shipped to the exclusion of all others. The operas of Sacchini maintained their ground longer than others, but they are never performed at present; whereas the works of his German cotemporaries continue to exercise over the public taste an influence nearly as great as they did on their first appearance. This is a confirmation of the maxim that it is not the most simple, the most intelligible, or the most popular compositions at the time, but those which display the highest power of mind, that endure as monuments of genius, that create an era in the art, that become the test by which the musical historian judges of its state at the period when they were produced. Nor at the present day is the tendency of music towards greater simplicity; it gives, on the contrary, evident signs of an increase in piquancy, variety, interest, and animation. Its limits are enlarging daily; new resources are discovered, new paths are struck out by every successive candidate for immortality: and, provided the proper means are adopted, we may reasonably indulge in the expectation of seeing a genius arise who will unite in one splendid whole the varied and scattered excellencies of his predecessors. In order to induce my readers to extend their researches, and thus to qualify themselves for the detection of the countless plagiarisms committed on their predecessors by the soi-disant maestri of the present day, I will present them with specimens from some of the greatest masters of the Mozart school; these will, I trust, be sufficient to establish the superiority of their melodies over those of the modern Italian school. WINTER Confusa, agitata.-Aria (Calypso). (Opferfest). Più bianca di giglio MARTINI* Perche tu m'ami Dolce mi parve un die -(Una cosa rara). * Martini may be regarded as the connecting link between the school of Sacchini and that which adopted the principles of Mozart. Una cosa rara was brought out at Vienna in 1786, at the same time with Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, and was for some time more popular than that immortal work. At the risk of becoming tedious, I am under the necessity of again reverting to the assertions of the reviewer:-" Bellini, more than any other author since the time of Mozart, addresses us in the simple, unadorned, and unaffected language of feeling and nature; and so far from answering the description given in the above quotation (from Hogarth's History), we venture to affirm that no music written for the stage was ever more strictly subservient to the situation and action of the drama." The reader will now be enabled to form a competent judgment as to the reliance to be placed on this assertion. If it be true, all that has been advanced in this article is mere imagination and delusion: if false, what opinion can be formed respecting the capability of the critic for the task which he has undertaken, when, from vague speculations resting solely on the flimsy foundation of his own peculiar The daily increasing knowledge of German renders unnecessary any apology for the introduction of songs in that language. A clever translation of Fanchon could not fail to render that opera popular on our stage. Some pleasing specimens of this excellent composer may be found in the Lyra Ger manica. + I have heard, on good authority, that this splendid aria, although introduced into one of Mayer's operas, was composed by Paer. It was a great favourite with Pasta. Some of the above songs may possibly not be found separate from the operas in which they occur; in this case, it would be doing good service to the public to reprint them. taste, he deliberately deduces conclusions as easily to be disproved as so many incorrect geometrical propositions? The entire tendency of the article is to retard the progress of the art, and to lower the public taste. It opens with depreciating the advantages of theoretical knowledge, both as regards the nature of sound and the principles of composition. The author apparently considers taste, not as founded on and derived from knowledge, but as something apartsomething that may be acquired by the perusal of Mr. Hogarth's book. A considerable degree of attention to the subject has convinced me that as long as the knowledge of the public remains stationary, it is impossible that taste can progress. The degree of gratification arising from music may be immeasurably increased without devoting a larger portion of time to the whole range of the art and science than is at present lavished on one branch. If, indeed, time cannot be afforded for both the intellectual and mechanical departments, it cannot surely be considered a debateable question whether the finger or the mind should be deemed the more worthy of cultivation. By this change of plan we might, indeed, lose some superfluous and inefficient pianists; but this loss would be amply compensated by an equal number of true "kenner."* We should be spared the pain of perusing articles like the above, which, presuming on the ignorance of the public, attempts to depreciate Purcell, talks of "unknown and unfrequented paths of modulation tracked out by Weber and Rossini"-(this is nearly as bad as his connexion of Mozart and Bellini)-and concludes by hurling the anathema which was intended by Rousseau to apply to those who were incapable of appreciating real genius, against all who estimate Bellini at his proper value. Such opinions would then fall as harmless as an attempt to pull down Shakspeare and to elevate on his pinnacle of deathless fame some author of popular melodramas. Were it not for the high literary authority of the Edinburgh Review, it would have been an useless expenditure of time to undertake the refutation of fallacies which a momentary consideration would render palpable. Unfortunately, the dicta of