Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > British minstrel, and musical and literary miscellany

2
THE BRITISH MINSTREL; AND
continue like good allies until, with their help, our
Miscellany has become a " Paradise of Dainty De-
lights," where they may luxuriate, pleased with
themselves, and happy because they have assisted
us ta%dd one mite to the sum of human happi-
ness.
THE MINSTREL SPEAKETH OF THE FUTURE, AND
TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.
And now, when we turn our attention to the fu-
ture, we are not willing to alarm any one by a mass
of unmeaning promises. The field which we
occupy is inexhaustible, and we are untiring.
We intend to add to our stock of music always such,
and only such, as the concurring voices of "ap-
proved good masters" have raised to the most
honourable place in musical science. Along with
our usual amount of sacred chorusses, glees, duets,
songs, catches, &c., we intend to continue our
literary articles, and, besides, we contemplate im-
mediately to give insertion to the first of a series of
airs, (without words or accompaniments,) selected
from the myriads which have been allowed to go
out of print, or which have never been known ex-
cept by tradition or in manu.^cript. Of these latter
■ there are still an enormous number lying hid, and
which ought to be brought from the obscurity in
which tiiey have been allowed to remain. To all
who are in possession of such collections of old
music, as have gone out of print, or which have
never been published, we would say, that a severe
injury is continually being perpetrated upon the
fame and genius of their composers, so long as they
are not allowed to pass into the world which they
were composed to gratify and delight. And any
notice of such collections, or of the authors or col-
lectors of old and scarce music, which can be for-
warded to us will be acknowledged, and published
if found proper. We may remark that it is not our
intention, while introducing these airs into our
pages, to diminish on that account our usual quan-
tity of other music, each part will contain the same
amount as heretofore, and such of these airs as we
may insert will be given in addition. With these
few words the Minstrel begs to retire for the present,
as he must resume his working garb and prepare
for the business of Volume Second.
EFFECT OF MUSIC ON ANIMALS.
Curious anecdotes are related of the effects of
music upon animals. Thorville has given the fol-
lowing amusing account of his experiments: —
" While a man was playing on a trumpmarine, I
made my observations on a cat, a dog, a horse, an
ats, a bind, some cows, small birds, and a cock and
heD«. who were in a yard under the window. The
was not in the least affected ; the horse stopped
short from time to time, raising his head up now
and then, as if he were feeding on grass ; the dog
continued for above an hour, seated on his hind
legs, looking steadfastly at the player ; the ass did
not discover the least indication of his being touched,
eatiug his thistles peaceably ; the hind lilted up her
large wide ear, and seemed very attentive ; the cows
stopped a little, and after gazing at us went foi-
ward; some little birds that were in the aviary, and
others on trees and bushes, almost tore their little
throats with singing; but the cock who minded
only his hens, and the hens who were solely em-
ployed in scraping a neighbouring dunghill, did not
show in any manner that the trumpmarine afforded
them pleasure."
That dogs have an ear for music cannot be
doubted. Steibelt had one which evidently knew
one piece of music from the other ; and a modern
composer had a pug dog that frisked merrily about
the room, when a lively piece was played, but when
a slow melody was performed, particularly Dussek's
Opera, 15, he would seat himself down by the piano
and prick up his ear with intense attention, until
the player came to the forty-eighth bar, but as the
discord was struck he would yell most piteously,
and with drooping tail seek refuge from the un-
pleasant sound uader the chairs or tables.
Eastcoat relates that a hare left her retreat to
listen to some choristers, who were singing on the
banks of the Mersey, retiring when they ceased
singiug, and reappearing as they recommenced their
strains. Bousset asserts that an olficer confined
in the Bastile, drew forth mice and spiders to be-
guile his solitude, with his flute; and a mountebank
in Paris, had taught rats to dance on the rope in
perfect time; Chateaubriand states as a positive
fact, that he has seen the rattlesnake, in Upper
Canada, appeased by a musician ; and the concert
given in Paris to two elephants, in the Jardin des
Plantes, leaves no doubt in regard to the effect ot
harmony on the brute creation. Every instrument
seemed to operate distinctly as the several modes
of pieces were slow or lively, until the excitement
of these intelligent creatures had been carried to
such an extent that further experiments were deemed
dangerous. — MilUngen.
Buffon mentions, in his " Natural History," the
sensibility the elephant evinces for music. Desir-
ing, to prove the truth of this assertion, a party of
celebrated " artistes," among whom were Messrs.
Duvernoy and Kreutzer, repaired to the Menagerie
at the Jardin du Roi, where they gave a regular
musical treat to an elephant, the result of which
convinced them of the justness of the great natural-
ist's observation. The little simple melody, " O ma
tendre Musette," played on the violin by Kreutzer,
seemed to afford much satisfaction to their attentive
auditor; but to the brilliant variations that followed,
in which innumerable dilficulties were surmounted
with the greatest facility by the highly talented per-
former, the quadruped listened with the utmost
nonchalance. The merit of a bravura air, although
sung in the first style of excellence, and a universal
favourite amongst the " Dilettanti," was not better
appreciated than had been the variations to the for-
mer air. One of Boccherini's celebrated quatuors,
to the dismay of all amateurs be it known, shared
the same, or even a worse fate ; for the elephant
could not refrain from showing direct indications of
annoyance, and constantly gaped during the per-