be on the whole by far the most classical. MR. LANZA's book con tains the most of what is technical, but his matter is collected and amassed with such a studious and minute attention to particulars and detail, that it throws over the work an air of pedantry and charlatanism, which however, upon inspection, will not be found really to belong to it. The fault of the whole is, that it is too technical, and therefore somewhat dry and tedious; but there is in it a vast deal of valuable matter. APRILI is on the contrary short, concise, and simple. Every thing in his treatise is really good and useful, and its brevity is its only fault. MR. JOUSSE aims at much more than any of his brother writers, and his plan is more philosophical than theirs. His observations are many of them very sensible, and are defective, principally because he has not dilated his materials to the scope of which they are capable. He deals too much in hints, but in these hints it is to be discerned that he apprehends the extent of his subject, and is not insensible to the necessity of philosophical explanation. If, however, he has exceeded his competitors in this portion of the work-his rules do not contain much novelty, and if they are not all to be found in older writers, the work is disfigured by some important errors, and is to all intents and purposes a made-up book. His plagiarisms from Tosi are amongst the most notorious instances of literary plunder we ever recollect to have met with; and these lead us to suspect that more of the same sort might be hunted out were it worth the labour, though in truth he has borrowed largely enough in all conscience from poor Tosi. The remarks are not the less valuable for being stolen, as the receiver is in such cases benefited to the full amount, without participating the guilt of the offender. Altogether original and compiled, there is a great deal more remark in a small compass than in any of the others.

Last comes MR.FERRARI, whose treatise (translated, like an opera book, for the use of John Bull,) lies like a feather upon a moun❤ tain, on the top of the ponderous tomes of MESSRS. LEVESQUE and BECHE, and of MR. LANZA. It is indeed a bagatelle, and not we think very worthy either of the science or the sense of the pre

of arithmetical signs, are also used in notation to signify the harmonies applicable to bass notes. Should MR. LANZA print another edition we would direct his attention to this and similar examples of a want of clear definition and expression that are to be found in his treatise.

sent age. From the most careful examination we could give to them all, we rise with a confirmed conviction that we have yet seen no treatise on singing that bears a near approach to persection. We repeat that there is a universal want of a philosophical understanding of the subject. Every thing is technical. How far so limited a view has contributed to the present mixed and impure state of the art in this country, we shall not venture to hazard a conjecture. But certain it is that the practice corresponds with the theory. Vocal science is daily becoming more and more a matter not only of mechanical dexterity but of mere agility. Execution is superseding expression. Novelty and surprise are thrusting out by the shoulders all the finer sentiments connected with singing, which is no longer addressed to the understanding and to the sensibility.

"Oh! exclaims old Tost, how great a master is the heart! Confess it, my beloved singers, and gratefully own that you would not have arrived at the highest rank of the profession if you had not been its scholars; own, that in a few lessons from it, you learned the most beautiful expressions, the most refined taste, the most noble action, and the most exquisite graces: own, (though it be hardly credible) that the heart corrects the defects of nature, since it softens a voice that's barsh, betters an indifferent one, and perfects a good one: own, when the heart sings you cannot dissemble, nor has truth a greater power of persuading: and, lastly, do you convince the world, (what is not in my power to do) that from the heart alone you have learn'd that Je ne sçai quoy, that pleasing charm, that so subtily passes from vein to vein, and makes its way to the very soul."

We agree with this sensitive old Italian, and we lament the changes we perceive, upon principle. Music, and vocal music especially, is eminently calculated to minister to virtue or to vice.If it be combined with high and noble sentiment and delicate or sportive playfulness, it confirms, it enlivens, and refines, but if bent to lower purposes it relaxes and enervates human character. We will venture to affirm that we are most easily prepared for the most exalted and the most exquisite sensations, by the combined effects of finely accompanied singing. To persons at all susceptible of the beauty of sounds, no poetry is so impassioned, no eloquence so impressive. We witness therefore, with sorrow, and we shall continue firmly to oppose innovations that tend to weaken the heart and to degrade the intellect, while they stop the flight of science, strip her of her wings, and fasten her to the ground.

MR. HORSLEY'S NEW COMPOSITIONS.

The Tempest, a recitative and air. London. Chappell and Co. May Day-a round for three voices.

The Harper's Lamentation.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Woman-a ballad. London. Clementi and Co.

There is a calm for those that weep. London. Chappell and Co. Young Damon a ballad. London. Clementi and Co.

The Winter Nosegay.

Ibid.

· Three Sonatas for the Piano Forte, composed for the Hon. Miss Ponsonby. London. Chappell and Co.

MR.HORSLEY is one of the very very few modern composers of single. pieces, whose writings have elevated him to the rank of an English classic in music, and for that reason alone we should think it due to him, to pay immediate attention to any thing he deems worthy of publication. We had it indeed in contemplation, to cast our eyes over the whole of his works, when the compositions enumerated above reached us. We have arranged them nearly according to what we conceive to be the order of their merits.

