MUSIC IN ENGLAND.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2694, 5 October 1871, Page 3

MUSIC IN ENGLAND.

The special London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes as follows on July 14: — Music is now being cultivated in England as it has never been done before, and the multiplication of societies having in view the popularising of the works of the best masters has brought the very highest orders of musical composition within reach of the humblest. It is doubtful whether really first-rate music has been brought so generally within reach of the ordinary pKlblic io any other country, and yet wbat a rarity it is to hear any playing or singing of English amateurs that can be listened to with pleasure. There is a want of method, of stylo, of artistic finish, about almost all Knglish playing aud singing, especially the latter, that usually renders any such exhibition a bore. English singers rarely opcu their mouths, but content themselves with singing through their teeth, or in their throats; have no idea of managing or of vocali ing their breath ; they often lack animation, and are usually entirely deficient in charms. Some of them go to the opposite extreme ; and in their ill-directed effort to achieve expression and vigour, have got into a hard and spasmodic style, almost more objectionable than the colorless - and monotonous way of the greater number. It really reems as though none but French trainers had the gift of training, either in playing or singing. The standard of artistic excellence is_ higher in Paris than elsewhere ;• and teaching is just the one thing which French people do with thorough skill, interest, and honesty. The German teachers of music and singing are very thorough and conscientious; but in general, the same want of grace and charm, of lightness, and elegance apparent in the German character, is apparent in the results of their musical tuition. In general, it may be safely affirmed that Paris is, by all odds, the place for those who really desire to excel in either branch of music as it is for the execution of all classes of musical composition. Even the great German composers are nowhere rendered a a perfectly as in Paris, and by players and singers who have enjoyed the peculiar advantages of French training for French teaching is really a training ; every detail of the art of giving expression to the composer’s thought being analysed and insisted upon with a painstaking, persevering minuteness that leaves no point unstudied. Just as each joint of each finger is the subject of special drill, so every shade and degree of intonation of the voice is the object of special study, explanation, and exercise ; and the result is, naturally, an average of excellence, both of playing ami of singing, among those who have been trained in Paris, immensely superior to that which one encounters" in English drawing-rooms.