melody. It is even doubtful how far he was qualified for such a task; and the subordinate capacity in which he was originally introduced into the queen's service would not lead us to form a very lofty estimate of his musical acquirements. "Queen Mary (says Sir James Melville)a had three valets, who sang three parts, and she wanted a person to sing a bass, or fourth part. David Rizzio, who had come to France with the Ambassador of Savoy, was recommended as one fit to make the fourth in concert, and thus he was drawn in to sing sometimes with the rest; and afterwards, when her French Secretary retired himself to France, this David obtained the said office."

It was this sudden elevation to the dangerous post of secretary and confidential adviser of the queen, (which, considering his ignoble birth and station, must be allowed to have been an act of no ordinary indiscretion,) and its consequences, especially the tragical and barbarous manner of his death, which, as Dr Robertson gravely remarks—" obliges history to descend from its dignity, and to record his adventures." Had he continued merely to exercise the calling which formed his passport to the notice of his royal mistress, we may reasonably conjecture that the name of David Rizzio-an obscure musician-would no more have been known to posterity than those of the three valets, his associates, who were very probably quite his equals in musical skill. It should be remembered, also, that the period of his sojourn in this country did not altogether extend to three years, the one half of which was occupied in the anxious

a Memoirs, p. 54.

b We may here have underrated the musical capabilities of Rizzio. Regard, perhaps, ought to be had to one so nearly a contemporary as Birrel, who, in his Diary, describes him as a man well skilled in poetry and music; and Irvin, in his Nomenclatura, which was written towards the middle of the seventeenth century, calls him "a Savoyard, well acquainted with state policy, and a great musician;" adding, however, that when murdered, he was in the 71st year of his age, whereas there can be no doubt that he was a much younger man. It appears, also, that he was educated in France, and that the French ascribe to him the composition of several of their popular airs of uncertain parentage,with what truth we know not. "Rizzo est l'auteur d'un grand nombre d'airs que tout le monde chante, sans qu'on sache de qui ils sont, comme M. le Prevôt des marchands,' Notre curé ne veut donc pas," &c. Laborde's Essai sur la Musique. Tom. iii. p. 530.

and harassing cares of office. If, therefore, we are to conclude that Scotish music owes any thing to Italian art, it would be more rational to refer our obligations to the Italian musicians mentioned in the Treasurer's Accounts, who, for at least fifty years previous to the time of Rizzio, were regular and constant retainers of the royal household.

But have we any means of distinguishing between such airs as are of indigenous growth, and such as are of foreign and artificial production? Referring to the sister arts of poetry and painting, where the best judges are at all times apt to be deceived by well executed copies and imitations, we should conceive that the erection of any thing like a standard or test by which the genuine could be discriminated from the counterfeit the modern from the veritable antique-in national music -a department where the spirit and character are so easily caught-was, a priori, altogether hopeless. And yet, the attempt has been made, and certain rules have been laid down, by which we are to be enabled to discover, with unerring certainty, not only the authenticity of our most favourite melodies, but the particular epoch in our history when they were composed. In this branch of enquiry Mr Tytler has rendered himself particularly prominent, although we will do him the justice to say, that he has not urged his opinions in the spirit of a dogmatist, but as mere matter of probability, and in order, as he states, to "lead others to a more direct road." The general rule which he adopted was "to select a few of the most undoubted ancient melodies, such as may be supposed to be the production of the simplest instrument, of the most limited scale, as the shepherd's reed; and thence to trace them gradually downward to more varied, artful, and regular modulations, the compositions of more polished times, and suitable to instruments of a more extended scale." And there may be some truth in the general proposition, that the most ancient songs are expressed in a simpler and more artless form than those of modern times; but that simplicity, and even the rudeness and imperfection of instruments, are the concomitants of the condition of a people as well as of the age; and in a country so thinly peopled, and so uncultivated, as Scotland, there are, both in the

