Page:Sir William Herschel, his life and works (1881).djvu/48

harp, glees, "catches," and other songs for the voice. One of these, the Echo Catch, was published and had even considerable vogue.

A competent musical critic writes to me of this work: "The counterpoint is clear and flowing, and is managed with considerable taste and effect. It would be difficult to explain the great cleverness shown in the construction of this Catch without diagrams to illustrate the movements of the parts. It is certainly an ingenious bit of musical writing."

When he left Bath (in 1782), many of these musical writings were lost, in his great haste to take up his new profession. One, specially, his sister remembers to have written out for the printer, "but he could not find a moment to send it off, nor to answer the printer's letters." This was a four-part song, "In thee I bear so dear a part." He wrote very many anthems, chants, and psalm-tunes for the excellent cathedral choir of the Octagon Chapel. Unfortunately, most of this music is not now to be found.

A notice of Herschel's life which appeared in the European Magazine for 1785, January, gives a very lively picture of his life