NEW AESTHETIC JOURNAL. THE CRAYON, A Weekly Paper devoted to ART, offers itself to the attention of all who are interested in the elevating and refining influences of Beauty. Among the contributors to THE CRAYON already are BRYANT, LOWELL, STREET, REMBRANDT PEALE, A. B. DURAND, President of the N tional Academy of Design, DANIEL HUNTINGTON, HENRY K. BROWN, and amongst those engaged are LONGFELLOW, BAYARD TAYLOR, GEO WM CURTIS, Rev. H. W. BEECHER, Rev. SAMUEL OsoooD, Rev. H. W. BELLOWS, Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, and others of our most eminent writers. A series of papers by RUSKIN, and essays left by the eminent sculptor, HORATIO GREENOUGH, add to the interest of The Crayon. From the Christian Inquirer. The first five numbers of this promising (and thus far perWe look for its weekly issue forming) paper are now out. with high and never disappointed expectation. Its leaders are leaded in a double sense-weighty with thought as well as with typographical distinetness. They carry metal We are much impressed with the seriousness and instructive aim of the editorial columns. Manifestly it is not to tickle the ear or please the fancy, but to enlighten the mind and improve the taste, that the leading article always aims. The writer has a real, well-considered, distinct, and decisive thought to convey to his readers' minds, and he goes about it patiently, unambitiously, and earnestly, and succeeds not in winning our admiration-a poor victory-but in leaving us wiser than he found us. The Crayon has, we hope, a special mission-to purge and soberize the style of our journalizing, as well as the taste of our people in general The heated, gaseous, and scintillating style of our public press is becoming intolerable. The Crayon uses a cool, quiet and unobtrusive style, which is truly refreshing. From the Cincinnati Gazette. We have already strongly recommended THE CRAYON, and every succeeding number proves it to be more and more worthy of all we have said in its praise. No journal, devoted to Art, has ever been so ably conducted, in this country; and if it meets with the support it so richly deserves, we have no doubt that it will exert a most wholesome influence upon the taste of the country. Published by STILLMAN & DURAND, No. 237 Broadway, New York. Terms, $3 per annum, in advance. Back numbers supplied. C. H. CLARKE, TEACHER OF MUSIC, 265 Washington St. RESIDENCE....13 SHAWMUT STREET, BOSTON. W. J. PARKERSON, NO. 8 LA GRANGE PLACE, BOSTON. Having resided thirteen years in Europe with a view of adapting the Italian style of Singing to the English voice. and of remedying weakness of the voice, and thoroughly correcting harsh, guttural, nasal, or other unpleasant peculiarities, proposes to give lessons on the Voice, and in Singing, in the Italian French, and English Languages. Many who have spent years of severe study to attain musical excellence, after struggling to conquer some guttural, nasal, or other unpleasant mannerism, abandon the pursuit from the belief that they are afflicted with a natural defectiveness: when, with a fractional part of the application which they bestow on the other branches of their musical education, and with much less physical effort (if properly directed) than they have been accustomed to use, their voices might be rendered comparatively beautiful. To singers of eminence he would say, with a just appreciation of their high attainments, that a brief practical examination of his system will convince the most sceptical, that he can afford them such assistance in beautifying the voice, as might delight the most fastidious. "Being acquainted with the course of vocal discipline pursued by Mr. W. J. PARKERSON in forming and developing the voice, I take pleasure in bearing my testimony to its excellence; believing it to be far preferable to any other method known to me. GEO. J. WEBB. BOSTON, OCT. 7, 1854." NATHAN RICHARDSON, 282 WASHINGTON STREET, Has just received a large invoice of FOREIGN MUSIC, Comprising the latest works of all the distinguished European composers. -JUST PUBLISHED,Richardson's Collection of National and Operatic Melodies, Very easily arranged for the Piano, and fingered after the method of the Modern School. In twenty numbers. Price from 15 to 25 cents each. They are excellent for young pupils. Sixty-Six Interludes in the Major Keys, By J. H. JONES, for the Organ, Melodeon or Piano. They are easy, and very interesting. Every musician should have a copy. Price 50 cents. Third Book of Concone's Vocal Exercises, For the middle register of the voice, the only complete edition in the country. Just published. They will be found indispensable to all Teachers of Singing. Price $2. All the above will be sent free of postage on the receipt of the above prices. Our Catalogues are sent gratis to any CARD.-Messrs. GARTNER and JUNGNICKEL are ready to receive applications to furnish music (duos, trios, &c. for violin and piano) for private parties. Nov 18 ADOLPH KIELBLOCK, TEACHER OF MUSIC, IGNOR Professor of Music, from Nuples, proposes to teach SINGING and the PIANO during the coming winter, in Boston, both by private and class lessons. The latter will be given to CHORAL CLASSES, on Tuesday and Friday evenings, for which purpose the Messrs. Chickering have kindly offered the use of their Rooms, in order to afford to as many as possible the advantages of a system of public musical instruction that has been attended with great success in Europe. Applications to be made to Sig. AUGUSTO BENDELARI, at the Winthrop House, or to Messrs. Chickering & Sons, to whom, as well as to the following gentlemen, he is politely permitted to refer. Rev. Sam'l K. Lothrop, MODEL MELODEONS THE MANUFACTURED BY MASON & HAMLIN. HE attention of the musical public is invited to the newly improved MODEL MELODEONS made by us. We believe them to be unsurpassed, in