9 MAY 1835, Page 12

CRAMER'S FAREWELL.

YES—it is too true—Camara is about to bid us farewell ! On the 19th of this month, for the last time, his matchless powers will be displayed where they have charmed and instructed succeeding generations. To us, and we believe to all well-instructed lovers of music, the loss will be an irreparable one : for notwithstanding the numberless competitors for public favour who have risen into notice since CRAMER'S early celebrity—notwithstonding the universal cultivation of the Nanoforte—he has maintained his position unshaken, and is now, as he was forty years since, unrivalled. This is the conclusion to which we have always come—this is the opinion which we have always avowed ; and although we regard it as a proof of wisdom in one who has held such a rank, to heed in time the warnings given by advancing years that he should withdraw from public exhibition while in the possession of all his powers, and that none should witness any symptom of decline, yet a wish that the period of retirement were not arrived, unavoidably forces itself upon us. We have always regarded CRAMER with a degree of admiration approaching to reverence. Through a long and active life he bas upheld the true dignity and best interests of the art to which, very early, he devotedly attached himself. His studies, prosecuted under the best masters, were formed on the most perfect models. We never met with a man to whom the works of all the great writers were more familiar. He had studied them profoundly and profitably. Ile had thence learned what ought to be the end and purpose of the musician, to whatever branch of his art he might choose to apply himself. And this purpose be uniformly kept in view ; it was his pole-star, guiding and directing his path wherever he wandered and whatever he attempted. He had to write for the learner and for the proficient, for his youngest pupils as well as for himself; but the same end is perceptible in every production. But Caastrit is not merely a learned writer—we know of none to whom the epithet of polished can more correctly be applied. This is the character of his-mind. Su intuitively susceptible is he of all that is elegant and graceful in music, that thoughts which with many writers would assume an insipid if not a vulgar form, are invested by him with refinement mid expression. The pebble, in passing through his hands, receives the lustre el the diamond. We lay little stress on his mere mechanical power of execution—it is astonishing, it is dazzling : but the mere velocity of manual motion, though with such players as HERZ it may be the first and chief excellence—an excellence valued for its own sake—is with Ce.oirat but the means to a higher and nobler end. Such is the unequaled delicacy and expressiveness of his touch, that the pianoforte almost becomes vocal under his fingers, and assumes the character of a human organ. Had not his bias showed itself so early and so decidedly in fiivour of

instrumental composition, we should have thought that nature had de signed him for a vocal writer; for his thoughts naturally seem to assume the melody and expression of vocal music. But thus it is with all great instrumental writers and players.

Let us look hack with gratitude on what CRAMER has done for music in this country. Ile was never a forward and boisterous, much less an intriguing and jobbing partisan ; but whenever the true interests of his art were to be advanced, his powerful aid was at hand. It was not only in public that his influence was felt : the urbanity of his manner rendered him acceptable to all, and to the young and ardent inquirer he would delight to pour out the rich abundance of his knowledge. He was known and admired by all the greatest masters of our art for the last half century; and his reminiscences of them would form one of the most interesting musical records of the present age. There is not a musical catalogue in Europe but gives its testimony to his fame ; for though England was the land of his adoption, almost of his birth, his works are the property of the civilized world.

The influence of such a mind on the musical taste of this country may, in some degree, be appreciated from what we have said. If not publicly expressed and acknowledged, yet must it long be felt ; and the precepts of JOHN CRAMER will long be cherished in the grateful recollection of those who have received them, while his works will live to perpetuate his well. earned fame.