convinced his auditors that he was not one of those vocalists who look so large in the columns of an Italian or Spanish newspaper and sound so small when they reach a London or Parisian stage. The compass of the voice was evidently extensive, and, moreover, even throughout, without any breaks in the high or low places; the notes all came from the chest, the intonation was faultless, and the tender emotions of earlier scenes were expressed with genuine feeling. But when, discovering that his King has fobbed him off with an unworthy marriage, the newly made noble dashes his order upon the ground and breaks his sword across his knee, there was a spirit in Signor Giuglini's action and a force in his voice from which it was easy to be seen that the gentle lover of the first act had given slight hints rather than full demonstrations of his strength.

The beautiful aria, "Spirito Gentil," in which the solitary Fernando abstracts himself from the vices of his lost bride and indulges in mystical contemplation of her beauty, is revealed to his mind's eye, was given with the most exquisite feeling imaginable, the voice being thoroughly subdued down to all the humility of hopeless misery, but fully sonorous and distinct throughout. It was a lyrical wail, kept within the bounds of the best taste, and the falsetto notes-which the vocalist now introduced for the first time-seemed wondrously accordant with the anguish assumed. A unanimous demand for an encore immediately followed the conclusion of the aria, and consideration for the singer alone prevented the honor from being repeated. There is nothing very extraor dinary in applause at the song, but the entranced manner in which the audience hung upon the notes of this aria, as they were so softly and smoothly poured forth by Signor Giuglini, and the sudden change from rapt attention into noisy enthusiasm made up a compound effect that is only witnessed on the occasion of genuine triumphis. From this moment the vocalist seemed inspired, and when the lady of his thoughts became bodily present, and he reproached her with the incorrectness of her position at Court, he reached the perfection of musical declamation. The voice, in which power had hitherto seemed the least remarkable quality, now reverberated through the house, gaining volume from the assumed rage of the singer. When the curtain fell three enthusiastic calls brought Signor Giuglini and Mademoiselle Spezia as many times to the lamps, and then the habitues, having first summoned Mr. Lumley into their presence and honored him with a thunder of congratulations, retired into the lobby to discuss the events of the evening. The success of the new tenor was on every tongue, and the only question was, how far we must look back to find a like triumphant debut of the same class of voice.

Mademoiselle Spezia, who played the frail but lovely Leonora, is an actress of great energy, and made a considerable sensation by the details of the dying scene in the last act. Her voice, most extensive in its register, is not remarkable for flexibility, and her attention has probably been directed more to dramatic expression than to the mere effects of vocalization. The spirit with which she interpreted the character completely gained for her the sympathies of the audience, and, though Signor Giuglini was the "lion" of the evening, she had every reason to be satisfied with her reception. The important character of Baldassare was played by a third debutant, Signor Vialetti, a basso profondo, endowed with extraordinary power in the lower region of his voice. Signor Beneventano, the père noble of last year, was an august Alfonso XI.

The numbers and distribution of the orchestra are already determined on. There will be 76 first violins, 74 second violins, 50 violas, 50 violoncellos, and 50 double-basses, (in all 300 stringed instruments); 9 flutes, 9 oboes, 9 clarionets, 9 bassoons, 12 horns, 12 trumpets and cornets, 9 trombones, 3 ophicleides, 9 serpents and bass-horns, 3 drums, and 6 side-drums, (90 wind instruments)-a force hitherto unprecedented.

The organ, constructed expressly for the occasion by Messrs. Gray and Davison, will be one of great power and on an appropriately gigantic scale. The instrument being nearly in a state of completion, the swell and great organs were recently tried in the manufactory; but, as there was not space enough even in the very extensive premises of the makers to put up the pedal organ, it could not be heard on that oceasion. What was tested, however, was unanimously approved by the connoisseurs present. The organ will occupy a platform in the Crystal Palace of 40 feet wide by 24 deep. ** The weight of the new instrument will be somewhere about twenty tons, which, as it is to remain a fixture, will demand a platform of the most solid and durable nature. The orchestra, already completed, occupies a space of 168 feet in width, (just 38 feet wider than Exeter Hall), and 90 feet in depth. The seats for the performers are gradually raised, one above another, so that every instrumentalist and vocalist can have a full view of their conductor. The band will be in front, the chorus at the back. The aspect presented by this gigantic superstructure, when crowded from roof to base with singers and players, can hardly fail to be one of the most imposing description. The whole is contrived on the most approved principles for the insuring strength and resistance. The beams of timber, screwed and bolted together, (there are no nails), with their stage and struts and bearings, present the appearance of a complete forest of wood-work. The two upper rows, allotted to the instrumental department of the orchestra, will be consigned to the doublebasses, &c. Between these and the seats intended for the chorus there is a broad avenue for passage to and fro. In short, the accommodation is so judiciously arranged that every singer and player will be thoroughly at ease, and thus better able to give to the ensemble the benefit of his talents.

Musical Chit-Chat.

The preparations for the Festival go on bravelythree rehearsals 'weekly. The time grows short, hardly a fortnight, yet we hear of no rehearsal of the "Choral" Symphony. To let that fall through again, would be worse failure than all the other promised glories could offset. Shall so great a work go without a hearing merely for want of some selfsacrificing solo tenor or soprano! Is the great end of the Festival to show forth this, that and the other solo singer in the most flattering light! Pray let us have the Symphony, if the solos can be done but passably. May our good stars yet send us LaGRANGE, and all will be right. Speaking of the Festival, we are reminded of a suggestion, urged in the Traveller and the Courier, that the miscellaneous concerts should be used to some extent for the production of new works by American composers. We would we had room to copy the Traveller's article; as it is, we can only add our hearty commendation of the plan. There should be room, in those three days, without much sacrifice of classic works, for introducing at least one native work per day.

OLE BULL draws his magic bow again to-night before a Boston audience, and will no doubt be warmly welcomed. His programme is altogether popular. He will play a fantasia on Bellini's Romeo, another on American airs, his well known "Mother's Prayer," and "Carnival of Venice." The singing will be wholly English: Mr. HARRISON will do the serious (ballad), and Mr. Horncastle the comic extravaganza part.... Sig. BENDELARI, the accomplished maestro of singing, gave a brilliant soirée at Chickering's on Thursday evening, with his pupils and classes, to the number of some sixty ladies and twenty gentlemen. About twenty of the best Italian airs, cavatinas, duets, quartets and choruses were sung, the maestro himself playing all the piano accompaniments with great taste and skill. We have only room now to say that there was some of the finest chorus-singing, by the whole eighty voices, that we ever listened to, and that the beauty and culture

of voice, style and execution of difficult airs and cavatinas, displayed by quite a number of young ladies, was truly remarkable...: We were sorry to be out of town on the evening of Miss TwiCHELL'S concert. The Traveller says: "It is very seldom that a concert is given in which the critic finds so much to commend," and this seems to be the general impression.

Read our Berlin letter, lovers of opera. Think of such a bill of fare for three months, embracing every style and school of opera: Gluck, Mozart, Cherubini, Weber, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner-not one of these varieties, but all in a single season. Were our opportunities as various, our tastes would be more cosmopolitan and just; there would be less quarrelling about German and Italian, and each kind would take its place and pass for what it is worth.

The exhibition of Sculpture and Paintings at the Athenæum Gallery this season is one of unusual interest. Never before have we had so rich and choice a collection of paintings, or one (thanks to the zeal and taste of the Boston Art Club) so well arranged. The ALLSTON works alone, especially his "Beatrice" and those wonderful Italian landscapes, which have not been seen in public since the Allston exhibition twenty years ago, are worth a long journey to behold. Then there is the DowSE collection of Water Colors, the finest in the country, some of the best works of PAGE, capital specimens of the last efforts of our young Boston artists, such as HUNT, AMES, CHAMPNEY, GAY, WIGHT, WILDE, GERRY, Miss CLARKE, &c. &c. and all those venerable old inhabitants of the Athenæum, some of the largest of which are happily made to line the walls as you ascend the staircase.

Advertisements.

OLE BULL'S

GRAND

FAREWELL CONCERTS.

Notice to the Public. The Manager of these Concerts takes great pleasure in announcing to the citizens of Boston and the public generally, that (in consequence of OLE BULL having decided upon returning to Norway the ensuing summer for the benefit of his health,) he has been induced to fix the price of admission to these (his last) Concerts at 50 cents, which will give an opportunity for every person to hear the greatest Violinist living before his final departure from this country.

OLE BULL respectfully announces that he will give
ONE GRAND CONCERT
AT TREMONT TEMPLE,
On Saturday Evening, May 9th, 1857,
Assisted by the following eminent talent:
Mr. George Harrison,

The celebrated English Ballad Singer,
Mr. Horncastle, the great English Buffo Singer,
(Of the Pyne and Harrison Opera troupe) and
Mr. William Dressler,

The talented Pianist and Composer.

Grand Musical Festival,

AT THE

MUSIC HALL IN BOSTON, IN THE MONTH OF MAY, On a plan similar to those held in Birmingham, Berlin, and other European Cities.

The arrangements for this Festival have been made on the most liberal scale. The Choir having been augmented, by invitations, will number some SIX HUNDRED, and the Orchestra SEVENTY-FIVE.

The Artists engaged are of the best available talent in the country, and no labor or expense will be spared to make this

The Great Musical Feature of the Season. The Festival will continue for three consecutive days, commencing on the morning of the 21st, with an Cpening Address by Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, as an Inaugural to the Festivities.

The following Oratorios will be performed: HAYDN'S "CREATION,"

MENDELSSOHN'S "ELIJAH," and HANDEL'S "MESSIAH." Together with Miscellaneous and Orchestral Concerts on the afternoons of each day. The entertainments to be in the day time, with the exception of the "Messiah," with which the Festival will close on the evening of Saturday. Further particulars will be given in future advertisements.

L. B. BARNES, SEC'Y.

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.

These volumes contain eighty-three of the best Glees and Madrigals by standard ancient and modern English composers. Among them will be found some of the finest Glees of Attwood, Calcott, the Earl of Mornington, Spofforth, Stevens, Webbe, &c. Each Glee and Madrigal is printed separately, at prices varying from 4 to 12 cents each.

Novello's Part Song-Book.

In One Volume, handsomely bound in cloth, with illuminated lettering. Price, $2.

This work consists of new Glees and Part Songs, by the best modern composers-among others, Bishop, Benedict, Macfarren, Rimbault, Wesley, &c.,-with reprints of some of the best Madrigals by ancient composers, and Part-Songs by eminent German composers, set to English poetry. Each Glee and Part-Song printed separately, at from 4 cents to 13 cents each. Vocal parts to the whole work, 25 cents each part; Vocal parts to separate Glees, &c., 8 cents per set.

Orpheus:

A Collection of Glees and Vocal Quartettes, by the most admired German Composers, with English Poetry.

This collection is principally for male voices, Twenty-nine books, each containing about six Glees, in separate vocal parts, with separate Piano-forte accompaniment, have been published, and the issue is continued-the new books being received by J. A. Novello immediately on their publication in London.Price 88 cents each book.

The Musical Times,

AND SINGING-CLASS CIRCULAR, PUBLISHED (IN LONDON) ON THE FIRST OF EVERY MONTH. Containing Anthems, Chorals and Hymns, or Glees, Madrigals and Elegies, for One, Two, Three, Four, or more Voices. Price 3 cents each.

A Monthly Journal, containing original articles by EDWARD HOLMES, Author of the "Life of Mozart," &c.; Short notices of Singing-Classes, Concerts, &c.; Advertisements of new and important Musical Works; and, in addition, three or four pages of Music. The alternate numbers contain music with secular or sacred words. Price 3 cents each, or post-free, 4 cents. Nos. 1 48, (Vols I and II), bound in cloth, with Index, $1,75; Nos. 49 to 96, (Vols. II and IV), bound in cloth, with Index, $1,75; Nos. 96 to 144, (Vols. V and VI), bound in cloth, with Index, $1,75. Either Vols. 3, 4, 5 or 6, may be had separately, in paper covers, 75 cents each. Annual subscription to the Musical Times, 50 cents, post-paid.

J. A. NOVELLO,

Sacred Music Store, No. 389 Broadway, New York, And at 69 Dean street, Soho Square, and 24 Poultry, London.

C. L. WATKINS & Co. (Successors to REED & WATKINS,)

Wholesale & Retail Dealers in PIANO-FORTES AND MELODEONS,

From the most celebrated

Eastern Manufactories.

WAREHOUSE and SHOWROOMS, No. 51 Randolph Street,....................Chicago, Ill.

JAMES W. VOSE'S PREMIUM PIANO-FORTES.

A SILVER PRIZE MEDAL

Was awarded for these Pianos at the last Great Exhibition in Boston, in competition with the best makers in the country, for their fine musical tone and perfect action. Also,

A BRONZE MEDAL,

For the superiority and beauty of the exterior. Every instru-
ment purchased from this establishment will be warranted to
give full and perfect satisfaction.
Warerooms 335 Washington St., corner West St.,
BOSTON.

WILLIAM GOOCH,
TEACHER OF MUSIC,

AT JAMES W. VOSE'S, No. 335 WASHINGTON STREET.
S. B. BALL,
TEACHER OF MUSIC,
Rooms at Rev. A. A. Miner's Church....School Street, Boston.
SIGNOR AUGUSTO BENDELARI
Gives Instruction in Singing.
Residence No. 86 Pinckney Street.

ADOLPH KIELBLOCK,

Teacher of the Piano and Singing,

U. S. HOTEL.

Piano-Forte Instruction.

MLLE. GABRIELLE DE LAMOTTE,

RESIDENCE, 55 HANCOCK STREET.

WILLIAM A. JOHNSON,

ORGAN BUILDER, WESTFIELD, MASS.

WILLIAM SCHULTZE,

MANUFACTURERS OF

Grand, Parlor Grand,

and Square

PIANO FORTES,

WITH THEIR

PATENT SUSPENSION BRIDGE AND GRAND ACTION.

409 Washington Street, Boston, (Near Boylston Market.)

New Collection of Catholic Music.

The undersigned have recently published
THE MEMORARE,

A Collection of Catholic Music, containing Six Masses, a short
Requiem Mass, Vespers. and a variety of Miscellaneous Pieces,
suitable for Morning and Evening Service, and for Family or
Private Devotion, with Accompaniments for Organ or Piano-
Forte. By ANTHONY WERNER, Organist and Director of the
Choir of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston.
The

Memorare" is published in one large quarto volume of 272 pages, durably bound, and sold at the low price of $2,50 per copy, or $24 per dozen. Copies will be forwarded by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the price.

Oliver Ditson & Co., 115 Washington St.

J. C. D. PARKER, Instructor of the Piano-Forte, Organ & Harmony,

3 HAYWARD PLACE.

OTTO DRESEL

Gives Instruction on the PIANO, and may be addressed at Richardson's Musical Exchange. Terms, $50 per quarter of 24 lessons, two a week; $30 per quarter of 12 lessons, one a week.

and in the THEORY OF MUSIC. Address at his residence, No. 1 Winter Place, or at the Music Stores.

WHOLE NO. 267.

VOL. XI. No. 7.

THE ORATORIOS FOR THE FESTIVAL.-Naturally all the musical interest for the coming week will concentrate upon the Festival of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As many persons then will listen perhaps for the first time to Oratorios by Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, it seems fit that our Journal should contain some aids to the understanding of these noble works; and therefore we take the liberty to reprint portions of the synopses which we wrote of them some years ago; not that we flatter ourselves that they are of any great intrinsic value, but because any such description in detail of a great musical work helps to fasten the attention of the hearer upon its real beauties. This week we give "Elijah" and the "Creation; " next week we shall add the "Messiah."

