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FIRST PREMIUM PIANO-FORTES. Novello's Cheap MUSIC,

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This House was established in 1823, by JONAS CHICKERING, and up to the present time has furnished 19,000 PIANOS. For the exhibition of these Pianos in the United States and in England, they have been awarded

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Novello's Glee-Hive.

A Collection of Popular GLEES and MADRIGALS, in Vocal Score, with ad. lib. Accompaniment for Piano-forte. Complete in 3 vols. Handsomely bound in cloth, gilt lettering. Price $2 each volume.

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No. 21 SCHOOL STREET.

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constantly in Vienna, partly in the city itself,

VOL. XI. No. 5.

2. Das Teufelslustschloss, (Devil's Pleasure

Dwight's Journal of Music, partly in the country, where the finest influences Castle). These two little operas are by Kotzebue.

published EVERY SATURDAY. TERMS: By Mail, $2 per annum, in advance. When left by Carrier, $2,50 SINGLE COPIES. SIX CENTS.

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FRANZ SCHUBERT was bor of the 31st of January, 1797, in one of the suburbs of Vienna, where his father lived as a schoolmaster. At the age of seven years he received his first instruction in music from Michael Holzer, cantor in the parish church of the neighboring village; he recognized the fine gifts of the boy, and procured his admission into the Imperial school. Schubert was then, (1808), eleven years old, and received at once the title of a court singer. Then he became solo singer in the imperial chapel, and took lessons on the piano and the violin. His progress was so rapid that, at the orchestra rehearsals, where he played first violin, he used to conduct in the absence of the director.

The imperial court organist, Ruzicka, gave him good lessons in general bass, and afterwards the imperial Kapellmeister, the famous SALIERI, instructed him in composition. Finally he owed, as he himself confessed, the completion of his musical education to the finest and most admired master-works of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Yet he never gave up his own habits of severe study, and even in the last months of his life he still applied himself diligently to counterpoint under the direction of his friend, the court organist Simon S..........After he had spent five years in the imperial school, his voice changed, and as his calling for musical science grew more and more pronounced, he left this preparatory school in the year 1813, and devoted himself entirely to composition. From this time he lived in the paternal house, and afterwards alone, supporting himself by giving lessons and the sale of his works. With the exception of a few excursions to Hungary, Styria and upper Austria, he remained

inspired his fruitful genius. His life was in no way eventful, and so he could devote himself in perfect quiet to his art. Unhappily, and all too early his labors were forever interrupted; for a fever snatched him from the world on the 19th of November, 1828, at the age of two and thirty years.

His death was felt most painfully not only by his friends, but by every one in Germany who took an interest in Art. A great number of artists and lovers of Art accompanied him to the last resting place; solemn masses for the dead were performed in honor of him in Vienna and some other large cities. His career, though short, was rich in distinguished works.

Schubert was endowed with such powerful creative faculty, that he could write down the most sterling compositions with inconceivable rapidity. While still a child he wrote many Quatuors, several Symphonies and other productions; but his greatest satisfaction consisel in secting to music little pieces by the most famous poets, and in composing ballads; in this department he surpassed nearly all his predecessors. In his melodies we meet the following peculiarities in rare perfection: first of all, great originality; then deep poetic feeling, surprising truth in expression, novel rhythm, delicate apprehension of the allusions of the poet, fiery force of imagination, subdued however by a certain tendency to melancholy and by a sort of religious unction; graceful and simple turns, careless elegance of modulation, and an inexhaustible novelty of accompaniment. The character of Schubert's music is for the most part impetuous, excited; his style warm, richly colored, full of motion. It is a fiery soul, which seeks its joy in surrounding objects, but which, not satisfied by these, turns of its own accord to heaven. It moves to be sure in the finite, but always the infinite gleams through.

