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the churchwardens, were conscious that if the church could not be repaired it would soon become untenable. The next question was, how were we to raise the money for the repairs? Those who attend the church are nearly all of the labouring class. The great body of the inhabitants are dissenters. Consequently it would be impossible to raise the money by a church rate. Our only alternative, therefore, was to appeal to the generosity of the neighbouring gentry, and I am happy to say that appeal was not made in vain. After exhausting all probable resources near home, we still required a sum of more than £20 to complete the work. Our only feasible plan, which your lordship so much condemns, of raising the money was to enlist the assistance of a deservedly popular clergyman (the Rev. Mr. Stowell), who, together with the curate, should preach sermons in behalf of the object in question, and to engage a portion of the Bradford Parish Church Choir, as well as a Miss W., who had lately been of the choir of Huddersfield Church. This was not done without first consulting the incumbent by me alone; the curate, not being at home at the time, did not and of course could not take part in the matter, though I must state that in soliciting aid from the neighbouring gentry, I should not have been so successful without his assistance. On Thursday, July 9th, I waited on the incumbent at the Parsonage, to lay before him a statement of the monies subscribed, and also explained to him what further sum would be required to complete the repairs necessary to be done. In these repairs there was no ornamental work or "embellishments" contemplated. After some conversation as to the mode of raising the sum further required, we both agreed we had no alternative but to follow former precedents: he suggested the following in addition, that "silver should be charged on all who went into the church." This I could not comply with, so far as the body of the church was concerned. He also stated, that "our own choir will not be sufficient for the occasion :" hence the engagement of the Bradford Parish Church Choir, &c.

The sermons, together with the singing, drew to the church a great number of people, and to quote the words of the Reverend Mr. Stowell, he said he "had never before preached to so large a congregation as had assembled in the church that evening, and never to a more attentive and orderly one." Such being the case, I take the liberty to express a hope that it was "no profanation of a church," and my conviction is that the inhabitants of this township and of the surrounding district know how to appreciate a good sermon as well as good singing. By these means we were put into a position to pay the work-people for their labour, and the church was put into good repair and preservation, forming a strange contrast with that state of dilapidation which the dayschools in connection with the church now present; and in neither of which is there either a teacher or a scholar. Had we not had recourse to the means above stated, our collections would have been very inadequate, as may be surmised from the fact that the collections at our annual sermons have seldom, if ever, exceeded £2. 10s., and very rarely ever have reached that amount.

The incumbent, in his letter to your lordship, states that "so far from countenancing the proceedings, I requested my family not to attend the service." Whether from illness, or from some other cause, best known to himself, his memory seems to be at fault, or his request was not attended to, for four of his family out of six, I have reason to believe, were present at both afternoon and evening service. He also alludes in his letter to "a kindred act in 1852," and deplores the consequences. Notwithstanding which, in June 1853, he sanctions the preaching of two sermons, the engagement of four professional singers, and one amateur. A circular printed on that occasion is in my possession, and that circular was drawn up by the incumbent, although in his letter to your lordship he professes to be so to such proceedings. That circular I took as a guide in the arrangement of the course which your lordship so strongly condemns. It may happen that your lordship may charge me with uncharitableness in thus alluding to the part taken by the incumbent at a time when he is suffering from sickness, but your lordship will bear in mind that I am not the aggressive party, I am merely standing in self-defence. You may also say I speak strongly on these matters, I certainly feel so; and were your lordship fully acquainted with the difficulties I have had to contend with, from different sources, for years past, I think your lordship would sympathise with instead of blaming me.

66

INTENSELY ADVERSE

I am, my lord, your most humble and obedient servant,
J. WRIGHT, Churchwarden.

RETORT OF THE BISHOP OF RIPON.

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Palace, Ripon, August 23, 1860. Sir, I have to acknowledge your letter, which (without either date or address appended to it) has reached me by this morning's post. You state that you feel bound to reply to a letter of mine which was inserted

in some of the provincial newspapers on the 11th inst., and also to a letter from an incumbent which appeared at a later date in the same papers. You have taken upon yourself the responsibility of defending the practice against which I have thought it a duty to record my strong objection.

