3 SEPTEMBER 1831, Page 17

STUDY OF THE GREAT MASTERS IN MUSIC.

THERE has been some musical controversy, this week, between the Taller and Mr. BARNETT the composer. The Taller had made some remarks on this gentleman's music, in a kind and friendly strain, we think ; and, as they did not consist wholly of sugar, the composer bristled up, and entered the lists with his connoisseur. The Tatler published Mr. BARNETT'S letter to him, in his paper of Tuesday last, and commented good-humouredly on it, in an article in which some musical topics are very agreeably discussed.* The Taller takes exception at Mr. BARNETT'S talking of a corn- poser endeavouring to improve himself " by an assiduous and fer- vent study of the great masters;" and maintains, with his usual flow of expression, a doctrine which we hope no young composer will ever be persuaded to put in practice.

" Every man," says the Tatter, " possessing a genius for composition, will, of course, include in his pleasures a great and intense enjoyment of the works of great masters. No man will enjoy them so much. But he will make a fatal mistake if he thinks that the study of them is his high- road to inspiration. He will become an imitator, a compiler, a man of taste or science, any thing but a displayer of original genius, capable of elevating the public taste; for he will not have done what his masters did. They did not make themselves great by studying others." Then he asks, Did Mozart grow great by study ? Did the works of Haydn, or Handel, or Gliick, whom be knew how to imitate when he chose, render him the enchanter he was? No; the thing that made him the delight of us all was the spirit that used to make him ask people when a boy, whether they loved him—that made him one of the most amiable men in the world, and even the finest of dancers."

