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phitryonism; Lucullus's hall of Apollo; Apicius, Sir W. C-t-s, &c. &c.; of speaking in season and out of season; of seizin and livery, with notices of the lives of John Doe and Richard Roe.

(7) DAY.-Distinction between an astronomical and natural day; rent-day, pay-day, and “le quart d'heur de Rabelais;" the day of judg ment; on wedding and birth-days, and the different modes of keeping them, and on Burns' " Allhallow Eve;" on daybooks and ledgers; on lack-a-day, well-a-day, and on "Daylight," a term in symposiacs. Michael Angelo's "Day" and "Night" in the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Florence; on Day and Martin's blacking, and the Dey of Algiers; Beaumarchais' Follies of a Day, or "La Folle journée ;" Mr. Day and "Sandford and Merton ;" a fair day and a "day after the fair;" meteorological remarks on the weather; on daily journals with distinctive characters, and (obiter) of the weekly press; Examiner and John Bull; Saxons did not reckon by days, and why? Daisy, or day's eye, (the Bellis perennis of Linnæus,) not to be confounded with dandelion; Burns' beautiful ode on it; on turning night into day, and on settlingdays at the Stock Exchange; on lame ducks; on saints' days, days of yore, and the "golden days of good Queen Bess." On night; poetical descriptions; Gherardo da Notte; of midnight, and (incidentally) of ghosts and witches, with true histories; Hogarth's "Night;" Mr. Knight's peas; his improver engravings; of the Knights Templars, of Knight the actor, and of Peg Nicholson's Knights; of Moore's Almanack, Poor Robin, the Zodiac of Tentyra, and of Bullock's Museum.

Such, Mr. Editor, is a brief outline of my first three volumes, embracing, as you will perceive, the first two lines of the fragment. These I propose to publish statim, as a sample of the whole, with title-pages, indexes, dedication, laudatory verses, and testimonies of authors; a treatise on the art of criticism, engraved portraits of the three children, ichnography of the icepool, and a facsimile of each of the young gentlemen's hand-writing, taken from an old slate found in a neglected corner of the Rev. Timothy Twig-their-bottom's far-famed "seminary :" likewise the original music of the song, supposed to be either by Birde, or by Locke, the composer of the music of Macbeth; engraved specimens of the title-pages of various editions, and conjectural emendations of doubtful passages.

If this first specimen meet with the desired success, the rest will be immediately forthcoming, as I have only to search the Vatican and Bodleian libraries, and the Bibliothèque du Roi at Paris, to complete the work.

Your making this prospectus known through the medium of your invaluable Miscellany will much oblige

Your obedient and very humble Servant,

JULIUS CESAR SCALIGER GRUB, M.A. & F.R.S.

ON MUSIC.

No. 4. With reference to the principles of the Beautiful in that Art. THESE guides we intend to follow faithfully and strictly in our remarks on the fourth and last point to be considered in vocal composition, viz. verbal expression. Under character we understood the general nature and feeling which pervades a poem in toto. Verbal expression regards the appropriate musical utterance of every successive sentence in a poetical text. It might aptly be termed musical diction; its functions are quite similar to those of declamation in oratory.

Correctness of verbal expression is a most important requisite in vocal composition; and yet, strange to tell, it is more or less neglected by the greater part of composers, nay, it is scarcely dreamed of by many. Hundreds are quite satisfied if they have devised an air of agreeable melody and harmony, tolerably corresponding with the metre of the text. The words are held so cheap that some vocal composers, rather than lose the momentary inspiration of a motivo, are in the habit of storing them up ready made against any poetry that subsequent chance may throw into their way. No wonder, then, that the fit often should resemble that of a Monmouth-street suit. In this manner the musical annals of England point out a whole, and indeed a favourite opera, composed about twenty years ago, the greater part of the music of which was ready made before the words were thought of.

Some of these latitudinarian vocalists may ask, perchance,-What does it matter whether

"Darest thou thus upbraid a lover?"

be set one way or another, so that the musical phrase run smooth and tasteful? and we may be called upon to prove altogether that there exist any laws for verbal expression, and that those laws rest upon solid and not imaginary grounds.

We accept the challenge! There does exist a law, one law only; it is in few words:

"Sing as thou speakest!"

All the varied and manifold inflexions of the voice employed by a good speaker, its alternate ascent and descent, its emphases, its louder intonations, and softer under-tones, not only lie within the reach of Music, but derive additional and higher charms from that art.

A text, which is to be set to music, ought, therefore, first of all to be rehearsed with appropriate and correct enunciation and declamation; the composer ought to watch scrupulously the alternate rising and falling of the voice, and especially to mark those words which require peculiar stress of elocution. All these peculiarities his melody ought to imitate as much as possible. But in what manner is this imitation to be effected?

Upon ascent and descent we need not waste words. They are produced in Music precisely as in common parlance, subject, however, to the general laws of melody and musical metre. The near affinity be

tween declamation and Music is illustrated by the well-known story of the Roman orator, who placed a slave with a flute behind the rostrum, in order to be guided by musical aid in the modulation of his voice.

* Nature and an attentive observation of mankind.

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But how are we to impart, musically, peculiar stress and emphasis to a word? This may be effected in three different ways. 1st. By assigning to the emphatic words comparatively higher notes. 2dly. By throwing the emphatic syllable into the accented part of the bar (although this expedient applies as much and more to the metre of the text). And 3dly. By increased loudness (forte).

All these expedients are, as they should be, merely direct imitations of nature. By way of illustrating the first, and most essential and legitimate of these three resources, let us recur to the above line, "Darest thou thus upbraid a lover ?" It is susceptible of various modes of declamation, all equally proper, according to the sense which the speaker may intend to convey. Of this more presently. But suppose, for example, we wished to read it

Darest thou thus upbraid a lover?

