Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

mechanical exercises were not well arranged. The scales in double thirds and sixths were introduced very near the beginning of the book, and their difficulty either discouraged the enthusiastic tyro, or they were too often omitted entirely, thereby depriving the pupil of their very important aid in the developement of the muscles of the hand and wrist. The compositions interspersed as examples of the styles of different authors, although tastefully and artistically selected, were too difficult for their place in the book. Indeed, Mr. Richardson seems to have lost sight of the apostolic remark concerning "milk for babes." In the new method he has embodied the results of several years' study of the short comings as well as of the excellencies of the Modern School. A set of plates, showing the position of the hand while in the act of performing different passages, takes the place of the anatomical plates in the Modern School, and is a decided improvement. The elements are quite full and satisfactory. The practical part of the book may be classified as follows:-1. Five finger exercises. 2. A complete library of scales. 3. Studies from Bertini, Cramer, Czerney, &c. 4. Amusements.

These are interspersed in just about the right proportions, and the progressive character of the work is well preserved. Of the necessity of the finger exercises and scales nothing need be said. We are glad to find the book so full in this respect. A study, properly so called, is a composition written expressly to aid in the acquisition of the mastery of some particular effect or difficulty, and the musical effect is made to depend upon the perfect rendering of this difficulty. In Europe much greater prominence is given to studies than in this country. (Indeed, Bertini's method is almost entirely made up of studies, and this is the good point of the work while the drawback is, they are all original, and hence the great uniformity of style.) In this book there is a very good selection of these, numbering twenty-seven, besides some fifteen which are called "amusements," but which properly belong on this head, The " amusements" are numerous and of almost every grade of difficulty. The sources whence these are taken are not indicated; but we are able to identify the following: chorus from Norma (17)—a barcarelle (18)-hunting chorus in "der Freyschütz" (29)—waltz (Derniere pensée de Carl Maria Von Weber) Reissiger (31)—andante from Clementi (35)-chorus from I Puritani (40)-cantabile by Schuloff (45)—Mazurka by Schulhuff (46)-songs without words by Mendelssohn (48 and 49)—nocturne by Dregschoek (51) and a grand finale that looks as if Liszt might have "had a hand in it,"

There are some morceaux in this work that will prove grateful "show pieces" for amateur players. We may mention amusements 45, 46, 48 and 51; all good, sensible music. There have been two editions published, one having European and the other American fingering, so that all may be suited in this respect. We have at length an instruction book for the Piano, that is complete ·without being too voluminous : interesting, but not superficial; thorough but not tedious. If pupils have common sense and perseverance, this book is just the thing for them. If teachers are laborious and painstaking, they will find the "New Method" a valuable auxiliary to their labor, while if they are lazy and careless, by all means they should set their pupils at work in the "New Method," in assurance that with it the pupil must make some progress. VOL. II.-NO. III. 14

We believe, however, that by far the most important field for usefulness for a book like this, is in the country; since the city teachers, with their ready access to the music stores, can select such studies, exercises or pieces as are adapted to the wants of their pupils, and the method they may use is of less consequence, while its defects may be so readily remedied. In the country, on the other hand, the teacher, far removed from music stores, is at the mercy of the dealers, who often inflict on him quantities of unsaleable trash. Parents object to an additional bill for music, or the teacher is not competent to select properly, so it happens that scholars in general buy but one "instruction book" and no "studies," and it is therefore important that they be furnished at the outset with a really complete "method" for the instrument. We therefore confidently recommend this book to our country friends, both teachers and pupils, who will here find a complete library of "materials," for piano playing, and a good assortment of some thirty amusements.

Amor Patriae; or The Disruption and Full of these States. A Tragedy in Five Acts. St. Louis: George Knapp & Co. 1860.

Five act tragedies of the present day we generally throw aside-seldom venturing beyond the title page. But there is something even in the external appearance of that before us which is prepossessing. Perhaps it is the name of the printers, Messrs. George Knapp & Co., which we recognize as that of the publishers of the St. Louis Republican, one of the best, most respectable and most widely circulated daily journals in America. At all events so good and conservative a name led us to hesitate before coming to the conclusion that the title, somewhat strange as it sounds, is an indication of any want of patriotism in the contents. In this we were not mistaken. Although "Amor Patriae" has only reached us within a few days—so late, indeed, that we can do little more on the present occasion than refer to it-we see that it had been published before the recent Presidential election. This would be of slight importance were it not that it has reference mainly, if not exclusively, to the danger to the Union arising from the so-called "irrepressible conflict" between the North and South. Its dramatis personæ alone would show this, as may be seen from the following characters: Tusestan-a Senator. Populus, President of America, Arostas-British Ambassador, Aspy-his Secretary, Sectellon-Turbullus-Falston-Vice-President and Senators-AmicusFreebold-Citizens. Severa, wife of Tusestan, afterwards Queen of America, &c.

&c.,

Our space, at this advanced hour, will only admit of one extract, which we take from the opening of the first act. But even this will give a pretty correct idea of the tone and spirit of the whole, which in many passages will be found remarkably prophetic :

[blocks in formation]

Bul unresisting they admitted me;

For I approached

Devoid of warlike demonstration.

Had I with mc a hostile army brought,

Or thundering cannon-throated navy anchored,
They quick had swollen big with frothy rage
To swallow 't up, and yet with much less cause;
For, peaceful, I am with more mischief fraught
Than half a million soldiers could evoke,
Or England's puissant navy could spit forth-
Into this country's body I shall pour

A venom that has not its antidote ;
Corrupting, it shall roll through all its veins
Like quicksilver; for no less it is;

Silver and gold shall from wy fingers drop
Like water through a sieve; the diff'rence this,
My fount is inexhaustible.

