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Barnby secured as conductor. Now, as no mention whatever was made at the recent public meeting held in St. James's Hall of this practical test of the lower pitch, which extended over several seasons and was attended with remarkable success, we may be allowed, in order to complete this brief historical survey of the pitch question, to summarize the net re

be gathered from contemporary press notices. From these it is evident that while undoubted relief was afforded to the sing. ers, no perceptible falling-off in brilliancy or sonority was apparent. The critics were almost unanimous in following the lead set by the writer in the Times presumably the late Mr. Davison-who candidly confessed that the difference between the pitches seemed so slight as hardly to be worth taking into serious ac count.

in an admirable article in the Musical | chased in Paris, and the services of Mr. Times of February, 1869, when the question had again emerged, Mr. Henry Lunn saw in its decision "a remarkable instance of the independence of the English character, which however commendable in politics, is often most reprehensible in art." He adds, and the words have a special significance at the present juncture, "It was evident" [ie., in the interval between 1860 and 1869] "that with the ex-sults of this experiment so far as they can perience of the Society of Arts before us, whatever might be done in France, the question never could be decided by any conference held in this country." It was during the dictatorship of Costa, as we have seen, that musical pitch in England rose to the height at or about which it now stands, and a full recognition of the merits of that great conductor should not blind us to the two evil effects entailed by this supposed gain of general brilliancy and sonority, we mean the harm done to the A great number of these gentlevoices of public singers, and the wrong men took no notice of the change at all; inflicted upon composers whose works had and after the first season, press references to be mutilated in order to bring them to the altered pitch were almost exclu within the range of the human voice. sively confined to the statement that it For instance, the enormous intrinsic diffi- was stili upheld. One newspaper, which culties presented to vocalists by Beetho- had assailed the innovation at the outset, ven's "Mass in D" were so far enhanced was obliged to admit, on the occasion of by the pitch adopted by Costa, that at the the performance of the "Mass in D," that performances of that work in 1854, 1861, the adoption of the French pitch was a and 1870, by the Sacred Harmonic So- great advantage; and in another journal ciety, he was obliged to transpose, or even the diapason normal was attacked for the alter, certain numbers of the vocal score. grotesque reason that, no grand piano The resolution of the meeting of the So-tuned to that standard being available, ciety of Arts was a dead letter, and when the "queen of pianistes," Madame Araa crisis did occur nine years later, it may bella Goddard, was compelled to submit fairly be said to have been forced on by the to the indignity of performing the pianosingle action of a great vocalist. Mr. Sims forte solo in the Choral Fantasia upon a Reeves declined to sing for the Sacred semi-grand. Eventually, the need of more Harmonic Society, giving as his reason, extended accommodation for the performin a letter to the Athenæum, the abnor-ers induced the promoters of these oramally high pitch then prevailing. Detractors were not slow to insinuate that he was merely consulting the interests of his own organ, and not those of musicians as a whole. The odium musicum was aroused, and the papers of the day were filled with correspondence on the subject. But the matter did not end here, for this "strike" on the part of an invaluable artist gave an entirely practical turn to the controversy. An enterprising firm of musical publishers took up the cause, and organized a series of oratorio concerts, with Mr. Sims Reeves as their chief attraction, and the adoption of the French pitch as the chief novelty of their programme. A new organ, tuned to the diapason normal, was built for the purpose, the necessary wind instruments were pur

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torio concerts to migrate to Exeter Hall, where they were obliged to conform to the pitch of the organ, and abandon the diapason normal. The general public had ceased to take an interest in the question of pitch, and the musical world at large refused to be convinced of the expedi ency of the alteration. Thus the movement may be said to have died a natural death, but not before it had practically demonstrated the feasibility of the change where the question of expense was not allowed to stand in the way.

