WE have more than once taken the liberty to offer it as our opinion, that, as an amusement, and to fill up those leisure moments which every profession, if prudently pursued, must afford, music is the fittest for the clergy, not only because it is intellectual and innocent, but inasmuch as it enables a divine to superintend and regulate an influential, therefore an important, part of the church service. A knowledge of this art qualifies him to advise and direct his organist and his singers, who, in most cases, stand much in need of counsel, for want whereof they not unfrequently, though we are persuaded unintentionally, run many risks of making ridiculous that which should excite nothing but associations and feelings of the gravest and calmest kind.
The author of the first of the above publications is, clearly, a good musician; the whole of his Service is evidence of this, though it does not enable us to add that it exhibits much invention. The plan long laid down has here been followed with a scrupulousness which, probably, Mr. Shuttleworth considers a duty: if he has erred, his error is on the right side, for any attempt to over-modernize, to radically change, the form of our church music, is to be deprecated and resisted. This is a Verse Service in F, not elaborately written, pleasing melody, harmony good but not deep, and a correct accentuation of the words, appearing to have been the great objects of the composer, in which he has succeeded. Those choirs, consequently, which are anxious to increase their library, may safely add the present work to their collection.
Mr. Crivelli’s Hymns are creditable to his taste, and likewise show that he has made himself better acquainted with our language than is the case with most of his countrymen. Nevertheless he has wanted—and this is by no means surprising—some little assistance in adjusting his notes to English poetry, though the instances of error are few, and correction may easily be applied by the intelligent singer. The hymns are six in number, four for soprano, contr’alto, (or low soprano,) and base; and two for soprano, tenor, and base. The style is an intentional, but not heterogeneous mixture of Italian and English; the parts are vocal and easy, and the accompaniment is simple without being meagre.
No. 3 is an elegant volume in quarto, with frontispiece, presentation plate, gilt leaves, and all the exterior decorations of the best musical annuals. Its interior, too, corresponds, in some degree, with its outside appearance; of the twenty compositions contained in the volume, nearly all are respectable, and some much to be commended. Two by Neükomm have much pleased us; also one each by Dr. Carnaby and Edwin Nielson. An adaptation of a quartet by Mozart, said to be his last composition, is a good piece of simple harmony: and the very air by Beethoven which is given in its true form in our present number, is here adapted to words; but much altered in many respects, and transposed from A flat to G—we need not say, very detrimentally. The words upon the whole suit the music very well; but an exception cannot but be made as regards the third in the set, ‘Oh! read to me,’ where we find more blunders than we supposed could have been gathered together in three pages;—e. g. promises; penitent;—‘of’ and ‘its,’ occupying half a bar each, and moreover the accented half, &c.: nevertheless, the volume contains enough to make it worth the price which all experienced people will buy it at. The marked price, indeed, is moderate.
No. 4 is a nicely got up little work in octavo, published in numbers, each containing eight pages. In the present two numbers are five pieces,—an air by Neükomm, from his oratorio; one by Mr. Goss; the Vesper Hymn, by Attwood, originally published in the Harmonicon, which ought to have been acknowledged; an Elegy for three voices, by Eisenhofer; and a movement from Beethoven’s Septet, with words very well set to it. This is a publication entitled to much commendation; but what will the brethren of the music trade say to so cheap a work? Surely Messrs. Cramer and Co. will be anathematized by the fraternity!
PIANO-FORTE.
- IMPROMPTU MUSICALE sur la Ronde Bacchique des Démons de la Tentation, composée par F. KALKBRENNER. Op. 114. (Goulding and D’Almaine.)
- L’Hermite, 3me. RONDO, sur des thêmes de La Tentation, (Musique de HALEVY) arrangée par ADOLPHE ADAM. (Chappell.)
WHETHER it is that the state of the country influences the publication of music of this class, or that the extravagancies and inanities with which we have so long been deluged have at length produced the effect which was to be expected, we will leave our readers to determine; certain it is that very few compositions for the piano-forte have appeared this spring—a season in which they usually are so abundant that we have found it difficult to keep pace with them, and indeed have generally been deeply in arrear with composers of all descriptions. Our belief is, that music requiring nothing but mechanical powers of execution, in which neither taste nor invention have any share, has had its day—a very long one; but people are growing more rational, common sense is returning, and with it will be again opened to us those rich stores of the great masters, the access to which has been almost choked up by the rubbish that has issued in cart-loads from the shops, and been recommended by nine masters in every ten throughout the country. Haydn and Mozart will again be met with in the drawing-room; Beethoven’s best and most reasonable works will once more be placed before the fashionable amateur; Dussek’s, Clementi’s and Steibelt’s works, with the early ones of Cramer, will be restored; and even Handel and Corelli must speedily be acknowledged to possess as much claim to notice as Czerny, Pixis, and id genus omne.