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"These are three morceaux de salon of the most elegant description. Mr. AGUILAR'S Dream Dance' is a graceful and imaginative movement, which would make a charming accompaniment to a dance of sylphs or fairies in a ballet. Mr. Berger has selected as the themes of his fantasia the two most favourite airs, There's truth in woman still,' and' A young and artless maiden,' in Mr. Howard Glover's pretty operetta; working them, by adding a short introduction, and a brilliant coda in tempo di valsa, into a masterly and animated pianoforte piece, in which the vocal melodies are embellished by a rich and varied accompaniment. Mr. Macfarren's Tarantella is of course in the time and measure of this Neapolitan dance, and preserves the rapidity of its breathless whirl. While, however, it is thus conventional in its form, it is new and original in its details. There occurs, in particular, in the midst of it, a deliciously soft and flowing melody, played with the left hand, as if on the violoncello or bassoon, with a light and airy accompaniment in the upper part which contrasts beautifully with the impetuous current of the rest of the movement."

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"Oh! Glorious Age of Chivalry." Duet. For Soprano and Contralto "The Solemn Words his Lips have spoken." Grand Air. For Soprano "The Love you've slighted still is true." Ballad. Sung by Mlle. JENNY BAUR "Stratagem is Woman's Power." Ballad. Sung by Miss EMMA HEYWOOD... "Love is a gentle Thing.' Ballad. Sung by Miss EMMA HEYWOOD "A young and artless Maiden." Romance. Sung by Herr REICHARDT "There's Truth in Woman still." Romance. Sung by Herr REICHARDT ... "The Monks were jolly Boys." Ballad. Sung by Herr FORMES "In my Chateau of Pompernik." Aria Buffa. Sung by Herr FORMES

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New Vocal Music.

I TU SAVAIS. Romance. Composée par M. W.

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BALFE. 35.

BELOVED ONE, NAME THE DAY. Ballad. The

Words by JOHN LAMB, Esq. The Music by ALFRED MELLON. 2s. 6d. TEMORY.

MEM

HA

Song. The Poetry by DESMOND RYAN.

The Music by ALEXANDER REICHARDT. 39.

AST THOU NO TEAR FOR ME? Ballad. The
Words by M. DEIGH. The Music by CIRO PINSUTI. 3s.
LEEP AND THE PAST.

Canzon
Canzonet. The Poetry

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Mrs. CRAWFORD. The Music by EDWARD LAND. 39.
London: DUNCAN DAVISON and Co.

"The above are a few of the prettiest vocal pieces that have appeared during the past publishing season. They are all by well-known and popular composers, of whose talents they are agreeable specimens. Balfe's French romance is in his happiest vein. Our countryman has successfully contended with the Parisian composers on their own ground-witness the reception of his fine operas, Les Quatre Fils Aymon and Le Puits d'Amour, at the Opéra Comique; and in the little song before us he shows how entirely he is at home in the French style. It is tender and passionate, with that infusion of graceful lightness and gaiety which gives the French poetry and music of this class their peculiar charm. Signor Gardoni has sung it in public with delicious effect; but it by no means requires the aid of such a singer to make it charming. Mr. Alfred Mellon's ballad is worthy of that able and eminent musician. The melody is simple and natural, without being trite or commonplace; and the whole composition shows that new and striking effects of modulation and harmony may be produced without setting at defiance (as is too often done) the established principles and rules of art.-Few vocal pieces of the present time have obtained greater popularity than Herr Reichardt's song, "Thou art so near," not only in English, but (by means of its German and French versions) all over the Continent. His new production, Memory,' is of a similar character, and bids fair to have a similar success. Mr. Desmond Ryan's verses are elegant, and Reichardt has united them to a melody at once pure, simple, and expressive. Signor Pinsuti's ballad, Hast thou no tear for me?' has been recommended to the attention of the public by the pleasing performance of Mr. Tennant, for whom it was written, and by whom it has been sung at many of the best concerts of the season. Signor Pinsuti, an Italian, has produced an air of Italian grace and beauty, while he has entirely avoided the faults into which foreign composers so often fall in setting English words to music. The melody not only expresses the sentiment conveyed by the poetry, but does not present a single misplaced emphasis or accent-a most important requisite in vocal music. Mr. Knight's canzonet is melodious, flowing, and extremely well fitted for a mezzo-soprano or contralto voice. There is a flaw in one place which dims the clearness of the harmony. In bar 8, page 2, G flat in the melody is accompanied by E natural in the bass, creating a diminished third (or tenth)-an interval very rarely allowed, and not, we think, in the present case. There is much that is masterly in Mr. Land's romanza, and Mr. Santley, for whom it was composed, has sung it with deserved success. We could have wished it had been a little less elaborate; that the flow of the accompaniment had been lighter and less loaded with notes. It is a fine song, nevertheless, and not unworthy of the author's well-merited reputation."-The Press.

