BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 217 



with a taste for Handel's choruses or Raphael's Cartoons : the pro- 

 perties which have led the world to admire them are not to be dis- 

 cerned without deep reflection and sedulous cultivation. Here, 

 then, we at once perceive the advantages which Italy, Germany, 

 and France enjoy over England. In Germany, especially, the peo- 

 ple live, as it were, in an atmosphere of music. Every child being 

 taught the notes at the same time with the alphabet, with a view 

 to singing at sight, or playing so as to take part in a quartet, it 

 may naturally be conceived that the expense and trouble of getting 

 together an orchestra and chorus capable of performing a grand 

 work is there comparatively trifling. Hence, what in England 

 costs a gigantic effort to accomplish, is in Germany an every-day 

 occurrence. Whilst, at our festivals, the performance of the Mes- 

 siah affords a never-failing source of self-satisfaction and self-gra- 

 tulation, every German town containing above 20,000 inhabitants 

 has its Sing Akademie, which, without any foreign assistance, pro- 

 duces the master-pieces of Bach, Handel, 3Iozart, Spohr, &c. 

 Thus, while our ideas of art are confined to a few hacknied compo- 

 sitions, our neighbours become familiar with its whole range. Un- 

 til we attain to this familiarity, our judgment and our taste will 

 continue as they at present are, narrow, prejudiced, and one-sided. 

 With this view let music be rendered as cheap and as widely diffu- 

 sed as possible ; let the prices of admission to musical festivals be 

 lowered, and let them occur much more frequently. The present 

 charge of from 15s. to £1. Is. for a single performance is exorbitant, 

 considering that 5s. would be amply sufiicient to cover all reason- 

 able expenses, besides leaving a surplus for future contingencies. 



The benefits resulting from such an arrangement are more nu- 

 merous than might at first sight appear. In the first place, the im- 

 portant admission would be gained that Music is worthy of culti- 

 vation for its own sake ; that, being in itself pure and holy, it needs 

 no apology, no palliating accessories, and no shuffling excuses in 

 justification of the pleasure it affords. The reduction of the price 

 would make it answer to hold the festival annually, and thus enable 

 the directors to bring before the public a far wider range of excel- 

 lence than is practicable or judicious in a triennial meeting. Those 

 who object that the public would thus become " satiated with mu- 

 sic," take for granted one of two untenable propositions; either 

 that music is only attractive while new, or that, if intrinsically 

 pleasing, it becomes less so on familiarity with and knowledge of 

 its effects. With persons holding such opinions it were waste of 

 time to argue. We recommend them to go forth into the world. 