The practice which I condemn is that of announcing that any professional singer whatever will, at any particular service, sing select pieces of music, for the sake of attracting large numbers of persons to attend church on such an occasion. In the letter which you have addressed to me you defend the practice upon the following grounds: 1. The custom in cathedrals.

2. The requirements in our book of Common Prayer.

3. The ordinary practice of announcing, on special occasions, particular preachers.

4. The difficulties which churchwardens experience in obtaining the funds which are required for the repair of churches, &c.

With respect to "the custom in cathedrals," there is a wide distinction between cathedrals and ordinary parish churches. I, for one, should be very sorry to see the ordinary plain and simple service of our parish churches supplanted by cathedral music; nor do I believe that the great body of English Churchmen would regard with any favour an attempt to assimilate the mode of conducting public worship in ordinary parish churches to that which prevails in cathedrals. But you are mistaken in supposing it is the custom to announce that professional singers will take part in cathedral services. Each cathedral has its own staff of singers, who are trained to the practise of music, and to whom devolves mainly the due performance of the musical portions of the service. I am not aware of any instance in which professional singing has been advertised as an attraction to bring persons to attend cathedral service. It is universally known that cathedral service differs from the ordinary parochial service, and the custom in cathedrals is not the law for parish churches.

(2.) With respect to the "requirements of the Book of Common Prayer," you ask "who are to sing the anthems or sacred songs during divine service as directed in the Book of Common Prayer?" If you will be at the trouble of looking at the Book of Common Prayer, you will find there is no such direction as you appear to imagine.

The services, such as the "Venite exultemus," "Te Deum," &c. &c., are to be "said or sung." There is no law that they are to be sung. With respect to the anthem the rubric specifies the place in the service where, if sung, it is to be introduced; but the terms of the rubric, "in quires and places where they sing here followeth the anthem,' distinctly imply that the performance of an anthem is the exception, not the rule.

The experience of the overwhelming majority of the parish churches in the kingdom clearly proves that the requirements of the Book of Common Prayer may be kept without resorting to the practice which you have come forward to defend, of engaging and advertising professional singers to take part and sing select pieces of music during divine service. You are surely aware of churches in your neighbourhood where the musical portions of the service are admirably conductedwhere even services and anthems are occasionally introduced- but where it is never the custom to make a parade of professional singing to attract a congregation, or on the plea of meeting the requirements of our Book of Common Prayer.

(3.) You attempt to draw a parallel between the announcement of some eminently gifted singer to perform at a special service, and the ordinary notice that some well-known clergyman will preach the

sermon.

The two cases are totally different. The people are invited to attend the ordinance of preaching because it is one of the chief instrumentalities of which it pleases God to make use to save souls. The object of advertising a particular preacher is not to afford an intellectual treat, but to give to greater numbers the opportunity of hearing from one of Christ's ministers the exposition of God's word, in order that their souls may receive spiritual profit. Will you compare this with the advertisement that a particular vocalist will sing on some special occasion, in order that the lovers of music may have the gratification of hearing his, or her, musical talent, and then pay for his entertainment by casting in his offering to swell the so-called charitable collection? Is the Lord's Day the time for musical entertainments? Is the hallowed house of prayer the place for the display of musical talent? or the sacred hours of the Sabbath to be spent in gratifying the appetite and taste for beautiful music?

But (4.) you seem to defend the practice upon the ground of the financial difficulties in which unhappily churchwardens who are zealous in the discharge of their official duties are often placed. I can honestly assure you that I sympathise with you in those difficulties. I regret that, owing in a great measure to the present unsatisfactory state

of the Church-rate question, so much difficulty sometimes attends the obtaining requisite funds whether for the repair of the fabric or the maintenance of the services of your church.

