LIBRARY
Brigham Young University
IN MEMORY OF
George Fitzroy
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Brigham Young University
http://www.archive.org/details/worldsearliestmu04smit
^ o
(Buxlmt JMusic.
♦ ♦ ♦
♦ ♦
APOLLO WITH HIS LYRE.
From a viarbh relief hy Praxiteles in the Museum at Athene.
(described page 323.
• The eye is blind when ihq 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, THROL'CilT ASSVJtlA
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
Orchestt a from Old to Neiv," " Modern Organ Tuning, '' etc.
Sixty-five Illustrations.
London :
WILLIAM REEVES, 83, CHAKING CKOSS 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.,
T^E THEORY OF THE AIR-REED ELUCIDATED.
Also
INSTRUMENTS OF THE ORCHESTRA,
THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
AND COMPARATIVE ACOUSTICS, etc.
HAROLD B. LEE !J-^AFiY
BRiGHAivl YOUNG UWJVcRalTY
PROVO, UTAH
FOREWORD.
A music-trail through man}^ 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 parch-
ments, 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, drawmgs
or carvings for what we know\ Archaeologists 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 imaginativelv ; in the absence of
(v)
VI
Foreword.
%
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, archaeology 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 tlie command of the pla3^er are always
determined by the means of excitation of the sounds,
and by the shape and interior forms of the instruments.
•^.The ancients liad no system of harmony, yet there
Foreword. vii
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 Herculanaeum, just announced, which, if carried
out, may reveal many thing 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
viii Foreword.
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 dis-
courses. 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 wall 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 presenta-
tion, 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 ..... i
CHAPTER II.
In the Land of Myth — ^The PuRbUiT 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 Teach-
ings OF Experiments 42
CHAPTER V.
In the Land of Etruria — The Greco-Etruscan
Double Flutes — The Bulbed or Subulo
Flutes . 63
(ix)
X
Contents.
CHAPTER VI.
In the Land of Greece — From Etruria to
Athens — The Sweet Monaulos ... 82
CHAPTER Vn.
In the Land of Greece — The Silkworm Flutes,
OR BoMBYx Flutes 93
CHAPTER VIII.
In Oscan Land — Itall\— 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 Phcenix 155
Contents. xi
CHAPTER XIV.
PAGE.
The MongolsNew Home —The Mythical Finding
OF THE Lijs . . . . . . . 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 XVni.
In the Land of Japan — Japanese Pitch Pipes and
the Japanese Clarionet and the Sho . . 212
CHAPTER XIX.
Is 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
xiv List of Ilhistrations,
^^ The Muse Meledosa with her Flutes Complete
79
89
9G
98
111
125
19 The Greek Mon-Aulos, set in Two Modes
20 The Greek Silkworm Flutes ...
21 The Flageolet Proper ...
22 The Pompeian Flutes in the Naples Museum
23 The Bnlb-head foimd by M. Maspero ...
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 Yimg-lo ... ... ... 235
30 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 Fjivourite of Confucius ... 255
42 Assyrian Harp with Plectrum ... ... ... ... 262
43 The Chinese Hw-angteih 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
List of Illustrations,
XV
51 Lyre Carried by the Stranger in Egypt
52 The Kissar or Harp of the Nile
53 Harp Plaj^ers at Nimroud, from the British Museum
54 Egyptian Magadis Player with Plectrum
55 Small Upright Egypthin Lyre ...
5G Egyptian Lyre, in the Berlin Musenm
57 Player on the Egyptian Lute or Nefer ...
58 Dancer with the Nefer
^ The Chelys or Greek Tortoiseshell Lyre
Gl The Muse Terpsichore with a Lyre
62 Greek Players Tuning the Lyre and Dancing
63 The Muse Erato Playing the Psaltery ...
61 The Muse Erato Playing on a Trigon, from a Vase in the
Munich Collection
293
291
296
297
297
298
300
301
309
315
316
317
321
^'The true nature of a thing is
whatsoever it becomes when the process
of its development is complete."
Aristotj.e.
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 paint-
ings 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
2 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 foui^d, for the
nature of the materials of which they wfere 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 counter-
part 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 ex-
plorers, have great attraction for me, as they have for
many other musically-minded people. The archaeolo-
gist, 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-
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST. 3
cian has been one of the motives influencing the
archaeologist in his care for the preservation of the
treasures recovered from the past. Thus it happens
that in pubhshed 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 like-
wise, 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
ei;iough : we have but to remember that the anti-
quarian is not bound to understand the nature of musical
instruments, and as a matter of fact he does not under-
stand them.
The two chief lands that hold the music of the past
are ligypt 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 de-
velopment 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
4 THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
Chaldaean history extends back to a very remote an-
tiquity. Mr. St. Chad Boscawen, a high authority, states
that the working of metal had been practised as early as
3,000 B.C. in Chaldaea, that there are inscriptions cer-
tainly as ancient as 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C., and that
one of the earliest Chaldaean 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.
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST. 5
not only as an accompaniment to the rites of the pagan
rehgion, 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 de-
cadence 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, notwith-
standing 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 kythara
and the flute are before us in numberless painted de-
signs, are sculptured in enduring marble, — yet they
fail to raise in our minds any adequate idea of the in-
fluence 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.
Chald^a. India.
Assyria. China.
Arabia. Lydia.
Egypt. Etkuria.
GREECE.
6 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Chaldsea 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 — cross-
ings of influence, as between Chaldsea 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, Chaldsea, 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 Mediter-
ranean before the Greeks knew how it was produced in
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST. . 7
'*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 sup-
posed. 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 alto-
gether apart from popular practice of the art, vocal '
and instrumental. The philosophers regarded musio JL^
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 demonstra-
tions of the laws of pipes, and in theoretical develop-
ment 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
8 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Chaldaea,
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 Chaldaea 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
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST. 9
that their peoples have mostly favoured. Some prob-
lems 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
iuncouth 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
10 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 recita-
tive 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 oh, 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, lor 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
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST. ,11
reference to the origin of her race. This famous Quee^n
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 repre-
sented 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 m 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 temer-
ity, but that happily they escaped danger, and went on
to their original destination, and brought thence the
12 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
myrrh and the actual trees of A ^/^-sycamore, the coveted
oderiferous 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 Chaldaea 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 por-
tions, 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 Chaldaean 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 Chaldaean, 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
AT THE GATES OF THE PAST,
13^
the ship she sent to ^* the coast of Arabia " had a mean-
ing 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.
The Early
three stringed
Lyre of the
Egyptians.
Fig. 1.
The same Lyre as pictured slung on the mast of
Qtieen Hatasu^s ship.
14 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
CHAPTER IL
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 ex-
panse 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 in-
IN THE LAND OF MYTH. . I5
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 accomplish-
ment 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
i6
THE world's earliest MUSIC,
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 per-
ceiving 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."
Fig, 2. Anciiut Greek players vn 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 there-
fore 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
IN THE LAND OF MYTH,
17
by premature civilization. The British Museum pos-
sesses a very peculiar specimen made of stone, w^hich
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.
Fig. 3.
Ancient
Fevuvian
Stone
Syrinx.
The British Museum possesses an interesting relic
from a tomb at Arica ; this Peruvian huaraya pnhiua
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 rela-
tions of the two distinct forms used.
The Chinese also have their example in the instrument
they call **The Outspread Phoenix " or the sacred bird,
B
l8 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
to them the outward symbol of some myth that had
credence from immemorial times.
Fig. 4.
Peruvian
Pail'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 spontaneousl}^ 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
IN THE LAND OF MYTH. ig
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 w^as
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 instru-
ment 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
20 THE WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 ot 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 atten-
tion 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
IN THE LAND OF MYTH. 21
to suit the spread of the fingers, and the scales which fol-
lowed asthe result of theplacingthe holes, were accepted
by primitive man ; the ear got to like the sequence ot
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 tlie fiiigers, 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
22 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 confirm-
ation 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 conclu-
sion 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 B.C., 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
IN THE LAND OF MYTH. 23
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 demon-
strated 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 in-
debted 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
24
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
IN THE LAMD OF EGYPT. 25
CHAPTER III.
In the Land of Egypt.
THE LADY MAKET AND HER FLUTES.
The Lady Maket took possession of her latest resi-
dence 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 con-
sidered 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
26 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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
four fold-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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 2/
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 earings 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 thirt}^ 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 b}^ the score I had sought
out, had seen them on walls and vases, graven on brass
tablets, gems and marJ^les : yet none seen in real pre-
sence. 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 per-
chance they deliberately withheld them. Ah ! miserable
28 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 thou-
sand 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 archaeological investi-
gator 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 cere-
monies, 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. Thev
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, 29
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
30 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Herculanaeum ; 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 conventionall}^ 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 deter-
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT.
31
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.
The Gingroi,
ov flutes of
wailing.
Found in
Lady Maket's
Tomb.
All pipes that we call double flutes are represented
spreading from the mouth A 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 differ-
ences in types, being in fact unaware of the very
important distinctions as in later times perceived by
32 THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
specialists in musical lore to be necessary between lip-
blown instruments and reed-blown.
One of these instruments is lyfin. in length, and the
other I7fin. ; and the bore may be considered as ^^^jths
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 6fin. 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 rela-
tion 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.
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 33
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 Gifigms given by Greek writers, as to
leave hardly a doubt of its identity. The Gin^ras
has four holes for the fingers. Athenseus says it was
employed by the Carians in their wailings, and that
their pipes were called Gin^roi by the Phoenicians from
the lamentations for Adonis, 'for your Phoenicians call
Adonis, Gmgras, 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 con-
clusion 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 myster)^ 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 en-
chanted 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
c
34 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 tetra-
chord 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT.
35
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.
1
11
Fig. 6. \
f
The 1 ' ^
1 1
Arghool
Reed.
Full
Size. ^
1 i >
i
Fig. 7.
The
Hautboy
Reed.
Full
Size.
i\ liilU
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.
36 THE world's earliest music.
Some readers not familiar with the instrument will
be glad of this illustration showing the difference be-
tween 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 haut-
boy 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 (iioo B.C.) were familiar with the hautboy
reed.
In any experiments with the hautboy reed the man-
agement 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 37
are true specimens of the di-aulos at its earliest stage ;
that the slimness betokens a particular ceremonial pur-
pose ; 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 instru-
ment 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 lof in., to
the second i| in., to the third i| in., to the fourth i J in.,
to the end 3 in. ; these together making 17I in. The
division of the three holed pipe are from the top to the
first hole I3iin., to the second hole if in., to the third
hole if in., to the end ijin. ; making I7fin. The
stalk knots of the reed are in each pipe at 6f 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
38 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 consequentlj^ 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 flat-
ness, 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 con-
struction. 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
celeste 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, con-
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 39
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.
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 dupli-
cates 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 to a tuning based upon fourths
accommodate the obtaining of the true octave.
Oneof those pipes givesa complete tetrachord, aperfect
fourth, the other extends it by a minor third, inter-
veningly 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
40 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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. Ferhaps 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 4I:
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 unseea
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.
42 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC,
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 ac-
quired 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 43
provide for them, and carry about. So that w^ should
not expect to find the reeds with the Egyptian pipes.
Another reason, too, might operate ; the reeds them-
selves might not be ceremonially required, as these
flutes might have only a certain representative char-
acter. The learned Mr. A. S. Murray, late keeper
of the Greek treasures in the British Museum, tells us
that *4t 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 con-
clusion that the Egyptians had boxes for the safe keep-
ing 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 Glossoocmeia, 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 hag ; 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.
44
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
The Lady Maket's flutes are the true representatives
of the double pipes, called by the Greeks diaulos, and
by the Romans tibice pares and tibice gemince, — the latter
a very appropriate name. These twin flutes are pro-
fusely 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 at-
tendance for their pleasure.
F/>. 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 45
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.
Fig. 9.
Player upon Unequal Pipes.
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. i,6oo, and was taken from a tomb
at Thebes. The date is five centuries before Lady
46
THE world's earliest MUSIC,
^
^
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 4/
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, play-
ing 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 8Jin., and the pipes
shew 5j 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
twinflutes '^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 cylind-
rical 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
48 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 49
good condition I do not know. So far as I am aware
the pipes found by Mr. Flinders Petrie are the only
existing^^r/^c^ 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 Frejus on the Mediterranean.
When these pipes first came into my hands for exam-
ination 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
Diaidos, 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
D
50 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
of the. pipes, B in the eight foot octave; and, in this
order, the tones following : —
istpipe B D— E— F#— G#.
2nd „ B— C— D— E.
The pipes being C3/Iindrical in bore with a true trans-
port of air through them, are subject to the law dis-
played 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. Practic-
ally, 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 3aeld 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.
. IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, 5I
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 instru-
ments, and his judgment upon musical pitch may be ab-
solutely 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
ist pipe Eb G— Ab— Bb— Cb
2nd,, Eb— F— G— A|,
These were obtained with a small straw reed. (The
E|j 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 pro-
duced is seen to be the same, and therefore is con-
52 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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
17J inches, to which add ii inches for length of reed.
This is the sound of the full length of the pipe, note
or
The relations of the notes, one to another, as ascer-
tained 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.
The four holed (,.., ^' ^ ., __ ^,
pipe gives [ E^ 160 G 194 A|? 213 B 233 C\^ 257
The three holed ( ^, ^ r^ ^ .,
pipe gives |Ebi6o F 177 G 197 A^ 215
By harmonic t^i ^ t- o ^ zr a 1 r^.
scale ^b 160 F 177-8 G 195-6 A^ 213-4 Bl^ 231-2
(ihe increment ,,
is lys) 9th loth nth i2th 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.
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 53
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 Atr is
a |- tone, — the A|? is therefore a perfect fourth from the
Eb. The G being a quarter tone flat, it makes with the
Cb 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 f tones, which land us at Cb, a
minor third from the A\^, An arrangement very appro-
priate for wailing. The Greeks also it should be re-
membered had I 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 develop-
ment. The flat fourths I have found to be persistent
in Chinese music, and for very good natural reasons,
as will be full}^ shown in subsequent chapters on the
Chinese ancient instruments.
The very low sounds given by these flutes are neces-
sarily weak and have no penetrative power, nothing
like what we should expect to be adequate for cere-
monial 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
54 THE. WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
volume of tone, yet favours under strong breath pres-
sure the eHciting 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 combina-
tion, 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 par-
ticular instruments were fabricated which we have
cognizance of. Advance is very slow.
We should remember the great gap of time — two
thousand five hundred vears — before men arrived at the
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 55
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 wa}^
56
THE WOULD S P:AKLIEST MUSIC.
Fig. 11.
The ArgJiool
with its
drone and
lengthening
pieces.
Instead of havingpipes with different sets of holes, this
has but one pipe, and it hassix holes, therefore employing
thefingersof both hands, thesecond 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 57
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.
There is another popular native instrument, much
more ancient than the arghool called the Zunimarah
it consists of two pipes tied together (not to be called
Fig. 12.
The Egyptian Ziimmanili.
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 ceme-
tery 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
58 THE. world's earliest MUSIC.
obliquely. It was cdAled seba or sabi ; and the open,
slant-cut, tip end is thinned off to a feather edge.
Fig. 13.
The
Seba
or
Sahi.
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 cor-
responds to the ancient pipe.
The various kinds of flutes we see depicted by
the Egyptians in their paintings, were used in con-
cert 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 orches-
tration 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 em-
ployed a band of 600 musicians to celebrate the feast
of Bacchus.
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT.
59
In India we find flutes which seem to show a com-
promise 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
60 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Eg3^ptian 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 areconical, 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 inter-
vened. 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
IN THE LAND OF EGYPT. 6l
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 wailmg 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 — beginnmg high and descend-
ing 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 shadoofs 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
62 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 soog 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 dedicate 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 Maimns, in
affectionate reverence for the *'Lady of the Gods"
whose song was better than honey and wine.
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 63
CHAPTER V.
In the Land of Etruria.
THE GRECO-ETRUSCAN DOUBLE FLUTES.
THE BULBED OR SUBULO FLUTES.
The Song ol 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.
64 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 re-
searches 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
IN THE LAND OF ETKURIA. 65
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 con-
sequently there ensued a minglmg 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 colonisa-
tion. 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
Phoenicians, 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.
E
66 THE world's earliest music.
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
chamberedtombs have been opened, with their treasures
untouched since the day of burial. The first that was
discovered was by the chance pushing aside and up-
rooting 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 THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 6/
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 necro-
polis 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 w^ere an ancient race, occupy-
ing 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 south-
ward as far as the Tiber centuries before Rome was,
and founded a city called Tarquinii about 1040 B.C.
Etrurian kings ruled at an earlj^ time in Rome, probably
up to about 500 B.C. The immense cemetery of Tar-
quinii is all that remains of the ancient city, which is
68 THE world's earliest music.
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 (re-
member here that the Lady Maket flutes date about
iioo 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 Demar-
atus, 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 his-
tory. 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, visit-
ing 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 Panathenaean
games. The knowledge of these facts adds wonderfully
to the interest in these vases, and enables us to under-
stand 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.
3 IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 69
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 ot
the association of these three peoples, Egyptian, Etrus-
cans, 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 subtdo
flute, the new Greco-Etruscan flute. It is a myster}^
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 speci-
men 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
70
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC,
upper part of the pipes ; or, at most, a piece of decora-
tive conventionalism. The learned saw^ no purpose
behind the appearani^es, and therefore the idea of device
or constructive design w^as 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
Fig. 15.
fashion has become old, it is out of date. Suddenly a
change has come without a sign, in the home settle-
ment in Tuscany. Centuries probably intervene, and
a new influx of settlers arrives, this time of pure
Greeks or Hellenes.
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
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. .^J
band has two holes pierced at the mouth for the inser-
tion 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 atdetris with black hair,
and 3. 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. Draw-
ings of the Ar^hool 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
Ar}:hool 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
72 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 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 siibulo 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. Thou-
sands 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
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 73
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 under-
standing 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 influ-
ence 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
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 Pronomusthe Theban?
The date given of Pronomus is given as about 440 B.C.,
and is that of the period of these vases.
74
THE world's earliest MUSJC.
The sportive fauns and the hish-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,
The
Satyr's
Hands
and
Flutes.
Fig. 16.
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
IN THE LAND OF E'JRIJRIA. 75
the vase underwent in the kiln retains them with
indellible 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 instru-
ments, the nature of which they do not comprehend.
They are ignorant even of any necessity lor compre-
liending such simple things.
I was looking over a valuable book on sculpture yester-
day, 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 m}^ 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
pipeonly. Neither should oneexpect to see the bulbform
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
76 THE world's earliest music.
race, and will outlast the marble beauty it real-
izes ; 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 thv bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair I
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 LekythoSy 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 flutesthat 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.
IN THE LAND OF ETRUKIA.
n
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, v^hilst 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
Euterpe
preparing
her Flutes
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.
The position of the hands of Euterpe and the method
of handling the flutes are shown in Fig. 17. The paint-
ing 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
78 THE world's earliest music.
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 Amphorae were for containing the
measure of oil given to the victor in the Panathengean
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. Erastothenes 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 THE LAND OF ETRURIA.
79
in her hand, as in Fig. i8, 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
Meledosa's
Flutes
Complete,
Fig. 18.
to an Arghool reed, and if we imagine an oboe type of
reed in use at that period, this design would not corres-
pond, for no player would press the tip of a reed of the
oboe or the bassoon kind. What, then ?
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
So THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 re-
mains, 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 stibtdo 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 cvomorne. The position of the reed determines the
.effective length of the pipe ; the difference of pitch
Avould be in each case one tone, as I find that the length
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 8l
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 beautv, — 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
AmpJwrcE 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 lon^ age in ihe deep delved 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 en-
during. The owners bought their burial land ^*in
perpetuity ; " and, like the old Egyptians, they builded
for a very brief and rudely broken eternity.
