Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante

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

374

text excerpt

As I have all my lifetime taken an active part in promoting music in Leicester, both in public and in private, it always gives me great pleasure to see the same zeal kept up amongst a younger generation ; and, after having had, for very many years, perhaps the chief share in the management of the musical affairs of the town, I am now allowed to be a listener, and to enjoy the fruits of the labours of others. I make these few remarks by way of preface to the notice of the "Visitors' Night," given by the Leicester Amateur Madrigal Society last spring, when a company of twenty or thirty amateurs, assisted by a choir of treble boys, gave an evening's entertainment at the New Hall, to a large company. The performance was conducted by Mr. May, who, though a young amateur, has all the tact and precision of an experienced professed musician, and a knowledge of the subject rarely equalled...The meeting drew together all the first families of this town and neighbourhood. When gentlemen set about any public affair we may be assured it will be handsomely done. The arrangements of the room were much improved, and showed much taste...At eight o'clock, about thirty gentlemen and twelve boys glided in upon an elevated stage, and sat down to half-a-dozen tables, with their books and wax- lights, as in the olden time of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth...The charm of the boys voices delighted me indeed : they were lusciously sweet. The ear had not been tortured by a dozen self-sufficient fiddlers tuning their instruments before they made a start. The effect was quite novel and pleasing. Presently, we found ourselves " Down in a flowry dale," among Nymphs and Corydons " Lovers all a wooing".

excerpt from 'Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante' pp. 374 (296 words)

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1433367652155