The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

may be similarly identified by the traces of
expetience. The weekly classes, the perfection
of its choral training, its great leptival, witlt its
third day's invariable and unrivalled rendering
Of the sublime Messia—its connection with
the great composer, who wits wont there to
embody his own conceptions—its mautufac-
atud harmonious accesskaries intermingled
—the names even of Stint(' of the characters—
have it 10(11 distinctiveness ; anal therefore We
do not hesitate to call the following extract a
description of the appearance of Mentlelssohn
at Birmingham. llis introduction is dramati-
cally prepared by ant accident which befals the
intended conductor. The saipposeal natrrattor
is the hero, a little 1,4)y-singer in the chorus,
who has thns obtained the means of gratifying
his 'mislead enthusiasm:-
1 shall never forget that scene. The hall was already
crowded, when we pressed into slur places, half am hoar
!KT' ore the appointed eommencentent. Every ventral speck
was It 1114111, the Wlllll4 were piihstnrl with human beings.
the swarm increased, floating into the reserved places, 111111
at 1411Vitlit still 11111 MA 1111 111111'11th the gallery.
As it' to sling glory MI unlsic, not of its own. it was a
most splendid day—the finest, warmest, and serenest, we
had had for weeks. Through the multittali ~,, 11:4 1111111'S till'
sky was a isisitive blaze of the sunshine rill full ups wt
the oreltestm thin the great mittsd window at the end of
the vaulted building, 111111 through that window's purple
and onmge border radiated goshd and amethyst upon the
euuutrnunces of the entering crowd. The halals sit the
eittek were at the optarter now; we in the chorus wondered 4
that St. %did kid lint clam.; again they itstve+l,
nowiseless 7tands, and the " toughs' " of iron told eleven.
We all grew anxious. Still. us all the clocks in the bowl'
were not alike, we might be the 111i14141k1.11 ones by nuts.
It mow stntek eleven though frtsin the last chumli within
our hearing, and there was not yet St. Michel, We were
all in the chlorins tilted in so ttittely, that it would have
been difficult for tllllllll to get eat. 111' if out impossible to
get in. They were all in the orilwstni pltustol as closely
as possible, amidst a perfect grove of tuttaietstands. The
rcs+Tveti 014.111,4 %I'll, hill, the Orgilltigt WAS K 1•111111, the sisal•
lay wide open upon the hilly desk; but St. Michel did not
come!
I shall never forget blow we wearied and tvontlervtl, mat
lam I. at least, racked tuysilt. writhed. and agsmised. Th..
11ssill' Is.tivath the talthestra was shut, Isll! 111/111t1111
IW./ it hand 111111141 the IslCk sllll%llle—sllle nt:titatisl flu t'
peeped in—then another—lint were intnit.diately with-
drawn. I seareely suppose the perfect silentse lasted three
minutes. it was like tut deettieal suspension. and ns quickly
snapped. The surchart,ting spleen of the atitlienee lougato
to break in a murmuring humming, and buzzing, films
('emus to gallery. The coutitsi tttt of forms 11.1111 fitt'es Is-
(tame a perfeet dream, it dazzled 11111 dizzy, 111111 I felt quite
sick. A hundrtsl fans began to ply in the reserved meats.
the gentlemen hent over the lathes; the snnlld gather'sl
strength and portentillOl Sig11111111111•s lEsllll the tion.expla-
nattory calm of the 'orchestral force; but all eyes were
turned, all chins lengthened Inwards the orchestra 11,14 /I'.
At prtsist.ly it quarter past elevi.it, that door 11111411 A WWI%
and lip caul,' n gentleman in a white waistcoat. Ile stood
',somewhere in front. but he could not pi his vtoire out at
first. 111. the hiss's theft! the shoutxl the exeeritt is ins !
lint it was a musical assembly, nail a few cries of "Shame!"
hushed thiillllsnit sufficiently to give our curiosity vent.

The speaker was a member of the eomntiiss e, and Very
woko-hiloottto h.' losokosi. Ile hall ti say ( moil it was tot'
course lois paitithi dotty) that thy• ompros.oslolotosl d. Jar Sn
the el oraineneernent. of the iu•tiomnanee was oeeu.Sotoe,l by
at. ittevititlole tutu most ottoo.Nloo.o.t CIL a,cideot. Mr. tit.
ho Holing films his looms a ti•w miles onto haul is 'en
thrliWil from his 6otve, at the eorno•' Of this' nuu•ko'l-phu•e.
and, falling on his tight arm, load briskets it ho•low the
elbow.
• • * • • • • • •

A fresh volley of hisses broke from the very heart of the
Lull ; still it did not circulate. thinigh the etailusion seemed
increasing iu the centre ; and it was at that very instant—
Iteftire ptstr Merlington haul hit hiv apolt tgetie stand—that
a form, gliding light as if sin air, appeared hovering on the
steps at the side of the orrhesti a.
It was a man at least, if not a spirit; lint 1 had not seen
where that gliding form cattle than, with its light and
stealthy Kiwi 11.

