Music And The Masonic Ritual—No. Ii.

according to the relative positions these intervals hold to the fundamental note , and to each other . . To put this in its simplest light , a note ,, together ivith its unison , may be taken as 1 ; a major third as j ; a perfect fifth as |; and the octave as 2 . The proper understanding of the essential difference betiveen melody and harmony would frequently prevent us hearing , from the mouths of educated brethren ,

such a style of address as , " Would Bro . — favour us Avith a little harmony ? " a request that carries with it a palpable absurdity . Intimately connected Avith tho ancient melodies was rhythm , or measure , and there are innumerable forms of it arising from the position of tho accent . Iambic rh y thm consists of a short or unaccented note , followed by a long one . Trochaic rhythm is the reverse of the former . Dactylic rhythm consists of a long note before two short ones . Aiiiipxhtic- is formed of two short and one long . Prom this it will be readily understood , that tbe accent of a language in some

manner regulated the music of the nation ; as iu the event of the language being strongly marked , the music or melody is always found to be forcible and passionate , OAving to the lingual and melodic rhythms both falling in thc same place ( p . 446 ) . * Por our purpose we shall not describe the ancient system . of melody , known to the Greeks as harmonica , further than to say that Euclid divided it into seven parts ,

viz ., sound , interval , gender , system , tone , mutation , melopceia . Still ive may add , that the principal support of the Greek music was the rhythmopoeia , or adjustment of sounds to time and accent , so that a short syllable had but half the duration of a long one , and as each verse conttiined a number of feet formed by a combination of long and short syllablesaccented in various waysthe rhythm was measured

, , by the feet , each of which had two parts equal or unequal . This was regulated by the coryphceus or conductor , who stood in the midst of the orchestra , exalted above the rest , having wooden or iron sandals whereAvith to stamp the rhythm , and to make himself heard above the music . To this is attributed tbe wonderful effects of the

orations intoned by the poets and orators of antiquity , and as they recited in measured periods , so did they also choose certain notes on which to sustain the voice during their recitations . Every classical scholar will remember the various allusions that are scattered over the writers of antiquity , proving this universal practice , and that many of them were frequentl y accompanied by some musical instrument , in

order that the proper notes should be given by them with precision ; t but Demosthenes , in his celebrated oration , chose the more sublime and poetical seashore as the place of delivery , for the express purpose of modelling his intonation to the note which old ocean in its rolling should suggest . In a recent work . " | : a similar course is recommended ; and the laws are thus laid doivn ( p . 57 ) , " the interval of a semitone is to be used in jileasing melancholy ; that of a second in calm conver-