THE Song presented to us by Mr. Satchell is new, and, in our opinion, a most happy imitation of the best Scottish style.
VERY little of Buononcini’s music is now known any where: the formidable antagonist of Handel, the subject of Swift’s famous epigram, would be, but for the latter, forgotten. The arietta, however, now published for the first time in England, is alone sufficient to show that he possessed an elegant taste for melody. Giovanni Buononcini was born at Modena, about the year 1661, Dr. Burney conjectures. In 1748 he was invited to Vienna, by the Emperor of Germany, and composed an opera to celebrate the peace of Aix la Chapelle! The time of his death is not known, but it is supposed that he attained nearly 100 years.
London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Duke Street, Lambeth.
ADDRESS.
WITH this Number the HARMONICON ceases,—at least for the present: whether or not it will ever be revived, depends on circumstances on which it would be utterly in vain now to calculate. A new era has commenced in many things: publications at a cost which enables the great mass of the people to enjoy the advantages resulting from a knowledge of literature and science, absorb almost the exclusive patronage of all classes; and the increased, and still increasing, cultivation of music, its diffusion among those who formerly considered it as an accomplishment only adapted to the more wealthy portion of society, seem to demand that the best productions of the art should be furnished on even less expensive terms than those on which the HARMONICON has been circulated. Hence, a cheaper work has been announced. We yield to what it would be idle to oppose, and wish the projected publication,—advertised in our present Number, and which it appears will in some measure follow our plan, but be issued at a price rendered impossible by our sale,—every success it may deserve, and its proprietors can desire.
It has been observed, that to perform for the last time any action, unattended by suffering or guilt, is affecting and painful, and we cannot add these last words without sensibly feeling the truth of the remark. We cannot take leave of those to whom we have so long addressed ourselves without an emotion of sorrow. To such as have favoured us with their friendly communications,—(indeed we have had to complain of very few of a different description,)—we offer our grateful acknowledgments; and in respectfully bidding our readers farewell, indulge a belief that, during a long period of eleven years, we have not incurred their disapprobation by any intentional neglect, and that nothing has ever fallen from our pen which will be likely to leave an unfavourable impression on their minds—at parting.
THE EDITOR.
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,