dom of God in the Afflictions of Men, and the Christian's Deportment under them. By the Rev. Thomas Boston. New York: Robert Carter. 18mo. pp. 176.

The Patriarch of Hebron; or, the History of Abraham. By the late Rev. David Peabody, Professor of Oratory and Belles Letters in Dartmouth College, N. H. New York: J. C. Meeks. 18mo. pp. 228. A Bible Dictionary; containing a Definition of the most important Words and Phrases in the Holy Scriptures. To which is added a Brief Compendium of our Saviour's History, and that of his Apostles and Evangelists. By S. B. Emmons. Boston: Abel Tompkins.

18mo. pp. 216.

Religion in its Relation to the Present Life. In a Series of Lectures, delivered before the Young Men's Association of Utica. By A. B. Johnson. And published by Request. New York: Harper & Brothers. 18mo. pp. 180.

The Solemn Week; A Sermon, preached to the First Church on Fast-day, April 8th, 1841. By its Minister, N. E. Frothingham. Boston: J. T. Buckingham. 8vo. pp. 14.

The Mighty Fallen! A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of General William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States; preached in the Melodeon on Fast-day, April 8, 1841. By Robert Turnbull. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 23.

The Common Lot; A Sermon on the Death and Character of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, preached at Jamaica Plain, Sunday, April 18, 1841. By George Whitney, Junior, Minister of the Congregational Church. Boston: I. R. Butts. 8vo. pp. 19.

A Good Old Age; A Sermon, preached at King's Chapel, Sunday, March 7, 1841, on the Death of Joseph May, Esq., aged 81 years. By F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D. Boston: S. N. Dickinson. 8vo. pp. 23.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

Notes on the United States of North America, during a Phrenological Visit in 1838, '39, '40. By George Combe. 16mo. Vols. I and II. pp. 374 and 405.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CXIII.

OCTOBER, 1841.

ART. I. The Life of BEETHOVEN, including his Correspondence with his Friends, numerous Characteristic Traits, and Remarks on his Musical Works. Edited by IGNACE MOSCHELES, Esq., Pianist to his Royal Highness, Prince Albert. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. xxvi. 298 and 387. London: Henry Colburn. 1841.

THE name of Beethoven is familiar to every lover of music; and there has appeared no composer, whose works have had a greater influence upon the advancement of this divine art. Although he has been classed with Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, and, in many respects, with justice, in others he stands alone. In grandeur of conception he has, not without reason, been placed by the side of Handel; but when compared with Haydn or Mozart, many points of difference are apparent; he has not the sprightliness or gentleness of the former, or the touching tenderness of the latter. His music is full of variety. He gives us, at one time, simple and beautiful melodies, that are felt by every one who is susceptible of the influence of music; at another, he is impetuous, wild, and fantastic, or grave and full of deep thought; then startling us with sudden bursts of passion, or overwhelming with imposing masses of sound, or plunging us into the depths of the obscure and incomprehensible. While we occasionally have phrases that recall his great predecessors, we perceive that he has imitated no one, that he threw aside all established models, and was obedient only to NO. 113.

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his own inspirations. The boldness and novelty of his style, and his excursions into the before untrodden recesses of harmony, strange and extravagant as they were deemed at first, gave a new impulse to the musical art, which is now everywhere felt and acknowledged.

Much as the compositions of Beethoven are now admired, it is well known that they, no less than his personal peculiarities and eccentricities, have been misinterpreted, misunderstood, and even ridiculed. Every admirer of his genius must therefore rejoice, that one, so well qualified as the distinguished editor of the work before us, has come forward to dispel the errors that have accumulated around the professional reputation and private life of this most remarkable man. The basis of this work is a translation, from the German, of Schindler's biography of Beethoven. The matter, which has been added to this edition, consists of explanatory notes, and an appendix, containing many of Beethoven's letters, characteristic anecdotes, an account of his last moments and of the funeral honors paid to his memory, and some contributions from persons who had visited him in the latter part of his life. These additions have much increased the value and interest of the original work.

