ges that he really made something of a stir upon the publication
of his "small book," as Browning calls it, with, we may add, its "large
title."

AN
ESSAY
ON
MUSICAL EXPRESSION
BY CHARLES AVISON
_Organist_ in NEWCASTLE
With ALTERATIONS and Large ADDITIONS

To which is added,
A LETTER to the AUTHOR
concerning the Music of the ANCIENTS
and some Passages in CLASSIC WRITERS
relating to the Subject.

LIKEWISE
Mr. AVISON'S REPLY to the Author of
_Remarks on the Essay on MUSICAL EXPRESSION_
In a Letter from Mr. _Avison_ to his Friend in _London_

THE THIRD EDITION
LONDON
Printed for LOCKYER DAVIS, in _Holborn_.
Printer to the ROYAL SOCIETY.
MDCCLXXV.

The author of the "Remarks on the Essay on Musical Expression" was the
aforementioned Dr. W. Hayes, and although the learned doctor's pamphlet
seems to have died a natural death, some idea of its strictures may be
gained from Avison's reply. The criticisms are rather too technical to
be of interest to the general reader, but one is given here to show how
gentlemanly a temper Mr. Avison possessed when he was under fire. His
reply runs "His first critique, and, I think, his masterpiece, contains
many circumstantial, but false and virulent remarks on the first allegro
of these concertos, to which he supposes I would give the name of
_fugue_. Be it just what he pleases to call it I shall not defend what
the public is already in possession of, the public being the most proper
judge. I shall only here observe, that our critic has wilfully, or
ignorantly, confounded the terms _fugue_ and _imitation_, which latter
is by no means subject to the same laws with the former.

[Illustration: Handel]

"Had I observed the method of answering the _accidental subjects_ in
this _allegro_, as laid down by our critic in his remarks, they must
have produced most shocking effects; which, though this mechanic in
music, would, perhaps, have approved, yet better judges might, in
reality, have imagined I had known no other art than that of the
spruzzarino." There is a nice independence about this that would
indicate Mr. Avison to be at least an aspirant in the right direction in
musical composition. His criticism of Handel, too, at a time when the
world was divided between enthusiasm for Handel and enthusiasm for
Buononcini, shows a remarkably just and penetrating estimate of this
great genius.

"Mr. Handel is, in music, what his own Dryden was