82 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
CHAPTER VI.
In the Land of Greece.
FROM ETRURIA TO ATHENS.
What a merry lot those Subtdoiies were, piping to
song and dance and good cheer. I have been laugh-
ing 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
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 83
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
84 THb: WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 wouldgreatly 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, some-
times 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,
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 85
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
^t. 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 equalit}' with the fingers.
It is remarkable that in the progress of civilization the
later way of development should have been from the
86 THE world's earliest music.
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 SW^EET MONAULOS.
The mon-aulos, '*the sweet mon-aulos," 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 remem-
bered, 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 relicsof the Greek age, you will
not see them as here represented, but curiously con-
torted. 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
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. 87
made of sycamore, and are very plain simple instru-
ments. 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 worn
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 valua-
tion, 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
88 THE world's earliest music.
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 ot 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 in-
struments, 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 ver}' limited in compass.
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA.
89
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
Bfe
G 01
F
E2
B
The
Greek
Mon-aulos
Set in
Tivo
Modes.
Fig. 19.
pipes requiring two hands to play either ; for the six
holes would be unmanageable, and the holding alto-
gether insecure under one hand. In my view, these
are distinctly specimens of the mon-aulos, '^ the sweet
go THE world's earliest music.
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 ar^hool 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 im-
portance in Greek measures. The pitch is, as we say,
double pitch in respect of length of pipe, so that the
low B7 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 archaeologist it would be to see a statue ex-
hibited 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 difterence. 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,
IN THE LAND OF ETRURIA. QI
aad the other flute for the other mode, with only the
diffcirence 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 ascend-
ing. 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 nearl}^ 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.
92 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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, ex-
cited rivalry in the flutes. There is a very important
and significant passage, already referred to, by an author
— Athenaeus, if I remember aright — that about the
third century 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 Etrus-
can 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 work-
ings 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 !
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. 93
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
94 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Maenad, 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.
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. 95
The two instruQients bear a relation to each
very similar to that ot the two sycamore flutes illus-
trated 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 dis-
tances are found on the other ; notice how differentl}^
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
•96
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
The
Silhworm
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.
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. 97
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 Bonibyx flute, I am aware that there are pas-
sages in ancient authors which may seem to claim the
appellation for some other kind ; but various state-
ments 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, par-
ticularly in the matter of musical instruments. An in-
stance 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 (ourforemostauthority on classical treasures),
and he describes this as ** a flageolet {plagiatUos) 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 under-
stood 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 plagimilos ; for, obviously, from a prac-
G
98
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
tical point of view, thisflute 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 plagi-atdos, and that they
originated in the order here shown.
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 *^fiaschinet.*' 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.
IN THE LAND OF GREECE gg
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 cater-
pillars' 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 mouth-
piece, and shown the hole which is perforated in it and
leads down to the body of the flute ; and, looking at
100 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
the diameter of the perforation — barely more than one
eighth — the unsuitability of such for office of a hp
blown flute, with its bore three times the size, is strik-
ingly 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 instru-
ments, 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 mouth-
piece, 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 pre-
venting 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
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. lOI
pipes were as the lower one, in which the end is com-
pletely 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 mouth-
piece is quite two inches, and that end of the bronze
cylinder was, I should think, a fixture ; because I per-
ceive 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 silk-
worm cocoon, and so there was a double association of
102 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 under-
stand 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 neces-
sary 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 musi-
cal 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-
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. I03
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, con-
secrated by usage. The demonstrations of the mathe-
matics 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 accord-
ing 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, immedi-
ately 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 stnicture of the flutes depended. I
have previously alluded to the special importance of a
curious interval ofa minimum minor third, and maximum
minor third, in the Greek measures, not our intervals.
104 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Bombycice (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 Bomhyx
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 particu-
lar holes shut off mechanically. I could not compre-
hend, 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 tra-
ditionally 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 Bomhyx
IN THE LAND OF GREECE. I05
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 Ab to Db in one,
and alike in the other from Bb to Eb. All other dis-
tances 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
At B Ct Dt^F# G# A#
We really have no notation to express the actual rela-
tions 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 inter-
vals, curiously varying, as you may judge by the eye.
I06 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
DJt otherwise Eb 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 de-
signed 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 moun-
taineers. 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.
IN OSCAN LAND. — ITALIA. I07
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 illus-
trated 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 dis-
play 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
I08 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 cylin-
ders 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 at-
tractive— 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 listen-
ing 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,
IN OSCAN LAND. — ITALIA. IO9
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. i, 4, 5, 6 :
No. I.
1^^=—^=^^=^^?^=-^^^
01 33 4567 89 10 II
+ + + +
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 loth,
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 indi-
cated 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,.
no
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
that I am aware of, any ancient representation. No. 2
has twelve notes, there being one note interposed which
is not found in No. i. It is F^ ; but the extent of com-
pass is the same, whilst the closed holes are 4 and 7 : —
No. 2. „
g^-::^
*
I
^t=pt
10
II
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
Cjj;, no note between D and E. Observe that the first
note in each is marked (o), for this is the note from the
open end of the pipe when all finger holes are closed : —
No. 3. jfc *
■ " P r r trr^
m=:^=
#■:
8
10 II
In No. 4 we find other distinctions and an extended
range : —
iff f \%-l.
m
*t
1^=^
p=t
+ +
8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15
+ + 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 photo-
graphed in reduced size, and engraved. They show
the closure rings in the position in which they were
IN OSCAN LAND. — ITALIA.
Ill
The
Pompeian
Flute.
1 . Front View.
2. Bach View
Fior. 22,
found (refer to final chapter for clearer outline draw-
ings). The large expanded portion at the top of the
112 THK WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 con-
clusion 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 in-
strument 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
0 IN OSCAN LAND.— ITALIA. II3
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 i, 3, 5, 6, 8, g,
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 with-
out 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 exem-
plihed ; in No. 4, we have Djj: to F#, and again all
sounds closed for the fourth between F| and Ajj: ; and
in No. I, 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
114 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 investiga-
tion 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 chang-
ing her laws or her behaviour, we can hear from these
models the same tones as were heard by the Greeks, cen-
turies 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 ot 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.
IN OSCAN LAND. — ITALIA. II5
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 re-
versed 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 har-
monics 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, in-
cluded 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,
ii6 THE world's earliest music.
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, CS, C, Djf, E, F, G, A, Bb, 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 Fj^^ 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 destruc-
tion 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.
IN OSCAN LAND. — ITALIA. .117
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 Aitloi 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 ex-
cavators at work on classical sites. There is rivalry
between the savants of four nations (German and
French, English and American), each anxious to un-
earth the past, so that any day we may see new treasures
that for centuries have been waiting,
'* Hid from the world in the low delved tombi.'*
Il8 THE world's earliest MUSIC,
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
BACK TO THE LAND OF THE NILE. II9
we shall do when every secret is open is a mystery past
finding out !
Pliny, in describing the reeds grown in Lake Orchomenus, in
Boeotia, says that one which was pervious throughout was
called the piper's reed (Atileticon), 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 (Z eu git ce)^
and if the waters subsided sooner, the reeds were not so fine,
were called Bombycice^ and were used for single pipe?.
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 mono-
logue (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 bis flutes. And we hear that he altered the
time cf cutting the reeds from September to July or June. For
the reeds of which the flutes were made grew in the Lake
CopaiSjin Boeotia, 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 cf 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 ramy 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.
120 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 them-
selves 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 bul-
rushes 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 {Hemio-
lian Chromitic) 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
BACK TO THE LAND OF THE NILE. 121
parallel or consequence in other things as well,"—
including querulous flutes. This imagined correspond-
ence 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 lor 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 Ins 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 im-
portance at the present stage of our investigations,
122 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 communi-
cated 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 chro-
matic 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 mani-
fest 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
BACK TO THE LAND OF THE NILE. I23
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. Pick-
wick 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 inform-
ation 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 dur-
ing 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 ex-
teriorly 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 knowledgefrom those who
know is, however, a common experience ; not that know-
ledge is refused or withheld, but that the specialist and
124 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
the neophyte seem unable to get into the same line ot
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 alto-
gether 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 essen-
tials 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.
BACK TO THE LAND OF THE NILE.
125
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 jhave inherited. In
our wind instruments, everywhere the primitive remains,,
even as the type of race remains.
126 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 instru-
ment 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
THE ISLES OF GREECE. 127
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,
ay 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 AgragasI
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
128 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
Then come antistrophe, and again strophe and anti-
strophe, 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 under-
stood by his hearers, and acclaimed forthwith. Need-
less, 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 ot 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 I
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 ?
THE ISLES OF GREECE. I29
When it passes through the slender brass and through the
reeds, which grew near the city Charites, the city with beautifu
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 Boeotia ; and he him-
self, 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
ot Boeotia, 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 instru-
ments. 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
I
130 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 sup-
posed 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 Pan-
athenea. 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 intro-
duced 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
THE ISLES OF (GREECE. I3I
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 pas-
sionate, 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
132 THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 states-
men 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 ^Eschylus 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
THE ISLES OF GREECE. 133
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 archaeologists 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 representa-
tions of deities, have been clad in actual drapery.
According to Pliny, Midas was the original inventor of
the plagiaiilos 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
134
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC,
head, and the hair ialls in long tresses over the shoulders;
the beard is long, and of the peculiar shape commented
Midas
the
Flute
Player
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.
The flutes represented are from a photograph of the
instruments in the British Museum, and there can be
THE ISLES OF GREECE. I35
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.
Fig- 25,
In taking leave of Greece and her flutes, I am pleased
to be able to quote from recent intelligence one inci-
dent which shows the permanence of national character.
*'Milo, the Island of the Cvclades, in which the
famous ' Venus of Milo ' was discovered, has again been
thecscene of the unearthing of a splendid example of
ancient Helenic 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 cen-
turies 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
136 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
people yet ; they show the same spontaneity of enthu-
siasm, 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
Willi laurel chaplets crowned.
NEAR THE CITY OF CHARITES. I37
CHAPTER XL
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, pur-
suing 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
138 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 famihar 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 affect-
ing 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 dis-
tinct 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 vibrat-
ing 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 : —
Wheu it passes through the slender brass and through the
reeds, — which grew near the city Charites, the city with beauti-
ful places for the dance.
The flute itself could not be called slender, being in-
teriorly 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 arrange-
ment of sliding cylindrical pieces over each aperture,
the tube itself being of ivory, or of elder, or of syca-
NEAR THE CITY OF CHARITES. 139
more. Thus, then, the question arises, What slender
brass had Pindar in mind?
Accepting the prose as the more Hteral 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 cer-
tainly more likely to have used the double flutes pic-
tured 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
140 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 con-
test 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 succes-
sion 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
NEAR THE CITY OF CHARITES. I4I
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
142 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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. Unfortun-
ately, 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.
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE. 143
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
}[44 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Hbrary 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 deter-
mined every musical feature : for the poet ruled the
music. The letters had their significance as instructions
according as they were placed — upright, inverted,
lacent 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. Chap-
pell 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
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE,
145
syllables by time." We know how our modern rhyme-
sters, 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, Swin-
burne'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 : —
4J
pB
# • ML
^^^^^^^^m
^^^s
q=is
■i — •■ — 1-
a-'-w
^
I
E^Ei^^S
1^ ^ -
g§g^
azii:
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-
K
146 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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.
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 differ-
ence— 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
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE. I47
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 mnsical 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 originaUty, simphcity 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 ;
148 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 con-
coction 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 modifica-
tion 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 present-
ment 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-
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE. I49
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.
Mr. J. P. Mahaffy, in a paper entitled '* Recent
Archaeology," 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
beHeves 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 (^,/, 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 paeonic — 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 accompani-
ment 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.
150
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
Here then are a few bars of the melody given apart
from the French version harmonised by M.M. Faure
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.
I NJ
is=r
IS
iN:
I
is
m
$c^
p- -A- -m- -m-
$c^=t!s:
I
^
l^t^
B
?i^
JlfN**
^ir#
i
?Ms;:t5:
isifE
"^
mzoKL
'S M
HtJtt
Of course, we ought not to introduce bars ; but ;n
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,
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE.
151
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.
fe^
£
^
±=t
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
152 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
(or. " * r ^ 1
■'^-^^ ^ ! n
\- — \ — ■ '^-y-^
A second hymn (key of G, with CJ) travels very
monotonously within these limits.
?5#=t:
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 m^usic.
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 live 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.
AT THE DELPHIC TEMPLE. 153
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 com-
bine 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 pro-
ceeded upon evidences of man's concern with and in-
terest 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
154 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
an end in view, and the development in a v^ry primi-
tive 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 archaeological reference and study, I
have nothing to do, museums may be filled with them,
Ibut 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 per-
fected 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 ?
IN THE LAND OF CHINA. I55
CHAPTER XIII.
In the Land of China.
THE OUTSPREAD PHCENIX,
The Chinese have always been fond of seeking the
simihtudes 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
156 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 theinvention 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 com-
pared with the nations history ; and so the mystical
teachings of similitudes and affinities, and the occult con-
trol 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 state-
ments 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\ii'hsiao, here illustrated, is one of the ancient
instruments belonging to the Chinese, who hold it to
be symbolic, and to represent the phoenix with out-
spread 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. Hut what I would point out as of interest, is that
there have been periods of history during which particular
IN THE LAND OF CHINA.
157
Fi^. 26,
The Chinese P'ai-hsiao.
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 pen-
tatone, 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.
The stone chimes and the great bells should be
adjudgedto 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
158 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
one growth. The abstruse theories with which the
treatises of the learned are occupied, and the fantastic
accretions of symboHsm which seem to form the founda-
tions of Chinese Hterature — 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.
Pere 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 confirma-
tion of his views would have been considered needless.
Such misplaced reliance has given a century's perman-
ence 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 andof 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 acknowledge
IN THE LAND OF CHINA. I59
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.
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 un-
erring 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 har-
monious. 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 arrange-
ment being of alternate notes right and left, the deepest
notes being at each end, and the shortest pipes in the
l6o THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 ex-
pressly 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-ltis, and to the left the yin-lils 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
yangy and all the even numbers 3/m. The pipes are ar-
ranged upon an ornamental frame ; they correspond
to the twelve lils and the first four lies of the grave
series ; and in notes said to correspond to those of the
bell and stone chimes, the highest being treble b.
The Pien-cWing, 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 in-
strument 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
IN THE LAND OF CHINA.
l6l
Fig. 27.
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-cWing. Usually sixteen of these stones all the
same size are placed upon a frame of fantastic orna-
L
l62 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
mentation, set in two rows ; the difference in pitch is
secured by a difference in thickness of each : otherwise
all are alike throughout the scale.
The instrument is exclusively used in court and re-
ligious ceremonies, and it is said that beyond those in
the Confucian temples and imperial palaces it is im-
possible 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 guid-
ance 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 Yiin-lo, or gong chimes constructed to correspond in
scale to the stone chimes upon the same twelve lus prin-
ciple— are submitted to examination of the necessary
rigid enquiry by tests, they do not bear out the true semi-
tonal 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 Yiin-lo capable of
giving a satisfactory gamut; besides, the pitch is not uniform,
so that two Yiin-los rarely agree.
IN THE LAND OF CHJNA. 163
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 Ills 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 con-
querors 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 Ktcei, and the Feng tribes are said
to be still in existence in south China." Is there not
164 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
here the hint of a curious problem ? By what track
came the Phoenix 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 primaeval traditions, long ere these lands
had their names, and in the deep recesses of forests un-
trodden 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.
THE MOiNGOLS NEW HOME. 165
CHAPTER XIV.
The Mongols New Home.
THE MYTHICAL FINDING OF THE LUS,
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 civiliza-
tion 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 out-
come 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
l66 THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
back to a period of 2400 B.C., and then beyond that
lies the haze of a remote past, where the light ot tradi-
tion breaks through with no uncertain radiance, reveal-
ing 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 ot
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 onlv 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
THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. 167
which I had arrived concerning the music of the Chinese
and its affihation to the music of the Greeks, stating my
behef that in a far distant past both races were in
contact with one source, and then came a day of dis-
ruption,— 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, Chaldaea, Elam, and further, to
the Iranian mountains.
In justification of these views, some considerations
should here be advanced as briefly as may be, and al-
though 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 archaeology. 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
i68 THE world's earliest music.
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 s} stems 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 ot 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
THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. l6g
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 anthropo-
morphic religious ideas became superimposed upon the
naturalistic. This is an important index to the distance
in time when the migration eastward began. Imagine
170 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 chrono-
logers 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
• THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. I7I
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 popula-
1^T2 THE WOKLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
tion, 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 Huang Ti, the
Yellow Emperor, invented thescale of twelve semitones,
<:alled the twelve Im^ 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 measure-
ments ; 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
Kuenlun mountains, where bamboos of regular thick-
ness 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
THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. I73;
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 Shengf 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/and a ; and perhaps this crowding
has helped towardsinducing 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 semi-
tonal 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 assump-
tion. I take their own statements, the evidence of
their own authorities, and wonder, when I examine
the twelve His, why they never examined them, why
from curiosity alone they sought no corroboration of
their statements from the His themselves.
In Van Aalst's book the scheme is fully set out
in diagram, the twelve lils 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
174 THE WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 kunj( 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 His generate one another, whereas the circle
or wheel diagram gives the notes as they follow in aseries.
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 lils are a
series of bamboo tubes, the longest of which measures
nine inches, and which are supposed to render the twelve
chromatic semitonesoftheoctave." It appears to me that
the great source of misunderstanding has been in the
European persistence in regarding *'the twelve lils " as
meaning *' twelve semitones": whereas the Chinese
name lils 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
Ills 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 !
. % * * . # I .
a — d — e — j^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 MONGOLS NEW HOME. 175
the tetrachord. The diagram showing how the liis
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 liis 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. Mene K'ang says
that the circumference of all the tubes diminishes according to
their length ; but this is explicitly contradicted by Tas'i Tzii,
who quotes Cheng K'ang-cheng and Ts'ai Yung (two great wine
bibbers and famous writers on music), and he flatly declares
that Meng 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 lii, 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-Chuitg, or forest bell,
gives a note a fifth higher, etc.
Description follows, in the same style of quaint sym-
bolism, upon each of the twelve. At the third pipe,
however, which it says ought to be two-thirds of the
176 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
preceding length, a change comes, which it is important
to notice, — viz., '^that the sound would be too high
compared with ktm^, and so the tube is to be doubled,
and four thirds taken instead of two thirds. This vir-
tually 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 \heSheng on a
basis of fifths instead of fourths, of the relation § instead
of f , and found that the result did not correspond with
the speaking lengths of the Shen^ pipes.
The tale told of the twelve liis 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 lils 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 asemitonal 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 ?
THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. I77
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 after-
wards hereditary. The Chinese foot is equal to a hand-
span of a ruler or emperor, and has ten divisions equal
each to athumb's breadth. The standard pipe is 9|in. 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 fiat. 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 fiat fourth ;
hence the existence of a fiat 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-
M
178 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
tions of the diameters of pipes according to geometrical
laws.
Music with the Chinese, itself as an art so unprogres-
sive, 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 lils. 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
nibrum, 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 i fen (line), 10 fe7t = 1
tsun (inch), 10 tsiDi = i che (foot), 10 che ■=^ i chang,
10 chang -= I 7iy. 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 ; ulti-
mately for coinage.
Another interesting fact is that the Chinese had as-
THE MONGOLS NEW HOME. 179
certained the geometrical relation of musical pipes.
