REVIEWS.

"Thou art so near, Reichardt's celebrated song, arranged for the pianoforte"-by Brinley Richards (Boosey and Sons). An adaptation-or, as our "lively," "volatile," "pugnacious," "capricious," "mercurial," "spiritual," and thoroughly amiable neighbours say, transcription"-of Herr Reichardt's very popular melody, done with that neatness, elegance, and finish for which Mr. Brinley Richards is notorious, which imparts so genuine a charm to his smaller compositions for the drawing-room, and makes them invaluable as teaching pieces, both to master and pupil. A happier example of his taste and facility in this direction has not been issued from the press.

"Marche à Grand Orchestre,' transcrite par l'auteur”Frederick Scotson Clark (Augener and Co.). Mr. Frederick Scotson Clark, though an English- (Irish?-Scotch?Welsh-Manx?) -man, selects the French lingo for his title-page, and "transcribes"-" pour piano, harmonium, ou grand orgue d'église." We have attempted his present "transcription" on the first-named instrument. Mendelssohn composed a certain Wedding March, which begins thus:

with brackets, and adopting the plural number. These' then, are curious coincidences—very.

"Polka Mazurku, pour piano”—Anton Rubinstein (Ewer and Co.). This in some degree clever, occasionally graceful, as occasionally ungraceful, and never quite original (unless Chopin, out-Chopined in what is most eccentrically Chopinesque, can claim to be original) effusion, is dedicated to the Princess Sophie of Nassau, whose ears must be wellseasoned in the modern school of pianofortery to relish the following:

That the ears of the composer were rather tickled than offended by the progression, may be gathered from the complacent bonhommie with which he reiterates it.

"Azelia, morceau de salon"-Adolph Gollmick, Op. 38 (Boosey and Sons). Herr Gollmick's "Op. 38" would be as irreproachable as the immaculate Azelia herself, but for such passages as the subjoined :—

The theme itself is pretty, and the arpeggio variation beginning at page 4, a clever imitation of one of M. Thalberg's most familiar expedients.

"La Consolation,' révérie,” à son ami, R. Conolly, Esq.H. F. Henniker (Avery). We protest against a French titlepage coming from an English Academy student. The late Earl of Westmoreland would not have sanctioned it; and we are ready to bet three "révéries" to one that Mr. Henniker's "ami, R. Conelly, Esq." (why not Escuyer?) would have preferred to have the work dedicated to him in plain English.

The name of the "révérie,” moreover, is ill chosen. There can be little consolation for any sorrow, disappointment, or misfortune in four or five pages of music skipping about after this fashion (style grenouille ?) :—

3

And so is Mendelssohn's. We had put a "curious coincidence" in parenthesis, but think we are now justified in dispensing

666

Andante.

"Jeu d'Esprit,' caprice" (Op. 48), the first two pages of which are all at the top of the key-board, but in which we are consoled, at page 3, by a charming episode in the subdominant key; Pauline, mazurka de salon" (Op. 46), a really brilliant piece; and "Bellona, fest marsch" (Op. 49), the melody of which begins something like the septuor in the duel scene of the Huguenots. In all these pieces there is more or less merit, and they are all written by one who evidently understands the instrument.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF THE MAJOR DIATONIC SCALE.

SIR,-I presume that as Mr. D. C. Hewitt offers no reply to my letters (Musical World, December 24th, and January 28th), he is thoroughly couvinced of the unsoundness of the principles of his proposed theory of unit basses, which is in reality a theory founded upon an unlimited series of harmonics; and it could easily be made manifest that no theory, built upon such a complicated foundation, can give the true principles of harmony, that is, no theory derived from such a basis can show the true relations of musical sounds, whether as simple sounds or in combination as chords, or can explain the connection of these chords one with another, either when they proceed by simple progression or by modulation; on the other hand, all these relations, and many others, are with facility deduced from the simple theory of limited harmonics, or systems of sounds, based upon the consonant intervals, the whole of which are formed by a principal sound as generator, and its first, second and fourth harmonics, represented by the respective ratios, 1, 2, 3 and 5, to 1, and are those generally known as the common chord, which chord may therefore, with propriety, be called the very essence of harmony, and justly be designated the perfect concord.

