Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Popular music of the olden time > Volume 1

ANGLO-SAXON MUSIC. 17
Turning to England, Milton tells us, from tlie Saxon annals, that in 668,
Pope Vitalian sent singei-s into Kent, and in 680, according to the Venerable
Bede," Pope Agatho sent John, the Praecentor of St. Peter's at Rome, to
instruct the monks of Weremouth in the manner of performing the ritual, and he
opened schools for teaching music in other parts of the kingdom of Northumber-
land. Bede was also an able musician, and is the reputed author of a short
musical tract in two parts, de Musica theorica, and de Musica pradica, seu men-
surata ; but Burney says, although the first may have been written by him, the
second is manifestly the work of a much more modern author, and he considers it
to have been produced about the twelfth century, i. e., between the time of Guido
and the English John de Muris. There must always be a difficulty in identifying
the works of an author who lived at so remote a period, without the aid of
contemporary authority, or of allusions to them of an approximate date; and when
he has written largely, such difficulties must be proportionably increased. But,
rejecting both the treatises on music, if he be the author of the Commentary on
the Psalms, which is included in the collected editions of his works of 1563
and 1688, sufficient evidence will remain to prove, not only his knowledge of
music, but of all that constituted the " regular" descant of the church from the
ninth to the thu'teenth century. I select one passage from his Commentary on
the 52nd Psalm. " As a skilful harper in drawing up the cords of his instrument,
tunes them to such pitches, that the higher may agree in harmony with the lower,
some differing by a semitone, a tone, or two tones, others yielding the consonance
of the fourth, fifth, or octave ; so the omnipotent God, holding all men predestined
to the harmony of heavenly life in His hand like a well-strung harp, raises some
to the high pitch of a contemplative life, and lowers others to the gravity of active
life." And he thus continues : — " Giving the consonance of the octave, which
consists of eight strings ;" . . . . " the consonance of the fifth, consisting of five
strings ; of the fourth, consisting of four strings, and then of the smaller vocal
intervals, consisting of two tones, one tone, or a semitone, and of there being
semitones in the high as well as the low strings."^ Our great king, Alfred,
according to Sir John Spelman, " provided himself of musitians, not common, or
such as knew but the practick part, but men skilful in the art itself;" and in 866,
according to the annals of the Chui-ch of Winchester, and the testimony of many
» As a proof of the veneration in which Bede was held, harmoniam prEedestinatos in manu sua, quasi citharam
and the absurd legends relating to him, I quote from quandam, chordis convenientibus ordinatani, habens,
a song of the fifteenth century; — quosdam quidem ad acutum contemplativae vitae sonum
'■ When Bede had prechd to the stonys dry intendit, alios verb ad activaj vita: gravitatem temperando
The my[gh]t of God made [t]hem to cry remittit."-" ut ad alios comparati quasi diapason con-
Amen :-certys this no ly[e] ! " sonantiam, qua octo chordis constat, reddant Suos
autem ad diapente 'consonantiam, quinque chordis con-
Songs and Carols. Percy Soc. No. 73, p. 31. . . .... .,,. ^ . . ,,. ., „ - ,.„.,..„ ,.„„
^ -^ ^ stantem, eligit, illi possunt intelhgere qui tantae jam per-
t " Sicut peritus citharseda chordas plures tendons in fectionis sunt Diatesseron quatuor chordis constans,
cithara, temperat eas acumine et gravitate tali, ut .... Per minora vero vocum intervalla quEe duos tones
superiores inferioribus conveniant in melodia, quBedam aut unum, vel semitonium sonant .... Sed quia tani in
semitonii, quajdam unius toni, qusedamduorumtonorum altisonis quam in grandisonis chordis habetur serai-
differentiam gerentes, aliae vero diatesseron, aliae autem touium," &c.—Beda: Preshytcri Opera, vol. 8, p. 1070, fol.
diapente, vel etiam diapason consonantiam reddentes : ita Busilca;, 1563, OE Colonice Agrippina:^ vol. 8, p. 908,
et Dens omnipotens omnes homines ad coslestis vitje fol. 1688,