then What gathering clouds obscure the feeble eyes of men ; And rather spare than blame this humble work of mine, And think "Alas! 'twas made-'twas made at Louvesteijn." (P.112.) They are valuable, however, as a proof that Huig de Groot, out of a philosopher's wig and gown, was as great a fool as any of us. Heinsius, or in homely phrase, Daniel Heins, the cotemporary of the last-mentioned very bad poet and great philosopher, affords another comfortable proof of how nearly the wisest, in some moments of their life, approach to the weakest among us: we are told in the brief memoir affixed to his name, that "there is more of elegance than of energy in his writings;" we confess our inability to discover either the one or the other quality in the subjoined Hymn : Where'er the free clouds rove, or heaven extends, Our dwellings shall be blest,-while on our friends No slavery-fetters hang,-that land's our only speak to its abstract poetical beauties. Some of the versions were executed, we suspect, with but a slight view to posthumous fame on the part of the translator; such for instance as the" Hunter fromGreece," a specimen from which we beg leave to quote in support of our hypothesis: She seized his arms and grasped his horse's reins, and hied Full seventy miles, ascending with him the mountain's side. The mountains they were lofty, the valleys deep and low, Two sucklings dead, one on the spit he saw. We should have had some difficulty in perceiving that these verses were intended for poetry, had not the latter rhymes brought it home to our ear. It is but fair to state, however, that the Hunter from Greece is a translation of a Dutch Provençal poem (if the epithet is allowable), where exact harmony of verse was a matter of but secondary moment, and the translators appear to have followed the metre of their originals with scrupulous accuracy. This upon the whole der is thus made acquainted not only was a judicious proceeding, for the reawith the matter but the manner of the Dutch poets (as far as this can be exhibited in another tongue): it is not always, however, equally successful, some metres adapting themselves more readily than others to the genius of our language. Thus for example we cannot away with such a protracted hitch as this: Adieu thou proud but lovely one, whose all-surpassing charms, Allured me on to hope for rest and bliss within thine arms Whilst the chief beauty of the song at page 197, or the following, consists in the lightness and fantastic grace of its measure: What sweeter brighter bliss Can charm a world like this, Two spirits mingling in their purest glow, Than sympathy's communion; And bound in firmest union In love, joy, woe! The heart-encircling bond, Which binds the mother fond To the sweet child, that sleepeth Upon the bosom whence he drinks his food: So close around that heart his spirit Many of the poems are turned Upon the whole, if the Translators, with admirable felicity of expression as they profess, wished merely to and the most perfect ease of manner; give the British public some proof nay, there are some in which it is that poetry was not incompatible with pretty evident that the whole merit the Dutch manners, mind, and lanbelongs to the translator, inasmuch guage, they have more than accomas the original thoughts are of little plished their purpose; their book is value: not only an interesting document of this kind, but a pleasing collection of elegant little poems. Maiden! sweet maiden! when thou art near, Though the stars on the face of the sky We wish the editors had been somewhat more diffuse in their memoirs of the several writers; the Introductory Essay might have been exchanged for the same quantity of biographical information, with no greater trouble to the writer, perhaps, and certainly with more benefit to the reader. REPORT OF MUSIC. MADAME CATALANI is at length advertised to appear at the King's Theatre in a comic opera, called Il Nuovo Fanatico per la Musica, on the 28th of February. Verily the proprietors must have bid high for the lady's services, since she positively refuses to accept any sum in the way of stipend, contending absolutely for a share in the profits of any thing in which she appears, and it is reported, that she is to be paid one entire half of the receipts at the above theatre nightly! That such was the offer made her we have the best reason to believe, but by what subsequent terms it has been modelled even more to her satisfaction, we have not learned. Nor is it yet known whether she extends her services to the Concerts Spirituels, six of which are now positively announced to be given on the Fridays in Lent at the Opera House. This is rather an unexpected blow upon Mr. Bochsa, the proprietor of the Oratorios, who in order to secure himself against competition, had engaged both Covent-Garden and Drury-Lane