Hezekiah, and accompanied his tribute (see above, § 2, ii. (c)). The native Babylonian (or Assyrian) naru, however, seems to have been a kind of precentor, who sang or intoned portions of their ritual. One of these, named Qisiâa, chanted the songs used at the funeral of one of the Assyrian kings, and was aided by a choir of young women (márāti, 'daughters'; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, Cambridge, 1911, no. 473).

(b) Kalú.-This word is derived from the Sum. gala (dialectic mulu), and seems to mean, properly, male servant,' 'deacon.' He was the specialist in temple-music through the study which he had devoted to it:

'O temple, thy deacon (mulu-zu) is not present—who decideth thy future?

The deacon (knowing) thy chant is not present, thy future to p. viii).

the harp he singeth (not)' (Langdon, Babylonian Liturgies,

Words given as synonyms of kalú in WAI, pl. 21, line 38 ff., are the Sum. ir, or 'mourner,' the sur(a), a special singer, the sura-gala, or chief of the same class, the lagar (dial. labar), deacon,' the nunuz (?)-pa, 'declarer of oracles,' and others. The lists connect with the kalû the lallaru and the munambu, the former rendering the Sum. ilu-ali, he who chants mournfully' (Langdon), and the latter ilu-di, perhaps the soft singer.' These are given in Cuneiform Inscr., pt. xix. pl. 41, and follow the gala-maha, Sem. kalamaḥhu, 'the high' or 'chief kalû' (K. 4328, 1. 17). The Sum. ilu forms part of two words for zammeru, the usual word for singer,' in WAIȚii. pl. 20: ilu-dudu and ela-(i)lu (lines 7 and 9). The fem. was zammertu, translating the Sum. sal-ulili and sal-ula(?)la. These words possibly contain the root of the name of the 6th month of the Babylonian year, Ululu or Elul, the month of the mourning for Tammuz, snatched away to dwell in the under world. The goddess Istar, spouse of Tammuz, seems to have had a special kalú, or class of kale, devoted to her, possibly under the leadership of a gala-maha (see above).

4. The divine patrons of music.-Besides Ištar, the chief patron of Babylonian music was the god Ea, who figures in the lists as the great creator of all things, apparently before the appearance of Merodach as the father of the gods. Written with the sign for singer' (naru), he bore the name Dunga, and, with that for 'harp' (balag), he was called Lumha.

5. Musicians. Besides being a singer, the nâru was probably a player of the lyre or cithara. A somewhat uncertain name is lu balag-ga, Sem. musélú, possibly a harpist. From what has been said above, it will be gathered that musicians, as well as singers, must have held official posts. The Assyrian bands were various; the simplest consisted of two harpists, but one of four players shows a tambourinist, a lyre-player, a player on a small cithara of varied compass, and a cymbalist (Rawlinson, ii. 158). These were apparently foreigners. The largest band depicted is that in which the Elamites come out to welcome their new king, Umman-igaš, whom an Assyrian eunuch is installing. There are eleven instrumentalists, with harps, double pipes, a small drum, and a kind of dulcimer. Three of the leading performers (men) have one foot raised, as though half dancing as they advance. These are followed by women and children, clapping their hands, and possibly singing (ib. ii. 166 Brit. Mus., Nineveh Gallery, 49). The band which played to summon the people to worship the great golden image set up by Nebuchadrezzar in the plain of Ďura (Dn 35.7, etc.) consisted of a number of instruments of which the cornet or horn (qarnā=qarnu, § 2, iii. (c) above), the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, and the dulcimer are specially mentioned. Notwith

