Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	place_n	see_v	2,893	5	3.1798	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48911	The present practice of musick vindicated against the exceptions and new way of attaining musick lately publish'd by Thomas Salmon, M.A. &c. by Matthew Locke ... ; to which is added Duelium musicum, by John Phillips, Gent. ; together with a letter from John Playford to Mr. T. Salmon by way of confutation of his essay, &c.	Locke, Matthew, 1621 or 2-1677.; Phillips, John, 1631-1706. Duelium musicum.; Playford, John, 1623-1686?	1673 (1673)	Wing L2777; ESTC R12529	37,614	90

it may appear to all Judicious persons what a prety confusion you make about ordering them for the Mouth of your New Gamut Now that which they are to be blamed for in this is that when they have given their Scholars a Notional understanding of this direction their practice is to take their rise from Sol and Sing Sol La Mi Fa Sol La Fa Sol as though Sol was the syllable from whence they should take aim by which means they never perfect their main rule and so as Mi alters are confounded in naming their Notes whereas if in their practice they begin with Mi and so Sing forwards Mi Fa Sol La Fa Sol La Mi they would at once learn to rise an Octave with their Voice and gain a readiness in this Rule which they are always to account by in whatsoever condition they find Mi. It is to no purpose to plead that Sol is for the most part in the Cliff line and therefore ready to begin with as they go upward because these syllables are practiced only in order to other Singing now Songs begin not with Sol and go forward in that method but upon any Note and so skip about that no Rule can be observed but that which we contend for always to be practised This is indeed the language of your whole Book as it will appear to such as shall read it 't is such a Babel of confusion Fardle of contradictions and Impossibilities Such a Mathematical Rat-Trap of Non-sense as the like was never made in Crooked-Lane In the former Chapter you confine the Notes here the Names and set them in the Stocks together as appears by these your next words Page 18. We are sure what we have undertook is sufficiently proved that G A B C D E F G will do as well as the old hard Names and for the placing of Mi you must take the usual Monosyllables so you order them in the most practicable method viz Mi Fa Sol la Fa Sol La Mi. So that here Mi is always in your first line G Fa in A Sol in B and La in C and so ascending in your first Octave you begin Mi again in the second All by way of Circulation And so again in the 20th Page of your Vindication your words are these How happy would it be for the ease of Musick and the exactness of Tuning if the same proportions were ever fixed to the same places of the Septenary or your Octaves i. e. Mi alwayes in B. And again in Page 49. And about the confinement of Mi with the avoiding regular flats and sharps I have delivered my Iudgement in the Description of my Whirligig That is your Cart Wheel with Seven Spokes The first beginning in Mi and as it makes a turn round it comes to Mi again So that all you give us for a New Gamut is your Whirligig or Wheel of seven Spokes marked with G A B C D E F which you say is a speedier way to attain Musick then to take a long Journey on foot by the Old Gamut And since your nearest way to it is the furthest about let those that like it take it and your second Chapter to boot I have done with it If this won't do I have yet more in Vindication of the Old Scale of Musick I come next to your Third Chapter in which and the former is contained your whole Design Entitled The Cliffs reduced to one Vniversal Character The first Page of it is nothing to the purpose but a fardle of words about Tablature c. But in the middle of your next page your words are these The present Practice or Old Way is to make three Cliffs whose Notes by which they are called are a Fifth above one another and according to the most conveniency in writing are usually assigned to there places as in the Scheme And since you have done us the kindness to insert a Scheme of our three Cliffs in your Book which you borrow'd out of Mr. Simpson's Compendium Page 4. as you do all your other Examples from him and other men I doubt not to prove that your new Invented Cliffs BMT will Be-e M p T y of any Invention you pretend to the Advancement of Musick An Example of the Three proper Cliffs assigned to each Part. Bass. Mean Treble By these Three Cliffs as they are thus planted in there usual and proper places may be Prick'd any Song proper for that Part and in the compass of the Voice and without any transposition except it be in the C sol fa ut Cliff which is vniversally proper to the inward or middle Parts and is so transposed sometimes for conveniency of Pricking especially in Cathedral Musick where Anthems and Services of five and six Parts do require it Nor doth the transposition of that Cliff create any confusion to a Beginner as you vainly alledge for Vocal Musick is seldom learn'd by men of Forty or Fifty Years old but by those that are young whose Voyces are proper to the Treble and by that Cliff are only taught nor is the C sol fa ut Cliff now much used unless as I said before in Cathedral Musick If you cast your Eye upon those several Collections of Ayres and Songs which I have lately published you will find I have not made use of the C sol fa ut Cliff in all the second Part of the Musical Companion which consists of Songs of Two Three and Four Parts but Printed them all in the G or Treble Cliff as proper to be Sung by Men or Boys As to my Psalms in Four Parts which are Printed in three Tenor Cliffs and a Bass I could have Printed them as well in Three Treble Cliffs had I thought all had been so ignorant in the use of our Cliffs as I am assured you are It being usual and common for Men to Sing those Songs which are prick'd in a Treble an Eighth lower where the Parts are so Composed that they do not interfere with the Bass. And if Musick be made difficult as you say by the transposition of one of our Cliffs I shall plainly demonstrate that you have made it ten times more difficult and confused by the frequent transposition of your Three new invented Cliffs BMT in your new whim-wham Circulation of Octaves which according to your Hypothesis is thus set down in your Diagram Bass. Mean Treble In Page 38 and 39 you give us these following Rules and Directions viz. 1. In any place where the Notes rise or fall an Octave which is usually the cause of greatest distress in this case set the next Note in the same place only changing the letter of the Octave which will direct you to Sing it an eighth higher or lower as you may see these three Notes which required three different Places in three different Cliffs are here situated all upon the same Line only with the letters of their Octaves prefix'd at first sight

after that in the Space and so forward to the End of the Lesson This Sir to any Mans thinking might have deserv'd some Answer but 't is put off with a bare imploying your Conjuring Exoticks and telling the World I understand not the Viol which how true 't is and how much to your pretended relieving the Fland Eye and Understanding from those troublesome and needless perplexities you charge the Old Scale and Tuning with I leave to your self to judge being very much assured that if you are insensible or the ●on-performance of what you have so boldly undertook you are unfit to be taken farther notice of than as an unskilful impertinent Wrangler But Sir whether I do or do not understand the Viol it matters not 't is evident I did not abuse your Publisher in asserting 〈◊〉 that he knew the impossibility of it And that you may do so to if you please take for an Experiment the ●ollowing Example and when you have tried it ●he Old Tuning apply it to your New call'd Vni●ersal One as in the first Example in the following Page First Example for the Violl Tuning Almond The Second Example for the Harpsicord An Entry This Sir though you are resolv'd not to be Confuted may at long run Convince you that I do understand the Viol that 't is impossible to perform it on your new confin'd Tuning and that you have undertook what you understand not nor are ever likely to bring to pass the way you go to work And indeed no one that does understand Musick can expect other For while we must be one while in the Line with a Note another while in Space with the same Note one while condemn the Monosyllables for Gibberish Conjuring and the learning of them the very drudgery of Musick another while command the use of them then eat them here to fix Mi in one of two places only there in any place here obliged to the use of four Lines only there to fourteen or as many as you please here tied to the use of Notes as the most easie and intelligible way thare to the lazy-witted Invention of Tablature here to express Musick in the most familiar words there to abandon the plain English of a great or lesser Third Fourth Fifth c. to imbrace the old Heathen Greek Terms and what not while I say we are brav'd from our own fixedness to those pitiful shilly-shally's and altogether insignificant and impertinent pretences what Sir can be expected Truely nothing that I can any way imagin except perhaps that thereby we might be made instrumental to proclame to the World That a young Graduate had lately Published Two Books as exactly agreeing with their Titles as a Pretended Gospel-Minister's Sermon in the late Civil Wars did to his Text the one being Fear God Honour the King the other an impudent Perswasion to carry on the begun Schism and Rebellion but not to so ill an End though in all probability with as much Pride and Contempt Proportionably you go on trifling with the Harpsichord and Lute as if the One were previously made for the sole use of your unbarb'd Jews-Trump the Cycle and your Servants B M T or the Other most eloquently Harmonious when untouch'd For to what end the first is made a Phanatick the last when used silent for so by a wilful mistake both of my words and meaning you