theatres. It will probably reduce both speculations to a loss. Such a termination will scarcely be a subject of regret, except in as far as the individuals who hazard their property and time for the general amusement are concerned. We say this much, because, as we have in previous reports asserted, the demands of principal singers are arrived at a most scandalous pitch of shameless extortion. Our English females of the first class get from fifteen to twenty-five guineas a-night for singing at a great public concert or a theatre, and subsequently extract fifteen more for a private party from the persons who are so weak as to indulge the passion (fashion) for first rates, of whose performance three-fourths of the company neither hear, nor care to hear, a single note. The sums paid at provincial concerts and meetings are of course proportionally increased, because, say the performers, we are to be recompensed for travelling, and for lost time in town. And worst of all, are the demands of the Italians, who insist upon as much for three concerts, as they could earn upon the continent in six months. What marvellous fools do they make of the English nation! And why are we thus gulled? In spite however of these facts, the success of the Birmingham, York, and, Liverpool festivals, has infused an increasing spirit for the enjoyment of music throughout the country. We mentioned in our last report Madame Catalani's tour through the north. She has since been at Hull. Sub scription Concerts at York are going on, and Miss D. Travis has sung She also appeared at Dr. Camidge's Benefit Concert, and is a great favourite, from the purity, delicacy, and taste of her manner. This young lady is notwithstanding very little known in the metropolis beyond the walls of the Hanover Square Rooms, where she constantly assists in the Ancient Concerts, being or having been the musical apprentice of the Archbishop of York and the Royal and Noble Directors of the Ancient Concert! Mr. Greatorex is her master, and she is a polished English singer, with perhaps the purest and the best knowledge of the true school of Handel of any female now in London. There seems indeed to be a noble rage for music in Yorkshire. A grand festival it is agreed shall be held in the autumn of the present year at Wakefield, in the fine gothic cathedral there. The Archbishop is at the head of a numerous list of patrons. Edinburgh, it is rumoured, takes Madame Catalani as the virtual conductor for a great meeting; and it is even asserted, that this lady meditates a round of Festivals, taking with her the principal singers and instrumentalists. The series of concerts at Bath is going on very successfully. The aim of the conductors is to vary the principal vocal performers nightly. Mrs. Salmon was there on the fifth night; and Mr. Moscheles should have attended, but he is not yet returned from Germany, in which country, by the way, he has been received with the marked admiration his great talents every where excite. Mr. Kalkbrenner has enjoyed similar honours, particularly at Vienna. At the sixth Bath concert, Miss Travis sung. Mr. Phillips seems gradually to be rising to considerable repute as an orchestra singer, since his successful debût in the Bath Italian Operas. A novel mode for the promotion of musical science, and diffusing a love of the art, has been adopted at Bristol. A plan of a society to be called "The Bristol Harmonic Institution," has been put into circulation. The objects are 1. The regular performance of classical compositions principally by members of the society. 2. Lectures upon different branches of the science, or periodical readings and conversations relating thereto. 3. The formation of a musical library, not only of the works of the great composers, but also standard treatises, histories, &c. connected with the subject. 4. The direct encouragement of musical talent and ingenuity by the distribution of rewards or prizes for composition, essays, &c. A concert room, library, and apartment, it is proposed, are to be built by shares of 251. each, and let to the future society at a rent. The holders are also to be invested with other privileges. The subscription for the power of attendance and access to the library, &c. is fixed at two guineas per annum. Non-residents may be honorary members; and professors, associates. Meetings are to be held weekly, and public concerts given monthly. At a society called The Enquirers, established in that city, Mr. Cummins, the gentleman who received the do nation of a snuff-box from the professors at the York festival, has delivered two most interesting lectures on music. Illustrative copies of an cient musical manuscripts of great beauty and rarity were exhibited. Mr. Cummins embraced a vast field of musical history, and treated the subject not only in a most masterly but in a most