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Untitled Article
of the principal ones for the purpose of showing how these two geniuses resemble each other even in their errors , Rossini is accused of mannerism . This word , taken in its moderate sense , is intended to signify the peculiar and marked characteristics of
the productions of a master , by which he may be easily distingroaned from his fellows , as an exotic is recognised amongst a tost of indigenous plants . This , however , does not suffice to constitute mannerism in its vicious sense . When these peculiarities of colouring or style are repeated a little too often , and with m sameness , occasionally carried almost to affectation , then mannerism is a defect , and calls for censure . Identity of style and manner must always be recognised in the works of Rossini : the terzina of which we have spoken , and the crescendo ( which
remains to be discussed ) constitute , if I may use the term , the mechanical art of Rossini ' s music ; they are the favourite colours in which our musician ' s ideas are clothed , and , it must be confessed , colours more brilliant may be sought for in vain in the works of the old masters ; nevertheless , their constant repetition or redundancy sometimes causes weariness , and when weariness commences , there , also , is the commencement of vice .
Having * previously attempted to demonstrate ( as well as the nature of the subject will admit ) how Walter Scott has abused the introduction of the terzina in his dialogues , I proceed to observe that the effects of the crescendo are not unknown to him ; but I do not charge it against him as a mannerism ^ for it is not one : in literature this word has less circumscribed limits ; and to be mannered , it is necessary to plunge into the hyperbolical or the absurd . I shall speak here only of the crescendo , as applied artfully to produce a great effect in music and romance .
whoever has perused Scott ' s descriptions with any sort of musical disposition , will confess that the magic effect produced by them is mainly owing to that rapid crowding of images one upon another , like the successive introduction of musical instruments into a concerted piece ; to those bold touches on the original subject , like the accented notes of music ; in short , to that urging on of the ideas towards the utmost bounds of truth and grandeur so as to constitute the ne plus ultra either of the sublime or the ridiculous . Many will not understand me . I shall not say to them , like a certain king of old , " but I understand myself : " I only entreat them to lay the blame of these obscurities partly on me and partly on a subject which cannot be explained with much clearness . * I had better nave recourse to examples . All know the air , La Calunrria , in the *« Barber of Seville , " and all must have noticed the crescendo going on progressively with the words , that is to say , from the
* Ok , don ' t become pruduh at the eleventh hour ! You Are getting on as Will as possible . Proceed to the " artillery . "^ -Ed .
Untitled Article
S 6 & JRosnni and Walter Scott .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 566, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/42/
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