In my last letter I pointed out, I believe for the first time, the mathematical relation existing between the chord of the dominant 7th and the chords of its resolution, but as the limits of a letter written for the purpose of elucidating another part of the subject, did not allow of more than a slight notice of this, I may perhaps enlarge upon it at some future period; for the same reason I assumed the sounds of the major diatonic scale to be those already acknowledged as such, but it is my principal object in the present to complete the link in the argustrictly deduced from the same scientific basis. In reference to the mentative chain, by showing that these sounds of the scale can be systems of sounds in the same letter, I there noticed the fact that each sound (nominally the same), as, for instance, G, enters into these systems under three distinct forms, and when it enters as a primary it is continued through three systems, in the other cases only through two. Now when it appears in two systems only, as in E and A, it does not enter as a primary, but only in a subordinate character: it is subject unto and governed by a primary sound, evidenced also by its accidental change, and though in combination with the primaries, E and B, it establishes a connection between the two systems, yet it is of itself powerless, and has no influence over the sounds of these systems; the same may be said of the sound G in the systems E flat and A flat. But when it enters as a primary, as in G, then in the adjacent system C, it appears as the unit-sound, that is, the sound with which all the others in that system are consonant, and which it therefore governs; it is the ruling sound, in fact, the dominant sound, all the others being subject unto it, its influence extending also into the adjacent systems, G and F, which thus become equally related to the system C; also the sound G is the only one that is continued through the three systems G, C, and F, which are in this manner brought into connection and form one mode of sound, of which G is the dominant. Moreover, the G as dominant, or unit-sound of a system, invariably leads to the 5th below, or C, as the primary basis (as shown in my letter, Musical World, December 24th), which thus becomes the basis or root of the sounds in this mode.

The mode may be either major or minor, accordingly as we take the sounds of the major or minor primary chords. As the subject of our present consideration is the major diatonic scale, we must take the sounds of the major primary chords, the individual sounds of which, arranged within the compass of an octave in an ascending order, according to the magnitude of their ratios, and commencing with the ascertained rcot, areF

C 1

D

E 34

B

с

15

which are all the sounds of the major primary chords, in the mode of which C is the root, and taken collectively are the sounds of the major diatonic scale of C only. All other major diatonic scales are formed in a similar way.

also the true reason why the 5th of the scale is the dominant sound, We have thus not only the sounds of the major diatonic scale, but and how it becomes so the whole of which are, I believe, now, for the first time, strictly deduced from a mathematical basis. It will be seen that the complete scale consists of eight sounds or seven intervals, which intervals, by a comparison of their ratios, are found to be of three degrees of magnitude, viz.: the major tone (ratio ), the minor tone (ratio), and the diatonic semitone (ratio 19), which, if they be represented respectively by the letters T, t. S, then the following is the order in which they occur, and which serves as a simple illustration of the magnitude of the various intervals, any interval whatever may be easily measured and compared with another, by simply adding together the various magnitudes of which such intervals are composed:—

F
C D E
G A B C
T t S T t T S

Thus the interval of any of the minor 3rds, E G, A C, or B D contains the magnitudes T and S, whilst the interval D F contains only t and S, and is therefore less than a minor 3rd by the difference between T and t.

The equality between the magnitudes of the first three intervals, and the last three intervals of the scale, and the fact of the semitone occurring in the same situation, in each portion, has given rise to the notion that the major diatonic scale is in reality a compound sca'e, consisting of two scales of four sounds each, thus :—

THE

the case.

