of eight and ten-ftringed inftruments in vogue among them, of the nebel and kinor, which we conjecture to be like the lute and harp; and from which the Greeks had their nabla and cinyra. They had likewise several kinds of wind-inftruments, fuch as the trumpet, flute, and what feveral antient and modern verfions call the organ, whatever refemblance it might have to ours. To thefe they joined the drum, and perhaps the kettle-drums (which we take to be the inftrument fpoken of in the laft note); efpecially when their music was accompanied with dances, as it generally was; and thefe, if artfully touched, could not but give a wonderful cadence to them. fticks, as our old dulcimers, or with the fingers, like the harp. As for the account which the Jewish writers give of thefe, and feveral other mufical inftruments mentioned in holy writ, it is ftill more pitiful. But this is not fo much to be wondered at; their mufical, as well as their poetic genius, has left them long ago; but if thofe, who are judges of either, can fup. pofe fuch a vaft difparity between them to be poffible, and that the dulleft and most unmufical inftruments were used to enliven the harmony of the most fublime poetry, we freely own we cannot join with them; and that, though it be ever fo impoffible to come at any notion of the nature and fymmetry of thofe inftruments, yet we cannot forbear thinking, that they must have been vaftly more fuitable to it, than any of thofe which our most diligent fearchers have yet been able to difco ver. It would be loft labour to go about giving a further account of all the various kinds of mufical inftruments mentioned in holy writ, which the Jewish rabbies reckon to the number of 34, by taking the titles of feveral pfalms, fuch as mican, figaion, fheminith, &c. for particular inftruments on which these pfalms were to be played. But, fetting even these aside, there will be ftill at least twenty different forts left, which we fhall, however, forbear men. tioning, because we know so little of them, and have fo little reafon to be fatisfied with the conjectures of commentators about them. All that we fhall fay further is, that they were of three kinds; namely, I. wind-inftruments, fuch as the feveral forts of flutes, trumpets, and the organ; 2. ftringed inftruments; of this kind were the harp, lute, inftruments of three, eight, or ten ftrings; and, 3, fuch as were beat either by the hand, or with a ftick, as the tabor, drum, kettle-drums, and fuch-like. To go further upon the subject, would be venturing in the dark. The reader may, if he pleases, fee a fuller account of them in Calmet's differtation, quoted in p. 206. BUT BUT if we may judge of the excellence of the Hebrew mufic from its wonderful effects, fuch as we find it had upon Saul in his most melancholy and distracted moods, and in calming the fouls of the prophets, and fitting them for divine infpiration b, which is no more than the Greeks tell us of their own, and which can hardly be denied without giving the lye to a cloud of antient authors; we fhall be forced to own, that it was vaftly more moving than any thing we have now. And indeed, what wonder is it, that it fhould have attained to fuch perfection, if we I confider the great distance of time between its first author Jubal, and Mofes ? and that, from the time of the latter, it was in conftant use, both in their worship, in their religious and civil festivals, in their public and private rejoicings, and even in their mournings; witnefs that which David compofed on the death of Saul and Jonathan, and the lamentations of Jeremy at the death of king Jofiah (O)? a Sam xvi. 23. vid. & xix. 7, & feqq. • Gen. iv. 21. d 2 Sam. i. 17, & feqq. (O) What farther improvement it may have received from David's time, may be eafily gueffed, if we confider the great encouragement which that monarch gave it he was a good mufician, as well as an excellent poet; and how much a prince's inclination contributes to the advancement of any art, is obvious to every one. To what a height then may we not fuppofe it was improved by thofe 4000 Levites, whom he wholly devoted to that province, under the tuition of 288 excellent mafters, with Afaph, Heman, and Feduthun, at their head (9) The law had already provided for their maintenance another way; fo that nothing FROM b 2 Kings iii. 15. could intercept or divert their application to fo delightful an art. Befides thofe, who affifted conftantly by turns at the altar of burnt-offering, we read likewife of women who applied themselves to mufic both vocal and inftrumental; fuch were Heman's three daughters (10), and those which are mentioned by the pfalmift (11). Their kings had alfo their own muficians of both fexes (12). Some of the pfalms, especially the xxth, xxift, and lxxiid, are fupposed to have been compofed, in order to be fung on the day of their inauguration. The xlvth, and the Canticles, are reckoned a kind of epithalamium proper for a wedding (10) Ibid. ver. 5, 6. 2 Sam. xix. 35. (12) 1 Chron. XXV. 2. (9) 1 Chron. xxiii, 5. xxv. 7, & feqq. (11) Pfal. Ixviii. 25. Ecclef. ii. 8. day. FROM all this, the reader may eafily judge, whether it be credible, that an art of fo long ftanding, fo much admired, encouraged, fo univerfally practifed, and capable to caufe fuch wonderful effects, could be fo coarse and plain, as to confift only in the variety of voices and inftruments, playing all to the fame notes, without any combination of even bafs and treble, much lefs of the other parts, which make up the foul of mufick; and that chance, at leaft, fhould not have led them to observe the harmony of fome, as well as the harfhnefs of other compound notes, fo as to point out this improvement to them, in so long a time, and among fuch variety of voices and inftruments. For our part, we think it as difficult to imagine, as it is to account for the furprifing effects we read of it, from bare fimple tunes, how fine and melodious foever. One thing feems more than