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-and then write down an enumeration of the different pieces performed, and I suspect you will not be so eager in future to condemn the idleness of the professor.

The fact I believe to be, that this last point is not so deeply regarded by amateurs as it deserves to be. A friend of mine was in the habit of singing almost nightly with two ladies, either at home or abroad, and at length he complained that they had no variety. The next evening they met, one of the ladies archly presented him with a list of eighty-one duets and trios which they were in the constant habit of singing together. Yet they lacked diversity! The truth was, that they met too often. So it is with the amateur and the professional singer. The amateur is a very frequent attendant at concerts. But as it is estimated in theatres, that there is a fresh audience every third night, so the concert-singer may and does calculate upon that change of auditors which escapes the constant attendant. This perhaps does not apply to the ancient concert, but it does to all single concerts, public or private. Neither does it apply to provincial meetings. But then, Sir, only reflect upon the quantity and kind of provision indispensable to six or seven concerts. Sixty pieces are done during the nights, and twice sixty pieces during the mornings. Where is such a mass of composition, insisting, remember always, upon fine selections, to be found for a change? Nothing, Sir, but engaging new composers to write new music, can effectuate what amateurs appear to desire. And then would the art or the ear be advantaged? He would be a hardy man who would maintain the affirmative. Of the multitude of songs produced, how few, how very very few, live even for a second season!

Yet, Sir, pray let me be understood. I am as tired of Che farò senz' Euridice-of Alexis, and Deeper and deeper still-of Una voce, and Di tanti palpiti, as any of your readers can possibly be, and I do as heartily protest against the nerveless apathy of those who repeat them, beautiful though they be, usque ad nauseam. But I would observe, that it is not upon variety but upon power, in the full and comprehensive sense of the word, that the reputation of a singer subsists; and although variety be one of the attributes of power, it is not so important as those which are combined in the other requisites that preserve and establish a professor's reception. Hence it is less attended to-less certainly

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than it ought to be; but the wonder is also the less. A singer ought not, with a due regard to self, to put any thing so momentous to the hazard, as may be risked by the adoption of an inferior though a good song. On the other hand, what stuff have we seen supported by the art of the singer-Is there a heart that never loved, and The bewilder'd maid, to wit; to say nothing of Mary of Castle Cary, and airs with variations.

There is then in this a medium as in all things, and perhaps the just estimation of standard excellence, as well as the judicious introduction of deserving novelty, depends upon the stedfast conduct of our great and established concerts-upon this adherence to the classical authorities of music-while the novelties are the properties of the occasional performances. Thus the one, like the House of Lords in our constitution, guards us against the dangers of innovation, while the other, like our House of Commons, is affected and moved by the improvements of the time.

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In defending the artists I have defended a class who themselves perhaps ought never to enter the arena of such contests, but to trust to time and their own energies for justification. Canova, whose talents, virtues, and success alike entitle him to be set up as a model to professional people, is described by the author of his life, never to have answered verbally to any criticism made upon his works. He however pondered the remark, and to use the language of his letters," replied by his chisel." That is, if the obser. vation was worth treasuring, he shewed in some subsequent work that it had not been thrown away upon him. If on the contrary, it was insignificant to his art, he disregarded it. The philoso'phical temper requisite to such a line of conduct is not often given by nature or easily acquired, but it is the happiest both for art and the artist. Here then I conclude-content if I shall have neutralized in the minds of any of the too susceptible family of genius, any of the little asperities of criticism which are apt to lie and fester there-still more so should any of them, from what I have said, be led nearer to that felicitous medium, that narrow channel surrounded by quicksands, which I presume it to be your aim, Sir, and that of your Correspondents, to lay down and buoy out, by those censures which I have endeavoured to disarm of some of their force, upon the true English principle—of

AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.

August 1, 1825.