'But it is a fundamental principle "not to do evil that good may come," nor do I believe that it ever can be necessary to resort to such unworthy means as the hiring and advertising professional singers to perform in our churches, in order to raise the necessary funds to maintain the ordinances of public worship, The practice is in reality indefensible. It is derogatory to the honour of God. It is at variance with the spirit of your Church Service. It is fraught with many evils. Its tendency is to degrade our churches to the level of the concert room; to make persons lose sight of the real ends of public worship, and, in their admiration of musical talent, to forget that we meet in the Lord's House for united prayer, united praise and in order that our souls may be fed with the wholesome food of God's holy word and

sacraments.

When a parish is blest with an active and laborious minister of Christ, in season and out of season, abounding in his Master's work,-preaching to his people both by word and example, and shewing himself "in all things a pattern of good words," I am sanguine enough to believe that such a minister will succeed to rally around him an attached and willing people, ready to uphold to the utmost of their power the due observance of our holy religion. There will be no need in such a case to employ any doubtful measures for creating an interest in behalf of the Church or her services. I am desirous to see these services upheld with the utmost propriety and efficiency. There is not a parish in the diocese in which there may not be found a sufficient number of persons competent to lead congregational singing. I think it important to cultivate the taste for music. We ought to give to God of our best; but it is no gain to the cause of religion, whenever by the introduction of highly artistic music the congregation are deprived of the privilege of joining in the praises of God; or whenever, for the sake of replenishing a churchwarden's exchequer, the season for the celebration of public worship is employed as an occasion for calling together a multitude to have their musical taste gratified by the performance of select pieces of fine music. I am, Sir, faithfully yours,

Mr. Joseph Wright, Churchwarden.

Notice.

R. RIPON.

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a new

THE HE SONATA, the noblest form that instrumental music can assume, appears to be going out of date. So much the worse for the art. Let the Sonata be once entirely laid aside, as antiquated, and music will rapidly fall from the high place it now occupies as a beautiful and intellectual pursuit. Sonatas continue to be written, it is true; the German and French catalogues of new music, the latter more rarely than the former, and the English still more rarely than the latter, occasionally announce sonata, by some unknown composer; but few of the tried and acknowledged writers ever venture on producing, certainly not on publishing, a work of this gravity and importance. A young musician not seldom begins his career with "a grand sonata," with all the four movements unusually long, which, for want of encouragement, he prints at his own expense. Finding that it does not sell, and that, excepting the few he may have presented to his friends, who do not thank him, the fifty or hundred copies

+

originally issued remain a dead weight upon the shelves of his publisher, he abandons all idea of composing a second sonata, and at once sets to work upon capriccios, fantasias, romances, sketches, songs without words, and whatever he may consider the most marketable commodity. If he be ambitious, and a lover of his art, he will not descend to the variations, rondos, sketches à la valse, &c., with which our pianofortes are covered by those who are neither; he follows, however, in the train of his contemporaries, and gives birth to a series of short movements in the capriccio form that is in no form whatever which he dignifies by names borrowed from others, or names of his own coinage, having no intelligible connection with the works to which they are, applied. Whether from all this farrago of the fancy, anything clear and symmetrical will arise, to induce us to regret the sonata no longer, it is for some commanding genius to prove. Mendelssohn invented a beautiful form, in the Lieder ohne Worte; but he exhausted it himself. To him it was but an exercise of the fancy, an easing of his continually inventive brain from some of the ideas with which it was overstocked, and which he did not find convertible to loftier purposes; but his imitators for the most part unblessed with one idea in a twelvemonth, destitute of fancy and invention attempting to emulate him, have only demonstrated, their incompetency. Their Lieder ohne Worte are little better than an empty figure of accompaniment, to which a meagre and passionless tune has been made to fit, with infinite and unprofitable labour. So true is this, that the title of Songs without Words-in German, French, or English-affixed to a piece of new music, predisposes us against the author, and takes away all the inclination we might otherwise have felt to look at his work. To Mendelssohn, also, may be traced the endless forms which the capriccio, or caprice, has assumed within the last twenty years. But his imitators who include, we may almost say, the entire race of modern composers for the piano-independently of the barrenness of their invention, have altogether overlooked that element which in Mendelssohn's smallest efforts is never absentthe symmetry and consequence of form which ally them more or less to the sonata.

