excerpt from 'Tour to the West, 1781' pp. 55–56 (249 words)
excerpt from 'Tour to the West, 1781' pp. 55–56 (249 words)
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After chapel, we went to tea at Mr R[eynolds]’s, where we had been invited to hear an infant in petticoats play tunes upon the violin, taught him by his father, a watchmaker. Indeed it was highly entertaining and wonderful to see the mixture in this infant of childishness, and of skill in musick; on being ask’d if he cou’d play by note; Why aye, says he, give me the book, and then you’ll see. Mr R. laugh’d at his forwardness, declaring he knew only the few tunes his father had taught him; but his surprise exceeded ours, when he found that Master Cobham (aged 5 years, 3 months) knew all his notes perfectly well, and could play anything at sight with a tolerable grace; sometimes for a minute laboring at difficult passages, and in the next pulling the cats tail. He retired highly pleas’d with a golden sixpence we gave him. At present he is a greater curiosity than Dr Crotch, and more likely hereafter to shine as a musician; tho’ being puny, it is probable that great attention to musick may destroy him.―Miss R[eynolds] afterwards gave us several fine pieces of musick in a very grand and superior stile; her finger and execution being both inimitable: but on these solemn occasions I feel myself like Mr Western in Tom Jones, and wish for an ordinary tune to relieve my vulgar ears, which soon get tired of difficult lessons, and hard concertos. |
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