20. The reformation produced great changes in the character of sacred music. Before that event took place, this part of religious worship was confined to a few fixed forms of texts, as in the mass, and this is still the case in the Roman Catholic church; but the Protestants allow great variety both in the poetry and music. Luther's agency in the production of these changes was very considerable. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, church music became continually more brilliant, and always more corrupted, by the intermixture of profane music. 21. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there grew up, at the courts of the European monarchs, the free chamber style, from which arose that which was afterwards used in the theatre. The opera, which originated with three young noblemen at Florence in 1594, has contributed especially to the splendour and variety of modern vocal music; the advancement of which is claimed particularly by the Italians, as that of the instrumental kind is claimed by the Germans and French. 22. The composition of music, and its execution, either vocally or instrumentally, as well as the business of imparting a knowledge of it to others, are embraced in the employment of the musician; although it is seldom that all these branches are practised by one and the same individual. Music is one of the fine arts, and, during the middle ages, was one of the branches of what was then considered a learned education. 23. Since the scientific revival of music, the art has had so many distinguished professors that we will not attempt even to give a list of their names. Their number was increased, and the art greatly perfected, by the singing-schools, called conservatories, established especially in Italy, either at the public expense, or by the liberality of individuals. THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER. 1. THIS artist unites in his business some of the operations of the cabinet-maker, turner, and brazier. He, also, is dependent upon the wire-drawer, and the tanner and currier, for some of his materials. So great, however, is the number of musical instruments, and so different their nature and construction, that the business of making them is divided into several branches; all of which are never pursued, or carried on, by one person. But, without reference to the several divisions of this business, we will proceed to mention or describe the principal instruments which are now in most com mon use. 2. The organ is the largest of all musical instruments, and, in its improved state, so complex that a mere description of it cannot be well understood. Nevertheless, we will endeavour to give the reader some idea of the general principles on which it is constructed. 3. The most essential and prominent parts of this machine are the wind-chest, the pipes, and the bellows. The former of these is an oblong box, made perfectly airtight, and placed in a horizontal position. The top of this chest is perforated with several rows of holes of different sizes, and into these are inserted the pipes. Those for the higher notes are of a cylindrical form, and are made of a mixture of metals, chiefly of tin and lead; but those designed for the expression of the lowest tones of the base are made of wood, in a square form. The dimensions of these pipes are regulated by a diapason or scale. 4. There are as many of these rows of THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER. 153 Others are of opinion, that they were not introduced until three hundred years later. But, be this as it may, the church organ was not in common use until the fourteenth century; and now it is very different in its construction from that of early times. It has received many additions and improvements since the beginning of the fifteenth century. pipes, which are called stops, as there are cannot now be ascertained. By some, it kinds of tones in the organ; and to every || is said that Pope Vitelianus caused them row or stop is a plug, attached to a slide, to be used in Rome in the seventh century. which is denominated a register, and which || is designed to regulate the admission of wind into the pipes. The pipes are also furnished with valves, which can be opened at pleasure, by means of keys similar to those of the piano-forte. Some organs have few, others have many stops; and, in order to regulate the force of sound, most church organs have two or three rows of keys, whereby a greater or less number of pipes may be filled, and the powers of the instrument may be controlled in what is called the small organ, or let loose, so as to become the full organ. 5. The fingering of an organ is precisely similar to that of the piano-forte, so far as relates to the position of the keys; but, on account of the great number of holding notes in organ music, and the manner in which the sound is produced, the fingers are more kept down; whence it is considered injurious for performers on the piano-forte to practise on the organ, lest that lightness of touch, so necessary for the former instrument, be affected. It is hardly necessary to remark, that during the performance on the organ, the windchest is filled by means of the bellows. 6. The structure of the organ is lofty, elegant, and majestic; and its solemnity, grandeur, and volume of tone, have obtained for it a pre-eminence over every other instrument for the sacred purposes to which it has been applied. The largest organ known is in St. Peter's church, at Rome. || It has one hundred stops. 8. The hand or barrel organ consists of a movable cylinder, on which, by means of wires, pins, and staples, are marked the tunes which it is intended to perform. These pins and staples, by the revolution of the barrel, act upon the keys within, and give admission to the wind from the bellows to the pipes. The hand organ is so contrived that the revolution of the barrel gives motion to the bellows. 9. There are several instruments belonging to the class of horns, all of which are made of brass or silver. Those of the latter kind of metal are by far the softest in tone, but brass is the material most commonly employed. The chief instruments belonging to this class are the trumpet, the French horn, the bugle, the Kent bugle, the trombone, and the basshorn. The serpent seems to be the connecting link between the trumpet and the flute. 10. The instruments classed with the flute, are the common flutes of various keys, German flutes, and several kinds of flageolets. Nearly allied to these are the clarionet, the hautboy, and bassoon. The an ivory tube at the end; and in the three last named instruments, a thin reed, capable of a free vibration, is a part of the 7. The church organ was probably sug-breath is applied to the flageolet through gested by the water organ of the Greeks, which was invented five or six hundred years before our era. At what period organs began to be employed in churches, mouth-piece. 