In

tion for the hair; and as an invigorator and beautifier beyond all precedent. dressing the hair nothing can equal its effect, rendering it so admirably soft that it will lie in any direction, and imparting a transcendent Justre. Price 38. 6d. ; 78; Family Bottles (equal to four small), 10s. 6d. ; and double that size, 218.ROWLANDS' KALYDOR, FOR THE SKIN AND COMPLEXION, is unequalled for its rare and inestimable qualities. The radiant bloom it imparts to the cheek; the softness and delicacy which it induces of the hands and arms; its capability of soothing irritations, and removing cutaneous defects, discolorations, and all unsightly appearances, render it indispensable to every toilet. Price 4s. 6d. and 8s. 6d. per bottle.-ROWLANDS' ODONTO, OR PEARL DENTIFRICE, prepared from Oriental Herbs with unusual care. This unique compound will be found of inestimable value in preserving and beautifying the teeth, strengthening the gums, and in giving sweetness and perfume to the breath. Price 2s. 9d. per box. Sold by A. ROWLAND and SONS, 20, Hatton-garden, London, and by Chemists and Perfumers. Beware of Spurious Imitations !!!

Band very attractive Pieces by G. A. OSBORNE SBORNE'S NEW COMPOSITIONS.-Now ready,

La Donna e Mobile (exceedingly brilliant), 38.; A te, O Cara, the most effective adaptation of this favourite subject, 2s. 6d. ; D'un Pensiere, the beautiful finale to the second act of La Sonnambula, 2s. 6d. ; Good night, farewell, Kücken's beautiful ballad, arranged for the piano in Osborne's best style. Boosey and Sons, 28, Holles-street.

LE

E RÊVE DU PASSÉ-Romance sans Paroles, pour le Piano, par Mde. Oury.-Price 4s. "This is a very charming composition, just suited for a morceau du salon, elegant in style and full of spirit and expression. We need give no higher recommendation than that it is in every respect worthy to be the production of a lady so high in the profession as Mde de Belleville Oury."-Brighton Herald. By the same composer, "Partant pour la Syrie." The best arrangement of this popular melody, price 38. Mazurka Brillante pour le Piano. A most effective piece, price 4s. Grand Fantaisie on Rigoletto, price 48. Rigoletto Galop, price 28.-Boosey and Sons, 28, Holles-street.

POLKAS.-Enchantress Polka,

2s.;

whose talent and energies have been devoted so many years to the improvement of this instrument. Prices from £4 4s. to £12 128. each. Case's Four Guinea Concertinas are intended to supersede the imperfect cheap Concertinas which, being made with only half the proper number of notes, are really worthless as musical instruments. A post-office order for £4 4s., will ensure the delivery of a Concertina in a handsome mahogany case, carriage free to any part of England.

i

berg Polka, 2s. These Polkas will be found in every Programme of Dance Music, both for Pianoforte and Orchestra. New Editions of them all, are constantly ssued by Boosey and Sons, 28, Holles Street.

and Four, when Mr. Case attends to try over Concertinas and music. Boosey and Sons, sole dealers in Case's Concertinas, 28, Holles-street.

THE

sung by Signori Mario, Gardoni, and Belletti. Price 28. each.-1. La Luna. 2. La Prima Lagrima. 3. L'Ultima Preghiera. 4. Amami. 5. Vola il tempo. 6. Il Marinaro (Barcarolle); and 7. Una sera d'Amore, Duetto. 2s. 6d. -Boosey and

CONTENTS:

1. An Almanack, with musical data.

2. A List of Musical Societies throughout the Kingdom.

3. The Musical Doings of the past year.

4. Complete List of Music published throughout the Kingdom between 1st of January and 31st December, 1854.

5. Names of Professors, Music-sellers, and Musical Instrument Manufacturers, throughout the Kingdom, with their Addresses, &c. Rudall, Rose, Carte, and Co., 100, New Bond-street, and 20, Charing Cross. [MPROVED SYSTEM OF PENMANSHIP, by MR. Persons of any age (however bad their writing) can, by taking Eight Lessons, speedily acquire an expeditious and well-formed style of Penmanship, adapted either to business, professional pursuits, or private correspondence, at 1s. 6d. per practically taught in all its branches. Short-hand taught in a few lessons. Separate Rooms for Ladies. Prospectuses to be had at the Institution.