Swift ns n IN•nnt of morning, hr sprang up the step.:.
and, with oua hund urn thy• IsthNtrittlilt“wed tu
andience—in n nunuctit Menet• xw•mcd ba upon
the hall.

He stood before the smite, and, tut he closed upon tl
time.stick those piiinted lingers, he raised I►is eyes to tin
chorus, and let them fall upon the band. Those piercing
eyes recalled tie. Every hand WAS on the bow, every
mouthpiece lilted. There KUM Mill sileiee, but we " heard "
no " voice." He raised his thin 11.111: the overture began.
The curiosity of the audience had dilated with guilt in•
tensity that all who had been standing, still stood, and not
a creature stirred. 'fhe calm was perfect upon which the
"Brave" broke. It was not interpretation alone; it was
inspiration. MI knew that " I hues "—lint few have heard
it AS it choke that day. It was then We heard a voice—"
voice from heaven." There sw•r►►ed DO at string that with
nut touched by lin..
The tranquil echo the ri pi silt I 1111101vil Irle to bcar it
sufficiently to losik up and fort►► some notion of him on
whom uMo much depended. lie was slight—so slight that
he seemed to I hua•e grown out Of too: air. lie with young—
so young that he could numbered twenty 611ta•
men; hut the heights of eternity were foreshadowed in
the Ibrehead'a marble dream.

449

A strange transparence took the place of bloom upon
that face of youth, AS if from temperament too tender, or
Moon tllll raretiesl ; but the hair betrayed a wondrous
tarsmgth, clustering in dark ends of excessive richness.
The thinnest thigens were pale, but they grasped the time-
stick with an energy like naked nerve.
But not until the violins woke up, tuntointeing the SOW'
jeer of the allegro, did 1
feel fully conscious of that county:-
tianev• allsolva4l front its repose of perfection, by alt excite•
molt its divides.
It would exhaust thought no leas than words to descsibo
the aspect of music, thus revealed, thus pn•sentesl. I was
a little child then, my brain was unused to streng
tiro, and I can only say I remembered not how he looked
after all wits Wien The intense impression
itself, as a white nuzzling tire stniek from a smith's anvil
dies without ashy sign. I have shire leaned to discover,
to adore, every' express lilt' nt obi that inateltiess tare;
but then I was lost in gazing. in a spiritual e 1514,40, exeite•
111011 —t IWO 1 Wltri linty es 'NAM'S Of the euulplslitioit that
he made Isle with that became one a ith him.
The lily with which he led, the energy, the staxxl, could
only have 'Will lithely Co cared to an Ettglit4lll 1111411144114
by such urrurutr Game. I.lelfeell with which the
conslttetor was endued insist surely have p14)410.41 electrically
into every player: three fell not a note to the ground; minis
treasure Wits well nigh oppressive, one felt sumo blind
must drop.
Front Isegitininkt to Ohl of the alleges not a disturbing
sound arose tlininglisstit the hull, lint on the closing chord
of the overture there burst One dell toll of wonderful
applause. I can only rail it a toll—it was simultaneous.
The s•onsluetor lookekl over his sltsottldsw suss' slightly sltook
