet, when -civilisation has progressed, the strong conservative -instinct remains, and this same twang is a delicious indulgence, -and a sign of long descent and high breeding. -I am told by those who have had the experience, that -the only opportunities of hearing the natural voice of -the Chinese and Japanese in singing are when groups -of workmen are starting off to work, or when soldiers -are passing; and then some good musical effect is -produced in unison, the singers joining in their quaintly -sounding and well known melodies, which have been -handed down for generations. No decent, self-respecting, -or respectability-loving Chinese would condescend to -the vulgarity of singing in the natural voice: they use -invariably falsetto, emitted mostly through the nose, -the mouth almost shut. Male and female alike cultivate -this evidence of gentility.</p> - -<p>The music of the hymn in honour of “The Most -Holy Ancient Sage Confucius” is very interesting when -we consider the time during which it has been preserved -and handed down, and the national importance -attached to it. It is performed twice a year with great -pomp on the “lucky days” chosen for the worship of -Confucius and the spirits of departed sages in the spring -and autumn of each year. Superstition assigns to the -music a particular keynote, in which the hymn is to be -sung, according to the month of the moon; so that in -the second month the <i>lu</i> is <i>chia-chung</i>, and in the eighth -month the keynote is <i>nan-lu</i>.</p> - -<p>This is the first strophe of the hymn to Confucius -which they play.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p282.jpg" width="500" height="302" alt="ms" /> -</div> - -<p>That is to say, it is as near as our notation can give it. -See also page <a href="#Page_151">151</a> ante for concluding strophe.</p> - -<p>It is called the “Sacrificial Hymn to Confucius,” -the altar being loaded with offerings of meats, grain, -fruits, wine, silk, spices and incense. A characteristic -of Chinese worship is the firm inculcated belief that the -spirits in whose honour a ceremony is performed -descend from heaven to receive the offerings prepared -for them.</p> - -<p>The hymn has six stanzas, divided to accompany the -ceremonial stages, thus,—</p> - -<p class="p padl2"> -1. Receiving the approaching Spirit.<br /> -2. First presentation of offerings.<br /> -3. Second presentation.<br /> -4. Third and last presentation.<br /> -5. Removal of the viands.<br /> -6. Escorting the Spirit back.<br /> -</p> - -<p>As in Old Chaldea, the people of that vast valley of -Mesopotamia, and from far up in Assyria, crowded their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> -dead to Erech, their primitive home, and the burial -place of all their race; century after century all who -could do so sent their dead down the great river ways -to repose near the mouth of the Euphrates, to Erech the -sacred city of the dead. The dying trusted their -kinsfolk to do this last duty. Even to-day the Chinaman -will take his coffin and perhaps a small handful of -earth with him, when he leaves his country for Australia -or California, and looks to some of his kin to send -him home when he dies in a foreign land, and they -perform the trust, labelling their countryman’s coffin -“dry goods” to get him home at the cheapest rate.</p> - -<p>This worship of ancestors is not only the chief feature -of the Chinese religion; it pervades the daily life of -millions, and is believed in with a strength of sentiment -and in a way which we find it difficult to comprehend. -Yet, as we know, ancestor worship is perpetuated with -us to this day,—witness “Almanac de Gotha,” and -“Debrett’s Peerage.” Oddly enough comes slipping -into my memory a reminiscence of a day long past, -hearing of an old dame I knew saying to her grandson: -“Ah, Willie, my boy, if your father had only married -Miss B—— instead of your mother; your life would -have been very different; you might have been riding -in a carriage.” And she, poor simple old soul, she wondered -why the laugh went round. Yes, the “might -have been” is a haunting idea from which few altogether -escape in life. Would you know my thought? I was -thinking that had I lived in antique times—and some -would say, how know you that you did not so live?—then -verily I should have been irresistibly impelled -to the worship of one’s ancestors, and should have comprehended -how it entered into the heart and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> -conscience, and with music and symbolism set up a real -and binding obligation not to be gainsaid; instead of -which I am drawn to worship the offspring of somebody -else’s ancestors, and find that to be the greater mystery. -Ah, me! what a queer topsyturveydom civilization -brings about. Did you ever ever try to get behind a -child’s mind, to see into the inner recesses of its realistic -consciousness? Watch the little girl with her favourite -inanimate doll, how she holds important serious conversations -with her; how the doll has to be good, attentive -to her lessons, dressed and undressed, with a most -serious belief in its participations in eating and drinking -and playing day after day. What if no words come in -response; if the food prepared is not eaten? The -belief suffers nothing; the little lady will supply the -fitting speeches in reply, and will eat up the offerings of -sweets herself. Yes, the bewitching creature will go on -believing. She lives in a world of lunacy all her own, -with which our bigger world has nothing to do; and -unless we can become as little children, it passes our -understanding. This is the stage of mind at which the -Chinese stay—checked, undeveloped. The development -of the mind of the child life that is growing -around our feet we watch with never-failing interest, -well knowing that childish things will be put away, and -its illusionary world will fade and be as a world of -dream. Yet the future of the Chinese we cannot so -interpret by any signs of the present outlook, nor -imagine how many centuries must pass before their -minds can be fitted to work in parallel grades with -European thought and culture.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>Evolution of the Lyre, Harp, and Lute.</b><br /><br /> - -THE BOW WITH THE BOAT.</small></h2> - -<p>Art is always the superfluous. Food and shelter are -the first necessaries, they drive man into direct courses -of activity; he becomes a fruit gatherer, a hunter in -forests, a hut builder, or cave dweller; his intelligence -prompts him to the making of bows and to using of -arrows, and this is an advance in mechanical perception; -beyond the mere force of darts or spears in this -new aid to his strength. After his chief wants are -satisfied he has leisure, and his instinct, after rest, is -towards activity of some kind, and what he does then is -pass-time. To please himself, that is the object of his -exertion, willingly he undergoes much to this end.</p> - -<p>The man who first fixed a second string to his bow -began the art of making stringed instruments of music. -In the chase this second string is of no use to him. He -put it there solely for his pleasure. Many a morn -preparing his bow for the chase, many an eve, ere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> -setting it aside unstrung, he has “heard the tense string -murmur,” has listened and the sound has pleased him; -it is the voice of the string; a chance wish comes into -his quiet mood, and from desire to gain another sound, -he adds another string to please him more.</p> - -<p>The beginning of a lyre is in the bow; but something -beyond is needed for the endurance of the sounds, and -the aid required is found in the boat allied with the -bow. When the hunter came down from the mountains -and the dark forests, into the vast fertile valleys -of the great rivers, he naturally turned his industry to -cultivation of the land, and here, amongst the water-courses -set himself to the task of constructing boats, -that he might go hither and thither. Perhaps the bark -of old fallen trees prompted his first ventures, or as -native races do at this day, he made a boat of papyrus -stems, plaiting them together; the flowering ends of the -stalks closely gathered up, naturally curved forming the -prow, and in this way, leaving the after portions to be -spread out, filled in between a floor of reeds in such a -fashion as would produce a floating raft, or a carrying -vessel capable of bearing him and the produce he would -convey upon the waters. Singularly enough this simple -craft presents an appearance that may have furnished the -idea of a prow. The prow is so persistent a feature in the -build of ancient vessels, that possibly its ornamental retainment -maybe due to the early rudimentary possession.</p> - -<p>Sir Harry Johnston saw this kind of papyrus boat in -Uganda, floating on a little lake in the forest, making -so pretty a picture that he photographed it.</p> - -<p>Trees were hollowed by burning out the interior, long -before tools had been devised, and the next suggested -stage would be when young trees riven, yielded planks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> -that could be bent into form for boat-building. Soon -after he had attained this mastery we should find that -the original cave-dweller became in course of time a -boat dweller. Thus we imagine it happened that the -earliest lyre took the form of a boat, or rather of a -half-boat, the dwelling half, roofed or covered in, -wherein the family lived mainly, as has been the immemorial -custom in the great river regions—a custom -existing even to this day. The skill acquired in -developing the lines in boat-building was precisely the -skill that was applied to equal advantage in lyre-building, -and thus the sounds were housed.</p> - -<p>To understand aright the process of evolution I think -it very desirable that the imagination should have free -play, and take us into the scenery and into the time in -which it was going on, and if we can, by any chance -glow of fancy, get the very atmosphere about us.</p> - -<p>The earliest lyre of which we have any representation -is the three-stringed lyre. Such a lyre is seen at -page 13, the same as was slung on the mast of Queen -Hatasu’s ship that she sent to the coast of Arabia.</p> - -<p>Next in advance is the four-stringed lyre of the same -pattern. In the British Museum there are two ancient -examples of these. (<i>Fig. <a href="#f47">47</a></i>). They usefully make -clear the construction. The upper figure shews the -complete instrument; the lower figure shews the interior -part of the construction, the skin or parchment covering -of the top of the boat being absent. The framework -was covered over with thin wood or with skin, lizard -skin for choice. Some illustrations of examples of this -kind of lyre show that the end of the bow where the -pegs are inserted, was cut to receive the strings, exactly -as in later ages in violins.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="f47" id="f47"> -<img src="images/i_p288.jpg" width="500" height="220" alt="Fig. 47." /></a> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 47.</i></p></div> - -<p>This summer at Burlington House, Mr. Garstang -exhibited a five-stringed lyre of this pattern which in -his exploration he had recovered from one of the tombs -at Beni-Hassan, which had not been in daylight for -more than three thousand years. The strings naturally -had perished long ago.</p> - -<p>In the earliest times after the Egyptians had begun to -depict the incidents of their daily life, and to make -record of their nation’s history on the walls of tombs -and temples, we find three distinct types of musical -stringed instruments possessed by them; sometimes the -representations of these are given in relief carved in -stone, sometimes incised only and painted. Not -decoration but history their minds were set upon; -each man who had power held his own individual -history to be of supreme importance, and thus there -has been left to us a picture book of priceless veracity.</p> - -<p>In the times when these pictures were made they already -had the instruments in a high state of development, say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> -from 4000 to 6000 years ago, and we are left to guess -how long a course of time must have been necessary -before from the primitive rude state they could have -reached the perfected state the paintings disclose to us.</p> - -<p>To make clear the way of evolution I recognise but -three types, and class these as,—</p> - -<p> -1. The boated lyre; half-boat form.<br /> -2. The cross-bar lyre; a two-horned form.<br /> -3. The lute; paddle form.<br /> -</p> - -<p>The boated lyre preserves always the hollow shape -and form of half a boat covered in, and is built up in -planks or ribs, and the strings are bow-strung and -strained from point to point.</p> - -<table summary="Upright Lyre"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Upright<br /> -Lyre<br /> -(half boat).</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/i_p289.jpg" width="300" height="451" alt="Fig. 48. Upright Lyre (half boat)." /></div></td> -</tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 48.</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span></p> - -<p>The shape is seen in many of the representations of -the larger boats used at the time. Two of these harps -laid lengthwise together, joined at the thickest part, -will give the shape I refer to, showing by comparison -how naturally evolved.</p> - -<table summary="Harp"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Harp from<br /> -the<br /> -Tomb of<br /> -Rameses<br /> -III.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> -<img src="images/i_p290.jpg" width="350" height="439" alt="Fig. 49. Harp from the Tomb of Rameses" /> -</div></td></tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 49.</i></p> - -<p>Harps are indeed lyres of larger growth, and in the -reign of Rameses the Third had attained their full -development, as seen in the grand painting in the tomb -at Thebes discovered by the famous traveller Bruce; -posterity, has given it the name of Bruce’s harp. -In Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s wonderful storehouse -of knowledge on Egyptian things, large full-page -delineations are given of this and its companion harp. -Musicians frequently remark upon the absence of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> -front pole, their impression being that consequently the -tension of the strings must have been so weak that the -tone would be dull and ineffective; this however is an -impression only, a practical acquaintance with woodworking -and bending elastic ribs to shape, would reveal -a high state of resistance particularly effective for the -purposes of resonance, and would fully justify the old -Egyptian craftsmen in their choice.</p> - -<p>Many of their harps had from ten to seventeen strings -and some even twenty-one and twenty-two.</p> - -<p>The harps were frequently the heighth of a man; they -were painted tastefully with lotus and other flowers, -and richly ornamented and inlaid. The tuning was by -means of pegs, sometimes two rows of pegs are shewn. -There were long slit holes at the back for giving freedom -to the air, exactly as found in modern harps.</p> - -<p>No instance has been found of harp with supporting -pole or pillar. The strings were always of gut. One -harp has been discovered with strings which though -they had been buried more than 3000 years still sounded -on being touched. A curiously formed harp is shewn -in the Paris collection having twenty-one strings, or -places for strings, enough left to exhibit a manner of -tying the strings (see enlarged design of this mode given -on next page).</p> - -<p>That the style had a vogue is evident since another -example exists in the Leyden collection, though less -complete in condition; the framework still retains the -fine green colour as originally painted. Sometimes the -woodwork was covered with leather, green or red. -This instrument is built five sided in section, and at the -back has three sound holes. The resonance should be -very strong. The string-bar is well supported by its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> -double bearings and for the kind of music demanded, I -should not consider that the tuning would be of the -difficulty some writers suppose.</p> - -<table summary="Lyre."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Paris<br /> -Lyre.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<img src="images/i_p292.jpg" width="400" height="481" alt="Fig. 50. The Paris Lyre." /></div></td></tr></table> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 50.</i></p> - -<p>As the boated lyre betokens a river influence, so the -lyres of Class II. indicate a pastoral origin, and this -is well portrayed in the Egyptian painting discovered -by Sir Gardner Wilkinson in a tomb at Beni-Hassan. -It is a painting representing the arrival of strangers in -Egypt, and one portion of it introduces a lyre having -six strings, the man holding it in the primitive fashion, -and playing it with the plectrum, he is preceded by an -ass bearing a burden.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span></p> - -<p>The true origin is undoubtedly Asiatic, it came, -perhaps, by way of Arabia into the central Nile region, -and the parent form is best shown in the illustration next -following (<i>Fig. <a href="#f52">52</a></i>). In this shape it has existed from time -immemorial, and down to the present it is found in use -by native tribes, in Nubia, Ugandi, Abysinnia, and other -regions. Sir Harry Johnston, in his splendid work on -Uganda, gives a picture of a native, a Kavibondo, -playing this same kind of lyre, eight-stringed.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p293.jpg" width="500" height="278" alt="Fig. 51." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 51.</i></p></div> - -<p>He also gives an illustration of a native Mbuba playing -on a strung bow, and holding the string between his teeth -thrumbing it the while (he by frequently altering the -shape of the mouth-cavity varied the sounds to agree with -the changing resonance), in fact, making a jew’s harp -of it, which is a singular confirmation of the view I -take, tracing the origin of stringed instruments to the -bow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span></p> - -<table summary="Kissar."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Kissar.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter padr2" style="width: 300px;"><a name="f52" id="f52"> -<img src="images/i_p294.jpg" width="300" height="509" alt="Fig. 52. The Kissar." /></a><br /> -<i>Fig. 52.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>The picture of a <i>Kissar</i> here given is taken from a -fine specimen presented to the South Kensington -Museum by the late Viceroy of Egypt, it has strings -of camel gut, and a plectrum made of horn, which is -used alone or associated with the fingers. All harps it -should be remembered are, as occasion may require, -subject to the use of one hand for damping the strings, -which else would continue sounding too long for the -right effect in the performance of the music.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span></p> - -<p>From a rude instrument of this kind the true Greek -lyre was in course of time evolved. I trace the intermediate -stages still by the banks of the Nile. They call it -in Nubia the <i>Kisirka</i>, and by other kindred names in the -heart of Africa. That the bar slants is particularly a -feature to be noticed, and that the tops of the uprights -or horns pass through this bar. The construction of -the sounding body is arranged in a square form as of -a stretching framework of reeds or rods, and is covered -by a skin usually. In fact the frame suggests to me -the coracle or fishing punt, seen in the sculptured slabs -from Assyria and Babylonia. The idea of the instrument -may be originally based upon a shallow coracle, -the supporting seat in the interior affording fixture for -the uprights, in the same way as we have seen in boats. -(<i>Fig. <a href="#f47">47</a></i>).</p> - -<p>One of these slabs contains representations of three -players upon harps having the same slant bar for the -strings, the particular utility of which is in its enabling -players to tune the strings by pushing them higher up, or -pressing them a little lower in position, thus changing -the tension as they desired for the pitch of any string, a -method which we find was retained in Egypt during -long periods.</p> - -<p>The slab from which this illustration is taken is -one recovered from the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal at -Nimroud. The slabs possessed by the British Museum -date some of them as far back as 875 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, so that they -are not nearly so old as the Egyptian pictures, although -the character is apparently more archaic. Nevertheless -the Babylonian Antiquities range back to dates almost -as ancient, that is to 4500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> So that there is justification -for the belief that these harps were in use in</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/i_p296.jpg" width="500" height="559" alt="Fig. 53." /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 53.</i></p></div> - -<p>that region in a very remote period, the relics whereof -have perished; soil, and climate, and custom, have -been favourable to the preservation of relics telling -of the musical instruments of past life in Egypt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> -from earliest times, advantages which Babylonia -had not.</p> - -<p>At the hands of the Egyptian the instrument soon took -a refined ornamental form (<i>Fig. <a href="#f54">54</a></i>), whilst still retaining -its particular slant bar, and the horizontal method of -holding, and the plectrum to sound it by. This is -generally considered to be “<i>the magadis</i>,” but I do not -see it so. I see only a square sounding box, with ornamental -lines, but no pressure bar additional. More -will be found upon “<i>magadizing</i>” further on.</p> - -<table summary="Fig. 54, 55"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"><a name="f54" id="f54"> -<img src="images/i_p297a.jpg" width="250" height="409" alt="Fig. 54." /></a> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 54.</i></p></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter"><a name="f55" id="f55"> -<img src="images/i_p297b.jpg" width="278" height="408" alt="Fig. 55." /></a> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 55.</i></p></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>The next transition undergone proves to be one of -great importance and significance in history, the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> -method is discarded, and an upright position adopted (<i>Fig. -<a href="#f55">55</a></i>), the fingers of both hands being brought into use as in -the larger lyres of the boat type. Thus the two styles -are brought into accordance also, the performers -benefitting by the change. Likewise we should notice -that the number of the strings has increased to eleven -or twelve, and there is a constant tendency in this -direction, so that lyres become hand harps, light and -portable, yet having many strings.