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WHOLE NO. 889.

BOSTON, SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1875.

VOL. XXXV. No. 3.

A "Seance Solennelle" of the "Orpheon" ganized, and still spreading out its branches | int lligent boys for the most part; the hand

in Paris.

(From old Editorial Correspondence.) PARIS, August 10, 1860. My short visit to Paris is in the unmusical season of the year; a mere lingering to make what may be made of chance opportunity, to see what may be seen and hear what may be heard on the way through to other countries. Brushing quickly past the gay flowers, and chiefly occupied in seeing, I had not thought to gather musical honey for these letters. But I have seemed to meet on all sides symptoms of a new musical impulse in France, Certainly the French have not borne hitherto the highest musical reputation; the French taste, even the French ear has not been reported very true to concert pitch; and the French as a people have been proverbially famed for singing out of tune. This is a slander so far as my small experience of the past fortnight goes. In the churches at Rouen, in the operas, the cafés chantants, the Conservatoire, and above all the singing classes of "the million," in Paris, one could not but be struck by the very opposite, by just that same exactness in regard to tune and time, which makes the whole every day movement of this most orderly and military nation. Here every thing goes in procession; all partakes of the controlling military rhythm; and with whatever latent discontent there is (doubtless not a little) under the purest despotism, there is still a certain lyric sense of glory and of pride in power, in art, in order and in beauty, which goes well with music. There is a great educational work in progress over all France in respect to music. The people are becoming singers, in a more real and substantial sense (I cannot help thinking) than we were wont to boast of with our swarms of money-making singing masters and "professors" in New England. Here a great musical movement, real and sincere, seems to have sprung up in the people, and to have a living soul in it. It enjoys the fostering care of government. The empire, which styles itself "Peace," is shrewd enough at least to show that it is also Art, and also Music. And it does look as if that power, which, while it turns Paris into a camp, at the same time unites the Louvre with the Tuileries, builds noble palaces and boulevards and bridges, redeems to sight the beautiful old tower of St. Jacques, long hidden in a dirty mass of buildings, restores and renovates the glorious old cathedrals, and other monuments of Gothic architecture throughout France, doing in fact everywhere a great æsthetic work and cultivating the artistic glory of the land, -was at the same time quickening a new musical impulse and preparing a new musical era in its people. What I witnessed last Sunday was significant. **Orphéon " is the collective name of a great system of popular singing societies, for both sexes and all ages, within a few years or

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over all France. The reports are still fresh of somer for carrying so much of the air of cheerthe impression which a delegation of some thou-ful discipline in their faces and in all their sands of the male Orphéonists made on their movements; lively, happy, noisy, but not rude, visit to the Crystal Palace in England some one is pleasantly struck by the faces and the weeks since. It was my good fortune to re- manners of the boys in all the streets of Paris. ceive an invitation in company with an intelli- If I could only sketch that quaint old figure of gent amateur of our town, to what was styled a teacher who stands up there on my left, ana Séance Solennelle of the Orpheon (Ville de Par-swering the laughing, eager questions of a is), held in the vast round of the Cirque Napo- dozen tip-toe boys at once! He was a subject leon, at 2 P. M., on Sunday, August 5th. This for a Cruickshank. With his back turned he "solemn session was a free grand concert; seems the very image of a Scotch or Yankee there were no tickets sold; it was the people's country schoolmaster; but when he turns round own affair and open to the people, subject only the face is one of those picturesque oddities you to the limitation, for the sake of comfort and only find in Europe; very tall and lank and of order, (for here the rule is absolute and uni-bony; an old man with bushy grey hair and versal, in theatres, in cars, in omnibuses, never long grey moustache, a fabulously lorg beaked to admit one person over and above the actual nose, and very high retreating forehead; face number of seats) of invitations dated from the red, and full at once of routine, discipline and Prefecture of the Seine. good-natured humor, and of that enthusiasm in a good work which preserves youth; altogether a picturesque, quaint specimen! I think it was he, who, when the moment for commencing was announced, stepped downward a few steps, bust, said in a clear voice: A la memoire de and placing a wreath of immortelles upon a WILHELM! he being the patron saint as it were of the Orphéon, since of Wilhelm's singing classes for the million (now imitated by Mainzer in England) this Orpheon is the natural fruit. There was the clapping of hands and the enthusiasm, immense of course, after the French way; they always have a sentiment.

The assembly was immense. There could not have been fewer than five thousand guests; and these ranged in circle above circle (to the number of twenty circles), from the spacious area below to half way up the richly decorated walls of the great circus, made a most brilliant and lively spectacle, in itself enough to occupy the hour we were kept waiting. All classes were assembled, but chiefly of the people; mechanics with their wives and daughters, a vast brilliant flower bed of kaleidoscopic colors; here and there an actual blue blouse, or the picturesque Arabic costume of the Zouave. Α wide section of the round, from top to bottom, was filled or filling with the singers, numbering one thousand or twelve hundred voices in all. Above, on one side, sat the basses and the tenors, and below them the women. On the other side, the boys and girls. At the foot of all a patch of the tenderest plants, silveryvoiced youngest girls, found room upon the central area. The rest of this was occupied by dignitaries and distinguished guests in stately arm-chairs, such as Auber, who moved about a sort of oracle among them, and others of the musical celebrities of France; M. le Prefêt also, whose entrance was unanimously greeted, as was that of several others; all scrupulously dressed, too, as if it were indeed a great occasion, and as if in solemn honor to what they recognized as a great cause.

Here and there among the younger singers stood their teachers, to reflect the hints of tempo and expression from the conductor, who stood below, upon their immediate neighborhood. There was much affectionate enthusiasm manifested towards some of these among the boys. For everything spoke out here; the scene was thoroughly French: and what a noise there was! what an infinite babblement of animated tongues, over the whole space, but especially among the boy singers as they care rushing down into their seats, and "thought aloud" of everything that passed before the call to order. They were bright-looking, handsome,

The conductor of the first part, M. BAZIN, a remarkably intelligent and wholesome looking man, gave the sign, when all rose, and the few chords of the brief introductory Domine salvum instantly revealed a wonderfully pure, sonorous, musical ensemble of tone. The pieces were all choir, Veni Creator, by Besozzi, a dignified unaccompanied. No. 1 was for the whole composition in contrapuntal church style, and was sung perfectly, as regards purity of intonation, precision of outline in the coming in of different sets of voices, light and shade, and all the qualities of good choral singing. The parts of the harmony were nicely balanced, and all the voices told. We do not think we ever heard so large a mass of vocal tone that was so pure, so fresh, so vivid; the molten mass ran bright and without dross. No. 2 was humorous, a fable of Fontaine, set very happily to music by M. Bazin, in Opéra Comique style, about the two physicians, Dr. Tant-pis and Dr. Tant-mieux (so-much-the-better and so-muchthe-worse). It was rendered with most delicate esprit.

