1. MAYSEDER'Ss celebrated POLONOISE, now performing || the day for performers on this instrument to aim at velocity by all the celebrated violinists, adapted as a FLUTE SOLO, with an Accompaniment for the Piano-Forte; by CHAS. NICHOLSON. (Clementi and Co.) 2. INTRODUCTION and six VARIATIONS, in the favourite military air, The Fall of Paris, with an ad libitum for the Piano-Forte. By the same. (Published by the same.) Mayseder's Polonoise has been heard incessantly on the violin ever since its importation from Germany. It is not so well calculated for the flute; but as it is the fashion of of movement, and brilliancy of execution, rather than tenderness and expression, matter must be provided to suit their taste, and Mr. Nicholson furnishes most that appears. what he produces, and his arrangements, so far as we have His own playing, which is surprisingly agile, recommends supplied our flute-playing subscribers with any thing exseen of them, are not badly executed. As we have not yet clusively for their use, we shall profit by the present opportunity, and give them the air of this piece, the whole of which is worthy the attention of those who feel themselves strong enough to encounter it. 毒 毒 f f The Fall of Paris is still more difficult than the polonoise; while it does not possess any thing like the same attractiveness. The air is known to every-body; we always thought it a vulgar, inferior production, and regret that it is revived in any form. As an adagio, Mr. Nicholson has introduced among these variations, Vive Henri Quatre, an air eminently beautiful and suited to the tender character of the flute. It does not blend well with its giddy associates, but is a seasonable relief from the fatiguing hurry, and startling leaps of the other variations. whole is under the direction of Mr. Greatorex. The profits are to be applied, as usual, to the support of the General Hospital, and this meeting is, in splendour and effect, expected to be next to the festival at York. There has appeared at Venice a work, entitled "Discourse on the Origin, the Progress, and Decline of Music in Italy." This word-decline, appears somewhat singular; for fair Italy acknowledges to have undergone no other decline than that in the dominion she once held over the world. But the author, M. Mayer, is, from what appears, one of those who view the beau ideal of music in a fugue. Signor Benedetto Marcello, a noble Venetian, who has left us moreover some very fine psalms, was entirely of the same opinion; he anathematized all the pupils of the new schools, whom he accused of spoiling the ancient purity of song, by ornaments and trillings. M. Mayer says as much now of Rossini, and insinuates that this master wofully corrupts the principles of the art. Three years hence, when Rossini will begin to get out of fashion, the fortunate innovator who supplants him will be exposed to similar attacks.—(From a French Journal.) Linley, Esq., the youngest son of the late Thomas Linley, Esq, Patentee of Drury-lane Theatre, under whose instruction, and that of the celebrated Abel, he completed a regular musical education; not with any professional view, but that the genius for music which he inherited from his family might not be allowed to decay for want of cultivation, and a knowledge of those scientific rules by which the imagination, however fertile, must be controlled. We cannot better explain the design of this work, than in Mr. Linley's own words, as they appear in the Introduction, which he has prefixed to the first volume. "His great endeavour," he says, "will be to dramatise with precision the music intended by Shakspeare to be introduced in his plays;-that is to say, to identify it with the characters, taking care that the songs, duets, and trios so marked by him, shall be suited as exactly as possible to the person or persons by whom the Poet designed them to be sung."-And, we think that, in the prosecution of this design, Mr. L. has been successful; for, as he has been careful to observe a characteristic style, he has produced, with the co-operation of the old English masters, whom he The indefatigable M. Stauffer, instrument-maker of Vienna, has called in to his assistance, a variety aptly assorted to actuated by a laudible spirit of improvement, and of research, has the varying and delightful measures of our immortal Bard. invented a new instrument, which he calls Guitarre d'Amour. In We have paid this tribute of praise to Mr. Linley's form it is similar to the common guitar, but of greater compass, Shakspeare Volumes, with a view of introducing occasion-mounted by covered catgut strings, which are not played by the ally from them such selections as we may judge most fingers, but by a bow. The tone produced, unites beauty, fullness, striking, having obtained permission for that purpose. We and delicacy, and nearly combines the higher compass of the are anxious to give our support to all styles of music that oboe, with the lower notes of the basset-horn; it is particularly we conceive bear the marks of genius; and while we sub- || adapted to an easy execution of chromatic passages, even when mit to the fluctuations of taste, and fully admit the supe-playing double-stops. All connoisseurs agree in acknowledging riority of the German and Italian schools, we are willing it, as an important addition to the list of musical instruments. to save from neglect a production purely English like the present, which is rendered more valuable and deserving of our attention, by being connected with the name of SHAKS. PEARE. MISCELLANEA. The approaching musical festival at York is expected to exceed any thing that has yet been witnessed in any part of the world; the commemmoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey always excepted. The meeting is to be held on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th of September. The Messiah will be performed on the 24th; and on the other days selections from the works of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, &c., will be given. Mad. Catalani, Mrs. Salmon, Miss Stephens, Messrs. Vaughan, Sapio, W. Knyvett, Bellamy, and Placci, are engaged; together with Messrs. F. Cramer, Mori, Lindley, Dragonetti, &c. The band will consist of 60 violins, 20 violas, 20 violoncellos, 16 double-bases, 6 flutes, 6 clarinets, 8 oboes, 8 bassoons, 8 horns, 6 trumpets, 9 trombones, and 2 pair of double drums; with a proportionate chorus; in the whole four hundred and fifty performers! The conductor in chief is Mr. Greatorex, and he is assisted by Mr. and Dr. Camidge, organists of the Cathedral, and Messrs. White and Knapton, professors of eminence residing in the city of York. The whole of the profits are to be given to York County Hospital, and Infirma- | ries of Leeds, Sheffield, and Hull. The Birmingham music-meeting is fixed for the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of October. On the first day, Cathedral Service will be performed at the church, with a selection of Anthems. On the 9th, the Messiah, with Mozart's accompaniments; and on the two other days, compilations from the great masters, in which will be introduced a new sacred drama, named The Triumph of Gideon, || arranged from the Timoteo of Winter, Haydn's Seasons, Mozart's and Jomelli's Masses. The singers are Madame Catalani, Mrs. Salmon, Miss Stephens, Messrs. Braham, Vaughan, Knyvett, Bellamy, Placci, &c. Mr. F. Cramer is the leader, and the Il The question relative to the right of possession of the heart of Gretry, occupied for some time the courts and the Salons of Paris. A Royal ordonnance, published in the Moniteur of the 6th of August, has decided that the precious relic shall remain in France, and not go to Liege, though the original owner bequeathed it to the municipality of that city. The Theatre de Vaudeville has endeavoured to profit by the affair, and produced a temporary piece, in which the choicest compositions of this celebrated musician are collected together. We may now fairly remark, with the French proverb, that en France, tout finit par des Chansons. The score of Mozart's operas are printing in Paris, in a very splendid manner. Four are already published, and the rest will appear as soon as possible. The Academia degli Orfei, which had been instituted about three years, has been dissolved. The prima donna, Adelaide Sala, a native of Milan, was lately married in Madrid, to a Grandee of Spain, and is now Countess of Fuentos. She sung till the expiration of her engagement, but gave the salary arising there from to the Hospital. Caraffa is returned to Vienna, where his Abuffar is performing, according to a journal published there, with the greatest success. A new mad-house has been erected at Milan, near the Porta St. Celso, which contains a musical saloon, with keyed and windinstruments, for the practice of the inmates. It is intended to try here, whether the practice of music will have any influence over mental disease. We wish all success to this institution, and trust that the remedy will be found efficacious. A caricature has lately appeared at Rome, which has excited considerable attention. A chariot is seen driving furiously along ; Rossini is on the coach-box, lashing his four-in-hand with wild impetuosity. Within the vehicle are seen the great composers, Piccini, Guglielmi, Paesiello, and Cimarosa, who are looking out of the window, and exclaiming, Ferma! ferma! dove vai-dove vai? (Stop! stop! where are you going-where are you going?) THE HARMONICON. No. X., OCTOBER, 1823. MEMOIR OF GIOACHINO ROSSINI. Or all living composers, Rossini is the most celebrated. || France or England. There an amateur may sing in public He has been invited to every grand theatre of Europe, in succession. Last year he was to have presided at the King's Theatre in London; but he preferred Vienna. Paris next solicits him; and if he be not exhausted by the