standing its suitability in such a case as this, the drum does not appear, but the piercing sound of the cornet would naturally form a good substitute. 6. Possible indications of a notation.-These are to be found in certain tablets from Babylon, of late date, now in the Royal Museum, Berlin, and edited by George Reisner (Sum.-bab. Hymnen), who has tabulated them in two classes (Introd. p. xvi), namely, vocalic characters, both singly and in groups, and words or ideographs expressing words. The former consist of the vowels a, e, i, and u, which are placed at the beginning, in the middle (before the cæsura), and at the end of the lines to which they refer. Were they placed over the words, and not in the margins and blank spaces, it might be contended that they stood for four notes of a scale. It seems more likely, however, that they indicate the tones attached to the lines, in chanting which, in that case, considerable latitude was allowed. As a mere conjecture, it might be suggested that a stood for an even tone, e (=qabû, to speak') for modulated chanting, i (sublime,' 'exalted') for a high tone, and u (= Addu, Hadad) for one which was deep, thunderlike. The difficulty, however, is that this takes no account of the words, among which are annû, ilî, or l [?], loud,' nu-idim, 'not weak,' 'not silent' (=lâ ulālu, lâ sukkutu). In one place e is placed over a a, and in another i over i (? part-singing). All this would seem to imply considerable elaboration, whatever interpretation be placed on these mysterious characters. In some passages the character meşi, Sem. manzû, followed by lu, la, and gub, 'passing,' 'hovering,' and 'standing'so, apparently, the general meanings-appears. This would indicate some such rendering as 'sound,' music,' for meşimanzû.

7. References to music in the historical inscriptions.-The word used in these seems to have been nigútu, ningútu, 'joy,' 'merrymaking,' or the like. Sargon of Assyria (722-705 B.C.) constantly uses it to indicate the rejoicings at his military successes, in which, however, musicians took part. In other passages the word may be translated in the same general way, but that in which Assurbani-pal is directed by Ištar of Arbela to eat food, drink wine, make music (ningútu), and glorify her divinity (G. Smith, Hist. of Assurbanipal, London, 1871, p. 125, 65-66) is possibly correctly rendered -as is also the passage in his great cylinder where the kings of Arabia are described as having been compelled to wear badges and work at the rebuilding of Bit-ridûti, and are said, whilst engaged thereon, to have passed their time in singing (and) music' (ina êlili ningúti), in order that the Assyrian king should build (that palace) from its foundation to its coping with rejoicings and festivities' (ina hidâti û risâti).

LITERATURE.-The Introduction to G. Reisner, SumerischBible, ed. F. W. Galpin, London, 1914; S. Langdon, Babylo babylonische Hymnen, Leipzig, 1896; J. Stainer, Music of the nian Liturgies, Paris, 1913. T. G. PINCHES.

MUSIC (Buddhist).-The history of ancient Indian music, including that of the centuries when Indian culture was predominantly Buddhist, has not yet been compiled, and probably, from lack of materials, never will be. The classical literature of Buddhism does not contribute much to such materials, but some features of interesting suggestiveness may be pointed out. On the psychological side, a very keen emotional susceptibility to the charm of music, either sung or played, is alluded to as an ordinary phenomenon. In one of the lute (vīņā) parables in the Pitakas certain persons are supposed to hear its sound for the first time, the instrument being concealed. They ask what it is, 'the sound of which is so fascinating, so charming, so intoxicating, so entrancing, so ravishing, so

captivating' (Samyutta-Nikāya, iv. 196 f.), and their hearers, in replying, agree with their opinion. Some of these adjectives are applied to music yielded by the five kinds of instruments, when well played upon,' for the skilled musician (Dialogues of the Buddha, Oxford, 1899-1910, ii. 214), and a similar æsthetic effect is said to have been derived from a golden and a silver network of bells, hung round the mythical palace of the 'great king of glory,' and shaken by the wind (ib.). A similar charm, in the later commentaries of Buddhaghosa, is ascribed to the song of the karavika bird. The possession of a musical speaking voice, holding men spell-bound, was held of sufficient importance to record supreme distinction in this gift in the order's list of such brethren as were foremost in certain attainments. The champion in question was the Thera 'Dwarf' Bhaddiya | (Anguttara-Nikāya, i. 25; Psalms of the Brethren, London, 1913, ccxxv.; the commentarial tradition held that he was born under a former Buddha as a 'variegated cuckoo,' kokila). Yet another bird was brought in to compare with the sweetness of Sariputta's voice the sālikā (Psalms of the Brethren, 1232 f.). But the Buddha's voice was compared to the celestially sweet vocal organ, with its eight characteristics, of the Apollo of the Brahma-heavens-Brahma Sanam-Kumāra, the Eternal Youth (Dialogues, ii. 245, iii. 173; Kathavatthu, xii. 3).

