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52 CURIOSITIES OF MUSIC.
wish that he might not die before he had com. mitted to memory so beautiful a song.
Sappho's name is almost the only female one in the whole realm of ancient Greek music, which was pure, noble, and uncontaminated. Latterly, even her character has been assailed, but the accusation has been refuted by Herr "Welcker, of Bonn, (in the Rheinisches Museum,) Ottfried Midler and other learned writers. After her, music as practiced by the female sex, was handed over to the most degraded, (the Hetarae) and seems to have borrowed from Egypt many lowering quali- • ties,* including dancing girls and ribald songs.
Anacreon of Teos, introduced into Greece the light, airy songs, in praise of woman, wine, etc., " It is no great stretch of fancy," says a thoughtful writer,f " to imagine his songs as expressing our modern A llegretto Grazioso, Andante Scherzoso, etc."
From precisely this point however (the lack of signs of expression in all Greek music) another writer J deduces the opinion that Greek music must always have been in a crude state, and by no means of the beauty which some enthusiasts ascribe to it.
•Lucian. Lapithae
t Ambros. Gesch. d. musik, t. 1, p. 260.
I J allien, Theses Supplementally, f. U§. |
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