admiration of the French, or overladen with their opulence, he will come to London, the last, loftiest, and most lavish of capitals, fed upon by men of song. Gioachino Rossini was born in 1791, at Pesaro, a little town of the Papal States on the Gulf of Venice. His father was an inferior performer on the French horn, and his mother was a seconda donna, in one of those strolling companies of musicians that attend the fairs in the smaller towns of Italy. The Papal government requires from its subjects the regular payment of taxes, and the strict attendance on mass. Its subjects, on the other hand, require from the Papal government free will in every thing else; and on the strength of this compact, all the tastes, propensities, and passions of man, flourish and luxuriate in a fearless vigour, that would astonish the more slavish governments of France and England. Man may do what he will, or be what he will, in that land of sensibility. This, it is true, fills the roads with banditti; but it crowds the convents with monks; it fills the palaces with impurity; but it never leaves the Casinos destitute of beauty; it fills the streets with mendicants, but it sends hosts of amateurs upon the stage. Music has irresistible inducements for the Italian; a guitar and a voice will carry him from Tarento to Domo d'Ossola, through Italy, and through life. Sunshine costs nothing; and no man can contrive so well to dispense with clothes; he can be luxurious, when luxury is before him; he can fast, when he has nothing else to do; no living being can out-endure him ;-he can live upon an onion,-water, air. He "diets of the camelion's dish," and nestling in the mule's dung of the Apennine, or the bristly straw of Piedmont, he dreams of the pence and plaudits of the Boulevard, or the golden showers of the Haymarket. Rossini's portion from his father was the true native heirship, a little music, a little religion, such as it is to be had in the States, and a volume of Ariosto. The rest of his education was consigned to the legitimate school of southern youth, the society of his mother, her gossips, and the streets; aided and refined as he grew up by the darkereyed belles among the barbers and coffee-house keepers' daughters of this Papal village. Rossini went on the stage, en amateur. In Italy the stage is not always adopted for a life profession, as in for a season or two, and then return to that nondescript station of a dilettante, without its affecting his future pursuits. It appears that Rossini, who is known to sing with infinite taste and spirit the introductory song in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, had no success as a public singer. There were at that time several detached airs of his composition circulating in society, which, though modelled on the style then in fashion, displayed original vivacity. Two or three wealthy amateurs of Venice engaged him to compose an opera. The manager of the theatre entertained but a slight opinion of the composer, from his youth and excessive gaiety, which differed little from the reckless waggery of a schoolboy. The patrons of Rossini, however, threatened the manager to withdraw their support from him, till he at length consented to bring forward the first operatic attempt of Il Giovine Pesarese. This opera was L'inganno Felice, which was played with success, though a very feeble performance. He soon after composed Il Tancredi, L'Italiana in Alyeri, and La Pietra di Paragone. The opera of Tancredi circulated through Italy with great rapidity. The air " Di tanti palpiti," was taken from a Greek Litany that Rossini had heard chanted in one of the islets of the Lagune near Venice.-Either through indolence, or other motives, he has a strong aversion for overtures; so much so, that he did not compose one for Tancredi. And at present, in Italy, this opera is preceded by the overture of the Pietra di Paragone, or that of the Italiana. Rossini has led the usual life of foreign musicians. Marcolini became attached to him. It was for her delicious contr' alto voice, and admirable comic powers, that he composed the part of the Italiana; the genuine Italian vivacity of which has been too often metamorphosed upon other theatres into dull indelicacy. Rossini came to Milan, and there assumed the rank which he now holds among composers. He wrote for the Milanese, La Pietra di Paragone; and from that moment this extraordinary young man was placed on the same elevation with the Cimarosas and Paesiellos. It was there too that he adopted the idea of his Crescendi, from Mosca, who has composed about a hundred operas, among which it would be difficult to find a single good one. It was there that the prettiest of the pretty women of Lombardy fell desperately in love with him, and quitted her noble cavaliere servente, for the youthful maestro. He made her the first musician probably in all Italy.--Seated by her at the piano-forte, he composed the greater number |