THE FOLLOWING COMPOSITIONS (Copyrights), slody had been less disturbed by extraneous modulation; and that the pianoforte

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NEW AND REVISED EDITION. Price 123.

THE VOICE AND SINGING

(The Formation and Cultivation of the Voice for Singing).

ADOLFO FERRARI.

"The great and deserved success of this work has brought it, in no long time, to a second edition, carefully revised, and enriched with a number of additional exercises, which greatly increase its value."-Illustrated News.

LONDON: DUNCAN DAVISON & Co. 244 Regent Street, W.

Just Published,

PATTI'S NEW BALLAD, SIX OPERATIC RECITALS for the PIANOFORTE,

"THE OLD HOUSE BY THE LINDENS." The Poetry by LONGFELLOW. Sang with the greatest success by Mlle. ADELINA PATTI, for whom it was expressly composed by HOWARD GLOVER.

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MUSIC IN LONDON-A GERMAN VIEW OF IT..

An interesting concert was organised by Joachim and Hallé for the benefit of the suffering Ernst. In this the elite of the artists now in London cooperated, and among other things a manuscript Quartet by Ernst was played, Joahim taking the first violin, Laub the second, Molique the viola, and Piatti the violincello part. Three hundred pounds sterling were received. Ernst's composition is a very meritorious one, and an English publisher has paid £100 for the copyright. Such artists as Joachim, Piatti, Hallé, the Tietjens, the Patti, Tamberlik, &c., favorites with the public, as well as with the high nobility, who set the tone and spend the guineas, have to play several times every day. But to our great joy we announce, that the high society in London is threatened by a revolution wholesome for the artist's dignity, and that we owe this to our respected Joachim. He, and, if we are not mistaken, Hallé also, refuse to take part in soirées, where the artists to be sure are well paid, but are treated otherwise like wandering gypsies. They accept the invitations only of such friends of music as receive the artists, like the other guests, as their own equals, in parties where one does not have to wait till the commencement of the concert, for the saloon babble to begin. Artists must respect themselves and feel their dignity, then the lords and ladies will condescend to treat them with proper distinction. And apropos of this, we never yet could comprehend how artists, who know how to appreciate their high calling, can consent to let themselves be heard in gambling places before a public of lorettes and chevaliers d' industrie. We have never read that Joachim, Mme. Szarvady, Schulhoff, Clara Schumann, or Hallé had appeared in Baden-Baden or in Wiesbaden.

If Joachim bears himself proudly toward English fashion, he is all the more amiable with his comrades on Parnassus, with artists and writers. At the house of Dr. Max Schlesinger, which has become the focus of the celebrities from all parts of the world, I have heard Joachim, and with still greater satisfaction if possible than in the concert hall. He played among other things the Kreutzer Sonata with Jaell. It was a beautiful party, not so costly a one to be sure as you might see at many a lord's or beer-brewer's, but therefore all the more select. Among the guests were Freiligrath, Kinkel, Herzen, Hebbel; we greeted too the excellent Moritz Hartmann, the German poet, honored even in London (a fine three-leaved clover: Freiligrath, Hartmann and Kinkel! Three German poets on the soil of exile!); also the actor Lewinski, from Vienna, who gave a performance.

But we are reminded that we have said nothing of the Great Exhibition. We shall not be expected to report upon the wonders of the European-Asiatic-American-Australian industry; but as there is no lack of instruments and concerts at Kensington, we will stop there awhile. Sax's gigantic instrument, up which one must first climb as he would a mat de cocagne, and which requires the lungs of an Æolus, will be regarded as a monstrosity, but it has no more artistic significance than the gigantic teeth which you see hanging out before a dentist's window. The same may be said of certain American fiddles and pianos (!), which are constructed on a new principal. Shoemaker Ignaz in Vienna petitioned for a patent for square dumplings, or knödeln, as they say in Austria; these might have tasted quite as good as round ones; but the three-cornered violins of the Yankee cannot compare with the ordinary instruments; they would come in play not at all incongruously in a romance by Edgar Poe. Fortunately France has sent her Vuillaume. Many countries and cities have excellent pianoforte makers to show; America its Stinway, England its Broadwood, France its Pleyel and its Herz;_ Vienna, Streicher, Bösendorfer and Ehrbar; Pesth, Bereghozaszy: Berlin, Bechstein; Leipzig, Breitkopf and Härtel; Zurich, Heinig and Hubert, and so on.

