nights at the King's Theatre, between forty and fifty are generally devoted to operas of Rossini; and the majority of musical publications consists of adaptations from his operas, or of pieces more or less founded on his productions.

When a thing is so universally relished, the prima facie presumption is, that it must possess some intrinsic value; and yet upon this point opinions are strangely at variance. While a large, and probably the greater portion of the musical public, worship Rossini as their idol, there are numbers who perceive in his music nothing but the emanations of a superficial mind, aided by a lively fancy and a great share of animal spirits; who not only deny him the merit of originality, but strongly accuse him of systematic plagiarism to an extent unprecedented in the works of any other master. In short, the whole history of music, probably, does not present us with the name of a composer upon whose merits opinions have been more divided, and whose works at the same time have made a greater and more universal sensation.

It therefore seems to be worth while, with a view to form a correct opinion on the subject, to consider, with some degree of care and accuracy, the peculiar and distinctive features of the Rossinian music, and to endeavour to trace the probable causes of its great popularity. In the next place, it appears to be an object of some interest-however difficult it may prove to inquire into the effects which the works of Rossini have produced, not only with reference to dramatic and lyric composition (their immediate field of display), but also generally as regards the musical taste of the age, and the executive part of music, instrumental as well as vocal, but vocal in particular.

One of the most obvious and characteristic features in the compositions of Rossini, and perhaps that which has most contributed to their rapid and universal popularity, is no doubt the vivacity, the unceasing and inexhaustible flow of animal spirits, which prevail in all his writings. In some of the latitudes north of the Alps, and in our own foggy, smoky, and gaseous atmosphere, we occasionally, it is true, meet with a race of beings who seem to delight in the lugubrious, and to feel supremely happy when moved to tears. Fortunately, however, the number of these lacrymants, even in these their foggy, smoky, and gaseous headquarters, is not considerable; abroad they are fewer still, and in Italy this class of mortals is an absolute rarity. The exception, therefore, is trifling; and we may safely propound it as an axiom, that people in all countries like to be enlivened by cheerfulness and gaiety, in music above all things; and that the composer who supplies this demand most readily and copiously, is sure to be most in favour, at least with the mass of the people.

In Rossini, therefore, the public found their magnus Apollo. His vivacity, his mercurial and light-hearted organization, was well calculated to administer light and palatable musical food to his gay and animated countrymen. Rossini's music breathes a life, a stirring, and a bustle, not to be met with in the works of any other composer. He seldom resorts to slow rhythms, if a more active measure will but tolerably serve the purpose; indeed, he frequently uses the latter when a more staid progress would have been infinitely preferable. "Keep moving," is his great motto. It is on that account that the musical figure called triplets has been taken by him into most especial favour.

Their "rate of going" is peculiarly rash and animated, owing to the strong accent which the first of the three notes always carries, and which marks the rhythm with peculiar force and precision. Triplets will thus be found to occur abundantly in most of Rossini's pieces, even in slow movements, where they act as accelerators to the otherwise sluggish motion of longer notes. Instead of four sober crotchets in a bar, we generally are treated with a dozen quaver-triplets.

Our Maestro employs, unconsciously perhaps, a variety of other expedients to give rhythmical seasoning to his airs. To avoid an equable progress of equivalent sounds, one note is retarded by dots and halfdots, at the expense of the following, which is barely allowed time to hop in with a momentary snap; thus again marking the rhythm more forcibly, as is the case more especially in military marches; a class of pieces essentially demanding rhythmical energy and precision, and in which, therefore, Rossini has been signally successful.

66

All these manifestations of a buoyant vivacity may be traced in nearly the whole of the compositions of Rossini, even in those intended for essentially serious situations, where, as has already been hinted, they at times occur out of their proper place. However pathetic, or even tragic, the poetry of an aria, &c. may be, the musical expression imparted to it by Rossini seems, with scarcely an exception, to fall short of the intensity of emotion contemplated by the text. His musical metre, his rhythm, and his diction, are ever active, bustling, and animated. Without going to the length of maintaining that Rossini is absolutely lively and gay on occasions when the text speaks sadness and despair, it cannot, we think, be denied that none of his strains breathe the tender sensibility of Mozart, the deep feeling of Weber, or the heart-stirring pathos of Gluck. Hence it is that Rossini has been less successful in the serious and tragic drama, than in the comic and romantic; that his "Otello," "Zelmira," and "Semiramide," however masterly in some respects, must yield the palm to the "Barbiere" and "Tancredi." The two latter operas abound with a succession of original and fascinating melodies, apparently the spontaneous effusions of an exuberant musical fancy; while in the three serious dramas above adverted to, however we may recognize in them the pen of a master-mind, we meet with much fewer tokens of inventive originality and genial inspiration. This remark appears to us particularly applicable to "Zelmira" and "Semiramide," the most recent Italian dramas set to music by Rossini. Very few of the melodies are of a novel character, or of a nature to fasten on the memory; some traits of compositorial freak and whimsicality perhaps excepted, which for a moment strike the ear with surprise without interesting its sympathy. As far as art goes, these two operas present scores considerably more elaborate and rich than the generality of their predecessors; and in this respect they savour strongly of the German school, the style of which Rossini has, intentionally perhaps, thought proper to imitate in several of the pieces.

