The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-22 00:00:00

HENRY PURCELL,

If there bs any name beyond tVat of all others which
merits to be treasured up with th,> most affectionate
remembrance and with the holiest veneration in the
hearts—in the heart's most sacred shrine—of his country-
men, as the foremost among English musicians, it is the
name of HENRY PURCELL! Occupying, conventionally,
with other illustrious masters, the first rank in this
country, but, in the truest and most extended sense of
the term, rising and towering above all, he stands un•
approachable!—alone!—to none is the "Divine Art"
under so heavy an obligation as to his individual exer-
tions. No naucian ever started into life with a larger
endowment of the ethereal fire to support and improve
that art than Henry Purcell. He was one whose memory
will endure and works exist " for all time!" Belonging
to no era, he created en epoch, which in his own times
he raised to the most memorable men!ion. Notwithstand-
ing his own profound comprehension of the science, his
deep lore of its fundamental rules, in quoting the sonorous
words of Bacon we may say of him,

" Ilis understanding beat upon his heart,"

and there is always to be discovered, amid all its won-
derful strength and power, and sublimity, and amid his
rich and massive colourings and beauty, a simplegrandeur
of cu tline, a delicate and exquisitt ly pathetic refinement,
a fanciful and graceful form of idea as inexhaustible and
varied as were the subjects on which he exerted his
genius. Judge him by tho very highest standard, and in
every way will he be found to be more than worthy of
his undying fame.
His life was like the flash of a meteor, short but
dazzling in its brilliancy. Cut off by the Destroy ing
Angel in the flower of his age and in the loftiest vigour
of his intellect, he was a man who, if he had been
spared a longer life, would alone have possessed suffi.
cient power to bestow on his country the first rank in
the scale of musical nations—a man gifted with so
mighty a genius that what he might have achieved can
only be resolved by futile conjecture. In him we lost
one who would have been able to define and characterise
the English School of Music—now lost—and perhaps for
ever. Well may we exclaim in the language of .zUaeas:
" Ostendent terris hunt tantum fata, neque ultra
Ease sinent !"

CIMAROSA
When he wished to compose rapidly would invite a
number of friends to pass the evening with him. Con-
versing with one, laughing with a second, drinking with
a third, and joking with a fourth, he would in one night
-write the outline of eight or ten charming melodies, in
some instanc,l even scoring them, and this surrounded
by all the noise which rarely fails to be attendant on the
conviviality of a few " choice spirits" collected together.

MOZART.

During the period tlie immortal Mozart was engaged
at Vienna superintending the produc,i tn of his opera
which was rendered int., the Italian—la bells lingua—by
Da Ponte from the celebrated Marriage de Figaro of
Beaumarchais, two other composers were preparing
operas for representation, one named Regini, the other
Salieri, whose work was called La Giotta di Trophonio.
The struggle between these two inferior composers was
that they should complete their scores about the same
time as Mossrt, in order to obtain a prior representation.
They did contrive to complete their respective works a
few days before Mozart finished his opera. Each mu-
sician claimed the right of producing his opera before
the others. The contest excited much discord, and a
species of partizanship was formed which espoused the
cause of one or the other of the rivals. The characters
of the three composers were singularly unlike. Mozart,
as touchy and dangerous as Professor Sclikbein's
guncotton, vowed that if his work were not produced
Arst, he would throw the score into the flames—his
claim was advocated by a very strong party. But, while
Regini who, possessing but little interest, was secretly
working to undermine the enemy's strength, Salieri,
Capellmeister to the Court, and withal a shrewd, clever
man, possessed of "crooked wisdom," as Bacon calls it,
was backed by three of the principal artists, who formed
a cabal, to extinguish which in those days, even as now,
was no easy task. EvEry one took side in this important
feud till his Imperial I,lajesty put an end to the mighty
contest, which might almost have merited the pen of
Hosier or the pm, whose aid he invoked to narrate, by
issuing a mandate that Mozar,.'s Le Nozze di Figaro
should take precedence, and it was accordingly put in
rehearsal forthwith. At the first dress rehearsal, with
complete orchestra, the immortal composer jumped
about the stage in an ecstacy—or an agony—which?—
of excitement, now giving the tempo to the orchestra and
then snatching the book from some singer's hand, en-
deavouring to sing his part to show the effect he intended.
While Beaucci, who was the Figaro, was singing the
" Non piu andrai farfallona amoroso," Mozart repeatedly
cried out " Bravo, bravo! Benucci," as that singer
rendered the world 'famous aria with the greatest anima-
tion and tours de force; but when Benucci arrived at the
passage, " Cherubino! alla vittoria! ails gloria mihtar!"
which he sang with all the wonderful power of voice be
possessed, the effect was electrical, for the whole of the
performers on the stage and in the orchestra, besides the
audience admitted to witness the rehearsal, as if actuated
by one simultaneous feeling of rapture, vociferated
" Bravo, bravo! Maestro! Viva, viva! grande Mozart!"
And the little body with the great soul acknowledged, by
repeated obeisances, its thanks for these enthusiastic
signs of applause with which they distinguished him.
At the finale to the first act the same meed of their de-
light was bestowed on him; and so was it at the ter-
mination of the first public performance of the opera,
for the auditory appeared as if they would never cease
applauding and calling for its composer—almost every
piece was yedernanded, which prolonged it to the length
of well nigh two operas, and induced the Emperor to
issue a command on the second representation
that no
part should be encored. Never were success and triumph
more complete or more striking than on the occasion of
31ozIrt's cpera, and the
uumgrons and overflowing
audiences which have since that time hailed its
.per-
formance amply prove how greatly they held in estuna•
tion Le Nozze di Figaro.