Delaware State journal and statesman. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1855-1870, 1863-06-16
Dottrnal ANA sstatesitsan
WILMIKGTON, DEB-
Tuesday Morning, June l6, 1863.
Musical soiree at the Wesleyan.

+. Musical Soiree at the Wesleyan.
Carl Gaertner's Musical Soiree on the
evening of the 9th inst, at the Wesleyan
Female College was complete success
and gave unalloyed pleasure TO one of the
choicest audiences we ever saw Assem-
bled in the large study hall on Sixth
street.
The scene was one to fix the attention
combining brilliant audience, on
whose faces sat expectant pleasure, ex-
panding gradually into hearty satisfac-
tion, expressed by flashing eyes and
! wrapped attention-a hall adorned with
Il neatness and taste which lent additional
beauty to the numerous bouquets and
/ pendants Of natural flowers artfully deck
ing the walls, and full of the dew of the
morning and of fragrance delicious to
the sense-together with bevy of twenty
or more maidens robed in pure white
who gathered around GaertHer (the ma
| gician of the EVENING" with such airy and
graceful movements, that one prone to
reverle would not go far in imagining the
whole scene to be some unsubstantial
ligment of the brain, beautiful but fleet
ing. 1t was one of those scenes and
hours, in which the voice, the look, the
laugh, the room, indeed everything teens
with music, as if God had Just coined in
Heavens Mint' wealth of harmony
and scattered with lavish hand in all the
air golden wave OF ynrr-lire
The programme ,4.... q. seventeen
pieces of vocal and instrumental music,
seven of these were choruses sung by the
whole class, in such exact time. harmo-
nizing SO sweetly, now rounding up to
the full martial strains of onr National
airs, then gently softening into melting
pathos or tender sentiment; sweeping
here and there at will, ever clear and well
defined, but never harsh, until it seemed
that those twenty voices were one, and
that one UOice in the drrdS of Gaertner
who evoked its sweetest notes at will,
while with gentle sweep he kept time, and
guided the vocal throng with the motion
of his hands.
Three of these choruses, "Holy Lord
God of Sabbaoth, ,"-Gaertner, "Switzer's
sorg of Home" and "Star Spangled
Banner,n were finely rendered, and the
latter sent the blood tinglng along ones
veins, with tumultuously patriotic pull
sation. A venerable man said that it set
him on fire, so grand, so full of majestic
life and history. Yet the Star Spangled
Banner is u National anthem and can
never be so well rendered as when a Ma
tton spontaneously rings the grand chorus
from valley to mountain top Two or
three strong bass voices would have made
the effect Of this air complete.
The other pieces on the programme
consisted of solos, DUETS, &c, &c.
Aria, the Journey to Damascus, Mem
delssohn, sung by Miss Clagett was
sweet but rather low and monotonous
Lift Thine Eyes, "-Mendelssohn, by
Misses Cooke, Shenk and Clagett, was
executed in an artistic manner with
marked effect IL would that my love-
-Mendelssohn," by Misses Harmer and
Brown, was one of the fine things OF
the evening; "Lcave us moi, ,"-Gaertner,
by Miss Lore, was marked by firm touch
es, precision and good emphasis but not
eoftl,, a @ ,,pnal ltANoka mn euaat unnlodv -