Mr. GÖDBÉ, with all the adroitness of a posture-master, pirouettes from point to point, and assumes names and positions, as though he were accountable neither for words nor actions. I will, as briefly as possible, reply to those parts of his letter which seem worth my notice.
He asserts.
I answer.
1st. That ‘Under the Walnut-tree’ was originally written for Mr. M’Keller, of Glasgow.
It was not.
2nd. That the subject (his Title states Melody) of my Song is only a slight modification of his Quartett.
He does not, by his own notation, show one entire Bar of my composition to be like his. My Song has a totally different Emphasis; and this is a fact not to be overlooked, Emphasis being, I conceive, in Music, what punctuation is in parts of speech.
3rd. That Mr. Pelzer positively declared that there could be no doubt of my composition having been taken from his.
Mr. Pelzer denies that ever he made such a statement.
When accidentally appealed to, he admitted there was a slight resemblance, but expressed his conviction that this was the effect of accident, not design. Mr. J. Addison and Mr. G. Herbert Rodwell were similarly appealed to by Mr. Gödbé’s publisher. The former gentleman allowed that parts of the 1st and 4th Bar had some affinity, while the latter frankly confessed that he saw no resemblance at all between the two compositions. The passages that do assimilate are common phrases used by everybody; and I am aware of no patent which secures the right of such passages exclusively to Mr. Gödbé.