Schubert set more than three hundred ballads, (little poems), to music, and prepared a great multitude of waltzes, marches, airs with variations, sonatas, fantasias, rondos, overtures, trios and other two and four-hand pieces for the piano, with or without accompaniment; besides many concerted pieces, psalms, choruses, cantatas, among which his Prometheus deserves especial mention; many Quartets, an Octet and three grand Symphonies. For the Church he wrote several Masses, among which three great ones, several offertories, graduals, and two Stabats. The following is a list of his Operas and musical farces:

1. Der Spiegelritter, (Knight of the Mirror.)

* Some say he has left twelve Symphonies.

3. Claudine von Villa Bella, in three acts. By Goethe.

4. Die Freunde von Salamanca, (the Friends of Salamanca,) in two acts. By Meyerhofer. 5. Don Fernand. One act.

6. Der vierjährige Posten, musical farce in one act. By Körner.

7. Die Zwillinge, (the Twins), performed for the first time at the court theatre on the 14th of June, 1820.

8. Die Zauberharfe, (the magic harp), melodrama with choruses and songs, three acts. Vienna, 19th August, 1820.

9. Alphons und Estrella, grand heroic-romantic opera, three acts. Composed 1822.

10. Rosamunde, Drama with choruses, three acts. Performed Dec. 20, 1823.

11. Die Verschworenen, (the conspirators), comic opera in one act. By Castelli, (1824.)

12. Fierabras, grand opera in three acts, (1824.) Besides these, he left unfinished: Die Bürgschaft, the Adrastes of Meyerhofer, and the Sakontala of Naumann. Moreover he composed two numbers for Herold's La Clochette, which was produced at the court theatre. Of all his lyrical works, Schubert regarded Alphons und Estrella and Fierabras as the most successful, and the best adapted for performance. If the greater part of them never appeared upon the stage, it must be ascribed to the decided talent of the composer, which on the one side excited the envy and jealousy of artists, and on the other was not understood by the mass of the great public.

Schubert possessed a quiet, frank and upright character.

Full of inspired enthusiasm for his art, he never ceased to be a tender son, a faithful friend and a respectful pupil. He was fond of bright, merry, open-hearted company, and loved to talk with his friends, over a glass of beer, of music, poetry and Art. Then he warmed up, and he had but to read a poem over once, to improvise a music to it, and to compose wonderful melodies. Some maintain that addiction to strong drink was not entirely guiltless in the matter of his death. With child-like naiveté, he united a great partiality for solitary hours; then he would fly to the country to indulge his melancholy reveries, and return a cheerful man again. If he had money, he hastened to get rid of it, and either gave it to the poor or spent it in the jovial company of friends.

Quite conscious of his talent, and praised immoderately by some enthusiasts, he was never proud or vain, and had so little appetite for

praise, that he frequently concealed himself when a new work of his appeared. If it happened that he worked upon the same subject with other artists, he was sure to be the last who brought his work out. Some of his friends, touched by his disinterestedness and carelessness about himself, conceived the idea of publishing twelve of his works, without his coöperation, but for his advantage; Schubert, when he learned this, gave at last his consent, and from this time the fame of his creations grew at such a rate, that from February, 1812, to about the end of 1828, when he died, a hundred of his compositions were brought out by different publishers. Reserved and modest when his own works were spoken of, he judged the works of others with the greatest impartiality. He always paid the deepest reverence to the classical music of the great masters, old and new, and did full justice to Rossini's talent.

