manner ill adapted to all the paffions. If every one of four voices is expreffing a different fentiment and a different mufical paffage at the fame time, the hearer cannot poffibly attend to, and be affected with them all. This is a ftile of compofition in which a perfon, without the least taste or genius, may arrive at great perfection, by the mere force of ftudy: But without a very great share of these to give fpirit and meaning to the leading airs or fubjects, fuch compofitions will always be dry and unaffecting. Befides the objections that lie against all complex music confidered as to its compofition, there are others arifing from the great difficulty of its execution. It is not easy to preserve a number of inftruments playing together in tune. Stringed inftruments are falling, while wind inftruments naturally rife in their tone during the performance. But it is not fufficient that all the performers play in the moft exact tune and time. They muft all understand the ftile and defign of the compofition, and be able to make the refponfes in the fugue with proper fpirit. Every one must know how to carry on the fubject with the proper expreffion when it is his turn to lead; and when he falls into an auxiliary part,, he must know how to conduct his accompanyment in fuch a manner as to give an additional force to the leading fubject. But mufical taste and judgment are most remarkably displayed in the proper accompanying of vocal mufic, efpecially with the thorough bafs. If this is not conducted with the fricteft attention to heighten the intended, expreffion of the fong, it deftroys it altogether, as frequently happens from the throwing in the full chords, when a fingle note fhould only have been ftruck, or when perhaps the accompanyment fhould have ceafed altogether.

Thefe are difficulties few performers have an idea of, and fewer are able to conquer. Moft performers think they do all that is incumbent on them, if they play in tune and in time, and vanity often leads them to make their voice or inftrument to be heard above the reft, without troubling their heads about the compofer's defign.

It has been much the fashion for fome years paft, to regard air entirely in mufical compofitions; and the learned works af harmony have fallen into neglect, being confidered as cold and piritlefs. This change has been introduced by compofers who unfortunately happened to be great performers themselves. These people had no opportunities in the old compofitions of fhewing the dexterity of their execution; the wild and extravagant fights, which they indulged in order to display this, being abfolutely deftructive of the harmony. They introduced therefore folo's of their own compofition, or concerto's, which from the thinness and meagrenels of the parts, cannot be confidered in any other light than folos.-It is not eafy to characterise the

ftile of most of these pieces. In truth they have no character or meaning at all. The authors of them are little concerned what fubject they choose, their fingle view being to excite the furprife and admiration of their hearers. This they do by the moft unnatural and wild excurfions, that have not the remoteft tendency to charm the ear or affect the heart. In many paffages they are grating to the car when performed by the beft hands, but in others they are perfectly intolerable.

A new ftile of compofition has lately been cultivated in Italy, and greatly promoted in Britain, particularly by one perfon of rank. The prefent fashion is to admire this, and to despise Corelli as wanting spirit and variety. The truth is, Corelli's excellence confifts in the chastity of his compofition, in the richness and sweetness of his harmonies; the other pleases by its spirit and a wild luxuriancy, which makes an agreeable variety in a concert. but poffeffes too little of the elegance and pathetic expreffion of mufic, to remain long the public tafte.

Though mufic, confidered in its useful application, to delight the ear and touch the paffions of the bulk of mankind, requires the utmost fimplicity, yet confidered as an art capable of giving a lafting and varied enjoyment to the few, who from a ftronger natural tafte devote part of their time and attention to its cultivation, it both admits, and requires variety, and even fome degree of complication. Not only the ear becomes more delicate by cultivation, but the mufical tafte..

When the ear becomes acquainted with a variety of melodies, it begins by degrees to relifh others, befides thofe which are national. A national melody may have expreffions for only a few affections. A cultivated and enlarged taste easily adopts a greater variety of expreffions for thefe and other affections, and learns from the deepeft receffes of harmony, to exprefs fome, unknown to every national mufic.

• When one practises mufic much, the fimplicity of melody tires the ear. When he begins to hear an air he was formerly acquainted with, he immediately recollects the whole, and this anticipation prevents his enjoying it. He requires therefore the affiftance of harmony, which, without hurting the melody, gives a variety to the mufic, and fometimes renders the melody more expreffive. Practice enables one to trace the fubject of a complex concerto, as it is carried through the feveral parts, which to a common ear is an unmeaning jumble of founds. Diftinct from the pleasure which the ear receives here from the mufic, there is another which arifes from the perception of the contrivance and ingenuity of the compofer. The enjoyment, it must be owned, is not of that heart-felt kind which fimple mu fic can only give, but of a more fober and fedate kind, which proves more lafting and it must be confidered that whatever

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touches

touches the heart or the paffions very fenfibly, must be applied with a very judicious and very fparing hand. The sweetest and fulleft chords must be feldom repeated, otherwife the certain effect is fatiety and difguft. They who are beft acquainted with the human heart, need not be told that this obfervation is not confined to mufic.

On the whole we may obferve, that musical genius confifts in the invention of melody fuited to produce a defired effect on the mind. Mufical tafte confifts in conducting the melody with fpirit and elegance, in fuch a manner as to produce this fingle effect in its full force.

