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A 
 
 FEW WORDS 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 MUSIC: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 HINTS TO AMATEUR PIANISTS ; 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 A SLIGHT HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Ert of ilRuisic, 
 
 BY 
 
 M. H. 
 
 “ Mr. Hiillah’s talent and philanthropy is better employed 
 in training a thousand tolerable singers than in perfecting 
 one Lablache. It is better that the many should have some 
 power, than that one should be aTitaii.” — Fraser’s Magazine. 
 
 LONDON; 
 
 J, ALFRED NOVELLO, 69, DEAN STREET, SOHO, 
 AND 24, POULTRY. 
 
 1851. 
 
nL 
 
 1H>0 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 The circling seasons of the year 
 Have nearly brought again the day 
 When you began your stormy way, 
 Cheer’d by bright hopes, my Mother dear. 
 
 How dreary were those months to me ! — 
 When my mind saw through fancies dark, 
 Your lone night-wandering little t>ark 
 Upon the great Atlantic sea. 
 
 When welcome tidings came at last, 
 
 The letter seemed a friendly voice, 
 Saying, in silvery tones, Eejoice, 
 
 For they are safe, — all grief is past. 
 
 Great perils cause us to pass o’er 
 All lesser woes, and I did yoke 
 To my heart’s chariot, Joy and Hope, 
 And dream of flights from shore to shore. 
 
 Wild dreams; — we must contented be. 
 
 To dwell where’er our lot is cast : 
 
 He knows the Future as the Past, 
 
 Who died for love of you and me. 
 
 M. H. 
 
 Fd). 3rd, 1851. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The greater part of this little work has already appeared in 
 “ The Lady’s Newspaper.” When it had reached the Ninth 
 Chapter, it was thought advisable to complete the series, and 
 publish the whole together in one small volume. In furtherance 
 of this view, some additional chapters on the History of Music 
 are now included in the work. 
 
 The writer ventures to hope that the utility of the practical 
 hints, with regard to Pianoforte Studies, will bear with it an 
 apology for many defects in a literary point of view. This little 
 work might have appeared in a more connected form, had it not 
 originated in a series of ephemeral communications, commenced 
 without any idea of its ever taking the shape of a book. 
 
 To those friends who have kindly enabled the writer to publish 
 without delay, her thanks, and the thanks of those for whose 
 sake such patronage has been bestowed, are very sincerely offered. 
 
 Feb. Ist, 1851. 
 
 M. H. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 “ All true, all faultless, all in tune. 
 
 Creation’s wondrous choir. 
 
 Opened in mystic unison. 
 
 To last till time expire .” — The Christian Year. 
 
 In the last number of The Edinburgh we find a passage which- 
 we ought not to omit bringing before our fair readers; and, 
 indeed, we are not sorry to have so good an opportunity of saying 
 a few words upon a subject which seems strangely neglected in 
 the periodical literature of the day, considering that a knowledge 
 of Music is now looked upon as an essential branch of female edu- 
 cation. The passage we allude to in The Edinburgh^ occurs at the 
 commencement of the review on “ Shirley.” The reviewer has 
 been dwelling on the often-debated question, whether the minds 
 of women are actually of a much lower order than those of men ; 
 or whether the intellectual inferiority of women arises entirely 
 from the poverty of their education. This question we will not 
 enter upon just now, but content ourselves with endeavouring to 
 throw seme light on the problem the reviewer professes himself 
 unable to solve, encouraging ourselves with the recollection that 
 a mouse once enabled a lion to escape from a net. The reviewer, 
 after showing that one cannot account for female inferiority by 
 setting it down to want of physical power, “because, in the great 
 contentions of man with man, it has not been physical strength 
 which has generally carried the day,” goes on to say, “ It should 
 
2 
 
 A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 further be remembered that it is precisely in that art which de- 
 mands least employment of physical force, viz., Music, that the 
 apparent inferiority of women is most marked and unaccountable. 
 Indeed, Music is, by far, the most embarrassing topic to which 
 those who maintain the mental equality of the sexes can address 
 themselves. It is true that, of all kinds of genius, a genius for 
 Music is the least akin to, and the least associated with, any 
 other. But, on the other hand, it is an art that is cultivated by 
 all women who have the least aptitude for it ; and in which, as 
 far as mere taste and execution are concerned, many more women 
 than men are actually found to excel. But, as composers, they 
 have never attained any distinction. They have often been great, 
 indeed, as performers, whether with the impassioned grandeur of 
 a Pasta or a Viardot, or with the perfect vocalization of a Lind or 
 an Alboni ; whether pianists, such as Camille Pleyel ; violinists, 
 such as Madame Flipowitz, or the little Milanolo ; whether as 
 organists, or even as trombone-players ! yet in musical compo- 
 sition they are without rank. We can understand their not 
 creating the stormy grandeur and tumultuous harmonies of a 
 Beethoven, since to that height women never have attained in 
 any art ; but why no one among them should yet have rivalled 
 the moonlight tenderness and plaintive delicacy of a Bellini is a 
 mystery to us.” Now let us examine all this. First, we must 
 enter a protest against some of the assertions made. We cannot 
 see that, “ of all kinds of genius, a genius for Music is the least 
 akin to, and the least associated with, any other.” If this were 
 true, what an extraordinary blunder the ancients made when 
 they placed the lyre in the hands of Apollo ! Perhaps we may 
 be charged with bigotry and pedantry for quoting such gone-by 
 traditions. Nevertheless we cannot but feel that the old Greek 
 idea of the Muses being sisters was not a mere fancy, but a 
 matter of fact. All ages and all nations bear witness to it, if we 
 except a certain class in England which has sprung up within 
 the last two centuries, — Orpheus and Arion, Miriam, Sappho, 
 King David, Timotheus, St. Ambrose, the bards of the Celtic 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 3 
 
 and Gothic nations, the Minnesingers, Troubadours, the Min- 
 strels, the Improvisatori, — behold M^hat a legion of spirits memory 
 can call up as witnesses to the fact that Music and Poetry are 
 “ akin ” and closely “ associated ” with each other ! 
 
 Let us bring forward some more facts. Most of the great 
 painters who go by the name of the “ old masters” loved Poetry 
 and Music with an ardour second only to their passion for their 
 own art. Many of them were actually good poets and musicians. 
 And then look at the great composers. Do we not observe in 
 most of them that passionate love of nature and of the beautiful 
 which belongs to the poet and the painter ? And the poets, do 
 not they love music ? Listen to Milton : — 
 
 *' Lap me in soft Lydian airs, 
 
 Married to immortal verse, 
 
 Such as the melting soul may pierce 
 In notes, with many a winding bout 
 Of linked sweetness long drawn out ; 
 
 With wanton head and giddy cunning, 
 
 The melting voice through mazes running; 
 
 Untwisting all the chords that tie 
 The hidden soul of Harmony.” 
 
 No one but a musician could have written that ; and no one 
 but a musician can fully appreciate the intense beauty, the thrill- 
 ing truthfulness, of the two last lines of this common quotation. 
 And then listen to Handel, when he “ marries immortal Verse ” 
 to Music, worthy to be its bride : — 
 
 “ Let me wander not unseen 
 By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green ; 
 
 While the ploughman near at hand 
 Whistles o’er the furrow’d land ; 
 
 And the milkmaid singeth blythe, 
 
 And the mower whets his scythe. 
 
 And every shepherd tells his tale 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
 
 Could Handel have actually expressed the landscape by the aid 
 of melody and harmony with as much fidelity as a painter could 
 have done with the pencil, unless he had been gifted with an eye 
 
4 
 
 A. FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 for Nature and a soul for Poetry, as well as an ear for Music ? 
 There is positively scenery in the music of Beethoven, Weber, 
 and Mendelssohn. Close your eyes when you listen to it, and 
 your imagination will be filled with landscape. Now you see 
 craggy mountains, with dark fir-trees ; now verdant plains, with 
 blue hills in the far distance ; you will hear rushing waterfalls, 
 or murmuring brooks, or the mighty ocean in all its varying 
 moods. Sometimes the strain will bring before you early dawn 
 with “ the lark ” singing at “ heaven’s gate anon it will be 
 noonday, and you are transported to the shady greenwood, by 
 quiet streams where water-lilies grow ; now the sounds bring to 
 you simset’s gorgeous hues ; at another time the dim twilight : 
 you may hear the sighing of the evening breeze, and see the 
 stars come out one by one, or watch the moon sailing through 
 the sky. We do not say that everybody is so fortimate as to 
 possess the talisman which enables one to enter the Enchanted 
 Palace of Harmony ; but this we do say, that in nine cases out of 
 ten, the deficiency arises more from utter want of cultivation of 
 mind and taste, than from any natural defect of ear. But we 
 are wandering from the subject immediately under consideration. 
 
 The next assertion we have to question is, that Music “ is an 
 art that is cultivated by all women who have the least aptitude 
 for it, and in which, as far as mere taste and execution are 
 concerned, many more women than men are actually found to 
 excel.” The reviewer is doubtless a great critic in literary 
 matters, but it is probable he may not be a practical musician ; 
 at any rate it is unlikely that he should possess that sort of 
 experience with regard to the musical education of ladies which 
 alone will enable any one to form a correct judgment on the 
 subject under discussion. With all due deference, therefore, to 
 the Edinburgh Review, we must deny that the Art of Music is 
 “ cultivated by all women who have the least aptitude for it.” 
 On the contrary, we should be inclined to substitute “very few” 
 for “ all.” True, every young lady learns to play and sing, by 
 a eei-tain mechanical process, similar to that by which she 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 5 
 
 acquires dexterity in Berlin-wool work or crochet-knitting. 
 But is that studying the heaven-descended art of Music ? Is any 
 knowledge of its principles acquired or even sought, — any insight 
 into the mysteries of sounds, from which a science is evolved, 
 whereby the whole heart is taken captive and all its passions 
 swayed at pleasure ? We might as well suppose that a taste for 
 poetry and painting was cultivated by the hand-mechanism of 
 the fair transcriber and copyer of the usual versified and water- 
 coloured embellishments of an album, purposely exposed for 
 every one to admire at those idle moments when they are left 
 without any thing to feel. We cannot allow that, “ as far 
 as mere taste and execution go, many more women than men are 
 found to excel.” First-rate female singers we have, no doubt, 
 quite equal to male singers. But when we come to instrumental 
 music (which has been called “the propre of the art”), only 
 contrast the male performers on the pianoforte who follow close 
 on (their admirers will tell you rival, nay eclipse) the King of 
 Pianists, Thalberg, with the few female performers who even 
 approach Madame Dulcken, Mrs. Anderson, and the graceful, 
 yet spirited, Kate Loder. Nor must one forget the organists 
 of the cathedrals, college chapels, and great churches. How 
 many of them are female performers ? The reviewer may have 
 been thinking of amateurs ; but even here we doubt whether the 
 preponderance is so great on the side of the ladies as he imagines. 
 Two-thirds of the young ladies who can rattle through a host of 
 polkas and waltzes with a brilliant finger, would be completely 
 posed when they attempted Beethoven or Mendelssohn. When 
 we come to music of a high class we are inclined to think (taking 
 into consideration the small number of gentlemen who learn to 
 play the piano at all compared with the large number of ladies 
 who do) that the sterner sex will be found to outdo the softer, 
 even in this branch of the arts. To be fair, too, we must not pass 
 over the many gentlemen who play the violin, violoncello, &c., 
 in a sufficiently musician-like style to be of use in a country Phil- 
 harmonic concert, whereas there are not many ladies whose 
 
<5 
 
 A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 piano performance would stand the test of playing with obligato 
 accompaniments. And now we can fancy some of our fair readers 
 inquiring what all this tends to, and whether it is good taste to 
 make their own paper the organ for obtruding on the ladies of 
 England, remarks as unpalatable as those made by the Edinburgh 
 reviewer. We answer, that this unsparing criticism of the musical 
 attainments of our fair countrywomen is intended to induce them 
 to cultivate their talent in the right way, and so proving that the 
 women of the nineteenth century are capable of something higher 
 than mere mechanical skill in the ai't which is placed under the 
 patronage of St. Cecilia. 
 
 In a future number we propose to point out the causes which 
 prevent female amateurs in general from obtaining sound musical 
 knowledge, and its result — pure taste ; and we hope, also, to give 
 our fair readers some practical hints which may assist them mate- 
 rially in acquiring solid information with regard to the art in 
 general, as well as fine execution on the piano. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 “ Lord, by every minstrel tongue 
 Be thy praise so duly sung, 
 
 That thine angels’ harps may ne’er 
 Fail to find fit echoing here : 
 
 We the while, of meaner birth. 
 
 Who in that divinest spell 
 Dare not hope to join on earth. 
 
 Give us grace to listen well .” — Christian Year. 
 
 In my last communications I promised to give some practical 
 hints on the art of studying, and of teaching music. But, before 
 entering on this part of my task, I shall have mm;h to say on a 
 subject which musical teachers generally appear to consider alto- 
 gether out of their province, viz., the views and feelings with 
 which music should be studied. I hope to put the motives for 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 7 
 
 seeking to acquire proficiency in art in a light ladies in general 
 are not accustomed to see it placed in. Shall I startle you, fair 
 reader, when I say that I consider cultivation of musical taste to 
 be a religious duty? And for these reasons. Our Creator has 
 given us, besides a soul, a mind and body, both of which require 
 recreation as well as food and rest. There are few recreations so 
 healthful as music, certainly none more so. In the first place, 
 singing or playing in moderation are conducive to bodily health ; 
 secondly, they have the power of raising, and at the same time 
 soothing, the spirits ; thirdly, they occupy and amuse the mind, 
 as much as light literature, without that strain upon the sight 
 and brain which the eager reading of an exciting tale never fails 
 to produce. I am aware that there is one class of persons on 
 whose spirits music makes little or no impression ; and another, 
 less insensible, but who would deny that the pleasure they derive 
 from music is to be compared with the charm of light literature. 
 The first class of persons is, happily, a very small one, so small 
 that one may put them into the same category with the deaf and 
 dumb. For I am inclined to think that in that class I have 
 styled “ insensible ” there are many who do like some par- 
 ticular kinds of music ; for instance, a military band, or an 
 exquisite voice, a flute, or an organ, I have known to please 
 people who disliked the sound of the piano or violin. And with 
 regard to persons of the second class, who are far more numerous 
 than the first, I am convinced that it is want of musical education 
 alone that prevents their feeling the magic power that exists in 
 harmony. 
 
 I have begun by taking the above ground for my argument in 
 favour of its being a duty to cultivate our musical taste. I have 
 said so fai’ only what might be adduced in favour of cultivating 
 a love for the country, for gardening, for sketching, for home 
 occupations. All these are innocent and healthful recreations, 
 well calculated to fill up profitably tliat leisure time which hangs 
 so heavily on the hands of many ladies, urging some into 
 a never-ending round of visiting, others into incessant novel- 
 
8 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 reading, both of which may be classed as mental dram-drinking. 
 But, besides the reasons I have given for cultivating love of 
 music, there exists another of a higher nature. The human soul 
 is capable of feeling that music has some mysterious connection 
 with the unseen world. The common expression “heavenly 
 sound” shows how deeply this idea is planted in our nature. 
 Just consider what music is, how it is produced, and what 
 sensations and thoughts it creates in those who hear it. Is it not 
 a wonderful thing ? How can we account for its strange power ? 
 Looking at it in a matter-of-fact way, we behold nothing which 
 will seem to us an adequate cause for the effect produced. The 
 experimental philosopher will tell us it is only a vibration in the 
 air ; but how can merely mechanical action affect the mind and 
 heart ? I am not speaking of singing, because one might say 
 that the words, the associations connected with a song, would 
 have a strong influence on the listener ; but I am supposing 
 music to be sound, and nothing more, and it is in this form that 
 it is so wonderful a thing. How astonishing that mere vibration 
 in the air should have power to tell us things which no words 
 could ever express ! Where can we discover that subtle essence, 
 more rapid and penetrating than the electric fluid, which dwells 
 in fine music, and has power to make us turn pale with awe, 
 glow with warmth, shed tears of joy or of sorrow, thrill with 
 indescribable, incomprehensible sensations, and grow faint with 
 the intensity of the enjoyment ? Is it reasonable to attribute the 
 power of music to anything mechanical ? No ; as the poet’s soul 
 speaks to us through the vehicle of words and letters, so does the 
 composer’s soul reveal itself to us by means of musical instru- 
 ments. Let us not use words in a formal, canting manner, 
 without weighing their meaning. I have spoken of the soul. 
 Consider what the human soul is. That portion of our nature 
 which was created in the image of God. It is from the soul 
 that proceed that love of truth and beauty, that longing for 
 perfection, that pleasure in acts of benevolence, that yearning 
 after the mysterious and the unseen, which one finds in persons 
 
A FEW WOEDS ABOXJT MUSIC. 
 
 9 
 
 of a poetic turn of mind, and in all young people who have not 
 been early exposed to the blighting influence of worldliness. 
 Persons who have been trained up in a dry, prosaic system of 
 education, see nothing in nature beyond a vast storehouse of 
 useful and agreeable articles spread out for the benefit of man 
 and beast. And in art they see no more than a certain amount 
 of human ingenuity and industry, well calculated to amuse an 
 idle hour. They see, in short, only the external portion of 
 nature and art — of that part which is not revealed by the senses 
 they know nothing. They are too deaf to hear the low, sweet 
 voice of nature, too blind to see the faint reflection of heavenly 
 fire which glows in the lamp of art. I do not blame persons of 
 this turn of mind for condemning the occupation of an artist — 
 for calling it frivolous, worldly, useless, or worse than useless. 
 For, truly, were there nothing loftier or deeper in art than that 
 mechanical skill which the multitude too often hold to be 
 its highest excellence, then would the life of an artist be a 
 low, sordid trade, far more contemptible than that of the 
 cobbler or the tinker, inasmuch as it would be a trade less 
 indispensible as respects society, and therefore less manly. 
 
 Alas ! must I say it ? We have in these days too many artists 
 undeserving of the lofty title — too many who are mere picture- 
 mongers or sound-spinners, and who seem to have realized the 
 ingenious Mr. Dousterswivel’s idea of multipl3ung creations of 
 the mind by the aid of machinery ! And so it will continue 
 until art in its higher w'alk is more generally cultivated by 
 amateurs. Artists must live; and while the public taste demands 
 flimsy, trashy works of art, there will always be a large class of 
 painters and musicians ready to supply that demand. Neither 
 have we any right to blame them for gaining their livelihood by 
 executing what will bring them food and raiment instead of 
 what would bring them barren laurels, if indeed it brought so 
 much as that. It is all very fine to talk of artists pandering to 
 the public, poets selling Pegasus to draw the plough or a strolling 
 player’s caravan, and so forth. Every artist who lives by his 
 
10 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 profession feels that “ they who live to please must please to 
 live.” The reformation must begin in another quarter; and, 
 as music (though without any reason) is considered to he a 
 feminine accomplishment, and consequently that the greater 
 number of music publishers and music masters look upon the 
 ladies of England as their patronesses, on this account it seems 
 advisable for all those who have the cause of music at heart to 
 do what they can to induce their fair countiywomen to study the 
 art in the right way. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 “ To other strains our souls are set; 
 
 A giddy whirl of sin 
 Fills ear and brain, and will not let 
 Heaven’s harmonies come in .” — Christian Year. 
 
 At the risk of appearing extreme I do not hesitate to say that a 
 large portion of the musical publications and performances of the 
 present day are injurious not only to public taste but also to public 
 morality. In the first place, they are opposed to truth and 
 justice ; they gild copper, and offer it to an ignorant confiding 
 public as pure gold. Secondly, they appeal to the baser passions 
 of the multitude — vulgar wonder, and coarse unfeeling merriment, 
 equally excited, and to the same idle purpose, by the tricks of a 
 conjuror and the grimaces of a buffoon. These things have their 
 proper theatres ; but, out of respect to the memory of the illus- 
 trious dead, let not buffoonery profane the charmed air, which 
 has just been rendered sacred by conveying to spellbound listeners 
 the magic sounds of some great master’s glorious conceptions. 
 In a concert- room, now-a-days, it is often dangerous to give way 
 to the feelings excited by a sublime composition, on account of 
 the painful reaction which is almost sure to follow when heavenly 
 dreams are driven from one’s mind by a comic song. Even if it 
 were one of those first-rate compositions — a buffo song from a 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 11 
 
 good opera — it would jar upon the mind when it has just been 
 lifted heavenwards on the harmonies of some mighty master ; hut 
 an English comic song, poor in wit and poorer in music, — a nigger 
 song suitable to the taste of a pothouse or a street audience, — oh, 
 it is unendurable ! The only safe plan when one glances down a 
 programme and sees “ Dali’ tuo stellate soglio,” followed imme- 
 diately by “ Lucy Long,” the only safe plan in such a case is, to 
 keep watch and ward over one’s imagination ; to keep one’s eyes 
 open and fixed on the unpoetical -looking paraphernalia of the 
 orchestra, so as to run no risk of fancying oneself in the seventh 
 heaven ; and, if one has resolution to do that, one can enjoy that 
 portion of the composition which is addressed to the ear and the 
 mind; and though one must deny oneself the highest of its 
 attributes, viz., the Promethean spark which lifts us upwards, 
 yet it is better to do that, and be content with moderate enjoy- 
 ment, than 
 
 “ To rise like a rocket, and fall like a stick.” 
 
 I do not mean to take so narrow-minded a view as to deny the 
 merit of humorous music. But there is a time for all things, and 
 I do not believe that those who have just felt deeply and intensely 
 a fine composition can he in a mood to welcome an indifferent 
 one, though they might be amused by it at another time. 
 Drollery is well in its way, hut there are moments when it is 
 fatiguing and distasteful ; and one of those moments I hold to be 
 the interval of silence that follows the last chord of a glorious 
 composition. But my fair readers will say, are we to be con- 
 demned to listen to nothing but grave music ? By no means. 
 By fine music I do not mean solemn music ; though, doubtless, 
 solemnity is the highest attribute of music. Perhaps I shall 
 illustrate my meaning better by giving examples taken from the 
 sister arts of Poetry and Painting. Suppose you had just seen 
 Hamlet or Macbeth, and had been strongly excited and touched, 
 would you be in a mood to enjoy a farce ? Or say you had just 
 read The Siege of Corinth, and a person seeing you close the book 
 offered to read vou The Natural History of a Gent f Or, again, if 
 
12 
 
 A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 you are in a picture gallery, and have been gazing entranced on 
 a Eaffaelle or a Domenichino, till every earthly thought had 
 passed from your mind, would you like the subject of the next 
 picture that met your eye to be dmnken Dutch boors, by one of 
 the coarsest of the Flemish painters ? But are we always to be 
 in the clouds? you will say. No ; but it is not agreeable to come 
 to the earth too suddenly. One should descend gradually, if one 
 would escape a violent shock. We can look with delight on such 
 a picture as Creswick’s “Chequered Shade” at any time ; yet 
 that picture is surely a long way off from the sublime, unless, 
 indeed, one allows that there is always something solemn in 
 Nature, even in her most cheerful dress : — 
 
 “ Oh, pleasant land of idlesse ! 
 
 Jollity bides not ’neath the trees, 
 
 But thought, that roams from folly free. 
 
 Through the pure world of poetry, 
 
 Puts on her strength in scenes like these ! 
 
