THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH MUSICIANS.
Tim society was established, avowedly, to support the school of Eng- lish music—really, to perform the compositions of its members : a me- ritorious object as far as it goes, but one in which the public cannot be expected to feel much concern. The efforts of juvenile aspirants are interesting to themselves and their instructors ; but to make them the objects of public display or public criticism, argues a marvellous want of judgment, and a total absence of that modesty which is the usual attendant of genius.
The first concert of the season was on Monday night ; when the reputation of the English school waa sustained by Messrs. MUDIE, BENNETT, and MACFARREN ! • And these young gentlemen assume to be the BEETDOVENS and SPOIIRS Of their country; for not content with a display of their acquirements in such walks of their art as lie within the reach of learners, we are treated with siofonias, overtures, and concertos. Regarded as exercises, most of the compositions pro- duced on Monday night are creditable to their respective authors' industry and talent ; but considered as evidences of the power and pretensions of the English school, they are feeble and inefficient. The strength of that school will be found, throughout the long period of its history, to have resided in its vocal compositions, and especially in its vocal har- mony. All our great writers, from BIRD to Bisaor, have cultivated this department of their art ; and here, alone, can they challenge any comparison with their foreign rivals. By a strange perversion of judg- ment, these soi-disant " British Musicians" conceal their strength, and seem anxious only to display their weakness ; for the vocal music of this concert, all of which might have been of first-rate excellence, was (with the exception of one piece) inferior to the instrumental. The result of this experiment is such as we predicted at its com- mencement. The appeal to national vanity, and the exertions of its members, brought, for the first year, a large list of subscribers ; but the conflicting claims and interests of such a host of competitors, all anxious to appear before the public in some prominent character, have engen. dered jealousy and disgust ; and many of the roost respectable members, seeing the purpose to which these concerts are applied, have with- drawn, —while a large proportion of the subscribers, having discovered that the best compositions of the English school are proscribed, and that they are to be treated only with a display of juvenile mediocrity, have also seceded. Such is the result of the exclusive system in music.
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