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... Notation, by MM. Ernest David and Mathis Lussy, is, in its way, an important event and in regard to the special attention paid to the subJect of musical education at this moment in our own country it is, moreover opportune. In the French musical and literary world M. David is known as the author of " La Musique chez les Juifs." Most English musicians are acquainted with the exhaustive treatise on " Musical Expressions" by M. Lussy. We are told in the preface to the new work that it was a prize essay, and that the comprehensive title " L'Histoire de la Notation Musicale, depuis ses Origines," vas given by the Paris Academy of Fine Arts as the subject for competition in I880. The authors do not profess to travel much out of the region of plain narrative and research; for, as they say, to enter into the question of 4; comparative Semeiography " would be to create a new science worthy of the labours of a Max Muller or a Bopp. Naturally, in a subject so limited as that of musical notation, the facts they narrate will, for the most part be familiar to the readers of the excellent articles in X musical dictionaries and in encyclopadias compiled from * the works of Hawkins, Forkel, Fetis and other historians. Still, in gathering the results of the researches of a long list of authors of all times and countries into one large 4 quarto, MM. David and Lussy have not lost opportunities; of impressing on the mere mass of facts the stamp of their a individual opinions. Here and there they freely express 4 their divergence from certain of their predecessors. In 1 the very first page we find it assumed as more than probable that no Semitic nation possessed any graphic system a of musical notation. Amongst the Semitic nations are 1 placed the Egyptians t but M. David, to whom, perhaps, < we are indebted for the facts of the more ancient periods i of the history, explains in a foot-note that he has classified < the Egyptians with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Phcenicians 1 and Hebrews, not on ethnological grounds, but because of ' their constant intercourse with Semitic rsations. The 1 importance of the point as to whether those nations had s any graphic system of music notation soon appears in the subsequent questions as to the origin of the Greek notation and eventually of the modern European. It has often ' 4so beerl a favourite theory with some writers that the Greek c A PERFORMANCE of the Sonata for Pianoforte and Violin to which Sir Michael Costa awarded the prize of ten guineas and a gold medal, offered by Trinity College, London, took place at the College, on Tuesday evening, the 4th ult. 'rhe work was admirably performed by Mr. J. Conway Brown, L. Mus. (the composer), and Mr. Victor Buziau and enthusiastically received by the critical audience assembled. A PERFORMANCE of FarmerSs " Christ and tIis Soldiers " was given at the Church of St. Mary-the-Less, Lambeth, on Friday evening, the 7th ult., by the Choral Society connected with the church, under Mr. \01. Sexton, of Westminster Abbey. The solo parts were taken by members and the worlc was rendered in a very creditable manner Mr. A. F. Adcock, Organist, accompanied. THE first meeting of Mr. T. Albion Alderson's Choir at Newcastle-on-Tynewill take place on September I2,When Dr. Armes'sOratorio " St. John the Evangelist " (conducted by the composer) and Macfarren's " Christmas" will be performed. MR. WALTER PARRATT has been appointed Organist of St. George's Chapel Windsor, in place of Sir George Elveyand Mr. C. L. Williams (of Llandaff Cathedral) succeeds Mr. C. Harford Lloyd as Organist of Gloucester Cathedral. THE: new organ bu;It by Messrs. Foster and Andrews for Henfield Church, near Brighton, was opened on St. Peter's Day, by Mr. Richard Lemaire, Organist of St. John's, Southwark, who gave a Recital after evensong. * WIM. David and Lussy devote an interesting chapterin the history of the staff and the clefs to show again how the modern five-lined staff arose from the e]even lines formerly used, by the simple excision of the sixth liste, which, as a lucus a non lgcendo, represents the middle C, the pivot of the system of clefs, occupying the space now existing between the staves of a pianoforte score. Another curiosity of musical history they mention is the ' heptarchy " ruling in musical notation: seven notes, seven sharps, seven flats, severl naturals, seven forms of notes, seven rests, seven clefs, seven measures of time, seven modes of expression or execution, seven forms of grace notes, and seven xctaves in the usual compass of an instrument. THE MUSICAL TIMES. AUGUST I, I882. This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:59:49 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE MUSICAL TIMES. AUGUST I, I882. THE MUSICAL TIMES. AUGUST I, I882. the