his head. It With s' gh, and snowe reigned as the
heavenly symphony of the nsitative trembled front thomst
strings starelkauxed anti tire. liens it- was as it' he while
pensl " !Nish!" the the sobbing htllo.lllo Of the 11WVOI11141111•
1111.111 1 Its'Vet 114.111.11 1411 ; it was silvery, almost anvils!.
The wool, stinva languidly, as the strut of a Willtl.l4Wll4
lily, in thosee pointssl fingers.
Nor would he saltier any violence to he done to rho
M44'11111 blight 111• Mm of the aria. It was not until we all
arsitle that he raised his arm, and impetuoitslv, almost lilt.
periously. !boll upon its his eyes. Ile glanced not a
00000 mead at the Neon., he never turned a leaf, but he urges!
the time majs•stieally, I his tuptunstis beauty brights.sied
as the visievs firmly, safely, swelled ovs.t. this 'sustaining
chords, lainielts•sl in glory upon those waves of sound.
I 1111110P4 liorgilt the 11414 11111. I mu lint o'll4lll that. I
11'1110111M Tull
Its, I was, 111' Where I wits, lota I N 1411114 to
he singing at every pore. I seemed issuing out my lite
insts'lld Of my quire; but the fes•ling I
Illta of lwing irn••
sistillly 1101111. Illottg Wits too tllllll4korting, that I call l'ollettiVO
Of malting else like it, until after sleuth.
The hero (if we eau call Charles Aiteltemter
the lien)) is nfterwards taken—and, as we think,
very skilfully—through it variety of /411'111`14
with his choral associates, which present sumo
attilteth eltatract.ers, insist delicate' y drawn—
as Letilittrt, I111‘')., Miss Lawrence, I sltlinl, hot
especially Miss lienette : the last a sweet. and
self sustaining; little woman of an original
type. At length he begins to feel an impulse
towards instrumental perforinitnee ; and this
is the wily in which lie aspires :
It was this evening 1 felt for the first lime what I mop.
Isle all boys feel at sine t• •or another, Don they cannot
renatin always just as they are. It was no satiety, it was
no disappointed hope, nor lolly vague desire; it WIWI purely
us i'llll‘ letillll that ,411111 e W11..4 HIV. I oillisloottl.,
till filet, it was a pe•sentintslat. The voices of our Alois.
svent4.4l thin mid far away; the pale cheek of le•nhart Davy
seemed stamped with sinearthly lustre; slit. room *mil I.IIIIE
Were Willer, 111011'1'; the rvotitiv, Aolours, clustered in thin
Amps.. t•fainilims, WIIIII.II to that distant sky. I ens
lige-
-111t1.11---1.1.24t/ii le. I 1.1110/1 ant I,lllg 111111 When I li/4101141
tens Is•wildered in mon• than limn excitement. Mnittelit•s
of hymns and atieient psalms, morss•ls sit. the bill',
mal speeches of no signitislosi•e, sutural yeatilf, and,
as it seemed, ernturiem ago, Hoiden into niy brain and
thrsough it, sla.spite tht. itrel44.lll. and 11111110
lourslllll elionsair, like the slitt of a mighty city, welled to
the ear of one who stands sin a esonimensling hill. I mete
tissis this to pests. that im hut a fat usity, but
mionethjog los% mtetilytts ill it's artitteify; hike Isom, like illy;
perhaps it passi 0000 of memory, that anticipates its treasinrets
711111 als.lights to be.

