ART. III.1. First Annual Report of the Boston Academy of Music. 1833. Svo. pp. 11.

2. Second Annual Report. 1834. 8vo. pp. 23. 3. Third Annual Report. 1835. 8vo. pp. 24.

WE presume there is no doubt of the successful establishment among us, at length, of an institution for the cultivation of the higher branches of music, in which instruction shall be given regularly and abundantly. It is time for such an institution, for the prevalent ignorance has been, and indeed still continues lamentable; yet an interest seems to be now awaking in the community which the Boston Academy should cherish, and the calls of which for better music than we have hitherto had, it should supply. We doubt not that judicious efforts will be perseveringly made. The tone of the Reports is resolute, and the performances at the Odeon, the past season, have been of a promising character. We are glad to perceive that premature efforts are not made to accomplish what cannot be done well; for, though the art is illimitably long, yet a slow progress is the most sure, and will ultimately be found the most rapid. The taste of the public, too, cannot be forced; but must be carried gradually and easily along to the highest branches of the art, or it will fall back again to the rude and unformed state from which it is just emerging.

The progress of this taste and of a corresponding skill in other times and other countries, is a curious subject for inquiry; for of all the fine arts music, though it may be the last to attain perfection, was probably the first to arrive at some degree of excellence. Nature abounds, to such an extent, in musical tones, and the physical organization of man affords so perfect an instrument,—it is, moreover, so strong an impulse of our constitution to express our emotions with the quick, rapid cry of joy, or the prolonged intonation of grief, that we are irresistibly led to the conclusion, that men must soon have followed in a path pointed out so clearly by nature. Our first mother doubtless soothed her first infant by a musical modulation; and, however multiplied and various the tribes of her descendants, none have ever become so rude as not to possess some musical ideas, and some taste for those arrangements and combinations of sound which we call melody and harmoMusic must be cultivated, however, and some improve

ment must be made upon the sounds which are the effect of mere natural impulse, something like system must be introduced, before it deserves the name of an art. It cannot be uninteresting to trace the progress of this art, in the various ages of the world, to the great and delightful results it is able to produce in this our day. It has, at all times and in all places, been an object of deep interest; and from the moment when the first sound issued from Memnon's statue, or "Miriam's tuneful voice" led the song of triumph, or "Timotheus' varied lays" surprised his delighted audience, down to the last night of the last new opera, from Jubal to Bellini, the whole interval has been filled with the triumphs of this beautiful art; the whole human race has felt its power, enjoyed its sweetness, and honored its professors. In vain has the satirist sneered, the moralist lamented, the severe reproved. Music is a necessity of our nature. It is impossible fully to express our emotions without its aid; and whether we exult in triumph, or humble ourselves in contrition, whether we enjoy God's bounties, or pray for his mercy, the service is incomplete, the expression is inadequate, unless music lend her various strain.

But interesting as this study might be, we are unhappily deprived of the means of pursuing it with regard to the earlier ages of refinement and cultivation. It is only since the revival of letters that the progress of the art can be traced satisfactorily. It has, indeed, been invented twice; and our opinion of what it was in the primitive ages of the world must be formed from the following sources only, namely, the analogy of nature, the effects produced by it, and the imperfect description of its character found in the authors of classic antiquity. No instruments have come down to us by which the tone of a single sound of their scale can be determined; and, in the absence of all positive knowledge on this subject, we are left to the presumption, that, as the natural scale of the human voice and the construction of the human ear were probably the same then as now, the instruments formed to harmonize with the one, and gratify the other, must have been of a kind analogous, at least, to those of a more modern date, if not absolutely identical with them; and that the art, so far as it was cultivated at all, was pursued in a manner somewhat similar to that of our own times.

The earliest music on record is the song of Moses and the Israelites after the passage of the Red sea, when Miriam took