A second point of interest, already alluded to, is the names and varieties of instruments mentioned in this literature. They are sometimes called collectively turiya (see Dialogues, ii. 18, n. 1); sometimes pañchangikā (turiyā), 'fivefold' (Sumyutta Nikaya, i. 131; Psalms of the Sisters, London, 1910, pp. 83, 183). These the commentaries enumerate as atata, vitata, atata-vitata, ghana, susira, the first three of which are varieties of tom-tom, and the other two respectively yet another instrument of percussion (a species of cymbal) and a wind instrument (a species of reed or pipe). It is curious that the seductive viņā is not included in this list. The word turiya (Skr. turya, turiyaka) came, centuries later, to bear the meaning of fourth' (cha-tur-) part or state, but its original meaning, in these earlier books, in connexion with music, is very obscure.

Other instruments with which we meet are drums-the dundubhi ('Striking salvation's drum, Ambrosia’s alarm? [Majjhima-Nikāya, i. 170f., quoted in Psalms of the Sisters, p. 129]) and the bheri, mutinga, sankha, panava, and dendima (Dialogues, i. 89), the third and fourth of these five being the chank (shell) and a kind of horn. Concerning the chank, which is also a species of horn, another parable is told (Dialogues, ii. 361). Here again the fivefold adjectival formula is used to describe the charm of its sounds.

More material of this kind might be extracted by a thorough sifting of the early, the middle, and the later or medieval strata of the Buddhist literature. Here let it suffice to name one more feature that is suggestive, namely, the reference to all congress work concerned with canonical (but unwritten) texts, or records, as singing-together' or singing-through'-san-giti (Vinaya Texts, iii. [=SBE xx. (1885)] 372 f.). A similar idiom is used for the procedure observed by contemporary Brahmans when meeting to go over their mantras (Majjhima-Nikaya, ii. 170). It is fairly evident that, in the absence of written documents, the time-honoured Indian custom of intoning or chanting the memorialized runes was adopted by the Indian Buddhists. Cf. art. HYMNS (Buddhist).

C. A. F. RHYS DAVIDS. MUSIC (Celtic).-1. Musical instruments.Little is known of the music of the ancient Celts,

as the classical references to it are few and casual, and native evidence is lacking save in the case of the Irish texts, which cannot be taken as decisive for the earlier period. Some classical authors refer to the trumpet (carnon, carnux).1 It was used to summon assemblies and also in battle, especially in the charge and as loud and clamorous accompaniment of the war-cries for which the Celts were famous. The pipe of the trumpet was made of lead, and the bell was in the form of an animal, according to contemporary accounts. Archæological research has discovered several trumpets of the bronze or early iron age. These are made of cast bronze, or of tubes of sheet-metal riveted together. Some are of very fine workmanship, and one of the early iron age (late Celtic period) found in Ireland has its disk extremity ornamented in hammered work. These trumpets are of two varieties-with the mouth-piece at one end or at the side. Straight cylinders have also been found, evidently parts of some larger instrument. The Celtic trumpet is figured also on Roman monuments. Horns are referred to by classical writers as used both in war and by swineherds to call together the swine." These as well as pipes and reeds of different kinds are also mentioned in Irish texts, and bone flutes have been discovered in Thor's Cave, Staffordshire."

The Courtship of Ferb' speaks of seven cornaire (horn have been the trumpets already referred to. Instruments of ox-horn were also in use.

players) with corna of gold and silver. These, however, may

An Irish poem of the 11th cent. on the fair of Carman mentions pipes, and these are probably a form of the bagpipe, as the plural name pipai is still used in Ireland, as in the Highlands of Scotland, for this instrument. The Irish form differs in some particulars from the Scots; its scale is more complete and full, while the reeds are softer. While the bagpipe has become the characteristic Highland instrument, it has ousted the harp at one time so popular.

The harp or lyre (chrotta, Ir. cruith, crot [= Welsh cruth, a fiddle]) was used by the bards of Gaul as an accompaniment to their chants, and is figured on Gaulish coins. It was common also to Irish, Welsh, and Highland music, and is frequently referred to in the Irish texts. In early times its power over the mind of men was the subject of a myth which recurs constantly in Irish story. The reference is first to the harp of the god Dagda, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann (see CELTS, § V.).

