238 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 



engagements at the Italian opera, in parts adapted to their respective 

 powers, is a subject deserving the serious consideration of all who are 

 solicitous for the interests of British art. It is idle to talk of deficiency 

 of talent or of voice ; let the experiment be tried with impartiality, 

 and it will be found that English science, in combination with Ita- 

 lian cultivation, will produce now, as heretofore, vocal artists who 

 may fearlessly challenge the world. Let those possesssed of influ- 

 ence arouse themselves, and by the adoption of the two principal 

 suggestions contained in the preceding pages — namely, the intro- 

 duction of classical music and the protection of English singers — 

 they may hope to witness, at no distant period, the conversion of 

 the opera from an idle and expensive luxury into a school in which 

 instruction may be reaped alike by the artist and the connoisseur ; 

 while to the public at large it will prove an unerring standard of 

 good taste, in regard equally to the compositions admitted and the 

 manner in which they are performed. 



Y. D. 



[Reform in music has an able advocate in our correspondent ; and we feel 

 confident that such views as these, emanating from an accomplished musici- 

 an, free from the too common taint of prejudice, will carry conviction into 

 the minds of all who peruse the paper in the same philosophic spirit in which 

 it is written. The only particular in which we diiFer from Y. D. is as re- 

 gards the so-called theory of music. In our last number we ventured to cha- 

 racterise that as useless, and more than one distinguished musician has since 

 expressed to us precisely the same views on the subject. What is termed 

 "theory" appears to us precisely analogous to "grammar" in language; and 

 the total inability of both to effect the ends for which they are taught, will 

 one day be as freely acknowledged by the whole world as it now is by a few 

 master-minds who fear not to advance some steps beyond the majority. "We 

 hold that " theory" and " grammar," as taught in the schools, are as dry as 

 they are useless ; but the true theory — namely, the art of composition — 

 would not only prove ten-fold more interesting to the youthful mind, but 

 would be in equal ratio instructive. Language, in like manner, will never 

 be learned with that ease with which it ought to be mastered, so long as the 

 pupil is tormented with those tedious, repulsive, and pernicious rules termed 

 grammar. With this exception, we repeat that our correspondent's paper 

 deserves to be carefully perused and re-perused by every one who professes 

 to take the slightest interest in the noble art of which it treats. — Eds.] 



