Spencer Cowper, Lieutenant-Governor of Burials in the Grayfriars church-yard, Edinburgh Tynmouth, William Wynyard, of 3d foot-guards, Edward Mathew, of 2d foot-guards, in February 1779. Richard Burton Phillipfon, of ift dragoons, AGE. Francis Smith, of roth foot, DISEASES. No Under Auguftine Prevolt, of 60th foot, Hon. Alexander Leslie, of 64th foot, Sir George Ofborn, Bt, of 3d foot guards, As likewife Lieutenant-Colonels Arthur George Martin, of ad foot-guards, Edward Smith, of ad horse grenadier guards, Thomas Bruce, of 65th foot, vice Edward George Ainflie, of 15th dragoons, vice Ri chard Burton Phillipfon, PRICES of STOCK S. February 13. Bank Stock, 109 1 half South Sea Old Ann. 61 3 4ths a 62 3 p. cent. Bk. red 62 3 4ths 3 p. cent. Conf. 61 1 4th a 18th 4 p. cent. Conf 1762, 63 3 8ths a 14th Bank Stock, 109 1 half South Sea New Ann. 59 3 4ths Omnium. 1 4th a 1 half Pr. Annuities 1778, 111 4th yc. pur. Tb: reft that. SCOTS MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1 779. CONTENT S. Atation on the Scottif MUSIC 113. Mr 134, 15, 40 and Lord North 135. Lemon POPERY Mr Bowie's 135 Jake's ib. Mr Bowie's 137. AMERICA. Gen. Burgoyne to Congrefs, on tenna-performance of the Saratoga conration 141. Congrefs and the French miater on a feparate peace 145. Congrets to their paper-currency 146. Loyal refu s declaration 147- French account of Be operations in the West Indies 147, 8 LIT INDIES. Siege, furrender, and capi thanon, of Pondichery 148-152. KEPPEL's trial. Log books 153. —156. Inciption of a STATE-COACH 156. s. Annals of Scotland 157. A difcourfe * Gunnery 158. Bp Lowth on Ifaiah 159. HISTORY 1777. North America: Protection Red A comparative view of the HEAT in Fcbruary for four fucceffive years 160. POETRY. Dr Taylor to Bonny Brook 161. On Q. Caroline's rebuilding the lodgings of the Black Prince ib. Song in the Liver pool Prize 162. On taking care of two female infants ib. To a mifer ib. T The Scottish mufic does no lefs honour, than its poetry, to the genius of the country. The old Scottish fongs, or melodies, have always been admired, for that wild pathetic fweetnefs which diftinguishes them from the mufic of every other country. I am prompted in this ef fay to try if I can fix the æra of our moft ancient melodies, and trace the history of our mufic down to modern times. In a path fo untrodden, where scarce a track is to be feen to lead the way, the fureft guide I have to follow is the mufic itself, and a few authorities from our history. After all, the utmott I aim at is proba bility; and, perhaps, by fome hints, I may lead others to hit upon a more di A Differtation on the Scottish Mufic. From their artlefs fimplicity, it is evi dent, dent, that the Scottish melodies, or fongs, are derived from a very remote antiquity. The abfurd conjecture, that David Rizzio was either the composer or reformer of the Scottish melodies, has of late been fo fully exposed, that I need fay very little to confute it. That the science of mufic was well understood, and that we had great masters, both theorifts and performers, more than a century before Rizzio came to Scotland, I fhall immediately fhow. He is by no cotemporary writer faid to have been a compofer: he is not even extolled as a great performer; nor is there tradition for his being the author of any one particular fong; and, allowing him to have had ability, the fhort time he was in Scotland, fcarce three years, was too bufy with him to admit of fuch amufement. Let us endeavour to trace back our mufic nearer to its origin. old MS book, under another title; a many inftances of fuch changes may given in the names of our fongs. To return: The fimplicity and wildn of those, and several other Scottish m lodies, denote them, in my opinion, be the production of an age prior to t use of any musical inftrument beyɑ that of a very fimple scale, of few nat ral divifions, and prior to the knowled of any rules of artificial mufic. T conjecture, if folid, muft carry them to a very high antiquity. That the fcience of mufic, and t rules of compofition, were known befo the 15th century, is certain. K. James the moft accomplished