Mr. Moore has done a valuable work for the present, as well as the future of American music. Perhaps we do not realize, as our descendants will, that we are of the "forefathers" in art on this side of the Atlantic. Now Mr. Moore has, in his large Cyclopedia, ($6.) industriously noted down everything melodious that has happened from the time of Tubal Cain to A.D. 1854, and in the present Appendix brings together musical information that has accumulated since the publication of the larger book. A very convenient book for reference. BOYLSTON CLUB COLLECTION OF By Dr. Tourjee. 40 cts. Containing all of the old songs, and "a great deal more." That is, the number of "stock pieces" usually heard in the well-known ancient concerts is quite limited. Dr. Tourje ehas unearthed a number more, and all are true antiques and worthy of performance. As the year 1876 will be great for memorial celebrations, this will be a most convenient book from which to extract appropriate music. New and Beautiful Instrument. THE PIANO-HARP CABINET ORGAN. German and English Four-Part Songs. An exquisite combination, adding to the capac For Men's Voices. Price $1.50. It is an encouraging sign of progress, that enough of male quartets and societies should have sprung into existence, to warrant the publication of this fine book. Its excellence is endorsed by the names of the authors,-Macfarren, Sullivan, Schubert, Esser, Adams, Rubinstein, Benedict, Hartel, Seifert, Neumann, Liszt, Von Bree, and a score of others. 200 pages, well filled. Trial by Jury. Comic Operetta by Sullivan. The dry and musty precincts of the courts of law would, one would think, furnish but scanty materials for the Muse of Music. But this is good music and most comic text from beginning to end. Judge, Lawyers, Plaintiff and Defendant ably take the solos, and Jury and sympathizing spectators somewhat uproariously uphold the chorus. The upshot of the matter is, that Judge and all hands fall in love with the pretty Plaintiff, who finally carries off His Honor, and gives up the prosecution of the non appreciating Defend Gems of English Song. Price in Boards, $2.50. In Cloth, $3.00. Cloth, Fine Gilt for Presents, $4.00. The latest book of Ditson & Co's HOME MUSICAL LIBRARY, and does not suffer in comparison with any other. A large number of extra good songs have, during the last year or two, come these, with a half dozen of classics. (omitted in into popular notice and approval. The best of other books), form this first-class collection. There are about 75 songs. Pages full sheet music size. NATIONAL HYMN -AND TUNE BOOK. For CONGREGATIONS, who need but a small book. Its tunes are the best, most skilfully selected, and the hymns are sufficient in number for all practical purposes. ity of the organ much of that of the pianoforte For SCHOOLS, for opening and closing services. It is quite desirable that in schools and seminaries, pupils should become acquainted with current sacred music. This is just what is wanted. Either one, two, three or four parts may be learned. The book will always be useful, and need not be changed, like other school Upon its invention and introduction, about a year since, this new instrument was received with so much favor, that the demand greatly exceeded the manufacturers' utmost ability to supply; so that they have had no occasion to advertise it extensively. Having now perfected facilities for a large supply, they offer it with confidence to the public. The MASON & HAMLIN ORGANS are now sold for cash, or for monthly or quarterly payments. or are rented until rent pays for them. Circulars, with drawings and full descriptions, For the HOME. Being quite handy and portable, it is a good thing to have "lying around" in a sitting room or on the Piano, ready for evening or Sunday evening sings by the children, by the family, or by assembled neighbors. OLIVER DITSON & CO., CHAS. H. DITSON & CO., CHAS. H. DITSON. PUBLISHERS. OLIVER DITSON. JOHN C. HAYNES. CHAS. H. DITSON & Co. (Successors to Mason Bros. and Firth, Son & Co.) MUSIC PUBLISHERS Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Sheet Music, Of Every Description. Our stock of Sheet Music, Music Books, Musical Instruments, etc., is the largest and most complete in the North West. Our connection with Messrs. O. Ditson & Co., enables us to furnish their publications to Western Dealers, at net Boston Prices. In addition to the publications of Messrs. O. Ditson & Co., we keep on hand and furnish Music and Music Books published in America, together with a choice stock of Foreign Music. [794-3m WHOLE NO. 907. The Hero. BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. "Oh, for a knight like Bayard, Without reproach or fear; My light glove on his casque of steel, My love-knot on his spear! "Oh, for the white plume floating, The woman's heart in love! "Oh, that man once more were manly, Woman's pride and not her scorn! That once more the pale young