MUSIC.
illustrated Edition of the National Psalmody of the Church of Scotland, newly arranged, with an Accompaniment for the Organ or Pianoforte. By JOHN DANIEL.
WITH the exception of a few original tunes by the editor and Mr. Flx- LAY Duras, this work, claiming to be national, is a mere reprint of the Psalm-tunes which are to be found in almost every existing English collection of inferior rank.
The most popular collections of Psalm-tunes on this side the Tweed are the worst; being composed, arranged, and compiled, for the most part, by Dissenting clerks or choir-leaders. The collection called RIPPON'S, preeminent in vulgarity and incorrectness, is said to be a handsome income to its publisher ; while that of Barrisima. is rarely seen and still more rarely used. Mr. DANIEL'S knowledge of English metrical psalmody is evidently derived from very scanty and second- hand sources; the compositions of many of our best authors not appear- ing at all, or only in the form of reprints of former reprints. On the question, what was the state of psalmody iu Scotland in the early times of the Reformation, this collection throws no light. The inference de- ducible from it is, that all the national compositions of that period have perished, and that the psalmody of the Scottish Church is now altoge- ther English. Yet we can scarcely suppose this to have been the case. The psalm-tunes of DOWLAND, FARMER, TALUS, KIRBY, ALLISON, GIBBONS, and WARD, are extant : who were their Scottish contempo- raries, and where are their compositions to be found ? This is a ques- tion of some musical as well as historical interest, and we commend it to the investigation of our antiquarian friends in North Britain.
The phrase in the titlepage of this collection, "Illustrated Edition," refers to a few sets of border-patterns, encircling each page : seraphs harping in the clouds and amateur fiddlers perched on lyres, Egyptian symbols and Roman trophies, statues in niches, and stored priests kneeling to the crucifix,—somewhat incongruous, it must be owned, as ornaments for a book of Presbyterian devotion.
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