With it he played 'the three musical feats which give distinc

tion to a harper, viz., the Suantraighe, the Gentraighe, and the Goltraighe. He played them the Goltraighe until their women and youths cried tears. He played them the Gentraighe until their women and youths burst into laughter. He played them the Suantraighe until the entire host fell asleep.' Before this

the harp is said to have come itself from the wall to its owner, killing nine persons on its way.8

The number of strings on the harp varied. The so-called Brian Boru's harp in Trinity College, Dublin, must have had thirty strings. Others had eight. But in some early texts reference is made to three-stringed harps, and in a story of Fionn in the Agallamh na Senorach to each string is attributed one of the powers of Dagda's harp. In a story

1 Polybius, ii. 29; Diod. Sic. v. 30; Eustathius, ad Iliad.

xiv. 219; Lucan, i. 431 f.

2 Cæsar, de Bell. Gall. viii. 20; Diod. Sic. loc. cit.; Polyb. loc. cit.

3 R. Munro, Pre-historic Scotland, Edinburgh, 1899, p. 201 f.;

J. Romilly Allen, Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times, London, 1904, p. 118; Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, British Museum, do. 1904, pp. 28, 30; E. O'Curry, On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, do. 1873, ii. 341 ff. 4 S. Reinach, RA xiii. [1889] 320; G. Dottin, Manuel pour servir à l'étude de l'antiquité celtique, Paris, 1906, p. 217. 5 Polyb. ii. 29, xii. 4.

6 O'Curry, pp. 306, 313, 325 f.; Romilly Allen, p. 118.

7 Diod. Sic. v. 31. 2; Amm. Marc. xv. 9. 8; C. Jullian, Recherches sur la religion gauloise, Bordeaux, 1903, p. 58. 8Battle of Magh Tuireadh,' Harleian MSS, cited in O'Curry, tii. 214.

9 O'Curry, iii. 223.

in the Book of Leinster (Dublin, 1880) this threestringed harp is called a timpan, and elsewhere the timpan is differentiated from the cruit, or harp; it appears to have been played with a bow or wand with hair. It may, therefore, have been a species of violin or fiddle, and separate references to a stringed instrument of the violin type exist.1

The origin of the harp is the subject of an Irish myth. A woman walking on the sea-shore saw the skeleton of a whale. The wind striking on the sinews made a pleasing sound, and, listening to its murmur, she fell asleep. In this position her husband found her, and, perceiving that the sound had caused her to sleep, he made a framework of wood, put strings from the whale's sinews on it, and so made the first harp.2 Bells of the bronze age have been found in Ireland. They are spherical or pear-shaped, and contain loose clappers of metal or stone, producing a feeble sound. These may have been the kind of bells which were hung on valuable cows and on horses.3 Gongs are also mentioned-e.g., the plate of silver over Conchobar's bed struck by him with

a wand when he desired silence."

An instrument to which most soothing powers are ascribed is mentioned in many texts-the musi cal branch, or craebh ciúil, carried by poets and kings. This O'Curry conjectures to have been a branch or pole on which a cluster of bells was suspended. When shaken, it caused all to be silent; in other words, it was a signal for silence. But in some cases mythical qualities are ascribed to the branch. Cormac Mac Art's branch of golden apples produced the sweetest music and dispelled sorrow. Sweeter than the world's music was the music which the apples produced; and all the wounded and sick men of the earth would go to sleep and repose with the music, and no sorrow or depression could rest upon the person who heard it.'6

In tales about the Irish Elysium reference is often made to trees growing there which produce marvellous music, causing oblivion to those who hear it. These trees are different from the instru

ment called crann ciúil, or musical tree,' which O'Curry describes as a generic name for any kind of musical instrument-harp, timpan, or tube.7

Special names were given to the players upon these various instruments, the name being taken from that of the instrument itself-e.g., pipaire, 'piper'; cruitire, ‘harpist.'

2. Songs and chants. The bards of the ancient Celts, frequently referred to by classical writers and corresponding to those of the Irish and Welsh Celts, composed poems of various kinds-epic, satiric, panegyric. Some of these were improvised and were sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. Glimpses of these bards, attached to the train of chiefs or great men, and singing their praises or those of their guests on festive occasions, are found in classical sources. They sang also of the heroic deeds of the past and of great warriors. 10 They were doubtless also the composers of the battle-hymns which warriors sang before or after battle while they beat their arms in rhythmic cadence or danced. These may have been invocations of the gods, or traditional warrior-songs, or even spells to ensure divine help.11 Individual warriors sometimes improvised their own songs. Chants were also sung by the priestesses of the Isle of Sena in order to raise storms.12 Traces of 1 O'Curry, iii. 361, 363, 365; cf. 328 f.