I. Mendelssohn's "Elijah."

The figure of the prophet is stationed, at once, boldly in the foreground. Even the overture is prefaced by a brief recitative, in which, with firm, deep voice, he declares that "there shall not be dew nor rain these years." Had Mendelssohn composed expressly for an American audience, who never begin to settle down into the listening state until they hear the human voice, we might have suspected him of an innocent manœuvre here, to procure silence and a hearing for the overture. In this overture, there is a sort of sullen, smothered, choking energy, fretting against chains self-forged; an obdurate wilfulness seems depicted,-a desperate impulse continually trying itself over again, only to find the same fatal limitations; it is the mood of an unrepenting criminal in his cell. The music is all of very short fibre, woven into the toughest, knottiest sort of texture; full of movement, but no progress. One or two little short starts of melody, constantly repeated, are its themes; and, though these woven into a consistent and artistic whole, you hear nothing else from first to last. This is in the appropriate key of D minor, and sheds the right murky coloring over all that is to follow, helping imagination to realize the state of Israel under Ahab. Drought and famine; life denied its outward sustenance; starved impulses, which, getting no expansion, only murmur of them

are

on this monotonous web of tones.

this, it is hope tinged with sadness,-more of reflective yearning, and less of the child's unquestioning acceptance and assurance. It would compare more closely, however, with "He shall feed his flock" only that is an alto song, and this a tenor, as befits the difference of sentiment; for in that, the feminine element, or Love, is all in all; whereas in this, the masculine element of Justice tempers Love. In this song, as in the duet before, and as throughout the oratorio, Mendelssohn displays his rare poetic invention in accompaniment; in every bar at first it takes, as if unconsciously, the form of "seek and find,”—a climbing arpeggio answered by a full chord; when it reaches the words, "Oh! that I knew where I might find Him," the whole air pulses to the heart-beat of the melody, as the violins divide the measure into crystal and precise vibrations. Then breaks out the turbulent chorus in C minor, "Yet doth the Lord see it not. His wrath will pursue us," &c.; full of diminished sevenths and of discords from bold overlapping of one chord upon another. Its vehement and angry motion is suddenly arrested on a discord of this sort, (dominant 7th upon the tonic,) in the words: “till he destroys us" and after the pause, follows the grave, massive, psalm-like. solid piece of counterpoint, all in long half-notes: "FOR HE, THE LORD OUR GOD, HE IS A JEALOUS GOD," &c., thrown up like a mountain range of the primeval granite in the midst of this great musical creation; yet its solemnity is not all barren, for erelong its sides wave with the forests sprung from the accumulated soil of ages, and the solemn procession of the clouds in heaven passes in shadows over their surface; the key shifts to the major; the accompaniments acquire a freer movement; rich,

And now the suffering finds a voice. There is a chorus of the people-" Help, Lord! wilt thou quite destroy us?"-still in D minor, 4-4 time, Andante. First a loud cry, "Help, Lord!" upon the minor common chord of D, the accompaniments traversing downwards and upwards through all its inversions for two bars; then, as the air climbs one note higher, the same process is repeated on the crying chord of the Diminished Seventh, which, through the dominant Seventh upon C, would fain force its way out into the bright major key of F, and find relief; but while the bass tends boldly that way, the chord of D minor returning in the upper parts smothers the tendency, producing a discordant mixture of tonics which is peculiarly expressive on the words: "Wilt thou quite destroy us?" Out of this massive and compact beginning the tenors lead the way in a freer movement, chanting the "The harvest now is over, two plaintive phrases: the summer days are gone," and "And yet no power cometh to help us," which are duly taken up by the other voices and passed round as the themes of a very beautiful and graceful Fugue, which works itself up by degrees into the right chord for a transition to the key of E major, when the Fugue is quelled for a while into a uniform movement: "Will then the Lord be no more God in Zion?" with a fitful, tremulous accompaniment; but it soon breaks loose again, and, amid renewals of the cry, "Help, Lord!" from single voices, terminates the chorus. A remarkable choral recitative succeeds, in which the complaints of famine come up in distinct, successive fragments of melody from one mass of voices after another:-"The deep affords no water,”"The infant children ask for bread," &c.,-ex-refreshing modulations succeed each other smoothceedingly expressive, if the voices start the theme with perfect concert. Next we have a plaintive duet for sopranos, Zion spreadeth her hands for aid,""-one of those wild and tender melodies (each part a melody, however,) in which we get the genuine aroma of Mendelssohn's peculiar genius, as in his "Lieder." There are several such in "Elijah." In the pauses of the duet, which is in A minor, and forming a sort of background to it, is constantly heard the burden (an old Jewish Chant,) alternately of the entire female and of the entire male chorus, in unison, on the words "Lord, bow thine ear to our prayer." The effect is as poetic as it is original. At first it was the popular complaint of the short harvest; then, in the recitative, it was the children hungering at home; now it is youthful loveliness and beauty interceding as by special affinity with heaven; -remark this fine touch of the delicate and feminine side of the composer's genius!-had this duet been left out, it would hardly have been Mendelssohn.

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So much in description of the drought. Now comes the appeal of Obadiah to the consciences of the people, a tenor recitative: "Rend your hearts," &c., followed by the exquisitely tender and consoling tenor song (Andante in E flat:) "If with all your hearts ye truly seek me." you compare it with Handel's "Comfort ye, my people," you have the whole difference of complexion between these two deeply religious natures. In that, it is the perfect sanguine buoy

If

ly, and the vocal parts diverge in separate streams of perfect harmony, at the thought; "HIS MERCIES ON THOUSANDS FALL," &c. Fit prelude to the voice of angels! An alto voice, in recitative, bids Elijah "hence to Cherith's brook," telling of the "ravens" who will feed him. Then a remarkable double quartet (four male and four female voices) follows with the words: "For He shall give his angels charge," &c. The very simplicity, together with the animated movement of this, requiring perfect precision and blending of the eight distinct parts, makes it difficult to convey its beauty in a performance. Again the angel warns him to "Zarephath," to the "widow woman"; and the homely images of the "barrel of meal" and the "cruise of oil" do not "fail," or fall in any wise short of dignity and beauty in Mendelssohn's pure recitative, which quite transcends the usual common-place.

