'
With such views and principles, Mainzer arrived in England, to
propagate his humanising art; and London soon became the centre of a
series of lectures and classes, held in the principal towns accessible
by railway--such as Brighton, Oxford, Reading, etc. But this divided
work was not satisfactory, and the national schools and popular field
in London were preoccupied by Hullah, who had some time previously
introduced Wilhem's system, under the sanction of government. There
was room and to spare, however, for every system, and Mainzer wished
every man good-speed who advanced the cause; but as a fresh field for
his own exertions, after two years spent in England, he turned his
thoughts towards Edinburgh, where he had been invited by requisition,
and warmly received in 1842.
On his return to Scotland, he found his cause somewhat damaged in his
absence, by the attempt of precentors to teach his system in
congregational classes. Unlike the church-organists of England, the
Scotch precentors are not educated musicians--a naturally good voice
and ear is their only pre-requisite. Dr Mainzer soon repaired this
mistake in those congregations which invited his personal
superintendence; and in one church (Free St Andrew's) the good effects
of his system are still to be heard, in a congregation forming their
own choir, and singing in _four parts_.
To restore this country to the standard of musical eminence which we
know from old authorities that it held in the sixteenth century, was
the object of Dr Mainzer's energetic endeavours.
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