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The Air at the end of the overture in Sofarmes is mafterly and ingenious if you will; but furely the eternal repetition of the fame three notes every other bar would be pronounced tiresome in any other compofer.

It is eafy to perceive, both from the felection of the fpecimens, and from the commentary upon them, that Mr. Jones is but a fuperficial admirer even of his favourite triumvirate: for he appears to be but imperfectly acquainted with their real merit; and to be wholly a ftranger to what they found ready done to their hands.

It is hardly poffible to read this book, without entering a little into the fpirit of mufical party. We fufficiently revere the three great and refpectable Mafters whom this Author fets up as models; an honour which they certainly deferve, in Music of their own time and ftyle; but we cannot join in his exclufive admiration of thefe great Muficians, and contempt for almost every thing that has been produced fince their deceafe.

We have never met with lovers, much lefs judges, of Mufic, who imagined that Air might be left to the wildness of nature." Every one wishes for, and admires a good fubject, and pretty paffages, arifing from that fubject. It is perhaps from the greater abundance of thefe that our (Tottenham-Court) Critic concludes the harmony of modern compofers to be vicious.

Parallels have been drawn between Mufic and Poetry in other books; and Mufic has been called a language with grammatical conftruction, figures, and forms of fpeech. But when our Author tells us, that Measure is not neceffary to melody, and in this differs from Air,' he is not only fomewhat new, but, we think, inaccurate.

The allowing that a more wild and unmeafured fucceffion of acute and grave founds will conftitute melody, which is now generally fynonymous with Air, is an improper, unusual, and unneceffary diftinction, which can only confuse and mislead a mufical ftudent.

Syntaxis, he tells us, is applicable to the continuation or carrying on of the air or fubject, with a juft arrangement of correfpondent periods in a mufical paragraph.'-And what, at length, does he mean, but that perpetual repetition of the fame paffage, which he afterwards calls the antecedent and confequent, and which the Italians as well as the French have long contemptuously called Rofalia*? And accordingly, at the bottom of p. 48, we are told, that the confequent is fometimes but the repetition of the antecedent in the next related key.'— Again,

This term Dr. Burney tells us, in one of his mufical Tours, had its rife from a Sicilian faint, celebrated in the golden Legend for telling her beads more frequently than any other in the holy Rubric.

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p. 50, we are told, that Air is further diverfified, by taking the measure of it, and applying it to a different order of femitones, and by transferring it from a major to a minor key, or from a minor to a major key which doctrine is illuftrated in Ex. CXXXI. by the repetition of one common vulgar paffage in four different keys: as who fhould fay, "Jolly mortals fill your glaffes; Folly mortals fill your glaffes; Jolly mortals fill your glaffes; Jally mortals fill your glafjes." A molt ingenious and amufing diverfification!

But the most complete fpecimen of determined and perfevering repetition, which we have feen, is the Author's cookery, Ex. CXLIII; where, in what he is pleafed to call an Air, with eight or ten divifions or variations, the fame old paffage is repeated four times in each divifion. Indeed the whole bufinefs is a mere cento from a leffon of Handel, that was compofed at the beginning of the prefent century, when both the ftyle and paffages were new; but of what ufe it can now be to a young Compofer, after being fo long played, and often plundered, by his admirers, we are unable to difcover.

The Author might have told us, that for the fafe way of introducing femitones in chromatic melody, Ex. CXXXV. he is obliged to Domenico Scarlatti*.

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To object' (fays Mr. Jones, p. 51.) that fuch reasonable reftrictions' (as thofe he lays down from old authors concerning Chromatic) are obfolete, and that we have now got above them all, though they are founded in nature [the nature of chromatic!], is to suppose, that the fenfe of man, as it was in Corelli's days, may turn into nonfenfe, and be the better for it'— Very jocularly faid! But to imagine, on the other hand, that an Art fhall receive no improvement, in upwards of 60 years, from the cultivation and utmost efforts of fo many profeffors of diligence and abilities, is fuppofing, that Genius and Corelli died together, and were buried in one and the fame grave.

