, 1886-11-10
A BOY MUSICIANS BEGINNING.
Little Giuseppe Verdi and the violinist
An Almost Fatal Mistake.

An Almost Fatal Mistake.
The little boy who was afterward to
immortalize the name of Giuseppe Verdi
one day heard n pedestrian v~iolinist of
the name of Bagasset, whose name you
will kindly not confound with the name
of B~adinguet, the mason, whose name
was given to the Emperor Napoleon III.
Bagasset with his wretched old violin
came to the village Roncole, and there
scraping as best he could, unconsciously
set fire to the powder mine in little Gnu
seppes heart. Bad and common though
the match was, the fire burned fiercely
and rapidly and the child fell into such
ecstasies that the musician" who,
though a very small one, had his vanity,
was so pleased that not only did he re-
turn again and again to his inspired
audience of lone" but he told the poor
father that the best thing he could do
was to make a musician of the child,
that he would get glory and money out
of him, and SO earnestly did he preach
that the father took the advice seriously
into consideration.
l myself know an instance of a little
boy who seemed to nave a decidedly
lhuoioul OlHdlllLillOu anu was uuNlStu
to learn music. Here comes a m
where l wish to give sincere and, | be-
lieve, desirable advice to parents. Just
as | said that you will never make n pink
out of n rose nor a flower of an
onion, so you will never make n must
clan out of n boy who has perhaps the
stuff for n great painter in him or n
sculptor out of a boy who might become
a very respectable and prosperous trades
man. The boy | just mentioned had
really some qualification for music, but
what did they do with him? They took
a piano teacher as cheap as possible, be-
cause for a child anybody might do"
and he bored the boy SO with ediou
studies that he began to cry every time
the master entered the room. This is IL
very general and often fatal mistake. A
bad master, who begins unintelligently,
who gives the pupil bad habits, allows
him to hold his fingers badly stretched
SO that they touch the keys with the flat
part instead of the bent point of the
finger, which alone gives n good touch,
this first and paramount necessity neg
lected may spoil him forever.
So with tn. voice. | have seen num-
berless cases where "A bad beginning, or
a master encouraging shouting, or Il bad
way of holding the chin too high or too
low, entirely spoiled the production of
the voice. The boy in question, toler-
ably intelligent and gifted, was so bored
by awkward tuition that the mother,
seeing the child cry-a convincing argu-
ment. for n mother-gave up all idea,
sent the master away, and sold the
piano. But then came the warm rain
the opportunity. The child was taken
to a concert where Nieuxtemps played,
then himself very young. He SO cleo
trified the child in question that from
that moment he made up his mind to
study music. Next day he visited with
his mother n lady amateur of great tai
ent, who had a grand piano in her draw
ing-room, and the child went straight to
the piano and, without tuition and pre-
paration, sat down and from memory
played, however, badly and irregularly,
the greater part of the andante he had
heard Nieuxtemps play the night be-
fore. The lady amateur listened with
out saying a word, but when the visitor
took her little boy away, she whispered
in her ear: Mind you take him to a
good master, not one who does not I'M
derstand him; he will go very far
This was done, and the boy acquired
some name in after days on the CONT
nent.=Temple Bar.