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A NOBLE national music, if not a certain mark, is yet a probable indication of many national virtues. The general diffusion of beautiful traditionary melodies among a people implies the prevalence of refined taste and of tender or exalted feelings. Such compositions could not be produced, appreciated, or preserved, among men whose hearts were engrossed with sensual or sordid things, or refused admittance to the kindly and imaginative sensibilities of which music is the powerful and universal expression. We shall not deny that the qualities which are akin to musical taste may sometimes nationally, as well as personally, degenerate into softness and effeminacy, or wander into impetuosity and violence. But, if properly regulated and attuned, the same affections that are awakened by musical sounds, which are but the echoes of a higher and holier harmony, will not be insensible to the voice of moral sympathies. Popular music, too, it will be remembered, is generally the parent or the sister of popular poetry. The mass of mankind are too sensuous in their constitution, too fond of vivid and tangible images, to rest contented with the shadowy suggestions and wandering idealities of mere melody in its ethereal state, while unincorporated with significant language. National music is thus the frequent origin, as well as subject, of poetical genius. It will often, indeed, happen that the finest melodies, instead of being married to immortal

VOL. XLV. NO. CCLXXIX.

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verse, are but very indifferently provided with yoke-fellows; but it is not necessary, in order to produce a powerful effect, that the words of a song should be equal to the music. Rude and feeble expressions may be sufficient to give a definite object and distinct character to a melody, and may, in combination with its influence, create impressions equal to those which proceed from much superior poetry. The poetical feelings, that are thus called into action, will necessarily belong to the better parts of our nature, and, by the exercise which is given to them, will tend to ameliorate the character. the same time, and by the same process, the music of a country will become linked more strongly with those local objects and events that are most cherished and most memorable. It will become the depository of all that is interesting to human feelings or dear to national pride; and, by the innu. merable recollections which it involves, united with its natural power to excite emotion, it will acquire a magic influence over the heart which no other art can lay claim to. The love of country, a love which is the concentration of all social and domestic charities, appears to be the passion that is most powerfully moved by means of national music. A few characteristic notes, breathed from a simple reed, or sung by a rugged voice, will, to men at a distance from their native land, more readily and forcibly recall the images and feelings of home than the

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most elaborate description, or the most lively picture. The mind is at once replaced amid those pleasing scenes which formerly echoed to the same familiar strain, amid those beloved objects with which its melody so sweetly harmonized. As an auxiliary, therefore, to virtue and happiness, the possession of a national music is an inestimable blessing. It lightens labour, and enlivens recreation; it embellishes plenty, and compensates for hardship; abroad it reminds us of the loves that we have left, and the hopes that are before us; at home it invests every spot and objeet with the light of poetry and the charms of recollection; in the hours of peace it knits more closely the ties of neighbourhood and affection; in the day of battle it nerves the arm for victory or the soul for death,

Having said so much of the moral influence of national melody, let us add something as to its effects upon the progress of musical art, There is little doubt that the prin cipal charm of modern music arises from the adoption, in scientific composition, of the peculiar attractions of popular melody. We should still be wearied with the drawling dulness of the old chants, if composers of discernment as well as science had not seen the necessity of following the universal taste of mankind, and of incorporating the results of experience with the speculations of theory. Music is the art of pleasing the ear, and the only standard of such an art is success. A scientific musical composition that gives no pleasure is a sole cism-a contradiction in terms. Musical science may be of service in pointing out faults and in extending knowledge, but it cannot create beauties; and here, as well as elsewhere, the observation holds true-Maximum est vitium carere virtutibus. To be cold and tiresome is infinitely worse than to be incorrect. But the art of pleasing in music has been very much derived, or at least improved, from a study of those effusions which have either spontaneously sprung from the popular taste, or have been preserved by its influence amidst the wreck of other productions of a less congenial and buoyant character. The most successful works of modern composers have been formed, in a great measure, upon the model of national melody;

and an enlarged view of the science has shown that no sacrifice of musical system is necessary in order to please the simple as well as the erudite. The sources of musical beauty are the same, whether popularly or technically viewed. From adventitious circumstances, the pleasing and the profound may at times appear to diverge; but in this art, as in every other that is intended to address and to ameliorate human feelings, the highest perfection is to be found in that region where popular and scientific excellence are united and identified.

