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at the general meeting, held on the first Monday in November, immediately preceding such concert, or determined at a meeting held by adjourument from that day. Any member or associate failing to comply with this law (except under circumstances hereafter-named) vacates his situation in the society.

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39. A discretionary power shall be vested in any general meeting held viously to the first concert, to extend the period for the payment of the subscriptions of such members and associates as may be out of England at that time.

40. Female professors shall be admitted to subscribe to the concerts on such terms as shall be annually fixed, provided they have been proposed and ballotted for in the manner prescribed for the admission of members and Associates.

APPROPRIATION OF THE FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY.

41. All monies received shall be appropriated to the advancement and honor of the musical art, for which purpose alone this society is instituted. After paying the expenses of each season, any balance that may remain shall be car ried to the account of the succeeding year.

HONORARY MEMBERS.

42. Foreign professors, of great eminence, may be elected honorary members of this society, by a majority of members, at any general meeting. They must be proposed, in writing, by five members of the society at least, and due notice given of the day of election.

Honorary members shall have free admittance to the concerts of the society for one season; but they shall cease to enjoy this privilege should their residence in England be prolonged beyond that time. It shall, however, be in the power of the society to re-elect honorary members.

43. If any member of this society (who is not out of town, or confined by indisposition) shall absent himself from the general meeting, held on the third Monday in June, for the purpose of electing officers, and of passing the Treasurer's accounts; or from that held on the first Monday in November, for the purpose of fixing the nights of the concerts, he shall forfeit the sum of half-aguinea; and if the aforementioned fine be not paid, on or before the night of the first concert in each season, he shall be excluded from this society.

44. The annual list of members and associates shall not be sent to press, until it shall have been revised and signed by the Treasurer and Secretary.

MEMBERS.

N. B. Those marked thus * are Directors for the present Year.

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TREATISES ON SINGING.

ART. 1. Solfeges d'Italie, avec la Basse chiffree, composés par Leo, Durante, Scarlatli, Hasse, Porpora, Mazzoni, Caffaro, David Perez, &c. dédiés a Messeigneurs les premiers gentilshommes de la Chambre du Roi et recueillis par les Srs. Levesque et Bêche ordinaires de la Musique de sa Majesté. Paris.

2. The Modern Italian Method of Singing, with a variety of progressive examples, and thirty-six solfeggi. By Signor D. G. Aprili. London.

3. The Elements of Singing familiarly exemplified, to facilitate the acquirement of the Science of Vocal Music in the Italian and English styles, from the commencement of the study until the utmost proficiency is acquired; adapted for pupils of every age, with observations to enable a Parent or Superintendant to assist in the tuition of the Scholar during the Master's absence. By Gesualdo Lanza. Interspersed with select examples and exercises of the most eminent Masters, from the earliest period to the present time. London, 1813.

4. Introduction to the art of Solfaing and Singing, wherein the chief requisites for a good Singer, viz. Intonation, Time, and Execution, are clearly illustrated by concise instructions and easy examples, calculated to facilitate the performance of vocal music, according to the most modern style. Composed and respectfully dedicated to Mrs. Billington, (with permission) by J. Jousse. London.

5. A Concise Treatise on Italian Singing, elucidated by rules, observations, and examples, succeeded by a new Method of Instruction, comprising scales, exercises, intervals, and solfeggios, peculiarly arranged and harmonized; dedicated to Thomas Broadwood, Esq, By G. Ferrari. London,

Vocal art has employed for a great number of years our unwea ried attention. We have heard the finest singers of Europe, we have examined many of the best and many of the worst treatises from

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the earliest to the latest; we have conversed with a vast number of masters, and with professors of acknowledged ability; devoted no small portion of our leisure to practice and to teaching, and it results from all our enquiries, that though the science has been understood and exercised by many public performers in as great perfection as will probably ever be attained, there is yet no code of instruction extant, that contains scarcely any thing beyond the elements purely technical. The subject has been often treated mechanically, but never philosophically. The simple difference between any and all of the books of instruction we have yet seen, consists in a more or less full and complete arrangement of the degrees of science, which depend principally, if we may not say entirely, on mechanical practice and formation—on the art of producing certain sounds and of executing certain passages. But we know of no book which attempts to arrange and classify the effects produced by the efforts of mind-which aims at directing the intellectual powers employed in singing to their just and necessary objects, except in so meagre a form and by such poor and scanty scraps of common place maxims, that we are still left to consider a good treatise on the elements of vocal science to be a desideratum among the lovers of music. MR. BROWN's essay on the Poetry and Music of the Italian Opera, published about forty years ago, and which was the subject of an article in our first number,* shews how much may be done, and is an elegant example of a nice discernment and discrimination applied to the object of our consideration.

Beyond this little work we are aware of nothing but detached obser vations, scattered through the several historians of the science, and through the pages of other authors, who have been tempted to intersperse a few casual and brief remarks that fell in their way. But for MR. BROWN's assistance, the task of proving the utility as well as the necessity of taking the faculties of the mind into account, might have been left to ourselves. Enough, however, has been done to convince any intelligent person that the higher branches of singingthe just application of the technical power-depend entirely upon the intellectual constitution, (particularly if we may class fine sensibility under that head,) and instances are not wanting to shew that the degree of perfection attained, depends even more upon mind than natural organ; for in the cases of MARA and CATALANI, of HARRISON *Page 28, No. 1.

and BRAHAM, not to mention a hundred others, the most extraordinary gifts of nature in respect to voice, and the most perfect system of technical education and practice, have yet left the possessors at a great distance below competitors, whose organic powers were far inferior, and whose superiority could only be derived from the dignity of their conceptions and the delicacy of their tastes-accidents purely intellectual. The well known fact that the Miserere of Allegri, which, as performed in the Pope's Chapel, raises the highest possible emotion, but fails every where else, would serve as an additional testimony of the commanding influence of manner as directed by mind, were more examples necessary.

Much of what we might have had to say upon this matter has been anticipated in the letters of TIMOTHEUS, inserted in our former and present numbers, with whom we entirely accord. In England be has observed we have no school, and therefore it is, that we of this country stand so much more in need of a philosophical understanding of the subject. We fall into repetition by urging the difference between foreign notions of expression and our own. But nothing else is wanting to shew the indispensible necessity of the addition to treatises, we now urge. Italian modes of expression can never accord with pre-conceived English notions of propriety, and though we admit that the Italian methods of fixing the voice exceed beyond all comparison any which we know, (indeed there is no other system), yet when we come to the application of what we thus obtain there is little that is in common between us. The usage of the grace, called Portamento,* will afford us at once a perfect illustration. We deny the admission of Portamento into English singing almost wholly. The Italians scarcely sing a bar without it. This ornament, as used by Italians, to untaught English ears and English taste, we are satisfied destroys the effect of the finest composition and the most polished execution in every other respect. What foreign singer, MARA excepted, could ever convey to an English audience the sublimity, the force, or the pathos of HANDEL? We may confidently assert that no one ever did or ever could. Almost all MR. BRAHAM'S errors are errors proceeding from a want of discrimination between the usages of the Italian school and the prejudices of English ears.

*We take portamento here in its signification of the glide, by which we rather conform to modern usage than what we concieve to be the proper interpretation of the term.

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