Hugh Reginald Haweis in Brighton - the 1850's

from My Musical Life, pages 75-6:

I do not think, on the whole, the sea-coast street music, especially at Brighton, has improved during the last thirty years the German bands, niggers, and itinerant. I can recollect fine part-singing out of doors in the old days, and I know of no small band violin, tenor, flute, and harp at all comparable to that of SIGNOR BENEVENTANO, who used to play on the beach at Brighton, with a power of expression that drew crowds, and half-crowns too. I was so much fascinated by this Italian, that I took him home with me and bade him try my violin. It was simply horrible. He scraped, and rasped, and powdered the rosin all over the finger-board, till I was glad to get the instrument out of his hands. The fact is, the coarse playing, so effective on the Parade, was intolerable indoors. He was essentially a street player a genius, but his music was, like coarse and effective scene-painting, better a little way off.

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cite as

Hugh Reginald Haweis, My Musical Life (London, 1898), p. 75-6. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1437730322242 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: Brighton

Listeners

Hugh Reginald Haweis
Cleric, Writer
1839-1901

Listening to

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Unspecified violin music performed by Signor Beneventano

Experience Information

Date/Time the 1850's
Medium live
Listening Environment in private, indoors, solitary

Originally submitted by sp327 on Fri, 24 Jul 2015 10:32:02 +0100
Approved on Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:31:30 +0100