Suffer

eft effect that mufic can produce. In the former, mufic ufurping the fuperior station, commands attention by a ftorm of found, leaving the dialogue languid and uninterefting. This unnatural disjunction of found from fenfe, has introduced a fort of baftard mufic, termed recitative. ing the words to pafs, though abundantly flat and languid *, I object to the execution, an unnatural movement between pronouncing and finging, that cannot be agreeable but to thofe who have been long accuftomed to it. Of one thing I am certain, that graceful pronunciation, whether in the calm narrative tone, or in the warm tone of paffion, is far more pleasant. What puts the preference of the Greek model far beyond a doubt, is, that the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were for a long course of time the delight of the most refined nation that ever exifted: an Italian opera, on the contrary, never runs above a feafon; and, after being once laid afide, is never revived. But this flight and fuperficial tafte for harmony above melody, can

*No perfon will fufpect that under this cenfure is comprehended the celebrated Metaftafio.

VOL. I.

Oo

not

not be lafting: nature may be wrested, but foon or late refumes its empire. Sentimental mufic will be feriously cultivated, and restored to the place in the theatre it anciently poffeffed with dignity and propriety. Then it is that we may hope to rival the Greeks in mufic as in other arts. Upon the whole, mufic undoubtedly is much improved with refpect to its theory; but, with respect to the practical part, there appears as little doubt of a woeful degene

racy.

I lay hold of this opportunity to add a fhort article concerning the hiftory of mufic, which regard to my native country will not fuffer me to omit. We have in Scotland a multitude of fongs tender and pathetic, expreffive of love in its varieties, of hope, fear, fuccefs, defpondence, and defpair. The flyle of the mufic is wild and irregular, extremely pleafing to the natives, but little relifhed by the bulk of those who are accustomed to the regularity of the Italian ftyle. None but men of genius, who follow nature and break loofe from the thraldom of cuftom, esteem that mufic. It was a favourite of the late Geminiani, whofe compofitions fhow deli

cacy

cacy of tafte equal to the fuperiority of hist genius; and it is warmly praifed by Aleffandro Taffoni, the celebrated author of Secchia Rapita. Difcourfing of ancient and modern mufic, and quoting from various authors the wonderful effects produced by fome modern compofitions, he fubjoins the following paffage. Noi ancora pof"fiamo connumerar trà noftri, Iacopo Rè "de Scozia, che non pur cofe facre com"pofe in tanto, ma trovò da fefteffo una

nuovo mufica lamentevole e mesta, dif"ferente da tutte l'atre. Nel che poi è "ftato imitato da Carlo Gefualdo Principe "di Venofa, che in quefta noftra età ha "illuftrata anch' egli la mufica con nuova "mirabili invenzioni (a) *." The king mentioned must be James I. of Scotland, the only one of our kings who feems to

(a) Penfieri diverfi, lib. 10. cap. 23.

* « We may reckon among the compofers of the "moderns James King of Scotland, who not only "composed facred fongs, but was himself the inventor "of a new ftyle of mufic, plaintive and pathetic, dif❝ferent from all others. In this manner of compofi❝tion, he has been imitated in our times by Carlo "Gefualdo Prince of Venofa, who has illustrated that ftyle of mufic with new and wonderful invention."

56

have had any remarkable tafte in the fine arts; and the mufic can be no other than the fongs mentioned above. These are commonly attributed to David Rizzio, because he was an Italian and a musician; but erroneously, as we now discover from Taffoni. Our James I. was eminent for poetry no less than for mufic. He is praifed for the former by Bishop Leflie, one of our hiftorians, in the following words; "Patrii carminis gloria nulli fecundus." We have many poems afcribed by tradition to that king; one in particular, Chrift's kirk on the green, is a ludicrous poem, defcribing low manners with no lefs propriety than sprightlinefs.

Another caufe that precipitates the downfal of every fine art, is defpotifm. The rcafon is obvious; and there was a difmal example of it in Rome, particularly with regard to eloquence. We learn from a dialogue accounting for the corruption of the Roman eloquence, that, in the decline of the art, it became fashionable to stuff harangues with impertinent poetical quotations, without any view but ornament merely; and this alfo was long fashionable in France. It happened unluckily for the

the Romans, and for the world, that the fine arts were at their height in Rome, and not much upon the decline in Greece, when defpotifm put an end to the republic. Auguftus, it is true, retarded their fall, particularly that of literature; it being the policy of his reign to hide defpotism, and to give his government an air of freedom. His court was a school of urbanity, where people of genius acquired that delicacy of tafte, that elevation of fentiment, and that purity of expreffion, which characterize the writers of his time. He honoured men of learning, admitted them to his table, and was bountiful to them. It would be painful to follow the decline of the fine arts in Rome to their total extirpation. The tyranny of Tiberius and of fubfequent emperors, broke at laft the elevated and independent spirit of the brave Romans, reduced them to abject flavery, and left not a fpark of genius *. The fcience of law is

the

* A fingular perfecution was carried on by Pope Gregory, most improperly furnamed the Great, against the works of Cicero, Titus Livius, and Cornelius Tacitus, which in every corner of Christendom were publicly burnt; and from that time, there has not been feen a complete copy of any of thefe authors.