After this he is sent front England, to pur•
site his studies under a sing►ttlar lad tiermatt
"Aronotch," and at. the Cecilia Instituticm, sue-
eessively. llis melognitioon by Seraphael, and
subsequent. identifiention with the career, snot
almost the list moments, of his idol, while
pnrsuing his own art.apprentieemhip, are the
subjects of the remainder• of the book. They
may seem slight as described—and so they
are—hut in the effeets whieh are elicited from
this slight basis they resemble !MIMe itself its
deserit►ed lry John I I emy Newman. The
various Outruns of diameters, nicely discrimi-
nated, yet all aeeording, in this muscle pas-
sion, are excellently rendered. We will not
attempt ourselves, as many no doubt will, to
identify several of these characters among
their contempoornries. We are contented with
knowing that sueh exist, and for their bene-
fit, as TIIIIIII wer•shippers of an exalted ideal,—the
true ideal in music as in sill other at ts,—we eon•
elude with this extraet from the parting legacy
to the hero from his instructor•, Aronaeh:,--

I

450

Thou art young. and msyest possibly excel early as a
mechanical performer. I need not urge thee to prune the
exuberanee of the fancy and to bind thy taste—by nature
delicate—to the pure AM11". 111()I144 whose names are, at
present, to thee their only revelation. For the scapegrace
whit figures in thy tinily caletobir as ,•0 magnificently thy
superior will ever stand thee instead of a warning or
um' repulsion so lung as thy style is forming ; and,
when formed. that style shall fence thee alike with natural
wail artful antipathy against the school he serves, that con-
fesses to no restrict' , no, nut the restraint of Rule ; and
is the servant of its own caprice.
'Thou shalt tied that many who profess the art confess
Hot t.• that which they yet endure—a sort of shame in their
profession as if they should ennoble if, and not it them
Sue,' professors thou shalt ever discover arc slaves, itot
sons : their excellenee as per owing to the accidental
vulture of their imitative instinct; and they are the ripieni
Ili. the universal orchestra wlitose chief dot,' appear but once
in I. ery age.
Thou shalt be met on to study by thine instructors, and, as
I lietOre hinted, wilt ever repose upon their direction. But,
in applying to the works they select for thine edification,
nhether theoretie sir practical. endeavour to disabuse thy-
self of all thy precious impressions and prepossessions of
any author whmtstiever, and to Asia.), thyself in the ism-
templation of that alone thou busiest thyself upon.
Tints slime shall thine Intelligence explore all styles, and
su separate each from each as finally to draw the exact eon-
elusion from thine own temperament and taste of that to
which thou 411114 t essentially incline.
lit treating of music specifically. remember not to con-
l'situid its elements. As in ancient mythology many reli-
gious seeds were sown, and golden mymikols scattered, so
nosy we apply its enforcing foibles where the new wisdom
denies its utterance. *mil MN's the expression
of the actual anus if we observed the literal forms site speech.
Tine; ever remember that. las the Aontsia wits a word sig-
nifying the invisibility of the gusts and the Ai star their in-
eitruntion, Mil is Titer the Aoramin of Music the godlike and

Time its Avatar.
Then. in Tim', shalt thou realise that in whielt the ex-
istetwe of music as infallibly osonsists as in its manifo.sta-
t• Tome, and thine understanding shall become investosl,
with the trite looms. of Rhythm. whit+ alike tbitli exist
t Pf-11 tints• and tone, MM. •gto es 1111 l in spiritual ole-
pomolenew the one with the other inseparably.
In do-tooting thine energies to the works of art in ages
thine own, thou shalt never be liable to depress thy
14,11,41. i 111 l SHWAS of those which an- meritorious With thee,
and poi to violin. Iwtere thee. Foor thorn wilt learn, that to
tallow the supreme 10f art with i 111 l 04.1,111• P and wisoloom was
ev I.r allotted to the few whose labours yet endure; while as
to the many whose high-flown perfections in their day se•
oloseed the ad • •ation of the myriads to the neglect of the
Ww. except by cs•w—tied we nothing of them at pmsent
hit Ilw• names alone of their operas. or the mention of their
having been and being 1111 W no more. And this is while
the few are growing l 1 expanding their fame as the gene-
cootooloos succeed. ever lunging the few of every go-neratit
but yet Iwtookening in that still, set-holed 1.1. •n, the itu-
mortal put-pose fur which they' wrote and died ties.
Ite assured that in all works which have endowed there is
something of the nation. of truth : therefore, ottsplaint thy-
self with all, ever reserving the right to I • with pecu-
liar investigation those works in which the author by
scientifie hold uls,u tilrerfUl imagittati intimates that ho
vt note with tho. direet intention to illustrate his art. nut
abuse tOr the love of it, but in the fear of its service. Thus
apply thyself to the otottroitioos of Palest rim', of l'onx-ell.
of Alo.ssatiolno Searlatti, and the indefatigable ; thus
lend thpoelf to the masterpivees of Pergoolesi, of Mozart,
and Handel ; thus lean with thine entire *.ui aunt the
sniglat and majesty of doshit Sebastian Bach. All others, in
MAO% lint IlletW in chief, and this last generalissimo, until
then bast learnt to govern thyself.

Parliamentary RE:/arm—the Educational Fran
chime. I Amdmi : liatchard, and Ridgway.
I'Ro.IEeTM for the reconstruction of the electoral
body are just now at a premium, and will be
more so before the comnwneentent of next ses-
sion—supposing, that is, that the Coalition
Ministry remains in Ake, and that Lord
Clarendon and the Czar do not between them
involve Europe in a war. And, apart from the
question of a change of tiovernment, it is im-
possible not to feel that the parliamentary ar-
rangetnents of 1832 are discredited in public
opinion, partly by election disclosures, but
much more by Lord John Russell's tardy con-
demnations. When the chief author of the
first Reform Bill turns against his own work
its fate is certain. Some kind of change it
seems decided we must have, and the remain-
ing question is, Change in what direction "
The writer of this pamphlet solves the pro-
blem after a fashion of his own. He begins
by lazing it down broadly, that of the three
principles on which the franchise is based—
namely, population. property, and edueatbm—
the last as. and always has been, unduly neg-
lected. In the counties. sending IM9 members..
the element of property predominates. In
the boroughs, sending 3rai, the element of num
bers predominates ; while the intellectual or
educational element is inadequately repre-
AA by the four members returned from the

sented by u
Univerbitic