The &a-Nymph's Song. Written by J. F. Smith; the Music
by John Barnett.
It is refreshing to see the name of John Barnett on the titlepage of a piece of music. Of all the English composers of the day, he has come nearest to the standard of the great German masters. His beautiful Mountain Sylph, though the most successful, is not, as a musical composi- tion, the most excellent of his works. It was in his unfortunate and for- gotten operas, Fair Rosamond and Farinelli, that he put forth his greatest strength as a musician, and produced concerted pieces and choruses that would have done no discredit to Mozart or Weber. But, in these cases, he made the mistake of uniting his music to dull and ponderous dramas; and drama and music perished together. In place of profiting by what might have been a useful lesson, he gave way to disappointment and disgust, and retired altogether from the field, leaving it in possession of inferior chain- pions. An occasional vocal trifle is all that reminds the public of John Barnett; but these trifles are generally marked with a master's hand. The &a-Nymph's Song is of this stamp. The words have fancy and feeling, and are treated by the musician with the simplicity of genius. The melody is expressive, with some traits of novelty; and the effects of modulation and harmony are admirable. In the school where Barnett studied, the song and its accompaniment held their right places: now, every juvenile song- writer tries to out-Schubert Schubert, making his trivial melody a mere vehicle for a load of crabbed chromatic discords miscalled an accompani- ment for the pianoforte.
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