The problem had been thoroughly examined by a
certain Prince Tsai-Yu (1596). In practical and scien-
tific 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 demonstra-
tion. 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 fiat. 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 seven-
teenth 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 ift. length should have a diameter
of 3 lines 53 cent., and a pipe of Gin. 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 de-
laying 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.
l8o THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 ot 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-
IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. l8l
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
" The scent o£ 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 inven-
tion 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 ex-
hausting its strength ; he drinks in oxygen at every
note, and so is refreshed by singing. Would that
l82
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
human singing were equally refreshing to the singer
and the hearer !
The
Chinese
Sheng.
(Quarter
Size.)
Fig. 28,
The Sheng was formerly called the '^ bird's nest, "and
the peculiar arrangement of its pipes — the longest of
IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 183
which pipes exceed considerably the real sounding
length — is held by the Chinese to represent the tail of
the phoenix as she sits upon her nest ; indeed, unless we
accept the symbolism, the method shown in the con-
struction 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 b}^ 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 en-
graving. 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
i84
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
tingers the instrument, indicating a very early custom,
in that respect. The pipe engrave 1 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 de-
termining 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
Diagram of the
Length of Slot at the Back.
Fig. 29.
A Pipe of the Sheng (Full Size.)
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.
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
IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM.
185
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 ;
The Reed (Full Size )
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.
i86 THE world's earliest music.
The Sheng is considered to be one of the most im-
portant of the Chinese musical instruments ; no other is
so perfect either for sweetness or dehcacy of construc-
tion. 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 per-
former 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 inflamation of the lungs ; so no
performer is believed to live more than forty years !
Others however, and these are the philosophers, main-
tain 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 belonginginits 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 excep-
tion 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
IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 187
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 full}^ set out in Pere
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 tradi-
tion 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
i88 THE world's earliest music.
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 ;
IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 189
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 com-
mentators 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 funda-
mental principles, — the shen-h, 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 pen, basis, origin. The material
principle is below ; it is the hsing^ form or figure of the shSn-li.
The form is limited to its proper shape by shu, number, and it
is subjected to the rule of the shen-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 supple-
mented 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
igO THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
volumes of the Chinese Encyclopaedia, 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 repre-
sentation, 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
IN T^'E FLOWERY KINGDOM.
igi
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.
ig2 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 suc-
ceeding 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 sway into law or
custom.
The curious principle of inspiring in order to obtain
BY THE YELLOW KIVER. ig3
the action of the reed, and the still more peculiar char-
acteristic 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 Slieng 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 im-
mense quantities are floated down the great rivers to
the towns and cities ; the province of Shantung is cele-
brated 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,
N
194 'THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
and the land to yield him crops of millet and rice, the
man was happ}^ 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 sur-
rounded 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 per-
fected 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,
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. IQS
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 im-
agination 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 per-
fect 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 rela-
tion 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
ig^ THE world's earliest music.
with tongues cut in them after the fashion of the
Arghool ; but this man is an artificer, has more civihsed
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 dehcate 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 natur-
ally, 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 aim-
less 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
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. I97
— 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 gjin. of our measure ; and by the
same custom the longest pipe of the twelve lits 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 im-
memorial 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
igS THE world's earliest music.
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, cut-
ting it a foot long in Chinese length (g|in.), and from
this obtaining a note ; then cutting other reeds promis-
cuously, 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 relation-
ship.
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, andcomesof later discernment.
How natural too, it is on finding more that two pipes
inconvenient within the mouth, to seek the first substitute
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. 199
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 tha
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
200 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
confess that the situation was bewildering as I gazed
upon tha evidence before me, for it seemed too good to
be true, and one had a fleeting suspicion of magic or
halhicination 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.
Sequence of Evolution of the Pipes of the Sheng.
i-gg=^=p=gg^E^£^^;]^E=i=||
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13
B:> Ei? Et2 Afe DU Dft G C C F BJi Fx A^v
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 conckisions 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. P^or pipes of certain length give
now the same tones and the same actual pitches as they
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. 201
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 Phoenix, 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 ''Memoires 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
trul}' 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 /as the tonic of the scale ? Engel falls into the
same notion of thirteen pipes giving the same octave of
202
THE world's earliest MUSIC,
semitones as ours, but says that the e and h were excep-
tional notes, only used occasionally.
Order of the Pipes as they Stand in the She ng.
fep—z— [1
~Li:^xrr_m:^IJ
:m:
:m:
^
I 2345 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17
Fig. 30.
The illustration gives the series of holes into whieh the pipes are fitted on the
top of the covered boid. Pipes 1 , 9, 76, 17 aremutes, 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.
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. 203
Scale of the Sounds of the Sheng.
z^^-^\^ — ^1 r — '^ — F — r :
u
2 lo 12 7 13 4 II 8 5 3
Conjtmct tetrachords. Disjunct.
These numbers indicate the sequence hi evohition of pipe lengths by the
process described.
The scale really comprises one octave and a fourth
and the master pipe is the eb, it being so marked on
every instrument I have handled, as shown in the illus-
tration 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 bb is not the tonic ; the Chinese have not in their
music our kind of reckoning ; but their eb, at the junc-
tion of the two tetrachords, corresponds to the niese
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
204 I'Wl^ WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 com-
prise 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 b^j, 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 Ab that shall be a true fourth to the high
Db ; a sounding pipe, for which a place is found where
otherwise a second mute pipe would have been, corres-
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. 20$
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 diffi-
culty, 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 alterna-
tives not required in ascending, as follows. See how
very Greek it is.
b b b b b b ^ \>
b — c^^d — e — f^g — ci b — c-^d — e
And in the alternative : —
b bb X bvb bb
b — c^— i — e f — g'^ci — b — c^^ d — e
Here the/x makes a perfect fourth to ^6, but would^not
to c below ; and \>a^ makes a perfect fourth to bd above,
but would not to be below. Each c is to be taken as
much nearer the 6b than in our notation. The penta-
tonic 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|in. 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
206 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
oa, 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 evolu-
tion, 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 lojin. in length,
instead of 9|in. 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 calcu-
lation, and was of course misrepresenting by an eighth
of an inch the real speaking length to be credited to the
BY THE YELLOW RIVER. 20/
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 Slie^ig 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 trans-
formed 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.
208 THE world's EARLIES f 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
IN THE LAND OF SIAM. 209
contained a representation ot the harp and the pipes
which were attributed to Jubal. The last halt 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
Plum in appearance is so different, yet details of its
construction are the same, — viz., a collection of bam-
boo 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 super-
fluous 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 influ-
ence 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,
0
2IO
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
The
Siamese
Phan
M 0 11 tJi piece
Fig 31
IN THE LAND OF SIAM, 3ll
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 : —
To the right hand : —
7 6
Notice the prominent relation of the fourth ^a, b^, 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 b^ 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.
212 THE World's earliest music.
CHAPTER XVIII.
In the Land of Japan.
Jx\PANESE PITCH PIPES AND THE JAPANESE CLAUIONET
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 accept-
ances and intellectual Ccigerness, 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,
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN.
213
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.
Japanese
Pitch
Pipes.
Full
Size.
which we assume to be so modern. Hence our piano-
forte is naturally acceptable to them for its progression
of scale, although their ears do not yet make the
demand for harmony which is chaiacteristic of the
western nations.
214 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 tin\' 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,
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 215
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 civiliza-
tion carries with it in every land.
The scale as nearly as we can represent it is: —
A Sharp fourth.
t>, Eb, E, F#, gTgI, Ab, a, Bfe, B, C, C#.
-;:- -X-
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 Gjj: gets a sharp fourth ;
or again a flat fifth from Cji down to G ; and the flat
fourth B down to to Fjf 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
2l6 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Afe 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 ¥^ to B making a flat fourth, the
A to Cjt 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 ap-
proximately 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
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 217
to five notes, which arose in fact from divisions of
tetrachords into two parts only. For instance, a semi-
tone 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 tem-
perament 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 pur-
pose of transposition of melody to high or low position,
which changes never trespass beyond a range of four-
teen 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 con-
sidering 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
p
2l8 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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. Ellisupon 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 con-
clusion. The fourth always seemed to me the most
naturally selected interval for the origin of the primi-
tive 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 I2ths,
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 under-
stand 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 par-
ticular way. The two lips from the centre expand
outwardly under moisture, and leave a fine ovate open-
ing, 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-
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 2ig
gether, but is itself tubular, its diameter at the bottom
being three eighths of an inch.
Then a httle 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 instru-
ment 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 Cancasus. My own instrument
measures in pipe length 8in., and with the reed fitted
in, gjin. In the Brussels Museum, one is noted which
is 8f in. 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 : —
220
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
f-^
=1
=1=
— * —
— p—
— ^ —
=.=fe.
— 1 —
Mt —
— "—
=t==
-1 —
— 1 i —
# o
o o
o o
o o
The open pipe length for the lowest note would there-
fore be twice the length of this pipe, so we say that the
Hichi-viki 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 circum-
stance 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
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 221
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 instru-
ment 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
Q
THE WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
This oval
indicates the thumhhole
at the hack.
Clarion
of the Jap
called the Tlic
Fig. 33,
N THE LAND OF JAPAN.
223
224 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
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 aidoi 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 cut-
ting 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
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 225
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 Explora-
tion Fund " I find that a six-holed pipe has been dis-
covered in a temple in Egypt (Diosopolis Parva), made
from the horn of some small deer, and very possibly
was of this kind, although from the miperfect 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 w^e 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 independentl}^
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,
R
226 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
and you would say so if you saw them, — the reeds, I
mean, not the eyelashes, which must be left to imagina-
tion. 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 fiad 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 avail-
able to extend the scale, and that there is a little
humouringin the pitch, probably from afamiliarity 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 mfer
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 essentiall}^ traditional, and are
kept quite distinct. In the main they are Chinese, as
also are the instruments ; yet there is a strange mingling
IN THE LAND OF JAPAN. 227
of the ancient and the modern in everything connected
with the Japanese. In art, the Japanese are un-
doubtedly 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 Sc 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.
228 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
CHAPTER XIX.
In Ancient China.
CEREMONIAL INSTRUMENTS.
Bells, Chimes and Gongs are held in high esteem by
the Chinese, they are indispensable in their Cere-
monies 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-exagger-
ated 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 com-
munities, everyv^here we find that this sheer delight in
noise, called music, is manifest and on record. Not
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 22g
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 compla-
cently 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 our-
selves 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 ele-
mental 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 con-
ventional 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
230 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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, undis-
cording noise. Milton understood this, writing of
singing
and replying
With melodious noise,
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
sesthetical and physical, 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 con-
glomerate 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 ANCIENT CHINA. 23I
in music the tendency is apparent. The vast vohime
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 develop-
ment understand it to be ; and this is what I would
have you recognise, that sound is able to touch lis, 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 aerial pulsations, — as a hand that is laid upon
us to arrest or to exalt, to invigorate or to soothe.
Hearing is an exalted /^^/w^.
The Chinese, long before Englishmen existed, found
delight in the dynamical influences of great sounds.
232 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 ot 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 asso-
ciated with religious ceremonials in all countries, and
have generally superstitious credentials. The Chinese
frighten dragons with them ; and the^Christians exor-
cise devils with them. The Russians, who bridge the
earth between Europe and China, are especially rever-
ential to bells. The great bell at the Kremlin,
Moscow — over 21ft. in height and 67ft. in circum-
ference— is world famous, as we have known since we
were boys.
The inevitable Ling Litn v/as ordered to cast twelve
bells to correspond to the twelve lus. 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 be-
come 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-
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 233
hist 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
'^^ Fen^-lin^'' 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 en-
tering strike '^tocall 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 Yitng Chung. There is another
suspended upon a single frame, which has to give the
note at the beginning of each verse in order '^to mani-
fest 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.
234
THE WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 cere-
monial usage required them to be — for with these people
ceremonial is religion.
The next illustration is of the Ytmg-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
IN ANCIENT CHINA
35
The
Yung-lo
or
Gong
Chimes
Fig, 35,
differ in thickness. The Ytmg-lo is used at court,
mainly on joyful occasions. The larged sized gongs —
sometimes they are two feet in diameter — are remark-
ably 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.
1^6 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 pos-
sesses 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 stvles 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 fliUe traversiere. 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 237
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 inter-
mediate 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 Hut e
and probably one of the most ancient. It had but
three holes, recalling our Hute of European usage,.
238 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 baton 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-tzit ; 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 mem-
brane 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-tzti 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 per-
mitted for ordinary use. The illustration shows the
awe inspiring aspect of these instruments.
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
239
The
Chinese
Dragon
Flute.
Fis. 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
240 THE VVOKLD's earliest MUSIC.
embouchure. This flute is pecuHar to the Chinese, and
was described by Father Amiot. But, though the ap-
pearance 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 Cli-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, na^mes it IIwa7ig-ch6ng-tche, 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 ex-
hibitions 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 en-
quiry, 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 — 1 122 B.C.). It is fully described in ^*Tcheu-ly,"
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
241
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 con-
sists, according to M. Mahillon's investigation, of six
equal tempered semitones : —
■~-^~-l' — -=-*---- 1
#'
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.
'em
1 g
5
Month Hole.
C ff 4 -^ i
^
ii>^^^
;;;::.^;v^:;^:";.*:---.:"-;;:«^;.:::
■.■-■rr-~::-———.
i^
F/V. 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 pro-
vided by imperial decree for ceremonial use. The
s
242 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
circumfereace of this flate equals that of the coins
bearing the imprint Kai-Yiioi, 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-Yiien is one thumb's breadth, ten of these being the
length of the ancient Chinese foot measure, and con-
sequently 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 em-
bouchure. The question of dimensions is of great im-
portance 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 pre-
cisely 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 i 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
243
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.
This sjmimetry 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-
244 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
timated 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, how-
ever 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 pro-
ducing 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^ ^v is the standard of pitch ac-
cording to another ^ — j — \ pipe which was described
by Amiot ; and, as "^ I have shown in my in-
vestigation, was the leading pitch note in the system of
the Shen^, 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
245
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 construc-
tion, and the mode of blowing is the same.
The httle 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 : —
-#;t.
'^-*£=d=-=
^§=^=j
The
Krena.
Fig. 39.
246 THE world's EAKLIESI MUSIC.
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 Leva, The Japanese have a flute called the Siahi-
hachi which is of this nature, and is evidently traceable
to the Chinese. The fact of a pipe cut in this par-
ticular 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
saen some specimens of Pan's pipes, found with the
people in the Malay Archipelago, which are double cut
in this way.
The Rev. ¥, W. Galpin, the well-known enthusiastic
collector of musical instruments, possesses some of this
type obtained from Indian tribes of the North West oi
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
thatof a common instinct leading to similar development.
The Telle is undoubtedly an instrument concerning
which, both practically and historically, a fuller know-
ledge 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 ANCIENT CHINA. 247
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 know-
ledge. It seems to be considered that the mournful
and the plaintive in song and in music reflect the tem-
perament 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 conclu-
sions, 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 naive 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.
248 THE WORLD'S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 inde-
pendently ; 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 249
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 un-
equally 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 tetra-
chords 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 progres-
sion. 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.
250 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC,
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 instru-
ments 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
251
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.
Chinese
Violin ,
F/>. 40,
Very different, however, is the treatment of another
class of instrument, represented by the CWin and the Si,
These are '' many-stringed " and may be called oblong
in shape, and many specimens are really beautiful in
ornamentation. The art w^orker with illimitable
252 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 repre-
sentative 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, notwithstand-
ing 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 253
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 w^ire 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 CJiin or Kin, here illustrated,
betrays in one particular feature a resemblance which
can hardly be supposed to have arisen accidentally.
The ChHn, 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 \^^ 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
254 'J^'HE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 instru-
ment, 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 iormer
possessor ; and the nacre studs are arranged, not in the
formal relation here depicted, but at distances corres-
ponding 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.
Now comes a curious detail in the fitness of the
instrument to its design, which I have not seen noted
IN ANCIENT CHINA
255
The
Ch'iTi
or
Kin
Fig. 41.
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,.
256 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
— the playing upoa 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 com-
panion 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 ex-
perience ; 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.
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 257
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 CKin is the nearest approach to, —
indeed, takes us to the very borderland of — the unheard.
The Se 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 5^ 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,
live yellow, five white and five black. For although
the 5^, like the Cliin, 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 Se are in use, they differ only in size,
T
258 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 pos-
session I have more than once made mention of, and
recounted some of its beauties. Its breadth is loin.,
its length 6ft. 4in., depth ifin. 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 marvellously
well adapted for the end in view ; the thickness of the
sound-board, as we immediately recognize it, is the op-
posite 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 prefect harmony with the inlaid woods and ivories.
The strings are plucked by the aid of two little ivory
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 259
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'tn 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 instru-
ment that, for the time of playing, the Ch'tn 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 b}^
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'm has a painting in gold, showing
25o THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
ladies playing the Koto. They are in the open air,
seated on the ground and evidently having a merry
time. One lad}' 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 CKin
are used at the ceremonies of the temple, three on the
east side of the hall and three on the west.
The CJiin, 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 [oi
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, it
a string gets slack he can judge by ear how much
difference to make in distance, — thus shortening the
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 261
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 embeUishment
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 ot 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 ma}^ be left when unused, just as a violin
needs to have its strings slackened when out of im-
mediate 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.
262
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 —
Assyrian
Harp
with
Plectrum .
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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 263
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 de-
corated 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.
264 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
CHAPTER XXII.
In Ancient China.
THE TRUMPETS OF THE CHINESE,
Trumpets are amongst the Jvery 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, ante-
lopes 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
minutiae 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.
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 265
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 sensi-
tiveness 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
266 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
instruments remained in their crude, barbaric imma-
turity ; 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 mis-
conception 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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 267
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 percep-
tion 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 ex-
tended 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,
268
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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.
The
Hlio fling.
The
Fig. 44.
Fig. 43.
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
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 269
has become of infinite value to modern civilization, the
Chinese made nothing of them in practical develop-
ment. 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 Haoftm^ ; 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 ex-
ercising 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
270 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MU3IC.
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 instru-
ments, 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-thmg, At the time I wondered at the
singularity, trying to find out some meaning and pur-
pose 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-fting 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-thmg is only used in funeral
functions, and that it gives a grave befitting note, pro-
longed and wailing.
The La-pa is another trumpet with telescope slide,
IN ANCIENT CHINA.
271
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 con-
ceive it probable that the players were in advance of
the procession, and that the return curve of the bell
The
La-pa.
Fig. 45.
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.
272
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
Fig. 46.
The Yil or Tiger.
There is one instrument — the Yu — so singular and
original in character, that it is worth serious considera-
tion whether it would not be well to introduce it
into our orchestra, to further the Wagnerian develop-
ment of the music of the future. We have great use in
IN ANCIENT CHINA. 273
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 Tigev 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 m}/stical 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 Tigers back to
announce the end of the strophe ; three wierd screeches
are heard succeeding each other (to the great delight of
Straussians) rapid as flashes of lightning, and in a
hideous whswreech the scene ends.
And, — the Emperor retires.
274 THE VVOKLD's EARLIEST MUSIC,
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Music Heard in Far Cathay.
THE OLDEST WRLrTEN MUSIC.
Wherever man is molested by dreams of the nighty
there, in every land, will be found some form of pacifi-
cation 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 whomakingit a special work, is paid for under-
taking 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 MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY. 275
the growth of acivilized life. Asthe centuries progressed
the secret ceremonies were exalted into pageants, and
later took the form recognised as *' Ancestor Wor-
ship," 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, superstitition 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 regu-
lated ; the number of musicians, of dancers, of instru-
ments, of vases, and all kinds of music and genuflexions,
and even words rigorously fixed. Dancing was also
276 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Fog, 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 custoais, 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.