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Among the English curiosities we have yet to mention some, which to be sure are not exhibited, although they certainly deserve to be, if singularity is any criterion." Mr. Ella, director of the "Musical Union," may open the procession. The "Musical Union," is a concert society, which of course stands under the patronage of the Duke of Leinster and other high nobility, and which has for its object to bring classical chamber music and sterling solo pieces before its public, which consists for the most part of ladies. This object the society fulfils completely, which does not prevent the Director, Mr. Ella, from being an altogether remarkable personage. A Russian court intendant, who at the same time of course is general or hetman of Cossacks, cannot have a higher notion of his own importance, than our Ella, Esq. In his opinion the musical works of the greatest masters first acquire their worth, when they are performed at Ella's; and, in spite of their interpretation by the most excellent and famous artists, they are only understood after they have been butchered in his "Synoptical Analysis," which he has distributed at every concert. The Parisians imagine that an artist, who has not been recognised by the capitale de la civilisation, can make

• Translated for Dwight's Journal of Music (Boston, Massachusetts).

no claim to European reputation; Mr. Ella goes still further; whoever has not played in the Musical Union, is no authentic celebrity, no "star," to use Ella's favorite expression. This time Mr. Ella, as he himself assures us, has only admitted Schumann's Quintet into his programme at the express desire of Alfred Jaell, and he excuses himself for it before his noble patrons by saying, that this work has already been successfully performed by Wilhelmina Clauss, Herr Pauer, Madame Schumann, and Nicholis Rubinstein. "In Berlin, Dresden and Paris," says the Analysis, "this composition has frequently come to performance, and at a time when our limited repertoire of piano concert music by the older masters has become so familiar to our public, we greet this Quintet as a welcome novelty. In this Quintet, so far as we can judge without the aid of a score in this analysis, there is little persistence in experimental art, and nothing unusual in the form of the whole work, to make the intentions of the composer unintelligible at a single hearing." Mr. Ella possesses, moreover, the talent of trotting out the high nobility, every time that an artist's proposal does not suit him. "What will the Duke of Leinster say?" "The Duke of Beaufort never will assent to that," or, "I should never dare to propose that to the Earl of Dunraven." Meanwhile these lordships trouble themselves as little as the Pacha about what Ella does.-We must, however, do the Musical Union the justice to admit, that it takes pains to secure for its concerts all the celebrities that come to London.

"

Another celebrity is Mr. Davison, the cherub with the flaming sword before the gates of Paradise for lady pianists. None but Arabella Goddard can go in. . . . Mr. Davison, who writes in the columns of the has two excellences, which we wish to notice; he writes well, and whomever he has once adopted, to him he remains faithful. Davison has done much for the diffusion of Mendesshon's music in England-if he dared, he would put this above the works of Beethoven. Davison is a glowing admirer of Meyerbeer.

Chorley, another of the knights of English criticism, who according to circumstances wages war with Davison, or makes common cause with him [not often, we opine, and the latter might say: save us from our friends!], deserves also to be mentioned. His criticisms are less distinguished by their accuracy, than by their brevity. He is as monosyllabic as a Chinese. If the Athenæum writes: Herr X. has played, that is considered as a sign of great effort. Madame N. has sung well is said perhaps of Madame Viardot Garcia, who stands in especial favor with the severe gentleman.

:

Our countryman Benedict has also become an English curiosity. He is the ewige Jude of English conductorship. A public concert which Benedict does not organise, a private concert which he does not arrange, or any sort of musical announcement on which his name does not occur, is a thing utterly inconceivable. His annual monster concerts loom above the others, like Gulliver among the Lilliputians. How much we should have to tell, too, of Halle's "Beethoven's Recitals," in which all the three-and-thirty Sonatas, and in chronological order, s'il vous plait, are executed, while the works played each respective afternoon are to be purchased at the door. "Beethoven's Sonatas" (small print) "edited by Carl Hallé" (in gigantic letters). The young piano-ladies buy with eagerness; for as they have the Sonata in their hands, they need not listen, and as they can listen, they need not read. We would not, however, by any means depreciate the merits of Hallé. He plays like an excellent musician, as he is; many things, especially Mendelsshon, in a masterly way. His delivery is well thought out, his play is pure, his artistic striving a noble one;— but we cannot say that he possesses charm, and his performances are more distinguished by clever industry, than by poetry. As the representative of German music in Manchester, as orchestra director, and as teacher, he cannot be praised enough. This deserving artist has contributed most to the spread of Stephen Heller's works in England. These are exceedingly liked here; everybody knows and plays them. Nor must Sigismund Thalberg go unnoticed. He has been giving concerts which were eagerly attended in London; and, with the exception of an insignificant piano composition by Rossini, and a very indifferent rendering of the "Spring Song" by Mendelsshon, he has played for the most part only older and newer compositions by himself. We have followed his playing with great interest; his beautiful tone, his perfectly elegant, fine, sure delivery, has affected us agreeably; but presently weariness took the place of pleasure, and on the whole these achievements, in spite of all their perfection, leave the impression of a thing that is outlived.

We have also heard Madame Lind Goldschmidt, and although this singer's voice becomes more and more veiled, yet her simple, noble delivery, her still incomparable style of singing, deserves all the admiration lavished on her by the English public. Fräulein Tietjens, too, has long been a favorite of the English public, and we gladly accord to her splendid voice the tribute of our homage.