The subject of national melody, its origin, character, and influence in different countries, have been very imperfectly investigated or considered; and we have no doubt that much discovery, at once useful and interesting, might yet be made in this department. The affinities existing between the music of different nations, if carefully and scientifically traced, might, we conceive, throw much light both upon their community of origin, and also upon the predominant principles of musical sensibility among mankind; and in this last view we might, by such enquiries, more surely approximate to those immutable and universal laws of the art that can best assist composers in writing for a permanent and extensive popularity. Transcendent genius will often attain this object by its own instinctive perceptions: but merit, even of a high order, might, by instruction from this source, be preserved from those local or temporary aberrations into which it is often tempted by caprice or fashion, and which, though pleasing in a partial degree, must ultimately obscure its real excellence.

In the general dearth of information, which we believe prevails on this subject, we yet think that we cannot be much mistaken in claiming a very high degree of relative praise for the national music of our own country. The opinions of Scotchmen on such a question, may be suspected of bias, but the testimony of high and impartial authorities has been repeatedly given to the same effect. The Scottish music is extensive and various, and in every department pos sesses unquestionable merit. Our dancing tunes have a spirit and force unrivalled to our ear by any other music, and so electrically fitted to rouse the national fervour and en

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thusiasm, that we doubt not they will ere long regain their legitimate ascendency in the ball-room. Our humourous airs have an eminent power of clever or grotesque merriment. Our serious melodies are often highly polished and graceful; and those of a plaintive character are as exquisitely pathetic as the most finished compositions of the greatest masters. Taken all in all, we are not convinced that there is any other body of national music in the world that surpasses that of Scotland, in force, in character, in versatility, or in genius. We certainly feel not a little exultation at our superiority in this respect over neighbours of England, to whom we are willing to bow with a proud humility in many other subjects of competition, but whom, we rejoice to think, we can always out-do in the matter of mountains and music. We are far from denying to the English the praise of musical feeling, and we are grateful for the great contributions which, by their regular and scientific compositions, they have made to the general stock of musical pleasure. Not to enumerate the early madrigal and canon writers of England, who were equally remarkable for their talent, learning, and ingenuity, or to refer to her ancient church music, which will always command admiration, the country that owns Purcell for her son, and can boast of Handel for her fosterchild, deserves one of the highest places among modern nations in the scale of musical genius. But we are here speaking of that aboriginal or self-sown music which is referable to no individual author, or school of authors, but seems to be the fruit of the very soil itself, and reveals, by the raciness of its character, the peculiar qualities of its native bed. In point of national music, properly so called, we think ourselves entitled to claim the advantage over our southern countrymen. The English have, undoubtedly, a national music, and we see with interest the present progress of an elegant and judicious collection of their melodies under the direction of Mr Chapell. But although recognising the great spirit and sweetness of many of the English airs, we think that, as far we have yet seen, few or none of them exhibit those decided features either of antiquity or of peculiar origin by which our Scottish airs are so strikingly marked.

With these opinions, it will be readily conceived that we have hailed with great pleasure a recent addition to the musical lore of Scotland in the publication of the Skene MS., which has been long known and referred to, as existing in the Advocates' Library, but which is now for the first time given to the light, under the care of Mr Dauney, a member of the Scottish bar, who has engrafted on the legal profession many elegant accomplishments, and, in particular, a very refined and enlightened acquaintance with musical science. We shall give

a short account of this MS. in Mr Dauney's own words:

"The collection of ancient music now submitted to the public is the property of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh. It was bequeathed to that learned body, about twenty years ago, by the late Miss Elizabeth Skene, the last surviving member, in a direct line, of the family of Skene of Curriehill and Hallyards in Mid-Lothian, along with a charter-chest containing a variety of documents relating to that family, of which that lady had become the depositary, as their representative, and great-great-grand-daughter of John Skene of Hallyards, who was the son of Sir John Skene, the author of the treatise De Verborum Significatione,' and Clerk Register during a great part of the reign of King James VI."..." The MS. is without date, and there is great difficulty in speaking as to the precise time when it was written. Indeed upon this point we cannot venture upon a nearer approximation than twenty or thirty years. From the appearance of the paper, the handwriting, and the fact that some of the tunes are here and there repeated, with very little alteration as regards the music, it is extremely probable that they had been taken down at dif ferent times, during a period of about that duration. Further than this, the most careful examination will only permit us to add, that one part of the MS. was written beween the years 1615 and 1620, and that while none of it is likely to have been much more recent than the last-mentioned era, some of the collection may have been formed as early as the commencement of the seventeenth century."

