lessons. They were not allowed to sing until they understood what they were doing, and thus every step was agreeable because intelligible. This was enough of itself to create enthusiasm; for there are few minds in which art will not kindle passion when once it is understood even in its mere elements. Art in its various forms of manifestation is that which makes civilised life rose-coloured instead of gray; and the masses have a keen sense of this-all they want is culture. This Mr. Hullah, for the first time in the history of our serious nation, offered to the people. The success which met his efforts, and the enthusiasm which they awoke, is enough to show that our race unites with its stern solidity considerable artistic sensibility. The animosity which Mr. Hullah's innovations provoked was bitter enough; but it principally emanated from a few professors, who were jealous of his success, and who, in fact, feared that these public classes which he was commencing would swallow up their private connections. There had been some attempts at class-teaching before, which had failed, and consequently there were some who did not believe that class-teaching was possible. They knew nothing about it, and therefore supposed, as is the general habit, that what they themselves were ignorant of was impossible. But when Mr. Hullah made it clear that the thing was both possible and pleasurable he carried the public with him, and professional animosity died away by degrees, for its opposition was practically drowned by the general voice. So great has been the stride in public education since then, that it is very difficult to appreciate the state of musical education at that time. It can be best guessed at by observing the ignorance of many professors now upon certain points which children understand. The theory of musical notation is sometimes most imperfectly understood. A musical professor once said to Mr. Hullah, "I don't understand what this character means," speaking of the treble clef. Now, if a child understands music at all, he understands such things as that. This is the result of the great feature of Mr. Hullah's method, which is that matters are explained synthetically from the first elements upwards instead of taught dogmatically.

In the endeavour to realise the work done for us by this civiliser and educator, we must bear in mind the astounding fact, that until this effort was made, no popular musical education existed in England of any sort whatever. Mr. Hullah was the only teacher for some time, and eventually he created his staff, evoking the enthusiasm in others which genius and a great belief can alone call forth. He began through these assistants to send out the wave of feeling and intelligence which has so widened now, that it is quite difficult to realise how blank the

darkness must have been.

The next marked step was the starting of the "Singing Schools for

Schoolmasters," at Exeter Hall, on Feb. 1st, 1841. This school was for the instruction of schoolmasters of day and Sunday schools, in vocal music; the system was that based upon Wilhem, and made his own by Mr. Hullah's elaboration; it met with a marked success. There was an innate vigour in it which enabled it to outlive and ignore opposition. The general public flocked to these classes at Exeter Hall, and so great was their popularity that teachers of music came from the country to learn the system, and obtain certificates of being qualified to teach it.. Mr. Hullah now made the first effort toward his great achievement of giving classical music to the public. He formed his classes into upper and lower schools, and began to give concerts at Exeter Hall, using his upper school as the chorus, while professional singers and instrumentalists completed the orchestra. In the first four months of 1847 he gave four noticeable concerts, which illustrated in chronological order the rise and progress of English vocal music. At first these concerts, or "Choral Meetings," as they were called, were composed of pure vocal music, without any instruments whatever. Their effect must have been something startling at that time, as, different classes in London and its suburbs being gathered together to form the chorus, it would consist of about two thousand voices. The body of Exeter Hall was filled by the vocalists, and the audience sat in the orchestra. This arrangement naturally limited the size of the audience, but what it wanted in quantity was made up by quality. These choral meetings, which being so large really were regarded as state occasions, were frequented by the great people of the time. Lord Wharncliffe, then the President of the Privy Council, which countenanced the movement, took a personal interest in it, and brought with him to these meetings the Prince Consort, members of the Sutherland family, and, indeed, at different times all the great people who were interested in educational progress. The separate classes which met in Exeter Hall were often of large size, sometimes consisting of two or three hundred voices. The largest which ever assembled numbered five hundred, and was composed of workmen. This enormous class kept together for the whole course of sixty lessons. These classes were formed from every grade of society, from the artisan to members of rich families, from the parochial schoolmaster to the distinguished professor. For instance, the classes 18 and 19, which were under Mr. May, and which presented their teacher with a handsome watch in 1843, contained an eminent teacher of the pianoforte, and several other professors, including Mr. Monk, the editor of "Hymns Ancient and Modern." This gentleman attended all the lessons, even those which taught the most elementary principles. Of course there were some difficulties arising from this mixture; and at one time the teachers had considerable trouble from the absurd prejudice which is felt against the soldier's red coat. It

seems strange enough that such ridiculous feelings should interfere in the real study of a noble art. But, in spite of all the difficulties which anyone familiar with human nature knows must inevitably be placed in the way of a great movement, Mr. Hullah's influence widened and grew stronger. The Exeter Hall classes were, as said before, under the countenance of the Privy Council; but eventually Mr. Hullah took some rooms in St. Martin's-lane, and carried them on entirely on his own responsibility.