all the essential points pertaining to a good instrument, especially in regard to Equality, Power, Sweetness of Tone, Promptness of Action and Style of Finish. Our prices vary from $60 to $175, according to the size and style of the instrument. Recommendations from LOWELL MASON, WM. B. BRADBURY, GEORGE F. ROOT, L. HI SOUTHARD, EDWIN BRUCE, SILAS A. BANCROFT, and many other distinguished musicians, may be seen at our ware-rooms. The opinions of the above gentlemen give them a decided preference to all other Melodeons. MASON & HAMLIN, EMMONS HAMLIN. Cambridge St. (cor. of Charles,) Boston, Ms. Oct 28 6m (Directly in front of the Jail.) HENRY MASON. } D. B. NEWHALL, Manufacturer and Dealer in Piano-Fortes, No. 344 Washington Street, Boston. PIANO FORTES REPAIRED, TUNED, & TO LET. WILLIAM BERGER, Publisher and Importer of Music, No. 82 West 4th Street, Cincinnati, 0. KEEPS constantly on hand a Large and Select Stock of IMPORTED MUSIC, for sale at Eastern prices. New Music received by Steamer as soon as published. A liberal discount granted to Teachers. All orders promptly attended to. Music arranged to order. Catalogues sent gratis by mail. Aug26 MR. J. Q. WETHERBEE, VOCALIST, (BASSO CANTANTE,) No. 18 TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON. OTTO DRESEL Gives Instruction on the piano, and may be addressed at the REVERE HOUSE. Terms: $50 per quarter of 24 lessons, two a week; $30 per quarter of 12 lessons, one a week. YOUNG LADIES' VOCAL MUSIC SCHOOL E. R. BLANCHARD, Teacher. This School is designed for those who wish to acquire the ability to read music readily at sight, and is particularly adapted to the wants of those who desire to fit themselves to teach singing in schools, or to receive instruction, from the best masters, in the Cultivation of the Voice, Style, &c. Address, care of Geo. J. Webb & Co, No. 3 Winter street. PIANIST AND TEACHER OF MUSIC, OFFERS his services as an Instructor in the higher branches of Piano playing. Mr H. may be addressed at the music stores of NATHAN RICHARDSON, 282 Washington St. or G. P. REED & Co. 17 Tremont Row. REFERENCES:-Mrs. C. W. Loring, 33 Mt. Vernon St. THOMAS RYAN, Feb. 18. TEACHER OF MUSIC, RESIDENCE, 19 FRANKLIN STREET. PRINCE & CO.'S MELODEONS, OF every variety from 845 to $150, suitable for the parlor, lecture-room, lodge-room, or small church. Believing them to be better in tone, more durable, and better finished than those of any other make, they have accepted the agency, and keep for sale only those manufactured by Prince & Co. G. P. REED & Co. REFERENCES. Samuel G. Ward, Esq. John S. Dwight, Esq. Sept 1 CARL GÄRTNER, May be found at No. 20 Dover Street, every forenoon between WILLIAM SCHULTZE, Of the late GERMANIA MUSICAL SOCIETY, proposes to remain in Boston, and to give instruction on the VIOLIN, the PIANO-FORTE, and in the THEORY OF MUSIC. Address No. 45 Harrison Avenue, or at any of the music stores. Sept 16 Letter-Press, Music and Job Printing-Ofce, tf ADOLPH BAUMBACH, TEACHER OF THE PIANO-FORTE. Application can be made at Reed's Musie-Store, or at the Norfolk House, Roxbury. Sept 9 J. TRENKLE, TEACHER OF THE PIANO-FORTE. Residence No. 56 Kneeland Street. No. 21 School St. Journal of Music. VOL. VI. A Paper of Art and Literature. BOSTON, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1855. Dwight's Journal of Music, PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. TERMS IT'S TS CONTENTS relate mainly to the Art of Music, but with glances at the whole World of Art and of Polite Literature; including, from time to time,-1. Critical Reviews of Concerts, Oratorios, Operas; with timely Analyses of the notable Works performed, accounts of their Composers, &c. 2. Notices of New Music published at home and abroad. 3. A Summary of the significant Musical News from all parts; gathered from English, German, French, as well as American papers. 4. Correspondence from musical persons and places. 5. Essays on musical styles, schools, periods, authors, compositions, instruments, theories; on Musical Education; on Music in its Moral Social, and Religious bearings; on Music in the Church, the Concert-room, the Theatre, the Chamber, and the Street, &c. 6. Translations from the best German and French writers upon Music and Art. 7. Occasional Notices of Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, Poetry, Esthetic Books, the Drama, &c. 8. Original and Selected Poems, short Tales, Anecdotes, &c. Back numbers, from the commencement, can be furnished. Also bound copies of the first two years. POSTAGE, if paid in advance, for any distance within the State, thirteen cents a year; if not in advance, twenty-six cents. To all places beyond the State, double these rates. him been put incalculably far off? for Zerlina, whom he has led to the brink of destruction? for Masetto, whose most precious rights he has so shamelessly sought to usurp, and whom he has beaten, after loading him with courtesies far worse than blows? Is it so finally for Elvira, the but too unfortunate Elvira? Certainly not! All are filled with indignation at what they see, and the announcement of the general feeling must naturally contain the feelings of the person, in whom the intensest passion is justified, who pursues the common thought of revenge with the greatest zeal, who, besides her own private grievance, also deeply feels the cruel wrong that has been inflicted on a noble lady. On that account the music takes the character of Anna; which it must do throughout. One single individual stands outside of the common words and feelings, - Leporello, for whom there is no impensata novità (unthought-of novelty). Accordingly his isolated voice maintains throughout the whole Allegro a thematic character. It moves in such a manner, that its isolated periods give the momentum to the other five voices which form the chorus, so that Leporello