The publication could not have been intrusted to a more competent editor than Moscheles, the friend and admirer of Beethoven, and an enthusiastic lover of the art, in which he has himself attained distinction, both as a composer and performer. His admiration of the works of Beethoven impelled him early to seek opportunities for studying the personal and professional character of the great musician, and the more he became acquainted with him and with the splendid creations of his genius, the more his admiration increased. While yet a boy of but nine or ten years of age, pursuing his musical studies at Prague, Moscheles subscribed to a musical library, for the purpose of obtaining the works of Dussek, Steibelt, and other composers. He had been placed under the tuition of Dionysius Weber, and was pursuing a course of judicious instruction, marked out by Weber, as the only sure foundation for future eminence in his profession. One of the express conditions, on which he had been received by Weber, was, that for three years he should study no author but Mozart, Clementi, and S. Bach. Although we are not told to what authors the attention of the

young musician was subsequently to be directed, or how much longer he was to be content to remain a pupil, we are able, from what is stated, to form some notion of the system of a musical education, which has been so successful in Germany and some other parts of Europe, but of which, practically, we know scarcely any thing in this country. Until some approach to similar thoroughness has been made, we cannot expect to produce skilful or learned musicians, or point to an American composition destined to outlive its author; nor may we deem it at all surprising, that native musical talent has as yet not soared beyond the sublimities of a Thanksgiving anthem. We trust the day is not far distant, when a professorship of music will be established in one or more of our universities, and sufficient time be devoted, by those who propose to give themselves to music as a profession, to laying a solid foundation, on which they may then hope to build firmly and successfully. As music is now taught and studied in this country, even by those who are to make it the business of life, the shortest possible time is spent in preparatory studies, hardly sufficient to enable them to explain the mere elements to their future pupils. success and popularity of the teacher, moreover, too generally depend upon the celerity with which the pupil can be drilled to "play a piece" or "sing a song"; and, unless the ears of injudicious parents can be tickled with "a tune " before the close of the first quarter, the master is liable to dismission as incompetent. A mere glance at the system of musical education, pursued by Moscheles, is sufficient to render obvious its immeasurable superiority to that which is followed in this country; and of its results, his success and widely extended reputation might afford sufficient illustration, without referring to the long list of eminent foreign composers and artists who have been similarly trained.

The

The library, to which Moscheles had subscribed, placed within his reach a variety of compositions, which he eagerly ran through, but, as he confesses, without particular attention to finish. This eagerness to read new music, Weber justly feared would be injurious to the systematic developement and improvement of the pianoforte-playing of his pupil, and the library was interdicted. We cannot forbear to direct the attention of our musical readers to this circumstance, as the too common desire to lay aside a piece with which a

up

performer has become somewhat familiar, and to take something new, is another fruitful source of so much superficial knowledge of music, and of careless and incorrect playing and singing. The remark may seem unnecessary, that the more frequently a composition is performed, and the more carefully it is studied, the more alive the performer must become to its beauties, and the more able to bring them out for the enjoyment of others; yet, strange to say, this self-evident truth is continually lost sight of in the temptation to try every new and showy musical production. We earnestly entreat all, who would become correct and tasteful performers, to confine themselves to a few of the sterling pieces of Clementi, Mozart, Haydn, and others of their class, until perfect in them, and to resign to the mere showperformer the piles of ephemeral, flashy, miscalled music, with which the shelves of the shops are loaded.

Notwithstanding his master's interdict, Moscheles could not resist the temptation held out by the library, and extended his acquaintance with the works of various composers. He learnt from some of his school-fellows, that there was a young composer at Vienna, "who wrote the oddest stuff possible, such as no one could either play or understand, crazy music, in opposition to all rule, and that this composer's name was Beethoven." It happened that a sonata, the Pathétique, of this crazy composer was for sale; but, alas! the pocket money of the young man was not sufficient to put him in possession of it. thusiasm he proceeded to copy it in secret. the style of this piece was such, and so attractive, that the young musician was unable to repress his desire to make it known to Weber, for which he was rewarded by an injunction not to play "any eccentric productions " until his style had been based upon more solid models. The enthusiasm and admiration of young Moscheles were not to be thus restrained, and he eagerly seized upon the works of the crazy composer as they appeared, " and found in them a solace and a delight, such as no other composer afforded."

With true enThe novelty of

In the year 1809, having completed his studies under Weber, Moscheles repaired to Vienna with an increased longing to see the man who had exercised so potent an influence over his whole being, "whom, though I scarcely understood," he says, "I blindly worshipped." He found