Schubert was a member of the great Music Society of the Austrian States; the musical societies of Grätz and Insbruck made him an honorary member. Such distinctions flattered him much; his answer was the composition of several important works for those societies. Among the men who very early recognized his talent and encouraged it, must first of all be named the court singer, Vogl, who by his delivery of Schubert's melodies, alike contributed to their favorable reception, and stimulated him to write mote. The applause of Salieri and his friend Anselm Hutten-Brenner, excited him still more, so that he bravely overcome the obstacles that loomed before him in the beginning of his career. His efforts were richly rewarded by the laudatory recognitions of many other eminent persons, among whom I may mention the celebrated JEAN PAUL, who always thought of Schubert with great admiration. When the poet was deprived of sight, Schubert's ballads afforded him great comfort, and when death knocked at his door at last, he wanted to hear once more his favorite ballad. Such distinguished recognition must of course have made the artist indifferent to many small attacks that were directed against him. Much has been said of the peculiar talent of Schubert, which enabled him with the greatest ease to master and compose in strange forms. He had written two pieces for Herold's Clochette, and an aria for one of Auber's operas; at the performance the German artists could not distinguish what belonged to the French musician and what had been interpolated by their countryman. His Masses, in point of religious feeling and of deep devotion, were placed by connoisseurs above the Masses of Cherubini; and, without having heard them, one can readily believe this, who has acquired only a general acquaintance with Schubert's music. For the same reason one must greatly lament that his dramatic works have been so much neglected; for Schubert, endowed with so much melody and with such searching expression, must necessarily have furnished masterpieces for the stage. Let us hope that this portion of his works too, is destined to a brilliant revival; but above all, let us not forget that he, in spite of his mild and gentle character, was yet an object of great envy with a crowd of artists. One envied his fullness of melody, another his expression, and a third his new and original harmonic combinations; all acknowledged in him only a certain cleverness. At the moment of his death was he first recognized as a great artist; then

everybody wanted to have his creations, and pub- famous as teacher of Aesthetics and as a great lishers fought for his manuscripts.

Such was Schubert. Prepared with all the sacraments of the Church, he died in Christian resignation. His life was indeed short, but it was well spent, and long will his name be named in future times. His mortal remains rest by the side of Beethoven, in whom he reverenced the highest ideal of musical Art.

For Dwight's Journal of Music.

Dr. Gustavus Schilling. MR. DWIGHT:-It is only a few weeks since your correspondent heard of the arrival of Dr. Gustavus Schilling in New York. The intention of the gentleman is to stay in this country, and to open a school of music similar to those existing on the continent of Europe, and known as Conservatories. It may be known to you or perhaps some of your readers, that he was the principal of a musical institute at Stuttgart, Wurtemberg, which was frequented by ninety or one hundred pupils annually, not only children "of the first families" of the land, but also pupils from distant cities and countries. In 1845, after his work on Musical Didactics had appeared and been translated into English, Dutch and French, he opened, in addition to his institute for musical students, an academy for teachers, at the same place, (in Stuttgart). This academy was frequented by Germans from all parts of the country, by students from France, England, Holland; and the name and fame which Mr. Schilling enjoyed as a teacher, was fully sustained by the success of this "teachers' normal institute."

It cannot be my intention to enter minutely into a biography of Dr. Schilling. But a few facts, illustrative of German life, may not be uninteresting to you. The only son of a schoolmaster, in a place in Hanover, called Schwiegershausen, it was the fond hope of the father to have him become a preacher. Thus he instructed him or had him taught in the classical languages, at the same time teaching him to play on all the instruments used in the orchestra, and on the piano. The boy profited from instruction and such practice; and when he entered the gymnasium, (high school), at Clausthal, and afterwards that at Osterode, both in the Hartz mountains, he became the centre of the dilettanti of those places, among the students and inhabitants. Although the director of the gymnasium wished to check his musical tendencies, and took occasion quite frequently to vent his wrath against the boy, thundering down from his seat: "I do intend to educate you for thorough philologists and theologians, but not for musicians," it was of no avail. The boy would give concerts and would have regular musical evenings with his friends for practice, under him as leader.

At fourteen or fifteen years of age, he had as much to do as he could find time for in giving music lessons. In his seventeeth year he graduated at the gymnasium and went to Göttingen to study Theology. Here and in Halle, where he studied for a few years, he likewise became the centre of the musical talent among the students, and soon academical concerts, quartet clubs, singing societies, sprang up under his direction. Even oratorios he ventured to bring out, in which he was aided by the city musicians. Here he was again in the full tide of success as a teacher of music, especially after Professor Wendt,

lover of music, selected Schilling from among the number of teachers in Göttingen for his daughter.

