had suffered from commercial reverses, to complete his musical education. This kind act on the part of an association consisting chiefly of non-professional ladies and gentlemen, met with a liberal response on that of the public, and we hear that a goodly amount was realised. The paucity of the concerts was the subject of general remark; and it might be supposed that the unfrequency of performance was a sign of failing strength, while the fact is, that, as the choir contains many substantially commercial members, these really cannot devote the time necessary for the rehearsals which Mr. Leslie very properly enforces previously to every concert. Four or five concerts in a season would not seem to be any great tax upon even a business man's time, but in previous seasons we recollect that Mr. Leslie overran the constable as regarded the number of concerts, and we expect worked the members so hard that they would not agree to meet this season except for a minimum number of performances. Next year, doubtless, we shall see the balance restored, and the happy medium of about eight concerts arranged. Mr. Henry Leslie's Choir is a most important institution. Taking the variety of the programmes into consideration, it is the best part-singing to be heard in the world.

We regret to have heard so little of the Bach Society. The wonderful success of the Passions Musik performance at St. Martin's Hall, two years ago, the subsequent execution of some selections from the same at the Leeds Festival, and the well-received introduction of a song from it at one of the Monday Popular Concerts (first season), should have encouraged the Society to give at least a repetition of the work, if not other sacred compositions, of the sublime master. The London Orchestral Association does not seem to have achieved anything beyond the holding of one or two meetings for the transaction of preliminary business, but it is satisfactory to note that the society preserves its existence. The Orchestral Society, too, has been rather quict. Its conductor, Mr. W. Rea, has been appointed organist to the Town Hall at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and as he can scarcely be expected to conduct telegraphically, we suppose sone one must have been appointed in his stead. We should think there was room for a good society for the practice of orchestral music. The Amateur Musical Society has thriven. Interest therein is spiritedly maintained, and there are always plenty of subscribers without necessity for appealing to the public. These are the only concerts in London where full dress is really indispensable. The Society of British Musicians, which, though heard little of now-a-days, has not relinquished the most important feature in its mission-viz., the representation of MS. orchestral compositions, by native authors, has given a trial of new works, and the Royal Academy of Music has exhibited its students in a short series of concerts, in which full band and chorus have been employed.

Turning to chamber music, we find that the Monday Popular Concerts have by no means absorbed the quartett-loving public. The Musical Union has been duly patronised, and two new associations have sprung up, while Mr. Dando's quartett concerts (excellent affairs, that deserve to be better known) have maintained their position. The new establishments referred to are the London Quintett Union and the Professors' Concert Union, the former with Mr. Willey for leader, the latter with Mr. Henry Blagrove. Each has given three or four concerts, and with tolerable success. The Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts has also combined some agreeable performances of chamber music with its soirees. The Whittington Club Concerts and the Beaumont Institution (the latter amongst the most spirited in the metropolis) have met with considerable support.

The choral concerts not yet noticed have been given by the London Glee and Madrigal Union, the English Glee and Madrigal Union, the St. George's Choir, Mr. James Robinson's Choir, and Mr. Henken's Choral Class. The first of these has been singularly successful, having given upwards of 100 concerts.

Amongst notable successes must be classed Mr. Gye's concerts in the Floral Hall, while the prosperous career of Mr. and Mrs. German Reed (aided latterly by Mr. John Parry), of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul, and of the Christy's Minstrels, which last hav vied with the other "entertainers" in alluring first-class audiences, should not pass unnoticed. Amongst all this extraordinary success, it seems strange to us to have to chronicle three failures in the shape of opera, a species of entertainment admitted to be most attractive in the present day. English opera was started at Drury Lane by Dr. Pech, and the doors closed in a week. French opera was essayed for a longer time by M.-Laurent at the Lyceum, but with ill result; and a frantic dash at English opera (with two works on the same evening!) was recently made at the Surrey Theatre, the career being likewise brief. We sincerely regretted the stoppage of the French performances; they were far from perfect, but they were considerably less imperfect than the other speculations just named, while the charm of the operettas introduced was remarkable. Offenbach's Mariage aux Lanternes provoked as