 And SO, in poetry, a cheerful English landscape by Wordsworth 
 or Mary Howitt would at once tranquillize and brace the mind 
 after the excitement of Othello or King Lear; and on the same 
 principle we could enjoy Hummel, Mendelssohn, and Thalberg, 
 in their gayest compositions, immediately after Beethoven’s 
 “ Sinfonia Eroica.” And why? Because they are never vulgar, 
 commonplace, poor. Their gaiety is the gaiety of the skylark, 
 not of the monkey. If joy runs through their melodies, it is a 
 pure, sparkling joy, always graceful, always refined. It is as 
 unlike the noisy, empty mei-riment of indifferent music, as the 
 keen wit of Sydney Smith or Thackeray is unlike the joking of 
 “ fast” men and clowns. But I am exceeding the limits allotted 
 to me, and must come to an end rapidly. I have accused most 
 modern music of sinning against truth and justice, and of flatter- 
 ing the lower passions of the many. I have a third accusation to 
 bring forward, and that one concerns my fair readers especially. 
 I say it fosters vanity, conceit, affectation, and insincerity. Are 
 you shocked at my bitterness ? But it is not easy to speak gently 
 
A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 13 
 
 of the enemies of what we love. And I love music, real music, 
 and am indignant when I see her throne filled by a crowd of 
 usurpers, struggling and fighting to maintain their ephemeral 
 reign. Is it not the constant complaint of professors, that it is no 
 use to play good music to the general run of audiences — vain to 
 attempt making j’oung ladies learn classical compositions ? And 
 whence does this proceed ? From this cause, that governesses 
 and masters who cannot play tolerably themselves are frequently 
 employed to teach beginners. What should we say of the wis- 
 dom of the man who allowed an incompetent workman to lay the 
 foundation of his house, with the idea of reserving his means for 
 decorating the roof? Yet that is the common system adopted by 
 most people with regard to the education, especially the musical 
 education, of their children ; and the natural result follows. If 
 the child have a defective ear and little talent, hut a good share 
 of vanity and ambition, the chances are she will practise hard, 
 and get noisy execution, in order to show off, hut the ear and the 
 taste will remain bad ; and w’hen she goes to a finishing master 
 for a dozen lessons, fancying herself a brilliant performer, what 
 can he do ? If he be not a very honest man indeed, he will flatter 
 her with the idea that she may venture to perform bravura pieces, 
 and she will become a source of annoyance to her acquaintance 
 from the obligation they feel under of asking her to play when 
 they would sooner be excused listening to the scrambling per- 
 formances common to plaj'ers of that stamp. Take another case. 
 Suppose a child with a good ear learns from a had teacher. She 
 will get weak, bungling execution ; and, when she hears first-rate 
 playing, will fancy that her hand is too small, her fingers too 
 stiff, her wrist too weak, for her ever to play well. Her delicate 
 ear will not allow her to endure a had tone and incorrect passages, 
 so she gets weary and disgusted with her practising ; and when a 
 good master tells her that two or three hours a day, for a few 
 months, over scales, exercises, and studies, will give her that 
 strength and flexibility of finger she thinks it impossible to attain, 
 she either disbelieves him, or thinks the time and labour too 
 
14 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 great, and so she shuts up her piano in despair, and plays no more, 
 except a polka or quadrille for dancers on the carpet. 
 
 I could cite many other cases in which time and money have 
 been expended upon young ladies’ musical education without 
 producing anything but disappointment to parents and weariness 
 to pupils ; and in cases where talent for music exists, and good 
 taste has not been cultivated, those only who love harmony 
 intensely can guess how heavy is the loss sustained. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 “ I heard a thousand blended notes. 
 
 While in a grove I sate reclined. 
 
 In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 
 Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 
 
 “ To her fair works did Nature link 
 
 The human soul that through me ran ; 
 
 And much it grieved my heart to think 
 What man has made of man.” — Wordsworth. 
 
 The author of “ The Seven Lamps of Architecture ” tells us 
 that he once asked a great artist for some simple rule for attaining 
 excellence in art. The reply he received was, “Know what you 
 have to do, and do it.”* Now, this certainly looks like a truism, 
 and, when first it is presented to us, a recollection of Mrs. Glass’s 
 famous receipt, beginning “ First catch your hare,” will perhaps 
 come into one’s head, and force a smile against one’s will. 
 
 But, on consideration, we see that there is deep, practical 
 'wisdom in this apparently trite sajdng, and that, instead of class- 
 ing it vnth the witty cook’s sensible remark, we ought rather to 
 place it in company with the ancient sage’s far-famed “ Know 
 thyself.” It is chiefly, however, to lady students of art that due 
 consideration of Mr. Kuskin’s golden rule would be valuable. 
 
 * I am quoting from memory, and claim indulgence if I am not quite 
 accurate. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 15 
 
 The thoroughly well-trained artist needs no such rale. He has 
 acted on it, or he could not have attained excellence ; and he will 
 endeavour to make those who study under him follow his example. 
 And better, infinitely better, than all the hard work of the most 
 industrious student, labouring alone and imassisted, is a lesson — 
 yes only one lesson — from a great master. By a gi’eat master 
 I do not mean a great genius, but a person possessed (in addition 
 to a fair degree of executive power) of a real, unaffected love of 
 art, a highly- cultivated taste, and an enlarged mind ; one, too, 
 who is endowed with patience and common sense. And I beg 
 my fair readers to bear in mind that half a dozen lessons from 
 a first-rate master, followed up by a few months’ steady, energetic, 
 careful study, alone, will do more towards attaining proficiency in 
 the art they may be trying to acquire, than years of ill-directed 
 labour. But there are a great number of ladies who find it 
 absolutely impossible to obtain first-rate instruction at any period 
 of their lives, as many who have not any inducement to do so, 
 till it is too late, or till they are persuaded it is too late ; and 
 a still larger number who, if they had the opportunity of taking 
 lessons, would be unable to profit by them, from the prejudices, 
 bad habits, and vitiated taste instilled into them by incompetent 
 teachers in childhood. It is to Englishwomen of these three 
 classes that I am addressing myself. And, indeed, they com- 
 prehend many thousands of my fair countrywomen, of various 
 ranks, from the lady who, seated at a magnificent grand Erard, 
 astonishes or tortures, as the case may be, her hearers with her 
 interpretation of the pieces commonly played at concerts, down to 
 the factory girl who thumps away at the Row Polka and Co., on 
 a little, wiry, toneless piano by a cheap maker, probably bought 
 second-hand. I do not address myself to ladies who have had 
 the advantages of a first-rate musical education. The daughter 
 of the distinguished amateur mil probably possess finer taste 
 than most professional players. She has early seen art appre- 
 ciated by those she looks up to most, and a reverence for it will 
 have taken root in her mind in childhood. Her taste will have 
 
16 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 been refined by frequent opportunities of hearing fine music, her 
 industry excited by feeling that those it is her duty to please are 
 capable of appreciating her progress, and she has had every 
 assistance in gaining mechanical skill that good teaching can 
 give. She stands in no need of my advice. But it is to those 
 who are working up hill, unassisted, that I hope to be of some 
 use. I address myself to young ladies in the eountry, out of the 
 reach of a good master — to mothers forced to economize in the 
 education of their children — to elder sisters in a large family 
 who are anxious to assist in the school-room — to single ladies 
 with' plenty of leisure, who would be glad to bestow it on the 
 children of a brother or sister who may have made a not too 
 fortunate marriage — and above all I address myself to governesses, 
 whom a tyrannical custom obliges to undertake the teaching of 
 an art they have never learnt themselves. 
 
 Do not call me crochetty or quixotic. Understand clearly, 
 gentle reader, that I lay no claim to anything like originality 
 with regard to the method of study I am about to advise. 
 I shall say nothing you might not hear from any good master. 
 I do not profess to have discovered some wonderful new system 
 which will do away with all difficulties, and enable idle amateurs 
 to rival hardworking professors, as if by magic. There is no 
 royal road to learning. 
 
 “ Oft has this truth been spoken, 
 
 • But never yet too oft.” 
 
 In the present day there is a tendency to putting faith in new 
 and untried theories, and a strong fancy for off-hand, amusing 
 systems of learning. Now if this “ working-day world ” of ours 
 were truly that flowery garden, or vast playground, which the 
 young too often expect to find it, then these modem systems of 
 “ all play and no work ” (granting, for argument’s sake, that 
 they attain their end) might answer well enough. But, inasmuch 
 as human life has in it a much larger share of the dry and dull 
 than of the bright and pleasant — of the hard and bitter than of 
 tfie soft and sweet, — it seems a cmel kindness to surround the 
 
A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 17 
 
 young with an atmosphere of luxury, sparing their minds every 
 kind of fatigue, contradiction, or annoyance, and so rendering 
 them mentally delicate and feeble, though we are aware all 
 the time that sooner or later they must one day leave their 
 sheltered bower for the battle-field of life. But I had better not 
 stop to sertnonize, or we shall lose sight of the matter in hand. 
 
 I am afraid my space is nearly exhausted, and, therefore, 
 I must confine myself to-day to giving advice to young ladies 
 who have recently left the school-room, and who intend to pursue 
 their musical studies unassisted by a master. The plan pmsued 
 by a great many young ladies in this case is, to waste a good deal 
 of money in purchasing polkas and quadrilles (choosing them 
 more by the decoration on the title-page than by any mark of 
 musical merit), and then to play them in a careless, slovenly way, 
 leaving out any double notes or passages requiring neat execution, 
 and putting ad libitum harmonies in the bass, to save the trouble 
 of reading the real notes correctly. The consequence of this 
 plan is, that after wasting an hour a day in what she calls 
 “ practising,” for a twelvemonth, the young lady plays a great 
 deal worse than she did when she first left the school-room, 
 and the chances are that as soon as a serious flirtation begins 
 (unless the gentleman happens to be musical) her piano is closed 
 altogether and novel-reading taken up instead. Some people 
 would say, “So much the better, for she could not have possessed 
 decided talent for music, and the hour a day devoted to practising 
 was time wasted.” Perhaps so, if she played nothing but an 
 interminable succession of polkas. But, suppose during that 
 twelvemonth she had practised selections from Handel, Haydn, 
 Mozart, and Beethoven, chants and cathedral anthems, Scotch 
 and Irish melodies, and a few good studies for pianoforte ? Had 
 she played such music as that, an hour a day for a twelvemonth, 
 she would have gained not only a great increase of execution, 
 but a still greater increase of taste and knowledge. “ But that 
 style of music is so difficult to read,” objects one fair reader. 
 Not so difficult as you fancy. Classical music is like cipher- 
 
18 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 writing. Once get the key to it, and it is easier than any other. 
 Showy, executive music requires constant and vigorous practice 
 to keep it up. For that reason it is fit only for professional 
 performers, and those ladies whose nearest relatives are sufficiently 
 music-mad to endure willingly the sound of “ practising,” which 
 is a very different thing from the sound of playing what has 
 already been made perfect by practice. Classical music does not 
 require that incessant labour. Doubtless you will find here and 
 there in some solid compositions, quiet, unassuming little passages, 
 which are far more difficult to execute perfectly than the noisiest 
 and most brilliant tour de force that ever dazzled the eyes and 
 amused the ears of a fashionable audience in a concert-room. 
 To play classical miisic well, one requires good sense and good 
 temper ; for this reason, that it does not gratify vanity and 
 a desire to show off. The lady who devotes the time she allows 
 herself for the piano to classical music must expect to be thought 
 little of whenever she plays to listeners who value a piece 
 in proportion to the noise and dash it makes. But for her 
 encouragement, I can assure her that a great many persons who 
 know nothing about music, but are gifted with a good ear, will 
 always prefer an old-fashioned expressive air, well harmonized 
 and perfectly executed, to the most brilliant morgeau of the 
 modem school. Gentlemen, especially, she will find are fond 
 of solid music. In general society “ the Miss Lacquers ” begin- 
 ning to perform a long noisy bravura duet is the signal for 
 energetic conversation, and, with the exception of such gentlemen 
 as approach the piano for the sake of admiring the young ladies’ 
 fair hands and rounded amis, no one pays the smallest attention 
 to the performance ; and, should no admirers happen to be pre- 
 sent, the chances are they will play for the amusement of the 
 tables and chairs, the company doing their best to escape hearing 
 a note. When they have hammered away to the last chord, 
 thanks and compliments are showered upon them, by those who 
 have wished the piano at the Antipodes during the last ten 
 minutes. Was I wrong when I said that the musical system of 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 19 
 
 the present day produces insincerity? The musical performance 
 of amateurs in general society is frequently nothing more or less 
 than what Mr. Carlyle would call “ an enormous sham,” a 
 “ monstrous piece of flunkeydom.” But supposing after a morgeau 
 de concert, with a few wrong notes added, has been performed, a 
 young lady begins a simple song ; let her have only a tolerable 
 voice, under perfect control, and the power of accompanying her- 
 self without false harmonies, and I will engage she has plenty of 
 silent gratified listeners immediately. If her voice is very sweet, 
 her expression fine, and her song well chosen, she will have even 
 an enthusiastic audience. Now, what is the lesson amateur 
 pianoforte-players should learn from this ? Why, that neither 
 noise nor rapidity are music, and that nothing short of the perfect 
 execution and powerful expression of a great pianist, aided by 
 the rich tone of a first-rate instrument, will make any impression 
 on the hearers of a modem pianoforte piece in general society. 
 Do not be disheartened, fair reader ; the case is not so desperate 
 as it looks. I have a remedy to offer. Endeavour to give to 
 your playing as much as you possibly can of those qualities which 
 you observe to be so taking in vocal music. First, study to 
 acquire tone. This is not to be got by playing modern music 
 alone. If it is in your power, get a few lessons on the organ, in 
 order to obtain the power of holding down the right notes, of 
 sliding and changing a finger, of firmly grasping the harmonies, 
 and of making every finger independent. In a word, it will 
 enable you to “ know what you have to do, and do it,” which is 
 what amateur pianists in general have veiy little idea of. In 
 addition to giving you the power of legato and sostenuto playing, 
 practising the organ will improve your ear both for sound and 
 time. The tme value of the long notes, and the beauty of har- 
 mony, are brought out much more strikingly on an instrument 
 which has the power of sustaining the sound than on a piano. 
 It is not recommended to pianists to practise the organ much. It 
 is said to stiffen the fingers. I cannot say I have found it so 
 m}^self ; but perhaps I am not a fair judge, never having played 
 
20 
 
 A PEW WORDS AFsODT MUSIC. 
 
 the organ regularly for many weeks together. If you take only 
 a few organ lessons, just for the sake of improving your touch on 
 the piano, you need not pay much attention to the management 
 of the stops and the use of the pedals ; but at the same time, if 
 you choose to afford a regular course of lessons from a good 
 organist, you will find gaining dexterity of foot and hand is not 
 without its use to a pianist. If it is entirely out of your power to 
 get organ lessons, or an organ, seraphine, or melodium to practise 
 on, then the next thing I advise is to join a singing class on the 
 Hullah system, so as to get a true idea of the value, in time, of 
 semibreves, minims, and rests, and also a feeling for harmony. 
 Singing in part and at sight is the grammar — the foundation — of 
 all music ; and every one who attempts to play an instrument ought, 
 voice or no voice, to learn part singing. On no other plan can you 
 acquire a knowledge of time and accent so easily and rapidly, as 
 well as the power of reading music with facility. And while you 
 are learning to sing for the sake of your pla3ung, you should 
 follow up that study by practising organ music on the piano. 
 Mr. Novello has published a great quantity of classical music 
 which would do admirably for this purpose. His catalogue com- 
 prehends religious music of every description, of various, schools, 
 of every degree of difficulty, and for the most part excessively 
 cheap. I cannot speak too highly of a recently-started musical 
 periodical called Novello' s Part-Song Book. It contains, generally, 
 three glees or madrigals of sterling musical worth, and at the 
 same time of pleasing character, and by no means difficult to 
 execute. Its price is a shilling, and it appears on the 15th of 
 every month. The proprietors tell us, “ that with the hope of 
 supplying an impetus to art, by encouraging amongst their 
 countrymen the study of pure vocal composition,” they have 
 resolved to offer a monthly premium of eight guineas for the best 
 part-song which shall be composed for poetry given in the Part- 
 Song Book. The competition is open to all composers, both 
 professional and amateur, and the name of the successful candidate 
 only is known. In the June number we are told that the winner 
 
A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 21 
 
 of the first prize is Walter Cecil Macfarren, and that his com- 
 position will he printed on the 15th of July in the Part-Song Book. 
 It is also stated that there were fifty-eight candidate compositions, 
 many of them of great merit. That certainly is a very en- 
 couraging piece of news, as it shows what progress musical taste 
 and knowledge must have made in England of late years. Be- 
 fore concluding, I must beg my fair readers not to go away with 
 the idea that I undervalue modem music ; on the contrary, I 
 consider the compositions of Thalberg, Dohler, and others, to be 
 exquisitely beautiful, but fit only to be played by those who have 
 it in their power to devote a good deal of time to practising, and 
 who are moreover gifted with perseverance and energy, in addi- 
 tion to a fine taste for music. ■ Besides, I am addressing myself to 
 ladies who have not made any great progress in piauoforte- 
 pla3dng, and I should recommend them to begin at the fountain 
 head, by studying the sort of solid music which all great pianists 
 have mastered in their early studies. Having laid a good foun- 
 dation, the amateur is at liberty to add such a superstmcture as 
 circumstances admit of ; but this I must say, that the common 
 plan of beginning to raise the edifice without laying any foim- 
 dation at all, must naturally produce the fruits we see produced 
 so often, viz., an uninhabitable, useless building, destined to be 
 blown down by the first gale that attacks it. For forming the 
 jinger modem exercises are the best. Everybody knows Herz’s 
 Exercises, Czerny’s Etude de la Velocit€, Chaulieu’s First Six 
 Months, &c. ; they are all admirable, and I strongly advise 
 amateur pianists who are kept back by a weak or stiff finger to 
 practise any one of these works steadily for some weeks. The 
 newest work of this kind is Dreyschock’s Scales, recently published 
 by Messrs. Cocks — at a very low price, too. I shall have occasion 
 to enter further upon this subject of forming the hand when 
 I am addressing mothers and governesses, and therefore I take 
 my leave of it for the present. 
 
 Should any of my fair friends be so situated that they cannot 
 follow my advice with regard to learning the organ or joining a 
 
22 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 singing class, then I recommend them to get and study alone 
 Part I. of Wilhelm’s Method of Singing, adapted to English use, 
 by Mr. Hullah ; Novello’s Musical Times, the Part-Song Booh, and 
 as many as they please of those publications containing selections 
 from great composers, arranged as short solos for organ or piano, 
 which Mr. Novello has offered to the public at reduced prices. 
 I have given now some hints which may be useful to those who 
 can play tolerably. In future communications I shall say more 
 upon the mechanical part of musical study, to assist those who 
 wish to teach the piano properly to children. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 “ Dark-brow’d sophist, come not anear ; 
 
 All the place is holy ground ; 
 
 Hollow smile and frozen sneer 
 
 Come not here. 
 
 Holy water will I pour 
 
 Into every spicy flower 
 Of the laurel-shrubs that hedge it around. 
 
 The flowers would faint at your cruel cheer ; 
 
 In your eye there is death ; 
 
 There is frost in your breath ; 
 
 Which would blight the plants. 
 
 Where you stand you cannot hear 
 From the groves within 
 The wild bird’s din. 
 
 In the heart of the garden the merry bird chants ; , 
 
 It would fall to the ground if you came in.” — Tennyson. 
 
 Those among my fair readers who are expecting practical hints 
 on the art of teaching the piano, must forgive me if I postpone the 
 performance of my promise till I have fully developed certain 
 views with regard to pianoforte-playing which I think ought to 
 precede what I have to say on the mechanical part of the art. 
 Many people have an idea that great proficiency in music is 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 23 
 
 necessary in order to enable one to delight others, hut that for 
 one’s own private pleasure a very moderate amount of knowledge 
 and skill is required. This is an utter mistake. In reality it is 
 quite the other way, and ten times more musical power is required 
 to make the piano a resource for our solitary hours than for our 
 evenings in society. In company, especially at a distance from 
 London, perforaiers of very moderate calibre are valuable. It is 
 not so much music, as something to break silence and dissipate 
 dulness, that is wanted. A noisy piece of music, . ill performed, 
 is useful in giving shy people courage to talk with animation 
 under cover of the din. A popular song, or a popular polka, will 
 afford something to discuss. However, without taking extreme 
 cases, we may safely assert, that a very moderate degree of 
 musical acquirement will enable a young lady to amuse her 
 friends and acquaintance, but that she will require something 
 more to amuse herself. In order to make the pianoforte an 
 agreeable companion to a lady who leads a retired life, and is 
 thrown on her own resources for amusement, it is necessaiy that 
 she should be mistress of her instrument. 
 
 There is little pleasure in playing till the performer has gained 
 sufficient knowledge of time and harmony to enable her to read 
 music with facility, and sufficient executive power to enable her 
 to produce a fine tone, and to play without effort. And she who 
 has got so far as this is a finished pianiste. Perhaps some of my 
 fair readers may be inclined to dispute this point, by asserting 
 that the pianoforte is a resource to many who can neither play 
 well at sight, nor execute a difficult passage. A resource it may 
 be, an amusement, an occupation, a rival to “ knitting and netting 
 and crochet ; ” but a companion — even in the same sense that a 
 dog or a book is a companion — never ! To a good pianiste the 
 pianoforte is a loving friend. It gives you the most precious of 
 all things — sympathy. As your finger presses the delicate ivory, 
 exquisite sounds meet your longing ear. They express to you 
 the ideas floating through your mind ; they utter aloud the 
 feelings buried deep within your heart ; they satisfy the vague 
 
24 : 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 mysterious yearnings after the unseen world that stir within your 
 soul. What the face of Nature is to one who loves Wordsworth’s 
 poetry, such is her piano to one who loves Beethoven’s music. 
 Why have poets slighted you, dear treasure-house of harmony ? 
 Why do they ennoble the lyre, the harp, the lute, and leave you 
 without one kind word ? Sweet instrument, friend ever ready to 
 smile or sigh with me, I would I were a poet for your sake ! Is 
 it your name or your form that has caused you to be thus 
 scorned ? Both, I fear ; for your form (though dear to a player 
 as the chest that holds his gold to a miser) is, I must own, far 
 from graceful ; and as for your name, though it flows as melo- 
 diously as an air of Mozart, it has, alas ! been too often degraded 
 by commonplace associations to render it fit for poetry. Yet, 
 after all, I do not see that “ pianoforte” is a worse constractive 
 material for those architects who build in the air than “ the train 
 at Coventry.” 
 
 But, to leave trifling, and to speak soberly and seriously, the 
 pianoforte is, to those who know how to use it, a little world in 
 itself. Most instruments require an accompaniment, but the 
 pianoforte is to the skilful pianist an inexhaustible storehouse of 
 harmony. Tmly, I do not mean to say that the sounds are, in 
 themselves, to be compared with those of a fine band. The 
 pianoforte bears to the orchestra the same proportion that a 
 sketch bears to a finished painting. The roughest sketch from 
 the hand of a master gives pleasure to one who can draw, though 
 a common observer may see little in it to admire. And why ? 
 Because the eye and mind of the artist are in a state to receive 
 impressions from the faintest hints, which would be lost on one 
 w'hose perception of the beautiful has not been rendered acute by 
 cultivation. The artist sees on the paper a few grey lines and 
 black touches, and they kindle his imagination, and bring to his 
 memory distant hills clothed in aerial tints, foliage lit up by 
 sunlight, wild moorland or shady glen, all invested with the 
 charm of colour and effect. And even so it is with the musician. 
 The pianoforte enables us to bring before the mind a spirited 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 25 
 
 sketch of some mighty composer’s magical creation. You will 
 understand what I mean if you compare the degree of pleasure 
 with which you listen to an overture or symphony rendered upon 
 the piano, after having heard the real effect given by a fine 
 orchestra, with the degree of pleasure with which you listen to 
 one of whose orchestral light and shade you are ignorant. Take, 
 for instance, the overture to The Midsummer Night' & Dream, play 
 it on the piano, and what becomes of those enchanting chords 
 with which it opens ? Where are those “ linked notes of sweet- 
 ness long drawn out” which tell the listener that he is on the 
 confines of fairy- land ? those soft delicately-swelling chords which 
 seem to come from afar, like invisible music in an enchanted 
 region ? How cold, how poor, how weak, is the interpretation on 
 the piano ! But, when you have heard a fine orchestra perform 
 it, memory and fancy will help you with their magic spells, and 
 the recollections of the past will throw their gorgeous colouring 
 over the dull hues of the present. 
 