mother Dared to boast a man is born'! "But now life's slumbrous current No sun bowed cascade wakes; No tall, heroic manhood The level dulness breaks. "Oh, for a knight like Bayard, Without reproach or fear; My light glove on his casque of steel, Then I said, my own heart throbbing Who might wear the crest of Bayard, Paled and darkened one by one, "Woe for the weak and halting! The crescent blazed behind A curving line of sabres Like fire before the wind. "Last to fly and first to rally, "With the rich Albanian costume Who might not gaze again. "He looked forward to the mountains, And placed the stranger there. "Hot spurred the turbaned riders, He almost felt their breath, BOSTON, SATURDAY, JAN. 22, 1876. Where a mountain stream rolled darkly down Between the hills and death. "One brave and manful struggle! He gained the solid land, And the cover of the mountains "It was very great and noble," Said the moist-eyed listener then; "But one brave deed makes no hero, Tell me what he since hath been." "Still a brave and generous manhood, Still an honor without stain, In the prison of the Kaiser, By the barricades of Seine. "But dream not helm and harness Sole sign of valor true, Peace hath higher tests of manhood "Wouldst know him now? Behold him, The Cadmus of the blind, Walking his round of duty With the strong man's hand of labor, Asks word or action brave, "Knight of a better era, Without reproach or fear, Said I not well that Bayards And Sidneys still are here?" Mendelssohn's Place in Modern Music. [From Concordia, Dec. 25, 1875.] English intellectual society, whatever its interest in and enthusiasm for the art of music (and there is no lack of either at present), seems to be swayed to an unusual and unfortunate extent, in its musical judgments, by the mere influence of fashion and of cliques. Strangely enough, too, this tendency, commonly supposed to be a 66 note" of provinciality, is in regard to music more specially exemplified in London than elsewhere. In the more musical of the chief provincial towns it is possible to find a musical society with no special affiche, and which is disposed honestly to admire that which has always been thought worthy of admiration, as well as to give some heed, when opportunity offers, to new lights. But musical London society is like Wordsworth's celebrated cloud:“That moveth altogether, if it move at all.” This is most specially illustrated in the musical history of the past twenty years. There was a rage for Weber previously, but that may be regarded as in part arising from the personal influence of the composer's visit to the country where he found his grave. But the tide of enthusiasm for Mendelssohn rose to its height subsequently to the composer's death. It is not so long since journals and drawing-rooms were at one in the most hyperbolical adoration of the composer of St. Paul, and of all his works, known and unknown. It was not unusual to speak of him as a composer who combined, in his own genius, the qualities of Bach and Beethoven-who had achieved the union of constructive power with warmth of feeling and coloring more completely than anyone else. Taunts and sarcasms were levelled at the "narrow minded and stolid" relatives who kept his posthumous MSS. under lock and key, "when the world was absolutely panting to hear every note that Mendelssohn had committed to pa *DR. SAMUEL G. HOWE, born in Boston in 1801, died per." Worthy people who laid little claim to Jan, 9, 1876. general musical enthusiasm were caught in the VOL. XXXV. No. 21. tide, and would ingenuously profess that "they could never tire of hearing Mendelssohn's music." The movement was at its height, perhaps, on that notable afternoon when all musical London crowded to Sydenham to hear the exhumed "Reformation" Symphony; a work certainly not representing the composer's best powers, and which he himself had practically condemned, but which was paralleled, by "leading critics" of the day, with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. For such unbalanced exaggeration every artistic reputation that is subjected to it has to One voice, and that of a pay, sooner or later. friend and brother artist, had spoken with calm judgment even in the midst of the general applause. "I loved him too well," said Sterndale Bennett, "to wish to see him so absurdly exaggerated." It was not long before the musical circles of this country found another object of worship, and dethroned Mendelssohn from his seat. The reputation of Schumann was set up as a rival one to that of Mendelssohn long since in Germany, at the instance of Leipsic cliqueism; it was not until a recent date that it became established in England, after much grumbling on the part of audiences upon whose ears the works which were to form the next fashion were with difficulty forced. But society soon learned its lesson, and no amateur inæsthetic" circles will now play Mendelssohn, except in a kind of apologetic