</p> - -<table summary="Lyre." border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Berlin<br /> -Lyre.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter padr2"><a name="f56" id="f56"> -<img src="images/i_p298.jpg" width="400" height="284" alt="Fig. 56. The Berlin Lyre." /></a><br /> -<i>Fig. 56.</i></div></td></tr></table> - -<p>In the Marbles from the North West Frieze of the -Parthenon at the British Museum, harps of this kind -are represented, and are seen carried in the same way -as in <i>Fig. 55</i>; though the remains are fragmentary the -lyres are still clearly standing out in relief, and close -beside them the flutes, and though but little of the -carving of these remains, yet looked at from beneath, -the under cut plainly shews that the flutes are double -flutes as I mentioned earlier (<i>page 75</i>).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span></p> - -<p>This pattern was further improved, artists exercised -their skill in new designs, decorative, and constructive, -the greater fulness of the sounding body of the instrument -augmenting the sounds in like degree.</p> - -<p>Fortunately two complete specimens are existing, one -in the Berlin, the other in the Leyden collection, -is perfectly preserved with exception of the strings. -Here places for 13 strings are shewn. The body of the -instrument is of thin wood and is ten inches high, the -total height being two feet. The air holes are at the -bottom of the lyre.</p> - -<p>The Lute is a very distinct type and equally ancient, -except that we may infer it to have arisen after the -Boated and the Bar types, inasmuch as it bespeaks a -higher order of skill and intelligence that comprehends -and grasps a musical system; the design of the instrument -was conceived accidentally perhaps, but the idea -of obtaining a series of sounds from proportional -measurements upon one string was an advance in the -mechanics of music making.</p> - -<p>I distinguish Class III. as of the lute form or the -paddle form, originating maybe, in association with the -coracle, used by the man to move himself about in -water-courses and lakes in his daily business of fishing. -The coracle, exactly like those of ancient British build, -is depicted on the Babylonian slabs.</p> - -<p>The Egyptian name for this lute is the <i>Nefer</i>, so -ancient is the <i>Nefer</i> that it is found in paintings in tombs -of the VI. dynasty, <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 2000.</p> - -<p>Many paintings show this little instrument, it is small -and flat, is from three to four feet in length, and has -from two to five strings, and always this form suggestive -of its paddle origin; the pole, called by us a long neck,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> -has at the top pegs which are turned to bring the -strings into tune; the instrument is played with the -plectrum. Sometimes it is shown played with the -fingers only. Often we meet with the statement -that the <i>Nefer</i> finger-board had frets, but I am myself -not quite satisfied upon this point, because the -lines that in black and white look like frets, yet -when inspected in the large coloured fac-simile productions -given by Rosellini and others, appear as -nothing other than lines of the decorative patterns -inlaid on the flat finger-board.</p> - -<table summary="Nefer" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The<br /> -Nefer<br /> -supported by<br /> -a silk band.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> -<img src="images/i_p300.jpg" width="250" height="397" alt="Fig. 57. The Nefer supported by a silk band." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 57.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>That such fancy designings should be a guide to the -player seems very probable, but I do not think that the -idea of a raised fret had then arisen; in later times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> -there is no question that frets were adopted when -precise relations of pitch were sought for in the closer -study of the art of playing. In their rudest form pieces -of camel gut are tied on the neck to act as frets.</p> - -<table summary="Dancer" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Dancer<br /> -with the<br /> -Nefer.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/i_p301.jpg" width="300" height="333" alt="Fig. 58. Dancer with the Nefer." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 58.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>It is still a vexed question whether the Egyptians -required, from even their many stringed harps, anything -more than certain runs or conventional sequences of -tones, little simple tunes that were traditionally retained, -and reiterated rhythms, or possessed the knowledge -of harmony as a science, and used their instruments in -pursuance of aims to produce effects of sound regulated -by laws based upon science. They had a great -variety of instruments we know, and that the fingers of -both hands were used to pluck the strings of the harps,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> -and it seems hard to deny such a claim to a people so -skilful and intelligent. Mr. W. Chappell strenuously -insisted that the Egyptians understood and practiced -harmony, and some other writers support the claim. -The most learned authorities take the adverse view and -say that nothing yet discovered by investigation -warrants such a supposition. All that can be conceded -is that the simple consonances of two sounds were -known and practised. The present state of Asiatic -nations tells very plainly that a large number of instruments -may be used in combination without, through -the course of ages, any idea of harmony being evolved. -The Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese Orchestras are a -standing witness of this fact in the history of human -races.</p> - -<p>A little cane harp, used by the natives of Borneo I -believe, came into my possession many years past, and -is probably nearly a century old. This simple instrument -shows how easily satisfied the ear is with pleasing -sounds when the people have continued in an early -stage of civilization, and still represent the primitive -state of nations that have passed away. The harp is -13-1/2 inches by 9, and is constructed of pieces of cane, -29 in number, lashed together raft-fashion. The strings -are formed of the outer silicious layer of the cane; a -double incision is made on the surface of each rod to -within an inch of each end, and the strip thus severed -is lifted up to form a string: the opposite side of the -rod is treated in the same way: the strips vary in width -from a sixteenth of an inch, less or more. The 29 rods -are laid together and firmly braided with a wire-like -fibre, making a flat, raft-like form, shewing the strips -or strings back and front; then rods are slipped under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> -the strips, making bridges for them at each end, all the -front strings sound, but the strips at the back merely -exercise a counter strain against the pull of the front, -and are interlaced criss-cross in threes, so as to admit -a pair of tension bars, which act as required to tighten -or slacken the front strings as a whole, since when unused -the tension should be lowered as is the case with -gut strings. The ingenuity of the construction of this -instrument is admirable in its simplicity, and the work -is beautifully done. All the Malagasy are expert in -this braiding which to them is a fine art. The instrument -is well worthy of illustration, speaking to us of -the past within the present. (<i>See <a href="#f59">plate</a> inserted</i>).</p> - -<p>This cane-harp yields sounds bright and delicate and -clear, it is held tambourine fashion over the head, and -played by the finger nails of the right hand gliding at -will over the strings, producing a succession of sounds -rhythmical and wild, incessantly varied: four or five -sounds repeatedly renewed over the series of strings, -and intermingled with these, little bells strung on cords -at each side, rattle against them. Imagine the native -scene, groups of young girls decked with flowers, their -brown skins flashing with the sunlight, dancing with -the abandon of youthful vigour, in full exuberance of -the joy of living, striking their uplifted harps in a wild -frequency of orderly confusion, guided by instinct yet -the while obeying the rules their mothers had taught -them, dancing in heedless delight in the ways made -imperative by tradition, rushing hither and thither, in -and out, and around, weaving circle within circle, a -dazzling maze of lithe bodies, of rapid feet, and laughing -voices, eyes flashing as jewels, brown arms and -hands swinging a cloud of harps over a restless sea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> -sound,—bring to the mind’s eye a scene like this, then -you will understand how the multitudinous music of -the ancient days, simple as were its means, satisfied by -the wealth of sensuous excitement it created in young -and old.</p> - -<p>The Kings of old had a pride in the number of their -trained musicians, as in the number of their horsemen -and war-chariots. Music added to the pomp of ceremonial -days; it testified to greatness, the throne and -the temple alike demanded its aid. In the intervals -when wars had ceased, the court had to be provided -with music for pastime, and the people to be gratified -with spectacles and feastings. The priesthood seem to -have been the managers of the shows and to have held -control of the music to be played, they being the men -of learning; yet so far as I am aware, no record -remains to tell what that music was, no indication -exists, no hint even that it ever was written down, or a -method of notation devised for the guidance of the -multitude of players. Surmises there have been that -some unexplained markings occurring in Egyptian -writings have reference to musical usages, but later -authorities do not favour the guesses, which have -led to nothing. The temple being the focus of the -musical life the music would have been chiefly of -the processional kind, and the wonder to us is how it -was managed unless there had been an Art of Music in -force in those days, remote though they were. How -did King Solomon manage his four thousand musicians?</p> - -<table summary="The Cane Harp"><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><div class="figcenter"><a name="f59" id="f59"> -<img src="images/i_p304a.jpg" width="500" height="441" alt="Fig. 59. The Cane Harp " /></a></div></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent">THE CANE HARP <span class="smcap">from Borneo, with Tamburine Bells</span>.</p></td> -<td class="tdr"><i>Fig. 59</i> (described page <a href="#Page_302">302</a>-4.)</td></tr></table> - -<p>Babylon and Nineveh have left a few slabs with pictures -of musicians—that is all. In Egypt we come -into the possession of a knowledge considerably wider -in range than other ancient lands together have -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>yielded. Through the sacrilege of Time we have been -admitted to Tombs and Temples, have shared the prerogative -of the gods, seeing the hidden things and life-stories -meant for their gaze only, in the darkness that -to them was light. A marvellous faith. Those harps -were supposed to play though no hand touched them, -those pipes to pipe sweet tones that lost themselves in -the silence.</p> - -<p>Egypt bred men of great genius in the art of war, of -great genius in the art of architecture, surely she must -have had men great in the art of music. How were -these musicians ruled? The beneficent conductor had -not then been invented. In truth <i>one</i> would have been -of little avail in their grand festival processions, would -have been lost amidst the lofty columns of their vast -temples. Not a hieroglyph anywhere to tell us how -the master musician controlled his hosts “of harpers -harping with their harps.”</p> - -<p>These old-world pictures speak no words; they shew -us six or eight men following in a line, clapping their -hands to regulate the accents and rhythm of the musicians; -thus they were led, and that is all we know—may -be indeed all that we are likely to know. Thus -as Keats tells us, the past—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">————“doth tease us out of thought,</div> -<div class="line">As doth eternity.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXV.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>The Choice of the Greeks.</b><br /><br /> - -THE DELPHIC LYRE.</small></h2> - -<p>The fingers of the hand upon the pipes having -decreed in a practical way the first scale of musical -sounds, very naturally it would come to pass that an -instrument with strings, in the time of beginnings, -would be set to copy the same order of sounds, which, -simple as it was, had an importance that held the character -of law, something to be abided by. Imitation is -the beginning of conservatism, all history tells us that -the crudest and the most limited attainments are those -that set up the sternest barriers against innovation.</p> - -<p>When the string time came, the method resorted to -for obtaining differences in sounds from strings was -that of varying the lengths; next the differences gained -by varying the strain upon them were perceived; and -ultimately the advantages from the use of strings manufactured -of various thicknesses. This last method -implies the cultivation of a trade or an industrial pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>duction -of sheepgut treated for the purpose of the -musical use of it. Probably the advance from the first -step to the last was a slow process; it was progress, -and progress is slow.</p> - -<p>The Egyptian lyres and harps that are the subject of -illustration in the chapter previous, show very clearly -the custom of reliance upon differences in lengths, and -strain in varying degrees, the sloping bar particularly -indicating the simplest mode of effecting change of -strain, but as yet there is not evidence of the practice -of uniformity in the lengths of the strings of lyres. That -the Egyptians had attained skill in making strings of -various sizes, gauging them, in fact, to suit the positions -of each, may fairly be inferred, at least for late developments -in the larger harps, but not, I think, for -instruments of the very early periods.</p> - -<p>With the Greeks the contrary is the rule, they come into -the temple of history ready equipped with the portable -open-handed lyre, the strings of uniform length. They -are late comers it is true, and derive their arts from both -Egypt and Asia, and I should assume that, in this case, -the particular form of their lyres was due to Asia.</p> - -<p>It was the lyre of the strangers visiting Egypt. Fig. -51, page 293, that was the choice of the Greeks, it may -have been Lydian, or Lycian, or Phrygian, or Lesbian, -as thus the ancient writers named several modifications -of style in lyres, but the essential design is the same -in all.</p> - -<p>We should not forget that development was going on -simultaneously for thousands of years in the valleys of -the Nile and the Euphrates. An instrument like that -shown in Fig. 52 I consider to have been the prototype of -all cross-bar lyres, both of the sloping and the horizontal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> -bars, the latter the latest form because, as I said, implying -an industry of skill in making the strings; the -original home of the prototype, Mesopotamia, the -instrument working its way up into Asia Minor, a -region where empires came and went, yet this type of -lyre remained through all vicissitudes, fixed in the -people’s choice by immemorial custom of age after age.</p> - -<p>The Greek lyre is first mentioned by Homer. His -words have a deep significance of the intimate influence -it had on Greek life. He speaks of the player,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i04">“How he comforts the heart</div> -<div class="line">With the sound of the lyre.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In the bronzes-room of the British Museum there is a -disc with a relief representing Hermes making the lyre. -One lyre he holds in his left hand; another is beside -the altar. The strings of both are inlaid with silver. -The fable concerning the origin of the lyre in the -tortoise-shell is told in many ways. In the Hymn to -Hermes, according to Mr. Lang’s version, it is told -how Hermes,—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2 padl2"> - -<p>“cut to measure stalks of reed and fixed them in through -holes bored in the stoney shell of the tortoise, and cunningly -stretched round it the hide of an ox, and put in the horns of -the lyre, and to both he fixed the bridge and seven harmonious -cords of sheepgut. Then took he his treasure when -he had fashioned it, and touched the strings in turn with the -plectrum, and wondrously it sounded under his hand, and -fair sang the God to the notes, improvizing his chant as he -played.”</p></div> - -<p>—this version is elegant, some readers would prefer to -have the more literal description given by Dr. -Burney:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span></p> - -<div class="blockquot2 padl2"> - -<p>“the invention of the lyre is attributed to the Egyptian God -Hermes or Thoth.... Hermes walking along the banks of -the Nile, happening to strike his foot against the shell of a -dried tortoise, was so pleased with the sound it produced -that it suggested to him the first idea of a lyre, which he -afterwards constructed in the form of a tortoise, and strung -it with the dried sinews of dead animals.”</p></div> - -<p>The myth will be useful in accounting for the very -frequent appearance of the tortoise-shell lyre in the -classical designs of the Greek artists in their vases, -bronzes and sculpture.</p> - -<table summary="The Chelys."><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>The Chelys<br /> -or<br /> -tortoise-shell<br /> -lyre.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/i_p309.jpg" width="200" height="332" alt="Fig. 60. The Chelys or tortoise-shell lyre." /></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 60.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>This illustration will represent the finished style so -often seen, with the shell and the twisted horns. The -ancient artist evidently did not know how the instrument -was constructed, and has exaggerated the size of -the shell, and curtailed the strings, in a wise ignorance -of musical effects depending upon resonance.</p> - -<p>The Chelys (from <i>chelus</i>, a shell) is the typical form -of the Greek lyre, there is no trace of it in Egyptian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> -paintings, they have the more primitive slant-bar style -with the square-shaped body, but the Greeks coming -much later in date appropriated the method of uniform -length of the strings, and although we often read of -“the shortest and the longest strings,” the evidences -of such in use are hard to find. That many-stringed -lyres became accepted in certain circles of society cannot -be doubted, the names of many such being current, -and the extent over which the series of notes ranged -being likewise stated, yet on their vases and marbles -and in the best period of classic art, we find the Chelys, -and the various modifications of it up to the perfected -lyre in the hands of Apollo, alone thought worthy -of representation. The abundance of these is marvellous, -and the imagination conjures up visions of numberless -treasures still waiting beneath the native soil.</p> - -<p>Not only was the Chelys the lyre of the gods, it was also -the domestic lyre; the tortoise lyre was everywhere at -home. The British Museum possesses one of these, -alas, one must say, fragments of one, and reckons -this poor wreck of musical feeling and devotedness (for -it was found in a tomb) a rare and choice treasure. -This Chelys is of sycamore and is light and of very -simple make, the cross-bar is forked at each end, and -so formed it slips over the trimmed points of the two -uprights, and rests on notches cut on each side for the -purpose; the uprights are shaped to well-known curves -and the lower ends were fixed in the tortoise shell, -which covering a piece of wood formed a soundboard. -Only a portion of the shell remains. The crossbar -still retains the black marks made by the strings that -in life were wound round it, and tightened there, that -the lyre might make music to the fingers of the youth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> -it had comforted, and was lovingly placed in the tomb -that it might still continue to comfort him.</p> - -<p>As it lay in the case under glass, the measurements -as near as I could take them were,—length of arms or -uprights 15 inches, the crossbar fixing three inches -below the tips of these, and extending 1½in. beyond, -between the arms the width at the crossbar 7½in. increasing -in the curves to 8½in., the shell with soundboard -I reckon as about 7 by 3½in., thus the whole -length appears to be 22 inches. The general look of it -gives the idea of graceful slimness, the wood is sycamore, -and the construction of the lyre so simple that it -might have been home-made.</p> - -<p>The original lyre of Apollo is of this style, fashioned -in the same simplicity, a little more slim, since four -strings only were at first given. Looking over the -3,000 gems in the British Museum, the bronzes, and -the Sculptures, and the multitude of Vases, from earliest -to latest periods, and amidst varied and ornate -styles in advanced art, we see that still the same simple -form remains a cherished favourite not to be displaced -from the people’s choice by the newer patterns, religion -and tradition had made this the companion of the ever -youthful Apollo, and we find that the artists kept up -the association in their representations of the well-known -Homeric chronicles of gods and men.</p> - -<p>From the way in which the lyre is praised by Homer -(or by other poets under his great name), it is evident -that the instrument was already ancient. Olympus -the elder, and Orpheus the Thracian, were centuries -earlier than Homer; two centuries later Terpander -comes into recognition historically, and his lyre had -but four strings when he gained the prize in his first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> -musical contest at the feast of Apollo in Sparta, <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> -676, so that from these dates we learn that for many -centuries the lyre had remained a simple instrument of -four strings, producing but four sounds. Some say -that these elder musicians limited themselves to three -strings, and that one Linus by name it was who added -the fourth string. However Terpander as he grew in -renown became dissatisfied, and greatly daring increased -the number of the strings to seven. Cleonidas in the -<i>Introduction to Music</i> (ascribed to Euclid), has preserved -for us two lines from a poem as spoken by Terpander himself, -which Mr. Wm. Chappell translates as follows:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i04">“But we loving no more the tetrachordal chant</div> -<div class="line">Will sing aloud new hymns to a seven-toned lyre.