Such a life as a student and as a practical and theoretical musician, is a thing altogether unknown in any country except Germany. Just think of one of our Harvard students giving music lessons, leading concerts, and yet being a good student withal. There is no student so diligent and industrious, all over the world, as the diligent German student. And with all his musical activity, he was a good scholar, and scarcely had he finished his course of theological studies, when he was made second preacher, (then a young man of 23 years of age), to the university. The way in which he lost his position may not be uninteresting to Americans. One Whitsuntide, 1829, he took the liberty to select his own text, wherefrom to preach; for which offence he was called to defend himself before the highest ecclesiastical tribunal of the kingdom. Preferring his independence, he abdicated, and soon removed to Stuttgart, where he began a life of didactic and literary musical activity, such as seldom has been witnessed. His avowed principle and object has always been to popularize musical knowledge among the masses, to give the ordinary musician the means of adding to his musical mechanical ability and theoretic knowledge. His numerous works on musical theory and the science of teaching, (some seventy or eighty volumes in all), carry out each one of them this same idea. Every musician knows his greatest work, the only authentic and complete musical Lexicon, in seven large quarto volumes. Fétis made very extensive use of this book in a similar work. His numerous works are circulated in many large editions all over Europe, and have done and are doing a great deal for the instruction of music-loving people, who would otherwise have been unable to procure a musical education.

One peculiarity about the man is his ability and good luck everywhere to surround himself with the musical strength of the place where he lives. And a musician richly gifted, deeply read and thorough bred as he is, he, if anybody, would be able to try successfully the experiment, and see if America has yet musical interest enough to sustain a first-class music school, such as he proposes to open in Boston.

And although your correspondent has his humble doubts about the point, (if there be musical interest enough in America), yet he has a great deal of confidence in Dr. Schilling's attractive powers, and the liveliest wish for his success. And as a Bostonian, (if only by adoption), he feels considerable interest in the Doctor's beginning his work here in Boston. Will Boston, will New England maintain him? S.

English Cathedral Music. [From the Remarks read by A. W. THAYER at the Concert of the Boston Choristers' School, April 15 ] (Conclusion.)

It would be useless to speculate upon the place which England might have held in musical history, had nothing occurred to interrupt the progress making in the era of Shakspeare. But the weak, irresolute, vain and false Stuarts ascended the throne of Elizabeth, and the stern spirit which she had restrained with her strong arm, was but aroused and strengthened by the folly of her successors. The Puritans gained the ascendancy. In 1643 the total suppression of Catholic music was determined upon.

In 1644 a new form of divine worship was ordained

by the House of Lords, allowing no music but psalm singing. Organs were to be removed from the churches, as well as the altars and all "vain ornaments." The choral books were to be destroyed, and in short every step was to be taken to reduce the beautiful English church to the bare plainness of the conventicle and meeting house.

The parliamentary armies, drawn in great measure from the ignorant and bigoted lower classes, were not slow in carrying out the views of the houses. Two companies, quartered in Westminster Abbey, tore the organs to pieces, and pawned the metallic pipes at the ale-houses. At Exeter, the soldiery tramped the streets, making hideous noises with the pipes of the cathedral organs, and jeering some of the chorus boys whom they met: “Boys, we have spoiled your trade; you must go and sing hot puddings and pies." So at Chichester, they dashed the organs to pieces with pole axes, and utterly ruined the fine instruments in the cathedral at Peterborough.

Here and there an organ, secretly removed from the churches, was protected from their fury, and the books of the service saved from destruction. But sixteen years passed away before music could again raise her head, and during so long a space of time the old musicians dropped away one after another, and the traditions of the boy choirs were in great measure lost. Where, in the chapel of some stout cavalier, who adhered still to his king and his church, the Episcopal service still lingered, the musician, in the words of Milton:

"Tuned his harp to notes of wo,"

and we can easily imagine how often in secret the 7th Psalm which follows, would be chanted in sadness and tears, to cadences which should give utterance to the feelings of the heart.

