Note 13 — XIX. SCHOOLS OF MUSIC, OBJECTIONS THERETO, AND ANSWERS.

Had the objector said melodious Purcel, it had testified at least a greater acquaintance with music, and Purcel’s peculiar excellence. Purcel in melody is frequently great; his song made in his last sickness, called Rosy Bowers, is a fine instance of this; but in harmony he is far short of the meanest of our modern composers, his fullest harmonies being exceedingly simple. His opera of Prince Arthur, the words of which were Dryden’s, is reckoned his finest piece. But what is that, in point of harmony, to what we every day hear from modern masters? In short, with respect to genius, Purcel had a fine one: he greatly improved an art but little known in England before his time: for this he deserves our applause; but the present prevailing taste in music is very different from what he left it, and who was the improver since his time we shall see by and by.