Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-03-05

|
| little pardonable steps under the shade
| of the hassock, and the heart dance de-
vout minuet with the heart Of young Mr..
Jones In the next pew for partner
| Old ladies, maiden they may be, are by
this new light of music reminded of the
vanities and revelries of their youth, and
are blessed with the opportunities of con-
meeting the old airs with the profound
organ, and of tlismissing for ever the vo-
latile rhapsodies oil the dancing masters
kit. Music, SO chastened, becomes a
Magdalen, and repents ofts errors. It's
beauty is deemed pardonable, being thus
controlled by staid dress, and tam ed to
an orderly tenderness. Country dances
become the elect. The graceless Paddy
Carey walks forth like the old gentle
man in the Antient Marinere, "a wiser
and a better man." The Dusty A7itter,
whines like Mawworm; and Touiez
Oous dansey, drops its erring request,
and goes off with "a dying, dying fall"
Is It absolutely necessary, in this
strange age of reform and refinement,
that the solemnity and depth of the rich
old church music should be changed for
the light and frivolous airs which are as
sociated only in our minds with dance
and song, and sun burnt mirth ?" Will
not these grave and awful hymns, which
| made our fathers virtuous, and lifted the
souls OF men to the skies, strike sacred
ly on living ears, and lead the hearts that
Inow beat 10 holy and serious joy? In
deed, we suspect the most fatal reverse
of what is good must follow this mar
rage of the chapel and the ball ROOM
1t Is not possible to conceive that any
mind can retain that passionless quiet
which is the soul of devotion, when the
disordered spirit the dance passes with
new allurements over it.
We have been led TO make these few
observations, by the strange publication
now before us. The beauties of Handel,
Mozart, Pleyel, Haydn, Beethoven, and
others, adapted to the words of popular
psalms and hymns. We cannot but re-
gard this work as more outrageous in its
intention, and more dangerous in its ef-
fects, than that sprightly Introduction of
pleasure into the Dissenter's organ loft,
of which we have been mplainng.-
The book is evidently planned for Sur
day piano. The serious family need no
longer start up in horror at the twinkle
of harpsicord key, for those tunes
which, on the Saturday, clothed words Of
gay passion and laughing pleasure, F" are
other guess sort of creatures" on the
Sunday, and become infused with a holy
rapture We really look upon this work
as the opera of the deyou,, the play for
the insincereiy pious. VIII the reader
believe that all, or nearly all, the Joyous
airs of Don Giovanni, are thus convert
ed But it is not alone to this singular
adaptation OF music, we SO much object
we must also protest against the artfui
arrangement of some of the words, to
suit the acknowledged tenderness of the
air, by which the mind is thrown into
doubt, whether it is listening to what is
human or divine. In one page we have
the Serenade from Don Giovanni, with
words as demure and suspicious as the
music calls for. In another page, the
celebrated air, La ci darem," is made |
questionably serious by such lines as
these:
Oh speak that gracious word again
And cheer my broken heart;
No voice but thine can soothe nv paine,
Or bid my fears depart!
What young lady, after days prepa- !
ration in such chapel as we have limited
at, and with her heart over-brimmed with
Haste to the Wedding, or the Emheror
.dlerander--could sit down to her even
ing piano, and play and sing such hymns
as these with sincere devotion The We
.ry certainty that she was swindling the
day-that she was passing fash notes--
that the music she was playing had an
alias, and that too of very suspicious
description-would go some way to the
despolling her sincerity. She is told
that Don Giovanni must not be thought
of-with the Italian errors which asso-
ciate with it during the week-but with
"a slight clipping it is made fit for use on
Sunday. We shall now proceed to point
out a few ofthe airs, and give our readers
some notion of the words accompanying
them.
Fly not yet that beautiful invocation
to late hours md love, is not forgotten in
this selection. And the lines are pro-
vided after the following fashion:
Since life in sorrow must be spent;
So be it, am well content,
And meekly wait my last remove,
And seeking only growth in love,
And seeking only Growth in 1--we