The concert to which Mme. Goldschmidt lent her aid, was for the

* We dare deny it. American Translator.

benefit of the people's schools established in Southern Italy at the suggestion of Garibaldi; and so we heard in it a succession of Italian celebrities: Bettini, Zucchini, Belletti, Giuglini, Armandi, Giraldoni, Mlle. Barbara Marchisio, Mme. Guerrabella. Also Piatti, the faultless artist, let himself be heard twice. Jaell and N. Rubenstein performed. The latter has rapidly won recognition by his extraordinary bravura and by his fiery playing; but it is justly remarked that he lacks that smoothing of the graceful and the tender which distinguishes his brother's playing in so high a degree. Space vanishes under our fingers, and we have not yet mentioned the larger concert societies.-The oldest is the "Philharmonic Society," now under the direction of Sterndale Bennett. This, like the Paris Conservatoire, adheres decidedly to the strictly classical programme, and would regard it as a sin against Art, should any master after Mendelsshon and Spohr intrude with his profane music into the hallowed halls. Of course an exception is made with the concert works of soloists, and so we heard this time a new Concerto by Piatti, the first violincellist of our time. Beethoven's triple Concerto, performed by Joachim, Piatti and Cusins (piano), proved interesting in many ways. The Symphonies were Mendelsshon's in A major, the second (in D) by Beethoven; and finally Sphor's Overture to Jessonda. The orchestra is remarkably well trained, and Bennett is a quiet, sure conductor. Perhaps a little more impetus is to be desired.

The rival of the old Philharmonic is the "New Philharmonic Society," under the directiorship of Dr. Wylde. This gives its concerts in St. James's Hall, while the old society, which this year celebrates its fiftieth birthday, has its performanes in Hanover Square Rooms. The new Philharmonic seeks to enliven its programme by greater variety; yet we do not believe that it would dare to commit the extravagance of playing a Symphony of Schumann. The performance of the Pastoral Symphony at the concert we attended was a very meritorious one, and proved that Dr. Wylde has made progress; at least there was not that wavering in the tempi to be observed which was formerly objected to in this director. TheMonday Popular Concerts" are distinguished by the fact, that they bring the most important artists before the Londoners for little money.* The Theatres, too, vie with one another in preparing worthy entertainment for the public streaming into London from all parts of the world. The palm belongs decidedly to Covent Garden. There we heard Don Juan and Robert le Diable, and we must confess that we have seldom had experience of a finer representation, than that of Don Juan. The opera was given entire, without all those mutilations to which it is exposed in Germany, and Tamberlik sings the great aria of Don Ottavio, which is almost always sacrificed. Miss Patti has a most lovely (allerliebste) voice, and is a charming child. She seems to us sometimes, to be sure, a little too minaudiere, but as Zerlina she requires perhaps to have a trifle too much excused to her. N. Faure, from the opera at Paris, is a mediocre Don Juan. In Robert le Diable Mme. Penco sung the part of Alice, and Mme. Miolan-Carvalho that of Labella. As great a virtuoso as this singer is, and excellent as is her school, her dramatic rendering leaves much to be desired; the tragic is a foreign element to her. Formes was alike excellent as Bertram and as Leporello.

(Concluded from page 613.)

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSERS. THE truest way to characterise the ruling tone of sentiment in any composer, is to note the state of mind in which his music leaves you. There is some music which is all glitter and effect, which you hear with astonishment, and go home weary and without capacity of emotion. An opera of Bellini bathes you in a delicious flood of tenderness; rose-light everywhere, and tepid spring warmth; you are sad and full of passive sympathetic sensibility, softened, melted, but not roused. A surfeit comes, and you are glad to have a good wind sweep away the mild vague haziness from the world's face, and breathe a bracing atmosphere, feel your nerves invigorated, and see by the clear literal light of day, until the time for twilight visions comes again. What could be more opposite to this than the effect of Handel? Repose, such as your spirit gains in looking up into the illimitable sky; a fulness of awakened energy, serene as sleep; a balanced universal activity, calm as the motion of Niagara, or of the planets; a healthy universal sympathy; a fellow feeling with all humanity; a communion with the absolute, a sense of union with the whole, which can indulge many moods, but is the victim of no one; life flowing from the centre, and no morbid irritation in any single faculty.

Is that all? Ed. M. W.

From Mozart you turn reluctantly, as from an Olympian festival, in whose enthusiastic pitch of liberty, and love and joy, you feel that your faculties and your emotions have all got out, and swim in The keenest sense of living, the perfected and full flower of sentia willing and congenial element of life. Sense and soul are one. ment, the exaltation of the soul to a certain divine consciousness; the rising of the floods of the heart to overflow all things and blend their harsh outlines into concord with itself; a tremulous recognition of the near presence of the spiritual world to this our everyday life; a sort of disembodied pure existence floating through all things without resistance, as if matter had given up its impenetrability,-this you feel, and as if the breath of one, whose love was your communion with the soul of all this, fell upon your cheek. From Haydn you go as from the sweet quiet happiness of home, or from the mild restorative of woods and fields, with cheerful heart, clear head, and temperate desires, with the sunny domesticity of a good child or a wise father, and the buoyant self-possession of a well-ordered life. Childlike love of nature, and cheerful, genial domesticity are his two dominant traits. The first is shown in that birdlike instinct by which he organized the orchestral forces into so fit a nest for his creative, uneventful life; in his proneness to imitation of the sounds of nature, and in the prevailing character of his great works, the "Seasons" and the "Creation." The second displays itself in the cool temperament of all his happy inspirations; in the clearness, regularity and order which were the style of his life, as well as of his compositions; and in the fact that he was most felicitous, most himself, most a model to all others, in that form called "Chamber Music," in the composition of Quartets for stringed instruments, in which the various members of the violin family hold fine discourse, both argumentative, pathetic, grave, and frolicsome. This is eminently domestic music. The Quartet is the best form in which art expresses and idealises that moral music of our lives, which wells up from the fountains of the sacred sphere of home. All of these great composers were great in all the forms of composition; but Handel was most Handel in the fugued chorus; Mozart's life welled forth clearest, fullest in the Opera; Beethoven is the despair of all ambitions in his Symphonies; and Haydn best enforced the lesson of his life in his Quartets. has written, from whose thrill the earth is not soon likely to After Mozart a new fount of music was opened in a man. One recover; from whose music we carry away something that we should not have dreamed of in any effect the others could produce upon us. This music leaves us with roused souls, restless, urged by mighty aspirations, which never will be quieted, a lasting influence like a new Promethean spark dropped into the breast from heaven. The music of this day all owns its influence, although resisting it. The sentiment and tone of thought and feeling of this age is deeply affected by it. Whoever has heard this music has grown deeper, or learned how deep he was, how deep and infinite the work of life. It wakes no passing mood; but takes possession of the hearer's soul, and becomes a surging ocean under him, which lifts him till he seems to touch the sky, then suddenly sinks down to night, yet only to climb higher with the next full wave. It is pregnant with a mighty future, and like a providential utterance of the great heaving, struggling breast of this Of course we mean Beethoven. Beethoven expresses the interior and divine side of the restlessness prophetic era of humanity. of this age-that restlessness which in its more superficial workings begets all this music of effect, these wonderful feats of skill, these strivings after the impossible in mere performance, miracles which come too often, which excite for a time and leave only the memory of excitement, which drive the blood to the head and stir up strange sensations, but never unseal those interior fountains in us is an intimate connexion and sympathy between the vital organs which bathe every sense and faculty with calm invigoration. There of the waters in Humanity's great sons, her artist-prophets, like and the skin. It would seem that what is profound interior moving Beethoven, were only irritation of the skin with the mass of men; the best response which they can give to that which genius Humanity is one, and there are none of its members unaffected by owns so deeply; (since some response they must give, inasmuch as the thrill of whatsoever movements first announce themselves in deepest hearts).

Listen to any symphony of his-that in C minor especially— there is no mistaking his leading characteristics. The most re

OCTOBER 4, 1862.]

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC.
(From The Literary Budget.)

629

There are few writers on music, though there are many writers about music-that is to say, persons who write concerning what surround it, or is more or less distantly connected with it. Any one can write about music who can describe a concert-room or the dress and appearance of a singer, or who can narrate the plot of an opera or tell an anecdote of its composer. In the same way any one can write about painting who is explain the story illustrated by a figure-picture, or to give biographical able to give an account of the opening of an exibition, to relate and particulars respecting some eminent artist. Indeed, a certain German critic is said to have asked, in a paper "about" Rembrandt's Ecce Homo, "An Deus homo esse potest ?" and having answerd this question at pro"Cur Deus digious length in the affirmative, to have next inquired Homo?" and thereupon to have broken out into an elaborate essay on the divine incarnation.

