REVIEW OF NEW MUSIC.

  1. NOVELLO’s MASSES for Four Voices, with an Accompaniment for the Organ or Piano-forte. No. 1. (J. A. Novello.)
  2. A COLLECTION OF SACRED MUSIC, adapted to the Hymns of BURDER and DR. WATTS, with an Accompaniment for the Organ or Piano-forte, composed by WILLIAM ATTER. (Goulding and D’Almaine.)

MR. NOVELLO, it appears, is republishing his Masses, of which the above is the first number of a second edition. Not being a new work, we must be governed by our rule, and speak of it generally only, though it would have been very agreeable to us to enter particularly into its merits; for it does not very often fall to our lot to be called upon to notice a composition, the examination of which is attended with so much satisfaction as the present has afforded.

We have always been of opinion, and see no reason to depart from it now, that in the Masses of the last hundred years—we might have extended the term—there is far too much levity, the solemnity of the subject being fairly considered; no small part whereof arises out of the accompaniments, which are frequently those of as opera air, and excite nothing but secular, not to say ludicrous ideas. Nay, to the very singers, who are pronouncing the sacred words, melodies are often given which would be well received in the ball-room as dance-tunes; and passages in them, strictly the same both in air and movement, may readily be found in quadrilles and gallopades. If Erasmus, more than three hundred years ago, complained of the lightness of the church-music of his time,—if Salvator Rosa, himself a composer, could not restrain his indignation at the profane melodies to which sacred words were set in the middle of the seventeenth century—in what language would these have uttered their invectives could they have heard some of the compositions of the last age,—some of Haydn’s Masses?

Mr. Novello carefully avoids such errors: there is a fitting soberness in his mass, a judicious avoidance of extremes, that prove his good sense; while the smoothness, the elegance of his airs, the richness of his harmony, and the able manner in which he has worked some of his subjects, are no less decisive proofs of his taste and skill as a musician. He certainly is not very energetic, nor does he evince much boldness of enterprise, but he is always correct; and, as a composer, gracefulness is one of his chief attributes.

Mr. Atter’s collection is of about seventy—hymns, we suppose they may be called; some few of which we have closely looked into, but must confess that we were deterred from going very far into the volume by what we met with in the early pages. The composer seems to possess a commendable share of industry, and a taste for melody, but we cannot say much in favour of his success as a harmonist; and, occasionally, his manner of setting words is not quite judicious. In the latter, however, he fails much less often than in the former; and upon the whole, so far as we have examined, Mr. A. appears to have entered into the intentions of the poets, and has expressed their sentiments with as much fidelity as musical effect will allow. Exceptions, nevertheless, occur, two of which we point out, lest the author should accuse us of being too general. At page 9, the emphasis is laid on ‘from’ instead of ‘caves:’ the preposition should have been set to the last quaver in the preceding bar. And at page 14, by means of rests after ‘we bless,’ the verb is made to act on the previous noun instead of the succeeding one. The repetition, too, of the words ‘flow down,’ and the bar of symphony between, will hardly fail to excite a smile.

Against the harmony we have to remonstrate before quitting even the second page. At the ninth bar of this is a chord of the sixth and fourth, which will displease most ears. But at page 11 is a chord of 7/4, which we should have set down as an error of the engraver, but that the voice part and accompaniment agree; and to ‘make the charm grow madder,’ the seventh rises to its resolution! But we persevered, and got on to the fifteenth page, when the following opening of a hymn convinced us that it would be needless to pursue our inquiry any further.

[ LISTEN]

One word, however, as to originality, for which the composer, in his Preface, takes some credit to himself. Surely he is aware that his very first page holds forth to view an imitation of what is called The Evening Hymn; and the succeeding page will immediately call to recollection Haydn’s celebrated movement in A—that in his favourite old symphony in D.

  1. LAYS OF THE GERMAN MINSTRELS, T. OTTO, F. BUSSE, A. SCHNEIDER, and F. OTTO, with the original German Words, and a Translation, by W. BALL. Book I. (Ewer.)
  2. SONGS FOR LEISURE HOURS, composed by ROBERT E. BREWER. (Luff.)

