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wheat from the chaff, and gathered together all that is really good from every part of the country, They tell us in their preface, that "they have deemed it necessary to yield so far to the present taste in psalmody, as to include in their selection some of those tunes whose principal claim to insertion will be found in their popularity;" and we confess our regret, to see some tunes of this class introduced, which are really of very limited popularity, whilst we miss many of sterling excellence, which are well known over large parts of the country.

Now, with respect to new tunes, we are firmly convinced that their quality, like that of a painting or of a statue, cannot be judged of at first sight.

"Vos ô

Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies et multa litura coërcuit, atque

Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem."

And we are disposed to give precisely the same advice respecting the tune, both to authors and to publishers. We fear that much of the new music published in the Psalmist has been composed in too hurried a manner, whilst it cannot have been sufficiently tried and criticised by the compilers to allow them to judge of its quality, or to justify them in bringing it out in such a work. A good tune, we apprehend, must be the result of something like inspiration. We have no idea of a man sitting down to set verses of so many syllables in a line to music, and succeeding, except by the merest accident. His mind, we imagine, should first be imbued by the sentiment of the psalm or hymn :-"Sweet is the work, my God, my King," or "Jesus, I love thy charming name." He meditates upon it. He is searching after a succession of chords to express the sentiment; and it may be in a moment, or not till after repeated and earnest efforts, the spirit of inspiration comes upon him, and the result is a harmony worthy of the theme. But here we have something like sixty tunes, most of them composed expressly for this work, produced in a very short space of time, and all the effort of one mind. Now, it is true that the author of this is a man of great genius; we have no doubt whatever that some of the tunes, it may be many, are of a very high order; and we freely acknowledge to him our obligations; but it cannot be expected that all should be found worthy of being transmitted to posterity. For our own part we confess, that we have seen so much music which, on its first appearance, has been pronounced first class, thrown aside as worthless after a very brief space of popularity, that we should hesitate to hazard our reputation by an opinion of any tune until we have been familiar with it at least a year. We wanted a standard book of psalmody; and what we contend for is, that it is next to impossible that these tunes can have been matured by their authors; and that if they have been, they should have lain in the cabinet of the compilers for a

few years, and undergone frequent trials; and, in the meanwhile, tunes already in existence, and already proved, should have been sought for and published. We believe that, at least, a hundred such, equal to any contained in the Psalmist, and which will never, where they are used, be surrendered for the new ones it contains, might have been found. We think we could have furnished fifty which have stood the test of from twenty to seventy years; and we, therefore, earnestly recommend the compilers to gather up the fragments that remain, and publish, with all convenient speed, a fifth part, from which all new music shall be excluded, as the only remaining remedy for the defect we have noticed.

The next remark we make relates to the harmonies, and a few minor matters. When once the compilers determined on inserting tunes which had "no claim to this distinction except their popularity," we think they were quite right in harmonizing them anew; and, in the style they have adopted, just to make them tolerable. With respect to new tunes, also, we approve of the principle on which Mr. Novello says he has proceeded in his harmonies.* We wanted music scientifically in advance of what we had. But we cannot commend the wholesale alteration in the harmonies of our old and familiar psalmody on which he has ventured. Indeed, some of it is "the worse for mending." Take, e. g., the third line of Saint Ann's, the last three chords of which we have always joined in singing with deep feeling; these are entirely destroyed, and others substituted which we can never admire till our memory can be made to forget the impressions of thirty years. In like manner, we observe that Wareham, with others we could mention, has been altered in those very chords which we have been accustomed to regard as constituting the beauty of the tune. But what shall we say to the alteration of Luther's music? We have been accustomed to regard it as perfect in its kind. It certainly ought not to have been touched except to restore it, if possible, to the state in which he left it. Our old harmonies then, in our opinion, except in cases of obvious grammatical inaccuracy, should have been left intact. This course would have secured the use of the Psalmist by choirs from which it will now be excluded, whilst the new music it contains would have left ample scope for the introduction of more complicated and chromatic harmonies, which then would have gradually came into general use. We have to complain, also, of the alteration of names

* This approval of the avowed principle of Mr. Novello must be taken with some qualification, when applied to the harmonies themselves. Whilst they have great beauties, we are persuaded many will view some of them as a display of the author's cleverness rather than as substantial improvements. They will say, that though they cannot charge them with positive inaccuracy, they are not strictly classical and pure, while in a few cases the air or melody is sadly overloaded by the weight of those parts whose office is to aid it and give it fulness and effect.

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and of melodies. Three such cases occur to us at this moment. Sheffield, Westmoreland, and Daversdale, we have known for more than a quarter of a century as Attercliffe, Carr's Lane, and Stonefield. The first, when sung to the words to which we believe it was composed, "Soon as I heard my Father say," is a truly inspiring harmony; but, to our taste, the alterations have spoiled it. The second, given anonymously, belongs to Stanley; the key is altered, and the last line of the air changed. The third, Stanley's first effort at composition, and bearing his own Saxon name turned into English, after having been popular more than sixty years, not only has its name altered, and its melody taken at second hand, we suppose, from Walker, but its harmony so entirely remodelled as that it can scarcely be recognized.

