contain less meaning than usual. The principal point upon which the lesson dwells, seems to be the inculcation of the practice of double chromatic intervals.

16. "To equalize the power of the fingers." We consider this, together with numbers 17, 19, and 22, to be amongst the exercises most beneficial to the practice of those who are not far advanced in the art. The task MR. CLEMENTI proposes is falfilled by quadruplets of equal time. This lesson is for the right hand, and passes through a variety of keys, both with flats and sharps. We are tempted to say that these lessons should have come earlier in the series, since pupils are apt to regard the succession which the master adopts, as the most valuable to be pursued; and these seem calculated to assist younger players than those who could command the former exercises.

17. The same kind of passages for the left hand, at the beginning of the lesson. Towards the conclusion both are employed, but with contrary motion.

18. A fugue, neither easy nor difficult, but judiciously introduced to accustom the eye, the hand, and the understanding to this learned species of composition.

19. The purpose of this exercise is to give strength and play to the 3d and 4th fingers.

20 Ought, we think, to have come earlier. It illustrates the change of finger during a repetition of the same note.

21. The lowest and highest note of the octave, struck in rapid suc

cession alternately, by each hand, and by both together. 22. The shake for the left hand, while the motion of the fingers of the right is double in the upper, and single in the lower divisions of the notes. A good and difficult series for practice.

23 Gives a contrary example with respect to the right hand; one note above to two below.

24. Arpeggios for the right hand.

25. A fugue and a canon, 2 in 1, on the octave below. They are 26. S

both good examples.

27. A lesson in the manner of No. 1, but more complicated, double notes being employed instead of single, and it is far more chromatic.

VOLUME 2.

It is somewhat singular, and looks a little like haste or forgetfulness, that the composer has placed, as a preface to his second volume, a page of preliminary observations on fingering, which contains ascending and descending scales, diatonic and chromatic, with single and double notes. Its proper situation, as it strikes us, would have been at the beginning of the work.

No. 28. Triplets, together with an exercise in passing and changing the fingers.

29. A very difficult lesson-chromatic passages for both hands, in alternate replication. The lesson is crowded with chords. 30. Arpeggios in triplets, for the right hand, very rapid, and with much modulation.

31. A curious exercise of fingering quadruplets of distant intervals. 32. An exercise for the shake, with accompanying notes for the other fingers of the same hand.

33. A canon of considerable difficulty.

34 Quadruplets-an exercise apparently designed to unite equalization of the power with change of the fingers upon the same

notes.

35. "The peculiarity of the following fingering is recommended as a cery useful practice."

36. A succession of intervals, from the octave to the second, for both

hands.

37. The turn followed by appeggios ascending and descending, with full harmonics for the left hand.

38. The application of some of the foregoing exercises, in a sonata both of meaning and elegance.

39. "Scena patetica"--full of beautifully expressive passages, and exhibiting a fine view of the powers of the instrument to move the soul, when under the hands of a competent performer. 40. A fugue, in which the subject embraces the whole octave. 41. A vivacious finale to the "suite de cinque pieces," which contains most of the scattered members of execution which have preceded it.

43.

42." Suite de trois pieces," a combination of strong, energetic, and impassioned phrases, full of imagination, and of imagination too connected with passion. The latter parts are very crowded for the left hand, and the whole is very difficult.

44.

45. A fugue, upon a long subject; the introduction is a syncopated movement of considerable expression, and in a style accordant

with the fugue.

46. The bass introduces those divisions of time which are produced by dotted notes, while the execution of the right hand is rapid and various.

47. The right hand has two parts constantly going, while the left is employed upon wide intervals.

48. A series of difficulties in time and execution for the right hand, which has again two parts constantly going, in very different divisions of time.

49. This, like some of the former lessons, embraces and unites many of the disjectu membra of instruction strewn throughout the work.

