MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 343 



have not the slightest doubt but it is the want of support and patronage of 

 the better informed, and not from incapability on the part of the performers, 

 that prevents their attaining greater excellence than is at present the case. 

 We can conceive no more efficient mode of raising church music the high- 

 est style — to its proper eminence in England, than the judicious education ot 

 singers in country churches, either by professed musicians or amateurs. In 

 every church there should be a good organ, and the salary of the organist 

 should never be lower than £100., though at present we fear that few even 

 of our cathedral organists are allowed more than this. There would then be 

 some competition amongst real musicians to obtain so honourable a situation. 

 But, of course, if the organist is to have a good salary, he must not expect to 

 find his situation a sinecure. He ought to be required to instruct the choir 

 at least three times a week, in singing psalm-tunes, anthems, &c. These 

 ought to be selected from the sterling works of the old masters, as Purcell 

 Handel, Gibbons, Croft, and other true church composers. The ears of the 

 initiated would not then, as at present, be tormented by hearing men with 

 cracked voices singing through their noses, and, as a matter of course, out ot 

 tune. As long as there is an organ all goes on tolerably well, but without 

 the assistance of this sublime instrument, each performer plays and sings 

 according to his own fancy, ad libitum ! If every country gentleman and 

 clergyman were imbued with even a respectable taste for church music, 

 and were willing to instruct those whom they deem their inferiors, this state 



of things would not long exist Eds. 



The Evils of Fashion in Music. — The two following extracts satirize 

 admirably the absurd custom so prevalent among the amateurs of this coun- 

 try of buying any thing and every thing which they hear performed in pub- 

 lic. The first is from an article by Dr. Hodges, in the Musical World : — 

 " It is related of the far-famed Farinelli, that, on his first appearance in this 

 country, in the year 1724, the effects whicli his surprising talents had upon 

 the audience were ecstasy, rapture, enchantment ! The first note he sang 

 was taken with such delicacy, swelled by degi*ees to such an amazing volume, 

 and afterwards diminished to a mere point, that it was applauded for full 

 five minutes. There was, doubtless, in this case, a strong predisposition to 

 be pleased : yet there must have been something extraordinarily fascinating 

 in the performance of this single note to have called forth such unprece- 

 dented applause. Neither the composer nor the poet could by possibility 

 have claimed much of it. It is, indeed, almost to be regretted that a singer 

 has such power ; for it has not invariably been exerted in a beneficial direc- 

 tion. Hence it has many times happened that, after an enraptured metro- 

 politan assembly has been fascinated by the tasteful performance of some 

 trashy composition, the whole country has been deluged with copies of a pro- 

 duction only to be rendered tolerable by the exquisite performer with whom 

 it originated. The detrimental effect upon the interests of science and taste 

 may be presumed, in such instances, to be inversely as the pecuniary benefit 

 of the singer and the music-seller." — The next is an extract from a letter by 

 an accomplished German musician, now in London : — " The compositions of 

 Thalberg are of a lofty character, and bear eminent tokens of severe study: 

 such, moreover, is their difficulty, that many public players would be inca- 

 pable of getting through the notes, far more of executing them in the inimi- 

 table style of the composer. I must, therefore, confess that the present de- 