The classes having now become so large and so popular, Mr. Hullah's supporters resolved to build and present to him a concert hall; this project resulted in the erection of St. Martin's Hall, which was opened on Feb. 11, 1850. Of this building, Mr. Hullah was practically the architect. He has a singular faculty for constructing things suitably for their use, and St. Martin's Hall was not only most lovely in its proportions, but its acoustical properties were absolutely perfect. It would be difficult to find any existing building of which this could be said. During the ten years between the building of this beautiful hall and its destruction by fire, vast strides were taken in the education of the public. A great deal of music was produced there, which had never been before attempted in England, as there had been no orchestral chorus with which to produce them. Numbers of concerts were given in St. Martin's Hall, and Mr. Hullah then effected one great step towards imparting music to the people. His were the first classical concerts to which there was a cheap admission. Now the shilling seats at the concert halls make good music a possible luxury to the masses; then, although the Sacred Harmonic Society existed, and Jullien's concerts contained some classical instrumental music, the cheapest admission was three shillings. Anyone who happens to observe the crowded cheap seats at our concert halls, may make some attempt to guess at the value of this noble pleasure to the people. "The important and useful influence of vocal music on the manners and habits of individuals, and on the character of communities, few will be prepared to dispute." The capacity of the English people for musical appreciation was thus spoken of in the first edition of "Wilhem's Method:" "Though vocal music has hitherto been comparatively neglected in the elementary schools of England, there is sufficient evidence that the natural genius of the people would reward a careful cultivation. In the northern counties of England choral singing has long formed the chief rational amusement of the manufacturing population. The weavers of Lancashire and Yorkshire have been famed for their acquaintance with the great works of Handel and Haydn, with the part music of the old English school, and those admirable old English songs, the music of which it is desirable to restore to The manufacturing population of Norfolk, in like

common use.

manner, has shown taste in the cultivation of vocal music, and has rendered service in the production of the oratorios sung at the festival for which Norwich has been celebrated.” Notwithstanding these evidences of the love of the people for music it remained for Mr. Hullah to offer the lower orders the opportunity of indulging their taste. This fact is not forgotten by the people; it is still fresh in their memory, and there are often to be met shopmen or artisans who well remember that they never heard a symphony " till they heard one at St. Martin's Hall, or that "the first time they ever heard any music" was at one of these concerts. Thus Mr. Hullah's personal influence has been much wider than if limited to his classes; and it is said that from 1840 to 1860 about 25,000 persons passed through these. Another boon to the masses Mr. Hullah brought about by his own energy, and that is the publication of cheap part music. It was impossible at that time to buy a glee or a madrigal under two or three shillings. The large classes which Mr. Hullah created gave rise to the great demand for part music which has resulted in Novello and other publishers issuing it at a cheap rate. But, more than this, Mr. Hullah himself undertook the laborious task of arranging a great quantity of music so that it could be published in an available form. This absolutely had to be done in order to keep his classes supplied, so great was the dearth of music arranged for the purpose. There are a great number of collections of different kinds which we owe to Mr. Hullah; part music, sacred music, collections of old English melodies, and songs for schools, besides many original works upon the elements of the science.

In

Mr. Hullah has endeavoured to show people how great a field of enjoyment is before them if they take the trouble to understand the science of music, instead of regarding the sole results of the art to be merely a succession of pleasant sounds to be poured into idle ears. the following extract he points out how much is lost by the ignorant and, generally, careless amateur. "The idea of a necessary connection between music and musical execution prevails so extensively, and has operated so actively and for so long a time, on musical studies, that few people are able to think of the one without the other. A musical work and a musical performance are, in their minds relative terms. Assuredly, the performance cannot exist without the work, but the converse of the proposition is not necessarily true. The ear is only one of the senses through which the mind can receive pleasure from music, and though its exercise is indispensable to those who have not studied the science, such is by no means the case in respect of those who have. On the contrary, for the musician, the eye does more than the ear; and the most intimate acquaintance with works of which they have never heard a note, is, among musicians, as common as possible. Perhaps, however, the greatest amount of musical study is carried on

by a joint use of the two senses, the eye and the ear; for a perfectly fair estimate of a work may be formed by a musician with the music before him, from a performance which to an uninitiated hearer would be absolutely unmeaning and unintelligible. Indeed, as respects the enjoyment of fine music at all by those who have taken no pains to understand it, I must confess myself a little incredulous. It is not to be denied that persons in such condition exhibit considerable pleasure in musical performance, and show some taste and judgment in regard to mere execution, especially singing. But as to the music itself-the everlasting thought to which the artist gives a momentary expression-their pleasure is the pleasure rather of the glutton than of the epicure. Such people swallow everything. All is fish that comes to their net. There is no measure, no discrimination, in their applause. They have the same superlatives for the pipe of Pan as for the lyre of Apollo."

This is lamentably trne to-day, as any one may easily discover who mixes in general society. Everything is "beautiful." But this arises from an ignorance which in itself is caused by the fatal idea that music is but a prettiness. Mr. Hullah does not exaggerate when he says, "that if a copy of the simplest melody that ever was written were to be put before any number of ladies in an ordinary musical society, three-fourths of them would have no more idea of its effect, without first playing it on a musical instrument, than they would of the inscription on one of the Xanthian marbles." But then most of these ladies would regard reading music as a painful and difficult task, perhaps necessary to be accomplished by professional persons. Mr. Hullah endeavours to show them that it is a pleasure such as is the study of any form of beauty. "The art of reading music, which I cannot but think is a more becoming subject for private study than the art of singing, is unquestionably one in which success is much more easy to attain. And with this advantage: that whereas nothing short of very, very high excellence in the latter is of the slightest value to those who perform or to those who listen, in the former, the least skill is a source of great pleasure to its possessor, and will often serve to complete an aggregate effect of great beauty." It is very strange that among amateurs the art of reading music is so little attempted. All who have come in contact with really accomplished musicians are aware how great a pleasure they obtain, as Mr. Hullah observes, from reading music which they have sometimes never had any opportunity of hearing performed, and it can only be because it is regarded as a special and difficult undertaking, that persons of less musical capacity are not fired with the ambition of sharing this pleasure. When music has really penetrated into the lives of the people, persons of musical taste will obtain delight and cultivation from works which they have not heard performed, just as now we all know those plays of Shakspeare which are not represented upon the stage as well as those which