school of poetry was then so censurable. Many of these are exquisitely beautiful: but it is well known that their difficulty is such that they are seldom well performed; and in the generality of them the art and labour are so obvious as to cause a disagreeable rather than a pleasant effect. Out of this evil, how ever, the next stage produced strict and free fugues, imitations, and other pieces of that kind, in which the natural and the artificial effect are more agreeably combined than in most other sorts of composition. Throughout the whole, simplicity of effect has continued gradually to gain ground. In England, the music of Purcell, perhaps, led the way; Corelli and the other Italian masters of his age followed. Something of air and accompani ment was then practised, and, at the next step, we meet with great point of union of all styles in Handel and his contemporaries. Of the works of Handel, indeed, some are more remarkable for scientific composition and ingenious contrivance than for simplicity of effect: but the observation will not hold as a general rule. He was fond of imitative accompaniment, of which his "Acis and Galatea" affords the finest specimen throughout. The taste of succeeding masters has been more sparing of this style. Among those masters, the name of Mozart will ever stand as one of the most conspicuous; since, with a strictness not inferior to that of Handel or the older composers, but with a genius more fertile and unrestrained, he has succeeded in producing the utmost novelty and variety of effect, with the closest and most strictly allowed materials.

Perhaps, our readers will think that we trespass on their patience by these detailed observations: but they have occurred to us in the course of our perusal and examination of Dr. Crotch's volume, and therefore we have not considered them as irrelevant on this occasion. Viewed as an elementary work, the present is certainly most clearly and ably drawn up. It is comprized in a small compass, yet is sufficiently full to be free from obscurity; it affects no grace of style, though it is clear and perspicuous; and it is far from tedious, though it goes labori ously through the details of its subject. From the review which we have taken of the compositions of the day in England, we think that such a work is calculated to be highly useful. Fancy and genius abound; and all that is necessary is to introduce a little more accuracy of science and correctness of effect. It must not, however, be considered as a familiar treatise on the subject, or one which will be entirely comprehended without a considerable share of attention. The practical knowlege of this art has lately spread very extensively among our female population; and certainly nothing is more agreeable in social life than the cultivation of it. The scientific part of

the

the art, however, is little cultivated; and, .consequently, one great means of acquiring facility and increased enjoyment in the practical part of it is lost. With a view to this neglect, we think that a publication is still wanting which shall go farther in simplification and be more familiar than this of Dr. Crotch : but such a production must, to a certain degree, be less scientific. For instance, it should take the ordinary notation, (that of the Solfa being too abstracted,) and leave all, that cannot be effected by means of that notation, to the subject of transposi→ tion.-Even the naming of the intervals might in some measure be disregarded; and the nomenclature of flat ninths, sharp sevenths, and other mathematical niceties, (so difficult in general to be comprehended,) might be abolished. All the rules might simply be given in the natural keys of C for the major and A for the minor, and adapted to the nomenclature of the gammuts in those keys only; and this mode, with proper directions for transposing from these keys into all the others, and for modulation, would produce nearly the same result with greater simplicity. We do not mean to express a wish that Dr. Crotch should devote his time to such a work: but these remarks may meet the eye of some author who may be able so to allot a portion of his leisure, and thus supply a deficiency in the literature of his art. In the mean time, we hope that Dr. Crotch will pursue the subject beyond the mere elements of the science, and direct the attention of students to all that is most worthy of imitation in the works of their predecessors or their contemporaries.

We cannot close this article without adding a few words on the mechanical part of the science of music. The striking improvements which have been made in modern times, in the manufacture of musical instruments, will be admitted by every one who is in any degree conversant with the fact*: but this branch of the art seems to be so circumstanced as naturally to defy all attempts at perfection. Dr. Crotch has devoted the last chapter of his work to the subject of Tuning and Temperament; and innumerable other writings on these topics have lately appeared. It is well known that our piano-fortes and organs have, in general, only 12 notes in every octave: but that, mathematically speaking, there are a great many more. Convenience will not permit the number now in use to be much augmented, though in some instruments the number of finger keys in every octave exceeds 12: but none could pos

* We have been credibly informed that one very eminent pianoforte-maker has for years past expended a thousand pounds annually in experiments.

sibly extend to comprehend all the necessary notes without being absolutely useless to the performer. Attempts have, therefore, been made of late to adapt the usual number and scale of finger-keys to a larger number of notes, by means of shifting pedals: a very simple contrivance for this purpose has been devised by Mr. Loëschman, of Newman Street; and something of the same kind has been invented by the Reverend Mr. Lister. Some of the defects, however, will never be completely removed; and to cure them in part is to have a part more perfect and the remainder more imperfect than in the generality of instruments: so that it is perhaps best, under all circumstances, to rest contented with the means which have been long since adopted for removing or rather compromising the difficulty. This is what is denominated temperament; and it consists in dividing the mathematical discrepances between different notes so that they may approximate to each other: for instance, where an interval would occur between D and Eb in the key of C, and both might be wanted in that or in some key, it is customary to raise the lower and sink the higher of those two notes in a trifling degree, so as to make. them serve for each other. The ear scarcely appreciates this management in any case, and therefore no unpleasant effect is produced. Some singers, indeed, complain that the voice is not so tractable in this respect: but it is perhaps not evident that any good foundation exists for the assertion; and it seems probable that the voice is not more accurate than the ear. The objection, however, is made clearly perceptible by the Monochord, to the description of which contrivance Dr. Crotch has allotted a part of this last chapter of his work. That instrument is merely a single string strained to any given degree of tension over two bridges, in the manner of a violin-string. When sounded open, it gives a certain note; when divided into two equal parts by pressure in the middle, it gives the octave of the first; at two thirds, a fifth, and so on. As the scale becomes more refined, the numbers are either not reducible to any fractional denomination, or require very extended denominators; and, to give the whole their tones with perfect accuracy even to the extent to which composition is sometimes practised, 24 notes would be required in every octave, and still it would not be mathematically perfect. Mr. Loëschman, in a perspicuous little pamphlet published by him in explanation of his improved piano-fortes, has stated the exact relative values of the notes in the following numbers: C 3600: C 3445: Db 3364: C x 3297: D 3220: D 3081 : Eb 3009: E 2880 Fb 2811: E 2756: F 2691: F 2576: Gb 2515 FX 2465: G 2407 G 2304: A b 2250: A 2153:

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REV. Nov. 1814.

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C

A 2153 B bb 2102 : A * 2061: Bb 2012 : B 1926: Cb 1881 Bx 1843; and the values of them, according to the usual mode of temperament, as follows: C 3600: 3445: D 3220: Eb 3009: E 2880: F 2691 : F× 2576: G 2407 G 2304 A 2153 Bb 2012 and B 1926. This is according to what is termed the equal or mean-tone temperament. Dr. Crotch approves that method of tuning, and it is most commonly in use. Other modes, however, have been suggested, as calculated to bring the instrument nearer to the desired mathematical perfection; and Earl Stanhope (the extent of whose contributions to all the mechanical arts is generally known) has explained a new mode of tuning: the principal feature of which consists in its taking two intervals in the scale, without reference in the usual manner to the foundation or key-note. For instance, after having tuned the other notes on the instrument by perfect intervals, his Lordship recommends that A b or G should be tuned exactly half way between E and C, forming with those notes what he terms two bi-equal thirds; and that the interval between G and its E double octave should be divided into three equal portions, called tri-equal quints: those portions to be occupied by D and A. The effect of this arrangement is to make the two bi-equal thirds something sharper than perfect thirds, so that one perfect third and two bi-equal thirds shall form a perfect octave, and the tri-equal fifths rather flatter than perfect fifths. Our musical readers know that, if an octave be made by tuning the thirds successively, the upper note will be too flat; and that, if seven octaves be made by tuning the fifths in succession perfectly, the highest note will be too sharp. The difference in the latter case is technically called The Great Wolf; and in the former, a little Wolf. We understand, however, from an ingenious artist, that on an experiment of the Stanhope mode of tuning it was not found so agreeable as the ordinary mode; from which we may infer that it is not eligible to take the relative values of the notes arbitrarily, even in the smallest degree. It also seems to follow that it is unsafe, on this subject, to trust to any other guide than the ear.

After all that has been said on tuning, it does not appear to us that any satisfactory result has been produced, except that the defects existing on keyed instruments can never be completely removed; and, although for some particular occasions the new improvements may be found useful, or it may even be desirable that special modes of tuning should be adopted, yet the

* See the experiments detailed in Lord Stanhope's pamphlet.

instruments

instruments ordinarily in use, and the common mode of tuning, (that is, with equal temperament,) will be amply sufficient and most advisable for general purposes.

ART. VII. Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years since. 3 Vols. 12mo. Il. Is. Boards. Constable and Co. Edinburgh. Longman and Co. London. 1814.

THE

HE Memoirs of the Count de Grammont have generally, of late years, been classed in point of authenticity among the fairy-tales of their lively and intelligent author; and, supposing that not a syllable of them were strictly true, the work itself would scarcely be the less historically valuable. This remark, we fear, cannot be made with respect to Voltaire's Charles XII.; which, though it contains a number of wellestablished and important truths, is nevertheless, to all purposes of historical utility, as mere a romance as those of Florian and Marmontel. The difference lies in this circumstance: Count Hamilton's stories are the vivid reflections of the character, customs, and opinions of that class and period of society to which they refer; while the facts related by the patriarch of Ferney are coloured according to the dictates of his own fancy, and dressed out for ornament and effect. Whoever be the author of Waverly, and most of our readers probably know that it is attributed to Mr. Walter Scott, he is an historian of the former order; and those, who regard a knowlege of the mo tives and principles of actions as more worthy of attainment than the chronological succession of those actions themselves, will acquire a much larger share of such information from the perusal of these volumes than from all the tomes of Smollett, Belsham, and Adolphus. The frame of the picture is fiction: but the delineation itself is as correct, minute, and spirited a copy of nature as ever came from the hands of an artist.

That memorable year in our annals, 1745, is the æra of the principal events here recorded. Edward Waverley, the personage from whom the work derives its title, and whom in compliance with immemorial custom we must consequently designate as its hero, is the descendant of an old English toty family; of which his father, Mr. Richard Waverley, being a younger brother, has sought to build his fortunes on a departure from the hereditary principles of his house, though they are maintained in full force by Sir Everard, the elder. characters of this worthy bachelor and his maiden sister, Mrs. Rachael, are drawn not only with fidelity but with considerable humour; yet the qualities of which they partake are so much' in common with many equally reverend personages of popular notoriety,

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