SOME MUSICAL FACTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1265, 28 May 1896, Page 10

SOME MUSICAL FACTS.

Every modern pianoforte contains a mile of wire. Usually the singing l rights of a music-hall song cost 21s. Report says organ-grinders’ pay averages 30s a week. Edison has a magnificent electrical musicalbox. King Oscar of Sweden is an accomplished musician. Adelina Patti has received over =£1,000,000 for her singing. The Better Land was composed in a railwaycarriage. Handel sought inspiration in counting his rosary heads. Eugeno i'sayo is the happy possessor of a violin dated 1732. Wages for the orchestra of a London theatre average £OS. Our National Anthem was first sung in public in 17-10. Recently the Queen of Portugal gave £3OOO for a piano. London’s first Handel commemoration was hold in Westminster Abbey in 1731. Dances are frequently given at a blind asylum in London. Eleven thousand brass bands play for the Salvation Army. New York has an orchestra of loft-handed fiddlers. Rubenstoin was a groat cigarette smoker. Albani’s dresses in “ Lohengrin ” cost over £3OO. Pianoforte tuition can be had in London at 3d a lesson. Tho Countess of Dunraven sings in the village choir. Udal wrote the first English comedy, entitled, “ Ralph Roister Doister.” Rossini was one of tho most indolent of men. Emperor Wilhelm of Germany is very fond of operatic music. Doctors affirm that spirits harden the tone of the voice. China was the first country to manufacture harmoniums. Rocked in the Cradle of tho Deep is Signor Fob’s favourite song. Italy has a colony of retired organ-grinders. England’s dramatic music commenced in 1(500. Signor Paolo Tosti has written nearly 500 songs. Mozart wrote off his compositions with marvellous rapidity. Every year £130,000 is paid for admission to the Grand Opera, Paris. Lady Halle has a Stradivarius violin worth £2OOO. Occasional flute-playing expands and also strengthens tho chest. During an eight months’ tour, Jenny Lind netted £.50,000. Yankee Doodle was composed by an Englishman. A Baltimore millionaire once paid £2OO to hear Patti sing. London has over 10,000 professional musicians. Ono of the oldest pieces of music is “ The Blessing of the Priosts,” which was sung in the Temple of Jerusalem. No one suffers more with the throat than Mr Sims Reeves. Gounod’s autograph is valued at half-a-guinoa. Patlior Wood, an English monk, invented the piano in 1711. Exports say the vibration of tho Jew’s harp injures the teeth. Lately a bamboo organ was despatched to Shanghai. Tho Queen of the Belgians plays the harp exquisitely. Wolves’ skins make the best banjos. Arthur Roberts learns his music by tho tonic sol-fa system. Nicolini Piecini oomposod 131 operas. The latest novelty is a pianoforte solo in a lion’s cage. St. Peter’s at Rome contains four organs. Upwards of fifty different materials an; used in making a piano. Patti often suiters from nervousness and “ stage fright.” Paderewski was a professor of music at eighteen. London turns out 3-5,000 pianos a year. It is fifty-four years since Sims Reeves began to sing in public. Enquiries show that seventeen musicians have been knighted by tho Queen. Sydney Town Hall contains the largest organ in tho world.