No. 4 is, we presume, one of those things which the composer has penned down after dinner, to avert a fit of somnolency; which, however, will be transferred to all who listen to this song.
No. 5 is a brisk Aubade, or morning-song, which may prove useful in ordinary cases, but has not sufficient potency to rouse the nymph who is cast into a very deep slumber. In the opening symphony, the last bar, the fifth, should be omitted; and in the first bar of page 2, the F must, of course, be sharp. Being natural a second time, in the following verse, may raise a doubt as to the author’s meaning.
To No. 6 no fault can be imputed. But though the music is good, and the verses set with great propriety, yet we expected more from so intellectual a composer, the exciting nature of the occasion being considered.
No. 7 is indebted to Haydn’s Mermaid’s Song for the commencement. The whole is airy, and quietly but well accompanied; and there is a good deal of variety in the song, just indeed such as the words required. We should be better satisfied with the symphony were the seventh and tenth bars discarded, and a pause given to the last rest in the ninth. The rhythm, in fact, requires this, or some such change, for the last bar here counts for nothing in musical prosody.
No. 8 is not equal to some of Mr. Nielson’s songs; there is nothing in it to fix attention, either in melody or accompaniment. The disjunction of the words, bars two and three, page 3, just where they ought to have been joined, is injudicious; and the error is not less in making the last syllable long in ‘companionship,’ and the first so drawlingly slow in ‘apathy.’