what he means by the "florid style." In the meantime, I will just tell you what is my impression of Mr. Hills's organ-playing. I consider him to be a sound musician of the most severe school. During the three years he has been organist of Bishopwearmouth Parish Church-although I have been a constant attendant there -I have never heard him on any single occasion alter, in the slightest degree, the music he had to play. In playing the chants, psalm tunes, &c., I have never been able to detect the slightest attempt at display-not a single shake, turn, or ornament of any kind, but just sufficient organ to support the choir, and no more. A perusal of the choir books will at once convince any one what his taste in church music is; for whereas, before his coming amongst us, we had nothing but conventicle tunes-bass solos, and tenor solos, and alto solos, and treble duets, ad infinitum-we have now none but old standard tunes: others, more modern, perhaps, but still written on the same models. Your correspondent goes on to notice (very ingeniously) the Sunday scholars; and I would ask any one, reading this part of his letter, what is its evident object? Is it not to induce your readers to believe that these school children form the choir of Bishopwearmouth Church, and, being trained by the organist, are indebted for the faults of their singing to his imperfect tuition? What else does he mean by hoping that some of your Christian readers organists for instance-" will take the hint?" Now, the truth of the matter is, that we have a regular choirvery inadequately paid, indeed, but still a very good choir-totally distinct from the school children. Furthermore, the organist has nothing whatever to do with the Sunday-school children, so that, be their faults what they may, no blame can be attached to him. In addition to all this, the "powerful" organ of which Windpipe" speaks is, in truth, a miserable affair, crammed into the tower behind the western gallery, the case having been horribly mutilated in order to get it under an arch; the swell-organ being in the bellringer's loft. The children, again, are placed in the porch of the church, two sets of folding doors having been removed, in order to put them out of the nave of the church altogether. The sound of the organ must be faint, indeed, when it reaches them, and the idea of the organist being able to bear what they are doing is perfectly absurd -in fact, I doubt whether he was aware that they attempt to sing at all. When your correspondent states that the congregation is not a detonating one, he certaiuly does come near the truth for once, for, as there not a dozen people in the whole assembly who attempt to sing (the choral portion of the service being performed by the choir and organist, and the remainder by the priest and clerk), they cannot be said materially to alter the pitch. mass arranged with an eye to symmetry and pleasing contrast -is easier to insist upon than to describe; and when to this is added a dense and animated crowd of nearly 10,000 visitors, who fill the interior to the extremities, while in the background the great organ, with its pendant choir of seventy or eighty singers, arrayed in white surplices, serves to complete the picture, the magnificence of the coup d'œil may be well imagined. We shall refrain, however, from going over welltrodden ground by entering into further details about what may, without irreverence, be termed the spectacular part of this gigantic ceremony, and say a few words about the musical proceedings, which involve a large portion of the Cathedral service. The celebrated composer, Haydn, during his residence in London, was wonderfully struck with the effect of the children's singing at one of the anniversary meetings of the schools, and declared that he never experienced a more profound sensation of delight than that derived from hearing the 100th psalm, sung in unison by such a vast number of young and fresh voices. Haydn was not likely to be moved without good reason, and we think the impression he describes must be felt with more or less intensity by every one alive to the persuasive eloquence of music. As usual, the service began yesterday at noon, and before the prayers the 100th Psalm was sung by the children. Besides the grand simplicity and breadth that result from the sin.ultaneous combination of all the voices of boys and girls in unison, a very agreeable effect is produced by the occasional employment of the girls' voices alone. The pitch is sustained by the aid of the organ, and four trumpets placed near it, which play the most important notes of the melody. This device, however, does not always answer as well as might be wished, since the trumpets being all together, in a remote corner of the building, can scarcely be audible to the majority of the children. If doubled in number, and disposed in four different groups of two each, at four different parts of the Cathedral, and at equal distances from each other, they would be more efficient in insuring general steadiness of intonation, and would also materially help to enforce precision of time. Mr. Bates, from Woodford, upon whom devolves the task of drilling the children all the year round, added to that of conducting at the anniversary festivals, is scarcely decided enough in his manner of beating to obtain that