 Those who wish to make a companion and friend of their piano 
 should attach some idea to what they play. It is related of 
 Weber that he never saw a beautiful landscape without feeling 
 corresponding musical ideas rise in his mind. And many persons 
 without the slightest pretensions to musical genius have experienced 
 something of the kind. The difference between their sensation 
 and that of the great composer consists in the one being a creation 
 of imagination, the other tire congenial suggestion of memory. 
 Any one with a fine ear for music and real love of poetry will find 
 intense pleasure in playing certain pianoforte pieces, and attaching 
 to them suitable passages from favourite authors. For instance, 
 there is an exquisite little piece by Cramer, called “ Souvenir of 
 Bygone Days,” which will serve to illustrate several of Tennyson’s 
 poems. Sometimes it reminds me of “ The Lotus Eaters,” at 
 another of “ The Lady of Shalott.” Mendelssohn’s “ Songs with- 
 out Words,” too, are rich in ideas fit for the dreamy character of 
 Tennyson’s poetry. There is one spirited yet solemn melody in 
 the sixth book of the Lieder which always seems to me to express 
 
 B 
 
26 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 “ Sir Galahad.” It is in E minor, and there is a sort of stately 
 haste in the steady onward march of the tema, broken here and 
 there by trumpet-like calls, which resemble Sir Galahad’s solemn 
 quest. It is too short, though, for the whole poem, and wants a 
 subject more in the religious style for verses 3 and 4. It would 
 be easy to find something in the works of the same composer that 
 would come in there without injuring the effect of the rest. 
 Beethoven is rich in subjects for poetry. They who play his 
 music need hardly be told so. Weber, too, is eminently suggestive. 
 What a gem of poetry is “ The Mermaid’s Song ” in Oberon ! 
 There is an air in Der Freischutz, ” Softly sighs the breeze of 
 evening,” which forms a landscape. As the entrancing melody 
 and harmony steal upon the ear, you feel that the twilight is 
 dying away — that the stars are coming out — that the night- 
 breeze is stealing among the willows which bend over the glassy 
 surface of the quiet river ; in a word, you feel that music can 
 paint. 
 
 Thalberg’s “ Marche Funebre ” is a poetical composition. As 
 I understand it, it begins with deep, heavy sorrow, which gradually 
 calms and softens, till hope springs up, and thoughts of heaven 
 gleam brightly across the mind. Then the plaintive subject re- 
 turns, varied by a murmuring accompaniment, and again the 
 joyous air breaks in like the song of angels rejoicing over the 
 safety of the departed spirit. Once more are heard a few bars of 
 the funeral march, followed by the wailing melody in B flat minor, 
 accompanied by a restless tremolo, expressive of emotion. Then 
 comes a vehement octave passage, concluded by a few calm and 
 solemn bars, which, without any great effort of imagination, we 
 may fancy expresses passionate sorrow, exhausted by its own 
 violence, and recalled to calmness by the voice of religion, sub- 
 siding into submission to the will of Heaven. 
 
 To give proper effect to this beautiful pianoforte composition 
 great execution is required. I do not recommend it to any lady 
 who does not possess a strong finger and resolution to practise 
 vigorously. But there are some of Dreyschock’s recent pieces 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 27 
 
 which have this same charm of poetiy without any great diffi- 
 culties in the way of execution. The two nocturnes, called 
 “ Bluettes,” and the second nocturne in E flat, are full of grace 
 and expression. There is something very captivating in their 
 plaintive melody, and smooth flowing accompaniment. When 
 one plays them in the twilight it is easy to fancy one hears the 
 murmur of the river 
 
 “ Flowing down to Camelot.” 
 
 Then rises a vision of the place where 
 
 “ Four grey walls and four grey towers 
 Overlook a space of flowers, 
 
 And the silent isle embowers 
 The Lady of Shalott.” 
 
 And still, as the dream-like music flows on, one sees her weaving 
 her web and beholding in the mirror 
 
 “ the highway near, 
 
 Winding down to Camelot.” 
 
 And then, as the gentle melody gradually dies away, one knows 
 that 
 
 “ Thro’ the noises of the night 
 
 She floateth down to Camelot ; 
 
 “ And as the boat-head wound along 
 The willowy hills and fields among, 
 
 They heard her singing her last song, 
 
 The Lady of Shalott. — 
 
 “ Heard a carol, mournful, holy. 
 
 Chanted loudly, chanted lowly. 
 
 Till her blood was frozen wholly, 
 
 Turned to tower’d Camelot ; 
 
 “ For ere she reached upon the tide 
 The first house by the water-side, 
 
 Singing in her song she died. 
 
 The Lady of Shalott.” 
 
 I could mention many slow movements from Haydn, Mozart, 
 Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, and other great masters, which 
 
28 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 would serve to illustrate this most musical of poems ; but what I 
 have pointed out will suffice for those among my fair readers who 
 really lave poetry and music ; and to others, criticism of this kind 
 would appear trifling and unreal. 
 
 Note . — It would occupy too much space were I to particularize all the modern 
 composers for piano whose works possess sentiment ; hut I cannot forbear 
 from mentioning one to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude for the intense 
 pleasure his works have recently given me — Adolphe Henselt. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 “ Let us then be up and doing. 
 
 With a heart for any fate ; 
 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 
 Learn to labour, and to wait.” — Longfellow. 
 
 I have no doubt that my last article was condemned as romantic 
 and over- strained by some of my fair readers. Now, as I wish to 
 enlist in my cause minds of all casts, I mean to attempt what is 
 often set down as an impossibility, viz., to please everybody. So, 
 to-day, I am going to be as prosaic and business-like as the pence- 
 table ; and the most matter-of-fact lady breathing may venture 
 to listen to me just now without fearing any flights of fancy. 
 Most mothers and governesses are aware that until a child can 
 hold its pen properly, and make strokes firmly, it is useless to set 
 it to write words ; and every village schoolmistress knows that 
 coarse hemming must be conquered before fine stitching is 
 attempted. Again, unless the multiplication-table is learnt per- 
 fectly it is vain to expect any progress in arithmetic ; and, unless 
 certain names and dates are firmly fixed in the memory, no clear 
 ideas with regard to history can be hoped for. Even so it is with 
 every art and science, from painting and mathematics down to 
 knitting stockings and making puddings. 
 
 There are men and women in the world who never can do any 
 thing well, because in childhood they were allowed to give way to 
 
A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 29 
 
 sloth and slovenliness. If any fair reader is shocked by these 
 two ugly words, let her remember that the reality is uglier than 
 the name, and that a lady who never does anything that gives 
 her trouble from one year’s end to another is guilty of those vices, 
 though the united efforts of her dressmaker and her maid may 
 conceal the fact from the world. 
 
 Music, studied properly, is a powerful aid in general education, 
 but as it is learnt in many houses it is a hindrance rather than an 
 aid. It may be made the means of opening the mind, strength- 
 ening the memory, refining the taste, and guiding rightly the 
 imagination and feelings. But too often we see it made an agent 
 to narrow and confine the intellect, dwarf the feelings and the 
 memory, quench the fancy, and degrade the taste. The me- 
 chanical part of the art may be made to assist in giving habits of 
 accuracy, attention, energy, patience, perseverance, and good 
 temper. But a great number of children gain from their hour’s 
 “ practising” only an increase of idleness, carelessness, or irrita- 
 bility, according to their different dispositions. Many mothers, 
 and a still greater number of governesses, detest music, and wish 
 the fashion of ^making it an indispensable branch of education 
 would go out, as useless and unpleasant fashions generally do, 
 after they have had their day. I should agree with them if I 
 understood by music the senseless occupation of running the 
 fingers about among pieces of ivory for an hour a day for years, 
 and at the end of the time finding they had gained an acquire- 
 ment which was no resource to themselves nor any great pleasure 
 to their friends. And, depend upon it, did no young ladies culti- 
 vate music with any other aim than that of outshining a sister or 
 a schoolfellow, the fashion would have gone out long ago. But 
 some study the art to such good purpose, that they keep the light 
 burning in spite of every effort to quench it. 
 
 If I am not careful I shall break my promise of being matter- 
 of-fact, and so I will proceed at once to give practical advice for 
 teaching the pianoforte to children. I will suppose that a 
 governess who did not succeed in her piano studies in her own 
 
30 
 
 A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 school- days, and who gave up playing altogether on entering a 
 family where the plan adopted was to have a music-master, finds 
 it necessary to accept a situation where she is required to teach 
 music to beginners. I will suppose there is* a little girl able to 
 perform indifferently a good many of the early lessons in an 
 instruction-book ; another whom mamma has been trying to 
 teach “ her notes” in vain for two or three months past; and a 
 third who has been considered too young to learn. Most children 
 have a great desire to begin music. It seems to them at first like 
 a game of play ; and it is most desirable to take advantage of this 
 feeling, and to make the first month’s lessons an amusement. 
 Leave the hard work till some love of the art has been implanted 
 in the young mind. If the new instructress observes that her 
 eldest pupil reads the notes with difficulty, holds her hand ill, 
 pays no attention to rests, and seems to have no ear for time, 
 I recommend her to close the piano entirely for a week, and to 
 give her lessons without an instrument, something in this way : — 
 Let her place the three children before her, telling them to 
 stand erect and well, as if they were going to take a dancing 
 lesson. Then teach them to beat time, and get them to do it 
 gracefully. The slow, graceful wave of the hand is worth gain- 
 ing early : it will give an impression of the cantahile movement. 
 In the singing class hooks beating time is fully explained ; but 
 for the sake of those who may not have it in their power to 
 procure one conveniently, I will subjoin an explanation of the 
 method. 
 
 The left hand should he held at a little distance from the 
 waist, and the fingers of the right hand should give a smart, but 
 not violent, tap upon the open palm of the other hand, to mark 
 the first heat ; lift the right hand and raise it to an erect position 
 for the second heat ; wave it to the left for the third beat, and to 
 the right for the fourth. This should at first be done very slow, 
 and always in a marked, emphatic manner. Take care that all 
 the children strike on the palm of the left hand at the same 
 moment, and all make the 'vv'ave together Some children will 
 
A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 31 
 
 catch this movement much quicker than others of comse, just as 
 some learn to dance with greater ease than others. Let them 
 practise this heating of time, as they would practise the batte- 
 ments iu a dancing lesson. Do not keep them so long at it as 
 to tire them ; but if they are in good health, and are good- 
 humoured children, they will find it an amusing exercise, and 
 will be willing to try again and again till it is conquered. Make 
 them count 1, 2, 3, 4, with the beats ; count with them, laying 
 a strong emphasis on 1, and a slight emphasis on 3, which they 
 will imitate unconsciously. From ten minutes to a quarter of an 
 hour will be long enough for the beating. Then tell them to 
 sit down, and after a few second’s silence, to make them wonder 
 what is coming, say E ; then make them all repeat E, first 
 together, and then separately. Then say G. Do not add B till 
 the youngest child has learnt E and G perfectly. You may 
 make this droll and amusing if you manage well. Then add D 
 and F. If the children are very slow in capacity, or have been 
 much spoiled, do not force too much on them. This will suffice 
 for the first lesson in some cases ; but with quick, well-trained 
 children you may proceed as follows : — Take a slate and draw 
 a long horizontal line upon it, and holding it up say, “ What is 
 this ? ” The children will say, “ a line.” Then draw a second 
 just above it, and say, “What is this?” “ Another line,” they 
 will probably answer. Then draw a third and ask again. Then 
 say, “Which was the first line I drew?” The children will 
 point to the bottom line. Then ask, “ Which was the second 
 line I drew ? ” and afterwards which is the third line. Then 
 draw the fourth and fifth lines, and ask their names. You will 
 find no child of average capacity will ever want to be told again 
 which is the first line. Then ask if they have forgotten the 
 letters you taught them just now, and say, “ Which did I teach 
 you first?" They will say E. Which second? G; and so on. 
 Then write E on the first line, G on the second, &c., and make 
 them tell you which letter belongs to each line. Ivory letters 
 may be sought, if you see your little pupils tired or puzzled. 
 
32 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 It will make a break. And then rule the lines veiy far apart, 
 and allow each in turn (in a quiet orderly way) to put an ivory 
 letter on a line as often as they wish. In this way very young 
 children may master the five lines of the treble stave in one day ; 
 and it is by no means extraordinary to meet with grown-up 
 girls who can play^'eces after a fashion, who would be puzzled if 
 you asked them to say the lines and spaces backward rapidly. 
 How is it possible for them to read music if they do not know 
 the musical alphabet perfectly ? I consider the beating of time 
 and the names of the five lines quite enough for a little child to 
 learn in one day. A quick child would learn much more, but 
 it would be forgotten again ; and it is better 'to stop while the 
 interest is at its height. If the children wish to prolong the 
 lesson (and you may make it as amusing as any game of play), 
 say, “ Music is a treat, and that it would be greedy to allow 
 oneself too much at a time.” 
 
 I am supposing now that a governess, or an elder sister, or aunt 
 is teaching these children, and that time is no great object. But, 
 if one were teaching twenty children in a class, one might venture 
 to proceed farther. Notice the difference in a dancing lesson in 
 an academy and a dancing lesson at home. The sight of strangers 
 — the going to another house — the force of example — tendency 
 to imitate, to emulate, or to take warning by other children — 
 all these influences act strongly on most young people, and enable 
 a teacher to keep up the attention and spirits of pupils much 
 longer in a class than in a private lesson. And I am inclined to 
 think (though one cannot be sure till one has seen it tried), that 
 musical academies and classes would bring children forward 
 much quicker, as well as more pleasantly, than private teaching. 
 At the same time, I should imagine it would be necessary to 
 unite private lessons to class teaching, or there would be a danger 
 of some pupils not exerting themselves. 
 
 But to return to our lessons. These music lessons must be of 
 daily occurrence. The second day I would repeat the first lesson, 
 making the pupils beat time very slowly and then quicker. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 33 
 
 Having ascertained that all the ehildren can tell you each line 
 without hesitation, proceed to show them that there are empty 
 spaces left between the lines, and get them to find out which is 
 the first, and so on. The names they will learn directly by the 
 help of the word “ face.” This done, make a note (a semibreve) 
 on the first line, and tell them to call it E, and so proceed with 
 the nine notes of the staff. Let them try to write the notes 
 themselves on the slate. Eule the lines very wide apart, and 
 neatly, for them, and show them how to make a semibreve. 
 Having given a slate ruled to each child, say, “ Write G, B, C,” 
 or any other letters at random. Make th.Qm. find out that there 
 are two E’s in the staff. You will have accomplished enough 
 for the second day when the ehildren can write a note on any 
 given line or space without help from you. I must defer till 
 next week the conclusion of our little pupils’ lessons. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 “ That is work of waste and ruin — 
 
 Do as Charles and I are doing ! 
 
 Strawberry-blossoms, one and all, 
 
 We must spare them — here are many : 
 
 Look at it — the flower is small, 
 
 Small and low, though fair as any ; 
 
 Do not touch it ? summers two 
 I am older, Anne, than you.” — Wordsworth. 
 
 I need hardly say that, before beginning a second lesson, it is 
 necessary to ascertain that all our little pupil acquired at the 
 first has been retained. The grand mistake made by most ladies 
 with regard to musical education is this — they care more about 
 the quantity than the quality of the progress made in a given 
 time. Professors of music soon find this out by sad experience, 
 and feel that it is imdertaking to row against wind and tide 
 to attempt making the generality of their pupils lay a solid 
 
34 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 foundation of musical study before beginning what may be called 
 the decorative part of the art. I entreat all mothers who wish 
 their children to excel in music to weigh well what I have said 
 upon this subject in previous numbers. No branch of education 
 will bear hurrying, and music less than any. Kemember it is one 
 of the fine arts, and that numbers of professional people devote 
 their whole lives to it without attaining anything beyond me- 
 diocrity. How many years of daily labour, united to good teach- 
 ing, does it take a girl to become a first-rate dressmaker or con- 
 fectioner, or even a good housemaid or laundress ! And those are 
 common arts requiring but a moderate amount of intellect and 
 dexterity. 
 
 Music requires the careful cultivation of a young lady’s mind, 
 fancy, taste, feeling, and memory, as well as of her manual 
 strength and agility. If proper time be not allowed for getting 
 over the fundamental part of the art in childhood, it will be 
 found out too late that the old proverb, “ Most haste, worst 
 speed,” has been verified. Parents are often so impatient to hear 
 their children play pieces,” and grown-up young ladies 
 
 so anxious to shine in company, that masters have no chance of 
 getting time and labour bestowed on what they well know to be 
 indispensable to attaining good execution or fine taste ; and then 
 people complain that a teacher does not bring on their children, 
 when they themselves put most effectual obstacles in the way 
 of the pupils’ improvement. Another remark I must make here 
 is, that the custom of considering any wretched worn-out piano- 
 forte good enough to be employed in schoolrooms, is quite enough 
 to account for the immense preponderance of bad players over 
 good, one finds among ladies. 
 
 And now to begin our second lesson. Begin with beating time 
 as before, and then, having gone over again the lines and spaces, 
 written them on the slate, and repeated them backwards as well 
 as forwards, write the treble cleff, and let the pupils copy it; then 
 rub it out and substitute the bass cleff. Then teach them 
 G, B, D, F, A, and A, C, E, G, just as you did the treble notes. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 85 
 
 That gained, return to the beating of time. Write on the slate 
 a seale from E first line to E fourth space. Make the notes 
 semibreves, one in each bar. Teach the pupils the word semi- 
 breve, and make them understand that bar is the name common 
 both to the line which hara one part of the music from the other, 
 and also to the portion of music tarred, or railed off as it were. 
 Then make them beat time with the eye fixed on the notes, to 
 which you must point with a pencil, taking care to do it in a 
 decided manner, touching each note exactly at the same instant 
 that they strike the loud beat and pronounce one, holding your 
 pencil still on the note till the fourth beat has had its time. 
 Then let your pupils try to point, and you join those who are 
 beating. Then write two minims in each bar instead of the 
 semibreves, and make them clearly understand the relative value 
 of the notes by explaining that one is half the value of the other, 
 as sixpence is half a shilling. Then proceed to the crotchet, and 
 explain it as a quarter or fourth. Now we come to the quaver, 
 which may be conquered something in this way : — Write the 
 eight quavers in one bar as single notes, the others as groups of 
 two and groups of four. Show the children, by cutting a piece 
 of paper into eight, and joining it again, and by drawing divided 
 lines on the slate, what an eighth is, and that eight eighths are 
 the same as one whole, that four eighths are the same as two 
 fourths, and take care that they understand that two quarters 
 and one half are the same thing. You may make this part of 
 the lesson bear on arithmetic, and with slow children it will be 
 found useful, independent of musieal acquirement. 
 
 Having made all this clear, teach them to beat as before, with 
 the eye fixed on the notes. While they count and beat four, do 
 you touch with your pointer two quavers, one after the other, 
 sajdng at the very instant, One-un, two-oo, three-ee, four-or ; or, 
 if you prefer it, you can say One and, two and, &c. ; but the 
 other is more expressive. Go over this till it becomes easy, and 
 till they feel that the dividing the quavers into groups does not 
 alter their value. Show them that four quavers make half a bar. 
 
36 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 and are, therefore, equal to one minim, or two crotchets, in the 
 same way that four slices of a cake which had been cut into 
 eight equal portions would be the very same quantity as one 
 half (J), or two quarters (f ). This will be enough for the second 
 lesson ; indeed, should your pupils be slow or ill-trained, it would 
 be too much. I do not mean my method to be followed slavishly. 
 I profess merely to give hints which ladies may improve upon at 
 pleasure ; and, of course, much must depend on the mind and 
 temper of the pupils. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 “ They twinkle to the wintry moon, 
 
 And cheer th’ ungenial day, 
 
 And tell us all will glisten soon 
 As green and bright as they.” — Kehle. 
 
 “ Thorough, yet simple and clear ; for sublimity always is simple. 
 
 Both in sermon and song, a child can seize on its meaning.” — Longfellow. 
 
 I do not consider it necessary to detail every individual lesson. 
 We will, therefore, suppose that a few days’ practice has perfected 
 the first and second lesson, and added a knowledge of the semi- 
 quaver and demisemiquaver. One lesson will enable some 
 children to gain an acquaintance with all the “rests,” others 
 would get puzzled if shown more than one form at a time. The 
 best way of showing the value of the rests is by writing notes in 
 one bar and rests in another, and then singing the passage while 
 the pupils beat time. The silent bars will strike them forcibly. 
 If the teacher finds it impossible to sing, the piano must be 
 resorted to, but I should say that persons so deficient in ear that 
 they could not sing a few notes are hardly fit to teach music. 
 There may be cases where delicacy of chest, or nervousness, not 
 utter jvant of ear, are the bar to singing. But most ladies have 
 more vocal power than they imagine, and if they could but be 
 persuaded to sing without the support of the pianoforte, we 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 37 
 
 should hav.e more solid singers than we have at present. But to 
 return to our little pupils. Write eight bars in this way: — 
 F first space, G second line, A second space, in semibreves ; then 
 a semibreve rest ; then A A, G G, F F, all in minims, and two 
 minim rests. Make the children beat steadily while you point 
 to the notes, singing them if you possibly can ; if not, playing 
 them on the piano while the pupils are beating time, and, fixing 
 their eyes on the slate or paper, say F, G, A, rest ; A A, G G, 
 FF, rest, rest. You may vary this passage of course at pleasure, 
 only take care if you sing to begin on a note which will require 
 no accidental sharp or flat to keep it in the major mode. Y ou 
 must take as many days as you find necessary to teach the whole 
 of the rests. I will go on at once to ledger lines, so puzzling to 
 many a grown-up young lady. If my reader has any imagination 
 she will think of many ways of divesting these ledger lines of 
 their mysterious character, but in case she happens to have none, 
 I will give her a specimen of a good plan of making them plain 
 to children. Say, “ Fancy nine apples in a row, then three 
 pears, and then nine more apples.” Write on the slate, as 
 crotchets, the five lines and four spaces of the bass cleff ; then 
 write B, C, D, as semibreves, to catch the eye ; and, lastly, the 
 notes of the treble staff in crotchets ; the whole arranged so as to 
 form a scale from G first line in bass to F fifth line in treble. 
 The children will show you the two rows of imaginary apples 
 and the three pears between them very quickly. Next make 
 them name each note as you point to it from the lowest to the 
 highest. Stop when you get to the fifth line in bass, and say, 
 “ Now w'e have got through our first row of apples.” Then say 
 (pointing to fifth line), “What is this note?” “A,” they will 
 reply. What letters follow A?” “ B, C, D.” Stop them there 
 and say, “ Those are the three pears ; we must learn them 
 perfectly.” When B, C, D, axe firmly fixed in the memory, point 
 out that two are spaces and the middle one a note with a line 
 through it. Impress “ Middle C ” upon their memories; I would 
 say nothing of any other ledger lines at that lesson. At the 
 
38 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 next show them G, A, B, C, above the treble stave, and F, E, D, C, 
 below. If they are quite perfect in running backward as well as 
 forward with the letters, they will find no difficulty in learning 
 these notes. At the next lesson you may take them to the 
 piano. Write on a sheet of music paper the well-known exercise 
 for the five fingers (such as Herz’s first exercises begin with), but 
 with this difference, write it for four hands, two in the treble 
 cleff on one page, and two in the bass. In treble C, third space, 
 and middle C ; in bass, octave below. Write every note a semi- 
 breve, and make them count four steady slow beats to each. 
 Write the same passage twice, and put a double bar with two 
 dots, and explain that the dots mean repeat. This will make 
 the exercise played four times. Then write the same passage in 
 the treble with rests for the bass, followed by rests for the treble 
 and the passage for bass alone. Having written this before your 
 pupils, seat one at the piano as “primo ” player, and take the 
 “ secondo ” part yourself, making the other children stand on 
 each side of the instrument, and tell them to beat time and look 
 at the written notes, not the keys. Then play the duet slowly 
 and steadily, giving the full value of the four beats and the 
 accent on the first beat of each bar. When your eldest pupil can 
 execute this passage with ease, give up your own place to the 
 second child, and make the two little performers get the passage 
 perfect together. When it goes smoothly let the youngest try 
 with you, while the other two ’beat time. At the next lesson add 
 the same notes as minims ; at the next as crotchets, then as 
 quavers and semiquavers. If you find this beyond the youngest 
 child, let her listen to her sisters and beat time instead of playing. 
 Never let a child do anything in a slovenly way. When this 
 passage is conquered, vary it, by writing it in this way : — The 
 treble as before (in quavers) ; you may put one bar in groups of 
 two, and another of four. The bass as a common chord of C, 
 four crotchets in a bar. Then reverse it, giving the chords to 
 the first performer and the run to the bass. The sound of this 
 exercise pleases children. You can tell them that a chord is 
 
A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 39 
 
 two or more notes struck at the same instant, and that the full, 
 lich sound made by a chord is called harmony, while the plea- 
 sant running sound of the single notes is called melody. 
 
