Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-10-10
CARLOTTA PATTI.
The Music of Her Voice.

1t was we'll said by competent critic
many years ago, with Pauline Garcia in
his eye, that in a singing family there is
mostly a duet-a better and q worse
voice, a train and train bearer, and the
worse gets dragged up by supporting the
better one. Nature seldom, if ever,
makes q re-deal ofits special favors in the
same family. Carlotta Patti seems to
mark an exception. Ii there was any
difference in the endowment Of the sis,
tiers, Adalina and Carlotta, it was slight,
and may have been to the disadvantage
of the younger; but it would seem that
this Circumstance only melted her to
those nobler efforts resulting in tri-
umph which must always be regarded
as worthy of higher admiration than the
mere accident of condition. We have
here an instance Of art revenging itself
on nature in most masterful manner.
Carlotta, in the graces and requirements
Of her voice, is to-day no doubt the supe-
riOr of her sister. IfLsr voice ever lack
ed anything to complete the critics she'd
ule it was Dreadth-it never lacked any
quality necessary to satisfy the ear ofthe
public. Breadth it seems to have gained
with maturity and culture. There is
something very much like poetic retri-
button in the appearance in cur concert
rooms of Carlotta Patti just at the mo-
ment that Parep2 abandons it. The
young favorite occupies the position
alone. That is not ner fault. She
brings to us, for the first time since Rosa
commenced her reign in America, q
voice equal in all respects except cslibre.
and superior in compass and in its volu>
bility, heyibility, and training. There
IS not bit OF good sense in the outcry
that it is sure to be made Just here, that
this comparison is inVidious and unjust.
The comparison is not made by the critic,
but by the artist; it is recognized by the
public. II, moreover, points a palpabls
moral in art which it were gross negli.
gence to overlook, out Of personal con-
sideratiOns to public singers who chal-
lenge inspection and approval. The
moral is this: that the desire to be verSs~
tile is worse than versatility itself-wOrse
almost than anything we can think OF,
unless it be the oYerweeniug desire to
make money by the exercise of the
readiest means. Madame Pareps has
endeavored to do too much, and has
really imperiled the position she has
won.
fit were possible to speak of Carlotta
Patti specially, it would seem to the att
tentive listener to be the power to sing
the most difficult and intricate compo-
sitions which have taxed the ingenuity of
composers, as though she could not help
it. Whatever may be the intrinsic diff
culties OF such compositions as the Cars
niVal of Venice" and the "Tarantelle, /"
when set to the voice, they are not ape
parent in her singing of them. All the
splendid garniture Of fancy is as deity
and easily unfolded as the simple phrases
of the melody. The exactitude with
which she takes the widest intervals in
succession, never varying a shade in the
appropriation of the proper note, and the
marvellous execution Of chromatic pass
ages extending full octave and passed
over as daintily and unerringly as though
one had swept the keys Of a grand in
strument, take an additional charm
| from the indefinite but absolute joyous
ness which pervades the whole manner
and method. 1t is the revelment in
song, the exercise Of faculty so thor.
| oughly part OF all other faculties, and
so interknit with sheer impulse that one
iieels that song is the normal condition o
| the artistic, and that composers have
been taxing themselves to their utmost
10 their search for combinations of new
forms Of expression for the inexhaus,i'
BILE fund Of music in this singer. VIVA
sln equal the ebullient, laughing sorI
from Marco Spada," when she sings it
That melody bubbling into laughter al
light, as musical as the chirrup Of I
child, lit as it leaps by face irradiateC
and eloquent with the soul Of laughter
The highest note in her voice has the
pristine ring Of nature, but, as though
to set all doubts Of its being uniabrica
ted at rest, she expands it into creS
ceRdO, Softens 1t away to a vaAiShin;
point of the dimiRucRdO, and finally
uills It off in a shake that sounds like 8
horn Of elf-land. There is, no doubt,
subtle connection between the bright
Joyous face and artleSs manner of tn
woman and the art Of the singer; or, 4
state it philosophicslly, the voice IS onl,
another manifestation Of the same menta
and organic rythm which tranfuses tn
features and gives a grace beyond art t
the manner.