The New York herald., 1872-11-10

which stood their ground for half century with
such immense popularity. This critic has at differ
ent occasions shown how well worthy OF attention
his articles are BY inserting in the same musical
terms the meaning OF which Is evidently quite un-
known to himself. For instance speaking OF Rubin
stein, he says:-"He has added to the piano an
arpeggio.n We should like any professional or
amateur, literary or musical, to come forward and
tell us what possible sense can be found in this
phrase, or whatit can mean; for any one who knows
what an arpeggio Is could never have written
down such q sentence.
Every amateur, every public organ, showing the
laudablc desire TO see musical taste make progress
in this country as has done in other lands must
protest against the great public being misled by
unwarrantable critics. by untenable opinions
launched into the papers with the boldness OF
scribes who prove themselves ignorant In the first
ements Of the art which they profess to teach the
public.
1t is perfectly clear that the reader who finds
the grandest and most perfectly beautiful music
ever written abused by self-styled judges who
promise themselves at every moment, Ignoring as
they do even the sgnfcatlon OF the simplest musi-
cal term known to every schoOlboy finds this kind OF
thing very unpalatable and the question naturally
mean Why this attack on everything that science
and art have held sacred for such length OF time
Is the real question crticislng or merely opposing
and who are those who thus audacously set down
opinions which they are unable to hold, and must
not the unavoidable consequence be to bring the
press itself into contempt with all enlightened
amateurs And is IL not high time that the HERALD
to whom the public look as the true exponent OF
every matter OF public interest, should stay this
barking OF learned and unlearned dogs and show
clearly where the blame lies, where severe critl-
cism is due, and not allow the abuse OF ignorant
scribblers to be thrown on composers and per-
formers pele nee-not for the sake OF instructing,
not in the interest OF art but simply for the sake OF
abusing anything and anybody
The same want of knowledge and tact which
caused the attack on immortal works has natu-
rally been the guiding principle In Judging the per-
formers by those musical critics who are neither
musical nor critics.
Criticism Is necessary and useful both to readers
and artists; but critic ought at least know. what
he is about IL Is plain that most OF them do not
understand what they are writing, and write care
lessly at best For instance, one passes Judgment on
tenor for s'having made the same mistakes In Don
Giovanni that he did in 'Faust-singng II milo
tesoro' very wel-that is, without mistake" That
Is tantamount to saying that he made the same mis-
takes that he did before to sing without o mis-
take. Setting entirely apart the musical critic, can
such writer be tolerated In an influential paper'
Again, he says --"Miss Dora has pleasant voice
In certain roles" which leads the reader to sup
pose that she has got second voice for uncertain
roles.
All these impotent efforts at critcisng show
nothing but the desire to find fault and the utter
incapacty to judge. l must. however, before
proceeding to give my own opinion on the troupe
generally make one more remark. There seems
o be q p0yti-D,fs with regard to certain artists