SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

THE remarks in the last Article of your seventh Number, upon the Oratorios, or grand Selections, as now performed at the London theatres in Lent, are very just; as when, the theatres being closed to dramatic representations, permission was given for the performance of sacred music, it was doubtless intended to tolerate sacred music only, and not a mixture of sacred and secular. For certainly if in consequence of the churches being opened with sermons in some of them on Wednesday and Friday mornings in Lent, it was thought right by our forefathers, as a matter of consistency as well as propriety, to abstain from the regular amusements of the theatre in the evening, it never could have been intended to connive at the performance of operas, or selections from them.

But it may perhaps be observed that some of those denominated and considered regular oratorios, as Acis and Galatea, Alexander's Feast, and others cannot, with propriety, be accounted sacred music, any more than the operas of Don Giovanni, Zauberflotte, &c. and this certainly is the case, if the words of them be principally considered. But with respect to the music of the above, with that of the Choice of Hercules, L'Allegro, Penseroso, and some others of HANDEL of the same kind, as it is composed in much the same grand style with his sacred oratorios, it has ever been usual to account these, if not sacred, yet serious compositions, and to class them, in consideration of their freedom from the levity and less complicated style of theatrical music, with oratorios rather than with operas. The music of these has also a still greater preponderance over the words, from their being never performed with the adjuncts of scenery and action; as I believe no auditors ever feel inclined to sympathize with poor Acis and Galatea, in their persecution by the savage Polypheme, which perhaps they would do, were they to see him, in character, hurling the rocky fragment at the enamoured swain.

On the other hand I admit that the oratorio itself ought to be divided into the sacred, as The Messiah, Samson, Judas Muccabæus,

&c. and the secular, as Alexander's Feast, L'Allegro, Penseroso, &c. and that, not only in Lent but at all times, they should be kept disstinct from and not confounded with each other. If however it be deemed necessary, for the sake of gratifying all tastes at benefit or miscellaneous concerts, that the sacred and secular style should be both introduced in the same concert, it might yet be so arranged as to allot an act or part to each, and not intermingle them indiscriminately in the same act or division of the concert, as is now too frequently the case.

Some pious Christians indeed object to the performance of sacred music at all, even The Messiah itself, as a matter of entertainment, at a theatre or concert room; and I must confess that, considering it as a matter of entertainment or amusement, I am of pretty much the same way of thinking. When however a performance of sacred music takes place in a church in a morning, as at the annual meetings of the three choirs, and others of the same kind, so far from considering it in this light, I always go, and should hope others do the same, with much the same feelings as when I attend divine ser vice on a Sunday; and the same kind of decorum is always observed as in the service of the church, all methods of expressing either applause or disapprobation being excluded; the audience also, as well as the singers, usually standing up in the grand chorusses.

In the same article are some judicious observations upon the Battle Symphonies becoming now, as it should seem, the favorite conclusion of our Lent oratorios. In these I likewise perfectly acquiesce, as surely nothing can be more absurd and barbarous, than to bring the imitation of what in reality is highly disagreeable and annoying, as near to life as possible.

As an instance of this, I cannot help thinking that the imitations of cannon, by means of the double drum, first introduced at the commemoration of HANDEL at Westminster Abbey, (where indeed the distance at which they were placed from the audience much softened and improved the effect), and afterwards continued to the present time at all other grand performances, have been and still are carried to too great an extreme; because (and this I take to be the grand mistake) instead of imitating the distant effects of artillery, which might occasionally produce a highly impressive effect, without any kind of annoyance to the most delicate feelings, the imitation is what none but a sailor or a bombardier would wish to hear; for

who could find any luxury in standing close to a piece of ord nance at the time of its being fired off?

To elucidate my sentiments upon this absurd notion of introducing mere noise into harmony, I shall conclude the present article with a story once told me by an Irish young lady, though I fear I shall by no means be able to give it either in her words, or in the lively manner in which she related it. The truth of the story must of course rest upon the authority of my fair informer.

"Within a year or two after the commemoration of HANDEL, when in a band of five hundred performers (the largest ever then known in England) the double drums and trombones were first brought into use, it was agreed by the musical world at Dublin, that that city should also have its commemoration of HANDEL. Accordingly a much larger band than had ever been accumulated in that kingdom was engaged, as a material ingredient in which the double drums were proposed and applied for-but the expence of transporting them, with their performer, being thought too great to risque, the following expedient (according to my lively informer) was adopted, to produce, in addition to the ordinary kettle drums, the desired imitation of artillery in the Dead March in Saul:-A musician was stationed at the back of the orchestra in the Cathedral, with a mallet in his hand, who was to accompany the occasional emphatic strokes of the drum intended to imitate cannon, with a smart application of the mallet to an elastic board which was placed there for the purpose.

