honourable, that persons of the highest distinction are solicitous of their company and acquaintance. Among the Swedish highlanders, the shepherdesses blow a kind of long trumpet, made of birch bark, and called a Mir. This instrument, sometimes four yards in length, has a strong and sharp sound, and, in calm weather, can be heard at a great distance. Though so very powerful, and generally used to frighten away wild beasts, its tone is pleasant and musical. The Swedes have not, however, at any period discovered an original genius for music. There is an opera at Stockholm; but the pieces performed are of French or Italian, or some other foreign origin. In 1772, a Royal Academy of Music was founded at Stockholm by Gustavus III.

The national songs of the Danes very nearly resemble the old English ballads, both as to the nature of the poetry and the airs to which they are sung-both being of the same Teutonic origin. There is an Italian opera at Copenhagen, and Madame Pasta is engaged to sing there this winter, (1829-30.)

In Switzerland, as in most mountain districts, music is indigenous; and the simple national airs have the greatest effect upon the feelings of the people. Every one has heard of the Ranz des Vaches. This celebrated air, S. W. Stevenson, Esq. heard sung at the village of Ekersried, when there in 1828. "Its commencement,” he says, "is slow and heavy; but the burden is in a quicker movement, and a more lively strain. The melody is ordinary enough, and the words uninteresting; yet the character being that of unmeasured simplicity and mournful wildness, its effect is by no means destitute of influence,

even over a stranger's feelings." * It ought, says Professor Wyse, to be heard at a certain distance, in order to modify the rudeness of sounds that proceed from a powerful breast, and are uttered with energetic force. "It requires to be sung with the whole heart and soul, by a shepherd, who is calling together his scattered flock, or descending gaily with his load from the mountains. Ignorant of all the rules of art, and guided by his fancy alone, he utters such sounds as produce the most harmonious effects in the distance, and are attended with an indescribable charm."+

Madame Stockhausen's delightful singing of the Swiss airs has made them familiar to our English ear. There is a wild simplicity-a sweet and soothing melody, in those which have been introduced at our concerts, that is enchanting; and the varied and rapid changes from one note to another, from the tones below the break of the voice to those above, and from above to below, which the Swiss express by the term yodlen, has a singularly pleasing effect. impossible to acquire the art of making these transitions perfectly, unless it be learned in early youth; it is a wild interchange of guttural sounds with those of the falsetto; and is introduced in the part songs of the Swiss and Tyrolese peasantry, and substituted for an instrumental accompaniment.

It is

The Alp horn is the national instrument of the Swiss. It is first mentioned by Conrad

* A Tour in France, Savoy, Northern Italy, Switzerland, &c. vol. i. p. 395.

+ Travels in the Berner-Oberland, by Professor WYSE, of Berne.

Gessner, in his Account of Mount Pilate, published in 1555, and was for centuries in general use, though at present, according to Professor Wyse, seldom to be met with; but Mr Stevenson says, "It is played upon in all the mountainous districts of Switzerland, and serves to summon the shepherds and cow-keepers to their employments, and to call the cattle themselves to pasture in the morning, and to re-enter their stables in the evening." It is made of fir, and is a hollow tube, four or five feet long, of a moderate size, bent at its thickest and lowest extremity, and terminating with a basin similar to that of a trumpet, *to which instrument its compass may be compared.

* STEVENSON's Tour, ii. p. 451.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE MUSIC OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

IN the account of Arabian music, our readers will recollect, that we mentioned the dancers and singers of Bagdad, by whose means a knowledge of music was carried into all those countries which had any intercourse with Arabia. We are told, that one of these singing boys, formed in the city of Moussoul, came to Andalusia, in the reign of Hokm Ben Hecham Ben Abdorrahman, who gave him an honourable reception, and loaded him with presents. Under him famous singers were formed in Andalusia, who survived the dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain. It was particularly at Seville that music flourished, whence it afterwards spread to the other cities of the province.

The Goths brought their music, as well as their poetry, into Spain; and in those provinces which they subjugated, it became amalgamated with the Arabian melodies. Their national music was also used in the early Christian churches of that country.

In 1068, under Alexander II. the Gregorian chant was introduced into Arragon and Catalonia. The inhabitants, however, evinced a great predilection for the Gothic service; but Gregory VII. succeeded in persuading the kings of Arragon

and Castile to abolish it, and establish the Roman in its stead. We are told, that two champions fought for the two liturgies, which were also submitted to the ordeal of fire. The Roman one was consumed, whilst the Gothic remained entire ; but the authority of the Pope prevailed, and the Romish religion, with the Gregorian chant, was triumphant.

The fame of the Spanish ballads has spread over the whole civilized world. They are called by the natives, Canciones, Romanzes, and Coplas. The most ancient are termed Las coplas de la Zarabanda, and are common vulgar songs, of an amorous, satirical, or jocose turn, to light quick movements. These are conjectured to be as old as the twelfth century.

Music was very early admitted into the circle of the sciences of Spain, Don Alphonso, king of Castile, who reigned from 1252 to 1284, having endowed a professorship for that art in the University of Salamanca. This prince himself cultivated poetry and music with great ardour; and a MS. now exists in the Toledo Library, containing his songs, with the music, which is written, not only with the points employed by Guido, and used in ecclesiastical books, but with the five lines and the clefs.

The Spaniards had their Decidores, or Trobadores, who appear to have flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Towards the end of the former, at the request of John I. king of Arragon, two troubadours were sent from the college of Toulouse to Barcelona, where they formed a consistory for their favourite art, which remained till the death of Martin, the successor of John. The Marquis of Sante Julliana, (vul