DR. CROTCH'S "CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH."
Jr was known for some years previous to its performance, that the author of Pakstine bad written another oratorio; and the installation of the Duke of WELLINGTON offered a fit occasion for the University of Oxford to produce it; as Dr. CROTCH holds there the nominal office of Musical Professor. During the political excitement of that periol, music of any kind (except a Tory song) would have obtained but " a careless and interrupted listening." and the real merits of any composition could %carcely be estimated by its performance under such cii entustances. The quiet of a London audience and the discipline of a London orchestra were therefore necessary to a fair hearing and an accurate discrimination of the Professor's work. 'these we antici• pared when VAUGHAN announced it fur his benefit concert at the Hanover Square Booms on Moodily night. VAUGHAN Was educated in one of tlie best schools fur a singer in the kingdom, and early trained to admire the great writers who have adorned English church music his subsequent connexions and habits have strengthened the impres- sions of his youth ; and he is, beyond all doubt, one of the most accom- plislail singers of that class of music to which he has devoted hims,
We regal .leil it as an act of tom itoriuus zeal in him to produce an oratorio. from so eminent a man arsCruereit ; arid we went, not only expecting, hut
anxious—almost detetrui tied to he pleased. Palestine we had heard often. —from the time in ishmicim BARTLEMAN threw into it his gigantic strength, to its last partial performance at Worcester. And Palestine is the work of no common artist many of its choruses are mai stic, and one verges on if it does not reach sublimity. We hoped, therefOre, that in a second attempt, the errors and faults incident to the first would have been avoided, and that the mature application and repeated effort which it was known had been bestowed on The Captivity if Judah, would have produced a composition to which the English musician- would have pointed with pride and pleasure. The result has grievously, painfully disappointed us. Mr. VAUGIIAN announced the work as a specimen of "the legitiniate oratorio." What precise meaning time adjective is here meant to con- vey, we suspect he himself would be as much puzzled to explain as the actors were on a late occasion when asked to define the "legitimate drama." HANDEL., probably, would he appealed to as the standard of orthodoxy on this point ; but the old Italians would have regarded some of his most popular oratorios as departures from it ; and HANDEL him- self had no fixed or precise model on which to construct his oratorios : most of them are sacred dramas, the characters being sustained by indi- vidual persons throughout ; arid they often more nearly resemble the structure of a Greek tragedy than any dramatic composition of modern times. But in time Messiah and Israel in Egypt there is no attempt of this kind ; yet we apprehend Mr. VAUGHAN would hardly deny to these works the title of "legitimate" oratorios. Would he award it to the Tad Jesu of GRAUN, which describes the most important event in our history in unseriptural language, and deny it to the Last Judg- ment of SPOHR, which adheres to the language of the Bible, or vice versa? There is no kr scripta to which we can appeal on this point. We must test time character and the value of a composition by its effect on our feelings and our judgment. To use CROTCH'S own words, "It is sublime if it inspires veneration, beautiful if it pleases, ornamental if it amuses." The first of these qualities different minds will develop by the employment of different means. PALESTRINA, HANDEL, MOZART, SPOHR, have all found the true secret of sublimity ; but each has reached this rarely-attained point of elevation by a different road. CROTCH seems erroneously to have imagined that it was attainable only by oue, und to have adopted HANDEL as his guide and model. This is an unfortunate decision for any composer to adopt, for combat with HANDEL on his own ground is sure to end in defeat. We felt this throughout CROTCH'S oratorio. He had reasoned himself into the necessity of severity, until the product of his labour was often dulness. Every thing was worked out systematically, correctly, laboriously ; but the "thoughts that breathe and words that burn" were not there. The utmost pitch to which we were excited was that of approbation, and that rather of the musician's skill than his invention. The words of his oratorio are unfortunately chosen. The first act is little more than a reiteration of the same sentiment—the lamentations of the Jewish prophets sung in solo, duet, and chorus. It begins, continues, and ends with mourning and weeping. There is no story, no dramatic connexion, no climax : the whole act might be played from the end to the beginning, instead of from the beginning to the end, without detri- ment to the composition. The second act is a collection of texts descriptive of the destruction of Babylon and the advent of the Messiah. But the funnier is too mighty a subject for CROTCH to handle : the visions of the Hebrew prophets and bards demand some- thing like a kindred inspiration on the part of the musician ; and in this- the Oxford Professor is deficient. He has abundance of the mechanism, but little of the poetry of his art. The latter part of the subject is more within his reach : the reign of peace and righteousness is a titter subject for his muse than "the day of the Lord's vengeance." On the whole, we rank The Capacity if Jtulali as a failure. We try it by its author's own test—the power of " inspiring veneration ;" and this it certainly falls short of. Dr. CROTCH has endeavoured to
place his chief reliance on the vocal power of his oratorio; and rightly, for in truth lie is little of an instrumental writer. His combinations
are frequently puerile and unmeaning, displaying a want of practice la this branch of his art. His overture is in the feeblest style of the old-fashioned school, and inferior to several even of ARNE'S. We did
not expect much melody in his airs—he would avoid " the beautiful" in an oratorio on principle; but, with one exception, they were not only graceless, but monotonous. Little can be said in commendation of the performance. The dif- ficulty of getting an efficient rehearsal at this season of the year for a
benefit concert, prepared us to expect some imperfections ; but for such a succession of glaring violations of time and tune, we were not pre- pared, even from the odds and ends that now compose the vocal staff of the Ancient Concert. When VAUGIIAN looked around on his as- sociates, he must have "sighed to think of the days that are gone."
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