much applausive enthusiasm as we ever heard in an English theatre, and we are at a loss to understand why so fresh and pleasant an institution as this French opera could not be made to pay. The Drury Lane failure did not surprise us. The band and chorus were good, and the principal artists commendable, but Dr. Pech should have confined his exertions to the management, being in no way fitted for the office of conductor. At the Surrey some good works were brought forward, but the band consisted of about twelve performers, and as neither of them could conveniently manage more than one instrument at the same time, the effect was naturally and decidedly meagre. Allusion to opera reminds us of the brilliant success of Lurline, produced in such excellent style by the Pyne and Harrison Opera Company at Covent Garden, while we may remark upon the brilliant career of this troupe as one of the features of the season.

The musical doings at the Crystal Palace, which should be reckoned amongst those of the metropolis, have been important. Six opera concerts, supported by some of the best artistes of Her Majesty's Theatre, have been given; Mlle. Piccolomini has appeared at three of the Saturday concerts, and the Tonic Sol-Fa Association and the Metropolitan Schools' Choral Society, who measure their singers by thousands, have set thrice their number of auditors wondering at the excellent training of the children. The very striking execution and exquisite tone of the Orphéonistes are yet fresh in the recollection of our town readers and such provincial perusers as had the good luck to visit London and Sydenham during the last week in June, and the brazen strains of the competitive bands last month may be adverted to as a remarkable contrast to the afore-mentioned delicate choralism. Add to these the Mendelssohn Festival, consisting (musically) of a performance of Elijah by 2,500 executants, a concert by the Yorkshire Choral Union, one by the Vocal Association with 1,000 voices, and two performances of the May Queen, and one of Mendelssohn's Son and Stranger, and it must be admitted that the Crystal Palace has not been behind in the representation of the divine art.

The list of concert-givers during the past season is worth publishing-Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Aguilar (2 concerts), Miss Eleanor Armstrong, Master Allison (2), Mr. Balfe (3), Miss Laura Baxter, Mad. Behrens, Mr. H. Baumer (3), Mr. Benedict, Mr. R. Blagrove (2), Signor Bucalossi, Miss Emma Busby, Signor Campana, Mr. H. Carvill, Mad. Celli, Miss Chipperfield, Mr. Scotson Clark, Miss Cole, Miss Corfield, Miss Cronin, Mr. Cusins, Master Dean (3), Herr Deichmann, M. Depret, Mad. De Vaucheran, Miss De Villar, MM. Donay and Poussard, Mr. Eayres, Herr Engel and M. Lefort, Mr. Field, Mr. G. Forbes (4), Master Fox, Prince Galitzin (2), Herr Ganz, Miss Susan Goddard, Mr. Howard Glover (2), Herr Goldberg, Herr Grcebe, Miss Emma Green (2), Mr. Charles Hallé, Mr. J. L. Hatton, Herr Holzel, Miss Fanny Huddart, Mr. Allan Irving, Miss Theresa Jefferys, Master Ketten, Herr Kuhe, Miss Lascelles, Mr. Lazarus, Miss Leffler, Mad. Lemmens, Mr. Lester, Miss Levesque, Herr Lidel, Mr. Martin (2), Mr. John Macfarren, Mr. McLeod, Miss Messent, Herr Molique, Mr. Monk, Herr Nabich, Mrs. Alexander Newton, Mr. Nickinson, Herr Oberthur, Mad. Paez, Miss Palmer, Herr Pauer, Signor Pezze, Signor Piatti, Mr. and Mrs. Pratten, Miss Poole, Mad. Puzzi, Mr. Ransford, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Brinley Richards, Mad. Rieder, Herr Ries, Mile. Rubini, Mr. George Russell, Mad. Sainton (4), Mr. Charles Salaman, Mr. Lindsay Sloper, Miss Steele, Mlle. Sedlazek, Mlle. Speyer, Miss Spiller and Miss Mackenzie, Mr. and Mrs. Tennant, Mr. John Thomas, Mr. Harold Thomas, Mlle. Valentin, Miss Van Noorden, Mlle. Vaneri, Miss Louisa Vinning, Miss Eleanor Ward, Mr. Langton Williams, Mr. Melchor Winter and Mr. B. Wells, Miss Eleanora Wilkinson, Miss Louisa Kapp Young, Signor Zisca. It makes our head whirl to think that we should have attended the greater part of these concerts, and we have yet to add the Drury Lane Promenade Concerts, an amateur performance of Mendelssohn's Antigone at Campden House, a concert by blind musicians at Hanover Square, and concerts for the benefit of the London Blind Society, a literary gentleman, Mad. Jullien, the family of the late Mr. R. Brough, the Society of British and Foreign Musicians, the Middlesex Volunteer Artillery, and the St. John's (Islington) Roman Catholic Schools. The majority of the concerts have been well attended, but what has gratified our critical senses still more has been the very remarkable fact, that scarcely a programme has appeared without at least one classical instrumental piece, a sign that a better order of music is not only tolerated but actually required.

The calm which generally succeeds such a storm of musical performances has been disturbed by a series of promenade concerts, in the Floral Hall, under the direction of Mr. Alfred Mellon. It seems scarcely necessary to say that Mr. Alfred Mellon's name as conductor is a guarantee for the excellence of the orchestral playing, and as to the possibility of obtaining sufficient support for such an undertaking, out of the regular London season, there are still multitudes in town want

it

MY CHURCH.

DEAR FRIEND,-Have you a little time on your hands, and will you devote it to a visit with me to my church? Come, then, let us jump into this train, and in a few hours we shall see its towering spire and comely proportions standing like a giant amid the surrounding ancient houses, where dwell the slow inhabitants of the quiet, resigned old town. Alight we now, and let us descend this eminence, from which you observe yon picturesque scene, spreading out beneath our feet. How beautifully is it varied by hill and dale, and how peaceful and calm does everything around us seem, so that we well-nigh forget the busy world we have left behind us. Let us make the best of our way through the streets, for there is little worth our time to be seen beside my church. Here it is, then. Let us enter the palisaded and far-stretching grave-yard, in the midst of which towers in holy majesty the venerable structure. We will not stay to count that numerous row of windows, for (as a recent itinerant critic remarked) they confound and dazzle our minds by their number and brightness. We will enter at once the sacred fane. I am not skilled in the technical terms of architectural lore, so will not seek to describe in that phraseology the beauty and order of the place. But is not the coup d'œil at once imposing and noble, as we stand with our backs to the altar, and note those two immense lines of majestic pillars running parallel to the gallery, where that noble organ sits like a king enthroned? Above his head soars a cherubim in shining robes, with a golden trumpet at his lips, and a scroll at his feet on which is inscribed, "O praise the God of Heaven," and a host of little cherubs are smiling down upon him. You would scarcely suppose I have heard that cherubim play upon his trumpet. I have, however. It is many, many years since. Thus it was. The choir was practising one night preparatory to the ensuing Sunday service, and the old musical king's voice called me into my church, and asked me what I thought of his harmony? To which I replied, I liked very much indeed; when he kindly invited me to stay till the practice was ended. Accepting the invitation, I sauntered to the steps of the altar and sat down to hearken to my good old friend, as he led his joyous family on in the conduct of the service. Whilst in a state of ecstasy, brought about by the spirit-arousing strains of the combined vocal and instrumental harmony, fixing my eyes on the cherubim, but dimly seen from his giddy height above the partial light, I observed he was lustily joining in the music upon his trumpet, which caused the entire building to reply in echo, and startled from their recumbent posture the quaint old ladies and gentlemen of long-forgotten ages, who crouched in every nook and corner amid the lofty beams and rafters. Whilst looking with surprise at the odd grimaces these queer folk incessantly were making, my attention was suddenly arrested by a rustling noise of silks and satins, accompanied by the clattering of arms and spurs throughout the entire building, and on looking down I perceived that my church was now literally crammed with the worshippers of bye-gone days, clad in all the varied costumes from the time of the great Alfred to the present period; and their rich voluminous body of harmony, which at once assimilated with the already almost overpowering ocean of sound, is indelibly impressed upon the tympanum of my ear. Whilst lost in amazement at these novel sights and sounds, I observed approaching towards me a tall and noble figure, wearing a loose flowing garment, composed of the skins of wild beasts. His finely formed head was uncovered, and his hair flowed in clusters of dark curls, completely enveloping his massive shoulders. His countenance beamed with intelligence, and, with his patriarchal-looking beard, formed at once a study for the philosopher or artist. In his hand he held a helmet, gorgeously inlaid with gold and precious stones. Suspended at his side was his sword, whose scabbard glittered with costly gems; whilst on the superb shield depending from his left shoulder, I thought I descried, in ancient Gothic characters, the word "Guthrum." As he drew near, I summoned up courage to address him, and, rising and making my obeisance, I said, "I believe I have the honour of saluting the noble Dane who formerly

