A

NEW, EASY, AND CORRECT

SYSTEM OF VOCAL MUSIC,

IN WHICH

THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE ARE EXPLAINED
AND ILLUSTRATED, AND MANY OF ITS APPARENT
MYSTERIES CLEARLY SOLVED:

BEING

A PRACTICAL MANUAL

OF

THE ART OF SINGING AT SIGHT.

BY ROBERT PLATT.

LONDON:

AYLOTT AND JONES, 8, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

MDCCCXLVII.

PREFACE.

I CAN offer no better excuse for obtruding the following pages upon the public notice, than the great satisfaction which I experienced in pursuing the system contained therein in my own course of self-instruction twenty years ago, and the success with which I have subsequently followed the same plan in imparting a knowledge of music to several of my friends.

It is a matter of some surprise that such a system has not been more generally adopted in popular musical education, especially in the case of children and young persons, as it seems so well calculated to impart a correct notion of the formation of the musical scale, upon which, in the acquirement of music, so much really depends. For all writers on the science, both theoretical and practical, insist particularly on the facts that the scale consists of eight sounds, rising by degrees; and that this gradation is equal throughout, except in two instances, there being but half the distance in rising from the third to the fourth, and from the seventh to the eighth, that there is in the other places. One step more,the theorist had but to advise his pupil to make a practical use of the description thus given of the scale,-and the business had been done.

The elder Dibdin has, among his numerous musical works, a simple method of teaching singing, namely, by the use of figures, similar to the plan adopted here. About ten or twelve (perhaps more) years ago, a worthy friend to musical education, Mr. Hickson, taught several children to sing by the use of figures. And, at this present writing, the Rev. J. J. Waite, a Dissenting Minister, labouring in Ilminster, is in the midst of the delivery of a course of Lectures in London upon congregational singing, in which a similar method is adopted.

The following circumstances have led to the publication of this book. Some friends who had heard Mr. Hickson's Lecture on Singing, in which he was assisted by the children whom he had instructed, were so desirous of learning, that, knowing I had a little knowledge of music, they requested me to teach them: I formed them into a class, and succeeded beyond my best hopes. From that time to the present I have occasionally instructed others, with the same success. But the

want of a book to which my pupils might refer between the periods of our meeting, has always been a great detriment to their progress. I therefore resolved to print a few progressive lessons, with explanations for their use. But, as "the snowball loses nothing by rolling," I found that my explanations and illustrations increased so fast upon me, that I concluded it would be better to draw an outline of the system for publication. The outline has been filled up, and has increased to its present extent, containing, I hope, every thing necessary for the learner, and many things useful for the student.

I have endeavoured to keep the work within reasonable bounds, as much as possible; but if I have been rather lengthy in my elucidations, it is because I thought too much explanation would be better than too little. I have given illustrations from secular as well as sacred music. This will be no real objection to the utility of the book; for it will be acknowledged that the too frequent repetition of sacred phraseology is calculated rather to injure than establish its solemn character in the estimation of young persons.

In the adoption of this system, there is no necessity to reorganize the present notation of music: it is intended to explain the musical character as it at present exists. In attempting this explanation I have endeavoured to use language and reasoning that may be understood by all classes of persons. I therefore venture to presume, that it will be found especially adapted, in the hands of the teacher, the parent, or the guardian, to the capacities of even young children; in particular, it might be effectually used for the instruction of the senior classes in Sabbath and week-day schools. Indeed, there seems no reason why almost infants may not be made to participate in the luxuries of a musical education, by the adoption of a method so simple, so efficacious, and so musically correct.

I now commit the work to the judgment of a generous and impartial public, hoping that they will find as much pleasure and satisfaction in its perusal and practice, as the writing and preparing of it have given anxiety and solicitude to Their humble servant,

Hoxton,

December 1st, 1847.

THE AUTHOR.

VOCAL MUSIC.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS earth of ours is a scene of misery. All of us are born to care and sorrow. From the peer to the peasant, all feel the weight of woe entailed upon us by our first parent, and certainly not lessened by the evil propensities and practices of his descendants. Yet God, in his mercy, has placed within our reach the means of happiness. Religion—the true, the Christian religion-offers to us her consolations and her moral power. And, to the man of clean hands and a pure heart, harassed though he be with carking cares, manifold are the minor sources of enjoyment that are ever open. His senses, if rightly employed, are but so many avenues for the entrance of joyous feelings, tending to alleviate his heaviness of heart, and to make him, for a time at least, forget his birthright of trouble. If he be so far favoured as to have his lot cast in the rural districts of our own fair land, his walks will present to his admiring eyes Nature in her chequered and changeful beauty of costume; his cars will be charmed with the sweet melody of sylvan sounds,-the shrill alto of the lark, the murmuring tenor of the pebbly brook, or the mellow bass of the lowing herd; and the fragrance of meadows and of woods will fill up the measure of his outward happiness,-all combining to refresh his spirit, and to raise it to pure and noble thoughts. But to those who are not thus privileged, who spend the greater part of the year within the gloomy walls of our metropolis, that wide-extending prison-house, or within the smoky precincts of our manufacturing towns; to these unfortunates, who inhale no sweeter odour than that of the nauseous cigar, whose only out door music is that of thundering wheels or screaming chimney-sweeps, and whose eyes glance along a never-ending vista of brick and mortar, gloomily fore-short

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