ALBRECHTSHERGER'S HARMONY.
THE publication of this work, with the numerous and highly re- spectable list of subscribers attached to it, is a proof, among many
others, that music is beginning to occupy its proper station as a
liberal art in this country. ALIIRECIITSBERGER was born a cen- tury ago : CLEMENTI had made him known to England as a com-
poser, but the fame only of his elementary work had reached our musical public. His reputation as a theorist, and the general de- sire as well as the general necessity which exists among the rising generation of musicians of this country for improvement, has ren- dered the publication of this work, which a few years since would have been hazardous, a safe and desirable speculation.
There seems to have existed among certain 'writers of the Ger- man school a predisposition for complicated harmony : their musi- cal aliment appears to have, necessarily, generated fugue and canon—or the organ of Philofogativeness must have been deve- 'toyed in an unusual degree. ALBRECHTSBERGER said of himself, " I have no merit in composing good Mgues, for I do not recollect ever having an idea that might not be employed in double &muter- point." It is from SEIIASTIAN BACH, from the author of the pre- sent work, and such men, that the mattlriel of harmony is ac- quired: they furnish our musical storehouses and arsenals ; they equip our HAYDNS, MOZALTS, and BEETHOVENS for the field ; they -41:scover and lay bare
the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony."
BEETHOVEN, HUMMEL, F. SCHNEIDER, EYBLER, and Moscnasas were pupils of ALBRECHTSDERGER ; and though be had no power to form, he had the ability to direct the minds of these eminent men. He did not make them, but be enabled theni to be what they are. The seed fell into good soil, but his was the seed.
For a portion of this valuable work we are indebted to the care and industry of the Chevalier DE SEYFRIED who collected and arranged the materials during the course of study he followed under the guidance of its author. The treatise on Composition was written by ALHRECHTsBERGER, excepting a few additions col- lected from his oral instructions.
We shall not attempt to analyze the contents of this elaborate treatise ; and criticism on a composition which has trained the pupils whose names we have mentioned would be at least super- fluous. The tree is best known by its fruit. It ought to find a place in the library of every musical student—and what musician is not a learner, to the end of life ? The second volume of the work consists entirely of examples and illustrations ; and the whole forms a rich treasure of theoretical and practical information.
Previous page