THE NEW ORGAN FOR THE CATHEDRAL. To the Editor of the "Manchester Courier." SIR,-I was greatly surprised to see the account given in your last of the new organ for our Cathedral. I had been somewhat prepared by the silence maintained by the authorities after the inquiries made by one of your correspondents some weeks since, to expect that no healthy competition would be allowed, but I now find not only that the order has been given in a most peculiar manner, but that the instrument, instead of being worthy of the Cathedral, will be inferior to others erected by private liberality in district churches. I cannot doubt the accuracy of the specification which you have published, and, as far as church organs are concerned, you are correct in stating that the instrument will rank third in this city, but, speaking generally, this is not The organ in St. Peter's Church is undoubtedly the finest and largest in this district, as well as this city; but the organ at the Free-trade Hall is the next in importance. This instrument contains 52 sounding stops, against the 39 (I should say, for such things as tierces and larigots have no right to be considered separate stops,) of the new organ for the Cathedral. It also contains a 16 feet trumpet in the great organ, a 16 feet reed in the swell, and a 32 feet stop and a 16 feet reed in the pedal. The organ at the Cathedral will therefore not rank even third in this city, but will come in as a bad fourth-a fact I really think anything but creditable to the authorities. I cannot ascertain that any of the churchwardens are possessed of practical musical knowledge, and I believe that the organist, Mr. Harris, has not had any connection with the matter, not even having had the compliment of being consulted on the subject, and the order for the instrument has been given to a stranger without any competition. I imagine that others besides myself who have been appealed to by the churchwardens for contributions, will be interested in this inquiry; and for troubling you with this communication, this must be the apology of, sir, your obedient servant,

LETTERS OF SPOHR.

A PARISHIONER.

[IN numbers 8 and 11 we gave two letters from Spohr, written from Paris in 1820, besides extracts from two others dated 1821. Our authority was, Herr Al. Malibran's small book on Spohr. If Herr Malibran does not expressly say the letters were addressed to him, which, on account of the anachronism, we never supposed they were (though other papers have, without any investigation, taken this for granted), every one must, at any rate, have believed that the originals of the letters were given to Herr Malibran by the person to whom Spohr addressed them. We quoted them, therefore, bona fide, and as the best things in the whole pamphlet. There is, however, now lying before us the copy of a letter written by Spohr from Heidelberg to a friend, on the 20th February, 1821,

in which he says:

"You will read an account of our stay in Paris in four long letters which I have forwarded to the Leipsic Musik Zeitung."

These letters are, therefore, printed in the volume of the above paper for 1821, which we do not happen to have by us. Was it to be supposed that reckless bookmaking could go so far as to foist upon the public, as the great attraction of a hastily compiled biography of a great man, letters of his which had long since been published?

We, however, are enabled to present our readers with some letters of Spohr, from London and Paris, written at the same period of his life, and addressed to his friend, Speyer. They have never been made public. Herr Speyer gave these interesting documents, unconditionally, to Herr A. Schindler, at the latter's reiterated request. We, in our turn, are indebted to Herr Schindler for them]

I.

