Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Account of the First Edinburgh Musical Festival, held between the 30th October and 5th November, 1815

FOURTH PERFORMANCE. 131
deur, which belong even to the most ordinary
conception of that tremendous day, when " the
dead shall arise," and the final doom of every
man be pronounced, have certainly very little
in common with the ideas excited by the ab-
surd and shocking burlesque of the sound of
the last trumpet, so injudiciously and impro-
perly imitated in the accompaniments to this
hymn. If the composer intended to jest with
things so impressively serious, he might have
reserved his offensive humour for his own pri-
vate gratification ; but if he gravely purposed
to represent what can neither be represented
nor imagined, he shewed at once his ignorance
of the proper objects of his art, and his want of
right feeling and understanding.
Mr Braham's expression of the melody was
appropriate, and the Chorus was well perform-
ed ; but the perpetual recurrence of the dis-
tressing imitation above-mentioned, destroyed
the natural effect of Luther's simple aud unas-
suming composition.
<e Tears such as tender fathers shed" from De-
borah, is one of those charming strains which
Handel, in his happier moments of inspiration,
produced for the delight of all whose feel-
ings are responsive to the " concord of sweet
sounds."