way and for the sake of old times. Young ladies who have been nourished upon Schumann speak of Mendelssohn with compassionate indifference, or confess that they "rather like" some of his works; critics have transferred their programme rhapsodies to the newer composer, as the most powerful genius in instrumental music since Beethoven. And now the Wagner movement, which has reached England, is working another change in popular musical predilection, and the feeling in regard to Mendelssohn seems to have become, with the one-sided and violent critics of this school, one of absolute antipathy and even something like contempt. A consideration of these apparently unreasoning and unreasonable variations of opinion ought at least to be instructive in leading people to be cautious of attaching too much importance to popular enthusiastic movements, such as that in favor of the new form of operatic music and its hero, or regarding the man who receives the homage of the hour as necessarily placed thereby on a secure pedestal of fame. But, apart from such general considerations, one is sometimes tempted to ask, what is the real truth, as between the excessive laudation of Mendelssohn in his lifetime, and for some time after, and the comparative indifference with which he is regarded now? "How shall we find the concord of this discord?" That Mendelssohn's genius was overrated at one time will probably hardly be disputed by any thoughtful critic at the present moment; and it may be added that the very circumstances of his personality and social position would have rendered this almost inevitable. Of the influence and fascination of his personal disposition and manners, there are many now living who can speak from their own knowledge. But in addition to this he had, almost alone among the composers who have laid claim to the highest rank, the chance to be born to affluence and social position. Strange enough is the contrast between the daily life of Beethoven, as far as its nature can be gleaned from scattered letters and anecdotes, and that of Mendelssohn. In the pleasant letters of the latter, interspersed with what may be termed an interest and admiration for good bravura But Mendelssohn had what some critics of the present day would be disposed to call, in the words of Byron, "the fatal gift of beauty," both in regard to appreciation and production. If he had little sympathy with the deeper passions of human nature, his quick feeling for and perception of all that was beautiful and gracious in art and nature is apparent in every page of his letters. In a certain sense his temperament might be described as "sentimental," and the same character belongs to his compositions. Their merit is not par excellence either constructive or in the highest sense pathetic, but of that intermediate order in which sentiment is carried sometimes almost to the height of pathos, and constructive device just so far used as to give variety, and a last touch of completeness to the effect. It is music in which, without any stress or strain on the listener's feelings or comprehension, a remarkably satisfying effect is produced by the balance of form and the due proportion always kept between the idea and the language in which it is set forth. And this completeness and fulness of effect, which is one of the secrets of Mendelssohn's popularity with the mass s, is the natural result of a temperament to which art was pre-eminently an enjoyment, a thing to make life brighter and more cheerful. With a sufficiently declared faith in the serious ends of art, he could combine a keen enjoyment of its lighter and more ornate side. He evinced But of the distinct individuality of Mendels- make his owr. It is true that a considerable discount must be made for the proportion of his pianoforte music which is obscure, lengthy, and deficient in form, and which only a blind enthusiasm can consider as worthy of high admiration. But he displays a vigor of style, a constructivs power, and a variety and novelty in effects purely within the sphere of the instrument, which, in spite of a roughness of form and a frequent almost gratuitous awkwardness in the placing of the music for the hands, impress the hearer far more intensely than does anything in the finished and sparkling writing of Mendelssohn. The dislike of the latter composer to extemporizing on the piano, and his expressed reasons for it, are characteristic of what really seeins to have been a deficiency of genius, though it has been turned by his admirers into an evidence of his refined sensibility. He mentions in one place his having reluctantly consented to extemporize after a supper, "though I am sure I had nothing in my head but benches and cold fowl," and adds his conviction of the absurdity of the notion of thus extemporizing off-hand. It is all very well to regard this as an evidence of Mendelssohn's intellectual view of his art; but it is evident that the great composers of an earlier generation had their inspiration at their command, so to speak, at almost any moment, and were not dependent on outward circumstances, or compelled to "sit at the receipt of ideas. Mozart, taking home to supper the clever player he had noticed in the orchestra, and extemporizing fantasias to him between the glasses of punch, winding up with, "There! now you have heard Mozart for the first time!"