11

The fantasia used to be regarded, among the old writers, as a sort of improvisation, and was an exception, not a rule. But what would Mozart have thought, had he lived now, and found nine works out of every ten devoted to the pianoforte and other instruments, fantasias-long or short.

in other words improvisations, without plan or orderunmeaning jumbles of themes, good or bad, which might belong to anything else than that in which they appear, with quite as much or quite as little propriety? Mozart would not have believed his ears. The ingenious development, or working out, of a theme which was wont to signalise, not merely fantasias, but actual improvisationshe would have sought in vain; much more in vain the elaborate fugue, demonstrating the composer's facility in counterpoint, that lent interest to the fantasias of the elder

masters.

Some will have it that Beethoven completely exhausted the sonata. But this is a manifest error. Beethoven rather showed, by the infinite variety he imparted to it, that the sonata was inexhaustible. He was aware of all the latest . resources of the art-as may be well supposed, since he had. so large a share in their invention; but he could find no better or more convenient field for their development than this particular one, which already existed, and already, if constant use can wear, had been worn threadbare by Mozart

and Haydn-to say nothing of Dussek, a composer too often disregarded by superficial writers, in considering the history and progress of the art. But Beethoven came to the sonata with a world of new ideas; in his hands it was as fresh, and vigorous, and young, as when it first issued from the prolific brain of Haydn, who by right of this one invention enjoys the undisputed title of "Father of

Instrumental Music."

The numberless and prodigious inspirations of Beethoven still filling the world with new delight and wonder, it was an impossible task for any instrumental writer immediately coming after him to take him as a model, without becoming his slavish imitator. This shows Mendelssohn and Spohr, the two original composers of instrumental music in our day, in a worthier light. What they accomplished, when it is considered how near they were to Beethoven, must be admitted to be extraordinary. In their symphonies, quartets, and other productions of the kind,* while adhering to the plan of Haydn, which cannot be profitably neglected, they revealed new thoughts, new means of development, and entirely new styles. There is not a shadow of resemblance in the writing of either of them to those of Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. Spohr, the elder of the two, may be said to have completely fulfilled his mission, while Mendelssohn, the younger, was unhappily cut off in his prime. Happily he lived to complete the oratorio of Elijah, the greatest masterpiece of modern art. Wholly original as are the manners of these great men, they emulated their predecessors - Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, in their reverent adherence to the one true form-that of THE SONATA.

IN

N a general view of the history of the Opera, the central figures would be Gluck and Mozart. Before Gluck's time the operatic art was in its infancy, and since the death of Mozart no operas have been produced equal to that composer's masterpieces. Mozart must have commenced his Idomeneo, the first of his celebrated works, the very year that Gluck retired to Vienna, after giving to the Parisians his Iphigenie en Tauride; but though contemporaries in the strict sense of the word, Gluck and Mozart can scarcely be looked upon as belonging to the same musical epoch. The compositions of the former, however immortal, have at least an antique cast; those of the latter have quite a modern air; and it must appear to the audiences of the present day that far more than twenty-three years separate Orfeo from Don Giovanni, though that is the precise interval that elapsed between the production of the opera by which Gluck, and of that by which Mozart, is best known in this country. Gluck, after a century and a half of opera, so far surpassed all his predecessors that no work by a composer anterior to him is now ever performed. Lulli wrote an Armida, which was followed by Rameau's Armida, which was followed by Gluck's Armida; and Monteverde wrote an Orfeo a hundred and fifty years before Gluck produced the Orfeo which was played only the other night at the Royal Italian Opera. The Orfeo, then, of our existing operatic repertory takes us back through its subject to the earliest of regular Italian operas, and similarly Gluck, through his Armida, appears as the successor of Rameau, who was the successor of Lulli, who usually passes for the founder of the opera in France-a country where it is particularly interesting to trace the progress of that entertainment, inas

It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that a symphony is a sonata for the orchestra-a quartet a sonata for four stringed instruments, &c.

