Litchfield enquirer., 1862-11-27

i HiusCtatl, He pays pefleCt DdsS dcConlahiHieHt to the treble of music heard for the first time as he plays. Then taking the seat vacated by the other performer. he instantly gives the entire peace, intact in briancy and symmetry, not note lost or misplaced. The selections of mr . sic by which this power of Toms was tested, two years ago, were sometimes fourteen and sixteen pages ia length on one occasion at aa eY,iib bition at the Whit. House, after long concert he was tried with two pieces, one thirteen, the other twenty pages long, and was successful. | We know of no paralle case to this in mu- scal history. Grimm tells us. as one Of the most remarkable manifestations of Mnzarts infant genius, that at the age of nine he was required to give an accompaniment to an aria which he had never heard before, and without notes.- There were false accorls in the first attempt he acknowledges but the second was pure.- When the music to which Tom plays $ceonao is strictly classical, he sometimes ba!ks for an instant in passages to do otherwise would ar que a creative power equal 60 that of the master composers but when any chordant harmony runs through it, lon which the glowing negro soul can seize, you know there are no {" false accords,'' as with the infant Mozart. 1 wish to draw especial attention to this power of the boy, not only because it is, so far as know, unmatch- ed in the development of any musical talent, but because, considered in the contex of this en- tire intellectual structure, it involves a curious | TN r,I but once, even when, as in Toms case, it is gi,- en with such incredible fidelity, and after the lapse of years, demands only command of me- chancal skill, and an abnormal condition of the power of memory but to play secondo to mu- sic meyer heard or seen implies the comprehen- sion of the full drift of the symphony in it's cur rent,-a capacity to create, in short. Yet such attempts as Tom has made to dictate mu- sic for publication do not sustain any such in l ference. They are only few light marches, gallons, etc., simple and plantive enough but with easily detected traces of remembered har monies very different from the strange. weird improvisations of every day. One would fancy that the mere attempt to bring this mysterious genius within him in bodily presence before the ter its reproachful, unable cry. Nor is this the only bar by which poor Toms soul is put in mind of its foul bestial prison. After any too prolonged effort, such as those have alluded to, his whole bodily frame gives way, and con- plete exhaustion of the brain follows, accompan- jed with epileptic spasms. The trial at the White House, mentioned before, was successful, but was followed by days of illness.
 Being slave, Tom never was taken into Free State for the same reason his master refused advantageous offers from European managers. The highest points North at which his concerts were given were Baltimore and the upper Vir ginia towns. heard him sometime in l8G0.- He remained week or two in the town, playing every night.
 The concerts were unique enough. They were S iven in great barn ofa room, gaudy with hot, soot-stained fires co es chandeliers and walls splotchedwith gilt. The audience waslaree, always such as provincial town affords not the purest bench of musical criticism before l which to bring poor Tom. Beau1 and beIles, sittings of old country families, whose grand ; fathers trapped and traded and married with the Indians.-the savage thickening of whose blood told itself in high cheek-bones, flashing jewelry, champagne bbbng, comprehension ot the tomtom music of schottisches and polk as; money-made men and their wives, cooped up by responsibility, taking concerts when they were given in town, taking the White Sulphur or Cape May in summer, taking beef for dinner, taking the pork ktrade in winter,--toute la tie en p1ogrananae the deJris of town, the roughs, the boys, school children,-Tom was nearly as we'll worth a quarter as the negro-minstrcls here and there pair of reserved, homesick eyes, peculiar, reticent face, some wheyskin- ned ward teachers perhaps, or some German cobbler's, but hints of hungry soul, to whom Beethoven and Mendelssohn knew how to preach an unerring gospel. The stage Was broad, planked, with a drop-cultain behind,- the Doge marrying the Sea, believe; in front, piano and chair.
 Presently. Mir. Oliver, well-natured looking man, lone thought of that) came forward, lea ding and coaxing along little black boy, dres- sed in white linen, somewhat fat and stubborn in build. Tom was not in good humor that night the evening before had refused to play altogether so his master perspired anxously before he could get him placed in rule before the audience, and repeat his own little speech, which sounded like a Georgia afier-dinner gos sip. The boys bead, as l said, rested on his back, his mouth wide open constantly; his great blubber lips and shining teeth, therefore were all you saw when he faced you. He required to be petted and bought like any other weak min ded child The concert was mixture of mu- sic, winning, coaxing and pro missed candy and cake.
 He seated himself at last before the piano, full half: yard distant stretching out his arms full length; like an ape clawing for food, ,-his feet when not on the pedals, squirming and twisting necessarily, ly,-answering some joke of his masters with loud Yha! yha!" Nothing indexes the brain like the laugh this was idi- i otic.
 "Now, Tom, boy, something we like from Verdi"
 1 The head fell farther back, the claws began to | .uouJ- a,5 +b,ca cf biS barn,crinS ,pbicL pon