The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-30
SINGERS AND 1NsTRUMENrAL1sTs.
Why the Former are More Capricious
and Subject to Whims.
From the London Spectator.

/ JecS, IL al DOQE awe KNOWS IL, llQOFSeS ali
we said fortnight ago about the wild
whims Of the great singers and the pardon
extended to them by the public, but asks us
70 explain why the great instrumentalistS
| are so different from their rivals. The very
greatest lnstrumentalists, he lntimates-
justly, as far as our more limited kno wledge
extends-are, as a rule, distinctly able men
and women; people with minds, whose con-
verse has charm, who are sane in all their
acts and thoughts, and who are just as
capable OF self-restraint as other self-re-
pectlng people. They keep their engage
ments, they are not mad about their places
on billpOsters, and if they sometimes grow
faddy about the quality Of their instru-
ments, they are no more given to wild lax
ury, or TO flying kites in the streets, as Mr..
Mapleson reports Of Signor Giuglini, than
other professional men and woman who
have achieved success. 1t cannot be that
devotion to music on the part of the singers
Is the cause of the difference, for the instru-
mentalsts are just as devoted to their art,
and occupy about eight times as much OF
their lives in cultivaLing it. Then what is
the cause.
We should say there are three reasons of
accumulative force. One is, that the
greatest singer is almost always great
actor or actress also. and shares in that
S-A1oc VI JtAC uuTcGllLJ Oi uiDoI anu
especially of the unreajty OF apparent con-
duct, which habitual acting almost neces-
sarlly begets. Plenty of actors and ac-
tress9s are good men and women; but it is
impossible TO be another perSon-often q
somewhat bad person, and always an exag
gerated person--for hours of every day
and retain the ordinary full sense of respOn-
slbllity. That admirable actress, Mrs.
BOuc. cault. used to say, or at least it was
TpnOrfPH that at time che felt If
she could not tell whether she were Mrs.
Bouclcault acting the Collesn Bawn-in
the best me,odrame ever written yet-or
the Colleen Bawn acting Mrs. BoucIcault;
and just SO far as that was true, must the
atmosphere of reality have pressed lightly
on her. Every great singer or songstress
must be more or less under that influence
Je ny Lind, sanest and soundest of them
all, latterly avoided opera-and to it is
added another Great instrumentalists
work much harder for their bread than
| great singers. The latter are, as rule,
| carefully trained-though Mr.. Mapleson
| tells story Of one, a stupid man with a
| magical gift, who said sincerely and not as
| joke, that ne would learn music as soon
as he had done earning money-but when
| they are once fully appreciated, they dare
not 70 work too hard. They might
| strain their Threats, and the health of
| their throats-which, curiously enough,
| are with some of them as sound as leather
| found in the pit when the tanner died, u
and with others as delicate as babies di-
| gestions-is worth hundreds of pounds an
hour. They live lives of involuntary in
| dolence, broken by performances which re-
| quire long attendance, but actual effort
only for portions of two hours day. The
| instrumentalists, on the contrary, work
every day and all day all their lives, work
| like students or professionals, at what, even
when they enjoy as well as feel their art
| a point upon which no two are quite alike
| is most tatiguing, and occasionally even
| exhausting labor. Work of that sort takes
| the nonsense out of all women and most
men-has, that is, the effect of continuous
aud severe training npersonal self-restralnt.
| Your fingers may ache, and your head be
racked, and your nerves 90 TO fiddle-strings
| with the strain; but you must GO on prac-
ticing, or be pronounced by some critic
falling away from perfect form, which
means twenty pounds less night on the
| expiration of your contract. There is nc
cure for whims like the treadmill, espe-
cially if the sufferer sets it going for him
| self.
Tire third and greatest reason for the diff
| ference in character between singers and
| nstrumentalists is, we take it, this: All
artists or pleasers Of the public who are
| conscious that their power, or their popu-
| IdTIbJ, VI lIltiT l1GttIo VA HluS IOI buuCS,
| depend mainly upon gift" tend to re-
main childish-we do not mean childlike,
but childish. That which banishes child
ishness is not merely natural growth, but
| pressure, the heavy weight OF experience
and difficulty and suffering, which, some
times unconsciously, sometimes without
full consciousness, trains us all. The great
| singer is nearly exempted from this disci-
| pine. At an early age, Just when most
| m and hncrlD To rpaliZa that fhpV
| have no protection from the wind, that
| life is heavy as well as light, that, in short,
| effort is Indispensable, the great singer or
| songstreSs is released from effort, finds him
self or herself in possession of an unearned
| and undeserved gift which is almost magl-
| cal in its power, which makes it rain gold.
! which brigs worshipers, fiatterers. lovers,
in streams-they say Mario at one time had
a dozen "offersn month-which lifts thou
sands of cultivated hearers on their feet
| painting with emotion, qulverlng with a
| rapture of enjoyment at once intellectual
| and sensual A court forms round sue
| ceSsfull primo tenore or prima donna In an
| instant, and thenceforward, till their threats
| give out, eager hands lift from them the
| very burden of the air. Their agents
| are as devoted as the equerries of kings.
! How should they get experience, or train
| ing, or the habit of severe thought, any
more than princes in Asia or princesses in
Europe! They are from the first where
severe effort lands few of the ablest at
the close of life, with this aggravation-
| that they have suffered, in achieving emf
nence, from 10 passing or general dislikes;
| have never, in all their intercourse with
the world, seen that world look anything
but enthusiastic approval There is pathe-
| tic passage in the queens diary wherein
| she, just for moment, and as 1T were with
| suppressed sigh, notes the danger of being
a sovereign at eighteen; and that altering
| the age little, but not the experience, is
the lot of every prima donna. She and her
companion on the stage, the tenor, too, have
no compulsion not to be childish; and as
childishness is enjoyable so long as al
whimS are gratified, they tend to rema n
in that mental position. Why learn, when
| learning brings nothings Why strive, when
| all is obtainabe without efforts Why,
above all, be self-restrained when no one
asks of you to restrain yourself, and self
restraint may be as painful as breeches to
| q savage, or fine etiquette to street roughs
| unsuccessful or half-successful or slowly
successful folk, like the majority of
US, hardly recognize how they have
grown to bear self-restraint as they
| have grown to bear leather boots, by inces-
SAINT repetitions of small endurances. 1t is
not only that the first burden of life pc
| cuniary care, is not for the great singer.
Most heads are turned by sudden fortune,
but the pos eSsor of a great voice has to
bear more mental shocks than that--sudden
popularity, sudden alteration, sudden az