Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

which results from its being totally divested of Accent and Rhythm by the prolongation of each note to almost an equal, and always a tedious length; by which the words become as unintelligible, as if they were united to Airs of the most modern cast, frittered into divisions, or even loaded with parts as much in sequence as in a Catch or a Glee. Music thus performed is as liable to obscure the sense of the words by its simplicity, as a more refined mode is by its complexity; for, as in the intonation of any given word, the vowels overpower the consonants in proportion as that intonation is prolonged, and, as the meaning of every word is distinguished more by different consonants than vowels, so, when the former are inaudible, little more than the unmeaning sounds of the more open vowels remain. Let a person attend to a Psalm, sung in the usual way by a full congregation, and, I think, he will acknowledge this to be nearly the fact. The remedy, I am now to point out, which I think both natural and easy, is this: Let the Psalm tune be divested of all its bars, as it was at the first formation of that kind of Music, retaining only a single bar at the end of every line of the verses, and a double one at the conclusion of the Stanza. The ear, in reading rhymed verse, always dictates a pause to the voice at the end of each line, and a longer at the conclusion of the sense; and these two bars are admitted for the same purpose. In the next place, as every verse, in the various metres employed in our common version, is usually of the Iambic species,

that is, the first syllable, whether long or short in actual quantity, is always pronounced short, and the next syllable long, and so alternately to the end of every line: Therefore the accompanying notes of the Melody should be regulated by the same law. For this purpose there would be no occasion to change the Notes already in use, but only to give them different durations, always singing the first as short again as the second; the third as the fourth, and so to the end of each line, prolonging the time of the whole strain to about twice that of solemn recitation. This, while it added to intelligibility, would take from Psalmody its tedious drawl, and certainly leave it sufficient gravity.*

But what we term gravity or solemnity in Music is not governed by such precise laws, as Melody and Harmony. It varies as the caprice of individuals, and the fashion of ages varies. What was deemed grave and solemn three

*Notes of different duration occur constantly in the old Melodies as Semibreves, Minims, and sometimes Crotchets, but not with any regard to syllabic quantity; nor is their respective value attended to in the performance. Hence Rousseau observes, "That the Music of the Psalms in the Protestant Con"gregations is even more imperfect, than the plain Chaunt of "the Catholics; because they never distinguish in their mode "of singing the Longs and the Breves, the Semibreves and "Crotchets, though they have retained their characters." Dict. de Musique-Art. Notes.

An ingenious medical Philosopher has lately gone far beyond me on this point; for he says that " Our Music, like our Archi"tecture, seems to have no foundation in nature, they are both "arts purely of human creation, as they imitate nothing. And

or four centuries ago may now appear tedious and dull; and this very alteration, which I propose in Psalmody, though it would certainly have been thought profanely light by Pope Gregory, may, perhaps, be esteemed sufficiently grave for a devotional purpose by our Protestant Bishops. Nothing but the duration of syllabical sounds, considered in the relation they bear to one another, can now be accurately ascertained, and this not in florid Music, but only when joined with those simple Melodies, which usually accompany the metrical versions of our Psalms.

For this purpose, (though I know that the declaration will not escape ridicule) I own, I should prefer the mechanical assistance of the Cylindrical or Barrel Organ to

"the Professors of them have only classed those circumstances, "that are most agreeable to the accidental taste of their age, or (6 country; and have called it proportion. But this proportion "must always fluctuate, as it rests on the caprices, that are in"troduced into our minds by our various modes of education, "And these fluctuations of taste must become more frequent "in the present age, where mankind have enfranchised them"selves from the blind obedience to the rules of antiquity in "perhaps every Science, but that of Architecture." Zoonomia, p. 157.

Those who are acquainted with the modern Adamitical Taste, as it has been called, to distinguish it from the Vitruvian, will perhaps wonder at the exception. For myself, I only wonder, that the whole Science of Harmonics founded, as has been thought, on Mathematical Principles, can be thus subject to fluctuation. But we seem to live in an age, when demonstrative, as well as "Moral evidence shall quite decay."

Dunciad, B. iv. L. 462..

the Finger of the best parochial Organist. My reason for this is, what every person acquainted with its ingenious construction will agree to, that the duration of every Note is capable of being adjusted by exact and visible mensuration, so that the eye and rule of the artisan may strictly determine, what the ear and hand of the former could seldom perhaps so accurately execute; and this, because the strain would not move according to Musical, but Metrical laws. It is well known also that the relative duration of the notes remains invariably the same, whether the Cylinder be moved quicker or slower. In Musical terms the strain will be performed either Adagio, Largo, or Allegro; but it will be still either in common or triple time.

This is all I have to advance on my present subject, which is, perhaps, more than many of my readers may think necessary. Yet as the epithet metrical, affixed so constantly to Psalmody, clearly points out that, in the performance of it, the laws of Metre ought to be strictly attended to, I thought it expedient not only to prove, that they have been constantly neglected, but also to shew what seems to me to be the best method, by which they may so far be observed, as to make this part of our Church ritual, instead of a dull and unintelligible, a pleasing and reasonable Service.

END OF THE THIRD ESSAY.

ESSAY THE FOURTH,

ON THE

CAUSES OF THE

PRESENT IMPERFECT ALLIANCE

BETWEEN

MUSIC AND POETRY.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »