MUSICAL PUBLICATIONS.
Boosey's Opera Journal, for the Pianoforte. The European Musical Library, for the Pianoforte.
These are serial publications, both of which have been carried to a considerable length. Of the Opera Journal we have twenty-five num- bers before us ; of the European Musical Library, seventy-two. Messrs. Boosey, following the example of several of their brother publishers, have adopted the principle of cheapness, applying it, for the first time, to fashionable pianoforte music. In respect to amplitude of page, quality of paper, elegance of printing, and correctness of text, these publications may challenge comparison with any that have issued from the musical press, while their price is one half of that which has hitherto been affixed to the class of music of which they consist.
Both publinations are for the use of pianoforte-players. The Opera Journal consists of arrangements of the most popular modern operas, of Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Meyerbeer, and other favourite composers, either for one or for two performers. These arrangements are by mu- sicians eminently skilled in this branch of their art—Nordmann, Diabelli, and Calked. They are executed with taste, judgment, and knowledge of the capacities of the instrument ; so that the vocal gems of the modern musical stage take the form of short and elegant pianoforte solos or duets, in which the beauties of the original melodies and the richness of their accompaniments are felicitously preserved. No description of pianoforte music is more agreeable, or better suited to drawingroom performance, than this. A classical sonata by a great master of the instrument—a Beethoven or a Mendelssohn—is a higher species of entertainment ; but in a social party it will often prove "caviare to the general." Even if executed well enough to satisfy those who are accustomed to hear it per- formed in public by professional artists, ten to one that it will only bore the majority of the company who have not learned to understand or relish such elaborate music. But these comparatively brief vocal pieces played with moderate execution but with grace and expression, call up pleasant reminiscences of the operahouse, and everybody understands and enjoys them. We heartily wish that the works of the great masters were more played than they are ; but there is a time for everything, and there are times when slighter music is "more germane to the matter." The European Musical Library consists of music originally written for the pianoforte. It is a collection of the most popular pieces by favdurite German, French, and English composers of the day. To assist the choice of the purchaser, they are classified under different heads, according to the special character of each. One series is "for the dmwingroom" ; =Other is "brilliant, but rather difficult "; a third is in "a popular style, adapted for practice." Among the composers, are Herz, Dohler, Voss, Rosellen, Wallace, Osborne, Cramer, Nordmann, Goria, Gollmijk, and other eminent names. The pieces, though of every degree of difficulty and very varied in style, all belong to the most modern school of the in- strument; and their practice is admirably calculated to improve the taste as well as the finger of the young pianist, who will find among them every variety of which the instrument is capable, from the vocal and melodious legato to the most brilliant flights of execution.
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