With the restoration of monarchy, in 1660, came also that of the church and its choral music. To place the music of the cathedral upen its old footing at once, was not possible. A few old musicians were drawn from their places of retreat, but so many years of want of study and practice would necessarily tell upon their powers. Choirs were to be formed anew, and men with falsetto voices had to be sought out to supply the place of boys. Organs were wanting, and Smith and Harris were invited over from the continent to establish themselves as organ-builders, as the art had been lost in England. The old music had in so great a measure been destroyed, that many inferior hands were called upon to furnish new compositions. In short, for some years all sorts of mack-shifts were necessarily resorted to, to sustain the service.

It is true that Tallis and Byrd were regarded as the standards; but their severe style, based upon the old Gregorian music, was not to the mind of such a prince as Charles II., and thus the influence of the court was thrown into the scale in favor of a new style, and one borrowing more largely from the secular music of the day.

With the lapse of time, the evils which beset the restoration of music gradually were removed, and again a noble school worthy of the church arose. Several of the boys of Charles' Chapel possessed true musical genius, and there are anthems and services still in use composed by those boys, at the ages of fourteen or fifteen.

The music of the Second Cathedral School appeals perhaps more directly to our feelings and possesses more of melody. But that it causes the hearer to feel himself in the divine presence, separate and apart from the every-day concourse of secular life, as do the works of Tallis and his contemporaries, may be doubted.

Of the new school, we may specify Wise, King, Clarke, Aldrich, Croft, Blow, Rogers, Jeffries, Parcell and Boyce.

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John Travers, who died in 1758, was, like Rogers, a boy of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and subsequently of St. Paul's, London, becoming successively organist at St. Paul's, Covent Garden and of the King's Chapel. His early compositions are very ornate and brilliant, abounding in fugue and imitation. In later years he followed the school of N. Pepusch and, says Burney, "confined his studies solely to the correct, dry and fanciless style of that master." The "Te Deum" by him, now to be sung, is one of the most difficult as well as pleasing of English Cathedral compositions. Its characteristics of the modern school render it strikingly in contrast to the severe style of Tallis.

*

*

William Boyce, Dr. of Music, ranks at the head of the English Cathedral composers of the last century. He was born in 1710, and became very early one of the boys of St. Paul's Cathedral, receiving his musi cal education from Dr. Greene. At the age of 24 he was elected organist at St. Michael's Church in London, and organist and composer of the King's❘ Chapel. In his musical anuitents he had already surpassed his famous master, Dr. Greene, and soon became known throughout England, even while Handel still lived, for his compositions, operatic, for the concert-room and for the church. "Dr. Boyce," says Burney," with all due reverence for the abilities of Handel, was one of the few of our church composers who neither pillaged nor servilely imitated him. There is an original and sterling merit in his productions, founded as much on the study of our own old masters, as on the best models of other centuries, that gives to all his works a peculiar stamp and character of his own, for strength, clearness and facility, without any mixture of style or extraneous or heterogeneous ornament." He died in 1779.

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During the period when Boyce was in his prime, it was quite the mode for organists to introduce into their voluntaries light, frivolous and popular airs, played upon the trumpet, fifteenth, flute and other fancy stops. Dr. Boyce took a decided stand against the practice, rarely using himself any other than the Diapasons, and performing only music of a dignity and solemnity suited to a place of worship. Do we not need a few Dr. Boyce's in our own churches? His publications are very voluminous and of acknow ledged excellence. His anthems, of which the name is Legion, are mostly long and difficult, and require skillful singers.

Boyce was one, who not only as a musician, but as a man of noblest character, added lustre to the English school of cathedral music of the last century.

