opera, more or less after the Meyerbeer fashion, as the cynosure of earthly bliss, who deprecated the ' superideal ' cliaracter of Lohengrin, was in sore need of a strong artistic tonic, the ingenuous reader will not deny. 'All the more beautiful is it to see,' says the translator of the Correspondence, in his preface, ' how Liszt is ultimately carried away by the enthusiasm of his great friend, how he also defies the world, and adopts the device V art four Vart as his
guiding principle.' Altogether the two friends might have said to each other in the words of Juliet —
' My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep : the more I give to thee,
The more I have, or both are infinite.'
NOTES ON MUSIC.
Mr. Hamish MacCunn's New Works. — The concert given by the Glasgow Choral Union, in St. Andrew's Hall, on i8th December, may fairly be called an event of national importance, for it was the earliest public recognition in his own country of the genius of one who bids fair to distinguish Scotland honourably in the roll of music-producing nations. Now that the vaunted excel- lence of our popular songs is beginning to seem too slender a reed to support a claim to musical importance, it is a welcome discovery that there is stuff in our soil which can give birth to musicians of the originality and artistic capacity of such men as Dr. A. C. Mackenzie and Mr. Hamish MacCunn. That Mr. MacCunn will take rank among the great composers, it would of course be pre- mature to assert, but it is safe to say that seldom in the history of the art has the record of a young man of twenty-one contained so much promise and so much actual achievement ; and the works presented at the Choral Union Concert give good ground for the most hopeful prophecy. In the first part of the programme, amidst a good deal of miscellaneous padding of very unequal quality, came the ballad for orchestra, 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' while the whole second part was taken up by the cantata, ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel. ' The orchestral ballad had the addi- tional interest and advantage of being conducted by the composer, and it further received every justice at the hands of Mr. Manns' orchestra, who played with great sympathy and enthusiasm. The cantata, which was specially written for the Glasgow Choral Union, was no less fortunate in the rendering it received under the direction of Mr. Joseph Bradley, the choir and the orchestra vying with each other in seeking to secure a worthy presentation, while the soloists, Madame Nordica, Miss Grace Damian, Mr. Ivor Mackay, and Mr. Andrew Black, also did good service in their turn. The excellence of the performance certainly contributed in no small degree to the powerful impression which the works pro- duced. As the titles indicate, both the works are examples of the class of subjects which the composer has evidently chosen for his own, viz. the legendary lore of our Scottish minstrelsy ; and in each there is shown a wonderful power of combining the suggestions of traditional associations with the wider modes of appeal demanded by an art which, in one aspect, knows neither time nor place. While the flavour is distinctly national, there is always present the universal element which lifts us into the region of pure imagination. The form of the orchestral ballad necessarily limits the treatment to indicating the emotions appropriate to the various episodes in the story, and 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' with its dramatic contrasts, its pathetic ending, and its general historic faithfulness, fulfils the requirements admirably. Mr. MacCunn has lost no opportunity of turning his material to full account. The ' Lay of the Last Minstrel ' is of course a work of much greater significance and challenges criticism of a more varied kind. It is not certain that the libretto, adapted by Mr. Mac- Cunn's father from Scott's poems, is as good as it might have been ; but before any fault is found, it should be considered that the cantata form offers peculiar dilificulties to a thoroughly consistent dramatic treatment. Indeed, it is one of the composer's special merits that he has succeeded in a great degree in reanimat- ing a form the deficiencies of which have tended to bring it into comparative discredit with a generation which sets store by artistic unity. Certainly the musical setting does all that could be done to redeem any faults in the libretto, and the result is a triumphant success. Opinions may be divided as to the appropriateness of the patriotic chorus at the close, but there can be no question that the various scenes which form the thread of the story are one and all treated with unfailing power and wealth of resource. Mr. Mac- Cunn has evidently drank deep at Wagnerian springs, and he knows how to profit by the poetic teaching of his masters without any hurt to the individual bent of his genius. The ' Lay of the Last Minstrel ' is a wonderfully successful effort to unite melodious simplicity with freshness of treatment and device, and those who had the privilege of hearing it will not soon forget the impression.
Edinburgh Orchestral Concert. — As illustrating a quality too common in many departments of the art of our day, Mr. Manns' last orchestral concert in Edinburgh need not be without interest to our readers. Of the principal number in the programme. Raff's wild and beautiful ’Lenore' Symphony, we shall not speak save to say that it was admirably performed by the orchestra, — its passion, tenderness, and fire being finely rendered. Before the symphony was reached, however, one's feelings of keen enjoyment and admiration of the powers of the soloists, Madame Nordica and M. Fransella, were largely tinged by a feeling of regret — indeed, towards the latter performer, of indignation — at the choice of pieces. It is needless to dwell here on Madame Nordica's gifts of voice and attainments of training, for these are well known and appreciated ; but on this account it is surely all the more incumbent on her to use them in the service of the highest art instead of misapplying them, as is too much the custom of prima donnas, in mere ioiirs de force. No doubt tours de force find favour in the eyes of the public, but Madame Nordica possesses other and higher qualities, and could, if she wished, appeal to more lasting emotions, instead of to the love of the surprising and the interest in clever effects. In her singing of Goring Thomas's song, 'A Summer Night,' she relied only on simple and direct means of expression, with the most pleasing result, but the predominant characteristic of the rest of her songs was a technical display which left little room for real emotion. M. Fransella, the flautist, chose for his solo a ' Souvenir of Chopin,' by Demerssman — or rather Travesty of Chopin, in which the air from the Funeral March, which comes in like a prayer in the midst of the moaning and passionate grief of the main theme, was turned as nearly as possible into the likeness of a dance tune by the interpolation of innumerable and utterly incongruous runs and trills and ornamental figures of every description. It was dragged hither and thither, and made to execute a series of somersaults, until one was left with a feeling of an unwarranted outrage having been perpetrated on a helpless and innocent victim. One's indignation, indeed, prevented one from enjoying the remarkably sweet tones and the wonderful command of the instrument displayed by M. Fransella. One is inevitably reminded, by such overloading oi fioriturCt of a ballet-dancer pirouetting up and down, holding one toe in her hand, or performing some other wonderful feat of agility of which the difficulty infinitely exceeds the grace. It seems indeed as if the spirit of this age of mechanical dexterity has penetrated into music as well as the visible arts.
