53&- 



New Musie and the Drama. 



ments. Parcel of the Duchy of Cornwall, 

 or annexed to the same. 



[July I, 



Cap. LXXX. To continue, until 

 the ^st Day of August, 1823, an Act 

 Cap. LXXIX. To amend an Act of made in this present Session of Parlia- 

 the Fifty-third Year of the Reign of ment„for suppressing Insurrections and 

 his late 3Iajesly, for the Appointment of preienting- Disturbances of t/te Public 

 Commissioners for the Regnlation of the Peace in Ireland, 

 several endowed Schools in Ireland. 



NEW MUSIC AND THE DRAMA. 



Divine Amusement ; being a select Col- 

 lection of Psalms and Hymns, adapted 

 for the Voice and Piano-forte, or 

 Organ; by T. Curtis. 7s. 



AMONG tlie numerous publications 

 of this minor kind, in the pro- 

 vince of sacred composition, willi 

 which the musical world of our own 

 times has, from time to time, been 

 accommodated by various compilers 

 and original composers, the present 

 work (of which the portion now before 

 us forms the fourt'i volume) may be 

 said to hold no mean rank. Its con- 

 tentSfWliich occupy forty-eight pa?;cs, 

 include forty-four different melodies, 

 the greater part of which are eligibly 

 chosen, and are calculated to give a 

 favourable impression of Mr. Ciirtis's 

 taste. The movements are in general 

 tolerably well suited to the words, and 

 the basses are scientiGc and cflcctive ; 

 but one defect pervades the whole 

 GoUcctiou, which, unless at the ex- 

 pense of re-engraving all the plates, 

 cannot be remedied ; we allude to the 

 uniform omission of a jiianci-forte 

 accomi)animent. This is so consider- 

 able a drawback upon the value of the 

 work, and so ill accords witli the 

 substance of the title-page, that we 

 wonder Mr. C. felt himself justified in 

 announcing it as adapted for the voice 

 and piano-forte. The only furtlier re- 

 mark we have to make relates rather 

 to persons than to things, rather to 

 individual right than to the merit of the 

 compositions. ^\ by, — wc cannot help 

 asking, — of all the composers from 

 M'hose productions this publication has 

 been furnished, are no names given 

 except those of Byrd, Jomelli, Dr. 

 INIiller, Paxton, and M. Cooke? 

 Orythia, an Air-Fantasia for the Piano- 

 J'orJe ; composed by E. Woodward. 2y> 

 The fantasia, a composition wiiich, 

 though Itss eccentric than the ccpriaio, 

 still has for its chief and proper fea- 

 ture a certain degree of wildness, or 

 unrestrained freedom, is i^o far sup- 

 posed to be extempur; (irons and 

 *vanejccnt, as almost to exclude the 



idea of its existing on paper. Accord- 

 ing to lire original conception of a fan- 

 tasia, it was the fleeting result of tran- 

 sitory imagination, and so estranged 

 from any permanence, that its assump- 

 tion of any fixed form would be a 

 mutation of its ciiaracler. Yet, by 

 degrees, it has deviated from this its 

 real nature ; and now, fantasias are as 

 often seen flourishing among the stu- 

 died flowers of a publication, as heard 

 in th(! rapid current of unpremeditated 

 jjerformance. Sanctioned by usage, 

 Mr. Woodward, overlooking the pri- 

 n)itive distinction of the tVintasia, has 

 treated it agreeably to the present no- 

 tion of its species ; and has, we must 

 say, produced under that designation 

 an ingenious and attractive composi- 

 tion. We find, mixed up with the 

 spirit and freedom of his passages, no 

 small portion of novelty ; and, the 

 case and gracefulness with which they 

 run into each other, at once prove his 

 sense of the necessity of connexion, 

 and his power to commend it. 

 Dalheith-hovse, or Quadrilles arranged 

 from favourite Scottish Airs, per- 

 formed at the Balls of the Nobility in 

 London, Edinbvrgh, Bath, Chellen- 

 ham, ^-c. fur the Piano-forte or 

 Harp . 3*. 



The six articles of which this little 

 collection of quadrilles consists, are 

 the airs of " We're a' noddin at our 

 house," " the Highland Laddie," 

 "Duncan Gray," " Kenmure's awa," 

 " Boat me o'er to Charlie," and a 

 grand waltz ; aud the task incumbent 

 on the selector, of filling up the har- 

 monies, arranging the basses, aud em- 

 bellishing the ^\hole, has been per- 

 fornied with tolerable success. If, 

 simply as melodies, the little compo- 

 sitions here assembled are deserving 

 favourites with the public, they will 

 not be found to lose any of their claims 

 to partiality by the particular charac- 

 ter they are now made to assume. 

 Their animation is a quality that sanc- 

 tions the use tovhich they are here 

 applied; and the figures with which 



they 