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Public Taste, gave way in his full strength to the lesser lights, Bellini, Meyerbeer, Donizetti, so Handel found his opera house deserted by those whom, for a whole generation, he had charmed, and who now turned from him, to men whose names are now forgotten. Unlike Rossini, Handel sought a new field. He had become English in his feelings, and his pride and self-respect determined him to conquer again the place in public esteem which he had so long held. He turned from his Italian operatic texts and drew his inspiration from the English scriptures. The splendid old Cathedral service gave him the hint for a style which should, in sacred Oratorio, gain him the triumphs he had so long achieved in the opera house.

For an hundred and seventy-five years the English language had been sung in the church, and during all this time its musical capacity had been gradually developing from the confined scale of the Gregorian chant, as we have seen, to the freedom of movement and the depths of feeling, which have been shown you in this concert.

Handel was familiar with all the resources of the then existing Italian and German music, secular and sacred. But he was now to trust himself to the native taste of a public with whom these would not be sufficient. The true old English Cathedral spirit was the key to the hearts of the people. He saw this, and his "Messiah," his "Samson," his "Judas Maccabeus," his "Israel in Egypt" are not only monuments more enduring than brass to his fame, but testimonies of the splendor and musical excellence of a school of music, of which many of you have this evening, probably for the first time, had opportunity to gain some clear idea. So far as my reading extends, Handel's indebtedness to the English school of Cathedral music, is now for the first time publicly asserted; but I fear no contradiction from any one, who will pore over the music Italian, German, French and English of his age. For no such student can fail to see that a new element entered into his oratorios, and that this element was English.

The Cathedral services were written for choirs of boys and men, and sung as you have heard this evening. Handel wrote for mixed choirs, and this gave him room for greater freedom of treatment. Still the spirit is there.

Beethoven's Last Sonatas-Miss Arabella Goddard.

(From the London Times, March 11.)

All who are acquainted with the biography of the author of Fidelio must be aware that among his many contributions to the repertory of the pianoforte-which, besides elevating the character of the instrument, and placing it in a position only second to that which by unanimous consent belongs to the orchestra, have extorted the

unbounded admiration of musicians-there are some few pieces so far beyond the grasp of common intelligence and common manual dexterity as to have exposed them to very general, if not entire, neglect. We allude to the solo sonatas produced by Beethoven at a period of his career, when having long abandoned playing, he gave the reins to his imagination and forgot to study the convenience of executants. Under these circumstances he wrote a series of compositions which, though considered by himself superior to whatever had preceded them (as experience has shown, with reason) were, for very many years after his death, not only avoided by the most expert and practised players, but condemned by critics of standing and authority, as rhapsodical in form and mechanically impracticable. The departure of the great musician, however, from the scene of his earthly labors was followed by a sudden and vast increase of renown. As in the instance of Mozart, it was found easier to apotheosize him after death than to minister to his necessities while living. By quick degrees the fame of Beethoven reached a pinnacle to which, perhaps, the most

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ardent dreams of his youth and manhood had scarcely ever aspired. Germany christened him Tone-poet," and enthroned him king of her harmonious children. At length it became a grave question whether anything Beethoven had written ought to remain unheard; and, one by one, those works that, except by rare and zealous partisans, had been altogether overlooked, were brought to light, and at once started in the race for popularity with their more familiar and accommodating predecessors. The Ninth Symphony, the Second Mass, and the Posthumous Quartets for stringed instruments began to engross the attention of the world, and were speedily classed so high that the earlier works of Beethoven incurred, in their turn, the chance of being underestimated by comparison. Time, nevertheless, has reduced everything to its proper level, and the last compositions of Beethoven are now rated at their just value, without prejudice to those genial inspirations that belong to the middle and (in respect of absolute invention) perhaps the most fertile epoch of his career. Unlike Mozart and Mendelssohn, Beethoven lived long enough to scatter all the riches of his genius, and thus to fulfill the mission with which he was intrusted. He died precisely when the mine was well-nigh being exhausted-as Bach, and Handel, and Haydn had done before him. The last of the Posthumous Quartets, we think, sufficiently proves that the melodic invention of Beethoven was on the wane; and (though it may possibly seem to argue a lack of reverence towards one who, in his particular manner, was the greatest and most original of all musicians) we are somewhat inclined to doubt whether his colossal reputation would have been materially augmented by the 10th symphony, with its interininable plan, or the projected music to Goethe's Faust.