London, August 1st, 1825.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

I CANNOT refrain from addressing you, although totally unused

to this species of correspondence, upon that part of your article "On the State of Music in London," in the last Number of the Quarterly Review, which relates to Weber and his compositions. The paragraph I wish particularly to allude to is the following, at page 197:"If we had before believed that the music of Der Freischütz was purely dramatic, and with the exception of the overture, depended on its connection with the mystical structure of the opera for effect, we were more than ever convinced of the justness of such a judgment from the result of Mr. Hawes's concert. Nearly all that was not irresistibly ridiculous, was supremely dull!!" Can any thing more forcibly illustrate the unjustness, nay the cruelty (I speak feelingly on this subject, Mr. Editor,) of performing music expressly written for the stage, at a concert, totally detached from its story-severing, as it were, the soul of the music from the body, and thus rendering it liable to such a critique as the above. The foregoing extract (and more before it), which, if not intended for absolute condemnation, is at least "damning with faint praise," I consider as its greatest possible panegyric. It proves the composer to have entered so thoroughly, heart and mind, into the spirit of the subject, as to have completely identified the two; so much so, that either without the other is comparatively nothing. The music (and such music) appears to have flowed spontaneously as the story unfolded. M. Von Weber, as far as we know him, is purely a dramatic composer, and as such ranks (in my estimation as an artist), second to few, if any, that have preceded him. It will be time enough to judge of him as an instrumental, or even as a chamber or concert vocal composer, when he shall have presented us with a grand symphony for instruments, or a grand scena for the voice detached from, and independent of any dramatic work, or at least of any dramatic work so strikingly characteristic as those we are already acquainted VOL. VII. NO. XXVII.-SEPT. 1825.

PP

with. The difference between Weber and the generality of modern dramatic composers is, that he writes to his story only, and that so intently, that the music cannot with safety, or at least with propriety or justice, in a critical point of view, be separated from it; while others, on the contrary, turn all their attention to general effect, their first and indeed almost only aim being to hit upon a pretty melody that shall please the public, and be sung here or there, or every where, and with equal effect. Nay not unfrequently is the music composed first, and adapted (as well as may be) to words afterwards: something similar to the anecdote we have of Rossini (page 37 of his Life), where his indolence leading him to write two duets to the same words, he immediately afterwards converts one of them into a trio, in the words of which it is not unlikely the sentiment (if they had any sentiment at all) was as different as possible. The contrary of this system, as I have already observed, forms, in my opinion, Weber's greatest eulogy, and leads me to repeat, that it is unfair, that it is unjust to perform such operas at a concert in the first place, and more particularly so to form and write a critical opinion and judgment on the merits of the music so performed in the second.

I remain, Sir, your's, &c.

AN ADMIRER OF CONSISTENCY.

Our Correspondent will admit, we trust, if he will take the trouble to turn to volume 6, page 381 et seq. that we have been at least as anxious as himself to do justice to the merits of M. Von Weber. His sentiments indeed are almost a transcript of our own. For the rest, there is hardly a shade of difference in opinion between us. He will easily apprehend why we have omitted the P.S. of his letter, and we assure him we have not the slightest acquaintance with the persons to whom he alludes, and were influenced only by the wish to do justice to merit. The manner, we could defend were it necessary. At the same time we are much obliged by his comments.-THE EDITOR.

PRIVATE CONCERTS.

IN Our N our sketch of the State of Music in London during the present season, we postponed the full consideration of this subject on account of the many important points which it appeared to involve, and from the abundance of the materials which lay before us. But at the close of that article it seemed indispensable to revert to certain particulars of the general case, which bore with so much weight upon the topic we were considering. We now therefore resume the subject with a view to the fuller elucidation of those points upon which we before only touched, in order to avoid the supposition that this great and increasing branch of musical enjoyment had escaped us either in its rise, progress, or effects.

The importance of private concerts arises perhaps from the fact, which every day's observation confirms, that the interest people take in music depends almost wholly upon the knowledge they have of the science, and upon their devotion to the practice. The mere pleasure which proceeds from attending concerts would never afford a sufficient motive to the hearer (" auditor tantum") to support such extensive public undertakings of the kind as those to which we are now accustomed, much less would this simple gratification suffice for the diffusion of the progress of the art.These circumstances, upon which art depends for its advancement, are completely connected with the individual interest excited by engagement in its exercise. This individual interest is divided and subdivided into many branches, from those who come to a concert as guests, to those who actually sustain a part in the performance. These again have their relations, friends, instructors, and coadjutors. Another class of persons interested in private concerts are those who give fashionable parties, and who engage the assistance of eminent professors. All these ties connect the individual more or less with music and musical circles, and they are the occasion of the thousand agitations which form the entire business or amusement of many, and occupy some portion of the thoughts and engagements of most.

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