The last of the old Cantatas that remain to us among the selections which public singers are wont to make, are PURCELL's Mad Bess and DR. PEPUSCH's Alexis. But even our own times have given us an improved species, and DR. CALLCOTT'S "Angel of life," MR. ATTWOOD's "Soldier's Dream," and MR. HORSLEY'S "Gentle Lyre," are three specimens of as classical purity, as original in design, as polished and beautiful in their exccution, though not preserving the pristine division of the cantata, as any antiquity can boast. We are not acquainted with songs of more grace and fine expression, songs in which the merits of melody and accompaniment (in the first and last more especially) are so intimately blended, yet so nicely balanced. If the English of later birth have a vocal style of their own at all, it is to these songs we must turn for it, since if they do not exhibit the intrinsic marks of original thought and expression, exactly adapted to national predilections and national feeling, precisely accordant with the notions of delicacy, purity, elegance, and strength combined, which we have the pleasure and pride to believe belongs to the English character and forms the basis of the English taste in the fine arts, we know not where to look for either genus or species.

In constructing the recitative and air of The Tempest, MR. HORSLEY appears to have been well content to tread in the same path, a path to which the peculiar qualities of MR. BARTLEMAN as a singer, we have elsewhere observed, probably first opened the vista and smoothed the ascent. DR. DRAKE's words are of solemn import, and the recitative begins in a style of powerful adjuration. Nevertheless we cannot feel quite satisfied with the first few musical phrases. We cannot bring our ears to admit that the close of the symphony with the flat 7th highest, and the commencement of the recitative upon the octave compensates by effect for its singularity. It appears also to us, that the mind is not sufficiently excited to enter at once into the deep chilling feeling of awe, which the modulation of the few sentences, ending "a guilty world," are calculated to convey. The passage seems original and intensely felt, and though expressed without complication, it fails to arrest the auditor in the same degree that it has raised the composer. We fancy we can trace in his mind the results of long and ardent thought thus embodied. But the train is not sufficiently laid in the bosom of the auditor, to enable him to catch fire at the instant communication of the spark. The recitative proceeds, however, with unabating power, till it rises into a very sublime illustration of elementary contention, in the passage, "Where heaves thy deep incessant roar," which, in contrast with the accompaniment, exhibits the united power of the orchestra and of melody in description, nearly to as great advantage as any thing we remember. It affects alike from its simplicity and its grandeur.

MR. HORSLEY we think has been unfortunate in the choice of his words, for the similarity of the subject necessarily involves a comparison with MR. BISHOP's "Fast into the waves" and with parts of both DR. CALLCOTT's songs, " Angel of life" and "These as they change." This comparison will principally assai! the imagination in the grand movement descriptive of the tempest, and notwithstanding we can trace no positive imitation, yet there are passages both of the accompaniment and the air, which powerfully recall strains of these songs. Thus the motion of the bass in the passages "O'er the darkly heaving waves," when they are repeated, is the expedient adopted by MR. BISHOP to exemplify the approach of the storm, and the descending chromatic notes on the words "O'er the vast surge,' remind us of "On the whirlwind's wing," in DR. CALLCOTT's

"These as they change." The entire middle movement is, however, very forcible, though it scarcely comes upon us with the irresistible command common to the productions of this writer. The composi tion certainly suffers for want of a sight of the score, and perhaps we doubt, whether force is precisely that attribute of MR. HORSLEY'S genius which gives him so powerful an ascendancy. Our hesitation upon this point, is confirmed by the extreme delicacy and beauty of the closing larghetto. To this we may give unqualified praise. We have rarely seen so pathetic, so sweet, so affecting an adaptation of melody to words.

Upon the whole we look upon this recitative and air as an addition of importance to the limited stores of bass singers, and though we cannot give it equal rank with either of DR. CALLCOTT's astonishingly felicitous songs, we assign it the next degree, together with MR. BISH OP's "Fast into the waves." It is chaste in all its parts, with some instances of forceful, and many of delicate and graceful composition, and moreover, we should call it genuine English classical music There are in Mr. Horsley's writings, a purity and strength, a severity of taste, that we may well call the moral sense in music. These are all preserved in this song. But take warning adventurous Basses! it requires to be sung.

It is long since any composition so natural, so flowing, so blithe as "May Day," has caught our attention, and what is more strange it carries an air of freshness and novelty, though built upon the com mon and trite imagery of village bells. The structure of the air is very simple and accords with the subject. The composer has limited his modulation to the narrowest possible boundaries consistent with the variety indispensable to a motivo of any length; but the whole is vastly well managed; and the air itself, which some will complain of as wanting variety, is set off by an accompaniment, very changeful in its alterations, between the treble and bass.Though of an opposite character to ATTERBURY'S "Sweet Enslaver," it partakes of the chaste and expressive elegance with which that composition abounds--an elegance that belongs almost exclusively to an earlier age of composition, while it is not inferior to "Perfida Clori," in simplicity of design and execution. By desig fiating it natural, flowing, and blithe, we assign to it all the characteristics of the free, cheerful, and innocent manners, the celebration of May Day combines in a fancy, filled with the delightful images