Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1839-12-12
From the Nec York Daily .qdvert;ser.

BEAUTIES OF THE PIANo.-We are resoly
ed never again to visit a house where they
keep Piano, or music of any sort. Wehaye
mad surfelt. Pianos have come to be like
that plague which filled all the habitations of
Egypt, from which there was no escape. In
every house, at every fireside, the moment tea
IS over the girls begin to bore you with the
murderous mania. To understand enough of
the instrument, to make it ring-enough of
the gamut for few noisy, incoherent combi-
natlons-wherein the tune or time ia eternal
~ wrong-seems to have become an indispen-
SABLE part oil female education. Every
oody must learn to play. And yet how many
out oil the whole number of performers, are
ever able to please natural or well trained
ear-melody being the beloved music of one.
harmony that of the othcrl Not one of a thou
sdnd' mark, that; not one ola thousand! One
halt stuns you with noise; and out of the 9th
or half, majority play High Betty-Martin,
TIP toe fine, as they would Pieyel's Hymn, OF
Hail Columbia
verify, we would sooner seek for the air of
piece, done by smart hail storm on row
OF barbarian gongs; or high wind among a
legion OF Aolian Harps. We are no enemy
70 music. But we reprobate the fashion OF
our time, which requires all our women with
OUT reference to taste, sensibility and ear, to
"play on the piano. They might as we'll
make all our men painters, though they were
without eyes. Millions are annually wasted
upon muslc-for those of whom not one in q
thousand can ever hope to attain any tolerable
Prohclency, and In which mediocrity is detes-
table. We know of but very few amateurs
VINO ought ever to be asked to sit at an instru-
ment.
The few, the very few who have great sem
s'bility, fine genius, and an ear for time as well
as tune, should cultivate music with assidui-
ty-and 1t requires many hours day, for ma
ny years, to make one a performer. A little
acquaintance with it is an injury. 1t is like
rope paradox about learning. 1t spoils the
natural voice and encourages people to sing
ana play who have no voice, and no ear at all
~ natural voice is almost uniformly accompa-
MED by line ear. There is always, in the
untutored voice when a girl sings out of the
pure love of music, and natural quality
which will be felt in the hearts of those that
listen, like the warbling of wild birds among
the tree tops in May. A ''litte learnng''
spolls that voice. The native warbling of the
nightingale is soothing and delightful: but
one half trained by bird-fancier would be a
nuisance. Nature is charming-seience
wonderful, but that which is neither one thing
nor another, is worse than a screech-owl.
BOYS Will chew tobacco and smoke over and
over again, till they are halfdead with nausea.
lest they should be suspected of simplicity,
or ignorance or innocence.
Precisely so with music. Hundreds affect
pleasure which few or no one of them feel !;
and many who can hardly distinguish be-
tween Yankee Doodle and the Dead March in
Saul, are the first to call out for music, though
some OF them would never discover it, if the
same piece Were played over and over again
the whole evening through-especially if the
time were changed little. Out upon the
Shabby affectation7 Among all our young
girls whom their foolish mothers would have
taught to sing, dance, and play, to study en-
broidery, painting, fllagree work, and how
to cut watch papers, you can scarcely find one
who can write a note of ten lines decentiy. or
talk five minutes with a man of sense and
spirit. And yet the colloquial faculty is ca
Pa6ie OF higher cultivation, greater embel
ilshment, and more continual application; the
power OF talking and reading is more easily
iearnt-more economically taught-upward.
soaring and intellectual, and thousand times
better fitted for the communication of pleas
ire, than music, with all the fashionable fri
voiitles OF female education put together. The
most beautiful and accomplished creature of
this school on earth, is ar,,,-e child in power
compared with an ordnaY, woman of fine,
free, colloquial talent.