in a certain sense becomes the coriphæus of the Sextet. He opens the piece with a simple and vigorous theme, resembling a fugue subject: Mille torbidi pensieri, which the chorus instantly repeat, but abridging it into three instead of five bars. This dialogue, full of warmth and movement, of imitations and antitheses, goes on in this way under the greatest variety of forms, and at each new sentence of the coriphæus and each answer of the choir brings into view a wonderful surprise, a new trait of genius, as it were. Think of that outburst of pathetic dissonances: Che giornata è questa (What a day is this!) and Leporello's syllabic side-speeches: Si mi salvo in tal tempesta, &c., (If I save myself in such a storm), during which two little instrumental figures swiftly alternate motu contrario in all the orchestral parts; recollect the inexpressible effect of the Chord, D, A flat, C flat, F, with an E flat as fundamental bass, at those sentences of the chorus: Che impensata novità, and that very unexpected, searching modulation into D flat major, and the incomparable roulade heard at this sudden change of key, and so many other things, of which one knows not how to praise or how express them. And yet the composer of this music is but a man. After the dialogue has repeated itself through NO. 24. all its periods, it ceases; the voices unite into a grand movement in fugued style; the two first sopranos imitate one another at the interval of a second; the tenor stands out in long syncopes upon an obstinate F; the third soprano and the basses play and swing upon two notes, and the violins work in the midst with all their might. But what invisible hand has staid the orchestra? You feel the rhythm no more; the voice-parts, which had moved on in a contrapuntal clue, disentangle themselves and become re-involved at the same time, through those knots and windings, which the ear cannot hold fast. One might fancy that they sprang one from another and came together in the air at random, like the chords of the æolian harp. This impression, limited to eight bars of the Allegro, lasts only a few seconds; heaven opens and is closed again in the same moment. Long before the age at which the critical understanding was unfolded in me, it always seemed to me, whenever I heard this piece, as if something extraordinary and supernatural, which we could not see, were taking place. But now I am convinced that the musical instinct of my childhood had divined the well-considered, or perhaps the equally instinctive, intention of Mozart. Yes, it is the soul of the Commander, that has touched us with its breath. Anna's father has left the starry regions of eternity; his soul has winged its way toward the churchyard, and as it passed has let a blessing fall upon his daughter. All that the mysteries of harmony, counterpoint and canon can afford of what is tender, select, in the highest degree refined, and in regard to expression the least analyzable, is combined in these eight measures, to make us realize the light contact with the invisible world. After this follows swiftly the concluding sentence; but such a brilliant, fullsounding conclusion, as reminds us after all that we are listening to an opera. Everybody must clap in applause, for the maestro will be rewarded for his trouble. LEPORELLO'S SONG. The vocal symphony is at an end, and now comes the chapter of explanations. O wretch! O shameless fellow! My own knees knocked together, while I was thinking on the contrary to make this happen to thy master! To maul my poor husband, ere he was hardly married! To compromise thus a noble lady, who thought to take the air upon the arm of a nobleman! To make a mock of us all! Ah! pietà, signori miei (mercy, my masters) exclaims then the unfortunate rogue, who on his knees sinks almost under the load of accusations, some of which, and indeed the heaviest, are riddles to him. Less celebrated than the Catalogue song, but not less wonderful, this song seldom has the honor of being performed upon the stage, and it seems not to have particularly attracted the attention of criticism. Yet it deserves the commonplace, although perfectly just praise which one can bestow upon nearly all the pieces of the opera, namely, that it is unique in its kind. Unique is the word, for we possess no other aria in the buffo style, which is more natural, more speaking, better declaimed, more Italian, and at the same time such a masterpiece of the most involved and learned Italian style. A fool's babble in the voice-part, with all the refinements and calculation of the orchestra. The identity is found here in the difference which exists between the thing that is said and the thing that is thought, things which cannot be the same, when one speaks to lie and deceive. Leporello turns to his pursuers one by one, and pours out a whole flood of absurdities with extraordinary glibness of tongue; he knows not what he says himself; it is of no consequence to him what he says; on the contrary he knows very well what he designs: namely, to break away, the moment that his babble has put their vigilance to sleep. All the finenesses of counterpoint and fugue in the service of a dramatic intention are here involved in depicting the anxiety of the good-for-nothing, (which hides itself under the zeal of a fruitless justification,) his cunning arts, his evasions, his secret spying out of localities, like a thief on the lurk, and his long and desperate striving to find a means of safety. The orchestra unrols the picture of a laughable affliction, with a truthfulness of impression and an artificiality of style, which I for my part cannot sufficiently admire. I limit myself to pointing out the leading combinations taken from the motive certo accidente; di fuori chiaro, di dentro oscuro, non c'è riparo, la porta, il muro . . . That is the text. On that Mozart has built a canon for two voices, which divides itself between the singer and all the instruments. These voices, entering, in the tempo of an Allegro assai, at the distance of a quarter note from one another, execute the same figure; but the rhythmical accent is applied in such a manner, that, if one of the voices takes a dotted half note, a G for example, the other voice, in imitation, glides upon the G reduced two thirds in length, and thereby brings the whole weight of the accent upon an A, which however undergoes the same reduction in the interest of a B, to which the first voice afterwards arrives, and so on. But the combination is not yet exhausted. The orchestral parts, which went together, hasten after one another; those, which were in pursuit and flight, become united; the wind instruments abandon the canonical figure and take syncopated passages, which mix up the harmony with accidental chords, while the violins and bass keep on in canon. The whole orchestra plays blind man's buff, but Leporello peeps a little through the bandage. He peeps to such advantage, that we soon see Masetto with two supernumeraries on the floor, and the prisoner with an immense leap over his three watchmen hastening away to the door. Il birbo ha l' ali ai piedi (the rascal has wings to his feet,) says Masetto, getting up. "IL MIO TESORO." We have waited long, indeed too long, for the tenor aria. Ottavio has paid only an instalment of the sum of enjoyment, which he owes the public. Patience! One loses nothing by waiting with such a debtor as Mozart; capital and interest are made good at once. Of all the arias of the opera, Il mio tesoro intanto andate a consolar, (Go ye meanwhile to console my treasure,) is incomparably the most brilliant for the singer. A graceful and most brilliant melody, which tells even with the most indifferent voice, expressive roulades, sustained notes, which allow the singer to hold out a tone, to swell it and let it gradually die away, or even make a trill upon it, if he understands that; a fermata, in which it is so easy to introduce the runs that each one knows best how to make, the falsetto leaps upon the chords usurped by the contralto, the vocal passages in fine, which readily lend themselves to the accustomed ornaments; this is what for at least twenty years has made of Il mio tesoro the parade horse of tenors, as Non più andrai has been that of baritones, and Sarastro's aria that of basses. The fashion perishes, but the aria has not perished with it; it is and it remains the most beautiful of tenor airs, since neither time nor the lamentable caprice of fashion have had power to rob it of its beauty both of art and of expression. strain of impassioned song we have been hearing! Master, we recognize the thoughts of one of thy most felicitous and brilliant masterpieces. Thy young man is the pearl of bridegrooms, as he is of tenors. Who would not rather marry an adored and an adorable beloved one, than make a compact with the devil? THE SHADOWS FALL. Ottavio's aria stands as a boundary stone between the two worlds, which the drama puts in motion. Threatening and ever closer gathering shadows are on the eve of letting themselves down upon the scene and overwhelming all. We have arrived at the beginning of the end. "At bottom Death is the true end of Life," said Mozart in his last letter to his father. The end was as indispensable in an opera, which includes human life complete within itself, as the moral in a fable. Death, like a particularly favorite theme, has been treated and analyzed in it under its various phases. With that the work begins, and that makes the conclusion. In the overture it was death, that presented itself at the entrance of the theme; in the introduction death is presented to the eye through the combat in which a fleeting life vanishes before us; in the Sextet it is the dying out of a mortally wounded heart, which yearns for the grave, the last refuge of the miserable. But there is still a third image of Death, whose aspect is the most terrible that can be seen; Death personified, Death that comes to one like an individualized thing, like that animated nothing, which seizes upon one in the dark, when one cannot sleep, or when one suddenly awakens in a frightful dream, which covers him with a cold sweat and crushes him alive under the weight of the earth, which will not cover him. This nightmare, a thousand times more terrible than the physical night-mare, never yet visited any one by the clear light of the sun. Mozart, who often saw the phantom, is now about to lend it a body; he is about to use it for the resolution, for the moral justification, for the development and miracle of a drama, which only could and should be undertaken under this condition. The character of ecstatic tenderness, with which Mozart has suffused the entire rôle of Ottavio, and to which the text here gives a certain touch of heroism, required the most melodious cantabile in the voice-part, and an almost martial sonorousness in the orchestra. Heroism and love: is there anything more advantageous for a tenor? Ditele che i suoi torti a vendicar io vado, &c. (Tell her that I go to avenge her wrongs.) That promises something, and the warlike strokes of the violins promise still more. Mozart, who was always sparing in the use of words that are nothing but words, and who knew too well the nature of the individual, took good care not to set him on a fiery charger, with a helmet on his head and lance in rest. Ottavio has not the stern and choleric temperament, which commonly makes heroes, particularly operatic heroes. Too much bravura THE STATUE IN THE CHURCH YARD. would have crushed his tender breast. He arms The scene changes after Ottavio's exit; it rephimself in sooth; he burns for the combat; resents the inside of a church yard, which we have he succeeds in drawing from