On Ancient Greek Music. 445 sarily follow in their construction ; and more full and sonorous by the many different instruments united in concert which accompany them. But the simple and unadorned music of the ancients^ which according to the divine Plato consisted not in harmony but in unisons, did produce in a better man- ner its proper eflPect of moving the passions : for the philo- sopher judged that the graces and affected delicacies of har- mony enervated and broke the manliness and strength of the art; and that therefore this plain and simple music was more agreeable to nature. '^ If the ancients, as it is said, had various instruments and various kinds of voices which proceeded according to the various properties of their systems and genera (one of which genera ^ the most powerful to excite the passions, and the most perfect ornament of them all, is quite lost in the present harmonic construction of music) it must however be supposed that their songs, voices, and instruments did not confound the words or perplex the sense ; and though they sung in a numerous chorus, and sometimes in harmony, yet was each word distinctly pronounced by each singer at the same moment ; nor were there heard any confused re- petitions in vain passages ; every interval or note, in its minutest difference, being sensibly felt and enjoyed ; nor was one made ever mixed with another but with the utmost care and art, lest one passion might be raised instead of ^' MarceUo aUudes to the Enharmoyiic^ which ascended and descended by the interval of a Diesis or quarter-tone ; an interval which very few ears now-a-days can distinguish, and no voice can accurately divide. It is evident then that we must have lost much of the distinctive power in melody which the ancients had ; and this appears to me to have been occasioned by accustoming our ears to hear with complacency chords which contain what ought to be intolerable discords. My musical readers will better understand my meaning by an example. In the common chord of C, we have sounding together C, E, and G. Now as every note vibrates, together with itself, its twelfth and seventeenth, we have sound- ing together, the twelfth and seventeenth of C, which are G and E two octaves above ; those of E, which are B and G t^ likewise two octaves above ; and those of G, which are 1) and B likewise two octaves above. Thus we have in the fundamental chord of C the following intolerable discords ; G and G ^ together, C and P together, D and E together and B and C together. 1 have recognized the presence of the G and G^ frequently, by listening intently to a common chord on an organ. Aristoxenus says of this genus even in ancient times, .... n-pLTOV ok Kal ai/ajTaroi/, to euap/JLOVLOv* TeXevTalw yap avTw Kal p.6t^ fiCTci iroWov TTovov crvvedi'^eTaL ?} at<T0t|(rt?. Har. p. IH.