much as it can be observed at one establishment, which has existed continuously for two hundred years, and which, under the title of Académie Royale, Académie Nationale, and Académie Impériale (it has now gone by each of these names twice), has witnessed the production of more operatic masterpieces than any other theatre in any city in the world. To convince the reader of the truth of this latter assertion we need only remind him of the works written for the Académie Royale by Gluck and Piccinni (or Piccini) immediately before the Revolution, and of the Masaniello of Auber, the William Tell of Rossini, and the Robert the Devil of Meyerbeer, given for the first time at the said Académie within sixteen years of the termination of the Napoleonic wars. Neither Naples, nor Milan, nor Prague, nor Vienna, nor Munich, nor Dresden, nor Berlin, has individually seen the birth of so many great operatic works by different masters, though, of course, if judged by the number of great composers to whom they have given birth both Germany and Italy must be ranked infinitely higher than France. Indeed, if we compare France with our own country, we find, it is true, that an opera in the national language was established earlier, and an Italian Opera much earlier there than here; but, on the other hand, the French, until Gluck's time, had never any composers, native or adopted, at all comparable to our Purcell, who produced his King Arthur as far back as 1691.

Lulli is generally said to have introduced opera into France, and, indeed, is represented in a picture, well known to opera-goers, receiving a privilege from the hands of Louis XIV. as a reward and encouragement for his services in that respect. This privilege, however, was neither deserved nor obtained in the manner supposed. Cardinal Mazarin introduced Italian Opera into Paris in 1645, when Lulli was only twelve years of age; and the first French opera, entitled Akébar, Roi de Mogol, words and music by the Abbé Mailly, was brought out the year following in the Episcopal Palace of Carpentras, under the direction of Cardinal Bichi, Urban the Eighth's legate. Clement VII. had already appeared as a librettist, and it is said that Urban VIII. himself recommended the importation of the opera into France; so that the real father of the lyric stage in that country was certainly not a scullion but in all probability a Pope.

The second French opera was La Pastorale en musique, words by Perrin, music by Cambert, which was privately represented at Issy; and the third Pomone, also by Perrin and Cambert, which was publicly performed in Paris. Pomone was the first French opera heard by the Parisian public, and it was to Perrin its author, and not to Lulli, that the patent of the Royal Academy of Music was granted. A privilege for establishing an Academy of Music had been conceded a hundred years before by Charles the Ninth, to Antoine de Baif, the word "Académie" being used as an equivalent for "Accademia," the Italian for concert. Perrin's license appears to have been a renewal, as to form, of de Baif's, and thus originated the eminently absurd title which the chief operatic theatre of Paris has retained ever since. The Academy of Music is of course an academy in the sense in which the Théâtre Français is a college of declamation, and the Palais Royal Theatre a school of morality; but no one need seek to justify its title because it is known to owe its existence to a confusion of terms.

Six French operas, complete and in five acts, had been performed before Lulli, supported by Mad. de Montespan, succeeded in depriving Perrin of his "privilege," and

securing it for himself-at the very moment when Perrin and Cambert were about to bring out their Ariane, of which the representation was stopped. The success of Lulli's intrigue drove Cambert to London, where he was received with much favor by Charles II, and appointed director of the court music, an office which he retained until his death.

Lulli had previously composed music for ballets, and for the songs and interludes of Molière's comedies, but his first regular opera, produced in conjunction with Quinaultbeing the seventh produced on the French stage, was Cadmus and Hermione (1673).

The life of the fortunate, unscrupulous, but really talented scullion, to whom is falsely attributed the honour of having founded the opera in France, has often been narrated, and for the most part very inaccurately. Every one knows that he arrived from Italy to enter the service of Mad. de Montpensier; some are aware of the offence for which he was degraded by that lady to the post of scullion, and which we can no more mention than we can publish the original of the needlessly elaborate reply attributed to Cambronne at Waterloo*; and a few may have read that it was only through the influence of Mad. de Montespan that he was saved from a shameful and horrible death on the Place de Grève, where Lulli's accomplice was actually burned, and his ashes thrown to the winds. The story of Lulli's obtaining letters of nobility through the excellence of his buffoonery in the part of the Muphti in the Bourgeois Gentilhomme, has often been told. This was in 1670, but once a noble, and director of the Royal Academy of Music, he showed but little disposition to contribute to the diversion of others, even by the exercise of his legitimate art. Not only did he refuse to play the violin, but he would not even have one in his house. To evercome Lulli's repugnance in this respect, Marshal de Gramont hit upon a very ingenious plan. He used to make one of his servants play the violin in Lulli's presence, upon which the highly susceptible musician would snatch the instrument from the varlet's hands, and restore the murdered melody to life and beauty. Then excited by the pleasure of producing music, he forgot all around him, and continued to play to the delight of the marshal.

Lulli must have had sad trouble with his orchestra, for in his time a violinist was looked upon as merely an adjunct to a dancing-master. There was a King of the Fiddles, without whose permission no catgut could be scraped; but in selling his licenses to dancing-masters and the musicians of ball-rooms, the ruler of the bows does not appear to have required any proof of capacity from the purchasers. Even the simple expedient of shifting was unknown to Lulli's violinists, and for years after his death to reach the C above the line was a notable feat. The pit quite understood the difficulty, and when the dreaded démanchement had to be accomplished, would indulge in sarcastic shouts of "gare l'ut! gare l'ut!”

Strange tales are told of the members of Lulli's company. Duménil, the tenor, used to steal jewellery from the soprano and contralto of the troop, and to get intoxicated with the baritone. This eccentric virtuoso is said to have drunk six bottles of champagne every night he performed, and to have improved gradually until about the fifth. Duménil, after one of his voyages to England, which he visited several times, lost his voice. Then, seeing no reason why *Cambronne is said to have been very much annoyed at the invention of "La garde meurt et ne se rend pas ;" and with reason, for he didn't die, and he did surrender.

he should moderate his intemperance at all, he gave himself up unrestrainedly to drinking and died.

Mlle. Desmâtins, the original representative of Armide, was chiefly celebrated for her love of good living, her corpulence, and her bad grammar. She it was who wrote the celebrated letter communicating to a friend the death of her child, "Notre anfan ai maure, vien de boneure, le mien ai de te voire." Mlle. Desmâtins took so much pleasure in representing royal personages that she assumed the (theatrical) costume and demeanour of a queen in her own household; sat on a throne and made her attendants serve her on their knees. Another vocalist, Marthé Le Zochois, accused of grave flirtation with a bassoon, justified herself by showing a promise of marriage which the gallant instrumentalist had written on the back of an ace of spades.

The opera singers of this period were not particularly well paid, and history relates that Mlles. Aubry and Verdier, being engaged for the same line of business, had to live in the same room, and sleep in the bed.

Marthé Le Zochois was fond of giving advice to her companions. "Inspire yourself with the situation," she said to Desmâtins, who had to represent Medea abandoned by Jason; "fancy yourself in the poor woman's place. If you were deserted by a lover whom you adored," added Marthe, thinking, no doubt, of the bassoon, what should you do?” "I should look out for another," replied the ingenuous girl.

But by far the most distinguished operatic actress of this period was Mlle. de Maupin, now better known through Théophile Gauthier's scandalous but brilliant and vigorously written romance, than by her actual adventures and exploits, which, however, were sufficiently remarkable. Mlle. de Maupin was in many respects the Lola Montes of her day, but with more beauty, more talent, more power, and more daring. When she appeared as Minerva in Lulli's Cadmus, and, taking off her helmet to the public, showed her lovely light-brown hair, which hung in luxuriant tresses over her shoulders, the audience were in ecstacies of delight. With less talent, and less powers of fascination, she would infallibly have been executed for the numerous fatal duels in which she took part, and might even have been burnt alive for invading the sanctity of a convent at Avignon, to say nothing of her attempt to set fire to it. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that Lola Montes was the Mlle. Maupin of her day; a Maupin of constitutional monarchy, and of a century which is moderate in its passions and its vices as in other things.