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Sappho used a lyre of six strings, Pythagorus about -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 520 added an eighth string, Phrynis added a ninth, -Anacreon a tenth, his lyre was supposed to be a Lydian -<i>magadis</i>, capable of so dividing the string in playing -that by an intermediate bar, against which each string -could be pressed, octave sounds could be given; -then we hear of Timotheus (the younger) in <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> -446 adding four strings to the Spartan lyre, an -audacity which was so great an affront that the Spartan -Ephori cut away the four strings, confiscated the lyre -and suspended it in the temple as a warning to all innovators, -and there it was to be seen by citizens and -by travellers in the round building known as the -<i>Skeias</i>.</p> - -<p>Concerning these inventions there are other claimants, -and many conflicting statements; the legendary -lore also comes in to the confusion of dates, Hermes -the old Egyptian God is one of the reputed inventors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> -of the lyre, and he furnished it offhand with the -<i>seven strings</i> obtained from the land tortoise, so that -chronology is a hazardous topic, baffling the most -patient of investigators. The Egyptians themselves -only admit of three strings being in the original invention, -these representing the three seasons into which -their year was divided.</p> - -<p>The instrument has many forms, little differences in -structure giving rise to new names. The Phorminx, -Cithara, Kitharis, Chelys, Barbitos, Psalterion, Trigon, -and numerous others; the principle being the same in -all I class them under the general term, lyre.</p> - -<p>The information given to us in ancient treatises on -musical matters affords very little light upon the structure, -manipulation, tuning and other details which we -in these days are curious about. It is indeed difficult -to arrive at reasonable conclusions, having, in default -of the actual examples of the Greek Lyres, to rely upon -artistic representations often, as we notice, conventional -only, as in our day, for artists are ruled by the -eye, and seek little beyond appearance; hence fixed -types suit them, and this sufficiency accounts for the -absence of representations of many instruments which -we know by verbal reference alone.</p> - -<p>How were the instruments strung? How were they -tuned? How played? The utmost obscurity clouds -these enquiries.</p> - -<p>In order to show the steps in development that took -place, I have selected a few illustrations, each change, -no doubt had a purpose although there is no record left -to enlighten us. The writers of the ancient treatises on -music busied themselves with scholastic subtleties -concerning scales and tetrachordal divisions, and if they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> -were musicians, perhaps were as indifferent as our -composers and musicians too generally have shewn -themselves to be to the practical comprehension of the -nature and construction of the instruments they used. -Much that was written we cannot understand, probably -because the terms they used had to them meanings and -associations of ideas other than those obvious to modern -interpreters. The makers of lyres and the skilled -players, those who knew the things we would learn did -not write, and the writers who did not know,—they -explained things, or undertook to do so, which is -another matter, and the consequence is that no man at -the present day can speak with certainty upon the most -interesting questions connected with these Greek -instruments.</p> - -<p>Seeking amongst the representations on vases and gems -for hints of design and purpose, questioning each one, -saying, what can you tell me? I one day found my attention -directed to the marked distinction between the -ornamental ends of the cross-bar of lyres, how that the -designer had drawn the end projecting at the right hand -much larger than the end shewing at the left hand. -Surely, I thought, that feature in construction indicates -handling for some practical end; what can it be but -that the cross-bar has been converted to be used as -lute and lyre pegs had previously been used—it could -be turned.</p> - -<p>Then, the eye, being prepared to see, was quickened -to observe; I looked around and found so many -instances in which this particular distinction of the -right hand from the left was dominant in the construction, -that the conclusion arrived at was confirmed. -The advantage given to the players right hand was that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> -of a better grasp in turning this long peg, evidently the -peg by intent fitted very tightly.</p> - -<table summary="Terpsichore"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Terpsichore<br /> -with a<br /> -Lyre.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="f61" id="f61"> -<img src="images/i_p315.jpg" width="300" height="338" alt="Fig. 61. Terpsichore with a Lyre." /></a></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 61.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>Now arose a point of great difficulty. Here was a -peg a long bar carrying seven or eight strings, and if -its office was to tune the strings, the twisting of the peg -would affect the whole series simultaneously, an extension -of its office certainly, but in like degree a limitation -of its powers. It appeared to me upon close consideration -that only a partial twist was allowed to it, and that -the intention of it and real purpose of it was to guard the -strings against breaking, which would be likely to occur if -the strings were under constant tension, subject at the -same time to changes of temperature and of moisture. -Thus each string would be strained to its desired pitch, -and fixed at the bottom holding, and when the instrument -was set aside after playing, a slight turn of the -peg would slacken the whole series, which again would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> -be tightened, when required, by a partial turn in the -opposite direction.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="f62" id="f62"> -<img src="images/i_p316.jpg" width="500" height="298" alt="Fig. 62." /></a> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 62.</i></p></div> - -<p>Fortunately there exists a monument which will -greatly help us in understanding the practice of the lyre, -for it shows us the player in the act of tuning her lyre -by this cross bar-peg. The central figure is dancing -and playing at the same time, and we should notice the -band by which it was the custom to support the lyre -from the left arm. The figure to the left of the engraving -has already had her dance and is readjusting her -strings which have been disturbed in pitch by the -plucking of the fingers; the figure on the right is preparing -for her turn and is tightening the strings ready -for playing. This illustration (<i>Fig. <a href="#f62">62</a></i>) was given in -“Hope’s Costume of the Ancients,” a work published in -1812, the subject of which did not promise anything for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> -music, but it is a bit of treasure trove very important in -the elucidation of the art of the lyre. That block -appeared in Nauman’s History of Music, and perhaps -is passed by with but a casual glance from musical -readers.</p> - -<table summary="Erato"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><i>Erato<br /> -with<br /> -the<br /> -Psaltery.</i></td> -<td class="tdc"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="f63" id="f63"> -<img src="images/i_p317.jpg" width="400" height="501" alt="Erato with the Psaltery." /></a></div></td> -<td class="tdc"><i>Fig. 63.</i></td></tr></table> - -<p>The lyre held by Terpsichore (<i>Fig. <a href="#f61">61</a></i>), shews a variation -in construction, it has below the cross-bar a second -bar which would seem in itself to be intended to define -more strictly the lengths of the strings when the peg -carrying the series were fixed in its correct position, but -an examining the larger lyre or Psaltery (<i>Fig. <a href="#f63">63</a></i>) carried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> -by Erato, “the lovely one,” as the Greeks called this -muse, this addition will be seen to assume a more important -relation, and the appearance is as of platform -attached to the crossbar through which the strings are -threaded, and they do not pass to wind round the bar. -This platform is more or less a puzzle. It might be -designed to throw the strings more forward of the body -of the instrument; Erato’s lyre is curved evidently with -that purpose in view. Many representations shew this -little platform. I have noticed instances of the loose -ends of strings shewn above it, although the rule seems -to have been for those ends to be at the bottom of the -lyre where the tuning of each string was regulated. -Erato’s lyre is of advanced pattern, being hollow like a -violin, and doubtless it was of high sonority.</p> - -<p>In the gem room of the British Museum there is -another painting from Herculanæum, in which a new -idea is manifest; the platform is replaced by levers at -right angles to the bar to which the strings are attached. -M. Victor Mahillon gives a rough drawing of this, but -it is hardly convincing as to how such levers or rollers can -be brought into use. I have brooded over this painting, -searched it intently with opera glasses, seeking time and -again to read its mystery, and still it is clouded in mist, -the actual construction not to be made out.</p> - -<p>There are several illustrations of lyres having a -number of loose rings upon the bar; Dr. Burney gives -one where one long string is threaded through a series -of them from top to bottom of lyre. But the idea is an -impossible one for practical validity, since the tension -could not be regulated to differ for each note, and the -string being continuous from one to the other, to affect -one note would be to affect all.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span></p> - -<p>Rings and loops on the bar are often seen, details of -strings being omitted, and there is doubt how much the -painter knew of the instrument he presumed to depict; -modern artists shew themselves equally presumptuous, -seldom or never caring to know or to enquire into the -mode of playing, or to understand the design of the -construction.</p> - -<p>Some little light, I think, is given in a description of -an ancient lyre which, in a mutilated state, was recovered -by Lord Elgin from a tomb at Athens.</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“It was in fifty pieces, but the fragments could be so put -together as to leave no doubt of its figure and action. The wood -is of cedar, and in size similar to that held in the hand of Apollo. -Having laid in the earth about three thousand years, it was surprising -that the woodwork was not all decayed, for the metallic -parts were completely dissolved. This lyre evidently had eight -strings, from the number of little rollers which had turned upon -the cross bar. On each roller there was a small projecting peg, -upon which the string was looped; and then by turning the -roller it was raised in pitch, and the mode of fixing it was by -slipping the end of the roller, which was notched, upon a fastened -piece of wood of corresponding shape.”</p></div> - -<p>This clearly was a clutch method, and a fairly good -mechanical invention, and possibly some details are -wanting, if fine tuning according to our notions was required; -and we are led to suppose that the Greeks were -very exacting about pitch. Yet for all the ancient -writers tell of subtle divisions of tones, I have my -doubts of the practical exercise of discrimination of -pitch to the imagined degree of sensitiveness of ear, -generally assumed to be a natural gift of the people of -Greece; the instruments were not fitted with sufficient -mechanical exactness to produce and retain such fine -distinctions.</p> - -<p>Another advance in lyre-making consisted in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> -adaptation of a projecting box affixed to the front of -the larger body of the lyre; this was an Egyptian invention, -for which, see <i>ante</i> Fig. <a href="#f56">56</a>. The strings were -attached to this little box, and it is probable that -within it there were means for tightening and relaxing -the tension of each. This was also a useful device for -bringing the strings forward from the face of the instrument. -Let us hope that some forgotten tomb still -holds a perfect lyre in its keeping.</p> - -<p>Greek writers make mention of lyres of many strings, -with strange sounding names, but examples are rare of -such, indeed they are more Asian than Greek. Pompeii -and Herculanæum have preserved for us pictures of -some, but the period is late.</p> - -<p>There is an instrument which may stand as a representative -of the many stringed, and as indicating the -class of so-called <i>Trigons</i>, almost letter D shape. It is -depicted upon an ancient vase in the Munich collection -(Fig. <a href="#f64">64</a>). It is supposed to be in the hands of Erato, -she holds it against her left shoulder, not as is the -custom with our modern players of harps, resting on the -right shoulder; obviously the custom in each case is -the one best suited to the convenience of the player and -to the different demands upon the instruments in ancient -and in modern use. The vase is Etruscan, but the -lyre is Egyptian in origin and Asian in style, witness -the leopard skin spread upon the seat. The artist was -at fault in his drawing. The lyre is of the Egyptian -model, the bulk or thick portion of the boat-form being -thrown upward above the shoulder, and this as a sounding-board -should have been made plain. This particular -development of style I should surmise to be Lydian, or -perhaps, more southern in origin, possibly Assyrian.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="f64" id="f64"> -<img src="images/i_p321.jpg" width="400" height="619" alt="Fig. 64." /></a> -<p class="caption"><i>Fig. 64.</i></p></div> - -<p>Plato and Plutarch both comment upon many-stringed -lyres, condemning their use and advocating a -return to the ancient simplicity. Old Pausanias, who -wrote at a much later period “a Description of Greece,” -shews himself familiar with the many-stringed by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> -simile he uses, stating that “in Egypt he had seen the -pyramids, had beheld with wonder the colossal statue -of Memnon at Thebes, and had heard the musical sound, -like the breaking of a lyre string, which the statue -emitted at sunrise.” The breaking of strings is thus -known to be an old-world trouble, and no doubt -Pausanias had often heard the sound, else this reference -would not have come to him so naturally as a fitting -illustration; only a large or many stringed-lyre would -give a noticeably musical sound; an instrument with -short strings equal to our violin strings would give but -a brief snap, not in any degree a musical sound. -Desiring a personal experience I suggested to a friend a -realistic test, and he kindly strained a string of his violoncello -to breaking point. So we knew that the sound -heard in this catastrophic incident of to-day, was certainly -not of the nature that the great travellers of past days -were attracted to as one of the wonders of the world. -A many stringed harp somewhat of the capacity of -modern harps would, however, under the shock communicate -a thrill over the whole range, finding out a -sympathetic resonance from vibration of those strings -that happened to be in accord with the pitch of the -sounding-body, and this kind of response on the breaking -of a string was probably that which furnished old -Pausanias’s memory with so pertinent a simile. Whoever -has heard one of the higher pianoforte strings break -will understand fairly enough the nature of the sound. -The statue was 69 feet high, and it was reared by -Amenhotep III., about 1450 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>With testimony so absolute from an ear-witness, the -Memnon is no fable. Silent that voice has been -through many centuries, yet we may well believe that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> -in older days, ere time had worked its inevitable -changes, the sounds heard were in resemblance -more truly vocal; and although then mysterious to -hearers, now under science such musical vibrations -are easy of explanation as a natural phenomenon.</p> - -<p>The wonder-inspiring statue is still seated there,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“moulded in colossal calm,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>looking across that desert-destined land which remaineth -for ever, as Shelley named it,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“a desolation deified.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Seeking an example of Apollo’s lyre, as it existed -when Greek art was at its highest period, I found it, I -think, in a marble relief carved by the hand of -Praxiteles; it is an authentic witness of the form of the -lyre in his day, and it seems to carry out the description -given of the lyre discovered by Lord Elgin (see page -<a href="#Page_319">319</a>). The artist gives a representation of the lyre as -he saw it, and as no doubt used in the worship of the -ever-youthful Sun-God.</p> - -<p>This marble is in the National Museum at Athens. -It was found at Mantinea, in Arcadia, and it represents -the contest of Apollo and Marsyas; Apollo on the lyre -and Marsyas on the flutes, or double pipes. The -marble has been finely photographed by the well-known -M. Rhomaides, of Athens, an enthusiast in his -art. I copy this for the Apollo; the quiet dignity of -the seated figure is remarkable. According to proportionate -relation, the instrument may be estimated as -being about twenty-six or twenty-seven inches in height, -and the acting length of the strings about eighteen -or twenty inches, the frame about two inches deep,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> -with the interior hollow, so that although the strings -should be only plucked by the fingers, the instrument -we should expect would give a good and a rich -resonance. The strings, seven in number, being each -tuned separately by their rollers or rings.</p> - -<p>The Apollo lyre was the nursling of the Greeks, -never absent from the Greek life; present in the home -and in the temple, heard in the green meadows, and -upon the mountain-side, and by the sapphire sea, gladdening -the heart at household feasts, and inspiring the -voice on the great days of rejoicing.</p> - -<p>Those vast processions carved upon marble friezes -speak to us of an existent life when to the people -Apollo was “an evident god”; days when through the -shaded valleys, and along the terraced mountain-sides, -young men and maidens with dance and song made a -delighted way,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“touched piously the Delphic lyre,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>and to the sacrificial altar eager throngs pressed onward -and upward,—as in his word-magic Keats pictures it;—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i9">“with trumpets blown</div> -<div class="line">Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival,</div> -<div class="line">Voices of soft proclaim, and silver stir</div> -<div class="line">Of strings on hollow shells, ...</div> -<div class="line">... and the mysterious priest,</div> -<div class="line">Leading that heifer lowing at the skies,</div> -<div class="line">And all her silken flanks with garlands drest.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>That busy stir of life has gone past, faded now into -the viewless air, to be seen no more by man; the -dryads and the naiads, the satyrs and the fauns left -their dedicated haunts, and the muses too all vanished, -all hushed silently away, what time the,—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i9">“great Apollo</div> -<div class="line">Let his divinity o’erflowing die</div> -<div class="line">In music, through the vales of Thessaly.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The fateful land remains as of old, remains unchanged -through milleniums of change,—the traveller to-day -may see the lofty Delph glistening white with snow -and great Parnassus towering high above it; may visit -grand Olympus, find the goats browsing yet upon -Mount Helicon, watch the bees gathering honey from -the creeping thyme upon Hymettus, or stop to gaze on -the wonderful purple glow that comes over it at evening -light; Hippocrene, faithful to its ancient renown, runs -cool and bright, that whoso will may drink therefrom -and pause to meditate on Time’s concurrent freshness, -ever-passing: the ear is charmed with sounds, the -winds waken the soft susurrus from the pine-forests on -the heights, it wanders down the pathways of the hills -to mingle with the drowsy hum of bees, and the tinkling -of the goats bells, and with luscious song of hidden -nightingales in pale green olive groves. The land we -look upon is the same; it is man’s world therein that -has changed, sadly changed. From the white mountains -to the valleys, ruin calls to ruin; linger as you will in -shade or sun,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">“Round every spot where trod Apollo’s foot,”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>his music is now unheard,—in his own land his lyre -unknown.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>How the Music Grew.</b><br /><br /> - -IN THE DAYS OF A THOUSAND YEARS.</small></h2> - -<p>“Most things in Greece are subjects of dispute,” so -wrote Pausanias, and his word for it may be accepted -freely. As it was in his day (writing in 174 <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span>) so it -is in ours; learned authorities so differ on simplest -points that the wayfarer asking questions has no little -difficulty in deciding whom he shall heed, whose directions -he should follow.</p> - -<p>The evolution of the musical scale should be of -interest even to musicians who would not make the -subject a study. How step by step our diatonic scale -developed, how it has become what it is gradually by -slow degrees—does anybody know? Certainly. Wise -men in their libraries find much; the erudition is deep -and they can expound it in their own way, but it is the -way for the plodding student, not intended to attract -the general reader. Moreover the wise men do not -agree, and the wayfarer in literature after reading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> -many books fails to obtain the clear account which he -has been seeking. Having had occasion to go into the -matter of the Greek system on the historical side, I saw -how confused it was, and how necessary to examine -author against author, to try to arrive at some orderly -assignment of steps and changes made in those distant -times, and to endeavour to bring home to the mind -the conception of a chain of historic facts.