his soul some sparks already seen in the perspective. On both sides of a noble fire; already he is hastening to the appear, in picturesque confusion, monuments, urns rendezvous of honor, but on the way his with inscriptions and emblems; here and there thoughts resume their wonted direction; and some shrubbery. A ruined wall, here but a few instead of the fearful adversary he sees Anna feet high, there of a man's height, is visible in the threshold of the battle place. It is all through the trees. Quite in the background is over now with thoughts of blood. Ottavio is the statue of the Commendatore, sharply outlined is himself again; love streams in foaming rou- in the moonlight. As soon as the scene is clearly lades from his bosom; he is intoxicated with made out, you see Don Juan, pursued by the offithe bliss of beholding her, with the hope of con- cers of justice, or it may be by a former sweetsoling her, of continually pleasing her, of forever heart, entering with a light bound over the wail. belonging to her: Il mio tesoro intanto. And the The miscarriages of the day have not changed his inexorable vow of revenge! and the oath! Cer- indestructible humor. It is not yet late, at the tainly she must be avenged; that will restore her most but two o'clock in the morning. What a peace and bring back the bloom to her cheek. glorious night for running after adventures! LeOn thee, my good sword, I rely, on thee! But porello, who has tracked his master's footsteps, the sword appears to be a little too short; the enters in the same manner. Great is the joy of sword of justice will be somewhat longer. We our heroes to find themselves together again. will reflect upon it, we go out, and the orchestra, Giovanni relates to his companion the adventures which has forgotten the promises of the hero, re- in which we have not been able to follow him; peats with much emotion the sighs of the lover, and since the story seems a good one to him, inthrough the organ of the clarinet and the fagotto. asmuch as it is rather mortifying to his listener, What a precious perfume of tenderness breathes he breaks out into a convulsive laugh, that profrom this ritornel! what a lovely and delightful | longs itself beyond all bounds; and upon this convulsive laugh fall the words of the Chorale strain: Di rider finirai pria dell' aurora, (Thou shalt cease to laugh before the dawn.) * What delirious conceptions, what preternatural dreams the imagination would have had to summon to its aid, to produce with words anything like the impression of these four bars of Adagio, this fearful contrast, which marks the transition from the real to the ideal world in our opera! You hear passionless, dead words sound forth from the grave, to which a change of the chord upon each syllable, a terrible dismembering of the harmony, lends an indescribably strange semblance of life, which is like the absolute opposite of life. And therein lies the wonder, that is to say the harmonizing of two essentially contradictory thoughts. The voice closes, spectre-like, with the dominant of the key, struck with the major third. This is a church cadence; it belongs to eternity, which know no minor, type of earthly instability. Di rider finirai pria dell' aurora. At this oracular utterance Giovanni for the first time feels a terror, that strikes to the inmost marrow of his iron constitution. Chi va la! Chi va la! (Who goes there?), and the voice, receding, answers him in the same tempo of Adagio, whose 3-4 measure appears shortened by the distance: Ribaldo, audace, lascia ai morti la pace (Ribald, audacious, leave the dead in peace). The animated nothing lets its voice be heard still more frightfully in a second verse, and again the cadence of eternity closes the half-opened grave. The accompaniment of the chorale, placed behind the statue, is distinguished from all the rest not only by the acoustic coloring, but by the harmony. The oboes and clarinets strengthen the spectral music in the upper octaves; the most mournful chords of the fagotto are married in the middle with the sighs of the tenor trombones; and the bass trombone thunders in heavy tones upon the fundamental notes. The effect of this Chorale is the loftiest and most searching, that can be heard upon the stage; indeed for certain organizations, especially in early youth, it is too powerful. I knew a person who at the age of twelve or thirteen heard "Don Juan" for the first time and was almost sick for several days in consequence. The fearful Chorale had so fastened on his brain, that it continually sounded in him from beginning to end; a painful experience, even when the music is of an agreeable character. Search through all the spectres, phantoms, ghosts and cobolds, which have spoken, after Mozart, on the lyric stage; try to realize the enormous expenditure of means, that have been applied, to make us believe in these apparitions. But neither decorations and machinery, nor the different instruments which have been used specially and solely upon these occasions, nor all the attempts of our modern composers with all the wealth of means at their disposal, have sufficed to awaken the impression which Mozart understood how to make. We content ourselves with citing only the most famous among them, which we have heard, such as the apparition of the enchantress in the Geisterinsel of Zumsteeg, the classical apparition of Ninus in Rossini's Semiramide, the infernal dance with the other diabolisms in Robert le Diable, and the devil scenes in the Freyschütz, which last in our opinion stand far above those of Meyerbeer and many others. Now, we will wager, that the Commendatore will outlive all his rivals from the other world, since he is beyond dispute the deadest in the whole company. THE INVITATION. Of all the thoughts of the poem the invitation to supper, which Don Juan addresses to the