No. 3. L'Angelus, by Papin, was a chorus of children's voices; a sweet religious strain, flowing in upon an accompaniment of boy contralti, The quality of tone imitating church bells. was lovely, especially where the tender, silver soprano of these youngest girls took up the strain by itself, and the boy voices did not shout and blart in that offensive, overwhelming manner which was once a fault in our musical school festivals in Boston. Insatiable applause, especially on the part of the grown up singers, compelled a repetition of this. Then the men took their turn and sang, in four parts, a delightful little staccato chorus from Grétry; La garde passe, representing the watch going the round of the streets at midnight, and warning everybody to go into the house and keep silence. The lightly marked, distinct pianissi

mo tramp of footsteps in the beginning was most perfect. The sense of near approach, conveyed by the crescendo, from verse to verse, equally so; and the retreat. Machinery could not do the thing so nicely as those five hundred voices. The children then returned the compliment of clapping, backed by the whole audience. No. 4 was a respectable church piece, short, in contrapuntal style, by M. Auber. No. 6, for full chorus, by Halévy, and in his most characteristic and dramatic style, full of modulations, interminglings and responses, had essentially the same poetic subject with the piece by Grétry, and was called Le Couvrefeu-very effective and completely rendered. It is a chorus from his Juif errant, an opera | which he produced while the interest in Eugene Sue's novel was yet fresh, but which had not

at all the same success as La Juive.

tinued, without change, to be the portion of sarily became palpable to all, as did, likewise, Die Zauberflöte up to the present day-despite the incomplete and fragmentary nature of the the stupid libretto which defies all criticism. entire play. It was only Mozart's wondrous This libretto is unquestionably the worst Mo-music, and, it is true, the especial interest of zart ever glorified by his divine music, and, as Freemasonry in conjunction with it, which a literary production, is far inferior, in inven- could preserve the empty will-o'-the-wisp of tion as in style, to the libretto of Così fan this comedy of fog, puppets, and animals, from Tutte. being speedily extinguished. This was felt by every reasonable man,-not excepting even the manufacturers of Viennese farces.

At first sight, the book of Die Zauberflöte appears to be the creation of an inflamed brain; of a mind which probably never moved in the normal track. A momentary fit of delirium might, perhaps, have brought forth something similarly eccentric-but never anything so absolutely flat and worthless. The entire story resembles a confused and irregular dream, without any intimation either of the time or locality in which the shadowy action takes place. The personages are represented if not without invention at least without character or national color. The separate scenes are deficient in aught like organic connection, and are held together by a merely apparent link. In addition to this, a fearful want of poetry reigns supreme in the form. The dialogue excites our indignation by its triviality, and the verses appear imitated from the mottoes of the cracker maker. The jokes running through the text are low and insipid-without a spark of true wit.

Part second was conducted by a plump, little, bustling, blonde individual, full of gesticulation, yet efficient, M. PASDELOUP, and opened with a clever composition of his own, a Prayer, for all the voices. Next came a "Spring Song," being one of those sweet and rather sentimental German-Italian part-songs for male voices, by de Call. But to our mind the freshest, happiest and most interesting morceau in the day's selection was a vintage song (Les Vendanges) from old Orlando Lasso, to which very pretty and poetic French rhymes had been adapted. There is a rare touch of fine, imaginative, graceful play in the music, which many would not expect from that "learned," "scientific" old fellow, that pioneer in contrapuntal art; and it was beautifulSo was the next piece, No. 10, one ly sung. of a very different character and perhaps the next most interesting in the programme, by a living French composer, Gounod: a chorus for male voices from M. Faust, martial, stirring, grandiose in style, startling in modulations, and laid out evidently upon a large orchestral background. The unaided voices made the most of it. A Cantique by Haydn, one of his elegant and faultless common-places, followed, and the séance closed with an enthusiastic Vive l'Empereur! vigorously composed by Gounod, and sung apparently with a will, to words which couple the occasion and the whole artis-guided by the well-known catch-words, agreed tic impulse of the land with his name:

C'est l'élu de la France;

Il fut son sauveur,

Il ouvre un temple à l'industrie,

Aux beaux-arts il rena leur splendeur,
A nos drapeaux leur vieil honneur;
A la France il rend son génie (!)

And so ended one of the most interesting and exciting musical occasions at which I ever have been present. Of course it is a greater thing to hear greater compositions. But one could not hear that singing, and feel that audience, without feeling also that it has a future in it; that the Orpheon really is a sound, live, vigorous musical movement, springing out of the life of the people and destined to identify itself with all that people's enthusiasms. It is pregnant with a great musical activity, hereafter; and whether it is to call forth composers of the true imaginative, creative stamp or not, it is at least moulding the ear and the soul of the French-nation to a fine appreciation and a deep love of the art of music. There is more of Future in that, we fancy, than in all the theoretic products of the Wagners, Liszts and Berliozes; and we are far from thinking that the Art owes nothing to those men, especially the first named. D.

Continuations of Die Zauberfloete.* Among Mozart's more important operas, apart from his youthful efforts, Die Zauberflöte is the one which, from the very outset, boasted of the most decided success. The dying master enjoyed, at least partially, the enthusiastic welcome which his last operatic score, written with his ebbing heart's-blood, met with in the first theatres of Germany. This popularity has con*From the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung. (Translated in the London Musical World.)

Down to the most recent period, there has been no want of interpreters, who have endeavored to discover a red thread in this web of absurdity, an illuminating point in this chaos of insipidity. But their explanations differed vastly from each other, most of the writers seeking deep worldly wisdom under the grotesque outer envelope, and each one striving to discover and value it after his own fashion. It was even supposed that political secrets and diplomatic artifices might be gleaned, like grains of gold, from the sterile medley. Poor Schikaneder was said not to have been the author, but merely to have given his name to the work of some one in a very high position-perhaps the Emperor Joseph II. himself. Others went so far as to scent Jesuitico-Rosicrucian mysteries beneath the veil of our common mother Isis. At last, the majority of oneirocritics,

in adopting the conclusion generally accepted at the present day, namely: that the book of Die Zauberflöte is an apotheosis of the order of Freemasonry, in the holy halls of which Mozart, as well as Schikaneder, is known to have been at home. And, indeed, it is only this fact which enables us to understand how the composer of Don Juan, of Higaro, and of Idomeneo, could throw away his magnificent strains on such a hodge-podge of Viennese jokes, lofty philosophy, and ridiculous marvels.

