FOR MUSICAL SOCIETIES, CHURCH CHOIRS, &C. IN 8 LISTS. LIST 1. ORATORIOS. * *The Choruses of these Oratorios are published in separate volumes. Joshua. This majestic composition, full of fine effects, is, to the American public, less known than most others. But its stately choruses at Gilgal, at Jericho, by the Vale of Ajalon; such duets as "Our Limpid Streams, such Composed A. D. 1747, by songs as "O had I Jubal's Lyre," and those Handel. belonging to the parts of theAngel, of Joshua, of Caleb, and of Othniel, are quite sufficient Boards $1.00, paper 80 cts. to make it one of the most interesting of Handel's great works. Athalie. Composed by Mendelssohn Boards $1.00, paper 80 cents. Elijah. See List 2.* Although published after the death of the author, it is a complete composition, and Mendelssohn, if living, might have enlarged, but probably would not have otherwise changed it. Founded on Racine's Athalie. A work filled with such a "sacred" spirit, that, in its effect on the heart and the feelings, Composed A. D. 1846, by it may be said to excel the most solemn Mendelssohn. church service. Not of great difficulty. Boards $1.25, paper $1.00. Other compositions, sometimes called "Oratorios" will be described under the head of "Cantatas." SINGLE BOOKS FOR EXAMINATION, MAILED, POST FREE, FOR RETAIL PRICE. For Easy Practice. A Musical Society that is just commencing almost invariably contains many members who are able to sing common Sacred Music, or Tunes and easy Anthems, and nothing more. It is therefore, wise to spend the first season in singing from such collections of music, as may contain pieces that may be perfectly mastered by persons of limited musical knowledge. The following works will furnish the requisito material. The Song Monarch. By Palmer and Emerson. This book, designed in the first instance for Singing Schools, contains a great mauy easy Glees and Part Songs. Price 75 cents, or $7.50 per doz. THE ENCORE. (Mentioned in List No. 4.) Emerson's Singing School. Price 75 cts., or $7.50 per doz. is an older work, containing the same kind of music as the Monarch and Encore. Hour of Singing. Price $1.00, or $9.00 per dozen. By Emerson and Tilden. High School Choir. By Emerson and Tilden. Price $1.00, or $9.00 per dozen. The above two books were prepared for High Schools, but contain very nice music in 2, 3 and 4 parts. The Salutation. Price $1.38; Per dozen $12.00. Choral Tribute. Price $1.50; Per dozen $13.50. Price $1.50; Per dozen $13.50. By L. O. Emerson. By L. O. Emerson. Harp of Judah. Price $1.50; Per dozen $13.50. Standard. Price $1.50: Per dozen $13.50. Leader. By L. O. Emerson. By L. O. Emerson. By Emerson and Palmer. By Palmer and Emerson. Price $1.38; Per dozen $12.00. By C. Everest. Price $1.50; Per dozen $13.50. LIVING WATERS, and also, for Old Folk's Concerts, FATHER KEMP'S OLD FOLKS CONCERT TUNES. Dwight's Journal of Music, WHOLE NO. 936. A Paper of Art and Literature. BOSTON, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1877. VOL. XXXVI. No. 24. Dwight's JOURNAL OF MUSIC, Saroni's Theory of Harmony. Published every other Saturday OLIVER DITSON & CO. 451 Washington St., Boston, Mass. JOHN 8. DWIGHT, EDITOR. TERMS.-If mailed or called for, $2.00 per annum; Each subsequent insertion. per line, 20 cents. J. 8. SPOONER, PRINTER. 17 PROVINCE ST. Advertisements. MISS NELLIE E. BROWN, SOPRANO VOCALIST and TEACHER OF MUSIC, can be engaged for Concerts and Musical Enter'ainments. Address Cedar St., Dover, N.H. P. O. Box 717. 936-949 New England Conservatory of Music. Six distinguished Artists added to its eminent faculty; RS. FLORA E. BARRY, Vocalist and BY HERMAN 8. SARONI. New Music for March. VOCAL. ONE cannot read far through the admirably Songs of the Swedish Ladies' Quartette. clear explanations of the Scale and of Rhythmic and Melodic arrangements, without becoming convinced that Harmony is here to be plainly explained, if it ever is to be made plain. Accordingly, as we progress into the more intricate paths of the science, we find ourselves in company with an able and obliging guide, who cannot spare us the brain-work which properly belongs to Harmonic progress, but who defends us from false moves, and who will not let us work in darkness. PRICE $1.25. COMMON PRAISE. BY REV. J. H. WATERBURY. The easily carried in the hand or pocket; but M Teacher of Vocal Music, 124 Chandler St. relationships to Common Prayer. near Columbus Avenue. [782 W. FOSTER. Conductor and Vocalist, will resume Street, rooms of Woodward & Brown, Boston. Call Saturdays from 11 to 12 o'clock. G. Lessons on and after Oct. 9, 1875, at 690 Washington G. W. DUDLEY, 898 Price, 73 Cts.. or $7.20 per doz. CHORAL PRAISE. By REV. J. H. WATERBURY. taste. Price, 25 Cts., or $2.00 per doz. Voice Building. Dancing on the Green. A NEW AND CORRECT THE ƆRY Polka Rondo. F. 3. For the Mechanical Formation of the Human Voice Anniversary March. Eb. By DR. H. R. STREETER. Tcontains a description or explanation of Streeter's Exercises in Voice Building, No. 1, 50 cts. 66 May Song. ............. Morning Wanderings. On the Water.... Peace to the Slumberers. Spring.... Sunday.. The Dream...... The Highland Lassie. The Little Ship.. The Old Man.......... The Linden Tree.. The Nun... The Rose-Bud.. The Smith.. The Water-Lily. The Wood... The Wood-Bird. ............. ........... This Love is much like the Wind... Welcome Repose...... ................ OLIVER DITSON Vierling. 10 ..... Hauptmann. 10 Schumann. 12 Hauptmann. 