Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Anglo-saxon music
Anglo-saxon music. Among the Anglo-Saxons, music was much practised ; and though their strains would in all probability have sounded harsh to a modern ear, yet over the simple and strong sensations they had a powerful influence. Music had not yet been disjoined from its natural alliance with poetry - a circumstance which gave to both arts a fascination unknown to them separately. The most astonishing effects are ascribed to their music ; stories are told of the perfect witchery which their bards exercised over the passions of their audience ; of companies being melted into tears by their doleful airs ; then exhilarated to laughter, dancing, and shouting, by their sprightly songs ; and roused at last to madness and mutual wounds, by the fierce notes that provoked revenge. All this is perfectly intelligible, without supposing their musicians to have possessed any secret in melody that is lost to the present age, when we consider the convivial nature of those assemblies where music was generally introduced. It is not uncommon to see the manliest natures melted into tears by simple melody, or a company to join in dancing and shouting, when the glass has circulated and the fiddle has struck up. Our northern ancestors drank very heartily ; and it is much more credible, that the strong potations which they had swallowed, rather than the hand of the harper, introduced riots into their meetings. From an illuminated manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Bible, it appears that they had a variety of musical instruments, sufficient at least to make a considerable noise in their concerts. In the picture alluded to, there is a harp of eleven strings, a four-stringed instrument line a violin, with a bow, a short trumpet, and a curved horn. In the reign of Edgar, the famous St. Dunstan gave a fine organ to Glastenbury, which is described by William of Glastenbury. But it was to vocal and church music that the greatest attention was paid. Teachers were sent for, at a great cost, from distant countries, and the monks frequently travelled to Rome, that they might learn to excel their brethren in an accomplishment on which their promotion often depended. In the reign of Athelstan. the first set of bells was introduced into England, and presented to the monastery of Croyland by their abbot, Turketul. Single bells, however, must have been known in the seventh century, as they are mentioned by the venerable Bede.