London, the 27th March, 1820. MY DEAR FRIEND,-I have purposely deferred writing

until now, in order that I might be able to tell you something both of my circumstances here, and of the way in which art is cultivated. At present, after a stay of four weeks, I am sufficiently at home to be able to pronounce a decision with certainty. If, however, my procrastination has been the cause of your being at all alarmed by a piece of information in a Paris paper, which reported we were lost during the passage from Calais to Dover, I should blame myself for not having at once let you know that-though obliged to venture on crossing at the stormy period of the year, when, according to the returns of the Exchange,* more than 150 ships were either lost or driven aground on the English coast-we arrived safe and sound, and soon recovered from the fright and illness of the transit. In the first place, then, you must know that I have been most cordially received by all those persons to whom I brought letters of recommendation, as well as by all the artists on whom I have called, and that Herr Pensa is perfectly right in saying that the English are far more agreeable at home than on their travels abroad. In the next place, I must inform you that the way in which art is cultivated here offers great contrasts (most glaringly prominent in large cities especially); that, side by side with much that is admirable and worthy of praise, you hear the most wretched performances, and that, in a word, it is very plain the English have no vocation and no true feeling for music. It is true that they cultivate music seriously, as they do everything, but it is soon evident, as in the case of English travellers, when visiting the treasures of art and antiquities in Italy, that it is more a labour than a source of enjoyment for them, and that, at the conclusion of a concert, they may well be supposed to say, like their compatriots after an artvisit in Rome, "Thank heaven, this is all over!" The very fact of their being able to sit out and listen attentively and seriously to concerts, four, and frequently five, hours long, with only a short pause, proves that music does not force its way to their hearts, for, if it did, they would be exhausted before the end of the first half. The fact, too, that they listen with equal interest, on the same evening, to the most wretched compositions; that they can, in the same concert, hear a classical piece of music by Mozart, and encore a vulgar English street ballad, without the slightest artistic value, proves them to be utterly incapable of distinguishing good from bad. Of course this is true only of the ordinary concert-goers, for there are naturally in a city with 1,200,000 inhabitants, some few who must be allowed to form honorable exceptions, and possess the power of judging matters of art. That, being convinced of this, I should, three weeks ago, on my first appearance (when I played my scena at the first concert of the Philharmonic Society) have felt very nervous, I can explain only by the presence of Viotti and several other distinguished professionals, whose perhaps too great expectations I had to satisfy, and although they, as well as the general public, applauded me very much, I was but little satisfied with myself, and looked forward impatiently to my second appearance. A week ago, I played at the second concert of the Philharmonic Society, my "Quatuor brillant" in E major, with such success that, from that time, Last Wednesday, I have enlisted every one in my favour. too, when I played for the third time, at Drury Lane Theatre, in what was called an oratorio, my "Pot-pourri," in B flat, I was greeted, both on my appearance, and when I had concluded the piece, with marks of approbation, such as seldomfall to the lot of a foreign artist. At the third concert * Spohr means, probably, Lloyd's.—ED. M. W.

of the Philharmonic Society, I am going to conduct, and shall make my debut with a new grand symphony in D minor, which I began immediately after our arrival, and finished a day or two ago. You may easily believe I am indescribably delighted that this work, which I conceived and brought forth in a spirit of the greatest enthusiasm, is to be performed for the first time by so magnificent and full a band as that of the Philharmonic Society (28 violins, 12 double basses, &c), and in so noble a place as the New Argyll Rooms. I shall afterwards produce my old symphony, as well as my overtures, which have not yet been performed here.

Whether we shall make anything considerable here, the Future will show; that it will be something, I know already, for I can calculate pretty nearly the expense of living. Up to the present time, we have engagements, either for us both, or for me alone, to play for remuneration at three concerts. I have also begun to give lessons. It is not certain whether or no the King will hear us; he has not yet returned to town. Our benefit-concert is fixed for the 8th June; I think it will be tolerably successful. I will write to you next time about the professionals here; a concert of Mad. Mara, who is seventy, was interesting. My change on the violin has turned out excellent; the violinists here are already beginning to imitate it. LOUIS SPOHR.

II.

London, the 17th April, 1820. MY DEAR FRIEND,-How can I thank you sufficiently for having, by a speedy refutation of the frightful report of our death, spared my parents and mother-in-law days of grief! But for your letter, what would they not have suffered until they had read the denial of the report in the newspapers? I shall never forget this friendly act of service on your part. We are receiving, from all parts of Germany, congratulations on our escape; these, as proofs of the interest taken in us by a great many good men, have caused us great joy. I cannot, however, even now, understand how the report of our having perished can have arisen, since we were in London long before the outburst of the storm, which destroyed so many vessels.

