New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-01-27
OLD-FASHIONED MUSIC.

Have the Dirty Drama and Obscene Opera
got to the end of their tether, we wonder, or
is it only the charm of novelty which has
turned us back all at once to the music OF our
great great grandfathers, and set us a-trpping
over shaven lawns in the stately cOuntry-dance
instead of kicking up our heels in the can
can, and watching the prouettes of the ballet 7
Last night, at Steinway Hall, there was per-
formance-the second within few weeks-ot
the lovely old madrigals in which powdered
and brocaded lovers of the seventeenth century
used to delight, and it drew forth one
of the largest, most brilliant most truly
fashionable audiences that have assembled
at any place of public amusement in New ork
for year or two. And they all liked those
dear old love songs. They smiled and nodded
with pleasure over the joyous choruses; they
applauded generally in the right place; they
encored perhaps silly ballad or so, as the
way of mixed audiences is, but they asked for
a repetition of the best Of the songs, and 1t
was clear enough that good music had found
for once in New-YOrk a company of apprecia-
tive listeners. There is fine aroma of an
tiquity about these Old-time madrigals, like the
delicate perfume that clings to cOurt-dress laid
aside in lavender for two or three generations.
The flavor brings to mind all the prlm elegance
of that golden age of good manners, when
Amaryllis practiced her curtseys under the
willows, and Alexis wooed his shepherdess on
an oaten reed, and Corydon aud Phillis tTipped
down the meadow hand in hand 20 the meas
ure of n minuet. Then Sacharissa, in powder,
and patches, and swelling petticOats, languished
i'm the shade of the laurels, and Lubin, in
brocade breeches, courted Melisuavia with all
the elegance Of a Grandson. To be sure this
was very ridiculous-but then it was very
pretty. The hind and his mistress in reality
were by no means poetical-but why should not
poetry take the liberty of refining themf The
restraint of the drawing-room is better than
the license of the cutters. Amyntas, be he
never such fool. is better than Siifroy or a
Fritz And so far as concerns the music to
which these scenes of polished gallantry were
welded. it must DO admitted that it was not
only pretty, but good. 1t rolliCks among sweets
and flowers, but it is no mere lackadaisical
nonsense, like the songs which infest modern
concert rooms; there is true inspiration in the
sparkling melodies, and sound science in the
counterpoint, and therefore the best madrgals
of the 10th and 18th centuries will last long
years after the amatory verses to which they
are welded have sunk into hopeless ridicule.
The success of the two performances OF this
sort of music which have been given this Win
ter at Steinway Hall we regard as an encour-
aging sign of the existence of true love and
appreciation of the beautiful in community
which we feared was hopelessly debauched by
Legs, sawdust, and spangles. Whatever else
we may have learned, we have not learned to
write songs. We can do no better than return
to our ancestors, and evidences are not want
ing that large portion of our music-lovlng
public are ready for the change. These madri-
cal singers are doing good work. Let us
have more of it.