markable is the wild, pleading earnestness of his music-his impetuosity and fire-the glorious frenzy of a giant or a God-yet not ungovernable, and never weak. There is in him the strength, the conscious inspiration, the truth, the well-balanced energy, which can afford to abandon itself to its bold impulse, disdaining mere conventional restraint. Beethoven's music travels on like rushing flame. And yet oftener it is the sullen surging of the restless, boundless ocean; something of gloom, to be sure, yet exalting the spirit to that pitch, that it becomes prophecy and glorious hope. Such unutterable yearning, such irrepressible constant aspiration, such intense striving, such heroic energy of expression; such gathering of massive clouds, which only measure, not conceal the illimitable depths of clear sky and stars beyond, gleaming all the more sweetly through the rifts and chasms; such sadness deepening such faith, is found in scarcely any other music, Nevertheless, numbers of critics have discussed, and do in the present and could have found expression in no other day of the world but does not readily admit of such treatment. One may form some idea of this. The heart of Humanity, the whole bosom of society is just day discuss, painting as an art and pictures as artistic results. Music now heaving with the presentiment which prompted and which can The music of Beethoven was reputed what a picture is like from reading a description of it, but who can possibly describe a symphony or sonata so as to convey the impression understand this music. No wonder; since his soul, like a deep sounding-which the music itself would convey? A critic who has a true feeling strange at first. gallery, was among the first to catch the echoes of the approaching for pictorial art, and at the same time possesses great descriptive power, footfall of the mighty Future. Beethoven is to be interpreted by may reproduce a picture in written language so that to a reader who the glorious changes which are about commencing in society, and has the eye of an artist it shall be almost visible. A critic who would so are destined to bring forth Order out of Chaos. I hear the pro- wish to reproduce a musical work would have to resort to the more phetic murmur of the hearts of down-trodden millions, new-born material expedient of transcribing the notes. If he attempts regular to consciousness of their own great destiny, in his music. I feel descripton he falls more or less into the ingenious absurdities of the the murky gloom and sadness of the Past vainly stifling the true Russian critic, M. Lenz, who in the sonatas of Beethoven sees gad-flies, grandeur of the universal heart of man, now for the first time torrents, volcanoes, and many other wonderful things not visible to the In fact, no one even endeavours to describe music except indirectly feeling all its strength, in those dark chords resolving themselves naked eye nor audible to the unassisted ear. into serene splendors. I see the smoky coverlid that has hung Those comparisons are by no means objectionfor ages over some old wicked city, lifted off by the swift scouring by comparing it to something else, which it can only resemble in the tempest of his mighty Rhythm. I am more than ever a tender, able in themselves when they simply proceed from an emotion which loving, patient, believing child when his great thoughts gather the writer feels impelled somehow or other to express, but they are ludicrous when they are employed as descriptive agents. In plain strength like a whirlwind, and go roaring on and shake the world. Their sound is like the wild winds before day-break, which bring reality, no piece of music is like anything else except some other piece with them a certain exhilarating taste of coming day. And his of music, and if a writer really wishes to describe a musical work all music is most tender in its strength, most hopeful in its billowy that he can do is to state what school it belongs to, and what particular influence it exhibits, and to give such technical information as to its sullenness, most believing in its startling, loud protests. construction and general form as will convey the same notion of the music as one would have of the poetry of Tennyson's In Memoriam from being told that the poem was written in stanzas of four octosyllabic A writer on the philosophy of music has the same sort of difficulties lines, the first rhyming with the fourth, and the second with the third. to contend with which form such serious obstacles in the path of the writer on music as an artistic result-obstacles which the latter, for the most part, knows very well how to avoid, and which, when he is writing for a newspaper, he must avoid, on pain of being stigmatised as a pedant if he does otherwise. The reason why the philosophy of music has been hitherto neglected is, according to Mr. Joseph Goddard, who has just published a very interesting work on the subject, that, with regard to other ministrations of art it does the least with the palpable of representing them in their natural aspect. Consequently, in tracing with no effect common to other branches of moral demonstration, and its influence, in wandering amongst its array of expositions, we meet with no object of external human interest. And thus the large sphere of suggestiveness which these influences possess is lost in the contemplation of music. Thus, the mind, in exploration of music, does not arrive at new starting points of thought, but traversing the ethereal stream of sound, glides continuously on its emotional course, undiverted into new channels by the external features of nature."

very vaguest manner.

More or less in all his Symphonies, in all his music,-although he has more perhaps than any composer of the manysidedness of Shakespeare you feel one constant theme, as great and inexhaustible, and never wearisome, as it is essentially subjective; to wit, the aspiration and the struggling of the soul with destiny; the ever renewed conflict of Good and Evil; the hopes, the obstacles, the onward movement of Humanity; the struggle and the victory, reaching at last, in the Ninth Symphony, the crowning word of Joy, and the embrace of all the myriads of beings! Accordingly a characteristic of his style, particularly in his quick movements, is the nervous accent, the reiterated emphasis, the bold attacking manner, and the irresistible crescendo, as if to carry a stronghold by storm. The harmonies go pulsing, surging, dash-forms and influences of nature, and is the only one without the faculty ing and urging their way onward, like a mighty freshet. Master as he is of means, of instruments, broad in harmonies and rich in coloring, the strength resides intrinsically in the thought always. These thoughts demand the full expansion of an orchestra; that becomes his native element, in which he is most himself Jove throned upon Olympus: even his Sonatas are full of orchestral suggestion; the thoughts are large enough, and worthy of such treatment. Yet so intrinsic is the greatness of his thought, that Mr. Goddard, in his endeavour to explain the nature and meaning of even on the pianoforte his music is exceedingly effective and expressive, losing nothing of its characteristic, and suggesting, at musical effect in the mind, begins by considering the origin of music, as the blossom is from the substance of the shrub;" that it is the lanleast, its full force of meaning through such slender outline. But and finds that it is "developed from the ordinary materials of language guage of passion and emotion in its highest expression, its most rarefied "that it retains the finer then it is such strong and manly music! Its very tenderness is form; or, to continue Mr. Goddard's image, manly; and it takes the strength of manly hands, nerves strong as they are sensitive, as well as manly will and imaginative intellect, attributes of speech as the flower still possesses in its roseate petals the to denote him truly; no more sentimental enthusiasm, no super-beautiful likeness of the green leaves; and that it loses the mixed and ficial glittering virtuosity is competent to play Beethoven.-But dull sound of ordinary language, and wholly assumes the vesture of this is by no means all!-J. S. DWIGHT, Boston (Massachusetts), melody, as the flower relinquishes the opaque and neutral tints of the plant and beams totally in the dazzling raiment of colour." Sep. 13.