</p> - -<p>Traditions embody general beliefs in stated facts, or -supposed facts, and history makes record of these, giving -to them more or less credence. The statements concerning -the earliest developments of the Greek scale are -based upon traditions, since it was not until after the -lapse of many centuries that anything was written.</p> - -<p>The recorded periods of civilization that held good -in ancient chronology have many of them been displaced -by the newest explorers, whose work within the -last few years has been prolific in discoveries affecting -calculations of the relations of time in the past. The -dates I adopt will therefore have to be considered -authentic only so far as the learned choose to agree -concerning them.</p> - -<p>Old historians stated that Athens was founded in -1556 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> by Cecrops, who led a colony from Sais, in -Egypt, and established the kingdom of Athens. Neith, -or Nit, was the deity of Sais, her name also was -Minerva, the patron goddess of Athens. In less than -fifty years after, Danaus, who was accounted a brother -of Amenhotep III. (by some Egyptologists called -Amunoph) left Egypt 1400 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> and founded Argos, of -which he became king, and died 1425 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>These are highly important dates in the perspective -of history. Egypt, through the wars of Thotmes III.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> -and the later expeditions of the Amenhotep Pharaohs, -had been raised to the height of empire; Mesopotamia -and Syria had been brought under her rule and her -armies were constantly traversing and retraversing -that extensive region tributary to her (known now by -us as Asia Minor), reaching along that coast of the -Mediterranean and even to Cyprus, Crete and other -isles.</p> - -<p>By a few touches of history and a chain of dates, it -may be possible to bring before you life as it was, to -excite your imagination to realise in a broad view the -state of the then known world, when in all that vast -territory, the high civilization to which Egypt had -attained could not have failed to influence the daily lives -of those myriads of peoples, busy with their tradings, -and little ambitions, and religions, and domestic wants, -and pleasures. It was a very composite population, -tribes, clans and races, or by whatever names we class -them, full of jealousies and antagonisms, only held in -abeyance from fighting by the prospect of greater gain -by trading with one another.</p> - -<p>The musical instincts of the whole of these peoples -probably followed one channel common to all, their -music differing but little from what we call “folk-song”; -and even varieties of language need not have raised -barriers in musical feeling, as the instance of the Song -of Linus referred to by Herodotus (see pages <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-4 ante) -clearly shews.</p> - -<p>The truth is that the founders of Athens, and Argos, -and other great cities, were leaders of bands of military -adventurers, and these when they left Egypt took with -them the common popular music such as themselves -and their families had been accustomed to, they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> -no need or use for any other; we should not expect of -them that they would represent the musical culture of -the motherland, already so highly developed. Hence -the simple tetrachord of ages past, produced upon their -reed pipes, satisfied them for all that they sought, it -was their system of music, and had not been extended. -In the early state of the music of the Greeks there had -been a double influence, the Egyptian influence, and the -older Asiatic influence, both as I imagine proceeding -from the same Mesopotamian source in a remote age.</p> - -<p>We have to remember that there was a prehistoric -Greece and an older Mycenœan Greece. Of Athens, -we should say “the refounding,” for there had been five -“Athens,” each city built upon the ruins of a former -one. “Athens,” says Mr. H. R. Hall in his book, -“The oldest civilization of Greece, has existed as an -inhabited place from the earliest post-neolithic times, -perhaps before 2500 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> to the present day,” a fact that -may be very usefully recognised, it bears with it an -important value, reminding us that an immigrant -people almost invariably displaces earlier peoples, or -absorbs them. Might ruled then, as now.</p> - -<p>In the realms of myth and legend the chief progenitors -of music appear; Pan and Apollo, Mercury, Athene, and -others; then tradition brings forward many names of -poet-musicians who, it cannot be doubted, veritably -existed in the flesh. Certain dates do not seem to -be questioned, although they are prior to the Trojan -War, which is supposed to have taken place between -the periods 1500 and 1200 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> Homer himself being -given a date about 900 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> In musical history as -generally found, little is noted before Terpander 700-650 -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and it is assumed that up to his time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> -only a four-stringed lyre had been in use by the Greeks; -it is as if there had been averred a stagnation in music -for many centuries.</p> - -<p>A closer investigation, however, must cause a revision -of such a conclusion, and I repeat, it may well be that -we should think of Greek music as having had two -courses of usage, running parallel, even as in our own -history. These are not as opposed but as distinct, the -temple or academic music very strictly conservative, -and the popular music with its mingled Asiatic influences, -inherited, and untrammelled by priests or -philosophers. Very naturally it would come to pass -that literature occupied itself with the orthodox and -academic views and systems of music, even as by -learned musicians our ecclesiastical music has been -regarded with almost exclusive attention, whilst the -old English songs and ballads have, as it were, existed -upon sufferance, kept in being by popular feeling and -tradition.</p> - -<p>If this twofold strain in the origin of Greek music is -borne in mind I believe it will solve many difficulties -that constantly trouble enquiry, and will reconcile -conflicting accounts given by different authorities, for -there is very much that is vague even in the originals, -and various translators have but added to the confusion, -because they in default of understanding the subject, -too often became dogmatic upon guesswork.</p> - -<p>Tradition comes upon fairly solid ground with -Hyagnis about 1506 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> and Marsyas his son, and -Olympus the elder, his pupils. Musæus the Athenian, -1426 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> was taught by Orpheus and was chief of the -Elusian mysteries instituted in Greece in honour of -Ceres; his hymns were used in the celebrations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> -Orpheus also taught Thamyris, and Linus, who taught -Hercules, and Amphion, and so on. Then there was -Thaletes, the poet-musician mentioned by Strabo, -whose old pæans Pythagoras loved to sing; he lived -about 300 years after the Trojan War. Other names -might be recalled but these suffice to shew that amongst -the people of the various Greek States the art of -music never at any time was without honour and -esteem.</p> - -<p>The musical system of the Tetrachord having become -known to us through the writings of certain Greek -philosophers, fragments of which had been preserved -by authors of later centuries, has therefore been assigned -to the Greeks, and the development of this musical -system has been recorded only in their language, yet -the origin of it has undoubtedly to be placed long before -the time of the Greeks. Possibly with good reason -it might be claimed for the primitive Akkadian, as found -by him in the finger holes of the simple reed-pipe.</p> - -<p>Although there is clear evidence of the early existence -of the tetrachord in pipes, the attention of philosophers -has always been given to string instruments, pipes having -had no share in their regard, possibly because the -playing of pipes was a professional art in which good -training was necessary, whereas any philosopher could -twang strings and discourse upon laws and proportions.</p> - -<p>The lyre of Mercury, so tradition asserts, had three -strings only, tuned as</p> - -<p class="center"> -<i>e</i>——<i>a</i>——<i>e</i>, or, <i>e</i>——<i>b</i>——<i>e</i>, -</p> - -<p>thus comprising fourth, fifth and octaves according to -our terminology, though doubtless the god was ignorant -of such things. Emerging from the mists of fable we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> -arrive at traces of a period at which it is said the octave -became disused, and nothing remained but the fourth -in its rudimentary condition, divided next into two -steps, and after that separated in three divisions resulting -in an interval comprising two tones and a lesser -tone, or two steps and a half, so that the whole is -marked by four sounds; this series was then undesignated, -but after a time a stage was arrived at when -it <i>was</i> designated, and known thereafter by the word -“tetra” signifying “four” and the inclusive system was -called a tetrachord, and therefore the commencement -of the evolution of a musical scale.</p> - -<p>The ending of the word in “chord,” has given rise -to the notion of a chord as of harmony, and again of -cords as another name for the strings. But these are -misconceptions, the meaning of “tetrachord” is, a -series of four sounds, in an order of succession so that -the extreme sounds comprise a fourth. The terms -fourth, and fifth, and octave, are quite artificial, are -signs founded on <i>vision</i> or the counting of the strings of -the lyre; the fourth in music is not a fourth part of -anything, is not a fourth part or proportion of the -octave, it was called by the Greeks “diatessaron,”—<i>right -through</i> or <i>over, four</i>.</p> - -<p>One most ancient form may be represented thus, -considering the extreme sounds to embrace the -interval,—</p> - -<p class="center"><i>e</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> <i>f</i>——<i>a</i> -</p> - -<p>it was the initiatory stage afterwards completed as,—</p> - -<p class="center"> -<i>e</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——<i>a</i> -</p> - -<p>only that it should be read from right to left, because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> -with the Greeks the reading was from the high note -downwards thus—</p> - -<p class="center"> -<i>a</i>——<i>g</i>——<i>f</i> <sup> ‿ </sup> <i>e</i> -</p> - -<p>to us occularly confusing, yet it was the way of Greek -thought.</p> - -<p>(The sign —— indicates whole tone, and <sup> ‿ </sup> semitone).</p> - -<p>The man’s voice was the guide, and from time immemorial -the <i>a</i> has been the standard of pitch, by ruling -of the ear.</p> - -<p class="center"> -(The <i>A</i> below middle C, top line, bass clef). -</p> - -<p>From father to son, from teacher to scholar the -tradition of pitch was carried on. The string affected -by heat and moisture and by the strain when twanged, -never remains accurately to pitch. Although pipes and -strings have run a parallel course, we do not find that -the lyre players actually cared to refer to pipes as -guiding them in setting the pitch. Yet it was the -custom, so Plutarch tells us, for <i>reciters</i> and orators -to have a pitch pipe sounded by an attendant to keep -their voices to a prescribed pitch, and he mentions an -ivory pipe being used for the practice. On the contrary -it would seem that from the earliest times lyrists of all -sorts, and players on stringed instruments of every -nation, even up to the present day have found the habit -of the ear sufficient for the purposes of their art, that -indeed to the soloist, the musical ear relies upon itself -for tuning.</p> - -<p>By the Greeks music as an art was regarded as an aid -to regulate by rule the inflections of the voice, to mark -the places of emphasis and to define the pauses in the -recitation of their epic poetry; and the rhythm of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> -songs followed strictly laws that had been laid down, -innovation was reprehended, and even prohibited. -The lyre itself was held subordinate to the voice, -accompanying it and filling in the pauses according -to a conventional fashion, which the hearers judged, -critically and keenly.</p> - -<p>We import our modern ways of speech upon musical -subjects into the considerations of these matters, and -necessarily so, but it is essential to a right apprehension -to remember that the Greeks had no way of naming -the sounds except by certain names given by them to -the strings of the lyre, thus the forefinger string was -called “lichanos” and the others had their distinctive -appellations. They had no sense of a <i>tonic</i> as we have, -no system of harmony, no musical stave, no use of -letters, a, b, c, etc., to denote their music. In late -times they devised a kind of letter-note method, curiously -crude yet elaborate, of letters standing upside down, -letters lying on the side, letters mutilated and signs for -instrumental sounds different from those for the sounds -of the voice, altogether 1,062 varied characters are -stated as used, and this knowledge of their written -music was by the merest accident preserved to us in a -solitary manuscript, by Alypius, 115 <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span></p> - -<p>The only date known in the life of Terpander was -the year when he gained the prize in the competition -for singing, <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 676, at the Pythian games; some say -that he also won at four festivals in succession. He -may have been known to that Demaratus, mentioned -<i>page</i> 68 ante, as the date connects them as contemporary. -Some time later than this victory he is -credited with having increased the number of strings -from four to seven, but statements upon this question<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> -are very conflicting. Helmholtz says that he added -but one string to the Cithara of six strings.</p> - -<p>According to some ancient writers Chorebus, son -of Altis, King of Lydia, he it was who commenced -innovation by adding a fifth string. Hyagnis, who in -the sixteenth century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> invented the Phrygian mode, -added a sixth string; Terpander a seventh, and -Lychasos an eighth; but Pliny says, Terpander added -three strings to the orthodox four, that Simonides -added an eighth and Timotheus a ninth. Anacreon as -before stated had ten strings, and Timotheus increased -the seven strings of the Spartan lyre to eleven. Pythagoras, -by equal authority, was the reputed father of -the eight-stringed lyre.</p> - -<p>Through the maze of such traditions (and other -statements I could quote, increasing the intricacy for -the benefit of research) I have had to make my way, -and decide as best I could, upon a line of connected -record.</p> - -<p>So, pending an alternative view to be offered presently, -I elect to follow Pliny and allow to Terpander -the claim to the increase of the scale of the tetrachord -by a trichord above <i>a</i>, the highest sound of the four-stringed -lyre.</p> - -<p>Our scale system is based on a <i>tonic</i> sound, and we -read upward, but the Greeks in their music thought -downwards, and by the laws, the tonic was, in the -structure of tetrachords, barred out, for the <i>a</i> was the -master tone, and between it and <i>g</i> no semitone was -allowed, though what necessity existed for this essential -feature of the formation, no explanation is apparent.</p> - -<p>The three sounds above this formed with the <i>a</i> -another tetrachord, <i>conjunct</i>, as it was termed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span></p> - -<table class="left2" summary="The Added Trichord"><tr> -<td class="tdc padr1">The<br /><br />Added<br /><br />Trichord<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The<br /><br />Original<br /><br />Tetrachord</td> -<td class="tdl">d<br />│<br />│ tone<br />│<br />c<br />│<br />│ tone<br />│<br /> -b♭<br />) hemitone<br />*a<br />│<br />│ tone<br />│<br />g<br />│<br />│ tone<br /> -│<br />f<br />) hemitone<br />e</td></tr></table> - -<p>Continuing to plot out -the scale on a vertical plan -would not be of any advantage. -The habit of the -eye would perhaps require -a diagonal line of ascent; -I think, however, that -showing the growth of the -scale on a level line will -best suit our general convenience.</p> - -<p>This then let us call the -Terpander scheme for the -scale to which the <i>seven-stringed -lyre</i> or Cithara was -tuned. As we shall see, -this became the classical lyre of Apollo, throughout -the glorious period of Greek Art.</p> - -<table summary="classical lyre" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="para2" /><br /> -<i>e</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——<br /><br /></td> -<td class="tdc vertb"><i>a</i><br />*</td> -<td class="tdc"><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="para2" /><br /> - <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>b</i>♭——<i>c</i>——<i>d</i><br /><br /></td> -</tr></table> - -<p>The <i>a</i> I have marked with a star. It was called the -<i>mese</i> or <i>middle-note</i>, was considered the master-note of -the lyre, and was compared to the sun as being the -centre of the musical system. The original names of -the strings of the four string lyre are lost, but it is quite -obvious that until the extra three strings were introduced -there could have been no <i>mese</i> or middle string, -so that the name originated with this condition, with -this perfecting of the system.</p> - -<p>Before systems exists methods and rules have sway;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> -and out of these methods and rules systems are constituted. -The great poet-musicians renowned in the land, -in teaching their successors in art according to their -own practical experiences, and teaching <i>viva voce</i>, no -doubt insisted upon the observance of certain methods, -and laid down rules which on their authority as chief -masters, became the traditions of the profession.</p> - -<p>The great repute of Terpander would have caused -him to be regarded as one who spoke with authority, -and I have sometimes thought that discrepancies in the -accounts given by different authors, who wrote many -centuries after the time of this musician, and from -whom alone we have any knowledge of the doings -in such early period, might be reconciled by the -surmise that perhaps it was Terpander who first -showed how the two tetrachords should be disposed -and the tuning of the enlarged series of strings be -regulated in the best way for the art of music, so that -instead of being left to the caprice of different teachings, -an uniform method should prevail. Some one in -authority by his recognised supreme skill, would have -been necessary to reduce to order the practices of the -day as taught by the wandering minstrels in the land of -Greece, and in the numerous settlements in Asia Minor, -and it seems reasonable to suppose that Terpander may -have been the first to formulate definite laws for the -structure of the tetrachord in Greek music.</p> - -<p>Very binding indeed were these laws, and they have -exercised an important, indeed, an imperishable influence -upon the musical art in all the centuries that have -followed.</p> - -<p>The methods of the great master-players of the -cithara were in course of time resolved into forms, very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> -simple they were and very definite. These are the -laws of the tetrachord:—</p> - -<p class="indent">1—between the two extremes of the strings of the -four-stringed lyre there shall be a consonance -in sound called a diatessaron.</p> - -<p class="indent">2—between the string the highest in pitch and the -string next to it lower in pitch there shall be a -separation in the sounds equal to not less than -one full tone.</p> - -<p class="indent">3—between the third string (reckoning from the -highest) and the fourth string there shall always -be a separation in pitch equal to one hemitone.</p> - -<p>There remained therefore the neutral ground between -the second and the third string—equal to a tone—but -variable, according to the selection of a maximum -beyond the “<i>not less</i> than a full tone” affirmed by -law 2; there might be two full tones in succession, or -the upper might be increased at the expense of the -lower, or on the contrary the lower might part with -some of its own fulness to increase the hemitone.</p> - -<p>We should not imagine a written law at that early -time ruling the craft, the oral tradition would be -sufficient.</p> - -<p>Giving an account of the growth of the scale, I have -put the matter in my own way, in words, that as I -think, will best fix the attention of the general reader. -Evidently for many centuries the orthodox Greek lyre -was restricted to four strings, notwithstanding the -popular adoption from time to time of an increased -number of strings according to the prevalence of -Asiatic influences.</p> - -<p>A time however came when authority accepted an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> -increase to seven strings. Whether Terpander, or -Archilocus, or Tyrtæus, or other poet-musicians got -the innovation accepted is a question that will remain -unsolved; hearsay or history favours Terpander. -Terpander let it be.</p> - -<p>Olympus, who was a Phrygian, and—about 630 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, -brought asiatic flute music into Greece,—changed this -as follows, and obtained the octave on the seven strings.</p> - -<table summary="seven strings"><tr> -<td class="tdc"><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /><br /> -<i>e</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——<i>a</i></td> -<td><br /><br />——</td> -<td class="tdc"><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /><br /> -<i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> ——<i>d</i>——<i>e</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdr2">*</td><td> </td></tr></table> - -<p>Notice particularly the interval <i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> ——<i>d</i> as it plays an -important part in the history of music. It was a flute-pipe -interval, older than Terpander. Olympus was -the first to introduce the disjunct form, and from <i>b</i> to <i>e</i> -he compasses a tetrachord.