have made them except to keep up the laudable custome of swelling your Book and amusing the Reader I know not I must confess Sir I have not the Practical Use of the Lute yet have Composed several things for it and from thence am sufficiently convinced that the way of Tablature is much easier and properer for that Instrument and the expression of its excellency than the way of Notes however I shall not judge but refer it to those to whom it properly belongs viz. such Lute-Masters as are qualified in both Capacities But as to the Harpsichord I could smile at your idle Imagination that a Man must have two Heads for the using two Staves of Lines for his two Hands our Cliff-way and but one Head for the use of a like two Staves and two Hands your BMT way did I not fear there might be a more than ordinary Mystery in it that is to say One great Loggerhead with huge great Saucer-Eyes like those in the Turkish Paradice to be Champion in the Cause and then Woe and well-a-day but I hope better things In confidence whereof I shall boldly affirm that among the many ways of Writing for that Instrument the most intelligiblest to the Understanding and easiest to the Eye is that which divides the Staves of Lines and Hands on the middle Key thereof and so gives occasion to ascend and descend generally without the least alteration of Cliffs See the second Example in Pag. 10. This Sir your Four Line BMT way is wholly incapable of and so incapable of that in the Example you took from Mr. Thetcher and inserted in your Essay you were forced to acknowledge by several times chopping and changing your signifying Letters in that short Lesson To object some things may notwithstanding be done that way is short of your Glorious Pretences where you undertake All Easier and in half the Time the contrary whereof is so notoriously known that besides the Masters several Lovers of Novelties after a little experience have with scorn laid it aside Among others a Person of Honour Educated in a School near this City had your Essay presented her piping hot with such Commendation as the Presenter thought it really deserved the Lady with as much thankfulness received it thinking every Minute a Day till the presence and assistance of her Master might make her happy in the injoyment of this new invented Benefit The Hour came and to work they went but O the fickle state of Lovers e're many days was expired the heat was so abated that there was not Charity enough left to keep it out o' th' fire had not the Masters earnest intreaty preserv'd it from that cruel Death but all in vain for the thing being heartless after a short time consum'd by that lingring Disease which Squire Ralpho long before Prophecied would be the end on 't and so farewel it but not Sir to your Vindication of it For there you promise such Advantages as the World was ignorant of before there the Reasons of what it Acted by and there that All Compositions should with Ease be Transposed from one Key to another c. Very prety if a Man would believe it Sir the Advantages you so perpetually boast of are already sufficiently manifested and known to be Mistakes onely to abuse the Masters and delude the Ignorant and consequently need no more taking notice of Your assuring the Dr. of the now easiness of transposing Compositions from one Key to another is a thing so frequent that no one is esteem'd a Master who cannot do it Proper and he the contrary that does

my Construction is all the Character that I can give of his Works For what has Green tail and Onion-like Fornicotar to do with a difference about the Gamut But the Gentleman must be al a mode For now we can neither plead nor argue contrary but the particular lives and conversations of men must be ravel'd into to make slender arguments for weak Themes and feeble Causes A kind of unmannerly Oratory that deserves to be convinc'd rather by Horse-Logick than by replies of Pen and Ink. Page 78. He sayes there is one serap of an Argument behind yet That these Gentlemen meaning the Kings Servants attain'd to their eminence in Musick by the Old Scale What fairer Argument would this great Musitian have than such a one to prove that there is no need of his Ledger du main If the Scale now in use be a sufficient cause what need He or any other such unskilful Busie-body trouble their brains whether it be the Causa sine qua non or no 'T were pity quo he but the Scale were cut in Alablaster and shew'd among the Tombs And 't were pity quo I but His geugaw BMT were cut in Paper for Comfit-makers Boxes or more seriously lay'd up among Iohn Tradescants Bawbles Surely since those Gentlemen he speaks of did not attain to their Eminency by inspiration as no question but their own Mortality will confess the contrary 't is a very strange piece of over-weening rancour in the Vindicatour to deprive the Poor Harmless Gamut of that petty Honour which is due to the rudiments of all Sciences Just like the Mountebank Paedagogues about the Town that will be reviling the stanch Foundations of Ancient Lilly to usher in their