ALBINOLO'S OINTMENT having been forwarded by

the Army Medical Board to the Hospital at Scutari, the Proprietor of this invaluable discovery having been severely wounded, and cured with this ointment 48 years ago, at the battle of Jena, will present every soldier going to the seat of war with a box to dress his wounds or sores, as a token of sympathy for his sufferings.-Apply, 29, Marylebone-street, Regent-street.

In Pots, duty included, 1s. 1d., 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., 11s., 228., and 33s.

On the 22nd November, I delivered eight large tin boxes, containing together 200lbs., to Dr. Andrew Smith, Director to the Army Medical Board, to send them to the Army in the Crimea.

HALL.-Her Most Gracious Majesty the

Queen, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and the rest of the Royal Family, have been pleased to grant their especial patronage to the SECOND GRAND PERFORMANCE by the NEW PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, on Wednesday, March 28, in aid of the funds of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, when will be performed, among other works, Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, Mendelssohn's Concerto in A, Weber's Overture Oberon, and Ruler of the Spirits, Mozart's Overture Zauberflöte, Mendelssohn's Part Song, with chorus of 300 voices. Conductor-Dr. Wylde. Stall tickets, one guinea; reserved seats, west gallery, 10s 61. ; may be had at Messrs. Cramer, Beale, and Co,'s; Messrs. Keith, Prowse, and Co.'s ; and at St. Mary's Hospital. Subscription to the Society, £2 2s.; west gallery £1 18.

EX

in the luxuries of the table. His appetite was good, but his digestion weak, which obliged him to have recourse to medicine as oft-changed as told, for he seldom obtained more than temporary relief, relapsing again into the same unpleasantness. Holloway's Pills were recommended to him after all, and it is quite astonishing to see the benefit he has derived from them, as he can now eat indiscriminately, without fear of suffering from his former ailments.-Sold by all London; 80, Maiden-lane, New York.

Baumann, Remusat, Lovell Phillips, Prospère, Mount, Mann, Cioffi, Zeiss, Tolbecque Nadaud, Chipp, &c. For terms apply to Mr. A. Guest, 1, Kingston Russell-place Oakley-square, Camden-town, or Messrs, Cramer, Beale, and Co., 201, Regent-street

K

EATING'S COUGH LOZENGE S.A CERTAIN REMEDY for disorders of the Pulmonary Organs-in difficulty of Breathing-in Redundancy of Phlegm-in Incipient Consumption (of which Cough is the most positive indication) they are of unerring efficacy. In Asthma, and in Winter Cough, they have never been known to fail.

Keating's Cough Lozenges are free from every deleterious ingredient; they may, therefore, be taken at all times, by the most delicate female and by the youngest child; while the Public Speaker and the Professional Singer will find them invaluable in allaying the hoarseness and irritation incidental to vocal exertion, and consequently a powerful auxiliary in the production of melodious enunciation. Prepared and sold in boxes, 1s. 14d., and tins, 2s. 9d., 4s 6d., and 10s. 6d. each, by Thomas Keating, Chemist, etc., No. 79, St. Paul's Churchyard, London. The Testimonials of their efficacy are too numerous for publication.

IMPORTANT TO SINGERS AND PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

St. Paul's Cathedral, 30th Nov., 1849. SIR,I have much pleasure in recommending your Lozenges to those who may be distressed with hoarseness. They have afforded me relief on several occasions when scareely able to sing from the effects of Catarrh. I think they would be very useful to Clergymen, Barristers, and Public Orators. I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

An Amateur Soirée Musicale will take place on Tuesday, the 20th March, at the Hanover-square Rooms, for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded at Scutari. The proceeds to be presented to Miss Nightingale. Tickets, 5s. each, or a family ticket to admit five, One Guinea. All letters and applications for tickets to be addressed to Miss Bevington, 48, Greek-street, Soho-square.