America, kind England's ingrat'st child,

Our day of direst retribution dawns!

Cast up the sum of thy transgressions, sins,

That, when the days of punishment are come,

Thou can'st make thy eccount. Whilst now thou threat'st
To self-inflict due chastisement upon thee,

There's one beyond thy ken with better cause

Will wreak it on thee."

[blocks in formation]

To this we can only add, that although our country passes through many troubles, caused by the unhapyy dissensions alluded to; coming for a while under the rule of a king, or rather of a queen, the people finally triumph, and the curtain falls at the close of the fifth act, while a citizen exultingly exclaims:

"Now tyranny is dead; long live our new Republic !"

Old Mackinaw; or, The Fortress of the Lakes and its Surroundings. By Rev. W. P. STRICKLAND. 12mo. Philadelphia: James Challen & Son. 1860. There is an agreeable variety in this work, which will recommend it to different classes of readers, whose tastes are the most dissimilar. Some of the

scenic descriptions are highly picturesque and poetical; and there is every reason to believe, from internal evidence, that they are true to nature. We refer more particularly to those of the country surrounding the Lakes, where so many bloody frays have taken place between the Indians and whites, that every little hill is pointed to as a scene of blood and outrage. The author takes occasion to interweave with his sketches some highly romantic legends, illustrative of the habits of various tribes, during a period extending back far anterior to the discovery of America by the European or Caucasian race.

But probably the most interesting part of the book is that which describes the hardships and dangers so manfully undergone by the Jesuit Missionaries in their efforts to win over the Indians from their savage state-especially from the influence of their demoralizing Pagan rites and ceremonies, to an appreciation more or less sincere, earnest and enduring of the benign and ele vating principles of Christianity. These sketches alternate with exciting episodes, which in turn divide the author's attention with plain facts such as illustrate the state of the fisheries, the value of the neighboring mines, &c.,— the whole being illustrated with spirited engravings. In short we have rarely derived so much profit and pleasure from so unpretending a work.

1. The Adventuress; or, The Baddington Peerage. Being the Lives of their Lordships. A story of the Best and Worst Society. By GEORGE Augusta SALA, author of A Journey Due North,"." Gaslight and Daylight," "Inside London," &c., &c.

2. The Young Captain; or, The Flames of Moscow. Translated from the French of Alexander Dumas. By HENRY L. WILLIAMS, Jr.

New York: F. A. Brady.

The authors of both these works are well known and highly popular-especially Dumas, who, need we say, has been read in almost every language, Asiatic as well as European, which is possessed of a literature. The popularity of Sala is more limited; but he attracted no slight attention some two or three years since, as one of the most entertaining, if not one of the most brilliant, of the contributors to Dickins's "Household Words." His "Journey Due North," is one of the best specimens we know of those off-hand sketches of travel, which are always readable, because they combine the useful and instructive with the agreeable, But the work before us is of a different kind. It is, undoubtedly, a very clever novel. Few stories that we have recently examined, has a more skilfully constructed plot, or one better calculated to beguile the time and attention of the lover of fiction. Indeed the greatest fault this last story of Dumas' has, is that it is somewhat too exciting. There is a fascination about it which it is difficult to overcome, though it is hardly so true and to nature as Mr. Sala's tale, which contrasts the pomp, luxury, hypocrisy, revelry of the rich, with the industrious and frugal habits of the poor, with a degree of success seldom equalled, and surpassed only by writers like Dickins. The two works are printed in cheap form, so as to place them within the reach of those who, it is to be hoped, are growing tired of the sort of pabulum which forms the staple of the "sensation" weeklies.

Christian Songs, Translations, and Other Poems. By the Rev. GILBORNE LYONS, LL.D. "The Service of Song." 16mo. pp. 157. Philadelphia: Smith, English & Co. 1860.

"The

We have only time to take a hasty glance at this little volume. Had it been one of an ordinary kind, the lateness of its arrival on our desk would have excluded it from any attention in our present number. But in turning over its pages, we have found several "gems from many lands," such as Mourning for Bion," ""The Golden Verses of Pythagoras," ""The Bard of O'Connor," ," "The Swedish Cecelia's Farewell," &c. But among the sacred pieces, more particularly denominated "Christian Songs," there are several effusions of remarkable sweetness and pathos; such, for example, as" A Poet's Last Song," with which we have to conclude our brief notice:

"MAKE me a grave in the pines of the mountain,

The pines which I loved in the days that are past!
There let the stream as it falls from the fountain,
Mingle its hymn with the moan of the blast:
Free on my turf, when the spring is returning,
Leave thou the bird of the desert to breed ;
There, when the red beam of summer is burning,
Oft let the herd of the wilderness feed.

"Fleeting and few were the joys which I tasted,

Fool'd by the teachings of error so long;
Noble and high were the gifts which I wasted,
Heedless of all but my mood and my song;
Worthless and mean were my strain and my story-
The feast and the wine-cup, the sword and the fray--
Faith with its grandeur, and Truth with its glory,
Shed not their light on my life or my lay.

"Son of my God, who wast laid in the manger,
Mark my repentance, and pity my doom-
Thou who wast tried by temptation and danger,
Thou that hast vanquish'd the cross and the tomb !
Vengeful and loud when the trumpet is ringing,
Sounding the dirge of the field and the sea,
Grant me a place, where the ransom'd are singing
Anthems which speak of Redemption and Thee."
-pp. 88, 89.

« VorigeDoorgaan »