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Article ON THE MUSIC OF THE ANCIENTS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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On The Music Of The Ancients.
ticularly , how heroic poetry could have been endurea m ^ those dead languages . The lines of Greek and Latin hexameter verse are not confined to an equal number of syllables , like the heroic verse of modern European languages ; but may consist of any number of syllables , odd or even , from thirteen to seventeen , according to the discretion or fancy of the poet . They are also without any kind of chime between the first , or lastor any intermediate corresponding
, syllables in different lines , which we know is essential to versification ^ in all modern languages , with very few exceptions ; neither does Greek or Latin poetry require an emphasis regularly returning in every iine , at one or more periods of the same distance from the beginning , which is generally requisite to the harmony of modern poetry . Thus in English heroic verse , unless there be a natural
emphasis on every second syllable , the iine hobbles . The mass of lines which might be constructed , in any modem European language , without any of the requisites which have been specified , would be so intolerably uncouth , that , on the supposition already made , we should have been inclined to account for the admiration with which the Greeks and Romans regarded their own poetryby attributing it
, to the barbarism and rudeness of those early times . We should perhaps have been disposed to decide authoritatively , that the souls of those ancients had not been sufficiently harmonized , nor their ears attuned to melody , to enable them to distinguish between the harsh discordance of a number of irregular lines , and the flowing
smoothness of equal lines and chiming syllables . And we mi ; ht accordingly have triumphed in our superiority , because we had discovered the noble art of constructing equal and chiming lines , a degree of improvement in versification which we should then have * thought those rude ancients had been unable to attain . I would presume to question whether the moderns are more competent to decide on the excellence of the Grecian musicthan we should have been to'jtidge
, of the beauty and harmony of Greek or Latin versification , on the supposition of our total ignorance of those languages . The two cases seem to be precisely analogous . Here it may not be improper to observe , that , noi withstanding the happy preservation of much Greek and Latin poetry , we are still incapable of forming an adequate judgment of the pleasure which the
harmony of versification in those languages conveyed to Greek and Roman ears , even as far as that a pleasure arose from the skilful arrangement of long and short syllables . The knowledge of the true method of pronouncing Greek and Latin according to quantity , is lost perhaps as irrecoverably , as that of the application of musical tones to syllables even in prose , which was certainly practised by the ancients .
Yet under every disadvantage , we discover much beauty in Greek and Latin versification ; more perhaps than in that of any modern language . Perhaps the principal difference between the Grecian music and that of the moderns , consists in the separation now effected between m . isic and poetry , those sister arts , which in ancient times were so
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Music Of The Ancients.
ticularly , how heroic poetry could have been endurea m ^ those dead languages . The lines of Greek and Latin hexameter verse are not confined to an equal number of syllables , like the heroic verse of modern European languages ; but may consist of any number of syllables , odd or even , from thirteen to seventeen , according to the discretion or fancy of the poet . They are also without any kind of chime between the first , or lastor any intermediate corresponding
, syllables in different lines , which we know is essential to versification ^ in all modern languages , with very few exceptions ; neither does Greek or Latin poetry require an emphasis regularly returning in every iine , at one or more periods of the same distance from the beginning , which is generally requisite to the harmony of modern poetry . Thus in English heroic verse , unless there be a natural
emphasis on every second syllable , the iine hobbles . The mass of lines which might be constructed , in any modem European language , without any of the requisites which have been specified , would be so intolerably uncouth , that , on the supposition already made , we should have been inclined to account for the admiration with which the Greeks and Romans regarded their own poetryby attributing it
, to the barbarism and rudeness of those early times . We should perhaps have been disposed to decide authoritatively , that the souls of those ancients had not been sufficiently harmonized , nor their ears attuned to melody , to enable them to distinguish between the harsh discordance of a number of irregular lines , and the flowing
smoothness of equal lines and chiming syllables . And we mi ; ht accordingly have triumphed in our superiority , because we had discovered the noble art of constructing equal and chiming lines , a degree of improvement in versification which we should then have * thought those rude ancients had been unable to attain . I would presume to question whether the moderns are more competent to decide on the excellence of the Grecian musicthan we should have been to'jtidge
, of the beauty and harmony of Greek or Latin versification , on the supposition of our total ignorance of those languages . The two cases seem to be precisely analogous . Here it may not be improper to observe , that , noi withstanding the happy preservation of much Greek and Latin poetry , we are still incapable of forming an adequate judgment of the pleasure which the
harmony of versification in those languages conveyed to Greek and Roman ears , even as far as that a pleasure arose from the skilful arrangement of long and short syllables . The knowledge of the true method of pronouncing Greek and Latin according to quantity , is lost perhaps as irrecoverably , as that of the application of musical tones to syllables even in prose , which was certainly practised by the ancients .
Yet under every disadvantage , we discover much beauty in Greek and Latin versification ; more perhaps than in that of any modern language . Perhaps the principal difference between the Grecian music and that of the moderns , consists in the separation now effected between m . isic and poetry , those sister arts , which in ancient times were so