Mr Dauney notices various circumstances of a chronological nature in confirmation of this opinion, and arrives at the conclusion that John Skene

of Hallyards, the son of the Clerk Register, was the original owner of the MS., and most probably the person under whose auspices the collection was formed.

The degree of interest and importance attaching to any collection of Scotch music made in the beginning of the 17th century, may not, at first sight, be apparent to those who are unacquainted with the length of time for which national music may remain in a traditionary form. The date which has been assigned to the Skene MS. would not, certainly, be considered as of high antiquity in the general history of music. England, in particular, had, before that period, produced very l learned and eminent names in musical science, and these were closely followed by still more distinguished composers in the course of the 17th century. It might be thought, therefore, that the era of novelty, in reference to the national music of Scotland, must have long gone by, when that of regular composition was so far advanced on the other side of the Border. It is a singular fact, however, that, previous to the present publication of the Skene MS., the earliest printed collection of Scotch music was of so recent a date as 1725. The work that we now allude to is the "Orpheus Caledonius" of William Thomson, which appeared in London, in the form of a single folio volume, in the year we have just mentioned, and of which a second edition, of smaller size, with an additional volume, was published in 1733. The Skene collection is thus more than a century earlier in date than the earliest similar work of which we have been hitherto in possession.

It is true, that several Scottish melodies had appeared in a scattered form previous to the publication of Thomson's Orpheus; but none of them, so far as we can discover, so early as the date of the Skene MS. In the Introductory Enquiry which Mr Dauney has prefixed to his work, we find the notices of these collected together in such a manner as to direct attention to this interesting subject, which it would probably require a very laborious and extensive investigation to exhaust. The oldest printed edition of any Scotch air previously known was that of "Cold and Raw," or "Up in the Morning Early," inserted in the collection of catches published by Hil

ton in 1652. Of this very excellent air, which seems to have been a popular favourite in the seventeenth century, we have a gossiping story told by Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music, which we are tempted to extract :-"This tune was greatly admired by Queen Mary, the consort of King William ; and she once affronted Purcell by requesting to have it sung to her, he being present: the story is as follows:- The Queen having a mind, one afternoon, to be entertained with music, sent to Mr Gostling, then one of the chapel, and afterwards subdean of St Paul's, to Henry Purcell, and Mrs Arabella Hunt, who had a very fine voice, and an admirable hand on the lute, with a request to attend her; they obeyed her commands; Mr Gostling and Mrs Hunt sung several compositions of Purcell, who accompanied them on the harpischord; at length the Queen, beginning to grow tired, asked Mrs Hunt if she would not sing the old Scots ballad, Cold and Raw?' Mrs Hunt answered yes, and sung it to her lute. Purcell was all the while sitting at the harpischord unemployed, and not a little nettled at the Queen's preference of a vulgar ballad to his music; but seeing her Majesty delighted with this tune, he determined that she should hear it upon another occasion; and accordingly, in the next birth-day song, viz., that for the year 1692, he composed an air to the words, May her bright example chase vice in troops out of the land,' the bass whereof is the tune to Cold and Raw; it is printed in the second part of the Orpheus Britannicus, and is, note for note, the same with the Scotch tune."

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Mention is made of other individual Scottish airs, in anecdotes and notices relating to the middle and end of the 17th century. Thus, in reference to the period after the Restoration, we are told of a "Scottish laird who had been introduced to King Charles, with whom he had afterwards had many merry meetings while in Scotland, enlivened by the song and the dance of his country. Having become unfortunate in his affairs, he is said to have found his way to London, with the view of making an appeal to the royal favour, and for a long while to have been unable to obtain access, until one day, when he bethought himself of the expedient of slipping into the seat of the organist,

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