PROSPECTUS OF THE HARMONICON, 



justly complains, but also tend to the disgraceful increase of trashy publications. 

 The Original Pieces printed in the Harmonicon are by living^ cwnposftrs, whose 

 names .alone are a sufficient guarantee for the excellence of their works, which must, 

 however, be judged by their intrinsic merits, and to that test they^are most willingly 

 submitted. But the Selected Music may be mentioned without similar feelings of 

 restraint. In that portion of the work will be found the most modern and popular 

 compositions in use on the Continent, and many gems deserving a better fate than the 

 oblivion to which they appeared to be consigned; together with numerous pieces, by 

 British and Foreign artists, that could be made popular only through the agency of 

 such a publication as the present. 



These selections are made from the ample stores of ancient and modern works in 

 possession of the several Conductors of the Harmonicon, and from the growing sup- 

 plies collected abroad, and regularly forwarded by their foreign correspondents. The 

 eflFects of this system of selection from such abundant sources must obviously be to 

 extend the knowledge, cultivate the taste, and hnprove the practice of this delightful 

 and seductive art. 



AMATEURS AND PROFESSORS 

 will find an inexhaustible fund of amusement and research in the interesting Essays, 

 ingenious Communications, and elaborate Reviews, of which the literary part of the 

 work consists. It may here be mentioned, that the advantages exclusively possessed 

 at the Office in which it is printed contribute, in a most important degree, to the per- 

 fection of this part of the work. The Printer of the Harmonicon has, at vast 

 labour and expense, brought to perfection a beautiful fount of Music Tvpes, so 

 ingenious in design, and so extremely perfect in execution, as to produce, with the 

 finest possible effect, those minute and complicated characters which have hitherto 

 defied the efforts of all the Type-founders of Europe by whom they have succes- 

 sively been attempted. The possession of these curious types enables the writers to 

 illustrate their papers with Musical Examples in the body of the text ; as, for instance, 

 in treating of National Music, any popular Melody may be introduced, with the Ob- 

 servations relating to it ; and in the Criticism or Analysis of a Work under Review, 

 passages remarkable either for beauty, or liable to exposure for inaccuracy, are 

 at once brought under the eye of the Reader. This portion of the work also com- 

 prises Critical Accounts of the Antient, the Philharmonic, and other important Con- 

 certs, and the Musical Drama, furnished by gentlemen totally unconnected with the 

 Press, and every way uninfluenced by the prejudices or interests by wliich those mat- 

 ters are too generally distorted. 



In an advertisement like the present it is not, of course, possible to particularize the 

 whole contents of the Three Volumes already published ; the following brief summary 

 will furnish a general idea of the nature and pretensions of the work. 



The following celebrated blasters are among the contributors of 

 ORIGINAL MUSIC. 



Attwood, 

 Braham, 

 Carnaby, (Dr.) 

 Coccia, (Signor) 



Cramer, (J. B.) j Moscheles, I Potter, (Cipriani) 



Hummel, (ofVienna) Pinto, (The late ] Ravvlings, 

 Linley, (\V., Esq.) G. F.) | Ries, (Fred.) 



Moralt, 