We have now reached the first in the series of dramatic sketches, of which the body of the oratorio is mainly composed: the miracle of raising the widow's son. The sentiment of the marvellous is first raised by the accompaniments, which, confined chiefly to the violins and treble wood instruments, keep up a light tremolo, to a melody, full of sad, sweet humility, (E minor, 6-8,) which introduces the lamentation of the woman over her son. The answer of the prophet, and his prayer, "Turn unto her," are in the major of the key, in grave, four-fold measure. The return of the tremolo, in the still more mystical key of F

sharp major-swelling and diinishing, raises expectation to the height, and makes natural the woman's question of surprise, "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?" The pray is renewed, and so too the woman's exclamation, striking a higher note in her growing earnestness. Yet a third time the prophet prays, amid crashing, measured peals of harmony, announcing that the miraculous agency is at work restoring life. The joy and devout thankfulness of the mother, prompting the question: "What shall I render to the Lord?" are followed by the brief, but beautiful duet between her and the prophet: "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart," which is in broad four-fold measure, and glides directly into the chorus: "Blessed are the men who fear him," which is distinguished by the soft, rippling flow of the accompaniments, the violoncellos keeping up one uniformly varied and continuous figure in sixteenths through the whole of it, while the vocal parts steal in one after another with the same whispered melody, which, with that multitude of voices, is like the soft rustle of the bending grass before successive breathings of the west wind, until the words: "Through darkness riseth light to the upright," where the sopranos shout forth a clarion call, climbing through the harmonic intervals of the fifth of the key as far as its tenth, and closing with a cadence upon B, which note the basses take for a starting-point, and thence repeat nearly the same figure, ending in A, where it is taken up by the altos, and again echoed ere it is half out of their mouths by the tenors, until all come unitedly upon the words: "He is gracious, compassionate, righteous.” These words are treated somewhat after the manner of, "And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor," &c., in Handel's sublime chorus, though no such stupendous effects are here attempted. The original whispered melody flows in again with mingled fragments of the second theme, and the chorus ends with echoing, retreating calls of "Blessed!" while that rippling accompaniment floats sky-ward and is lost.

Now comes the appearance of Elijah before Ahab, and the second dramatic scene, the challenge of the priests of Baal. The several proposals of Elijah (in bold recitative) are echoed in choral bursts from the people, “Then we shall see whose God is the Lord," &c. The invocation of the priests of Baal is very effective musically, however fruitless for their purpose, and the music of it is in striking contrast with the severe and spiritual tone of the rest of the Oratorio. Noisy, impetuous, full of accent and of animal life, it befits the worshippers of natural things; and it commences in the key of nature, or F major. First, it is in 4-4 time, a double chorus, with a sort of bacchanalian energy: Baal, we cry to thee;" then sets in an Allegro 3-4 movement, with arpeggio accompaniment in thirds, in single chorus, basses and altos in unison crying: "Hear us, Baal! hear, mighty God," and sopranos and tenors in unison more earnestly following: "Baal, O answer us; let thy flames fall and extirpate the foe," &c. In vain; no help for them! In long loud cadences, (the minor third so loved by Mendelssohn), with hopeless pauses between, their "Hear us!" floats away upon the empty air. The prophet taunts them: " Call him louder." Again they raise their cry, this time in F sharp minor, in hurried 4-4 time, the full force of the orchestra reiterating quick, short, angry notes, as if they were all instruments of percussion, and trying restless and discordant modulations, as the voices with agonized impatience repeat: "Now arise; wherefore slumber?" Again the prophet taunts, and again they call on Baal, still in the same wild key, but with the most furious presto movement, in 6-8, ending as before in fruitless cadences: "Hear and answer," succeeded by unbroken pauses.

It is now Elijah's turn. In a solemn Adagio air, expressive of sublimest faith and feeling of the Right, and even with a tenderness which you cannot help contrasting afterwards with his ruthless slaughter of his defeated rivals, he offers up his prayer to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel." This is followed by a short and simple quartet: "Cast thy burden upon the Lord." All

this was in the confident key of E flat. major. In his invocation: "O Thou, who makest thine angels Spirits; Thou, whose ministers are flaming fires; let them now descend!" the prophet's voice, unaccompanied, rises a minor third in uttering the first clause, followed by the full minor chord pianissimo from the instruments; in the second clause it ascends (through the minor third again) to the fifth, again more loudly answered by the instruments; and in the third clause it reaches the octave, when bursts forth the wild descriptive chorus: "The fire descends from heaven!" This change to the minor in the invocation makes a presentiment of miracle, as surely as a preternatural change of daylight, or the noon-day darkening of eclipse. The Fire-chorus, with its imitative accompaniments, we will not attempt to describe; it is fearfully grand and terminates in a massive Choral: THE LORD IS GOD," &c.; the earth quakes as it rolls away, with the prolonged tremolo of the double basses, during which Elijah dooms the prophets of Baal.

This scene closes with two remarkable songs. First, a bass solo by Elijah: "Is not his word like a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces?" Here the composer evidently had in mind a similar great solo in Handel's "Messiah." Both song and accompaniment are cast in the same iron mould, requiring a gigantic voice to execute it. Indeed, it is almost too great to be sung, as some parts are too great to be acted. Next, the exquisite alto solo: Woe unto them who forsake him!" which is again of the "Lieder ohne Worte" order, having that characteristic wild-flower beauty, so indescribable in the melodies of Mendelssohn.

