CHAPTER IV

MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

WHEN did earthly music begin?

We have no record. There are those who would tell us that the Greeks invented music, because certain instruments are supposed to have first been used by them. But the race of Greeks were undreamed of; not a stone was quarried for the building of the cities by the Ægean when music was old in the world. It began on the morning of Creation, however that creation began, and once begun it will never cease until Time's clock stops, runs back, and ceases, and the Universe knows not God, its Creator, and becomes silent. And that can never be!

God is the author of Music. He is its Originator, Inspiration and Preserver today. Hence all true music, all real song comes from Him.

The word music undoubtedly originated from the Greek and refers to the Muses, the Virgin divinities who presided over the different arts. These were said to be daughters of the Greek god Zeus and Mnemosyne, and were born in Pieria at the foot of Mt. Olympus. Different early writers speak of three Muses (Meditation, Memory and Song), and of

four, seven, eight and nine, and while Homer refers to the nine, we do not learn their names until Hesiod gives them, viz., Clio, the muse of poetry; Euterpe, of lyric poetry, and generally depicted with a flute; Thalia, of comedy or merry and idyllic poetry; Melpomene, of tragedy; Terpischore, of the choral dance and song; Erato, of love poetry; Polymnia, of the sublime hymn; Urania, of astronomy; and Calliope, of epic poetry.

Every ancient nation has its myths and legends of the birth of music. Which is the oldest nation? and which stories are the most reliable? To me their only interest is in showing how ancient is human musical expression and how naturally and spontaneously it sprang forth as man developed.

While to most occidentals there is nothing sweet or captivating in the music of the Chinese, they claim for it a divine origin. It is the essence of the harmony existing between heaven, earth, and man. The Chinese builds his world upon the harmonious action of the heavens and the earth; regards the animation of all nature, the movement of the stars, and the change of the seasons, as a grand "world music," in which everything keeps steadfastly in its appointed course, teaching mankind thereby a wholesome lesson. He associates his music, therefore, with virtue and morality. Even the different notes of the scale represent to him moral precepts. He bases all his sciences upon music.

Of the power of music the Chinese have many interesting stories. A thousand years before the Greek Orpheus charmed the animals with his lute, the Chinese musician, Kouei, said: "When I play upon my king,* the animals range themselves spellbound with melody before me." Of another performer we are told that "his music was so sweet, the very stars of heaven drew near to listen."

The direful effects of the repression of the desire for musical expression was well illustrated in 246 B. C., owing to the issuance of an edict by one of the emperors of China, ordering all musical books and instruments to be destroyed. He gave as his reason that these things led people to forget and neglect agriculture, which he regarded as the only basis for the happiness and prosperity of the nation. As late as 140 B. C. writers lament the resulting loss of music and claim that it had had a woeful effect upon the people, in that they had thus lost the chief means of regulating the heart, with the consequence that the baser passions had gained national control.

The legends of the Hindus, as to the divine origin of music, are very different from those of the Chinese. They claim that after Brahma had lain in the egg three thousand billion four hundred million years, he split it by the force of his thought, and out of the two halves made heaven and earth. He then created

*King. This is a chime of stones, giving forth very sweet sounds more enchanting than a chime of the finest bells.

Manu, who brought forth from chaos "ten heavenly sages." These in their turn created the gods, and among them, Grandharven and Apsarasen, or the genii of song and dance. The latter became the musician of the gods. Later the gods themselves became musicians and ancient pictures show even Brahma himself beating upon a drum.

In Siam and Burmah music, both vocal and instrumental, has always held a high place, men and women alike seeking to win the honors bestowed upon public performers of exceptional ability and endowments.

The music of Egypt is exceedingly ancient, but its origin is lost in the darkness of antiquity. Even the oldest Greeks grant to Egypt the invention of the lyre and flute, and very early reliefs show the use of the sistrum. One of the wonders of Egypt was the "Vocal Memnon," a colossal statue, near Thebes, of King Amenophis, which, on receiving the rising sun's rays gave forth a harp-like sound. It will be recalled, too, that when the Israelites escaped from the Egyptians Miriam, the sister of Moses, led her maidens in a song of triumph.

The Persians, Turks and wandering Arab tribes of the desert all have their distinctive music, the practice of which has come down from the earliest ages. Among all so-called aboriginal peoples-those of Africa, Australia, and the Americas music is instinctive. Its exercise is spontaneous, and is inextricably

interwoven with their worship. Dancing, smoking the sacred pipe, and singing form the major portions of their religious ceremonials, and that student of their life and customs who ignores the power of song, can never know the real innerness of the aboriginal mind.

The ancient Greeks were a musical people, as Homer clearly reveals. So, indeed, are all people, without exception. To sing is as natural as to talk, and as soon as the power of making sounds with the human voice was discovered, it may be said that song was born. How interesting it would have been, could one have stood, overlooking the whole human race as it emerged from mere animality into mental consciousness-provided that was the way, the method, of its progress and seen the first and later attempts at the making of song. Thus we should have learned how the scale came into existence; how rhythm was invented; and have been able to trace the development of the various modes of musical expression to the present day. How little we know of it. Our ideas upon the subject mainly are guesswork.

We do know, however, that man's desire for music led him to invent all kinds of instruments to be substitutes for, or accompaniments to, the human voice, the most perfect of all. The Chinese have the most perfect theory to account for the invention of musical instruments. They contend that there are eight different sounds of a musical character in