PIANO-FORTE.

  1. Souvenir du Pré aux Clercs, FANTASIA, composé par F. KALKBRENNER, Op. 119. (Goulding and Co.)
  2. Souvenir de HEROLD, Fantasia, par C. CHAULIEU. Op. 151. (Goulding and Co.)

BOTH of these are remembrances of M. Herold, the lately-deceased French composer, and made up, we believe, chiefly of airs from his operas.

The first, though requiring considerable powers of execution, is good music; difficulty is not the author’s object. Some parts are very beautiful, others ingenious; but we most condemn the hateful run of semitones in thirds, foolishly introduced, at page 8, in deference to a vicious fashion.

M. Chaulieu has produced some clever and many pleasing things for the piano-forte, which have always been noticed by us in terms of due approbation. Though not an original or vigorous composer, he has generally been a rational one. But all at once his judgment seems to have abandoned him,—a fit of pedantic foppery has seized him! Will it be credited that a composer in the nineteenth century, a musician not under restraint, not actually in a strait waistcoat, can have attempted to retrograde a century and a half, by introducing, in a piece written for the piano-forte only, the contra-tenor clef? He has not only employed this, most freely, in the present fantasia, but written it with 8va. alta over the notes, as if the same meaning could not have been expressed infinitely better by the usual clef, even admitting that the C clef were still in use! If such folly as this is countenanced, we shall soon go back to six-line staves, to the treble clef on the first line, and the mean on the fifth,—to musical darkness and barbarism. Surely the London publisher, Mr. D’Almaine, could not have been aware of this mad freak, or exquisite piece of musical coxcombry, or his common sense would have prompted him immediately to restore sanity to the notation of this work, which, in its present state, cannot have the least chance of sale.

  1. GROSSES CONCERT-STUCK, (Pièce de Concert,) Op. 47, composé par MAYSEDER, arrangé pour le Piano-forte par CHARLES CZERNY. (Wessel and Co.)
  2. RONDEAU MIGNON, No. 7, sur l’air ‘Non più andrai’ de MOZART, composé pour le Piano-forte par FRED. KULAU. (Wessel and Co.)

THE subject of No. 1 has frequently, in one shape or other, come under our notice; it has all the frothy gaiety of the author, and not a trait that gives it the slightest chance of being remembered beyond the fleeing hour. M. Czerny, as might have been expected, has not palliated any of its defects, but rather aggravated them, by a succession of restless, unrelated, senseless passages.

M. Kulau, a judicious musician, but, alas! no more, has made a very charming rondo out of Mozart’s popular air from Figaro. Like a reasonable man, he has studied the convenience of the player, and also confined himself within moderate bounds;—like a man of taste, he has been regulated by the style of the subject;—and like a musician who really understands his art, he has added nothing but what every sound harmonist will approve and admire.

  1. MINUETTO and TRIO, ANDANTE SENTIMENTALE, and ALLEGRO SCHERZANDO, composed by EDWARD J. LODER. Op. 19. (Goulding and D’Almaine.)
  2. HORN’s ‘Happy Valley,’ and ‘Dark-eyed Brunette,’ arranged, with an Introduction, by T. A. RAWLINGS. (Monro and May.)
  3. ‘Non più mesta,’ the Finale to La Cenerentola, arranged, with Variation, by T. A. RAWLINGS. (Monro and May.)

No. 1 evinces talent of no common kind: he who composed these pieces could, we should suppose, put parts to them, and by the addition of a single movement exalt them into a symphony, of which they seem to have been intended as portions. The three great masters are the models on which these compositions are formed, of whom Beethoven appears to be the object of the author’s highest admiration. The Minuet, in E flat, and Trio, in A flat, are spirited, and less studied in manner than the Andante, in B flat, which is impressive and recherché. The Allegretto, in A flat, is bold and energetic; the modulations here are many and fearless, and the author has ventured on discords for which he has no precedent that immediately occurs to us, thus at least proving a courage and independence which promise much as the result of his future exertions. Were our advice likely to influence Mr. E. Loder, we would recommend him to pursue his present course, only guarding him against the possibility of being allured from melody by the temptations of harmony.

The composer of a song has no chance now of success unless he fee some public performer to sing it; and the composer of a piano-forte piece must not expect that his work will attract any notice unless built on some popular air. Mr. Rawlings has long known the truth of this, and still acts on his experience. No. 2 is formed on two airs said to be popular, and No. 3 on one that unquestionably is, namely, ‘Non più mesta; of all of which he has made good use, and produced two very agreeable and recommendable publications.

  1. CONTRE-DANSES BRILLANTES, et VALSE, composés par J. T. SURENNE. (Robertson, Edinburgh.)
  2. QUADRILLE de CONTRE-DANSES, sur des motifs de l’opéra de DONIZETTI, Anna Bolena, arrangée par HENRY LEMOINE. (Wessel and Co.)

No. 1 are animated, animating dances, not exhibiting any very new thoughts, but well put together.

No. 2 are subjects from an opera that cannot boast a single original idea, therefore the compiler of this quadrille must not be censured for want of novelty; but he has well arranged the airs he has chosen, and adapted them in a convenient manner for the performer.