alluded to.

town.

"The same," he cour

teously replied; and went on, in tones which harmonised delightfully with the great ocean of music around, to recount his visit to our island home for the purpose of enslaving it; but said he rejoiced to think he had suffered defeat at the hands of the magnanimous Alfred, who, after converting him to Christianity, honoured him by giving into his hands the government before Pointing to an antique tomb in the south aisle of the church, where he said his ashes peacefully reposed till the last trumpet shall sound, he bowed and withdrew, and was soon lost to me among the assembled multitude. Seized with an irresistible desire to look more closely upon these spirits of the dead, I proceeded to shape my course down the centre aisle, where I presently observed a lovely lady, who, through some mysterious power, I knew to be the wife of Theodore Palæologus, of Pesaro, in Italy, who was descended from the Imperial line of the last Christian Emperors of Greece, and married the sweet damsel from this He died in 1636. Hearing, in another direction, a voice, joining in the anthem then performing, of surpassing richness and body of tone, I looked to whence it came, and was delighted to formerly rector of this parish, and who suffered martyrdom see it was from none else than the venerable Rowland Taylor, in Mary's reign. He stood, his face radiant with happiness, and a halo of glory surrounding his snow-white head, and sang triumphantly. Whilst gazing with mingled awe and reverence on the time-honoured martyr, the music for an instant entirely ceased, and I noticed that the singers were hastily leaving their places in the gallery, when the organist-ah! he was an organist! You should have seen his portly person, and rugged, strongly-marked countenance, and his grizzled hair. He looked like an educated lion, and played exactly as a lion would play if taught to finger (claw) the keys. Well, this learned monarch of the forest attacked the king of instruments on this occasion, who, in defence, sung out the Hallelujah Chorus in so majestic and overpowering a style, that eventually the lion felt himself beaten, and desisted again. Yet those two potentates loved each other, and were firm friends for more than half-a-century. And the brave old lion had a whelp who has long since grown to be the very image of the old lion, and has himself done battle with the self-same king of harmony for a quarter-of-a-century since the old monarch was summoned hence; and should he carry on the contest even longer than his venerated sire, he will finally be beaten by the stronglunged king, who still sings as vigorously as he did before my great-great-grandfather listened to his heaven-directing notes. But I was saying the old lion at length gave in to the harmonious king. Yes, and as the last note of the chorus died away in the night air, the cherubim slackened his trumpet from his lips, and the visitors from the other world disappeared momentarily, as if by magic, and I made the best of my way out of the old church, chilly and faint, to seek my home, the fire, and my supper. This was the only occasion on which I remember to have heard the cherubim blow his trumpet. And now you can amuse yourself by looking over the very numerous monumental brasses and stones, many of them quaint, some touching, and all speaking in tones that may be rendered into the same words as those forming the lines (now obliterated, I remember,) under the sun-dial. Let me recite them to you :-

"Where now you stand the time to spy,
Who knows how soon you there may lye;
Both time and place are monitory
That you and they are transitory.