FROM the title of the Lays, many may be led, and naturally enough, to suppose that the ‘Minstrels’ therein named are the poets and composers, as well as the performers, of them; but the executive part alone belongs to them, with the exception of one melody, the second, which claims Herr F. Otto as its author: the third is by Eisenhofer; the remaining four are anonymous.

The first, ‘The Sabbath Call’ (we give the English words only,) is a quartet for two tenors and two bases, entirely in the manner of our English glee, but with a piano-forte accompaniment. This is a pleasing piece of almost simple counterpoint, and would be effective, even if sung by voices only. The crotchet rest in the fifth bar of page 3 should have been omitted, and the two last quavers written as crotchets; the sense of the English words would then have been unbroken, and that of the German not affected.

The second is a pretty, but not very new ballad, in E. For the commencing bars of the third, a song, M. Eisenhofer has undisguisedly borrowed the beginning of the Sicilian Mariner’s Hymn. This is in two movements; the first an andantino; the second, allegretto, in the Swiss style, and very common: the fourth boasts one novel feature, in the shape of what the composer calls a trio. The principal movement is in F major; the second (the trio, though for a single voice) in F minor, and the first is repeated. The fifth of the set, the time of which changes frequently, is overflowing with gaiety, both melody and accompaniment, and is the cleverest of the whole, though too long, the author seeming to think that certain passages—his favourites, no doubt—could not be too often repeated. The last in the book is a duet for two sopranos, very simple, easy, flowing, and the most popularly written of any in the collection. Thus the set begins and ends well; and when we have stated that the English words are correctly adapted, taking the difficulty of the task into consideration, we shall have said as much in favour of the present work as honest criticism will justify.

Mr. Brewer’s Songs, six in number, afford strong presumptive evidence that he understands music better than language,—that his knowledge of composition exceeds his skill in reading. And this, we lament to say, is a case of very common occurrence in the musical world, arising from an obvious cause, which we are unwilling to name; one that will not cease to operate till an efficient academy of music be established—an academy, or something of the kind, which shall make the general improvement of the intellect of students an object of equal importance to that of the art they are intended to practise. When this is brought about, (if it ever can be accomplished,) false emphasis, erroneous accentuation, and puerile conceits, will be as rare as undisguised consecutive fifths and unresolved discords; and composers will be looked upon in a far different light from that in which they are now viewed by the well-educated portion of society.

The first of these songs is an undeniable proof of what we advance: the music, with an exception which we shall presently mention, is clever—the emphasis abominable. ‘I watch for thee, when parting Day,’ is the composer’s manner of treating this line, thus throwing the emphasis on exactly the wrong words. Then after the word ‘day’ is a rest, though the author (Mrs. Cornwell Baron Wilson) has made it perfectly clear that no pause can be at all intended. And so throughout the whole song. In the sixth and two following bars of page 3 are octaves between the accompaniment and base, which are equally opposed to rule and good taste. If the composer intended to strengthen his base, he should have written these notes below, not above: as they stand, they form part of the accompaniment to the base, and are not allowable. But for such drawbacks, the song would have been entitled to great praise[78].

The second is extremely well set, the melody animated and pleasing, and there are points in the accompaniment (bars 5 to 8, page 7) which show more vigour than is usual in compositions of this kind. The third is very full of feeling, and charming altogether, musically considered; but here, unhappily, the words—their emphasis and connexion—have not been understood. In the fourth much is attempted, and little achieved. It is a very long song written to very few words,—to the following lines:—

The lark has her gay song begun,

She leaves her grassy nest—

which Kirke White assuredly never intended to end here, for he could not have thought it worth his while to record a bare fact of so exceedingly unimportant a kind. But the composer has given no less than five pages to the brief narrative, which include a brilliant accompaniment for the flute; this part, we surmise, being intended as an imitation of one of the lark’s best bravuras. The fifth affords a compensation for the preceding; it is melodious, expressive, and free from fault. The last, ‘a Fairy Song,’ is well imagined, lively, and agreeable; but here we find long notes given to short syllables, to connecting words, and lines joined that ought to be separated by some kind of pause,—errors which, though they are, as we well know, thought trivial by many composers, very forcibly strike the most sensible people, and often lead them to doubt whether music is worth the time and trouble which its cultivation costs.