That, however, such an apotheosis might have been treated in a more noble manner, even for a Vienna public, is proved by the Sonnenfest der Braminen, which appeared shortly after Mo zart's death, and for which the well-known Wenzel Müller wrote the now long since forgotten music.

Be this, however, as it may, it was soon evident that the book of Die Zauberflöte was not only totally deficient in artistic finish, but that the actual end was wanting. It is true that the wonderful story at length stopped, but terminated or completed it certainly was not. What might not still happen to Sarastro; to Tamino and his lady: nay, to Papageno and his little wife? Just as these strange personages had accidentally, without any kind of demonstrable motive, met, loved, and followed each other, so, after the knot had been, well or badly, cleft through, Princes, Magicians, Priests, Queens, Bird-Catchers and Moors passed, vanished through the bronze gates of the Temple of Wisdom, or, by the common high road, ad astra.

After the first intoxicating outburst of enthusiasm had evaporated, the want of purport and form in these shadows, which passed without object, or any kind of e sonable tendency, over the boards representing the world, neces

They endeavored, therefore, to patch up, to emendate, and to elucidate the production, and thus there sprang into existence continuations and second parts of Die Zauberflöte. These, written with more or less skill, were played for a time in the theatres of Vienna, Munich, and Mannheim, and then entirely disappeared without leaving a trace. Meanwhile, Mozart, who could have breathed the breath of life into these phantasms, had gone to those lofty halls where, in truth, revenge, envy, and-poverty, are unknown.

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folk's operas (W. Müiler, Joh. Schenk, Kauer, Why not one of the numerous composers of Süssmayer, Weigl, etc.), then resident in Vienna, set these Piramiden to music must remain Mozart's crushing rivalry. A few years later an open question. They dreaded, probably, (1801), however, Süssmayer brought out upon the stage a piece in the style of Die Zauberflöte, under the title: Phasma, oder die Erscheinungen Babilon were set by the Bohemian Mederitsch in Verschwiegenheitstempel. The Piramiden von tion with Peter von Winter, Gallus taking the (under the name of Johann Gallus) in conjuncfirst act and the overture, and Winter the sec

ond act.

The pianoforte arrangement of this opera now lies before me. In consequence of the absence cerning the course of the plot-supposing there of the dialogue I can say nothing positive conto have been one-and must, therefore, confine myself to a few hints about the music. This is in the first act unquestionably superior to what it is in the second, which does not, in the remotest degree, remind us of the composer of Das unterbrochene Operfest. The first act by Gallus, on the contrary, displays a certain energy, and an excellent working out of the most overture (in C major) brings in rather intruThe extremely boisterous interesting motives.

sively the inevitable blasts on the trombone, as well as the mysterious knocking. The entire work is, however, thoroughly homophonousand does not remind us in the slightest degree of the manner of Mozart. The air of Senides: "Sendet uns, ihr guten Götter," is, on the contrary, evidently formed upon that of Sarastro. A

In

pompous and effective march of Priests, too, though not so simple and dignified as that in Die Zauberflöte, stands out advantageously. the second act (by Winter), we have Cremona's grand bravura air (A minor-A major), “Ha! da ist die Piramidì

"" It strikes the hearer at once as a copy of the bravura air in Die Zauberflöte. In like manner we find, very true to nature, the bird-catcher in the little songs: "Wenn ich Eur alle Mädchen wüsste," and "Voller Angst und voller Schrecken." Gallus, too, Eas copied him and his wife very well in the duet: Heute sind es gerade drei Wochen, Wo ich mich ohne Weib noch befand." But, notwithstanding this and everything else, these Babylonian Pyramids have long since disappeared without leaving a trace behind. Save the musical historian, scarcely anyone knows even their name.

A still less satisfactory res ilt must have been achieved by a continuation undertaken, in the year 1798, by Winter alone, under the title, Das Labyrinth, oder der Kampf mit den Elemen

ten, though Schikaneder had the pianoforte arrangement illustrated with twelve copperplate engravings. Gerber himself (Neues Lexicon, part IV. p. 598), can tell us nothing more about this score than that: "It is said to contain much that is beautiful." The spirit of Mozart did not hover, illuminating, warming, and vivifying, over these troubled waters-so they ran out and dried up before their time. And yet it was time they did!

Finally, towards the commencement of the present century, Goethe wrote his fragment: Der Zauberflöte zweiter Theil (Second part of the Magic Flute.) More than anyone else was he, the universal poet, and first among the initiated, competent and fitted to execute such a work. But the very first sketch assumed such vast dimensions that even the cleverest composer could scarcely hope to manage musically the entire work when completed. Then, again, there was the fact that the aristocratic and absolutist tendencies apparent in this fragment, as in everything Goethe did, could scarcely inspire a musician with enthusiasm for the wonderful poem. Goethe perceived in time both these evils, and thus this Second Magic Flute remained a fragment. Isolated portions have been set by Zelter, J. F. Reichardt, C. Löwe, Reissiger, and others-but, as far as I know, without especial success.

In Robert's opera Die Sylphen, to which F. H. Himmel, Reichardt's successor, wrote admirable music, we find Papageno, Papagena, and Leporello, introduced as episodical personages, so that this work, also, if not exactly a continuation, may be called an echo of Die Zauberflöte.

In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the source whence was derived the text of Die Zauberflöte, as well as of all the continuations and imitations of it, with the exception of that of Die Sylphen, which is founded on a fairy tale by Gozzi. This common source is

the Histoire de Séthos avec Anecdotes de l'ancienne Egypte, a work published at Amsterdam, MDCCXXXII, and purporting to be translated from a Greco-Egyptian original. This apocryphal and bungling production was translated into German, in 1777, under the name (falsely affixed to it, perhaps) of Matthias Klaudius. It was this version which Schikaneder evidently employed throughout, sometimes-for the apothegms-copying it word for word. But the shadowy comic forms in Die Zauberflöte are indisputably his own property. There is not the slightest trace of them in the Geschichte des Sethos. JOSEPH SEILER.