-Beethoven, when pitted against Steibelt at a musical party, tossing the violoncello part of Steibelt's quintet contemptuously upside down on the music-desk, and therefrom evolving a performance which drove Steibelt out of the room "-these may seem very prosaic and matter-of-fact proceedings, in the light of some modern ideas, but they exemplify that peculiar grip of the resources of musical effect and construction which characterized the older masters, and which does not seem to have been granted to, or attained by, any later composer. 66 Yet, admitting the comparative weaknesses of Mendelssohn's style and genre, admitting his lack of intensity in pathetic expression, his deficiency in that constructive power which gives the highest solidity to a composition, and which Beethoven, even in his most romantic moods, always had within call," and whereby he astonishes us at a moment when we least expect it, can we name any other composer who has filled, and has a claim to fill, so large a space in the world of music since Beethoven? We may leave Herr Wagner out of consideration for the moment; his place is not yet fixed, and his treatment of the art is too much involved with, and part of, innumerable dramatic surroundings to be fairly compared with such purely musical music as that of Mendelssohn. The latter has, no doubt, been definitely surpassed in certain branches of the art by later composers. The favorite dictum of concert-room programmes, that his Concerto in G minor is the leading work of its class since Beethoven, is probably to be considered out of date now. In songs, as well as in pianoforte music, it can hardly be questioned that Schumann has surpassed him in variety and pathos, if not equalling him in pure beauty and grac. But if we take his works en masse, we must surely recognize him as the most generally gifted musician of the recent period: for what other composer can be named who has done so many things so well, or shown such a veritable and well balanced musical faculty? There is a great run just now on Schumann's Symphonies, upon which enthusiastic critiques are written; and full of powerful, vigorous writing they are, and deeply pathetic at times; but on the whole it may be fairly surmised that so artistic and finished a work as the "Italian Symphony," which has given pleasure to a far more extended circle than Schumann has there was a most favorably with the 18th and the 17th; indeed, was called in concert. a case of viols" more shrill-toned they (the Sussex people) may be, the more valued they are, and in Church they sing psalms, by preference, not set to the old and simple tune, but as if in a tragic chorus, changing about with strophe and antistrophe, and stanzas, with good measure; but yet there is something offensive to my ear when they bellow to excess, and bleat out some goatish noise with all their might' (!) One might think the learned Doctor was talking of a set of savages in some newly-discovered land, and not of his fellow-subjects in an adjoining County. But, in fact, to the polished clergyman of Ox A few words ford these Sussex boors were savages. of explanation are needed as to the "chorus" ("anthem" they called it) sung by the choir of Shermanbury instead of "the old and simple tune." The old and simple tunes, introduced chiefly from Germany in the days of the Reformation, and of which "the Old Hundredth" (that was its numerical place in the Psalm-book) is almost the sole remnant, were superseded in the Stuarts' days by a more florid and pretentions kind of hymn," with," as Dr. Burton says, "strophe and antistrophe and stanzas," and these were often "bleated out," to use his language, with more vigor than taste or discretion. They have been superseded by a simpler and higher class of hymn in our own days. In few things, indeed, affecting social life and manners, has there been such a change in England, and for the better, as in instrumental music. Vocal music, in some form, must always have held its ground, and we know that in Elizabeth's and the 1st James's days it was widely cultivated, and hence the rich inheritance of madrigals, glees, rounds, catches, and other part songs that we boast of, and which used to be sung, and still occasionally are, without accompaniment. But in instrumental mu sic there was almost a blank up to the invention of the piano. Even Handel's scores were only written for violin, alto, bass, and hautboys, with an occasional flute accompaniment, that was, the English flute, and now and