THE Editor of the Harmonicon presents his compliments to the Editor of La Revue Musicale, and is happy to find that anything contained in an English publication has been thought worthy of being transferred to the pages of a French one.
Though the Editor of La Revue Musicale manifestly entertains no great partiality for the British nation, yet that good-breeding so common to all his countrymen, and of which he doubtless partakes in an eminent degree, would certainly have prompted him to acknowledge from what source he obtained the air by Keiser, inserted in his work last March, had he been aware of the quarter whence it proceeded; the Editor of the Harmonicon, therefore, fully persuaded that the Editor of La Revue Musicale will feel most happy in being correctly informed on the subject, has the honour to acquaint him, that the composition in question was published—for the first time since the year 1701, it is supposed—in the Harmonicon for February last; that the German copy afforded only a melody and base, consequently that the accompaniment, good, or bad, is attributable to the Editor of the Harmonicon only; and that the English words set to it are not a translation from the German, nor do they even imitate the original, but were selected because the general sentiment they express is not at variance with the music, and because the metre very exactly suits the notes.
The Editor of La Revue Musicale, in having caused the English verses of Miss Seward to be translated into French, has done her great honour, though he has not mentioned her name; and has conferred a no less flattering distinction on the Editor of the Harmonicon in adopting his accompaniment, and by giving it the additional advantage of appearing to have proceeded from the able pen of the learned French Editor.
The Editor of the Harmonicon has in his pages often availed himself of the labours of the Editor of La Revue Musicale, and never intentionally failed to acknowledge his obligations. He now begs the Editor of the French Review to accept his thanks generally, together with his assurances of high consideration.
EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF A DILETTANTE.
[Resumed from [page 89].]
(The three following Notices were omitted by our Printer in last Number.)
3d (of March). I find the following sensible critical remarks among my papers; they were copied from a weekly work (the Court Magazine, I think) some months ago, and have since escaped my notice. The opinions are worthy of being widely extended.
‘Melody is of two kinds; one which is affected by the prevailing taste or fashion, and is made up of the particular graces and embellishments of the day; and the other, broad, flowing, majestic, bearing the stamp of no particular period, and without ornament; but composed principally of long notes, upon which the sentiment is encrusted and cannot be mistaken—adorned with all the vigour and effect of striking and appropriate harmony and instrumentation. The latter is the real classic melody: classic, because it is imperishable, as being the noble and unsophisticated expression of never-varying truth. It is like those pictures of the old masters which will be relished in all ages, because they represent that which must be understood by all generations of men. Handel, the immortal Handel, whose works will never perish, produced much of the first kind of melody, which is now overlooked and forgotten: but his rich and pure streams of the second kind flow freely, to delight and refresh with their beauties the present generation, as they will the remotest generations to come. Cimarosa has very little of the first kind; Mozart and Beethoven none; Meyerbeer a great deal in his Italian operas, but none in his German and French. All these masters have written for posterity.’