prince of his tin a patriot, lawgiver, and poet, is celebi ted by all the Scottish hiftorians, not ly as an excellent performer, but a gre theorist in mufic, and a composer of a to his own verfes. "Hic etenim in m fica, (fays Fordun), non folum in fo vocis, fed in artis perfectione, in tymp no et choro, in pfalterio et organo. N inquam avidi ad ufum, fed ad fumm perfectionis magifterium natura creatri quædam vis et potentia divinitus hum no generi infita, ultra humanam æftim tionem ipfum vivaciter decoravit; pr fertim in tactu citharæ tanquam alteru Orpheum, principem et prælatum or nium citharœdorum, in citharis fuis, d lectabiliter et dulciter illum prædotavit Scotichronicon, v. 2. c. 28. Fordun, the fame jingling ftyle, has a whole cha ter, the 29th of his hiftory, on K. Jame learning and knowledge, in the ancie Grecian, as well as in the modern fcal of mufic, which is too long to be tra fcribed, but, for its curiofity, is wort to be confidered by the modern dilettan in mufic. The most ancient of our fongs ftill preserved, are extremely fimple, and void of all art. They generally confift only of one measure, without a fecond part, as the later or more modern airs have; and they must have been compofed for a very fimple inftrument, fuch, perhaps, as the fhepherd's pipe, of few notes, and of the plain diatonic fcale, without ufing the femitones, or fharps and flats. The ftrain of our old melodies is plaintive and melancholy; and, what makes them foothing and affecting to a great degree, is a conftant ufe of the concordant tones, the third and fifth of the fcale, often ending upon the fifth, and fome of them on the fixth of the fcale. By this artlefs ftandard, feveral of our oldest Scottish melodies may be traced; fuch as Gil Morris,-There cam' a ghost to Margret's door, —O laddie, I man loo thee,—Hap me wi' thy pettycoat. I mean the old fets of thefe The next authority is John Major, wi airs, as the laft air, which I take to be celebrates James 1. as a poet, compof one of our oldest songs, is so modernized, and admirable performer of mufic; ar as fcarce to have a trace of its ancient affirms, that, in his (Major's) time, t fimplicity. verfes and fongs of that prince, (Cantil It may, perhaps, be faid, that the words) were reckoned among the first of t of fome of thefe fongs denote them to be of Scottish melodies. I fhall give the who no very ancient date: but it is well known, paffage : that many of our old fongs have changed their original names, by being adapted to more modern words. The laft tune, Hap me wi' thy pettycoat, I have feen in an • Some old tunes have a fecond part; but it is only a repetition of the first part, on the higher octave; and most of these fecond parts, I fufpect, are of a more modern date than the tunes themselves. "In vernacula lingua artificiofiffimt compofitor, cujus codices plurimi et ca tilence memoriter adhuc apud Scotos int primos habentur. Artificiofum libellum Regina, dum captivus erat, compofui antequam eam in conjugem duxerat. E aliam artificiofam cantilenam ejufdem Yas fen, &c. et jucundum artificiofumqu illum cantum, At Beltayn, quem alii Dalkeit Dalkeith et Gargeil, mutare ftuduerunt, more honour than the writers of his own quia in arce aut camera claufus fervabatur, in qua mulier cum matre habitabat." It is a pity that Major has left us only this obfcure hint of the fubject of this fong. Amongst the number of our old Scottish melodies, it is, I think, scarce to be doubted, that many of K. James's compofitions, which were efteemed amongst the first of the age, are ftill remaining; bat as no tradition down to our time has afcertained them, they, in all probabiIity, pafs undiftinguished, under other names, and are adapted to more modern lunes. There can be no doubt, however, that most of James's compofitions have shared the fame fate with many of our old airs, and are now loft. All our old heroic ballads, fuch as Hardyknute, and others, were undoubtedly fung to Lanes compofed for them, now loft. A mong thofe ftill preserved, the epifodes of Offs are at this day fung in the Highlands: Gill Morris, -The Flowers of the Frift, and Hero