ART. III. Principes Elémentaires de Mufique, arrêtés par les Membres du Confervatoire, pour fervir à l'étude dans cet établissement. Première Partie Livre I. Paris, An VIII. Prix 15 Francs. Folio. 49 pp. Engraved Plates. UNIVERSAL dominion over the realms of fcience, as well as of politics, is the profeffed object of revolutionary Frenchmen. They have been, indeed, more fuccefsful in the latter defign, than they will probably be in the former; at least the fpecimen here given of their abilities, to reduce the rules of mufic to obedience, does not prophecy in their favour. We are induced to commence our new plan of noticing foreign publications occafionally, in the body of our Review, by the prefent work; with the hope of chastifing the exceffive vanity, and extreme ignorance of these pretenders. They combine, it is true, in the lift of compilers on the prefent occafion, names of feveral nations, yet it will be easily shown, that they are all inadequate to the task they have undertaken. Not, we must confefs, that their work is infufficient to educate French musicians; but, when a national establishment appoints a committee of its beft members to draw up a code of laws for the instruction of youth, we expect fomething better than a performance like the prefent. By a previous Advertisement we are informed, that the French Mufic School was founded 18 Brumaire, An 2, (8th of November, 1793) under the title of National Inflitute of Mufic; this was changed 16 Thermidor, An 7, (3d August, 1799) to Confervatory of Mufic, which it ftill retains. At the fitting (12 Fructidor, An 2) of the general assembly of artifts, a commiffion, confifting chiefly of compofers, was formed to draw up thefe Elementary Principles; the lift contains the names of Cherubini, Langlé, La Cepede, Le Sueur, Catel, Martini, Mehul, and Goffec. We are concerned to fee the talents of Framery and Gretry not employed on the prefent occafion. Framery has diftinguished himself by his critical remarks on the errors of Rouffeau, in the Encyclopédie Methodique, and the Effais of Gretry are well known to all lovers of mufical literature. This commiffion of eight prefented their labours, 19 Floreal, An 7, and at the general affembly, 4 Prairial, An 7, (8th and 20th of May, 1799) the work was unanimoufly voted claffical. Hence the director of the Confervatory, Sarette, orders these principles principles to be taught in the claffes of the establishment. In a note to this page, a compliment is paid to Citoyen La Cepede, of the National Inftitute, for uniting his talents to those of the committee. Such are the circumftances which ufher this production to the world; and the names of Cherubini, Langlè, Martini, and Goffec, are fuch as to authorize no inconfiderable expectations of their united efforts. On a flight perufal of the thirteen articles, into which the book is divided, but to which neither table of contents, nor any kind of index is given, we are at a lofs to difcover any great analytical talents, or even common literary labour in their claffification. The first fix articles extend no further than 1, Sound; 2, Mufic; 3, Notes; 4, Staff; 5, Letters; and, 6, Cleffs: the fubfequent five treat of 7, Intervals; 8, the word Tone; 9, Modes; 10, Modulation; 11, Genera. Then at the 37th page it is thought neceffary juft to notice, 12, Meafure; and, to conclude (from p. 43 to 49) with, 13, the other Signs. If, however, the matter were important and correct, we fhould not differ about the form under which it appeared; but we are, in justice, forced to accufe the editors of three unpar donable defects, want of precision, want of hiftorical veracity, and want of theoretical knowledge. P. 1. Article 1. Of Sound. Sound is divided into two fpecies, irrational, or inappreciable, termed noise (bruit) and rational, or appreciable, termed mufic. In a note to this article, appreciable founds are divided into three claffes, grave, mediate, and acute; these are again fubdivided into their correfpondent vocal arrangements of bafe, baritone, tenor, counter tenor, fecond and first treble. P. 2. Article 11. Of Mufic. This, like the former, is a very fhort article; and as a fpecimen of the general flyle of the work, we fhall prefent it entire, "Mufic is the art of combining founds. By their elevation (or pitch) duration and fucceffion differently combined, they form tunes (des chants) hence arifes melody. By their fimultaneous reunion they produce chords, hence arises harmony. "Melody and harmony compofe the whole of mufic, of which, found is confequently the only principle." Article Article 111. Of the Characters which reprefent Sounds, or of Mufical Notes. The feven different forms of notes are given from the femibreve to the half demifemiquaver (quadruple croche) and the ancient characters of the large, the long, and the breve, are mentioned in a note. P. 3. Article 1v. Of the Pofition of the Notes, and of the Staff (Portée). The notes are reckoned grave, mediate, or acute, from their pofition on the staff. The space below the ftaff, and the two first lines, include the four grave founds. The second space, and the two following lines, contain four of the mediate class. The fourth space, fifth line, and the space above, represent the three acute founds of each voice. By the help of fupplementary lines, four fubgrave, and four fuperacute founds are obtained. Here we find (p. 4) a striking inftance of defect in precifion. The acute founds are first enumerated (p. 3) as only three, in the following arrangement they are termed