 Before concluding, I must warn ladies who have never studied 
 under a good master, that they should recollect that there is a 
 proper position for sitting at the instrument, holding the hands, 
 and moving the fingers. This has all been explained again and 
 again in books of instruction, from the venerable “ Cramer’s 
 Instructions” to “Benedict’s Tutor.” The remarks at the 
 beginning of Czerny’s and Chaulieu’s exercises are valuable to 
 those who have learnt of a bad teacher. But, for the benefit of 
 ladies who cannot afford expensive works, I will mention the 
 chief points to be attended to. Do not sit too close to the instru- 
 ment, nor mounted up on too high a seat. Let the wrist be 
 about the same level as the elbow, and generally a trifle higher 
 than the knuckles, especially for modem music ; but this may 
 be caricatured, and often is, by players of the Liszt school. 
 Take care that the hand is placed far enough on the key-board 
 to enable all the fingers to touch the black notes without altering 
 their general position, and guard vigilantly against the tendency 
 to let the thumb strike close to the edge of the notes. Make your 
 pupils keep the wn&t perfectly they practise the passage 
 
 recommended above, and be sure they play with their fingers, 
 not with their arms. Take care, also, that each finger remains 
 down till the next strikes, and then is lifted instantly. It often 
 happens that the sound of “practising” is an aimoyance in a 
 house. A good deal of this may be saved by exercising the 
 fingers on a table from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour a day. 
 To governesses who wish to acquire or retain a brilliant finger 
 I recommend this kind of practising. I should hardly venture to 
 enforce much of it with children, for fear of making them hate 
 their musical studies; but, where there is a large family of 
 young ladies anxious to improve, and still more anxious (as they 
 ought to he) not to annoy others, this silent practising will be 
 found valuable. 
 
40 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 “ Trampled under foot 
 The daisy lives, and strikes its little root 
 Into the lap of Time." — Clare, 
 
 I set out by declaring that I had no new system of musical 
 study to offer to the public, but that my object was merely to 
 place trutlis well known to all good pianists in a clear light 
 before the general reader. I do not consider it necessary, there- 
 fore, to follow out my method step by step. The examples I 
 have given of an easy practical method of instructing beginners 
 are enough to put any lady who plays passably on the right track 
 in the way of teaching. Having conducted her pupils as far as 
 the point at which I left off in my last chapter, she will have no 
 difficulty in proceeding further without any other directions than 
 those she will find laid down in all good instruction books. I 
 strongly recommend amateur teachers who have used my method 
 up to the above-mentioned point to study the elements of 
 thorough bass. I do not mean that I advise any lady (unless she 
 happen to possess a turn for scientific pursuits) to puzzle herself 
 with the advanced part of the theory of music. All I venture to 
 recommend is that she should render herself quite at home with 
 the common chord and chord of dominant 7th, and their inver- 
 sions ; and that she should be able to play them readily to a 
 figured bass without making consecutives. A.nd I further advise 
 communicating this knowledge as soon as gained to her scholars, 
 for I have observed that children learn the elements of thorough 
 bass more readily than most grown-up young ladies do, for the 
 same reason, I suppose that young people find it less irksome to 
 acquire tables, dates, verbs, &c., when they are beginning their 
 education than when they are supposed to be “finishing ” it. In 
 teaching a child thorough bass, be careful to ascertain that the 
 intervals are firmly established in the pupil’s mind and memory 
 before you advance another step. The table of intervals is 
 to music what the multiplication table is to arithmetic. There 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 41 
 
 is no getting on without having it thoroughly at our command, 
 I do not mean to advise teaching children all the chromatic 
 intervals. Major and minor 3rd and 7th will be enough for them 
 at first ; and if they have followed the method developed in the 
 preceding chapters they will know them without any additional 
 instruction. Having been accustomed to write 3rds, 5ths, &c., 
 they will have no difficulty in writing common chords to a figured 
 bass. The only error they will fall into will be that of making 
 consecutive 5ths and octaves. Explain it in this way : — Rule a 
 stave very wide, and place upon it four small objects, — thimbles, 
 seals, &c., will do. Place them on lines and spaces, which will 
 form a common chord. Ask them to move them so as to 
 form another common chord to the next note higher in the bass ; 
 then tell them that the rules of harmony forbid notes forming a 
 5th or 8th to move in the same direction ; consequently that, if 
 the thimble in the lowest plaee move a step upwards, the thimble 
 at the top must avoid going the same way. You must illustrate 
 this by taking common chords on several notes, having one thim- 
 ble on the lower stave (with bass clef), and the other three on 
 3rd, 5th, and 8th of upper stave ( with treble clef). When the 
 pupils can place the thimbles rightly, make them write notes in 
 their places, and when the writing is conquered take them to the 
 pianoforte to play from a figured bass. I would not teach them 
 the chord of the 6th till the common chord is indelibly fixed in the 
 
 8 
 
 mind. At first I would write 5 under every chord, to accustom 
 
 3 
 
 them to look at the figures ; afterwards they should play the same 
 exercise with the figures removed. I advise you to show them the 
 chords of 6th and ^ at first by the figures, which, if they are ready 
 with the table of intervals, they will name easily. When they 
 see clearly that a chord of 6th is a note with its 3 and 6, you can 
 show them the quicker way of finding the inversion by consider- 
 ing it as common chord of 3rd below. Proceed by the same method 
 with the chord of ^ and then slowly and gradually take the do- 
 
42 
 
 A- FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 minant 7th and its inversions. But it will be advisable to let the 
 common chord and its inversions be practised for some weeks be- 
 fore the discord is mentioned. Let all the early exercises be sim- 
 ply exercises not tmes. Afterwards chants and well-harmonized 
 hymns may be added. But it is necessary at first to guard 
 against pupils playing by ear, and so catching the harmonies by 
 chance. While cultivating the minds of your scholars, do not 
 neglect the mechanical exercises for the fingers. If you cannot 
 afford much time for musical studies, take the thorough bass 
 every other day, and on those days merely allow the children 
 to run through the earlier exercises as fast as they can, and, when 
 the fingers are tired, turn to the theory. But, if two hours a day 
 for music is not considered too great a sacrifice, it would be best 
 to cultivate execution in the morning, and to take the headwork 
 in the afternoon.* Let no one imagine that these studies will 
 advance a pupil’s musical education alone. Children who study 
 music in this solid manner will gain clearness of head, memory, 
 accuracy of eye and ear, dexterity of hand, and an idea of method 
 and order which will attend them in good stead in after life, and 
 enable them to pursue other studies with facility. 
 
 It is not necessary, as I said before, for me to follow out my 
 system in all its details. A standard book of instruction, with 
 some good exercises and studies, will carry your scholars on in the 
 road to perfect pianoforte-playing, provided correct reading and 
 steady, careful hand mechanism are attended to in the daily 
 practising. The course of works for students I prefer to all 
 others, myself, are Cramer’s. I was taught to venerate them as a 
 child, my first teacher ( in eveiy sense of the word ), she to whom 
 I gratefully dedicate this little work, having been one of John 
 Cramer’s favourite pupils. And I believe I owe a considerable 
 share of my intense love for classical music (which feeling I look 
 upon as one of the greatest earthly blessings that has fallen to my 
 
 * Children are generally stronger and more inclined for bodily exertion in 
 the morning, and the strain upon a child’s mind ought at no time, to be harder 
 than can be easily borne after an early dinner or before it. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC: 
 
 43 
 
 lot) to attempting in my childhood to play Cramer’s “ Studio.” 
 Still I do not think it would answer, in a general way, to allow be- 
 ginners to attempt music quite beyond their power. Let the 
 learner go through the whole of Cramer’s “Instructions,” in- 
 cluding every prelude, all the scales, and most of the exercises ; 
 then proceed to Cramer’s “ Sequel,” and finally play Bertini’s 
 “ Exercises,” before attempting the immortal “ Studio” of John 
 Cramer. But, as pupils generally have a great aversion to being 
 kept long at one book, selections from standard pianoforte authors 
 may be introduced as soon as the “Sequel” is mastered. But 
 I should be inclined to dispense with that deluge of easy “ pieces ” 
 which it is the habit of some teachers to rain down upon their 
 pupils. Selections suited to learners from Handel, Mozart, 
 Haydn, Beethoven, and other classical authors, are to be met 
 with, if sought for, far better adapted to improve the taste of 
 students than the ephemeral productions of the day. Mr. 
 Benedict, Mr. Sterndale Bennett, Mr. Callcott, and other eminent 
 musicians, have edited a great deal of first-rate pianoforte music 
 fit for study; and Mr. Novello’s catalogue of church music 
 includes much that may be played on the pianoforte with advan- 
 tage as well as pleasure by amateurs of all grades. 
 
 I have apparently forfeited my pledge of giving advice to 
 coimtry ladies wishing to pursue their own musical studies un- 
 assisted by a master ; but my reason for not having hitherto 
 addressed myself exclusively to them is this — if they have not 
 been thoroughly well-grounded, they could not do better than 
 follow the method I have laid down for beginners. Czerny’s 
 “Etude de la Velocite, ” or some similar work, should be prac- 
 tised eveiy day for a few months to gain strength and equality of 
 finger. Dreyschock’s “ Scales ” will be found very useful to 
 ladies ambitious of executing perfectly the works of the modem 
 pianoforte school. A novel feature in Dreyschock’s scales is that 
 their arrangement ensures calling the student’s attention to two 
 of the weak points of all ill-instracted players, viz., the passage 
 of the thumb, and the power of making the hands move rapidly 
 
44 
 
 A PEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 in contrary directions. Kalkbrenner's “Studio” is one of the 
 best works an amateur can practise. In addition to the great 
 variety of passage-work, calculated to give firm and neat execu- 
 tion, there is a solidity of composition, a flow of melody and rich- 
 ness of harmony, which will assist the student’s power of reading 
 and improve her taste, A few exercises and studies practised 
 carefully, till every note is just as it should be, will be found to 
 do more towards gaining an increase of power than whole books 
 full played in a slovenly, indolent manner. But the student 
 must be on her guard against neglecting the art of reading while 
 taken up with improving her execution. I advise her to vary her 
 practising of scales and studies, by playing sacred music. If she 
 is a very bad reader let her begin with chants, which contain no- 
 thing but chords. Afterwards she can play oratorios and masses, 
 or rather selections from such compositions. The best speci- 
 mens of solid composition are the works of Palestrina and his 
 school, and their modem imitators, the composers of the music 
 one hears in the English cathedrals. I must repeat here what I 
 said before, that the quickest way* of learning to play music of 
 the severe school at sight, is to join a singing class on the 
 Hullah system. 
 
 We will suppose our pupil can strike the common chord of C, 
 and run the five notes up and down evenly, smoothly, and 
 rapidly. Now we will take shaiqis and flats. Show them on the 
 keyboard the black notes, and make them observe that the black 
 keys are wanting between E and F, and B and C. Make them 
 ascend the scale from C by semitones. Let them do it slowly 
 and firmly, saying C,C sharp, D,D sharp, E, F,F sharp, G,G sharp, 
 A,A sharp, B, C. Most children will say, “ Then there is no E 
 sharp or B sharp?” “When we want to use E sharp or B sharp,” 
 you answer, “ we are obliged to take F and C, and call them 
 E sharp and B sharp.” Any child of inquiring mind will want 
 an explanation of this ; but you must tell her music is a science 
 
 * I mean, of course, in the case of a lady who has been accustomed to play 
 light music exclusively. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 45 
 
 as well as an art, and that it has in it many things very hard to 
 understand, and that she must wait till she is grown up to know 
 the meaning of all the curious things she will meet with in 
 studying music. Some children will want to know here “ What 
 is a science and what is an art.” If the teacher be a mother, an 
 elder sister, a trusted friend of the pupil’s parents, this would be 
 just one of those many opportunities which will spring out of the 
 pianoforte lessons for leading the mind of an intelligent child on 
 to glimpses of sound knowledge. I will not enter upon this 
 subject now, as I wish to keep to the matter in hand ; and I think, 
 too, it would be better not to interrupt the music lesson, but to 
 tell the child that you would answer all her questions at another 
 time, out walking, or in the evening, or at any time when you 
 were in the habit of amusing the children by telling them tales 
 or talking with them. 
 
 I do not think the plan of making the hours of study long 
 answers for girls. It is much better to let them be very short, 
 but to insist upon close attention while they last. A great deal 
 may be done to enlarge the mind and cultivate the taste during 
 the hours given to air and exercise and nominal recreation. 
 The high-pressure system of female education appears to me to 
 make a few young ladies walking encyclopedias, and the majority 
 superficial pretenders. But to return to our music. Having made 
 your pupil point out readily the sharps, tell her that each of these 
 sharps is also called a flat, but that the note that is a sharp to D, 
 for instance, will be flat to E. This is puzzling to some children. 
 Explain it by the parallel of sister and cousin. Say, “What 
 relation are you to Anne ? ” (naming her sister.) “ I am her 
 sister.” “ And what relation are you to Louisa ? ” (naming a 
 cousin). “ Are cousin and sister the same thing ? And yet you 
 are only one person, though you are sister to Anne and cousin to 
 Louisa. Well, it is the same with the flats and sharps. This 
 note (touching the black key) is sharp to this note, but it is flat to 
 that one, just as it might be (if some fairy made the three notes 
 into little girls) sister to one and cousin to the other.” Then 
 
46 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 make your pupils tell you which is A sharp, which B flat, and so 
 on till all the flats and sharps are mastered. Then write them, 
 and teach the childi’en to write them. Ascertain that they can 
 write C sharp, B flat, or any other given note, without hesitation, 
 before you proceed. Now for the intervals. Ask what is the 
 first letter in the alphabet, what the second, what the third. The 
 children answer unhesitatingly, A is the first, B second, C third. 
 Then say, in an emphatic way, “ What is the third from A ? ” 
 They will say C. “ Suppose B stood first, which would be the 
 third then ? ” “ B C D,” a quick child will answer. “ Then 
 
 what is the third from B ? ” “ D.” “ Suppose E were the first, 
 which would be the third ? ” And so proceed till they can tell 
 you the third from any given note vdthout hesitation. This done, 
 return to the piano, and resume the first exercise, playing it very 
 slowly, without counting. Ask which note is the third. They 
 will say E. Say, “ Alter the E into E flat, and play the other 
 note as before,” Ask them if they cannot hear that it has a 
 mournful sound. Then tell them that the third played that way 
 is called minor. Tell them minor means less, or smaller, and 
 show them that from C to E flat is one step less than from C to 
 E. Then write an exercise with the E flat added, and make 
 them play the chords and runs in the minor mode. When used 
 to it let them change to the major, and play either for you un- 
 hesitatingly. The next step is to make them familiar with the 
 6th. This may be done immediately by making them observe 
 the keys as they play the exercise. — They will see where the 
 little finger comes, and knowing how many fingers they possess, 
 will feel at once that G is the 5th note from C. Make them 
 run up and stop at the 5th. Tell them to take off the hand and 
 put the thumb on G, and begin the exercise on that note (the 
 left hand following as before). While they are playing it, tell 
 them they are playing in the key of G, and that the first was the 
 key of C. Tell them to alter the major 8rd to a minor one. When 
 this is done well, make them run on to D. Here you will have 
 to stop, and show them that D to F is the same distance as G to 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 47 
 
 Bb, i.e. a minor 3rd. Make them comprehend clearly that F|| 
 is put to make the 3rd major, and that the black note makes the 
 interval the same size as a white one did before. When they have 
 played the exercise in D, major and minor, run on to A, and so 
 proceed till they have got to the key of C|. When the sharp 
 keys are perfect, teach them the flat keys in the same way, but 
 ascending by fourths instead of fifths. You may now explain to 
 them the scales. Take a narrow strip of cartridge paper and 
 bend it into the form of a flight of stairs consisting of twelve steps. 
 On these steps write Cjj, D D^, E F, F;j|, G GjJ, A A||, B C. 
 Hold it lightly between the finger and thumb of the left hand in 
 such a manner that the bottom step should rest on the table. 
 Then with your pencil touch each step in turn, beginning with 
 the table itself as the starting point, and ascending step by step 
 to the top. Tell the children to fancy the point of your pencil is 
 a person going up a flight of steps, and then, as you touch each, 
 utter the letters given above, making C the starting point. My 
 reason for beginning on the table is to show them at a glance that 
 there are twelve semitones in the octave, and thirteen notes, count- 
 ing the first and eighth. This ladder will make them perceive 
 what a semitone is very readily. Then make them point and 
 repeat the letters, and you at the same moment strike each cor- 
 responding note on the piano. Make them keep their eyes on the 
 ladder at first, and listen to the sounds of the semitones. After- 
 wards show them to them on the instrument. Explain that semi 
 means half, reminding them of the semi-quavers. Then go 
 back to the table or the ladder, and explain the chromatic scale 
 as consisting entirely of semitones, and afterwards the diatonic, 
 consisting of tones and semitones, in the following order : — “ Two 
 tones and a semitone, three tones and a semitone.” Repeat this 
 sentence emphatically like an axiom, and let them learn it by 
 heart. Then make your pencil ascend the ladder diatonically, 
 i.e. skipping the sharps, and so ascending in the key of C major. 
 Make them repeat the letters, looking at the steps as your pencil 
 touches them, and afterwards “ tone, tone, semitone : tone, tone, 
 
48 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 tone, semitone.” You will observe here the advantage of starting 
 from the table, as from the ground in ascending a ladder. When 
 this is all clear, go to the piano and play to them the diatonic scale 
 in C major. As they have not yet learnt to put the thumb under, 
 reserve the playing the scale themselves, till the next lesson. 
 Point out to them the two tones and the half tone, the three 
 tones and the half tone ; make them tell you between which in- 
 tervals of the scale the semitones fall. As they are already 
 familiar with thirds and fourths, they will find out sevenths and 
 eighths vnthout trouble. At the next lesson, let D be the start- 
 ing note, and write upon the ladder D||, &c. The children will 
 soon see, that to preserve the order of “ Two tones and a semi- 
 tone ; three tones and a semitone,” they must use F| and C;|. 
 Do not take them to the piano, till they have made this dis- 
 covery by means of the ladder. That accomplished, the whole 
 difficulty of sharps and flats disappears at once. By making E 
 the key note they will find out that four sharps are wanted, and 
 so on. This is as interesting as a joining map or Chinese puzzle, 
 when well managed. The order of the sharps they will learn 
 insensibly from their daily practising of the exercise I pointed 
 out before, viz : running to the fifth and beginning afresh ; 
 bearing in mind that one sharp is added each time. Before pro- 
 ceeding to the minor mode, I would make the pupils write the 
 scales, marking the tones and half tones ; and the sharps before 
 the notes. Afterwards I would show them that to save trouble, 
 the sharps belonging to each key are put at the beginning of the 
 stave, and this is called the signature. They should then learn 
 to make a natural, and be told that when notes not belonging to 
 the diatonic scale occurred in a melody, the sharp, flat or natural 
 required wdll be marked close before the note, and that these are 
 called Accidental, as they come in ly accident, not belonging 
 properly to the key. This sounds obscure in words, but with a 
 sheet of music paper and a piano it can be made easy to a child. 
 If all that I have now laid down has been ihc/rongUy mastered, 
 you may congratulate yourself on having laid your foundations. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 49 
 
 Do not go beyond this till it is conquered. Some children would 
 gain all this in a few weeks, others would take as many months. 
 Do not be disheartened if your pupil’s hands are awkward, her ear 
 bad, her head confused. Have patience and spirit and you vnll 
 make her play well in the long run, and, what is of more con- 
 sequence, give her habits of perseverance, industry, method and 
 good humour. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 “ Then pours she on the Christian heart 
 That warning, still and deep, 
 
 At which high spirits of old would start 
 Even from their Pagan sleep. 
 
 Just guessing through their murky blind, 
 
 Few, faint, and baffling sight. 
 
 Streaks of a brighter heaven behind 
 A cloudless depth of light. 
 
 Such thoughts, the wreck of Paradise 
 Through many a dreary age. 
 
 Upbore whate’er of good and wise 
 Yet lived in bard or sage .” — Christian Year. 
 
 “ The heavens are telling, high and wide 
 The glory of the Lord, 
 
 The firmament and deeps of air 
 His handy-work record. 
 
 Day speaks to day, — a gushing fount 
 Of praise that cannot fail ; 
 
 Day unto day, and night unto night. 
 
 Tells out the wondrous tale. 
 
 No sound, no converse ; all unheard 
 The solemn voice they send. 
 
 Their line goes out o’er all the earth. 
 
 Their words to the world’s end.” 
 
 Keble’s Translation of the Psalms. 
 
 Having pointed out what I conceive to be the true principles of 
 musical study, and the best method of carrying them out, 
 practically, which can be adopted by ladies, my concluding 
 
50 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 chapters shall be devoted to a slight sketch of the history of 
 music, and of the different schools the art possesses. 
 
 The ancient traditions of all nations unite in asserting that 
 music is of divine origin; and let not evidence from such a 
 source be despised. The heathen mythology, among its cor- 
 rupt fables, still retained scattered relics of truth. The law of 
 nature, though obscured, was not entirely lost. The noble- 
 minded Athenians who erected an altar to “ the unknown God ” 
 deserved that the great apostle of the Gentiles should declare 
 to them Him whom they “ ignorantly worshipped.” Nor did 
 St. Paul disdain to make use of a quotation from one of their 
 own poets, to lead them on from the dim twilight of ima- 
 gination to the noonday brightness of faith. And among the 
 many truths which the law of nature had graven deeply upon 
 the heathen mind, was this most beautiful one, that what we, in 
 our modern jargon, call “high art,” was neither more nor less 
 than an emanation from the Divinity. Surely there is nothing 
 overstrained in saying that the myth which personifies the Sun, 
 and makes him the author of the science of healing as well as 
 of the fine arts, bears a shadowy resemblance to the poetical 
 figure in the New Testament, whereby our Lord, the source 
 of light, health, strength, and beauty, is represented as the 
 “ Sun of Eighteousness, with healing in his wings.” And there 
 is something touching in the thought that the Lord’s-day has 
 been made to fall upon Sunday. 
 
 Classic lore contains much that may be made to bear a 
 mystical allusion to Christian truth, and to those who love 
 symbolism ; these coincidences, not to use too strong a word, 
 produce upon the mind the same sort of pleasure which a 
 musical ear receives from a singular modulation or an unex- 
 pected harmony. I am perfectly aware that there is a tendency 
 in the present day to make an idol of art — to make her the 
 queen where she ought to be the handmaid ; and I know, too, 
 that minds of a class who, under other influences, would be 
 remarkable for heavenward aspirations, are by this most subtle 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 61 
 
 and refined species of idolatry chained down to earth. No 
 doubt a love of aesthetics is dangerous, unless it be rightly 
 directed and kept under proper controul; but we must not 
 blame the noble steeds of the Sun for the fate of the rash 
 Phaeton. And what is there that may not be abused ? — 
 
 “ As in this bad world below, 
 
 Noblest things find vilest using.” 
 
 So need we not marvel when we see lofty minds grovelling in 
 the mire of earthliness. Still the art-worship of the present 
 day is a more hopeful sign of the times than is its mammon- 
 worship, and its blind and senseless adoration of fashion. High 
 art has principles founded on never-changing truth ; it has views 
 which cannot be made to coalesce with vulgarity and sordid 
 baseness, and it gives to its follow'ers habits of thought and a 
 tone of feeling, incompatible with paltry tastes and littleness of 
 mind. Those whose imaginative faculties have been checked 
 in the bud, by the nipping frost of a false system of education, 
 may see, in the language of the aesthetic writers of our day, 
 nothing but insane extravagance or childish folly; but those 
 who believe that a love of what is “transcendental” is a gift 
 from heaven, will recognise in those morbid aspirations the 
 soul’s restless craving after the true and the perfect, — the thirst 
 of an immortal spirit for the source of its being. 
 
 They who take this view, will look with tender compassion on 
 the idolatry of Nature and Art, which is one of the character- 
 istics of a very high class of minds in our own times ; but, on the 
 imaginings and reasonings of the poets and sages of the classical 
 ages, they will look, not only with pity, but with reverential 
 admiration : — 
 
 “ The olive wreath, the ivied wand, 
 
 The sword in myrtles drest, 
 
 Each legend of the shadowy strand 
 Now wakes a vision blest ; 
 
 As little children lisp, and tell of heaven, 
 
 So thoughts, beyond their thoughts, to those high Bards were given.” 
 
