The Osceola times., 1885-01-03
MUSICAL CULTURE.
The soulful violin and those Matters Who
Have Touched 1t.

The >ouifui VtOnn ana those MASters VINO
Have Touched 1t.
Musical culture is in the air. Itcould
not be otherwise with two conservato-
ries, the classical symphony concerts, the
immense amount of newspaper criticism
and the hundreds OF teachers all about
us. Young parents want their little
children to be ed ucated, according the
present standard, and so it goes"
"But the violin playing" said return
ing TO my first theme. "iow happens
it that that instrument has become 50 pop
ular with even Boston ladies?" Because
il is the kin got instruments, and because
a girl Looks charming when she playsit."
After this | said no more, but recalled
the fact for myself that fifteen years and
more ago, when Camilla Urso enraptured
everybody with her delicious playing,
several young ladies begun to think they
would like to play the violin too, and
consequently the amount Of scratching
and squealing their families were oblig
ed to endure was enough to have driven
them insane One Boston girl delight
ed societ with her graceful playing for
several seasons to the exclusion OF all
other performers, out rs the Eichberg
violin school grew in reputation and its
scholars began to apl ear in pebble and
gain laurels and money at home and
abroad, amateur violin playing became
rather dangerous unless the performer
was an exceptionally pretty girl. These
amateurs went to Mr.. Eichberg, who i'm
proved their tone and style, and low
when they have little-b boys and girls of
their own they insist on their learning
the violin, too, just as much as their
arithmetic and geography. More than
one genius has been developed under
the E.chberg training. His pupils 90
abroad TO have finishing lessons from
Joachim to find they have been in
structed in the best German school of
the violin, and the polishing they re-
ceive is rather from art association than
from actual knowledge or anything more
to learn. 1t is study, study, study with
them then. heard at Mr.. Eichburg's s
house last Sunday evening young girl
who is a pupil of Leonard, the great
French master of the vielin, and who
mas returned home for little visit be-
fore entering on the final two years of
uninterrupted study required before
making her debut in public. She is
now in her 10th year, and when only 6
years old began to have lessons from
Mr.. Eiohberg. She was mite Of a
thing then and used to stand with her
little violin tucked under her chin
scraping away with all the fervor of a
born artist. No one supposed she would
make music her career, but necessity has
brought out the genius and some day
If her teachers and friends are not much
mistaken, she will join the ranks of the
great violin yirtuosos of Europe.
An immeAse change has taken place
in the public taste for violin playing
within few years. Do you remember
when the public went mad over Ole
Bull and his Mothers Prayer?' He
was considered great prayer, but in
the new light we regard him as SEN
satioual one, person Of much magnet
ism, man of splendid stature, who
knew enough to button his coat and
throw up his head and raise his elbow
al A. .f
his violin. That caught the popular
feeling, and people who regarded catgut
as horrible and tiddlers as natural tor
ments would howl and clap their hands
at the tunes he played. Ole Bull was
not precisely charlatan, but he came
very near 1t. lie could appreciate clas-
sical music, but he also appreciated
money. and when he found the untutor-
ed public liked lis M )ther's Prayer"
and the Last Rose of Summer" he let
it have them, and shook his name like
a Norwegian-pony and showed his
Apollo-like figure more buttoned up than
ever. He died rich and much respected
and his agreeable widow livc7 out in
the James Russell Lowell house at Cam
bridge, and his brother-in-law is to
marry daughter of Mr. Longfellow.
After the Bulls went to Cambridge to
live and were the near neighbors of the
Longfellows society opened wide its
doors and have welcomed Mrs. Bull
ever since But the Ole Bull style of
violin playing is dead and buried with
him. Wilhelm with his magnificent
tone and broad, solid style; Wieniawski,
who thrilled us all with his mild grace
and brilliant phrasinp, have been here
and taught us much in the art of good
and true music. There have been others
who have starred ia the concert room,
but they have left no impress, no incen-
tive, opened no new vein of ambition
such as these masters have done. The
resident orchestral first violinists who
are occasionally soloists in the concert
room include some fine PLAYERS, eacn
having his own individual style, admir-
ed by his followers. Boston Cor. Albany
journal.