CHINESE MUSIC. (From the Orchestra.)

Otago Witness, Issue 838, 20 December 1867, Page 2

CHINESE MUSIC. (From the Orchestra.)

Captain R. E. Cane writes to the Athenaeum some interesting particulars in defence of the musical acquirements of the Chinese, a people amongst whom he has lived for a number of years, and with whose language he has a fair acquaintance. After the nonsense that has been written on the subject of Celestial music of late, it is refreshing to have a few facts simply and concisely set before us. Captain Cane says :—": — " In Williams's ' Middle Kingdom' will be found a Chinese treble > acale of two octaves — D to C2 — with the names of the notes, which are English spelling, for the first octave, Ho, Sze, I, Shang, She, Kung, Fan. Probably the most popular Chinese melody is one of much sweetness and expression — the Moh-li Hwa, or 'Jasmin Flower.' This ?ong is sufficiently European in structure to attract the attention of even very unmusical ' outer barbarians ;' and it is so universally sung (though, it is true, by males in falsetto) and played on guitars, flutes, and quasi- violins from north to south of China, that I can scarcely understand how any one who has ever strolled even in the main street of Hong Kong (which is not the most Chinese place in the world) on any moonlight summer night, can have failed to hear and notice it. It was even worked up into English music (a waltz , I think), thou gh not very successfully, and was published at Home some years ago. A not very perfect notation of it, with the words, will be found in the history of ' Lord Macartney's Embassy,' where appear also several other native airs, suflicieiitly pleasing, and by no means barbarous. The quadrilles, <%c. , published by the exhibitor of the giant Chang, also contained some fragments of other Chinese tunes. In the la3t-quoted book also, and in the. ' Chinese Repository,' will be found drawings of several Chinese musical instruments, a glance at which will show the absurdity of the good old idea that they can only produce 'two or three notes, the flutes having more than twice that number of holes, and the lufces, &c.,, possessing several strings, with, arrangements for fingering. " Without desiring to assert that Chinese music is not in a low state, or that the voices of the natives are not harsh and flat, I venture, qvoad me, to think they possess no slight capacity and an almost universal taste, at least for melody, if not for music proper. And does it not seem to be time for men writing about China to describe soberly and accurately what really exists there, and to abandon the sensational and para- , doxical tone until lately in fashion."

.Mr Charles Dickens writes to the Times as follows : — ."A newspaper paragraph (originating, I have no doubt, in someinnoeont mistake), to the eiFect that I am much out of health, ha 3 become widely circulated, both in England and abroad, and has brought many inquiries upon me. Will you allow me to • state in your - columns that the statement is wholly destitute of foundation, and that I was nere?--better in my life r