62 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the Pagan music, to which the 
 classical poets and philosophers have attributed divim power, was 
 the most ancient music, and that instead of improving as time 
 went on and civilization increased, this art, according to the 
 testimony of the Greek and Eoman widters, soon deteriorated, 
 and at last was entirely lost. This would accord perfectly with 
 what we know of the gradual obscuration of the law of Nature, 
 and the consequent loss of true traditions, which ended in Pagan 
 idolatry of the grossest kind. The Fathers have held that 
 Paganism preserved certain true traditions, which enabled those 
 who loved truth and goodness, and who earnestly devoted them- 
 selves to seeking the one and practising the other, to raise their 
 souls above the grovelling ideas of ordinary heathenism. Socrates 
 and Plato, Numa, Virgil, Trajan, Pliny, Marcus Aurelius, and 
 others too numerous to instance, are types of this order of minds. 
 Perhaps it is hardly just to put Plato and Pliny in the same class ; 
 still there was sufficient elevation, both moral and intellectual, 
 in the favorite of Trajan to raise him far above the common level. 
 Some Protestant Divines have agreed with Catholic Doctors on 
 the fact that the Sibylline books contained real prophecies. 
 Leslie in his “ Short Method with Deists,’’ quotes Virgil’s well- 
 known ode to Pollio, containing a prophecy from the Sibyls,* as 
 a strong argument in favour of revelation. In the middle ages 
 this was acknowledged by giving the Sibyls a place of eccle- 
 siastical honour. In medioeval works of art, one frequently finds 
 them introduced: and in the “Dies Irse” they are distinctly 
 alluded to : — “ Testit David cum Sibylla.” 
 
 I recollect once reading a sermon by the famous Scotch 
 preacher who founded the sect of the Irvingites, in which there is 
 a very striking and eloquent passage on the Greek philosophers. 
 
 * This is my impression, but I am not sure whether Leslie does not 
 suppose tlie Sibylline prophecies to have been borrowed from the Old 
 Testament, 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 53 
 
 acknowledging that their earnest and disinterested love of truth, 
 drew upon them light from above : — ‘ 
 
 “ From art, from nature from the schools, 
 
 Let random inflences glance, 
 
 Like light in many a shiver’d lance 
 That breaks about the dappled pools : 
 
 The lightest wave of thought shall lisp. 
 
 The fancy’s tenderest eddy wreathe. 
 
 The slightest air of song shall breathe 
 To make the sullen surface crisp.” 
 
 I have endeavoured to give all possible weight to the authority 
 of mere antiquity, for this reason, that the Holy Scriptures do not 
 afford any decisive testimony on this point. True, they do not 
 contradict the opinion I am supporting, and we can find in them 
 much of what I may be allowed to call, in Paley’s language, 
 “ auxiliary evidence.” The historical account they give of the 
 invention of Music amounts merely to the fact that Jubal, sixth 
 in descent from Cain, “ was the father of all such as handle the 
 harp and organ.” This statement, I must allow, is not particu- 
 larly favourable to my argument, as the name of Cain is enough 
 to cast discredit upon his descendant. At the same time, it must 
 be allowed that nothing is recorded against Jubal. — But it is on 
 the auxiliary evidence that I mainly rely. By this auxiliary 
 evidence, I mean, the instances we find in Holy Scripture of 
 music being used not only in formal religious ceremonies, but 
 also, as a spontaneous effusion of the heart on occasions of 
 thanksgiving, such as the songs of Moses and Miriam. When 
 Saul met the company of prophets coming down from the high 
 place, there went before them “ a psaltery, a pipe, and a harp,” 
 and at that time, be it remembered, they were under the 
 influence of the Holy Ghost, for they prophesied. 
 
 Again, it is very plain that when Holy David drove the fiend 
 from the heart of Saul, it was inspired music, and not inspired 
 words, to which the power of exorcism was granted. Holy 
 Scripture is explicit on this point : — When David “ played with 
 
54 
 
 A FEAV WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 his hand,” the evil spirit departed from Saul. The Jews* 
 excelled all other nations in their skill in music. Their extra- 
 ordinary musical power was known to surrounding nations, for 
 in their captivity their conquerors required of them a song, 
 saying, “ Sing us one of the Songs of Sion.” 
 
 Mr. Nathan, in his “ Essay on the Theory and Practice of 
 Music,” asserts that the Chant in which the Psalms are sung in 
 the Synagogue, has been handed down, by tradition, from remote 
 antiquity, and that it is the very same that Moses received on 
 Mount Sinai, together with the design of the Tabernacle. He 
 says that this Chant was “ handed down from father to son, till 
 about the fifth century, when Kabbi Ben Asser invented certain 
 characters to represent the accent and true tone that was given 
 to each word, by which means the original chant has been 
 preserved to this day.” In Dr. Crotch’s Specimen of the Music 
 of all Nations, some Hebrew Chants of great antiquity, noticed by 
 Marcello, are given.| 
 
 It is certain, that in the beginning. Almighty God gave to 
 man a single universal tongue, though modem languages are 
 traced to three primitive roots instead of one. Reasoning from 
 analogy, it is probable that all primitive music was derived from 
 that revelation which Father Martini holds to have been granted 
 to Adam. If so, the older the art, the nearer the Divine Source ; 
 which accords perfectly with the heathen traditions of the golden 
 age. And this would agree, too, with the view that ancient 
 music, both Jewish and Pagan, were much alike. Afterwards, 
 it is probable, the Pagans lost the unearthly character of the 
 primitive art, by heaping meretricious ornaments upon it, and 
 bringing it down to a level with their idolatrous rites, while the 
 
 * It is remarkable that the Jews have retained their talent for music, as 
 strikingly as their peculiar cast of countenance, to this day. 
 
 t Not to he guilty of anything so shabby as affecting familiarity with books 
 one has not read, I beg to state that the information respecting the Hebrew 
 Chants is taken from an anonymous Tract (published by Cradock) which has 
 given me many useful hints. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 55 
 
 Jews retained it, in its pristine majesty and purity, by means of 
 the unalterable forms of the solemn worship of the Temple. 
 Many hold that the Gregorian Song is actually the modem 
 representative of the ancient inspired Jewish music. 
 
 “ My vows to Israel’s King 
 Make haste to let me pay, 
 
 ’Mid all his people bring 
 Mine homage due to day : 
 
 In His own courts, His holy ground. 
 
 Thy bulwarks, Salem, glittering round.” 
 
 “ O clap your hands together every nation ; 
 
 Sing to the Lord with voice of melody ; 
 
 God is most high, of dread and awful station ; 
 
 A mighty King o’er all the earth is He. 
 
 Now join’d in one, the lords all nations swaying, 
 
 One nation seal'd to Abraham’s God draw nigh ; 
 
 God is alone, the shields of earth arraying, 
 
 God is alone, lift up exceeding high.” 
 
 Keble’s Translation. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 “ In exitu Israel de Egitto. 
 
 Cantavan tutti ’nsieme ad una voce. 
 
 Can quanto di quel Salmi h poi scritto.” — Dante. 
 
 “ Beautiful times ! times past! When men were not 
 The smooth and formal things they are to-day. 
 
 When the world travelling an uneven way. 
 
 Encountered greater truths in every lot. 
 
 And individual minds had power to force 
 An epoch, and divert its vassal course. 
 
 Beautiful times ! times past ! in whose deep art. 
 
 As in a field by angels furrowed, lay 
 The seeds of heavenly beauty ; set apart 
 For altar-flowers, and ritual display — 
 
 Beautiful times 1 from whose calm bosom sprung 
 Abbeys and chantries, and a very host 
 Of quiet places upon every coast, 
 
 Where Christ was served, and blessed Mary sung! ” — Faber. 
 
 Whether the primitive Christians employed the music of the 
 
56 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 Jews, or that of the Pagans, in their religious worship, is a 
 point much debated among musical antiquaries. I believe Father 
 Martini’s view on this subject,, is in favour of the adoption 
 of the Hebrew music. It seems most probable, that this would 
 be the case for several reasons. The first Christians were all 
 of Jewish birth, and would, naturally, be attached to the re- 
 ligious music they had been accustomed to. The Christian 
 Church was the development of the Jewish. Both were 
 founded by the same Divine hand, and hear marks of a com- 
 mon origin. In proof of this assertion I need only cite the 
 fact, that the Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament 
 form the chief share of the devotional exercises of the Christian 
 Church to this day. The Jewish psalmody being then retained, 
 is it likely that the Christians would sever the poetry of holy 
 David from the inspired music to which it had ever been united ? 
 Is is likely that the Jewish converts would prefer, to the chants 
 which had been sung in Solomon’s Temple, the melodies which 
 had resounded through the streets of heathen cities in honour 
 of Bacchus and Cybele ? Music has always held a high place 
 >in the semces of the Christian Church. Even while the faithful 
 formed but a small persecuted sect, meeting by stealth to cele- 
 brate the sacred rites, they sung hymns. And, as soon as 
 Christianity was established as the religion of the empire, by 
 Constantine the Great, Church Music was carefully cultivated, 
 choirs were formed, and a place assigned to them in the 
 churches — as Eusebius says, “ The rites of the Church were 
 decent and majestic, and there was a place appointed for those 
 who sang psalms.” By the middle of the fourth century it 
 had become customary to divide the choirs, placing one on 
 each side of the Church, and these choirs answered each other 
 by singing alternate verses of the Psalms. Whether this waS 
 taken from the Jewish services, or suggested by the choruses 
 in the Greek Drama, I cannot tell. All knowledge of the 
 ancient Greek music had been lost long before the birth of 
 our Lord. Plutarch complains that in his time the art had 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 57 
 
 degenerated — bore no resemblance to the ancient style which 
 he declares to have been divine. — Plato and Aristotle speak of 
 music as possessed of heavenly power, and proper on that account 
 to be used as an instrument of civilization and education. Father 
 Martini is of opinion that Adam was endowed with the gift of song, 
 as well as the gift of speech, by his Creator. And if so, the hea- 
 venly tradition would be handed down, together with the law of 
 nature, to his descendants, and disappear gradually, as the light 
 of truth was first dimmed, and finally quenched, when men forgot 
 God. But to return from speculations to historical facts, about 
 the year 386, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, began his famous 
 reformation of ecclesiastical music. He reduced the art of chant- 
 ing to a regular system, which was called after him the Cantus 
 Ambrosianus, or Ambrosian Chant. This Chant is sung in the 
 Cathedral of Milan to this day. St. Ambrose, who was a classical 
 scholar, made use of the Greek musical terms, calling the modes 
 or scales, on which his Chants were formed, the Dorian, Phrygian, 
 AHolian, and Mixo-Lydian Modes. This has caused some wi’iters 
 to imagine that he adopted the Greek music, — a most unlikely 
 thing, if the Jewish music had been used in the Christian Church 
 for nearly 400 years, and the ancient Greek art lost for centuries. 
 Still it is not impossible that he may have taken some hints from 
 the Greek music, for it is certain that he made great improve- 
 ments both in the music and the method of singing. St. Austin 
 speaks of being melted into tears and raised heaven-wards by the 
 sounds of this psalmody. 
 
 The next great musical reformer we meet with is St. Gregory the 
 Great, who filled the Pontifical chair from a.d. 590 to a.d. 604. 
 During the fifth century ecclesiastical music greatly degenerated. 
 — The airs of the theatre were allowed to find their way into the 
 ehurch, and religious music was divided into the Canto fermo, 
 the old severe style, and the Canto jigurato, which was light and 
 florid. St. Gregory forbade this wordly music to be used in the 
 churches, but to make up for its loss, he improved the ancient 
 religious music. He gave greater variety to the Ambrosian Chant 
 
58 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 by introducing four new modes, and this reform of St. Gregory’s 
 has been in use in the Catholic Church ever since, The eight 
 tones to which Vespers and the other offices are still sung, 
 commonly go by the name of the Gregorian Chants. St. Gregory 
 paid great attention to the manner of singing, as well as to the 
 music sung, and he established a school for singing at Kome, 
 where orphan boys were trained as choristers. Originally, the 
 letters of the Greek alphabet were employed as musical signs. 
 “ St. Gregory,” says Baini, “ ordered that in the Latin Church 
 the song should be no longer noted with Greek letters, but with 
 Latin in their stead.” His method was to denote the lowest 
 octave by the capital letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G ; the second by 
 a, b, c, d, e, f, g; and the third by these letters doubled. 
 
 Early in the eleventh century another great benefactor to art 
 arose. This was the celebrated Guido d’ Arezzo ( Aretinus) who in- 
 vented musical notation. He was a native of Arezzo, and became 
 a monk, according to the general opinion, in the monastery of 
 Pomposa. The Camaldolese annalists are of opinion that he lived 
 for some time in their monastery of S. Croce di Avellano, and per- 
 haps also in the Camaldolese hermitage, near Arezzo, The only 
 grounds for these conjectures of the good fathers are as follows. 
 First, because Guido, in a letter to the monk Michele, calls him- 
 self ‘‘Homo Alpestre,” which name would better suit a monk 
 of Avellano, than of Pomposa ; Avellano being situated upon the 
 Alps. Secondly, because a celebrated portrait of Guido adorned 
 the refectory of the Monastery of Avellano. And lastly, because 
 the name of a “ Guido Camaldolese Eremite near Arezzo, in the 
 year 1033,” is to be found in some record. Tiraboschi gives us 
 all these particulars in his usual communicative style, and then 
 informs us that it is his opinion that the Camaldolese annalists’ 
 reasons were worth very little, compared with the weight of evi- 
 dence in favour of the claims of Pomposa. But as I profess to be 
 writing about music, and music alone, I must not allow myself to 
 be cai’ried away by Tiraboschi’s interesting antiquarian gossip. 
 One thing, though, I will mention, for the sake of encouraging 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 o9 
 
 those who find themselves opposed when they attempt any musi- 
 cal reforms. Guido’s new method of notation gave great offence 
 to many of his religious brethren, and raised a clamour against 
 him in the convent. There is nothing new under the sun. An 
 original idea will always displease the multitude, until time and 
 authority have set their seal upon it. Tiraboschi conjectures that 
 the monk Michele, to whom Guido wrote letters still extant, was 
 his coadjutor in teaching the new method of reading music to the 
 youths in the monastery, and that when his illustrious brother 
 was driven, by the outcry raised against him, from the monastery, 
 Michele remained behind “ma travagliate e afflitto” Guido 
 found his way to Rome, where he met with a most honourable re- 
 ception. Pope John XIX. appreciated the genius of Guido, and 
 gave him every possible encouragement. The Sovereign Pontiff 
 learnt the new system of singing at sight, in one lesson, which is 
 not at all surprising, when we consider that a child would acquire 
 it in a month, and that the Pope was doubtless skilled in the old 
 system. Guido Aretinus is commonly called the inventor of 
 musical notes, but that is not an accurate definition of what he 
 did for art. Notes had been substituted for the Greek and Latin 
 letters more than two centuries before Guido’s time. Baini says, 
 “ it is certain that as early as Charlemagne’s reign, the Roman 
 song was written with notes and not with the letters prescribed by 
 St. Gregory. But these notes were of very little use, for they had 
 neither lines nor cleffs, and they did not mark the respective dis- 
 tance of one note from another, that is, they go up and down 
 just the same, whether the interval they express is a tone or a 
 semitone — nay, there is often no discoverable difference between a 
 third, a fourth and a fifth. In the course of years the traditional 
 memory of the melodies was partly obliterated, so that no cer- 
 tainty could be said to exist, and each master of a choir taught 
 his singers the song according to his own manner of interpreting 
 it. Hence arose incessant disputes, not only among masters, but 
 between teachers and scholars, till there might be said to be as 
 many modes of executing the song, as there were singers. Va- 
 
60 
 
 A FEW W'OEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 rious attempts were made to remedy this state of musical anarchy, 
 but without success. — About the end of the ninth century, 
 Hucbald, a monk, invented new signs, by which the seven 
 sounds of the scale, comprising the two semitones might be ex- 
 pressed with certainty, by means of their different position. Oddo, 
 Abbot of Cluni, seeing that Hucbald’s method was not popular, 
 endeavoured to induce singers to discard the new signs for the 
 old Roman letters of St. Gregory’s system. The Abbot, in the 
 dialogue on music, informs us that “ according to the method then 
 in vogue, of writing musical notes, no singer could hope to suc- 
 ceed in learning to sing by themselves any musical composition, 
 even after fifty years study and practice ! ” I do not understand 
 what Hucbald’s improvements were, but the Abbot of Cluni, is 
 alluding to a system of putting down mere notes, without letters, 
 cleffs, or lines. Guido d’ Arezzo is even harder upon the old 
 
 system than the Abbot, for he calls it “ a method which will not 
 enable a singer, even afte,r a hundred years study, to sing the small- 
 est antiphon by himself.” He says again, “ Who does not 
 deplore the existence of so much confusion in the church, that we 
 should be found disputing with each other, when we ought to be 
 .singing the divine office. The master and the pupils disagree, 
 and there are as many antiphonaries as there are masters. So that 
 we no longer hear of the Antiphonary of Gregory, but that of 
 Leo, Albert, or any other, and as it is already very difficult to 
 learn one, it is certainly impossible to learn a great many.” He 
 means because so much had to be learned and retained by heart. 
 
 Guido proposed to keep the signs which they were accustomed 
 to, but to place them in a regular order, by means of lines, on and 
 between which he placed the notes, and thus fixed the respective 
 distances of the intervals, next by placing the Roman letters of 
 St. Gregory at the beginning of each line ( which answered the 
 purpose of cleffs) he determined the place of the semitone. We 
 are told that this plan was so easy to understand that “ etiam 
 pueruli sine magistro recte possunt cantare.” 
 
 Guido’s invention was adopted at Rome, after the trial the Pope 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 61 
 
 was pleased to make of it, and the rest of Italy soon followed the 
 example of Rome. One often hears it most absurdly asserted 
 that Guido “suddenly discovered the gamut ! ’’ by accidentally 
 noticing the first syllables of a hymn, while singing in choir. 
 
 M. Fetis’ account is as follows : — 
 
 “ The invention of the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, is attri- 
 buted to an Italian monk, whose name was Guido d’ Arezzo, who 
 took them from a hymn in honour of St. John. 
 
 “ UT queant luxis, REsonare fibris, 
 
 Mira gestorum FAmuli tuorum, 
 
 SoLve polluti, LAbri reatum ; 
 
 Sancte Joannes,” 
 
 But in a letter to another monk, Guido merely advises him to 
 recollect the air of this hymn, which rises one note on each sylla- 
 ble, — ut, re, mi, &c., in order to find the tone of each degree of 
 the scale.” Those who have studied Guido’s invention, will 
 easily understand this. It is evident that the tune to which the 
 hymn was sung in Guido’s monastery began on what a modem 
 singer would call Do, that the sixth note was Re, the first note in 
 the second line of the verse Mi, and so on. In Gregorian hymn 
 tunes, one usually finds a note for each syllable, and it is easy 
 enough, by means of a little alteration, to make some of the plain 
 chant hymns take the form I am supposing this tune to have had. 
 Probably the gamut accidentally occuring in its natural order in 
 this melody, strack Guido as a ready means of explaining the 
 scale. Whether he made use of the syllables ut, re, mi, &c., 
 constantly from that time foi’ward, or whether they were en- 
 grafted into his system afterwards, I do not know. For the main 
 part of the information respecting Guido’s method contained in 
 this chapter, I am indebted to an article in the Dublin Review. 
 
62 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 “As great Pythagoras of yore, 
 
 Standing beside the blacksmith’s door, 
 
 And hearing the hammers as they smote 
 The anvils with a different note, 
 
 Stole from the varying tones, that hung 
 Vibrant on every iron tongue. 
 
 The secret of the sounding wire, 
 
 And formed the seven-chorded lyre.” — Longfellow. 
 
 “ The great ennobling Past is only then 
 A misty pageant, an unreal thing. 
 
 When it is measured in the narrow ring 
 
 And limit of the Present, by weak men.” — Faber. 
 
 Though Guido d’ Arezzo’s invention enabled the musicians 
 of the middle ages to note music with accuracy, yet we do not 
 find that it had the effect of producing that perfect unanimity 
 in church choirs which he anticipated. Baini says, “ it did not 
 quickly pass beyond the Alps. I have myself seen in our 
 libraries at Eome, several MSS. written in France and Ger- 
 many, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the ancient 
 notation.” There is a celebrated MS. called the Plaints or 
 Sequences of Abelard, which antiquaries have endeavoured to 
 decipher in vain. It is written in the barbarous notation used 
 before Guido’s time, though Abelard must have composed it 
 at least a hundred years after the new method had been adopted 
 throughout Italy. 
 
 It cannot be ascertained whether Abelard composed the music 
 as the verses of these “ Plaints.” Baini inclines to the opinion 
 that he wrote a poem on subjects drawn from the Holy Scriptures, 
 and in measures adapted to the popular airs sung by the Trouba- 
 dours, in order to serve as an antidote to the fascination of the 
 ballad-poetry then in vogue, a good deal of which was not of a 
 moral tone, to say no worse of it. Baini advances this supposition 
 as one way of accounting for Abelard’s MS. being written in the 
 old notation, for if he merely wrote the words, the copyist of 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 63 
 
 the music would probably have transcribed the melodies as he 
 found them in older books. These airs are unfortunately lost 
 to us, for how can one discover sounds expressed by mere notes 
 without lines or clefs? Baini says, “whoever has the pre- 
 sumption to imagine he has recovered them, is as great a 
 fool as he who should go about to draw water from a deep well 
 without a rope.” 
 
 I am inclined to think that the melodies of the Troubadours 
 were not unlike the hymns of the plain song, and for these 
 reasons. The ancient national melodies of most countries have 
 a sort of family likeness. Dr. Lind, who resided a long time 
 in China, told Dr. Burney that “ all the airs heard there, were 
 like the old Scots’ tunes.” And the same has been said of the 
 melodies of several other nations. That great inclination for 
 the minor mode, characteristic of ancient music, is to be found 
 equally in the secular and ecclesiastical music : — in such airs as 
 “ Roslin Castle,” “ Rich and rare,” “ Follia d’Espagna,” and 
 other ancient tunes, one can trace a strong resemblance to Gre- 
 gorian music. There is an “ Iste Confessor,” * well known in 
 England long before the recent movement in favour of Plain 
 Chant became fashionable, which always reminds me of “ Vive 
 Henri Quatre.” I do not mean to say that the two airs are 
 alike in the same sense that many modem ballads and polkas 
 are alike, but still there is a resemblance in the opening bars. 
 They resemble each other as Handel’s “Let me wander not 
 unseen,” resembles Corelli’s “ Pastorale” in the eighth Concerto, 
 and as the Martial Movement in the grand Quartett in “ Le 
 Prophfete,” resembles the “Marseillaise.” I will mention another 
 coincidence. — Every one knows the popular ballad in Robert le 
 Diable, “ Jadis regnait en Normandie.” It is natural to sup- 
 pose that Meyerbeer aimed at imitating the songs of the Trouba- 
 dours in that melody, and the first part of it is very like 
 the well known Gregorian tune to which “ Te lucis ante termi- 
 num” is usually sung. Observe I do not say “ Jadis regnait ” is 
 * Published by Mr. Novello. 
 
64 
 
 A PEW WOEBS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 copied from “ Te lucis,” for the subjects of the two airs are quite 
 distinct, and there is an appliance of the resources of modem 
 art in the one which the other is without. But for all that 
 they have the same character, just as Mr. Tennyson’s “Morte 
 d’ Arthur,” though a poem of great originality and exquisite 
 polish, reminds one of the metrical tales of the old romance 
 writers. The resemblance is similar to those striking likenesses 
 one sometimes sees in living individuals, to the old family por- 
 traits hanging upon the walls of their ancestral dwelling-places. 
 I am inclined to think that many of the old tunes, popular in 
 the different countries of Europe, are really the very melodies of 
 the Troubadours and Minnesingers. And this does not at all 
 militate against what I have advanced with regard to the like- 
 ness to Gregorian, for it is a mistake to suppose that the Plain 
 Chant is invariably mournful and grave. Many of the hymns 
 are very joyous — indeed, some are what one may call Ttierry 
 tunes , — and though the minor key predominates, yet the major 
 is to be found too. I have not, within reach, works which would 
 enable me to pursue the interesting subject of the progress of 
 secular music during the middle ages. Besides, I do not profess 
 to be writing a complete treatise, but merely suggesting ideas, 
 which can be followed out by those among my fair readers, 
 who have a taste for research, and the means of indulging it. 
 I would point out, as an interesting study, tracing the origin 
 of the Irish, Scotch, and Welsh airs. Those who delight in Miss 
 Strickland’s antiquarian details, will be glad to discover another 
 path in the pleasant mazes of by-gone times. Assistance in 
 pursuing such inquiries can be procured easily now-a-days, 
 through the corresponding columns of musical periodicals. 
 
