In the ensuing spring and summer, a new and brilliant professional
occupation fell, fortunately, to the task of Dr. Burney, drawing
him from his cares, and beguiling him from his sorrows, by notes of
sweetest melody, and combinations of the most intricate, yet sound
harmony; for this year, which completed a century from the birth of
Handel, was allotted for a public Commemoration of that great musician
and his works.
Dr. Burney, justly proud of the honour paid to the chief of that art
of which he was a professor, was soon, and instinctively wound up to
his native spirits, by the exertions which were called forth in aid
of this noble enterprise. He suggested fresh ideas to the Conductors;
he was consulted by all the Directors; and his advice and experience
enlightened every member of the business in whatever walk he moved.
Not content, however, to be merely a counsellor to a celebration
of such eclât in his own career, he resolved upon becoming the
Historian of the transaction; and upon devoting to it his best labours
gratuitously, by presenting them to the fund for the benefit of decayed
musicians and their families.
This offer, accordingly, he made to the honourable Directors; by whom
it was accepted with pleasure and gratitude.
He now delegated all his powers to the furtherance of this grand
scheme; and drew up a narrative of the festival, with so much delight
in recording the disinterestedness of its voluntary performers; its
services to the superannuated or helpless old labourers of his caste;
and the splendid success of the undertaking; that his history of the
performances in Commemoration of Handel, presents a picture so vivid
of that superb entertainment, that those who still live to remember
it, must seem to witness its stupendous effects anew: and those of
later days, who can know of it but by tradition, must bewail their
little chance of ever personally hearing such magnificent harmony;
or beholding a scene so glorious of royal magnificence and national
enthusiasm.
Dr. Johnson was wont to say, with a candour that, though admirable, was
irresistibly comic, “I always talk my best!” and, with equal singleness
of truth it might be said of Dr. Burney, that, undertake what he would,
he always did his best.
In writing, therefore, this account, he conceived he should make it
more interesting by preceding it with the Memoirs of Handel. And for
this purpose, he applied to all his German correspondents, to acquire
materials concerning the early life of his hero; and to all to whom
Handel had been known, either personally or traditionally, in England
and Ireland, for anecdotes of his character and conduct in the British
empire. Mrs. Delany here, and by the desire of the King himself,
supplied sundry particulars; her brother, Mr. Granville, having been
one of the patrons of this immortal composer.
And next, to render the work useful, he inserted a statement of the
cash received in consequence of the five musical performances, with the
disbursement of the sums to their charitable purposes; and an abstract
of the general laws and resolutions of the fund for the support of
decayed musicians and their families.
And lastly, he embellished it with several plates, representing Handel,
or in honour of Handel; and with two views, from original designs,[73]
of the interior of Westminster Abbey during the Commemoration: the
first representing the galleries prepared for the reception of their
Majesties, of the Royal Family, of the Directors, Archbishops, Bishops,
Dean and Chapter of Westminster, heads of the law, &c. &c.
The second view displaying the orchestra and performers, in the costume
of the day.
Not small in the scales of justice must be reckoned this gift of the
biographical and professional talents of Dr. Burney to the musical fund.
A man who held his elevation in his class of life wholly from himself;
a father of eight children, who all looked up to him as their prop; a
professor who, at fifty-eight years of age, laboured at his calling with
the indefatigable diligence of youth; and who had no time, even for his
promised History, but what he spared from his repasts or his repose; to
make any offering, gratuitously, of a work which, though it might have
no chance of sale when its eclât of novelty was passed, must yet, while
that short eclât shone forth, have a sale of high emolument; manifested,
perhaps, as generous a spirit of charity, and as ardent a love of the
lyre, as could well, by a person in so private a line of life, be
exhibited.
Dr. Burney was, of course, so entirely at home on a subject such as
this, that he could only have to wait the arrival of his foreign
materials to go to work; and only begin working to be in sight of his
book’s completion: but the business of the plates could not be executed
quite so rapidly; on the contrary, though the composition was finished
in a few weeks, it was not till the following year that the engravings
were ready for publication.
This was a laxity of progress that by no means kept pace with the
eagerness of the Directors, or the expectations of the public: and
the former frequently made known their disappointment through the
channel of the Earl of Sandwich; who, at the same time, entered into
correspondence with the Doctor, relative to future anniversary concerts
upon a similar plan, though upon a considerably lessened scale to that
which had been adopted for the Commemoration.
The inconveniences, however, of this new labour, though by no means
trifling, because absorbing all the literary time of the Doctor,
to the great loss and procrastination of his musical history, had
compensations, that would have mitigated much superior evil.
The King himself deigned to make frequent inquiry into the state of the
business; and when his Majesty knew that the publication was retarded
only by the engravers, he desired to see the loose and unbound sheets
of the work, which he perused with so strong an interest in their
contents, that he drew up two critical notes upon them, with so much
perspicuity and justness, that Dr. Burney, unwilling to lose their
purport, yet not daring to presume to insert them with the King’s name
in any appendix, cancelled the two sheets to which they had reference,
and embodied their meaning in his own text. At this he was certain the
King could not be displeased, as it was with his Majesty’s consent that
they had been communicated to the doctor, by Mr. Nicolai, a page of the
Queen’s.
Now, however, there seems to be no possible objection to giving to the
public these two notes from the original royal text, as the unassuming
tone of their advice cannot but afford a pleasing reminiscence to
those by whom that benevolent monarch was known; while to those who
are too young to recollect him, they may still be a matter of laudable
curiosity. And they will obviate, also, any ignorant imputation of
flattery, in the praise which is inserted in the dedication of the Work
to the King; and which will be subjoined to these original notes.
_From the hand-writing of his Majesty George III._
“It seems but just, as well as natural, in mentioning the 4th Hautbois
Concerto, on the 4th day’s performance of Handel’s Commemoration, to
take notice of the exquisite taste and propriety Mr. Fischer exhibited
in the solo parts; which must convince his hearers that his excellence
does not exist alone in performing his own composition; and that his
tone perfectly filled the stupendous building where this excellent
concerto was performed.”
_From the same._
“The performance of the Messiah.
“Dr. Burney seems to forget the great merit of the choral fugue, ‘He
trusteth in God,’ by asserting that the words would admit of no stroke
of passion. Now the real truth is, that the words contain a manifest
presumption and impertinence, which Handel has, in the most masterly
manner, taken advantage of. And he was so conscious of the moral merit
of that movement, that, whenever he was desired to sit down to the
harpsichord, if not instantly inclined to play, he used to take this
subject; which ever set his imagination at work, and made him produce
wonderful capriccios.”
_From Dr. Burney’s Dedication._
“That pleasure in music should be complete, science and nature
must assist each other. A quick sensibility of melody and harmony
is not often originally bestowed; and those who are born with this
susceptibility of modulated sounds are often ignorant of its
principles, and must, therefore, in a great degree be delighted by
chance. But when your Majesty is present, the artists may congratulate
themselves upon the attention of a judge, in whom all requisites
concur, who hears them not merely with instinctive emotion, but with
rational approbation; and whose praise of Handel is not the effusion of
credulity, but the emanation of science.”
* * * * *
With feelings the most poignant, and a pen the most reluctant, the
Memorialist must now relate an event which gave peculiar and lasting
concern to Dr. Burney; and which, though long foreseen, had lost
nothing, either from expectation or by preparation, of its inherent
unfitness.