pointed accent the absence of which is so detrimental to the effect of masses. He is placed on an elevation from which he can see and be seen by the entire company of youthful executants; but, as the ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CHARITY SCHOOLS. psalms are always accompanied by the organ, it would be advisable for Mr. Bates to regulate his beatings by the suggesTHE anniversary of this great festival was celebrated on tions of the organist rather than to depend entirely upon his Thursday in St. Paul's Cathedral, with the usual pomp and own impulses. We own, at the same time, that it must be a ceremony. The principal object of the yearly assembly of very difficult matter to keep such an enormous host of voices the metropolitan charity schools is too well known to require continually together. Besides the 100th Psalm the children explanation; but it gives us pleasure to say that the attendsang three verses of the 113th, and, after the sermon, four ance of visitors was more numerous than for many years verses of the 104th, the last of which was perhaps the most past, and that the ends of benevolence are likely to be accom- satisfactory performance of the three. They also sang the plished with unusual efficacy. It is probable that such a "Gloria Patri" in the reading psalms; and joined at indicated scene as that presented by the interior of St. Paul's on these places in the Coronation Anthem (Zadok the Priest) and the occasions could not be matched throughout the world. The "Hallelujah" chorus (Messiah) of Handel, which were expicturesque aspect of between 5,000 and 6,000 children, dis-ecuted by the choir. The members of the choir, about 70 in posed on raised platforms round the gigantic nave of the number, are collected on these occasions from the Chapel Cathedral, the tiers of benches gradually elevated to more than Royal, St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, the Temple, St. half-w y up the height of the pillars upon which the dome George's Chapel at Windsor, &c. On the whole, they are decked out in party colours, with banners to exceedingly efficient, although, from their being placed torepresent the various schools from which they are sent as gether promiscuously, the antiphonal effects aimed at by our missioners the boys separated from the girls, and the whole anthem composers cannot be properly realized. For this, Having exposed the unfair nature of Mr. Anthony Windpipe's remarks, I shall not apologize for the length of this, because, having inserted in your journal an article reflecting discredit (most unjustly) on a young professor, you are, in common fairness, bound to afford a place to its refutation. J. W. rep os e- a heavy shower of rain presented an uncomfortable aspect outside. Among the notable persons present were observed His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Marquis of Westminster (President), Lady Macclesfield, the Hon. Mr. Leigh, Lord and Lady Middleton, Lord and Lady Neville, the Sardinian, Prussian, and Hanoverian Ministers, one of the members of the Nepaulese mission, the Lord Mayor, with all his attendant pageantry, &c. The patrons of the society dined together in the evening at the London Tavern. Mr. Alderman Gibbs, at the request of the Lord Mayor, occupied the chair, and was supported by the Bishop of St. Asaph, the Marquis of Westminster, &c. After the usual toasts, loyal and complimentary, Mr. Gilpin stated to the company that the contributions amounted to £589 8s. The musical arrangements, under the direction of Mr. Goss, organist of St. Paul's, who presided at the pianoforte, were highly satisfactory. Messrs. Hobbs, Francis, Machin, and other members of the choirs of St Paul's and Westminster, supported by twelve boys from the Chapel Royal, and some of the amateurs from the Sacred Harmonic Society, who also assisted in the morning, composed the vocal force. nomena. EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL GENIUS. (From Chambers's Journal.) however, we fear there is no remedy. Still the choir might be strengthened with advantage, and better music be introduced than Boyce's "Te Deum" and "Jubilate" in A, especially at the anniversary festivals, which could consistently be rendered the medium of a very high order of musical performance. At so splendid and noble a celebration everything should be on the grandest scale, and, with such means, music might be constituted the worthy handmaid of religion and charity. The reading psalms were chanted by the gentlemen of the choir, to Jones's chant in D. This tune was much admired by Haydn, who suggested an alteration in the antepenultimate bar, which was adopted, and has ever since been adhered to. The chanting was good, but would have been better had one system of accentuation been unanimously adopted; this, however, in a choir made up from members of several choirs, each of which may have a peculiar method of pointing the words, was impracticable. We cannot understand however, why one system should not universally prevail, since we presume only one can be correct. The music set to the preces, responses, &c., by Tallis, was executed, and in these severe old tunes the effect of the children's voices was, at times, sublime. In Handel's anthem, however, and in the "Hallelujah" chorus, there was a great want of precision, the