We perceive also, that the compilers have filled up their music, nearly throughout, with four parts. We cannot see the necessity or advantage of this. Why should not the trebles alone, or the trebles and basses, or the altos and tenors, sometimes sing a line? It destroys the monotony of our psalmody, and affords variety; whilst it certainly supplies the opportunity of giving effect to sentiment. Take, for instance, "Cambridge New," a noble tune to "Jesus, I love thy charming name." We have been accustomed to hear the basses take up the last line, "That earth and heaven might hear." The first and second trebles or altos respond, and the whole choir repeat it. Or Salem, to "When any turn from Zion's way." The trebles sing alone, or with a very soft bass, "Wilt thou forsake me?" the first and second trebles repeat it, and the whole choir conclude. And we are sure, that if the compilers had any thing like the impressions which our minds retain of the effect, they would have paused before they had ventured on such a change. We may just remark in passing, the injudicious use sometimes made in the Psalmist of the double bar; singers usually pause when they see it. The double bar is used at the end of the third line in Sheffield; and in Wareham, the pause is placed over the last note of the third line. Now, if there are two tunes in existence which require to be carried on without pause, they are these.

We must now notice the form in which the Psalmist is brought out. We feel the force of the reasons which have induced the compilers to use the G clef for the alto and tenor parts; and yet we regret, greatly regret, the decision to which they have come, and especially now that Mr. Hullah is introducing the C clef into all his music. We are aware that strong prejudice prevails against it; but we are at the same time tertain, that that prejudice results from ignorance alone. The general Impression is, that the C clef is arbitrary; and we have met with practised singers in that clef, who knew nothing about it; and who never dreamt that the five lines composing the tenor, alto, or soprano stave, were five lines taken from the complete scale of musical notation, consisting of eleven lines. And how should they? We confess, that no

elementary work, till Mr. Hullah's came out, has ever fallen into our hands in which there was even an attempt to explain it; and we ourselves first discovered it by a happy conjecture. Now, we think the compilers would have done well to have devoted a page of their preface to answer that ignorance, and thoroughly to explain the matter. We would have had them give the diagram which Mr. Hullah has given at page 141; only we would have the middle line ruled red. We think it would have been worth their while to have gone further, and through their volume ruled that line red, "as an assistance to the eye" of tenor and alto singers; in learning their respective clefs, it would then at once have been seen, that there is nothing arbitrary in the matter, that the line above the red line in the tenor stave is the lowest line of the treble stave; and the three lines below it, the three upper lines of the bass stave; whilst the alto stave is composed of the two lower lines of the treble, and the two upper lines of the bass stave, with the ledger line marked red-and we venture to say, that a week would have sufficed to make any one familiar with it; and and that when familiar with it, no tenor or alto singer would ever have returned to the G clef.

We think that a very unnecessary expense has been incurred in giving six lines to each tune, as such an arrangement is without any adequate advantage. The design of it is obvious, but we greatly prefer another method. Before stating our reasons, we will give a specimen of what we mean, in the hope that the Congregational Union may be led to adopt it in their projected publication.

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Now, strictly, the air ought to stand first; but it is of no real importance for the choir. In the harmonized accompaniment on the above plan, the tenor note on the instrument will sometimes be an octave higher than the voice; but that, instead of an evil, is frequently an advantage by giving a fuller chord. In the Psalmist, the tenor is fre

-Red.

quently obliged to be taken with the bass, and played with the left hand, so that it is impossible to play the full bass chords;—whilst the above method, by assigning three chords to the right hand, leaves the left at liberty to introduce a full bass, which should be figured. The harmony above is dotted; in the Psalmist the notes are all printed the full size, so that whilst it looks crowded, it is made to us much more difficult to read. The method we now suggest looks lighter; we see no objection to it of. any importance; as far as our knowledge extends, it is preferred by instrumentalists; and must save considerable expense. The compilers of the Psalmist, at least, cannot object to it on the ground of its impropriety, since they have been guilty of the impropriety, first, of omitting the C clef, and, secondly, of writing the alto, where it ought to be written it is true, but where, when the G clef is used, we never recollect to have seen it written. We will only add, that whether the C clef is used or not, we think the above arrangement by far the more convenient for the parlour, and especially for the player when the player is also to sing.

There is still one want which the Psalmist does not meet; we mean lively music for hymns of joy and praise. We know very little of this class of music that is worth having; and we thank the compilers for excluding it. Perhaps this is the desideratum in psalmody; and we should like to see it supplied.

We wish Mrs. Herschell had extended her work. It consists too entirely of rounds and canons. As far as it goes, we can cordially recommend it to families; but we should like to see many pieces in it which we do not find.

The music of the "Juvenile Harmonist seems to us to be too much of one class. Some solid and substantial tunes should be introduced, to prevent the formation of a false taste.

1. The Sepulchre of Lazarus, Recollections of Scotland, and other Poems. By Sarah H. Moulton. pp. 135. London: Saunders & Otley. 1842.

2. Dionysius the Areopagite, with other Poems. By Ann Hawkshaw. pp. 194. London: Jackson & Walford. 1842.

"THE age of chivalry is past," says Burke. And we are glad of it. For else of all men critics and reviewers would be the most miserable. If the spirit that once worshipped woman as the god of its idolatry, that was sworn to defend her at every cost and peril, that was prompt to make a word of seeming discourtesy a call to combat fierce and deadly; if this spirit was rife among us now, what think you, gentle reader, would become of such as follow our present craft? We tremble at the very thought of it! And stronger hearts than ours might tremble too! Our lives would be in our hands indeed. Who would assure them? or

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