The National Register.
London, England, 1819-04-18 00:00:00

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Our Mtn, Condtitution ant U abut•

SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 1819

MR.
This system of
the attention of
&lining and
—Ai

SYSTEM.

having
elating* system .
it certainly has engaged the in of some
fessional eminence, it becomes the duty of those s. .o feel
an interest in music to examine its pretensions. We pre-
saline the advantages which Mr. Legier or his disciples
have to oder, are—a more ready acquisition of musical
knowledge, and a name Correct and finished method isf
fingering the pinuo.forte. This lie proposes to effect by
tearching ill denies. With regard to pianoforte playing,
any one who is at all conversant with the difficulties
attending the acqhisitiou of a finished sty le orperformanee,
most, we should think, be impressed with the impossibility
of acquiring it by any other system than that of individual
tnition. The requisites to make a good piano-forte player
are so numerous, Mai, in our view of the subject,
they are incommunicable by any other method. A dry,
dull, mechanical execution may be obtained by teaching
in classes, but the scholar will assuredly nhver go beyond
this. The din and discord of a dozen instruments ere
completely inctompetlble with that delicacy lit touch and
expression which distinguish the Hoe piano-forte player.
Aud what has Mr. Logier to offer which esn counter.
balance this manifest disadvantage? LI his mode of fin-
gering more correct, or his tench more expressive, than
that of Cramer or Clemeuti? We presrme not. At least
us far as we can judge by the performance of his pupils,
we should say quite the reverse. Their playing is pre-
cisely what we should expect from the system by which
they have been tatight,wholly mechanical and inexpressive.
But this system either has or pretends to have some mys.
tery, some secret, by the possession of which its author
thinks himself entitled to lay claim to the public atten-
tion, and fey the communication of whielthe demands •
considerable sum. We bat dly know which to despise the
most—die ignorance or the impudence of his claim. Who
is Mr. Logier? What is he? that lie should thus exalt
himself above the most highly gifted musicians of the age?
W here are the proofs of bus knowledge or tile evidences
of his genius? We have sought for them in vain. We
know not of a single composition bearing his swam Bet
like all ether quacks, Ise shrouds his ignorance nader the
veil of mystery, and thus thinks to impose on the credulity
of the modtitude. To talk of mystery as convected with the
prattler of music is manifestly 'bird. There are—there
can be no secrets in it. To obtain the perfect command of
soy instrument requires patience and close attention, bat
to imagine that there is may short read by which it can he
acquired; any sect et, which donee imparted, will enabie
every pupil to start np a pea former; is an absurdity too
gross fur the most implicit et cdolity to admit.
There is something very imposing, we admit, in this
public exhibition. A large and fashionable audience, and
a dozen pianslortes going at once, combine to give some
eclat to the system. The Crain era and the Clementis, mast
toil on adapting their mode of lust( fiction to the tent-
per and the ability of each pupil ; they have nu exhi-
biting scholars, no summoning together of the fashioirolde
world to witness the effects of their instructions. hut the
Lugierian system is evidently one of display. Wherever
introduced, it has been accompanied wills this sort of
stage effect. It is merely the performance of a certain
met of lessons,expressly got up fur the occasion, and epos
the po rfoiinalleeof which AO ordinary degree of pteparn-
tiou has been employed.
These lessons, considered as specimens of composition,
are to the last degree contemptible, and we really man
give the Logietian profe-sus credit fur 110 small degree
of assurance in calling the world together to hears doses
cbildeen playing music ahem as difficult as the cosiest vs.
nations of Porcell's G • Is. One advantage which Me.
Logier says in his prospectus, will resell from his ay,.
tem of simultaneous instruction, is too extraordinary to
passed over in silence. "By the social practice," says
he," of teachii.g is elapses, a community if soh Ilea becomes
unequivocally established." Tlliv, 111 1111111, is a diseostry
so it amiceildanaly surpassing any thing use ever beard or
read of in conuection with she subject of education, that
Mr. Logier's mere musical pretensions sink into insignifi•
caller when compared with the 'timer lie ptisiiitlices over
the intellect of his scholars. What a genius inns( he be,
who can unequivocally esiabash a comma.ity q' intellect
throughout his classes! Oue word more with .11r.Logiers,
piano-forte playing, and we have dune. He mentions a
list of audio& s 1111 l whose writings he purposes to instinct
his pupils, at the head of whom gland (Anent and Handel,
both of whom happened to lie dead long before the iriasio-
forte was invented, and the former of whose writings, are
adapted exclusively fur bowed instruments, and utterly
incapable of bring played with any tilect by the piano.
forte. Of Mozart's music .two, we And Mr. Logier xtleet
that which is the least adapted fur the iastrument lie has
I to teach. _

