The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-10 00:00:00

BY GEORGE J. 0. ALLMANN.

' Since singynge is soe good a thinge,
I wish alle men woulde learne toe singe.' "

HANDEL.

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MEMORANDA OF A MUSICIAN.

" Notes, notes, forsooth, and noting!"
SHAKSPEEE.

No. IX.
'WEBER
possessed that rare and inestimable gift, the art of
uniting his music to words in such a manlier as that
tf!eir full meaning and sense was expressed by it. With
hlin music was, indeed, the twin-sister of poetry : he
Bought not by the combinatio❑ of empty and unmeaning
Bounds to impose on the ear, but with an earnest and
conscientious endeavour exerted his capabilities—and
what capabilities did he not possess?—to render the
!wain entirely dependent upon each other, so that the
loss of either would be felt if disunited. In the grand
Leona of Iteiza in Oberon, allotted to the present Mrs.
wood, then Mi,s Pat,n, she, even with all her splendid
Boeal powers, failed to realise the conception and to pro-
duce the effect at which the composer aimed. He strove
to show her. " I cannot discover why it is," returned
she, " but I can never do this as it should be." " The
reason is," replied Weber, " because you have not
studied the words."

WILLIAM BYRDE,
Celebrated musician of the Elizabethan era, endeavours,
la the preface to his edition of "Psaulmes, Sonettes, and
Sunges of Sadnesse and Pietie" (published in 1598), by
the following reasons, whose amusing quaintness de-
prives them not in the least of their sound sense, to in-
duce persons to learn to sing:—
" Reasones brieflie sett downe by ye auctor to per-
suade everie one to learne to singe.
" 1. It is a knowledge easilie taught and quicklie
learned, when there is a good master and an apte
scholar.
" 2. The exercise of singinge is delightfulle to nature,
and good to preserve the healthe of man.
"3. It clothe atrengthene all panes of ye hearts and
dothe open ye pipes.
" 4. It is a singular good remedie for a stutteringe
and stammeringe in ye speeche.
" 5. It is the beste means to preserve a perfette pro-
nunciation and to make a good orator.
" 6. It is the only waye to knowe where nature hath
°Yaowed ye benefytte of a good voyce; whiche gifte is
!oe rare yt there is not one amongste a thousand yt hath
it, and, in mania, yt excellente gitte is loste because they
Want an arte toe expresse nature.
" 7. There is not anie musicke of instruments what-
soever comparable to yt whicho is made of ye voyces of
men, where ye voyces are good and ye same well sorted
and ordered.

" 8. The better ye voyce is the meeter it is to honour
and serve God therewith, and ye voyce of man is chiefhe
toe be employed toe yt end—Oninis spiritus laudet
Dominum.

During his journey to Dublin, whither he went in
order to superintend the production of his immortal
Messiah, an amusing aneclote is related of him. De-
tained by adverse winds at Chester, and feeling indisposed
to write, he felt a wish to hear some of his music tried
Over, and thereupon inquired if the town possessed any
singers or choristers who could sing " at sight." Among
others that were recommended to him was a printer of
the name of Janson, of whom it was said that he could
sing anything!" " Ach! daat will do," exclaimed
1.,
'4andel, very pleased at receiving such information. On
tut, trial of a chorus, however, the poor fellow could
make nothing whatever of it, and, becoming more and
more confused, committed so many egregious blunders
that Handel, who, bad no incitement to control himself,
*lts soon in a towering passion, and, after swearing in as
many languages as his acquirements could boast, cried
out in his usually ludicrous broken English, " You
sehroundel, tit you not tell me you could sing at soight?"
Yes, sir," piteously responded the object ot:his anger,
tlujUrgatively, "And so I can, but not at first sight!"

HAYDN
Used, in after life, to relate the following whimsical
liti!liicdote, not only for the amusement of others, but to
„,I; own infinite delight. When he was about twenty years
of own
(1752) a manager of a theatre at Vienna was super-
illtending the production of a a iece de circonstance, in
super-
b one of its dramatis personap had to swim amid

"Mountainous waves that scattered high the foam,"
'ough these waves were but of canvass, and the crests
Zrl` !earn only the effect of the scenepainter's scraping
'fe, Haydn was engaged to compose the incidental
music appropriate for the scene. Our composer was
`▪ z.eetdingly puzzled and had made several essays, but
Without producing the necessary effect, when the
manager—a portly, lusty man, which rendered the
Whole affair more sublimely ridiculous—stretched himself
at ▪
full length upon some chairs placed parallelwise, and,
Imitating by the seesawing of his arms and the gyration
tit'his body, the motion of a person swimming, ex-
claimed with the greatest rapture—" See how I swim,
h etr Haydn! look here! look here,Herr Musickmeister!
L°l4 I swim!" The composer, who was seated at the
harpsichord, immediately extemporised a movement in
11Z-eight
measure, which suited exactly the gestures of
• e emphatic impresario, who shouted in ecstacy," That's
it! that's it, my boy!" but giving, in an unfortunate
Il'eMent a desperate plunge calculated, as he thought,
bo '
increase the effect, the luckless redacteur lost his
eolanee, and kicking the chairs in all directions, fell
undering like a megatherium on the floor. Haydn
ip Ighed so heartily that he well nigh forgot his theme;
tit he used to terminate his narration of this amusing
by adding that the music he wrote to this situation
was the best received of the whole piece.