You received, no doubt, soon after you despatched your own, my first letter, in which I informed you of my appearance at the first two concerts of the Philharmonic Society. Since then, I have played three times in public, and conducted the third concert of the Philharmonic Society, rising, I am fully justified in asserting, more and more in the estimation of the public,-at least the latter have given me the most unmistakeable proofs of this at each successive appearance. In the first place, I played in a so-called oratorio at Drury Lane Theatre, my pot-pourri in B flat major, then, at the last Dilletanti Concert at the London Tavern, in the City, a sonata with my wife, and, in the second part, my scena; and, lastly, at the so-called Vocal Concert, in a very fine room in Hanover Square, a new concerto in A major, which was especially successful. My wife, who, on her first appearance here, where there are so many good masters of the harp, quite astonished and put me to the blush, for I was much more timid than she, created a deep sensation by the originality of her grand play, and was highly praised by all the professionals that evening. That this success of our efforts as artists greatly enlivens our sojourn here, you may easily imagine.

The greatest pleasure was, however, that caused by the reception of my new symphony. Previously to my arrival

in London, not one of my orchestral compositions had ever been given, either at any of the Philharmonic, nor, as far as I am aware, at any other concert; and I looked forward anxiously for an opportunity of enabling professionals and amateurs to hear some of them. This opportunity presented itself. Among other very sensible regulations, there is one to the effect that, during the series of concerts, the members shall execute, on two evenings, before a small and select audience of professionals and amateurs, only compositions (mostly symphonies and overtures) with which they are unacquainted, and decide, by the applause of those present, whether the pieces thus played are or are not worthy of being played publicly at one of the subsequent concerts. At an ordeal of this kind, I gave them my published symphony and two of my overtures, that from Alruna, and the new one. The enthusiastic applause with which these were distinguished (it is true they had to contend with only very weak productions-a symphony by Soliva, the composer of the opera La Testa di Bronzo, and another, still weaker, by a native composer) impelled the directors to ask me to have the published symphony performed at the next concert. This, however, I declined, telling them I had intended for my debut as a composer a new symphony, written here in London. My proposition was accepted, although the directors seemed to think the new symphony would scarcely please so much as the old one did. But they changed their opinion, even on the first hearing of the piece at rehearsal. The band, whose good-will I had already gained, by small acts of attention and politeness, at the performance of my other things, exerted themselves to the utmost to execute the symphony in a way that would meet with my approval. They were accustomed more, also, to my mode of conducting (for I had been called on to conduct at the trial of the new compositions a week previously), and found this a great help, so that not only my symphony, but all the other pieces produced at this concert (the symphony in C with fugue, by Mozart, and the overtures to Fidelio and Medea) went with much more precision than usual.

The manner of conducting at the theatres and concerts here is the most preposterous which can be imagined. With two conductors figuring away, there is really not even one. He who is styled the conductor, in the bills, sits at the piano and plays from the score, but neither marks time nor gives the tempi; this the leader, or first violinist, ought to do. As he has, however, merely a violin part before him, he cannot help the orchestra, and, therefore, contents himself with playing away his own part, and allowing the orchestra to get on in the best way they can. Artists here had perceived the defect of such an arrangement, and the impossibility of an orchestra of fifty or sixty persons ever working well together with it, before I spoke to them on the subject; but they do not dare to make an alteration, because what is once established is regarded as sacred and inviolable, for, after all, with all his political freedom, an Englishman is the most abject slave of etiquette. I conducted, however, at rehearsal, in my old and usual manner, from the score; and, in the evening, when the conductor is obliged to figure behind the piano, I knew the thing so by heart, that I was enabled to help the orchestra even without the score. My symphony was, consequently, executed with more precision and nicety than I could expect, after one rehearsal, and that rather a hurried one, and it is to this, no doubt, that I am indebted for the fact that it was received by the public with greater enthusiasm than any other orchestral composition during my stay here. The minuet or scherzo