THE MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY. 277
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 ultimatel}^
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 antiquit}^ 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, (or Chinese type
would be necessary and Chinese compositors ; more-
over 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 Slieng, four other
instruments also in pairs, two drums, and two pair of
castanets. The music is played when the emperor,
w^ith 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 hold-
ing on longer of the note preceding : —
278
THE WORLDS KAKLIKSI' MUSIC.
g<
Co
c
Do.
C
ao ■
Co-
a
Co-
d
Co
a>
g»
f.
f.
D
Co-
3*6
c
d
Co
a
Co'
d
Co*
a
d
Co
d.
d
a
Co
Co
a
d
go
f
d.
D
C<3
< M
] A
! R
: c
H
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 multi-
tude ot 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 beau-
tiful 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
THE MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY. 279
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 in-
terest, 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 dis-
plays 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.
x\ll 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
280 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 under-
stand it. The Chinese orchestra is merely a combina-
tion 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 con-
veyed, 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 instru-
ments, 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 chil-
dren 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.
THE MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY. 281
This we find almost everywhere the characteristic of
barbaric song ; the savage and the semi-civihsed 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 in-
dulgence, 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//^ is chia'chtnig, and in the eighth
month the keynote is nan-hi.
This is the first strophe of the hymn to Confucius
which they play.
282
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
m
JC21
122:
22:
:22:
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, —
I. Receiving the approaching Spirit.
First presentation of offerings.
Second presentation.
Third and last presentation.
Removal of the viands.
Escorting the Spirit back.
x\s m Old Chaldea, the people of that vast valley of
Mesopotamia, and from far up in Assyria, crowded their
2.
3.
4-
5.
6.
THE MUSIC HEARD IN FAR CATHAY. 283
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 China-
man 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 w^orship is perpetuated w^ith
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 knev/ 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 ridmg
in a carriage." And she, poor simple old soul, she won-
dered 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 com-
prehended how it entered into the heart and the
284 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 ot 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 conver-
sations 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 develop-
ment of the mind of the child life that is growing
around out 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.
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 285
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 percep-
tion ; 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
286 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
setting it aside unstrung, he has ** heard the tense string
murmur," has listened and the sound has pleased him ;
it is the voice ot 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 moun-
tains 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 re-
tainment may be 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
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 287
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 imme-
morial 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 representa-
tion 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.
288
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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
repre'sentations 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.
I n the ti mes when these pictures were made they already
had the instruments in a high state of development, say
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 289
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.
upright
Lyvc
(half boat) .
Pis', 48.
W
ago
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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.
Harps are indeed lyres of larger growth, and in the
reign of Rameses the Third had attained their full
Harp from
the
Tojub of
Rameses
III,
Fig. 49,
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
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 2gi
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 wood-
working 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
292
THE world's earliest MUSIC,
double bearings and for the kind of music demanded, I
should not consider that the tuning would be of the
difficulty some writers suppose.
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
The
Paris
Lyre.
Fig. 50
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.
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 293
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.
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.
294
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC,
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
The
Kissar.
Fig. 52
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.
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 295
From a rude instrument of this kind the true Greek
lyre was in course of time evolved. I trace the inter-
mediate 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 instru-
ment 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 bypushing 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 justi-
fication for the belief that these harps were in use in
296
THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
that region in a very remote period, the relics whereof
have perished ; soil, and climate, and custom, have
Fig 53.
been favourable to the preservation of relics telling
of the musical instruments of past life in Egypt
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE,
297
from earliest times, advantages which Babylonia
had not.
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
Fis:. 54,
Fig. 55,
generally considered to be ''the rnagadis/' but I do not
see it so. I see only a square sounding box, with orna-
mental lines, but no pressure bar additional. More
will be found upon ''magadizing'' further on.
The next transition undergone proves to be one of
great importance and significance in history, the old
298 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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.
In the Marbles from the North West Frieze ot 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).
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 299
This pattern was further improved, artists exercised
their skill in new designs, decorative, and constructive,
the greater fulness of the sounding body of the instru-
ment 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 instru-
ment 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 Neftr, 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,
300
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Nefev finger-board had frets, but I am my-
self not quite satisfied upon this point, because the
lines that in black and white look like frets, yet
The
Ncfcr
supported by
a silk band.
Fig. 57
when inspected in the large coloured fac-simile pro-
ductions given by Rosellini and others, appear as
nothing other than lines of the decorative patterns
inlaid on the flat finger-board.
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
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 30I
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.
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
Dancer
with the
Nefer.
3^*^^>2^
Fig. 58.
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.
302 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 in-
struments 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 instru-
ment 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
13I 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
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 303
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 un-
used 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 instru-
ment 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 laugh-
ing voices, eyes flashing as jewels, brown arms and
hands swinging a cloud of harps over a restless sea of
304 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 cere-
monial 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 ?
Babylon and Nineveh have left a few slabs with pic-
tures 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
'%'-^ii:i.'>^S/-
TI
THE CANE HARP i^rom Borneo, with Tamburine Bells.
Fig. 69 (described page 302-4.)
EVOLUTION OF THE LYRE, HARP, AND LUTE. 305
yielded. Through the sacrilege of Time we have been
admitted to Tombs and Temples, have shared the pre-
rogative 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 musi-
cians ; 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."
3o6 THE world's earliest music.
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 char-
acter 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 manu-
factured of various thicknesses. This last method
implies the cultivation of a trade or an industrial pro-
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 307
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.
The Egyptian lyres and harps that are the subject ot
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 develop-
ments 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
3o8 THE world's earliest music.
bars, the latter the latest form because, as I said, im-
plying 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.
f 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 stonev 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 har-
monious 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 ele,e:ant, 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
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS.
309
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. )
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 instru-
ment 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 cheltiSy a shell) is the typical form
of the Greek lyre, there is no trace of it in Egyptian
310 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 can-
not 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 marvel-
lous, and the imagination conjures up visions of number-
less 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
i'UE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 3II
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 i^ in. beyond,
between the arms the width at the crossbar 7| in. in-
creasing in the curves to 8| in., the shell with sound-
board I reckon as about 7 by 3^ in., thus the whole
length appears to be 22 inches. The general look of it
gives the idea of graceful slimness, the wood is syca-
more, 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 earli-
est 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
312 THK WORLDS EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 Mnsic (ascribed to Euclid), has preserved
for us two lines from a poem 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 in-
novators, 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 claim-
ants, 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
THE CHOICE OF IHE GREEKS. 313
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 inven-
tion, these representing the three seasons into which
their year was divided.
The instrument has many forms, little differences m
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 struc-
ture, 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, conven-
tional 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
314 'I'HE wokld's earliest music.
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 atten-
tion 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 construc-
tion, that the conclusion arrived at was confirmed.
The advantage given to the players right hand was that
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 315
of a better grasp in turning this long peg, evidently the
peglby intent fitted very tightly.
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 exten-
sion of its office certainly, but in like degree alimitation
of its powers. It appeared to me upon close considera-
tion^that only a partial twist was allcwedto it, and that
Lyre.
Terpsichore
"t^'
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 instru-
ment was set aside after playing, a slight turn of the
peg would slacken the whole series, which again would
3i6
THE world's earliest MUSIC.
be tightened, when required, by a partial turn in the
opposite direction.
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
Fig. 62.
from the left arm. The figure to the left of the engrav-
ing 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 pre-
paring 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
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS,
317
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.
Erato
with
the
Psaltery,
Fig 63.
The lyre held by Terpsichore {Fig. 61), shews a varia-
tion 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
3i8 THE world's earliest music.
by Erato, ''the lovely one," as the Greeks called this
muse, this addition will be seen to assume a more impor-
tant 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 Herculanseum, 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 leversor 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
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 31^
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 re-
covered 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 sur-
prising that the woodwork was not all decayed, for the metalhc
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 re-
quired ; 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
320 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
adaptation of a projecting box affixed to the front of
the larger body of the lyre ; this was an Egyptian in-
vention, 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 instru-
ment. 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 Herculanaeum have preserved for us pictures of
some, but the period is late.
There is an instrument which may stand as a repre-
sentative 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 sound-
ing-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.
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS.
321
Plato and Plutarch both comment upon many-
stringed lyres, condemning their use and advocating a
Fig. 64.
return to the ancient simplicity. Old Pausanias, who
wrote a: a much later period ''a Description of Greece,"
shews himself familiar with the many-stringed^ by a
Y
322 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 violon-
cello 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 com-
municate 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. Who-
ever 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
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 323
in older days, efe 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 da}^ 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 propor-
tionate 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,
324 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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, glad-
dening 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 sacrifical 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, —
THE CHOICE OF THE GREEKS. 325
"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 tink-
ling 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.
326 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC,
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 direc-
tions 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
HOW THE MUSIC GREW. 327
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 con-
cerning 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 dis-
placed 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.
328 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 Hgypt took with
them the common popular music such as themselves
and their families had been accustomed to, they had
HOW THE MUSIC GREW. 329
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 Mycenoean 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 musicappear ; 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
330 THE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 in-
fluences, 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. Musseus 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.
HOW THE MUSIC GREW. 33I
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 paeans 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, pipeshaving
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
— ^, 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
332 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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 result-
ing 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 un-
designated, 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 J
only that it should be read from right to left, because
HOW THE MUSIC GREW. 333
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 imme-
morial 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
334 '^^^^ world's earliest music.
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 'Michanos" and the others had their distinctive
.appellations. They had no sense of a to7tic as we have,
no system of harmony, no musical stave, no use ot
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 contem-
porary. 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
HOW THE MUSIC GREW.
335
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
Lychason an eighth ; but Phny 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. Pytha-
goras, by equal authority, was the reputed father of
the eight-strmged 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 pre-
sently, 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 to7ttc 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.
336
THE world's earliest MUSIC,
The
Added
Trichord
tone
tone
*
)
a
Continuing to plot out
the scale on a vertical plan
would not be of any ad-
vantage. 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 con-
venience.
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.
hemitone
tone
The
Original
Tetrachovd
f
)
e
tone
hemitone
\^f g a^^b\>-
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 intro-
duced 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 ;
HOW THE MUSIC GREW.
337
and out of these methods and rules systems are consti-
tuted. 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 m the best way for the art of music, so that
instead of being left to the caprice of different teach-
ings, 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 influ-
ence 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
z
33^ I^HE WORLD S EARLIEST MUSIC.
simple they were and very definite. These are the
laws of the tetrachord : —
I — 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
HOW THE MUSIC GREW.
339
increase to seven strings. Whether Terpander, or
Archilocus, or Tyrtseus, 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.
#
Notice particularly the interval 6^ 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 h^^c d e
Therefore two complete tetrachords, but dispmct. It
is plainly to be seen that he wanted a fifth to the /,
to make his scheme of fifths perfect. It was a marked
340 THE world's earliest music.
advance. The doings of Pythagoras with the mono-
chord 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.
a b^-^c d e^ g a-^h^ c d
Notice the return to the Terpander scale with the i
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 Pausaniasexcited the Spartan censure (mentioned page
312 ante), by his eleven strings. The low ^ first seen
in the system was cdiWed i\\Q 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 c should bear the ratio f .
HOW THE MUSIC GREW. 34I
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 intel-
lectual 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 I
2- 4
J , . ^u
then there was an alternative arrangement ultimately
admitted, making conjunction at a, allowing b flat in-
stead 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, i, 2, 3, 4^
over the several tetrachords.
342 THE world's EARLIEST MUSIC.
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
1 noted Greek colony in Southern Italy, founded by
Sparta about 705 B.C. Archytas was a contemporary
of Plato (6 429 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 con-
fidence accept his design of Apollo's Lyre as a true
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALi:. 343
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
^stems, to them of superlative interest and importance.
Aristoxenus opposed the Pythagoreans and held that
*Mt was absurd to aim at an artificial accuracy in
gratifying the ear beyond its own power of distinction,"
a decision ver\^ natural, coming from a musician. He
was a great writer and theorist, wrote it was ?aid 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 oj 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
344 '^'HE world's earliest music.
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 Chris-
tian 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, com-
prised 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 : —
THE FINAL SEITLEMENT OF THE SCALE. 345
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, —
CDEFGABC
I I I I I I I I
major minor semi major minor major semi
tone tone tone tone tone tone tone
^s^ 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 astronofner 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, intel-
lectual 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 fascinat-
ing such studies of the calculation of theoretical niceties
of numbers and ratios undoubtedly are to some minds,
gifted with an aptitude for figures, } et with the general
body of musicians a broad survey tells that old
34^ THE world's eakltest music.
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, em-
pires 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 ynd glance at the
environment.
The final scale was the triumph of the mathe-
maticians, 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 as-
sembled to hear them, whether they sang by rule or
improvised their melodies must be attributable in the
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALE. 347
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 m 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 in-
struments 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 j
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 calcu-
lated vibrations, ascertained by mechanism, the Greeks
made their determinations by the measuring of
348 THE world's earliest MUSIC.
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 tetra-
chord 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
1 process of its development is complete."
To use a familiar illustration, expressing potentiality,
— As the oak lies in the acorn, so all the after develop-
ments 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 in-
significant 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 1 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
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THP: SCALE. 349
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 in-
debted ; 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
Qxeek 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.
33^ I'H'^- WORLDS KAKLIESr MUSIC.
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 m 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 Gush, and the
great Divide.
It is a curious fact worth thinking about that the
Lute crossed over the ranges of the Hindoo Gush 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 move-
able 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
THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALE. 351
founded on a boat-shape. These open-frame instru-
ments 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-strmged 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 an-
cient 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 m Babylonia have
352 iHE world's earliest music.
unearthed a tablet sculptured in relief showing musi-
cians, 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 u nearthed, so energetic
are the new explorers, sons of nations, all rivals in
archaeological 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 Liis 173-5,
Books destroyed 186, ideas
of 189
Abydos Tombs, Petrie's dis-
covery of cross-string Harps
351
Abysinnian Kissar Harp 294
Adonis, Phoenicean 33
Afghanistan, carvings of
double flutes 9
Agriculture, of early Chinese
168
Akkad, the early settlement
167-172
Akkadean Language 169, re-
ligion 169, Hynm 172,
tetrachord surmised 331
Alexander the Great 350
Alexandrian Library 10,
342-3, philosophers 343-4
Alypius, his scales 149, charac-
ters 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
Amphorae, 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
(353)
AA
354
INDEX,
lyre 336, Cretan seal of Ivre
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, descrip-
tion 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 Don ax, 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 Bri-
tish Museum 295
Assyrian, Double pipes 55, 60,
Dulcimers 253, harp, repre-
sentation of 262, route to
Greece 350
Athenseus on 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 Telle 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
Egvptiau Gingras, part of
28-33, 48
Cymbi^s found in Egyptian
mummy 29
Wall painting of lOgyptiaa
ladies playing the double
pipes 40
Copv of a Corneto painting
60-67
Song on a Chaldean tablet
62
Fragment of flute bulb 80
Greek Monaulos, two speci-
mens 84
Chinese Encyclopia shelved
there 190
Leva flute pipe 246
Harps on Assyrian slabs 262
Roman Cornu and Trumpets
270, Litmus 271
INDEX.
355
Egyptian Boated lyres 288
Three thousand gems 311
Bronze of Hermes 308
Chelys lyre, parts of 310
Herculanseum, 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, frag-
ment of, in British Museum
80
Burney, Dr., on Hermes lyre
308, his picture of one kind
of lyre 318
Casi)ian 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 S4S
Charites, City of 128, 137
China, her past 3, 4
Chinese Musical Instruments.
Outspread Phoenix 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 cccoanut
251, Dulcimers 253, Kin or
Chin 259, 260, 261, Trum-
pets 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 Encyclo-
pedia 190, Book of Changes
191, Yellow Emperors toot
196, Old Ritual 228, Bell
foundry 232-233, Coins 242,
Strings 252, Ckvssics 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, Primative 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,
356
INDEX,
259, ancient celebrations
^ 277, sacrifical hymn to 282
Corneto Etruscan painting 60,
67
Cretan Seal of Apollo's Lyre
351
Crete, stepping stone to
Greece 328
Ciissa, 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, Pin-
dar, his Iron chair at 132,
Pythagorus Sophocles ^s-
chylus 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
Dio-SDolis 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 1C9
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 com-
pared with Chinese 245
Egyptian Musical Instru-
ments. 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
Flam, 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, un 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
EnQ:el, 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 Home 67
INDEX.
357
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
Tilmore, J., on Indian melo-
dies 247
P'mding the Chinese Lus 165
Eingers, the fates of music 21,
33
Flageolet pipe 98
Flute of Ismenias 93
Flute player with Phorbia 70
Flutes. Diaulos 49, 75, Sabulo
69, Bombyx 93, 99, 102-5,
Plagiaulos 97, 104, Cyprian
115, Egyptian 11. holed 122,
Pindar's 129, Midas 129,
139, Pomi)eian 99, 106, 110,
Bronze ringed 135, Syca-
more 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
musicat 61
F. W
his
Oalpin, Rev.
museum 246
Gardner, E. A., date of Praxi-
teles 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, two-
fold strain of 330
Greek people, composite race
65
Greek Vases. Greco-Etruscan
66, 72, Lekythos for fua^- li
oil 76, Krater for mixing
wine with water 77, 81,
Hydria for drawing water
78, Amphora for Prize Win-
ners 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 beauti-
ful 11
Hautboy, reed 35, Asiatic 57
Hellenes cr 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 Gin-
groi 53
Hippccrene water 325
358
INDEX.
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 Ameri-
cans, 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 tab-
let 152
Johnston, Sir H., Uganda
boat 286, the Kavibondo
Harp 293
Jubal, pipes of 4, 209
Kan on 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 Trum-
pet 271
Koto, Japanese 227
Kiater Greek Vase 71, 81, 83
Krena, pipe 245
Krishna, a flute player 9
Kuenlin Mountains 172
Kylix, Greek Vase 83
Lacroix, Decadence of Gre-.3k
Musical Art 4
Lamia and her flutes 73
Lang, Hymn of Hermes 308
Languages. Chinese and Ak-
kadian 169
lekvthos. Satyr and flutes on
76
Lesbian Lja^e 340
Leslie, Prof., on the Ear 231
I eyden Museum, Harp at 291,
299
Lichanos, finger for 334
Ligature of Japanese Clario-
net 219
Ling-lun, his quest 121, the
Chinese lus 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
Lvchanos, his added string
^335
Lyres. Queen Hatasu's three
stringed 13, at British
Museum four stringed 288,
ITpright form 289, boated
and cross bar 289, in Paris
Collection 292, open frame
lyre of the Stranger's 293,
INDEX.
359
291, 307, Abyssinian 294,
Maoadis 297, Hermes 308,
ai2, Greek Chelys 309, Act
of Tuning 316, subordinate
to Voice 333, Lesbian 340,
Apollo's 14, 318, by Praxi-
teles 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 Egyp-
tian 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
Mas-pero, on bulb forming for
flutes 122, 125, flute found
wuth 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, Sina;ing 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 1C8
Mongols new home 165
Monochord of Pythagoras 103,
105, 347
Murray, A. S., on Tomb trea-
sures 43, his help 88
Mus3eus, 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,
Ox X
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
Mycenoean Greece 329
Napolean, 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, Shep-
herd with 351
Neith, the goddess Egyptian
327
Nemesis, Hymn to 146
Neuter Third 53
36o
INDEX,
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
Olvmpos, his scale 201, 216,
311, 330
Olympus Mountain 325, pro-
cession of the Gods 350
Olympus, the Phrygian, dis-
junct 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 Phcenix, Chinese 17
Oval holes of ancient pipes
224
Panopolis, flute from 122
Pan's pip^s 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, T. Flinders, discovery
of fl.ut?s 27, specimen of
Zummarah 57, cross-string
harps 351
Phan, Siamese reeds 208
Phideas, sculptor 342
Phoenician Adonis 33
Phoenix 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
Pitchpipes 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, Mahil-
lon's discovery 110-117
Pompeii, buried city 107, 320
Praxiteles, Sculptor, his
Apollo 322, 342
Pronomus, his flutes 73, 92
Proslambanomenos 340
Ptolemy, Claudias, 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
INDEX.
