326 '• Whether Music is necessary to the Orator, &c." 



opinion as to the probable number of slides with which it may 

 be adorned* — I shall hazard a few more, though perhaps un- 

 necessary remarks, and terminate my letter. 



First then, as to the range of notes or repeats, — I would re- 

 quest him to consider that, having a different object in view, I 

 did not, by any means, attempt that variety of intervals which 

 very musical speakers may possiblv introduce : and yet I can 

 hardly persuade invself that even the present intervals deserve, 

 when applied to language, the epithet " unvaried\," especially 

 when I compare them with one of the boldest and most expres- 

 sive recitative compositions of the immortal Handkl. 



We are indebted to Dr. Burney for a copy of this production, 

 taken from the last act of the Oratorio of Athalia. He consi- 

 ders it a master- piece, in which the genius of English speech is 

 wonderfully preserved. It commences witli " But as the young 

 Barbarian I caress' d," and terminates \\\i\\'-^ I fainted and I 

 fell- 



The music runs thus : 



Recitative. 



But as tlie vuiiiig bar - ha - nan, (S:c. 



taint - eu, aiiL 



Of this passage — the variations of interval require no com- 

 ment : but with regard to the slides (which in regular music are 

 represented by slurs) ; — throughout the four lines from which 

 the above words are extracted, not a single instance of any such 

 can be found, except in the solitary case of " foinled " or rather 

 '^'foint." Such was the conception of Handel. 



In speech, however, as I should imagine, these graces, byway 

 of compensation for its comparatively unnmsica! character, may 

 be less sparingly employed. Our short vowels, it is true, when 



* It will be seen, if my subsequent reasoniiifj be well foiuided, that 

 " Eng" in Enghind," hy somewhat extending the vowel, is the only admis- 

 sible slide, (and tltat, most undoubtedly, an upward one) within the passage. 



-f- There is a material diiTereuce between "unvaried" and" unmvsical." 

 Speech is not very much inferior, vnvuriety, to the sim])lei' k^nds of recita- 

 tive, although lesa imisicul m its intervals. Recitative too, is governed by 

 a key; speech by none. Regular //?««, likewise, to a considerable extent, 

 is gi'antcd to recitative . while, to speech, even this privilege is denied. 



legitimately 



