BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 229 



was destitute. In proportion to the contempt into which religion 

 had universally fallen, did the church music of Germany, Italy, and 

 England, degenerate in all which distinguishes the sacred from the 

 secular. Instead of sublimity we find prettiness, playfulness and ef- 

 feminate sentimentalism, or, if anything higher is aimed at, that 

 dulness which is ever the result of pretence taking the place of rea- 

 lity, as the constant characteristics of the productions of this period. 

 As instances, take Vinci, Galuppi, and Guglielmi, in Italy; Nau- 

 man, Himmel, and Weigl, in Germany ; Kent, Worgan, and Nares, 

 in England. As choral writers, these are all pigmies compared to 

 their predecessors. Haydn and Mozart, though possessing immea- 

 surably greater powers, escaped not the influence of their age. The 

 Creation will live for ever, but its charm lies rather in the freshness 

 of its melodies, and the playful brilliancy of its instrumental accom- 

 paniments, than in the sublimity of its choruses ; and even these 

 would probably never have been written had not Haydn, during his 

 visit to this country, become acquainted with the works of our 

 church composers and of Handel. His Seasons, also composed sub- 

 sequently to his sojourn here, is not an oratorio, but a dramatic-pas- 

 toral cantata, and, considered as such, is excellent.* His masses 

 contain some beautiful quartetts and solos ; but the choruses are on 

 two petty a scale, and their whole character is secular, not sacred. 

 As to the productions called Mozart's masses, we are convinced that 

 they are either not his, or else that they are early and hasty effu- 

 sions, giving no juster idea of his style and genius than does Titus 

 Androuicus of Shakspeare's. We are the more inclined to this be- 

 lief as, in the Requiem, vie see no indistinct traces of the greatness 

 to which this mighty master might have attained in the sacred 

 style had he been spared time fully to realize his conceptions. We 

 are surprised that the admirers of IMozart have not made more stre- 

 nuous efforts to obtain the performance of this extraordinary pro- 

 duction. 



Of subsequent composers, with the exception of Spohr, we recol- 

 lect only one grand work on a religious subject which deserves to live. 

 When we reflect that that work is the production of an Englishman, 

 we blush for the neglect which its author has suffered at the hands 

 of his countrymen. We allude, of course, to the Palestine of Dr. 

 Crotch. While numberless critics are enaged in the contemptible 

 task of magnifying mole-hills into mountains, they seem by com- 



• This channiiif^ production would, if t,'iveii in the eveiiiiif,', afford a treat 

 worthy of an intellectual audience. 