choir and the children appearing at intervals to be mutually in the way of each other; without a strict adherence on both sides to the time indicated by the composer, their combination in works of such difficulty is, indeed, a hopeless case. Music, in its highest degrees of endowment, produces effects in That they kept together as well as they did must be ascribed the human character, of which the least that can be said is, that to the admirably clear and intelligible manner in which the they are as worthy of being studied as any other class of mental pheorgan part was executed by Mr. Goss, organist of St. Paul's gift in its loftiest forms, is the absolute impossibility of repressing One of the most remarkable circumstances attending the Cathedral, assisted, we believe, by Mr. George Cooper, sub-it. Even during childhood, it is quite in vain, in most instances, organist. On Mr. Goss, a musician of distinguished reputa- to attempt to impose upon it the least control. In spite of the tion, devolves the entire direction of the musical proceedings injunctions, the vigilance, the tyranny of masters and parents, the at the anniversary meetings, and with the materials at his "unprisoned soul" of the musician seems always to find some disposal he is entitled to high praise for the manner in which means of escape; and even when debarred from the use of musical he performs the duties of his office. On the whole, our im- instruments, it is ten to one but in the end he is discovered enpression of the musical part of the ceremony was favourable; sconced in some quiet corner, tuning his horse shoes, or, should he be so fortunate as to secure so great a prize, like Eulenstein, elicitbut it was not easy to repel an idea that continually suggested ing new and unknown powers of harmony from the iron tongue of itself, of what great things might, with proper management, a Jew's harp. Some curious examples of the extent to which this and some liberality, be effected on such an occasion. A skil- ruling passion has been carried, occasionally occur. Dr. Arne ful and ambitious composer would find it worth his while to (except Purcell, perhaps our greatest English composer) was bred write something expressly for the combination of the children a lawyer, and as such articled to an attorney; but his musical with the choir, out of which the grandest effects are capable propensities, which showed themselves at a very early age, soon He used of being produced. It is not absolutely necessary to have emgrossed his mind to the exclusion of everything else. always the same anthems in our cathedral service, and the borrowing a livery and going to the upper gallery of the Opera not unfrequently to avail himself of the privilege of a servant, by art has assuredly grown out of Dr. Boyce. Something far House, at that time appropriated to demestics. It is also said that better might be written-something more in consonance with he used to hide a spinet in his room, upon which, after muffling the the advanced state of music; and something would be written strings with a handkerchief, he practised during the night; for had very soon, were the choirs of our cathedrals invariably in his father known what was going forward, he probably would have sound condition; but it must be disheartening, to the most thrown both him and it out of the window. The father, however, enthusiastic lover of his art, to compose music of a lofty and never appears to have come to a knowledge of these proceedings, elaborate character-music that can never repay in specie the and his son, instead of studying law, was devoting himself entirely to the cultivation of the spinet, the violin, and musical composition, time and pains it has cost-music that cannot find its way to until one day, after he had served out his time, when he happened the public through the medium of the publisher-unless at to call at the house of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who least there exist a hope of its being efficiently performed, and was engaged with a musical party, when being ushered into the appreciated by those who are able to understand it. room, to his utter surprise and horror, he discovered his son in the act of playing the first fiddle, from which period the old gentleman began to think it most prudent to give up the contest, and soon after allowed him to receive regular instructions. The sermon was preached on the occasion by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Asaph, who selected for his text the first and second verses of the 127th Psalm-"Except the Lord build a house," &c. The whole proceedings terminated shortly after two o'clock; and through the unremitting exertions of Messrs. Fisher and Fuller (Hon. Treasurer and Hon. Secretary), under whose zealous management all the arrangements were made, there was not the least disorder or inconvenience when the vast crowd dispersed and left the Cathedral, although Handel, too, was similarly situated. His father, who was a physician at Halle, in Saxony, destined him for the profession of the law, and with this view was so determined to check his early inclination towards music, that he excluded from his house all musical society; nor would he permit music or musical instruments to be ever heard within its walls. The child, however, notwithstanding his