TIIE VOCAL CONCERTS.

THE. progress of music, like that of physical science, generates a divi-

sion of purpose and a diversity of aim among its votaries. Time was when the Royal Society was the sole nucleus and depository of science, but now the lovers of each department of it pursue their researches and

publish their transactions distinctly and apart. Thus also every spot In Music's fair and fertile regions finds its appropriate cultivators and

visitants, stimulated sometimes by real and genuine love of the art, sometimes by the mere sordid love of pelf, more generally by an ad- mixture of both. But, with whatever motives undertaken, we must look to institutions like those for the diffusion of a more correct mu- sical taste in the Metropolis. It is become somewhat fashionable to apply the term "classical " to music intended for public display : a proof that it is not regarded as designating such as is tit only for pe- dants or antiquarians. BLAGROVE speculated, and with good teason, last year, upon the attractive power of modern instrumental chamber music ; and Moscneees, whose love of his art seems to grow with his

years, has announced a series of concerts, of which the harpsichord lessons of Been, Hestora., and SCARLATT1, are to form the principal

feature. This is precisely as it should be. It belongs to the eminent professor to lead, to stimulute, to direct the public taste, and not to play the subservient and obsequious toady to titled imbecility and folly. It is not for such men to yoke themselves to the rickety and cumbrous vehicle, symptomatic alike of ostentation and poverty, which an empty and insolent sprig of nobility attempts to drive : such a person must look for sycophants and tools among the " hewers of wood and drawers of water" in the profession. The ardent spirit of youth and the matured experience of riper years, in both the instances to which we allude, supported by that self-reliance which conscious genius possesses, disdains such an unworthy and degrading alliance, and asserts its own power to originate and to act. Every year produces some instance of the growing independence of music—of its power to live and thrive without the incumbrance of high

and noble patronage. A list of titled names is sometimes appended to a concert or a series of soirees given by some very obscure rinti fifth. rate singer or player, but nowhere else. The Philharmonic Society

had the merit (and five-and-twenty years since the merit seas great,) to disown any dependence upon fashionable contiol or patrouage, and to vindicate the claim and assert the ability of musical professors to manage the affairs of a musical society. But although they thus volun. tarily abandoned the ground on which all entertainments of this kind had been erected, other sources of reliance bad arisen on which they might build with confidence for success. First of all, the novelty and the splendour of the exhibition which they planned-3lozala and BEETHOVEN were to be made manifest in all their majesty. The per- formance of their Sinfonias blazed like a comet in our musical atmo- sphere. Large was the proportion of really delighted and astonished bearers. Many were led by the desire to display a second-hand coil. noisseurship, and not a few by the vanity of belonging to an audience, all of whom were supposed capable of enjoying and appreciating the new wonders of the musical art. Here was a new pleasure created, and that of the highest kind, and it was a pleasure not opened to the public. It was then a privilege and a favour to be enrolled in the list of subscribers to the Philharmonic Concerts.

The Vocal Society has undertaken a more difficult, but certainly not less praiseworthy task. Its primary object was not so much to intro- duce a new pleasure, as to revive the taste for an old one. in the very .outset, its members stated this as the chief purpose of their Associa- tion. Admitting the existence of a prejudice against the vocal har-

mony of their native county, they said, "we will do our best to over-

-come it." And this endeavour has been coupled with one not less praiseworthy, if less patriotic—that of naturalizing the best vocal com- positions, sacred as well as secular, of other lands, chiefly those of Germany. Thus, the same exertions which have rescued from dust and cobwebs the beautiful productions of the Elizabethan age, and given them to the knowledge and admiration of the world, have been with equal assiduity arid success engaged in producing the vocal works of their great foreign contemporaries. In the prospectus of the old Vocal Concerts of HARRISON, GREATOREX, and KNYVETT, we re- member that it was stated as an attractive feature, that "the compo.

sitions of Sir JOHN STEVENSON and Dr. CLARKE would be performed."

(With what a look of bitter scorn must their unfitly-yoked comrade, BARTLEMAN, have viewed the announcement of this bait !) To no such degradation have the members of the Vocal Society submitted. The high ground on which they started they have kept; and very rarely have their concert-bills exhibited any disgraceful or unworthy associations. Could they congregate the men of all ages and countries whose talents have contributed to them, the proudest might feel honoured by the presence of his associates. The success of the Vocal Concerts has not been splendid. In truth, it has been far below their deserts; for without these concerts some of the finest vocal compositions, native as well as foreign, would have been unheard and unknown to the public. Nearly all of them are excluded by rule, by custom, by want of sufficient vocal power, from the London Concerts. The Vocal Society fills up a large and important gap in the art, and its influence is more widely diffused and more powerfully felt than that of any other musical association. Every Provincial Festival of the last year gleaned largely from its Woks.

The first concert of the season was on Monday last, and its scheme was formed on the model of former years. HANDEL contributed more

than his usual share—not of the stale mid hackneyed pieces which vibrate every year on the drowsy hearers of the Ancient Conoerta, but some of which, to many,- were as new as they were excellent the rollover] Chorus, 0 come let us sing unto the Lord," which begins one of the CHANDOS Anthems ; the tine song from Otho, which has slept since the days of Henri-sofas: ; and the Chorus from Alexander Balus—" To thee let grateful Judah sing." To these were added a charming Motet by Mozatte, and the opening Chorus in Eureanthe, both of which were produced last year at these concerts. The Madri- gals were " Sweet honey-sucking bees," fuel anew" Oriana" by CA. VEND1SH. Both were encored. We recommend the repetition of the latter at some subsequent concert, and the performance of one of Lord Monsaxorost's on the same night, when a special invitation should be sent to the Dukes of DEVONSHIRE and WesuNoTos: to hear the pro- ductions of their musical progenitors. Two of the Glees—" Now the bright morning star," and " It was a lover and his lass," were also en- cored. Holies sang Prneess's exquisite and touching air, " I attempt from love's sickness," with perfect taste and feeling. This was also encored. The evidence of this evening is quite sufficient to show that English music needs only to be well chosen and well performed, to find a ready and applauding echo in the sympathies of its auditors.

The room, consideripg that the concert was the first of the season, was well attended.