Very little remains to be added to the arguments in favor of or against a lowering of pitch which have been stated at previous crises in the controversy. But it may be as well to set down the pros and cons of the question as clearly as our

space will allow. Foremost among the advantages of depressing the pitch is the greater uniformity which would be secured, and of the paramount value of which all musicians are convinced in the abstract. Vocalists and instrumentalists are seriously inconvenienced by the necessity of having to adapt their voices or instruments to the different pitches which sometimes prevail in the same city, and composers are left in a state of uncertainty as to the exact demands they are making upon their interpreters, vocal or instrumental. Secondly, almost all singers would profit by the change. Of course, instances would occur where bass and contralto voices would experience an increased difficulty in producing the cavernous tones of their lowest register which nature or cultivation has endowed them with. But their loss would be more than compensated by the corresponding diminution of strain to tenors or soprani in emitting the high A or any note above it, and, let us add, of pain to the sensitive listener, whose appreciation of a song does not always vary in a direct ratio with the physical exertion expended by the singer. Thirdly, the lowering of pitch would, in many cases, extend the repertory of conductors and enable them to surmount the well-nigh insurmountable difficulties presented by the "monumental choral works of the great masters of the whole of the eighteenth and the greater part of the first half of the present century," we quote from a letter written by Mr. Manns sixteen years ago, in which the advantages of the proposed change are admirably summed up from the conductor's point of view. There are other advantages besides those mentioned which would accrue from a depression of pitch, but they are of minor importance; and we may now turn to the chief arguments that are urged against the proposed alteration. These are two in number-loss of brilliancy, and expense, the former a much disputed point, the latter an indisputable and most serious obstacle, "the crux of the whole subject," as it was described at the recent meeting. It is not our intention to enter on a discussion of the relation of brilliancy to pitch. The late Mr. Hullah was an absolute unbeliever as to the existence of such a relationship, and many distinguished musicians like him fail to recognize the added brilliancy which an enhanced pitch is supposed to bring. But on the other hand, it is only fair to record the fact that many conductors have a strong conviction of the intimate con

nection subsisting between sonority and pitch, though we know at least one of their number who would be ready to make some sacrifice in this respect in the interests of that uniformity which is so deeply to be desired. There remains, then, the question of expense. The change will not affect the construction of the stringed instruments of an orchestra at all, and can be carried out in pianofortes at slight trouble and cost. Brass instruments are capable of alteration; but the real difficulty is met with in the case of organs, flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. It was computed sixteen years ago that to supply the hundred and eighty-one military bands then existing with new wood wind instruments would cost upwards of £13,000. This sum would have to be paid by the officers, for it is hardly neces. sary to remind our readers that the cost of providing instruments for regimental bands is not defrayed by government. But the case of civilian instrumentalists is a harder one. For while singers - who would be the greatest gainers by the change -are by far the best paid members of the profession, the chief burden of the expense would fall on the poorest class of musicians, players in orchestras.

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How,' as Mr. Hullah once pointedly asked, "is an orchestral performer, generally the worst paid of all living artists, to replace a costly instrument often all but his only property?" Hence the excellent suggestion was propounded - we believe by Mr. Manns that the vocalists should subscribe to aid the instrumentalists. Their readiness to carry out such a pro. posal, which is pretty sure to be revived, would be an admirable proof of their being really in earnest in demanding a lowered pitch, besides affording a pleasing example of professional solidarity.

The previous history of the pitch question shows that so far as England is concerned, it is hopeless to expect any result from the meeting of conferences and the appointment of committees. Rather must we look for success to a resolute attitude on the part of the great virtuosi whose services are indispensable. Mr. Sims Reeves forced on a crisis sixteen years ago. Joachim might do the same now if he chose, or Herr Richter, and so bring the question to a practical issue. If Sir George Macfarren is so convinced of the expediency of adopting the French pitch, then we humbly beg to suggest that he should announce his intention of enforc ing it at the Royal Academy. Such an announcement would be of infinitely more

practical value than the reopening of a | art are of little avail when they are not discussion to which there is nothing to add. From the report of the recent meeting, the ordinary reader who had not made a special study of the question might suppose that the last crisis had occurred twenty-five, and not sixteen, years ago, so absolutely did all the speakers ignore the existence of the Sims Reeves coup d'état and the consequent fair trial of the French pitch. Such obliviousness can only be accounted for by our national passion for debate, inasmuch as a brief statement of the results of the experiment in question would have materially curtailed the proceedings. Moreover, such a gathering as that of last Saturday week, convened under the auspices of a single institution, could hardly hope to be representative. The co-operation of conductors is indispensable in the matter; and yet the names of Messrs. Hallé, Manns, Carl Rosa, Barnby, Mackenzie, Stanford, and Parry are unaccountably absent from the proceedings. Resolutions were passed, and an excellent committee appointed to carry them out. But resolutions and recommendations in regard to

