ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 43 



frequenters of the opera are competent to do after having heard it 

 performed during the whole season. 



Without entering at this moment into detail as to the precise 

 system of instruction which would qualify the student to criticise 

 correctly, I would take leave to suggest that the first step in the 

 reform of musical education should be the abandonment of the per- 

 nicious custom of allowing masters to give to their pupils chiefly 

 their own compositions, instead of forming their taste by an early 

 acquaintance with the great models in each style. Every piece 

 which is played, may be supposed to exert some degree of influence 

 on the taste of the pupil ; and should her practice have been con- 

 fined either to the compositions of her instructor, or to the fashion- 

 able music of the day, she can only derive that scanty portion of 

 pleasure from the study which their inferiority is capable of pro- 

 ducing. In lieu of this meagre fare, would it not prove a more 

 profitable, as well as more agreeable course, to introduce the pupil 

 to the history and progress of Music, from the time of Josquin de 

 Prez to the present day ? — to explain the difference between the 

 styles of the church, the opera, and the chamber, and to introduce 

 her to the works of the greatest masters in each department ?* In 

 order to accomplish this plan, it is by no means necessary that a 

 young lady should devote a large portion of time to the study of 

 church music or oratorios : judiciously selected specimens will be 

 amply sufficient to impress her mind with tangible ideas of the 

 meaning of the terms sublime, beautiful, ornamental, grand, pa- 

 thetic, &c. 



Her instrument being the piano-forte or harp, her practice should 

 be chiefly among the classical composers for these instruments.t A 



• " It is certain that if the art is to remain an art, and not to be degraded 

 into a mere idle amusement, more use must be made of classical works than 

 has been done for some time past." If the Somnambula^ Puritanic &c., are 

 classical works, then, indeed, the art is in no danger of this degradation, in 

 England at least — Eds. 



-j- A familiarity with the higher walks of the art is not, in our opinion, to 

 be acquired by the study of a few specimens, however judiciously selected, 

 but is the result of an investigation and comparison of the different means 

 by which this higher walk is attained. If, then, this familiarity be so desira- 

 ble, we think that a certain and not an insignificant portion of the time of 

 study should be allotted to this hitherto neglected department. We see no 

 reason why a young lady should not be able to appreciate, according to their 

 respective merits, Hosanna to the Son of David, as well as one of Mozart's 

 sonatas. We grant it will be long ere she can even find equal pleasure in 

 them ; but until she sees in the former one of the sublimest monuments of 