To people who are not musicians, this will sound very well and very convincing. Music is a subject on which every writer on belles lettres thinks himself able to expatiate with perfect confidence —on music it may peculiarly be said, scribirnus docti indoctique. These writers reason on the principles of music by analogy from those of poetry; and this analogy, no doubt, often carries them the right way. But, in the present instance, it has quite misled the Taller. The technicalities of poetry are so few and simple, that they can hardly be called objects of study. Poetry has started into per- fection at once, in the earliest and simplest ages. "Arts of poetry" have done nothing for it. Music, on the contrary, is essentially technical. The moment you get beyond a rustic melody, every thing becomes art. To write down the most trifling melody, is an art, and a difficult one : to put two parts together, in the simplest way, is more difficult still ; and to acquire a complete possession of the various knowledge, and a ready skill in the use of the methods, necessary to combine, arrange, and write down, all the complex relations of sounds that are involved in the most ordinary musical composition, requires as much study and labour as would suffice to conquer almost any of the abstract sciences. Further, music is a progressive art. The music now etisting took its rise in the dark ages ; and its depths have been explored, and its do- mains extended, by an unbroken series of great men for several centuries. In this respect it has a perfect analogy to such sciences as astronomy or chemistry. Each successive labourer must take full possession of the ground occupied by his predecessors, by making himself master of all they have done ; and from that * The Taller is a daily publication, carried on by Mr. LEIGH HUNT; and shows in the pleasantest manner in the world how much men of talent might do for us in the way of wisdom and of wit, " for the trifling sum of one penny," if only the Government would let them alone. The genius of Mr. LEIGH HUNT rejoices in the composition of light papers on literature, and such divisions of life and society as he is fami- liar with ; and we are sure that his and similar writings would be accept- able far beyond the circuit of the metropolis, if it were not that the atrocious stamp.duty everywhere fixes its fatal boundary, and in iron Capitals inscribes " Foua PENCE," or in other words, [Thou shalt go no further. ground he must start before he can advance a step into undis- covered regions. This is what has been done by every great must- cian, as well as every great discoverer in science. The Taller asks, did MOZART grow great by study ? We answer, most undoubtedly he did ; and no musician will grow great by any other means. That he must possess genius, sensibility, strong pas- sions—is taken for granted. Without them, study will not make a great musician ; but neither will they make a great musician without study. In speaking of MOZART, the Tatler seems to have sonic vague idea of the achievements of his childhood. The mere force of genius certainly carried him farther than it ever did any other child ; but we know by heart those compositions for the pianoforte which were produced by him in his childhood, and though they are sweet, graceful, and expressive, yet they show abundantly the want of those studies, his assiduous application to which in a few years afterwards made him the musician " that en- chants the world." We know, besides, that MOZART actually did devote himself heart and soul to the most profound musical stu- dies ; that he had a peculiar capacity and love for arithmetical calculation—a turn of mind always found to belong to deep contrapuntists ; and that he was familiar with all that had been done by the great masters who preceded him. All this we learn from his biographies ; and if we had not so learned it, still it would have been discoverable by a musician in every page of his works. The Tatler talks of MOZART having imitated HANDEL, HAYDN, or GLucx, when he chose. He did not choose to imitate them ; but he imitated them, and also CIMAROSA, PERGOLESE, the BACHS, and even the composers of the age of PALESTRINA, because his style was formed, as that of every great musician is formed, by an assiduous and fervent study of the works of his predeces- sors. The style of every great composer may, in this way, be traced to his predecessors. Play one of HAYDN'S oldest sonatas for the harpsichord, and then one of Eszariunr. BACH'S, and it will appear impossible to believe that they are by different hands—for HAYDN is known to have expressly made EMANUEL BACH his model in this kind of composition. It is only by long practice and experience that even a composer of great genius acquires a style decidedly his own. We shall confirm this argument by an appeal to the experience of a musician who is peculiarly entitled to be taken as an autho- rity in this discussion with the Tatler,—namely, GRETRY ; whose operas, so melodious, so simple, and so apparently inartificial, were the delight of France for half a century. GRETRY'S melody will never cease to charm ; and the only thing that now injures the effect of his music is, that his orchestral combinations are not sufficiently varied and profound, according to the present state of the art. Now this composer studied at Rome under CASALI, an eminent master of that day ; and the account which he gives of his progress (in his Essais sur la Musique, a work little known in Eng- land) is both interesting and instructive. CASALI kept him for two years laboriously employed in exercises in counterpoint. " Je vois biers, me disait-il, que vous avez des idees qui vous tourmentent, et que vous brides d'en faire usage ; mai s si malheureusement vous faites une bonne same, on vous applaudira, et vous nepourrez plus revenir d d'ennuyeusee fugues.' GRETRY promised to stick to his exercises ; and kept his word, except on one occasion. He was introduced to PICCINI, and saw him at work. His enthusiasm was excited, and he ran home, determined to do all that he had seen Piccirn do. He set to work to write an air, in full score. "Tout cela me paraissait charmant, et mon &lire dura deux on trois heures ; jamais je n'avais etc plus heureux ; je me croyais Piccini. Cependant mon air etait fait; je le mis sur le clavecin et l'executai.-0 douleur etait detestable I Je me mis pleurer a chaudes larmes, et le lendemain je repris en soupirant mon cahier de fugues." After these severe studies, GRETRY pro- ceeded to the study of the great masters. His excessive ardour threw him into a fever ; a spitting of blood, to which he had been subject, returned, and he kept his bed for six months. During that time, he says, he thought of music as of a cruel mis- tress, whose favour he could not gain. "Musieura morceaux db grand* maitres me roulaient dans l'imagination. Un, surtout, etait l'objet auquel je comparais mes idies informes." This was a scene by a great Italian composer of that time, TERRADELLAS: The Tatler says, that the only use a young composer of genius will make of the works of great masters will be to include among his pleasures a great enjoyment of them. Look at the manner in which GRETRY enjoyed them! We shall quote from GRETRY one passage more, which contains a volume of wisdom on this subject. " Je sues persuade qu'on ne peut etre simple, expressly; et, surtout, correct, sans avoir (Ipuise les difficultes du contrepoint. C'est au milieu d'un magasin qu'on peut se choisir un cabinet." This matter has led us into an enormous length ; but it is much easier to state an erroneous proposition than to refute it. An er- roneous proposition which leads to bad practical results, when a& vaned by so accomplished a writer as the Taller, ought to be carefully examined. Too much learning, and too assiduous a study of the great masters, is not the error of the present race of English composers. With a few exceptions, the bulk of the music with which the town is inundated, indicates the utmost ignorance of the art, and of the great works which have raised it to its pre- sent height. Let our young composers " give their days and nights" to the study of the great masters. If they have genius, it will enable them to make it available—if they have not, at all events it will enable them to do more than they could have done otherwise.