| Citation |
VGW(DN.780.008
22 Jan 1780:12, 13 (50)
Musick. As instrumental musick was at first invented to
accompany and assist the voice in singing, so it was long
employed in all countries to that purpose only. This was
evidently the case among the ancient Britons. Ossian, the
sweet voice of Cona, who excelled as much both in vocal and
instrumental musick as he did in poetry, seems to have had
no idea of playing on an instrument without singing at the
same time. Whenever his Bards touch the string, they always
raise the song. This was probably one of those circumstances
which rendered the musick of the ancients so affecting, and
enabled it to produce such strong emotions of rage, love,
joy, grief, and other passions in the hearers, by conveying
the pathetic strains of poetry to their hearts, in the most
rousing, softening, joyous, or plaintive sounds.
Though the ancient Britons were not altogether
unacquainted with wind instruments of musick, yet they seem
to have delighted chiefly in the lyre, or harp. This
instrument is said to have been invented by the Sythians,
and was much used by all the Celtic nations. At first it had
only four or five strings, of thongs made of an ox's skin,
and was played upon with a plectrum, made of the jaw bone of
a goat. But the construction of this instrument was
gradually improved, and the number of its strings increased,
though we do not know with certainty of what number of
strings the ancient British harp consisted. They played
upon it with their fingers, and not with a plectrum.
The ancient Britons sung and played by the ear, and their
tunes, as well as their poems, were handed down from one age
to another, the author of each poem composing its musick,
which was taught at the same time with the poem. This
musick, like that of other ancient nations, was in general
simple and natural, suited to the subject of the song or
poem for which it was composed, which made it more affecting
that the more artificial, but less natural musick of later
ages.
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