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Untitled Article
hold , not merely in the language of words , but in all other language , and to intersect the whole domain of art . Take , for example , music : we shall find in that art , so peculiarly the expression of passion , two perfectly distinct styles ; one of which may be called the poetry , the other the oratory of music . This difference being seized would put an end to much musical sectarianism . There has been much contention whether the character
of Rossini ' s music—the music , we mean , which is characteristic of that composer—is compatible with the expression of passion . Without doubt , the passion it expresses is not the musing , meditative tenderness , or pathos , or grief of Mozart , the great poet of his art . Yet it is passion , but garrulous passion—the passion which pours itself into other ears ; and therein the better
calculated for dramatic effect , having a natural adaptation for dialogue . Mozart also is great in musical oratory ; bat his most touching compositions are in the opposite style—that of soliloquy . Who can imagine ' Dove sono' heard ? We imagine it overheard . The same is the case with many of the finest national airs . Who can hear those words , which speak so touchingly the sorrows of a mountaineer in exile : —
' My heart ' s in the Highlands—my heart is not here ; My heart ' s in the Highlands , a-cnasing the deer . A-chasing" the wild-deer , and following the roe — My heart's in the Highlands , wherever I go / Who can hear those affecting words , married to as affecting an
air , and fancy that he sees the singer ? That song has always seemed to us like the lament of a prisoner in a solitary cell , ourselves listening , unseen , in the next . As the direct opposite of this , take * Scots vvha hae wi' Wallace bled , ' where the music is as oratorical as the poetry .
Purely pathetic music commonly partakes of soliloquy . The soul is absorbed in its distress , and though there may be bystanders , it is not thinking of them . When the mind is looking within , and not without , its state does not often or rapidly vary ; and hence the even , uninterrupted flow , approaching almost to monotony , which a good reader , or a good singer , will give to words or music of a pensive or melancholy cast . But grief , taking
the form of a prayer , or of a complaint , becomes oratorical ; no longer low , and even , and subdued , it assumes a more emphatic rhythm , a more rapidly returning accent ; instead of a few slow , equal notes , following one after another at regular intervals , it crowds note upon note , and ofttimes assumes a hurry and bustle like joy . Those who are familiar with some of the best of Rossini's
serious compositions , such as the air 'Tu che 1 miseri conforti , ' in the opera of Tancredi , * or the duet ' Ebben per mia memorial in * La Gazza Ladra , ' will at once understand and feel our meaning . Both are highly tragic and passionate ; the passion of both is that
Untitled Article
66 What is Poetry ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 66, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/66/
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