</p> - -<p>Olympus was a contemporary of Terpander, and we -may consider that the two scales were in favour at the -same time, one as the orthodox and the other as the -secular system.</p> - -<p>Pythagoras about 530 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, added an eighth string, -and it is evident that the string he introduced was that -of the missing <i>c</i>, since, as to extent, the octave already -existed on the lyre.</p> - -<table summary="eighth string" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc2"><img src="images/para120b.jpg" width="120" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td> </td><td> </td> -<td class="tdc2" colspan="3"><img src="images/para120b.jpg" width="120" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2"><i>e</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>a</i></td> -<td class="tdc2 vertb">——</td> -<td class="tdc2"><i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> </td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>c</i></td><td class="tdc2 vertb">——<i>d</i>——<i>e</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2"> </td><td>*</td><td class="tdc2"> </td><td class="tdc2"> </td><td>x</td><td class="tdc2"> </td></tr></table> - -<p>Therefore two complete tetrachords, but <i>disjunct</i>. It -is plainly to be seen that he wanted a fifth to the <i>f</i>, -to make his scheme of fifths perfect. It was a marked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> -advance. The doings of Pythagoras with the monochord -though of great interest, need not be told here, -as they belong to another branch of investigation, to be -treated subsequently.</p> - -<p>Ion of Chios, about 430 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, enlarged the scale of the -lyre to ten sounds, and was the author of the Conjunct -or Lesser System complete. It consisted of three -tetrachords conjoined and one note added, to complete -the octave below, from <i>mese</i> the middle note <i>a</i>. Greek -names would bewilder, and it will be the best plan to -keep to the method of distinguishing the notes by -letters.</p> - -<table summary="scale" border="0"><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc">1<br /><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td> </td> -<td class="tdc">2<br /><img src="images/para90b.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td> </td> -<td class="tdc">3<br /><img src="images/para100b.jpg" width="100" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>a</i>——</td><td class="tdc2"><i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>c</i>——<i>d</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>e</i></td><td> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>a</i></td><td> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>b</i>♭——<i>c</i>——<i>d</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2" colspan="4"> </td><td class="tdc2">*</td><td class="tdc2"> </td></tr></table> - -<p>Notice the return to the Terpander scale with the <i>b</i> -flat. I have seen the addition of the three notes below -<i>e</i> attributed to Terpander, but considering the period -the statement is not convincing. The eleven notes -here given may possibly be those of the Lesbian lyre of -Timotheus the celebrated poet-musician who according -to Pausanias excited the Spartan censure (mentioned page -312 ante), by his eleven strings. The low <i>a</i> first seen -in the system was called the <i>proslambanomenos</i>, meaning -a note taken into the scale to complete the octave.</p> - -<p>This was the state at which after two hundred years -the Greek scale had arrived. After Ion there came a -period of controversy.</p> - -<p>Archytas, 400 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, challenged the Pythagorean third, -which was extremely sharp, and he was the first to shew -that <i>c</i>——<i>e</i> should bear the ratio 5/4.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span></p> - -<p>Aristoxenus 350-320 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, a pupil of Aristotle, -disavowed the whole Pythagorean scheme, and the -philosophers ranged themselves in two opposing -schools, the Pythagoreans who determined intervals by -proportional numbers, and the Aristoxenians who -relied upon the judgment of the ear.</p> - -<p>Somewhere in the period embraced by the lives of -Ion and Aristoxenus, for it was a period of high intellectual -activity with the Greeks (Sophocles, Pericles, -Plato, Aristotle and other famous men were living), -somewhere we have to place the Disjunct, or Greater -System Complete. It consists of fifteen notes,—</p> - -<table class="left" summary="fifteen notes" border="0"><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc">3<br /><img src="images/para90b.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td> </td> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">1<br /><img src="images/para90b.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2 vertb">a——</td><td class="tdc2"><i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>c</i>——<i>d</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>e</i></td><td class="tdc2"> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>a</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4"> </td><td>*</td> -</tr></table> - -<table class="right" summary="fifteen notes" border="0"><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc">2<br /><img src="images/para90b.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td><td> </td> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">4<br /><img src="images/para90b.jpg" width="90" height="10" alt="Top Horizontal paranthesis" /></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc2 vertb">——</td><td class="tdc2"><i>b</i> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>c</i>——<i>d</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>e</i></td><td class="tdc2"> <big><sup> ‿ </sup></big> <i>f</i>——<i>g</i>——</td><td class="tdc2 vertb"><i>a</i></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="5"> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>then there was an alternative arrangement ultimately -admitted, making conjunction at <i>a<sub><sub><sub><sub><sub><big>*</big></sub></sub></sub></sub></sub></i>, allowing <i>b</i> flat instead -of <i>b</i>, causing that tetrachord to end on <i>d</i>, and -placing the tone of disjunction between the <i>d</i> and <i>e</i>. -Very noticeable this as shewing how popular feeling -hankered after the old way of Terpander. This later -arrangement of the Greek scale, comprising the two -octaves, comes to us from Euclid’s reputed treatise on -Music, now attributed to Cleonidas, writing about -120 <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span></p> - -<p>Thus was the scale completed. The order of the -growth of the scale is shewn by the figures, 1, 2, 3, 4 -over the several tetrachords.</p> - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.<br /><br /> - -<small><b>At Alexandria.</b><br /><br /> - -THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALE.</small></h2> - -<p>The structure of the Scale so far as was necessary for -the development of the Greek modes was comprised in -The Disjunct or Greater System Complete; yet at -various times the extent of the diatonic scale by degrees -was increased, tetrachord was added to tetrachord -until in the days of Plato its compass was stated to -have been made to comprehend four octaves, a fifth, -and a tone.</p> - -<p>Archytas and Aristoxenus were both of Tarentum, a -noted Greek colony in Southern Italy, founded by -Sparta about 705 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> Archytas was a contemporary -of Plato (<i>b</i> 429 <i>d</i> 347). The period was one of artistic -luxury, the Parthenon had been completed, and Greece -had her golden age of Art, Science, and Philosophy. -Here Praxiteles, the great sculptor, second only to -Phidias, comes upon the scene, and we may with confidence -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span>accept his design of Apollo’s Lyre as a true -representation of the instrument as it existed in his day, -and, it may be assumed as used in Apollo’s Temple, and -by the master-musicians. The date of this sculptor -has not been ascertained precisely, Prof. E. A. Gardner -gives in a guarded way 400 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>Aristoxenus was a musician, the son of a musician, -he came at a time when great mathematicians were -engaged in battle over fine distinctions in Pythagorean -systems, to them of superlative interest and importance. -Aristoxenus opposed the Pythagoreans and held that -“it was absurd to aim at an artificial accuracy in -gratifying the ear beyond its own power of distinction,” -a decision very natural, coming from a musician. He -was a great writer and theorist, wrote it was said more -than four hundred treatises, all of which have been -lost except three on “Harmonic Elements,” and this is -the oldest musical work at present known.</p> - -<p>In those years from Archytas to Aristoxenus the -evolution of Greek music had passed from the poet-musicians, -the real masters of the lyre, into the -hands of philosophers and disputants, men learned -in all the subtleties of Pythagorean lore, who -busied themselves with recondite demonstrations -of the proportions of numbers, and applied them -to the theoretical division of the octave, to an -extent which transcended altogether the range of -the practical art of the cithara players, nevertheless the -labour was not wholly lost, since it went to the -strengthening of the foundations of the <i>science of music</i>.</p> - -<p>A new era had arrived, Greece lost her position -and became a dependency in the Macedonian empire. -The centre of Greek life and thought had been -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>transferred to Alexandria, and here at the great library -which had been founded <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 332 by Alexander the -Great, Eratosthenes was librarian, and his name figures -largely in the mathematics of Music. His lifetime -extended from 276 to 196 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></p> - -<p>Two other Alexandrians complete the record so far -as the present simple treatment of the development of -the scale is concerned. They lived within the Christian -era.</p> - -<p>Didymus, <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 60, introduced the minor tone into the -scale, and consequently the practical major third. He -demonstrated the lesser or <i>minor tone</i> to be necessary to -the right division of fourths and fifths.</p> - -<p>Claudius Ptolemy, <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span> 130, accepted the scheme, -but altered the arrangement of the tones.</p> - -<p>Didymus and Claudius Ptolemy, the two latest -philosophers who sought to perfect the diatonic scale, -achieved highly important results by simple means; -whereas the octochord as left by Pythagoras, comprised -but two kinds of divisions, the tone and the -hemitone (not exactly half a tone, it was the overplus -after the measurement of the two whole tones in the -tetrachord)—and these, taking C as the starting point -for our convenience, may be represented thus:—</p> - -<table summary="scale" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc2">C</td><td class="tdc2">.......</td><td class="tdc2">D</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">E</td><td class="tdc">......</td><td class="tdc2">F</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">G</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">A</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">B</td><td class="tdc">......</td><td class="tdc2">C</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">hemi<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">hemi<br />tone</td><td> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>this was constructed from a series of fifths.</p> - -<p>Didymus shewed that the stricter mathematical -division (not by fifths) required a lesser or minor tone -in place of <i>one</i> major, and the amount of decrease went -to increase the hemitone to a semitone, thus:—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span></p> - -<table summary="scale" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc2">C</td><td class="tdc2">.......</td><td class="tdc2">D</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">E</td><td class="tdc">......</td><td class="tdc2">F</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">G</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">A</td><td class="tdc">.......</td><td class="tdc2">B</td><td class="tdc">......</td><td class="tdc2">C</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc3">minor<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">semi<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">minor<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">semi<br />tone</td><td> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>Claudius Ptolemy seventy years later altered this, -transposing the minor tone to the second place,—</p> - -<table summary="scale" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc2">C<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc2"> </td><td class="tdc2">D<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">E<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">F<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">G<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">A<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">B<br /><small>I</small></td><td class="tdc"> </td><td class="tdc2">C<br /><small>I</small></td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">minor<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">semi<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">minor<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">major<br />tone</td><td> </td><td class="tdc3">semi<br />tone</td><td> </td> -</tr></table> - -<p>as he left the <i>diatonic octave scale</i>, so it remains, -practically the same in the teachings of the theorists -since: some scholiasts have thought that preferably -the minor tone should be placed between A and B, -transferring the major tone between G and A.</p> - -<p>This distinguished astronomer and mathematician -Ptolemy, like Pythagoras, was the child of his time, -given to much fanciful speculation and mysticism, -finding music analogies in the virtues, and the sciences, -in the parts of the human soul, and in the zodiac. He -wrote largely, and completed the foundations upon -which European music had been constructed, yet he -had no conception of the structure that would be raised -by coming generations. The Greeks had in their scale -the elements of harmony yet they fell short of the -realization, and it must ever be a wonder that, intellectual -as they were, they missed it. Evolution was -the destined way,—but it is so slow—so slow.</p> - -<p>Except to the chosen few these questions of the -scales fail to maintain their interest, however fascinating -such studies of the calculation of theoretical niceties -of numbers and ratios undoubtedly are to some minds, -gifted with an aptitude for figures, yet with the general -body of musicians a broad survey tells that old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> -formalisms in study are fast becoming obsolete. The -advance of the System of Equal Temperament in these -later years throughout the two worlds will render -necessary a reconcilement between theory and practice, -now widely at variance.</p> - -<p>Historically the settlement of scale had its importance, -although it came too late in time to be for the Greeks -an effective force in their national music. The glory -of Greece was fast departing, century after century in -the course we have looked upon during our survey, empires -had risen, empires had fallen, and in the disrupted -state of social conditions, chaos often came, the Greek -race itself was worn down and ultimately became -absorbed amongst strangers, conquering races, and in -the end we have to speak of her Art as Greco-Roman. -Out of all these world changes we have isolated Music. -To apprehend aright the slow march along the path of -progress, we should now and then lift our thoughts to -take account of the atmosphere and glance at the -environment.</p> - -<p>The final scale was the triumph of the mathematicians, -they gained their ideal. Beyond this, -however, nothing was accomplished,—nothing for -actual Music. Harmony was not discovered, no great -composer arose, certain lyrists and auloi-players we -know of, whose deeds excited enthusiasm, but in what -kind of display their art consisted no evidence exists, -beyond the music to a few hymns, the melodic phrases -of which do not commend themselves to us as examples -of musical genius or talent. The irresistible charms -exercised by the citharists upon the multitudes assembled -to hear them, whether they sang by rule or -improvised their melodies must be attributable in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> -main to the character of the singer’s voice, combined -with the purport of the words sung. When with the -modern knowledge of musical instruments we examine -the nature of those which they had in their command, -we have every reason to doubt the practical application -of those fine distinctions of the pitches of the musical -notes insisted upon by their learned theorists. The instruments -simply could not give them, the exactness -was beyond their staying and playing powers. The -strings of a lyre had not the delicate permanence of -pitch requisite for such claims, and certainly the flutes -could not have rendered intervals so accurate. To set -the intervals by bridges on the Kanon or monochords, -by patient adjustment to marked divisions, was quite -another matter, a mental recreation.</p> - -<p>The trophy secured in the long march of music -the thousand upon thousand years is the simple diatonic -scale of five major tones and two semitones,—that is -all. Up to the setting in of the Christian era that was -the utmost attainment of the human race in the art of -music, two formal tetrachords with a disjunct tone -between; and if you will think of it this one fact has a -mighty significance. What instinct of the race brought -out this particular selection and arrangement, what in-dwelling -demand of the ear impelled the choice, -apparently from earliest impulses, we cannot tell,—there -it is—the bed-rock upon which our system of -harmony is founded; and the curiosity of the thing is -that other races have for ages settled down upon a -pentatonic system and still manifest an inborn aversion -to harmony. We adjudge tones by means of calculated -vibrations, ascertained by mechanism, the Greeks -made their determinations by the measuring of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> -strings, the artist is always satisfied by the verdict -of the ear.</p> - -<p>To have established a tetrachord, and after centuries -of intellectual strife to have secured a double tetrachord -forming merely a simple scale of one octave, and -that, the scale of <i>A minor</i>, may seem a small matter as -a record of human history and of mental achievement. -There is a saying of Aristotle which will justify a more -inspiriting estimate,—the philosopher wrote,—</p> - -<div class="blockquot2"> - -<p>“The true nature of a thing is whatsoever it becomes when the -process of its development is complete.”</p></div> - -<p>To use a familiar illustration, expressing potentiality,—As -the oak lies in the acorn, so all the after developments -of our European music, their beauty, grandeur, -massiveness, lie in that little scale of A minor; repeat -it in transpositions of pitch from each note, repeat it in -duplications above and below, and we know that we -have therein the whole range of tones comprehensible -by the human ear. Mr. W. Chappell, it is true, shews -that the Greeks had no major scale, yet all conceivable -scales are there, that one being the plasmic germ of all.</p> - -<p>The process of the development of music from the -reed pipe and from the string of a bow may seem insignificant -as a subject of enquiry, but the philosopher -will not think so. There is an apt parallel or analogy -in “<i>wheat</i>”—“the staff of life,” which I cannot omit -reference to. Wheat was not found in the predynastic -tombs of Egypt nor was it indigenous to that land, but -was introduced into the Nile valley from the East. -De Candole in his botanical researches, “The Origin of -Cultivated Plants,” has shewn that the indigenous home -of wheat was in the western slopes of the Persian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> -mountains. Thence the cereal has spread in the course -of ages over the whole earth. To this centre of human -origin, to Iran and Media (now called Persia) the -indications of my search all point for the source of -music, here in this primal region the rude beginnings -of the art of music were first heard, and the sounds -thereof have gone out into all lands.</p> - -<p>Greece, as was fitting, has occupied a large share of -attention in these pages, her history seems a part of -ours; her heroes are our heroes, her philosophers our -philosophers, her poets our poets. The names of -Homer and Pindar have come down the great highway -of time, hailed and recognised as the names of chief -Masters in Song, givers to whom the world is indebted; -yet I think that to the man in the street who -cares for music, there are two other names that would -come to mind to stand first as the representatives of -Greek song,—Sappho and Anacreon,—the man may -not have known even the sound of the language in -which they sung, yet English Song has made these -names household words.</p> - -<p>So when I see Sappho with her lyre pictured on the -vases, and memory revives her story, or when, on an -amphora, I see Anacreon depicted, trudging along, -with his lyre slung on a stick across his shoulder, like a -rustic traveller carrying his day’s provender, and with -his dog following,—they appeal to me as familiar -friends. Then, too, I remember how a Greek poet -apostrophised Anacreon,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">O lover of the lovely lyre,</div> -<div class="line">Who as thy sweet will sped,</div> -<div class="line">Hast sailed through all the seas of life,</div> -<div class="line">With passion and with song.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p> - -<p>Still we linger over the land of Greece, its haunting -charm persists from youth to old age. Mr. F. G. Frazer, -in his Pausanias, recalls the beautiful thought of -Schiller, how, like that poet, the traveller,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i04">“Might have seen as in a vision</div> -<div class="line">The bright procession of the Gods</div> -<div class="line">Winding up the long slope of Olympus,</div> -<div class="line">Sometimes pausing to look back sadly</div> -<div class="line">At a world where they were no longer needed.”</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>A glance at the map of Asia will show you a long -trend of mountains from the Caspian Sea to the Persian -Gulf. This vast plateau lies like a great backbone -across Asia; the Caucasus, the Armenian mountains, -the Zagros mountains, the Iranian mountains; on -the eastern slope of these the Hindoo Cush, and the -great Divide.</p> - -<p>It is a curious fact worth thinking about that the -Lute crossed over the ranges of the Hindoo Cush to the -Valley of the Indus and to the Ganges and became the -parent of the Ravanastron, or Indian Violin, and other -tribes of bowed string instruments. The Lyre and the -Harp never passed, nor the double flutes (except as left -by Alexander the Great after his conquest) and the -same with China. The feeling of the Hindoos has -settled upon instruments with many frets and moveable -bridges, and unfortunately the relics of the real -old days of that land have not been preserved.</p> - -<p>On the Western side of this mountainous range I have -shewn the type of stringed instruments that prevailed, -from Chaldea and Babylonia to Egypt, from Assyria -and Asia Minor to Greece, the chief feature of the lyre -and the harp being an <i>open frame</i> with a body that is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> -founded on a boat-shape. These open-frame instruments -are not found on the Eastern side. Why? it -remains an open question. Yet the long-necked Lute -or Nefer became acclimatised there in India. Was the -instrument the cause of the character developed in -their music? It is easy to see how it would lend itself -to minute division, originating twenty intervals within -an octave. Race, climate, and geography, are the great -factors in the developments of the art of music.</p> - -<p class="tb">Here, with reluctance I bring this volume to a close, -for its pages have already extended in number much -beyond the limit of the original intent. During the -progress of the work new materials have come to hand -giving an additional interest to the subject, information -and illustrations acquired too late for incorporation in -their relevant places, and too important in their bearing -upon the investigation to be lightly sketched in, with -but scant recognition of value. There is much yet to -be added to the search for the origin of the Apollo -Lyre; both the three-stringed and the four-stringed I -have found depicted on a vase, of a date at least 900 -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, and Dr. A. J. Evans has favoured me with a -drawing of a pictograph seal, representing an eight-stringed -lyre, found in his explorations at Knossos in -Crete, and he writes me that he now places the date -2,000 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> From Egypt there comes a picture of large -cross-string harps, a construction undreamt of as an ancient -idea, but veritably so, discovered by Dr. Flinders -Petrie at Abydos, in the Tombs of the Kings. The -illustration which he has given me is of great interest.</p> - -<p>Then the American explorers in Babylonia have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> -unearthed a tablet sculptured in relief showing musicians, -and one sitting, playing a harp of eleven strings; -Mr. St. Chad Boscawen gives the date of this slab <i>circa</i> -<span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> 3,000, it was found at Tel-lo, the ancient Sirpurra. -Another valuable find, much earlier in date, was a -terra-cotta relief depicting a shepherd seated playing -his lute, and his dog with a curly tail standing beside -him (probably this lute-lover was an earlier Anacreon), -the lute so like the Egyptian Nefer, and the attitude -in holding the instrument exactly the same; for so -remote a time the drawing of the figures is little less -than marvellous. This relic was found in the schoolroom -attached to the temple library at Nippur, it confirms the -conjecture I put forth that the Nefer form was derived -from Babylonia—I called it the paddle form.</p> - -<p>Each year fresh treasures may be unearthed, so energetic -are the new explorers, sons of nations, all rivals in -archæological work, each emulating the other in adding -new riches to the Museums to hold in trust for the -world’s coming ages, adding to the known past other -more distant millenniums.</p> - -<p>With so much material accumulating throwing new -light upon the subject, I contemplate a sequel to this -volume, to be ready, if health aids the fulfilment of my -wish, by the coming Christmas, and to be entitled -“Our Musical Inheritance.”</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">Index.</span></h2> - -<hr class="short" /> - -<ul class="IX"><li> -A, the master note in Greek pitch, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Aalst, Van, on Migration of the Chinese, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a><ul><li> - Semi-tonal scale, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li><li> - on Gong chimes, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li><li> - Stone chimes, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li><li> - diagram of Lüs, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-5</li><li> - Books destroyed, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li><li> - ideas of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li></ul></li><li> -Abydos Tombs, Petrie’s discovery of cross-string Harps, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li><li> -Abysinnian Kissar Harp, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li><li> -Adonis, Phœnicean, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li><li> -Afghanistan, carvings of double flutes, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li><li> -Agriculture, of early Chinese, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li><li> -Akkad, the early settlement, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>-172</li><li> -Akkadean Language, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><ul><li> - religion, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li><li> - Hymn, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li><li> - tetrachord surmised, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li></ul></li><li> -Alexander the Great, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Alexandrian Library, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-3,<ul><li> - philosophers, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>-4</li></ul></li><li> -Alypius, his scales, 149<ul><li> - characters used for notes in Greek music, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> - transposition of his scales by Ptolemy, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li></ul></li><li> -Amenhotep, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><ul><li> - Statue of called the Memnon, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li></ul></li><li> -Amiot, Pere, Chinese Music, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><ul><li> - reeds of Cheng, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li><li> - misled A. J. Ellis, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> - on flutes, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li></ul></li><li> -Amphoræ, Vases for oil, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li><li> -Anacreon, his ten stringed lyre, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a><ul><li> - his songs, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Ancestor Worship the religion of China, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>-9,<ul><li> - orchestra for the rites, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li><li> - Confucian Hymn, Music of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li></ul></li><li> -Antigenedes on reed growth, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>-121</li><li> -Apollo, his invention of the lyre, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><ul><li> - statue of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li><li> - oracle of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> - hymns to, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> - his temples, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> - the Delphic tablets and hymn, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-150</li><li> - lyre by Praxiteles, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>-342</li><li> - tetrachord scheme of his</li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> lyre <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li><li> - Cretan seal of lyre <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Arabia the Divine land <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li><li> -Archilochus, musician <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li><li> -Archytas, his major third <a href="#Page_340">340</a>,<ul><li> - contemporary with Plato <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-3,</li></ul></li><li> -Arghool, Egyptian reed flute 35-36,<ul><li> - its reeds <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li><li> - description <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li></ul></li><li> -Arica, Peruvian flutes from <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li><li> -Aristophanes on flutes <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li><li> -Aristotle, on the Bombyx flutes <a href="#Page_99">99</a>,<ul><li> - on <i>Mese</i> <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li><li> - Aristoxenus his pupil <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li><li> - on development <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li></ul></li><li> -Aristoxenus, musician and philosopher <a href="#Page_341">341</a>,<ul><li> - his works <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li></ul></li><li> -Art is the superfluous <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li><li> -Arunda Donax, for reeds <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li><li> -Ashmolean Museum, the Lady Maket pipes now in <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li><li> -Asia Minor <a href="#Page_238">238</a>,<ul><li> - minstrels in <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li></ul></li><li> -Asiatic music distracting <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li><li> -Assur-ban-ipal, slabs at British Museum <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li><li> -Assyrian, Double pipes <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>,<ul><li> - Dulcimers <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li><li> - harp, representation of <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li><li> - route to Greece <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Athenæus Pronomus <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li><li> -Athene, the Goddess, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li><li> -Athens, founding of <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li><li> -Athens Museum, Apollo <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li><li> -Auletris, flute player <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li><li> -Auloi, Greek flutes <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li><li> -<br /> -Babylon, Berosus on <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li><li> -Babylonia <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li><li> -Bach, J. S., use of the thumb <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li><li> -Bailey, J., Festus quoted <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li><li> -Ball, Rev. J. C., Turano Sythic speech <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li><li> -Bamboo Books, The ancient Chinese <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> -Bamboo Forests in China <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li><li> -Bark, boats made of <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li><li> -Beethoven, his folk song themes <a href="#Page_83">83</a>,<ul><li> - his melodies <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li><li> - his famous three knocks of Fate <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li></ul></li><li> -Berlin Museum, Egyptian lyre in <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li><li> -Berosus on Babylon <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li><li> -Bird’s Nest or Chinese Sheng <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li><li> -Blaikley, J. D., experiments on Egyptian flutes <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li><li> -Bombyx flutes <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li><li> -Book of Changes, Chinese <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li><li> -Borneo, Cane Harps from <a href="#Page_303">303</a>-4</li><li> -Boscawen, St. Chad, on Chaldea <a href="#Page_4">4</a>,<ul><li> - on Persia <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li><li> - metal working <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li><li> - Lute on slab from Tello <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li></ul></li><li> -Bow with boat form of early lyres <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li><li> -Boxing, Etruscan to sounds of flutes <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li><li> -British Museum, relics in:<ul><li> - Apollo, Statue of <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li><li> - Pans Pipes or Syrinx <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li><li> - Peruvian Pan pipes <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li><li> - Peruvian Stone Syrinx <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li><li> - Egyptian Gingras, part of 28-33, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li><li> - Cymbals found in Egyptian mummy <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li><li> - Wall painting of Egyptian ladies playing the double pipes <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li><li> - Copy of a Corneto painting <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-67</li><li> - Song on a Chaldean tablet <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li><li> - Fragment of flute bulb <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li><li> - Greek Monaulos, two specimens <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li><li> - Chinese Encyclopia shelved there <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> - Leva flute pipe <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li><li> - Harps on Assyrian slabs <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li><li> - Roman Cornu and Trumpets <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li><li> - Litmus <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> Egyptian Boated lyres, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li><li> - Three thousand gems, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li><li> - Bronze of Hermes, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li><li> - Chelys lyre, parts of, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li><li> - Herculanæum, painting of Apollo with harps, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li><li> - Calliope, Hymn to the Muse, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li></ul></li><li> -Bruce, the Traveller, Grand Harp painting found by, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li><li> -Brussels Museum, Catalogue of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><ul><li> - Krena Flute from, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li></ul></li><li> -Buddha and Confucius, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li><li> -Bulb found by Maspero, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-5</li><li> -Bulbs for flute mouthpiece shewn on vases, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><ul><li> - fragment of, in British Museum, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li></ul></li><li> -Burney, Dr., on Hermes lyre, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><ul><li> - his picture of one kind of lyre, <a href="#Page_318">318</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Caspian Sea Mountains, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Capistrum for flute player, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li><li> -Caucasian Mountains, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Cecrops, founder of Athens, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li><li> -Cephisis, River of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-9</li><li> -Cesnola collection at New York, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><ul><li> - his Salamis flute, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li></ul></li><li> -Chaldea, land of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><ul><li> - Songs, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li></ul></li><li> -Chaldean Race, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><ul><li> - Sculpture by, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li></ul></li><li> -Chappell, W., on fragment of Egyptian pipe, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><ul><li> - on the tongue box, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li><li> - reed growth, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li><li> - Greek hymns, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-4</li><li> - harmony in Egyptian music, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li><li> - Cleonidas quoted, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li><li> - no Greek major scale, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li></ul></li><li> -Charites, City of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li><li> -China, her past, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li><li> -Chinese Musical Instruments.<ul><li> - Outspread Phœnix, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li><li> - Bird’s Nest or Sheng, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li><li> - Stone Chime, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li><li> - Gong chime, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li><li> - Yellow Bell and Forest, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li><li> - Tetrachord of Bells, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li><li> - Clarionet or Kwant-ze, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li><li> - Monster Bell, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li><li> - Flutes, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li><li> - Dragon flute, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li><li> - Se, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li><li> - Hwang-chong-tche, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li><li> - Guitars, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li><li> - Violin of gourd or cocoanut, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li><li> - Dulcimers, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li><li> - Kin or C’hin, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li><li> - Trumpets, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li><li> - Rattling Tiger, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li><li> - Drums, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li></ul></li><li> -Chinese Notation, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><ul><li> - Flat-fourths, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li><li> - Confucian hymn, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li><li> - Ear for pitch, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li><li> - Scale of P’ai-hsiao, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li><li> - Chronology, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li><li> - Foot measures, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li><li> - Measures and Weights, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li><li> - Enormous Encyclopedia, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> - Book of Changes, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li><li> - Yellow Emperors foot, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li><li> - Old Ritual, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li><li> - Bell foundry, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-233</li><li> - Coins, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li><li> - Strings, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li><li> - Classics, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> - King Seang Wei, his buried books, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> - Duke Tan Foo ancestral temples, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> - Ritual Music, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li><li> - Sect of the learned, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li><li> - Love songs, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li><li> - Orchestras, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li><li> - Oldest written music, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li></ul></li><li> -Chord, as a musical term, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li><li> -Chorebus, the poet musician, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Citharist players, The charm of, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li><li> -Civilization, Primitive, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><ul><li> - Origin of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li></ul></li><li> -Clarionet, Japanese, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><ul><li> - Chinese, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li></ul></li><li> -Cleonidas on seven stringed lyre, <a href="#Page_313">313</a><ul><li> - His writings, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li></ul></li><li> -College of Mandarins, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> -Confucius, Hymn to, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><ul><li> - on music, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span> his favourite instrument the Kin, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li><li> - ancient celebrations, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li><li> - sacrificial hymn to, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li></ul></li><li> -Corneto Etruscan painting, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li><li> -Cretan Seal of Apollo’s Lyre, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li><li> -Crete, stepping stone to Greece, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li><li> -Crissa, Plains of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> -Cromornes, their caps, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li><li> -Cyprus, held by Egypt, <a href="#Page_328">328</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Danaus, founder of Argos, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li><li> -Dayr-el-Bahari Temple of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li><li> -De Candole, origin of wheat, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li><li> -Debrett’s peerage Ancestor Worship, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li><li> -Delphi, Temple of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><ul><li> - Pindar, his Iron chair at, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li><li> - Pythagorus Sophocles Æschylus and Phideas at, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li><li> - Music Tablets, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li><li> - lyre, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li></ul></li><li> -Demaratus, Merchant of Corinth, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><ul><li> - in Terpanders time, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li></ul></li><li> -Dennis on Etruscan Vases, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li><li> -Diagram of Nations, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li><li> -Diatesseron, The Greek fourth, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li><li> -Diaulos, Greek flutes, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-85</li><li> -Didymus, his minor tone, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><ul><li> - his diatonic scale, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li></ul></li><li> -Dion, Statue of Hermes, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> -Dionysius on rhythm, <a href="#Page_144">144</a><ul><li> - Greek hymn by, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li></ul></li><li> -Diosopolis Parva, Horn from, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li><li> -Dirce, Fountain of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li><li> -Disjunct or Greater System, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li><li> -Dragon, Chinese, <a href="#Page_3">3</a><ul><li> - flute, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li></ul></li><li> -Dulcimer, Chinese, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Ear, Artists habit of reliance on, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li><li> -Edkins, Dr., Akkadian and Chinese languages, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li><li> -Edwards, Miss, at a Nubian funeral, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li><li> -Egypt, Exploration Fund, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li><li> -Egyptian Music unwritten, <a href="#Page_304">304</a><ul><li> - Egyptian chant of Thotmes IV., <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> - player on the Nay, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li><li> - method compared with Chinese, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li></ul></li><li> -Egyptian Musical Instruments.