statue, is without doubt the absurdest. Da Ponte saw fit to indulge in this extravaganza, and handed it over to his collaborateur, to make it enjoyable if possible. But Mozart had provided for it from the outset. Don Juan, as constructed by the music, is something more or something less than a man. All that precedes in the rôle and in the character connects itself musically by an admirable logic with the invitation scene. Giovanni could not resist a certain tremor at the words of the spectre; and this inward emotion, badly veiled in the recitative, is for him something new, which disturbs and tortures him far more than the miracle which he has seen with his own eyes. He feel fear! he, who with such mighty and real conviction in the finale of the first act said: Se cadesse ancora il mondo, nulla mai temermi fa, (If the world should fall, &c.!) Pride comes to the aid of the wavering giant. Read the inscription on the monument, he says to his shivering servant, and instantly appears in burning characters the vengeance-craving motto. No! no! no! he says then to himself, all this idle hocus-pocus has lost its charm by repetition. Thou shalt be twice conquered, miserable grey-beard. I shall quail as little before thy scolding shadow, as before thy feeble sword. Leporello! tell him he must come to supper with me this evening. Is not this the height of self-delusion, the delirium of a perverse strength, exerting itself the more because it was upon the point of wavering? A blind rage has got the mastery in Giovanni's heart; his blood, which for a moment had stood still in his veins, now boils; he has the fever on him and he keeps on laughing; he jokes, and in sheer joke he will stab his servant, who is too slow to execute his mad commands. We have thought it necessary to make these physiological remarks, in order to explain, as far as possible, the indefinable character of the piece which follows; a composition which has nothing in common with the effect which the miracle must have produced upon any other person but Don Juan; a composition, which is at once comical and fearful, brilliant and mystical, full of enticements for the ear, and of allusions to the second sight; a farce, one will say, enacted in the churchyard, for the entertainment of the departed; something that has no name: O statua gentilissima. If we consider only the text and the declamation of the vocal parts, the poetical thought of the duet is simple enough, although it is faithfully and energetically reproduced by the composer. On the one side Giovanni, who maintains all the decorum of a cold and sarcastic dauntlessness, in spite of the mental agitation which he betrays, and which moreover is expressed in the vivacity of the tempo, the wandering motion of the instrumental figures and even the undecided key of E major; on the other side Leporello, who, placed betwixt the speaking statue and his master's rapier, as between two fires, has no motive, he, poor devil, to conceal the two-fold mortal terror that torments him. Contrasts of this sort always were with Mozart an occasion for a splendid triumph. In the whole duet the two voices have Colla marmorea but one passage in common: testa ei fa così, così, (With his marble head he does so, so,) where the rising and falling of the melodic intervals, together with the rhythm, imitate the motion of the statue's head. But although the performers sing the same melody, yet they must give it a very different expression. Leporello imitates mechanically what he has seen, as a scared monkey might do; Giovanni, mocking him, sings in a tone of most contemptuous irony; his head sinks and raises itself proudly. The piece, thus far as intelligible and theatrical as the music could make it, only becomes fantastical and undefinable through the instrumentation. For a moment only, just one measure, is the duet, through the yes of the Commendatore, made a supernatural Terzet. This answer of the spectre has had its influence on the instrumentation, as it could not but have; yet it has left only a few brief traces of itself behind; before and after it, we hear some passages in the orchestra which bear no decided relation either to the general effect of the situation, or to the three speaking persons: figures, which are now lively and brilliant, now moody and fantastical; chords of the wind instruments, which close in a very peculiar manner and with a mystical charm upon an abrupt cadence from B major to C major; strokes of the violas, which hum upon the lowest string, like a bass phantom, with an air of jocund repose, that makes a shudder creep over one. Apparently the orchestra here expresses relations, which are not indicated in the drama and which cannot be even silently implied there. Could Mozart have executed anything so wonderfully beautiful, without connecting any thought with it? What if the voice from the monument had found echoes in the surrounding graves! if by the fearful and revengeful tones of the shadow other gentler spirits were awakened? spirits of maidens who departed before the age of the emotions of love, souls of little children, who died in their nurses' arms, that pale and indifferent crowd, yet happy that it has not more to live, which hovers about the man of marble and in ghastly complacency looks on scenes from this life, of which it understands nothing! [To be continued.] Opera and Oratorio contrasted. The Opera and Oratorio are beginning to be such popular styles of public performance in this country, that a brief comparison of the two may not be unwelcome to our readers. The general features of musical structure are the same in both. In other respects they vastly differ. They are alike in the following particulars: 1. An instrumental overture or introduction; sometimes, also, in both this is omitted. Rossini once told a young man in pursuit of musical knowledge under difficulties, that the best way of writing an overture to his opera, which in other respects was completed, was to write none at all— a course which with great comfort and satisfaction to himself he had pursued in one of his own operas. 