The pianoforte sonatas, from Op. 101 to Op. 111, were composed in the brightest period of their author's maturity. True, they are occasionally instinct with a restlessness, a feverish caprice, a defiance of accepted standards, and a sombreness of character, which plainly manifest that Beethoven-whose immediate tone of mind was almost invariably reflected in his music-was not exactly on the best terms with the world when he produced them. But this, from a certain point of view, endows the last sonatas with an interest apart, and heightens the attraction derived from their striking individuality and beauty. At all events, they cannot fail to be ranked, by competent judges, with the most extraordinary of Beethoven's instrumental compositions; and the art is no little indebted to that necessarily small number of pianists who have devoted themselves with faith and perseverance to conquer the mechanical difficulties they present, and to rescue them from what would otherwise be their inevitable fate-of contributing to the exclusive delight and instruction of students. In England, although the opportunities of hearing the last sonatas well executed are rare, they have probably been more frequent of recent years than in countries which lay claim (justly or unjustly) to a more refined musical taste. MM. Charles Hallé and Alexandre Billet (both classical performers of the highest rank) have played more than one of them in public; and it must be owned that their laudable ambition has never gone unrewarded. But the pianist who has most often braved the ordeal of proving to attentive listeners that the late sonatas were not the offspring of a period when the master was barren, but, on the contrary, wealthiest in ideas, and that, in the midst of their striking originality, they are as clear in design and as symmetrically developed as any of his earlier pianoforte works, is Miss Arabella Goddard-the youngest, though by no means the least eminently distinguished virtuosa of the present day. Four years ago Miss Goddard won her first laurels by a masterly performance of the most elaborate and difficult of all-Op. 106, in B flat. Since then she has played that, and others of the same family, on several occasions; and last night she concluded a series of concerts at which the last sonatas of Beethoven have been the prominent features. At the first there was Op. 109, in E; at the second, Op. 111, in C minor; and at the third,

Op. 110, in A flat. Each of these sonatas is a veritable poem; and the fact of their not offering a point of resemblance to each other, or to anything of Beethoven that preceded them, only tends to establish (if proof were wanting) the fact of his almost inexhaustible invention. Those acquainted with Miss Goddard's talent, and who have heard her play the Ops. 101 and 106 (for she has performed every one of Beethoven's last sonatas in public) will easily believe that her execution of these remarkable compositions was worthy of the music (more cannot be said) and excited the utmost enthusiasm. The one introduced last night-in A flat, Op. 110-difficult as it is, taxes the feeling and sensibility, even more than the manual dexterity of the performer. Miss Goddard, however, is as thorough a mistress of expression as of execution, and her reading of this wonderful sonata was such as must have amply satisfied the most fastidious of connoisseurs. Beauties, indeed, unobserved before, may be said to have been disclosed, especially in the last movements, where the alternation of pathetic adagio with complex and intricate fugue seems to indicate a poetical intention on the part of Beethoven to suggest in fitting music the consolation which a true love and earnest pursuit of Art are calculated to afford under circumstances of the utmost despondency. The whole performance was rewarded by applause of the heartiest and most genuine description. Beethoven's design had been rendered plain and intelligible; and the poetical thought which guided him in the composition of his sonata had been thoroughly appreciated.

"SACRED" CONCERTS.-Mr. "Paul Potter," the witty and delightful New York correspondent of the Courier, relates the following among his adventures of a Sunday evening:

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The

Still bent upon research, I pushed on. sun was almost down, and the gas-lamps were beginning to shine. I came to the proud temple in which Buckley's Serenaders" nightly discourse Ethiopian music. Their posters were out, announcing a "Sacred Concert," and hoping that the serious and respectable public in that quarter of the town would rally to the support of a religious entertainment, I cast my eye curiously down to the programme, and found the music selected from those eminently cathedral compositions, "The Czar and the Carpenter," "William Tell," and "The Barber of Seville." The only extract of a religious cast was a song from Haydn's "Creation." Whether or not respectability wished to sustain this new form of worship, I am not informed; but Mr. Potter declined to disburse his quarter.

