SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

IF a short reply to I. S. H. is not likely to weary the patience of your readers, I will once more trouble you with a few remarks on the minor key. I consider a cadence to be the concluding chords of a section or period. Certainly no perfect cadence can be made upon any note but the key note, without a change of key; but my explanation amounted to this, that no cadence can be formed on the key note itself, unless the dominant, with or without the 7th, carry a major chord. Admitting, however, that the key is changed by the introduction of the major chord of the dominant in the minor mode, I should wish to ask, what is the key existing when the dominant is struck?

I was not at all aware that in explaining the practice of the musical world, logic was by any means requisite: if I had, I should certainly not have attempted it. I freely yield to your correspondent in philosophical acquirements. I cannot but deplore this deficiency; for though I am ready to admit that a third is a third still, as in the major key a third ascending is major, and descending minor, my logical disabilities will not allow me to understand how the propor tion is the same. If he had in his computation of the chord of the 7th reckoned the intervals either all ascending or all descending, I could readily have comprehended him; but to form a chord of the 7th of the notes G D A E, as he attempts to do in his remarks on the Overture to Samson, I confess I am quite at a loss.

I must still persist in the assertion, that the notes G*, F, and Bb, cause no change of key, as the G* in the bass, which has F in the treble in the first strain, leads to A as a dominant. In the same manner, C in the bass, with Bb in the treble, towards the end of the movement, leads to D. The F in the treble, against B in the bass, introduces the chord of C as the 4th of G, the F being immediately relinquished. The F and Bb, however, were not noticed by your correspondent originally.

I. S. H. does not seem to be aware, that, at the time Corelli wrote, the minor key was denoted by one flat less than its relative major. Thus, the keys of A and D minor had neither sharp nor flat, G minor had one flat, C minor two, and so on. His Sonata viii. Opera

4, is evidently in D minor. The modulation of the first movement is as follows: It begins in D minor, and the first modulation is to A minor; the second passing through D minor is to F major, the rela. tive major of the original key: it then returns to D minor; and after slightly touching on G minor, it concludes with the Phrygian cadence on the dominant A with a major third, and the Sonata concludes in D minor. I presume it is not necessary to go through the rest of the modulation.

I feel much indebted to your correspondent for his quotation from Malcolm, which most explicitely confirms what I asserted, page 141, of your second number. The short quotation from Grassineau is, with me, by no means conclusive.

As what I have here remarked is of course perfectly clear to the musical world, and as I have learnt from my professional friends that any further dissertation would be likely to be uninteresting, I beg this may be considered as a conclusion to all I have to say on the subject. But in nevertheless, I. S. H. can furnish the musical world with a minor scale ascending, harmonized so that a perfect cadence may be formed without the major 6th and 7th, and without departing from the minor key, I am sure it will be received by them as a valuable addition to the science.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

J. TAYLOR.

No. 58, Pottergate Street, Norwich, 24th May, 1819.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

THE observations* made at the close of the Sketch of the State of Music in the Metropolis, given in your last number, have turned my thoughts towards the subject of Musical Education, its principles, and its consequences. Musical Education is now not only interesting on account of the gradual progression the art itself is making, but far more from the universal stretch of high attainment attendant upon the general march of mind.

I am afraid it must be admitted, that we do not arrive at the knowledge of the most momentous truth connected with our exist ence, viz.—that the precise end of our search after the means of happiness should be considered before we study those means, until years, disappointments, and a just estimate of our own fallible judgments have deprived us of most of the powers of using our dearly acquired intelligence. About the time you were probably writing your sketch, I was present at a private concert, at a nobleman's in London, where a young lady played and sung well enough to rouse the envy of those who were her successors at the piano forte, yet sufficiently ill to excite the profound contempt of certain professors present, who, nevertheless, did not fail to whine out Cha-arming, Bra-avo, whenever Miss wandered particularly from the pitch, or patched in a common place ornament. At the conclusion, an old Colonel (whose daughter was next in turn,) exclaims to Mama, "how delightfully your daughter sung!" and turning to a public singer who stood near, immediately whispered, "that girl's singing has cost a dd deal more than it will ever be worth." There was as much truth in the last as there was insincerity in the first remark. Yet, Sir, this same man had lavished as much expence to quite as little purpose upon his own child; but both these young ladies had been trained for display. I have introduced this anecdote, which I assure you is literally true in all its parts, in order to shew the most frequent termination of ill-applied years of industry, and of a sum that would have lifted a worthy family to comparative opulence-sur "Example strikes, when precept often fails."