"And all the

a timbrel in her hand, and answered them. women went out after her with timbrels and dances." Here it may be observed, that the instrument, whatever it was, that is called timbrel, was used merely as an accompaniment to the voice, or, it may be, to the dance. And this is true of nearly all the instrumental music of those times called ancient. It was, for the most part, little more than an accompaniment to the voice, generally following it very exactly in its modulation and its time. Still the power of music could not have been slight or unimportant; for it is not merely, nor principally, by the pleasure it affords the ear, that it produces its effects; but by the natural expression of emotion or passion, thus appealing to and exciting feelings which may be of the most intense energy. Such effects may be produced by music of a simple character, as well as by that of a complicated and scientific kind. Expression can be given to the wild war-hoop of the Indian, as well as to the elaborate composition of the European; and expression never fails to excite a corresponding emotion in the breast of the auditor. In speaking and thinking, therefore, of the strange and astonishing effects ascribed to ancient music, which, after all due allowance for poetic exaggeration, will still remain very great, it should be constantly borne in mind, that these effects are due, not to scientific combinations of sound, but to natural, strong expression, which exercises its sympathetic power in proportion to its naturalness, rather than its abstract science. It is, indeed, the aim of all true science in music to give to those studied combinations which please the cultivated musical intellect, that various and true expression which is able to touch the heart of every hearer, whether skilled or not in the charming art. Nothing is so barren, so tedious, so utterly vexatious, as a long, labored, scientific piece of harmony, in which expression is either wanting or indistinct. It is addressed, not to a mixed audience, but to the scientific composer only, who alone can appreciate the great difficulties conquered, or the immense labor bestowed; and one might as well attempt to please an assembly by a dissertation on the differential calculus, intelligible to the mathematician only, as by such a musical composition.

This fact seems to have been lost sight of in the interminable discussions which have taken place respecting the musical attainments of the ancients. It has been inferred

from the extraordinary stories which have come down to us of its effects, that it must have been very elaborate, scientific, and skilfully complicated; and, on the other hand, it has been inferred, from the obvious, acknowledged simplicity of the instruments in use, and the seeming imperfection of the ancient scale, with the uncertainty respecting the means of combination of sounds then understood, that all those stories were mere fables, absolute inventions of the fathers of history and poetry. Neither inference is necessary; and if it be recollected that the effect of music does not depend upon its scientific arrangement, so much as on its expressive simplicity, the accounts of its effects, however wonderful, may be easily reconciled with the comparative rudeness of the instruments by the aid of which those effects were produced. It may be remarked, too, that one instrument was then in use, which, there is no reason to doubt, was as perfect as it is at the present moment; capable of producing the same thrilling tones, the same touching cadences, the same variety, strength, and delicacy of expression. That these powers should have lain dormant among people of luxurious tastes and intellectual refinement, is altogether incredible, whatever may have been the artificial divisions of the gamut, or however imperfect the means of recording the tones of the human voice.

There was a long period, however, in the history of the world, when luxury and refinement did not exist; and when, without doubt, music was in the same imperfect and rude state as the other arts of life. It is certain, that no very rich combinations of harmony could have been made by those who were acquainted with no other instrument than the timbrel, just mentioned, and the trumpet. Moses, who had been carefully trained in all the learning of the Egyptians, in which music was deemed worthy to hold a place, caused two silver trumpets to be made for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps ;" and no other instrument of music is mentioned throughout the history of the Hebrew legislator. It would be rash to infer that nothing else was known, at this period, to the Egyptians; for the condition of the Israelites scarcely permitted them to give much attention to the superfluities of life, and, though it is impossible to fix the date of their invention, it is well known that several other instruments were in use among the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. The lyre, the pipe, the kettle-drum, and the sistrum

are reckoned by Burgh the only instruments of that people; but to these must be added the trumpet and timbrel, as it is scarcely probable that Moses invented them, and an instrument of two strings, somewhat resembling the mandolin in shape and size, described by Dr. Burney from a figure on an ancient obelisk. It is known, too, that the learned men of Egypt early made profound mathematical calculations respecting the proportions of sounds, a study implying some acquaintance with the vibrations of musical strings; but, as historians in those days were less careful than writers of a later time to fix the dates of events, it is impossible to speak with the desirable precision of the order of invention of musical instruments, as well as of many other things still more important. All we can do is to observe, that at certain periods progress in the art is perceptible, and the most thorough investigation could lead to nothing more than a conjecture as to the year or even the century of an invention.

From the time of Moses no mention of music is made, in the history of the Hebrews, till the reign of Saul; with the exceptions of the song of Deborah and Barak, which does not appear to have been accompanied by instruments; and the timbrel of the unhappy daughter of Jephthah, who went to meet her more unhappy father with timbrels and with dances."* In the hands of David we first hear of the harp, and in the use which he made of it we find perhaps an early instance of the instrument being played independently, and not simply as an accompaniment to the voice and the poetry, which seem to have constituted a principal part of the charm of ancient music. We find, too, a striking resemblance in the effect produced by the minstrelsy of the Hebrew shepherd boy, and that of our own contemporary music; a resemblance which shows, that, if the human heart had the same feelings and affections then as now, the music which produces like effects cannot be very dissimilar in its character. "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." How many a melancholy spirit has been cheered,

The ram's-horns, used at the siege of Jericho, can scarcely be regarded as musical instruments.