parent's precautions, found means to hear somebody play on the harpsichord, and the delight which he felt having prompted him to endeavor to gain an opportunity of practising what he had heard, he contrived, through a servant, to procure a small clarichord or spinet, which he secreted in a garret, and to which he repaired every night after the family had gone to rest, and intuitively, without extraneous aid, learned to extract from it its powers of harmony as well as melody. Upon this subject Mr. Hogarth, in his highly popular History of Music, has the following sensible observation:"A childish love for music or painting, even when accompanied with an aptitude to learn something of these arts, is not, in one case out of a hundred, or rather a thousand, conjoined with that degree of genius, without which it would be a vain and idle pursuit. In the general case, therefore, it is wise to check such propensities where they appear likely to divert or incapacitate the mind from graver pursuits. But, on the other hand, the judgment of a parent of a gifted child ought to be shown by his discerning the genuine talent as soon as it manifests itself, and then bestowing on it every care and culture." A tale exactly similar is told of Handel's contemporary, John Sebastian Bach, a man of equally stupendous genius, and whose works at the present day are looked up to with the same veneration with which we regard those of the former. He was born at Eisenach in 1685, and when ten years old (his father being dead) was left to the care of his elder brother, an organist, from whom he received his first instructions; but the talent of the pupil so completely outran the slow current of the master's ideas, that pieces of greater difficulty were perpetually in demand, and as often refused. Among other things, young Bach set his heart upon a book containing pieces for the clarichord, by the most celebrated composers of the day, but the use of it was pointedly refused. It was in vain, however, to repress the youthful ardor of the composer. The book lay in a cupboard, the door of which was of lattice work; and as the interstices were large enough to admit his little hand, he soon saw that, by rolling it up, he could withdraw and replace it at pleasure; and having found his way thither during the night, he set about copying it, and, having no candle, he could only work by moonlight! In six months, however, his task was completed; but just as he was on the point of reaping the harvest of his toils, his brother unluckily found out the circumstance, and by an act of the most contemptible cruelty, took the book from him; and it was not till after his brother's death, which took place some time afterwards, that he recovered it. The extraordinary proficiency acquired in this art more than in any other, at an age before the intellectual powers are fully expanded, may be regarded as one of the most interesting results of this early and enthusiastic devotion to music. We can easily imagine a child acquiring considerable powers of execution upon a pianoforte-an instrument which demands no great effort of physical strength, and even pouring forth a rich vein of natural melody; but how excellence in composition, in the combination of the powers of harmony and instrumentation-a process which in adults is usually arrived at after much labor, regular training, and long study of the best models and means of producing effect-how such knowledge and skill can ever exist in a child, is indeed extraordinary; still there can be no doubt of the fact. The genius of a Mozart appears and confounds all abstract speculations. When scarcely eight years of age, this incomparable artist, while in Paris, on his way to Great Britain, had composed several sonatas for the harpsichord, with violin accompaniments, which were set in a masterly and finished style. Shortly afterwards, when in London, he wrote his first symphony and a set of sonatas, dedicated to the Queen. Daines Barrington, speaking of him at this time, says that he appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the fundamental rules of composition, as on giving him a melody, he immediately wrote an excellent bass to it. This he had been in the custom of doing several years previously; and the minuets and little movements which he composed from the age of four till seven are said to have possessed a consistency of thought and a symmetry of design which were perfectly surprising. Mr. Barrington observes that at the above period, namely, when Mozart was eight years old, his skill in extemporaneous modulation, making smooth and effective transitions from one key to another, was wonderful; that he executed these musical difficulties occasionally with a handkerchief over the keys, and that, with all these displays of genius, his general deportment was entirely that of a child. While he was playing to Mr. Barrington, his favourite cat came into the room, upon which he immediately left the instrument to play with it, and could not be brought back for some time; after which, he had hardly resumed his performance, when he started off again, and began running about the room with a stick between his legs for a horse! At twelve years of age he wrote his first opera, La Finta Semplice, the score of which contained five hundred and fifty-eight pages; but though approved by Hasse and Metastasio, in consequence of a cabal among the performers, it was never represented. He wrote also at the same age a mass, "Offertorium," &c., the performance of which he conducted himself. The precocity of Handel, though not quite so striking, was nearly so. At nine years of age he composed some motets of such merit that they were adopted in the service of the church; and about the same age, Purcell, when a singing boy, produced several anthems so beautiful that they have been preserved, and are still sung in our cathedrals. To beings like these," Mr. Hogarth observes, "music seems to have no rules. What others consider the most profound and learned combinations, are with them the dictates of imagination and feeling, as much as the simplest strains of melody." 