FINE ARTS. 343 



ance. We accordingly find their compositions (as a general rule, to 

 which at present there are few exceptions) richly begemmed with 

 consecutive octaves, fifths, and other crudities, of which the merest 

 tyro should be ashamed. The song under review is one of the ex- 

 ceptions ; in it we observe no absolute offences against the funda- 

 mental laws of Music ; yet many things which a more extended ex- 

 perience would either not have admitted, or else would have amend- 

 ed. The introductory symphony is pretty and appropriate. In the 

 first three bars of the first movement, the voice repeats the key note 

 no less than ten times consecutively, and so delighted seems the fair 

 composer with this melody, that she afterwards reiterates it again 

 and again, with precisely the same accompaniment, which, almost 

 uniformly throughout this movement, gives a chord for each note in 

 the voice, producing a very heavy and un-song-like effect. The 

 six-eight movement gives promise of better things ; the melody for 

 the most part is elegant ; the accompaniment, though not very ori- 

 ginal, appropriate, and the modulation, though somewhat com- 

 mon, is still correct. In some instances the base might be altered 

 with advantage, and the accentuation of the words is sometimes 

 faulty to a degree. Will Miss Porter not only take our advice in 

 good part, but follow it ? We assure her that she will not merely 

 derive benefit in, but also great additional pleasure from, an art for 

 which she seems to possess not a little natural talent. 



I. — Sweet is the balmy Evening Hour. A Duet for two Sopranos ; 

 the poetry by Mary Russell Mitford, the music composed and 

 inscribed to his mother, by William Thorold Wood, Esq. 



II. — Go gentle Zephyr. A Duet for two Sopranos ; the words 

 translated from Metastasio, the music composed and dedicated, 

 at her request, to Madame Malibran De Beriot, by the same. 

 London : T. Boosey and Co. 



Every musician should be a poet, not a mere poetical rhymster, 

 but a poet in feeling and expression ; for what is Music but the in- 

 carnation of poesy ? bearing the same analogy to Poetry, as this to 

 prose. Poetry is the essence of prose, as Music is, or ought to be, 

 of Poetry. The thoughts of a poem or song suggest an image or 

 a sentiment ; it is the province of Music, by the aid of sound, to 

 present that image or sentiment in a form more exquisite still ; giv- 

 ing it, through the medium of melody, all the phases that imagina- 

 tion can propose, and by the aid of harmony, relieving the whole 

 from monotony. 



That there are amateurs in England, who understand the true 

 purposes for which music was evidently ordained, is apparent from 

 the two duets at the head of the present article. In each there is a 

 true poet-like conception of the subject. The sense, or rather the 

 sentiment, is never sacrificed to the sound, nor the sound to the 

 sense ; the one mutually aids and supports the other. 



In the first duet, the lines — 