SIR

IR HENRY BISHOP.-GLEES and CONCERTED VOCAL MUSIC, Hanover-square Rooms. Mr. Mitchell respectfully announces that, under the direction and personal superintendence of the emment English Composer, Sir Henry Bishop, a Short Series of Four Afternoon Vocal Concerts, by Men Voices, of Glees, Quartettos, and Concerted Music, selected entirely from Sir Henry Bishop's numerous Works, will be presented at the al ove Rooms, on the following days:-Tuesday afternoon, March 6, 1855; Saturday afternoon, March 10, 1855; Tuesday afternoon, March 13, 1855; Saturday afternoon, March 17, 1855; To begin at half-pa-t three o'clock, and to terminate be ore five. For the efficient execution of these well-known and popular compositions, engagements have been made with Master Sullivan, Master Cooke, Mr. Francis, Mr. Benson, Mr. F. Bodda, Mr. Lawler, and Mr. Land, who will assist at the Pianoforte. Reserved numbered stalls, 5s.; unreserved seats, 38. Tickets and Books of the Words may be obtained at Mr. Mitchell's Royal Library, 33, Old Bond-street; of Messrs. Keith, Prowse, and Co., Cheapside; and at the principal Libraries and Music-sellers.

VOL. 33.-No. 10.

A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF MUSIC BEFORE MOZART.

(Continued from page 142.)

So little did the old contrapuntists think of filling out the chord, that frequently, as we see, the four parts together present nothing but a third, a fifth, or a mere unison. Is not this harmony of the fourteenth, indeed we may say of the whole fifteenth century, much emptier and less satisfying to the ear, than the simple unisons or octaves of the natural singers.

One question presses here upon our notice, of which I presume no one will deny the interest, nor the merit of having hitherto eluded all investigation. With the knowledge which the musicians of that period possessed, or rather with that which they did not possess (for they lacked nearly all) what could they or what should they do? A new question is a sort of windfall, which no writer declines. I shall be pardoned, therefore, if I also take advantage of it.

Musical art in the fourteenth century, like a new-born, misshapen, frail and sickly child, followed a course plainly contrary to nature. It turned from the composite to the simple, from canonical counterpoint to chords, and from chords to melody. Why did it not begin with the last, which is the essential, and, moreover, the most obvious thing in music? Nature herself undertakes to teach melody; she dictates its turns and its character with an inexhaustible variety, and often with a charm of expression, according to the prosody of the language, the influences of climate, and other special relations of the physical and intellectual life of nations. The cheerful shepherd song (Villanella), the naïve (barcarolle), the idyllic Sicilienne (shepherd's dance), the Tyrolese song with its double voice, that sounds like an echo from the mountains, the French cradle songs, the English ballads, the Ossianic and melancholy Scotch melodies, the complaining and tender Russian melodies, and other national songs, in which is expressed the original genius of the races, nearly obliterated by our present civilization-how many happy and fruitful thoughts. What poetic treasures lie in them. Treasures, at the command of every one. What the hunter of the Alps, the herdsman of the Appenines and of Mount Etna, the ploughman on the banks of the Wolga and the Don-what these uncultivated men found, and without difficulty, men who had applied themselves especially to the study of music, should have been able to find much more easily, and without doubt much better. A little reflection will suffice to show that they could not.

PRICE 4d. STAMPED 5d.

notes makes only an indefinite and ambiguous impression on the ear, since we always need a third tone, real or implied, to bring out a complete, determined, and self-founded harmony, the musicians were not able with such a method to discover the relations of the key and of modulation, which alone make melody. Their parts were set down upon paper accidentally and according to this blind mode of proceeding. That was the first hindrance, which was not of a nature to last long. By a sort of self-refining process, the progressions of the intervals produced the chord so often, that they finally gave the harmonic trinity invariably, and as a common natural basis for all the labours of composition. Theory kept a very long silence about this extraordinary discovery; it waited for Rameau, to be legitimately explained. But from the fifteenth century down, we see whole series of chords gradually taking the place of the two-footed passages which had formed the rule. In the works of the first Flemish school, the oldest of all schools, the feeling of the harmonic law begins clearly to break out, and the melodic design to improve in proportion. But in the parts or voices that were contrived to produce some kind of musical meaning, none at all was found. Obstacles, which it required more time to remove than mere ignorance-obstacles which were yet more obstinate because they had their roots in the incarnate theoretic prejudices, and even touched the institutions of the church, necessarily made melody impossible for more than two centuries longer.

