1849.] The National Lyre. 93 referred to is the calm, subdued joy of a well-regulated mind.* We cannot close this article without noticing the musical character of the books the titles of which we have placed at its head. The "National Lyre" contains some excellent selections from Beethoven, Spohr, Mozart, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. An acquaintance with compositions of this class tends to elevate and purify the popular taste more than a knowledge of all the common collections of church music put together. Dr. Hodges, director of the music at Trinity Church in New York, and Mr. Charles Zeuner, of Philadelphia, have contributed to its pages. Their compositions are such as their high reputation as organists would lead us to expect. The original compositions of the editors are worthy of notice. The harmonies of the tunes which bear their names are of a high order. The book does not contain so many pages as many of its class, but still it possesses every quality requisite for a good manual of psalmody. Many of the old tunes are here presented with truly beautiful harmonies. This is a feature which cannot fail to recommend it to choirs. The chants are superior to those of any collection which we have ever examined. "The marks of expression usually prefixed to tunes" the editors have judiciously "omitted, as the proper style of performance will vary with the varying hymn, and the true characteristic of any tune may be readily known on performance." In many of the books, the authors have prefixed directions to their music which are singularly absurd and inappropriate. Such directions as the following,-"Moderate time, with *Secular composers have not escaped this error. In Purcell's "Bonduca," a tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcher's, to the following lines, — "Where the shrill trumpets never sound, the composer has set a loud and boisterous passage, designed to imitate the sound of the trumpet. The air in which it occurs, "O, lead me to some peaceful gloom," is a prayer for peace and silence. The idea intended to be conveyed by the introduction of the trumpet is negative. When Sir Walter Scott's famous song, 66 County Guy," was first published, it was set to music by the composers of the day. In the passage, "The lark, his lay that trilled all day, Sits hushed his partner by," the trill of the lark was imitated either by the voice or the accompaniment, thus defeating the poet's intention when the lay of the lark was introduced. He expressly says the lay of the lark is "hushed." tender and pathetic expression," "With thoughtfulness and reverence," "With emotion and deep solemnity, but not too slow," "With delicate expression, yet with ardor and cheerfulness," it has been well said, "are tacit insults to the devotion of the performer, to say nothing of his common sense." Beauty and copiousness of melody and great variety of harmony are the distinguishing features of "Taylor's Sacred Minstrel." Most of the pieces are original. In this respect it differs widely from other works of the same class. If any are inclined to wonder at the fecundity of the press in the production of sacred music books, his wonder will be greatly diminished when he considers that a large part of the music which is found in these books is common property, a part of which was originally written for the service of the Church, and a part taken from the compositions of the great masters, mutilated to meet the Procrustean necessities of the metre. These membra disjecta stand in unfortunate contrast with their originals, and forcibly remind the reader of the mental poverty of their arrangers. "If that severe doom of Synesius be true, 'It is a greater offence to steal dead men's labor than their clothes,' what shall become of" the com pilers of church music books? "The People's Music Book" is a fine specimen of English science and typography. It was compiled in the hope of furnishing a good manual of psalmody for congregational singing. With this end in view, the editors collected the standard English tunes and rearranged many of them, and adapted the vocal score to the compass of voice most common in a mixed congregation, for whom it is the best book extant. This, as well as the two other books which we have noticed, we would recommend to the attention of choristers and choirs generally. F. F. H. We have not often descended from our graver mood to notice the lighter literature of the day, except when its impure tendency has seemed to call for rebuke. But here is a book which, if we may judge by the impression it has produced on our own minds, will be read with deep interest, not merely by the lovers of fiction, but by the thoughtful student of the history and manners of the primitive settlers of the Massachusetts, called by Smith "the paradise of all those parts." It is an historical novel. Such a work, founded on incidents in the early annals of New England, has rarely been attempted with success. Yet we see not why the attempt, in proper hands, should not succeed. There are materials enough, one would think, which may be wrought to a good purpose. Some of them, it is true, may appear to be of a rather repulsive or refractory character. Puritanical precision and stiffness cannot very readily be made to assume a graceful and attractive form; and in the exhibition of them, there is some danger that the noble virtues, which really marked the Puritan character, will be thrown into the shade, or that ludicrous associations will be awakened, unfriendly to a just appreciation of them. Those stern old characters, iron-cast as they seem, are certainly a little difficult to deal with in the way of fiction. But difficulties of this kind apart, — and they are not insuperable, the mine, if skilfully worked, will turn out to be a rich one. Here was no lack of adventure, and with the story of the times blends not a little of the marvellous, sufficient, one would suppose, to satisfy the demands of the wildest imagination and gratify the keenest craving for excitement. All the passions of human nature were here, passions, it may be, nurtured in the hot-bed of European civilization; but in the gloomy depths of an American solitude, and amid the wide expanse of the ancient forest, they would miss much of their accustomed aliment, and would operate intensely in new forms, and spend themselves on new objects. There was a strange contrast between the old that was left behind, and the new that was found, between the pleasant fields Merry-Mount; A Romance of the Massachusetts Colony. Boston and Cambridge: J. Munroe & Co. 1848. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 222 and 249. and of Old England, and the rough, bleak shores of New England; and bold hands and bold hearts were needed to meet the privations and perils of a home in the wilderness. Yet gentle woman was here; some came who had been used to luxury in their native land; some who had been tenderly nurtured; they came, like delicate plants, soon to droop and die amidst the rigors encountered in these wilds. There appeared, too, among those who sought these shores, some of whom had only a temporary residence here, no inconsiderable diversity of character. There were mere adventurers seeking wealth, worn-out courtiers, men of broken fortunes, loose men, who, disliking the restraints of the old civilization, sought a wild freedom in these remote and unsettled lands. As these planted themselves by the side of the inflexible religionists who had forsaken their pleasant homes and crossed the stormy sea for "freedom to worship God," and for "progress in the Reformation," a conflict would ensue, in which would mingle some of the most powerful passions and sentiments of the human breast. The historical novelist will here find no scanty supply of materials, and the quarry, as we said, is one which has been as yet little worked. If he have a talent for description, nature rises before him in some of her grandest, and occasionally her loveliest forms. The bays, the islands, and variously indented shores, forestcrowned, spread out beneath his eye, blending in his imagination with the mysterious traditions and history of races that have disappeared, leaving few foot-prints on the soil. The author of " Merry-Mount " appears to be fully aware of the capabilities of his subject, and has, we think, very successfully treated it. He has certainly produced a work which is full of life and energy, and in its materials is exclusively American. The story, which is not too complicated, moves on with ease, and contains incidents enough, some of them of a stirring character, to give a zest to the narrative without overloading it. Some of the scenes are very exciting. The author has a vigorous and glowing imagination, and evidently draws from a full fountain. He has no lack of invention, yet in all the main incidents keeps verisimilitude in view, and in his historical personages, several of whom appear on his canvas, he has preserved the truth of nature. Of course, many of his incidents are fictitious; this is agreeable to the laws of the historical novel, which do not preclude invention, but only require that the positions and 1849.] Early Days of Massachusetts. 97 events described do not shock by any violent improbability, and that they be such as to develope the characteristic traits of the actors, and give individuality to the portraits. In this particular, we think that the writer of the tale of "MerryMount" has been in a more than ordinary degree successful. He uses discrimination, and in his narrative we recognize the peculiar bearing of the venerable heroes of the early days of Massachusetts. The brave and fiery Standish, the dignified, firm, and sagacious Winthrop, the zealous, rigid, and somewhat choleric Endicott, rise up before us in true and lifelike proportions. The primitive settlers with their severe visages and "sad-colored garments move over the stage; their singularities and even their defects are not forgotten, but due homage is paid to their virtues, their deep sincerity, their earnestness, their profoundly religious spirit, and inflexible, and, it may be, stern morality. The writer is no scoffer at Puritan errors and superstition; he touches on them, but with a reverential hand, as on the faults of men who, though they did not in all respects rise above the infirmities of their times, yet possessed heroic qualities of which any age might be proud. But we did not sit down to praise the book, nor shall we, in the brief space we can appropriate to it, attempt any thing like a criticism upon it, or any minute analysis of its contents. We wish merely to record the impressions it has left on our own minds, and by a few extracts introduce it to the knowledge of our readers. It was the spring of 1628. The Pilgrims had been at Plymouth between seven and eight years; a few "old planters," as they were afterwards called, had erected their rude and thatched dwellings in what was then known as "the Massachusetts," including the bay embraced between Nahant promontory and Point Alderton, or the headland of Nantasket. Roger Conant was at Cape Ann, or Salem; Thomas Walford, the "smith," at Charlestown; William Blackstone, or Blaxton, a solitary inhabitant of the peninsula called Shawmut by the Indians, Trimountain by the English, and afterwards Boston; Maverick, too, seems to have been bere. Weston had, in 1622, established a small colony at Wessagusset (Weymouth), which was broken up the next year, and a similar attempt soon after met with no better success, though a few stragglers appear to have been left on the VOL. XLVI. - 4TH S. VOL. XI. NO. I. 9. |