Though she has acquired an easy execution, she is deficient in that fervor which is requisite to the bravura. Her excellencies and defects are closely combined: the pretty mode in which she delivers her words is often disfigured by the offensive slides introduced between her notes, a practice so common with inferior singers. The portamento, or slide, when properly introduced, is a grace of passionate expression; but, when used without thought or discretion, is an effect that is nauseous and ridiculous.

The silvery tones of her voice are sometimes cast into shade by the incorrect manner in which she ascends from the tonic to the dominant, making the fifth too flat, a defect common to the greatest singers; and it happens, unfortunately for Miss Stephens, that in her celebrated song, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' this disagreeable skip occurs not less than eight different times; but where the fifth is relieved by the interposition of the third, as in the following passage, the G sharp forming a stepping-stone for the voice to light upon, in no instance was the same interval incorrectly given.

And though worms

-#

destroy this body

As songs of execution Miss Stephens chose 'Sweet bird,' and 'Hush, ye pretty warbling choir,' so highly adapted to show the bird-like tones of her

voice. As sentimental pieces, 'In sweetest harmony they lived,'' Pious orgies,' and' Farewell, ye limpid streams.' These songs called forth her lower notes, the most impassioned part of her singing; but the well-known ballad of Auld Robin Gray' was the most happy exhibition of her powers. The weeping tone and soft lament she threw over this song gave it a peculiar charm, and though she could neither astonish nor surprise, her simple manner and penetrating sweetness of voice touched every heart.

DOLCE.

This term expresses the quality of tone in which the passage over which it is written should be performed, which should be, as the term implies, soft, smooth, and delicate. Upon the violin this is produced by drawing a light and swift bow over the strings near to the finger-board; and, for the greatest degree of softness, the bow must still recede farther from the bridge;-by this means a tone may be acquired, resembling that of the musical glasses, or the lower tones of the flute. Before this can be obtained on the voice the organs must be brought into the most pliant state, and used with the greatest delicacy. When this term is applied to instrumental music, it is generally to those morceaux of melody that are so peculiarly adapted to the voice, and the performer cannot express them better than by taking the vocal tones as his model.