If, as has been above observed, Rossini rarely reaches the tragic grandeur of Gluck, or the intense feeling of Mozart or Weber, it must be admitted, on the other hand, that, let him be as serious as he can contrive to be, his music is never lugubrious, whining, or even sentimental, as is the case with some clever compositions of the German school. This negative characteristic, in our opinion, is one of great

merit, or, at least, greatly in his favour, (for it can hardly be called meritorious to abstain from that which is not in the man's organization.) The doleful in music ought very sparingly to be resorted to; most people are soon tired with it. Let a text be ever so melancholy, if music is to be set to it—and it had perhaps better be left alone-the music may fitly fall much short of the gloomy import of the poetry. The long continuance of strains in the minor mode, the frequent employment of diminished sevenths, and of other expedients more peculiarly adapted to the expression of saddened feelings, soon create languor and ennui. It is probably owing to the predominance of serious and gloomy expression, that some compositions of undisputed merit have met with less success than might otherwise have been anticipated. Among these may be numbered Morlacchi's "Tebaldo e Isolina," and Marschner's Vampyre."

66

While thus the total absence of every thing lachrymose in Rossini's works seems to compensate, in some degree, for the want of tragic grandeur and intense feeling, it is farther to be admitted, that in musically depicting emotions of softness and tenderness, Rossini has often met with the happiest success; and to this point, perhaps, may be limited his capability of expressing the more serious sensations of the heart. The charming aria, "Ecco ridente il Cielo," in the "Barbiere,” the sweet rural strains of " Aurora che sorgerai," and several other happy efforts of his pen, might be quoted in support of this opinion.

That the vivacious and animated nature of our bard would ensure him triumphant success in compositions of a lively cast, and in buffosongs, must at once be self-evident. In this line he shines resplendent, and has often surpassed his most celebrated predecessors, Paesiello, Cimarosa, and even Mozart not excepted. Among many specimens which may be quoted in support of this assertion, it will be sufficient to remind the reader of one or two; the Largo al factotum, in the "Barbiere di Siviglia," is a perfect masterpiece of comic composition; it really stands unequalled. What a flow of animal spirits, what gaiety, what a buoyancy of life and bustle, both in the vocal part and in the orchestra! The same opera furnishes several other excellent compositions of the humorous kind, such as the first duet between Figaro and Almaviva, "Che invenzione," the bass song, "La Calunnia," the two pieces which introduce Almaviva in the two successive disguises of a dragoon and a music-master, &c. Again, in the "Turco in Italia," the duet between Don Geronimo and his flirt of a wife," Per piacer alla Signora," is absolutely a cabinet picture of comic expression. These, and others which we could easily add to the catalogue, will readily silence all doubts as to the geniality and originality of Rossini's sprightly muse.

One observation by the way. When these and other comic effusions of the Italian school are contrasted with the coarse and vulgar trash which, in most of our English operas, is bawled out to the audience under the title of humorous songs, and generally received "with the most unbounded applause," who that is possessed of a grain of taste can refrain from shrinking with a humiliating blush from such a comparison? The manufacture of this rubbish is generally entrusted to humbler hands, distinct from the composer of the rest of the opera; and in the same manner is the drawling and roaring of it con

signed to persons totally destitute of either voice or musical education. Such is our taste! such are, with very few exceptions, our comic songs!

In the foregoing remarks we have endeavoured to show what appeared to us to be one of the most obvious attractions in Rossini's music, viz. its sparkling vivacity, the unceasing buoyancy of animal spirits which pervade all his compositions. But there are other important peculiarities in his writings, equally obvious and universal, in our opinion, and no less advantageous.

The compositions of Rossini are essentially conspicuous for their rythmical symmetry, as well as for extraordinary clearness of plan, uncommon perspicuity and intelligibility, great breadth both of melody and harmonic colouring, and, however the assertion may raise a smile, great simplicity!

Most of our readers, probably, are aware of the meaning of the term "rhythmical symmetry" in music; it is applied to a composition in which the successive phrases and periods stand in due correspondence with each other as regards duration, measure, and cadence; where all the parts present a well-proportioned regularity and symmetry among themselves, so as to balance each other; like the feet and lines of a stanza of poetry, in which the same metrical symmetry forms, or at least ought to form, an essential requisite, although not always scrupulously observed by our modern bards of the "Free and Easy" school.

In this respect the dramatic compositions of the Italians are more or less favourably distinguished; but those of Rossini, above the rest, will, upon investigation, be found to present the most scrupulous symmetry of rhythmical plan and arrangement; if the term "scrupulous" may be applied to a feature which, instead of being the result of premeditated care and labour, is probably the mere spontaneous offspring of intuitive feeling and good taste. In the writings of Rossini, all is ever in the best proportion.

We are not aware of one single instance of lameness or other irregularity in his rhythm. This is a paramount feature of recommendation even with the multitude, who know nothing of its existence, but are unconsciously fascinated by its charms, even if the vehicle be but a drum, or a stick thumping on a deal board in regular cadence.

Connected, in some measure, with this merit is that of clearness and perspicuity in the plan of a composition; and in this respect the works of Rossini are most perfect. The ear readily seizes the bearings between the successive periods, understands their import, weighs and compares them with each other unconsciously in most cases; and hails with satisfaction the sequel, of which it had already formed a more or less defined anticipation. The mind is never at a loss to follow the composer's meaning; all is clear and intelligible, like a landscape in a serene summer's evening. The satisfaction imparted by such a score will more readily be appreciated by a comparison with one of a contrary description, which may be likened to a tract of country obscured by fogs or dark clouds. In music of the latter kind, the ear may occasionally be greeted by a transient passage of some promiselike a partial gleam of sunshine in the misty haze of confusion; but the anticipated enjoyment is soon marred by a heterogeneous sequel; we

torment our imagination with efforts to feel at home, but find ourselves in a wilderness of crudities and incongruities.

Rossini's excellence, with respect to the important requisite of clearness and intelligibility of ideas, will scarcely be disputed. Not so, probably, the paradoxical praise we have ventured to award to him, as regards simplicity. How, it will no doubt be asked, can the music of Rossini be termed simple, fringed and garnished as it is in every bar with amplification, flourish, and ornament of every kind, and in all manner of ways? The praise of simplicity, it will be said, might as fitly be bestowed on the present attire of our belles, with all its trimming, braiding, and flouncing, or on the florid style of Gothic architecture, overloaded with scrolls, fretwork, and other ornamental minutiæ.

We are quite ready to admit the decorative character of Rossini's music. No composer before him has been so lavish of adventitious, superfluous, and even injurious ornament, especially in his vocal parts; and we shall hereafter have to dwell more fully on this feature, when we enter upon the chapter of grievances. But it appears to us that a musical idea or phrase, although seasoned with embellishment, may, in its essence, in its primary conception, be perfectly simple; that this simplicity, however disguised by ornament, and perhaps even injuriously influenced by it, may subsist, and be readily discerned, in spite of adventitious decoration. The latter may be compared to the tattooing of the skin of a Polynesian warrior, which, be it ever so profuse and whimsical, in no way hides the symmetrical beauty of his form. And since allusion has just been made to the ornamental characteristics of Gothic edifices, we would even hazard the paradoxical assertion, that some of these structures, in despite of the decorations in the minor details, present a striking and pleasing simplicity of outline and general composition. Their grandeur is not disputed, and it may be doubted whether grandeur can exist without simplicity.

It is thus that, in our opinion, the scores of Rossini, with all their numerous figures of superadded ornament, are simple in outline and primary conception. The skeleton of his ideas is plain and obvious, it is the mode of diction only which is florid; and when thus the framework of a musical idea is of a simplicity readily to be seized by the ear, and as is the case with Rossini-the mode of dressing out the idea is graceful and piquant, and frequently quite novel, it is not surprising that music of this description has so rapidly and universally found favour.

In the above enumeration of the various features of attraction which present themselves to the critical observer of Rossini's music, our remarks may be considered as applying principally to melody. But most of these features equally pervade his harmony. The latter is equally, if not more, remarkable for perspicuity of design, an extraordinary degree of intelligibility, great breadth of colouring-if we may be allowed to borrow from the sister art a term so apt to our purpose-and also a striking degree of simplicity.

In the compositions of Rossini, these advantageous characteristics, as regards harmony, cannot, perhaps, be considered as positive merits. A genius born, a true child of nature, apparently not imbued with the