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Untitled Article
independently of its existence . One is the pleasure which every Art affords by a scientific acquaintance with its principles ., and a consequent perception of skill in the application of those principles to the production of novel combinations * and the overcoming of difficulties in the execution . The other is the pleasure which musical sounds excite from the associated images or emotions , and which is strong , rich ., and varied , in proportion to the
general cultivation of the intellect . We may call the one of these the technical , and the other the poetical enjoyment of music . It cannot be expected that either of them should be possessed in a high degree by the uneducated classes of society . So far as what is called the goodness or fineness of music , consists in the production of the one or the other , it must be allowed that its goodness is no presumption of its general popularity . But these are only secondary modes of enjoyment , and the former in particular is very inferior to the primary .
The first of these kinds of enjoyment has tended to pervert the taste of professional men and amateurs ; and it would be greatly for the advantage of the Art , as well as for that of the community , that they should be kept to the true standard of musical excellence by the performance of concerts and oratorios , to audiences of a more popular description than the price which tickets usually bear can possibly admit . The taste for technical and mechanical difficulty in music , as in anv of the Arts , is a
taste as false as it must ever be unpopular . The production of the most original combination of sounds , whether in the succession of melody , or in the synchronism of harmony , is but wasted labour unless that . combination produce a proportionate effect , not on the amazed intellect , but on the nervous system of the musically constituted hearer . Otherwise , it only yields a cold , technical gratification , which is scarcely so much musical as mathematical ; and which ought not to be indulged at the
expense of the pockets and the patience of the public . A display of this sort produced the only good musical criticism ascribed to Dr . Johnson . c That piece is very difficult , sir / said an admiring lady ; * Yes , madam / was the reply of Ursa Major , * 1 wish it were impossible . ' The taste for merely elaborate composition and execution is affected by many who have it not , but who aim
at whatever is exclusive . Such is always the spirit of patronage in an aristocratical country . The performers who minister to it are alike false to the dignity of their profession , the progress of their Art , and the refinement of the people . The reception of the Last Judgment , and of the Deluge , at Norwich , is a triumphant proof of the fact , that the deepest mysteries of musical science are only the secret of producing the strongest impression on a popular auditory . A cultivated musical temperament is as unerring in its appreciation as the profoundest science . Indeed , what is science , but
Untitled Article
Reflections on the Norwich Musical Festival * 755
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 755, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/23/
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