high literary authorities are exempted, on certain subjects, from the ordeal of reflection. The musical heresies which Addison so confidently promulgated, have since recoiled with double force, from the intended objects of his satire, upon himself. Let authors, then, beware how they dogmatise on subjects with which they are unacquainted, while Knowers ; a word which merits to be naturalized; connoisseur is associated with pretension, rather than actual knowledge. their readers should employ equal caution in subjecting both facts and arguments to a deliberate scrutiny before admitting the truth of assertions, sanctioned even by the "magic of a name." In concluding this notice of Bellini, let me again repeat that, far from entertaining a desire to force the individual views contained in this article on the public, it is my earnest wish that they may, by gaining a thorough acquaintance with the subject, become qualified for testing, in the most rigorous manner, the correctness of these conclusions. If they can be proved to be erroneous, the error will be candidly acknowledged, under the conviction that, of all mental problems, the most difficult to solve is that of forming a just estimate of our cotemporaries. Of Donizetti, it will not, after so ample a notice of Bellini, be requisite to say much. He belongs to the same school, and writes on the same erroneous principles. In a comparison of the two composers, Donizetti may be considered as the more correct, Bellini as possessing the greater share of genius: the former draws more largely on Rossini, although he is far from attaining the spirit and fire of his model; while the latter presents us with more original ideas. Pretty melodies are not unfrequent throughout Donizetti's operas; but they are like particles of gold scattered amongst countless grains of sand-the amount of the precious material will not repay the labour of separation from the dross. His instrumentation is as faulty as that of the other writers of the same school. Although destitute of the slightest claim to the title of a scientific musician, he has been appointed Professor of Counterpoint in one of the first conservatorios of Italy: Donizetti occupies the chair rendered illustrious by Durante, Leo, and Jomelli. Alas! for the scholars of Donizetti !-the art has yet to fall. Vaccai, Pacini, Ricci, Mercandante, &c., are still less worthy of detailed notice their melodies, when pretty, are plagiarisms, and when original they are dull. These are the composers who monopolize an establishment supported at greater cost than any other in Europe ;* these are the men who are deemed worthy to supersede the masters of every other school. It has been already demonstrated that these disgraceful proceedings may be, in great measure, attributed to the ignorance of the public, and the indifference with which they receive whatever the manager or the singers think proper to provide for their entertainment. The removal of existing ignorance, and the forma * The amount of subscriptions is from £25,000 to £30,000 per annum. tion of an enlightened taste, can only be the result of a properly directed and long-continued course of study: a remedy may be, in the mean time, suggested which will have a tendency to palliate, although it will not entirely remove the evil. The attempt at the present moment to perform classical music of every school could only terminate in failure and disappointment. Italian singers possess a peculiar style, and manner, and taste, which from long habit have become a second nature. Remove them from the usual routine of their daily practice, and their inferiority to other performers becomes as manifest as their former excellence. To them Weber, Beethoven, and Spohr, write in an unknown tongue; the mode by which these writers produce their most splendid effects is a science which they have never acquired. While the composers of other countries, more particularly the Germans, have learned, during a residence in Italy, to combine Italian ease and grace with their native depth and elaboration, the Italians have never incorporated with their own style foreign peculiarities, so as to render them indigenous. In fact, when a composer has formed an exception, it will be found that he lost the favour of his countrymen in the same proportion that he allowed foreign ideas and novel modes of treatment to disturb the pure stream of native melody. Such was the fate of Jomelli, whose music received the appellation of scelerata, in consequence of the introduction of a few German harmonies. Paer, and still more strikingly Cherubini, forfeited, for the same reason, the good opinion of the Italian public. This patriotic attachment prevails with equal force among the singers; an Italian opera, in whatever country it may be performed, remains unchanged and unmodified by the taste of the public, or the example of composers in the country of their temporary residence. An Italian company invariably sings the compositions of Italians, or of those foreigners who have made the nearest approach to their style. Instead, therefore, of attempting the impossibility of requiring Italian performers to sing la musica tedesca, let us rather employ their unrivalled talent in the classical school founded by Mozart. The key to his style may be found equally in the accidents of his artistical cultivation and in the events of his subsequent life. By birth a German, his earliest studies were among the works of Handel, Sebastian and Emanuel Bach; had circumstances confined him to his native country he would, in all probability, have rivalled, in their own line, these great men. But during a visit to the native land of song, at an age when impressions received by the ductile mind become not only permanent but expand with the growing |