2. The plot is generally a progressive one: but in the opera a sharper climax is often sought, the finale being an exciting catastrophe of some kind. This is often the case with oratorios; like Bach's oratorios of the Passion of our Lord, which close with his crucifixion. But in the oratorio a succession of sacred scenes may also be presented, without any very exciting climax, such as we look for in works calculated for dramatic action-like operas. 3. The subject, whatever it may be, is worked up into choruses, recitatives, duets, trios, and concerted pieces of all kinds, in precisely the same manner both in the opera and the oratorio. But here the parallel seems to end. The two differ essentially in the following respects: 1. In the choice of subject. In the opera, human love, in its thousand changeful aspects of joy and sorrow, fortune and misfortune, success and failure is ordinarily presented. The most elevated and dignified phase of this ever embodied is, perhaps, Beethoven's opera of Fidelio, in which not the sentimental history of two lovers is portrayed, but the sublime fidelity of a wife to her husband, and her rescue of his life at the last, from the hand of a powerful adversary. In the oratorio the Divine love is oftenest portrayed, or such subjects and histories as delineate this love. To this distinctive choice of subjects-it must be stated, however there are exceptions. In a few instances sacred subjects have been selected by prominent operatic composers, and wrought up in opera form, with all the distinctive features of operatic and dramatic treatment. Such, for instance, are the sacred operas of Joseph and his Brethren, by Mehul; and Moses in Egypt, by Rossini. These works, of course, it is understood, are only sacred in subject; they are essentially operatic in style of composition and musical effect. 2. The opera and the oratorio differ radically (as stated in the foregoing paragraph) in style of composition and musical treament. In the opera, the free or secular style is adopted; in the oratorio, the strict or sacred style. A consequent marked contrast of effect (which, after all, constitutes the difference between sacred and secular music) is thus produced. It is true that Mozart, in his overture to Zauberflöte treats a subject in a fugued style; but it is such a fugue as one might very well dance to, and exceedingly un-church like, and opera like (as it should be) in movement. It is also true that in much oratorial composition we find music written in the free style as to progression of parts, etc. But then the coloring, even here, is sacred and religions: unmistakably so, in all genuine oratorial composers. : 3. The subject of opera is always selected and treated with a view to exciting dramatic action and stage effect. In the oratorio we have no action and no stage effect. The climaxes in oratorios are all musical, except such intellectual or emotional climaxes as are induced by the sacred text itself. In these important respects, therefore, do the opera and oratorio differ. We may state, that we often witnessed, while in Germany, the simple and touching opera of Joseph and his Brethren on the Frankfort stage. It was regularly given once or twice a year. The action and scenic effect were simple and quiet while the music, though also simple and quiet, is conceived of course in the old opera style; such as we should expect from Mehul. Works like Joseph and Moses in Egypt are always looked upon as sacred in subject only; they are essentially secular and operatic in musical style and in the effect produced upon the auditors. Such works can never be regarded, of course, as oratorios, having been originally conceived as operas by the composers, and intended for dramatic action. We never, therefore, ever heard in the land of oratorios-Germany-of a sacred musical association (like the celebrated CæcilienVerein in Frankfort, for instance, which Mendelssohn so much frequented,) undertaking the study of the opera of Joseph and his Brethren, or Moses in Egypt-sacred as the subject is for the purpose of presenting it as an oratorio. They would have incurred nothing but ridicule by so doing. We heard however of Rossini's Moses in Egypt being performed on a German stage by a musical association, where simply the music was given without the action, use being made, however, of appropriate scenery as background. This is the nearest approach we ever knew the Germans to make toward turning opera into oratorio. They certainly never went so far as to substitute the name of one for the other. It seems to have been reserved for this country, (where, as the land of Edwards, we have naturally perhaps greater freedom of the musical will) to present an opera like Moses in Egypt as an oratorio-though of course no more an oratorio in musical style, and in absolute effect upon the auditors than the Barber of Seville; or half as much so as the majestic opera of Semiramide. The wish has often been expressed by the graver classes of our music-loving Americans, that operas might be presented to them in public performance musically only-the dramatic action being omitted. They wish to hear the music, but do not care for, or approve of, the rest of it. We find this a very natural and reasonable idea on their part. And why not? It strikes us that it might prove a very successful enterprise. Only -let us not call the Barber of Seville and Masaniello and Norma and Favorita or even Moses in Egypt an oratorio: for the simple reason, that each of these, like others of their class, were conceived, and originally launched upon the world, and called operas, by their composers-who ought best to know what they are; for what they were intended; and what name belonged to them. Call them rather concert operas-if you will; or anything to designate that they are operas with an omission of the action and the scenery. Musical Correspondence. From NEW YORK. MARCH 12.