History of the Science and Art of Music; Its Origin, Development, and Progress (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 Excerpt: ...same town; was the great adversary of the Arians, who drove him from his native place, and compelled him to seek refuge in Phrygia. He composed, in 355, the first hymns in Latin verse, which St. Ignatius afterwards ordered to be sung in all the Churches. The hymn appears to be among the most ancient of all poetical compositions, and was originally thought to be dictated by the gods themselves, or at least, by men truly inspired, The hymn was anciently a song in honor of the gods, or of heroes. Orpheus and Linus have been considered as the first authors of this species of composition, as also Pindar the poet, who first attempted the composition of hymns. The Greek hymns, or divine odes, consisted of three couplets: the strophe, anti-strophe, and epode. Meander the rhetorician, enumerates eight different forms of hymns. St. Hilary first composed hymns for the service of the Church, in which work he was followed by St. Ambrose and Prudentius, and the latter is supposed to be the author of those contained in the Romish breviary. Franco, a monk of Cologne, born in the eleventh century, wrote about fifty years after Guido, and was the next who improved descant, or part composition, as understood by Hucbald, Odo, and other Latin writers. Franco admitted the fifth as a concord, but called major and minor sixths discords. He was the first who wrote descant to secular airs called roundelays. He also, made great improvements in measuring time. He used five kinds of measure: ist, three longs; 2d, a breve; 3d, a long and two breves; 4th, two breves and a long; and 5th, a breve and a semi-breve. Franco used the dotted note, and bars, but his bars were for the purpose of indicating breathing places, or musical phrases, and not for dividing the music into measures for the ...