MUSICAL PUBLICATIONS.
The Principles of Musical Analysis. By Seams Crams, M A This work forms a volume of the useful collection of treatises now in the course of publication at Edinburgh, under the title of Constable's .Educational Series. The author is the Principal of the Church of Scot- land Training College in that city: Books of instruction not only in music generally, but in every sepa- rate branch of the art, multiplied to such a degree, that, when any addition is made to the number, it naturally becomes a question whether it is called for. This question Mr. Currie answers in the outset. He says : "There is no want of treatises for the professional student of music ; but it has seemed to the writer that there is room for a treatise sufficiently comprehensive yet sufficiently limited, in its range for the purposes of the general student, and constructed in conformity with the recognised principles of modern teaching." And he adds : "While the main design of the work is to present so much of the science of music as should be known by the well educated teacher of a common school, and particularly, to furnish a suitable manual for those who seek to qualify themselves as certificated teachers under the Minutes of Council ; it is hoped that it may be found serviceable in a wider circle of readers, as the extent of musical knowledge which it aims at conveying is not more than should be embraced in a liberal education." This design is suc- cessfully accomplished, and the work has a real and special value of its own. The author propounds no new theories or systems; he takes the principles and practice of music as he finds them taught by the best authorities and exemplified by the best composers. But though his matter is old, his manner his new. Be is evidently conversant with the task of popular instruction ; and the logical clearness of his method, his strictly progressive arrangement, his care to explain the reasons of the rules of the art ; and the full yet concise language in which he lays them down and illustrates them, show that he knows the wants of the student and how to supply them. The work does not profess to carry the student through the more ab- struse branches of music, to unravel the mysteries of fugue, canon and double counterpoint, or to furnish the knowledge necessary for the composer. But those who have mastered its contents will find them- selves well-prepared for deeper studies ; studies, however, which may be dispensed with by those who cultivate music not as a profession but as an accomplishment. By the help of this book, without going further, the amateur will be enabled, if not to compose, yet to understand, enjoy, and join in performing, the works of the greatest composers.
The work is divided into two parts, Melody and Harmony. The first includes the musical scale in all its varieties ; the nature of rhythm, and the laws of melody in regard to phraseology and tonality. This branch of the subject is too slightly treated in most of our instruction-books, but is here explained with a fulness and clearness we have seldom met with.
The second part explains the harmony of the major and minor n- cluding all the chords both primary and derivative, with their modifi- cations by suspension, anticipation, and transition ; the nature and va- rieties of the cadence; and the laws of modulation. Every branch of the subject is illustrated by copious and well-chosen examples.
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