WEBER ON MEYERBEER.
,The high-souled, lamented Weber felt a considerable
Bend
of jealousy of what he considered a leaning in his
atiend and fellow-student Meyerbeer towards the style
of Rossini, whom he held in no very high veneration,
musically speaking. In a letter to Gottfreid Weber he
thus expresses his doubts and fears—" Meyerbeer ist
Fang Italian .verfallen," (is becoming Italianized)—
Where will be now all our brilliant anticipations?" He
afterwards wrote "Meyerbeer departs for Trieste to pro-
duce his Crociato ; he will return to Berlin afterwards,
Where it is possible he may write a German opera:
i'l.ls!eaven grant he may. I have made several appeals to
is (ilisuiericel" The future is well known. The
rociato became eminently successful because Meyer-
beer had engrafted on the German scientific school the
sympathetic and flowing form of meloay which dis-
tinguishes that of the Italian. And from that time he
became famous. The French then sou2ht and obtained
4the aid of his talents, and the Robert le Diable was all
that could satisfy and please his particular and not
easily pleased friend.

THE LEGEND OF SAINT CECILIA.
5 St. Cecilia, among Christians,is esteemed the patroness
scot of music, for the reason whereof, it is necessary to
refer
to her history as traditionally handed down; the
stance,
of the Roman church having, in the first in
t written it in their archives, from which it was
banseribed into the Golden Legends and other similar
b°,°46. The story relates that she was a Roman lady
441 of a noble family about the year 225 A.C.; that
t•°twithstanding her having been converted to chris-
ttll4:thY, her parents compelled her to wed a young Ro-
man noble named Valerianus, a Pagan, who, on his
thedding.night was given to understand by his bride that
S, bear
nightly visited by an angel and that he must
ecear to approach her otherwise he would be destroyed.
sir/rrnewhat troubled at such a revela'ion, Valerianus de-
ed to see his angel-rival, but hia sposareplkd," that it
3 quite impossible, unless tw were baptized and became
a convert to christianity."
he found her in her closet at
To this he consented, when,
returningl: to his wife,
3,,,-,?ers, and by her side, in the shape of a beautiful
of"ng ma, the angel cloted in the radiant brightness
heavenlythe shining skies. After some conversation with the
visitor, Valerianus told him he had a brother,
4iberius, whom he greatly wished to become a partaker
of the
grace which he himself had received. The angel
replied, « that his desire should be gratified ; and that
veryt shortly both brothers should be crowned with mar-
tyrdom." Upon his the angel vanished, but soon atter-
'ads proved the sincerity of his promise. Tiberius was
converted, and after undergoing persecution was at length
*ith his brother Valerianus beheaded. Cecilia was
cffered her life upon condition that she would sacrifice
at the altars of the Roman deities, but she unshrinkingly
refused, upon which she was thrown into a cauldron of
boiling water and thus, scalded to death, perished.
Other authorities, however, affirm that she was stifled in
dry bath—i. e. an enclosure from whence all air is
Excluded, and beneath which burns a slow fire, under
the excruciating torture of which she expired. The
that
concerning this distinguished martyr adds
pt it was on account of her great excellence in music,
at she was was honoured by the visits of the angel;
'tat he was attracted from his celestial abode by the
b4Weetness of her melody, and that the transcendant
Nay displayed by her vocal and instrumental powers
risdher to be styled The Patroness of Music and
tusicianhs !

GUGLIELMI.
?hough a most profound musician, and gifted with
t'eat dramatic conception, Guglielmi was stated to ego-
hiavaricious, and self-opinionated and ego-
-1.11.41teal to the extreme. In every new opera that bore
els "roe attached thereto as its composer he would
elltY write two or three entire pieces, leaving the 7-
Nt4tives and concerted pieces to be supplied by his
PilB—sometimes even by the Neapolitan copyists.
oh"en he was engag, d to produce " at Bella Napoli.' his
g wrerra buffs Addinda, he resorted to this shift, ar,d
consequence, the opera on its first representation
tB, as it merited, condemned ; indeed so general had
tee dissatisfaction become about the middle of the
neeeanci act, that the manager was compelled to render
ktr4et,sity a virtue by yielding to the popular demon-
etie hlen, and the curtain fell amid a torrent of hisses
the *8 rarely proceed save from a Neapolitan auditory,
N;ells of the " lazzarone," et hoc omne genus, being
Rl,id'eeily indescribable, while the ladies were only too
the to quit the theatre. Guglielmi after the close of
14 Performance invited some friends to sup with him,
fort to concoct a cabal whereby to reverse the mis-
)vhtitne of that night; he prepared a new tezzetto, by
The he hoped, more especially, to accomplish
.this.
the next morning he repaired rto the Café del Veneano,
he the chief rendezvous of the coono.,centi. There, as
I\ZhePected, he found the impresario of the Teatro
144
e •
es. Saluting him, he drew a rein of music from
pe,Yeeket, and presenting it to him with an artiusirigty
vvii"iPus air, said, " There, Signor! there is that which
goon all things to rights again—Adalinda will be in
kid", health to-night! Hand' me over seventy ducats,
the ":41 Content F' The manager glanced at the title w
11,,tallaunnuscript and read " Vaga mane sospirata a post-
-3 terzetto of Adulinda." Well knowing the peculiar
thertee Guglielmi, he accepted the piece, ordered
eiaedeeP,* of the cafe to pay the composer the sum ;Te-
llable called a rehkarsal, and produced the opera the
evening, with the new addition. The extraordinary