MUSIC. 805 
The multitude of angels, with a fliotit 
Loud as from numbers without number, fweet 
As from blefs’d voices uttering joy, heaven rung 
With jubilee, and loud hofannas fill’d 
Th’ eternal regions. Milton. 
Nor was the celebration lefs diftinguilhed by the company 
which it alfembled. Such all audience was never before 
collected together on fuch an occafion in any country; 
among whom not only the king, queen, royal family, no¬ 
bility, great officers of date, appeared, but the archbilhops, 
biffiops, and other dignified clergy, with the heads of the 
law, the patrons and profelfors of fcience, the world of 
falliion, and the fplendour of beauty. 
The commemoration of Handel was for fome time con¬ 
tinued as an annual mufical feftival for charitable pur- 
pofes ; in which the number of performers and the per- 
fe£tion of the performances continued to increafe. In 
3785, the band, vocal and inftrumental, amounted to 616 : 
in 1786 to 741 ; in 1787 to 806 ; and in fublequent years 
to (till greater numbers. Dr. Burney publilhed An Ac¬ 
count of the Mufical Performances in Commemoration 
of Handel, for the benefit of the Mufical Fund. The 
members and guardians of that fund are now incorpo¬ 
rated under the title of the Royal Society of Muficians. 
This memorable year is diftinguifiied alio by the arrival 
of madame Mara, whofe performance in the commemo¬ 
ration of Handel in Weftminfter Abbey infpired an au¬ 
dience of 3000 of the firft people of the kingdom, not only 
with pleafure, but with ecftacy and rapture. 
In 1786 arrived Giovanni Rubinelli. His voice was a 
true and full contr’alto from C in the middle of the fcale 
to the o£lave above. His ftyle was grand ; his execution 
neat and difthnft; liis tafte and embellilhments new, fe- 
le£l, and mafterly. 
In 1788 a new' dance, compofed by the celebrated M. 
Noverre, called Cupid and Pfyclie, was exhibited along 
with the opera La Locandiera, which produced an effe< 5 t 
fo uncommon as to deferve notice. So great was the 
pleafure it afforded to the fpedlators, that Noverre was 
unanimoufly brought on the ftage and crowned with laurel 
by the principal performers. This, though common in 
France, was a new mark of approbation in England. 
This year arrived Luige Marchefi, a finger whofe ta¬ 
lents had been the fubje6l of praife and admiration on 
every great theatre of Europe. .Marchefi’s ftyle of finging 
was not only elegant and refined in an uncommon degree, 
but often grand and full of dignity, particularly in his re¬ 
citative and occafional low notes. His variety of embel- 
liffiment and facility of running extempore divifions were, 
wonderful. Many of his graces were elegant, and of his 
own invention. 
The,three greateft Italian fingers of thefe times were 
certainly Pacchierotti, Rubinelli, and Marchefi. In dis¬ 
criminating the feveral excellencies of thefe great per¬ 
formers, a very refpe&able judge, Dr. Burney, has parti¬ 
cularly praifed the fweet and touching voice of Pacchie¬ 
rotti ; his fine fiiake, his exquifite tafte, his great fancy, 
and his divine expreffion in pathetic longs : of Rubinelli’s 
voice, the fullnefs, fteadinefs, and majefty, the accuracy 
of his intonations, his judicious graces: of Marchefi’s 
voice, the elegance and flexibility, his grandeur in reci¬ 
tative, and his boundlefs fancy and embellilhments. 
During the latter part of the eighteenth century many 
eminent compofers flouriflied on the continent; fuch as 
Jomelli, the family of the Bachs, Gluck, Haydn, ar d 
many others, whofe different ftyles and excellencies would 
well deferve to be particularized, would ourlimits permit. 
With the fame regard to brevity, we can do no more than 
juft mention the late king of Pruffia, the late elector of 
Bavaria; and prince Lobkowitz, as eminent dilettanti of 
modern times. 
Befides the opera-fingers whom we have mentioned, our 
theatres and public gardens have exhibited fingers of 
confiderable merit. In 1730, mils Rafter, afterwards the 
VOL. XVI. No. nr 2 . 
celebrated Mrs. Clive, firft appeared on the ftage at Drury- 
lane as a finger. The fame year introduced Cecilia Young, 
afterwards the wife of Dr. Arne. Her ftyle of finging was 
infinitely fuperior to that of any other Englilh woman of 
her time. 
Our favourite muficians at this time were, Dubourg, 
Clegg, Clarke, and Felling, on the violin ; Kytch on the 
hautboy ; Jack Felling on the German flute ; Ballon on 
the common flute; Karbaon thebafl’oon; Valentine Snow 
on the trumpet; and, on the organ, Rofeingrave, Green, 
Robinfon, Magnus, Jack James, and the blind Stanley, 
who feems to have been preferred. The favourite play- 
houfe-finger was Salway 5 and, at concerts, Mountier of 
Chicliefter. 
As compofers for our national theatre, Pepufch and 
Galliard leem to have been unrivalled till 1732 ; when two 
competitors appeared, who were long in pofleffion of the 
public favour: we allude to John Frederic Lampe and 
Thomas Auguftus Arne. 
In 1736, Mrs. Cibber, who had captivated every hearer 
of fenfibility by her native fweetnefs of voice and powers 
of expreffion as a finger, made her firft attempt as a tragic 
ailrefs. The fame year Beard became a favourite finger at 
Covent-garden. At this time mifs Young, afterwards 
Mrs. Arne, and her two fillers Ifabella and Either, were 
the favourite Englilh female fingers. 
In 1738 was inftituted the fund for the fupport of de¬ 
cayed muficians and their families. 
Of near 150 mufical pieces brought on our national 
theatres within forty years, 38 of them at leaft were let 
by Arne. The ltyle of this compofer, if analyzed, would 
perhaps appear to be neither Italian nor Englilh ; but an 
agreeable mixture of both and of Scotch. 
The late earl of Kelly, who died fome years ago, de- 
ferves particular notice, as pofleffed of a very eminent de¬ 
gree of mufical fcience, far fuperior to other dilettanti, 
and perhaps not inferior to any profefl’or of his time. 
There was no part of theoretical or practical mufic in 
W'hichhe was not thoroughly verled : he pofleffed aftrength 
of hand on the violin, and a genius for compolition, with 
which few profelfors are gifted. 
Charles Frederic Abel was an admirable mufician : his 
performance on the viol da gamba was in every particular 
complete-and perfefl. He had a hand which no difficul¬ 
ties could embarrafs; a tafte the moll refined and delicate ; 
a judgment fo correct and certain as never to permit a 
fingle note to efcape him without meaning. His compo- 
fitions were eafy, and elegantly Ample. In writing, and 
playing an adagio, he was fuperior to all praife 5 the moll 
pleafing yet learned modulation, the richeft harmony, the 
moll elegant and polilhed melody, were all expreffed with 
the moll exquifite feeling, tafte, and fcience. His man¬ 
ner of playing an adagio foon became the model of imi¬ 
tation for all our young performers on bowed inftruments. 
Barthelomon, Cervetto, Cramer, and Crofdil, were in this 
refpect to be ranked as of his fcnool. All lovers of mufic 
mull have lamented that Abe! in youth had not attached 
himfelf to an inllrument more worthy of his genius, tafte, 
and learning, than the viol da gamba, that remnant of 
the old chell of viols which during the l'eventeenth cen¬ 
tury was a neceffary appendage of a nobleman’s or gen¬ 
tleman’s family throughout Europe, previous to the ad- 
miffion of violins, tenors, and bafles, in private houfes 
or public concerts. Since the death of the late eledlor of 
Bavaria, (who was next to Abel the belt performer on the 
viol da gamba in Europe,) the inllrument feems quite 
laid afide. It was ufed longer in Germany than elle- 
where ; but the place of gambift feems now as much 
fuppreffed in the chapels of German princes v as that of 
lutenift. 
The celebrated performer on the violin, Lolle, came to 
England in 1785. Such was his caprice, that he was fel- 
dom heard ; and fo eccentric was his ftyle and compoli- 
lition, that by many he was regarded as a madman. He 
4 K was. 
