ABSTRACT
The improvement of modern music, since the period usually assigned to its lowest state of decline, is indescribably great; and the general advancement of the public taste in this country, and especially in this metropolis, since the commencement of the present century, clearly is perceptible. The lowest ebb of public taste was not, however, quite arrived but succeeded by a few years that of musical composition. The improvement of instrumental performance became so striking and captivating that it was no longer confined to professional persons, or the accomplished few. Another cause of the increased diffusion of taste among our dilettante players appears to the author to be the more general performance on the piano forte of music originally intended for an orchestra, either when read immediately from the score or from a correct adaptation. And it is not only from the quantity and variety but also from the quality of music that the gratification of the performer will be enhanced.
