22 JANUARY 1853, Page 11

The Madrigal Society held its hundred-and-twelfth anniversary festival on Thursday,

at Freemasons' Hall. The company, under the presidency of Lord Saltoun, was as numerous as usual, and enjoyed the madrigalian feast with undiminished gusto. Peculiar interest was given to it by the circumstance that a number of madrigals were introduced, taken, as the programme told us, "from a rare set of books recently discovered, writ- ten about the year 1610"; a discovery due to the research of the Society's secretary. Mr. Oliphant has published a selection from those books, but has not informed the public under what circumstances they were found. Most of them are anonymous ; but it may be inferred from the style and character of some of thew sung on Thursday that they are by the great writers of the madrigalian age. Besides them, a number of the well- known and favourite pieces of Wilbye, Weelkes, Luca Marenzio, and other old masters, were exceedingly well sung ; the performances having been conducted with great care and steadiness by Mr. King.