20 MARCH 1830, Page 12

U S I C.

A Collection of Peninsular Melodies. The English words by Mrs. HEHANS, Mrs. NORTON, Dr. BOWR1NG, &C. The airs compiled and selected by G. L. HODGES. No. 1.

"THE music of Spain and Portugal," says the editor of this interesting addition te our various collections of national airs "has been so generally admired for the originality of its character and the sweetness of its melody, as to afford frequent occasion of regret that some adequate specimens have not as yet been selected from it, in order to take that place to which they are so deservedly entitled among the melodies of other countries. It is with a view of supplying this deficiency that the compiler of the present work now offers to the British public some of the most popular and admired airs, of which he made a numerous collection during the late campaigns in the Peninsula."

A graceful and simple flow of melody pervades many of the airs which are contained in the present number of this work ; but the greater part of them are without any decided national feature, and resemble, both in structure and character, those of Italy and Germany ; in "the Zegri Maid," for instance, we almost recognize an old acquaintance from the latter country. The airs "Expostulation," "the Moorish Gathering Song," "Liberty's Appeal," "Mother, 0 sing me to rest," "Come to the Festival," "0, softly falls the foot of Love," "I thought that loving glance"—have the most distinctive Peninsular features. The poetry of Mrs. HEMANS and Dr. BOWRING, 'qua poetry, is not unworthy their high reputation ; but they, as well as the other contributors. to the English version of these songs, have frequently–failed-hi -their proper adaptation to•musio. They have fallen into the too. common error of supposing, that if a translator give the same numher of syllables as are contained in the original verse, his duty is done. If they could have sung their songs after they had written them, (which we conjecture they could not) many false accents and misplaced em- .phases would have been avoided. The following examples will illustrate our meaning. In the Epigrama, (" Mary's Glance") the music demands an emphatic word for the commencement of each line; but the English version, for the most part, throws it upon mere articles and conjunctions, thus ren- dering it impossible for the singer to give its right expression to the song. In the "Expostulation," we have a division on the word "from," which on every account ought to have been avoided. In the "Moorish Gathering Song," Mrs. HEMANS has completely altered the measure and destroyed its nationality :—

"Las ciencias y las artes Des plies de suex puision De Atenas y de Roma Suanti qua posicion."

which she thus renders— "Chains on the cities ! gloom in the air !

Come to the hills I fresh breezes are there!"

Violent is the torture which the air has to undergo in order to fit it to this English version ; but the bass, which is curiously national, it is completely impossible to sing. In "Liberty's Appeal," Dr. Bowamn begins well : nothing can be better adapted than the three first lines : but the poor singer will soon find himself compelled to give equal emphasis to the words "to," " for " and "and," as to "liberty," "honour," and "death." The second stanza of this song is admirable in every respect. In the first line of the "Evening Hymn," we have actually a rest between the words "let" and "prayer." "Are! now let—prayer and music." In "Fling the proud banner," Mrs. HE MANS has throughout cruelly and needlessly violated the original metre. In the following air, "Bird, that art singing," she has also lost the point of the song by a gratuitous change of the sentiment. These examples must forbid our entire assent to the editor's expectation that the public will praise the poetry for its "appropriate elegance," or ad- mire "the skill with which its authors have overcome the extreme difficulty of perfectly adapting the metre of their verses to the peculiar measure of some of the airs." In writing elegant poetry, they have succeeded ; but in writing poetry for precomposed music, they have frequently failed, and in many instances created difficulties where none existed. We have pointed out these defects more in detail, as the present is but the first number of the work: it will now be the editor's own fault if they are found in subse- quent numbers.

The accompaniments are skilfully arranged. No change could here take place for the better. Some interpolations in the way of embellishment are (we suspect) occasionally added, which had better be omitted. They lessen the genuineness, and therefore the value of the work.