pedantical lucubrations and to get themselves a silly credit in the World by seeking to cajole the Parents of their Scholars with their own new-fangled Heresies And all this while where lyes the stress of so much Trinitonian fury but only against the miserable Vt and forlorn Re For Mi Fa Sol La are his white Boys still and admitted into the School-Room to converse with his young Gentlewomen BMT as formerly Would ye know the reason on my word 't is a profound one For thinks he now the Gamut is gelt it may be trusted among Maiden Gentlewomen which before was somewhat dangerous when it had the two testicles of Vt and Re annexed to it Though I wonder how BMT themselves scape his lash there being as much reason why Base Mean and Treble damm'd obsolete Terms of Musick should suffer the scourge of this Innovating Whipping Tom as Gam ut and A re Therefore might our worthy Vindicator have spar'd his frivolous conceit that Those Gentlemen came to be no more eminent for having read the Scale than the Macedonian for conquering the World because his name was Alexander An inference that has no more coherence with sense than Bedlam with any thing of Trinity-College but himself 'T is a Ianus-like fansie that looks two ways at once one part of his Argument rows one way and the other looks another way or to make it yet plainer as if one Waterman should row one way at the head and another the quite contrary way at the stern till they pull the Boat in pieces which indeed is the true Character of all the Arguments in his Book True reason would have kept him close to his text and have told him there was as much likelihood of Alexanders learning the principles of War as there was that the other should be taught the Rudiments of Musick so that if he will grant our Musitians to be eminent It will be an easie thing without his assistance to prove that the first ground and source of their Eminency arose from their knowledge of the Scale which is the first principle of Musick as we may well believe the first rise of the Macedonian's greatness was from the great knowledge he had of the first Elements of War which being the primary grounds of his Knowledge were the primary cause of that greatness which he attain'd by his Knowledge And thus I suppose the Horn-book and Primar were the first Originals of that great learning to which our Vindicator imagins himself to have so sublimely clamber'd But this is common sense and therefore a thing too mean for him to take notice of or else without the verge of his understanding Pamphlet the beginning of which is nothing to the purpose the middle a very nonsensical piece of Impertinency and the latter part a parcel of undigested Nonsense concluded with the grossest brand of Infamy that ever was fix'd upon the sober and ingenuous Part of the World whom he so foully accuses to have entertain'd such kind thoughts of his obnoxious Raillery a scandal which if they forgive him will bring them within the verge of a most desperate forfeiture though never to his advantage for it will but make the young unwary Icarus soar with the more boldness above his understanding till he melt his Wings and plunge himself into all the deepest Abysses of Absurdity Thus much for Tobit now for his Little Dog following him A certain kind of Letter-Monger that with much Imprudence nothing of Truth much of Confidence nothing of Learning comes a day after the Fair to set his probatum est to the Mountebankeries of his Master Quack He was mightily overseen that he did not fix a Label of the Musical Cures wrought by his Benefactor like a Covent-Garden Charlatan Then might the worshipful Title of the Essay and Vindication have been more happily exalted as frequently they were by the Industrious Stationer jigg by jowl with no Cure no Mony or the Three Infallible Medicines upon every post of the City when back'd with so many Attestations as one of Melpomene's Knights of the Post with a little labour could have easily brought him You may know what part of the Creation he is by his Braying This is he that follows the Vindicator as the Bell-man's Cur follows his Master A kind of Beetle engender'd by the heat of a Trinity Meteor who while the most radiant Luminary mov'd in our Hemisphere slept all the time but He being set in the Ocean of his own Fopperies up comes this drowsie Insect buzzing into your Ears the Vindicators Praises like the Dor-flies with which the Young Painter in Boccace so affrighted his Master ●ufa●macco This is he who being perhaps as well pay'd for his Letter as the other was for his Preface stands ready like the Fool in the Play to justifie whatever mistakes the Vain glorious Squire shall be guilty of I should have expected this Miserable Tooter with his diminutive Trumpet to have stood at the Dore of the Monstrous Vindication to draw in Customers with a step in Gentlemen and not to have come sneaking at the end of a Pamphlet as if he were only the Vindicators Excrement and indeed that very Apocriphal Fart he speaks of fizzled from the tayl of his own Musical Pedagogue and