216 THOUGHTS ON THE SUBLIME IN MUSIC. 



teenth and seventeenth centuries; which, not to notice the ridicu- 

 lous and gratuitous use of the word ancient, makes the slight differ- 

 ence of one hundred years in the calculation : this, however, we 

 presume is a consideration of small import. 



With regard to the modulations and harmonies forhidden in ec- 

 clesiastical music — which is'the next and last point noticed by Mr. 

 Gauntlett, and in which he gives us a list of the chords he imagines 

 are interdicted — the rule may be comprised in a few words. Let 

 nothing trivial, nothing commonplace, nothing which reminds of 

 the opera or concert-room enter into its composition ; here all must 

 be elevated, calculated to excite feelings of veneration and awe, in 

 unison with the sacred edifice in which it is performed, and approx- 

 imating to the loftiness of the great Being, in whose service, and 

 for whose praise it is employed. The same feelings which find 

 their exercise in the worship and reverence of the Deity, will be 

 excited by the sublime, in whatever way it may present itself. 



In reading the two articles just noticed, no one, we think, can 

 fail to be struck with the total want of fixed principle. Like the 

 great majority of the public, the writer applauds and censures he 

 knows not why : he seems to have no notion of criticism, unless it 

 be founded on his own taste ; no test for excellence, but that de- 

 rived from his own discernment. This it is which causes in the 

 public such lamentable want of taste. People seem to have no idea 

 that a composition can be good, which does not happen to please 

 them ; yet if asked for the reason of their disapprobation, they look 

 exceedingly foolish, or probably give a woman's reason. As long as 

 public opinion exists in this state, can we expect music to assume 

 the station it deserves ? Assuredly not : for it is contrary to rea- 

 son to suppose that musicians should so far forget their own interests, 

 as to oppose themselves to the prevailing taste on which their live- 

 lihood often depends, and their reputation is at all times to be gain- 

 ed; and yet, without this opposition, they cannot make a reason- 

 able use of the powers they possess. Public opinion must, and does 

 influence the composers, and not composers public opinion. In 

 order that the latter may exert a proper influence, and that music 

 may assert its true dignity (which can only be the case when the 

 different styles are confined to their proper spheres), it must be en- 

 lightened as to what are the true principles of criticism, as applied 

 to the art, and be taught to appreciate the different values of, as 

 well as the different degrees of, excellence to be found in the seve- 

 ral styles. We should then no longer be sickened by hearing the 

 works of the older church writers called dry and pedantic, or com- 



