solemn, expressive, and deeply affecting religious composition that has appeared since the days of that mighty master. In his masses, written for the ordinary service of the church, he has conformed to the prevailing taste of the time, and mingled strains full of sublimity and devotional feeling with light and airy passages, at variance alike with the style of ecclesiastical music and with the sentiments which it ought to inspire. His sacred musical drama, Davide Penitente, has never been performed in England, though one or two of the airs have been sung at our Festivals. The effect of the work, when given entire, is described by those who have heard it as being very great; the concluding fugue, in particular, and double chorus with which it terminates, being of surpassing grandeur.

In instrumental music he has never yet been excelled. His magnificent symphonies are the delight of every audience; and every amateur, worthy of the title, knows well his exquisite quartets and quintets. His concertos and sonatas for the piano-forte have been, in a considerable measure, laid aside to make way for more modern compositions; some of which, being written by truly great masters for an instrument, the powers of which have been greatly enlarged, are really more striking and effective; while others are popular merely because they afford room for a display of showy execution. But, from pieces of the former as well as the latter kind, we turn with pleasure to the pure, delicate, and graceful music of Mozart, when performed by an artist of a spirit congenial to his own,—an artist such as JOHN CRAMER, whose recent retirement from his profession is a loss which the musical world will long have reason to deplore.

Among the German composers who flourished in the latter part of the last century, none, for a time, enjoyed greater popularity than PLEYEL. He was born in

Austria, in 1757, and studied under Haydn. He was for a considerable time chapel-master at Strasburg, but spent the latter part of his life in Paris, where he was an extensive publisher of music. Pleyel's compositions are very numerous, and almost entirely instrumental, consisting of orchestral symphonies, quartets, trios, duets, concertos, sonatas, &c., for various instruments. Dr. Burney, speaking of Pleyel in 1789, says, "There has lately been a rage for the music of Pleyel, which has diminished the attention of amateurs and the public But whether this ingenious to all other violin music. and engaging composer does not draw faster from the fountain of his invention than it will long bear, and whether his imitations of Haydn, and too constant use of semitones, and coquetry in rallentandos and pauses, will not be soon construed into affectation, I know not; but it has already been remarked by critical observers, that his fancy, though at first so fertile, is not so inexhaustible but that he frequently repeats himself, and does not sufficiently disdain the mixture of common passages with his own elegant ideas." Though the true character of Pleyel's music was thus early appreciated by judicious critics, yet the rage for it went on increasing; and, for many years after Burney wrote, and long after the music of Haydn and Mozart had been introduced into England, the quartets, sonatas for the piano-forte, and other instrumental compositions of Pleyel, were in general use, to the exclusion of the far superior works of those masters. Perhaps our amateurs have now erred in going to the opposite extreme; for, though Pleyel's music possesses neither depth of harmony, greatness of conception, nor strength of feeling, yet it is often exceedingly melodious, elegant, and graceful; and some of his quartets ought still to be among the stock pieces of every society of amateurs.

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CHAPTER XIV.

THE MUSIC OF THE REFORMED CHURCH.-METRICAL

PSALMODY.

THE music which, at the time of the Reformation, was adopted in the Liturgy of the Church of England, did not differ much from that which had been employed in the corresponding parts of the Romish ritual. The English Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, was published, and ordered to be generally used, in 1548; and, in 1550, the whole cathedral service was set to musical notes, and published by John Marbeck, organist, of Windsor. The chants of the principal hymns, such as the Te Deum Laudamus, and responses, contained in this book, were nearly the same with the missals, graduals, and antiphonaries formerly used. The anthems, too, originally composed for the Reformed Church, appear to have been similar to those previously used, except that their words were English instead of Latin; and the great ecclesiastical composers of the time of Edward the Sixth, of whom some account has already been given, have also left specimens of their previous compositions of a similar kind, adapted to the Latin words of the Romish ritual. When Queen Mary abrogated all the laws of her predecessor concerning religion, and restored the Romish service, it appears that the compositions of the same masters, Tye, Tallis, Bird, &c., with Latin words, were again performed in the churches; for the list of the establishment of the queen's chapel contained nearly the same names with that of Edward the Sixth. And it is not a little remarkable that, after the accession of Elizabeth, the establishment of the royal chapel

remained almost the same as in the two preceding reigns. These great harmonists seem to have been little troubled with religious scruples.

Elizabeth succeeded to the crown in November, 1558, and, in April following, gave the royal assent to the Bill for the uniformity of Common Prayer; and the Book of Common Prayer, thus established by law, was published immediately afterwards. At this time, religious dissensions ran very high; and, in respect to church music, in particular, the Puritans had begun to raise that clamour against "playing upon organs," "curious singing," and "tossing about the psalms from side to side"-meaning responsive or alternate singing,—which, at a subsequent period, banished, for a time, choral music from our churches. Elizabeth, in these circumstances, conducted herself with the wisdom which belonged to her character; avoiding, on the one hand, the bigotry and superstition of the Romish Church, and, on the other, the fanaticism of the violent reformers. "In 1560," says Heylin, in his Ecclesiastical History, "the Church of England, as it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth, may be regarded as brought to perfection. The government of the Church by archbishops and bishops; its doctrines reduced to their ancient purity, according to the articles agreed on in Convocation, 1552; the Liturgy, conformable to the primitive patterns, and all the rites and ceremonies therein prescribed, accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety. The festivals preserved in their former dignity; the sacrament celebrated in the most reverend manner; music retained in all such churches in which provision had been made for the maintenance of it, or where the people could be trained up, at least, to plain song. All which particulars were either established by the laws, commanded by the

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queen's injunctions, or otherwise retained by virtue of some ancient usages not by law prohibited. Nor is it much to be admired [wondered at], that such a general conformity to those ancient usages was constantly observed in all cathedrals, and the most part of the parish churches, considering how well they were precedented by the court itself; in which the Liturgy was officiated every day, both morning and evening, not only in the public chapel, but the private closet;celebrated in the chapel with organs and other musical instruments, and the most excellent voices, both of men and children, that could be procured in all the kingdom."

During Queen Elizabeth's reign the Puritans made frequent demonstration of their hostility to the service of the Established Church. In 1571, they published a Declaration, or Confession, in which they say, "Concerning singing of psalms, we allow of the people's joining with one voice in a plain tune, but not of tossing the psalms from one side to the other, with intermingling of organs." In 1586 a pamphlet was extensively circulated, entitled A Request of all true Christians to the House of Parliament, which, among other changes, prays "that all cathedral churches may be put down, where the service of God is generally abused by piping with organs, singing, ringing, and trowling of psalms from one side of the choir to the other, with the squeaking of chanting choristers, disguised (as are all the rest) in white surplices; some in corner caps and silly copes, imitating the fashion and manner of Antichrist, the Pope, that man of sin and child of perdition, with his other rabble of miscreants and shavelings." These are specimens of the spirit in which this hostility was carried on, with increasing violence, till it at length accomplished its object.