66 Mozart's early passion for arithmetic is well known, and to the last, though extremely improvident in his affairs, he was very fond of figures, and singularly clever in making calculations. Storace, a contemporary and kindred genius, who died in his thirty-third year, and whose English operas are among the few of the last century which still continue to hold their place on our stage, had the same extraordinary turn for calculation. We are not aware whether this can be shown to be a usual concomitant of musical genius, but, if it can, the coincidence might lead to much curious metaphysical inquiry. Certain it is that there exists a connection between that almost intuitive perception of the relation of numbers with which some individuals are gifted, and that faculty of the mind which applies itself to the intervals of the musical scale, the distribution of the chords, their effect separately and in combination, and the adjustment of the different parts of a score. It is by no means improbable, that, owing to some such subtlety of perception, Mozart was enabled to work off an infinitely greater variety and multitude of compositions, in every branch of the art, before he had reached his thirty-sixth year, in which he was cut off, than has ever been produced by any composer within the same space of time, and with a degree of minute scientific accuracy which has disarmed all criticism, and defied the most searching examination. Nevertheless there is seldom any thing wonderful which is not exaggerated, and many absurd stories have been circulated in regard to these efforts; among others, that the overture to Don Giovanni was composed during the night preceding its first performance. This piece was certainly written down in one night, but it cannot be said to have been composed in that short space of time. The facts are as follow:- -He had put off the writing till eleven o'clock of the night before the intended performance, after he had spent the day in the fatiguing business of the rehearsal. His wife sat by him to keep him awake. "He wrote," says Mr. Hogarth, while she ransacked her memory for the fairy tales of her youth, and all the humourous and amusing stories she could think of. As long as she kept him laughing, till the tears ran down his cheeks, he got on rapidly; but if she was silent for a moment, he dropped asleep. Seeing at last that he could hold out no longer, she persuaded him to lie down for a couple of hours. At five in the morning she awoke him, and at seven, when the copyists appeared, the score was completed. Mozart was not in the habit of composing with the pen in his hand his practice was not merely to form in his mind a sketch or outline of a piece of music, but to work it well and complete it in all its parts; and it was not till this was done that he committed it to paper, which he did with rapidity, even when surrounded by his friends, and joining in their conversation. There can be no doubt that the overture to Don Giovanni existed fully in his mind when he sat down to write it the night before its performance; and even then, his producing with such rapidity a score for so many instruments, so rich in harmony and contrivance, indicates a strength of conception and a power of memory altogether wonderful." In truth, Mozart's whole life would seem to have consisted of little more than a succession of musical reveries. He was very absent, and in answering questions appeared to be always thinking about something else. Even in the morning, when he washed his hands, he never stood still, but used to walk up and down his room. At dinner, also, he was apparently lost in meditation, and not in the least aware of what he did. During all this time the mental process was constantly going on; and he himself, in a letter to a friend, gives the following interesting explanation of his habits of composition. "When once I become possessed of an idea, and have begun to work upon it, it expands, becomes methodised and defined, and the whole piece stands almost finished and complete in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear, in my imagination, the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once; the delight which this gives me I cannot express. All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing lively dream, but the actual hearing of the whole is, after all, the greatest enjoyment. What has been thus produced, I do not easily forget; and this is, perhaps, the most precious gift for which I have to be thankful. When I proceed to write down my ideas, I