New-York daily tribune., 1858-03-09

! dnu DIesIeu dho sang the p1alses OF his Creator
bgt not 10 dwell too long On the abs,rao, Ia, nsI,ol
momeri at tie music Of Meyerbeer, in proof Of 4 :
intellectually Of music Let US take the foil soo,, A.
Z il called, containing the notes played By all th. in.
.truInents placed under arother 10 due p,onoton
| Of Simultaneous utterance, and divided by oonmon
lines into measures hence the scoring down the
page from top to bottom. As q new evidence of br.
man labor viewed apart from every other considers.
cn an cperatio score claim its responsibilities
For it covers thousand pages, each page containing
from FIVE TO ten times much a. ordinary music pases
printed for popular use. As to the power OF combua
tion-he chromstic colonstic quality-a full score
| presents upon every page mass Of combinations ft-
ting an historical painting canvas the masses of
| light and shade ani color, the foreground and the
background the solid central figures and the retreat
rg accessories the bold front projections and The aerial
perspective OF the canvas, al being found in their
peculiar expression, equally in the full score. The
musical work under consideration opens with an in.
| strumeutal prelude, the curtain being down Let
US look al the artistic skill and appropriate meet
irgs of this. First, the very dark toned kettle.
| drums sTike few ill-boding notes. Then comes
| a piece of actual history-the Luther's Hymn az
much intensiying the Reformation history beyond all
else as did The Msrseiles Hymn that of the French
Revolution. Tbs hymn is heard on the car-
| ionets and bsssoons, and the cor anglas wooden
| reed instruments, which a. recall the church
organ and all church psalmoiv OF the period Then
| come the brass instuments-typics through all ages
Of the thuriels OF war; and the idea of the Crom
weiar.ike heroes the Huguenots, fighting against
the Pope end the Devil is incOntnently vvied. This
dies away, a. the vioaish instruments with pieces Of
wood acting as mutes, aud paced over the strings.
giving my sterous temper to the sound. Then the
hymn dies away few notes played the latter
Instruments harp-fsshion, by the player pnchng the
st,inga Then come smooth, soft passages on
the yiolins suggesting the soft, feminine el
emen, which runs through the opera, and
being in rhetorical contradisttnction to the
saln art temper Of the retormers lyric. Then this
sweet fluent passage Is mixed up with this direction on
the score: Half the strnged instruments played with
the fingers, the other half with the bows, minute
effect worth the amateurs study. Sequent come
little bits of daoguey in wi ich the instruments may
be supposed 10 be nterchangng cOuteses as to health;
aud the talk becoming general, we may imagine
ladies' in hair powder, Chatterirg in sweet, couIty
French. To this succeeds number OF measures ex-
acty marked by four notes each in the bass, while are
heard above snatChes Of the old canticle mixed up
with nice little danes bonneur frivoities on the NO
lns But now the musical sky da'kens, and the com
poser makes the violin armament darken with rage,
and doubling 70 quckness of time some OF the ee-
phantne accents Of Luther's Hymn, We are led
to an allegro where the old 2pounder is hammered out
in its rushing and crushing plenitudes OF theological
ecs.ssy-a very awakening of Zion-a csmp-nleeting
frenzy of olden time. And here may insist that
music-musc in its connection with the opera, aud
purely instrumental music alone, aiming at dramatic
expreseion-s one Of the best historians. II speaks
out more than the silent page or picture. Painting
and sculpture quiet and particular. Music IS living
as il comes from the human throat or hand, and gen.
eralizes faets by association in manner all its own
but to see into its Logical and aesthetic cupboard, we
must have the key. The music where we LETT OIL Is
succeeded Ivy short storm of syncOpatiOns-the same
word as taken from the Greek and applied to certain
conditions orthe human body and indeed, the gasping
Of the orchestra syncOpaonay treated merits the APP
pei stion Now we have short passage in 1913 time,
that foimed of four groups of notes IN measure or
bar each group having three notes.-the passage being
formed on that black musical uncertainty the dl nln
shed seventh, a chord belonging to every, and hence
TO no scale or key in particular; chord composed of
lugubrous angry minor thirds the intervals which
he winds used in their mournful howlings one added
70 another. down down 10 the lower deep of internal
Harmony. Our friend II. c. Carey has written
book called What is Currency" Answered music
ally il is notes composed of the diminished seventh
constituting medium Of exchange. Hueh use ha
made the diminished seventh soiled and greasy, bu
like genuine bank notes it passes so long rs rag Will
hold together.
Here endeth the first chapter, for the curtain is
raised on Act l., Scene |.
PAssIsG REMARK.-Life is short, and Meyerbeeris is
,,nh nd aiaurply
and abominably industrious. A man of genius should
loaf extensively Being 80 well OF, and having 20
much time on bic hsnds 10 douby sugarup bis penods
he mosacs away his details up to the usS on the AMI
naeua's wing (which often doesn't improve it,. In
addition to this he aas the disposition to be colossal
in length and has the "Imperis Academy of Music
IN Paris with its latitude of rehear sails and huge pa
tience of its auditors, to back him up So he deals IN
Length. Time is the succession of IDEAS but MS are
SO long that eternity included in hearing one OF his
words When people are very busy, IKE our OWL
they must cut down Meyerbeer sy (they do so even
Paris, to bring one Of his works INTO reason'o'
compass And probably the unkndest cut OF all, as Is
done in the Italian version played last mgn'' Inc
descriptive music which opens the fret act But the
Ullman had, Hamletike to b. cruel IN order 10 Oe
kind and he began with the s'alpel, sxcising must
cal discourse reaching from page 70 to page 10
3 discourse or all that the mobiles did ID 'ne
scene marked A, b, C the subdivisions OF
the scene) and beginning on Dan org'e
where the nobes sit down to supper and slne
good rousng bacchanalias subject, also, by "sy oi
adding insult 10 injury, to Two "iudicous cuts
recatve leads to rons nee, beautifully colored' IN
the orchestra. This reveals one OF those cui
osities of musical ltertute for which Meyeroser
20 n