Highlands and Lowlands, districts where the sounds of artificial music have, till within these few years, but rarely penetrated,-where the simple inhabitants still continue to lighten their toil, and to beguile their leisure, with the same lilts and dances which have been in use amongst them for centuries; and where, it is possible, that an original, artless air, may still spring up spontaneously, as it did of old. It is needless to add, that no faith can be attached to any such criterion; and the result of its application has, accordingly, been a series of conjectures which have not even the merit of plausibility to recommend them, and which are liable to be overturned by the first original document which presents itself. In the Skene MS., for example, we find "The last time I came o'er the moor," and "Sa merry as we ha' been"-tunes which are classed by Mr Tytler as among those which, "from their more regular measure, and more modern air, we may almost with certainty pronounce" to have been composed between the Restoration and the Union!" It were idle to go into an examination of theories such as these; and we shall only notice another of this author's postulates which the same MS. affords us the means of refuting. He says, that the old airs "consist of one measure only, and have no second part, as the later and more modern airs have." As " As" rhymes the rudders are of verses," so are they, occasionally, of melodies; and those, of course, which are adapted to words, partake of their irregularities. The rythmus or structure of the verse may, therefore, sometimes render the continuation of the air to a second measure unnecessary. But these cases are rare; and, so far is Mr Tytler's notion from deriving the least support from the Skene MS., that, from beginnning to end of it, there are scarcely any instances where tunes are wanting in a second part, and none whatever where it merely consists, as he says, of a repetition of the first an octave above.

The peculiar scale upon which the Scotish music is constructed has also been founded on as a means of separating the old from the new, and of

Logan, in his "Scotish Gael," (vol. ii. p. 257,) makes the same remark, that the most ancient vocal airs had only one measure.

ascertaining what may have been the primary form of the original airs. This has been made the groundwork of much ingenious speculation in a Dissertation prefixed to Thomson's Select Melodies of Scotland,a in which the structure of the tunes is very ably analyzed and illustrated, although we cannot concur in many of the opinions there expressed, or the conclusions to which the learned author has arrived. The old music of Scotland belongs to a different scale from the regular music of modern times, which is founded either upon the diatonic or chromatic series; whereas that upon which most-some authors will have it all-of our national music is written, has been described to be the same with the modern diatonic, with two exceptions,-viz. that it wants the fourth and the seventh in such keys as resemble our major modes, and the second and sixth in those which we would characterize as minor. We express ourselves thus guardedly, because the two great arrangements of tones and semi-tones, which we denominate major and minor, are of modern invention, and having been introduced not earlier than the sixteenth century, do not admit of being applied to compositions anterior to that period, with the same critical precision as to those of the present day. But it has been observed, in the quarter to which we have just now referred, that, although the melodies are often equivocal in regard to key, making rapid transitions from one to another, they are, in reality, constructed upon one scale or series of sounds; and that the reason why they have the appearance of being composed in different keys, and in different modes, and of the singular wildness and variety of their effect, is the freedom with which they wander up and down the scale, and every now and then rest upon certain parts of it, which, for the time, become principal or leading notes. The following, for example, is the diatonic scale divested of the fourth and seventh; and to this series of notes, but extending their range, when necessary, beyond the octave here given, all the ancient Scotish melodies are referred, whatever

may be the varieties of their mode and

character:

a Quarto edition, 1822.

As the first note is here followed by two full tones, an air beginning and ending upon the above series would have the appearance of having been written on the key of c major; and this, accordingly, has been considered as the Scotish major mode. But, if the composition began and ended on a, although it ran through the same series with the key of c, the flat third would give it all the effect of a minor, and the key would possess the characteristics ascribed to

the Scotish minor, viz. the want of

the second and the sixth. Thus,

The same series will give rise to other varieties of key, simply by adopting a different final note, without deviating from the original scale; and these, though they are not supposed to occur with us so frequently as the former, savour strongly of the Scotish character,-a consequence which has been remarked as attendant on the habitual omission of particular notes of the scale, especially those which produce skips of thirds.a

This has been regarded as the general system of tones upon which the Scotish melody is framed, and so rigidly has it been adhered to by some critics that no air has been admitted as genuine, which does not come within its scope, with one exception, and that is where the flat seventh is introduced. This is described as being done in two ways, either "as a note of great emphasis and expression," as in " Waly, waly,"-" The Flowers of the Forest,"-" Lochaber," &c.; or " as the primary note of a new series of sounds, or, in modern language, the fundamental of a new key" (to which might have been added, its frequent employment in rising to the final-note at a close.) But of this it is said that very few instances occur. It is even hinted, that in one of these tunes, "Locha

a Burney's Hist. vol. i. p. 41.

b Dissertation prefixed to Thomson's Collection, p. 7.