MUSIC.
MUSICAL PUBLICATION SOCIETIES.
THERE is a scheme on foot, the merits ef which should be discussed while discussion is available to any good purpose, for when once com- menced it will be too late. The plan is, by means similar to those adopted by the Musical Antiquarian Society, to print a complete edition of the works of HANDEL; which it proposes thus to furnish to subscribers at a cheap rate, professing also to give a more correct text than that of any existing edition.
The machinery of the contemplated society may be similar, but the principle and object it proposes are widely different from those of the Musical Antiquarian Society. The intention of the latter is to rescue much valuable English music from impending destruction—to print works of which a few scattered copies only are preserved—to reduce the Madrigals of the Elizabethan age into score—to publish the MS. Operas of Puece.m.—to place within the reach of the many, compositions which' were not in the market, and which no publisher would venture to print— to do that, in short, for music, which would be done in no other way. But with regard to the works of HANDEL, the case is widely different. These are in the market. Whoever desires to purchase a set may obtain one, for much less than the cost price, any day in the week. Hatene.t.'s most popular works are published in various forms and sizes. D'ALmsmns alone, in addition to ARNOLD'S edition, of which he possesses the plates, has republished Israel in Egypt, The Messiah, Samson, Judas Maccabreus, and other of HANDEL'S best oratorios in score, with the addition of a compressed arrangement for the pianoforte ; and another more portable edition, as well as three large volumes of HANDEL'S songs arranged by BISHOP. Then, for all treble clef singers and players, there is Dr. CLAnsx's edition. If there be any composer whose works, in every form and shape, are accessible to the public, that composer is HANDEL. But this scheme contemplates the reprint of all HANDEL'S operas. Why ? HANDEL'S operas are in no danger of perishing. They are accessible to all who wish or need to examine them. Printed first by WaLsa and CLUER entire, the songs were afterwards published in various forms and under different titles separately ; and many a copy of the "Apollo's Feast," which contains the scores of at least five hundred of HANDEL'S opera-songs, has been bought for less than twenty shillings. If there be any compositions of HANDEL, even were they as worthless as his "Water Music," that are in danger of extinction, perhaps we might be inclined to join in an effort to preserve them, albeit a regard to his fame would acquiesce in their destruction. But there is no chance of this. Every thing that he published is attainable.
The chance of getting a more correct text than at present exists is
very small indeed. All Hammes works were printed and published under his own eye, and corrected by his accurate and indefatigable assistant SMITH. If these copies differ from the MSS. in the Queen's Library, they differ advisedly, and are the alterations of the composer himself. Aatrow's edition is notoriously inaccurate ; but WALsit's copies have been properly resorted to by all modern editors, and these are the very best authority.
The probable cost of this edition remains to be considered. Unlike the editors of the works published by the Musical Antiquarian Society, the person or persons who undertake to edite HANDEL are to be piad for their work. Very proper it is that they should ; but this will, of coarse, render the proposed edition not cheaper but dearer than the present ones. The contemplated addition of a pianoforte arrangement to HANDEL'S entire works will swell them in bulk as in cost ; and the sub- scriber, if he live long enough, will find himself possessed of from eighty to a hundred volumes, costing him, perhaps, as many pounds. a large proportion of which he will find of very questionable value, and which, if so disposed, he might have obtained at a cheaper rate. That which private enterprise or speculation can and does accom- plish, needs not the machinery of a joint-stock company, nor is it usually so well effected. Were five hundred persons to combine to make their own candles or produce their own cabbages, they would soon find out that they could be better supplied at BRICKNELL and TURNER'S or in Covent Garden market. That which there is no prospect of accomplishing by other means is a fair and proper object of cooperation.
We give the originators of this plan full credit for worthy and disin- terested motives : the idea of publishing "a complete and correct edition of the works of HANDEL " is an imposing one, and not unlikely to take with those who are unaware what it involves : but we regard it as more plausible than useful or needed ; and it is one which is very likely to degenerate into a job. A most impudent attempt, we hear, has already been made to get it into the hands of a foreigu editor. This will fail, of course ; but what security is there that a work of such magnitude, if well begun, will be as well continued and completed? And, what- ever be its imperfections, the subscriber's only remedy is to leave off paying, with an unfinished work on his hands.
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