Friends and Memories

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

85

text excerpt

The great painter [Sir John E. Millais] was devoted to music; in fact to be a musician was to be certain of his sympathy. On more than one occasion he said to me, “I love the profession.” He happened to be at St. James’s Hall the night that Mrs. Hutchinson introduced four songs of mine - settings from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” at a Monday Pop. She sang them beautifully, with great tenderness and feeling, and she looked so charming into the bargain (“ce qui n’a jamais gâté rien”) that it is no wonder she made a success of them. We had studied them carefully together, and I accompanied her that night. How grateful one feels to the really unselfish singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of one’s composition, and how much one owes them! I am sure I owed the pleasure of knowing Sir John Millais in a great measure to the touching way Mrs. Hutchinson sang “’Tis better to have loved and lost,” for he liked it so much that he asked someone to introduce me to him shortly afterwards.

The great painter [Sir John E. Millais] was devoted to music; in fact to be a musician was to be certain of his sympathy. On more than one occasion he said to me, “I love the profession.” He happened to be at St. James’s Hall the night that Mrs. Hutchinson introduced four songs of mine - settings from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” at a Monday Pop. She sang them beautifully, with great tenderness and feeling, and she looked so charming into the bargain (“ce qui n’a jamais gâté rien”) that it is no wonder she made a success of them. We had studied them carefully together, and I accompanied her that night. How grateful one feels to the really unselfish singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of one’s composition, and how much one owes them! I am sure I owed the pleasure of knowing Sir John Millais in a great measure to the touching way Mrs. Hutchinson sang “’Tis better to have loved and lost,” for he liked it so much that he asked someone to introduce me to him shortly afterwards.

The great painter [Sir John E. Millais] was devoted to music; in fact to be a musician was to be certain of his sympathy. On more than one occasion he said to me, “I love the profession.” He happened to be at St. James’s Hall the night that Mrs. Hutchinson introduced four songs of mine - settings from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” at a Monday Pop. She sang them beautifully, with great tenderness and feeling, and she looked so charming into the bargain (“ce qui n’a jamais gâté rien”) that it is no wonder she made a success of them. We had studied them carefully together, and I accompanied her that night. How grateful one feels to the really unselfish singer who enters heart and soul into the spirit of one’s composition, and how much one owes them! I am sure I owed the pleasure of knowing Sir John Millais in a great measure to the touching way Mrs. Hutchinson sang “’Tis better to have loved and lost,” for he liked it so much that he asked someone to introduce me to him shortly afterwards.

excerpt from 'Friends and Memories' pp. 85 (202 words)

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