8 & CO., Boston. These may be studied "without a master," but more profitably with one, who is familiar with the method. Primary Elements of Music THE WORLD OF SONG. Boards $2.50; Cloth $3; DECKER BROTHERS. GRAND, Square and Upright Pianos ARE MATCHLESS. HIGHEST HONORS. U. S. Centennial Commission. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, PHILADELPHIA, 1876. The UNITED STATES CENTENNIAL COMMISSION MASON & HAMLIN REPORT. "The MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN COMPANY'S 33 Union Square, New York. exhibit of Reed Organs and Harmoniums shows LEE & WALKER, 922 CHESTNUT ST., Philadelphia. The Encore. Music teachers whose specialty is the teaching of Singing Classes, and who have not charge of choirs, have expressed a preference for books containing an Instructive Course, with abundance of Exercises, simple Songs in one, two, three or four parts, Glees, etc., and a little Sacred Music. In short, they wish and need just what is to be used in Singing School, and make no direct preparation for singing in church. For the accommodation of such teachers, DITSON & Co. have successively issued Mr. Emerson's "SINGING SCHOOL," and the "SONG MONARCH," and now provide, for the same purpose, "THE ENCORE," compiled by L. O. EMERSON. It will be a worthy successor of the above named books, and will be widely used. Price to be 75 cts. per copy. A DICTIONARY OF MUSICAL TERMS. Edited by J. STAINER, M. A., Mus. Doc. of Magdalen College Oxford, and W. A. BARRETT, Mus. Bach., St. Mary's Hall. Oxfc." instruments of the FIRST RANK in the several A. F. GOSHORN, Director General. J. L. CAMPBELL, Secretary. Chairman of Judges: H. K. OLIVER. THEY BELIEVE THE PUBLIC WILL APPRECIATE THEIR ACTION. AS TO MERIT AND EXCELLENCE FIRST AND FOREMOST, AS ITS SALES OF HUN- The Organist's Reliance. In Two Volumes. By Eugene Thayer. Each Number has 16 Pages. Each Number costs $1.25. It does not need the above array of titles to convince us, that this is a work of unusual erudition and merit. Although there are multitudes of short definitions, the prevailing character of the work is that of a collection of treatises on important musical subjects. All of them are well written, the style is clear and easily understood, and there are abundant musical and picture illustrations. The treatise on the human farynx (vocal chords &c.) covers a dozen pages, and has many cuts illustrating different portions &c. About as many pages are devoted to the hu-filled by the "Album." This is all easy music. man ear, the article also containing engravings. The human hand also, is minutely described in its relation to fingering. Ancient instruments nicely pictured, the various parts of organs well described, and a great deal of useful information about composition imparted. Indeed, although a dictionary, it is a very readable book, and one will naturally continue to turn over the leaves with continued interest, until the contained ideas are pretty thoroughly understood and assimilated. Price in Boards $4.00 Price in Cloth $5.00 It will be noticed that the present collection occupies entirely different ground from that Vol. 1. Contains Music for Church Service. A Chorus from the Mount of Olives. (4pages) A 64 A 66 A 66 66 66 66 (2 66 Batiste. (4 66 OLIVER DITSON & Co., Boston. CHICAGO, ILL., [795 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. 0. 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. 936. BOSTON, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1877. Translated for this Journal. Gluck's Overture to "Iphigenia in (Letter from RICHARD WAGNER to the Editor of the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik," Leipzig, June, 1854.) (Concluded from lage 386.) That Gluck gave no conclusion to this Overture, is evidence not only of a poetic purpose lying at the foundation of it, but also of the highest artistic wisdom of the master, which knew precisely that which only can be reprcsented through an instrumental piece. Fortunately for his purpose he had no need to require anything else from his Overture, but just what every Overture at best can only give: incitement. Had he, like later masters, wished to round off the introductory piece to a satisfactory conclusion, it would have led him away from his higher artistic end, which lay in the drama and moreover, the instrumental piece itself could only be brought to such a presump tive conclusion by the imposition of most arbitrary claims upon the imagination of the hearer. Now one who undertakes to furnish this overture with the necessary musical conclusion for a concert performance by itself, is met, so soon as he rightly comprehends its subjectmatter, by the difficulty of bringing about any satisfying close which will not, in view of the plan of the whole, as well as of the individuality of the motives, be forced and arbitrary, and prove altogether fatal to the right impression of the work. Shall one of the motives finally become so paramount, as to crowd out the others, or triumphantly subdue them? That were a very easy matter for all the Jubilee-Overture writers of our day; but I should have felt that thereby I had given my friend just no conception of Gluck's music, which was my only motive in the undertaking. And so it suddenly occurred to me, as the best escape from the dilemma, that I would not attempt a conclusion in the sense of the cus tomary overtures of to-day; but, by the final resumption of the very first (slow) motive, I would close the course of alternating motives in such a way, that we should reach at last a truce, if no full peace. Besides, what sublime Art work ever gives a full and comfortable peace? Is it not one of the noblest effects of all Art, simply to excite in the highest