WILLIAM GARDINER'S MUSIC AND FRIENDS.

THESE volumes are the recollections of a Leicester stockinginaker, whose memory has furnished matter for two very amusing, and in some respects instructive, volumes. The narrative exhibits such a mixture of simplicity, sincerity, and enthusiasm, as in these days of' pretence and affectation is rarely to be found. In Mr. GARDINER this is partly the result of natural temperament, and partly of edu- cation.

lie was bred among the English Presbyterians ; anti time opera- tion of the principles by which this religious body is distinguished, appears throughout his life, tvhatever occurrence he relates or whatever subject he starts. The right of private judgment, and a resolute resistance either to impsose or submit to any human creed or confession of faith, are among the earliest duties incul- cated on the members of this sect ; and they have had their fill effect on Mr. Gaunt:inn. Whatever be the subject, lie claims the right not only of judging for himself, but of recording his comic- tion, without scruple, hesitation, or apology. Be itonusic or then- logy, politics or poetry, geology or language, out collies his opinion unqualified and broad. This has the appearance of oracular dog- matism ; but there is no such thing in reality. He takes for granted that you are quite aware he is only expressing an opinion, from which you are at full liberty to dissent, and not laying down a decision from which there is no appeal. There is tut inconvenience resulting from this assumed understanding between writer and reader ; for matters of opinion are frequently stated as if' they were matters of fact, and are liable to be so quoted and adopted. It will, therefore, be unsafe for any one to cite this work as an autlao city. It must only be regarded as the record of its author's opi- nions,—honestly, litithfully narrated, we have no doubt ; for e lie writes himself all plain

As downright Shippen or as out Montaigne."

In the Chapel of the Leicester Presbyterian meeting, was, and we believe still is, an excellent choir, surpassing both in number and efficiency that of mousy cathedrals. Here Mr. GARDINER imbibed his musical nutriment, and he has pursued his favourite amusement with unabated ardour and zeal; following an eccentric course, adopting eccentric opinions, but yet effecting some good in his day and generation. Alin. from the dirty musical intrigues of London, and unconnected with the profession—possessing a larger share of scientific knowledge than most amateurs attain—Isis opinions arc the faithful impressions of an impartial bystander, and so fits valuable on account of their rarity. hlis amusing simplicity sometimes leads him into error—sometimes his enthusiasm—and not unfrcquently his limited knowledge : but the surlitce of the musical \coati 1hr the last half century, as far ati it is embraced in the mirror of these volumes, is, on the whole, eteTectly re- flected.

The following extracts will illustrate this estimate of his cha- racter.

" one night I went to the Operalionse, to hear 11 Don Giovanni ; and 'Lora Castlereagh and Lord Warwick were on the bench just belbre me, conversing so loudly upon the Income-tax, that I said, Gentlemen, Your talking prevents mw hearing the music ;' whieh remark seemed to give pleasure to a party on time seat behind use, for I silenced the Senators."

Our author then fell into a conversation with sonic ladies — strangers—near him, on the merits of the opera ; told one of them she had au imperfect copy of it, and recommended a better. Then, recognizing Lord ERSKINE near him—a stranger too—" fill into a very pleasant conversation with hhn."

On another occasion, he was introduced to the Catch Club; where, seated among the noble members of the Club, he says-

" Between the pieces I occasionally conversed with some of these dis- tinguished personages ; mid, us I was considered a man of consequence, Lord de Dunstanville semi, understand, Sir, you live iu Leicestershire ? where- abouts is your place?' ' My Lord,' I replied, I am a tradesman, and live at Leicester. Ile was pleased with my openness; and, to relieve me from the embarrassment to which my frankness had exposed me, said, ' I an a tnules- man too, Sir—a dealer in tin : come, let us have a glass of wine together.'" Some of the most amusing traits of our author's simple-minded- mess are to be found in the recorded civil speeches made him by certain London singers or players. Let us warn all future musical autobiographers, that these are counterfeit although current coin, passed off among all persons from the country, who have or are likely to have any concern, direct or indirect, with giving engage- ments. The same sort of coin circulates at all festivals among committees and patrons ; and is then usually passed off on the morning in which the Messiah is performed. How many times have we heard the same persons say, "1 never heard the Halle- lujah Chorus go so well before !" If all other becomplimented country amateurs were blessed with simplicity as great and memories as retentive as Mr. GARDINER possesses, and withal, were to follow his example of publishing his reminiscences, the sincerity and value of such professional praise would be awkwardly apparent. We have said that Mr. GARDINER'S limited musical knowledge sometimes renders him an uncertain and unsafe authority.. From the Ibllowing passages we must presume him to possess a very slender knowledge of Po RCELL.

"There is a grandeur in Croft not to be found in Purcell."

Indeed ! Did Mr. GARDINER ever see or hear " 0 God thou host cast us out."

" Purcell formed his style on Blow."

Not very likely'. PURCELL died in 1691 ; and Blow, in the pre- face to his Amphion Anglieus, published in 1700, only then an- nounces his intention to "follow it by producing some sacred com- positions."

"Purcell can hardly be said to have written a song-tune."