four. This, perhaps, may be thought a remark too flight; but when fo many ingenious men pretend to compile a standard work, we expect more than ufual accuracy. P. 4. Art. v. To make amends for the brevity of the preceding articles, this occupies three whole pages, and is divided into two fections. Sect.. Of the Seven Notes of Mufic, their Names, and the Order affigned to them. The series of feven musical notes is termed thus: ut, re, mi, fa, fol, la, fi, ut. This fucceffion was firft (they affert) called the diatonic scale, and afterwards the diatonic gamut. P. 5. Section 11. Compofition and Divifion of the Gamut, and of the Interval of the Tone and Semitone. These authors now forget the unity of their defign, and choose to begin this Section by way of queftion and anfwer. "What is an interval? "An interval in mufic is the difference between one found and another, more acute or more grave. "What is a tone? "The interval between ut and re, &c. &c. afcending, and between re and ut, &c. &c. defcending. 3 "This "This interval is named diatonic. "What is a femitone? "The least of all the intervals in the diatonic gamut." After this definition, they inform us, that there are two forts of femitones, the diatonic and the chromatic. The diatonic femitone is between mi and fa, &c. afcending, and between fa and mi defcending. In these definitions nothing precife is contained; fince the distance or interval between ut and re, or between fi and ut, is wholly independent of the afcent or defcent of the melody, and ought to have been more theoretically explained in a fcientific publication. Suremain de Miffery could have afforded them a very useful explanation, which might at least have been inferted in a note. See his Theorie Acoustico-Muficale, p. 105, Paris, 1793. where he not only gives the true mathematical analysis of the tone and femitone, but also a practical explication of them by an appeal to the ear alone. It is afferted, by dividing the gamut into two fourths, that they are both perfectly equal. This might be admitted, if the reference had been made to the temperament of keyed inftru ments. Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Ut. But furely these great theorists must know, that the intervals are not equally distributed; and that the hypothesis of Des Cartes and Rameau, by which ut to re is reckoned as a minor tone (like the real one from fol to la) is evidently falfe. P. 7. To elucidate further the nature and relation of the tone and femitone, the authors have entertained their ftudems with three examples, indicative of the progress of mufical notation, and of their own profound acquaintance with mufical antiquities. 1. Gamut on a ftaff of eight lines, primarily invented (produit) by Guido of Arezzo. In this the eight notes are each placed on a line, and no use whatever is made of the fpaces. 11. Gamut on a flaff, reduced to four lines, by Guido. In this the spaces are used, and the notes alternately placed on them with the lines. III. Gamut on the flaff of five lines, invented (produit) by Jean de Muris. Where, except in their own inventive faculties, thefe learned writers have found thefe curious hiftorical documents, we are at a lofs to imagine. Kircher Kircher and Galilei have indeed given examples of mufic upon eight lines (fee the Mufurgia, vol. i. p. 213, and Sir I. Hawkins, vol. i. p. 429); but they both contend, that this notation was prior to the time of Guido. Dr. Burney has alfo very clearly fhown (vol. ii. p. 87) that Guido probably firft ufed the spaces intermixed with lines; but as for the reduction of the eight lines to four lines, and the placing of ut on the loweft, no fuch improvement was ever before attributed to this Lord of the Mufical Manor. Dr. B. ii. 72. But the most ridiculous circumftance of all this hiftorical information is, that they give Guido the honour of inventing, not merely the hexachord, but the prefent fyftem of the diatonic octave, and alfo the use of the fyllable fi, in the year 1022; when even Rouffeau proves, that Jean de Muris, in 1330, was igno`rant of it. Another curious fpecimen of their accuracy, confifts in naming the first line ut, in both the pretended scales of Guido, and in the third of De Muris, without inferting any clef whatever, to show that they confider the first line to be C. Every mufical writer in England, Germany, and Italy, is apprized that Guido placed his gamma or G, on the lowest line; but they feem to know better in France. Such is the science of the Musical Confervatory, illuminated by the affiftance of the Inftitute. P. 7. Article vi. Of the Clefs, and their Utility. After deciding pofitively, that the firft line is always ut, when no clef appears, it feems rather unneceffary to place a character to name notes which are already named without it. This article, however, makes fome amends for the preceding defect, by being well arranged; and it details the nature of the three clefs, fa, ut, and fol, with fome fuccefs. It is obferved in a note (p. 11) that an organ open pipe, of 97 centimetres, or three feet, will found the F of the bafe clef. P. 12. Article VII. Concerning Degrees and Intervals. The glaring want of precifion in defining their technical terms is here very evident, for the authors contradict themfelves in the space of a few lines. Section 1. Of Degrees, Conjoint, and Disjoint. "A degree is the interval, comprehended between two notes, which follow each other immediately in the diatonic gamut. Confequently at is the beginning of the first degree, and re terminates the |