"Now it happened that, just under the front of the orchestra there were two or three elderly ladies sitting, who no sooner heard the sound of this new musical instrument, than they began to scream out and tried to effect their escape, thinking that some of the scaffolding, or temporary orchestra, was giving way, and the whole ready to fall about their ears, which being perceived by a gentleman near them, he begged the ladies to keep their places and be perfectly at ease, assuring them there was nothing to fear, as the sounds which so greatly alarmed them were a part of the music!"

SENEX.

ELEMENTS OF VOCAL SCIENCE.

Chapter 4.

ON THE ELOCUTION OF SINGING.

THE superiority of vocal over instrumental music consists in the more complete and definite expression which the combination of words with notes affixes to a composition. A just articulation is therefore equivalent to the entire property by which this pre-eminence is conferred and secured, inasmuch as the addition of the voice may afford to a band a new auxiliary and a finer species of sound than can be produced by any instrument, but unless the words be distinctly pronounced, it bestows nothing beyond this addition. To give effect to melody requires ear, voice, and scienceto convey its peculiar beauties and to adapt them to sentiment, demands a just, an articulate, a polished, emphatic, and even impassioned enunciation of every syllable.

Thus the elocution of the art divides itself into two distinct branches, one of which is technical, the other intellectual and philosophical. The first is simply employed upon pronunciation, which it purifies, regulates, and adapts to the syncronous utterance of sounds--the other embraces the conception of the sense of the author, the dramatic expression of the passion, and above all, a nice judgment as to the degrees to which expression, under the various situations in which the art is exercised, may with propriety be carried.

Simple as the mere act of enunciation appears at the first inspection, it is in fact very difficult. There are few persons however well educated, who are wholly free from the defects of a provincial or scholastic dialect; the impressions of early life continue not unfrequently throughout the riper ages-to refine away these crudities, affectation too often is called in; even particular schools give a cast to speech; the pronunciation of foreign languages is apt to introduce impurities, and last, though not least, come slight defects of nature, which, scarcely perceptible in speaking, are distinct and disgusting faults in singing. The formation of the mouth, tongue, jaw bones, and other parts employed in articulation, are often im

perfect. Independent of all these is the change which the combination of speaking and singing brings about in the organs of sound and of speech. To preserve uniformity of voicing, or to increase power, the words are sacrificed. A note too high for the singer's compass is attained at the expence of the syllable. The substitution of the more open for the closer vowels is a very common resource in the execution of passages which lie beyond easy reach. In almost all these instances the tone and the words suffer together, and so completely are these purposes fitted to each other, that impure speech generates impure tone.

We have already spoken of the acquisition of tone and of the preliminary practice by which the student is to be instructed in the art of producing uniformity of voicing,† in conjunction with the several vowels. The method sanctioned by long experience is to sing the notes of the diatonic scale, through the entire compass of the voice, first using the word ah, pronounced rather close than open, as the vowel is spoken in the word father. The scholar having by this means fixed the habit of producing a pure and uniform tone as to quality, together with the power of increasing and diminishing the quantity from the most delicate pianissimo to the richest fortissimo that the voice is capable of, will proceed to unite the interval of the same scale to the words do, re (pronounced ra), mi (pronounced me), fa, sol, la, si (pronounced se), do. Thus the organs are prepared

There are seven species of psellismus or defect in the articulation of words.

1. Hæsitans, in which the words, especially the first ones of a discourse, are not easily pronounced, and not without a frequent repetition of the first syllable.

2. Ringens, in which the sound of the letter R is always aspirated, and as it were doubled.

3. Lallans, in which the sound of the letter L becomes more liquid, or is pronounced instead of R.

4. Emolliens, in which the hard letters are changed into the softer ones, and thus the letter S is much used.

5. Balbutiens, in which by reason of the tongue being large or swelled, the labial letters are better heard, and often pronounced instead of others.

6. Acheilos, in which the labial letters cannot be pronounced at all, or with difficulty.

7. Logostomatum, in which on account of the division of the palate, the guttural letters are less perfectly pronounced Sauvages, Genus, 113.

+ See vol. 2, p. 255.

We are not speaking of the ulterior uses of sol-faing, but of the mere attainment of pronouncing the vowels in conjunction with the notes.