In very flow time you are to count leifurely one, two, down, and one, two up, the time of a breve; lefs flow, one down and one up, the time of a femibreve, and of two minims; quicker, two down and two up, of crotchets; very quick, four down and four up, of quavers; and fwift in femiquavers, eight down and eight up; and swifteft femidimiquavers, fixteen down and fixteen up.

Triple time is the reverfe, two down and one up, or one up and two down, as in limping and walking lame, or in lamentation and fudden ftarts, Pes citus-a fhort and quick foot, as Horace calls it.

A long and breve, the longest and flowest notes, were anciently in use, but now feldom or ever, except in madrigals and church mufick; and femidimiquavers, expreffive of the quickest time, are used chiefly in divifions of inftrumental mufick; which, when executed diftinctly, neatly, with unity of tone, and without miffing a fingle note, have a marvelous and most delightful effect; but when otherwife, as is too frequently the cafe, they

are most disgusting, and give the greatest pain to a fine ear and real tafte, how much foever admired and applauded by the multitude.

One breve, one femibreve within a bar, as alfo two minims, four crotchets, eight quavers, fixteen femiquavers, or a mixture of them, as one minim and two crotchets, express common time; fo do fix quavers, three down and three up, commonly called jig time.

Three minims, three crotchets, three quavers, or one minim with one crotchet, or two quavers, exprefs triple time.

Time as well as tones is divifible, as above explained, into very minute parts, which are expreffed by technical terms, and marks borrowed from the Italian.

Slow and moderate time is denoted by the words grave, adagio, largo, largetto, andante, and quick by allegro.

Common time is marked by the signs

and both common and triple

by

3 8

by figures, as,,, fimple, and,,, compound, to be known from inftruction and practice,

Refts and Paufes.

Sounds and time are agreeably balked and varied by a mixture of quick motion with flow, and by halts, stops, refts, pauses of the foot elegantly in dancing the minuet, and of the voice in fpeaking and finging, to be imitated, but perhaps not equalled, on instruments.

Refts are expreffed in written mufick by thefe marks anfwering to a femibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, and a pause by this, which is of no exact measure, being longer or shorter at pleasure.

Elegant fpeaking, finging and playing, befides thofe halts, ftops, paufes, called comma, femicolon, colon, period, and refts, make ufe of others, which may be comprehended under the term cafura, a little cut or feparation, made by taking off the voice in speaking and finging words and fyllables, with fufpenfion of the found,

one

one while longer than a comma, femicolon -another while fhorter than a comma, femiquaver, or even a demifimiquaver, like the twinkling of an eye, foftening the voice at finishing the laft letter of a word and the paffing note, as it were breathing it out only.

How to introduce these cafuras, and what kind, without hurting the connexion of words in a sentence, and without breaking the time of the movement in mufick, requires the niceft judgement to teach, and the finest feelings to execute; which, when done properly, give a hearer of taste exquifite pleasure, and when omitted, equal indignation.

The Claves or Marks of human Voices.

There are in nature, as observed above, four diftinct kinds of human voices, thofe of boys and women, the highest, called the treble or foprano; that of man, the lowest, called the true bass; and the two middle, called tenor and countertenor, or contralto.

To

To express these different voices ingenuity hath invented certain marks, called claves, clefts, or clifts, placed at the beginning, and occasionally on any part, of

the five lines, as

on the fecond

line, denotes the treble; on the fourth

the bafs;

alfo on the fourth line, the

tenor; and the fame mark on the third, the contratenor.

Difference of Effect from a conjunction of Voices and Inftruments.

From a multiplied conjunction of voices and inftruments in Homophony, that is, unifons, and in Antiphony, that is, octaves, fingle and double, muft certainly arife fulness more aftonishing, more effective and more comprehenfible to common ears, than from a lefs number in parts or harmony.

Here, perhaps, lies the fecret power of ancient mufick above modern, like the Pyramids of Egypt, which create grander ideas than the orders of Greece, or like