entertaining manner. The grand performance on the 30th of January at Drury Lane was very fully attended. A part of the Messiah, the Day of Judgment, an oratorio, by Schneider, a German, composer to the King of Prussia's chapel-and a motley selection of ballads and Italian songs, made up the selection. A performance in worse taste than that of the Messiah could hardly be found; with the exception of the air, But thou didst not leave, which was very chastely sung by Miss Goodall, there was not a single piece that had the slightest pretension to legitimate style: alas! alas! what woeful havoc have the Catalanis, the Brahams, and the Rossinis made with the simplicity and grandeur of fine expression! It is to be regretted that those of the vocal tribe who do know better, as well as those who do not, have not received a public lesson upon the necessity of distinguishing betwixt the mannerism of the opera and the style of the church--between what delights the galleries, and the sober-minded sound judge. A good deal of hissing (a little would not suffice) would tend greatly to the restoration of Mr. Braham to his senses, and to the bettering of Mrs. Salmon's taste. The Day of Judgment was a miserable business-at once too light and too heavy; mechanically good, but in every other sense bad; besides, the singers did not know their songs, and gave them as if they were reading at sight. The Day of Judgment will never be heard of again, it is to be hoped, at Covent-Garden; we speak musically however, not morally, be it known. It appears a very ill-chosen subject for music. An unlucky pro fessor in the band said in the greenroom, with all the bonhommie imaginable, that if he was Mr. B. he would cut the Day of Judgment. The subscription to the Nine Concerts at the Argyll Rooms fills slowly. The Philharmonic commences on Monday, the 23d of February, and there is to be a Morning Concert by the pupils of the Royal Academy at the Hanover Square Rooms, on Wednesday the 25th. They probably, like swans, will sing just before they expire, if we may trust the symptom of exhaustion we stated in our last report. Our space permitted us only to allude briefly to the posthumous publication of Dr. Callcott's Glees, &c. by his friend, and son-in-law, W. Horsley, Esq. Mus. Bac. Oxon. If the musical writers of our own country have been particularly distinguished during the last half century for any species of composition, their title to strength, beauty, and originality, stands mainly upon glees. We have a long list, and many eminent names are upon it, but none that stand before Callcott, except it be Samuel Webbe; and, if Webbe is pre-eminent for the beauty and delicacy of his melodies, Callcott is scarcely less excellent in the grandeur of his designs, and the splendour of their execution. Mr. Horsley has given sufficient proofs of this in the remarks he has appended to his Biographical Sketch of Dr. Callcott, prefixed to the publication, which is written with a clearness, simplicity, and truth, well worthy the end of the writer, for Mr. Horsley shows at once his love both for the art and for the man. Attainments such as those made by such a musician, under such circumstances, well deserve to be recorded, and to be held out to young profes sors. The Life is, indeed, distinguished hy none of those amusing particulars which often diversify relations, but it presents to us a good man and a man of genius, labouring honourably and successfully, to advance himself and his art; and it attaches our sympathy still more strongly, by the melancholy termination of such a ca reer of effort and ability-the failure of such an intellect, under the too incessant exercise of its best and noblest faculties. Of such a man it is due to art to record some particulars here. Dr. Callcott was the son of a bricklayer and builder, at Kensington, and was born on the 20th of November, 1766. Even during infancy, he gave indications of his love of literature, and thirst for knowledge. He took no pleasure in the common pastimes of children. Books were his chief delight; and when he quitted them, it was for some pursuit which had science for its object, and in which he engaged with great energy. At the school of a Mr. Young he made some classical acquirements. His attention seems first to have been attracted to musie by attending his father to Kensington church, which was undergoing some reparation. The organ excited, indeed, so much of his observation, that he endeavoured to construct one. He subsequently obtained an introduction to the organist, and attended the organ-loft on Sundays, where he acquired some insight into the first rudiments of music. His destination was surgery; but the shock he received on witnessing an operation determined him to aban don all thoughts of medicine as a profession. He then studied music ardently, but at the same