2 Transactions of the Ossianic Society, Dublin, 1854-61, v.

96 f.

3 Guide, p. 28; O'Curry, iii. 323.

4 Courtship of Emer,' O'Curry, iii. 315.

5 iii. 314 f.

6 W. O. E. Windisch and W. Stokes, Irische Texte, Leipzig,

1880-1909, iii. 211 f.; O'Curry, iii. 317.

7 J. A. MacCulloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, Edinburgh, 1911, p. 380; O'Curry, iii. 323.

8 Cf. C. Jullian, 'De la littérature poétique des Gaulois,' RA xl. [1902] 304 f.

9 Appian, Hist. Rom. iv. 12; Athenæus, iv. 37, vi. 49.

10 Lucan, i. 4471.; Diod. Sic. v. 31. 2; Amm. Marc. xv. 9. 8.

11 Appian, Celtica, 8; Livy, x. 26, xxi. 28, xxiii. 24, xxxviii. 17; Polyb. iii. 44; Diod. Sic. v. 29. 4.

12 Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.

archaic hymns, doubtless of the order of spells, are found in Irish texts, and Irish druids used incantations for their magical actions. Of the words of the hymns or chants of the continental Celts no trace now remains. See BARDS, CHARMS AND AMULETS (Celtic), HYMNS (Celtic), MAGIC (Celtic). 3. The love of the Celtic peoples for music is reflected in well-nigh every old legend and tale, and intense emotional effects produced on the people is a well-known characteristic, while the peculiarly by their own songs or instrumental music are very striking, and are felt by those who have even the slightest strain of Celtic ancestry. Nowhere is this love of music better seen than in the tales of the Celtic Elysium-a land where music, sweet, delightful, and soothing, is constantly resounding. Not only do the birds on the trees sing most ravishingly, but there are trees themselves which produce music, like the silver tree with musical branches in the story of Cúchulainn's sickness.1 'There is nothing rough or harsh, but sweet music striking on the ear,' says the mysterious visitant in the story of Bran. Even its stones are musical. There is a stone from which arise a hundred strains' it is not sad music, but it 'swells with choruses of sweet music,' says the maiden who would lure hundreds.'2 'Harpers shall delight you with their

Oisin to the Land of Youth.3 Mider describes Elysium to Etain as the wonderland where reigns sweet-blended song." .' Its inhabitants hear the noble music of the sid,' says Loegaire MacCrimthainn after his sojourn there." The same idea recurs in later Celtic fairy-lore. The belated spot, hears the most ravishing music. All this is traveller passing by fairy-mound or fairy-haunted the expression of a racial love of music, passionate and satisfying.

when they became Christian. This is borne witThe love of the pagan Celts for music remained ness to by the hymns composed by early Celtic secular music-vocal and instrumental, as well as saints and by ecclesiastical music, and also by the dance music-so prominent in the social life of all Celtic regions. Of late years in Wales, the W. Highlands, and Ireland there has been a great revival and development of the native music. This is a popular movement and already has been productive of interesting results.

LITERATURE.-This is mentioned throughout the article. J. A. MACCULLOCH. MUSIC (Chinese).-It is questionable whether any nation has had a higher idea of the importance and power of music than the Chinese. Its mysterious influence has been a theme of their writers through all the ages, for the art of producing harmonious sounds which move the human heart has been known in China since the remotest Emperor Fu Hsi (2852 B.C.), the invention of the antiquity. Its discovery is attributed to the lute being ascribed to him. Doubtless, however, the Chinese not only brought their own music with them into China, but found the aborigines possessed of a system, and possibly the two were amalgamated.

At first emperors had their different systems until Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor (2697 B.C.), introduced order; a note was fixed for the base note, sounds had names given to them, etc., and music was considered to be the key to good government. Succeeding emperors followed his system. Hymns were composed by these rulers, and the Great Shun (2255 B.C.) composed a piece 1 Irische Texte, i. 205 f.

