"In Venice Tasso'S Echoes Are No More."

Childe Harold, Canto IV., Stanza III.

For more than two hundred years the gondoliers of Venice sang only strophes from Tasso's immortal epic, "Jerusalem Delivered."

Editions of the poem, with the original in one column and the Venetian variations in the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once common, and are still to be found.

This custom died with the independence of Venice. But although "Tasso's echoes are no more," there is yet much music upon the Venetian canals.

"Curiosities of Literature" furnishes us with a sample of the ancient custom. "There are always two concerned, who alternately sing the strophes. We know the melody eventually, by Rousseau, to whose songs it is printed. It has properly no melodious movement."

"I entered a gondola by moonlight. One singer placed himself forward and the other aft, and thus proceeded to St. Georgio.

"One began the song; when he had ended his strophe, the other took up the lay, and so continued the song alternately. Throughout the whole of it the same notes invariably returned; but, according to the subject-matter of the strophe, they laid a greater or a smaller stress, sometimes on one and sometimes on another note, and indeed changed the enunciation of the whole strophe. The sleepy canals, the lofty buildings, the splendor of the moon, the deep shadows of the few gondolas, that moved like spirits hither and thither, increased the striking peculiarity of the scene; and amidst all these circumstances it was easy to confess the character of this wonderful harmony." "At a distance the gondolier hears another singing. Melody and verse immediately attach the stranger; he becomes the responsive echo to the former, and exerts himself to be heard, as he had heard the other. By a tacit consent the two boats alternate verse for verse. Though the song should last the whole night through, they entertain themselves without fatigue. This vocal performance sounds best at a distance, and is then inexpressibly charming. It is plaintive but not dismal in sound, and at times it is scarcely possible to refrain from tears."