Paris is the emporium of music in France. Inferior to Italy in the vocal department, her theatres and orchestras rise superior in instrumental attraction, and she imports most of the celebrated vocalists who appear at the Italian and German theatres.

During the autumn of 1829, Mademoiselle Sontag, Madame Malibran Garcia, with Signor Garcia, and some other celebrated artistes, performed at the Theatre Italien, Paris. Mademoiselle Sontag took her benefit on the 24th of November, which netted her 12,000 francs, (£480.) The opera was Don Giovanni. The Italian opera in Paris is not, however, equal to that of London, except, perhaps, in the ballet. Rossini has, for some time past, been the conductor. A year or two back, there was as furious a war carried on in Paris between the Rossinists and anti-Rossinists, as between the Piccinists and Gluckists. Rossini, however, triumphed; and Italian music is now again the rage in Paris. We have already mentioned, that Rossini has produced three new operas since his residence in the French metropolis.

In the French provinces, music is not cultivated to any great extent. The theatres are very indifferently supplied with performers, and the music is principally of the old school. All the triumphs of the art are confined to the metropolis, where the conservatory and the opera form some of the finest instrumental performers in Europe. As singers, the French never did, and probably never will, excel. Their national style, which is now supplanted, in all well educated circles, by the Italian, is a barbarous screaming.

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CHAPTER XX.

HISTORY OF MUSIC IN ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF PURCELL.

THERE are few countries in the world, in which music is more extensively cultivated, or more generally admired, than in England; nor is this passion for the art one of late date in our island. The aboriginal inhabitants, the ancient Britons, were passionately fond of both vocal and instrumental music; and their bards, who united in one person the characters of poet and musician, were held in the highest estimation. Their songs and their music are said to have been so extremely affecting, that sometimes, when two armies were standing in order of battle, and on the point of engaging in a most furious combat, the bards would step in between them, and by their soft fascinating strains, calm the fury of the warriors, and prevent bloodshed.. They played chiefly on the harp; and whilst the bard was the eighth officer in dignity in the court of a British prince, it was necessary that the prince himself should be able to sing to that instrument.

After their conversion to Christianity, the Britons adopted the rites and ceremonies, and with them, the music, of the Gallican church, as it existed prior to the introduction of the Gregorian chant; and when the encroachments of

the Saxons drove them into the fastnesses of the Welsh mountains, they carried with them their ancient Celtic music, which they cherished with ardour, and rewarded its professors with distinguished honour. Their bards appear to have been divided into four classes; and there were, besides, itinerant musicians and poets, with players on the three stringed crwth,* and the tabour.

As early as the middle of the seventh century, we find an Eisteddvod was held in Wales, for the regulation of poetry and music, and for conferring degrees, which institution was continued, most probably, till the massacre of the bards, by order of Edward I. and was revived again in the reign of Henry VII. His son and successor encouraged this society-as did Elizabeth-and it is still in existence.+

Of the Welsh music, Dr Crotch says, "The British and Welsh national music may be considered as one, since the original British music was, with its inhabitants, driven into Wales. It must be owned, that the regular measure, and diatonic scale of the Welsh music, is more congenial to English taste in general, and appears at first more natural to English musicians, than those of the Irish and Scotch. Welsh music not

* A species of violin.

+ Pennant tells us, that "some vein of the ancient minstrelsy is still to be met with" in Wales. "Numbers of persons, of both sexes, assemble, and sit around the harp, singing alternately pennills, or stanzas of ancient or modern poetry.”- "Oftentimes, like the modern improvisatori of Italy, they sing extempore verses."-" They will continue singing without intermission, and never repeat the same stanza; for that would occasion the loss of the honour of being held first of the song."- Tour in Wales, ii. p. 243-4.

only solicits an accompaniment, but, being chiefly composed for the harp, is usually found with one; and, indeed, in many harp tunes, there are solo passages for the bass as well as the treble; it often resembles the scientific music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and there is, I believe, no probability that this degree of refinement was an introduction of later time."*

The Saxons brought their bards and their music with them to England; and the character of their national airs, as well as of all the other Teutonic nations, is strongly contrasted with that of the Celts. The former is marked by a good humoured heartiness, a manly simplicity and strength, which give it the stamp of sincerity, and causes it, at once, to find the way to the heart and the affections. The music of the Celts, on the contrary, like the national character, is sensitive, impetuous, ardent, and, at times, imbued with a wild melancholy, and deep pathos, which never fail to affect the hearer with feelings of sadness and of sorrow. Sir Walter Scott, in Marmion, has well described the characteristics of this music:

"The air he chose was wild and sad:
Such have I heard, in Scottish land,
Rise from the busy harvest band,
When falls, before the mountaineer,
On lowland plains, the ripen'd ear,-
Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus swells the song :
Oft have I listen'd, and stood still,
As it came soften'd up the hill,
And deem'd it the lament of men
Who languish'd for their native glen ;

** Introduction to Specimens of Various Styles of Music.

And thought how sad would be such sound,
On Susquehanna's swampy ground,
Kentucky's wood-encumber'd brake,
Or wild Ontario's boundless lake,
Where heart-sick exiles, in their strain,
Recall'd fair Scotland's hills again."

The Scotch music is derived from a Celtic source; and as the language, as well as origin, of the Celts may be traced to the East, so to the same oriental spring Dr Macculloch refers for that species of music, deficient in the 4th and 7th in the mode, which "the Highlanders and the Irish, at least now among the most perfect existing remains of that far-spread nation, have preserved." This music is of great antiquity; and the Doctor supposes, that it was originally composed for the bagpipe, which is also deficient in those notes. James I., who reigned from 1424 to 1436-7, is celebrated for his poetry and music. He composed several anthems, introduced the organ into the cathedral and abbeys, and established a full choir of singers in the church service. From his reign to that of James VI. was the golden age of poetry and music in Scotland. An immense

number of songs were written during that period; many of which are still extant.

There is a great similarity between many of the Irish and Scotch tunes, the property in which is disputed with great eagerness, and no small portion of acrimony, by the antiquaries of both countries. Dr T. Campbell contends, that the Scotch music is of Irish invention; and Dr Macculloch admits, that "the Irish and Welsh have both a class of music to which the Highlanders have no title, and which no intelligent Scottish musician will claim: these are the