<ul><li> - Mamms or Twin flutes, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li><li> - Nay, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li><li> - Seba, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li><li> - Lyres, 13, 287-289, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li><li> - Zummarah, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li><li> - Arghool reed flute, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-36</li><li> - its reeds, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li></ul></li><li> -Elam, Land of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li><li> -Elgin, Lord, Lyre from Athens, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> -Ellis, Dr. A. J., on Persian Scale, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>,<ul><li> - the lutist Zalzal, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li><li> - Arabic music, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li><li> - test of Gong Chimes, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li><li> - scale of Kublai Khan, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li><li> - on Amiot, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> - scales of various nations, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> - on Japanese scales, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>-217</li><li> - Greek scales founded on the fourth, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li></ul></li><li> -Emerson on the Builder, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li><li> -Emperors Chinese.<ul><li> - Fu-Hsi, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li><li> - Huang Che, the destroyer of books, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li><li> - Hwang-ti, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li><li> - Shun, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li><li> - Yao, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li></ul></li><li> -Empress, Chinese, Nu-wo, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li><li> -Encyclopedia of the Chinese, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> -Engel, Carl, on the Sheng, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> -Equal Temperament System of, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li><li> -Erato, The Muse her Psaltery, <a href="#Page_317">317</a><ul><li> - and Trigon, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li></ul></li><li> -Eratosthenes, writings on music, <a href="#Page_344">344</a><ul><li> - on flutes with boxing, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li></ul></li><li> -Erech, city of the dead, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li><li> -Etrurian Kings of Rome, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> -Etruscan double flutes, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><ul><li> - Subulones, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li><li> - tomb opening of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li><li> - vases, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li></ul></li><li> -Euphrates Valley and River, 167, 168, 169-170, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li><li> -Euterpe, the Muse playing her flutes, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li><li> -Evans, A. J., Knossos lyre seal, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li><li> -Experiments with the Sheng pipes, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li><li> -Ezra and Moses, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Feng tribes early in China, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li><li> -Filmore, J., on Indian melodies, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li><li> -Finding the Chinese Lüs, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li><li> -Fingers, the fates of music, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li><li> -Flageolet pipe, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li><li> -Flute of Ismenias, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li><li> -Flute player with Phorbia, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li><li> -Flutes.<ul><li> - Diaulos, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li><li> - Subulo, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li><li> - Bombyx, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>-5</li><li> - Plagiaulos, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li><li> - Cyprian, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li><li> - Egyptian, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li><li> - holed, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li><li> - Pindar’s, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li><li> - Midas, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li><li> - Pompeian, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li><li> - Bronze ringed, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li><li> - Sycamore, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li><li> - Meledosa’s, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li><li> - Wailing, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li><li> - Theban, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li><li> - Pronomus, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li></ul></li><li> -Fourths, Ancient flat, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li><li> -Free reeds, Midas flutes, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><ul><li> - Weber’s laws of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li></ul></li><li> -Funeral in Nubia, Wailing music at, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Galpin, Rev. F. W., his museum, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li><li> -Gardner, E. A., date of Praxiteles, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li><li> -Garibaldi’s welcome, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li><li> -Gaudentius on rhythm, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li><li> -German flute, conical, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li><li> -Gingroi, Lady Maket’s, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li><li> -Glossocomeia, reed box, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li><li> -Gods, Sleeping, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><ul><li> - procession on Olympus, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Goethe, J. W., on May of life, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li><li> -Greco-Etruscan flutes, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li><li> -Greek Church, Music of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li><li> -Greek Music, Modes their growth, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><ul><li> - tonal division, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li><li> - notation, letter note, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> - Doric scale, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> - twofold strain of, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li></ul></li><li> -Greek people, composite race, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li><li> -Greek Vases.<ul><li> - Greco-Etruscan, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li><li> - Lekythos for funeral oil, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li><li> - Krater for mixing wine with water, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li><li> - Hydria for drawing water, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li><li> - Amphora for Prize Winners Oil, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li><li> - Kylix, wine cup, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li></ul></li><li> -Guitar, Chinese, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Hall, H. R., oldest Athens, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li><li> -Harp, Evolution of, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li><li> -Harps, Chaldean, <a href="#Page_4">4</a><ul><li> - Egyptian Assyrian, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li><li> - Abyssinian, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li><li> - Abydos, cross string, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li><li> - Borneo cane, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li></ul></li><li> -Hathor, The Goddess beautiful, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li><li> -Hautboy, reed, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><ul><li> - Asiatic, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li></ul></li><li> -Hellenes or Greeks, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li><li> -Helmholtz on harmonics, <a href="#Page_159">159</a><ul><li> - scale of Olympos, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> - Ellis’s notes to on scales, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li><li> - on Terpanders, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li></ul></li><li> -Hemitone of Pythagoras, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li><li> -Hermes, God on the Nile, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><ul><li> - Statue of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li></ul></li><li> -Herodotus, Song of Maneros, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li><li> -Hichi-richi, Japanese Clarinet, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li><li> -Hindoo Cush, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Hindoos, frets and bridges, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Hipkins, A. J., Scale of Gingroi, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li><li> -Hippocrene water, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> -Homer and Pindar, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a><ul><li> - on the lyre, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li><li> - Trojan War, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li></ul></li><li> -Hope, Costume of Greeks, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li><li> -Horn, pipe of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li><li> -Horns, Assyrian, Egyptian, <a href="#Page_266">266</a><ul><li> - Greek and Roman, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li></ul></li><li> -Houscheng, Persian King, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li><li> -Hunt, Leigh, on old Nile, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li><li> -Hyagnis, Poet Musician, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Hydria, Greek vase, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li><li> -Hymettus, glow of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li><li> -Hymn to Calliope, <a href="#Page_145">145</a><ul><li> - to Nemesis, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li><li> - to Confucius, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li><li> - to Hermes, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -India, carvings of flutes, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><ul><li> - Ravanastron on violin, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Indians, North West Americans, flutes of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a><ul><li> - in Bolivia, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li></ul></li><li> -Indus and Ganges rivers, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Ion of Chios, his conjunct system, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li><li> -Iranian Mountains, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Iscariot, Judas, a musician, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li><li> -Ismenias, his costly flute, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Jade, Chinese, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li><li> -Japanese clarionet, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><ul><li> - flat fourths in their music, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li><li> - fine work, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li><li> - the Sho, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li><li> - its scale, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li><li> - pitch pipes, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li><li> - reed curve of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li><li> - Koto, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li></ul></li><li> -Jebb, Prof. on Delphian tablet, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li><li> -Johnston, Sir H., Uganda boat, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><ul><li> - the Kavibondo Harp, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li></ul></li><li> -Jubal, pipes of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Kanon or monochord, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li><li> -Keats, John, on a Grecian Urn, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><ul><li> - on beauty, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li><li> - on cool vintage, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li><li> - treasures hid, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li><li> - teasing thought, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li><li> - Delphic Festival, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li><li> - Apollo, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li></ul></li><li> -Kin or Scholar’s Lute, <a href="#Page_253">253</a><ul><li> - cork soundboard of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li><li> - its softness of sound, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li></ul></li><li> -Kissar, Abyssinian Harp, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li><li> -Kissirka lyre, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li><li> -Knife Grinders Chinese Trumpet, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li><li> -Koto, Japanese, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li><li> -Krater Greek Vase, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li><li> -Krena, pipe, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li><li> -Krishna, a flute player, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li><li> -Kuênlun Mountains, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li><li> -Kylix, Greek Vase, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Lacroix, Decadence of Greek Musical Art, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li><li> -Lamia and her flutes, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li><li> -Lang, Hymn of Hermes, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li><li> -Languages.<ul><li> - Chinese and Akkadian, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li></ul></li><li> -Lekythos, Satyr and flutes on, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li><li> -Lesbian Lyre, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li><li> -Leslie, Prof., on the Ear, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li><li> -Leyden Museum, Harp at, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li><li> -Lichanos, finger for, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> -Ligature of Japanese Clarionet, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li><li> -Ling-lun, his quest, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><ul><li> - the Chinese lüs, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li><li> - his twelve bells, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li></ul></li><li> -Linus, Song of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> -Lucretius on wind and reeds, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li><li> -Lute or Nefer, form of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a><ul><li> - from Nippur, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li></ul></li><li> -Lychanos, his added string, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Lyres.<ul><li> - Queen Hatasu’s three stringed, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li><li> - at British Museum four stringed, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li><li> - Upright form, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li><li> - boated and cross bar, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li><li> - in Paris Collection, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> open frame lyre of the Stranger’s, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li><li> - Abyssinian, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li><li> - Magadis, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li><li> - Hermes, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li><li> - Greek Chelys, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li><li> - Act of Tuning, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li><li> - subordinate to Voice, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li><li> - Lesbian, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li><li> - Apollo’s, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li><li> - by Praxiteles, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Maclean, Dr., on Greek music, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li><li> -Magadis lyre, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li><li> -Mahaffy, J. P., on Delphic Tablet, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li><li> -Mahillon, C. V., on Pompeian flutes, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><ul><li> - Siamese scale of Phan, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li><li> - Chinese Dragon flute, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li><li> - Apollo lyre, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li></ul></li><li> -Maket, the Lady, her Egyptian flutes, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li><li> -Malagasy braiding, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li><li> -Malay pipes, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li><li> -Mamms or Twin flutes, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><ul><li> - Goddess Mama, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li></ul></li><li> -Man a measurer, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li><li> -Mandarin’s College at Pekin, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li><li> -Maneros, Song of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li><li> -Mantinea in Arcadia, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> -Marsyas, the elder, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li><li> -Marsyas contest with Apollo, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> -Maspero, on bulb forming for flutes, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><ul><li> - flute found with eleven holes, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li></ul></li><li> -Measures of Organ pipes, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-197</li><li> -Medea founded by Mongols, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><ul><li> - home of early races, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Meledosa the Muse, her flutes, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li><li> -Memnon, Singing Statue of, at Thebes, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li><li> -Mercury, scale of lyre, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> -Mese or middle note, Aristotle on, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><ul><li> - called the Sun, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li></ul></li><li> -Mesopotamia, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li><li> -Midas the glorious, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><ul><li> - statue of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li><li> - flutes, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li><li> - brass reed, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li></ul></li><li> -Migrations of Chinese, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li><li> -Milton on noise, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li><li> -Minor tone of Didymus, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li><li> -Monaulos, the single flute, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><ul><li> - specimen in British Museum, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li></ul></li><li> -Mongolian race, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li><li> -Mongols new home, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li><li> -Monochord of Pythagoras, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li><li> -Murray, A. S., on Tomb treasures, <a href="#Page_43">43</a><ul><li> - his help, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li></ul></li><li> -Musæus, poet musician, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li><li> -Museums.