2 K. Meyer and A. Nutt, Voyage of Bran, London, 1895, i. 1ff.

8 Transactions Ossianic Society, iv. 234 1.

entitled 'Ta Shao,' which is generally believed to have exercised such a wonderful effect on Confucius, 1600 years after, as to make him lose the taste of his food for three months. It was perfect in melody and sentiment,' while the martial music, The Great War-Music' of King Wu (i.e. The Warrior,' 1122 B.C.), though perfect, did not meet with the Sage's approval. The Master again was delighted on visiting the City of Wu (.e. The Martial City') to find that, notwithstanding its position, favourable for military operations, the people had been converted from a delight in military pursuits to a love of stringed instruments and singing.

Some of the reforms which Confucius instituted were in connexion with music. He declared that it is not the sounds produced by instruments alone that constitute music. As to the playing, he said that the parts should sound together at the commencement. Then as it proceeds they should be in harmony, severally distinct and flowing without break, and thus on to the conclusion.' The Master himself both sang and played. Mencius endorses the dictum of the ancients that music, if rightly employed, is conducive to good government.

In music of the grandest style there is the same harmony that prevails between heaven and earth."7 Music is an echo of the harmony between heaven and earth,' and 'has its origin from heaven.' The fervency of benevolence, the exactness of righteousness, the clearness of knowledge, and the firmness of maintenance, must all have their depth manifested in music.'9 In the Book of Poetry it is said: "The dancers move with their flutes to the notes of the organ and drum.'10 This refers to the sacrifice to the ancestors some centuries before the Christian era. The dancing, of which there were six kinds, was not what in the West is understood by that term, but grave evolutions and posturing intended to show veneration and respect.

The performance of this ritual music at the Chinese imperial court and at religious ceremonies such as those already mentioned, and those of worship to heaven and earth, to the sun and moon, and to Confucius, have been kept up until recently during all the centuries that have elapsed since the early Chinese historic periods. These ceremonies are much alike. Music of a solemn character accompanies the worship, the offerings made, and the hymns sung.

'11

Confucius spoke of 'music that has no sound." This is not the Chinese equivalent of songs without words,' but it is deep and silent virtue. Thus it will be seen that music with these Chinese sages connoted more than the simple word 'music' in English.

The superior man, so the Master said, must take music and apply it: to act and to give and receive pleasure from what you do is music. 12 No wonder that some of this music is said to have ' ' embraced every admirable quality.' 13 'The sages found pleasure' in and (saw that) it could be used to make the hearts of the people good.' 14 The airs of the Shang were conducive to decision in the conduct of affairs,' .e. bravery'; the airs of the Khi produced spirit of righteousness' in giving 'place to others' even at a loss. 15 Where there is music there is joy."

16

But this ancient music has perished, leaving abstruse, obscure theories ill understood. The execrated Tsin Shi Hwang Ti (200 B.C.), the builder of the Great Wall and the destroyer of the 1 See J. Legge, Chinese Classics, Hongkong, 1861-73, i. 3, 28. 2 lb. p. 183. 3 Ib. p. 85. 4 Ib. p. 185.

5 lb. p. 27.

8 lb. p. 100.

6 Ib. ii. 26 ff.

7 See J. Legge, "The Likî,' SBE xxviii. (Oxford, 1885) 99. 9 Legge, Chinese Classics, ii. 189 f., note. 10 Ib. iv. 397; see also pp. 373, 587, 631. 11 Legge, The Lîkî,' p. 279.

13 lb. p. 106.

15 Ib.

12 Ib. p. 276.

14 Ib. p. 107. 16 It. p. 112.

literati, was also the tyrant at whose mandate music books and instruments perished, leaving scarcely a remembrance behind them. As with the classics, however, ancient literature and instruments again saw the light of day, being rescued from hiding places. Notwithstanding this, though attempts have also been made to revive the glories of ancient music's 'golden tongue,' the music of the Chinese sages remains practically unknown, though some pieces are supposed to represent it.

Times have also radically changed even with such a conservative people as the Chinese, and the professional musician is not now highly respected. Music, which Confucius considered as completing a man's education,' is entirely neglected as a part of a scholar's course, and is not studied seriously. Some of the educated are able to play the flute, the chin, and a few other instruments, while the common people delight in the banging of the sonorous booming gong, the rattling drum, the shrieking clarionet, and the screeching violin. Music always accompanies marriage, funeral, and religious processions.

