Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Ancient Scotish melodies from a manuscript of the reign of King James VI

PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. 41
ningham 3 has gone so far as to say, that when he was a boy, and com-
mitted to memory many ancient and modem songs, he never learned
any of them without making himself master of some kind of melody which
re-echoed the words, and that most of the airs which the words suggested
corresponded, in a great measure, with the proper tune, the nature of the
song, and its emphatic words, suggesting the general spirit and character
of the air. Upon this somewhat remarkable declaration, we shall merely
observe, that without meaning to call in question Mr Cunningham's
veracity, and supposing it to be quite possible that a few casual coinci-
dences of this nature might have occurred, — the slightest consideration of
the almost endless variety of musical adaptations of which any given
metrical arrangement of words is susceptible, b must at once lead to the
rejection of all such ideas as hypothetical and unfounded. We need hardly
say, therefore, that we do not participate in any such theory ; we shall
not even attempt to point out the affinities and resemblances which exist
between the two ; all we shall do will be to collect a few of the scattered
notices which are here and there to be met with ; and if they should
serve to convey a tolerably correct idea of the favourite themes to which
the ancient muse of Caledonia was wont to tune her lays, and the pre-
vailing tone and character of her vocal compositions, it is all the informa-
tion which we think can be expected, and, considering the few wrecks
which the ravages of time have left, quite as much as the data before us
are capable of supplying.
It is believed that until within the last three hundred years, our Scotish
songs were but seldom committed to paper, and when left to the care of
memory and tradition alone, they were perhaps not often destined to
outlive their authors, or the events which they were intended to com-
memorate. In these cases, they probably evaporated in a few years,
• Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, vol. i. p. 26.
* Mersenne has calculated that the number of tunes or Cantilena which it is possible to extract
from twenty-two notes (a compass of three diatonic octaves) is precisely 30553507534926 1 2960484.
— Harmonicorum, Lib. vii. Prop. ix. It has also been computed, that to ring all the possible
changes on twelve bells would occupy seventy-five years, ten months, one week, and three days.
.— Hawkins' Hist. vol. iv. p. 108.
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