The Author's friend, of whom he speaks, p. 52, feems to have illuftrated the effect of augmentation by a very apt fimile; and to confefs the truth, we have always more admired the ingenuity than effects of such relics of Gothic labour.

Frittering common chords into vulgar divifions (53.) which is fo eafy to do, and fo unmeaning when done, is one of thofe precepts (of which there are many in point of tafte, in the book) that will do a musical student much more harm than good.

In analyfing the beginning of a beautiful movement by Eichner, Ex. CXLIV. the Author, by inverting the parts, has given another inftance of his utter ignorance of double-counterpoint; and in bar 3, the bafs D with a requires an ascent to E, and was

See his Leffons, Book II.

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never

never known, when thus accompanied, to defcend to C with a common chord.

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Determined to give no quarter to any Mufician that was ever guilty of good tafte, our Author has fallen foul on poor Alberti (45. and 59), who in the midst of Gothic barbarifm was the fift that taught the harpsichord to fing; not by long and inaudible binding notes, but by graceful, elegant, and refined melody. Some of Pergoleft's movements in the Stabat mater difguft him with their mixture of modern Italian melody, and affectation of fecular Air' (52). Tartini's Chromatic makes every body miferable when they hear it' (40.); and Haydn and Boccherini are fo defultory and unaccountable (by his rules) in their way of treating a fubject, that they may be reckoned among the wild warblers of the wood; and, compared with Handel, are tea-table babblers' (49).

Unluckily, Mr. Jones's mufical reading has not only been fcanty and fuperficial, but during paroxyfms of inveterate prejudices; and he feems too much to have trufted to his own powers, in writing this book; often imagining that he has made difcoveries, when he but verges on what has been already well explained in other books. Nor is his knowledge in compofition fufficiently profound to render his own examples valuable, either by their originality or learning. Indeed his partialities weigh him down, and drag him not only from liberal ideas, but from good tafte, and that good fenfe which fome of his physiological writings led us to expect from him on the subject.

On a careful perufal of this work, we are perfuaded that the Author is felf-taught, and has not been accuftomed to teach others if he had, his definitions would have been fhorter and clearer, and his materials more methodized.

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Tartini's doctrine, as a theorift, however great his reputation a practical Musician, made but few converts. Rameau's, with the fame advantages of fcience and popularity, were long difputed. Whether our Author, with unprofeffional knowledge, and a name ftill to make, both as a theoretical and practical Mufician, is not too decifive, prejudiced, and erroneous in his opinions, either to ferve his own party, or depreciate the mufic he affects to diflike, is a problem which time only can folve.

If our Author had convinced us that he knew what had been done in other countries, whence we have fo long drawn our chief fupplies in compofition and performance, he would have merited the thanks of artists as well as ftudents; but with fo fcanty a fhare of knowledge in the art, it feems to border on prefumption to imagine that a whole nation would unanimously join in creating him fupreme Dictator in the republic of Mufic.

Upon the whole, if this work had been likely to diminish the Jabour of the Mafter or Scholar, to correct the national tafte, or extend

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extend the regions of mufical invention, fcience, or practice, the Author would have deferved the thanks of the Public as well as of every lover of Mufic, among whom, none would more

readily and fincerely have joined than ourselves. FB-Y

ART. IV. Encyclopædia Britannica; or a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, &c. on a Plan entirely new. Compiled from the Writings of the beft Authors; the most approved Dictionaries; the Tranfactions and Memoirs of learned Societies, &c. Illuftrated with above two hundred Copper-plates. 10 Vols. 4to. 121. in Boards. Edinburgh, Balfour and Co.; Robinsons, London.