HELSTON CHORAL SOCIETY (CORNWALL).-The members of the above society gave their first Concert on Wednesday morning, September 24th, at In spite of the heavy rain the room was well filled, and the Town Hall. every one appeared highly delighted with the excellent singing of the choir. The next concert will be in the second week in December. Conductor, Mr. J. H. Nunn (M.R.A.).

In the essay termed Relationship of Music to the other Fine Arts, the author seeks to explain the essential difference between music and the arts of painting, poetry, and the drama. The latter "convey the natural incentive of emotion first and then the emotion." Music imparts the emotion at once and in a direct manner. This distinction is very marked

• The Philosophy of Music. (Boosey and Sons.)

as between music and painting. To be affected or in any way impressed by a picture it is necessary not only to see it, but to consider it. So to be moved by poetry it is necessary not only to read it or hear it recited, but to understand it and take in all its meaning. With music, however, we are penetrated at once by the mere sound; to hear is to feel. Painting seems to produce its effect more rapidly than poetry in general, but less rapidly than dramatic poetry, which in that respect approaches as nearly as possible to music, the very language of emotion. It would appear, then, that there is no mental pleasure to be derived from listening to music. Nor, in fact, is there; unless, indeed, the mind of the hearer be occupied in following the design of the composer, in which case it may be as actively employed as it would be in pursuing a problem in mathematics. This, however, is not the ordinary mode of enjoying music; nor is it with a view to this sort of enjoyment that great musical works are written. The finest music, though its effect may be elevating and ennobling, gives no intellectual gratification, and is none the less important for that. It is not for their intellectual value that either the finest pictures or even the finest poems are esteemed.

did not understand French.

66

There is a point at which human speech may be said to become musical-at least in its effect. A man under the influence of deep emotion expresses that emotion by the tone of his voice as much as by any words he may utter. At the battle of Ulm, Napoleon, who did not speak German, harangued some Bavarian troops who They understood him, and were as much inspired by his voice as they would have been by the singing of a national anthem, a song of liberty, or any kind of war-song. Mr. Goddard is probably right in looking upon "tone" in the human voice as the equivalent to "melody" in music, and "emphasis" as equivalent to phrase." Napoleon's oratory was remarkable both for emphasis and for tone, and it may be said that all impassioned oratory holds a medium position between speech and song. In the instance that we have adduced, Napoleon's address was something between the ordinary discourse of a modern general and such a composition as the "Song of Roland" that Taillefer sung at the battle of Hastings. We may add, it is because tone and emphasis cannot be reproduced that speeches which make the greatest effect at public meetings often appear so flat when we read them the next day in the newspapers. "Tone and emphasis" will carry off the most commonplace stuff at a public meeting, and "melody and phrase" will cause downright nonsense to be listened to with delight in an opera.

Mr. Goddard's remarks on the power of music to awaken feeling, and to express several distinct feelings simultaneously, are also very interesting. It has always struck us as one of the great advantages of the operatic drama, that in it not only different and conflicting sentiments can be expressed at the same time, but also that large bodies of men can be made to speak (or sing) as in a crowd, and to take such a part in the action of the play as would be impossible in the ordinary drama. Fancy the great choral scenes in the Huguenots or Masaniello without the music! They would simply be unactable.

In conclusion, the little book of which we have given a rambling and somewhat unconnected account, is well worth perusing systematically from beginning to end. It is a contribution to a class of literature which numbers very few specimens. We have plenty of books in which the authors treat of composers, singers, and musicians, but very few in which music itself is made the subject.

VIENNA. Sig. Mocelli's Italian Opera Company will begin the season at the Carltheater on the 24th February. The season will last from that date to the 24th April, and will consist of thirty performances. Sig. Mocelli has engaged Madlle. Patti at a monthly salary of £1000. After the first fifteen performances, Madlle. Trebelli will arrive and alternate with Madlle. Patti. Signor Giuglini will be first tenor; Signor Filippini, contralto; and M. Faure, baritone. Among the operas already selected to form part of the programme may be mentioned Lucia, Martha, Il Barbiere, Londa, L'Elisire, etc.-Herr von Flotow is at present stopping here.-The old "Widow and Orphan Society" has changed its title, and is now called the "Haydn Society." To commemorate the fact, the members will, at their next concert, give Haydn's oratorio of Tobius, under the direction of Herr Esser.-A German lady from Odessa, whose name is not known to the writer, has had Franz Schubert's grave freed from the weeds with which it was overgrown, and planted around with flowers. She has also set aside a sufficient annual sum to keep it in order.

