22 APRIL 1843, Page 19

MUSIC.

Dtranici the last two or three weeks a great deal has been written and a great deal talked about a charge made against Professor TAYLOR. of Gresham College, of having gained a prize, given by the Western Madrigal Society, by palming upon them, as his own, a madrigal of LUCA MAILENZIO. Such was the charge brought forward—not by the Society itself, but by certain musical oracles of the newspaper press ; who might have obtained oredit for zeal in the cause of truth and integrity, were it not for their persisting in it after its futility was demonstrated, and endeavouring to suppress the truth, which it was their pretended object to uphold.

The affair has made more noise than, perhaps, there was any occasion for. But since it is so, and since no man's good name is proof against calumny, we think it but due to Mr. TAYLOR—one of the most devoted promoters of the musical art, in its noblest forms, now living—to put our readers in possession of the ascertained facts of the case.

The Western Madrigal Society about two years since offered a prize for the best madrigal ; and applied to Mr. TAYLOR, among other mu- sicians, to enter the lists. He sent in a madrigal accordingly ; which gained the prize. Some weeks since, it was discovered that this ma- drigal contained a few bars taken from a madrigal of Luce MARENZIO. On this being communicated to Mr. TerLoa, he at once admitted the fact, while at the same time he satisfactorily explained it. The ma- drigal was composed fourteen years ago, as an exercise in that species of composition ; and, writing it with that view, he introduced into it a passage from one of the great old authors whose style he was studying. It lay unnoticed in his portfolio for more than ten years, when it acci- dentally came under his eye ; and he then rewrote it, substituting a new passage for that which he had taken from MARENZIO : but as that pas- sage was brief, and in the middle of the piece, the two editions (as they may be called) resembled each other very closely. When the invita- tion came from the Madrigal Society, he sent in this madrigal ; but, by accident, took from his portfolio the wrong copy, which contained the bars from MARENZIO had it transcribed, and sent it instead of the copy which Was wholly his OWD.

This explanation satisfied the Society ; and there were, more- over, some circumstances which rendered the notion of deception on Mr. TAYLOR'S part a mere absurdity. MARENZIO'S madrigal was included in a Collection of Italian Madrigals with English Words, pub- lished by Mr. TAYLOR himself, in 1839. He knew that this work was in the possession of the Society ; that they made constant use of it ; and that, for the convenience of singing, they had lithographed its con- tents in separate parts. Would any man in his senses have attempted to-deceive the Society, having thus furnished them with the surest means of detection ?

It was after Mr. TAYLOR'S explanation had been received as satisfactory by the Society, that an article appeared in the Morning Post, in which it was asserted, that the " the theme of Taylor's madrigal was taken, note by note, from a madrigal by Luca Mareozio "; and his having done so was represented as a wilful deception. Mr. TAYLOR promptly an- steered the accusation, by stating the facts. we have mentioned. The Post returned to the charge, asserting that the Society bad resolved to exclude Mr. TAYLOR from the next competition, and also from the ap- proaching meeting or festival of the Society. He immediately published a letter from the President of the Society, showing that the assertion was utterly false. Mr. TAYLOR has now published his madrigal in both its forms—with the passage originally taken from LUCA MARENZIO, and without that passage ; and has thus enabled musicians to estimate the magnitude of his offence. MARENZIO'S passage occupies fourteen bars, out of seventy of which the entire piece consists ; and these fourteen bars, instead of being a theme or subject, as the Post pretends, are inserted in the middle of the composition, and are not even copied "note by note." To be sure, a few bars, even though not actually used as a theme, may form a prominent feature in a composition : but the quality and im- portance of the bars in question have been determined by opinions of somewhat greater weight than those of the writer in the Post and an equally veracious coadjutor in the Herald. Mr. E. Emile= (whose authority on such a subject will hardly be questioned) says, in a letter which has been published, that the passage in MeuzNisro "forms a link between the first and second subjects, and is not only without melody, but even without good harmony to recommend it ; and is just one of those unmeaning strains which are constantly found in madrigals of the sixteenth century, only introduced to give the greater effect to the point the composer was about to introduce." Similar opinions, we understand, have been given by Mr. HORSLEY, Mr. Goss, MP. TUNLE, and MY. BENEDICT.

It is impossible that the Society, in awarding the prize to Mr. Tavv.oz, could have been influenced by a few bars so trifling and insignificant. The madrigal is undeniably his own ; and we cannot help thinking he committed a mistake in returning a prize to which he was undoubtedly entitled. This, indeed, ought to have been felt by the Society them- selves ; whose conduct has not been marked by "absolute wisdom." They, at all events, saw the slight and insignificant amount of a plagia- rism which they had been unconscious of in repeated performances of both madrigals, and which they were satisfied was unintentional; and as it could have had no influence in determining them to give the prize, neither ought it to have led them to receive it back.