probable, from the ftyle of feveral of the pfalms, and the frequent tranfition from the first to the third perfon; that it was performed alternately, one part of the chorus answering to the other, at proper ftanzas and divifions, not unlike the choirs of our cathedrals 1. What other improvements they might have made to this art, which we are wholly ignorant of, is not fo eafy to guefs at, as how and when they might be loft (P). * See CALMET differt. de mufic. Heb. discourse on the fame. day. We have feen likewife, that they had proper pfalms and hymns, not only at the temple, for every great festival, and other public occafions, but alfo at their private feafts, fuch as weddings, circumcifions, and the like. In a word, no nation feems to have been fonder of mufic than the Jews; info much that though the Babylonih captivity had made them hang their harps on the willows; yet, at their return, we find they brought back a troop of zoo musicians of both fexes (13). WHAT 1 BED FORD'S objected, that the roughness of the Hebrew, its abounding with confonants, gutturals, and monofyllables, makes it fo unfit for mufic, that it would be even madness to attempt it. Were this indeed really fact, it would at once explode all that we have faid on the other fide; but we hope we have already fufficiently fhewn the contrary, in what hath been faid hitherto on that head. We may even venture to affirm, that fome pieces of Hebrew, which we have fet to fuitable mufic, (P) It is indeed generally would eafily convince any im(13) Ezra ii, 65. partial WHAT has been faid of the Hebrew mufic may be alfo fuppofed of their dances; namely, that those which were of a religious nature were generally more grave and folemn, than their other forts; but, whether confined to rules, or. directed only by cuftom and imitation, whether circular, as is generally fuppofed, or of any other form, we can only guess by thofe of other antient nations. But, even this being all conjecture, and not worth a further inquiry, we shall pass to another subject, better known to us; referring the reader, for a more full account of the Hebrew poetry, mufic, &c. to the authors quoted in the margin P. Of the language, writing, and learning, of the THE 'HEIR tongue was the Hebrew, fuch as we have it Hebrew in the writings of Mofes, and other facred authors. tongue. We shall find a more proper place to give the most probable etymon of that name; being far from thinking, that it was called fo from Heber, in whofe family alone it had been preserved in its purity, as the parent of all the reft, as fome authors have imagined. What we have faid formerly, both about the confufion of languages in general, and of the uncertainty of the Hebrew being the mother, much n Vide MERCER, SKIKARD, MEIBON, GOMAR, LECLERC, CALMET, & al. • Vide auct. fup. citat. partial judge, that this objection is wholly imaginary, and fprings partly from the want' of due attention on that neglected tongue, and partly from our prefent unaccountable fondnefs for the modern Italian tafte. It is even certain, from the excellent compofitions which have been made in our own native English, though in moft refpects (gutturals excepted, which, by the way, are far from unmufical) the moft like the Hebrew of any modern language, that the perfection of mufic doth not confit in that smooth finking foftnefs we are now fo taken lefs lefs the original tongue, doth sufficiently expofe the fondnefs of fuch a notion. We fhall not therefore repeat what has been faid already P, but confine ourselves to what was there promised; namely, to give some further account of the genius, and of thofe particular excellencies, of the Hebrew tongue, for which it is fo generally supposed to have been the mother of all others (Q). BUT though we allow the preference to the Hebrew in this refpect, yet we have already proved etymologies to be too uncertain a foundation to build upon if therefore this laft has any advantage over the reft, with refpect to its being a mother rather than a daughter to any of them, it must be upon the account of its fimplicity, its pureness, energy, fecundity of meanings and expreffions, notwith standing its natural barrennefs of words; over and above its great affinity to all the antient tongues mentioned in the last note, and which it seems to excel in all these particulars. To this may also be added the fignificancy of the names both of men and brutes, the latter of which are generally allowed to express their nature and properties in this, more than in any other known tongue; not to infist ♪ Vide vol. i. p. 348. (Q) Here we do willingly give up the conceit of fome antient fathers (1), who, from the words of the pfalmift (2), when he (Ifrael) came out of Egypt, and heard a language which he knew not, have imagined, that to the many favours which GOD fhewed to that people at their deliverance out of Egypt, he added this one, of inspiring them with an immediate knowlege of that facred tongue. As to what is farther urged in favour of it by fome critics, that we find in it the greateft number of the apteft etymologies and roots, both of men and things, the fame has been also urged in favour of the Chaldee and Sy riac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and almost of every eastern tongue; and we need not wonder much at it, fince it is no more than what a Flemish antiquary has endeavoured to do with respect to his own native one (3), from a confiderable number of etymologies of primitive names, as of Adam from Haas-dam, Eve from Ev-vat, Abel from Haasbelg, Cain from Quaat-ende, and many others, which are fo forced and unappofite, that one would have rather taken it as a burlefque upon etymologists, than for a serious piece, had he not been at fuch pains to tell his readers, that he was in very good earnest. ( (1) Origen. lib. iii. cont. Celf. Gregor. Nyffen. orat. 12. cont. Eunom. Theodo(2) Pfal. Ixxxi. 5. (3) Gorop. Becan, ret. quæft. 61. in Gen. & al. origin. Antwerp. lib. v. pass. |
