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Untitled Article
The ' Spectator' newspaper of Nov . 1 , very much surprised us by a critique on this festival , fall of professional spleen , captiousness , and assumption ; and therefore quite out of place in that journal ., which has done so much , and so well , for promoting a popular enjoyment -of ? the : ¦ BTtMi- ^ rliKn » ^ ^ n > vid-itB ^ e expected to meet , in its-columns , with so silly a remark as the following ?—' Though ijt may be very praiseworthy * ( on die ' score of charity , the writer means ) < in a merchant to leaVe his business in the
city , and occupy a violin-starid , or > a shopkeeper to turn singer , it maybe questioned whether the proper place of each is not rather that of a listener than of a performer . ' O , there is nothing like knowing our proper places ! The tradesman , it seems , ought only to nave just music enough in him to ardmire : and pay . He must be dealt with like the poor , who are not to be allowed too much education , lest it should unfit them for their condition .
Truly , it may be questioned' as above , if the aim be to have music an aristocratical luxury , ministered by a sycophantic monopoly ; but if the object is to create a popular taste , and provide a national enjoyment , then it may not be so questioned . As the festival proceeded , the critic must have secretly and sorely repented his attempt to turn it into ridicule , and his premature chuckle at the thin attendance on the first rehearsal . Verily ,
this Tory of quavers must learn better manners towards merchants and shopkeepers ; who , as they sometimes become legislators , philosophers , and poets , may , perchance , occasionally turn out musicians also . There have been fiddlers at many a festival , who should rather have been reduced to scraping with a soaped
bow , than the shopkeepers of Exeter Hall . Nolover of the art , —none , save its . mercenary and short-sighted retainers , but must rejoice at the extent of its cultivation which has been evinced , and the prospect which is thereb y opened . It is a sign ( and that is why some of the profession dislike it ) that a reformation in the musical world is at hand . Performers , who happen to be the
fashion , will have to do more work , and take lower pay . The nuisances of music selling will be abated , and it will be more assimilated to the book trade . The merchants and shopkeepers will p rcire too large a body to be kept in the trammels , and taxed by tne extortion of the monopoly . Mr . Clowes may refit his
rusted machinery for printing music with movable types . The editions wanted will b £ large enoug h' to make its employment profitable . Let him stereotype the score of '' Israel in kgypt , ' forthwith , for a beginning . We are glad to find that this glorious and successful attempt is to be followed up . Next time , let there
be no ' charity' in the case , that the public may only have to pay for the music . Provided it be good , tfheap music is itself the best public charity to be promoted by such means ; at ie&st , for the present .
Untitled Article
864 The Amateur Musical Festival .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1834, page 884, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2640/page/66/
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