-Last Saturday was the evening of our third Philharmonic concert, at which was assembled a still larger audience than at the one preceding. The programme was very attractive, and read as follows: PART I. Symphony No. 2, in G minor,. PART II. Overture to " Ruy Blas," in C, op. 65,. Pity, though, that the execution was in most points far from good. In all the orchestral parts the absence of Mr. EISFELD, on account of severe illness, was sadly perceptible. The members of the orchestra are accustomed to his direction, and he has more control over them, and is less lenient than Mr. TIMM, whose good nature often reaches too far. Nevertheless, in the Symphony and the last Overture this was less felt; they went quite well; particularly when compared to the rendering of them at even that morning's rehearsal.— But Ruy Blas, in itself the least interesting of MENDELSSOHNS's overtures, was not done justice to at all, and the vocal pieces were really spoiled by the loud and coarse accompaniment of hardly half the orchestra. Besides, both Mrs. STUART and Mr. MAYER seemed not in very good, or rather not in very strong voice. For the former all allowances must be made, she having very recently met with a severe domestic affliction, under the influence of which I only wondered at her being able to sing at all. She hardly did herself justice, in spite of an evident endeavor to do her best; yet she looked so sad and weary that my heart ached for her. Mr. Mayer's aria from Guttenberg was rather tedious, and though that from Jessonda was sung 'by request," yet I think the greater part of the * I cannot refrain from mentioning that this is the first time in the six years of my associate membership, that an entire Symphony of Mozart has been performed by the Philharmonic Society, while Spohr's "Consecration of Sounds" has been upon the programme no less than three times. audience would have preferred to hear something which had not been sung twice last winter. I have left the best to the last. BEETHOVEN'S grandest Concerto, performed by Mr. SATTER in a manner that completely carried away the audience, and inspired the orchestra so that their accompaniment did not, at least, spoil the effect of the piano. Of Mr. Satter's playing. I do not know how to say enough. He has taken the appreciative" musical world of our city by storm, and can boast of a success which no pianist of his class (that is, not a mere light-fingered virtuoso) has ever met with here. He has appeared before our best, most competent musical audiences three times in two weeks, and each time has won the most enthusiastic and unbounded applause, and been called out and encored, only to take his final departure amid renewed vehement demonstrations of satisfaction. Such things are encouraging, are they not? Mr. Satter's rendering of the Concerto was masterly throughout. In the first movement he introduced a celebrated cadenza composed for the concerto by Liszt, in truly Lisztian style, which might have seemed out of place, had it not served as a foil to the beauty of its surroundings. Towards its end, as light gradually broke, and at last, in a perfectly etherial pianissimo of high notes, the theme re-appeared, there was a breathless hush throughout the whole house, until, with the joining in of the orchestra, there was one deep, long-drawn breath, and all gave vent to the most unqualified admiration. The Adagio was- -Beethovenish! I can think of no higher praise; and then came the wild, sparkling Rondo, which, like that in the Sonata, op. 26, which follows the funeral march, brings the necessary relief to the nerves strung to the highest tension by the sublime beauty of the preceding movement. On being called out, Mr. Satter played a very Wedelaborate and difficult Fantasia upon the " ding March" of Mendelssohn, which, as that theme is a general favorite with our public, won him renewed applause. BORNONIS. MARCH 13. Opera matters are beginning to become a little more settled, although hardly anything is certain. OLE BULL has made no reply to the resolutions alluded to in my last, and he has no occasion to do so; for the universal opinion in New York is that he is "more sinned against than sinning." Those persons, or rather that person who got up the meeting, has so often had similar resolutions passed with respect to himself, that he is quite au fait in preparing them. I see that OLE BULL has sworn to the following facts in the FRY vs. BENNET case: That he furnished STRAKOSCH with $8000 in drafts, for the purpose of going to Europe to engage artists. That when BRIGNIOLI arrived he sent his agent to him, but was informed by him that his (Bull's) name had not been mentioned by Strakosch in his engagement, and that he (Strakosch) had represented himself to be the sole manager of all the theatres in New York and vicinity. Bull also deposed that he is informed that S. has gone to Austria to visit his relatives, although he should have returned to the United States. It is decidedly a nice state of affairs. Last night Lucia was given for the benefit of the employés. The house was quite full for the Academy, and the performances Brignioli, the new tenor, did not please very much. He has a fine voice but does not seem to know how to use it to advantage. For Wednesday Lucia is again adver tised, under whose managemen it is not said, though I understand it is nominally under a committee of stock-holders; but in reality MAX MARETZEK has the whole charge. Of the late GRISI troupe, SUSINI sailed for Europe on Wednesday, and DONOVANI and several |