Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, W.T. [i.e. Wis.]) 1843-1844, 1844-01-13


occasionally produce sweet or mourn
full combination Of sound by accident.
But, because our eyes are once or thrice
moistened. and because we occasional |
" feel that the corner of the veil is
twitched which separates us from the
cbainless articulation we ache after, II
is no sign that we at all comprehend
the drift Of the players meaning, or
see into the world OF complex harmo-
ny whittier he gropes but coniusedly
himself have not heard the violin Of
Ole Bull. But / have talked with him
for IN hour or two, and | think he is
one of the most inspired creatures(and
should have thought so if had met
him as savage in the woods whose
conversation | have ever listened to.
lie talks braided language of French,
Italian, and English, plucking express
sion to himself with clutch, and tho
he moulds every idea with powerful
Originality, he evidently does not give
birth to more than fraction of what is
writing in his brain. If there were
a volcano missing in Norway, should
fancy we had encountered it on its
travels-the crater not provided for in
its human metempsychosis. Probably
Ole Bull finds his violin much more
icopious vent than language for his i'm
prisoned lava; but to coin that lava in
to language, as he pours it out in tang
led chromatlcs, would be TO comprc-
bend his music, and that, say again,
is not done by more than three in three
thousand, if done az all ! | told him |
should like to hear him play PIN
proriSta, after he had seen Mag ara,
and upon that hint he gave me de-
scription of wild Norwegian scenery,
describing how he tried to utter in mu-
) sic the effect it had upon him-gave it
J me with "iine phrcnzy" that pulled
: hard land should like to know the
philosophy of that upon the roots Of
! my hair. There is something weird
! and supernatural about the man.
Mechanical dexterity Oh the violin
has as much to do with music, be-
ieve, as drawing bankcheck has to
do with credit at the bank-a very ne
cessary part or the matter, but owing
; its value entirely to what has gone be-
fore. Music is mind-expressed in
one of the half dozen languages we
possess-and as capable of logic and
transfer into words US painting, or cx-
preston of feature and gesture, Ole
Bull, when playing, has Tor ought to
have) an explainab!e argument in his
mind, and The bridge wanting between
, him and his audience is translation
of his musical argument into language
given before or after the perform
ance. This he could easily do At
present, it is 10 tho audience, like a
most eloquent Grafton in an unknown
;oague-comprchensible only to the
orator,
| have mentioned in some book that,
) while at Vienna, saw a self educated
philosopher at that Institute. who was
discovering the link between music
and geom etry. He took pane of
glass and covered it sparsely with dry
sand, and then, by drawing particular
note upon the edge with a fiddle-bow,
he drove the sand by the vibration, in
to well-defnel circle, or triangle, or
square whichever we chose Of half
dozen geometrical figures. / have
looked ever since TO hear ofan advance
ment in this phase of daguerrotype.
Once reduced to grammar, music
would be as articulate as oratory, and
we should be able TO distinguish its
sense from its gibberish.
In person Ole Bull is a massive,
gladiator-like creature, rather uncouth,
passionately impulsive in his munners,
and with confused face, which only
becomes legible with animation. Wide
awake he is often -handSome-fast as
lccp he is doubtless as plain as a Nor
wcgian boulder stone. Ifhe ever work
his musical logic up to his musical i'm
pulse and execution, he will hang the
first lamp in The darkest chamber Of
human comprehension.
I have two more steps 10 announce
to you in the advance Of the gynocracy.
There is a gymnasium in the upper
part of Broadway where the ladies
don the Turkish costume, and are
iaUEht s2ayriRg and climbing, in
jackets and loose trousers. Great-coa,s,
with snug Iii to the back, are snper-