without feeling a sympathetic emotion. Add another part, and you will divide the attention; and, as you divide the attention to the different parts, you diminish the effect. The great effects of music among the ancients, as related by their writers, are not altogether fabulous. Their music consisted of those simple airs, which steal imperceptibly on the mind.* If the son of Jesse could control the ragings of his sovereign by the simple inflexions of his harp, why might not Orpheus perform equal wonders in Greece? Even in our days, the full choir is frequently neglected, to hear the simple modulations of an itinerant bard.† Harmony consists in a series of notes, placed at such intervals in the musical scale, as to produce agreeable sensations in the ear. Whether harmony has been any real improvement to music, has been questioned by many learned critics. It may please the ear; it may feast and delight the appetite; but can never communicate any distinct ideas. The full choir, for a few moments, may animate the mind; and the movements of a full band may excite agreeable emotions. The Grand Hallelujah of Handel, in the Messiah, § will almost "If we were to suppose a Giardini condescending to play at a rural fair, there is little doubt but his audience would be stolen away from him by the itinerant performer on a Scotch bagpipe." Knox's Essay on Music. Page 295. See the Encyclopædia. Vol. VIII. page 321. See the Grand Hallelujah in the Messiah. Page 67, Fol. imperceptibly waft us to heaven.* Such sublime choruses are well calculated to rouse our devotion, and fix the mind, for a short time, in the raptures of adoration. But even here, limits are fixed. The mind soon wishes for a relaxation. Soon cloyed with the full blaze of harmony, it seeks a more simple repast. Melody here presents herself, and affords the desired relief. As harmony depends entirely on mathematical calculation and experience, genius cannot be so much displayed in this part of the musical art, as in some others. Any person of decent abilities may write good harmony. It is the same in music as proportion in painting. The proportion may be correct, and the picture entirely destitute of life. The same may happen in music. Good harmony cannot constitute any expression. Indeed, the more perfect the harmony, the less effect will the expression have on the mind.† Expression, in music, is the particular method in which a writer communicates his ideas. It is in music, what the countenance is in painting and sculpture. It is that which gives life and energy to all good music, and without which it becomes insipid and uninteresting. Like melody, it has no limits, nor can it be reduced within any rules but those of nature. Taste, sanctioned by the general consent of mankind, must be the only standard. As this is one of the most important articles in composition, as in the hands of great writers, it is the life and soul of music, so in the hands of pedants, and the ignorant, it is most shockingly prostituted. While the noble expressions of those great masters excite our admiration, the counterfeit efforts of the unskilful excite our contempt and disgust. In the hands of a great genius, expression appears to be the natural effusion and feeling of the heart; in the hands of the ignorant, it appears to be the forced cries of a bewildered imagination, aiming at something incomprehensible. Many composers have supposed that music was so far imitative, that almost any idea might be expressed by some particular run of notes. Upon this supposition, such writers have introduced the most ridiculous imitations imagination could invent, upon the words flying, dying, crying, &c. If the notes, without *See Dr. Beattie on Music and Poetry. "These compositions tickle the ear by the luxury of complicated sounds, but seldom make any impressions on the heart." Encyclopædia, Vol. II. page 363. See the Musical Dictionary, under the word "Expression." § See Dr. Beattie on Musical Expression; likewise Dr. Brown's Dissertation on Poetry and Music. Page 219. C the words, do not communicate the idea, the addition of the words cannot render them imitations. If a performer were to run over tied notes till he lost his breath, no one who heard him would suppose he was about to fly, or think of the word to fly; yet almost every unskilled composer has expressed this word by a long rant of tied notes. Such attempts at imitation have no foundation in nature, are mean and insipid, and debase the music with which they are connected. It is certain that but few, very few distinct ideas can be represented by any arrangements of notes. The language of music, when destitute of words, must ever be ambiguous. What natural connexion can possibly subsist between a low note and the word hell? or a high note and the word heaven? Imitations of this kind are a burlesque on common sense, and a species of musical buffoonery. A striking instance of this kind of imitation may be found on the word ring, in a piece of music called "Ascension," and frequently published in this country.* Another specimen, equally ridiculous, may be found in an Anthem, "Thou, O God, art praised in Sion," on the word laugh.† They shall laugh, they shall laugh, they shall laugh, they shall laugh Suppose a broad, theatrical ha! ha! ha! could be imitated in sacred music; would it be proper? Doés truedevotion ever assume such airs or gesticulations? A third may be found on the word roar, in a piece of music called "Rainbow."* From such puerile attempts at imitation, we will turn to those of real merit. Whenever we hear those plaintive notes of David, weeping over the slaughtered king of Israel, and his beloved friend Jonathan, we are compelled to mix our tears with his. The notes of this excellent air, in the Oratorio of Saul, sweetest harmony they liv'd," cannot be heard without exciting the idea of sorrow in our minds.† In Alexander's feast, Handel has likewise given us an * 66 In This is roaring with a witness! The author should have read Dean Swift's burlesque upon the comedians of his day: "The Duke shall cry, Encore, encore, let bim roar, let him roar, once more, once more!!" calm at thy command, And tempests cease to roar.. In sweetest harmony In sweetest harmony they liv'd, Nor death, nor death their union could divide, Nor death their union. |