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Finally, we have the coming of rain, prepared in a dialogue between the people, the prophet and the youth whom he sends forth to "look toward the sea." There is a gradual mellowing of the instruments, so that you seem almost to snuff rain in the parched air. The responses of the youth, clear, trumpet-toned, in the major chord of C, as he declares: "there is nothing," each time with the enhanced effect of the mellow, continuous high monotone from the orchestra, and finally announcing, amid the mysterious thrilling of the air with violin thirds, "a little cloud no bigger than a man's hand;" then the blackening the heavens with clouds and with wind;" and then the loud rushing of the storm, are wrought up to an admirable climax, and the chorus breaks forth, like a perfect flood of joy, refreshing and reviving all things: "Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land. The waters gather they rush along; they are lifting their voices! The stormy billows are high; their fury is mighty; but the Lord is above them and Almighty!" This Rain-chorus, (which is in E flat major), is in perfect contrast with that Firechorus. The music itself is as welcome as showers after long drought; as tears of joy and reconciliation after years of barren, obstinate self-will and coldness; as the revisiting of inspired thoughts to the dry, dull, jaded, unsuggestive brain;-and that not the less because all the music which precedes is rich and various. The voices seem to launch themselves along rejoicing, like the copious billows of a torrent, while the instruments, by a well-chosen figure, imitate the sound of dripping streams. You feel the changing temperature of the air in some of those modulations. What a gusto, what a sense of coolness in some of those flat sevenths in the bass! there are certain chords there which we would call barometrical or atmospheric, if the extravagance of fancy might be allowed to keep pace with the fullness of delight in listening to this translation into tones of one of the inexhaustible phenomena of nature.

The Second Part has for its subject-matter the reaction of the popular sentiment against Elijah, at the instigation of the queen, his sojourn in the wilderness, and his translation to heaven. This is prefaced by a song of warning to Israel: "Hear ye, Israel," for a soprano voice, in B minor, 3-8 time:-one of those quaint little wild flowers of melody again, which seem to have dropped so often from another planet at the feet of Mendelssohn. The short-breathed, syncopated

form of the accompaniment, and the continual cadence of the voice through a third give it an expression of singularly childlike innocence and seriousness. Then follows, in the major of the key, in statelier 3-4 measure, and with trumpet obligato, a cheering air, which differs from the last as a bracing October morning from a soft summer Sabbath evening: "Thus saith the Lord, I am he that comforteth," &c., leading into the very spirited chorus in G major: "Be not afraid, saith God the Lord." This has a full, broad, generous, Handelian flow, like a great river "rolling rapidly;" and as your ear detects the mingling separate currents when you heed the river's general roar more closely, so, hurrying, pursuing, mingling, go the voices of the fugue: "Though thousands languish," which gives the chorus a more thoughtful character for a moment, before they are all merged again in the grand whole of that first strain, "Be not afraid!

One cannot conceive how the scene which follows could have been wrought into music with a more dramatic effect. The prophet denounces Ahab; then the queen in the low tones of deepest excitement, in angry and emphatic sentences of recitative, demands: Hath he not prophecied against all Israel?" "Hath he not destroyed Baal's prophets?" "Hath he not closed the heavens?" &c.; and to each question comes an ominous, brief choral response: "We heard it with our ears," &c.; and finally the furious chorus: "Woe to him, he shall perish," in which the quick, short, petulant notes of the orchestra seem to crackle and boil with rage.

Yielding to Obadiah's friendly warning, the prophet journeys to the wilderness; and here we have the tenderest and deepest portions of all this music; here we approach Elijah in his solitary communings and his sufferings; here we feel a more human interest and sympathy for the mighty man of miracle; we forget the terrible denouncer of God's enemies, and love his human heart, all melting to the loveliness of justice, and mourning over Israel's insane separation of herself from God, more than over his own trials. Follow him there! good guides stand ready to your imagination's bidding: first, the grand old words of the brief and simple Hebrew narrative; then the befitting and congenial music of this modern descendant of the Hebrews, this artist son of Mendel. Listen to that grand, deep song which he has put here into the mouth of Elijah: "It is enough, O Lord; now take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers," &c. What resignation! His great soul, bowed to that unselfish sadness, gives you a nobler, more colossal image than the fallen Saturn in the "Hyperion" of Keats. The grave and measured movement of the orchestra marks well his weary, thoughtful, heavy steps. But his soul summons a new energy, the smouldering music blazes up, as he remembers: "I have been very jealous for the Lord."

ness!"

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Follow him! Fatigue brings sleep, and sleep brings angel voices. Let that sweet tenor recitative interpret his wanderings and his whereabouts, and the angelic voices interpret the heaven in his heart. Under a juniper tree in the wilderMark the quaint simplicity of the words, and how heartily the musical vein in Mendelssohn adapts itself to such child's narrative. And now hear, as the composer heard, the heavenly voices floating down. It is a scene almost as beautiful as that portrayed in Handel's music for the nativity of the Messiah. First a Trio, (female voices*), without accompaniments: "Lift thine eyes to the mountains," pure and chaste as starlight; then the lovely chorus (for all four parts): "He watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps." If the Trio was like heaven descending, this is like the peacefulness of earth encompassed with heaven; it has a gentle, soothing, pastoral character, like "There were shepherds watching their flocks by night." The universal bosom seems to heave with the serene feeling of protection, and the heart to throb most joyously, most gently, with the equal and continuous rise and fall of those softly modulated trip

* In Friday's performance this Trio will be sung, and with peculiar effect, by boys.

lets in the accompaniments. Voice after voice breathes out the melody, and what unspeakable tenderness in the new theme which the tenors introduce: "Shouldst thou, walking in grief, languish, He will quicken thee."