Judgment in mufic is fhewn by adapting fuck harmonious accompanyments to the melody as may give it a variety without deftroying its fimplicity; in the preparation and refolution of difcords, and the artful tranfitions from one key to another. -Tafte in a performer confifts in a knowledge of the compofer's defign, and expreffing it in any spirited and pathetic manner, without any view of fhewing the dexterity of his own execution. But though all these circumstances of compofition and performance fhould concur in a piece of mufic, yet it muft always fail in affecting the paffions, unless its meaning and direction be ascertained by adapting it to fentiment and pathetic compofition. It exerts its greatest powers when used as an asfiftant to poetry: hence the great fuperiority of vocal to inftrumental mufic: the human voice is capable of more juftnefs, and a more delicate mufical expreffion, than any inftrument whatever; the perfection of an inftrument depending on its nearest approach to it.- Vocal mufic is much confined by the language it is performed in. The harmony and fweetness of the Greek and Italian languages gives them great advantages over the English and French, which are harsh, unmufical, and full of confonants; and this among other inconveniences occafions perpetual facrifices of the quantity to the modulation. This is one great caufe of the flightnefs and want of variety of the French mufic, which they in vain endeavour to cover and fupply by laboured and complex accompanyments.-As vocal mufic is the firft and most natural mufic of every country, it is reasonable to expect fome analogy between it and the poetry of the country, to which it is always adapted.-The great fuperiority of the Scotch fongs to the English may in a great meafure be accounted for from this principle. The Scotch fongs are fimple and tender, full of ftrokes of nature and paffion :So is their mufic.-Moft of the English fongs abound in quaint and childish conceits. They all aim at wit, and sometimes attain it; but mufic has no expreffion for wit, and the mufic of their fongs is therefore flat and infipid, and fo little efteemed by the English themfelves, that it is in a perpetual fluctuation, and

has

has never had any characteristic ftile. On the other hand, England has produced many admirable compofers of church mufic. Their great attachment to counterpoint has often led them into a wrong track; in other refpects, they have fhewn, both genius and tafte. Religion indeed opens the ampleft field for mufical, as well as poetical genius, it produces almost all the variety of fubjects, which mufic can exprefs, the fublime, the joyous, the chearful, the ferene, the devout, the plaintive, the forrowful. It likewife warms the heart with that enthusiasm fo peculiarly neceffary in all works of genius. Accordingly the fineft compofitions in mufic we have, are in the church ftile. Handel far advanced in life, when his conftitution and spirits feemed nearly exhaufted, was fo roused by this fubject, that he exhibited proofs of extent and fublimity of genius in his Meffiah, fuperior to any he had fhewed in his moft vigorous and happy period of life. We have another instance of the fame kind in Marcello, a noble Venetian, who fet the first fifty pfalms to mufic. In this work he has united the fimplicity and pathos of the ancient mufic with the grace and variety of the modern. In compliance with the tafte of the times he was fometimes forced to leave that fimplicity of ftile which he loved and admired, but by doing fo he has enriched the art with a variety of the moft expreffive and unufual harmonies. The great object in vocal mufic is to make the mufic expreffive of the fentiment. How little this is ufually regarded appears by the practice of finging all the parts of a fong to the fame mufic, though the fentiments and paffions to be expreffed be ever fo different. If the mufic has any character at all, this is a manifeft violation of taste and common fenfe, as it is obvious every different fentiment and paffion fhould be expreffed in a ftile peculiarly fuited to itself. But the most common blunder in compofers, who aim at expreffion, is their miftaking imitation for it.-'

Our Author's defign in what he has advanced on this fubject is to fhew, that the principles of tafte in mufic, like thofe of the other fine arts, have their foundation in nature and common fenfe; that these principles have been grofsly violated by those unworthy hands to whofe direction alone this delightful art is entrusted; and that men of sense and genius fhould not imagine they want an ear or a mufical tafte, because they do not relish much of the modern mufic, as in many cafes this is rather a proof of the goodnefs both of the one and the other.

Having made fome obfervations on the real objects produced by a cultivated tafte in fome of the fine arts, he proceeds to confider its influence on the pleasure arifing from fuch works of genius as are in a particular manner addreffed to the imagination and the heart. After this he goes on to confider that principle of human nature which feems in a particular manner the cha racteriftic

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racteristic of the fpecies, viz. the fenfe of religion. And here he does not enquire into the evidence of religion as founded in truth; he only examines it as a principle founded in human nature, and the influence it has, or may have, on the happiness of mankind.His obfervations on this fubject appear to be very pertinent and inftructive; and it is with difficulty we can refift the temptation to enrich our collection with fome of them: but we have already extended the article to a length proportionate to so small a volume, though, perhaps, not to the importance of the matter which it contains. With regard to the language of this performance, though it comes from a northern pen, we perceive in it few Scotticifms; presently poffeft,' p. 4, for pofJaffed at prefent, being the most material defect of this kind that

hath occurred to our notice.

Dialogues of the Dead*. The Fourth Edition, corrected. To which are added, Four new Dialogues. 8vo. 5 s. Sandby,

E have had occafion, in our account of former Dialoguest, to take notice of the difficulty of excelling in the colloquial way of writing, which, for reafons there fpecified, has been fo little cultivated in our language; and we expreffed our doubt whether the method of dialogue is well adapted to fuch fubjects as require deep investigation, and a connective chain of reafoning.

The additional dialogues now before us do not remove our doubts in this refpect but rather tend to convince us that this mode of compofition is not fuited to the difcuffion of grave and weighty points of argument; for, the frequent interruptions neceffary to keep up the fpirit of dialogue, too often withdraw our thoughts, and do not produce conviction fo readily, in minds endued with a habit of attention, as a more clofe and connected method of writing. In fhort, the way of colloquy feems better calculated to ridicule error, than to illuftrate truth.

With respect to the four additional dialogues under prefent confideration, they are in no degree inferior to those which precede them. The firft contains many juft and entertaining reflections. Cæfar being hard preffed by Scipio, who concludes from Cæfar's own relation, that the aim of all his actions was tyranny, makes the following anfwer:

Let us not deceive ourselves with founds and names-That great minds should afpire to fovereign power is a fixed law of

The author, Lord LYTTELTON.

+ See Review, Vol. XXI, p. 35, and Vol. XXII. p. 409.

nature.