BRUNSWICK.-Herr Franz Abt has just received the large gold medal for Art and Science from the King of Hanover.

CARLSRUHE.-An interesting discovery has just been made while looking through some old archieves belonging to the court This is nothing more nor less than somewhere about twenty well-preserved and elegantly got-up scores of operas and ballets by Lully. Among them is the score of his Alceste, and that of Cadmus, his first opera. All these MSS., so interesting both in a historical and musical point of view, have already been lodged in the Grand-Ducal Library.

M. FOUCAULT is engaged at Paris in a series of experiments tending to effect a revolution in the art of scenic decoration. Instead of the traditional side scene representing old trees or rocks, and intended to limit the extent of the back scene, instead also of the strips of canvas used as a bad imitation of air and clouds, he employs a large canvas representing a panoramic view of the sky, the end of which is not perceptible in any direction, either from the side boxes or orchestra. All side scenes are done away with and the landscape thus acquires its full effect.

GARIBALDI AND FELICIEN DAVID.-M. Henri de Pène tells the fol

lowing story in his Couserie in the new journal La France - About thirty years ago, when the sect of Saint Simonians, ridiculed and almost persecuted in Paris, emigrated in groups to the East, Felicien David, (author of the new opera Lalla Rookh, which was successfully brought out the other day at the Opera Comique) found himself ploughing the blue waters of the Mediterranean on board the Clorinde, a rakish little merchantman, bound for Constantinople. Among his fellow passengers were several young men, poor and despised like himrisen to the pinnacle of fortune and fame. One warm evening, as the self, but who, also like himself, have since in their several vocations vessel neared the coast of Africa, Felicien David was pacing the deck bold-looking, and withal thoughtful and modest young man, who had in close conversation with the second mate of the Clorinde, an athletic, sought the acquaintance of these French dreamers, and informed them that he was an Italian patriot; something of a Carbonaro, but for the moment the course of events had weaned him from politics. What is that?' suddenly exclaimed the composer, at the same time pointing out to the sharper eyes of his sailor companion a black spot floating at a considerable distance from the ship. That is a turtle, and one of the largest kind. The English say they make famous soup. They are very scarce hereabouts. What can that one be doing so far from the coast? There, look how it springs out of the water to breathe.' 'We got no turtle soup at Menilmontant,' said Felicien David with a sigh (thinking of the short commons of the St. Simonian Club), and I should not be sorry to know what it is like. How do they catch that fish?' At sea they are harpooned like whales; but the simplest and best way is to look out for them when they come in shoals to the coast to lay their eggs, and then take them in strong nets. There is a third manner, but is seldom resorted to, for it is dangerous.' Well, what is this third way? This living soup, this floating You might delicacy, is not, then, harmless? Oh! by no means. as well have your leg or your arm between two Sheffield razors as within a turtle's beak.' O dear! Well, about the third way of catching them.' 'I will show it you,' quietly replied the second mate of the Clorinde, and at the word he plunged into the sea, accoutred as he was. A few minutes afterwards he re-appeared upon deck, streaming like a fountain, somewhat bloody, but holding his prey in his hands. 'You shall have your turtle soup,' he said to Felicien David. What rashness!' said the latter. Oh! said the officer of the Clorinde,

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shrugging his shoulders, a little sooner, a little later-what matters?' and he went to his cabin to change his clothes. I forgot to mention that the name of the second mate of the Clorinde was Joseph Garibaldi."

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THE FOLLOWING is going the rounds of musical journalism. We hope our friend "Mr. Brown,' or Thayer, will duly heed the last sentence; let us trust that he has at last sent up "Signor Masoni, &c.," as a pioneer balloon, to let us know that he and Beethoven are coming: "A German friend announces that Mozart's Don Juan, with the purified and amended text, on which the Baron Alfred von Wolzogen has been engaged, will be produced during the next Carnival at Munich, with care and state. Regarding this new version, an anecdote may be put on record as among the rare amenities of dramatic literature. It appears that Dr. Wendling, of Nymphenburg (perhaps belonging to that hospitable family of physicians at Mannheim, wellknown to all who have followed the history of Mozart's young days,) had also amused his leisure hours, during many years, by attempting to set the text of Don Juan to rights, and on hearing of another-it must not be said rival-laborer in the same field, with true courtesy and love of art, placed all his materials at the disposal of Baron A. von Wolzogen. The work has gained by this, and will appear under both names-to the bitter dismay of all good and true pedants. Dr. Jahn, says the same correspondent, has a Life of Beethoveen in hand. May it prove less heavy than his four-volume biography of Mozart !-a rich mass of facts, (many brought together from obscure places for the first time,)-and nevertheless about the least readable piece of musical literature that could be named. We ought by this time to be hearing something of the Life of Beethoven for which Mr. Thayer has been so laborious and indefatigable in making collections."-Dwight's Journal of Music. [The paragraph originally appeared in The Athenæum.—Ed. M. W.]

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