Again follow him! Forty days and forty nights so sings the angel (alto recitative); and again the noble recitative of the prophet," wrestling with the Lord in prayer;" "Oh, Lord, I have labored in vain; . . . . O that I now might die!” This is relieved by the profoundly beautiful alto song, in the natural key, four-fold measure: "O rest in the Lord;" and he resumes: Night falleth round me, O Lord! Be thou not far from me; my soul is thirsting for Thee, as a thirsty land" which last suggestion the instruments accompany with a reminiscence from that first chorus, descriptive of the drought: "The harvest now is over," &c.

And now he stands upon the mount, and "Behold! God, the Lord passed by!" We are too weary with fruitless attempts to convey a notion of the different portions of this oratorio by words, to undertake the same thing with this most descriptive and effective chorus. One cannot but remark the multitude of subjects which the story of Elijah offers for every variety of musical effects. The orchestra preludes the coming of the " mighty wind." Voices, accompanied in loud high unison, proclaim: "The Lord passed by!" the storm swells up amid the voices, wave on wave, with brief fury and subsides, and again the voices in whispered harmony pronounce: "yet the Lord was not in the tempest." The same order of treatment is repeated with regard to the "earthquake," and with regard to the fire." All this is in E minor; the key opens into the major, into the moist, mild, spring-like atmosphere of E major, and the voices in a very low, sweet chorus, in long notes, whisper the coming of the "still, small voice," while the liquid, stroking divisions of the accompaniment seem "smoothing the raven down of darkness till it smiles." The Seraphim are heard in double chorus, chanting: "Holy, holy," &c., marked by sublime simplicity. One more recitative from the prophet: "I go on my way in the strength of the Lord," with the air: "For the mountain shall depart,” during which the instruments tread on with stately, solid steps, in notes of uniform length, in 4-4 measure;—and we have the marvellously descriptive, awe-inspiring chorus which describes his ascent to heaven in the fiery chariot. There is no mistaking the sound of the swift revolving fiery wheels, suggested by the accompaniment.

Another beautiful tenor song: "Then shall the righteous shine," and a fit conclusion to the whole is made by two grand choruses, foreshadowing the consummation of all prophecy in the GodMan, just leaving off where Handel's "Messiah," the oratorio of oratorios, began. The first: "Behold, my servant, and mine elect," has much of the grandeur, but not the simplicity of Handel. It is separated from the last by an exquisite quartet: “Come, every one that thirsteth," which is wholly in the vein of Mendelssohn. And the whole closes with a solid, massive fugue, in the grand old style: "Lord, our Creator, how excellent thy name!"

II. Haydn and his "Creation." Haydn is remarkable for the perfection of style; for neatness and elegance in all the details, happy arrangement, and perfect ease and clearness in the exposition of his ideas. He is the Addison of music, only a great deal more. He is the most genial, popular, least strange of all composers. All those who enjoy clear writing, who love to see everything accomplished within the limits of graceful certainty, feel as safe with Haydn as the scholar with his Cicero and Virgil. We say of him, "that is music," in the sense in which we say "that's English." Whatever thought he had, (and he had many), it came out whole and clear, it suffered nothing in the statement. He understood the natures of instruments so well, that they blended as unobtrusively in his symphonies as individuals in the best-bred company. Haydn's music is easily understood. keeps the mind awake, like lively, easy conversation; but does not task the brain, does not excite any longing which it cannot satisfy. Hence it is per

It

fection itself to those who want nothing deeper; and it can never be otherwise than agreeable to those who do. Its charm is infallible as far as it goes.

What we next remark is its sunny, healthful, cheerful character. It is the happy warbling of the bird building its nest. It is not the deepest of music; but it is welcome to every one as the morning carol of the lark It has not the tragic pathos of Mozart and Bellini; nor the yearnings and uncontainable rhapsodies of Beethoven. But it is good for the deep-minded sometimes to leave brooding and re ulating, and for the sentimental to flee the close air of their sad sympathies, and rising with the lark some bright, cool morning, go forth and become all sensation, and enjoy the world like a child. Such a

morning walk is an emblem of Haydn. The world is fresh and glittering with dew, and there is no time but morning, no season but spring to the feelings which answer to his music. He delivers us from ourselves into the hands of Nature; and restores us to that fresh sense of things we had before we had thought too long. He sings always one tune, let him vary it as he will, namely, the worth and beauty of the moment, the charm of reality, the admirable fitness and harmony of things. Not what the soul aspires after, but what it finds, he celebrates; not our insatiable capacities, but our present wealth. Surprise and gratitude and lively appreciation for ever new beauties and blessings-a mild and healthful exhilaration-just the state of his own Adam and Eve in Paradise!

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Is not his great work, then, the true exponent of his genius? Was he not the very man to compose the music of the "Creation;" to carry us back to the morning of the world, and recount the wonders which surround us, with a childlike spirit? Is it not his art to brighten up the faded miracle of common things; to bathe our wearied senses, and restore the fevered nerve of sight for us, so that we may see things fresh and wonderful, and a "new-created world" may rise amid the "despairing and cursing of the falling evil spirits that confuse and blind us, (to borrow a thought from one of the first choruses)? The Creation" consists of three parts, taking for its text the Mosaic account. In the first part is described the emerging of order from chaos; the creation of light; the separation of the firmament, of sea and land; the springing up of vegetation, and the setting of the sun and moon and stars; and ends with the magnificent chorus: "The heavens are telling."