<ul><li> - Ashmolean, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li><li> - Athens, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> - Berlin, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li><li> - British, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li><li> - Brussels, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li><li> - India, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li><li> - Leyden, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li><li> - Munich, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li><li> - Naples, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li><li> - Paris, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li><li> - South Kensington, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li></ul></li><li> -Musical Scale by Measures, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><ul><li> - by Vibrations, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li></ul></li><li> -Mycenœan Greece, <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Napoleon, work on Egypt, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li><li> -Nations, diagram of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li><li> -Nauman, History of Music, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li><li> -Nay, Egyptian flute, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><ul><li> - player on, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li></ul></li><li> -Nefer or lute, <a href="#Page_299">299</a><ul><li> - player on, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li><li> - dancers with, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li><li> - Shepherd with, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li></ul></li><li> -Neith, the goddess Egyptian, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li><li> -Nemesis, Hymn to, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li><li> -Neuter Third, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> -Newton, Sir C., flute from Halikarnassos, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li><li> -Nile, Leigh Hunt on, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li><li> -Nineveh, slabs from, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li><li> -Noah, era of, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li><li> -Noise love of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><ul><li> - Milton on, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li></ul></li><li> -Notation, Greek method of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> -Nubian funeral wailing, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><ul><li> - Kissirka lyre, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Olympos, his scale, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li><li> -Olympus Mountain, <a href="#Page_325">325</a><ul><li> - procession of the Gods, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Olympus, the Phrygian, disjunct scale, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li><li> -Orestes of Euripides, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li><li> -Organ pipes, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><ul><li> - measuring of, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li></ul></li><li> -Orpheus, cithara of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a><ul><li> - hymn to, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li></ul></li><li> -Oscan people, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li><li> -Osiris Egyptian God, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li><li> -Ouseley, Sir F. G., ear for pitch of Chinese Bells, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li><li> -Outspread Phœnix, Chinese, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li><li> -Oval holes of ancient pipes, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Panopolis, flute from, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li><li> -Pan’s pipes, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li><li> -Parnassus, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li><li> -Parthenon, Friezes, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><ul><li> - harps on, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li><li> - Temple completed, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pausanias on Greece, <a href="#Page_321">321</a><ul><li> - on the Memnon, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li><li> - on history, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li><li> - Frazer on, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pelasgians, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li><li> -Persia fire worship, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li><li> -Persian scale from the Greek fourth, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><ul><li> - mountains, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pentatonic scale origin in the tetrachord, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li><li> -Peruvian Pan’s pipes, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-18,<ul><li> - Stone Syrinx, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li></ul></li><li> -Petrie, J. Flinders, discovery of flutes, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><ul><li> - specimen of Zummarah, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li><li> - cross-string harps, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li></ul></li><li> -Phan, Siamese reeds, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li><li> -Phideas, sculptor, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li><li> -Phœnician Adonis, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li><li> -Phœnix, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li><li> -Phorbia or Capistrum, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li><li> -Phrygian mode, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Phrynis, added string, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li><li> -Pindar, Ode to Midas, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><ul><li> - at Delphi, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li><li> - city of Charites, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li><li> - pipe of brass, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li><li> - and Homer, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pipes, pastoral, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><ul><li> - primitive, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li><li> - how played, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pitch pipes of Japanese, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li><li> -Plagiaulos Greek pipe, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li><li> -Plato, many stringed lyres, <a href="#Page_321">321</a><ul><li> - compass of lyres, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pliny on reed growth, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><ul><li> - on Terpander, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li></ul></li><li> -Plutarch, on song of Maneros, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><ul><li> - reciting pipes, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li></ul></li><li> -Polyphemus, fingers, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li><li> -Polytheistic ideas, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li><li> -Pompeian flutes, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><ul><li> - Mahillon’s discovery, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-117,</li></ul></li><li> -Pompeii, buried city, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li><li> -Praxiteles, Sculptor, his Apollo, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li><li> -Pronomus, his flutes, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li><li> -Proslambanomenos, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li><li> -Ptolemy, Claudius, on minor tone, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><ul><li> - transposition of Alypius scales, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li><li> - diatonic complete scale, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li></ul></li><li> -Ptolemy Philadelphus, his Band, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li><li> -Punt, the land of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li><li> -Pythagoras, on intervals, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><ul><li> - at the Nile, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li><li> - his added string, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> - songs he loved, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> - his disjunct scale, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li><li> - his fancies, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li></ul></li><li> -Pythic games, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> -Quechas, Indian pipe of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li><li> -Queen Hatasu, her Temple, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-12,<ul><li> - ships of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li><li> - her lyre, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Ravanastron, Indian, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Red Sea, Canal to, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li><li> -Reed, the arghool, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li><li> -Reed, Hautboy, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li><li> -Reeds and pipes earlier than strings, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><ul><li> - growth of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li></ul></li><li> -Reinach, harmonization of Delphic music, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li><li> -Religion of Akkadians, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><ul><li> - of Chinese, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li></ul></li><li> -Rhodians ode to Pindar, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li><li> -Rhomaides, his photo of Apollo, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> -Rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><ul><li> - Cephisis, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li></ul></li><li> -Rosellini’s Egypt, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li><li> -Rowbotham, J. T., Musical History, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li><li> -Russians, their Bells, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Sacadas, the flute player, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> -Sappho, her lyre, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><ul><li> - songs, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Sarasate, Jubilee at Athens, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li><li> -Satyr playing Double pipes, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li><li> -Sayce, A., on Tel Amarna Tablets, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li><li> -Scales in music by finger measure, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><ul><li> - Chinese Lüs, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li><li> - early, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li><li> - traditional Greek, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li></ul></li><li> -Schiller’s procession of the Gods, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Schubert Music, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><ul><li> - Symphony, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li></ul></li><li> -Seba, Egyptian flute, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li><li> -Sepulchres of Etruria, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li><li> -Shelley, on Egypt, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li><li> -Sheng, Chinese, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><ul><li> - scale of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li><li> - compared with Greek scale, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li><li> - evolution of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li><li> - primitive maker, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li><li> - free reeds, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li><li> - experiments with the pipes, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li><li> - Chinese tetrachord, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li><li> - pipes described, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li><li> - order of, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li></ul></li><li> -Sho, Japanese reeds, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li><li> -Siamese Phan, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li><li> -Silkworm flutes of bronze, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><ul><li> - scale of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li></ul></li><li> -Simcox, E. J., on early Chinese, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><ul><li> - worship of spirits, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li><li> - Chinese classics, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li></ul></li><li> -Solomon, King, his musicians, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li><li> -Song, of the goddess Mama, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><ul><li> - of Linus, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li><li> - of Miriam, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li><li> - of Sappho, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Southgate, T. L., experiment with flutes, <a href="#Page_51">51</a><ul><li> - Panopolis flute, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li><li> - Bulb from M. Maspero, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li></ul></li><li> -Spartan lyre, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li><li> -Spirit of Earth and Heaven, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li><li> -Stainer, Dr. J., on Reed Box, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li><li> -Sticks, the true prophets of Sheng, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li><li> -Stradivarius, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li><li> -Subulone flutes, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><ul><li> - players, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li></ul></li><li> -Sumerian Race, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><ul><li> - religion, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li></ul></li><li> -Sycamore flutes, Greek, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Tak-Koto, Japanese, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li><li> -Tarentum in Sicily, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li><li> -Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari, <a href="#Page_10">10</a><ul><li> - of the God Uras at Urasalem, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li></ul></li><li> -Terpander, prize lyre, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a><ul><li> - Pythic games at, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li><li> - his scheme for scale, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li></ul></li><li> -Tetrachord Greek, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><ul><li> - Egyptian, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li><li> - early, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li><li> - meaning of, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li><li> - conjunct and disjunct, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li><li> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> - trichord added, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li><li> - laws of, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li><li> - instinct for, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li></ul></li><li> -Thaletes poet musician, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> -Thamyris poet musician, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> -Thebe, foundress of the Theban Nation, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><ul><li> - flutes of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li></ul></li><li> -Thebes, tomb painting, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li><li> -Theodosius, Emperor, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li><li> -Theophrastus on reed growth, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li><li> -Thibet no evidence, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li><li> -Thotmes, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><ul><li> - his wars, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li></ul></li><li> -Timotheus, poet musician, lyre of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a><ul><li> - strings added, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li></ul></li><li> -Tokio Musical Institute, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li><li> -Tonic, Greeks had not, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li><li> -Tope at Jumal Garlic, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li><li> -Traditions of the Scale, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li><li> -Trigon, Greek Harp, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li><li> -Trojan War, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li><li> -Trombone, infantile, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li><li> -Trumpets, Assyrian and Egyptian, <a href="#Page_264">264</a><ul><li> - Chinese, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li></ul></li><li> -Tuning of lyres, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li><li> -Tyrtæus, poet musician, <a href="#Page_339">339</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Uganda Boat, <a href="#Page_286">286</a><ul><li> - Kavibondo Harp, <a href="#Page_293">293</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Violins, Chinese, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><ul><li> - Indian Ravanastron, <a href="#Page_350">350</a><br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> - -Wagener, Dr., Chinese weights and measures, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li><li> -Wagner, Procession of the Gods, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li><li> -Wailing flutes or Gingroi, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li><li> -Weber, law of Free Reeds, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li><li> -Wheat, De Candole upon its origin, <a href="#Page_348">348</a><ul><li> - not in pre-dynastic Egypt, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li></ul></li><li> -Wilkinson, Sir J. G., Egypt, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li><li> -Williams, Abdy, Euripides Chorus, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Yellow Bell, Chinese, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li><li> -Yellow Emperor, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li><li> -Yellow River, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br /><br /></li><li> - -Zagros Mountains, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li><li> -Zummarah, Egyptian, <a href="#Page_38">38</a><ul><li> - description of the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li></ul></li> -</ul> - -<hr /> -<p class="center f07">Printed by <span class="smcap">W. Reeves</span>, 83, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.</p> - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span></p> - -<h2>ERRATA.</h2> - -<table summary="errata" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc">Page</td><td class="tdr">5</td><td class="tdc">line</td><td class="tdr">16</td><td class="tdc"><i>for</i></td><td>kythara</td><td class="tdc"><i>read</i></td><td>lute.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">22</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">28</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl"><span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span></td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>ago.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">43</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">21</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">glossoocmeia</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>glossocomeia.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">52</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">15</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">B 233</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>B♭ 233</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">72</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">11</td><td class="tdl" colspan="4"><i>after</i> length, <i>add</i>,—out of the whole number.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">75</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">indellible</td><td class="tdc"><i>read</i></td><td>indelible.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">87</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">19</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">worn</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>warm.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">92</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">8</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">third century</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>440 <span class="smcap lowercase lowercase">B.C.</span></td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">219</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">17</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">Cancasus</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>Caucasus.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">225</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">7</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">Diosopolis</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>Diospolis.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">230</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">22</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl">physical</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td>psychical.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">312</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdr">11</td><td class="tdc">”</td><td class="tdl" colspan="3">poem <i>insert</i>,—as spoken.</td> -</tr></table> - -<p> </p> -<hr /> -<p> </p> - -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Transcriber's Note: - </td> - <td> -The book cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed -in the public domain. - </td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 53039-h.htm or 53039-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/0/3/53039">http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/0/3/53039</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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