Page 64. Scale Exercise in G minor.

66. Prelude in D major.

Gavotta by Corelli.

Allegro by ditto, which forms an excellent exercise for

the right hand.

68. Scale Exercise in D major, in perpetual canon.

70. Prelude in B minor.

Giga by Corelli.

71. Exercise by Ciaga of Siena, who was a master of the first class, and flourished in the time of Domenico Scarlatti.

72. Scale Exercise in B minor.

74. Prelude in Eb major.

Air with Variations by Clementi.

78. Polonaise by J. Field, of Petersburgh, pupil of Mr. Clementi.

80. Variations on Exaudet's Minuet by J. G. Eckard.-This celebrated minuet is well known in this country by the name of Marshal Saxe's Minuet, and made the fortune of its author at Paris.

82. Scale Exercise in Eb major.

84. Ditto in C minor, in perpetual canon; both diretto and

in roverscio.

86. Prelude in C minor.

Ditto in A major.

87. By an unknown author.
88. Scale Exercise in A major.

90. Prelude in F# minor.

Scale Exercise in same key.

92. Dittto in Ab major.

94. Prelude in ditto.

Ditto in F minor, treated in the manner of canon, in contrary motion.

Vivace by J. C. Eckard, treated in a very able manner. 100. A Prelude in E major, in canon.

Polonaise and Minuet by Sebastian Bach.

101. Gavotta by Corelli.

102. Scale Exercise in E major.

104. Prelude in C# minor.

Minuet by Haydn.

Page 105. Aria di Ballo-author unknown; written with taste and

120. Fugue by Sebastian Bach, from an original MS. of the author in the hands of Mr. Clementi.

122. Ditto.

It should be the endeavour of students in art, to obtain as they go along, not only a technical and mechanical but a philosophical view of their attainments. It is by such a career only that principles will be understood and the value of the separate parts ascertained and fixed in the memory. And if such were constantly the aim of the scholar, many of the most necessary elements which are disregarded or forgotten, because they are improperly estimated, would assume their true dignity and worth, and the general progression would be much more securely ascertained. We would apply this remark to a systematic method of fingering. Half, nay three-fourths of those who prosecute the piano forte, are spoiled by an inadequate share of attention being addressed and directed to a really scientific digest of rules to this intent. MR. CLEMENTI has however shewn that he knows how to appreciate this indispensable requisite to fine performance, and in the work before us has applied himself to its illustration by the nicest gradations. He pre-supposes only (in the appendix) that the pupil has studied the scales in their simplest forms. From this point he begins, and he conducts the scholar, step by step, rendering however a series of rules and a method excessively tedious and dry in themselves, amusing and even interesting by the manner of treating them. The difficulties are increased almost imperceptibly, till towards the end they are wrought with a profound acquaintance with double counterpoint, and he at length accustoms the hand and the ear and the judgment to the execution

and the contemplation of canon, fugue, and the highest species of composition, and confirms these separate powers by the finest examples, while the value and the beauty of method is apparent throughout; and nothing can manifest the extraordinary sense of the importance with which this great master regards the objects of his labours, than the earnestness and care he has employed in leaving no part of the fingering to chance. He has indeed often upon a repeated passage adjoined the finger marks, that no possibility of change or error should creep in.

The selections are such as might be expected from the erudition of the Editor. They are in multifarious styles, and present the best specimens in each. There are two or three of MR. CLEMENTI'S own compositions really exquisite. The air with variations (p. 74) is eminently beautiful; it is so chantant and so expressive. We refer all writers of variations to this model. MR. FIELD's polonaise

is also delightful.

The scale exercises and preludes are invaluable as conducting to execution, but the work is rendered not less useful by the pains taken to form the taste to fine expression, not alone by the usual symbols, which are most carefully and unsparingly marked, but by directing the mind to a choice of models. Fine expression is a combination of natural feeling, and so high a degree of cultivation as implies a perfect command of the instrument, of the gradations of touch and rapidity, of force, of delicacy, of contrast, and of transition-all these are the results of practice, and of a comparison of the objects of taste. We know of no elementary work so excellently calculated to combine all these requisites as the appendix.

