Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante

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

784-785

text excerpt

The harp requires to be treated with great tenderness ; it speaks with a lisping tongue, and its greatest excellence is that airy lightness which lies in its pianissimo.  I once met Bochsa in the green-room, and heard him practise his concerto in a whisper before he went on the stage. I never was more delighted ; he brought out the tones as if the strings had been touched with a feather. When I heard him before the audience, the charm was gone ; his force and vigour seemed not suited to the instrument. Men handle it too roughly ; their mode of clawing violates its beauty : it is only by the soft touch of a female that its delicate tones are drawn out. My friend, Mrs. Ed. P —, was the only performer I could listen to with unmingled delight. Her ancient family was the last establishment in Wales where a bard was kept. The minstrel always residing in the house, she became his pupil at six years of age, and in the course twelve yeras acquired an execution and delicacy of touch, superior to anything I have heard. She did not sing, and I liked it all the better.  I have heard many ladies attempt to unite the instrument with the voice, but, at best, I have always found it a ragged performance. I am never so pleased as when I hear the harp in duetto with the piano-forte, when its arrow-like tones dart amidst a shower of softened notes from the piano. To my sense of hearing is then added a visual delight. Such combinations show a genius in the author, independent of the harmony or melody. The piano-forte is superior in tone and power to the harp, and amalgamates better with the stringed instruments.

excerpt from 'Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante' pp. 784-785 (294 words)

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1435609328594