A complete edition of the whole, we believe, was pub lished a few years ago, in 80 folio volumes. Although a large proportion of Handel's compositions are excellent, it is undeniable that many seem dull and heavy to modern taste ; and the reiteration of favourite, or what he might conceive appropriate, passages certainly impairs their effect. The Grand Chorusses of the Messiah, the Coronation An them, Farewell ye limpid streams, Angels ever bright and fair, and numerous others, can never be listened to without emotion. Yet Handel, with all his excellence, committed that egregrious error to which musicians are so prone,— he wrote too much. It is vain to expect perpetual no velty in thoughts or actions; the inexhaustible renewal of human genius does not exist, or it appears only in arrange ment. Nature has bestowed but a trifling portion of original ity on any individual, however comprehensive his intellect ; and so soon is that of composers bestowed on their works, that extravagance and caprice are offered for what is alrea dy exhausted. They enjoy a latitude, it is true, which is denied to literature or painting. These must be guided by certain principles which are special and defined, and of which the violation will ever be rejected by genuine taste. But music is not restricted within definite boundaries ; while we acknowledge a few imperfections that should be avoided, we cannot describe that particular course which shall guide us to excellence. Hence public opinion will long be divided on musical merit ; that which pleases the car will gratify the majority ; and the rest will seek for some less prominent property, which may 13.: the subj2et of reflection. Perhaps a piece of music should be com pared to a narrative, while it is agreeable in one part, no thing ought to be outdone in another. A general charac
ter should be preserved throughout. Were this attended to, fewer useless compositions, particularly instrumental compositions, would he obtruded on the public. Handel's works unquestionably evince the mind of a great master. I e who can move an audience, both by pathos and gran deur, must be admitted to have no ordinary genius. Ne vertheless he has perhaps fallen into another error, in en deavouring to make the imagination feel what it is necessary to behold, before being alive to the impression, or what it would probably require a kind of complex machinery to represent. For example, the sun standing still, a pheno menon of nature, from which we should at this day expect the annihilation of the terrestrial globe, is feebly imitated by a note of uncommon duration. The hopping of frogs, the buzzing of flies, the falling of hail, are sufficient in words ; they are scarcely appropriate in music. Ano ther inimitable master, Haydn, has followed the footsteps of his countryman in these questionable points. But how can anyone discover flashes of lightning, the flowing of streams, the roaring of lions, or the crawling of worms, from any association of musical notes ? Such allegories are beyond the reach of the most vigorous imagination, which would be perplexed in searching for the analogy. One of Han del's operas opens with an imitation of a storm and a ship wreck; and a symphony is introduced in another, to ex press the shrieks and cries of tortured souls in the infernal regions.
We must conclude on the whole, that IIandel is one of the greatest masters who has ever flourished ; and that his style and performance materially contributed to produce that revolution in music, which has taken place in the course of the eighteenth century. (c)