The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 17, 1858. tion to the keynote, and not according to its actual pitch. This is not a new theory as regards vocal music, nor are we disposed to object to it, but it has nothing to do with instruments, for the reason just mentioned. Therefore, it is said, the sign for a note should express, not its actual pitch, but its relation to the keynote. For simple vocal music this may do very well, and save trouble; but what is to be done in an elaborate composition where the keynote is constantly changing ? The contrivances necessary for eluding the difficulty make this new and improved system infinitely more complicated than the old ; while for the pianoforte and the orchestra its very characteristic is an absolute disadvantage. The notation may be thus briefly explained : the eight notes of the diatonic scale are named Doh, Ray, Me, Fah, Sob, Lab, Te, Doh; and these syllables are shortened into d, r, m, f, s, I, t, d'. The question of pitch is passed over altogether, and every one of these notes is to be im pressed upon the mind by a certain character it is said to possess. They are styled (l) "the strong note," (2) " the hopeful note," (3) " the steady note," (4) " the desolate note," " the grand note," (0) the weep ing note," (7) " the sensitive note." There is a certain amount of truth in these descriptive terms, mixed with a good deal of fancy ; bat the old names of " tonic," " mediant," "dominant," and " leading note," are doubtless truer sad better. As for time and rhythm, the old bars, crotchets, and quavers are dis carded. Common time is called the " quarternary," or " four-pulse measure." Each pulse is called an ali quot. The strong accent is marked by a long verti cal line (a bar in reality, though not called so) placed before the letter which represents the note, the weak accent by a colon similarly placed, and the medium accent by a short line ; commas, dots, and dashes placed after the letters supply the places of crotches and quavers. These alterations are mere matters of necessity ; obviously no improvements, nor indeed put forward as such. Still, the plan is tolerably simple, and as long as we do not meet with any awkward modulations, we get on swimmingly enough. But what is to be done then ? If the change is only to the key of the dominant or sub dominant, Fah is to be sharpened into Fi, or Te flat• tened into Tn, and the rest of the notes remain the same. But if other flats and sharps are wanted, Foi and Roi, Tow and Mow will do the business. Why, what is this but abandoning the whole theory? You say d and s and t have a distinct character, and by this character you learn to sing them ; but now that the key has changed you are calling a note d which is not d, and what becomes of its cha racter then? So that the very essence of the system is given up at sight of the first modulation, and all this new machinery of colons and oommas ' and dots and dashes, and letters and strange words, is avail able only for the very simple music which is confined to a single key. Truly, the mountains are in labour with the old result. One of the " demonstrations " of this society took place at Exeter-hall last Thurs day evening. Eight hundred pupils were collected from various schools, and sang a number of glees and part.songs from books printed, we suppose, in the shorthand just described. Between the parts a short statement was made by the Rev. J. Curwen, a gentleman whose name has from the first been con nected with the movement. What the Society intended to " demonstrate " by this gathering we are at a loss to understand. It was not pretended that one single piece in the programme was sung at sight ; it was distinctly stated that three or four rehearsals of the whole choir had been held, and that the music had long been practised by the separate classes of which it was composed. And yet a certain supposed faculty of singing at sight is the only thing which distinguishes this choir from hundreds of others throughout the country. We know very well that a certain power of reading music is acquired by every one who devotes much attention to singing ; and we know, also, that the power of reading music tho roughly is acquited by very few even of those who study for this especial object. We do not wish to undervalue the accomplishment, bat reading at sight is not the sine qud non that many people seem to imagine. Among a vocalist's qualifications for public singing it is of little ac count ; good music requires such long and patient study, that whether the acquisition of the mere notes has occupied half an hour or two hours is a matter of very little importance. Though a well educated singer should be able to read his music at sight, be will never sing it perfectly till he knows it by heart. Not being able to judge of the peculiar pretensions of this society from the performance of Thursday last, we can only speak of the members as we should speak of ordinary mortals still under bondage to staves and clefs. Mr. Curwen informed us that they belonged principally to the middle and lower classes of society ; and we can bear him wit ness that nothing so aristocratic as an H was to be found among the whole eight hundred. They were plain people singing to plain people ; and to say that " the 'appy barley is 'singing down its 'sad " was natural to the chorus so d intelligible to the audience • 371 it was the recognised dialect commonly employed by both. Of course from a chorus so large in number and formed of such materials no great refinement either of voice or expression could be expected; and yet it is in these that the charm of a glee consists. It made one smile to bear Mr. Curwen gravely state that the principal instructors employed by the Society visit the classes regularly, and make it their business to bring out the " delicate shades of minutiae of expression " which may have been overlooked by the subordinate teachers. The two fairy songs, " Here in cool grot " and "Ye spotted snakes," had a strangely grotesque effect in such hands. It may be hard to embody Oberon and Titania ; but no one would give the parts to Bottom and his clowns. The music selected was for the most pact of the simplest, character, and as long as this was the case, the singing was, at least, steady ; but all passages of a more difficult kind were stumbled over rather than executed ; and of the fate of Handel's Amen Chorus, which was most injudiciously attempted, it will be charitable to say nothing. But, after all, there is no occasion to be peevish about all this. If there is a little quackery about the society, at any rate it can do no harm. If its members never get beyond psalm tunes and glees, they have done something—they have found a never-failing source of pleasure, a pursuit which brings them together in kindly union, and serves to lessen the attractions of less healthy recreations. THE VOCAL Assocurion gave its second concert on Friday evening at St. James's-hall. The pro gramme was not, as on the former occasion, selected from the works of some one master, but entirely of a miscellaneous character. There were the over tures to Egmont, Oberon, and Guillaume Tell, all masterpieces, and all well played, the last so well as to obtain an encore. A principal feature in the first part was the music to Macbeth, with the entr'actes composed by M. Benedict for the wedding perform ance at Her Majesty's Theatre. These entr'actes are admirable in themselves, but sound strangely out of character when placed in the midst of the simple old English music so familiar to all. The allegro mar ziale is the best of the three, and was deservedly applauded. There were also songs by Mme. Weiss and Mr. Weiss, Miss Laacelles, Mr. Perren, and a flute solo by Mr. Pratten. The concert was of a very popular character and well attended. made upon it in Vienna had perhaps detracted some what from the melody it would otherwise have brought to London ; but it possesses great power, and a most perfect intonation. We ha• - e never heard any soprano who rendered a part wit greater distinctness than Mlle. Titiens does that of Valentine. Every note and syllable was clearly brought out without any slurring or indistinctness : and even when the voice was most taxed—perhaps strained— we could follow it, note by note, with grateful plea sure. But we must not omit to mention the dra matic power in action displayed on this occasion. The parting scene with Raoul at the conclusion of the third act, when the guns announce the commence. ment of the massacre, was genuine tragic a cting; and the " studies " with which the loving woman was depicted as she raised herself above Giuglini kneeling at her feet, and then falling into his arms, with his head clasped between her hands, were as perfect and artistic renderings of the grand passion as we remember for a long time to have witnessed. It was a combination of the ten derness of Miss Faucit as Pauline and the passion which the present generation can recal—alas ! with what regret—on the boards of St. James's Theatre, in Rachel We have given up so much space to these remarks upon the debutante that we have no room to criticise the other artists at the present moment. We can not, however, help saying that greater care and power ought to bb exhibited in the choruses. Their poverty of voice on Tuesday was truly lamentable—espe cially in the " Rataplan," which was unmistakeably hissed. _ _ At the tag of a dramatic notice the scene-painter often gets a line, and no more. Something more is due to Mr. Charles Marshall, who has laboured most successfully to make the revival of The Hugue. ludo scenically attractive. The Renaissance chamber in the Castle de Nevers, and the beautiful discovery of Paris by night at the close of the opera, when the massacre is consummated, are rendered with a fidelity of detail and a poetry of feeling that we think merits very high commendation. THE TONIC SOL-FA ASSOCIATION is probably known by name to most Londoners, and, indeed, to the inhabitants of most large towns in England and Scotland; its frequent advertisements and occa sional " demonstrations" could hardly fail to effect as much as