* Pages 407, 408.-Vol. 1.

Of the thousands who engage in the acquirement of music, very few indeed are the individuals who have any just apprehension of what it is intended for them to effect. They receive lessons, and they practice without any definite purpose.-Some mothers wish their daughters to play; some go further, and wish their daughters to excell; and some compute the cost of excellence and the difficulty of attaining it. Of these daughters multitudes do play, very few indeed do excell, and perhaps one in a million prudently abandons a hopeless endeavour. Whatever of error or disappointment is thus produced, is however, in my mind, solely attributable to a want of consideration at the outset-to the total absence of all reflection-of all comparison between the means and the end.

To those to whom the various cares and accidents of life inhibit thought, I would point out a few of the attendant facts. They lie indeed upon the surface, or scarcely below it, but yet I think they may be useful.

The acquirement of music (I speak in regard only to private persons,) appears to me to have in contemplation three several objects. I proceed from the least to the greatest :

1st. The charm which attends the exhibition of talent to a large circle, and (as connected with it) the effect such display may have upon the future fortunes of the musician.

2d. The gratification of more immediate connections.

3d. The resource and delight which it affords in itself, comprehending diversity of pursuit, enlargement of mind, and pleasureable sensation.

The cultivation of music may now be said to be universal, and the access of all classes to public places, where the finest performers in all departments of the science are to be heard, is not less extended. It follows, that knowledge is propagated much more widely than formerly; and even where real science is wanting to the mass, individuals direct the mass. Hence no amateur singer or player can escape a comparison with the highest professional eminence, for if estimated at all, they are ineasured against the professional standard. Out of this it happens, that they who purpose to make any thing approaching to a public exhibition of talent, (and private concerts even in the provinces, differ very slightly in the numbers of the audience from public performances,) must use nearly the same diligence and consume nearly the same time as professors. Indeed we are

borne out in the belief I entertain, that such amateurs must employ far more of both, since professors enjoy advantages in the association with professional ability, by which they are hour by hour whetted, encouraged, and improved, and which facilitate acquisition incalculably. They practice with the most skilful musicians; they hear the finest music of every species; they join in the conversations, and mix largely in the remarks of scientific men; and above all, they are stimulated by every motive that the love of fame or the necessity as well as the desire of gain can inspire. In the mean while the ambitious amateur drudges patiently on in private perseverance, with the occasional brief lesson of the master, or the still less frequent benefit that is derived from the casual chance of hearing a good public concert, a chance rare indeed beyond the circle of the metropolis. Sir, I will digress so far from my main design as to say, that wherever amateurs do attain any tolerable degree of excellence, the praise of the comparison ought to be on their side, and very strongly too-they who know any thing of the mode in which such acquisitions are made, can but be sensible, that a professional pupil is urged on by more excitement, and enjoys more opportunity of various instruction in one week, than amateurs are ordinarily able to obtain in a year.

Those parents, who look forward to this highest hope, must, it is obvious, be content to devote the hours of their children to application nothing short of the intensity of professional study, and even if they can and do purpose such a concentration of attention and such an employment of time, they must compute upon an expence of some hundreds of pounds. No practice short of four hours daily, continued during seven years, will give a pianoforte player any superior title to be heard, as the art is now cultivated and understood. We leave it to the arithmetic and experience of parents to compute the cost, if they wish to arrive at a nicer result than the one we have given above. Somewhat less of time is necessary to the attainment of singing, but rarer natural qualities must be presupposed. Not one child in tén thousand can after a long process be made into a singer worth hearing.

And then, Sir, what is obtained?-a consciousness of superiority which but too frequently injures the heart, spoils the temper, and unfits the possessor for the milder, more quiet, and more important duties of life, and which, by the exhibition of the strongest stimulus