Mr. Pierson's oratorio, Jerusalem, has been performed this week at
Exeter Hall by the Harmonic Union. This may be regarded as a sort of appeal from the almost unanimous critical verdict pronounced on the oc- casion of its original production at the last Norwich Festival. But the verdict will stand good. We believe Mr. Pierson to be a learned musi- cian; he can heap together chords and combinations to any extent ; but his ear seems capable of tolerating any degree of harshness, while it is insensible to the beauty of pure simple, and natural sounds. We hope, however, that this sense is only stifled for the time by the mistaken course into which he has fallen—by his evident notion that originality consists in the studious rejection of every thought that would naturally suggest itself, and of every form which the rules of good taste have sanc- tioned. His determination to be always new has only made his music strange and uncouth ; justifying the whispered remark of a great foreign artist who was listening to it in a state of mystification—" C'est un drOle de musique !" Mr. Pierson ought to remember, that, after all, simplicity is the ultimatum of art, and is, of all artistic qualities, the most difficult of attainment. " Quest° facile, 0 quanto è difficile !
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