The eight church tones of the Gregorian chant were the only ones in use from antiquity, and the only ones which theory recognised. They had the three-fold sanction of time, of established theory, and of the catholic ritual. To these guarantees, so imposing in themselves, Glareanus (Henry Loritus, a theorist of the sixteenth century) added the legislative and always highly venerated authority of the ancients. He identified the church tones with the Greek modes, and gave them the names Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and so forth, of which neither St. Ambrose nor St. Gregory had ever thought. In this way, everything contributed to make out of the institution of the church modes an unassailable musical dogma, and, as it were, a supplemental article of faith, which no one ventured openly to deny or overstep. My readers know that these modes, ascribed to the Greeks, were nothing but the normal diatonic scale of C major, comprised in octaves, which began and ended upon other notes besides the tonic. They also know, and possibly still better, that upon the place which the half tones occupy upon the major and minor scale, depend the combinations which determine the key. But since, in all the church tones, this place changed continually, according to the arbitrary note with which the scale comwanting to all the authentic or solemn modes; that the Dorian, for example, which began with a D, in the want of a C sharp, had neither the half-tone imediately below the ground tone for its melody, nor a dominant chord for its harmony; that the Lydian, which began with an F, ran against the tritone, instead of the fourth, which it should have found on the fourth step, and so on. We see at once the impossibility of realising any natural melody with these unsettled scales. But we believe, too, that they never applied the church tones in their theoretic and grammatical purity. The singers must have corrected and modified them from instinct, as do the singers in the Græco-Russian churches at this day, using

sharps and flats not indicated in the book, as often as the ear craves them. In this way the church tones, as they were, could serve for a long time and maintain a semblance of reality, so long as the canto fermo was only executed in unison or octaves. But with harmony all this became pure illusion. With harmony there was no longer a Dorian, or a Phrygian, or any other scale of that sort; there were the major and minor, which require sensible and characteristic notes; that is, the true scales and the transposed keys, that is, sharps and flats; moreover a natural tune, that is a natural modulation, that is in a word all that the church tones had not. The obstacle was insurmountable. They had to get round it by a thousand subtleties, a thousand roundabout ways; and just as men had laboured to reconcile the Hucbald progression with the permitted passages, which was very bad, but at least practicable, so now the science and genius of the composers were exhausted upon the impossible problem of reconciling harmony with the church tones, when there was an invincible repugnance between them. What occurred in consequence? Out of mere regard and forbearance towards this venerable institution, it came to pass that the composers, without thinking of it, utterly destroyed it, and finally to their great amazement found above its ruins the twenty-four keys of modern music, the result of harmony and melody completed.

The first shift that was thought of was to change the B of the Lydian mode into a B flat; since the B natural formed with the tonic a tri-tone or false fourth, an interval scarcely regarded with abhorrence before, and now one of the most disdistinguished and useful servants of the harmonic kingdom. In this way the Greek tone-system was tolerably conformed to the relations of the modern scale and forced to bear a somewhat closer resemblance to our scale of F major than one drop of water to another. This alone among all the church tones had this invaluable advantage, at least in writing; and I make this remark with so much the more interest, because it very well explains the singular partiality of the composers of the sixteenth century, already learned harmonists, for this key. Nearly all the examples of their works which Burney gives bear the signature of one flat.

To be sure, the concession of a B flat was a small affair. They had to modulate accordingly, to touch the essential chords, to pass out into other keys. Here was a new perplexity. The Lydian mode, transformed into a major scale, had indeed all the chords required within the limits of its own Tonic; but its key did not suffice to effect the nearest transition. If one wanted, for example, to pass from F into B flat major, or into D minor or A minor, the ear demanded in the first case the characteristic E flat; in the second case the semitone C sharp below the key-note; in the third case, G sharp; downright falsifications of the church modes, manifest oversteppings of the established system. Modulation was not possible; not to modulate was equally impossible. What then was to be done? Patience! here comes the celebrated Franchinus Gaforio, Gaforus or Gaforius, who will instruct us in his treatise, entitled Practica musica, chapter 13, De musica ficta contrapuncto. Does the reader know what this fictitious music is? Nothing more nor less than real music, music for the ear, with body and soul to it; the necessity of setting sharps and flats, where they were needed, without its being permissible on that account ever to write them upon paper, for that was called altering the purity of the scales. All were lost, should the eye see what the ear must hear. What a casuist was this Gaforius! What a perfect Jesuit, although Loyola's children were not yet born? Sharps and flats are permitted when you cannot do without them, but to write them is a sin. An excellent doctrine, which applies to many other things as well as flats and sharps.