best qualities of a teacher who devoted himself with enthusiasm and with the most scrupulous attention to the duties of his office." No successor to the deceased composer in the directorship sf the Hoch'sche Conservatorium has yet been named. At Strasburg, fragments from a new opera entitle(l " Melusine" (a favourite subject, it would seem, nvith modern composers) were produced with much success. The composer is Herr Muller-Reuter, a Professor of the Conservatorium of that town, and a late pupil of the Hoch'sche Conservatorium at Frankfurt. An opera by the Duke Ernst of Coburg, entitled " Diana von Solange," was produced at the Kroll'sche Theater in Berlin last month, and met with a very favourable reception. A process by which decorations and other scenic accessories are rendered practically incombustible is now being applied by some of the leading theatres in Germany, whose example will doubtless soon be imitated by others. The process, the invention of Herr Pafen, of Frankfurt, consists in the impregnating of canlras and similar inflammable material with a chemical preparation, which in no way affects even the most delicate colours or the durability of the object impregnated, while introducing a new and important element of safety in case of fire. Experiments recently made with the preparation at the Court Theatres of Munich and Cassel have proved completely successful even sheets of gauze when exposed to a gas flame refusing to become ignited, the only effect produced being a very slow carbonisation. The significance of this fact becomes the more apparent when we remember the enormous sheets of this most inflammable of all materials employed in some of our modern stage representations, notably in the " Nibelungen " Trilogy, for which alone the Munich Hof-Theater, for instance, is said to have some g,ooo square metres of gauze-sheets amongst its scenic properties Herr August Wilhelmj, the eminent violinist, has returned to his home at Wiesbaden after an absence of nearly fouryears, during which time he has made the round of the world, visiting North and South America, New Zealand Australia, Asia (China, India, &c.), and returning to Europe via Egypt. The artist has met everywhere with the most enthusiastic reception, and has been almost overwhelmed with valuable presents and other tokens of admiration and regard. Glinka's opera " Life for the Czar" is to be produced next month at the Hamburg Stadt-Theater, under the auspices of Dr. Hans von Bulow, who will conduct the first performance of this interesting work. A commemorative tablet has been attached to the house -No. I8, Galerie Strasse, at Dresden-indicating that Carl Maria von Weber resided there from September I822 to the time of his death (I826). On the I2th ult., a hundred years had elapsed since the first representation on any stage (in Vienna) of Mozart's opera " Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail." Six years later, in I788, the work was likewise produced at Berlin with great success, although a critic of the period deemed it his duty to advise the young composer to {' take a lesson first from Dittersdorf before attempting to write a comic opera." Contrary to the statement made in German journals, and reproduced irl these columns, Herr Max Bruch has declined the proffered conductorship of the New York " Liederkranz," which has been conferred upon Mr Theodore Thomas, the well-known American conductor Gratuitous performances were given at most of the Paris theatres on the I4h ult, the anniversary ofthe nationalfste At the Grand-Opera M. Ambroise Thomas' " Fransoise de Rimini," was performed, for the last time this season, on the occasion in question, and at the Opera-Comique " Les Noces de Jeannette " and " Le Pre-aux-Clercs,? as the closing performances before the vacation. Four new operatic works are said to be now in the hands of M. Carvalho, the Director of the Paris Opera-Comique, to be brought out at that establishment during the coming season, viz.: " Lackm6," by M. Leo Delibes " Manon," by M. Massenet; " Carmosine," by M. F. Poiseand '4 I)iana,'7 by M. E. Paladilhe. M. Massenet, says La Musiqtf e Populaire, will next winter pay a visit to Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna, in orHeerrtdibde ,p,resent at the production there of his opera the best qualities of a teacher who devoted himself with enthusiasm and with the most scrupulous attention to the duties of his office." No successor to the deceased composer in the directorship sf the Hoch'sche Conservatorium has yet been named. At Strasburg, fragments from a new opera entitle(l " Melusine" (a favourite subject, it would seem, nvith modern composers) were produced with much success. The composer is Herr Muller-Reuter, a Professor of the Conservatorium of that town, and a late pupil of the Hoch'sche Conservatorium at Frankfurt.