The music of China has not been appreciated by the foreigner, who has considered it monotonous, noisy, and disagreeable. It has been much misrepresented and misunderstood, but there are indications that her strange, weird, almost ghostly music is winning its way to an appreciation it is worthy of.' There are many excellent Chinese melodies. The instructions as to playing the scholar's lute far surpass in delicacy and refinement anything in the West.

The emperor Hwang Ti is said to have been the inventor of the lüs, a series of twelve bamboo tubes, each tube representing a semitone, so that the twelve tubes render the twelve chromatic semitones of the octave. The emperor sent to Bactria for the bamboos, as there, in the Valley of Bamboos,' they grow of a regular thickness. The hollow piece between two joints, or septa, was taken, and the note which one of the tubes produced was selected as the base or tonic. Similar tubes of different lengths were used for the other notes of their chromatic scale, nearly identical with ours. Several accounts more or less fantastic are given as to why this division into twelve semitones was employed, such as the singing of birds, rolling waves, and voices of men and women of a wild tribe, etc. These tubes have each a name, and they are supposed to be connected with the dualistic system of Chinese philosophy, half of them being classified under the yang, or male principle, and the rest under the yin, or female. The different Chinese months and hours were also assigned to these tubes. There is an absence of tempering in Chinese music, so that to our Western ears some of the Chinese intervals sound too sharp or too flat.

'Their scale being theoretically correct is too perfect for practice.'3 It is this as well as the general absence of piano effects and gradations of sound, there being no crescendos, legatos, etc., that makes Chinese music often so discordant to the foreigner, and the high pitch increases its unpleasing nature.

Though theoretically there is this chromatic scale approximating to that in the West, a pentatonic scale is in use. The five planets were looked on as the bases of the five notes. At one time (1100 B.C.), however, a heptatonic scale was developed by the addition of two more notes to the five. It then consisted of five full tones with two 1 Legge, i. 75.

28. Pollard, 'Infanticide in China,' in Christian World, 28th Aug. 1913.

3 W. E. Soothill, 'Chinese Music,' etc., in Chinese Recorder,

xxi. 222.

semitones, but even then the Chinese gamut was not identical with ours.

This lasted till the time of Kublai Khan (A.D. 1280), when the Mongols who then conquered China brought a new scale and notation, which, with a slight modification, lasted the century of Mongol rule. The native Ming dynasty (13681644) excluded the half-tones. The late Manchu dynasty (1644-1912) again made some slight alterations. Now, though theoretically there is a chromatic scale approximating to that in the West, the Chinese are content with a pentatonic scale, having dropped the two half-tones to which most of them have never taken kindly. At the same time, they are further content with fourteen sounds, their music being generally confined within these narrow limits.

As to the notation, there is no stave, the characters representing the notes being written in vertical columns in the same way as in books. To distinguish between a grave and an acute note, a little addition is sometimes made to the character standing for the higher note. In fact, Chinese solmization is imperfect. The musical notation is of such a character that to know exactly how a piece should be played a Chinese musician first requires to hear it played. For some instruments the notation is of a most complex character, containing the fullest directions as to the mode of playing, but generally the Chinese characters simply show that a certain sound is to be produced, in which of the two octaves often being unindicated. Further, it is simply a note, no indication of its length being given, though signs or dots to the right are occasionally inserted in manuscripts to indicate a longer holding of that note. Nor are rests ordinarily shown, nor time, etc., except that a space between two notes may mean either a rest or the end of a verse. Emphasis may be shown by a note being written larger.

Time and measures are thus not always indicated. Four time is the only time known scientifically, but others are heard in practice. The drum or castanets are the instruments which give the time in a band, and on no account is the one or other left out in an orchestra. The pentatonic scale is closely adhered to, whence no sharps, flats, or naturals are found.

The Chinese scale may be said to be neither major nor minor, but to participate of the two. Chinese melodies are not majestic, martial, sprightly, entrancing, as our music in the major mode; and they lack the softness, the tenderness, the plaintive sadness of our minor airs.'1

But this is true of Chinese music played by the Chinese on their own instruments. When transferred to our notation and played on our instruments, the melodies may be described as major.

Chinese vocal music is most disagreeable to European ears, as the Chinese do not sing in a natural voice.