sense? It was a very favorable circumstance for my undertaking, that the Overture actually leads back into that earliest motive with the first scene of the opera. Surely then I should do the least possible violence to pure musical fitness, by taking up the original thought, just as the master himself did, only bringing it to a simple conclusion in the tonic. * * * Perhaps this or that conductor of concert performances may share my view of an overture, which on account of its celebrity often appears in programmes; perhaps too he❘ will follow my advice in regard to the tempo, which, conceived in my sense, and, as I think I have shown, the right one-gives of itself the right clew for the rendering of the overture. I will only add, for any such sympathizers in my views, that, in the last performance in Zurich. I felt moved by an inward necessity, and for the satisfaction of my excited feeling for the subject, to take the first eight bars of the introduction in a fine and gradual crescendo, and the eleven following bars, on the contrary, in an equally almost imperceptible decrescendo. Then in the great forte theme, after I had made the violinists execute the figures in sixteenths with as large a stroke of the bow a possible, I held to the expression marks here added for the tender passage: Some further nuances in this sense, particularly in the connecting motives, suggest themselves. The place toward the end, where I felt myself compelled to a momentary acceleration of the time, I have already referred to. The all-important matter, as to all these suggestions, is, that they be not executed in a sharp and glaring manner, but always with the greatest fineness; and so with all similar nuances. You see, my worthy friend, from this attempt at a performance of a Gluck overture in a concert hall, that I, who for the most part wish to know nothing of concerts, do know how to adapt myself to circumstances; but that I do this out of no respect for the circumstances will become clear to you, if you consider the above account of what led me to perform the Iphigenia overture. Perhaps you think it gives me satisfaction when people hold me a destroyer of our musical religion, and think they must cry me down for an audacious denier of the glories which the musical heroes of the past have created,—to feel that I punish them right sensibly, by being, to their shame, VOL. XXXVI. No, 24. the first to teach them the right understanding of their own heroes and their works. But there you mistake my motive; so far from seeking to shame or teach these happy souls, I loathe the utter fruitlessness of such an undertaking, and I feel the greatest desire to shelter myself against every such imputation by here declaring openly and loudly that, in my view, the most rational course would be, to perform nothing more of Gluck and his associates, for the reason, among others, that their creations are for the most part performed so lifelessly, that their impression, coupled with the respect we have been taught to feel for them from our youth up, can only make us utterly confused and rob us of our latest productivity. * Yours, Zurich, 17 June, 1854. * * * RICHARD WAGNER. A Haydn Memorial. (From the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.) (Concluded from Page 370.) * In dwelling upon Haydn's compositions, the biographer proceeds with as much warmth as justice. A perusal of his analysis of the first eighteen quartets will sufficiently convince the reader of this. As regards the early symphonies, the point of view from which he would have us consider them must meet with our approval. He says: "Inasmuch as it will always be a source of enjoyment to us to watch the development of genius, these symphonies, belonging to Haydn's first period, likewise afford ample material for serious reflection. Granted the objection, that their resuscitation would be of but little use as far as the general public is concerned, we cannot but regret that at least some of their number, which are worthy of a better fate, should have fallen victims to Time. For, apart from their unpretentious instrumentation, they have still in them sufficient vitality to be able to interest and delight smaller circles; only it would be necessary to approach they were, in the first place, intended only for them in the right spirit, not forgetting that recreation at social gatherings, and for a very limited number of performers, for which reason their execution by a full orchestra of modat the expense of their natural proportions. It ern pretensions would only cause them to swell was the custom of the time to which they owe their origin to perform several of them on the same occasion; they had, therefore, to be compact in form, and modest as regards the means employed. A quarter of an hour's duration, a double complement of violins, hautboys, and horns, were the normal conditions, which were Nor did rarely permitted to be exceeded. these compositions attempt to raise the expectations by striking effects, or to appear more important than they really were. It is an interesting fact that symphonies by Haydn (probably the slow movements only) have frequently been played at church in place of graduals, previous to the introduction, by his brother Michael, of vocal graduals. Thus in the musical library of the Convent of Göttweih the orchestral parts of Haydn's Symphonies show the days marked on them on which such performances had taken place, either in the convent itself (in the crypt) or in neighboring churches. By this opportunity we also learn how frequent and manifold had been the culti |