Six Canzonets. Composed by CHARLES SAL.CMAN.
Mr. SALAMAN is very well known as a pianoforte-player of considerable eminence, a man of acknowledged musical taste. Desirous of acquiring celebrity in the higher art of clothing poetry -with appropriate musical expression, he now appears as a vocal composer. This power is seldom attained by those who have been led to the exclusive study of instrumental composition, and never perfected where the vocal writing of all the great masters has not been subjected to sedulous examination. We may even go further, and say, that every great vocal writer has been. himself a singer—not a singer for public performance, but still a singer. PALESTRINA and ROSSINI (the alpha and omega of the Italian school) were singers ; HAvnx and MOZART were singers ; PURCELL, CROFT, and all the most eminent English vocal writers down to SHIELD an BISHOP, have been singers. SP01111, too, is a singer. We presume that Mr. SALAMAN'S studies have not taken much of a vocal turn, and that, excelling in one branch of his profession, he knows comparatively little of the other,—which, extending over a much wider range and embracing a much longer period than instrumental composition, (since nearly all the instrumental writing that may be said to have any practical existence dates front the last half century ) requires more study and more research than he can he supposed to have found leisure for. Hence the comparative failure of his attempt. These Canzonets want the leading attributes of vocal music ; they are uninteresting to the singer, and therefore fail to arrest the attention of the hearer. Let Mr. SALIMAN examine and compare the six Canzotiets of HAYDN with his own—we mean not, of course, as to excellence, but as to design ; and he will at once see that,
however elaborate or florid the accompaniment, the singer still sustains the prominent part—that above the busy and brilliant movement of the
hands, the voice floats along undisturbed, and establishes its claim to the
first and chiefest share of she hearer's regard. Every one has a distinct character, every one an appropriate, clear, intelligible melody. Hence
the Canzonets of HAYDN are models of their genus vocale. Mr. SALA■ MAN has the ambition, common to young composers. of exhibiting his skill in counterpoint ; but the transitions with which these compositions abound, and which undoubtedly evidence their author's knowledge of harmony, should never be produced for that reason alone. They should rise seemingly unbidden, and not be ostentatiously paraded. Above all, they should not affect the melodious flow of the cantilena.
Of the six Canzonets, we much prefer " The sun has set"
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