'The sounds seem to proceed from the nose; the tongue, the teeth, and the lips have very little to do except for the enunciation of some labial words.'2

The voix de tête is generally used. The singing is in unison, no parts being known, though there is an ancient book containing the rudiments of harmony. The guitar is usually the accompanying instrument. A kind of recitative is used in the theatre. Chords, counterpoint, etc., are unknown. On some instruments two strings are played simultaneously. In chanting in Buddhist temples each priest sings in the key best suited for him. Indian music was introduced by the Buddhists.

As Chinese music may be divided into ritual (or sacred) and popular, so the instruments may be similarly divided-the former of a complicated structure, and the latter of a common form. The 1 J. A. van Aalst, Chinese Music, p. 22; cf. Mrs. T. Richard, 'Chinese Music,' in Chinese Recorder, xxi. 339 f.

2 van Aalst, p. 24.

spiritual principle of music being derived from heaven, the materials of which the instruments are made are earth-derived, and, as there were eight symbols (of Fu Hsi) which express all changes in the universe, the materials from which musical instruments are made are likewise eight. These are stone, metal, silk, bamboo, wood, skin, gourd, and earth, and are supposed to correspond with certain points of the compass and seasons of the

year.

Stone chimes were held in high esteem, and there was also the single sonorous stone.'1 The stone chimes are used only in court and religious ceremonies. There are two stone flutes. A conch shell is used by soldiers, watchmen, etc. Under metal are classed bells, gongs, bell-chimes and gong-chimes, cymbals, and trumpets; and the la-pa is a trumpet with sliding tube.

Under silk are the ch'in (lute with seven strings) and the se (which has now 25 strings). The latter is supposed to have a compass of five octaves. The four strings of the pi-pá, or balloon guitar, represent the four seasons. It often accompanies the flute, and is the instrument used by the blind singing-girls, who ply through the streets at night with their duennas, ready for hire. Others also use it. The san-hsien, or three-stringed guitar, is a favourite instrument of ballad singers. The yuchch'in, or moon-guitar of four strings, is also used to accompany ballads and songs. There are one or two varieties of violins one with four strings and one (the rebeck) with two. In both of these instruments the bow strings pass between the violin strings, so that the player has not only to play the correct note, but must take care that he does not produce a wrong one by the bow string grating against wrong strings. The foreign harpsichord, as it is called, is something like a zither, but has sixteen sets of fine wires with two bridges.

Under bamboo are included a Pandean pipe, used only in ritual music, and several kinds of flutes, the clarionet, etc.

Wood is employed in castanets, the wooden fish used by priests, and one or two curiously-shaped instruments.

Different kinds of drums account for the use of skin.

The sheng has the wind-chest sometimes made of gourd. The tubes which rise from the chest are reeded as in a harmonium, and are said to have given the idea for the construction of that instrument. It is used in the worship of Confucius, and is the most perfect of all Chinese musical instruments. In fact, it is nearly perfect-sweet in tone and delicate in construction.

"The principles embodied in it are substantially the same as those of our grand organs. . . . Kratzenstein, an organ-builder of St. Petersburg, having become the possessor of a shêng, conceived the idea of applying the principle to organ-stops.'2 An ocarina was made of baked clay or porcelain. Some of these instruments are most ancient in their origin.

The Chinese, as a rule, do not appreciate Western music, though, when taught, they play the harmonium well, and the Christians enjoy singing in church and school. The Chinese voice can be made to do almost anything if taken early enough and properly trained. The present writer has heard foreign music most beautifully rendered by German-trained Chinese.

LITERATURE.-J. A. van Aalst, Chinese Music, China I.M. Customs, 11 Special Series, no. 6, Shanghai, 1884; E. Faber, 1873-74] 324 ff., 384 ff., ii. [1874-75] 47 ff.; see also China Review, 'Chinese Theory of Music,' in China Review, i. [Hongkong, ii. 257, v. [1876-77] 142, xiii. (1884-85] 402, xv. [1886-87] 54; Mrs. Timothy Richard, Chinese Music,' in Chinese Recorder, xxi. [Shanghai, 1890] 305 ff., 339 ff.; W. E. Soothill, ib. p. 221 ff.; 1 van Aalst, p. 48.

2 F. Warrington Eastlake, "The Chinese Reed Organ,' in China Review, xi. [1882] 35, quoted by van Aalst, p. 80 f.