backed by a government department, imperial decrees, or State subsidies. Now, amongst the musical announcements for the forthcoming season we have noticed the promise of renewal by the same firm of publishers of the oratorio concerts to which the crisis of 1869 gave such a special impulse. It would indeed be heaping coals of fire on the heads of those who have so ungratefully ignored their previous efforts if they were to renew the experiment, and give once more proof of the superiority of action over debate. We make this suggestion for what it is worth, and will supplement it with yet another. Should the result of this agitation seem to establish the fact that the change to the French pitch is too great for conductors and instrumentalists to approve of, a compromise might be effected, and some intermediate pitch agreed on, if our neighbors were to be maliciously reminded that, after all, the diapason normal is a Napoleonic institution. Once they realized this fact, we feel certain that considerations of expense would not hinder them from oblit. erating yet another trace of imperialism.

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THE NATIONAL ANTHEM IN INDIA. THE | in a metre totally different from that of the translation of the national anthem into San- original, without rhymes, and quite incomskrit, Arabic, Persian, and the spoken vernac-patible with the music of "God Save the ulars of India, has been taken up of late by Queen." The pandits of Benares remarked some native scholars in connection with the that the Sanskrit translation submitted to them Punjab University and the Anjuman i Punjab. did not conform to all the rules of Sanskrit The principal conditions of translating “God alañkâr (rhetoric); but the repetitions (punaSave the Queen" are that the translators should rukti) of which they complained belong to the reproduce, as much as possible, the ideas of original, which has never been considered a the original, that the metre should be the same, perfect specimen of English poetry. so that the translation may be sung to the En- pandits are now disputing among themselves; glish tune of "God Save the Queen," and that and one of them has tried to show that Ganthe lines should be rhymed as in English, un- gâdhara, the author of the new translation, less the genius of the language is entirely op- while finding fault with Professor Max Müller posed to rhyme. The journal of the Anjuman for using a grammatical form which occurs in i Punjab contains a series of articles showing the Mahabharata, but is not sanctioned by Pâthat the translations published by the National nini, has committed no less than twenty-seven Anthem Society in England fail to fulfil these mistakes himself. It is well known how fond conditions, and informs us that, under Dr. native scholars are of criticising each other, Leitner's auspices, new translations have been but we still hope that, under Professor Thimade by native scholars, and been presented baut's guidance, they may be persuaded to help to the viceroy. At Benares the pandits of the in the production of a really serviceable transSanskrit College, under Professor Thibaut, lation of "God Save the Queen" into Sanskrit. have been asked to examine Professor Max Such a translation should serve as a model for Müller's Sanskrit translation, and to suggest the vernacular translations in Bengáli, Hindi, improvements in one or two lines which the Marathi, and Guzerathi, and would probably translator himself had pointed out as not quite be used all over India, where Sanskrit, as the satisfactory. They preferred, however, to pub- lingua franca of the learned, still holds the lish a translation of their own, which, unfortu- same position which Latin held in the Middle nately, does not fulfil any one of the essential | Ages. conditions of a translation. It is a new poem,

Academy.

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For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

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Half-a-Self is nonsense. One

Individual Self divide ! Stands to reason can't be done. Part produced from either side, I should be a tertium quid. If I am so, call me squid! Yet I must have once begun. "Non-Ego," you; No-go that again would be. "I" you say that you are, too; Also that you are not me. You're another - put it so. I began, how long ago? "Here We Are," a Mystery!

"Ego," I.

GOWER, IN JUNE.

Punch.

WHILE Spring delays, and. Summer comes to

greet

Her sister, bringing wreaths of blooming gold

To load the hedgerows and adorn the wold, With silver hawthorn vernal yet and sweet; The cuckoo's cry the echoing vales repeat,

The sand-rose stars the shore, the ferns unfold

Their curled stems, and in cool mantles stoled

The woods repose beneath the noontide heat,
I love this land of Gower; but more to climb
Her cliffs deep-rooted in the cruel reef
Girt with the rondure of the smiling sea;
Or from some mighty headland's height sub-
lime,

The guardian Worm behold, with full belief, In sunset ocean sleeping tranquilly.

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