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

MUSICAL AND LITERARY JVIISCELLANY.
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MUSICAL DEVOTION.
Yorkshire, and the adjoinine; counties of Lan-
caster and Derby, are celebrated for a love of music:
its spirit pervades every rank of the people in a
manner unknown and unfelt in the rest of our island.
And amongst those districts famed for musical taste
and skill, Halifax stands pre-eminently forward.
There, as perhaps nowhere else in England, may
be found, at stated periods, the justice of the peace
and the artisan side by side in the orchestra, prac-
tising together their divine art, and forgetting, for
a time, the artificial distinctions set up in the world
of men. In an essay entitled " A Village Oratorio,"
by George Hogarth, justice has been done to the
musicians of this part of Yorkshire. " Of these
singers and players," he says, speaking of choristers
and instrumental performers, " very few are pro-
fessional. Most of them are industrious trades-
people, cultivating music from love of the art, and
making its practice their dearest recreation." As
an instance of devotion to the art, we may relate,
that the Halifax Orchestral Society consists of be-
tween 30 and 40 members, most of whom reside five
or six miles from the town; and, for years past, it
has seldom happened, even on the darkest and
wildest night of winter, that any one of its rustic
members has been absent from his post on the
nights of rehearsal, which takes place fortnightly.
An officer of the society, a respectable tradesman
residing in that town, had occasion, some time ago,
to visit a brother musician and a member of the
eociety, who lives some miles from the town. His
condition is humble, being a hand-loom weaver;
his dwelling is of a character according with his
condition, and is situate at Coldedge, an outlandish
part of the parish of Halifax, bordering upon the
moor of Saltonstall. To find his biding place be.
came a task of infinite difficulty. However, after
much inquiry, and many windings through a devious
path, which lay over fields and through farm-yards,
the distant sounds of a violoncello fell upon the ear
of our wandering musical votary, making him no
longer doubtful of the "whereabout" of the "fa-
mous bass player," as some of the hardy mountain-
eers had denominated him, on inquiry being made
of them touching his dwelling-house. Following
the direction whence the pleasing sound issued, he
was led to a mean-looking hut. He entered, and
found the object of his search half dressed, engaged
in the performance of one of Linley's concertos:
the room contained two pair of looms; in one of
these the " guid-wife" was industriously "plying
the shuttle;" and on the hearth was her lord, sur-
rourided by two or three younkers, deeply engaged,
as we have intimated, in a domestic concert of no
ordinary or commonplace character, for his execution
of a difficult and beautiful composition is described
as admirable and worthy of all praise! Thus be-
neath this humble roof of poverty, and far from the
haunts of cultivation and refinement, was presented
a picture of simple and virtuous happiness rarely to
be found in England. How truly might it be said,
in this instance, that music has been given us by
our bountiful Creator to assist in smoothing the
path of human life ! — Bradford Observer.