Heaven is our temple, death the porch,
Christ is the way, his word our torch.
Here let us walk while we have light,
Too late begins our work at night."

But hark! it is the whistle of the locomotive, which, like time and tide, stays for no man. Bidding the dust of my fathers for many, many generations past, and my dear old church (Ecclesia Sanctæ Maria) another hasty but not unfelt farewell, return we now, dear friend, to the bustling cares of busy life again. And let us not entirely forget when there, the power of music to summon up old memories, and whose tremendous and sublime office it is destined to be, to summon, at the final consummation of all things, every soul who has ever breathed the breath of life on the

face of the universe, to stand before the Judge of all! "Had-LEE!" shouted an Eastern Counties Railway official in my ears, and up I jumped, and found my friend fast asleep by my side. We had but just arrived at our destination, and I remembered we had only at present visited my church in a dream.

L

CRYSTAL PALACE.

-now as

A MORE useful officer does not belong to the managerial staff of the Crystal Palace than Herr Auguste Manns. In a great measure the musical department is under his direction; for though he has nothing to do with the monster undertakings, which— the commemorations of the centenary of Handel's death, now of the fiftieth anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, now as the celebration of the genius and life of a Scotch poet, now as the quasipolitical, thoroughly fraternal and artistic reception of some thousands of French " Orphéonists' are organised with so much energy and spirit by Mr. Bowley, "General Manager," the bona fide musical entertainments, exercising a legitimate influence on the prosperity of the institution, depend almost exclusively for their success upon the exertions of this gentleman. The Saturday Concerts during the winter months provide an attraction in the absence of which the visitors to Sydenham would, in all likelihood, be numerically diminished. How ably, and on what healthy principles, these concerts have been conducted need hardly be insisted on. Herr Manns, in fact, may challenge any and all of the metropolitan societies on the score of the great works he has revived, and the interesting novelties he has produced. He has recognised the merits of every school, and no thoughtful producer, whatever his claims to notice, has been overlooked. Thus, while Beethoven and Mozart are allotted their appropriate places, Schumann and Wagner are accorded frequent (too frequent?) audiences. Towards this show of eclecticism Herr Manns is possibly in some degree impelled by a very pardonable egotism. He has a compact and excellent band of instrumental performers, whose achievements in the winter season are almost as much a talk among musical circles as the quartet and sonata playing at the Monday Popular Concerts. In this band Herr Manns reposes unlimited confidence. He believes it capable of solving any problem, however difficult-from the ninth symphony of Beethoven to the overture constructed on a Chinese melody, which Weber composed (together with a march and other pieces) for Schiller's Turandot. Strong in this faith, he has submitted to his orchestra all sorts of tasks; and it is only fair to say that his confidence has never been misplaced. In December, January, and February, the loss of the Philharmonic Concerts, of those of the New Phil. harmonic, and the Musical Society of London, is more or less atoned for by the Saturday Concerts at the Crystal Palace, in the progress of which (thanks exclusively to Herr Manns) more interesting performances of orchestral music are to be heard than the three societies together could by any possibility-in accordance with the exigencies of their separate constitutions-bring forward within the same interval of time. Not, however, to proceed further in this matter, the weekly performances, directed by Herr Manns, during four or five of the gloomiest months of the year, constitute one of the features not only in every sense creditable to, but conferring a particular distinction on the Crystal Palace, which it would be well if it could earn, with equally solid claims, in other departments.

On Saturday afternoon a concert was held in the name of Herr Manns, who had no reason to complain, as other musical speculators have done, time out of mind, that his benefit took place in the "Dog days"- for never did the star "in ore majoris canis' exercise its traditional prerogative more "gingerly" than in A. D. 1860. The weather was cold, and thus by no means propitious to an entertainment celebrated in a glass house- -some eight miles as the train jogs, or some six as 66 the crow" flies, from this warm and (under the actual meteorological conditions) comfortable metropolis. Nevertheless such were the attractions put forth by Herr Manns, that a large concourse of amateurs, defiant of wind and weather, were assembled in the music-room of the Crystal Palace before the hour advertised for commencement. We shall not attempt to criticise. Enough that the programme

