PINE ARTS. 147 



happen to be, for the race is numerous enough. As to the Varieties, 

 our opinion of thera it is unnecessary to deliver, for Mr. Sutton, in 

 his preface, has given them condemnation sufhcient, and has stated 

 pretty plainly that, though but poor things intrinsically, they have 

 served their purpose to hitn. We heartily congratulate him, and 

 hope his subscribers are equally satisfied. We fancy they will have 

 had enough of " good feeling" for some time to come. 



The Sacred Musical Amulet ; a Selection of Melodies from the 

 works of J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Cherubini, Gluck, &c., to which 

 are added several new compositions. By C. McHorkell. Lon- 

 don : R. Cocks & Co., 20, Princes-street, Hanover-square. 1837, 



In a work which one sees, at the first glance, is intended for the 

 Sabbath evening recreation of the " serious young lady," we ex- 

 pected certainly to find in abundance adaptations (as they are ironi- 

 cally called) of opera airs, fragments of the slow movements of sym- 

 phonies, and disjointed excerpts from the masses of foreign com- 

 posers, to verses (poetry we dare not call it) of sickly religious 

 sentiment, or displays of unredeemed bad taste. All this we expect- 

 ed, and we have found it. But there is one piece of music the dis- 

 covery of which in such a collection has delighted us in proportion to 

 its unexpectedness ; we mean the song by Sebastian Bach, by the 

 greatest chance in the world (as we cannot but think) standing en- 

 tire and unmangled, in all its native loveliness. Such a piece atones 

 for many a fault in the rest of the work. Mr. Gauntlett's song is 

 pretty, and with a few alterations might almost be faultless. We 

 will mention one : if the melody in the fifth bar from the end were 

 W^ and C leading up to D, instead of G, the passage would be grace- 

 ful and original, instead of being, as it now is, bald and abrupt. 

 The " vision of dry bones" might have been dispensed with, words 

 and all; if any one can sing it through, preserving his gravity, it is 

 a wonder. We have nothing to say against the outer integuments 

 and getting-up of the work, and only wish that the internal struc- 

 ture were equally excellent. 



Preludes and Fugue in A Major, for the Organ, with a part for 

 the Pedal Obligate. By Egerton Webbe. London : 3. A. No- 

 vello, 69, Dean-street, Soho. 



Mr. Webbe comes out in his first work a learned and experi- 

 enced musician. He has not inflicted on the public the first crude 

 essays of his genius, but has studied and practised in private, striv- 

 ing to merit a fame lasting beyond the present hour. If he do not 

 obtain it he alone will be to blame ; for his present work, if it do 

 not deserve to live, shows at least that by patient and persevering 

 cultivation of his genius he may undoubtedly succeed in producing 

 others which may. What is most wanted in this composition, par- 



