The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-11 00:00:00

AT MANCHESTER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MANCHESTER EXAMINER.

Sir,—l am not what is called a musical man, there-
fore, when the heading of this letter meets your eye,
you must not set me down as belonging to the corps
of musical critics. The mysteries and intricacies of
the science are quite unknown to me. I only know
what pleases myself; and am " content to feel what
others understand." Music, however, has great
charms for me, and I can enjoy it in all its forms,
from the simply plaintive pastoral air that carries one
away to hill-sides, and along streams and glens, to
the sublime strains of Beethoven, telling of the soul's
struggles, doubts, and aspirations. Believing that
many of your roaders are, like myself, totally un-
initiated in the mysteries of music as a science, I
have thought that, to those of them who have never
heard Jenny Lind, an attempt, however imperfect, to
describe my own impressions of her singing and acting,
may not be unacceptable. I had heard and read
much of her, and my expectations were, of course,
considerably excited, and I looked with eagerness to
her advent amongst us. I have heard her on three of
the four occasions on which she has sung at Man-
chester, and can truly say that she has exceeded all
my expectations ; and now I am not the least sur-
prised at the triumphs she has won, or the enthu-
siasm she has everywhere inspired. Enthusiasm is
but the hearty recognition of what one feels to be
true or beautiful—a sort of mental hospitality, which
goes forth to meet whomever or whatever the soul
recognises to be excellent. Assuredly in no case was
enthusiasm ever more just or well merited than in
that of Jenny Lind ! Her power and attraction are
undisputed and undisputable. What, then, is the
secret of her witchery ? This I will try to answer
by simply recording the impression produced by her
upon myself.
Well, then, if ever there was a being who con-
veyed to the mind of another an instantaneous and
indelible idea of truth and goodness, it is Jenny Lind
There is about her a sweetness and unaffected grace
inseparable from the conviction of moral rectitude ;
for in true grace there is ever something akin to
virtue itself. Her heart is on her lips, and the soul
of honesty beams from her countenance ; she look,
the very incarnation of trustfulness and candour.
Purity sits enthroned on her brow, and she is all
over, as it were, radiant with honesty, good nature,
and frankness. So open and true is her look, that
whatever is good in one's own nature is drawn forth,
and one feels brought so near to her that at last there
intervenes nothing betwixt yourself and the clear,
intelligent soul that shines forth from that full, bright
eye of hers. Looking on her face, you are at once
conscious of being in the presence of an earnest and
unsophisticated nature. You are also impressed
with the idea of an innate force of character equal to
any emergency, a self-dependence " still achieving,
still pursuing, with a heart for any fate." The true
nobility of nature is stamped upon her, and mightily
indeed does it contrast with the miserable put-on airs
of artificial life.

Everything about Jenny Lind is fresh and artless.
Her movements are those of a free and happy child,
ripening in the sunshine of a loving, unconstrained
home. She has the look of spring about her. All is
promise and hope, and an impressible fulness of quiet
joy. Every one knows the feeling of early morning
in summer, as compared with the hours that come
after. Glowing and balmy though the latter be, they
want the elasticity, the bracing freshness, the inspirit-
ing of the early morn. Such is the difference be-
tween this songstress and all others whom I have
seen. The illustration may appear fanciful ; but
those who have seen her, and many who have only
heard of her, will understand what I mean, and I can
find no other comparison which so well conveys my
meaning. _ _ _

But to return. The power which Jenny Lind
possesses of conveying to the looker-on a knowledge
of what is passing within her own soul is wonderful.
Her expression is to me a much more extraordinary
attraction than her voice, exquisite though that also
undoubtedly is. If any one requires to be convinced
how secondary everything else is to expression, let
him but once see Jenny Lind, and his doubts will
vanish. He will acknowledge the comparative insig-
nificance of everything else—of complexion, regu-
larity of features, symmetry of form—how all these
are subordinate to this sign of the soul—this symbol
of all those indefinable shades of the inner life—shades
and shadows of shades, so fugitive and delicate as to
transcend the imperfect development of speech.
Jenny Lind's expression carries everything before it ;
sunshine and shadow alternately sweeping over a fine
landscape, now with the rapidity of lightning, now
" with the slow motion of a summer's cloud," do not
communicate more charming variety to the scene than
do the inward transitions of thought and feeling to
the countenance of this remarkable woman.
Now think of all this united to a full, sweet, de-
licious voice, capable of giving utterance to every
emotion of the soul, from the ringing and bell-like
ebullition of joy, to the most exquisitely soft breath-
ings of tenderness, when the strain seems to come
from far away, descending tremulously from the sky
itself. In such soft breathings, or " singing whispers,"
she herself looks as if she were " breathless with
adoration"—her features become perfectly still—her
earnest, glowing eyes are upturned—no motion of
her lips is visible—she stands a rapt listener with
yourself to the floating melody, whose sound is more
like the wandering notes of some heavenly choir
than anything human. In her singing there is never
an effort apparent—not even the shadow of effort.
Advancing with a modest grace, she throws on her
audience a glance of cordial confidence, and then, as
if happy and assured, she pours forth with spon-
taneous freedom her exquisite strains.
As your critic justly remarked on Saturday—" It
is hers to refresh our over-heated and artificial life
with draughts of the sparkling lymph of homely
truth." Her influence for good, I humbly submit,
ought not to be under-estimated. With the Ithuriel
spear of song she touches the deepest feelings of our
nature—revivifying whatever of the good or noble
within us has been languid or choked him. Our
artificial habits, and the daily hurrying tide of our
commercial existence, drive us too often
the
er away
ci
from the safe and pleasant moorings where
in its healthiest moments would
fix us. Such an
show us what
influence as she exerts helps t:l3 are gently won
back again to simplicity ought to be our true position, ande
mnatuurseie.
fH
childhoode r strains
come over ussnatcheslikseplicy n
it
of th
heard in a distant country. Coming to us amid the
din and fever heat of what we call life, they carry us
back to that "golden time" when there was "glory
in the grass and splendour in the flower." What we
had thought long since dead and gone the pathos and
beauty of her song draws forth from some fold of the
heart, where it had only lain hidden for a season, to
be made to live again by the evoking power of genius.
Such influences as she exerts on the mind are to be
classed with the most beneficent and elevating eff, cts
of the highest poetry. Jenny Lind is a beautiful
humanizing agency. Her mission is, by the power
of song, to purify and exalt all who come within her
spell, and to teach us that, after all our strivings and
"unprofitable stir," the world contains within it
nothing so lovely as truth and simplicity.
There were some other things I wished to speak
of—such as her thorough identification with the cha-
racter she is representing, or rather with the character
which .he for the time is—but I fear I have already
encroached too much on your space. Allow me,
therefore, at once to conclude this imperfect utter-
ance, by subscribing myself,
ONE OF THE UNINITIATED.

---
Jenny Lind sang again at Birmingham, on Thurs-
day evening, at a concert for the benefit of the Hebrew
schools. There was a brilliant audience. Her reception
was of a most flattering character. It is understood that
the receipts fell little short of 1,500/.