By virtue of this fiction, which quieted the consciences of contemporaries at the expense of future historians, who had officially to decipher the old music, the musicians remained in good faith that they were operating upon Greek or church tones, while they were making neither more nor less than major and minor. Nevertheless this prejudice, so long as it stood in theory, had a great influence upon practice. The tune, instead of resting on the essential chords of one major or minor

tone, continued to move upon arbitrary limits in the different scales of the canto fermo. The diatonic passed for the rule; the chromatic for a painful, but unavoidable exception, to be used as sparingly as possible. Hence all the inconveniences in the train of the old music;-the want of resonance, the poverty and helplessness of modulations, the rests and cadences running so contrary to nature, and an anxiety to avoid scales, whose use would have involved too many flats and sharps, that is to say too many exceptions and licences! Summa summarum : Melody was just 0. We shall see hereafter how much the rules of the Canon must have aggravated the impediments of a tone-system, that was in itself so unpropitious to the demands of Art. For the musicians in the state of nature, not a single one of these impediments existed. Neither scales nor modulations gave them any difficulty. They sang the major more correctly than any of the learned ones who had been initiated into the mysteries of the cantus durus and the cantus mollis; they intonated the minor more accurately than the cuckoo; they set sharps and flats with an unerring tact, and slept none the worse for it, the happy mortals; melody streamed rich and fluid from their lips; dance music, brisk and well cadenced, animated their clumsy bows; their ignorance understood how to flatter the ear, to excite the senses, to move the heart, when science was far from dreaming that there is no music without these three conditions. The artists looked down with contempt upon their modest colleagues, who were far before them; and yet a secret envy, a desire of imitation, which they did not confess to themselves, was mingled with their contempt for the natural music, with that enjoyment, of which they were ashamed, but which they none the less found very agreeable. They despised them, and yet they were repeatedly compelled in their own barrenness and impotence to have recourse to them. I take pains to collect the evidences of this fact, as far as they can be had. It is very important, and the historians have not understood it. (To be continued.)

REACTIONARY LETTERS.

No. IX.

(Continued from page 129.)

It is true! We are the slaves of past times, the slaves of death!

A dead man, if he happens to have made a will, disposes of property no longer his, or, if he happens to have made no will, the property is divided according to the views and ideas of individuals who have been dead much longer than he has. A dead man sits on every judgment-seat, and the living only repeat his decisions.

We read books of dead men, and sing hallelujahs over the graves of those whose lips, which once moved in the most enthusiastic spirit, are now turned to ashes. We laugh and we cry over the Dead. We fall ill with the illnesses both bodily and mental of persons long since deceased, and, not unfrequntly, die of the same specifics, with which dead doctors destroyed their patients. We even write music according to the rules promulgated by dead men, and criticise it in obedience to the views of individuals long since buried.

It is high time for us to emancipate ourselves. The world belongs to the living.

Unfortunately, the living will not altogether believe thiswhich is a great fault on their part.

They have so entangled themselves in the network of golden and brazen chains, which thousands of years have wound round them, that they do not even attempt to burst their bonds, although they need make but one bold effort and their limbs are free. Only let them have confidence-faith!

Why, for instance, do you not believe in Gervinus, worthy musicians? Why do you venerate the dust of a Palestrina or a Lotti? Why do you fear the mouldering skeleton of a Bach, a Händel, a Mozart? Away with the doctrines of such men. Emancipate yourselves!

Cast into the fire all theories, with contrapunt and fugue; inharmonic transitions and sharp fifths; preparation and resolu