ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 203 



Mozart. Still more striking is the contrast between Rossini and 

 Handel ; Rossini, even when attempting to be serious, relapses in- 

 voluntarily into mannerism. Handel composed the sublime double 

 choruses, / will sing unto the Lord, and But the Waters overwhelmed, 

 with as much ease as the delicate and finished songs. Hush, ye pret- 

 ty warbling Choir, and Let me wander not unseen, which remain to 

 the present day models of grace and elegance. How must this uni- 

 versal dominion over the powers of sound throw into the shade the 

 petty talent of him who, when he attempts a lofty theme, relapses 

 involuntarily into the manner only suitable to a comic song. A 

 mode of treatment like this is ever the result of incapacity for high- 

 er efforts. Let us, therefore, pause before we acknowledge the doc- 

 trine originally promulgated by the Italians, and unfortunately fol- 

 lowed by too many of our own writers, that each successive composer 

 is necessarily an improver ; that he who violates an established cus- 

 tom is a reformer who has the merit of exploding some antiquated 

 prejudice; that he who opposes the exclusive study of the latest 

 fashionable composer is a bigot, unable to keep pace with the im- 

 provement of the times. While maxims such as these meet with 

 toleration, while criticism remains either an echo of public opinion 

 or an expression of individual taste, so long will the majority con- 

 tinue in their present state of ignorance, indifference, and presump- 

 tion. The dissemination of these ideas is greatly favoured by com- 

 posers and instructors, whose interest it is to represent the master- 

 pieces of ancient writers as no longer adapted to the exigences of 

 the present day, because attention given to these would withdraw 

 patronage from their own compositions : it would also have the ef- 

 fect of imparting a greater ability to criticise, which might possibly 

 be productive of invidious comparisons. If self-interest be thus 

 alert in the propagation of error, the advocates of truth should 

 arouse themselves to increased exertions in endeavouring to counter- 

 act this pernicious influence. 



No composer has ever been so highly extolled by one party and 

 decried by another as Bellini ; his advocates maintaining that he 

 combines every possible excellence, while his opponents do not allow 

 that he possesses merit of any description. The first party consists 

 principally of those whom Von Raumer calls " the musical multi- 

 tude ;" among the latter may be reckoned most of the eminent pro- 

 fessional musicians of England and Germany. Neukomm declares 

 that he was unable to endure the representation of Norma longer 

 than a quarter of an hour, and the celebrated theorist, Schnyder 

 von Wartensee, characterizes the Puritani as a spiritless composition. 



