THE HARMONICON.
IT is no part of our office to criticise our brother critics—those, at least, who really deserve to be so called ; but we gladly avail ourselves of a change in the arrangement and publishers of the Harnwnicon, to hear our testimony to the great merit of this work. The fate of the musician Is most disadvantageously unlike that of the professors of the other liberal arts. The painter begins and ends Isis work—his is the concep. Zion, the grouping, the tilling up—he touches and retouches his picture, or leaves it till it meets the public 'eye, as far as he can make it, perfect. If criticised in the periodicals of the day, his work is subjected to the review of some one acquainted with the rules of his art, and capable of appreciating its merits. True, lie may have to encounter prejudice or envy, but no newspaper would think of employing a Mansion-house reporter to criticise an exhibition of Pictures. The very reverse of all this is the lot of the musician. His conceptions are nothing till others give them existence: Their caprices are to be studied, their indolence to be overcome, their cupidity to be satisfied ; and success is often attained in an inverse ratio to the genius which prompts, the learning which enriches, and the toil which matures a composer's efforts. And then for criticism=the rule on which the daily press generally acts is, that anybody is competent to undertake this department. To all outward appearance, the same individual who is engaged at Bow Street during the morning, may be employed to adjourn to Drury Lane or Covent Garden in the evening, and to sit in judgment on the works of 2110ZART, STORACE, or &silo'', and, with all the blundering assurance of ignorance, give his oracular decisions upon composers, singers, and players. This is not an overcharged picture of the real state of the case : witness the continual recurrence of articles, in which the terms of the art, its history, progress, and character, are piled together in " most admired disorder." Sometimes these articles are made the vehicles of personal likes and dislikes, or the barefaced media of puffing some obscure individual. This is a heavy load for composers, for singers, and players to bear ; and amidst this jumble of Ignorance, conceit, folly, and venality, it is refreshing to those who really love their art, and who "hunger and thirst" for its advancement, to turn to a work in which a congenial spirit is found—in which manly independence of thought is combined with a thorough knowledge of music in all its varied features and schools. The return to the old arrangement of the Harmonicon, we consider as a judicious-one. The music will again, as. in its earlier numbers, be kept apart from the teat, and form. ..distinct volume at the year's end.
We feel and gratefully acknowledge the obligations under which music lies to this valuable publication ; and although we may occasionally differ from its conductor on questions of musical taste and practice, we shall differ only in our means of accomplishing the same end—the cultivation and advancement of the brightest and best parts of the art.
In the very amusing and ably written" Diary of a Dilettante," contained in the munber for the present month, our article on the Philharmonic Concerts (SPECTATOR, Dec. 27) is extracted. We had therein recorded the decision of the Society as to the appropriation of its funds, and exhorted the directors to keep steadily in view its primary law in their future selections, and to make them as if they were the only auditors.
The Dilettante says that our announcement of the 'decision above noticed, was "somewhat premature, as it is subject to the confirmation. or otherwise of a second meeting." Of this we were fully aware : but a question discussed at a large meeting of the Society and carried unanimously, is virtually, settled. The confirmation of a future meeting is, • under such circumstances, only a matter of form. Regarding our advice of the Directors, the Dilettante remarks, "As to the directors not being capable of error, should they choose only what they themselves would wish to select, I beg to ask the liberally-disposed writer, what he would say in case any director happened to be a composer or performer himself ? He most likely would wish to select his own music, or to select himself as a performer. In such case, might he not err ? Such a case has assuredly more than once occurred. We must not exact too much of poor human nature : the only check is with the public ; let them exert the authority vested in them, and managers of all and every description will be sure to keep in the right path."—In reply to these remarks, we beg to say that the case here put is of very rare occurrence —so rare, that there is but a solitary piece during the whole season to which it can apply—viz. Mr. Porrea s." Adagio and Rondo," at the fifth concert. We know of no law of the Society which excludes the compositions of living English composers, be they directors or not ; and if there were, the sooner a regulation so absurd were repealed the better. The practice, however, is, so to exclude them. CnoTen, Baum", ATTWOOD, and CRAMER, are known in that orchestra only as conductors—their music finds no place in the schemes. But is it not modesty run mad to neglect their compositions, anti take up with CARAFA, PACINI, MEI2CADANTE, anti Bocarsa P In reply to the Dilettante's first question, it is obvious that the choice would not rest with any individual director, but with the whole ;—a sufficient check against any unworthy use of power. To the second question—" Iii such a case might he not err ? " Undoubtedly he might, but he might hot; and if he were (as who is not, occasionally ?) in error, the controlling power of his brethren would keep him right. And we think the Dilettante will agree with us, that if the vocal music of some of the concerts had been replaced by that of the conductors, the change would have been greatly for the better.
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