 The introduction of harmony is as important an event in 
 the history of music, as the discovery of America in the history 
 of geogi’aphical science. It has been warmly debated, whether 
 the ancients had any knowledge of harmony. M. Fetis, in 
 his valuable work, “Music explained to the world,” is of opinion 
 that they were entirely ignorant of it. His reasons for this 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 65 
 
 conclusion, are as follows : — “ The equivalent of the word har- 
 mony is nowhere to be found used in the Greek and Latin 
 treatises which have reached our times; the air of an ode of 
 Pindar, and that of a hymn to Nemesis, with some other frag- 
 ments, are all that have been preserved of the ancient Greek 
 music, and in them we find no traces of chords; in fact, the 
 fonn of the lyre and of the harp, the small number of their 
 strings, which could not be modified like those of our guitars, 
 those instruments being devoid of neck, all these reasons, I 
 say, give much probability to the opinion of those who do not 
 believe in the existence of harmony in the music of the ancients. 
 Their adversaries object that harmony exists in nature. True, 
 but how many things exist in nature which are not observed 
 for a long time ? Harmony is in nature, and yet the ear of 
 the Turk, the Arab, and the Chinese, has not become accustomed 
 to it.” Now this last remark appears to me shallow. The 
 Turks, Arabs, and Chinese have not produced works of art, 
 which are standards of perfection to this day. It is really quite 
 irreverent, so coolly to put these barbarians on a level with the 
 Greeks. It seems contrary to analogy to suppose that the land 
 which produced poets, sculptors, and philosophers, whom the 
 wisest and most refined among the modems are content to 
 acknowledge, gratefully, as their teachers and models, should 
 have made no greater discoveries in music than nations which are 
 still in a state of semi-bai'barism. On the other hand, I 
 must own, that however imwilling one’s fancy may be to admit 
 such a supposition, yet that the evidence adduced by M. Fetis, 
 mth regard to the classical instraments and musical treatises 
 extant, is very strong against the poetical view. But again, 
 let us consider that the treatises quoted were written between 
 the time of Alexander, and the end of the Greek Empire, and 
 that Plutarch and others mourn over the degenerate state of 
 music in their days, and declare that the ancient art was entirely 
 lost. That there are “ no traces of chords ” to be found in the 
 specimens of Greek music handed down to us, proves nothing. 
 
66 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 and for these reasons : — first, the art of singing might exist in 
 great perfection, before the art of writing the sounds sung was 
 invented. Poetry sprung “ Pallas-bom,” from the lips of Homer, 
 long before grammar and rhetorie were studied. Why may it 
 not have been the same with the sister-art ? 
 
 Secondly ; it should be remembered that when musical nota- 
 tion first began to be used, after the Christian era, it was of a 
 very imperfeet kind, and a traditional explanation from the 
 mouth of a skilful singer, was necessary to the full under- 
 standing of its meaning. I have not seen the specimens of 
 Pagan* music alluded to, nor have I been able to meet with any 
 detailed account of them, therefore I am arguing in the dark ; 
 but it seems probable they might be a species of musical short- 
 hand, just as the early attempts at notation were. Had Greek 
 music possessed no more art than we find in the rude melodies 
 of barbarous nations, it is difficult to believe that the classic poets 
 and sages would have given it so high a place as they did among 
 intellectual attainments. And it is equally difiicult to imagine that 
 a people so exquisitely organized as the Greeks, and with whom 
 poetry and song were almost synonymous terms, should be de- 
 ficient in genius for music. It is improbable that a nation which 
 produced a Pindar, an ^schylus, and a Phidias, should be, in 
 musical feeling, on a level with Scythians and Tartars. They, 
 however, whose faith in “ Immortal Greece, dear land of glorious 
 lays,” cannot be shaken by want of drcumstantial evidence, have 
 no right to expect others, of a less imaginative turn, to yield 
 their opinion, in the absence of historical proof, and so the 
 matter must always remain an open question. It is impossible 
 too, to discover the nature of the ancient instruments. Vitruvius 
 mentions an hydraulic organ, said by ancient writers to have been 
 invented by Ctesibius, a mathematician who lived in the time of 
 Ptolemy Evergetes. M. Fetis speaks with scorn of the efforts 
 of some learned commentators, who have tried in vain to discover 
 
 * I have no other authority for the genuineness of the professed specimen 
 of Greek music, than the passing remark upon them in M. Fetis’ book. 
 
A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 67 
 
 the mechanism of this water organ.* He laughs, too, at the 
 pneumatic organ of the Classic poets, which, he thinks, must 
 have been neither more nor less than that barbarous instrament 
 of the Scotch and Auvergnese, called the bag-pipe or comemme. 
 I do not see why it may not have been an .^olian Harp, if all 
 we know of it is, that it was “ put in vibration by the action of 
 the air.” I am, unfortunately, no scholar, and, therefore, I can- 
 not refer to the original description of this serial instrument ; but, 
 in the absence of all proof, one may take the liberty of fancying 
 it something more poetical than a bag-pipe ; and, certainly, it is 
 no great matter what one believes upon the subject. “ The most 
 ancient organ mentioned in history, is that which the Emperor 
 Constantine Copronymus sent, in the year 757, to Pepin, the 
 father of Charlemagne. This was the first seen in France. 
 It was placed in the church of St. Corneille, at Compiegne. 
 This organ was very small and portable, like that which was 
 built by an Arab named Giafar, and sent to Charlemagne by the 
 Caliph of Bagdad.” — So says M. Fetis, but, in another writer, 
 I find mention made of an organ nearly a century earlier than 
 the oriental present received by King Pepin. — It is said that 
 Pope Vitalian introduced the organ into the Church as early 
 as 671. This was soon followed by part-singing. At first the 
 Chant was harmonized for two voices only, but, by degrees, the 
 third, fourth, and more parts were added. The first name given 
 to Harmony was, oddly enough. Discord. No doubt is was given 
 in opposition to the term Concord, which might naturally be 
 applied to singing in unison. The earliest forms of Harmony 
 were all written in notes of equal value or duration. Harmony 
 was also called Counterpoint, or point against point. The next 
 improvement was introducing notes of unequal duration played 
 or sung together, and this was called jigvred harmony. Franco 
 of Cologne ( 1020 to 1066 ) was the first writer who treats of 
 measured notes. In his time the notation comprised the double 
 
 ♦ This reminds one of the water-clock which Haroun al Raschid is said to 
 have sent to Charlemagne. 
 
68 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 long, imperfect long, the breve, and the semibreve, with points 
 to prolong their duration, and corresponding rests. 
 
 How simple a thing is Science, and how little that is entirely 
 new, has been added by the modems, to the grand discoveries of 
 the ancients. Think of the multiplication table of Pythagoras, 
 Euclid’s Elements, the experiments of Archimedes, and the 
 mental gymnastics of Aristotle and Plato. What are modem 
 additions after all, compared to the everlasting foimdations of all 
 knowledge, laid down by the Giants of old time 1 And it is 
 the same with Art. Michael Angelo and Eaffaelle owe even 
 a deeper debt to Phidias than Cimabue and Giotto did. Dante 
 acknowledges Virgil as his guide, and what does not Virgil owe 
 to Homer ? It is the height of ingratitude and self-conceit in 
 the Modems to forget what has been done for them by the 
 Ancients. But it is only the half-educated who do so. The 
 ignorant cannot, the shallow will not, reflect on the past. The 
 present is enough for their purpose. Some throw down the 
 ladder by which they have risen, but the majority are not aware 
 that there ever was a ladder to climb. But human nature is the 
 same in all ages. If Columbus was ungratefully treated by 
 those he had benefited, so was Aristides before him. — It has 
 always been so, and will be so to the end, and it is no use to sigh 
 over what cannot be helped. Besides the traly great have 
 always resigned themselves to their lot, for they feel sure of the 
 future, and a lofty nature dwells rather on the past and the 
 future, than on the present, whilst a little mind has only just 
 energy enough to be absorbed in the passing hour, and cannot 
 disengage itself from the trifling gains or petty pleasures of the 
 moment, to look forward on what is to come. Now, to return to 
 our Music : — Some say that chromatic passages were not used 
 till about the end of the 13th century. M. Fetis complains that 
 the term Diatonic is incorrectly used when applied to modem 
 music, for Diatonic comes from two Greek words signifying 
 “ By Tones,” and what we call the Diatonic scale does not ascend 
 or descend entirely by tones. M. Fetis gives an oriental and 
 
A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 69 
 
 two Celtic scales, neither of which are entirely composed of tones. 
 I do not know any music entirely devoid of semitones, for though 
 they are used sparingly in Gregorian musie, still they do occur. 
 I have a faint recollection of having seep somewhere, an account 
 of a scale formed from the old Scotch airs, in which the music 
 moves by tones and sharp seconds, which would give a gamut 
 devoid of half-tones. — “ Chromatic,” says M. Fetis, “ comes from 
 the Greek word Chroma^ colour ; and in fact, this succession of 
 semitones colours the music in a figurative sense.” 
 
 Towards the middle of the 14th century the science of Har- 
 mony received an impulse from some Italian musicians. Among 
 these, Francis Landino and James of Bologna were the most 
 distinguished. F. Landino, sumamed Francesco Cieco (the blind), 
 and Francesco degli Organi, on account of his skill in playing 
 on the organ, flourished between 1350 and 1390. After him we 
 find Dufay and Brinchois, two Frenchmen of the Flemish School, 
 and John Dunstable, an Englishman, who all flourished in the 
 early part of the fifteenth century. These Composers greatly 
 increased the stores of Harmony, and helped to lay the founda- 
 tions of modem science. The best things are always liable to be 
 most abused, and for this reason : — what is deep, and solid, and 
 strong, is capable of enduring more than what is weak and trivial. 
 The many, too, will always be caught by tinsel, and generally 
 prefer the shadow to the substance, the imitation to the original 
 idea ; or at any rate, the lower qualities of a great work of art to 
 its higher ones. And so one need not be surprised that Har- 
 mony, the most unearthly and mysterious of all the creations of 
 Art, had not long been made visible to the world, before she 
 came to be tampered with by those who were incapable of 
 appreciating her loftiest attributes. For even in the old romantic 
 times, so' dear to poets, there were not wanting those, who, while 
 they admired in her what is addressed to the ear (nay, some- 
 times, what appeals merely to curiosity, surprise, and vanity), 
 were deaf to that which speaks to the soul. 
 
 As early as the beginning of the 14th century the ecclesi- 
 
70 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 astical character of the Gregorian Song was entirely destroyed by 
 the flourishes and quaverings introduced into it by musicians, 
 who saw in its majestic beauty only a vehicle for the display of 
 their so-called science. This was carried to such an extent, that, 
 in 1322, Pope John XXII. issued a bull prohibiting the use of 
 this style of music. The efforts of the Sovereign Pontiff appear 
 to have had but a short-lived success, for in a few years, we 
 find the evil increasing instead of diminishing, and the Church 
 music becoming more and more of a secular cast. The 
 blame of destroying the dignity of the Italian ecclesiastical 
 music rests chiefly on the Flemish Masters. The Flemings seem 
 to have ruled the musical world throughout Europe, during the 
 14th and lath centuries. Two of the most celebrated schools 
 for music in Italy, those of Naples and Venice, w'ere founded by 
 Flemings. The Pope’s Chapel was supplied by Flemish and 
 Spanish singers, and native talent so little cultivated, that few 
 Italians were then found capable of sustaining the leading parts 
 in a Missa Cantata of that day. The Flemish Masters delighted 
 in fugues and imitations, which they introduced into their 
 Masses, without paying any attention to the words which were to 
 be sung; in short, losing sight of dignity, propriety, and ex- 
 pression, in their anxiety to make an ostentatious display of the 
 science of the composer and the execution of the singers. 
 Those among my fair readers who are fond of pictures, will 
 remember that the Artists of the Low Countries, with a few 
 great exceptions, have ever been as remarkable for their excel- 
 lence in the lower, as for their deficiency in the higher walks of 
 Art. Certainly the fiats and fens of Holland would seem more 
 conducive to industry and mechanical skill than to imagination 
 and feeling. And though Belgium is many degrees better than 
 Holland in point of climate, yet there is a family likeness in the 
 two countries. We English partake of this dull character, too, 
 that is, among the masses — for it must be allowed than when an 
 Anglo-Saxon does happen to be of a poetical turn, he generally 
 soars high. Perhaps in no country shall we find talent and 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC 
 
 71 
 
 mental culture so unequally divided as in England. It is a mis- 
 take, though, to suppose that the English are peculiarly deficient 
 in musical talent. We have had composers of great genius and 
 science, from the first dawn of the Art. Not to go hack so far 
 as Alfred the Great and St. Dimstan, we may at least instance 
 Dunstable, in the 15th century; and in the 16th and 17th 
 centuries England was rich in composers, as the history of the 
 Anthem books of the Cathedrals and Collegiate Chapels bear 
 witness, It is true, many of these composers have owed their 
 finest ideas to Palestrina and his school, but there is enough 
 originality and fine taste among them to make good my 
 assertion. I have said that the Flemish Composers introduced 
 such an unmeaning quantity of ornament into their compositions, 
 as to deprive them entirely of that solemnity indispensable to 
 ecclesiastical music. So serious were the evils resulting from 
 this system, that it was deemed w’orthy of notice by the Council 
 of Trent, which sat between 1549 and 1563. At one time there 
 seemed a danger of all the stores of musical science being lost 
 to the Church, for the Pope ( Pius V.) threatened to forbid all 
 music being used in the offices, except the Plain-Song. Art was 
 saved by one of the greatest musical geniuses that the world has 
 ever produced Giovanni Pierluigi, surnamed Palestrina, from 
 the place of his birth, was, at that time, a young composer at 
 Kome, also a singer in the Pontifical Chapel, and Maestro-di- 
 Cappella of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was deeply afilicted at 
 the prospect of the ruin hanging over his beloved Art, and he 
 entreated Cardinals Vitellozo and Borromeo to obtain a delay 
 before the final decision was pronounced, promising to write 
 a harmonized Mass, which should not offend in any of the points 
 censured by the Pope. This was granted, Palestrina’s genius 
 triumphed, and Art was saved. The devout composer always 
 declared that his music was not his own, but as vivid a recol- 
 lection as he could retain, waking, of the Singing of the Angels 
 which he was permitted to hear in his sleep. On the 25th of 
 April, 1565, three Masses, composed during that critical interval 
 
72 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 when the cause of Art seemed to hang upon a thread, were 
 performed before a congregation of Cardinals, and listened to 
 with astonishment and delight by all who heard them. The 
 idea of banishing figured music from the Church was given up 
 by the Cardinals, and a few months after the most beautiful of 
 the three Masses was performed before the Pope, and approved of 
 by him. In 1668, Pius V. issued a bull, decreeing, in conformity 
 with the decree of the Council of Trent, that the new Roman 
 Breviary, in its corrected and amended form, should be adopted 
 by all Catholic Churches; and in 1570 it was farther decreed that 
 the Mass should be sung according to the mode prescribed by the 
 new Missal. 
 
 These decrees rendered a thorough correction of the Choir 
 books necessary. Pius V. died in 1572, but his successor, 
 Gregory XIII., determined to carry on the reformation. He 
 summoned Palestrina, who was then Master of the Vatican 
 Basilica, and Composer to the Pontifical Chapel, and entrusted 
 the work to his care. Palestrina associated with himself his 
 pupil Guidetti, at whose suggestion he obtained from the Pontiff 
 leave to abridge the notation of the Tracts and Graduals, as also 
 of the Responsories in the Matins, as having become too long 
 now that the ancient practice of singing Matins, separately, 
 during the night, had been abandoned. Guidetti, in the course 
 of seventeen years, completed four works; The Directorium 
 Chori, The Office of Holy Week, The Passion, as it had been 
 sung from time almost immemorial in the Pontifical Chapel, 
 and lastly, The Prefaces in the Missal. Three years after the 
 publication of these works Guidetti died, 30th Nov., 1592 ; 
 having rendered great service to the liturgical song by his 
 careful and extensive researches to recover its true traditions. 
 During the fourth year of Palestrina’s and Guidetti’s labours, 
 there appeared from the press of one Peter Liechtenstein, 
 a native of Cologne established in Venice, the Gradual, the 
 Antiphonaiy, and the Hymnarium, corrected according to the 
 Missal and Breviary of Pius V. It is not known who was the 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 73 
 
 author of this great work, but Guidetti considered it to be so 
 well executed, as to render it unnecessary for him to continue 
 his laboui's upon the same ground, and this Venice edition was 
 .therefore adopted by the singers of the Pontifical Chapel. 
 Palestrina does not appear to have considered his portion of the 
 undertaking, viz. — the correction of the Gradual, superseded by 
 the appearance of the Venice edition, but continued his task for 
 more than seventeen years. Palestrina applied himself with 
 the zeal of one who had deeply at heart the majesty of divine 
 worship. “But having completed the first part,” says Baini, 
 •“ his pen fell from his hands, and, more wearied than Atlas 
 imder the weight of the sky, he abandoned his attempt, and at 
 his death nothing was found but the incomplete manuscript.” 
 A story most painful to tell is connected with the fate of these 
 MSS. Love and reverence for the memory of Palestrina would 
 make me avoid recording the baseness of one who bore his 
 name, did not the majesty of Truth demand impartiality at the 
 hands of all who venture to meddle, however slightly, ivith 
 historical facts. — On the death of Palestrina, his unworthy son 
 Igino, seized upon the imperfect MS., dishonestly procured its 
 completion, and sold it, as the complete work of his father, to 
 a bookseller for 2,500 scudi. The purchaser discovered the 
 fraud on submitting it to the superiors for approbation, and 
 brought an action against Igino, which he gained, and compelled 
 this ignoble descendant of a great sire, to take back the MS., 
 and refund the sum paid for them. What became of the MSS. 
 is unknown, Baini thinks it may have fallen into the hands of 
 Giovanelli, a pupil of Palestrina, who is believed to have super- 
 intended the edition of the Gradual, that appeared in Rome, 
 from the Medician press, in 1614. This edition is now adopted 
 by the Pontifical choir, and is considered by Baini to be superior 
 to the Venice edition published by Liechtenstein.* 
 
 Palestrina’s death took place in 1571. He was interred in 
 
 • For this account of Palestrini’s labours I am indebted to an article in 
 “ The Dublin Review.’’ 
 
 D 
 
74 
 
 A FKW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 St. Peter’s, near the Altar of SS. Simon and Jude. His funeral 
 was attended by all the musicians of Eome, and the “ Libera 
 me Domine,” composed by himself in five parts, was sung by 
 three choirs. Upon his coffin was this inscription : — “Johannes 
 Petras Aloysius Prsenertinus, Musics Princeps.” 
 
 Requiem seternam dona eis domine. 
 
 lo mi rivolsi attente al primo tuono, 
 
 E Te Deum laudamus mi parea 
 Udire in voce mista al dolce suono. 
 
 Tale imagine appunto mi rendea 
 Cio ch’io udiva, qual prender si suole. 
 
 Quando a cantar con organi si stea ; 
 
 Ch’ or si or no s’intendon le parole. 
 
 Dante.— (P urgatoria ix.) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 “Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, 
 
 Whose loves in higher love endure ; 
 
 What souls possess themselves so pure, 
 
 Or is there blessedness like theirs i ” — Tennyson. 
 
 Palestrina’s predecessor, in the office of Maestro di Capella of 
 S. Peter’s, was Giovanni Annimuccia, a very devout man, who 
 was a penitent of S. Philip Neri. S. Philip, the illustrious founder 
 of the Oratory, is said to have been the inventor of the modern 
 oratorio. — Perhaps “ inventor ’’ is too strong a word; for the mira- 
 cles and mysteries of the middle ages, and the moralities of the 
 renaissance period, certainly originated the idea of which the ora- 
 torio is the development. S. Philip was a poet and a musician, 
 and well knew how to employ art in her highest office, that of the 
 handmaid of religion. He was w’armly seconded by his friend 
 and disciple, Annimuccia, who, as we are told by Bacci, “ went 
 every day to the oratory, to sing before the sermons, always 
 taking with him several singers.” Annimuccia composed hymns 
 
A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 75 
 
 in parts, called Laudi, which were sung at the oratory, and after- 
 wards Selections from the Holy Scriptures were worked up into a 
 dramatic form, and sung, and this was the beginning of the 
 modem oratorio, though it did not receive that name for full a 
 century after S, Philip’s death. It is singular that the oratorio, 
 bom under the sunny sky of Italy, should owe its growth and 
 maturity to Saxon culture. For, certainly, it is Handel and 
 Haydn, Spohr and Mendelssohn, who have brought the oratorio 
 to perfection, and we English may claim some credit for the warm 
 welcome we have given it. Handel is generally claimed as an 
 English composer ; and inasmuch as he wrote on English ground 
 and in the English tongue, and is said to have owed much to the 
 study of the works of Purcell, Wise, Croft, and others, the claim 
 is not so unreasonable as many of our similar demands. Our 
 Continental neighbours accuse us of believing that the world was 
 created for the exclusive benefit of England and the English ! 
 The best Italian composers of oratorios are, I believe, Carissimi, 
 Stradella, Cimarosa, and Zingarelli. Carissimi was born at Rome 
 towards the close of the fifteenth century. Dr. Burney bears 
 witness to his genius, when, speaking of the twenty-two cantatas 
 by Carissimi, preserved in the collection of Christ Church, Oxford, 
 he says — “ There is not one which does not offer something that 
 is still new, curious, and pleasing ; but more particularly in the re- 
 citatives, many of which seem the most expressive, affecting, and 
 perfect that I have seen. In the airs, there are frequently sweet 
 and graceful passages, which more than a century and a half have 
 not impaired.” And again he calls them “archetypes of almost 
 all the arie di cantabile, the adagios, and pathetic songs, as well as 
 instrumental slow movements, that have since been composed.” 
 They furnish examples of melody and modulation, to the beauties 
 of which the greatest masters of modern times have added but 
 little. Carissimi’s oratorio of “ Jeptha” is a noble composition. 
 Handel has borrowed the chorus ‘Hear Jacob’sGod’ in “ Samson,” 
 from ‘ Phlorate filise Israel,’ a chorus in “ Jeptha.” Stradella, a 
 Venetian, and contemporary of Carissimi, composed an oratorio. 
 
76 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 called “ San Giovanni Battista,” which saved his life. Some bravos 
 hired by a Venetian nobleman to assassinate him, followed him to 
 Rome, and tracked him to the church of S. John Lateran, where 
 Stradella was conducting the performance of his oratorio, and 
 singing the principal part. The bravos were true Italians: the 
 music melted their hearts, they could not make up their minds to 
 kill the artist, and departed, leaving him unmolested. They 
 must have been of kindred nature to Don Rodrigo’s Capo de’ 
 Bravi — the redoubtable Griso ! Another Italian oratorio of a 
 high and enduring character is “II Sacrifizio d’ Abraham,” 
 by Cimarosa, a Neapolitan, who was bom in 1754, and died 1801. 
 This oratorio was performed in the year 1793, and no other of 
 gi’eat merit appeared for a long time. Zingarelli, who was born 
 at Naples in 1752, and died at Paris 1837, is the next great com- 
 poser of oratorios on our list. His oratorio “ Las Destreuzione di 
 Gerusalemme” is one of the most striking compositions of this 
 class which the Italian School has produced. II Cavaliere di 
 Morlacchi, bom at Peragia, in 1784, composed an oratorio called 
 “ Isacco,” in 1817. In this composition he substituted for the old 
 form of recitative, a new method called declamazione ritmica. In 
 1824 he produced “ II Sacrifizione d’ Abelle,” in which his new 
 mode of singing was introduced with increased effect. The pre- 
 cise nature of this new recitative I do not know, but as it is said 
 that Handel imitated Purcell’s energetic style of declamation, 
 probably Morlacchi adopted the same manner. Both of the 
 above mentioned oratorios met with the utmost success, when 
 they were performed at Dresden. Many other Italian masters 
 have produced oratorios, and Scarlatti’s especially have great 
 merit. 
 