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Wandering again down Broadway, I came to a spot where two great flaring lamps and a flood of light coming from the subterranean recess, like the beams of a rising sun, illuminated a placard, which announced A Free Sacred Concert." This was quite in accordance with the state of my finances, and I descended. The apartment was long and low, but very well lighted.

The floor was filled with little tables, after the usual fashion. Upon one side was the glit tering bar, behind which, in a small cave of beer barrels, with a galaxy of glasses and decanters overhead, was seated the plump, respectable matron of the establishment. At one end a small stage was erected, with a faint attempt at scenery. The company began to drop in-old soakers of the Costigan class, beardless boys with the money from their masters' tills in their pockets, two or three decent German women, and one or two philosophers, like myself. Two staring placards met my view. The first was, "Gentlemen are requested not to applaud on Sunday evening," and the second," Gentlemen who frequent this establishment are expected to patronize the bar." The first mandate I was in no danger of disregarding, the second I obeyed by ordering a flagon of lager beer, which proved to be excellent. A pretty little innocent looking girl, and a short, stubby, sucking Boniface of a boy, ran about receiving our orders. When we were all primed, a bell tinkled and the devotions commenced.

The first piece was a waltz of Labitzky, arranged for a piano and violin, and very well played, although not heretofore recognized as a sacred composition. Next came a comic song by the funny man, in which he relates that he had been out upon a sleighing party and had been pitched into a snow bank, with his tural-lural-lural-loo. This was so droll that the law against applause was by general consent abrogated, and there was an immense thumping of beer pots upon the table. More waltzes by Strauss-more comic songs by the funny man-orders pouring in fast and furious for "two lagers," "one brandy and water," "one London gin," the stunted youth flushed with his exertions to supply the tipple, and the little girl quite wearied, the poor Hebe of the cellar-so the "Free Sacred Concert" goes on. I soon had enough of it, and walked home to my pipe and Mrs. Potter.

PERGOLESI.

By W. W. CALDWELL.* Now at last, his work he endeth, And the pious Master sendeth

Grateful thanks to Heaven's throne; Then break forth in glorious pealing, Through the temple's lofty ceiling, Holy hymn and organ tone!

Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lacrymosa,
Dum pendebat filius,
Cujus animam gementem,
Contristatam ac dolentem
Pertransivit giadius.

And the virgin mother's anguish
Makes each heart with sorrow languish,
While the organ louder swells,—
Till in music's heavenly tide,
Grief itself is satisfied,

And the tear of pity wells.
Quis est homo, qui non fleret,
Christi matrem si videret
In tanto supplicio?
Quis non posset contristari,
Piam matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum filio?

Holy fear and earnest longing
O'er the Master's soul come thronging,
Preluding that death is nigh;
Then with faith ecstatic burning,
See him to the altar turning,
To the Virgin thronéd high.

Virgo virginum præclara,
Mihi jam non sis amara,

Fac me tecum plangere,
Fac ut portem Christi mortem
Passionis ego sortem

Et plagas recolere.

Hark! seraphic voices singing,
From the heavenly regions bringing
Wondrous music down to men;
Holy spirits earthward fly,
Bear the Master's soul on high,
And the song ascends again.
Fac me cruce custodiri,
Morte Christi præmuniri,
Confoveri gratia;
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac ut animæ donetur
Paridisi gloria.

Maria Spezia.

Mlle. Maria Spezia is at present known to the English public by the rumors which her beauty and talent have created at Milan. After a triumphant season at the Imperial Theatre of La Cannobiana, her services were secured for the stage of La Scala during the visit of the Emperor

* Poems, original and translated, by William W. Caldwell: Boston and Cambridge, James Munroe & Co. 1857.

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