Raff's "Im Walde" in London.
(From the Daily Telegraph, April 13.)

THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.

The second concert of the present season took place in St. James's Hall on Monday night, and was made specially interesting to lovers of novelty by a performance of Raff's third symphony, entitled Im Walde. This work has never been heard in England before, although it is accounted its composer's masterpiece, and has been some years before the world. English ignorance of a symphony, howev. er, is no argument against it. Though we are grad. ually acquiring a healthy curiosity about things of the kind, we care less to enlarge the scope of our musical acquaintance than to dwell admiringly upon the excellencies of old friends. Besides, we are distrustful, not without excuse, of the school to which Raff belongs, and shrink somewhat from contact with its teaching. These considerations explain, if they do not justify the fact, why the composer and his Im Walde have so tardily made their appearance in our concert-rooms. It was, doubtless, very wrong of our indifferentism to keep them out, and hence we had a double reason to rejoice on Monday night -we enlarged our knowledge, and took Raff in. The title of the symphony at once suggests that it belongs to the order of “ programme music," and is simply illustrative. So far, the work holds a secondary rank among its kind; for even now, when the tendency is to proclaim the need of a defined poetic basis, few will venture to assert that the noblest example of programme music-Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony-is equal to the same compo

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ser's symphony in C minor. "Pure" music, selfsufficient, and in all respects self-contained, must ever come before that which needs an interpreter, and which has no meaning apart from certain moral or physical phenomena. But, while this is the case, nobody disputes the legitimacy of the descriptive in musical art. Words like Im Walde have their rightful place, and he who can produce a "Pastoral" is second only to him who creates a "C minor." There are some regulations, however, upon which, programme music is not to run riot and become a nuisance, it will be necessary to insist. In the first place, its meaning should be definite, or, failing that, it must, as music, be capable of exciting pleasure. We scarcely need stop to argue this proposition, because music that is neither intelligible nor agreeable has no champions even among the many who seem disposed to fight for any artistic folly, The rule laid down is just that which the Pastoral Symphony satisfies. From beginning to end of Beethoven's descriptive work not a passage conveys a doubtful impression. All is as clear as the waters of the brook it shows us, while, regarded as music, it can be heard with delight for its own sake. Here, then, we have a standard by which to test every work of the kind, and so tried, Raff's Im Walde is found wofully deficient. The composer divides his symphony into three parts-"Day," "Twilight,” and "Night;" throughout all of which we are, of course, assumed to be in the Forest," and subject to the influences of a scene that imagination can easily depict. An allegro, entitled Impressions and Feelings," constitutes the first part; the second is made up of a largo, "dreaming," and an allegro assai, "Dance of Dryads; " while in the third we are told to look to a final allegro for Busy stillness of Night in the Forest-Arrival and departure of the Wild Hunt, with Frau Holle and Wotan-Daybreak." Here is, verily, an ambitious programme, but we need not test its execution in detail. It will suffice if we indicate the last movement as enough to condemn the work when tested by the standard of Beethoven. Some may quarrel with Raff about his choice of subjects, and ask what gain can come to music from association with the ghastliness of his Lenore, or the devilry of the Wild Hunt in I Walde. But upon this we will not insist. If a man wishes to make music sketch a gibbet, or a spectral bloodhound, by all means let him indulge his fancy. We do, however, complain that Raff's picture is, as to its ambitious finale, no picture at all, but a great smudge of vivid color made in the dark, as it would seem, with the brush of a house-painter. Witnessing it, the eye is dazzled by glare without being conscious of form. We want to know what this means, what that is intended to convey, why our senses are harrowed in one place, and soothed in another; but we ask vainly, notwithstanding our acquaintance with the composer's general idea. Other portions of the work are more happy. There are some charming glimpses of forest life in the opening movement, and both the Largo and Scherzo have points of interest and attraction. But the Finale, like that in Lenore, ruins the work, and proclaims it, as an example of programme music, to be a failure. We will not criticize Im Walde as music per se, further than to say that, with many happy effects, and great skill in use of the orchestra, it is chiefly remarkable for a bold defiance of rules sanctioned by the highest genius, the result being often of a character which leaves Raff without excuse for his daring. We do not advocate finality in music, but innovation should at least be in the direction of improvement, and not suggest change for the sake of change. On the whole, Im Walde cannot be said to have advanced its composer's position in this country. A majority of the audience received it with coldness, and, we believe, were right in doing 80. The performance, taken for all in all, reflected credit upon Mr. Cusins and his orchestra, who deserve none the less praise because they had a thankless task.

Over the rest of the concert we must pass very briefly. The second symphony was Beethoven's No. 8, and the concluding overture Spohr's Jessonda. Malle. Krebs played Schumann's concerto with splendid effect, overcoming its many difficulties, and reading the work like a consummate artist. The vocalist was Mdlle. Levier, who sang Röschen's great air from Spohr's Fanst most effectively.

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(A Letter to a Young Lady Singer.) MY DEAR MISS - You are endowed with an admirable gift for singing, and your agreeable though not naturally powerful voice has vivacity and youthful charm, as well as a fine tone: you also possess much talent in execution; yet you nevertheless share the lot of almost all your sisters in art, who, whether in Vienna, Paris, or Italy, find only teachers who are rapidly helping to annihilate the opera throughout Europe, and are ruling out of court the simple, noble, refined, and true art of singing. This modern, unnatural style of art, which merely aspires to superficial effects, and consists only in mannerisms, and which must ruin the voice in a short time, before it reaches its highest perfection, has already laid claim to you. It is scarcely possible to rescue your talent, unless, convinced that you have been falsely guided, you stop entirely for a time, and allow your voice to rest during several months, and then, by correct artistic studies, and with a voice never forced or strong, attack by the use of much less and never audible often indeed weak, you improve your method of breathing, and acquire a correct, quiet guidance of the tones. You must also make use of the voice in the middle register, and strengthen the good headtones by skilfully lowering them; you must equalize the registers of the voice by a correct and varied use of the head-tones, and by diligent practice of solfeggio. You must restore the unnaturally extended registers to their proper limits; and you have still other points to reform. Are you not aware that this frequent tremulousness of the voice, this immoderate forcing of its compass, by which the chest-register is made to interfere with the headtones, this coquetting with the deep chest-tones, this affected, offensive, and almost inaudible nasal pianissimo, the aimless jerking out of single tones, and, in general, this whole false mode of vocal exe cution, must continually shock the natural senti. ment of a cultivated, unprejudiced hearer, as well as of the composer and singing-teacher? What must be the effect on a voice in the middle register, when its extreme limits are forced in such a reck