361
Queclias, 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 mea-
sure 19, Chinese Ltis 174,
early 188, traditional Greek
327
Schiller's procession of the
Gods 350
Schubert Music 180, Sym-
phony 256
Seba, Egyptian flute 58
Sepulchres of Etruria 65
Shelley, on Egypt 323
Sheng, Chinese, 9, scale of
176, 182, 200, 209, 244, com-
pared with Greek scale 205,
evolution of 192, 203, pri-
mitive maker 193, free reeds
185, 196, experiments with
the pipes 199, Chinese tetra-
chord 200, pipes described
184, order 01 202
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
Solomon, King, his musician-
304
Song, of the goddess Mama
62, of Linus 63, of Miriam
279, of Sappho 349
Southgate, T. L., experiment
with flutos 51, Panopolis
flute 122, Bulb from M.
Maspero 124
Spartan lyre 335
Spirit of Earth and Heavpn
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, Egyp-
tian 39, 329, early 332,
meaning of 332, conjunct
and disjunct 336, trichord
BB
362
INDEX.
added 336, laws of 338, in-
stinct for 347
Thaletes poet musician 331
Thamyris poet musician 331
Thebe, foundress of the The-
ban 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
Tyrtgeus, poet musician 339
Uganda Boat 286, Kavibando
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, des-
cription of the 57
Printed by W. Reeves, 83, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.
ERRATA.
age 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 ,
0
„ indellible
read indelible.
„ 87 ,
19
„ worn
„ warm
. 92 ,
8
„ third century
„ 440 B.C.
„ 219 ,
17
., Cancasns
„ Caucasus.
„ 225 ,
, 7
„ Diosopolis
„ Diospolis.
,, 230 ,
92
,, physical
„ psj^chical
., 312 ,
ii
., poem insert-
-as spoken.
2 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
How TO Memorize Music: With numerous Musi-
cal Examples. By C. F. Kenyon, cr. 8vo, is.
Treatise on the Training of Boy's Voices •
With Examples and Exercises r.rjd Chanters on Choir-
Organization. C mpilcd for »he Use of Choirmasters*
By George T. Fleming, cr. 8vo, cloth, 2s.
GraduatedCourse of Exercises for BovCnoRisters :
With Pianof'irte Accompaniment. For Use inconjunc-
tion with above. By G. T. Fleming, is.
Interludes. Seven Lectures by H. C. Banister.
Collected and Edited by Stewart Macpherson, with Por-
trait, cr. 8vo, cloth, 2s. (pub. at 5s.)
ORGAN MUSIC.
(All witti ped. obb.) (Prices Music-net).
Chopin's Nocturne (Op. 9, No. 2) is. 6d. E, H. Lemare,
Forward ! Grand March ... is. 6d. E. H, Sugg,
Lebanon March (Smallwood) 2-. . . Dr, Westbrook.
Grand Festival March, "Illogan " . 2S. H. C, Tonkivg,
(also arr. for Piano solo ; and Vn.&Pi".)
Overture to William Tell (Rossini) 2S.6d. A, Whittingliam,
Overture to Oberon (Weber) . . 2S. A. Whittingham,
Overture to Freischiitz (Weber) . 2s. A. WJiittingham,
Six Pieces for Church Use (arr.) . is. W. Smallwood,
8vo cloth, 300 pp., 3s. 6d.
HONE (William), Ancient Mysteries described, especially
ttic Euiilisn Miracle Plavs founded on the Apocryphal
New Testament Story, extant among the unpublished
MSS. in the British Museum, including notices of Eccle-
siastical Shows and Festivals of Fools and Asses, the
English Boy Bishop, Desceni into Hell, the Lord Mayor's
vShow, the Guildhall Giants, Christmas Carols, etc., with
Engravings and Index.
8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
HONE (William), The Apocryphal New Testament, being
all the Gospels, Epistles and other pieces now extant
attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus Christ, his
Apostles and their Companions and not included in the
Naw Testament by its compilers.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 3
In 4 Volumes, 8vo. Price £2 2s.
Handsomely bound in designed buckram cloth.
*^* One Htindred Copies specially printed on hand-made paper supplied
By Spalding (^ Hodge. Price £4 4s. net, hound in Vellum,
Essays & Letters of MONTAIGNE.
Edited by WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT.
NEW AND ENLARGED INDEX
An Entirely New Edition formed from a Collation of
the Foreiga Quotations; a fresh English' rendering and
a careful revision of the text throughout. Some
account of the Life of Montaigne, Notes to
which are added, a Translation of all
the Letters known to be extant.
Portraits t Facsimile Letter ^ and other Illustrations,
Mr. Hazlitt's Montaigne,— An entirely new Edition text
of Montaigne's Essays and Letters (founded on the now ex-
tremely scarce one published in 1877 in three volumes octavo)
has now been brought to completion (Publisher, Messrs. Reeves
and Turner) and will, partly by reason of enlarged introductory
matter and partly by additional notes, extend to four volumes.
The Edition of 1877 was superintended by Mr. Hazlitt's father,
though bearing his own name on the title, and he merely con-
tributed the Preface. The book has now at length been adapted
to the last French Variorum so far as possible, and innumerable
errors of the former English versions have been rectified. The
Biographical account of the essayist has been considerably am-
plified and instead of the sixteen Letters given in 1877 there
are thirty-fiYe, many of which are of interest and importance
towards understanding the Life of the Author. A salient feature
in the present undertaking is to have substituted for the English
colloquial equivalents, or rather supposed equivalents of the
great Frenchman's language, the words which he actually uses
or the sense, which he actually intends to convey; and the
difference is often curious and sometimes immense between him
and his English Tenderers.— The A thenaum.
4 W. REEVES; 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
In the Press.
Modern Orchestral Instruments
Their Origin, Construction, and Use.
BEING A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK
For the vse of
AMATEURS OR STUDENTS,
With many additional Illustrations, Tables, an
Appendix, and an Explanatory Index.
BY
K. SCHLESINGER.
Classical Works.
Edited by Prof. Anthon.
Anthon's Horace, Edited by Rev. James Boyd,
LL.D., thick post 8vo, 5s. 6d.
Anthon's Homer's Iliad, First Three Books, Edited
by B. Davies, LL.D., thick post 8vo, 5s. 6d.
Anthon's Caesar's Commentaries, Edited by Rev.
G. B, Wiieeler, thick post 8vo, 4s, 6d.
Anthon's Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, with
English Notes, Critical and Explanatory, and a Metrical
Index, post 8va, price 4s. 6d.
Anthon's Sallust, Edited by Rev. J. Boyd, L.L.D.,
post 8vo, 4s. 6d.
Anthon's Juvenal and Persius' Satires, Edited
by J. T. Wheeler, post 8vo, 43. 6d.
Anthon's Cicero's Orations, vi^ith English Com-
mentary and Historical, Geographical and Legal In-
dexes, Revised and Edited by Rev. G. B. Wheeler, post
Svo, 4s. 6d.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 5
Grown 8yo, Special Designed Cover. 5/-
iViASTERSINQERS appreciations of music and
MUSICIANS WITH AN ESSAY ON
By FILSON YOUNG hector berlioz
Contents. — The Pastoral Symphony — Tristan and Isolda— Bach's Organ
Fugues — Mozart's Requiem — Tschiakowsky's Sixth Symphony— The Composer
in England— Charles Halle— Camille Saint-Saens— An Irish Musician— Hector
Berlioz.
Beady, roy. 8vo, boards, 1/6
^^THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA"
By F. NIETZSCHE, A BOOK FOB ALL AND NONE.
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS COMMON, contaiDing Zara
thustra's Prefatory Discourse, with Critical and Biblio,
graphical Notices, Part I.
Nietzsche's Ethics^ hotvever, are not the Ethics fov hoys, nor for old
womeny nor for dreamers either ; they are the Ethics for full grown men,
the noble, strong, ivide-aivake men, who shape the ivorld's destiny .''
^ «„_«___ — EDITOR.
crown 8VO5 Limp Cloth, 2/-
THE ART OF MODULATING.
A SEBIE8 OF PAPERS ON MODULATING
AT THE PIANOFOBTE. WITH 62 MUSICAL
EXAMPLES. By HENRY C. BANISTER.
Not only at Examinations — viva voce — but in Actual Experience, is ability
required to pass rapidly, with very little "process" fr( in one key to anothef.
2nd Edition. Thick Crown 8vo. Cloth, Price 7/6.
THE LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE.
Author of " Progress and Poverty,"
With Portraits. By his Son. HENRY GEORGE, JUN.
Thick Crown 8vo., Cloth 10s.
Important Critical Contribution.
CHOPIN : THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC.
BY JAMES HUNEKER,
Author of " Mezzotints in Modern Music."
'•'Mr Huneker is a Chopin enthusiast. He accords admira-
tion to Brahms, to Wagner, to Tchaikovsky: his vvorship is
reserved for Chopin. Being gifted with clear insight and imagina-
tion which grasp many and diverse moods Mr. Huneker is a sane
critic and a manly There is no pretence at new material
in the book. Mr. Huneker has garnered all that has been written
about the composer and he has threshed out the grain from the
chaff. The result is. therefore, of v3i\ne.''— Musical Standard.
6 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING ROSS ROAD, W.C.
The Large Edition, over 1,000 pp., imp. 8vo.
CHAFFERS (Wm.), MARKS AND MONOGRAMS ON
EUROPEAN AND ORIENTAL POTTERY AND
PORCELAIN, with Historical Notices of each Manu-
factory, preceded by an Introductory Essay on An-
cient Pottery and on the Vasa Fictiha ot England and
Mediaeval Earthenware Vessels, with over 3, 500 Potters
Marks and Illustrations, revised and edited by F.
Litchfield, ornamental cloth, Ninth Edition, with Ad-
ditional Information and Marks, 42s.
New Edition (1904.) Entirely Revised and Enlarged by
C. A. Markham, F.S^A,
CHAFFERS (W), HALL MARKS ON GOLD AND
SILVER PLATE, Illustrated with Revised Tables of
Annual Date Letters employed in the Assay Offices
of the United Kingdom, roy. 8vo, cloth, 168. net
The Companion to '' Hall Marks on Gold and Silver
Plate."
CHAFFERS (W), A HISTORY OF ENGLISH GOLD-
SMITHS AND PLATEWORKERS (Gilda Aurifa-
brorum) and their Marks stamped on Plate, copied in
facsimile from celebrated Examples and the earliest
Records preserved at Goldsmiths' Hail, London, with
their names, addresses and dates of entry, 2,500 Illus-
trations; also Historical Account of the Goldsmiths'
Company and their Hall Marks and Regalia; the
Mint; Closing of the Exchequer; Goldsmith Bankers :
Shop Signs, a Copious Index, etc., a New Edition, 267
pp., rov, 8vo, cloth, 128.
CHAFFERS (W.), COLLECTOR'S HANDBOOK OF
MARKS AND MONOGRAMS ON POTTERY AND
PORCELAIN OF THE RENAISSANCE AND MOD-
ERN PERIOD, selected from his larger work. New
Edition Revised and considerably Augmented by F.
Litchfield, Twelfth Thousand, 234 pp., post 8vo, cloth,
gilt, 63.
CHAFFERS (Wm.) HANDBOOK TO HALLMARKS ON
GOLD AND SILVER PLATE, with Revised Tables
of Annual Date Letters Employed in the Assay
Offices of England, Scotland and Ireland, Extended
byC. A. Markham, F.S.A.^ cr. 8vo, cloth, 5s. 1902
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 7
MARKHAM (Chr. A., F.S.A,) HANDBOOK TO
FOREiaN HALL MARKS ON Go2d AND
SILVER PLATE (except those on French Plate),
containing 163 stamps, cr. 8vo, cloth, 53.
MARKHAM (C), HANDBOOK T0~ FRENCH HALL
MARKS ON GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. Illus-
trared. Crown, 8vo, cloth, 5s. igoo
COBBETT (W). RURAL RIDES in the Counties of
Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hants., WiltF., Gloucestershire,
etc., edited with Life, New Notes, and the addition of
a copious Index, New Edition by Pitt Cobbett, viap
and portrait, 2 vols, cr. 8vo (xlviii. and 806 pp.), cloth
Siit, 12?. 6d.
Cobbett's " Rural Rides" is to us a delightful book, but it is one which
few people know, We are not sure that up to the present time it was im-
possible to get a nice editio 1 of it. We are therefore glad to see ihat Messrs.
Reeves & Turner's re :.ently published edition is a very creditable production
— two handy well-filled volame^i.— Gardening.
KEATS (John), THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN
KEATS (large type), givt^n from his own Editions and
other Authentic Sources, and co.lated with many
Manuscripts, edited by H. Buxton FovmsLUy portrait ^
Seventh Edition, 8 pp., cr. 8vo, buckram, ys. 6d.
THE LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS (Large type), Com-
plete Revised Edition, with a Portrait not published in
previous Editions and 24 Contemporary Views of
Places visited by Keats, Edited by H. Duxton Forman,
519 paeep, cr. Svo, buckram, 8s.
LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON.—
Edited with Occasional Elucidatory Notes, Translations
of all the Latin, French and Italian Quotations, and
a Biographical Notice of the Author. By Chas. Stokes
Carey, 2 vols, cr. Svo, bevelled cloth, los. 6d.
FLAGELLATION AND THE FLAGELLANTS, A
History of the Rod, in all Countries by the Rev, W. M.
Cooper. Plates and Cuts, thick cr. 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. (pub.
I2S. 6d.)
THE AWAKENING OF WOMEN : or Woman's Part m
Evolution, by Frances Swiney, crown 8vo, cloth, ^s.net
• Strong and soul-stirring The Book of the age on the woman
question."— r/te Woman's Tribune.
It is most carefully thought out ... . The authorities quoted all seem
to point to the fact that woman is more highly evolved than man,— 3/rs. Ada
JBullin, Editor of " Womanhood."
8 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
SHELLEY'S PRINCIPLES has time refuted or confirmed
them, a Retrospect and Forecast, by H. S. Salt, post
8vo, IS.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Poet and Pioneer, a Bio-
graphical Study by H. S. Salt, etched portrait, cr. 8vo,
cloth, 3s. 6d.
SHELLEY LIBRARY (The), An Essay in BibUography,
by H. Buxton Forman, Shelley's Books, Pamphlets
and Broadsides, Posthumous Separate Issues, and
Posthumous Books, wholly or mainly by him, 127 pp„
8vo, parts i and 2, wrappers, 3s. 6d. each.
A SHELLEY PRIMER, By H. S. Salt, cr. Bvo, bds-
2S. 6d.
SHELLEY (Percy Bysshe), THE POETICAL WORKS
(in large type), given from his own Editions and
other Authentic Sources, collated with many MSS.,
and with all Editions of Authority, together with his
Prefaces and Notes, his Poetical Translations and
Fragments, and an Appendix of Juvenalia, Edited by
H. Buxton Forman, with the Notes of Mary Woll-
stonecraft Shelley, ^;/^ etched portrait, 2 vols., cr. Svo^
cloth (with Design in Gold on cover by Rossetti), 12s.
Fourth Edition in the press,
SIDONIA THE SORCERESS, by William Meinhold.
Translated by Lady Wilde, with the Amber Witch,
translated by Lady Duff Gordon, in 2 vols., crown 8vo,
8s. 6d. 1894
THOMSON (James, '*B. V."), POETICAL WORKS.
The City of Dreadful Night, Vane's Story, Weddah
and Om-el-Bonain, Voice from the Hell, and Poetical
Remains, Edited by B. Dobell, with Memoir and Por-
trait, 2 vols, thick cr. 8vo, cloth, 12s. 6d,
THOMSON (James, ** B. V."), BIOGRAPHICAL AND
CRITICAL STUDIES, 483 pages, cr. 8vo. cloth. 6s.
LIFE OF DAVID GARRICK, by J. Smyth, post 8vo,
boards, is.
RUDIMENTS OF GREEK GRAMMAR, by E. Wetten-
hall, D.D., translated by Rev. G. N. Wright, numerous
annotations and Questions for Examination, by Rev.
G. B. Wheeler, 3s.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
CoMTE (Auguste), A Discourse on the Positive Spirit'
Explanatory Notes by E.S. Beesly, M.A., cr. 8vo, clotb,
3S. net.
Outspoken Essays on Social Subjects : By Ernest
Belfort Bax, cr. 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.
A Creed for Christian Socialists, with Expositions
by Charles William Stubbs, D.D. (The Dean of Ely).
Cr. 8vo, cloth, 28. (paper, is.)
Comte (Auguste), General View of Positivism, trans-
lated by J. H. Bridges. 2Dd EditioD, cr. 8vo, cloth, 2F. 6d.
The Social Aspects of Christianity, and other
Essays by Richard T. Ely, Ph.D. Cr. 8vc, cloth, 2s.
(paper, is.)
Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. Cloth,
IS. 6d., (paper, is.) or Cabinet Edition, cloth, 2S. 6d.
Karl Marx's Theory of Value (Complete), forming
the First 9 Chapters of ** Capital." Cr. 8vo, cloth, 2S.
(paper, is.)
Looking Backward, by Edward Bellann-, with
copious Index and Portrait. Limp cloth, is. 6d. ^Cabinet
Edition, Steel Portrait, 2s. 6d. (also cheap editions,
paper covers, 6d. and is.)
Cooperative Commonwealth: Exposition of
Modern Socialism, by L. Gronlund. English Edition.
Third Edition. Edited by B. Shaw. Cr. Svo, cloth, 2s.
(paper, is.)
Tennyson as a Thinker, by Henry S. Salt, paper,
6d. (or large paper copies, is. 6d.)
Patriotism and Christianity, by Count Leo Tolstoy.
Cr. Svo, cloth, IS. (paper, 6d.)
Laws of Eternal Life : Being Studies in the
Church Catechism by Rev. Stewart D. Headlam. Cr.
Svo, cloth, 2s. (paper, is.) '
London Rookeries and Collier's Slums. — A Plea
for More Breathing Room. By Robert Williams,
A.R. LB.A., with numerous Diagrams, sm. sewed, is.
More Light and Air for Londoners.— By Robert
Williams, A.R.I. B,A., with numerous Diagrams, sm. 4tc,
sewed, is.
to w. reeves, 83, charing cross road, w.c.
Ruskin's Notes of the Pictures of Mr. Holman
Hunt, Exhibited at the Rooms of the Fine Art Society,
1886, With Criticisms by John Ruskin and other Com-
ments, sewed, 8vo, is.
Ruskin's Notes ON Some of the PrincipalPictures
OF Sir John Everett Millais, Exhibited at the
Grosvenor Gallery, 1886, with a Preface and Original
and Selected Criticisms by John Ruskin and other
Comments, 8vo, sewed, is.
What is Property ? An Inquiry into the Principle
of Ri|g;ht and of Government, by P.J. Proudhon, Trans-
lated by B. R. Tucker, crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Discourses on Positive Religion : By J. H.