S it is not ufually the intention of thofe who compile Dic

Astions and the advan

tage they can with propriety afford, and the ufe to which they are principally adapted, is to refresh the memories of those who are already well grounded in fundamentals, or to give immediate though fuperficial information to those who require no more. Hence biographical, hiftorical, geographical, and other dictionaries, are of great confequence, and have ever been esteemed valuable furniture in the libraries of the learned: but the cafe is widely different with refpect to feientific dictionaries. They ought not to contain even the rudiments of fcience, much lefs complete treatises on any particular fubject; fince by that means the compilers would increafe the fize of their work to an unwieldy bulk, and in a great meafure defeat the purpofe originally in tended.

In the performance before us, which is a fecond and much enlarged edition of a work noticed in our 50th volume, p. 301, we meet with a variety greatly furpaffing that of any former collection of the kind, published in this kingdom.

Biography forms a confiderable part of this Encyclopædia; thofe articles which we have examined are faithful copies or extracts from Bayle, the Biographia Britannica, and other productions of a fimilar nature; and fuch lives as are abridged, seem to be executed with judgment. Men, who in any remarkable manner have fupported their character, diftinguifhed themselves in their profeffions, or merited fame and applaufe for the fervices they have done to their country, to mankind, or to science, have always met with fome ready pen to gratify public curiofity, and tranfmit to pofterity the memory of their actions, their useful difcoveries, and inventions, or literary compofitions. Hence arifes a material objection to the generality of LIVES; for most of the memoirs of illuftrious men that are handed down to us, have been written by thofe who were friends, or admirers of the principles, of that perfon whofe life was the object of their attention and, in many inftances, inftead of impartial, hiftories, we too frequently meet with warm and unlimited panegyrics. This

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This inconvenience is, however, in fome measure, remedied, by a judicious abftract, or abridgment, wherein the partialities of friendship, or the influences of prejudice, have little or no weight with the compiler.

Hiftory and geography afford an ample field for the editors of the prefent performance. The hiftorical articles however are very unequal. The hiftory of Scotland, for inftance, occupies about 200 pages, while England is allowed only 60; beside which, we have another hiftorical article chiefly relative to Scotland, under the word Britain, that takes up 88 pages. Thefe treatifes we think highly improper for a work of this kind, which ought to fave the reader the trouble of hunting through a large volume for a particular tranfaction or fact, by putting it in its proper place and denomination.

The geographical articles are very ufeful and concife: in each the country is briefly defcribed, and the latitudes and longitudes of places are never omitted. Notwithstanding this, we have an article of confiderable length (16 pages) under the word Geography, accompanied with 22 plates, and maps. In the topographical accounts we find the fame inequalities as in the hiftorical; Edinburgh takes up 12 pages, while Oxford is dispatched in one, and Cambridge in half a page.

The compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica,' we are told in the Preface, have endeavoured to give a compendious yet clear and fatisfactory account of each particular fcience or art, under its proper denomination, whilft the fubordinate articles in each are likewife explained under their technical terms.' The truth is, that this performance confifts of about 50 or 60 complete treatifes or fyftems, as they are called, on the different arts and fciences, while the detached articles are nothing more than a nomenclature, containing an imperfect explanation of each term, or perhaps a reference to one of the treatifes before mentioned. With refpect to thefe treatifes or fyftems, they are by no means calculated to give that general idea of the fubject that is requifite in works adapted to the capacities of the generality of readers. MEDICINE, for inftance, an enormous article, being extended through no less than 300 large quarto pages in a fmall letter, is fuch a confufed jumble of theories, practices, and systems, as would puzzle even an Edipus. The profeffor cannot in the leaft be affifted by it, as it contains nothing but what he is fuppofed to know already; and the Tyro in phyfic, fo far from receiving any knowledge from it, must be bewildered and confufed in fuch an incoherent mafs of heterogeneous doctrines. Yet the science of medicine is not complete in thefe 300 pages. The various branches of it are made confiderable treatifes in other parts of the work. The treatife on ANATOMY takes up 63 pages; PHARMACY 127; the MATERIA MEDICA 28; SURGERY 130; be

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