The prefent State of Mufic in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces ; or the Journal of a Tour through thofe Countries, undertaken to collect Materials for a general Hiftory of Mufic. By Charles Burney, Muf. D. 2 vols.

octavo.

from all others. He paffes over the fame countries, indeed, which have been vifited and defcribed by the reft; but he points your attention to things altogether of another fort, which gives as much novelty to his travels as if he had defcribed regions hitherto unknown. At the fame time, that his very accurate defcription of feveral perfons of

though the number of the publications of that fort might well be fuppofed to have long fince fatiated the public curiofity. There is fcarcely a part of Europe, into which the travels of feveral of our ingenious countrymen have not been published. The travels of foreigners have been all tranflated into English. Polite education, the love of variety, and the purfuit of health, have rendered foreign objects, and foreign cuftoms, familiar to our countrymen of the higher ranks. The immenfe extent of our commerce has communicated a confiderable fhare of the fame knowledge to all degrees. However, a defire of comparing our own obfervations with thofe of others will make the demand for thefe books perhaps greateft with thofe who have actually vifited the countries defcribed by every new writer of travels. This accounts for the reception of books of Travels, even through European countries, notwithstanding the numbers to which they are multiplied, and the famenefs of the objects which they defcribe.

Dr. Burney's travels do not how ever come within this general de. fcription of books of that kind, He had a particular obje which has given a c ter to his work,

of then

has no them,

pofed

and feveral other curious articles from our author.

Dr. Burney fays, "I was carried to one of the interior apartments of the palace, in which the gentle men of the King's band were waiting for his commands. This apartment was contiguous to the concertroom, where I could diftinctly hear his majesty practising Solfeggi on the flute, and exercifing himself in dif. ficult paffages, previous to his calling in the band. Here I met with M. Benda, who was fo obliging as to introduce me to M. Quantz.

The figure of this veteran mufician is of an uncommon fize:

The fon of Hercules he justly feems,

By his broad fhoulders, and gi. gantic limbs ;

and he appears to enjoy an uncommon portion of health and vigour, for a perfon arrived at his 76th year. We foon began a mufical converfation; he told me, that his majesty and fcholar played no other concertos than those which he had expressly compofed for his ufe, which amounted to 300, and thefe he performed in rotation. This exclufive attachment to the productions of his old mafter may appear fomewhat contracted; however, it implies a conftancy of difpofition but rarely to be found among princes. The compofitions of the two Grauns, and of Quantz, have been in favour with his Pruffian majefty more than forty years; and if it be true, as many affert, that mufic has declined and degenerated fince that time, in which the Scarlattis, Vincis, Leos, Pergolefis, and Porporas flourished, as well as the greatest fingers that modern times

have known, it is an indication of a found judgment, and of great difcernment, in his majefty, to adhere thus firmly to the productions of a period which may be called the Auguftan age of mufic; to ftem the torrent of caprice and fafhion with fuch unfhaken conftancy, is poffeffing a kind of ftet fol, by which Apollo and his fons are prevented from running riot, or changing from good to bad, and from bad to worse.

Thefe reflections, which occurred to me while I was converfing with M. Quantz, were interrupted by the arrival of a meffenger from the King, commanding the gentlemen of his band to attend him in the

next room.

The concert began by a German flute concerto, in which his majefty executed the folo parts with great precifion; his embouchure was clear and even, his finger brilliant, and his tafte pure and fimple. I was much pleased, and even furprized, with the neatness of his execution in the allegros, as well as by his expreffion and feeling in the adagio; in fhort, his performance furpaffed, in many particulars, any thing I had ever heard among Di lettanti, or even profeffors. His majefty played three long and difficult concertos fucceffively, and all with equal perfection.

It must be owned, that many of the paffages, in these pieces of M. Quantz, are now become old and common; but this does not prove their deficiency in novelty when they were firit compofed, as fome of them have been made more than forty years; and though M. Quantz has not been permitted to publish them, as they were originally compofed for his majesty, and have

T 2

ever

ever fince been appropriated to his ufe, yet, in a fees of years, other compofers have hit upon the same thoughts it is with mufic as with delicate wines, which not only become flat and infipid, when expofed to the air, but which are injured by time, however well-kept.