Bridges, M.B., Second Edition Revised and Enlarged,
8vo, boards, is.
Rent, Interest and Wages, or the Real Bearings
of the Land Qaestion. By Michael Fliirscheim. Third
Edition, Revised, cr. 8vo, paper is. (cloth 2s.)
HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS. ETC-
Musical History and Biography (R'^vised Edition to
1903). By F. J. Crowest, post 8vo, sewed is. (cloth, 2s.)
Makers of Music, Biographical Sketches of the
Great Composers, With Chronological Summaries of
their Works, and Facsimiles from Musical MSB. of
Bach, Handel, Pnrcell, Dr. Arne, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn,
Chopin, Schumann, Wagner, Verdi, Gounod, Brahms and
Greig, with General Chronological Table. By R. Far-
qaharson Sharp, Portrait of Purcell, Second Edition, or
8vo, cloth, 5s.
How TO Manage a Choral Society. By N. Ki!-
burn, 2nd Edition, post 8vo., 6d.
Wagner's Parsifal and the Bayreuth Fest-Spiel-
haus. By N. Kilburn, cr. 8vo., 6d.
Wagner, A Sketch of his Life and Works, by N.
Kilburn, 6d.
Woman as a Musician, an art Historical Study by
F*. R. Ritter, 8vo., is.
Sixty Years of Music : A Record of the Art in Eng-
land during the Victorian Era, containing 70 Portrait,
of the most Eminent Musicians, oblong quarto, boards,
rloth back, 2S. 6d.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. II
Cherubini, Memorials illustrative of his Life, by E«
Bellasis, thick cr. 8vo, cloth, 6s.
The Bach Letters. Letters of Samuel Wesley,
relating to the Introduction into England of the Works
of Bach. Ed. by E. Wesley. 2nd Edition, 8vo, cl., 2s. 6d.
Mezzotints in Modern Music, Brahms, Tchaikov-
j-ky, Chopin, Strauss, Liszt, and Wagner, By Jas. Hune-
ker, cr. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 7s. 6d.
Sketches of English Glee Composers, Historical,
Biographical and Critical (Froni about 1735-1866), by D.
Baptie, post 8vo, cloth, 53.
History of Hungarian Music, by J. Kaldy {Director
of the Royal Hungarian Opera), cr. 8vo, bevehed cloth,
2s. 6d. net,
Franz Liszt, by T. Carlaw Martin, 6d.
Half a Century of Music in England, 1837^1887,
By F. Hueffer, 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. (pub. 8g. 6d.)
Templeton and Malibran : Reminiscences of these
Renowned Singers, with Original Letters and Anecdotes,
3 Authentic Portraits by Mayall, 8vo, cloth, 2S. 6d.
Balfe, His Life and Works, by W. A. Barrett, cr.
8vo, bevelled cloth, 33. 6d. (pub. 7s. 6d.)
Statham (H. H.), Form and Design in Music, a
Brief Outhne of the Esthetic conditions of the Art, ad-
dressed to general Readers (in a readable Literary form
... in everyday language), 8vo, cloth, 2s (pub. 5s.)
Beethoven, by Richard Wagner, with a Supplement
from the Philosophical Works of Arthur Schopenhauer,
trans, by Edward Dannreuther, 2nd Ed., cr. 8vo, cl., 6s.
Chopin, Life of, by Franz Liszt, new and very much
Enlarged Edition, Englished in fuU now for the first time
by John Broadhouse, cr. 8vo, cloth, 6s.
Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, being the story
concisely told of Das Rhinegold, Die Walkiire, Siegfried
and Gotterdamnjerung, hy N. Kilburn, post 8vo, gd.
Box (C), Church Music in the Metropolis, its Past
and present Condition, with Notes Critical and Explana-
tory, post 8vo, cLth, 3s.
The Past and the Future, Inaugural Lecture at
Gresham College, Nov. 1890, by J. Frederick Bridge
Mus. Doc, cr. 8vo, sewed, 6d.
12 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
English Hymn Tunes from the i6th Century to the
Present Time, by the Rev. A. W. Mahm, containing 21
Musical Illustrations, 8vo, sewed, is.
Beethoven, Life of, by Louis Nohl, translated by
John J. Lalor, 2nd Edition, cr. 8vo, bevelltd clotb, gilt
edges, 3s. 6d.
English Glee and Madrigal Writers, by W. A.
Barrett, 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d.
Life and Works of Handel. By A. Whittingham.
IS. (cloth, IS. 6d.)
Life and Works of Mozart. By A. Whittingham.
IS. (cloth, IS. 6d.)
Beethoven Depicted by his Contemporaries, by
Ludwig Nohl, translated by E. Hill, 2nd Edition, thick
cr. 8vo, clotb, 7s. 6d.
EDUCATIONAL-!
Dictionary of Musicians, (Cocks') New and En-
larged Edition brought completely up to date, post 3vo,
sewed, is., cloth, is. 6d,
Music, A First Book for Beginners embodying the
most recent English and Contmental Teaching by a
Professor [Alfred Whittingham], post 8vo, 4d.
The two principal objects kept in view in writing this little booK weie
Thoroughness of Definition and Regular Order in the arrangement of Sub>
jects. It difTers from all other similar Works in that all the Technical
Terms in Music are introduced in the Answers not in the Questions.
Counterpoint: A Simple and Intelligible Treatise,
Containing the most Important Rules of all Text Books,
in Catechetical Form ; (Forming an Answer to the
Question ** What is Counterpoint ? ") Intended for Be-
ginners. By A. Livingstone Hirst, cr. 8vo, sewed, gd.
Dictionary of 2500 British Musicians, from the
Earhest Times, by F. J. Crowest, cr. 8vo, stiff cover, is.
Manual of Musical History, from the Epoch of
Ancient Greece to our present time by Dr. F. L. Ritter,
2nd Edition, cr. 8vo, cL, 2s. 6d.
On Conducting, by Richard Wagner, translated by
E. Dannreuther, Second Edition, cr. 8vo. cloth, 5s.
DUDLEY BUCK'S Complete Pronouncing Dictionary of
Musical Terms. By Dr. Dudley Buck. Third Edition with
the Pronunciation of each Term accurately given^ cr. 8yo, paper
cover 6d., (cloth Is).
W. KEi£Vli;iJ, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C,
13
^u^l^^^'^'^^ Helmholtz, Musical Acoustics or
the Phenomena of Sound as connected with Music, by
John Broadhouse, with more than 100 Illustrations, 3rd
Edition, or. 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.
The Student's History of Music. History of
Music, from the Christian Era to the present time by Dr
F. L. Ritter. 3rd Edition, thick cr. Svo., cloth, 7s. 6d.
Harmony and the Classification of Chords, with
Questions and Exercises, by Dr. J. H. Lewis, Vol. i
ovo, boards, cloth back, 5s.
Musical Analysis. A Handbook for Students, with
Musical Illustrations, by H. C. Banister, crown Svo.
folio, cloth, 2S.
Elementary Music. A book for Beginners, by Dr.
Westbrook, with Questions and Vocal Exercises, Thir
teenth Edition, is., (cloth, is. 6d).
Purity in Music, by A. F. Thibaut. Translated
by J. Broadhouse. Schumann says: *' A fine book about
music, read it frequently." Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d.
Exercises on General Elementary Music. A
Book for Beginners, by K. Paige, 4th Edition, Part I.
price 9d.,Part II. price is.(2 parts complete in cloth, 2/4)
The Musical Times speaks in the highest terras of above work.
Dr. Ahn's First French Course. Edited by S.
Bartlett (Head Master Mercers' and Stationers' School),
Post 8vo., cloth, IS. 6d.
Harmonising of Melodies,A Text-Book for Students
and Beginners, by H. C. Banister, cr. Svo, cloth, 2s.
Musical Shorthand for Composers, Students of
Harmony, Counterpoint, etc., can be written very
rapidly and is more legible than printed music, with
Specimens from Bach, Handel, Chopin, Wagner, Men-
delssohn, Spohr, Mozart, etc., by Francis Taylor, 14
pages, i2mo, 66,
" Composers and Students of Music expend a vast amount of time in mere
painful mechanism." We have only six totally unlike signs. These iron>
their simplicity can be written with great rapidity, one dip of the pen suffic-
ing for an entire page, and the writing being as legible as possible.— P;r/<icr
WORKS ON THE PIANOFORTE, 8cc.
Piano Teaching. Advice to Pupils and Young
Teachers, by F. Le Couppey (Prof, in the Conservatory
of Paris, etc). Translated from the 3rd French Edition
by M. A. Bierstadt, post Svo, cloth, 2s.
14 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
Greater Works of Chopin, (Polonaises, Mazurkas,
Nocturnes, etc., and how they should be played, by
J. Kleczynski, translated by Miss N. Janotha and
edited by Sutherland Edwards, with Portrait, Facsimile,
etc, cr. 8vo, cloth, 5s.
Pianoforte Teacher's Guide, by L. Plaidy, trans-
lated by Fanny Raymond Ritter, cr. 8vo, boards, is.
Music and Musicians, Essays and Criticisms, by
Robert Schumann, translated, edited and annotated by
F. R. Ritter, Portrait of Robert Schumann, photo-
graphed from a Crayon by Bendemann, First Series,
Sixth Edition, thick cr. 8vo, cloth, 8s. 6d.
Dltto^ 2Qd Series, aad Edition, thick cr. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d.
Ehrenfechter (C. A.), Technical Study in the art oi
Pianoforte Playing (Deppe's principles), with numerous
illustrations, fourth edition, cr. 8vo, bevelled cl., 2s. 6d.
An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Tuning
IN General, and on Schiebler's Invention of Tuning
Pianofortes and Organs by the Metronome in Particular
Trans, by A. Wehrhan, sewed, is.
The Art of Modulation, A Hand-book Showing at
a Glance the Modulations from one Key to any other on
the Octave, etc., Edited by Carli Zoeller, 2nd Edition,
loy. 8vo, paper, 2S. 6d. or (cloth, 4s.)
Ehrenfechter (C. A.), Delivery in the Art of Piano-
forte Playing, on Rhythm, Measure, Phrasing, Tempo,
cr. 8vo, cloth, 2s.
Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas Explained by
Ernst von Elterlein trans, by E. Hill, with Preface by
Ernst Pauer, entirely new and revised edition (the
Fifth), with Portrait, facsimile and View of House, cr.
8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Beethoven's Symphonies in their Ideal Significance,
explained by Ernst von Elterlein, translated by Francis
Weber, with an account of the facts relating to Beet-
hoven's loth Symphony, by L. Nohl, Second Edition^
with Portrait, cr. 8vo, cloth, 33. 6d.
Pianoforte Scales in Thirds and Sixths for Each
Hand ia all the Major and Minor Keys, Fingered and
Arranged by M. Rock, foiio, 23.
Beethoven's Symphonies Critically discussed by
A. T. Teetgeo. Second Edition^ cloth, 3s, 6d.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 15
The Deppe Finger Exercises for rapidly develop-
ing an Artistic Touch in Pianoforte Playing, carefully
arranged, classified and explained by Amy Fay, English
Fingering, folio, is. 6d. (Continental Fingering, is. 6d.)
Hov/ TO Play Chopin. The Works of Chopin and
their proper Interpretation. By Kleczynski, translated
by A. Whittingham, 5th. Ed., Woodcut and Music Illus,
Post 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Schumann's Rules Maxims for young Musicians, 4d.
Practice Register for Pupil's Daily Practice. A
specimen, id., or is. 4d. per 100.
Reeves' Vamping Tutor, Art of Extemporaneous
Accompaniment or Playing by ear on the Pianoforte,
rapidly enabling anyone having an ear for music (with
or without any knowledge of musical notation) to
accompany Waltzes, Polka?, Songs, and with equal
facility in any key, with practical examples, including
Ma Normandi (in C), Lilla's a Lady, The Swiss Boy,
Home Sweet Home, Blue Bells of Scotland, Nancy
DawsoD, Ma Normandi (in A), The Miller of the Dee
by Francis Taylor, folio, 2s.
Mozart's Don Giovanni, a Commentary, from the
3rd French Edition of Charles Gounod, by W. Clark
and J. T. Hutchinson, cr. 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Tuning the Pianoforte.— Smith (Hermann), The
Art of Tuning the Pianoforte, a New and Comprehen-
sive Treatise to enable the musician to Tune his Pf.
upon the system founded on the Theory of Equal Tem-
perament, cr. 8vo, hmp cloth, New Edition Thoroughly
Bevisech 2S.
A History of Pianoforte Music, With Critical
Estimates of its Greatest Masters and Sketches of
their Lives by John C. Fillmore, cr. 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Transposition at Sight, For Students of the Organ
and Pianoforte, by H. Ernst Nichol, 2nd Edition, cr.
8vo, sewed, is. cloth, is. 6d.
THE VIOLIN.
How TO Repair Violins and other Musical Instru-
ments With Diagrams, by Alfred F. Common, cr. 8vo,
boards, i-.
Information for Players, Owners, Dealers and
Makers of Bow Instruments, also for String Manu-
l6 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
FACTURERS, taken from Personal Experiences, Studies
and Observations by William Hepworth, with Illustra-
tions of Stainer and Guarnerius Violins, etc., cr. 8vo,
cloth, 23. 6d.
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated Vio-
lin Maker known by the name of Stfadivarius, preceded
by Historical and Critical Researches on the origin and
Transformations of Bow Instruments, and followed by a
Theoretical Analysis of the Bow etc., by F. J. Fetis,
translated by J. Bishop, Facsimile, 8vo, cloth, 5s.
Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers, including
Performers on the Violoncello and Double Bass, Past
and Present, containing a Sketch of their Artistic
Career, together with Notes of their Compositions, by A.
Mason Clarke, 9 Portraits, post 8vo, cloth, 5s.
How to Make a Violin, Practically Treated, 2 Fold-
ing Plates and many Illustrations, by J. Broadhousr,
cr. 8vo, bevelled cloth, 3s. 6d.
Violin Manufacture in Italy and its German
Origin, by Dr. E. Schehek, translated by W. E.
Lawson, 8vo., sewed, is.
Sketches of Great Violinists and Great Pianists.
Biographical and Anecdotal, with Account of the Violin
and Early Violinists (Viotti, Spohr, Paganini, De Beriot,
Ole Bull, Clementi, Moscheles, Schumann (Robert and
Clara), Chopin, Thalberg, Gottschalk, Liszt), by G. T.
Ferris ; Second Edition^ cr. Svo, bevelled cloth, 3s 6d.
(or gilt edges, 4s. 6d.)
Facts about Fiddles, Violins Old and New. By J.
Broadhouse, 3rd Edition, 6d.
Technics of Violin Playing. By Karl Courvoisier.
With Illustrations, 8th Edition, paper is. (or cloth, thick
paper, 2S. 6d.) Highly commended by Joachim.
How TO Play the Fiddle, for Beginners on the
Violin. By PI. W. and G. Gresswell. 7th edition, is.
(cloth, 2S.)
Autobiography of Louis Spohr. 2 vols in i, thick
8vo, cloth, 7S. 6d. (pub. 15s.)
Treatise on the Structure and Preservation of
the Violin and all other Bow Instruments, together
with an account of the most celebrated makers and of
the genuine characteristics of their Instruments, by J, A.
Otto, with additions by J. Bishop, cr. Svo, cloth, 3s.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. I7
ORGAN WORKS.
Modern Organ Tuning, the How and Why, clearly
explaining the Nature of the Organ Pipe and the System
of Equal Temperamenttogether with an Historic Record
of the Evolution of the Diatonic Scale from the Greek
Tetrachord by Hermann Smith, crown 8vo, cloth, 3=;. 6d.
Analysis of Mendelssohn's Organ Works, a Study
of their Structural Features, for the use of Students,
127 Musical Examples, portrait and facsimiles, cr. 8vo,
bevelled cloth, 4s. 6d.
Organist's Quarterly Journal of Original Compo-
sitions. Edited by Dr. W. Spark, 5s. per part. For
Contents see end of Catalogue.
New Series Volume, 160 large pages, oblong folio, bound
in cloth, i8s.
Rink's Practical Organ School: A New Edition,
Carefully Revised. The Pedal Part printed on a separ-
ate Staff, and the Preface, Remarks and Technical
Terms translated from the German, expressly for this
edition by John Hiles. The Six Books Complete, hand-
somely bound in red cloth, gilt edges, ob. folio, los. 6d.
(issued at 20s.), or the six parts 7s. 6d. (issued at 6s. each.)
Organs and Organists in Parish Churches, A
Handbook of the Law relating to the Custody, Control
and Use of Organs, and to the Position, Lights, and
Disabilities of Organists, to which is Added a Chapter
on the Hiring of Pianos, and on 'The Three Years
System," by WiUiam C. A. Blow, M.A., Oxon., of the
inner Temple, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, cr. 8vo, cloth,
2S.6d. .
A Short History of the Organ, Organists, and
Services of the Chapel of AUeyn's College, Dulwich,
with E^ftracts from the Diary of the Founder, by W. H.
Stocks, cr. 8vo, sewed, is.
The Influence of the Organ in History. By
Dudley Buck, is. a 1 j
Henry Smart's Organ Compositions Analysed.
By J. Broadhouse, cr. 8vo, cloth, 2S. 6d.
Reform in Organ Building, by Thomas Casson 6d.
The Organ, Its Compass, Tablature, and Short
and Incomplete Octaves, by John W Warman, A.aO.,
iiip. 8vo, sewed, 3s. 6d. or boards, cloth back, 4s. 6d.
l8 VV. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, VV.C.
Catechism for the Harmonium and American Organ,
by John Hiles, post 8vo, sewed, is.
RiMBAULT (Dr. E. F.), The Early English Organ
Builders and their Works, from the 15th Century to the
Period of the Great Rebellion, an unwritten chapter on
the History of the Organ, Well printed, with woodcuts,
post 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
VOICE AND SINGING
Twelve Lessons on Breathing and Breath Con-
trol, for Singers, Speakers and Teachers, by Geo. E.
Thorp, crown 8vo, limp cloth, is.
Twenty Lesscns on the Development of the
Voice, or Singeis Speakers and Teachers, by Geo. E,
Thorp, crown 8vo, lin'p cloth, is.
50 Musical Hints to Clergymen, Management of
Breath, Classification of Male Voices, Management of
the Voice, The Service, with twenty specially written
Exercises by Geo. F. Grover, is.
Catechism of Part Singing and the Choral Ser-
vices. By John Hiles, 3rd Edition, thick post 8vo, price is.
Advict to Singers on every point of interest in re/erenee to the Vocal Orgung
How TO Sing an English Ballad. By E. Philp,
7th Edition, 6d.
Vocal Exercises for Choirs and Schools. By Dr.
Westbrook, 2d.
Rudiments of Vocal Music. With 42 Preparatory
Exercises, Rounds and Songs in the Treble Clef, by
T. Mee Pattison, 2nd Ed., 4d.
Some Famous Songs, an Art Historical Sketch. By
F. R. Ritter. is.
Voice Production and Vowel Enunciation, by
F. F. Mewburn Levieu, Diagrams by Arthur C.Behrend,
post 8vo, 6d.
Position and Action in Singing, a Study of the
True Conditions of Tone, a Solution of Automatic (Ar-
tistic) Breath Control, by Edmund J. Myer, cr. 8vo,
4s. 6d.
