The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-02 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Modern German Music, Recollections, and Criti-
cisms. By Henry F. Chorley. London : Smith,
Elder, and Co.
The author of this really interesting book, which
is in two volumes, is admittedly and demonstrably
a musical critic of great sensibility and much
erudition. Like most critics, however, it is to be
feared he is so wedded to particular theories, and
so committed to expressed predilections in favour
of peculiar views, as to limit, in no small degree,
the public appreciation of his judgment. Fasti-
diousness in estimating musical composition, and a
dainty preciseness in judging of its performance,
forming as they do essential elements in the value
of a critical estimate, are useful in the highest
degree to one who would lead the public taste ;
but the public must not be held blameable if, while
concurring generally in the opinions expressed, it
nevertheless reserves to itself the right of consi-
dering those opinions as over-drawn, and the dis-
tinctions as tediously minute. If this proposition
be granted, and we scarcely see how it can reason-
ably be denied, we greatly fear that Mr. Chorley,
while acknowledged to be a delicately sensitive
connoisseur and an upright judge of musical art
and practice, will be found a somewhat tedious
expositor of their merits, and a remorselessly
minute chronicler of their defects. The volumes
now under consideration contain charms far beyond
any which can be reached in disquisition. These con-
sist in the fresh picturings and genial colouring
with which Mr. Chorley invests scenes or circum-
stances which he finds it necessary to introduce
into his work. As a painter of scenery, or a deli-
neator of incidents, he is charming ; but as a pen-
and-ink portrait painter, he has few equals. Men-
delssohn was an especial object of our author's
affection and admiration, and in these volumes he
furnishes numerous sketches of the appearance,
character, and habits of the great composer, in all
of which sketches there is a fine artistic keeping,
accompanied by a dash of genial feeling which
render the pictures as charming as they are sug-
gestive. As an example, take the annexed
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PORTRAIT OP MENDELSSOIIN.7
After the Symphony, a weak and tame contralto singer,
with a profusion of fair ringlets, went through the delicious
arioso m " St. Paul," " But the Lord is mindful of his
own :" and then the conductor, hitherto a personal
stranger, came down to me, and gave me a friendly wel-
come to Germany.
It is sad now to recall the inquiries after mutual friends,
the quick interchange of a musical piece of news or two,
and the unexpected joke (for a joke there was, I remem-
ber), amongst which began an acquaintance soon to be
ripened into indulgent friendship on the one side, and
faithful regard on the other. There was this inexpressi-
ble comfort in all intercourse with Mendelssohn, that he
made no secret of his likings and dislikings. Few men
so distinguished have been so simple, so cordial, so con-
siderate ; but few have been so innocent of courtiership,
positive or negative. One might be sure that a welcome
from him was a welcome indeed.
I thought then, as I do now, his face one of the most
beautiful which has ever been seen. No portrait extant
does it justice. A Edon would have generalized, and,
out of its many expressions, made up one which, in some
sort, should reflect the many characteristics and humours
of the Poet—his earnest seriousness—his child-like truth-
fulness—his clear, cultivated intellect—his impulsive vi-
vacity. The German painters could only invest a theatri-
cal, thoughtful-looking man with that serious cloak which
plays
.. important a part on the stage, and in the portraits
of their country ; and conceive the task accomplished,
when it was not so much as begun. None of them has per-
petuated the face with which
or
endelssohn listened to the
music in which he delighted, the face with which he
would crave to be told again some merry story, though he
knew it already by heart, I felt in that first half-hour,
that in him there was no stilted sentiment
—no
hed
—n°
heartiness ; that he was no sayer of deep thin
for witty ones ; but one of a pure, sincere gsinesearesearcher
intelligence—
bright, eager, and happy, even when most imaginative.—
Perhaps there was no contemporary at once strong, sins.
pie, and subtle enough, to paint such a man with such a
countenance.
From the above extract it will be seen that the
author of these volumes is scarcely less able in his
analysis of character, or less minute in his intel-
lectual limning, than he is elaborate and painstaking
in his criticisms. His illustrations of scenery are
not less interesting or artistically perfect ; and, as
a whole, few books have of late issued from the
press more likely to arrest and repay attention,
than the two volumes referred to ; they abound in
well-told anecdotes, and are replete with lively ob-
servations upon men, matters, and places of in-
terest.

The Modern Mystery; or Table-Tapping, its
Itiatory, Philosophy, and General Attributes.
By d. G. Mac Walter. London : John F. Shaw.
Few subjects have been brought under notice in
modern► days which have excited so general and
" spirited" an interest as " table-tapping." The
so-called civilised societies of- Europe and America
have been disturbed, distracted, torn by the mani-

festations—phenomena have been watched, investi-
gated, explained—the simple and the learned, the
inquisitive and the apathetic, have equally been
smitten with the singularities of the "manifesta-
tions," and all have equally in vain endeavoured to
reduce them to system, or to demonstrate their
absurdity, but all, as yet at least, without effect.
The strife of opinion between the credulous and
the unbelieving, continues with little, if any,':initi-
gation ; and there seems good reason for believing
that the heads as well as the tables of many of the
disputants have been irretrievably turned. To
account for so extensive and singular a movement
in the public mind has been the object of the
author in publishing the little book under con-
sideration, which forms one volume of Shaw's
Family Library. To say that Mr. Mac Walter has
bgen successful in elucidating the causes of this
popular excitement, would be to say more than the
truth warrants ; but to aver that he has put forth
a lively and interesting little volume will be proved
by its perusal. It is free from dogmatism, and is
cheerfully constructed. The author professes to
seek truth, and his tone induces us to believe in
the sincerity of his professions.

The Home Companion. London and Liverpool :

W. S. Orr and Co.

Among the cheap popular periodicals of the day,
perhaps no one is entitled to a higher claim on
public attention than the Home Companion. It
is, indeed, a magazine of popular literature, criti-
cism, and the fine arts. Its literary contents em-
brace interesting epitomes of geographical and his-
torical facts and incidents ; pleasing and instruc-
tive works of fiction, and moral tales. It is
copiously illustrated by wood engravings of a high
class, and it is published at a very low price.

Our Friend. A Monthly Miscellany, designed
for all classes. London : John F. Shaw.
The April number of this Miscellany maintains
its character for the variety and general interest
of its contents.

Punch, or the London Charivari. London :

Punch-office,

The self-seeking duplicity of the Russian Czar
has furnished an inexhaustible store-house of ma-
terials, from which the witty staff of Punch draw
jokes and sarcasms of great pungency and spirit.
It is particularly happy in its pictorial cuts at
Russian impudence.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER