A DISTINGUISHED CENTENARIAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12859, 6 May 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

A DISTINGUISHED CENTENARIAN.

Sexor Mantki. Garcia, tin eminent singing maestro, celebrated his 100 th birthday on March 17th, and naturally the auspicious event aroused widespread interest, especially in musical circles. Owing In his advanced age and long retirement from the public view .Scnov Garcia's name is, perhaps, no', as familiar at present as it was a decade or two ago. Still, it is identified with the brilliant records and successes of a past musical era, ami will for ever be associated with the introduction of the laryngoscope, a throat mirror which has conferred an inestimable boon on afflicted humanity. As the brother of .Madame. Malibra Seuor Garcia was the witness of a eateer of a world-renowned operatic songstress who took the capitals of Europe by storm. lie was the responsible instructor of .Jenny bind, the so-called Swedish nightingale; the late Madame Antoinette Sterling, and many other distinguished pupils.

A Spaniard 'by birth and lineage, Senor Garcia was bom at Madrid, an only sou of the distinguished ' tenor singer, composer, and teacher, Manuel del I*. V. Garioa. of whom it is leeorded that at the age of six lie became a chorister in Seville Cathedral, the prelude to an after career of an extraordinarily varied character. In the early education and musical training of his sou he look delight and pride, and not less in that of his daughters, who were each endowed with exceptional natural ability and gift of song.

The elder, the beautiful Maria Felicita. afterwards Madame Malibrau, and later .Madame do Beriot, was, it' biography does not exaggerate, one of the greatest operatic vocalists of any period. She made her debut in London in 1825. and died at Manchester in 1836, at the age of twenty-eight, almost, as it were, with the final strains of melody upon her lips. The second daughter. Michelle Pauline, afterwards Madame Viat-dot-Garcia, was bom at Paris in 1821. This talented and versatile lady is still living, in superb old age, happy in recollections of past operatic triumphs. Seldom, indeed, in human affairs, is it the privilege of a sister to commemorate the centenary of a brother. She made her debut in London as far back as 1539, and it is worthy of recall at this moment that in the same month that her distinguished brother presented his now historical commentary on voice production to the Royal Society she was singing in Verdi's "II Trovatore" at Covent Garden to delighted audiences. It may be added that she had been a pupil of her brother Manuel for singing, and of Liszt for the piano. Towards the close of 1825. at the age of twenty, Senor Garcia, with other members of the family, accompanied his father to America, where the latter conducted an extendeu operatic tour. At New York no fewer than eleven new Italian operas were produced in one year 'by this prolific writer. Returning to Europe by wav of Mexico. the iarty were robbed by brigands of practically everything they possessed, including upwards of £6000 in gold. Settling at Pat is in 1829. Scnor Garcia took up teaching work solely, and was made Professor of Singing at the Conservatoire. In 185 Che migrated to London, and became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. It was owing to this adoption of England for his future sphere of labour as a singing master and founder of a school that the results of his experiments on the science of voice production were communicated tirst of nil to an English audience. On the 21th of May. 1855. M. Manuel Garcia communicated to the Royal Society a short paper, entitled " Observations on the Human Voice," intended to "describe some observations made on the interior of the larynx during the act of singing. The method adopted was very simple. "It consists in placing * little mirror, fixed ou a long handle suitably bent, iu the throat of the person experimented on against the .soft palate and uvula. The party ought to turn himself towards the sun. so that the luminous rays falling on the little mirror may be reflected on the larynx." By this simple device for the first time the movements of the vibrating living reeds that produce the human voice were seen and studied. Garcia studied the play of the vocal chords during 'breathing, and during lie emission of chest notes, and also the production of the falsetto voice, and the manner in which sound's are formed in the voicebox.

It. will be seen, therefore, that Seuor Garcia's centenary carries with it not only the remembrance of his triumphs as a. singing master in Paris and in Loudon, but the recognition of his inventive genius, . The University of Manchester presented an address of congratulation to Seuor (,'arcia on his hundredth biithdav.