Reviews Of New Music

REVIEWS OF NEW MUSIC

27 ie Queen and the Craft . A Masonic Sons , words b y W . II . Com-:, Esq . Music by MATTHEW COOKE . London : , T . If . Jewell , 10-1 , Great Ivussellstrect , Bloomsbury . —This- song is admirably adapted for the purpose for which it is intended—to be sung immediately subsequent to . the toast indicated b y its name , and will be exceedingly useful at Lodge . banquets , for which the services of professional vocalists have not been retained , though wc doubt its supplanting the national anthem . The poetry is very

loyal and eminently Masonie ; reflecting the highest credit on the lyric powers of Bro . Cole , who has entered " into the spirit of the subject , with the fraternal-philanthropy of the Mason , and the loyalty of an Englishman . Bro . Cooke has well sustained his character as a melodist and a musician in this composition . There is a chorus at the end of each verse , in which the brethren can join at pleasure : and taking it for all in all , a better effort of conjoint minds never found ' its wny into the hands of a music-loving Freemason .

Ike Promised Land . Prize Song . Poetry and Music by GHAW . ES SI . OMAX . London : Robert Cocks and Co ., Publishers to the ' Queen , and the Emperor of the French , New Burlington Street . —Welcome , thrice welcome , Brother Sloman ; we give thec happy greeting , for , with the experience of years to guide thec , thou comest upon us with a youthful freshness that almost compels us to believe that the mytbologic rejuvenisation of vEson tvas no fable . Six and twenty years ago the world was astonished

and deli ghted with the appearance of ' the ballad , the "Maid of Judah , " speedily succeeded b y its beautiful companion song , the "Daughter of Israel . " They were sung at concerts and theatres , while musical ladies and vocal gentlemen poured them forth to pleasure seeking audiences at private parties ; we caught the airs from hearing them ground upon every barrel organ in the country . The multitude whistled them in the public ways , until you might have imagined the people of the united kingdom had been

transformed into Jewish ni g htingales . Shall wc eulogize the production before us V No ! Nature needs no eulogy ; and so naturally does the melody flow with the verse , that you would almost think them the improvisations of a Jewish shepherd reflecting on the bygone glories of his once great nation , while watching at ease the clouds stealing over the orient sky , obscuring the bri ghtness of both moon and star . Wc append the words of the first verse : —

''' Sigh not , sigh not o ' er the hours so fleeting ; On they float , nor heed our vain command , Still advancing , but as swift retreating , Tending forward to the Promised Land . Land of hope ! how oft am I recliniug , In my dreams , beneath thy palm tree ' s shade ; "With an eastern sun above me shining . ' Thusto her lute breatli'd Jewess maid

, a . 1 Sigh not , sigh not o'er the hours so fleeting—On they float , nor heed our vain command , Still advancing , but as swift retreating , Tending forward to the Promised Land . '" p : The Ricidct Polka . Composed and dedicated to Mrs . Edwin Winder , of Carshalton , by ALFRED PLUMPTOX . Birmingham : AV . T . Belchier