The delicious air, ‘Oft in the stilly night,’ would, we should have thought, have spoken for itself, and pointed out an elegant calmness as the proper character of any variations written on it; but the composer either has not heard, or has not listened to, the ‘still small voice’ of reason; he has given us, first, a page of demisemiquavers, ‘brillante’, 24 time; next a crowd of skipping triplets; then poured on us another flood of three-tailed notes, ‘Con Fuoco;’ and afterwards as many more of the same kind, ‘presto!’—to say nothing of a coda in a similar style. There is not a single new idea to be found in the whole piece. If such things as this confer the title of ‘composer,’ we then can only say that it is a title very easily obtained.

ROBERT LE DIABLE.

  1. The OVERTURE and INTRODUCTION to the opera of Robert le Diable, with flute or violin accompaniment, ad lib., composed by G. MEYERBEER (Chappell.)
  2. The Pas de la Bouquetière, danced by Madlle. Taglioni, in the same, composed and arranged by MEYERBEER. (Chappell.)
  3. BACCHANALIAN CHORUS in the opening scene of the same, arranged as a BRILLIANT RONDO, by J. HERZ. (Chappell.)
  4. The Pilgrim’s Ballad, ‘Jadis regnait en Normandie,’ from the same, arranged with Variations, by CHARLES CZERNY. (Chappell.)
  5. SICILIENNE, ‘L’or est une chimère,’ in the same, arranged by T. VALENTINE. (Chappell.)

THE Overture to Robert is in two movements; the first an andante maestoso in C minor, meant as a prologue to the diablerie of the drama—a very much laboured composition, which does not make a return equal to the trouble bestowed on it. The second is an anticipation of the admirable and really popular air, ‘Jadis regnait en Normandie.’ The introduction wants the voices and stage action to give due effect to it, but there are some fine musical points in it, which the pianoforte is quite sufficient to bring forth. The whole of this is most judiciously arranged.

We never discovered the great merit of the Dance of the Flower-Girl, No. 2, and suspect that the grace (not, let us hope, the distortions) of Mademoiselle Taglioni produced more effect than the music. The coda to this, however, is melodious and enlivening; and the whole piece is adapted in a manner to have been expected from so sensible a man as M. Meyerbeer.

No. 3, the Chorus in the introduction, we have spoken of above. This is also remarkably well arranged by M. Jules (such Christian name we believe he bears) Herz. Much of this is pleasing, and the whole showy, without annoying the player and hearer with any sleight-of-hand tricks.