BLIND GENIUS

Evening Star, Issue 17234, 26 December 1919, Page 7

BLIND GENIUS

SIGHTLESS TWINS-WITH A WONDER FUL GIFT.

PIANOFORTE DISCOVERY THAT WILL STARTLE ENGLAND.

Two gentlemanly boys, in sombre black velvet, and Eton collars irreproachably white and starchy, a.re to be the wonder children of England in the weeks and months to come. They are brothers in adversity—twin brothers of 14, who have never seen the blue heavens or the green earth. Tw T in in birth, twin in thought, twin in word and deed, appearance alone divides them. The taller of the two is serious and solemn-faced ; the other has a smile for every other moment. There ends all dissimilarity between Frank and Victor Ankland, whose lives bring the age of miracles up to date. Back in late summer Miss Kate Anderson, of operatic fame, and her husband, Mr Albert Bevan, who is the music master of Christ's College, went holidaying in the West of England, and came finally to the little hamlet of Warmley, in Gloucestershire. There, one evening, the music master caught the pianoforte strains of •' II Bacio' through the open window of a neighboring cottage. He heard the performance ,to the end, became more and more impressed by its merit, and was carried, as much by enthusiasm as curiosity, to the cottage door. Who played 'II Bacio' in that far-away country home ? Why, it was " Frank and Victor," he was told—Frank and Victor Aukland, the blind twins, who had never seen a music score in all their young lives. With their subsequent performances the amazement of Mr Bevan grew. He made a quick decision. Talent was going to seed. These

BOYS SHOULD HAVE THEIR CHANGE. And so they came to London. Possibly London will write them do%rn as prodigies or phenomena.- They are nothing of the kind. The/dual personality is no stranger to us. bwt here in the living flesh and blood are the two beings with the single mind. They never lose contact with each other, thea twins. One walks, and the other goes, too, holding to a sleeve, or clinging to an arm. Music to them both is sunshine and shadow, laughter and tears, gladness and sadness, rolled into one great emotion. The tinkle of glass, the clattering tea cup, the roar of an aeroplane are all harmony to them. They just sit down to the piano and imitate or reproduce. That is their divine, gift, the inborn, inbred genius, to compensate the blind twins for unseeing eyes. >To musician ha-s ever taught them a note. They hear a "rag," a "jazz," a bit of the classics, and they've got it safe in the keeping of a wonderful brain. When these boys were two years and ten months old they played their first simple tune on the family harmonium, to the consternation of father and mother and the six little brothers and sisters. At five they and t-ho same harmonium were carried to the tiny parish clmrch to impress the vicar with the truth of the village gossip. And then—wonderful day for Frank and Victor—a kindly neighbor lent them his own piano. So, right up to 14 they lived in front of and " for " those ivory keys in their waking hours. That was in Warmley. Five short weeks ago they cam-9 with Mr Bevan to London, and their first outing was to Hyde Park, where the Guards' Band played. The very next morning the twins rattled off ' The' Weymouth Chimes' without a fault. After that one of Sir Edward Elgar's little masterpieces, and they went straight home to play it through. A BIG GRAMOPHONE IS THEIR " INSTRUCTOR."

They listen to the records of all types, from the- hammer-and-tongs " iazz"' to the languorous waltz, then sit down together at the baby grand to repeat them. No one taught them technique ; that, like the_ rest, is intuition. Their finger work, their sympathy, their expression" are perfect. _ Five weeks in London—five weeks listening to swagger bands and concert orchestras—and they came before- their first critics. But they disarmed everyone. _ The brothers fingered out military airs, little bits from the operas, the rWe of the halls and musical comedy " Winners " with the confidence and certainty of old masters, and until the wrists grevr weary with the Btrain. Only the night before they sat in the Coliseum for the first time. Someone ai the private performance suggested that a, fair test would be the repetition of an item from the programme. "Right," said tlte twins, and straightway played 'l'm in Love,' as they heard Miss Clarice Mnyne sing it. More wonderful than that was their impression of a street organ ringing the bells " For me and my gal," and an oldfashioned musical box tinkering 'Men of Harlech.' Still more wonderful waa tie martial air they composed in open competition. Mr Bevan made the suggestion one night before bedtime, and they had it ready for him at breakfast the following morning. Frank and Victor Aukland are iortunate in their misfortune. Denied the greatest of all gifts, they found a pathway into the light through the yellow and ageworn keys of the old harmonium In their humble Gloucester homo. They are supremely happy; they will bring happiness to others, what else matters?—' News of the World,'