National School of Opera in England ; being The
Substance of a Paper read before the Licentiates of
Trinity College, March, 1882, by Frank Austin, postSvo,
sewed, 6d.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 1 9
How TO Understand Wagner's "Ring of the
^rfh''''ri^u^-^'°^ii^.f ^J°'y ^°^ ^ Descriptive Analysis
of the "Rheingold," the '* Valkyr," ''Siegfried" and
the "Dusk of the Gods,'' with'^a^umber of MusS
Examples by Gustave Kobb^, Sixth Edition, post 8vo
cloth, 3s, 6d.
••To be appreciated in the smallest way Wagner must be studied in
aidvaince.''^mustrated London News, stuaiea in
Rational Accompaniment to the Psalms by F. Gil-
bert Webb, post 8vo, 6d.
How to Play from Score.— Treatise on Accom-
^ paniment from Score on the Organ or Pianoforte by
F. Fetis. trans, by A. Whittingham, cr. 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
Choir Lists for Sunday Services.
No. I. Morning and Evening, printed in red, is. 4d.
per 100.
No. 2. Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, printed in
red, IS. 6d. per 100.
No. 3. Morning and Evening, printed in red and
black, IS. 8d. per 100.
No. 4. Morning and Even., printed in red is. 6d.
per 100.
No. 5. Quarto Size, Matins, Litany, Holy Com-
munion, First Evensong, Second Evensong, Gothic
Letter, printed in red, 6d. per dozen, 3s. per 100.
Choir Attendance Register, 8vo, cloth.
No. I. Ruled for a Choir of 20 or less, for one year,
beginning at any date, is. 6d.
No. 2. Ruled for a Choir of 40 or less, for one year,
beginning at any date, 2s.
No. 3. Ruled for a choir of 60 or less, for one year,
besjinning at any date, 2S. 6d.
Performing Edition.
The Creation, A Sacred Oratorio composed by
Joseph Haydn, Vocal Score, The Pianoforte Accom-
paniment arranged and the whole edited by G. A.
Macfarren, Svo, paper covers, 2S., boards, 2s. 6d., scarlet
cloth, 4s.
From Lyre to Muse, A History of the Aboriginal
Union of Music and Poetry, By J. Donovan, cr. 8vo,
cloth, 2s. 6d.
20 w. reeves, 83, charing cross road, w.c,
Popular Part Songs.
1. Merrily goes the Mill, by T. B. Southgate, id.
2. Take, O Take those Lips away, Part Song for
S.A.T.B. by Claude E. Cover, A.R.C.O., i^d.
3. Pack Clouds Away, for S.A.T.B., by Claude E.
Cover, A.R.C.0.,2d.
4. Summer Roses, for S.A.T.B., by G. Rayleigh
Vicars 2d
5. Erin, Dear Erin, for T.A.T.B., by Churchill
Sibley, 2d.
6. Caledonia! Land o' the Rocky Dell, for S.A.T.B.^
by Churchill Sibley, 3d.
TO ALL MUSICIANS,— Hereissomethingworth
(:J^ reading and when you
[Special price see below.] ^ave read it send for
a copy without delay.
The Publisher of The Musical Standard has secured the
whole of the copies left unsold at 14/- net by Messrs. S. Low,
Marston and Company, Ltd., of the work entitled
THE
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
OF
BRITISH MUSICIANS.
BY JOHN WARRINER, Mus.D.,
Trinity College, Dublin.
INTRODUCTION BY JOSEPH BENNETT-
Over 500 Photo Portraits
Of well-known and eminent Uving Musicians of Great Britain
and Ireland, with short Biographical notice of each.
The Whole Bound in One Handsome oblong folio
Volume, cloth lettered. Offered for 7/6 post free^
(or 8/- post free abroad).
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, VV.C. 21
•KING'S ROYAL ALBUMS, Nos. 1 and 2.
NATIONAL AND PATKIOTIC SONG ALBUM.
With Pianoforte Accompaniment. In 2 Bks., is. each.
Book 1. Book 2.
God Save the King Hearts of Oak
God Blessthe Prince of Wales Stand United
There's a Land (Dear Eng- The Cause of England »
[land Greatness
Victoria The Last Rose of Summer
God Bless our Sailor Prince The Leather Bottle
Here's a Health unto His Home, Sweet Home
[Majesty Three Cheers for the Red,
Lord of the Sea White and Blue
Boast Beef of Old England The Minstrel Boy
The Blue Bells of Scotland The British Grenadiers
Tom Bowling Auld Lang Syne
Come Lassies and Lads Rule Britannia
Ye Mariners of England
The Bay of Biscay
King's Royal Albums, No. 3. Price 1/-
10 MARCHES FOR THE PIANO. BY J. P. SOUSA.
1. The Washington Post. 7. Our Flirtation.
2. Manhatton Beach. 8. March past of the Rifle
3. The Liberty Bell. Regiment.
4. High School Cadets. 9. March past of the
5. The Belle of Chicago. National Fencibles.
6. The Corcoran Cadets. 10. Semper Fidelis.
King's Royal Album, No 4. Price 1/-
SiX ORGAN PIECES FOR CHURCH USE.
Edited by William Smallwood.
With Ped. Obb., Selections from rarely known works.
1. Moderate con moto 4. Andante Rehgioso
2. Adagio Expressivo 5. Andante con moto
3. Andante Moderate 6. Lento Cantabile
King's Royal Album, No. 5. Price 1/-
SMALLWOOD'S EbMERALDA ALBUM FOR PIANO-
Belgium (Galop). Esmeralda (Transcription
Belle of Madrid (Tempi di on Levey's Popular Song).
Polka). Placid Stream (Morceau).
Emmeline (Galop). The Seasons (Galop),
22 W. REEVES, 83 CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
King's Royal Album, No. 6. Price 6d.
BALFE'S ROSE OF CASTILLE, 6 Favourite Melodies.
easily arranged for the Pianoforte by E. F. Rimbault.
1. Convent Cell (The).
2. 'Twas Rank and Fame.
3. Tho* fortune darkly o'er nie frown.
4. I am a simple Muleteer.
5. I'm not the Queen.
6. List to the Gay Castanet.
King's Royal Album, No. 7. Price la.
10 MARCHES. By J. P. SOUSA.
Arranged for Mandoline and Piano.
1. The Washington Post. 7. Our Flirtation.
2. Mauhatton Beach. 8. March past of the Rifle
3. The Liberty Bell. Regiment.
4. High School Cadeis. 9. March past of the
5. The Bell of Chicago. National Fencibles.
6. The Corcoran Cadets. 10. Semper Fidelia.
King's Royal Album, No. 8. Price Is.
10 MARCHES. By J. P. SOUSA.
Arranged for Banjo and Piano. (Contents as No. 7.)
King's Royal Album, No. 9. Price Is.
10 MARCHES. By J. P. SOUSA.
Arranged for Violin and Piano. (Contents as No. 7.)
King's Royal Album, No. 10. Price la.
10 MARCHES. By J. P. SOUSA.
Arranged for American Organ. (Contents as No. 7.)
"^ King's Royal Album, No. XI.
GRIEG'S " PEER GYNT " SUITE.
1. Dance of the Gnomes. 4. Amitrass' Dance.
2. Ases Death. 5. Solvejags Song.
3. Mornin^^
King's Royal Album, No. 12.
GRIEG'S LYRISCHE STUCKE AND NORWEGIAN
BRIDAL PROCESSION.
1. Arietta. 5. Popular Melody.
2. Waltzer. 6. Norwegian Melody.
3. Watchman's Song. 7, National Song.
4. Fairy Dance. 8. Norwegian Bridal March
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 23
King's Royal Album, No 13.
GRIEG'S FOUR HUMOURESKES, MINUETS AND
FUNERAL MARCH.
King's Royal Album, No 14.
HIAWATHA MANDOLINE ALBUM.
Arranged by Sydney Osborne.
1. Hiawatha Cake Walk 5. Over the Waves Waltz
2. Minnehaha Cake Walk 6. Donau Wellen Waltz
3. Ahce Where Art Thou 7. Blue Danube Waltz
4. Kathleen Mavourneen
King's Royal Album, No. 15.
ORIGINAL VOLUNTARIES FOR AMERICAN ORGAN
OR HARMONIUM.
By Edwin M, Flavell,
TT Andante con Moto
6. Prayer
2. Evensong
7. Canzonetta
3, March in F
8. A Call to Battle
4. Chorale
9. Souvenir
5. A Plaintive Song
10. Allegro
King's Royal Album, No. 16.
12 VOLUNTARIES FOR THE AMERICAN ORGAN
OR HARMONIUM.
By J. E. Newell.
1. Postludium 7. Offertoire
2. Communion 8. Andante Piacevole
3. Andante con Moto 9. Morning Prayer
4. Prelude 10. Loud Voluntary
5. Diapason Movement 11. Sketch
6. Faith '* Melody " 12. Recessional March
Modern Church Music.
1. Easter Anthem, "Jesus Lives!" by Rev. T.
Herbert Spinney, price 2d.
2. Anthemtor Whitsuntide and General Use,-"Come--
Holy Ghost our Souls Inspire," by Thomas
Adams, F.R.C.O., price 2d.
3. Story of the Ascension, by Rev. John Napleton,
price ijd.
4. Anthem, *»God so Loved the World," by J. Jamou-
neau, price 2d.
24 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
Modern Church Music {continued). —
5. Magnificat in B flat, by Thomas Adams, F.R.C.O.,
Price 3d.
6. Nunc Dimittis in B flat, by Thomas Adams,
F.R.C.O., Price 2d.
7. Four Kyries, by Charles Steggall, Berthold Tours,
E. J. Hopkins, J. M. W. Young, price i^d.
8. Te Deum, by T. E. Spinney, ijd.
9. Anthem, ••! am the Good Shepherd," by G.
Rayleigh Vicars, 2d.
10. Story of the Cross, Music by H. Clifton Bowker, 2d.
12. Story of the Cross, Music by Dr. Geo. Prior, 2d.
13. The Lord's Prayer, Music by Ernest Austin, 2d.
American Organ, Folio, Edited by Alfred Whitting-
ham, in Six Books, is. each, complete paper covers, 3s.,
cloth bound, 5s.
Pianoforte (Solo).
Coon Band Contest, Cake Walk, by Arthur Pryor, as*
Lefebure-Wely's St. Sulpice. Reminiscence by W.
Smallwood, is. 6d.
Album Leaves : Pianoforte Sketches, without Octaves,
by F. W. Davenport, is. 6d. each Number.
No. I. Waltz in F
Dance in G
No. 2. A Little Fugue in F minor
Caprice in C
No. 3. Prelude in G
Melody in G
No. 4. Sonatina in C
Tschaikowsky's 1812 Overture, arr. by E. Evans, 2s.
Amarylliss, Morceaux de Salon, by Leonard Gautier,
IS. 6d.
Tschaikowsky's Casse Noisette Suite, am by E. Evans,
2S.
Grand Festival March, ** Illogan," by H C. Tonking, 2s.
Pianoforte (4 Hands.)
Tschaikowsky's 1812 Overture, arr. from the Full Score
by E. Evans, 3s.
Tschaikovsky's Casse Noisette Suite, arr. by E, Evans,
3^5.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 25
Violin.
A Selection of Favourite Airs arranged for the Violin by
Henry Farmer, complete is. 6d., Piano Ace. ad lib.
2S. 6d.
Contents.
1. Theme. Variations (Mozart).
2. With Verdure Clad (Haydn).
3. German Shepherd's Song and Rataplain (Figlia
del Reggimento).
4. Da Qual di (Anna Bolena), Souave Immagine
(Mercadante).
5. Mecco tu Vieni (La Straniera).
Violin and piano.
Grand Festival March, ** Illogan," by H. C. Tonking, 2s.
MANUSCRIPT MUSIC PAPER.
(a) 12 Staves,roy. 8vo (10 by 6|) ruled plain in quires (120
sheets), the lot 2/6.
This is pre-eminently the Musical Students' Paper, as it Is light, portable,
smooth and easy to write upon ; each sheet, too, will hold a large quantity of
matter. There is no paper better suited for Exercises on Counterpoint and
Harmony.
(b) 12 Staves, oblong, folio (14 by 10), ruled in groups of 3
staves or Organ Music, 5 quires (120 sheets), the lot,
5/-
The paper is of the same size as ordianry oblong folio. Organ Music,
e.g.t English Organ Music, Best's Arrangements, etc.
(c) 12 Staves, folio, music size (10 by 14), 5 quires (120 sheets),
the lot 5/.
Exactly the same in size as ordinary folio printed music so that upon it
Songs of Org-in Pieces may be written just as they are to be pointed. It
is a very useful paper, as Manuscript music written on it can be bound with
Printed Music
(d) 12 Staves, quarto size (iif by 9J), 5 quires (120 sheets),
the lot 3/6.
(e) 12 Staves, oblong quarto (9J by iif). 5 quires (120 sheets),
the lot 3/6.
ff) 12 Staves, folio music size (10 by 14), 5 quires (120 sheets),
the lot 5/-
(g) 12 Staves folio music size (ruled even), 10 by 14, 5 quires
(120 sheets), the lot 5/-
{h) 14 Staves, quarto size (iif by 9J), 5 quires (120 sheets),
the lot 3/6»
26 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
The ORGANisrs Quarterly Journal
<®f Onginal (ff0mp0axti0ns.
Founded by DR, Wm. SP4RK, Late OrganUt.Town Hall. Le«dt
Price 5/- each, or Subscription, 10/6 for 4 issues.
New Series, Volume, containing 160 large pages, all with
]ped» obb,i boand in cloth, 18«.
Part 12. New Series
1. In Mbmoriam - - Rev. Geof. C. Ryly. M.A., Mus. Bac Oxon.
2. Toccata G. B. Polleri.
3. Overture from Epiphany .... Alfred King, M.D.
Part XI., New Serlei.
1. Prelude and Fugue wiih Postlude - E. A. Chamberlayne.
2. Prelude and i'ugue F. Young.
3. FuttUE , Archibald Donald.
4. Fugue William Hope.
Part 10, New Berlei.
1. Fugue - Archibald Donald.
2. Prelude and Fugue with Postlude • • B. A. Chamberlayne
3. Prelude and Fugue - - - - - - F. Young.
Part 9, Hew Berlea.
1. Amdante con Moto - • . W. A. Montgomery, L.T.C.L-
2. Fantasia In E minor - . - - Cothbert Harris, Mus. B.,
3. Postlude at Ephes. V. v. 19. Si tibi placeat, Mihl con displicet
W.CoNRADi,(Y.6i B. i8i6),Paur80rg.St.Church,Sohwerin i/mGermany
4. Harvest March - Henry J. Poole,
Part 8, New Berlei.
1. Schsrco Minuet W.Mullineux, Organist of the Town Hall. Bolton.
2. Introduction to the Hymn on the Passion, O Haupt Voll Blut und
Wunden "
W. CoNRADi. Organist Paul's Church, Schwerin, Germany,
3« Thesis AND Antithesis, or Dispute, Appeasement, Conciliation^
Wt CoNRADi, Organist Paul's Church. Schwerin, Germany.
4. Carillon in B . . Cuthbbrt Harris. Mus.B.,F.R.C.O.,&c.
9. Andante •' Hope " Inglis Bervon.
f. Orchestral March In C
, James Crapper. L. Mus., Organist of the Parish Ch.. Kirkcudbright
Part 7, New Series.
I. Andante Gkazioso in G • • Chas. B. Mblvillk, F.R.C.O.
s. Polish Song, Arranged for the organ by Percival Garrett. - Chopin.
S* Introduction, Variations, and Finale on the Hymn Tune " Rock-
ingham.' Ch. R. Fisher, Mus. B.
4. Two Soft Movements - - : - - W. C. Filey, I.S.M.
, I. •• Esp6rance." 2. •'Tendrerse."
9. Amdante In A flat
W. Griffiths, Mus. B , Org. ot St. Sepulchre Church, Northampton
i. Fugue. 4 Voice, 3 Subjects Dr. j. C. Tilliv
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, VV.C. 2/
The Organist's Quarterly Journal {cont,).
Part 6, Hew Berlei.
X. Com Moto Moderato in C
Orlando A. Mansfield, Mus.B., F.R.C.O.
a. TxMPO Di Mbnubtto Geo. H. Ely.
3. DiRGE IN Mbmoriam, REGINALD Adkins - J. E. Adkins, F.R.C.O.
4. Andante in F R. H. Heath.
5. Aberystwyth Offertoire - - - J. G. Mountford.
6. Andante in D (Pridre) - - E, Evelyn Barron, M. A.
Part 8, Hew Series.
I. Allegretto Scherzando in A flat - - - W. E. Ashuall.
a. Andante Relig.oso in G Dr J. Bradford.
3 March Pomposo in E flat - - - - Charles Darnton.
4. Andante Con Moto "Twilight" - - Ch. R. Fisher, Mus.B.
5. Minuet In F WE. Belcher, F.R.C.O.
Part i, Hew Beriei.
I. Andante Moderato F. Read.
a. Prelude AND FuQUB in D minor - - > E. A. Chamberlaynb.
3. Sketch Arthur Geo. Colborn.
4. Fugue James Turpin.
5 Allegro Charles H. Fisher.
6. Marche Mystique
Thbme by Roland, de Lassus.— A Relic of Ancient Times,
Part 8, Hew Beriea.
I. MiNUEt AND Trio In F - - Ed. J. Bellerby, Jvius. «., Oxon.
a. * Dundee "('* or French") ... - John P. Attwater.
3. Adagio. An Elegy In G minor - - Chas. R.Fisher, Mas. B.
4. Anbante. a major - ^ " ./ ^' %?"E'
5. Allegro. D minoc Geo. Minns (Ely).
Part 8, Hew Series.
1. Toccata Fantasia (S/M/fy in C n»»Mor) - - - E T. Dkiffiel.
a. Andante Grazioso -.-----• W. Faulkes.
3. Marche Funebre .----- Arthur Wanderer.
4. Andante Semplicb ®' * *J^,"K™l!lv'
Festal March A. W. Ketelbby.
S>
Part 1, Hew Series.
X. Offertoire in A minor - - - Fred. NV. Dal (LeIpziK).
3, Second Fantasia on Scotch Airs - - - William Spark.
? Adbste Fideles with Vaiiationb and Fugue) - Charles Hunt.
4 Intbrmbzzo G.Townshend Driffield.
Fart 108 (Old Sarie$).
I PosTLUDEinG .... Frederick W.Holloway.F.C.O
a'. Suite: No. 1, Prelude; No. a. Berceuse; No. 3. Toccata
z. 0UIX-. Laurent Parodi (Genoa
Nocturne .--.-.--- William Lockbtt.
4 Andante Pastorale In B minor Jacob Bradford; Mus- D., Oxon
5: Introductory Voluntary - - - Albert W.Kktelbby,
6 Fugue - - - - - - " " ^' J- ^**^=' L.RA.M.
LONDON: WILLIAM REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAP. W.
Note the Price, PENCE not SHILLINGS
POPULAR AND COPYRIGHT MUSIC.
Fall Music Size, Well Printed and Critically Oorreot.
ISSUED BY
WILLIAM
(Postage id. each.
REEVES.
(Postage id. eaob.)
273.
396.
174.
105.
172.
224.
181.
180.
390.
VOCAL.
Alice where art thou ? ...
Always do as 1 do
Angels at the Casement, A flat
Banner of the King
Barney O'Hea
Bay of Biscay
Border Lands (Sacred)
Borderer's Challenge ...
Cat in the Chimney
Child's Good Morning
Child's Good Night
Come into the Garden Maud
Crossing the Brook ...
Dawn of Heaven
Diver, T le
God Save the King
Hearts of Oak ...
Honey Are You True to Me (Coon Song)
Kathleen Mavourneen ...
Lady Clara Vere de Vere
Last Good Bye to Mother
Last Rose of Summer ...