time, more than one language; French, Italian, Hebrew, and Syriac, by turns employed his mind, and he also gave his attention to mathematics. He became acquainted with Drs. Cook and Arnold, who were strongly attached to him on account of the simplicity of his character, his enthusiasm for art, and his industry in its pursuit. In 1789 he was made as sistant organist at St. George's, Queen Square, and obtained some other musical appointments. Till this period his writings were serious, but he afterwards directed his thoughts almost solely to the production of glees. From the Catch Club, he received three medals in one year (1785); and in 1787 he sent in nearly one hundred compositions for the prizes, of which he obtained two. In 1789 he presented only twelve, but he carried off all the five medals. He did not, it seems, so well understand writing for an orchestra; and having asked Stephen Storace to look over a composition of this kind, and strike his pencil through such parts as did not please him, Storace struck out the whole, and returned it with the monosyllable “ THERE!” (The Way to speak well made easy for Youth). In 1804 and 1805, he wrote that most excellent treatise, his Musical Grammar, and he shortly after succeeded Dr. Crotch, as Lecturer at the Royal Institution, but "the fatal injuries which his constitution had received from excessive exertion, now showed themselves, and he was all at once rendered incapable of fulfilling any of his engage ments." A long indisposition fol lowed, and it was not till after an absence of five years that he reco❤ vered. He resumed his teaching, and carefully avoided all subjects of irritation, but his health again sunk, and, on the 5th of May, 1821, he died, giving exemplary proofs in the end of his life, of the piety and resignation to the will of Providence, which had marked the whole term of his existence. Such was this excellent man, and eminent musician. Mr. Horsley has spoken (and no one is better qualified to speak) of Dr. Callcott's writings, justly and ho nourably. They present, indeed, many specimens of beautiful expres sion, and fine composition. The work is published in a manner worthy of the subjects, and cannot but be considered as a noble addition to the musical collections of all who have a true taste for vocal harmony. NEW MUSIC. In 1789, a severe contest took place between Mr. Callcott and Mr. Evans, for the place of the organist of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, which ended in a division of the duty and emoluments. Mr. Callcott had risen to great eminence, and was continually employed in teaching, when Haydn arrived, and he anxiously sought some instruction from that master of orchestral effects. During their friendly intercourse, he wrote the beautiful bass song, These as they change, which perhaps exhibits the most complete knowledge of accomA collection of new German Waltzes, paniment of any thing he has ever composed for the pianoforte, by T. Mos written. Subsequently, it was ob- cheles. The legitimate style of the Gerserved, he wrote his glees in fewer man waltz is very rarely to be met with parts. From 1789 to 1793, when the amongst the immense number of melodies Catch Club discontinued their an- which daily assume that title. Mozart's nual prizes, he was a successful can- three waltzes afford the most classic specididate. He now began to study the men of this species of air, while they at theatrical writers on his art, intensely, the same time display as much character as a disposition which was greatly in any of the greater compositions of the master. creased by his intimacy with Over-The author of the Memoir of Rossini, in end, the organist of Isleworth, a man of very deep musical research. He now formed plans of various musical publications, and, at last, of a Dictionary of Music. His energy in collecting materials was astonishing. In 1800, he took his doctor's degree (Mr. Horsley proceeded MB. at the same time) at Oxford, and he occupied himself in learning German, and reading the works of the German musicians, with a view to his dictionary. He also engaged in some elementary works on language, one of which he published with success speaking of the music of Mozart, remarks, that" its distinguishing characteristic is that of touching the soul, by awakening melancholy images, by bidding us dwell upon the sorrows of the most tender, though frequently the most unhappy of the passions." This observation applies exactly to his waltzes, and to our minds describes the real character of the German waltz. Mr. Moscheles' collection approaches more nearly to this definition than any we recollect in sentiment and expression, and they are decidedly of the German school. We prefer the first, third, and seventh amongst the waltzes, and the trios at pages 3, 5, and 7; but they are all beau tiful. |