less manner, and when you expend as much breath for a few lines of a song as a correctly educated singer would require for a whole aria? How long will it be before your voice, already weakened, and almost always forced beyond the limits of beauty, and even into that explosive or tremulous sound, shall degenerate into a hollow, dull, guttural tone, which proclaims irremediable injury? Is your beautiful voice and your talent to disappear like a meteor, as others have done? or do you hope that the soft air of Italy will in time restore a voice once ruined? I fall into a rage when I think of the many beautiful voices which have been spoiled, and have dwindled away without leaving a trace during the last forty years; and I vent my overflowing heart in a brief notice of the many singing-teachers, whose rise and influence I have watched for twenty years past.

The so-called singing-teachers whom we usually find, even in large cities and in musical institutions, I exempt from any special criticism, for they would not be able to understand my views. They permit soprano voices to sing scales in all the five vowels at once; begin with e instead of f; allow a long holding of the notes, "in order to bring out the voice," until the poor victim rolls her eyes and grows dizzy. They talk only of the fine chesttones which must be elicited, will have nothing to do with the head-tones, will not even listen to them, recognize them, or learn to distinguish them. Their highest principle is: "Fudge! we don't want any rubbish of Teschner, Miksch, and Wieck. Sing in your own plain way: what is the use of this murmuring without taking breath? For what do you have lungs if you are not to use them? Come, try this aria: Grâce,' Grâce!' Produce an effect! Down on your knees!"

There are again others who allow screaming,"the more the better,"-in order to produce power and expression in the voice, and to make it serviceable for public performances. They may, indeed, require the singing of solfeggio, and prattle about the requisite equality of the tones; and they consequently make the pupil practise diligently and strongly on the two-lined a, b flat, b, where kind Nature does not at first place the voice, because she has reserved for herself the slow and careful

development of it. As for the unfortunate gasping medium voices, which are still less docile, and which sigh in the throat, and after all can only speak, such teachers postpone the cultivation of these to the future, or else they exclaim in a satistied way, "Now we will sing at sight! Hit the

notes! Let us have classical music!" Of these, also, I forbear to speak.

And as for the singing-teachers, whose business it is to educate the voice for "the opera of the future,” I am really unable to write about them. In the first place, I know nothing about "the future," the unborn; and, in the second place, I have more than enough to do with the present.

And now I come to those who honestly wish to teach better, and who in a measure do so. But even they are too pedantic: with prejudiced views. Without looking they pursue one-sided aims. around to the right or to the left or forwards, and without daily learning, reflecting, and striving, they run in a groove, always ride their particular hobby, cut everything after one pattern, and use up the time in secondary matters, in incredible trifles. For the formation of a fine tone, not a minute should be lost, particularly with lady singers, who are not strong, and usually cannot or ought not to sing more than twenty days in a month, and who surely ought to be allowed to use their time in a reasonable manner. Moreover, these are the teachers whom it is most difficult to comprehend. Though they use only seven tones, they are plunged in impenetrable mysteries, in incompre hensible knowledge and a multitude of so-called secrets, out of which, indeed, nothing can ever be brought to light. For this, however, they do not consider themselves to blame, not even their hobby-horses; but, as they say, "the higher powers." We will, for once, suppose that threefourths of the measures which they are tomed to employ in their treatment of the voice and of the individual are good and correct (the same is true of many piano-teachers); but the remaining fourth is sufficient to ruin the voice, or to prevent its proper development, and therefore nothing correct is to be gained. There are other teachers who never can get beyond the formation of the tone, and are lost in the pursuit of perfection, that "terrestrial valley of tears." Truly a beautiful country, but which is only to be found in Paradise!

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much more easily injured than fingers; and that broken, rigid voices are much worse than stiff, unmanageable fingers, unless, after all, they amount to the same thing. I demand of singing-teachers that they show themselves worthy of their position, and allow no more voices to go to destruction, and that they give us some satisfactory results. I be lieve in fact, in my homely simplicity, that the whole thing may be accomplished without any mys. tery, without trading in secrets or charlatanry; without the aid of modern anatomical improvement, or rather destruction, of the worn-out throat. through shortening or increasing the flexibility of the palate, through the removal of the unnecessary glands or by attempts to lengthen the vocal passage, or by remedying a great many other things in which Nature has made a mistake, and on which special doctors for the voice, in Paris and London, are now employed.

We supply the want of all these by the following little rule:

Three trifles are essential for a good piano or singing-teacher,

The finest taste,
The deepest feeling,

The most delicate ear,

and, in addition, the requisite knowledge, energy. Voild tout! I cannot devote and some practice. myself to the treatment of the throat, for which I have neither time nor fitness; and my lady singers are so busy with the formation of true tone, and in attention to the care and preservation of their voices, that they only wish to open their mouths for that object, and not for anatomical purposes. In piano-playing also, I require no cutting of the interdigital fold, no mechanical hand support, no accelerator for the fingers or stretching machine: and not even the "finger rack" invented and used, without my knowledge, by a famous pupil* mine, for the proper raising of the third and fourth

fingers.

of

My dear young lady, if the Creator has made the throat badly for singing, he alone is responsible. I cannot come to his assistance by destroying the throat with lunar caustic, and then reconstructing it. If the throat is really worn out, may it not per their aim at perfect equality and perfect beauty of haps be owing to the teacher, and to his mistaken

Others, instead of thinking, "I will try for the present to do better than others have done," so harass and torment the poor mortal voices with

tone, the result often is that every thing becomes unequal and far from beautiful. Some teachers make their pupils so anxious and troubled that, owing to their close attention to the tone, and the breath, and the pronunciation, they sing their songs in an utterly wooden manner, and so in fact they, too, are lost in optimism and in tears; whereas, for singing, a happy confidence in the ability to succeed is essential. Others pursue an opposite course, and are guilty of worse faults, as you will see if you look around. Some of them have no standard of perfection, but use up the time in an exchange of ideas with their pupils, with mysterious and conceited" ifs" and "buts." They are very positive, but only within the narrow circle of their own ideas. They make no advance in a correct medium path. Some allow pupils to practise only staccato, and others only legato, aiming thereby at nobody knows what. Some allow them to sing too loud, others too feebly; some philosophize earnestly about beauty in the voice, and others grumble about unpleasantness in the same; some are enthusiastic about extraordinary talents, others fret about the want of talent; some have a passion for making all the sopranos sing alto, others do just the reverse; some prefer a shadowy, others a clear voice. They all rest their opinions upon the authority of some famous screaming-master who has written a singingsystem. Upon like authority some cultivate chiefly the deep tones, because it is very fine, and ates an effect," for soprano voices to be able suddenly to sing like men, or rather to growl, and because it is the fashion in Paris. Others, on the contrary, pride themselves upon the head tones; but they are none of them willing to pay much attention to the medium voices; that is too critical and too deli cate a matter, and requires too much trouble, for the modern art of singing. As a last resort, they bethink themselves of kind Nature, and lay the blame upon her.