But what has Mlle. de Maupin to do with the 8th of September 1860? Merely this, that thinking of the Royal English Opera which is to open in October, our ideas reverted to the Royal Italian Opera which closed in August.

One of the most interesting and one of the latest works represented at the Royal Italian Opera was Gluck's Orfeo, and the reader has already seen how the Orfeo of Gluck takes us back to Rameau, Lulli, and the earliest days of the musical drama. We might have given this explanation beforehand. Perhaps the reader will be kind enough to accept it now?

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.-The English operatic performances at this establishment commence on the 8th of October with Mr. Macfarren's Robin Hood - according to all accounts a masterpiece. It is now positively decided that on, the alternate nights (up to Christmas) Italian operas will be presented, Mlle. Titiens (already in London) prima donna, Signor Giuglini primo tenore.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1860]

MORE 'APROPOS OF THE NORWICH FESTIVAL.
THE LAST JUDGMENT.

Die Letzten Dinge (The Last Things), the earliest of Spohr's
three oratorios, was composed about the year 1825. It was first
produced before an English audience at the Norwich Musical
Festival, on Friday, the 24th of September, 1830, under the title
of The Last Judgment, and received with the greatest possible
favour. Professor Taylor, in his preface to the English edition of
Spohr's second oratorio, Calvary, says:

"I know there are many persons who will regard the subject of this With every oratorio as an improper exercise for the musician's art. respect for an opinion conscientiously adopted and avowed, I venture to dissent from it. The arts have been tributary to the service of religion in all ages of the Jewish and Christian churches; and of these, none is more calculated to enkindle the flame of devotion, to elevate the spirit, or to touch the heart, than Music. Our immortal bard invoked the mixed power' of 'voice and verse,' in order to present to our high-raised phantasy

"That undisturbed song of pure concent,

Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne
To Him that sits thereon,

With saintly shout and solemn jubilee.'

"If there be truth as well as poetry in this sentiment, then are the musician and the poet deserving of honour in proportion as they labour to accomplish the high and holy purpose to which it points; in proportion as they succeed in carrying the mind out of the walks of every-day life, in order to raise it into a purer element, and breathe into it a profounder and more pious emotion.

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There are minds over which no combination of sounds united to kindred words has the power to exercise any influence; but I think it impossible for any who are capable of being thus moved, to hear such a composition as the present without responding to that powerful appeal which it makes, not to the senses only, but through them to the heart. The truly devotional spirit, the really grateful heart, loves to dedicate those gifts, with which its Maker has especially endowed it, to His glory. The impulse of one is to rear to His honour the stately temple; the inward prompting of another bids him dedicate to His praise the boldest flights of poetic inspiration; whilst a third aspires to 'celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's almightiness; what He works, and what He suffers to be wrought, with high providence in His church; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and The last is the saints, and the deeds and triumphs of His servants.' end here proposed. I have only to hope that its purpose will be accom. plished, and that while it affords to the musician the conviction that the springs of his heart are perpetually gushing out afresh, and its waters ever flowing, it will serve the purpose for which it was especially designed, by awakening the devotion and cherishing the hopes of the Christian."

THE MAY QUEEN.

Each

"Was never such a May-day," at the close of each verse.
of the persons represented has a solo except the Queen. The
lover (a tenor, of course) leads with a languishing and desponding
air, "Oh! meadow clad in early green;" and subsequently
"Tis jolly to hunt in the
Robin Hood has a very spirited song,
bright_moonlight;" a duet for the May Queen and her lover,
"Can I not find thee a warrant for changing?" and a trio for
the same persons and Robin Hood, "The hawthorn in the glade,"
are exceedingly beautiful. A most charming simplicity pervades
every morceau referred to, and at the same time, as before hinted,
there is no lack of novelty in harmony, or ingenuity in construc-
tion. The thoroughly dramatic character of the pastoral is also
deserving of especial notice. The dialogue is made to lead im-
mediately into each set piece, so that the action, slight as it is, is
never impeded, and interest is kept thoroughly alive. The credit
of this is due to Mr. Chorley, who composed the poem. The
parts will be distributed :-The May Queen, Mad. Clara Novello;
Queen, Miss Palmer; Lover, Mr. Sims Reeves; Robin Hood,
Mr. Weiss; and no doubt will be admirably sustained.

