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443 071 Ancient Greek Mtisic. 443 been produced on himself, and appeal to him to say whether it has not generally been by old and simple melodies : whether the poet who has recorded in strains that never can be forgotten, how he " won his bright and beauteous bride,'"'' did not well when he ^ '' played a soft and doleful air And sung an old and moving story. An old rude song"" I would ask such persons whether the parts of pieces of music which are most powerful over their minds are not those in which some air is brought prominently forward which takes hold on their memories — and whether those strong associ- ations, by which things far distant and various are bound fast in one, are not called forth by the bare hearing of (it may be) but two or three notes of the air, in which the con- necting spirit lies. I think they cannot deny this : and if so they must admit that the powerful agent in these matters is the musical sentiment, and not (if I may so call it) the musical machinery. I cannot forbear quoting as mighty authority in these points, the words of Marcello, one of the greatest and truest musicians that the world has seen. He says, in the preface to his Psalms ; " With regard to my music, it is adapted to a subject which requires principally the expression of the words and the sentiments ; hence it is for the most part composed for two voices only, in order to produce more happily the effect intended. It was for the same purpose, and to move the passions and affections only, that music was made use of by the ancients in unisons simply, particularly by the Hebrews, Phoenicians and Greeks. And though it was sung by many and various kinds of voices, yet till the time of Guido Are- tino, who lived about the eleventh century, the air was one and the same through all the parts; sometimes accompanied with one instrument, sometimes with another ; which sounded the air or vocal part itself; and both the vocal and instru- mental were no otherwise diversified than by taking the tone or pitch above or below; it should be also observed that harmony, which is understood by the moderns to imply a various mixture of voices and instruments, was anciently no other than a progression of sounds, various indeed in respect