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Well, I will say no more upon this point, but will proceed. Have I not already, in my piano instructions, insisted on the importance of a gradual and careful use of every proper expedient to extend, strengthen, beautify, and preserve the voice? I am thought, however, to infringe upon the office of the singing-masters, who hold their position to be much more exalted than that of the poor piano-teacher. Still, I must be allowed to repeat that voices are

management.

Nature does many things well, and before the introduction of this modern fashion of singing produced many beautiful voices: has she all at once become incapable of doing any thing right?

We will, then, simply return to the three trifles above-mentioned; and in these we will live and work with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind."

Reference is here made to Robert Schumann, who, in order to facilitate the use of the weaker fingers, employed a machine for raising the fingers artificially, which resulted in loss of power over them, and necessitated the abandonment of piano-playing.-Tr.

Keyed-Stringed Instruments of Music.

SIR ROBERT STEWART'S LECTURES AT Dublin

UNIVERSITY.* I.

On Saturday (March 13) Sir Robert Stewart delivered the first of a course of lectures upon "Keyedstringed Instruments of Music," in the usual place the Examination Hall (a handsome room capable of containing some 600 or 700 persons). Long before the hour for commencing the proceedings the hall was filled with an auditory about equally composed of both sexes. The raised dais at the upper end was devoted to purposes of illustration; on one table were placed an Indisn harmonicon of ironwood, a dulcimer, and two zithers; upon another were arranged various photographs of instruments of the harp, lyre, and dulcimer class, both ancient and modern. A grand pianoforte occupied the centre. Along the side of the hall were suspended large diagrams-figures of life size, representing players upon the "kinnor," Assyrian dulcimer, and similar instruments.

After paying a tribute to the memory of Sterndale

Bennett, he said:

I daresay you have all heard the origin of music referred to in the wind whistling among the reeds, or the dried sinews of animals, or to men imitating the songs of birds-theories equally stale and untenable. To anyone who gives the subject a little thought it will be evident that music arises from the speech of man, which, by raising and the sustaining of the voice, at once becomes a song. The horn of * Reported in the Musical Standard.

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an animal, or even a reed, would supply a rude sort of pipe, while the first stretched string that sounded was a type of the lyre, nor could it fail to be perceived that the sound was rendered more acute by increasing the tension. Referring to the Bible account of Jubal, who was, we are told "the father (or chief) of all that handle the harp or organ," these words, Sir Robert said, like most of the musi cal terms in the authorized translation, were very loosely rendered, mere representing such instruments as were common in the time of Edward VI. and James I. The Kinnor" and "Nebel" were harps, "Ugab" some sort of pipe. The lecturer quoted the various and sometimes conflicting opin. ions of Adam Clarke, Jebb, and Dr. Stainer, amongst moderns; and of Josephus, amongst early writers, upon the snbject. The "kinnor " was generally believed to have been a small triangular harp for solos; larger instruments were used to accompany choruses. Of the lyre and the harp extremely varied and numerous forms existed. Six hundred of these had been examined by Montfaucon, who, professed he saw but little real distinction between any of them. In addition to the Jewish "kinnor," they would perceive representations of lyres ornamented with birds and other animals. These, at least, could not have been Jewish instruments, for the Israelites were strictly forbidden to make graven images, lest they might fall into idolatory; and the ibis, stork, hawk, and crane, were, as is well-known, worshipped by the surrounding nations. The "plectrum," with which many of the lyres of antiquity were touched, was either a quill, a piece of metal, or the tooth of a lion or tiger. Josephus thought the triangular harp, the "kinnor," was played with a plectrum; but if, as was generally supposed, this was the harp used by David, Josephus must be wrong, as it is distinctly recorded, that David played with his hand. The ancient Irish herpers used a natural plectrum, and played not with the fleshy tips of their fingers, but with their nails, suffered to grow for the purpose. Sir R. Stewart referred to an example of the dulcimer, upon which he would play a few notes; this, one of the oldest instruments in the world, still then in one of the by-streets of the Strand in Lonmaintained its place, and might be heard now and don. Dulcimers had, not long ago, been skilfully played by clever urchins in the streets of Dublin. That the dulcimer was a word familiar to all persons, being found in the Bible, was apparent to him, while engaging in searching for old instruments for these lectures; thus few people knew in what a spinet or seemed to have heard of the dulcimer, just as the harpsichord differed from a piano; but every one old lady, who, not understanding, what the sermon was about, had yet derived much comfort from "that blessed word, Mesopotamia." (Laughter.) (A Scotch melody was here performed upon the dulcimer by the lecturer, who apologized for his own want of skill in performance). Reference was made to the various instruments referred to in the tenth chapter of 1st Samuel, aed also to the transposed enumeration of the instruments, as played when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to worship the golden image (supposed to be Baal). The words, instead of sackbut. psaltery, and dulcimer, should really be harp, dulcimer, and bagpipe. The lecture was concluded by a reference to the zither, a little instrument much used in Germany and Austria. It was capable of peculiar and beautiful effects; two ladies had kindly lent him specimens; but although more than a dozen persons in Dublin had practised the zither, none of them could be induced to perform the simplest melody upon it. It was, to some extent, a reproduction of the lyre of antiquity, played with a thimble plectrum. Some of its peculiar effects had been imitated in a little pianoforte piece by his valued friend, Dr. Ferdinand Hiller, of Cologne, called “Zur Guitarre." The delicate arpeggios and gentle glissandos of the zither would be recognized by all who had heard the little instrument. A young lady here played Dr. Hiller's sketch, and the lecture was concluded.

