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224 National Music of the World.
I cannot but feel as if I were faithless to the reel as a dance measure, in passing it over as I must do in a subject full of what some old author calls 'pastime and particularity'; but I am unable to do more than to touch a point here and there.
On looking over Mr. Chappell's collection of English tunes, I have been struck anew, as I have been again and again in former years, by the want of a style which establishes a certain parentage, as that by which French, Italian, and Northern melodies are affiliated, or by which the Scotch and Irish, or Welsh airs are recognisable.
I say this with all respect to the sincerity of the writer, but, with reference to a partisanship which is natural in one who has fixed his eyes on a single point. He conceives record in print to decide the parentage of a tune. I do not. The ' Pastoral Symphony' in the ' Messiah' was printed in ' Par-thenia,' as a dance, long ere Handel dreamed of appropriating the tune of the Roman or Calabrian pifferari for his ' Nativity' scene. Who prompted the printer? is the question. And it is a question which no one can answer, so far as national music is concerned.
Now, so far as Mr. Chappell's diligently prepared |
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