M. Quantz bore no other part in the performance of the concertos of to-night, than to give the time with the motion of his hand, at the beginning of each movement, except now and then to cry out bravo! to his royal fcholar, at the end of the folo parts and clofes; which feems to be a privilege allowed to no other musician of the band. The cadences which his majefty made were good, but very long and ftudied. It is easy to dif cover that thefe concertos were compofed at a time when he did not fo frequently require an opportunity of breathing as at prefent; for in fome of the divifions, which were very long and difficult, as well as in the clofes, he was obliged to take his breath, contrary to rule, before the paffages were finished.

After these three concertos were played, the concert of the night ended, and I returned to Potsdam; but not without undergoing the fame interrogatories from all the centinels, as I had before done in my way to Sans Souci,

As fome of my readers may, perhaps, be curious to know in what manner his majesty fpends his time each day, at Sans Souci, I fhall here prefent them with a detail of that regular difpofition of it, to which he has ftrictly adhered, during peace, ever fince he began his reign indeed, the evolutions of his foldiers, on the parade, can

not be more exact than his own diurnal motions.

His majefty's hour of rifing is conftantly at four o'clock in the morning, during fummer, and at five in winter; and from that time till nine, when his minifters of different departments attend him, he is employed in reading letters, and answering them in the margin. He then drinks one dish of coffee, and proceeds to bufinefs with his minifters, who come full fraught with doubts, difficulties, documents, petitions, and other papers, to read. With thefe he spends two hours, and then exercifes his own regiment on the parade, in the fame manner as the youngest colonel in his fervice.

At twelve o'clock he dines. His dinner is long, and generally with twelve or fourteen perfons; after this he gives an hour to artists and projectors; then reads and figns the letters, written by his fecretaries, from the marginal notes which he had made in the morning. When this is over, he thinks the business of the day is accomplished; the rest is given to amusement: after his evening concert, he gives fome time to converfation, if difpofed for it, and his courtiers in waiting constantly attend for that purpofe; but whether that is the cafe or not, he has a lecturer to read to him, every evening, titles and extracts of new books, among which he marks fuch as he withes to have purchased for his library, or to read in his cabinet. In this manner, when not employed in the field, reviewing his troops, or in travelling, he fpends his time: always retiring at ten o'clock, after which, however, he frequently reads, writes, or compofes mufic

for

the ftyle of compofition, or manner of execution, to which his Pruffian Majefty has attached himself, fulfilled my ideas of perfection. Here, as ellewhere, I fpeak according to my fingle feelings: however it would be prefumption in me to oppofe my own judgment to that cf fo enlightened a prince, if, luckily, mine were not the opinion of the greatest part of Europe, for, fhould it be allowed, that his Pruffian Majefty has fixed upon the Auguftan age of mufic, it does not appear that he has placed his favour upon the best compofers of that age. Vinci, Pergolefe, Leo, Feo, Handel, and many others, who flourished in the beft times of Graun and Quantz, I think fuperior to them in taste and genius. Of his Majesty's two favourites, the one is languid, and the other frequently common and infipid,-and yet, their names are religion at Berlin, and more fworn by, than those of Luther and Calvin,

There are, however, fchifms in this city, as elsewhere; but here tics are obliged to keep their opinions to themselves, while thofe of the establishment may speak out: for though an univerfal toleration prevails here, as to different fects of chriftians, yet, in mufic, whoever dares to profefs any other tenets than thofe of Graun and Quantz, is fure to be perfecuted.

The mufic of this country is more truly German than that of any other part of the empire; for though there are conftantly Italian operas here, in carnival times, his Pruffian Majesty will fuffer none to be performed but those of Graun, Agricola, or Haffe, and of this last, and beft, but very few. And, in the opera houfe, as in the field, his Majefty is fuch a rigid difciplin. arian, that if a mistake is made in a fingle movement or evolution, he immediately marks and rebukes the offender; and if any of his Italian troops dare to deviate from ftri&t difcipline, by adding, altering, or diminishing a fogle paffage in the parts they have to perform, an order is fent, de par le Roi, for them to adhere strictly to the notes written by the compofer, at their peril. This, when compofitions are good, and a finger is licentious, may be an excellent method; but certainly fhuts out all tafte and refinements. So that mufic is truly ftationary in this country, his Majefty allowing no more libercy in that than he does in civil matters of government: not contented with being fole monarch of the lives, fortunes, and bufinefs of his fubjects, he even prefcribes rules to their most innocent pleasures.

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