MUSIC.
A Set of Songs, and a Trio for Female Voices. Composed by Mewerbeer. Die English Version of the Words by Thomas Oliphant, Esq.
These songs, which have been selected by Mr. Oliphant from a larger collection lately published at Paris, show the author of Robert le Diabk, the Hugiwnots, and the Prophite, in a new light, as a graceful and elegant composer for the chamber. They are ballads, or lieder, in the form which Schubert has rendered so popular over all Europe, and which has been successfully adopted by several modern German composers, particularly Spohr and Mendelssohn. The verses are sweet and pretty, expressing tender affections with German simplicity ; and nothing Gan be happier than the plain and natural yet new and charming melodies to which Meyerbeer has united them : this description especially applies to the "May-Song," "The Rosebud," "The Fisher-Maiden,' "She and I," and "The Young Mother," which we think the prettiest things in the collection. They are easy to sing, and the pianoforte accompaniments, though full of fancy and refinement, are by no means hard to execute. Two of them, "The Monk" end" The Misanthrope," differ in character from the others. They are impassioned soliloquies, full of strong effects, and requiring a forcible and energetic performance. The Trio for female voices (a first and second soprano and a contralto) is a song of thanks- giving, which would produce a great effect sung by many voices as a
choral hymn.
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