The American History and Encyclopedia of Music (Volume 3); History of Foreign Music, with Introduction by F. Starr. W.L. Hubbard, Editor  (English, Paperback, Hubbard William Lines)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... ITALY Italy, the land of song, owes a great musical debt to Greece. Including the mythical period, ancient Greece had one thousand years of musical history previous to her fall before the hosts of the Roman Mummius, and the result of her investigations forms the solid foundation upon which the whole art of music is built. Music was supposed by the Hellenes to be of superhuman origin, and Phoebus Apollo was called the deity of poetry and music. Under the blue skies of Greece were born those eternal fables of Orpheus and his potent lyre, and of Amphion and the magic harp, which caused the enamored stones to form themselves into the walls of Thebes. From more ancient Egypt, Greece derived her first musical knowledge, notably the divisions of the monochord and some primitive idea of the laws of acoustics. But her good taste enabled her to accept from her teachers only the best of their practises. The first song of which any knowledge remains to us is a funeral chant on the death of the young Adonis, who symbolized in himself the Spring, so beautiful and so brief. At first all Grecian song was imbued with solemnity for it was chiefly dedicated to sacrifice and other religious ceremonies. Not only were chanted prayers and hymns offered to the gods and canticles sung in praise of the good and great, but the laws were originally set to music to be better retained in memory, a practise adopted by the youth of a few generations ago in dealing with the difficulties of the multiplication table. Notwithstanding the fact that to music was ascribed a divine origin, it was regarded as inferior to poetry, its inseparable companion, and was deemed nothing more momentous than the vehicle of the words uttered by the poet, a doctrine subscribed to by Gluck and by Wagner. It w...