To MR. CLEMENTI the world is highly indebted, for nothing but a love of his art and a desire to do his utmost to fix its principles, so far as in him lies, would have induced him to undertake a work which to such a mind as his must have been a task of uninterrupted labour.

Palinodia a Nice, in thirteen vocal Duets, with an Accompaniment for the Piano Forte, composed by J. F. Danneley; with an English metrical Translation, written expressly for the Work, by Mrs. J. Cobbold. London.-By the Royal Harmonic Institution.

The exquisite poem of METASTASIO, from which MR. DANNELEY has with classical taste selected the subjects of his compositions, has been chosen so repeatedly by the most eminent musicians, and particularly by CIMAROSA, for the same purpose, that the attempt was a bold one, especially for an Englishman. For by preferring the Italian to his own tongue, the composer must be supposed to be influenced, not alone by the superiority of the former over the latter as a vocal language, but to imply that the style of writing he adopts is adapted to the genius of the poetry. For this reason we think MR. DANNELEY has erred, either in affixing the original or the translation; for in the present state of the art, the characteristics of Italian and English style and manner have not yet approached each other sufficiently near, to allow of equal justice being done to both in the same composition. HAYDN's canzonets, for instance, which have both English and Italian words, and which are by far the most elegant and expressive ballads that were ever written, are not Italian in respect to the music; nor could we ever persuade ourselves to listen for a moment to the Italian adaptation; so infinitely better does the exquisite and finished poetry of MRS. JOHN HUNTER accord with the notation. In the Palinodia too there is a simplicity which is inimitable, and to prove an hypothesis we shall submit the lines of METASTASIO and MRS. COBBOLD's translation, as they stand in the first page of Mr. DANNELEY's duet.

Placa gli sdegni tuoi,
Perdona amata Nice,
L'error d'un infelice

E degno di pietà.

E ver di lacci miei,

Vantai che l'alma e sciolta,

Ma fu l'estrema volta

Ch'io vanti libertà.

Translation.

Fairest! thy scorn appeasing,

Let hope a smile discover:

A hapless, erring lover

May sure for pity plead.

Methought from spells too pleasing
My soul was disenchanted;

Alas! it idly vaunted

When boasting to be freed..

MRS. COBBOLD has given something like the sense, but the simplicity, the purity, the intensity, the charm of METASTASIO, exists not in the translation. The original and the paraphrase have two distinct characters. In point of fact MR. DANNELEY should have left METASTASIO to Italians, and should have been content with the powers of his fair coadjutor. And we think we shall do the composer better service, if we forget the Italian altogether.

With this allowance, these duets exhibit traits of talent. The first three are very agreeable, natural in their melody, simple in construction and expression; and these attributes belong to many of the set. The sixth we esteem the most;-this too is more Italian than the others. The wide intervals at the end of the fourth are scarcely vocal, and the tenth (in E flat minor) is so chromatic that it can rarely be decently executed. Neither do we like the transition to the key of B with sharps, for the same reason. The example of the finest composers has shewn that they reject the use of extreme keys. The very few exceptions do but establish the rule; and a writer of less authority, even if he imagines any sufficient cause in ideal effects, will to a certainty find himself foiled (when he hears his work) by imperfect execution. If all keys are tempered alike by a singer, his theory is visionary; if the singer, on the contrary, endeavours to accommodate his scale to the temperament of a fixed instrument, the ear will not bear the results in the extreme keys. He is therefore sure to be wrong when he transgresses those certain limits, which have been well marked by classical authorities.

MR. DANNELEY has also made his upper part too high, in some instances, for the generality of voices, and his second is often too distant from the first. But there is in the duets, taken as a whole, sufficient to entitle them to notice, and in several of them very pleas. ing specimens of melody, simplicity, and expression. Had neither