this. Most of these may know it to be a sort of singing society; but few persons, we imagine, not in some way connected with its operations, have any clear idea of how it differs from numberless other singing societies. If the project for a phonetic system of orthography, which achieved some little notoriety a few years ago, has not been altogether forgotten, it may serve to give to non-musical per sons a tolerably clear idea of what these differences are. The promoters of that scheme urged that if every English word were spelt precisely as it is pro nounced, the labour of learning to read would be very much diminished, and numbers of the unedu cated poor would quickly accomplish the task, when relieved from difficulties which are to them almost insuperable. The reply to this argument was plain. The letters which form a word fre quently convey to ns its history ; and if the pro posed plan were completely carried out, the form of words being lost, their origin would quickly be for gotten, their meaning would become almost arbi trary, and the language almost barbaric. But if the plan were only partially adopted, there would be two methods existing side by side, and a child who, to save trouble, had been taught in the short and easy way, would find as he grew older that learned men would not write in this dialect for the ignorant, and that the old system must be acquired after all. The new musical notation adopted by the Tonic Sol-fa Association is open to very nearly the same objections. It is a short and easy way of learning a little music, but a most laborious and cumbrous way of learning music thoroughly. If it be suited to simple vocal music, it does not adapt itself to a more elaborate style, and for instrumental music it is entirely unfitted ; so that any one who has begun on the new plan, if he would go further, must pro ceed to the old, and furnish an example of the proverb, that lazy folks give themselves most trouble in the end. The object of the new notation IS to diminish the difficulty of learning to sing at sight : let it be distinctly remembered that this is its one and only object. It is asserted (without contra diction) that every note and every interval must be grasped by the mind before it can be produced by the voice. The same thing is, of course, not true in instrumental music ; each note is there produced by a mec hanic process, and the mind need have no previous knowledge of it. Secondly, that the mind I ' ) u s iderS each note of the scale according to its rsla- ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. A CROWDED meeting of this Society was held on Monday evening at Burlington-house, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, President, in the chair. Among those present were the Danish Minister, Admiral van Dockum ; Admirals Sir G. Back and Percy Grace ; Generals Sir H. Jones, Monteith, Portlock, Cameron, and Fox; Sir Thomas Free. mantle, Lord Keane, Mr. Monckton Milnes, M.P. ; Captains Collinson, Robinson, Nolloth, Paulson, and Murray, R.N.; Colonels Fitzmanrioe, Gordon and Ballinsky ; Drs. Armstrong, Camps, and Glen; Messrs. Arden, Arrowsmith, Findlay, Bohn, Bentley, Gordon, Macnab ; Consul Porter, Mr. Lewell (of Finland), the Hon. Arthur Dillon, Mr. E. 0. Smith, Mr. Thomas Lee, Mr. Gassiot, Mr. Forrester, Mr. White, &c. Dr. Adolphus Berney!, Charles Hutton Gregory, C.E., Morrell Dorrington Longden, Sir Robert Peel, But, M.P., Dr. John Shea, R.N., Viscount Strang ford. George Milian Wheatley, and the Right H on.. John Wynne, M.P., were re-elected Fellows. The papers read were :-1. Dr. H. Rink, of Copen hagen, On the Supposed Discovery of the North Coast of Greenland and an Open Polar Sea, &c., by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, United States navy. 2. On the Importance of opening the Navigation of the Yang-tae-Kiang, and the changes that have lately taken place in the bed of the Yellow River, 10. By William Lockhart, Esq., F.R.G.S., of China. The meeting then adjourned to the 26th inst. HER MAJESTY'S TEF.ATRE.—The success of Mlle. Titiens having surpassed the most sanguine antici pations, The Huguenots will be repeated on Thurs day next, the 22nd ; Tuesday, 27th ; and Thursday, 21th. Piccolomini will make her first appearance this season on Tuesday next, the 20th, in Don Pasquale. -- Ma. Cuentis "helms.; gave a reading of his " Christmas Carol" at SL Martin's-hall on Thursday evening in the presence of a brilliant audience and with his usual success. The proceeds were to be paid over to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond-street. Mr. Dickens has also announced a series of three readings from his Christmas tales, to be given in the course of this and nest month, being the first he has undtettatou for his own beadt, _ !,..vvieus knowledge of it. Secondly, that the mind 1 " the - 'appy hariey - is 7 angini clown . its 'ead -7. was to be given in the course of this and nest month, °lls lders evil Dote of the scale according to its role- natural to the chorus sod intelligible to the audience; being the first he huts undoitakou for his OT2 bead',