was more than sufficiently attractive to sustain the reputation of the concert-giver. Among other novel points was Mozart's operetta, entitled Der Schauspiel-Direktor (the Theatrical DirectorL'Impresario-"The Lumley," in short), which, containing an overture and some vocal pieces, was composed to satisfy a whim of Joseph II. of Austria Mozart's indulgent but not over munificent patron. The light and sparkling overture had more than once tested the powers of Herr Manns' little orchestra; but the vocal music was heard for the first time at the Crystal Palace. Having been written at the time for wholly exceptional voices, possessed by singers, moreover (especially in the instance of the two ladies), with talents no less than voices "apart," it was agreeable to find four modern artists (three of them English)—viz., Miss Parepa, Miss Eleonora Wilkinson, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, and Signor Belletti-so capable of realising the conceptions of the immortal musician, who rarely abandoned his beau ideal of art to exhibit the peculiarities of individual performers, and whose dereliction in the present case may be possibly explained by the nature of the plot submitted to him at the instance of the Emperor Joseph, and of which the following is an outline:

"A manager, endeavouring to organize an operatic troupe for a provincial theatre, has invited performers to call at his office and give specimens of their powers. The operetta introduces Signora Argentina, assuring the manager she is the greatest singer of the day, and, as While her last notes are being uttered appears a rival, Signora Dula test of her ability, executing the aria, Caro amante il cor mi dice' cinea, who, convinced the manager will confess her the greatest prima donna, sings her favourite solo, Suonar gia l'ora io sento addio.' which it will be best to accept. This state of things gives rise to a Pleased with both, the perplexed impresario finds it impossible to decide lively trio, in which each of the ladies alternately urges her claims and contradicts those of her rival, peace being at last made by the interference of Signor Ruosignuolo, tenor, who expresses fear that, unless matters are arranged, there will be ruin, not only to all prospect of success, but to the voices of the rivals. Unfortunately, the calm thus produced is but temporary; again each lady urges her supremacy, the tenor counselling peace and quietness, Ehi ! piano, piano, calando, decrescendo, piano, pianissimo!' The manager at last settles the quesnuolo are congratulating each other on this turn of fortune, they are tion satisfactorily, by engaging both ladies. While they and Ruosigjoined by Signor Buff, who boasts that he is the first buffo of the company, because his name only wants an O to vindicate his claim to

the title."

What Mozart did with this-three quarters of a century sinceevery one knows who knows anything of Mozart and his music, although Herr Manns seems to have thought that no one knew anything about it beyond the musical precincts of the Crystal Palace. The active and intelligent musical director of that establishment, however, is to be thanked for bringing forward such a petit chef d'œuvre (which, though familiar to many, is still unfamiliar to the majority) on the occasion of his benefit-concert. Equally grateful must connoisseurs have felt for Weber's very rarely performed overture to Turandot, which if not one of the best is at least one of the most curious and original of that great master's works. The same composer's Polonaise in E, and Liszt's fantasia on the skating music of the Prophète-executed by Herr Klindworth, a skilful and thoroughly accomplished pianist of the modern school; three very clever and interesting compositions by Herr Manns himself-a violin concertino, played by Herr Pollitzer; a ballad ("We met, 'twas in the silent bower"), sung by Miss Parepa ; and a march, entitled "The British Volunteer; some partsongs by the St. George's choir; vocal pieces, allotted to Miss Augusta Thomson, Mlle. Von Kettler, and M. Agniez (a highly promising singer); and Beethoven's great overture to Leonora (Fidelio, No. 3), made up the sum total of a programme in all respects worthy of Herr Manns' acknowledged research, and conducted by him with his accustomed vigour and talent.

ALBONI THE "COSY."

(From the London correspondence of the Liverpool Albion.) LIKE certain of our sublunary luminaries of the lucus a non lucendo order, the eclipse seems to have changed its mind, and to have come back here for a long time this evening, so as to make up for its shortcomings the other day. Darkness, and nothing but dark