50. MR. CLEMENTI prefaces this, like No. 35, by a recommendation of the peculiarity of the fingering.

Such is our brief analysis of this elaborate work, which contains an infinite variety of most useful combinations; we might, perhaps, be justified in saying, almost every possible kind of musical phrase, but we hesitate to plum the depth of such research as we here witness, or to challenge an imagination of such fertility. There is, however, one remark which we will venture to put forth, in the hope of exciting such a mind to an addition that appears to us still wanting to books of instruction. This addition is a work upon EXPRESSION. THE GRADUS is, for the most part, purely technical. It shews what difficulties are to be encountered, but it considers passages of exccution more than style, which yet wants a universal exposition-it consists too much of a particular exemplification of parts for this purpose (at which, indeed, it does not affect to aim, except it be in its general title), there is too much for the fingers, and too little for the mind. When we hear such a composition as the Scena Patetica, we become immediately sensible to the powers of the art, while at the same time we the more lament that no certain and absolute method of conveying the composer's exact intentions, with respect to the intellectual process, has yet been contrived. The passages of a piano forte sonata are born entirely of the fancy, and we have no clue to the images or sentiments, except in the corresponding emotions they raise in ourselves. But different modes of execution call forth and embody such a variety of beauty, that it were always to be wished our

acquaintance with the precise idea, with the spirit that gave birth to the notes, were made intelligible. In No. 42, for instance, we read clearly a growing series of passionate feeling from the beginning, expressed in musical passages-but, in order to give it the true light, we want the words to which the air is set-we want to see the pictures which (as HAYDN is related always to have done) the composer in fancy drew, in order to enable us to understand, to enjoy, and even to perform the notes with the just meaning. For the great difference between composers is the empire that feeling has over mere fancy. Certain combinations of notes are full of invention-full of conceit. These we should call inventive passages; those which command our feelings and raise any emotion beyond surprise, we should term expressive. Even in the most technical parts of the book MR. CLEMENTI has enriched us with the passages, which partake as much of the latter as of the former quality. We of course allude to those which are given merely as exercises for the fingers; for the Fugues, Sonatas, and, above all, the Scena Patetica, are emiminently learned and beautiful. We know not what he has behind, but we wish carnestly to invite him to complete the work by an addition of the nature we propose.

We will therefore indulge our hope, by treating the volumes before us as the first and introductory portions-and we will close our observations by recapitulating, that they present to the eye of the student an ascent which is steep and rugged and laborious; many of them appear to promise him little, but the glory of understanding and overcoming difficulty-the utile rather than the dulce-this opinion however will last only while they are acquiring and until they are acquired. The fingering, as a system, is simple and easy in principle. The divisions and passages are common to both the old and to modern masters, and amongst them are such as must facilitate the power of reading music.-But let us observe that this power is to be prodigiously assisted by an acquaintance with the laws of harmony, and which, were it for this object alone, is become almost indispensable, from the superabundant quantity of modulation it is the fashion to introduce and the chords with which lessons are now crowded. The hardest difficulty to be surmounted in the reading and fingering lies in this particular; and every note must be read, for there is no guide or help, in the ear and memory. MR. CLEMENTI Luows the value of systematic fingering, and to this he has devoted

his talents. In his book is to be found every thing necessary to technical execution. The pupil who has attentively studied THE GRADUS may defy difficulties and laugh embarrassment to scorn. Here is the form-the body and the members perfect, we now await the coming of the spirit that is to inform all this beauty and strength with life, animation, and sentiment.

Select Airs from the celebrated Operas composed by Mozart; arranged for the Piano Forte, with an Accompaniment for the Flute, ad. lib. By J. F. Burrowes. London. Clementi and Co. and Goulding and Co.

We have looked through several of these selections, which consist chiefly of the most popular airs in Figaro, La Clemenza di Tito, Cosi fan Tulli, &c. &c. They are calculated to afford amusement and instruction. MR. BURROWES has chosen those which are lightest, most elegant, and best known; and though he has added nothing of his own, contenting himself with transfusing the spirit of MOZART into the lessons, now giving the air and now the accompaniment to the flute or piano forte, as it hit his taste or best suited the genius of the instrument. It is desirable to place before students the works of the best masters. These are adapted for young performers, and will improve the taste while they afford useful practice. The possibility of employing these lessons as an accompaniment to the song, in some instances within our immediate observation, has had the effect of acting as a stimulus, and has created a very earnest solicitude to acquire the lesson, We therefore can recommend them as agreeable and useful elementary practice, which will lessen the diştance between the singer and the young player, wherever such an union is desired.