ing of the harp, lyre, guitar, tambourine, double and single pipe, flute, and other instruments, played the favourite airs and songs of the country. Nor was it deemed unbecoming the gravity and dignity of a priest to admit musicians into his house, or to take pleasure in witnessing the dance; and, seated with their wives and family in the midst of their friends, the highest functionaries of the sacerdotal order enjoyed the lively scene. In the same manner, at a Greek entertainment, diversions of all kinds were introduced; and Xenophon and Plato inform us that Socrates, the wisest of men, amused his friends with music, jugglers, mimics, buffoons, and whatever could be desired for exciting cheerfulness and mirth. Though impossible for us now to form any notion of the character or style of Egyptian music, we may be allowed to conjecture that it was studied on scientific principles; and, from the great attention paid to it by Pythagoras, many years of whose life were spent in learning "the wisdom of the Egyptians," there is every reason to believe that whatever defects existed in the skill of ordinary performers, who gained their livelihood by playing in public, or for the entertainment of a private party, music was looked upon as an important science, and diligently studied by the priests themselves. According to Diodorus it was not customary to make music part of their education, being deemed useless and even injurious, as tending to render the minds of men effeminate; but this re as an amusement, which might lead to luxurious and dissolute habits: and Plato, who was well acquainted with the usages of the Egyptians, distinctly says that they considered music of the greatest consequence, from its beneficial effects upon the mind of youth. This is confirmed by the following assertion of Strabo, that the children of the Egyptians were taught letters, the songs appointed by law, and a certain kind of music, established by government, to the exclusion of every other; and Diodorus himself not only allows the invention of music to have been ascribed by the Egyptians to divine origin, but shows that the poets and musicians of Greece visited Egypt for the purpose of improvement.* The authority of Plato, who had spent thirteen years in the country, and had paid particular attention to the institutions of the Egyptians, is of the greatest weight on this question; and the whole passage connected with it is of so much interest, that I cannot refrain from introducing the dialogue in which it occurs. t "Athen. Guest. The plan we have been laying down for the education of youth was known long ago to the Egyptians, that nothing but beautiful forms and fine music should be permitted to enter into the assemblies of young people. Having settled what those forms and what that music should be, they exhibited them in their temples; *Diod. i. 96. + Plato, 2d book of Laws. nor was it allowable for painters, or other imitative artists, to innovate or invent any forms different from what were established; nor lawful, either in painting, statuary, or any branches of music, to make any alteration upon examination, therefore, you will find that the pictures and statues made ten thousand years ago are in no one particular better or worse than what they now make. Clin. What you say is wonderful. : Athen. Yes, it is in the true spirit of legislation and policy other things, practised among that people, may, perhaps, be of a trifling nature; but what they ordained about music is right, and it deserves consideration, that they were able to make laws about things of this kind, firmly establishing such melody as was fitted to rectify the perverseness of nature. This must have been the work of the Deity, or of some divine man; as in fact they say in Egypt, that the music which has been so long preserved was composed by Isis, and the poetry likewise; so that, as I said, if any one is able to apprehend the rectitude of them, he ought to have the courage to reduce them to law and order. For the search of pleasure and pain, which is always directed to the use of new music, perhaps possesses no great power of corrupting the consecrated choir by an accusation of its antiquity. It appears, therefore, that the choir of the Egyptians was by no means capable of being corrupted, but that the contrary was entirely the case." That the Egyptians were particularly fond of music, is abundantly proved by the paintings in their tombs of the earliest times; and we even find they introduced figures performing on the favourite instruments of the country, among the devices with which they adorned fancy boxes or trinkets; and the representation of a woman playing the guitar, which forms part of an ornamental design on a wooden box, in the Berlin Museum, will serve to illustrate this fact, and to show how much grace is sometimes evinced in Egyptian designs. Of this I shall have occasion to speak hereafter.* That they paid great attention to the study of music, and had arrived at a very accurate knowledge of the art, is evident, when we consider the nature of the instruments they used, and the perfect acquaintance they must have had with the principles of harmony; and not only do the sculptures prove the fondness, and, I may add, the skill of the Egyptians, in the use of musical instruments, but the fact is confirmed by a statement of Athenæus †, who expressly tells us that both the Greeks and barbarians were taught by refugees from Egypt, and that the Alexandrians were the most scientific and skilful players on pipes and other instruments. In the infancy of music, as Dr. Burney has justly observed, "no other instruments were known than those of percussion, and it was, therefore, little * In Vol. III., beginning of Chap. VII. † Athen. iv. 25. He quotes Menecles of Barca and Andron (in his annals of Alexandria); and these migrations appear to have been most numerous at the period when the 7th Ptolemy, called Cacergetes, persecuted men of art and science. more than metrical." Pipes of various kinds, and the flute, were afterwards invented; at first very rude, and made of reeds, which grew in the rivers and lakes. The flute*, says Horace †, was originally small and simple, with a few holes, and if it was introduced at the chorus of a play, its sound had only sufficient power to suit a theatre of a very limited size. But in process of time it was made larger, with more notes and a louder tone, and, bound with brass, it rivalled the tone of the trumpet. To discover, we can scarcely say to invent, such simple instruments, required a very slight effort, which observation afterwards improved ; and music must have undergone a regular progression, through the early stages of infancy and youth, till it attained the age of maturity. But, ere it reached this stage of perfection, the powers of the human mind had been called forth to exalt its character; improvement followed improvement, and music became a noble and valuable science. To the alterations made in the simple instruments of early times, succeeded the invention of others of a far more complicated kind; and the many * Tibia was the flute; but it also signified a pipe, and the name tibia dextra et sinistra was applied to the double pipe. Tibia obliqua, λaуiavλoç, was properly the flute. + "Tibia non ut nunc orichalco vincta, tubæque Æmula, sed tenuis simplexque, foramine pauco Accessit numerisque modisque licentia major Hor. de Art. Poët. 202. |