II.

THE second of this course was given on Saturday (March 20), when the hall and even the lofty gallery (where is erected the ancient organ said to have been captured in the Spanish Armada), was quite at the steps of the dais. The diagrams of the formfilled. Visitors were even seated upon the ground er lecture bad not been removed, but facing them were a number of others upon large sheets of draw ing-paper representing the spinet, harp-shaped and on tressels, as it were; the clavichord, box-shaped, and showing the keys; a female figure playing the Elizabethan Virginal; a king, or other crowned

figure playing the Psaltery, which was pressed up to the breast, and various photographed representations of instruments, from the South Kensington collection. Upon the platform was placed a modern grand piano; on a table were a tiger's teeth, a dulcimer, a bagpipe, a Viola d'Amour (an instrument which the lecturer subsequently explained had been sometimes called erroneously by the appellation of Psaltery), and an ancient spinet of Queen Anne's day, made by the well-known virginal maker, Stephen Keen, and lent for exhibition by the owner, a lady in Dublin. At two o'clock Sir Robert Stewart came forward, and said :—

speaking of Venus, he says—

"A citole in her right hand had she." "Citolers" are further enumerated among the musicians of Edward III. All these instruments were, however, deficient in one respect-very few notes could be sounded on them at once. The harp was indeed capable of harmony, but from neither psaltery, dulcimer, or citole could more than two notes at a time be produced. The keyboard (which, like many other improvements, has been attributed to Guido the monk) was in existence since the 12th century. B flat it had from the outset, F sharp was added in the 14th century, C sharp and E flat Last week we took note of some of the earlier early in the 15th century, and later on in the same members of the stringed-instrument family, the an- century the G sharp appeared. The first attempt cestry, so to speak, of the pianoforte of our own at a keyed stringed instrument seems to have been times. Of these, perhaps, as many were made to made by attaching in a rude sort of way quills vibrate with the plectrum, as with the fingers; for worked by keys to catgut strings. This (A.D. 1150 as the world grew older, however the form of to 1200) was the "clavicytherium" (keyed kithara, stringed instruments might alter, there was but lit- or harp). It was probably by accident that the tle difference in the method of exciting their vibra- next discovery was made. I allude to the "clavitions; some were touched with the teeth of wild chord," which for six centuries played an important animals-some with the fingers alone. Such (said part in the history of music. Taking its rise in the the lecturer) is evidently the case with the little in- 12th century, it was only when the pianoforte bestrument represented in the drawing nearest to me came almost perfect, towards the close of the 18th, on the left, and copied from a manuscript of the 14th that the clavichord gave way to it. However, it century, in the Bibliotheque Imperiale of Paris. You continued to be used in remote German districts by will perceive it is played while laid upon the ground, village schoolmasters and others, and was well or (like the modern zither) upon the knees of the known in England, as we learn from the "Delany performer, or a table. This was far from being Correspondence," 1760 to 1770. Mr. Bernard Gran always the case, for in a grotesque alphabet of A. D. ville (for whom a fine MS. collection of Handel's 1466, one hundred years later, a rustic (of the type works was copied out by Smith, under the direction of Gurth in Ivanhoe) is represented holding an ex- of the composer) was a famous clavichord player. actly similar instrument up to his breast, and play- The " clavier," to which in the life and letters of ing upon it with both hands. M. de Coussemaker Mozart such frequent reference is made, was the (to whose researches all musical antiquaries are so clavichord. For this instrument, too, were composed deeply indebted) gives in his Essai sur les Instru- most of the expressive preludes and fugues in the ments de Musique du Moyen Age, a representation of "48" of J. Seb. Bach; there are others of this faa crowned figure, holding and performing on an in- mous collection in which the influence of the bolder strument of the same form, in the same manner. A and more vigorous harpsichord might be plainly friend had very kindly copied this for them on a traced. [Here the lecturer played a few bars of large diagram towards his (Sir Robert Stewart's) two preludes of varied styles.] It was for the clavright hand. The figure was from a MS. of the 14th ichord that the concerto which, to the astonishment century, in the Boulogne Library. This was the of his father, the infant Mozart when but six years "Psaltery" referred, to by Chaucer and other conof age, had composed, when he said, "It is a contemporary writers, but from the unsettled nature of certo, papa, and must be practised to be properly English orthography in those early times, there was played!" The lecturer here described the construcnow some difficulty in recognizing the word, so va- tion of the clavichord, as explained by that admirariously was it expressed, as salteire, sawtrey, sau- ble musician, Herr Dannreuther, with its key-tan trie, and psaltery. As an instance of the provoking-gents and other peculiarities, which Dr. Burney had ly loose manner in which musical terms always noticed in the playing of Charles Philip Emanuel were, and doubtless always would be employed, this Bach. The English historian had remarked how word Psaltery had been applied to the " Viola that performer produced from his clavichord, made d'Amour," a six-stringed instrument of the Viola by Silbermann, a "cry, as it were, of sorrow and family, played with the ordinary bow. It had been complaint." Sir R. Stewart also read extracts from so announced when Julian's famous orchestra visited the treatises of Turk and Wolff, musicians of the 18th Dublin thirty years ago, or more, when solos were century, referring to these peculiar clavichord efplayed upon it. The Viola d'Amour (of which a fects, which he (the lecturer) had himself plainly fine specimen was before them, kindly lent by a traced in the "six sonatas" of Seb. Bach for the friend for this lecture) had been introduced in the double clavichord with pedals, and also in Chopin's Huguenots" by Meyerbeer, where, in Raoul's first variations on "La ci darem" (Op. 2), as well as in recitative, its arpeggio effects (which Berlioz had those works of Beethoven referred to by Herr Danndescribed as "seraphic," "angelic," and so forth) reuther. Dr. Griepenkerl, one of the ripest musiwere singularly beautiful. Its accordatura was pe- cians of Germany, did not seem to have perceived culiar, altogether formed of the chord of D major. this clavichord "Bebung "effect, and Fétis professed But such an instrument in no way resembled the himself quite unable to account for Chopin's design Psaltery-a term which had been variously traced in so fingering the passage to which he (Sir R. Stewto the word psallo, rendered by Kircher to "strike art) referred. In Kuhnau's clavichord piece, "The with finger-tips," but by Adam Clarke (who was no- Battle of David and Goliath," the terror of the toriously hostile to the use of instruments in Divine Israelites had been attempted to be expressed by service) as merely "to sing." It has been even the " Bebung" accent. (Here, as no clavichord referred to the Latin word saltare, in allusion to the could be discovered in Ireland at the present day, religious dances of early times. A certain onoma- Mr. Healy imitated upon his violin, the peculiar topoeia might be traced in the term psaltery to the rhythmical accent referred to in the Bach Sonatas, word Psao, of which the sound had been compared and in Kuhnau's " Biblical Story.") The clavichord, to the twitch a carpenter gives when he pulls a with its brass tangents, was, in fact, "key-violin chalked line in order to mark with it. It was also, playing," the piece of brass referred to, acting in a probably, connected with the Chaldean "santeer," double capacity-as a stop on the string, and also a to which the Egyptians would add the article "pi" means of feebly setting it in vibration. Its powers (pesanteer), and the Assyrians would tack on the of expression, however, made it a favorite with J. S. termination "in "-pesanterin : the very word trans- Bach, and after him with Mozart. At first there lated in Daniel iii. as the Fsaltery. A similar onom was but one string for each note, and the semitones atopoeia might be observed in the word rendered next above; thus one sound both for C and C sharp, "flute," in the same place, "sharak "- -a shrieking, there being a tangent for each on a different part of or piercing-toned pipe. We shall not (continued the string. It was not till 1720 that a German the lecturer) now dwell further upon these matters. named Faber made clavichords with a separate string At the end of the lecture you shall hear a combina- for every note in their scale. Nothing was more tion of what we may term "Nebuchadnezzar's singular in the history of keyed instruments than orchestra," consisting of the pipe (sharak), the dul- the fact, that, with the hammers of the dulcimer on cimer (or psaltery), and the bagpipe-in lieu of the the one hand, and the feeble, but expressive claviresidue included as "all kinds of music," the gong chord with its complete keyboard on the other be-a never-failing concomitant of heathen orgies-fore them, our forefathers never stumbled on the shall be also sounded. Quite similar to the psaltery idea of a piano till a comparatively recent date; yet was the "citole," a little box, across which 10 or 15 so it was dissatisfied with the dull tones produced strings were strained. This, which was also played from catgut by quills, and the weak "tangent music" on the player's knees, and twanged with the fingers, of their clavichords; they-like a pack of hounds at is referred to in Chaucer's Knight's Tale," when fault-tried back, and once more had recourse to

