The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1904. MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLVII, Issue 12271, 3 September 1904, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1904. MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

As a rule the average man is apt to. turn up his nose a!b the juvenile pi Jodigy, but apparently tllie popuLar cynicism isl noit altogether justified. The. last few months have been remarkable for the narmib&r of quite young children w]io have appeared with conspicuous success upon-the concert: platform in London. Franz yon Vecsky, a (boy of 11, has been playing the great masterpieces, of violin musita to eniiapibui'sd audienoets, and is decjaaiad by the vetei-an Joadiimi to^ be the most wondorful genius he has ever known. Fforizel yon Reuitea-, who is a year older, has rioti ondy created a great sensation' ats a violinist, but has conducted Cowen's orchestra, in a symphony of his 'own cbmpcha'ng, and has- undertaken a ■coniimissi'on to compos© the. music^for j an opera, the libretto of which is by the Queen (of Roumaniia. May Harrison has ■aiwakened iscai'oe'ly leiss'an.'tei'es't? by her performances. on the violin, and is stat|ed to have made her debut at the in- [ credible ag© of 3. In mxsist■ departments. of Ufa the dnfan/b pi-todigy is; more of a i boirci tihan a.blesising, but in musiic feiich eai-ly precocity has often been the pre'cu>rsor of the greatest artiistte achievei. ; mentis. Bverjione knows how the infant Handel crepit up in thei dark to his falbher's attic and taught himself to pllay "on the spinel whfdh luad been removed there to b& out of his way. Mozart made hi:s fii'elb pulblfc appearance when only 5^ years did, and by the tdme h© was 8 he had completed the tour df the prinoipal oities of Europe, playing sioiiataig and concertos of [his own composing, and reading ait isigblb any music that could be set 'before him. Mendels. '

soihn wais playing in ipubl'ik? ibefore he was

10; lie was ©ofmposing muisi'c of all desteriptibns during Ms 12t'h year, and wrote Iris symphony in C minor when i only 15. Bsefchoveri's variations in O minor on ia march, of Dressler's have on . the title page, "Oamiptosecs par un jeune amateur, L. v. 8., age do dix ans." ( Richard .Strauss wrote sonigs when 6, and 'composed a symphony whilst str.l'l a'. schoolboy. Joadhim has this year cele. , hraibed the sixteenth, anniveirsaary of , 'hiib first appearance in London, when, , as a 'boy idf 13, Ihe astonished the artistic . world ,by his playing of Beethoven's j violin concerto. The Melbourne "Arg- | *us," aJfter reviewing th.:s -brilliant list of j wonderful performances, expresses the ( opinion thialti the apparently abnormal j ability is ntoit sb surprising as at first sight appeairs. 'Tfaa wrrjter argues that childhood is tlhe period olf the most vivid , senis-e-peroep'ti'tonls, and of the most intense emoltlibnal susceptibility; and music is essentially the expression of omdtiibn 'through a sense-medium. Music makes c-oanparativ'Sily litttle demand on tfhosa intellectual poweiis "which, require' tj'lme and experience for their develbpmmt. Given a child with a good ear and on artistic temperament —•'bath of whitah are innalte gifts, however much tihey 'be caipable of development by training—then under 'favourable conditions he 'will neoastelarily express Ihfe feeMngs in musical sounds. The technical ability to produce these soundls on a violin or piano is a matter of muscular, adjust, j mentis t>y far teite 'dcxmpllciaited and dim- i cult than those whiidb. are neteessary for aa"bicnlla-te speech. It is by no means so marvellous itlhafc a boy <of seven should be alb'le <tb produce a i-eqnired group of notes on a violin or piano? as that a boy of three should 'be-able to articulate the far niOir-ei delicately dietdnguiiahed sountls which gio to make up= a senltence. The I miTaclo of speech is not reoogniised as \ suioli because it is is© comni'on.. Its. marveil is only realised .v/hen we visit a i foreign 'Country and aret amazed to find j .that the youngest children can talk with : fluenlcy in a language wh-'ich, •with iiirdifferent eudoess, we have been laibbri. lausly tryinig to learn for anany years. "How clever the Panisian children are !" said one gdodi lady; "*tthe very babies can talk Frenioh." If only ia fenv of our children were taught to talk, lail who could do so wbuld be regarded as procli- ■ giee. "Hhia rils just the case wiibh mtis'c. It is a llamguage, too; but only comparatively few people learn it, though all nv'<?hib easfily do so; consequently children who have grown up amiongst musical suriloundiings, eonstaritHy hearing music, conistantly tryiing 'to produce it themselveis on voice or intetiMiment as the most natural medium of emotional expression, and &o a!bl& to use it. fluently, are regarded as marvels, infant phenomena, "wunder kindlchan," and what not. The moral pointed by the "Argus" is Uiaft all children dould and should ! ba taught to sing and -tb i-ead music. It ' says: "Now we go to a concert not knowing the rudiments fctf the language in wlhlich we are to Too addressed.; and we get afoout als much out of ffit as if we had heard an eloquent orator discourse in ancient Hebrew. A certain vague emotional suggestion its made to us, but nothing d-eifinite i-3 realised. Not til every child is able to* sing at sight from the printed copy'islhall w-e be really a musical people capable -of appreciating and producing the finesit results of the art. Then .there will be nfo astonishment wlieE we find1 our 'boys and. girlls alble to a'tt down to the piano or tb take up a violin and eairiiab. our frame life by sym-(path-eltik) and natural performances of the works of the great masters. Well indeed dould some of the subjects taught in our sehlools .be spared iff only music were substituted for them; music, that is to say, n!ot as an aicoomplMiment by wliich a child is to w>'n dist/Inction be-3->ond his -feltcjiwis, fcut as a daily speech, i-o be ignorant of which, is as disgraceful as niot ito be laible to read and wi-ite. Not alii our boys would be yon Vocskys, nor all our girls May Harrison's; but what these specially gifted children do tb perfection could be done by miodb chiildren j in a Teasonable degree, to their own in- i finiit© advantage and to the prbfit of the j Trfbolße commundty. And lanotlier thing.. If boys were caught young, and their minds opened tlo the signification of concords of ewedt sound, we nuiglit all be saved from the distressful,.; aimklss ■wliisti'ng wh:ilch encounters UiS' on the footpaths and 'in railway trains, and sometimes in the theatres, from the rn'ouths of youths from tdie siohool age upwards."