have
none of this catholicity. A very accomplished Italian musician used
frankly to say, that a symphony always put him to sleep; and as for the
songs of Franz and other recent German composers, he would rather
hear the filing of saws with an accompaniment of wet fingers on a
window-pane. The Germans, on the other hand, have an equal contempt for
Italian music. For them, Donizetti is melodramatic, Bellini puerile
and silly, and even Rossini (who has written as many melodies as any
composer, save Mozart) is only fit to compose for hand-organs. The
American musical public can and do render to both schools the justice
they deny each other,--and this because we appreciate the aim and
direction of both. The tendency of modern German music is more and more
in what we might call a mathematical direction; the Teutonic listener
examines the structure of a movement as he would a geometrical
proposition; he notices the connection and dependence of the several
parts, and at the end, if he like it, he thinks Q.E.D.; his pleasure is
quiet, but sincere. The Italian, on the other hand, makes everything
subordinate to feeling; for him the music must sparkle with pleasure,
burn with passion, or lighten with rage; borne upon the tide of emotion,
the under-current of harmony is a matter of little moment; there may be
symmetry of structure, and learning in the treatment of themes; if so,
well; if not, their absence is not noticed as an essential defect.

For lyrical purposes the Italian style will always take the precedence,
because music must primarily be addressed to the feelings. But it may
happen, if ever we have great composers here in America, that to the
instinctive grace and beauty of this Southern school the magnificent
orchestral effects of the North may be added, and thereby a grander
and more perfect whole be produced. At least, we can continue to be
eclectic, and in due time we may develope music which, like Corinthian
brass, shall contain the valuable qualities of all the elements we
appropriate.

* * * * *

LITERARY NOTICES.

_Biography of Elisha Kent Kane_. By WILLIAM ELDER. Philadelphia: Childs
& Peterson.

If Dr. Kane's character had not been free from any taint of imposture
and vainglory, and if his reputation had not been of that kind which can
be submitted to the austerest tests without being materially lessened, he
would have suffered much in having so frank and truthful a biogr