then a bit for the French horn. The more recent introduction of the German flute gave an impetus to the study of music by men, and, 50 years ago, there was scarcely a house of the middle classes without a German flut. But it was the improvement of the harpsichord into the women, caused music to be introduced into the homes of the English people, and has done more to soften, refine, and polish their manners than, perhaps, any. thing else. If it has not made us a musical people, like the Germans, the Bohemians, the Hungarians, and cher Sclavonic races-and only Nature could have done that,-it has made us fond of music, which is next door to it. The rest may come in good time! Poets, and great poets too, we have had in Sussex. but there has been no Sussex composer yet, nor is there that we are aware of such a thing as a genuine Sussex air. One important species of homage, that of The pianoforte is to the woman of the present gen- pianoforte that, by giving an instrument suited for imitation, Mendelssohn has certainly received And now again the people This is almost as applicable to Mendelssohn as to Tennyson; and no doubt the fact that his style was susceptible of this general imitation is, to a certain extent, a proof of his mannerism. But though the flower may be held rather cheap at present, in consequence, it has probably vitality enough to outlive its spurious imitations, as well as many of the ranker and more luxuriant growths which may seem at present to threaten it with extinction. H. H. STATHAM. Glimpses of our English Ancestors. MUSIC IN SUSSEX. [From The Brighton Herald, Dec. 18.] A hundred years hence, whoever looks back upon our age as we are looking back upon the century that preceded us, will have no reason to note the absence of evidence of the love and practice of music amongst the people of Sussex, not only in towns but in the smallest country villages. In this respect the 19th century will contrast most remarkably and luxuries of the rich and great. The middle classes, So, in the diaries of the Gales and the Stapleys "" An The only reference we have found to the vocal A propos of music, and, indeed, of Art generally, we may quote the recent remarks of Mr. Gladstone at Greenwich, Mr. Gladstone's mind is large enough to take in every thing, from the political wants of a great Empire to the artistic wants of a cottage, and his remarks on the cultivation of music in England at the present moment bear out the facts we have given above. "You know very well," he said to his Greenwich constituents a few weeks ago, "that, when we look at the popular instruction of the country, the public mind is becoming more and more habituated to the universal teaching of music; and, of course, the universal teaching of music implies the universal practice of it in one shape or another. No doubt it is infinitely various in degree, and no doubt there are certain unfortunate individuals here and there who have no sense of it at all,-who have no sense of melody or of harmony, whose ears tell them nothing of concords or discords, and who are alike shut out from the pleasures of music and from the pains We that discord will inflict on the cultivated ear. are now coming, we have almost come, to the belief that music is a general inheritance,-that the faculty of music is a common faculty of the people forming an intelligent community. years ago? I remember the time when you were laughed at in this city if you contended, as I was stoutly contending, that the human being as such was musical; you were considered a fool, a dreamer, an enthusiast. People used to say 'I can't tell one note from another; I don't care a bit about music;' and I replied by saying, 'If the nurse who carried you when you were three or six months old had continued to carry you until you were 40, you would not be able to walk.' (Laughter.) I believe that, making allowances, and not attempting to urge the Was that so 50 application of the illustration too far, it is sound to the extent that a faculty uncultivated dies away. The human mind is not like that description of rich and luxurious soil that casts off the finest fruits and flowers of itself without care or culture; but it has within itself capabilities wisely adapted to call for the application of labor in the development of faculties; and if the labor is applied, the faculties will be developed. If there be those who have no sense of music, they are analogous to those who are born deaf or blind, and, consequently, are entitled to sympathy as being excluded from one of the purest enjoyments Providence has ordained for human nature." There can be little doubt that, at one period of our history, music in Sussex-as known and prac tised by the people-had all but died away; and it is still a belief with some that Sussex people lack both ear and voice for music. Certainly the singing at Sheep-shearing feasts and other rural meetings gives little token of