Tarquini, with Nozzari, a baritone, appear to be he principal stationary ones. Di Lucca, Valentini, and David, are considered the best tenors; and Cirio and Guarini the best basses.

The principal female singers are the three sisters Pignaluerd, who are highly accomplished. "The Signora Pauzzini has gained great reputation by her execution of the two stabats of Zingarelli. The two sisters Catalani, and particularly Louisa, have great voices, and sing with much taste. The mezzo soprano of Madame Picciola is of a pure and metallic quality. The Signora Rafaellina Ferri possesses a charming soprano, and sings with exquisite taste. The facility of Madame Theresa Cadolini in bravura passages is extraordinary, and surpasses all we have ever heard."*

At Milan, they have the finest theatre, La Scala, in Europe. The orchestra is more numerous and better selected than any either in the French or the English capital; and the prima donna, Madame Lalande, is scarcely inferior to Pasta or Sontag; indeed, many prefer her to either. Tambourini is a bass (or rather baritone) singer of great clearness and compass, as well as a respectable actor. There is at Milan a good seminario for music and dancing, where none but females, possessed of the finest figures and voices, are admitted as pupils. + Madame Pasta was engaged at Milan for the season 1829; she subsequently sung at Bologna, where the society of the Cassino presented her with a gold medal. The church music in Milan is very inferior. L. Simond says: "Church music in Italy, if

Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, vol. x. p. 52. + SINCLAIR'S Autumn in Italy, forming vol. 46 of Constable's Miscellany.

we were to judge from what we have heard in the cathedral of Milan, on a thanksgiving day for a plentiful harvest, is greatly inferior to that in an English cathedral, and the organ is very indifferently played."

"At Venice, music is the universal resource of the fashionables, who delight in discussing what they consider a national subject. Their enthusiasm or animosity towards particular composers appear alike amusing and absurd to our ultramontane imaginations. Even the common people bestir themselves in so grave an affair, opposing innovations in any thing connected with what they term the divine art of music, and they display as much zeal and fervour in the cause of a Cimarosa, a Paiesiello, or a Rossini, as if they were the heads of political parties, or religious sects."*

There are three theatres at Florence-the Pergola, at which operas and ballets are represented, being the largest. Although, at present, no first rate singers can be boasted of, (the Signora Guiditta Grisi is the best,) the orchestral accompaniments are admirable. Indeed, notwithstanding our great advance lately in instrumental music, Mr Sinclair tells us, that we must, in this respect," yield the palm to Germany and Italy; for, even in the minor theatres of these nations, we are excelled. They have always an imposing host of performers, scarcely inferior to our Lindleys and Nicholsons, from amongst whom they make their selections."+

But vocal music is the glory of Italy. The lower class of the Italians sing beautiful airs in parts, the works of their most esteemed com+ Ibid.

* SINCLAIR'S Autumn in Italy.

posers; but they have also a species of songs, as barbarous and unmusical to a foreign ear as can well be conceived. The traveller, however, is seldom disgusted with the latter, whilst, in every town, he meets with numbers capable of giving, in perfection, the delightful music of the country-which is delicious, soft, flowing, and graceful, calculated to excite the milder passions, and to fill the mind with languishing emotions.

Besides the cities named in the preceding pages, Bologna, Sienna, Vicenza, Turin, &c. &c. have theatres, where music is perfectly executed, and where, at the yearly recurrence of the Carnival, a number of new operas are sure to be produced; for one feature in the music of Italy is, that the "existing generation is never content with the productions of any or every former era." Thus they have always novelty, if they have no improvement; and though probably the art has not advanced for the last fifty or sixty years in that country, yet, as not one of the great cities in Italy is willing to receive the music composed for others, but each must have its own, great additions have been made, and are making, to the musical compositions of the country in every succeeding year.

It will scarcely be credited, that in Italy they have no printed music. "From Naples to Milan," says Mr Mathews, in his entertaining Diary of an Invalid, "I believe there is no such artist as an engraver of music, and you never see a music shop. You must therefore go without it, or employ a copier, whose trade is regulated by the most approved cheating rules. He charges you according to the quantity of paper written on, and therefore takes care not to write too closely."

U

CHAPTER XVI.

HISTORY OF MUSIC IN FLANDERS AND GERMANY.

THE Germans, a branch of the Teutones, or Goths, have had, from the earliest antiquity, a species of national ballad, and a national music, of a simple, unornamented, but impressive and affecting cast, and bearing the stamp of cordiality and artless sincerity, which, from the time of Charlemagne, has been preserved by a species of minstrels, who wander from place to place, obtaining their livelihood by the charms of their voice, and their skill in playing upon various musical instruments. We have, however, few facts recorded of the progress of music in Germany, till we come to the eleventh century, when we find Magister Franco, who appears to have been a scholar of Liege, about 1066, first developing the principles of modern rhythm, and inventing the time table. Up to this period no characters were invented to distinguish or mark time; and written music in parts was the simple counterpoint, such as is still practised in our parochial psalmody, consisting of note against note, or sounds of equal length. The ancients had no means of marking the time, but by the simple accents and > a long and a short; and to Franco the honour, not perhaps of being the

first inventor of measured notes, but certainly of reducing the crude hints of some of his predecessors into something like a regular system, is unquestionably due. He allows himself, that he has inserted in his work, entitled Ars Cantus Mensurabilis, what others have said well on the subject, as well as supported what he himself has invented, by good reasons; and in one of the Cotton MSS. on music, it is said, speaking of the Canto Fermo of an earlier period," Though music was at that time not measured, it was approaching towards measure, when Franco appeared, who was the first approved author, or writer, on measured music."

The notes mentioned by Franco are as follows: a double long ; a perfect long, equal to three breves; and the imperfect long, represented by the same figure, equal to two breves; the breve, a square note, without a tail; and the semi-breve. He used a point for prolonging the length of a note, with rests of the same duration as their corresponding notes; and seems to have first pointed out the use of bars, which, in his musical examples, he places as pauses for the singers to take breath, at the end of a sentence, verse, or melody; they were not generally used, however, till some time afterwards.

If France had her troubadours, and England her minstrels, Germany had her minnesingers, or love singers. They were the earliest poets, who used the vernacular language of the country, their songs being written in the High German, or Suabian dialect, and the Nether German, or Upper Saxon. War and love were their themes, principally the latter; and in the reign