ADDRESS. THE principle which has been so extensively applied in literature The design of the Musical Library' is to afford the same so In the prosecution of these objects, which we may not unjustly consider likely to advance our national enjoyments, we propose to Each issue a number weekly, of eight music-folio pages. number will be devoted either to Vocal or Instrumental Music, that these two classes of compositions may be separately bound. It would involve great practical difficulties to attempt to make every Number complete in itself; but as the intervals of publication between each are very short, little inconvenience will be experienced. Every Part, however, will be complete in itself, except under very peculiar circumstances. A PART, containing thirty-six pages of Music, will be published Monthly, the price of which will be Eighteen-pence. The Monthly Supplement,' a kind of musical gazette, now before our readers, will, in a great measure, speak for itself. It is intended to consist always of twelve pages of letter-press, and comprise musical news, foreign and domestic, short biographical 'Musical Library,' with remarks on those works;-a Review of sketches of musical composers whose works are published in the such new musical publications as deserve, or are likely to attract notice; critical reports of the principal concerts and festivals in town and country; also of operas, &c., performed at the principal theatres; with occasional essays, correspondence, &c.,-altogether forming, at the end of every year, a volume containing an ample account of everything of an important or interesting nature relating to the art. ' The Musical Library' and Monthly Supplement' will be published separately, and be sold either together or singly. ON THE VARIOUS PROCESSES APPLIED TO PRINTING THE rapid and cheap multiplication of copies of musical compo- B printed at Milan in 1496. Nothing can exceed the typographical excellence of this book; but the scales, and other examples of music, which frequently occur in it, are printed from engraved wooden blocks. It is evident that the number of characters required for musical notation (having reference to the necessity of combining the note with the staff-line) presented to the early printers much more formidable difficulties than any combinations of the alphabet. They got over the difficulty, | when musical characters were required to be introduced into a printed book, by engraving them on wood. Up to the end of the fifteenth century, musical compositions, which were exclusively required for the service of the church, were multiplied in manuscript. Many curious works of the composers of that age have no doubt perished; a few still remain, but they are of extreme rarity. We subjoin a specimen of the block-music, in the Practica Musion of Gafforius: CANTVS TENOR. The same species of block-music occurs in our early printed English books. In Higden's Polychronicon, printed by Wynken de Worde, in 1495, are the following musical characters, which Mr. Ames supposes to be the first printed in England; they are meant to represent the consonances of Pythagoras:— entirely from engravings on wood. It is unnecessary for us to trace the progress of musical typography very minutely, either on the continent or in our own country. Ample details upon this subject will be found in a curious work by Fournier, entitled Traité historique et critique sur l'origine et les progrès des caractères de fonte pour l'impression de la Musique. (Paris, 1765.) The following fac simile of the characters employed in Morley's "Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musick," printed at London in 1597, will show how little progress the art of musical typography had made during more than a century. These characters are thus explained in a memorandum by the printer. The first is a strene note, and is a breve; the second is a square note, and is a semybreve; the third is a pycke, and is a mynymme; the fourth is a close, and is only used at the end of a verse." In 1503, Octavo Petrucci published, at Venice, the first example of music printed from moveable characters. The work in which his invention was employed is entitled Canti Cento Cinquanta. The great difficulty which Petrucci had to encounter, was that of uniting the separate characters so accurately as to give an appearance of continuity to the staff-lines, formed out of many pieces. This difficulty he did not overcome; although the simplicity of the characters then employed in music rendered the broken and ragged appearance of his typographical essay less embarrassing to the performer than subsequent attempts, upon the same principle, which became more inconvenient as musical notation became more complicated. In 1508, a printer named Montona, introduced typographical music-printing into the Roman States, and obtained a privilege from Leo X. His performances, however, as well as those of Petrucci, were so unsatisfactory, that block-printing continued to be employed in musical works; and so extensively was this mode still applied, that Conrad Peutenger published at Augsburg, in 1520, a collection of Motets for five voices, executed The lozenge-form of the notes adopted by the old printers was in accordance with the mode of writing music which had prevailed from the 12th century. In the time of Charles II. the rounded note became more generally used; and in Germany and England the improvement was introduced into musical typography. The Whole Book of Psalms' of John Playford was published in the new character. This improvement, however, was unaccompanied with any change in the manner of uniting the several pieces forming the staff-lines; and there were no characters, or combinations of characters, which could represent many of the niceties that were gradually introduced into musical notation. These imperfections at length changed the general mode of musical printing;-engravings, from metal plates, began to be adopted; and when at length the process of engraving was sufficiently cheapened, the use of musical type-printing was confined to detached passages introduced by way of illustration into printed books. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, engraved music began to be published in England. The most considerable effort of this nature was that of Dr. Croft's Musica Sacra, published in 1724. The plates of this work are of copper, engraved with a tool. The inconveniences of the old mode of type-printing may be collected from what is stated by Dr. Croft, in his Preface to this work :-" It is not for want of excellent compositions in church-music, that we have as yet seen so few instances of their being made public in this way, (namely, in score,) but for want of the art of regularly placing and ranging the notes-a nicety which the old way of printing would not admit of. The old music (especially that which consisted of divers parts, as three parts or more) was printed in, and performed from, こ |