The placing part 'of the eallibition i* P4terspergetl
with elucidations. of the muffle iu which he teaeliel umiak
AP II .cte.!ce. We have Peen ionic of hi. ocholAts' book',
and Pt: Cu iron. reg.ittliog Mr. I...)gier's ar. .1 Alton roal. to

and la, (our __ hoearts)ba,
at what small degree of knowledge they psi , we aro
unable to discover, but that they are ignorant of We first
rudiments of music as a science, we base no hesitation in
affirming. it has been well remarked, that "as attempt
to teach the theory or the practice of music indiserind.
nab. ly to children; whether they may happen to be
clever or stupid, whether they posses musical taste ow
none at all, is, to say the very least of it, a process by no
means connected with good sense or reason. In by far
the greater number of eases, the little animals have their
feeble brains loaded with a number of technical teems,
and stirred into hopeless confnsion by rules and principles,
which they neither understand in their abstract meanings,
nor in their relation to the general system of inusical com-
position."
We have thoagit it oar duty thus freely togive our opis
Moo of Mr. Logier's pretensions, because we know that
few, very few indeed, are at all competent to form a
correct one. It is right, when a stranger confidently
talks of "the attempts of interested individuals to mislead
the public," when he item wantonly endeavours to impute
unworthy motives to those who &renew 'imaged in teach-
ing music, In sift his own qualifications, and see how far
he is competent to what he undertakes. That children
maybe taught music scientificalby and practically ty Mr.
Legier's system we admit, but that they can lie taught to
play so well as by the mode of Instruction now in use in
this city and its neighbourhood, we utterly daisy; and we
feel confident that every well ednessiiii and respect-
able master would be able to impart a correcter and
sounder knowledge of music as a science, than could be
given by Mr. Logier's system %Dino 1141 same period.
They must ley their accuriut, here, as elsewhere, M inter
some teinporary loss by Logicrianisin—the multitude are
eager followers of novelty ; bet the delusion will pass
away, arid their own exertions and their own merits will
in future be more justly aupreeiated.

A ivecnorr Olr OZA WT.—llis charity was asked
one day, in the streets of Vienna, by a person who
had known better days ; and as the great musician
knew better how to heap up silver sounds than sil-
ver can, he felt his pocket fur the poor fellow in
vain. Uneasy at his want of money at this parti-
cular moment, a benevolent thought suddenly struck
him, and he asked the man to wait while he went
into a tavern, where, calling for pen and ink, be
sat down and composed 2 minuet on the spot ; then
folding up the paper, he returned, and giving it to
his petitioner, told him to carry it to a music pub-
lisher in the city, who would give him something
when he saw the contents. He did so, and received
five double ducats. The circumstance deserves to
be recorded, and the minuet itself is worthy of the
occasion. It exhibits a singular mixture of science'
(which Mozart perhaps took a just pride in exhiLit-
ing at such a sudden call), with that exquisite na-
tural beauty which is. so apparent Throughout his
works. It teaches us this practical lesson—that
there arc few, if any, who want the power of doing
good in some way or other, if they are possessed of
the desire,

Anecdote j a Picture.—A valuable picture (says a
French paper) has reedit!), purchased by a bailiff, at
the sale of a few articli.s of little wine, in the village of
Venus, vicar Paris. The picture, put up at a low !nice,
rose rapidly to 36 francs, and the brokers, who only mi.
derstood how to snake t'.eir market of old furniture,
were at a hiss to judge whether they ought to abandon
it or Ind higher. At that moment a man. %silo WV{
('known to he a judge, offered tutu franci. 'rhic sum W.'
'viewed theconhilence of the bidders, and it was knocked
down to the bailiff for vs Innis. The p'clitre, the suitjecit
of which is" rrnas tireßadt," is acknowledged to tie
the work of N. Poussin, and the commiswors have .since
purchased it, according to report, for 12,000 franc:.
Singteor Etta. —The lovers of 11321Ititi history rusty
find amusement in the following article :—Mr.G.C.ty, of
Tower-s.reel, Chichester, has at this time in his 1/104.
session a hank and pigeon, both of which for some
months past, have been together in a sotall garden.
From domiciliary treatment, their natural antipst.hies are
(mitt obliterated, and the pigeon is crosupleteh master a
h s companion, which he never fails toerincc, it it :our
the latter encroach cn his demesne.

MR. LOGIERI SYSTEM. music, it appears to as the very worst and the very longest
rms..
its system of jos!, ooti--
oes.boo for some time o,,,pied we ever beheld. We do sot doubt that eseaT ladies. and
attention of the musical world io Loudon, Dublin, Ilentl"tne° ttliak It very w"4"6" " "e lint. °mist"s
ihargh, and some of our
deli
tobWem. *IA Vtats4tHir..r ska "ra "4
54666111".41.41111.115
As its pretensions am .• ' imply us win& boirlitAllVbsoll Jo~'ars
ors distioctly snamsweesi it to sr nth* *So at all amptalated wilts what is 'Mpg the process is
chiller calculated ta provoke a smile thaw 40 create any
ge the whole system of musical lastruction," and as
rtainty has engaged the attention of some men of pro- astonishment. Upoa what principles they mum gentlemen
anal eminence, it becomes the duty of those who feel sail ladles (our furore Mandela and Alumina) have arrived
e i. i i .1.........