14. The instruments of percussion are the military drum, base-drum, kettle-drum, tabour, tamborine, and the triangle. The kettle-drum has received its name from its conformation. It has but one head, and is used in orchestres, and by the cavalry of modern armies, especially in Europe. The tabour has two heads, about three inches apart, and is beaten with one stick. The tambourine has one head, drawn over a 11. Of the instruments which produce musical sounds by the vibration of strings, there are a great number, of which the following are the principal:-the lyre, the harp, the guitar, the lute, the dulcimer, || the harpsichord, the spinnet, the pianoforte, the violin, the violincello, and the base-viol. The strings of the three last are agitated with a bow; but those of this class first mentioned, are vibrated by the thumb and fingers, by some little in-hoop, to which are attached small bells and strument held in the hand, or by little bits of tin, to make a jingling sound. The hammers, moved by keys, as in the piano- time is beaten on the head with the hand. forte. 15. The bag-pipe is a wind instrument of high antiquity among the northern nations of Europe, but it has been so long a favourite with the natives of Scotland, that it may be considered their national 12. The piano-forte is said to be the invention of Christian Gottlieb Schroder, of Hohenstein, in Saxony, born in Dresden about the year 1717. Before the introduction of this instrument, the clavichord, || instrument. It consists of a leather bag harpsichord, and spinnet, supplied its place. and three pipes. The first of the latter On all of these instruments complete har- is that by which the droning noise is promony can be produced by a single per-duced, the second emits wind from the former, and the most difficult series of bottom of the bag, and the third is that on tones can be executed with rapidity, by which the music is made. means of a simple mechanism. 16. During the performance on the bag13. The piano-forte has been gradually pipes, the bag is placed under the arm, improved, until it has become one of the and worked like a bellows, while the notes most elegant instruments in the whole are modulated as in a flute or hautboy, by compass of musical practice. In firmness stopping and opening the holes, eight in and strength of tone, the English piano- number, with the ends of the finger and fortes formerly surpassed all others; but, thumb. In some instances, the bag is fillwithin a few years, they have been equal-ed by means of the breath blown into it led, and in some respects excelled, by through a pipe. In Rome, at the time of those of American workmanship. The Advent, the peasants of the mountains manufacture of this instrument constitutes express their veneration for the Virgin by the most extensive branch of musical in- || playing on this instrument before her imstrument-making. age. 1. SCULPTURE is one of the fine arts. In | said to be in alto relievo, or high relief, its most extended sense, it includes not only modelling figures in clay, wax, and plaster of paris, and carving them in wood, stone, and marble, but also casting them in bronze, lead, or iroh, as well as enchasing and engraving. 2. The productions of this art are known under various denominations, but the principal are statues, busts, and bas-reliefs. The first of these are entire representations of men or animals in full relief; the second are upper parts of statues; and the last are figures more or less elevated from the body or ground on which they are formed. 3. The different degrees of elevation in reliefs, are expressed by various terms borrowed from the Italian. A figure is when but a small proportion of it is buried in the back-ground; in mezzo relievo, or middle relief, when one half of it is above the surface; and in basso relievo, or low relief, when but little elevated, like figures upon coin. Bas-reliefs are usually applied as ornaments to buildings and pediments to statues. 4. The subjects of sculpture, with a few exceptions, are the same as those of painting; and the course of study essential to proficiency in either, is very similar. They both require much taste and practice, and a thorough knowledge of the human form and other objects frequently represented. The young artist begins with imitating the most perfect models of Grecian art; and, after having become well acquainted wt their beauties, he proceeds to the Plaster of Paris is the most usual material un-tation of "matures employed for this purpose. 3. When any considerable work in stone 9. When the subject is a bas-relief, or or marble is to be done, the sculptor forms any other one-sided figure of a similar a model of clay or wax to guide him kind, the mould can be withdrawn within the execution. The soft material is out injury, in a single piece; but if it is a moulded to the proposed form with the statue, or any other figure of like form, it hands and small instruments of ivory. The is necessary to divide the mould into sevmodel is by far the most difficult part of eral pieces, in order to a safe removal. the work, and it is here the genius of the These pieces again united constitute a artist is to be displayed. The process of perfect mould. While moulds are being copying the model in stone or in any other formed on the face of a living person, he substance, is an operation merely mechan-breathes through tubes inserted into the ical, and can often be done by another per- nostrils. son as well as by the scientific sculptor himself. 6. The model having been prepared, the block of marble or stone is marked at certain points corresponding to its chief elevations and concavities. The material is then wrought to the rough outline of the figure, by means of strong steel points, drills, and other perforating tools; and the || asperities are afterwards removed with chisels, together with rasps and files of different shapes. When a high polish is required, it is produced by friction with pumice-stone, tripoli, and straw ashes. 7. Marble and stone are carved in a similar manner; but the latter, being softer, can be wrought with less difficulty. The defects which may be met with in the stone are repaired with a composition of plaster of Paris and the same stone, pulverized and mixed with water. 10. In taking casts from such a mould, the internal surface is oiled to prevent adhesion, and then plaster mixed with water is poured into it through a small orifice. The mould is afterwards turned in every direction, that the plaster may cover every part of the surface; and when a sufficiency of it has been distributed to produce the requisite strength, and the plaster has acquired the proper solidity, the several pieces are removed from the cast, which, of course, is an exact resemblance of the subject on which the mould was formed. 11. Superfluous portions of the material, produced by the seams in the mould, are removed with suitable instruments, and applications of fresh plaster are made, where necessary to repair blemishes. The cast is finished by dipping it in a varnish made of soap, white wax, and water, and afterwards rubbing it with soft linen. The polish produced in this manner approaches that of marble. 8. Casts in plaster of Paris and bronze are taken from models, statues, busts, basreliefs, and living persons. To do this, it 12. The durability of plaster casts, exis necessary to form a mould from the sub-posed to the weather, is greatly increased ject to be copied. This is done by spread- by saturating them with linseed oil coming over it some soft substance, which can bined with wax or rosin. They are made be readily forced into all the cavities, and to resemble bronze by the application of a which will harden by drying or cooling. soap composed of linseed oil and soda, and |