Here we readily perceive, that "thus" is intonated comparatively high. The line, in this sense, might therefore appropriately be melodized as follows

&

*

Darest thou thus upbraid a lover?

But if it were wished to throw the emphasis upon the first word, viz.

Darest thou thus, &c.?

the following musical phrase would suggest itself

i

Darest thou thus up - braid a lover?

Were the declamation this

Darest thou thus upbraid a lover?

6
877

Darest thou thus up - braid a lover?

Without multiplying examples, it is obvious that this single line is susceptible of as many distinct shades of signification as it has words. Upon each of the five words stress may be laid in the declamation, according to the implied meaning; and just so may each of the five words receive a high and emphatic note in five different melodies.

A similar train of reflection will suggest the propriety of setting the Music to sentences of interrogation in ascent; because in asking questions we generally modulate the voice from grave to acute. The Italian, indeed, has no other mode of rendering a phrase interrogatory.

"He has finished the work," and "Has he finished the work?" is expressed by the same words," Ha finito l'opera," with this difference, that in the question the voice ascends strongly.

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Since in a question the phrase terminates, as it were, in an unfinished, suspensive manner, it is, moreover, desirable, generally speaking, that the melody, independently of its ascending, should not conclude the question with a tonic cadence, which breathes too much repose.

The great use of piano and forte, crescendo, diminuendo, &c. in assisting verbal expression must be self-evident; the employment of these resources being, like those above-mentioned, absolutely borrowed from the ordinary rules of declamation, although, without any reference to those rules, certain alternations of loud and subdued sounds tend of themselves to produce variety, and, like the due dispensation of light and shade in a painting, to throw, as it were, a chiaroscuro over the harmonic picture, so pleasing at all times, that in instrumental pieces, the composer not unfrequently puts down his f's and p's quite arbitrarily, merely to effect variety. You might often exchange the p's for the f's, and vice versa, without much detriment. Not so in vocal compositions. Here the forte is appropriately employed for spirited determined sentences and words of vigour; the piano or the sottovoce for soft and mild expressions, the crescendo for cases of rhetorical climax, the calando, deminuendo, morendo, &c. for decreasing strength, expiring accents of love, grief, &c. All this is so natural, that we deem it quite unnecessary to add quotations from classic works to illustrate what must be obvious to every one. If the reader will open, at random, any opera of Mozart, he is sure to meet with ample instances of the judicious use of the piano and forte. In Cimarosa and Rossini, he will likewise find abundant elucidation.

Even of subdued murmurs and mutterings, numerous examples may be found. An apt instance occurs in Cimarosa's duet (Matrimonio Segreto) between the old man and the lover, when the latter offers a great sum to be permitted to marry the younger instead of the elder sister. The father pauses, reflects, and then mutters to himself, 66 Qui risparmio del bell' oro, e si salva anche il decoro*."-All piano upon one single note. A similar instance presents itself in the beautiful

* Here I save my gold and credit.

terzett, "Ah soccorso, son' ferito" (Don Giovanni) where Leporello in an under-tone, mutters out his comment and horror at the murder of the old Commendatore, just perpetrated by the nefarious libertine, his

master.

Some of our readers will be surprised, when we state that the employment of the piano and forte, and of the different gradations of loudness within or beyond these, is, comparatively speaking, of modern invention. In the compositions of about a hundred years ago, we seek in vain for the marks p or f or for any other directions regarding the strength of the sounds. In fact, at that time every thing was played with equal force, or, at most, the little musical colouring, which then appeared desirable or practicable, was entirely left to the discretion of the performer. It would be difficult to conceive how such a simple and yet powerful means of producing effect, and aiding expression, should not have suggested itself at an earlier period, if the performance of mediocre players, or of amateurs of fifty years practice, did not occasionally afford practical proof of the possibility of such neglect. The celebrated Jomelli was the first who began to imagine and prescribe various tints of musical colouring, and to bring them into some sort of method. Since his time, however, this branch of executive Music has been so much enlarged and improved, that it is at this time scarcely possible to conceive any shade of expression, which does not form part of our musical terminology. There is still a certain vagueness in the usual directions as to the positive degree of force intended, many of the terms being absolutely relative; but we should not be surprised to see this uncertainty brought, in time, under mathe matical controul, by the invention of a musical Phonometer, to indicate the precise strength of sound, in the same manner as the Metronome fixes the precise duration of musical time.

Upon the foregoing subject of musical emphasis we might fill many pages with a variety of curious and interesting remarks, were it not that our limits and immediate object compel us to content ourselves with touching slightly and briefly upon matters, which a professional treatise alone could be expected to expand and develope.

But before we conclude our remarks upon verbal expression, we would wish to add a few words concerning its abuse in Music. This abuse is often encountered in compositions adapted to " depictive" poetry, describing physical phenomena, peculiar sounds, motions, &c. such as thunder, lightning, the rolling of waves, the howlings of the wind, the babbling of brooks, rustling of leaves, the roaring of wild beasts, warbling of birds, the crawling of serpents, the galloping of steeds, &c. Of all these, and innumerable other natural appearances, composers have attempted direct imitations, the vouchers for which we could quote without difficulty.

The question, whether such imitations are the legitimate province of the composer, whether they are accordant with the principles of the beautiful, is a delicate and difficult one. If we consult our own feelings, we should candidly say, that some of these attempts at the musical picturesque have afforded us considerable pleasure, while others, and by far the greater part, appeared to us trifling conceits full of quaintness and littleness.

Among the favourable specimens we would place foremost, the

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