to
us. It is likely that these melodies, if not really genuine, as
related to the composition of Pindar, nevertheless belong to a period
a little anterior to the Christian era.

FRAGMENT OF THE FIRST PYTHIC ODE OF PINDAR,

According to the musical notation given by Athanasius Kircher, (F.A.
Gevaert's "_La Musique dans l'Antiquite_.")

[Greek: PINDAROU PYTHIONIKAI A'] (I're PYTHIQUE DE PINDARE)[1].

[Music illustration:

(Greek: Chry-se-a phor-minx, A-pol-lo-nos kai i-o-plo-ka-mon
syn-di-kon Moi-san kte-a-non, tas a-kou-ei men ba-sis
ag-la-i-as ar-cha, pei-thon-tai d' a-oi-doi sa-ma-sin,
ha-ge-si-cho-ron ho-po-tan pro-oi-mi-on
am-bo-las teu-cheis e-le-li-zo-me-na. Kai[2] ton
ai-chma-tan ke-rau-non sben-nu-eis.)]

[Footnote 1: KIRCHER, _Musurgia universalis_, I, p. 541.]

[Footnote 2: Le savant jesuite, ne connaissant que les notes du ton
lydien, aura probablement change [Greek music symbol] (si [flat]_2) en
[Greek music symbol] (_si_ [flat]_2), signe inusite dans le trope
phrygien.]

NOTE.--The amateur unfamiliar with the C clef, will obtain
the true tonal effect of the above fragment from Pindar, by
considering the clef to be G, and the signature five flats.
This will transpose the piece one degree lower than above
written, but the melody will be preserved. In other words,
read it exactly like the treble part of any piano piece,
only considering the signature to be five flats.

CHAPTER IV.

MUSIC IN INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN.

I.

Very important developments of the art of music took place in India
from a remote period, but dates are entirely uncertain. When the hymns
of the Rig-Veda were collected into their present form, which appears
to have been about 1500 B.C., music was highly esteemed. It was in
India that the art of inciting vibrations of a string by means of a
bow was discovered; and our violin had its origin there, but the date
is entirely unknown. The primitive violin was the ravanastron, which
the Ceylonese claim to have been invented by one of their kings, who
reigned about 5000 B.C. The form of this instrument is given in Fig.
16. It must have been some time before the Mohammedan invasion, for
they brought a rude violin back to Arabia, from whence it came into
Europe after the crusades. They had many forms of guitar, instruments
of percussion, and the varieties of viol, as well as trumpets and the
like. The national in