and Leander, are ftill fang to their old pathetic ftrains. Thefe, however, are but a few of many old ballads whofe airs are now unknown. In the MS collection of Scottish poems befure the 1568, made by Banatyne, formerly in Lord Hyndford's poffeffion, now in the Advocates library at Edinburgh, the favourite poem of the Cherry and the Sl, and alfo a poem of Sir Richard Maitland of Ledinton, father to the fapous Secretary Maitland, are intitled, "To be fung to the tune of Banks of Hon." This muft have been a wellknown tune 200 years ago, as it was fung to fuch popular words, but it is now loft. It cannot exist under other words, as the metrical ftanza of the Cherry and the She is fo particular, that I know no air, at this day, that could be adapted to it. We find in old books many names of fongs, of which the verses remain, yet of the tunes we now know nothing. In the fame way, most of K. James I.'s poetical pieces are now loft, or cannot be diftinguished as his; and fome of them that remain, fuch as Chrift's Kirk on the Green, are even (though falsely) attributed to other authors. It may be fufpected from the above high-ftrained authorities, that his countrymen rather allowed themfelves to be carried too far in fetting out the qualifications of their king. I fhall, however, produce the teftimony of a foreigner, a celebrated author, who does James ftill country; and, fingular as the propofition may appear, I thall endeavour to prove, that the Scottish melodies, so far from being either invented or improved by an Italian master, were made the models of imitation in the finest vocal compofitions of one of the greatest masters of compofition in Italy. The celebrated Carlo Gefualdo, Prince of Venofa, formerly Venufium, famous as being the birth-place of Horace, flourished about the middle, or towards the end of the 16th century, and died in 1614. Blancanus, in his Chronologia Mathematicorum, thus diftinguishes him: "The Moft Noble Carolus Gefualdus, Prince of Venufium, was the prince of muficians of our age: he having recalled the rythme into mufic, introduced fuch a ftyle of modulation, that other muficians yielded the preference to him; and all fingers, and players on ftringed instruments, laying afide that of others, every where eagerly embraced his mufic*." He is alfo celebrated by Merfennus, Kircher, and almost all the writers of that age, as one of the most learned and greatest compofers of vocal music in his time. To apply this account of the Prince of Venofa to the fubject in hand, Alessandro Taffoni, in his Penfieri diverfi, lib. 10. cap. 23. thus expreffes himself: "We may reckon among us moderns, James King of Scotland, who not only compo fed many facred pieces of vocal mufic, but also of himself invented a new kind of music, plaintive and melancholy, different from all other in which he has been imitated by Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venofu, who, in our age, has improved mufic with new and admirable inventions †." What an illuftrious teftimony this, to the excellency of our old Scottish fongs! Let us here do juftice to the restorer of this record, who, next to Taffoni, deferves the thanks of every Scotsman. I mean the late Patrick Lord Elibank : for although Taffoni is well known as a poet, particularly by his celebrated Sechio • Sir John Hawkins, vol. 3. p. 212. † Noi ancora poffiamo connumerar tra noti Jacopo Re di Scozia, che non pur cofe facre compofe in Canto, ma trova da fe stesfo, una nuova mufica, lamentevole e mesta, differente da tutte l'altre. Nel che poi e ftato imitato da Carlo Gefualdo Principe di Venofa, che in quefta noftra eta ha illustrata anch' egli la mufica con nuove mirabili invenzioni, R 2. rapita rapita, the firft of the mock heroic poems among the moderns; yet his book De diverfi penfieri, though printed near two centuries ago, and containing a great deal of learned and curious obfervation, is but little known on this fide of the Alps; and that curious paflage which fo long had efcaped the notice of every Scotfman, might quietly have flept in the dark repofe of great libraries, had not the penetrating research of