ART. X.—An Account of the Autograph MS. of the First Volume of ART. XII.-Remarks on the Site and Ruins of Tammana Nuwera. By SIMON CASSIE CHITTY, Esq., C.M.R.A.S. ART. XIII.—On a Passage in an ancient Inscription at Sanchi, near Bhilsa, proving the Proprietary Right in the Soil to be in the ART. XIV.-Notes on the Religious, Moral, and Political State of India, before the Mahomedan Invasion, chiefly founded on the Travels of the Chinese Buddhist Priest, Fa Hian, in India, A.D. 399, and on the Commentaries of Messrs. Remusat, STANFORD LIBRARY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. ART. I.-Observations with a view to an Inquiry into the Music of the East. By WILLIAM DAUNEY, Esq., F.S.A., Scot. It is well known that the style and character of melody, with the tonalities and scales upon which it is composed, differ in different ages and countries to a great extent; and it is obvious that a more perfect acquaintance with these than that which we possess, would be of great consequence to the art of music in various ways. Those forms of melody which are solely recognised as legitimate, according to the modern European system, may possibly be the best which can be adopted; but this can only be known for certain by an extensive comparison with other systems. The furtherance of such inquiries, therefore, may lead to a direct improvement in the cultivation of music, while there can be no doubt that the resources of that art would be immensely enriched by a more complete knowledge of the different styles of melody which prevail in foreign countries, and copious and authentic collections of the airs themselves. Hitherto it has happened that almost all the persons who have attempted to give us any idea of the scales and melodies of remotely foreign nations, have been quite unqualified by musical knowledge to write down accurately what they have heard. The public, generally, As to those travellers who have confined themselves to general descriptions, there are no bounds to the extravagances into which they have sometimes fallen. Mr. Bowdich, in his mission to Ashantee, speaks of a negro whom he met, from the interior, who had a harp, "the tone of which was full, harmonious, and deep." He concludes the account of his performance as follows;-" Sometimes he became more collected, and a mournful air succeeded the recitative, without the least connexion, and he would again burst out, with the whole force of his powerful voice, in the notes of the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel! To meet with this chorus in the wilds of Africa, and from such a being, had an effect I can scarcely describe; I was lost in astonishment at the coincidence; there could not be a stronger proof of the nature of Handel, or the powers of the negro !” VOL. VI. B have no idea of the difficulty of putting into correct notation airs that are sung or played by people of various countries, who not only use musical instruments different from ours, but musical intervals to, which we are not accustomed. As this is a truth which will be more forcibly impressed by illustration, I will here take the liberty of relating a circumstance which occurred to a French professional musician, one of the suite of Napoleon during his Egyptian expedition. This person had hired an Arabian music-master at Cairo. The lessons consisted in the Arabian's singing the airs which his pupil was to get by heart. The Frenchman began to write to the Arab's dictation; but while so engaged, he observed that his teacher occasionally sang out of tune, and he accordingly took care to correct all his apparent errors, in the notation. When he had finished, he proceeded to sing the air which he had been taught, but the Arab stopped him, and remarked that "he was singing out of tune." Here a dispute arose between the scholar and the master, each maintaining that his intonation was quite correct, although neither of them could tolerate the intonation of the other. At last the Frenchman thought that there might be something in this matter deserving further inquiry, and he sent for an Arabian lute. The finger-board of this instrument being divided according to the rules of the Arabian musical scale, showed the Frenchman, to his great surprise, that the elements or tonality of European and Arabian music were quite different; so different, indeed, to what the Frenchman had been accustomed to, that he could not at first catch or execute them, but we are told that at last he was able to do both. A person less skilled in the art would have carried off no true record of the Arabian music. It would seem, therefore, that in instituting inquiries with respect to the state of music in the East, and in forming collections of foreign music in any quarter of the globe, the very first requisite, without which nothing can be done, is to obtain the assistance of persons properly qualified for the task of taking down in European notation, the notes and passages which they hear sung and played. And these persons must not only be possessed of a good ear, and some practical skill in the noting of music, but their minds should be opened to several considerations which do not occur in the ordinary routine of a musical education. From the best information that we can collect, it is most likely that the science of harmony or counterpoint is a modern European invention; that it was unknown to the ancients, and that it is equally unknown even in the present day, in all countries to which |