either; it is a dreary monotonous sing-song of two or three notes, repeated through interminable verses of equally dreary rhyme. Some specimens of these rude rhymes were given in our paper on Sussex Sheep-shearers," and Mr. M. A. Lower, in his “Old Speech and Manners in Sussex," after stating that there are still in existence "two or three rhythmical compositions once familiar to Sussex men," quotes, as one of these, a Sussex whistling song, which," he says, formerly popular and is not yet entirely forgotten." Here it is: 66 was A SUSSEX WHISTLING SONG. There was an old Farmer in Sussex did dwell, [Chorus of Whistlers. There was an old Farmer in Sussex did dwell, And he had a bad wife, as many knew well. [Chorus of Whistlers. Then Satan came to the old man at the plough“One of your family I must have now.' "It is not your eldest son that I do crave, But 'tis your old wife; and she I will have.', "O! welcome, good Satan, with all my heart; I hope you and she will never more part!" Now Satan he got the old wife on his back, And he lugged her along like a pedlar's pack. He trudged away till he came to his gate, Says he "Here, take an old Sussex man's mate." O! then she did kick all the young imps about; Says one to the other, "Let's try turn her out!" She spied seven devils, all dancing in chains; She up with her pattens and knocked out their brains. She knocked old Satan against the wall; "Let's try turn her out, or she'll murder us all." Now he's bund'el her up on his back amain, And to her old husband he's took her again. "I've been a tormentor the whole of my life; But I ne'er was tormented till I took your wife!" Certainly, when the musical knowledge of the people was reduced to whistling, it could not descend much lower; but still it sufficed to prove that the taste for music was not quite extinct, and, in course of time, that musical knowledge which has grown so rapidly in the middle classes will doubtless extend to the lower,-especially through the instruction of the children at school,-and England-nay; even Sussex-may wake up some fine morning and find that it is musical! The New "Old South" Church. The genial lady correspondent from this city to the Worcester Spy (Mrs. GODDARD), writes the following description of this beautiful addition to our church architecture. The "Old South" is a very beautiful church, surpassing any other in the city; whether it is to be surpassed by Trinity" remains to be seen. No one who has not battled with the wind, dust, frost and ice at the bleak corners on the new land can imagine what it is to get to the "Old South" at this season. You may go as far as you can in the horse-car, creep as much farther as you can in the ice of the houses, but the time comes at last when you must tuck in your ribbons, make sure that your bonnet is firm on your head, and your head on your shoulders, then, gathering up your strength and courage, and bending for ward, you must make a desperate rush from the last sheltered point to the harbor of the church-porch. The wind is sure to blow in your face, no matter where the vane points and to blow round and round your feet, tangling you hopelessly in your skirts unless they are comparative ly short and scant. Dust whirls into your eyes and nose, patches of ice lie in wait for unwary feet, sharp gusts of wind cut off your breath; you wonder if architecture will, on the whole, pay you for the battle. You know by memory, and just one hasty glance, how rich the outside of the church is in beautiful stone-carving, where the cunning workmen have wrought birds and animals, and abundant foliage, with all the strength, grace and variety of nature. Safe in the warm passages between the church and the chapel, you pause to regain your breath, only to lose it again with delight and wonder when the door opens and you see before you countless myriads of white-winged argels soaring into the deep blue heavens, while below the shepherds bend in adoration and the sheep crowd close together. It is the great window behind the pulpit-that is all. There are other splendid windows telling all the story of the life of Jesus, a little windows with only the stories of flowers and delicious combinations of color; and after awhile you turn your eyes from them to the details of the church, or the preaching-room it ought to be called, for I suppose the whole building is the church. The room is sufficiently light without possibility of glare; all the colors are warm, soft and rich, in fantastic but pleasing combination. The wood-work is oak, or something of that color, the carpet dark olive-green, with small set figures of duli-red and other subdued tints. The carving in wood and the mouldings in plaster are exquisite specimens of art. Each bit of wood-carving is a lovely little study by itself, and would seem so at an art-store; but here there is such a wealth of it, and it is so unobtrusive, that you must seek if you would find it. But