this acute and learned nobleman, about twenty years ago, produced it to light. From him I had a copy of that paffage, fince published by Sir John Hawkins and others. To return to our fubje&t: How would fome of the dilettanti in mufic, of the prefent times, fneer with contempt to be told, that the Italians, the patriarchs of modern mufic, owe the reformation of their mufic to the early in troduction of Scottish melodies into it? yet nothing is more certain, as is proved not only from the candid acknowledgement of Taffoni, but from the teftimony of the Italian mufic itfelf, before the Prince of Venofà's time. It is at this day no longer a queftion, that the art of compofition in parts, or, what is called harmony, is the invention of the moderns; but by whom invented, or at what particular æra, is not fo clear. As the cultivation of modern mufic was chiefly among the ecclefiaftics, on account of the church-fervices daily in ufe to be fung by them, the rules of harmony undoubtedly took rife, and were improved, among them. Guido d'Arezzo, a Benedictine monk, about the beginning of the eleventh century, is by many authors faid to have reformed the feale, by introducing the lines, and the notation on them by points, inftead of the letters of the alphabet formerly in ufe; from which the name of counterpoint, for the art of compofition in parts, is derived. From that period, it was by degrees improved, until it was brought to perfection, in the golden age of the restoration of other polite arts and fciences in Italy, the pontificate of Leo X. At this time flourished the venerable Pal-firina, ftyled the father of harmony; and, in the fame age, though later than him, the Prince of Venofa mentioned above. As the productions of a harmonist, and thorough mafter of the art of counterpoint, the compofitions of Paleftrina, even at this day, ftrike us with admiration by their artful fugues, and the full and fublime harmony of their parts: in the church ftyle, nothing except the grandeur an fublimity of the chorufes of the late grea Handel, can exceed them. Yet ftill i one great point the music of Paleftrina deficient : The head may be entertaine with the learning and artful contrivanc of a well wrought fugue, or the mind o levated by the harmony.of a full choir o voices; yet ftill melody or air is want ing. To any perfon verfant in the works thofe great mafters of harmony in Pale ftrina's time, there will appear the fam ftyle, learning, and artful contrivance which runs through every species of the compofitions, their moffa's, motteti, canon and madrigals, all of them are compoft in the ftrict canon or fugue ftyle. I do not remember to have feen an cantata, or fong of one part, of the a of Paleftrina. The Italian mufic, for pi vate entertainment, at that time, feen to have been the madrigal, general fet to fome favourite ftanzas or love-ve fes of Petrarcha Ariofto, or Taffo. It compofed in the fugue ftyle, for three four parts, fung in the alla breve tim The madrigal, when well executed, I proper voices, is pleasant and foothing but, deficient in air, foon becomes di and tiresome. In this ftate was the mufic of Ital when we may fuppofe the Scottish mel dies of James I. had found their way i to that country. Will it be then we dered at, that fuch a genius as Carlo G fualdo fhould be ftruck with the genui fimplicity of ftrains which spoke direct to the heart? or that he should imita or adopt fuch new and affecting mel dies, which he found were wanting the mufic of his own country? I wi venture to fay, that the natural swe and plaintive ftrains of Jocky and Sand Will ye go to the ewe bughts,-Be conftar ay, and many other of our old fongs a bout that age, muft touch the heart every genius, in every country, and migh enrich the compofitions of the greater foreign master: Purpureus late qui splendeat unus et alter, HOR. Here let me ftop! I hope we fhall ne longer hear the abfurd tale of the Scot tifh mufic being invented by an Italian when we fee it proved by fo great an au thority as Taffoni, that the Scottish me lodies, above two centuries ago, and in his time, had been adopted into the finef |