22 JUNE 1839, Page 16

HANDEL'S "JOSHUA."

Os Wednesday night, the Exeter Hall Choral Society added to their stock pieces Ilssmn.'s Oratorio of Joshua. We admire the zeal and industry with which this association of amateurs devote their thne and money to the production of the great master's work, and \IC respect their devotion to his memory. They have accomplished that which the majority of musk:ions by profession, not only have left unattetapted, but have resolutely opposed—contenting themselves with doling out to the public the same shreds and scraps from their scanty libraries, until the public have taken the affair into their own hands, become their own caterers, conductors, performers. The Exeter Hall Society is an association of persons of all classes, having no other intercourse or bond of union than that which the orchestra presents, and aiming with perfect singleness of purpoe, though not always with equal judgment, at the same object. One great and valuable end they have achieved, in the abandonment of the various devices of humbug and quackery by which the counnon sense as well as the musical taste of the public have been and is daily (in other quarters) insulted. Their announcements are short, simple, trim They advertise, that on such a night Joshua. or The Ovalle's, or Samson will be performed; and this suffices to fill the hall—not, certainly, with the mighty ones of the earth, not with dandy opera-goers, but with thousands of persons hitherto debarred from all the higher kinds of musical enjoyment. Of many, perhaps utmost of these, it must be allowed, that " hearing they hear, but do not understand ;" a fact which they take care to render sufficiently palpable witness the two encores on Wednes- day night,—the duet " Our limpid streams," of which a tawdry and vulgar cadence occasioned the repetition; and time flourish of trumpets, not written by lissom., but borrowed for the occasion from

RICUARDSON'S booth in Bartholomew Fair. These ludicrous outbreaks on the part of the hearers undoubtedly "make the judicious" smile, if not "grieve ;" and they arc, of themselves, sufficient evidence of the want of musical culture among the English people. But the repetition of what is substantially and intrinsically excellent will teach them better. The humblest-stationed chorus-singer in the Exeter Hall orchestra would blush at these displays of ignorance; and as the num- ber of persons increases—and increase it does every day—who either in public or in private cultivate the practice of vocal harmony, the pub- lic taste will gradually become more refined and the public judgment mpre.correct.

Joshua was amongst the latest of HANDEL's Oratorios; having been produced on the 18th August 1747—four years before its author's blind- ness. With 'some splendid exceptions, it is a heavy and a feeble work. Thirty years have now elapsed since we heard it entire, and our opi- nion of its merits is unaltered. We have often tried to get up a feeling of admiration for it as an entire work, but in vain. Time was when we thought it heresy to doubt the constant presence of Misuses genius ill all his works, and rather to mistrust our own sense or taste than to doubt his all-pervading power. That time, however, is long past ; and we must now measure HANDEL not only against all the great vocal writers who have arisen since, but against those among his predecessors and contemporaries whom his well-deserved fame, and the exclusive possession lie long obtained of the public ear, drove into obscurity and neglect.

The performance of IlAsnstes Oratorios entire, will answer the va- luable purpose of assigning to each admit its just rank, and to the au- thor his proper position. It will substitute for it blind and superstitious veneration, (the result of partial ignorance,)discriminating and accurate admeasurement of value. It is scarcely credible that the same mind which gave out the noble and majestic chorus with which the oratorio opens, could have descended so soon after to any thing so insipid as " While Kedron's brook ;" or that the next act, opening with such a magnificent display of the dramatic power of the art, and bringing be. fore the imagination the assembled hosts of Israel—Joshua at their head the ark in all its splendour, with its gorgeous retinue and sacred guar- dians—the stirring blast of trumpets, and the shout "Glory to God!" which burst from the Israelitish host when they saw the proud walls and mighty towers of Jericho shaking from their foundations and tumbling into dust,—it is hardly to be believed that the mind -which could conceive and realize to the fancy such a scene as this, should ia the very same act give out so common and vulgar an air as " Heroes when with glory bunting." But, in truth, the climax of the oratorio is the fall of Jericho : Mier this, eery thing is, by comparison, feeble, and much absolutely so. The perfbrmance on Wednesday, as a whole, was highly creditable to the Society ; although many points in these choruses which were new both to singers and hearers, were feebly sustained, and wanted the force and unity of effect which practice only,- can give to a band, of whom many sing almost by ear. The Soprano Chorus deserves un- qualified commendation. We never beheld a sight more interesting and delightful than the appearance and demeanour of this choir of female amateurs ; whose performance surpasses any thing of its kind we ever heard. They, in truth, were the principal singers—we submitted to hear Miss Iliac ii and Miss Wys miss', that the " blissful choir above" might rest and refresh themselves for renewed exertion. They made us in love with " See the conquering hero," which we never liked, because we never could be said to have heard it, before.

Not much needs be said about the ladies and gentlemen who sat in front of the orchestra and sang songs. It is an unfortunate circum- stance that all lIssom.'s tenor parts were written for a singer of whom we have no counterpart. For these he took measure of IlEsan; and it is easy to see by what lissom. and A RNIi wrote, that his power and compass of voice must have been great. One of' his contemporaries thus describes his singing—" Altogether, I cousider Beard as the best English singer I remember. [This was written in 1790.] You might fairly test his merits by Shakspere's speech to the actors. With abundant energy, he never mouthed and roared ; attending solely to the business of his song, he studied and gave its true character and ex- pression, never setting on some quantity of barren spectators to ap- plaud." The man for whom lissom, wrote " His mighty arm," " Haste, Israel, haste," " Why does the God of Israel sleep," " Total eclipse," and " Comfort ye my people," must have possessed powers as a singer such as the present race of tenors are not gifted with. BEN- NET was utterly unequal to the burden imposed on him ; he is no repre- sentative of the " leader of Israel." Miss Binctt sang, as she always does, correctly and in good tune let us beg of her to erase front her songs and her memory the vulgar addenda (most falsely called orna- ments) which her mastcr has pencilled into her songs, as well as the nauseous cadenzas thereunto appended. Miss WYNDHAM does not Chance to know any thing of the style of the music she had to sing,—a fact of which she seemed especially anxious that her auditors should be fully cognizant. Prima es was the Caleb; and sang "Shall I in Mamre's fertile plain," the conshtsion excepted, purely and effec- tively. In thanking the Choral Society for the industry and zeal -which has brought into public notice another oratorio of Hasom„ let us remind them of a circumstance of which their records take no note—that there once lived in England a composer by name HENRY Puncins„ a usm of some mark in his time. Like SHANSPERE, he is worth "dipping mute some rainy afternoon."