take out of the bag of my memory, if I may use the expression, what has previously been collected in the way I have mentioned. For this reason, the committing to paper is done quickly enough; for every thing, as I said before, is already finished, and rarely differs on paper from what it was in my imagi nation." Apart from his musical triumphs, the personal character of Mozart is deeply interesting. From his earliest childhood, it seemed to be his perpetual endeavour to conciliate the affections of those around him; in truth, he could not bear to be otherwise than loved. The gentlest, the most docile and obedient of children, even the fatigues of a whole day's performance would never prevent him from continuing to play or practise, if his father desired it. When scarcely more than an infant, we are told that every night, before going to bed, he used to sing a little air which he had composed on purpose, his father having placed him standing in a chair, and singing the second to him, he was then, but not till then, laid in bed perfectly contented and happy. Throughout the whole of his career, he seemed to live much more for the sake of others than for himself. His great object at the outset was to relieve the necessities of his parents; afterwards his generosity towards his professional brethren, and the impositions practised by the designing on his open and unsuspicious nature, brought on difficulties. And, finally, those exertions so infinitely beyond his strength, which in the ardour of his affection for his wife and children, and in order to save them from impending destitution, he was prompted to use, destroyed his health, and hurried him to an untimely grave. Mozart was extremely pious. In a letter written in his youth from Augsberg, he says, "I pray every day that I may do honour to myself and to Germany-that I may earn money, and be able to relieve you from your present distressed state. When shall we meet again, and live happily together?" It is not difficult to identify these sentiments with the author of the sublimest and most expressive piece of devotional music which the genius of man has ever consecrated to his Maker. Haydn, also, was remarkable for his deep sense of religion. "When I was composing the Creation," he used to say, "I felt myself so penetrated with religious feeling, that before I sat down to write 1 earnestly prayed to God that he would enable me to praise him worthily. It is related also of Handel, that he used to express the great delight which he felt in setting to music the most sublime passages of Holy Writ, and that the habitual study of the Scriptures had a strong influence upon his sentiments and conduct. LONDON SACRED HARMONISTS.-On Friday, 31st May, a second performance of "The Creation" was given by this society to a Hall as crowded as before. Miss Hayes sang as charmingly as ever; Mr. Lockey was, as usual encored in the popular song, “In native worth;" and the grand chorus, “The Heavens are telling," was given by the choir with the usual precision and brilliancy. The society will, we believe, close its season with a performance of "St. Paul." MADEMOISELLE ELISE KRINITZ, a talented pianist from Paris, has arrived in London. LUTHER'S HYMN. EINE feste Burg ist unser Gott, Mit unsrer Macht ist nicht gethan, Wir sind gar bald verloren! Es streit' für uns der rechte Mann, Er heitzt Jesus Christ, Und ist kein andrer Gott. Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär, So fürchten wir uns nicht so schr; Das macht, er ist gericht, Das Wort sie sollen lassen stah'n Sie haben's kein Gewinn, Das Reich mutz uns doch bleiben! The Lord is our good tower of stren; th, With might and knavery screened, On earth he hath no rival. With arms of flesh we nought avail, And, though the world with devils were thick, Ne'er shall our hearts grow faint or sick, That Word, in spite of fraud or force, ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. ATTACK OF A SINGING MASTER. My (To the Editor of the Musical World.) SIR,-On Saturday, May 25th, I attended the Royal Academy of Music Concert, but arriving there late I heard only a few pieces, which, with the exception of the singing, much pleased me. attention was soon arrested by a gentleman's asking me what I thought of her singing (a lady then singing). I shook my head. We entered into conversation. One of my remarks being overheard by a bystander, called forth from him a bitter tone of dissent; I requested him, therefore, to follow me into the passage, so that we might freely discuss without interrupting the audience; three or four other gentlemen accompanying us. I commenced by asking him of what he complained. He opened the debate by a grand philippic on my own standing in the profession, which he pronounced to be no very creditable one, adding that nothing I could advance respecting the singing masters would be taken any notice of. I answered, this depends, not on my personal acquirements, but upon the justness of my opinions; and if I write down truths, I fear he will find that they will be valued by honest men and by the dispassionate members of the press. I learned, in the course of the discussion, that this gentleman's name is Cocks or Cox, and having a pugnacious turn of mind, his name is not less pleasant for rhyming with Box. In fact he reminds me of Box, who asked Cox