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The second part contains the creation of animated nature; the animals, and lastly Man; and ends with the more elaborate chorus: "Achieved is the glorious work."

The third part represents Adam and Eve in Paradise, admiring each other, and the beautiful world around, and praising the Creator; and ending with the still more elaborate and rapturous fugue: "The Lord is great."

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The characters in the two first parts are three angels, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel, (bass, tenor and soprano). After the symphony or overture, which represents chaos and the elements struggling to disengage themselves, one part after another rising a little way and falling back into confusion, till finally the ethereal flutes and the more soaring instruments escape into air, and the dark sounds are precipitated, and everything sounds like preparation, the discord almost resolved-an angel recites the words: " the beginning God created," &c., but "darkness was upon the face of the deep." To represent the " Spirit of God," now, "moving upon the face of the waters," a soft, spray-like chorus of voices steals in; and after the command, "Let there be light," the instruments are unmuted and all the discords are resolved into the full chord of the natural key, and "the audience is lost in the effulgence of the harmony." To represent light by loudness, some may think a poor device. But music does not seek to represent the light, but the surprise produced by its sudden appearance. What greater shock could be given to all our senses, than the sudden admission of light into total darkness? Then Uriel, (angel of light), in a descriptive song, developes the idea, shows us the flight of the spirits of darkness, and in a subterranean chorus we hear their mingling, falling voices, wildly modulated by the depth they traverse, on the words: "Despairing, cursing rage attends their fall;" and in a fresher, brighter key the first day is celebrated, and "a new created world appears ut God's command." The same order is pursued with each of the other days. First, the angel recites the words from Scripture; then in a song describes the phenomena; and then a chorus celebrates the new day.

Throughout the whole the instrumental parts are principal-the voice but gives the interpretation. Thus after the angel has recited: "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under

the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament," all the phenomena of the air, the blast, the thunder, the soft rain, the beating hail, the flaky snow, are described in so many little passages of symphony, and after each the voice supplies the interpretation. Then bursts forth the choral hymn:

Again the eternal vaults resound the praise of God, and of the second day." In like manner another song describes the separation of land and water, the rolling and heaving of ocean, the emerging of mountain tops, the rivers winding through wide plains, the purling brooks. And another, the flight or song (whichever is most characteristic) of the birds, the mounting eagle, the lark, the cooing of the doves, the song of the nightingale; another, the roar of the lion, the leap of the tiger, the contented browsing of the cattle, the sporting of the great leviathan. All this is so exquisitely executed, and presents such a variety of beautiful novelties, even without regard to the meaning intended to be conveyed, that we almost forget that it is treason against the true spirit of the art, and a playing of tricks with music.

We cannot enter into all the beautiful details of this great work; nor shall we speak particularly of the surpassing sweetness and melody of its songs; nor its joyous choruses, which are wonderful in their way, but without the grandeur, or the simplicity, or the progress of those of Handel; the chorus which closes the first part-" The heavens are telling," being decidedly greater than any which follow. But the truth is, the chorus does not bring out the genius of Haydn. The orchestra and the symphony are his sphere; and it is as an orchestral, descriptive work, and not as an oratorio in the high religious sense, that we are most interested in the "Creation."

How far music may imitate or describe outward nature, is a question which must always be left open. That sounds do suggest scenes is unquestionable. It is natural when hearing an orchestra, to think of the harmony of colors. Some sounds in nature are actually musical, like the notes of birds, and the fall of water. All sounds in nature make music, when heard at a sufficient distance to allow them to become well blended. Thus motion is one of the essential elements of music; we speak of a rushing, gliding, falling, rolling passage of music. Add to this all the associations with feelings and states of mind which the qualities of different instruments possess, and it is evident what an orchestra can do in this way. If it is not allowable to describe outward objects by music, it is often necessary to bring up outward objects in order to describe music.

A piece of music never suggests the same precise train of thought to any two hearers. It only awakens the same feelings, wins them to its mood. If then, incidentally, all these little descriptive means concur to confirm the associations which naturally arise with every feeling, it is well. But to aim first to paint a picture, or to tell a story, is to leave the true and glorious function of the art, to make it do what it was never meant to do, and excite the same kind of admiration which a mountebank would by walking on his head. Literal description of objects is not the province of music. Music has all the vagueness of the feelings of which it is the natural language; but through an appeal to the feelings may suggest more than words can tell.

Thus, when we are told that Haydn, in composing a symphony, always had some little history or picture in his mind, we must not suppose that we are to look for such a story or picture in it, when we hear it; but only that he wrote it under the influence of such emotions as the imagining the story would inspire. It is only, however, in some few details that the "Creation" is liable to the objection of too literal imitation. We can pardon some few freaks and injurious conceits, when they are so exquisitely done. But in its whole style and spirit the "Creation" is an expression of feelings, an expression of childlike wonder and joy and gratitude and love. It expresses the exhilaration of calm, creative activity. It refreshes the mind to that degree that all sounds become music to it. In inspires us with all the grateful sensations of morning and spring. And we go away from it feeling the same gratitude for it that we do for nature.

HANDEL wore an enormous white wig, and when things went well at the Oratorio, it had a certain nod or vibration, which manifested his pleasure or satisfaction. Without it, nice observers were certain that he was out of humor.-Dr. Burney.

HANDEL'S general look was somewhat heavy and sour; but when he did smile, it was his sire the sun, bursting out of a black cloud. There was a sudden flash of intelligence, wit, and good humor, beaming in his countenance, which I hardly ever saw in any other.-Ibid.