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

PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. 173
and harassing cares of office. If, therefore, we are to conclude that
Scotish music owes any thing to Italian art, it would be more rational
to refer our obligations to the Italian musicians mentioned in the Trea-
surer's Accounts, who, for at least fifty years previous to the time of
Rizzio, were regular and constant retainers of the royal household.
But have we any means of distinguishing between such airs as are
of indigenous growth, and such as are of foreign and artificial pro-
duction ? Referring to the sister arts of poetry and painting, where
the best judges are at all times apt to be deceived by well executed
copies and imitations, we should conceive that the erection of any thing
like a standard or test by which the genuine could be discriminated from
the counterfeit — the modern from the veritable antique — in national music
— a department where the spirit and character are so easily caught — was,
a priori, altogether hopeless. And yet, the attempt has been made, and
certain rules have been laid down, by which we are to be enabled to dis-
cover, with unerring certainty, not only the authenticity of our most
favourite melodies, but the particular epoch in our history when they
were composed. In this branch of enquiry Mr Tytler has rendered
himself particularly prominent, although we will do him the justice to
say, that he has not urged his opinions in the spirit of a dogmatist, but
as mere matter of probability, and in order, as he states, to " lead
others to a more direct road." The general rule which he adopted was
" to select a few of the most undoubted ancient melodies, such as may
be supposed to be the production of the simplest instrument, of the most
limited scale, as the shepherd's reed ; and thence to trace them gradually
downward to more varied, artful, and regular modulations, the composi-
tions of more polished times, and suitable to instruments of a more ex-
tended scale." And there may be some truth in the general proposi-
tion, that the most ancient songs are expressed in a simpler and more
artless form than those of modern times ; but that simplicity, and even
the rudeness and imperfection of instruments, are the concomitants of
the condition of a people as well as of the age ; and in a country so
thinly peopled, and so uncultivated, as Scotland, there are, both in the