if he could fight, and on learning that he could not, he boldly doubled his fists and says “then come on!" As Mr. Cocks accused me of making broad assertions without proving them (though he named none), I will not withhold my reasons for considering him a shallow and pert man, which he can refute if he chooses. A man who impudently looks a stranger in the face, and says "I wonder that a man of your standing in the profession dare" do this that, and the other, knowing all the time that he is addressing his senior, who bears a good professional name by the first musicians, (which, if he do not know it, makes him appear the more ignorant and impudent,) I say such a man displays too insignificant a character to be deeply versed in anything except pertinacy. Now as Mr. Cocks is a singing master, let him prove to the world that he is not what I take him to be, by sending before the public a vocalist properly schooled, which if he cannot do, he will but be another example of what the adage affirms, "Sooner or later it will come to pass, That every braggard will be found an ass." I pass on to give my motive for exposing Mr. Cocks. He was aware that of late I have drawn the attention of your numerous and dispassionate readers to the imperfect methods of vocal instruction, and he being one who felt the shock, was determined to insult me amongst the very parties of whom I had passed judgment. He, no doubt, fancied he could run about to his friends and tell them how gloriously he had set me down before the young students of the Royal Academy of Music. If he wishes to distinguish himself on a permanent footing, he should proceed on principles of a bolder nature than the one he adopted. The Box and Cox method won't do ; so I invite him to "come on" and refute one single word I have advanced respecting the singing and singing masters now in vogue; and if he can show that I have misstated facts, I will apologise for them in the next number of the Musical World. What I complain of is as follows:-Many fine natural voices are spoiled by artificial training. The most generally used works on singing are written for the most uncommon voices, viz., the bass, tenor, and soprano, and for the common run of voices, viz., the baritone and mezzo soprano, no suitable exercises are to be found in them; in other words, the book collectors give exercises for the most rare voices, and neglect the most natural or usual ones. The singing masters are notoriously deficient in the high branches of musical science; they teach common-place music; they neglect the Great Masters, and if they teach one song of Mozart's they have the bad taste to daub it with mis-placed cadences and impertinent alterations, which not only shows a want of erudition, but a positive lack of musical perception. Now, Mr. Editor, I think the London singing masters cannot accuse me of assigning no reasons for my opinions; and I only wish they could assign as ample ones for not teaching our singers the great school of Italian vocalisation, and further explain how it comes to pass that so many excellent voices have been ruined by teachers. If there be a true art or method in singing, it does not show itself to much advantage, and the mere fact of ruining one voice, or mistaking the character of a voice, permits one to doubt whether there be a fixed art in singing; and if not, the exercises given in singing books are of very little use to the world, because to practice them incorrectly does more harm than good to the voice. If such be the case, what opinion ought a reflecting mind to entertain of a singing master who strongly recommends this or that work on singing? The question is not what is the best work, but what is the best means to improve the voice. Now, as twelve exercises, properly written for each description of voice, would make a singer, (if rightly practised), I think the masters would show more discretion by giving out such a work, than those now in vogue. But, Mr. Editor, there may be a reason Excuse for not doing this, and of this I will treat another time. the length of this letter. I am your's obliged, FRENCH FLOWERS. P.S. 1.-I have a few words to say on the Times article respecting the last concert given at the Royal Italian Opera, and will compare it with another article in another journal, on the same subject. P.S. 2.—I will answer the member of the Bach Society. MOORE'S PLAGIARISMS. Plagiarism the Fifty-first. JUVENAL, as we all know, declares that the chief misfortune of schoolmasters in this life, is their being subject to a certain thing called crambe repetita, which an old schoolmaster of mine always called repeated cabbage. Now surely the condition of readers are as bad as that of pedagogues when they are condemned to the crambe repetita of all the old poets. And what are the lines in the text but cabbage reboiled and rehashed until the eater actually swoons away with disgust? The notion about nature combating with fancy, (old and unpoetical as it is), has many fauters. TURBERVILLE's Poems. For nature when she made her did entende Look, when a painter would surpass the life Of those sweet rising cheeks renews the sting PARK'S Heliconia, vol. i., p. 93. A myrror make of M, whose moulde Dame Nature in disdayne All these the painter drew with such command TOM D'URFEY.-Ariadne; or, the Triumph of Bacchus. |