This assertion needs neither note nor comment.

"Purcell and Arne borrowed their musical thoughts from the Italian."

True, in part, as regards ARNE ; but as to PtacELL, we ask for the proof'. It ma/ be true of PURCELL ; and its order to bring the question to decision, let Mr. GARDINER point out the Italian author from whom our Orpheus Britannicus burrowed the musical thoughts of his Kin,g Arthur—either the scene in the enchanted forest, the sacrificial scene, or the frost scene. These are the great features of his greatest opera, and they may be all burrowed : we should like, as a matter of curiosity, to know whence?

Mr. GARDINER'S musical creed is thus summed up—" With me, instrumental music forms the basis of the art ; vocal music being only a branch." And this we believe to be the faith of every ama- teur instrumentalist. 'I'o hear the sound of his own violin in a quartet, is the acme of musical enjoyment. Of all musical inflic- tions, the most serious and severe we have ever been called on to endure, is an amateur quartet. An indifferent song or glee is soon Sespatched—but a quartet is, in such hands, usually half an hour's misery. Nothing of this is shared by the perfortners- to them it is all rapture and delight. " Once a fortnight," says our enthusiast, " we continue to regale our ears with a quartet of Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven ;" exultingly adding, " we play the whole of Beethoven, except his posthumous quartets, which require the penetration of the angel Gabriel to understand." Once a fortnight thus Leicester amateurs unlock their cases, and tune their instruments in order "to trifle time away " with BEETHOV EN'S Quartets. Verily, this must be a " regale !" The ballet-masters' opinion of the drama accords with Mr. GAttinsaa's estimate of vocal music, and fbr a like reason : with him the words of a play are an unnecessary incumbrance ; the action—the attitude—is every thing. Mr. GARDINER regards music only as a succession of sounds, and the human voice as an instrumuent, less perfect than a violin, because its compass is more limited. MItsrox considered it indispensable to the highest demonstrations of the art, that "voice and verse" should "wed their divine sounds :" but perhaps MILTON was an ignoranma. The following. passa'se is a sufficient proof that Mr. GARDINER be cited as an authority with caution- " This !-twiety !-mhe Catch Claim; originated in the social eve •ings spent by Charles li. witia Purcell and other ben rieauls of that age, the ,portraits of whom occupy the walls of the dining-room in that ancient tavern.'

More errors titan this sentence contains, it would not be possible to crowd into the same number of words. The Catch Club was Ibunded in 1761, by Lord E

Another such instance occurs in our author's notice of the Ancient Concerts; at which, lie saws, " scarcely a note of any other author than liaudel was pertbrmeSduring the reign of George III." glad Mr. GARDE.: na troubled himself to have looked into any of the Ancient Concert. books of that time, he would have found them to contain a rich variety of pieces front the great Italian, Flemish, and English masters of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen- turies.

These passages are not quoted as evidences of general inaccu- racy—for such is not the prevalent character of the work ; though they are sufficient to induce it very opposite opinion. There arc some passages which correctly exhibit the state of musical culture ill the country about half a century ago.

"At this time every village had its wake, and the lower orders were compa- ratively in a state of ease and plenty. Then every place was proud of its may- pole and spacious green, kept for sports and pastimes: but what contributed to their solid comforts, was the common and open field, upon which they kept their pig and poultry, and sometimes a cow. When the wake came, the stocking- masker had peas and beans in his snug garden, and a good barrel of humming ale. To these comforts were added two suits of clothes, a working suit and a Sunday suit ; but, more than all, he had leisure, which in the summer-time was a blessing and a delight. The year was chequered with holvdays, wakes, and faint; it was not one dull round of labour. Those who had their frames at home seldom worked more than three days in a week. The maypole with its pastimes, and the games of single-stick and wrestling, have now disappeared. These were the sports of time ruder part of the peasantry ; the artisans, who were more cultivated, bad their amusements at home; they were members of the village choir, and on the wake Sunday every one that had a voice, and could lend a hand with hautboy, bassoon, or flute, repaired to the singing-loft in the church, to swell with heart and voice the psalm or anthem; the clowns below gaping with mute surprise.

"These harmless recreations are for ever gone. The quavering strains of Arnold, Tensor, Knapp, and Bishop, we hear no more. Sapcote, Sheepshead, and Rally, were the principal villages in which church music was maintained. At Ratby a flunk of the Smedleys, from Derbyshire, attended the wake every year. They were the last of the minstrels in this part of the country who titrmed a band of two violins and a bass, playing the trios of' Kammeil and Lampugnani. These itinerant musicians joined the choir on the wake Sunday, and, with assistants from the neighbouring villages, produced what was called a grand crash, that never failed to fill the church."

The following description of the Leicester Subscription Concerts, in the year 1785, will correctly apply to those of many other pro- vincial towns.

