MUSIC K. INTRODUCTION. SOME WOME have been pleased to confider musick, poetry and painting, as fifter arts, though, as it fhould feem, with more fancy and ingenuity than judgement and truth. For they defcend from far diftant parents, or in another form of speaking, they fall under the cognizance of different fenses; that of the eye, which is the proper judge of colours and proportion in painting, and that of the ear, which is the only nice and true difcriminator of founds, their nature, whether grave or acute, and B their their measure, whether long or fhort, in mufick, poetry and oratory. Mufick, poetry and oratory, may with elegance, if not with propriety, be called not only liberal, but fifter arts; of which mufick is the elder, and on whom the other two are dependent. Mufick is the bafis on which poetry and oratory can be advantageously erected, and by it can be truly judged of. Mufick, indeed, if traced up to its origin, will be found the first and immediate daughter of nature, while poetry and oratory are only near relations of mufick, mere imitations of nature, and the daughters of inftruction and art. That mufick is the daughter of nature appears from the aptitude, which children of all nations have to finging freely as birds in the wood, fome indeed better than others, with more tafte and genius. All perfons, young and old, are in fome degree fufceptible, confequently are judges, of mufical pleasure, though few can give it in a fuperior manner. Mufick is fo connate with the foul of man, fo purely intellectual, that it may with the greatest truth be faid to owe its birth to nature, genius, or infpiration; infomuch, that they who derive it not hence, feldom please by being taught. Hence many that are blind conceive and excell in it with nicer feelings than those who have eyes. Demodocus, Tirefias, Thamyris, Homer and Milton, were in their days prime musicians as well as poets, and all were blind. As there is in no arts a stricter alliance or more intimate correfpondence than between those of mufick, poetry and oratory, fo in none more closely than in these hath nature joined dulce et utile, delight and utility, pleasure and innocence. They have ever been used, and like other excellencies, ever abused. ever abused. At first they dwelt together in friendly union, when mufick aimed to animate by the fimplicity of founds in divine worship, poetry to civilize mankind with fentiments, and oratory to inform the understanding, and engage the B 2 the paffions and affections on the fide of truth and virtue. Mufick, fince the time of Guido Aretinus, a monk of St. Benedict's order, in the tenth century, hath been improved to a wonderful degree by a greater variety of melody, and by acceffion of harmony; but then as the imagination, unchecked by reafon and judgement, is apt to run wild, in the present age we are many times more furprised at the attempts and extravagance of execution, than pleased with neatness; the fimplicity of air is often fpoiled by the redundance of variations and graces; nature is outraged in imitations, and the ear is perplexed, if not loft, in a croud of harmony, or tired with everlasting repetitions of the subject. We fhall now confine our obfervations to mufick only; First, its plain elements and requifites-Secondly, its ornaments and graces. PART PART THE FIRST. On the ELEMENTS and REQUISITES of SINGING. DEFINITION. MUS USICK, as exemplified above, appears to be both a science and an art: in theory and compofition, founded upon regular and fixed principles of geometrical proportions, it is a science affording entertainment to the eye, the understanding and judgement; in its effects by execution of the voice, or inftrument, delighting the ear with agreeable founds, it is an art, the refult of a lively fancy, exquisite taste and great attention. B 3 Many |