NORWICH FESTIVAL CHARITIES.-As a kind of appendix to the sketch of performers and performances at the festival, we find an account of the sums of money given by the festival committee to the following charities:-Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital, the Yarmouth Dispensary, the Eye Infirmary, the Blind Hospital, the Sick Poor Society, Lying-in Charity, District Visiting Society, Shipwrecked Mariner's Association, and the Jenny Lind Infirmary. The total sum received and paid over to the respective institutions is £8,270. 2s. 9d., of which £5,568. 1s. 9d. has been paid to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. What would have been the result had these been annual concerts, got up by private individuals, long ago urged as a substitute, may easily be imagined. The public will see from the above that a very substantial portion of the price charged for admission has found its way into the hands of the local treasurers of our benevolent societies, and thus music has lent a very effective helping hand to charity.

NEW THEATRE AT LEEDS.

[WE have been requested to publish the following prospectus. ED.] The legitimate entertainments of the stage are recognised as an indispensable means of conveying instruction and amusement of the highest class, in every part of Europe where civilisation and refined tastes prevail.

In this country theatres are found in most large towns, but all expe. rience has proved that their success depends upon respectable management, able and efficient acting, and the proper adaptation of the buildings in which the performances take place.

On the other hand, wherever theatres are not so managed, and are not conducted in well-selected localities, with all the means and adapta tions required for displaying the beauties and powers of our best dramatic and lyric authors, experience has proved that amusements of this nature will nevertheless abound in spite of every discouragement; but that under such circumstances they greatly degenerate, are found in obscure localities, are marked by a vitiated and impure taste, and therefore cannot conduce to the successful representations of those sublime inspirations which have immortalised their authors, and which are calculated to cultivate not only a refined taste, but an elevated tone of moral sentiment.

The town of Leeds is at this moment without a theatre possessed of those agencies and attractions which command success.

This pastoral was produced with complete and unqualified success at the Leeds Musical Festival in September, 1858. The overture is a very beautiful composition, and this charming work displays a marvellous combination of simplicity and ingenuity. The persons represented are the Queen of England, the May Queen and her lover, and a nobleman disguised as Robin Hood. The story is simple enough. The Queen of the May, elated with her May-day dignity, teazes her faithful swain by her indifference, and by her semi-encouragement of the advances of the Greenwood King. An attempted kiss on the part of the latter arouses very naturally the ire of the true lover, who proceeds to a pugilistic punishment of the offender. A flourish of trumpets, and the Queen appears amid "pageant music." She soon arrives at the true state of matters, reproves the interloper for trifling with the affections of the May Queen, and commands the latter to wed her lover at morn. The chorus is very happily introduced first singing in praise of May, then in praise of the May Queen, afterwards in the pageant music, and finally in the concluding -a blessing on the Queen." They feel fully convinced that if such an institution were once estapiece-"A blessing on the bridal "Wake with ablished, it would receive such support as would enable the management The first two of these are the most striking. smile" is a most exquisite piece of modern music, in the truly to organise and sustain a highly efficient permanent company, and to rural style; and the preservation of the tonic pedal through obtain frequent assistance from actors and artists of the first reputation. the harmonious device and melodic abundance is highly clever. The May-pole chorus, "With a laugh as we go round," is well constructed, and is plentifully tuneful; it is immediately followed by a solo from the May Queen, the chorus resuming their burden,

It is under the influence of feelings of this nature that a number of influential gentlemen in Leeds have met and are co-operating together to elevate the town in this respect to a position equal to other large towns in England, by crecting a Theatre in some appropriate and central locality, capable of giving accommodation of the highest class, both to the performers and the audience.

In the assurance that these results will follow from a careful and

judicious selection of a site, and the erection of a new Theatre, combining all the improvements of the day, a committee has been appointed who have by careful inquiries and estimates satisfied them

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