" The First Subscription Concerts in Leicester were established in the year 1;85. The 1)cm-limners were chiefly amateurs, including, two clergymen. The few professional assistants received half-a-crown a night ; and the managers were able to give a concert every fortnight through the year. for a subscription of about 7d. a night. The instrumental pieces consisted of the Concertos of Corelli, Handel, Geminiani, Stanley, and Avisun : the Overtures of Martini, Abel, Stamitz, Van Maldere, and Ditters. Haydn's Festini Overture was the first piece of that author heard in Leicester. Miss Valentine used to play one of Handers Organ Concertos, or one of his harpsichord lessons; and her sister sang the grave songs of his Oratorios, and now and then a Vauxhall ballad."

Music is not the only subject which Mr. GARDINER discusses. His speculations embrace language, philosophy, poetry, politics theology—in short, almost every topic that presents a debateable point. Equally large, and just as miscellaneous, is the circle of his " friends." Ile records his interviews with BRAHAM and with GODWIN—DRAGONETTI and ROBERT HALL—Dr. PARR and CATA■ LAM—MALIBRAN and Dr. PRIESTLEYGRISI and Dr. REES.- CLEMENT' and Lord MontA—Mrs. SALMON and the Duke of TRE■ Nis(); and the various subjects that occur in the course of the volumes tumble after each other in the most ludicrous confusion. It seems as it' the work had been written without any attempt at connexion of time, place, or topic, and delivered unpaged into the compositor's hands. But we question if the author's habits would have permitted any thing like a systematic arrangement or conden- sation of his materials.

Not the least interesting portion of the work, is that which re. Wes the state of politics and parties at Leicester in the early pe- riods of the French Revolution. If' a similar narrative had been drawn up, by some person competent to the task, in many provin- cial towns, it would have done more to disclose the multifitrious abominations and iniquities of PITT'S Administration, than any his- tory of England that will ever be written. The actors in those scenes are nearly all gone to their account ; the spectators of them arc thinning apace ; and the coming generation will have a very flint and vague idea of the enormities then perpetrated under co- lour of law, or by means of what Wirsonast justified as " a vigour beyond the law." Every large town in the kingdom fiirnished simi- lar atrocities to those which Mr. GARDINER thus records as having taken place at Leicester.

I shall now give sotne account of the Philosophical Society which Mr. Phillips istablished on his coming to Leicester, and time prominent character he maintained during the seven years lie resided in the town. The members met totce a week in his school-room in Bond Street ; and, as electricity was th,o not generally kitown, we entered largely into a variety of experiments which that science afforded; and, like Franklin, we erected on the tdp of our s.witty-rooms a high pole in the form of a spear, and chew time electric fluid. from the clouds. The first cause in which M. Robespierre distinguished him- self, was in (let:mai:1p-, M. Vessery, who was prosecuted for erecting a conductor to protect his house from lightiumr. We also pursued the study of astronomy, and made a notable observation of a transit of Mercury over the sun. A sub- ject was proposed once a month for the members to treat upon ; and the best compositions were entered upon time Transactions of the Society. At this time broke out the French Revolution, ; and any person who hailed it as the first step towards the ball of tyrammy and superstition was looked upon as an many to good govermucut, and viewed with distrust. It was the constant observation of what was called the Loyal party, that the people knew too much; and it was hinted to us by the constituted authorities, that our meetings had a dangerous tendency—that they apprehended our discussions might eventually. lead to politics ; and we tumid it expedient for our personal safety to put tut end to our proceedings. This admonition, however, produced the contrary eff:ct ; for, being deprived of our annwements as young men, we began to inquire into time right of the Corporation, or any set of persons, to dictate a course so tyrannical. Soon after this, Filth books as Paine's '• Rights of Man," Mackintosh's " Vindiciam Gallieme," were sought for and. read with avidity. Our president, Phillips, at this time conducted an ably-written paper called the Leicester Herald, which maintained time principles of civil and religions liberty. His house also was a place of resort for all those who haul a taste for literature, as in his pamphlet-room was found every production of the day. He naturally became an obnoxious character to time Corporation, and a scheme was laid to entrap him. A man of the came of.lackson, a shoemaker, was employed to purchase in his shop the second part of Paine's " Rights of Mau for selling which, Phillips was brought to trial, and sentenced to eighteen months' close confinement in Leicester Gaol. But what stamped this act with a degree of unheard severity, was, that the same book was sold by every other shop in time town ; for it had not as yet been proved a libel. The printer, Daniel Isaac Eaton, had been acquitted, amid Paine had not been tried. This sentence, how- ever, was thought too light, and any contrivance was resorted to to render his hnprisonmeut as miserable as possible. Though a large sum was offered for a room in the gaoler's house, he was put into a vile apartment at the bottom of the felons' ward, and locked up every evening in summer-time at six o'clock, and his friends who were with him turned oat. I used to visit him on the Sundays, after. having obtained permission front the Mayor (Burbidge); but in these visits I was annoyed by many incivilities, and sometimes lucked up be- tween two grated doors while two or three songs were sung, threatening death to Jacobins and Levellers; and when 1 was admitted, the wretch that was set over him would sit down and say he was ordered to remain, that we might not talk treason:" If Mr. GARDINER had intrusted his manuscript to the revision of some person competent to correct, if but partially, the errors as to matters of fitct which his work now contains, and to rectify the spelling of DUBBIN (for his orthography is here quite ad libitum,) its value would have been materially enhanced.