 After Palestrina and Carissimi, the following names occur, as 
 links in the chain of ecclesiastical composers down to our own 
 times : — Allegri, the author of the celebrated Miserere sung at 
 Tenebne, in Holy Week, at the Sistine Chapel, was born at 
 Rome, 1590, and died 1652 : Colonna, bom at Brescia, 1630, 
 was Maestro di Capella at Bologna. It was the opinion of 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 77 
 
 Dr. Boyce, that Colonna was Handel’s model for choruses, 
 accompanied with many instrumental parts different from the 
 vocal. Colonna was the master of Clari, one of the most refined 
 composers of the Italian school. Steffani, born in the territory 
 of Venice, 1650. While a chorister in a Venetian church, his 
 voice and manner attracted the notice of a German nobleman, 
 who took him to Barona, and placed him under Ercole Bemabei. 
 Steffani afterwards took holy orders and became an Abbe. 
 While yet a student he composed several masses and other 
 sacred pieces, which were performed at Munich, and the reigning 
 Duke of Brunswick (father to George I.) was so gi’eatly de- 
 lighted with them, that he invited Steffani to the court of 
 Hanover, and conferred on him the appointment of Maestro 
 di Capella. Besides operas and madrigals, Steffani composed 
 a great number of duetts for two voices, with a bass accompa- 
 niment. Handel paid them the compliment of professing to 
 have imitated them in the twelve “ Duetti di Camera,” com- 
 posed for Queen Caroline. Steffani was a man of diplomatic 
 talent, and was frequently employed in negociations with foreign 
 courts. He obtained a great pension, and the Bishopric of 
 Spigna was bestowed on him by Pope Innocent XI. About 
 1724, the London Academy of Ancient Music elected him 
 their President. He died at Frankfort in 1730 — his death 
 may be called sudden, for he only had the warning of a few 
 days indisposition. 
 
 Clari, born at Pisa in 1760, was Maestro di Capella of the 
 Cathedral of Pistoja, about the year 1695, the date of Purcell’s 
 death. The richest collection of his MS. works in England, 
 is to be found in the Museum at Cambridge. Durante, born 
 at Gmmo, near Naples, in 1693 (two years before Purcell’s 
 death). He studied first under Scarlatti, and afterwards under 
 Pasquini and Pettini, at Kome. He returned to Naples, where 
 he devoted himself to composition and tuition ; and to his prin- 
 ciples and instruction, the Neapolitan School owes its greatest 
 masters of the eighteenth century. He became Professor at 
 
78 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 the Conservatorio of San Onofrio, about the year 1715. He 
 wrote principally for the Church. His subjects are generally 
 remarkable for simplicity, but so well conceived, and so ably 
 expressed, as to produce a very impressive effect ; his duettos, 
 in particular, are admirably constructed. Durante died at 
 Naples, at the age of sixty-two, Durante’s music is tolerably 
 well known in this countiy. So is Mareello, as so many of 
 his compositions have been set to English words, and published 
 in a popular form. There is a sweet soothing flow of melody 
 in Marcello’s music which will always make him popular, even 
 among those who are not musicians. Marcello died in 1789. 
 
 Leo was bom at Naples, 1694. He and Durante studied 
 together under Scarlatti. Leo was one of the most sublime 
 composers Italy has produced. He did much towards the pro- 
 gress of art. He succeeded both in secular and ecclesiastical 
 music. In grandeur and conception of style, he has never been 
 surpassed, except, perhaps, by Handel, who himself was much 
 indebted to Leo for the method employed in the constraction 
 of some of his magnificent double chorases. Pergolesi, w'hose 
 immortal “ Gloria in Excelsis” is well known throughout Eng- 
 land, was born in 1704, died 1737. — That far-famed “ Gloria” 
 is one of those works of art which one may well call inspired. 
 In this composition we find a union of the most triumphant joy 
 mth the most gentle grace ; strength is not sacrificed to softness, 
 nor is refinement lost in vehemence. There is chastity without 
 coldness, grandeur without gravity, spirit without tumultuous- 
 ness, and over the whole is thrown an unearthly sweetness and 
 purity, as well as an unearthly dignity and power. One can 
 well imagine the heavenly song spreading through the chill air 
 of the wintry night — 
 
 “ Life’s circles widening round, 
 
 Upon a clear blue river,” 
 
 and the Angelic Host shedding upon the earth, not only the 
 light, but the veiy glow and fragrance of heaven. 
 
 Pergolesi studied under Grew, and afterwards received lessons 
 
A FEW WOBDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 79 
 
 from Vinci and Hasse. Being attacked by consumption, Per- 
 golesi was persuaded by bis first patron, Prince Stegliano, to 
 take a small house at Torre del Greco, close to the foot of 
 Mount Vesuvius. The Neapolitans have an idea that living 
 there, either kills or cures consumptive patients quickly. In 
 his last illness, Pergolesi composed his grand Cantata of “ Orfeo 
 e Euridice'’ and later his famous “ Stdbat Mater,” and Salve 
 Regina.” Soon after finishing this last offering to Mary, he 
 died, at the early age of thirty-three. Jomelli, a native of 
 Aversa, was bom in 1714, died in 1774. His name is well 
 known in England through the famous Chaconne, a perfect 
 gem of melody and harmony. Played even on a piano-forte, 
 which deprives it of its “ linked notes of sweetness long drawn 
 out,” there is in it a union of solemnity and sweetness which 
 carries the soul heavenwards. I have heard old musical ama- 
 teurs speak of the rapture they felt when they first heard this 
 ravishing air played at the theatre, as an interlude to in- 
 troduce the Ghost in “The Castle Spectre!” But to know 
 what the Chaconne really is, one must hear it played on the 
 organ in a cathedral. I have never heard it sung, but no doubt 
 the voices would produce the most enchanting effect. The last 
 of the Church composers is Pasiello, which brings us down to a 
 recent date, as he lived to 1816. I have omitted a great many 
 eminent composers in this chronological list, because I have not 
 at hand books of reference to give the dates of their births and 
 deaths. Cavi, Musetti, Casali,* Mazzoni, Porpora, Caffaro, 
 David Perez, are all classical composers, and Scarlatti and Hasse 
 are very great names. The School of Church Music, which 
 follows next, is that of Chembini, Mozart, and Haydn. There 
 cannot be two opinions among musicians as to the beauty of 
 the ecclesiastical compositions of these masters. One might as 
 well question the beauty of the Apollo or the Venus. But when 
 
 * Mr. Burns has published some selections from the works of Cavi, Mu- 
 setti, and Casali, which are very easy to execute, and especially suitable 
 for amateur singers and for small choirs. 
 
80 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 one comes to consider the propriety and fitness of such a style of 
 music for public devotion, there is much room for discussion. 
 For several reasons I cannot enter fully upon the subject in this 
 work. 
 
 It is worth remarking, however, that the theatrical style of 
 Church music came in print before the revolutionary outbreak of 
 the last century ravaged Europe. Since the suppression of the 
 monasteries and hospitals, and the sale of the lands destined for 
 their support, which has been permitted in countries still catholic, 
 Church music has declined on the Continent ; there are no longer 
 wealthy cathedral chapters able to support vast choirs and singing 
 schools, rich monasteries with great libraries, and means of giving 
 an elaborate and scientific education to young musicians, and an 
 asylum and place for pursuing their studies to poor eomposers of 
 talent. The conservatories have sunk, and true ecclesiastical 
 music seemed in danger of perishing in the first part of the 
 nineteenth eentury. Many illustrious prelates have recently 
 urged upon their clergy the necessity of restoring as much as pos- 
 sible the ancient Church music, and of banishing the theatrical, 
 sometimes even, profane music which has been allowed to take pos- 
 session of many continental churches. N ine years ago the Cardinal 
 Archbishop of Mechlin communicated with the Abate Baini, 
 director of the Pontifical Choir, concerning the possibility of 
 recovering the true form of the ancient Gregorian song. The 
 Abb6 Jannssens undertook the journey to Kome to collect in- 
 formation, and in the mean time, the best editions and MSS. of the 
 Roman song, that the north of Europe fumished, were diligently 
 examined and collected. In 1849, M. E. Duval, a pupil of the 
 Conservatoire of Paris, who for years previous, at the desire of the 
 Archbishop,* had been engaged in researches on this subject, was 
 sent to Rome, to compare the result of his labours with the best 
 Roman editions and the MSS. in the libraries of the eternal City. 
 He spent ten months in these researches, assisted by his colleague, 
 M. I’Abbe Jannssens. The results of these labours, which were 
 * Monseigneur Afire, the Martyr of the Barricades. 
 
A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 I 
 
 81 
 
 examined by a body of ecclesiastics in 1849, has been given to the 
 public at a very moderate price, and are ;well worthy the atten- 
 tion of English musicians. In one of M. Jannssen’s works which 
 1 once saw, I met with beautiful melodies with an exquisitely 
 harmonized organ accompaniment. There were some airs (the 
 four Antiphones of B.V.M.) whose effect upon my mind I can ex- 
 press by no other language than the old word “ ravishing.” I 
 could imagine them the very music played by S. Cecilia. There 
 is a soft joyousness in some, a tender plaintiveness in others, and 
 a gentle grace in all, producing the most perfect expression of the 
 words that can be conceived. 
 
 Those who assert that the English are deficient in musical 
 taste, would do well to consider the deep debt which the science 
 of harmony owes to the English cathedrals and universities. I 
 allow that the amoimt of good they do to the cause of high art is 
 not proportionate to the means at their command. Much more 
 might be done at the public schools by cultivating vocal music 
 among the boys, and so enabling them to appreciate the choral 
 service ; and at the universities, certainly greater efforts might be 
 made than are made, to give music her proper rank as sister to 
 poetry. Still it is something that the Anglican establishment 
 supports such a class of musicians as the organists and singers in 
 cathedral and collegiate choirs. And good service to the cause of 
 art and science accrues to the world therefrom. Far be it from 
 me to undervalue this. The music of Tallis, Bird, Farrant, Pur- 
 cell, Nares, and the rest of the English school, is exquisitely 
 beautiful, and has served to keep up the traditional memoiy 
 of the ecclesiastical music of the sixteenth century. A chant often 
 attributed to Tallis is neither more nor less than one of the Gre- 
 gorian tones ; and let any one compare the music of Palestrina, 
 Carissimi, Cavi, Musetti, Casali, &c., with that of the English 
 church composers, and they will find that they belong to one 
 school. I have heard the English cathedral music objected to as 
 undevotional in character, by protestant dissenters, and even by 
 
 / 
 
82 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 members of the established church, holding what are called “ evan- 
 gelical opinions ” The cause of this impression arises, I imagine, 
 from two distinct sources ; one is that of the coldness, and some- 
 times irreverence of manner, with which the choral service is 
 often performed. Though there is more external decency of late 
 years on the part of choristers than there used to be, yet they 
 appear generally to go through the service as if they would be 
 glad when the task was done. Then one often sees people going 
 to the cathedrals out of curiosity or mere love of music, not con- 
 sidering it as an act of worship. And lastly, the sight of the nave 
 left empty and useless, lay people sitting in canons’ stalls (the 
 episcopal throne is sometimes filled with ladies ! ) sight-seers 
 tramping up and down in the most irreverent way while service 
 is going on, and similar incongruities, give an air of unreality 
 to the whole thing. I can fancy the vials of Mr. Carlyle’s wrath 
 poured out upon the poor cathedrals, and their services designated 
 by some such complimentary title as “Flunkeydom of the dark 
 ages.” 
 
 But all those incongraities have nothing whatever to do with 
 the devotional character of the choral service taken as music, and 
 as music alone am I examining it. But I have heai’d persons really 
 fond of music say, that even if the choral service could be per- 
 formed reverently, it would still seem to them cold and formal. 
 This idea springs from their looking on congregational sing- 
 ing as the only method of making religious music an offering of 
 the heart ; they forget that prayer and praise can exist without 
 being expressed by the lips at all. If the sound of another’s voice, 
 or the sound of an inanimate musical instrument, have the effect 
 of lifting the soul heavenwards, and making it forget the cares 
 and vanities of this world, they produce the highest 
 
 and most perfect kind of prayer, and neither congregational sing- 
 ing, spoken prayer, nor sermons, could do more. 
 
 The oratorio has flourished of late years, more in protestant 
 than in catholic countries; perhaps because catholic composers 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 83 
 
 find in the functions of the church, ample scope for employing all 
 the resources of art, which the slender amount of ceremonial re- 
 tained by protestantism does not admit of. 
 
 Graun, Kappell-Meister to Frederick the Great, at Berlin, was 
 one of the first who brought the oratorio to perfection in Ger- 
 many. He wrote “Her Tod Jesus,” a work of great merit. 
 Haydn’s “ Creation” and “ Seasons” are so well known among us, 
 that we almost claim them as our own. Beethoven’s “ Mount of 
 Olives”* is well known, too, with English verses. Mozart’s 
 “Davidde Penitente” was performed in England for the first 
 time in 1843, at Norwich. Spohr is a truly great composer, 
 though his harmonies are sometimes too abstruse for an un- 
 cultivated ear. His most celebrated oratorios are “ The Last 
 Judgment,” “ The Fall of Babylon,” and “ The Crucifixion.” 
 Karl Lowe is better known in Germany than in England. 
 F. Mendelssohn is as celebrated in this country as in his own. 
 “ St. Paul” and “ Elijah ” are almost as popular as “ The Messiah” 
 or “ The Creation.” 
 
 I do not know how many purely English oratorios we have. 
 The only one I have ever heard of is Dr. Crotch’s “ Palestine,” 
 and all I know of it is one air, “Ye faithful few.” There is a 
 something in that air which wins upon you insensibly. You may 
 meet with many melodies more striking, many accompaniments 
 more elaborately harmonized, but there runs through this song a 
 touching plaintiveness united to calmness, that reminds one of the 
 repose of Greek statuary. There are many oratorios by German 
 composers of the present day, but none that hold the same rank 
 as those of Spohr and Mendelssohn. 
 
 * There is a chorus from it in Novello’s “ Select Organ Pieces,” well worth 
 the attention of amateur pianists. 
 
84 
 
 A. FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EmigravU is th’ inscription on the tombstone where he lies ; 
 
 Dead he is not, but departed, for the Artist never dies. 
 
 Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and narrow lanes. 
 Walked of old the Master Singers, chanting rude poetic strains. — Longfellow. 
 
 Were it not better done, as others use 
 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade 
 
 Or with the tangles of Neoera’s hair? — Milton. 
 
 And old Silenus shaking a green stick 
 Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew 
 Came blithe, as in the olive copses thick 
 Cicadse are, drunk with the noonday dew; 
 
 And Driope and Faunus followed quick, 
 
 Teazing the god to sing them something new. — Shelley. 
 
 A sketch of the progress of Music would be incomplete 
 without some account of the origin of the Opera. Sacred 
 Dramas and Pastoral Plays, with Choruses or Hymns inter- 
 spersed, were common throughout Europe from a very early 
 period. In Italy, some parts of the Orfeo of Politiano were 
 sung in 1483, and from that time we find music employed in 
 Tragedies, Comedies, and Pastorals. But these pieces were not 
 Operas, for that term is applied only to Dramas which are en- 
 tirely sung. M. Fetis’ account of the origin of the Opera, 
 is as follows : — “ Music had been reduced to the symmetrical forms 
 of counterpoint, applicable only to the music of the Church 
 and of the parlour, when a number of literati and musicians, 
 among whom we distinguish Vincent Galileo, Mei, and Caccini, 
 conceived the idea of a union of poetry and music, in order to 
 revive the dramatic system of the Greeks, in which poetry was 
 sung. Galileo produced, in his attempt of these kind of pieces, 
 the Episode of Count Ugolimo which he had set to music. The 
 reception which this first play met with, determined the poet 
 Rinuccini to compose the Opera of Daphne, which was set to 
 music by Peri and Caccini, between 1594 and 1597. This work 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 85 
 
 was followed by Euridice, and both had great success. Such was 
 the origin of the Opera.”* Euridice was performed at Florence 
 in 1600, in honour of the marriage of Marie de Medici with 
 Henri Quatre. Emilio del Cavaliere, a Roman noble and ama- 
 teur, composed a kind of oratorio, called “ Rappresentadone ddV 
 Anima e del Corpo," which was performed at Rome in 1600, on 
 a stage in the Church of La Varicella, with scenery, decorations, 
 and choruses after the antique, and even an attempt at classical 
 dancing. It must be remembered that this was a sacred drama, 
 and the dancing was probably defended on the ground of the 
 religious dances of the Jews, and the example of King David. 
 The admirers of the noble composer asserted that he had re- 
 covered in his recitative, the ancient Greek dramatic song. 
 This strange exhibition (which would have shocked a monk of 
 tlie middle ages quite as much as it would shock us in the 
 nineteenth century), took place when the renaissance period was 
 in its gloiy. The famous pictures in the Louvre, descriptive 
 of Marie de Medici’s bridal, which Reubens painted about the 
 same time, give one a specimen of the perverted taste of that 
 period. Classic literature and classic art had not long been 
 recovered, and many of those who gave themselves up to its 
 fascinations, appear to have become intoxicated by that portion 
 of it which appeals to the senses, while they lost sight of all 
 that is high and pure in it, as well as of the truths veiled 
 beneath its myths. Dante and Raffaelle did not thus misuse 
 antiquity, but those who came after them did. “ To the pure 
 all things are pure,” and they who say with Tasso — 
 
 “ O Musa, tu, che di caduchi allori 
 Non circondila fronte in Elicona 
 Ma su nel cielo infra i beati Cori 
 Hai di stelle immortali aurea corona, 
 
 Tu spiri al petto mio celesti ardori.” 
 
 can tread with firm step the laurel groves and myrtle bowers 
 of Greece. But woe to those who dare “ the bright land of 
 
 • Fetis’ “Music Explained,” Chap. 10, Part 2, Boston edition. 
 
86 
 
 A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 battle and of song,” without the shield of faith, and the breastplate 
 of chastity ! No wonder if such end in saying — 
 
 “I’d rather be 
 
 A pagan suckled in a creed outworn. 
 
 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
 
 Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, 
 
 Have sight of Proteus rising o’er the sea. 
 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed hom,’’ 
 
 In 1606, the opera was performed for the first time at Eome. 
 Claude Monteverde (famed for having discovered the hannony 
 of the Domitant, in 1590) composed his opera of “Orfeo” for the 
 Court of Mantua, in 1607, which was represented in the follow- 
 ing year. The lyrical drama was introduced at Venice in 
 1637, and at Naples in 1646, but Venice took the lead of all 
 other places. It will be remembered that in Shakspeare’s time, 
 Venice was one of the most fashionable and luxurious cities of 
 Europe. And it will occur to many of my readers, no doubt, 
 that one of the most beautiful passages on music, among the 
 many to be found in Shakspeare, is in “ The Merchant of 
 Venice.” In the opera of “ Euridice” (which was the second 
 written), one of the personages sings Anacreontic stanzas, which 
 may be considered as the origin of what is called an air. This 
 piece is preceded by a short prelude. The movements of the 
 bass follows those of the voice, which gives a heavy character. 
 In the recitative the bass frequently sustains its notes. In other 
 respects the model of the airs of the opera existed before in the 
 popular melodies which had been known time out of mind. Airs 
 took a more settled form in a musical drama of Landi’s, “ II Santo 
 Alessio,” represented at Rome in 1634. The airs of this epoch 
 are monotonous and cut into couplets, like our vaudevilles and 
 ballads. The same custom is found in all the operas of Cavalli, 
 who composed more than forty, and particularly in his “ Jason,” 
 represented at Venice in 1649. By a singular arrangement, all 
 the airs of this period were placed at the beginning of the scenes, 
 and not towards the close, as in modem operas.”* Towards the 
 * Fetis’ “ Music Explained.” Part 2, Chap. 16. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 87 
 
 end of the seventeenth century, a fashion came in of beginning 
 with a slow movement, continuing with a lively one, and lastly 
 repeating the slow movement entire. This has a good effect for 
 a ballad, and indeed the Troubadour poetry generally has a 
 refrain as in the following exquisite little song, written by 
 Thihaut, Count of Champagne, in the fourteenth centuiy : — 
 
 Las ! si, j’avais le pouvoir d’ouWier 
 Sa beaute, sa beaute et sonbien dire, 
 
 Et son tr^s doux, tihs doux regarder. 
 
 Plus n’ aurais mon martire ! 
 
 Mais de mon coeur je n’en puis rien 6ter, 
 
 Et grand aifolage, 
 
 Mais tel servage, 
 
 Donne courage 
 A tout endurer. 
 
 * Et puis comment comment oublier 
 Sa beaute, beaut§ et son bien dire, 
 
 Et son trfes doux, trfes doux regarder, 
 
 Mieux aimer mon martire ! 
 
 But in dramatic music a different treatment is required, and 
 after having expressed passion with vehemence in the second 
 movement, it has a cold effect to return quietly to the first move- 
 ment, as if it were a mere refrain or burden. “ Jomellif was the 
 first who perceived the necessity of ending with the four last 
 lines. This style of airs lasted till the time of Piccini and 
 Sacchini. Among the form of airs which had most success, the 
 rondeau holds the first place.” Its invention is attributed to 
 Buononcini, an Italian composer of the eighteenth century. At a 
 later period Sarti conceived the idea of the rondeau in two move- 
 ments. Paisiello, Cimarosa, Mozart, Paer, and Mayer, have 
 written many airs of a mixed character, composed of a slow 
 movement followed by an allegro. Rossini has adopted the plan 
 
 * I hold it true whate’er befall ; 
 
 I feel it when I sorrow most ; 
 
 ’Tis better to have loved and lost 
 
 Than never to have loved at all. — Tennyson. 
 t Fetis. 
 
88 
 
 A FEW WOEDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 of making the first movement an allegro moderato, followed by 
 an andante or adagio, and terminating by a quick movement. 
 This lengthens the piece so much as to weaken the dramatic 
 action. A movement gradually increasing in rapidity is an 
 infallible means of reviving the attention of an audience, and 
 the imitators of Rossini, without his genius, frequently make use 
 of it to conceal the poverty of their ideas.* The first instance of 
 a vocal duett occurs in the drama of “ II Santo Alessio,” (1634). 
 The first terzetto is found in an opera by Logroscino, a Venetian 
 composer, 1750. Picciui carried concerted pieces to perfection in 
 his “Buona Figliola.” Mozart completed the musical revolution 
 by his wonderful trios, quartetts, sextetts and finales in the 
 “ Zauberfiote,” “Don Giovanni,” and “ Le Nozze di Figaro.” 
 “ Rossini,” says M. Fetis, ‘‘has not added anything to the form of 
 concerted pieces, but he has made improvements in the details of 
 rhythm, vocal effect, and instrumentation.” 
 
 Gluck, a composer of great genius, settled the form of the 
 French serious opera, towards the end of the last century. 
 Gluck was bom 1714. His brother was head forester to a German 
 prince. After leading the life of an itinerant musician for some 
 time, Gluck took some lessons of Martini, and became composer 
 in Prince Melzi’s establishment at Milan, where he wrote several 
 operas. In 1745, he was invited to England, where he composed 
 an opera called “ La Caduta de’ Giganti.” Thence he proceeded 
 to Copenhagen, in Germany, where he composed several works, 
 and zealously applied himself to repair the defects of his edu- 
 cation, both by the study of languages and by associating with 
 literary persons. In 1754, he again visited Italy, and in a few 
 years returned to Vienna, where he wrote his celebrated operas, 
 “Orfeo” and “Alceste.” He was invited to Paris, and in 1776 
 began the famous “Musical War” between him and Piccini, 
 which is so often alluded to in French memoii’s of the last century. 
 He left Paris to settle at Vienna, where he appears to have 
 enjoyed better fortune than generally falls to the lot of men 
 
 * Fetis, 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 89 
 
 of genius ; the concluding years of his life were more productive 
 of comfort to himself than of romantic interest to his biographers, 
 for he seems to have enjoyed a quiet, pleasant life, as well as a 
 great reputation, and finally died of apoplexy at the age of sixty- 
 three, leaving behind him a fortune of £25,000. Mozart was a 
 great admirer of Gluck’s, and paid him the highest of all compli- 
 ments, by making use of parts of his operas, as models worthy to 
 be followed. It has been said that Mozart alone has surpassed 
 Gluck in the serious opera. Gluck’s works are remarkable for 
 grand severity of style, deep expression, and poetic feeling. The 
 well known March in “ Alceste,” and the equally well known 
 “ Che faro senza Euridice,” will probably occur to the memory of 
 many of my readers, as examples of these characteristics. Cherubini 
 is another original composer of the last century who wrote at Paris ; 
 he was bom at Florence, 17 60. His church music displays great 
 genius, but is of an operatic cast. One of his compositions, the 
 overture to “ Les Deux Joumees,” is well knowm in England. It 
 is an admirable study for amateur pianists an'anged as a duett for 
 pianoforte. It is not necessary for me to particularize all the 
 great composers of modem times ; a mere list of their names 
 would be uninteresting and useless, and were I to attempt giving 
 a ciitical and biographical catalogue of them, even of the briefest 
 kind, it would swell this little work far beyond the limits to which 
 I am compelled to restrict myself. For the same reason I must 
 refrain from inserting the curious antiquarian information respect- 
 ing the invention and improvements in musical instruments, 
 which is to be found in M. Fetis’ valuable book. I hope the 
 extracts I have given from “ Music Explained to the World,” 
 may induce some of my fair readers to read the entire work. 
 The edition from which my extracts are taken is an American 
 translation, made for the Boston Academy of Music. 
 