Listen ...
Maggie's Promise
Sharing the Burden
Tom Bowling
When other Lips (Then you'll remem-
ber me)
VOCAL DUETS
190. Flow on thou Shining River
116. Gipsy Countess
PIANOFORTE.
118. AlaValse
275. Alice where art thou ? (easily arr, by)
278. Army and Navy March
457. Au Village
268. Battle March (Delhi)
373. Belgium Galop ... ... ... ..•
391.
383.
184.
389.
188.
384.
226.
100.
266.
213.
404.
227.
215.
249.
115.
225.
286.
/. Ascher
Tinney
W, M. Hutchison
H. Fortesque
5. Lover
J. Vavey
Miss Lindsay
H.J. Stark
L. Kings mill
O. Barri
0. Barri
Balfc
Edith Coo he
Buonetti
E, J, Loder
Dr. Jno. Bull
Dr. W. Boycc
Lindsay Lennox
Crouch
Miss Lindsay
C. Dargan
Thos. Moore
A . H. Behrend
W, Gordon
J. E. Webster
C. Dibdin
Balje
Sir J. Stevenson
Glover
Roeckel
Percy E. Douglas
Hefizell
Tschaihowslcy
Pridham
Smallwood
Cheap Music (continued).—
437. Belle of Chicago March
122. Beroeuee
376. Blumenlied
379. Bridal Chorus and Wedding March ...
453. Cadet Two Step (easily arranged) ...
142. Charming Mazurka ...
456. Chanson Triste
456. Chant sans Paroles
393. Chinese Patrol March
243. Cloches du Monastere ...
458. Coon Band Contest
433. Corcoran Cadets March
125. Corricolo Galop (Easily arranged)
377. Edelweiss
374. Emmeline Galop
308. Fille du Regiment
167. Flying Dutchman (La Vaiseeau Fantome)
244. Forward March
Four Humoresques :
206. Valse in D, No. 1
207. Minuetto in A minor. No. 2 ...
208. Allegretto, No. 3
209. Allegro Alia Burla, No. 4
210. Funeral March
305. French Air (Marseillaise)
.306. German Air (Watch on Rhine)
264. Gipsies' March
252. Grand March (arr. by P. E. Douglat)
151. Grand March of the Warriors
276. Hiawatha Cake Walk, (arr. by P. E.
Douglas)
436. High School Cadets March
.304. Irish Air (Last Rose of Summer) ...
303. Italian Air (Ah ohe la Morte)
288. Japanese National Hymn, Harmonized
by Sydney Osborne.
133. Kassala Gavotte
270. Kathleen Mavourneen ... ...
171. Khartoum Quick March ... «••
286. King*s Own March
246. Liberty Bell March ...
135. Little Dear Gavotte
162. Lohengrin
136. Maiden's Prayer
435. Manhattan Beaoh March
137. March in E flat
441. March Past of the National Fencibles
440. March Past of the Rifle Regiment ...
140. May-Day Galopade ••• ... •••
/. P. Soma
Roeckel
Gustav Lauge
Wagner
A lard
Gungl
Tschaihowshy
Tschaikowskv
D. Pecorini
Lefebure- Wely
A. Pry or
J. P. Sotisa
L. Mullen
Gustav Lange
Smallwood
Oesten
Wagner
E. H. Sjcgg
Grieg
Qrieg
Grieg
Grieg
Grieg
Eric Stapleton
Eric Stapleton
C. Beins
Blake
H, V. Lewis
Moret
J. P. Sousa
Eric Stapleton
Eric Stapleton
H. Wilcock
P. E. Douglas
F. P. Rahottini
Warwick Williams
Sousa
F. Astrella
Warner
Badarazewska
J. P. Sousa
L. B. M alien
J. /'. Sousa
J, P. Sousa
J, Gungl
Cheap Music (continued) . —
141. Mazurka
143. Melodie
247. Melody in F
211. Minuetto (from E minor Sonata)
163. Mountain Echo March ...
385. Narcissus
439. Our Flirtation March
147. Placid Stream
103. Queenie (Intermezzo) ...
165. Eienzi
253. Robin's Return (arr. by P. B. Douglas)
148. Scherzino
301. Scotch Air (Blue Bells of Scotland) ...
375. Seasons Galop
442. Semper Fidelis ...
196. Silvery Echoes
394. Soldiers' Chorus (Faust)
381. Sonatina in P ...
380. Sonatina in G ...
802. Spanish Air (Dance)
378. Stephanie Gavotte
166. Tannhauser
150- Tarantella ...
290. Washington Post March (easy)
454, White Wiigs (Transcription)
291. Woodland Echoes ...
PIANO DUETS.
367. Come o'er the Stream Charlie
371. From Greenland's Icy Mountains
372. I'd Choose to be a Daisy
154. Maiden's Prayer
156. March of the Cameron Men ...
155. Marche dee Creates
159. Minnie, or Lilly Dale
358. Silvery Waves (Wyman)
DANCE.
388. Amorosa Mazurka
387. Blue Bells Sohottische
262. Blue Danube Waltz ... » ...
382. British Army Polka
285. City Polka
161. Cosmopolitan Quadrille
127. Cyprus Polka
402. D^nau Wellen Waltz (Easily arr. by)
101. Electric Waltz
397. Esmeralda Waltz (easily arranged) ...
395. Fancy Dress Ball Quadrille
413. Faust Waltz (arr. by P. E. Douglas) ...
BadarazeivsJca
Roeckel
Rubinstein
Grieg
G. Garibold'^
Nevin
J. P. Sousa
Smallwood
P. D'Orsay
Wagner
Fischnr
Roeckel
Eric Staphtwi
Smallwood
J, P. So% a
Blake
Gounod\
Beethoven
Beethoven
Eric StapUton
A, Cxibulka
Wagner
L. B. Mallett
J. P. Sousa
Smallwood
Wyman
A . Mullen
A. Mullen
A, Mullen
Badarazpwka
A. Mullen
A. Mullen
A. Mullen
Andre
A. H. Oswtld
S. Leslie
Strauss
Alec Carlton
J. D. Wim fenny
L, Gautier
Stotson Clark
Percy E. Douglas
H. Klein
S. Osborne
Rosenberg]
Gouno
Cheap Music (continued).-—
250. Fiora Waltz
386. Horse Guarda Sohottische
102. Lucifer Polka
251. Niagara Waltz
144. Munich Polka ...
403. Olympia Schotfcische
254. Over the Waves (Sobra las Olas) ...
866, Roseland Waltz
415. Sweetheart Polka
265. Vinolia Sohottische
268. Woodland Whispers Waltz
VIOLIN AND PIANO
256. Campbells are Coming
257. British Grenadiers
258. A Life on the Ocean Wave
259. Hearts of Oak
260. Ivy Green
261. Red, White and Blue
317. Ben Bolt
312. Low Baok'd Car
313. Sprig of Shillelagh
814. March from Norma
316. March, Guillaume Tell
316. LassO'Gowrie
284. Reverie (E min.)
VIOLIN.
170. March St. Olave
W. Gordon
S. Leslie
H. Klein
Vorzatigtr
Jos. Gungl
Sydney J. Smith
Rosas
Marietta Lf>nn
Gounod
P. Lester
Stanley
A, Mullen
A. Mullen
A. Mullen
A . Mulhn
A. Mullen
A . Mullen
A. Mvllen
A. Mullen
A^ Mullen
A. Mullen
A. Mullen
A. Mullen
W. Vinnicomhe
MANDOLINE AND PIANO
274. Alice where art Thou ?
407. Belle of Chicago March
406. Blue Danube Waltz
416. Cadet Two Step (arranged)
408. Corcoran Cadets March
272. Donau Wellen Waltz
414. Faust Waltz and Flower Song
277. Hiawatha Popular Cake Walk
401. High School Cadets March
289. Honey are you true
267. Kathleen Mavourneen ...
399. Liberty Bell March
400. Manhattan Beach March
411. March Past of the National Fencibles
410. March Past of the Rifle Regiment ...
255. Oceana Schottische ...
279. Over the Waves
409. Our Flirtation March
412. Semper Fidelia March
398. Washington Post March ,
F. James
J . P. Sousa
Strauss
A lard
J. P. Sousa
Ivanovici
Gounod
Neil Moret
J. P. Sousa
Sydney Osborne
Crouch
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa.
J. P. Sousa
W. H. Stevens
Rosas
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
32 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
BANJO AND PIANO
429. Belle of Chicago March
405. Cadet Two Step (arranged)
430. Corcoran Cadets March
428. High School Cadets March
419. Liberty Belle March
418. Manhattan Beach March
433. March Past of the National Fencibles
432. March Past of the Rifle Regiment ...
431. Our Flirtation March
434. Semper Fidelia March
417. Washington Post March
J. P. Sousa
A lard
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P, Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
J. P. Sousa
/. P. Sousa
THE VIOLIN TIMES,
Edited by E. POLONASKL
Subscription, 2s, 6d., per Year
Vols 1 to 8, bound, price 6/- Each.
Illustrated Supplements have appeared IncUiding the following (2^d. each.)
Monthly, 2d.,
(by post 2^d,)
Abroad, 3s.
Covers for binding
3s. each.
Index 2d. each.
PORTRAITS
VOL 8
Prof, and Mrs. Holloway
and Family
Eugene Polonaski
Hugo Kupferschmidt
Dr. Joachim.
Anton Schumacher
William Christ Basle
M. Coward-Klee
Dettmar Dressel
The Joachim Quartet
Kubellk
C M. Hawcroft
VOL. 7.
W. A. Mozart
Miss Kate Lee
R. Peckotsch
Gordon Tanner
Eugene Meier
W. V. Fisher
Paganini
T. B. Parsons
Joseph Guarnerius del
Gesu Violin, 1733
VOL. 6.
Pierre Baillot
C. A. de Beriot
J. R. Bingley
Ole Bull
^rcangelo Corelli
PORTRAITS (continued.)
Fer'iinand David
Elderhorst Quartette
H. Wilhelm Ernst
Miss Muriel Handley
Miska Hauser
N. Paganini
Louis Spohr
A. Stradivarius
H. Vieuxtemps
G. Viotti
VOL. 5.
T. G. Briggs
Cologne Gurzenich Quar-
tette
Wm. Henley
Miss Leonora Jackson
J. Koh-Alblas
A. Oppenheim (violinist)
A. Oppenheim (pianist)
Mdlle. Jeanette Orioff
Dr. H. Pudor
C. L. Walger
W. E. Whitehouse
Miss Gladys May Hooley
J. Harold Henry
Adolphe Pollitzer
Mdlle. Edith Smith
John Dunn
Heinrich Maria Hain
Edina Bligh
PORTRAITS (cootinuedj
I. B. Poznanski
Rene Ortmans
A. Simoneui
W. Ten Have
Mdile. VVieirowitz
Miss Hildegard Werner
Fred Furnace
Miss Kathleen Thomas
M. Cesare Thomson
F. Whiteley
H. Lyell Tayler
Stanley W. G. Barfoot
G. de Angelis
Marcello Rossi
FACSIMILES AND
PICTURES.
Paganini on his Death-bed
Letter of Ch. de Beriot
Letter of Camillo Sivori
Defeasance of a bond by
Roger Wade Crowder
Viola di Gamba by Carlo
Bergonzi, 1713
Facsimile Labels in Nos
32, 34, 35. 37, 505, ,58
Lira daGamba.byLinarolo,
reproduction of Painting
by Tintoretto
David Techler's Viola
Stradivari's Scroll
Ijacob Stainer's House
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CRQSSJRQAn^ r 33
Books on Freemasonrv published by wreeybs,
^t/ 83, Chwplng CroBB Road. W.C
n VI /n J)?^^' ^®^ cloth. Rilt, 323 pp., 3/6.
Uarlile (R.)> Manual of Freemasonry, containing the First
Three Degrees, The Royal Arch and Knights' Templar
Druids, The Degrees of Mark Man, Mark Master, Architect,
Grand Architect., etc., etc.
~. /, V J^^^' ¥^e cloth gilt, 374 pp., 3/6.
Fellows (J.), Mysteries of Freemasonry; or. An Exposition
of the Religious Dogmas and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians ; showing, from the origin, nature and objects of
the rites and ceremonies of remote antiquity, their identity
with the Order of Modern Masonry, with some remarks on
the Metamorphosis of Apuleius, with numerous woodcuts.
12mo, green cloth, gilt, 254 pp., 3/6.
Ritual and Illustrations of Freemasonry, accompanied by
very numerous engraving 8,B.nd a Key to the Phi Beta Kappa.
8vo, sewed, 26 pp., 1/-
Investigation into the Cause of the Hostility of the Church
of Rome to Freemasonry, and an Inquiry into Freemasonry
as it Was, and Is : with Criticism as to how far the Order fulfils
its Functions, by Author of *' Text Book of Freemasonry."
Post 8vo, sewed, 48 pp., 1/-
Joachin and Boaz; or, an Authentic Key to the Door of
Freemasonry, both Ancient and Modern.
Post 8vo, sewed, 50 pp. 1/-
Three Distinct Knocks at the Door of the Most Ancient
Freemasonry.
8vo, sewed, 1/-
The Origin of Freemasonry, or the 1717 Theory Exploded
by C. J. Paton.
8vo, paper, 2/6 (post free 3/-)
Weisse (John A.), The Obelisk of Freemasonry, according
to the Discoveries of Belzoni and Commander Gorringe :
also Egyptian Symbols compared with those discovered in
American Mounds.
Fifth thousand, 12mo, cloth 1/- net.
Pocket Lexicon of Freemasonry, by W. J. Morris 18 "*
P.D.D.G.M., St. Lawrence, District and Past Inspector
Gen. Royal and Select Masters. _^
I2mo, cloth, 62 pp., 2/- Z ' II7~
Fox (T. L.), Freemasonry ; An Account of the Early History
of Freemasonry in England, with Illustrations of the
Principles and Precepts advocated by that Institution.
The above Post Free on receipt of remittance
for price named.
w.c.
34 W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS RD., W.C.
Books on Freemasonry ^^raik'r/c^is'L'r.Sf
l*2mo, blue cloth, red edges, 270 pp., 5/-
Text Book of Freemasonry ; a Complete Handbook of In-
strnction to all the Workings in the Various Mysteries and
Ceremonies of Craft Masonry, containing the Entered
Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason's degrees ; the
Ceremony of Installation of the W. Master and Oflficers of the
Lodge, together with the whole of the Three Lectures ; also
the Ceremony of Exhaltation in the Supreme Order of the
Holy Royal Arch, a Selection of Masonic Songs, etc., illua-
trated with four engravings of the TRACING BOARDS, by
" A Member of the Craft," new and revised edition.
Ditto, Ditto, on thin paper, bound in leather pocket-book
style, 5s.
The Three Tracing Boards, in 12mo, cloth line, Is. 6d.
.Post 8vo, cloth, 10/- (or crimson calf limp, gilt edges, 16/- net.
Text Book of Advanced Freemasonry, containing for the
self -Instruction of Candidates, the Complete Rituals of the
Higher Degrees, viz.. Royal Ark Mariners, Mark Master,
Royal Arch, Red Cross of Rome and Constantinople, Knights*
Templar and Rose Croix de Heredom ; also Monitorial In-
structions on the 80th to the 33rd and last degree of Free-
masonry, to which are added Historical Introductions and
Explanatory remarks by the Author of the *' Text Book."
MASONIC SONGS AND POEMS
BY BARDS CHIEFLY OF THE
19th AND 20th CENTURIES
COMPILED BY
A. C. STEPHEN.
Third Edition, 8to. boards, cloth back, 6/- net (by post 6/4.)
The International
DIRECTORY OP PATENT AGENTS.
New and Enlarged Edition {the third).
Contains over 5000 Patent Agents, practising in all parts of the
world. Arranged Alphabetically, and, also Geographically.
[[London : W. Reeves, 83, Charing Cross Road; W.C.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C. 35
The Set of 15 Numbers 2/6 post free. Or 2d. each (Post free 2^)
PARISH CHURCH MUSIC.
A Collection of Original, Practicail, Modern Compositions— Tunes, Canticles,
Chants, etc., for use in " Choirs and Places where they Sing." :—
No. I.— Ten Tunes to the Hymn, "ABIDE WITH ME,"
including Three Prize Tunes.
No. 2.— Ferial Confession, "STORY OF THE CROSS,"
Choir Prayers with Antiphon, by G. E. Lake.
No. 3.— Five Tunes to the Hymn, " ROCK OF AGES,"
including Three Prize Tunes.
No. 4.— Six Quadruple Chants for the " TE DEUM,"
including the Three Prize Tunes.
No. 5 —Ten Tunes to the Hymn, "SUN OF MY SOUL,
including Three Prize Tunes.
No. 6.— Ten Tunes to "JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN,"
including Three Prize Tunes.
No. 7.— Six Tunes to the Hymn " NEARER MY GOD
TO THEE," including the Three Prize Tuues.
No. 8.— Eleven Tunes to the Hymn, " HARK, HARK,
MY SOUL," including Three Prize Tunes.
No. 9.— Six Tunes to the Hymn "LEAD KINDLY
LIGHT," including the Three Prize Tunes.
No. io.— Four Tunes to the Hvmn, " JESUS, LOVER OF
MY SOUL," including the Three Prize Tunes.
No. II.— Five Tunes to the Hymn, " LO ! HE COMES
WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING," including the
ThreR Prize Tunes.
No. 12.— Five Tunes to the Hymn, " I HEARD THE
VOICE OF JESUS SAY," including the Three
Prize Tunes.
No. 13.— Six Tunes to the Hymn, '' FOR THEE, 0 DEAR,
DEARCOUNTRY,"inciudingtheThreePrizeTunes.
No. 14.— Four Tunes to the Hymn, " 0 LOVE WHO
FORMEDST ME TO WEAR."
No. 15.— Six Tunes to the Hvmn, "THE KING OF
LOVE," including: Three Prize Tunes.
Price One Shilling, (Cloth 1/6)
Notes ^^ eoNE>ueTOKS
New and Efilarged AND GOT^ lDoCTIr^G«
Edition Z^II^Z^I^^I^I^^^I^^^'^^"-^'"""""
BY T. R. CROGER, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S.,
With three FulUpage Illustratiom of the various '^Beats^ and Plan of an Orchestra
•• A mine of good thwgsr— Musical Opinion. ^ ^^ ^ ^ .
«• One of the best guides to conducting."— P. and M.T, Review,
if
36 W. REEVFS, 83, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
THE Weekly, with Supplement, 2d.
"Musical Standard,
A NEWSPAPER FOR MUSICIANS, - - - -
PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR.
Gives Supplements of Illustrations of British and Foreign
Organs, Portraits of Eminent Musicians, Organ Music,
Violin Music, Anthems, Part Songs, Songs, Piano
Pieces,
Subscription, one year, los. lod., six months, 5s. 5d.
Abroad, one year, 13s., six months, 6s. 6d.
Illustrated Series, Yols. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10 & onward, bound in
brown eloth, 5s. each.
Handsome Covers for Binding, Is. 6d. each, (by post Is. 9d).
Publishing and Advertising Offices :
83, CHARING CROSS ROAD. LONDON, W.C.
1902-3 Edition. Paper, 2s. net: or Cloth, 3s.6d.net.
MUSICAL DIRECTORY
FOR GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,
THE TRADES, PROFESSORS AND OTHERS CONNECTED
VN^ITH MUSIC, CHORAL SOCIETIES, STAFF OF
CATHEDRALS, COLLEGES AND ABBEY CHURCHES, ETC.
W. REEVES, 83, CHARING CROSS RO., LONDON, W.C
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11