still the eyes turn always to the angel choir, half fearing that they will have floated far beyond sight. I can't imagine any clergyman expecting to be listened to in such a church until his congregation have grown familiar with every detail of its beauty, and are willing at last to turn their eyes from beholding its loveliness and give some heed to what is being addressed to their ears. Perhaps clergymen will preach from the windows, taking them for illuminated texts; and I am sure if the wonderful golden flowers on rich red grounds could be classed with the lilies of the field, the preacher could safely declare that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like them. Besides this gorgeous, illuminated place to preach in, where the morning light brings out all the wealth of artistic detail, and the sunset pours a golden glory on the sacred scenes, touching a face or a flower for one moment with fire, and the next leaving it softened and subdued as the shadow gains upon it, and the glory moves upwards, there are many other rooms for all the purposes that a working-church requires. A chapel, and large, quiet class-rooms, all with refined and warm ornamentation. but little of it, as suits such rooms. There is a parlor, and a great work-room for ladies, both handsomely furnished, a kitchen, a nice chinacloset, and a dining hall; all possible conveniences for the minister; and dressing-rooms near the parlor and workroom. The parsonage joins the church; doors and entries are wide and convenient; the organ is said to be sweet and powerful; and the architects had the crown to their work when trial proved that the acoustic properties of the church were perfect-that to speak and hear in it were easy. The architects are Messrs. Cummings and Sears. For Dwight's Journal of Music. Ten Musical Sonnets of David Fr. Strauss. BY AUBER FORESTIER. DAVID FR. STRAUSS, the renowned author of the "Life of Jesus," wrote and dedicated to the friend of his youth, E. F. Kauffmann, a series of Musical Sonnets, which, being first issued in a periodical of extremely limited circulation, may be truly said to have only been rendered accessible to the public at large through their recent republication in that widely circulated German Magazine, the Gartenlaube. In his prose introduction to this evident work of love, Strauss says: 'Were I a philosophical Emperor giving to the world my confessions, I would, in thanking the Gods for their manifold benefits, express my especial gratitude for their baving blessed me from youth up with a friend endowed with the rare gifts of Poesie and Music. He is now, alas! dead, that noble being to whom alone I owe it that my ear hath awakened, however imperfectly, to the mysteries of the toneworld. He was not a musician by profession, yet possessed a thoroughly musical nature. He was equally conversant with the theory and the practical employment of the Laws of Harmony; but his calling in the world was that of Professor of Mathematics. It would have pained him to use Music as a means of livelihood; it was the object of his private devotion; his inner life was enriched by it. The works of the Masters he was not merely familiar with, he lived in them. To him it was a trifle to render on the piano-forte an entire Mozart Opera. Ah, how much am I indebted to his skill! How admirably could he transport his hearers into the proper mood! What marvellous power had he to cast at the right moment a ray of light on the groping mind!" Such was the man to whom Strauss in February 1851, during a long separation, sent, as a memento of affection, the following Sonnets. They did not appear in print until some years later, after Kauff mann's death. No more graceful tribute can be imagined from friend to friend, and as we perused the poetic gems, so fraught with keen appreciation, we were strongly impressed with the feeling that the great Philosopher and Theologian probably owed his highest culture to the exalting, refining influ ence of that Divine Art into whose innermost sanc tuary he was conducted by the hand of friendship. It were defranding those of our reading-public, who are unable to make their acquaintance in the German, not to clothe in English garb these Sonnets, and we therefore take the liberty of herewith presenting translations of the entire ten, together with the author's poetical dedication, having earnestly striven in our work to preserve the true flavor of the original. DEDICATION TO KAUFFMANN. Throughout this Carnival's dull mummery, 1. HAENDEL. Aye, that's a man! He's like the oak-tree hoary, As from the Blest, the Lamb's white Throne around, 2. GLUCK. No fogs could long withstand its sunny rays, Aye, Truth thou did'st restore unto thy Art, 3. HAYDN. 4. DON JUAN. How sportively life's fountain here is piashing! The purple juice of grapes foams in the bowl; Love lureth mid dark myrtle bow'rs to stroll Begun the dance in halls with radiance flashing. |