My Musical Life and Recollections, By Jules Riinre. (Samp- son
Low, Marston, and Co.)—M Riviere's autobiography is not the least entertaining of the many volumes of reminiscences with which the public has of late been favoured. He was in Paris in 1880, at the seminary of St. Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, and has a vivid recollection of the Revolution of July, especially of the burning of the Archbishop's palace. The seminary did not please him; he ran away, and got employmeut, first as cowboy, then as a notary's clerk. Fetched home, he was suffered to follow his bent for music, and at sixteen obtained a place as violinist in a pro- vincial orchestra. Shortly we come to an account of Julien, once a highly-popular conductor in this country. M. Riviera did not ' escape the conscription, though he thinks that he ought to have done so. Foreign service he did escape, by malingering. A dose of tobacco was the simple device by which he deceived the doctors. Our author is always charmingly candid. If he com- mitted a folly, he makes confessions, telling us, for instance, how he came to fisticuffs with Offenbach, and lost .2300 at the roulette tables at Spa. In 1857 he came to London, his first impressions of which form an amusing picture. His English experiences have, on the whole, been satisfactory. At the Adelphi, the Alhambra, Cremorne, Covent Garden, the Aquarium, and latterly at Llan- dudno, he seems to have done well, though we gather that from time to time some speculations in the way of monster concerts, Ac., have turned out badly. On the whole, we conclude that music is a risky affair from the financial point of view. One of M. Riviere's experiences is very instructive. He composed a ohorus for some words rf PlancluS's, and very pretty words they are. A. music publisher—M. Rivike, after his manner, gives the name—offered him £20 for the copyright. He was on the point of accepting the offer, when he saw his partner gesticulating furiously. Thereupon he asked for time to consider. In the end the offer was declined. The partners published on their own account, and M. Riviera cleared as his own share two thousand pounds. That is about as pretty a story of publisher and author as we have ever come across.
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