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the quill plectra, now, however, applied to wires in-
stead of catgut. Thus arose the Virginal," a box-
shaped instrument laid on the table, and the spinet,
a similar one, but more like a harp on its side-
resting on slender and somewhat shaky-looking legs.
The virginal was the favorite instrument of Henry
VIII. and of both his daughters, Elizabeth and
Mary Queen of Scotland. That king, who bore such
a bad character in his latter years, was in his youth
a generous and highly accomplished prince, who paid
particular attention to languages, to manly sports,
and to music. A facsimile of some pages of King
Henry's music-book would be exhibited after the
conclusion of the lecture. It formed part of vol. xli.
of the "Archæologia," and had been communicated
to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Chappell, to
whose kindness he (Sir R. Stewart) was indebted
for these rare and interesting documents.
lecturer here read the account given by Sir J. Mel-
vil (Ambassador from Mary Queen of Scots to Eliz-
beth in 1564) of his interview with the foundress of
Dublin University, of her coquetry, and her skill on
the virginal; part of her preference for this little
keyed instrument might be traced to the fact that
Elizabeth (who with all her sound sense was not
without a woman's weakness, and dearly loved ad-
miration) had beautiful hands, snow white, and
covered with rings. Sir R. Stewart now played,
partly on the spinet, and partly on the pianoforte,
some pieces from the "Virginal-Book" of Elizabeth
-a volume of more than 400 pages, filled with mu-
sic by Tallis, Gibbons, and Byrd (whose music they
so often heard sung in the adjoining chapel). The
music consisted of Dr. Bull's variations on the six
notes of the hexachord, and Byrd's "carman's
whistle." Much amusement was caused by the sin-
gular tone of the spinet, one of Stephen Keen's in-
struments, as old as the days of Queen Anne. Pre-
vious to playing on the instrument, Sir Robert
entered into an explanation of the various meanings
of the word “Jack," reading Shakespeare's 128th
sonnet, and also other early writers, where the
"jacks," by means of which the spinet was played,
were referred to. It was not impossible (he said)
that the toy called "Jack-in-a-box'
rived from the jumping up of the spinet mechanism.
As the spinet had no sforzando-no difference in the
tone-composers for it were accustomed, whenever
they desired to direct particular attention to any
note, to precede it with a beat, or short and rapid
shake. The works of Couperin (one of the distin-
guished family of clavecinists, who were to France
like the Bachs to Germany) absolutely bristled with
these little "beats."

had been de

A young lady here played "Les Moissoneurs," a rondo of François Couperin, with much neatness. The lecture was concluded by a march played on flute, dulcimer, bag-pipe, and Chinese gong, in combination, which was redemanded. Next week Sir Robert said he would devote to the harpsichord, of which a perfect specimen would be exhibited.

Wagner Anticipated.

In Le Guide Musical appears an article to show that Méhul, influenced by Gluck, anticiI defy the pated the theories of Wagner. world to mention (says the writer) among the most noisy disciples of the Wagnerian school, any composer more imperturbably attached than Méhul to the practice of the system:—

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Have you ever heard of a one-act comic opera entitled, "Uthal?" I doubt it very much; and yet, though a person would scarcely believe it, this simple comic opera, in one act only, into the bargain, was big with all the theories which we have since seen breaking over us with such hubbub. 'Uthal !" It strikes you at once as having something of a shamepopoeia about it. You fancy you recognize in the title the heroic precursor of "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin." The action takes place in the good old times of Ossian; and Méhul, considering that it was not sufficient for his music that he should merely apply himself to the study of character, believing, like Cæsar, that nothing is done while any thing remains to be done, resolved to give the world something in the way of historical, or, still better, local coloring. To produce a monotonous music, tinged with crepuscular melancholy, a sort of grisaille, similar in its effect to the dull ocean vapors which envelop in fog the Caledonian coast, such was his set pnrpose in this work, "imitated from Ossian," as we read on the title page of the engraved score, the system being so deliberately carried out that we see him, though it is almost impossible to imagine such a thing now-a-days, push the scruples

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