To show to which of the three scales, the diatonic, the chromatic, or the enharmonic, the note belonged, and, where the scale was raised above the first series, to describe the degree of its elevation, the Greeks varied the form of the letter. Each variation formed a note, and the whole formed 1,620 notes. These constituted the Greek scale; it is evident that to acquire the knowledge and ready use of it, prodigious labour was necessary.

It has been observed that the Romans rejected the enharmonic scale, and many of the Grecian subdivisions of the diatonic and chromatic scales. This reduced their notation, comparatively speaking, to a very small number of notes. They are supposed to have been limited to 15. Pope Gregory the Great, reduced them to the seven first letters of the alphabet. The sounds in the gravest or lowest octave, he expressed by the capital letters, A. B. C. D. E. F. G; the sounds in the octave next above it, he expressed by the minuscules, a. b. c. d. e. f. g; the sounds in the octave above this, he expressed by double minuscules, aa. bb. cc. dd. ee.

ff. gg.

The letters of Pope Gregory were afterward abandoned for notes or points.

II. 2.

The Stave.

A CERTAIN number of parallel lines, rising one above the other, forms what is called, by some writers, the stave; by others, the staff. These musical lines were unknown to the Greeks and Romans.

They first came into use in the tenth century. The letters or notes were placed sometimes on the spaces only, and sometimes on the lines; but it seems probable, that, before the time of Guido, the spaces and lines were never used together in the writing of the same piece of music. Thus it required eight lines for the notation of the octave. Afterward notes were placed both on the line and the

space; the lines were then reduced to four. We shall see that the Guidonian system of hexachords, made it expedient to increase them to five. As the science and practice of music extended, occasional additions were made to them. These, from their being placed under particular notes only, and not drawn out through the whole length of the line, were originally called Ledgers that is, Legers or Lights. At present, (particularly since the insertion of the additional keys on the forte piano,) a complete, and more than a complete staff of notes, is occasionally inserted in musical compositions, over the highest line of the stave. Formerly keyed instruments seldom contained more than five septenaries, as they did not descend lower than SOL SOL, or ascend higher than RE RE. At present the grand forte piano embraces forty keys, or nearly six complete septenaries.

II. 3.

The Gamut.

It is known that the Gamut was invented, or at least brought into fashion and use, by Guido, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Pomposa, born in 999, at Arezzo, a small town in Tuscany. Hearing the monks sing, in a church at Rome, a hymn in Sapphic verse, in honour of St. John, he observed, that the first syllable of the first word of each hemistich, rose regularly a tone, or a half tone higher, than the first note of the first syllable of the last preceding hemistich; so as to form a complete Greek hexachord, beginning with the key note and ascending to the sixth. The words of the hymn are,

In the tune or melody of the hymn, as it was then sung, the tones of the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la,

were sounded exactly on the note, in which those syllables are now sung in the gamut.

Guido, therefore, supposed four parallel lines to be placed, and the lowest line to represent the sound ut; the space between this and the parallel line above it, to represent the sound re; the second parallel line to represent the sound mi; the space between it and the parallel line above it, to represent fa; the third parallel line to represent sol; and the space between it and the parallel line above it, to represent la. This formed a complete hexachord, or an ascending series, consisting of the first note, a full tone, another full tone, a half tone, a full tone, and another full tone. But, as the human voice extends to a greater compass, he supposed a second hexachord to begin at fa, and to rise, through sol, la, si flat, and ut, to re; and a third to begin at G, and to ascend through la, si natural, ut and re, to mi. To effect this, he adopted the gamma of the Greek alphabet, as a symbol for ut, so that, wherever it was placed, it was to represent ut.

It is to be observed, that the hymn, which suggested the gamut to Guido, is not now sung by the Romish choirs, in the melody, in which he heard it. But this melody has been discovered in the library of the cathedral church of Sens. A copy of it, and of the representation given by sir John Hawkins of the hexachords of Guido, is inserted in the plate opposite to this page.

It must be observed, that, in the second hexachord, si natural is to be admitted, and si flat rejected; and that, in the third hexachord, si natural is to be admitted, and si flat rejected. Thus the hexachord which begins with ut, is the first, or natural hexachord; that, which begins with fa, is the second, or soft hexachord; that, which begins with sal, is the third, or harsh hexachord. The representation given by sir John Hawkins of the hexachords, will be found to comprehend twenty notes, and to contain six generations of hexachords.

Such is the supposed improvement of Guido. His contemporaries speak of it in terms of the highest praise.

They say, that it enabled a boy to learn in one year, what, before that time, he could scarcely learn in ten. Some assert, that he received the knowledge of it by divine inspiration. Your correspondent begs leave to say, that to him, the merit of Guido's system of hexachords has ever appeared incomprehensible. Surely the diatonic tetrachords of the Greeks, afforded a scale much more simple, and much better constructed, both for practice and theory. It must be obvious to every one, that the final note of a tetrachord, both in the ascending and descending series, sounds to the ear as a regular close of the preceding series; and that the final note of a hexachord in the ascending series, sounds more as the beginning of a new series than as a close of a former.

Whatever may be the merit or defects of the Guidonian system, it remained in universal use till the close of the seventeenth century, when Le Maire, a French musician, is said to have assigned the syllable si, to the final note of the septenary, or the note between la and ut. This completely restored the Greek diatonic scale of tetrachords; and, by appropriating different letters or syllables to express the second tetrachord, was an improvement upon it.

It must be added, that the labours of musical beginners were considerably shortened by the introduction of the si. Your correspondent was one of the unfortunate beings, who learned the musical notation, by A re, B mi, Cfa ut, D sol re, E la mi, Ffa ut, G sol re ut; and the rest of that gibberish. In those days, masters were not fonder than they now are, of giving explanations. Had they told us, that the reason for there being more than one syllable added to the literal name of a note, was its appertaining to more than one hexachord, and showed the different places of these syllables in the different hexachords, it would have been food for the mind, and assisted the memory. But, speaking generally, no such explanation was given. It is surprising how late it was in the last century, before the very intricate solmization by the hexachords was abandoned, and the use of the sibe

came general. In England, the si was adopted later than in any other part of musical Europe. This puts me in mind, that, till within these few years, the accounts in some departments of the exchequer were kept in the Roman mode of numerical notation, though the Arabic mode is so greatly its superior; and the practice of a single quarter of an hour, must convince even the dullest understanding, of its infinite superiority.

II. 4.

Division of Notes.

We now come to the Cantus mensurabilis, as it was termed in the middle age,-or the invention of musical notes of different durations in time. Till the period, of which we are now speaking, the only division of notes was into the long and the short note; the latter being half the duration of the former. But sometimes, in consequence of a point being added to it, a preceding note was lengthened by one half of its regular duration; and that proportion of it was taken from the following note.

The further division of musical measure seems to be generally ascribed to Magister Franco, who died in 1083; it was extended by him to the minum; our countryman, Morley, says, "that the ancient musicians esteemed this the shortest note singable." By degrees it was extended to the demisemiquaver, or a note with three hooks. But, even in the beginning of the last century, these subdivisions were little used. At present we have notes with five hooks, or quarter demisemiquavers.

II. 5.
Musical Bars.

EVERY musical piece is divided into equal portions of time, called measures. These are ascertained to the eye by straight lines, called bars, drawn down the stave; so that all the notes contained between two bars, constitute one measure. In the canto fermo of the Romish church,