duce the following point we will not say, but it has been considered common property by composers of all descriptions from his time to

our own.

&c.

&c.

We have already exceeded our limits, and must hasten to conclude our remarks.

MR HAWES observes that " EDWARD JONES seems to have been a voluminous composer," but his labours do not appear to have made him a good contrapuntist, as the following extracts will shew:

The No. 26, by GIOVANNI CROCI, flows in a pleaisng manner, and is disfigured by no false relations. In one or two instances there are some awkward arrangements of the parts of which we have not room to give examples. BATESON is justly placed among the best of our madrigal writers, but we think his compositions, in this work, unusually dry and uninteresting.

There is, however, an excellent passage in No. 29, which we shall extract, because it contains an example of the 2, a discord of double suspension, not very common in the days of BATESON.

* Page 168th, bars 13th and 14th.-Besides their 5ths the author had made consecutive octaves, in the extreme parts, which have been corrected by the editor.

MR. HAWES should have transposed No. 27, for as it now stands, it exceeds the compass of voices in general.

PILKINGTON's madrigal will not detain us long, for it is decidedly the worst in the book. We are told, by the editor, that it was sent too late for insertion in the first publication; but we suspect that it was rejected by MORLEY, and smuggled into a subsequent edition. It is scarcely worth while to give any extracts from such an inferior production, but the following taken from the very commencement, must convince our readers, that the opinion we have expressed concerning it, is not too severe.

The same wretched effect is produced, by the false relation, in the 10th bar of the same page, and it perpetually recurs throughout the whole composition.

Little is to be said on the modulation of these madrigals—it is almost uniformly monotonous and unconnected.

This, in a considerable degree, may be attributed to the unsettled notions prevailing at the time these compositions appeared, with regard to the scale, which seems hardly to have been positively adjusted, at the end of the seventeenth century. On this account we doubt, whether all the accidentals which MR. HAWES has added, were intended by the authors themselves; although we entirely con cur with him in the justness and propriety of their application.

We have, perhaps, devoted more of our time and notice to this work than our readers might have wished; but it is curious, in as much as it contains some of the earliest efforts made in this country to improve the style and character of our secular compositions, and that

too by men, some of whom stand high in our musical history. We certainly rise from a careful review of these madrigals, with feelings of considerable disappointment; and we must honestly confess that we have been unable to discover "that remarkable combination of science and skill, with beauty and delicacy, which so strongly characterize them."* Here and there are to be found short traits of melody, and also some combinations of harmony which deserve attention. But these bear but a small proportion to the work itself. They are as a few fresh flowers stuck into a hortus siccus-or as spots of verdure on a sandy plain.

The most pleasing part of our task yet remains, and that is, to give to MR. HAWES Some portion of the great credit which is due to him as editor. He has presented to the public a scarce and curious book, in a very elegant form, and with a degree of correctness which is seldom equalled, and which cannot be exceeded. We are delighted to find that he intends publishing the madrigals of ORLANDO GIBBONS, in score, and we trust that his success in that undertaking may be such as to induce him to persevere in his design of represent, ing many more classical works of our old English musicians.

* Advertisement by the Editor.

Row gently Row, the Boat Trio, composed by Sir J. A. Stevenson, Mus. Doc. London. Power.

An agrecable little piece, constructed in a very simple but not inelegant syle. This is one of the trifles that speak the genius which adorns every thing it touches. Plainness and elegance alike fit this trio for the chamber, while its compass reduce it within the powers of all who have the slightest pretensions to sing. We were not till lately aware of the scarcity of things of this kind adapted for two sopranos and a bass. The boat trio, though light, may be so given as always to interest, and we think it will be found an acceptable addition to the concert de famille in particular.

We shall take this opportunity of strongly recommending MR. ATTWOOD's Glee of "The Curfew," MR. WILLIS'S " Merrily goes the bark," and MR. WALMISLY'S "Fairy of the dale," as three superior compositions in this species of writing. They are all three very light, elegant, and expressive.

The Child's introduction to Thorough Bass, in Conversations of a Fortnight, between a Mother and her Daughter, of ten years old. London. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1819.

If this work be as we presume it to be, the production of a female and an amateur, the lady enjoys we think the just distinction of having given to the musical world the most perspicuous, intelligible, and popular treatise upon the hacknied subject of thorough bass that we have yet seen. It is the offspring of a mind acute and accurate, and directed by that genuine good sense which leads its possessor to seize and preserve the valuable parts of a subject, and to give them the exact form which is most consistent with the author's and reader's purpose.