90 
 
 A FEW WORKS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Nothing useless is, or low, 
 
 Each thing in its place is best ; 
 
 And what seems hut idle show, 
 
 Strengthens and supports the rest. 
 
 Build to-day, then, strong and sure, 
 
 With a firm and ample base, 
 
 And ascending and secure 
 Shall to-morrow find its place. 
 
 Thus alone can we attain 
 To those turrets, where the eye 
 Sees the world as one vast plain. 
 
 And one boundless reach of sky. — Longfellow. 
 
 Full of long-sounding corridors it was 
 That over-vaulted grateful gloom. 
 
 Through which the live-long day my soul did pass 
 Well-pleased from room to room. 
 
 Pull of great rooms, and small, the palace stood. 
 
 All various, each a perfect whole. 
 
 From living nature, fit for every mood 
 And change of my still soul. — Tennyson. 
 
 Sovereign masters of all hearts ! 
 
 Know ye who hath set your parts ? 
 
 He who gave you breath to sing, 
 
 By whose strength ye sweep the string. 
 
 He hath chosen you, to lead 
 His hosannas here below ; 
 
 Mount and claim your glorious meed ; 
 
 Linger not with sin and woe. 
 
 But if ye should hold your peace. 
 
 Deem not that the song would cease : 
 
 Angels round His glory-throne. 
 
 Stars, His guiding hand that won. 
 
 Flowers that grow beneath our feet. 
 
 Stones in earth’s dark womb that rest. 
 
 High and low in choir shall meet. 
 
 Ere his name shall be unblest. — Keble. 
 
 I shall conclude with a sketch of the history of the pianoforte. 
 This instrument may be deemed as an invention of the nineteenth 
 century, inasmuch as modem improvements have rendered a 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 91 
 
 first-rate pianoforte of the present day quite a different instrument 
 from the piano of the last century. M. Fetis says that the first 
 stringed instrument struck by keys, was the clavicitherium, which 
 had strings of catgut put in vibration by means of pieces of leather 
 operated on by the keys. Another ancient keyed instrument was 
 the virginal or virginals, familiar to us, as having been a favorite 
 with Maiy, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth of England. Indeed, 
 it has been asserted that the instrument received its name in 
 compliment to the virgin queen ; but unfortunately for the truth 
 of this report, it so happens, that the virginal bore the same title 
 thirty years before the “ fair vestal throned in the west ” was set 
 up to be worshipped ! Henry VIII. was a good musician, and all 
 his children inherited talent for music. Mary had a love for the 
 art which amounted to a passion. Miss Strickland mentions that 
 her portraits (looked at with a phrenological eye) show the organ 
 of tune developed to an extraordinary degree. It is certain she 
 was a remarkably fine performer on the virginals. Poor Maiy 
 Stuart is often represented playing on this instrument. She cul- 
 tivated music highly, and excelled in it, as she did in every 
 graceful accomplishment. But probably the true reason of 
 painters' choosing to depict her playing, is, that the virginal looks 
 well in a picture. Sony as I am to admit a defect in my favorite 
 instrument, I must own that the form of the pianoforte is neither 
 picturesque nor even elegant. I am told that Mr. Lambert has 
 just introduced a gothic case for cabinet and cottage pianos, which 
 gives the instrmnent quite a mediaeval appearance ; but I fear the 
 ugliness of the horizontal grand pianoforte is past all cure. It 
 would defy the brilliant fancy and powerful pencil of Mr. Pugin 
 himself. And unfortunately it is the piano-forte par excellence, 
 except for that class of listeners who are able to hear with their 
 eyes. At the same time we must allow that recent improve- 
 ments * have brought the cabinet piano, if not quite on a level 
 
 * Mr. Lambert, who, while In the employ of Messrs. Collard, invented the 
 check action cabinet piano, has recently added another improvement, “ the 
 Repeater,” which is said to bring the touch and tone of the cabinet piano very 
 near that of the horizontal 
 
92 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC,^ 
 
 with the horizontal, still near enough’ to satisfy any but the 
 critical ear of an artist. The clavecin or harpsichord, according 
 to M. Fetis, is as old [as 1530. He says, “ This instrument, the 
 largest of the kind, had almost the form of our long pianos. It 
 often had two keys, which might be played together, and which 
 struck two notes at a time tuned in octaves. The strings of the 
 harpsichord were put in vibration by strips of wood, terminated 
 with a piece of quill or leather, and which were raised by touching 
 a key. The end of the leather fell as soon as it had touched the 
 string, leaving the latter free to vibrate. The spinet was only a 
 harpsichord of square form.” — (Oblong like our square pianos ?) 
 The harpsichord, spinet, and clavichord, continued in use till about 
 1785. M. Fetis traces the origin of the pianoforte to the Eastern 
 Psaltery. He says “ This was composed of a square box, on 
 which a thin pine board or tablet was glued ; on this tablet 
 strings of iron or brass wire were extended by means of pegs, and 
 tuned so as to give all the sounds of the scale. The performers 
 held in each hand a little rod, with which he struck the strings. 
 An attempt was made to improve this instrument, and from thence 
 sprang the clavichord, which consisted of a box of triangular 
 form, with a sound-board and pegs, to which wires of brass were 
 attached, and a key which operated on little plates of copper, by 
 which the strings were struck. It was this instrument which 
 afterwards suggested the idea of the piano.* As early as 1716, 
 Marius, a manufacturer at Paris, presented to the Academy 
 of Sciences for examination, two harpsichords, in which he had 
 substituted little hammers for the strips of wood used to strike the 
 strings. Two years afterwards, Cristoforo, a Florentine, improved 
 on this invention, and made the first pianoforte, which has served 
 as a model for those made since. It appeared that the first 
 attempts were received coldly, for it was not till 1760, that 
 Zumpe, in England, and Silbermann, in Germany, had regular 
 manufactories, and began to multiply pianos. In 1776, the 
 brothers Erard made the first instruments of this kind constructed 
 * Fetis, Part 2, Chap. 14. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 93 
 
 in Paris ; for until that time they were imported from London. 
 These pianos had only five octaves, and two strings tuned in 
 unison for each hammer. Afterwards the key-board was ex- 
 tended to six octaves and a half, and the number of the strings 
 was increased to three. 
 
 M. Fetis’s judgment upon the various schools of pianoforte 
 playing is too well worth quoting to he omitted. He tells us 
 “ One of the greatest difficulties in touching the piano consists in 
 producing a fine tone, by a peculiar manner of striking the keys. 
 In order to acquire this art, the performer must learn to restrain 
 the action of the arm upon the key-board, and to give equal 
 suppleness and strength to the fingers, a thing which requires great 
 practice. A good position of the hand and a constant study of 
 certain passages, executed at first slowly and with evenness, and 
 gradually increasing in rapidity, will, in the end, give this neces- 
 sary quality of suppleness. This, however, is not saying that the 
 art of drawing a fine tone from the piano is purely mechanical. 
 It is with this, as with every other art, its principle dwells in the 
 soul of the artist, and diffuses itself with the I’apidity of lightning 
 even to the end of his fingers.” 
 
 There is an inspiration of sound, as there is of expression, 
 of which it is one of the elements. M. Fetis divides pianoforte 
 playing (including the harpsichord) into three chief epochs. 
 First “ the legato style, in which the fingers of the two hands 
 played in four or five distinct parts on a plan of harmony rather 
 than melody. This epoch ended with John Sebastian Bach, who 
 had the finest talent of this kind which has ever existed. In 
 order to play, upon this system, a strong perception of harmony is 
 necessary, and all the fingers must be equally apt in the execu- 
 tion of difficulties.” M. Fetis adds “ that these difficulties are so 
 great, that few pianists of our days can execute the music of Bach 
 and Handel.” Bach’s fugues certainly do require a strong love 
 for harmony, a clear head and a great stock of patience while 
 reading them, hut the assertion that few pianists of our day can 
 play Handel, if it apply to France (which I doubt), certainly can- 
 
94 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 not be said to apply to this country. There is not a cathedral 
 town in England, where you may not meet with organists who 
 can play Handel, and generally with amateurs who can acquit 
 themselves very fairly in the legato style. Most of the great manu- 
 facturing towns now possess music halls, with organs in them, and 
 some have churches where the full choral service is performed, as 
 at Leeds. In the catholic churches of England the music of 
 Palestrina and his school is beginning to be heard again, in spite 
 of the opposition of those who have been so long accustomed to 
 the melodious honeyed style of Mozart and Haydn, as to find the 
 severity of the old music “ harsh and crabbed.” At St. Chad’s, Bir- 
 mingham, and at the Church of the Apostles, Clifton, ( probably in 
 many other catholic churches) Palestrina is sometimes exquisitely 
 done. I can say nothing of the London churches, catholic or 
 protestant, as I have never been there on a Sunday, and indeed, I 
 have never heard any musical religious service in London, ex- 
 cept once, and that was in Westminster Abbey. Certainly the 
 music on that occasion was not to be compared with what I have 
 heard at Canterbury, Windsor, Lichfield, Salisbury, Gloucester, 
 Exeter, &c. 
 
 To return to our original subject. M. Fetis says that the 
 second school of pianoforte playing began with Charles Philip 
 Emanuel Bach, son of the great Sebastian. This school “ intro- 
 duced these combinations of the scales which for nearly sixty 
 years have been the type of all the brilliant passages for the 
 piano. After E. Bach came Mozart, Muller, Beethoven,* and 
 Dussek. dementi, an Italian by birth, pursued the same course. 
 His pupils, Cramer, Klengel, and a few others, brought this 
 second epoch to a close. 
 
 “The third epoch began with Hummel and Kalkbrenner. These 
 great artists, preserving all that was free and judicious in the 
 mechanical action of the preceding school, introduced into the 
 
 * In classing Beethoven with this school, I beg to say that I am giving 
 M. Fetis’ opinion, not my own. I hold Beethoven to be as distinct from 
 Mozart and Dussek, as from Sebastian Bach. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 95 
 
 style of the piano a new plan of brilliant passages, consisting in 
 the dexterity of taking distant intervals and in grouping the 
 fingers in passages of harmony, independent of the scales. This 
 novelty, which would have enriched the music of the piano, if it 
 had not been abused, completely changed the art of playing. 
 When one step had been taken in this boldness of execution, the 
 artists did not stop in their progress. Moschelles, in whom 
 suppleness, firmness, and agility of finger have been wonderfully 
 developed by labour, did not hesitate to encounter difficulties 
 greater than those of which Hummel and Kalkbrenner had given 
 the model. Herz* carried to a still greater height these perillous 
 leaps and rattling notes of the new school. The art of playing 
 the piano has at last become the art of astonishing. Thought is 
 no longer anything in the talent of the pianist; mechanical execu- 
 tion constitutes almost its whole merit. The folly of this direction 
 of the art has however already became apparent to men of correct 
 mind and of real talent. 
 
 “Moschelles, who possesses more ability than any other artist in 
 overcoming difficulties, has come to a stand in this career, and 
 for some time has devoted himself to the expressive style. 
 Kalkbrenner and Hummel have resisted the torrent ; it is probable 
 that they will find imitators, and that the art of playing the 
 piano will again become worthy of its origin.” 
 
 Thus ends M. Fetis, writing more than twenty years ago. 
 Real study and true love of art will enable a scholar to see farther 
 than the multitude. 
 
 Till old experience do attain 
 To something like prophetic strain.” 
 
 M. Fetis’ prediction has been accomplished. Henri Herz’s later 
 compositions bear witness to his having attempted to correct the 
 eiTors of his early style. Jacques Herz, who always excelled his 
 more popular brother in solidity and expression, has of late years 
 
 * I repeat I am quoting the opinion of another, for my experience would 
 t ell me that there is nothing in Moschelles or Henri Herz so difficult as some 
 passages of Hummel. 
 
96 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 produced some compositions which may rank with those of Cramer 
 and Hummel. 
 
 The new school, of which Thalherg, Benedict, Dohler, Listz, 
 Chopin, Schulhoff, Goria, Dreyschock, and Henselt, are the prin- 
 cipal stars, all, more or less, do homage to science and feeling, and 
 give execution a subordinate place. True, many of these com- 
 posers, for the sake of astonishing the musical world, or to gain 
 popularity, sacrifice high art too often. But indeed it may be 
 questioned whether most of them have power to do more than just 
 what they have done. And their compositions are so able and so 
 pleasing, that pianoforte players may well be thankful for them, 
 and not expect Mozarts and Beethovens to be bom every year. 
 Mendelssohn leaves us nothing to desire ; some of his concertos 
 would be heard with delight after one of Mozart’s. Mendelssohn 
 (I speak of him as a composer) has the sostenuto tone, and the 
 gracefully flowing legato passage of Cramer, united to the bold 
 effects of the new school, and in point of conception his music is, 
 of course, superior to that of mere pianoforte writers, who however 
 ingeniously they may weave together the ideas of others, cannot 
 give them that unity and fixity of purpose which good original 
 composition possesses. It is the difference between flowers grow- 
 ing in artificial beds in a garden, and flowers springing up in a 
 wood, where they harmonise with all around them. Henselt, 
 though one cannot claim for him the first of all gifts, invention, 
 presents the ideas of others in so novel a form, that one is tempted 
 to fancy one is hearing an original composition. His “ Gage 
 d’ Amour ” is a beautiful specimen of pianoforte music. It consists 
 of two movements, both together filling less than five pages ; but 
 it is like a short lyric, perfect as far as it goes. Trae, the melody 
 would be nothing stinking, divested of the accompaniment, but that 
 accompaniment is really a work of art. He may well call his piece 
 “ Poeme d’ Amour.” The expression is most powerful. Intense 
 feeling never flags from the first bar to the last; one hardly 
 observes the executive difficulties, because, as in a poem, one is 
 carried on by the irresistible force of the passion expressed, and 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 97 
 
 never thinks of the artist’s skill, till one begins to examine it 
 critically. The slow movement flows sweetly and gracefully, and 
 is remarkable for tenderness and gentleness. There is much skill 
 and originality shown in the mechanical details, which are so 
 managed, as to increase the tone in the melody, and keep the under 
 parts in their proper place. 
 
 The second movement, though not quick, is animated, and at 
 times impassioned. The bold arpeggios produce rich and un- 
 expected harmonies, and the modulation is exceedingly beautiful. 
 There is a regular, yet ever-changing movement about it which 
 bears the subject on, as a bark is borne over the waves of the sea, 
 expressing vuth more tmth than words can do, the restless, fluc- 
 tuating nature of the passion described. • 
 
 Henselt has written many short pieces of very interesting 
 character, and much easier to execute than his “ Gage d’ Amour.” 
 “ II Lamento,” and “ Sorrow in Happiness,” are most expressive 
 and plaintive songs without words. I have spoken of Dreyschock 
 already. His Nocturnes are very captivating, making up in grace 
 and feeling for what they want in originality. Schulhoff is a 
 composer of great talent, but writes too much for the multitude. 
 His “Galop di Bravura” and “ Carnival of Venice” delight the ears 
 and dazzle the eyes of a mixed audience, for there is just enough 
 solidity in them to please a musician at the first hearing, and a 
 variety of novel and ingenious passages, which appear much more 
 difficult than they really are, at first sight, even to a good pianist, 
 while the constant flow of gay melody, and the brilliance of the 
 executive work, fascinate and dazzle tliat numerous class, who 
 “ play a little” and know less. Schulhoflf’s “ Souvenir de Venice” 
 is a sweet flowing Nocturne, without one tour de force in it. 
 Fradel is an agreeable composer. His harmonies are rich and his 
 melodies well chosen. His music has the advantage of producing 
 a good effect without requiring great execution. Tliere are 
 several very easy short pieces of Fradel’s* lately published, which 
 would be found useful by amateur pianists who do not practice 
 * By Messrs. Cocks. 
 
98 
 
 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 regularly, and who have a difficulty in remembering long pieces. 
 Fradel resembles Blumenthal ; neither of them have any claim to 
 originality of idea, but they possess that fine taste which enables 
 a composer to select from good sources, and to treat what they 
 have selected in the best possible manner. 
 
 There is a duett of Fradel’s called by the fantastic title of 
 “ Pique-Nique Musicale,” which is particularly agreeable, both 
 to play and to hear. It is very easy, but requires finished play- 
 ing. Hear an indifferent performer play the tunes in Cramer’s 
 Instmctions, and then listen to the same airs played by one who 
 has that perfect control over the instrument which is necessary to 
 producing fine tone and perfect expression, ‘and you will admit 
 good execution is required, to give proper effect to the easiest 
 music. Space would fail me, were I to enter into a critical 
 account of all the composers of the day ; and the most eminent 
 are too well known to render it necessary. There is one whose 
 name I must not pass over, because the cause I have at heart, 
 viz., the advancement of musical knowledge among amateurs, 
 owes much to him. I allude to Mr. Sterndale Bennett, who 
 devotes himself to the classical school. Many of his compo- 
 sitions possess great beauty, but the one I find most fascinating 
 is the Capriccio, in D minor. The more one plays it, the better 
 one likes it, and after all, that is the tnie test of excellence. I do, 
 not say it would please those who prefer a set of M. Jullien’s 
 quadrilles to the overture to the “ Zauberflote,” but to those who 
 can appreciate harmony, this little gem, worthy of days gone by, 
 will always be heard with intense pleasure. 
 
 I vnll not conclude without expressing a charitable wish in 
 favour of those orders of society, who having fewer means of 
 enjoyment than others, should in a particular measure excite our 
 s\Tnpathy. Much might be done for them by affording them 
 opportunities of cultivating a taste for music. There are few who 
 have not the genn of that taste. Other tastes are more often 
 denied, and more difficult to acquire. Music is an innate love ; 
 pleasure accompanies every step in its advancement ; in its pro- 
 
A FKW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 99 
 
 gross it opens the mind, for it awakens imagination and bids 
 thoughts flow. Classical music might be made a powerful instru- 
 ment in civilization and moral improvement. Eeligious music, 
 madrigal and motett singing, and chamber music, occupy the 
 mind, and interest the fancy without exciting that exhausting 
 degree of feeling which dramatic music does when enjoyed 
 thoroughly. Classical music acts, too, as a species of mental cul- 
 tivation. The study of Palestrina and Handel calls into action a 
 degree of mental power which may lie dormant while performing 
 or listening to the works of lighter composers. If any doubt the 
 capacity of the lower orders for enjoying music of a scientific cha- 
 racter, let them go into the nave of an English cathedral on a 
 Sunday afternoon ; there they will find crowds listening eagerly 
 to the sounds proceeding from the choir. Some, it is true, 
 go from mere idleness, and behave in a profane manner, but the 
 majority go for the pure love of music. It is evident from their 
 whole bearing that they do not look upon it as an act of worship. 
 As soon as the music ceases they walk about and look at the 
 monuments or anything else that catches their eye ; generally in 
 a serious, decent manner, but without any signs of devotion. As 
 soon as the organ is heard again, they throng towards the entrances 
 to the choir, and remain standing in a listening attitude while the 
 music lasts. The very difficulty the working classes find in getting 
 to hear good dramatic music helps to keep their ear unspoilt for 
 serious music. Those who accustom themselves to a variety of 
 highly-seasoned viands every day, have not generally so good an 
 appetite as those who live on plain fare. And in like manner 
 they who never hear the opera will enjoy the most keenly an old 
 madrigal. 
 
 That the working classes are really fond of music no one who 
 examines into the matter can doubt. The success which has 
 crowned the philanthropic efforts of Mr. Hullah,may be attributed, 
 perhaps, to his own talent and energy. But see how highly music 
 is cultivated in the manufacturing districts. In Manchester and 
 Birmingham good part-singing is quite common. The same may 
 
100 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 be said of many great towns in the north. A music- seller in a great 
 manufacturing town, told me, lately, that classical music sold 
 better among the operatives than among any other class; and not 
 long since, I heard a working man discuss the respective merits of 
 Haydn and Mendelssohn with a critical acuteness which many a 
 concert-going lady or gentleman would have found it difficult to 
 follow. In the rural districts music is sadly behind-hand. Still 
 one finds love for it there in spite of every possible disadvantage. 
 The bands got up among the labourers and artisans in villages 
 and little countiy towns, prove how deeply-rooted is the love of 
 music in the Anglo-Saxon race. These bands in some parts of 
 the country, go from home to home, at Christmas time, singing 
 and playing alternately, as long as people will entertain them. 
 Their performance, though rude and uncultivated, prove that 
 the gifts of voice and ear are not wanting among the English. I 
 have been told that wherever music is cultivated among the 
 labouring classes, drunkenness decreases. Meeting for the pur- 
 pose of practising part -singing is certainly a more harmless 
 recreation than meeting for the purpose of puffing forth tobacco 
 smoke and chartist or socialist clap-trap, as so many working men 
 do of an evening. Perhaps some of my fair readei's may ask 
 how it is possible for them to give any aid to the musical move- 
 ment alluded to. I answer, first by encouraging singing-classes, 
 both among rich and poor. Secondly, by interesting themselves 
 in the musical education of children in any charity schools * they 
 may be connected with. Thirdly, by studying classical music 
 themselves. And fourthly, by supporting and recommending such 
 periodicals as “ The Musical Times,” “ The Part-Song Book,” 
 “ The Parish Choir Book,” “ The Musical Miscellany,” and 
 similar works, which are put forth in the hope of diffusing sound 
 musical knowledge, and pure taste among all classes. What has 
 
 *Some good remarks on this subject have appeared in “The Lady’s Com- 
 panion.” The evils resulting from the had method of singing allowed in 
 infant schools is forcibly pointed out. 
 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 101 
 
 been may be again. It is no utopian day dream, this idea of 
 bringing high art within reach of the million. Poetry and music 
 once shed their glorious light upon lowly dwellings. Why should 
 they not shine upon us once more ? 
 
 “ Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and dismal lanes, 
 Walked of old the master singers, chanting rude poetic strains. 
 
 From remote and sunless suburbs, came they to the friendly guild, 
 
 Building nests in Fame’s great temple, as in spouts the swallows build. 
 
 As the weaver plied the shuttle, wove he too the mystic rhyme. 
 
 And the smith his iron measures, hammered to the anvils’ chime. 
 
 Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flowers of poesy bloom. 
 
 In the forges, dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom. 
 
 And now what remains for me to say to those patient readers 
 who have accompanied me thus far. — Only this. — That I trust 
 many among them, who have hitherto regarded music as a trifling 
 amusement, may have gained from this little book, a truer idea of 
 its real nature. And that I may have had the good fortune to 
 unlock for some few the golden gates of the palace of harmony. 
 To them there will seem nothing unreal or strained in my apply- 
 ing to art, what he whom we have lately lost, has said of Nature. 
 
 “ When thy mind 
 
 Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, 
 
 'Thy memory be as a dwelling place 
 
 For all sweet sounds and harmonies j Oh ! then 
 
 If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief 
 
 Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts 
 
 Of tender joy wilt thou remember me. 
 
 And these my exhortations ! ” — 
 
 Yes, Art as well as Nature offers sympathy to the lonely, 
 enjoyment to the care-wom. 
 
102 
 
 A FEW WOKDS ABOUT MUSIC. 
 
 The “ Sky-lark” of Wordsworth is a type of High Art in all 
 her forms. 
 
 “ Up with me 1 up with me into the clouds ! 
 
 For thy song, Lark, is strong ; 
 
 Up with me, up with me into the clouds ! 
 
 Singing, singing. 
 
 With clouds and sky about thee ringing. 
 
 Lift me, guide me till I find 
 
 That spot which seems so to thy mind. 
 
 * « * » 
 
 Happy, happy Liver, 
 
 With a soul as strong as a mountain river. 
 
 Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver, 
 
 Joy and jollity be with us both ! 
 
 Alas ! my journey, rugged and uneven, 
 
 Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind ; 
 
 But hearing thee, or others of thy kind. 
 
 As fuli of gladness and as free of heaven, 
 
 I, with my fate contented, will plod on. 
 
 And hope for higher raptures, when life’s day is done. 
 
 THE END 
 
 J. A. NOVELLO, PRINTER, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON. 
 
By the same Authoress, 
 
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