The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-17
MUSICAL ouR1os1r1Es.
Playing on Fifteen Drums - Unique
Performances of Blind Musician.


On Aug. 10, 1872, when the Jacobins
dictated their terms at Paris for ma
tional convention, Lafayette, who was in
command of the army of the frontier, and
several Of his general officers quilted the
French army in disgust. They were
seized by the King Of Prussia. from him
transferred to the custody of Austria and
long confined in the castle of Olmutz in
! Moravia.
Although each of the prisoners was
| kept solitary, yet their apartments were
| so arranged that they were all within
| hearing of each other when stand.
ing at the windows of their respective
chambers. To improve this advantage
| they thought of the following plan
| There was at Paris a numb of tunes
| called Airs of the Pont Neuf," or those
! popular ballads that were sung at the
corners of the streets and other public
places. The words belonging to these
airs were so well known that to strike
up few Of the notes was to recall to
| memory the words that accompanied
| them
BY this means the captives at Olmutz
gradually composed for themselves a
vocal vocabulary, by whistling these
notes at their windows; and the vocabu-
larry, after short time, became so COM
plete, and even comprehensive, that two
or three notes from each air formed their
alphabet and effected their intercourse.
BY this means they communicated news
to each other concerning their families,
the progress of the war, etc, and when,
by good fortune, one of them had pro-
cured gazette, he whistled the contents
Of It to his partners in captivity.
The commandant of the fortress was
constantly informed of these unaccount-
able concerts. He listened, he set spies /;
but the Whole thing being a language of
convention, the most practiced magician
would have failed in detecting the inten-
tion and real expression of the notes
heard. In vain was whistling prohibited (;
and at length the Austrian officer, weary
of conjecture. interposed no further to
prevent what he could not comprehend.
EAOne of the most peculiar and unique
| concerts which think was ever given
was what might be called a pig concert.
The abbot of Baigne, man of wit and
skilled i'll the construction of new musical
instruments, was ordered by Louis XII.
King of France, more in jest than in earn
est, to procure him a concert of swine
voices. The abbot said the thing could
doubtless be done, but that it would take
q good deal of money. The king ordered
that he should have whatever he required
for the purpose.
The abbot then wrought thing as
singular as ever was seen, for out of a
great number of hogs of several ages,
which he got together and placed under a
tent, or pavilion, covered with. velvet, be-
| fore which he had a table of wood painted
with certain number of keys, he made
an organical instrument, and as he played
| upon the said keys with little spikes,
which pricked the hogs, he made them
cry in such eonsonance that he highly de-
! lighted the king and all his company.
| About sixty years ago lean Henri, the
! famous tambour major of the Emperor
! Napoleon, exhibited his extraordinary
| talents at the London Lyceum theater
| OF his performances we are told that,
avoiding the noisy and monotonous sound
Of the drum, he raised the exercises of
| beating it to musical art by playing at
one time on fifteen surrounding and diff
| ferent toned drums in a soft and harmo-
NOUS style, forming in effect novel and
! complete instrument. He accompanied a
| full band, and went through several such
! extraordinary evelotions as TO astonish
! the audience, particularly in beating one
! rapid march.
Among other unprecedented feats, he
caused twenty-eight drumsticks to fly in
! the air in all directions, catching them in
a peculiar manner under his arms and be-
tween his legs. Playing on his various
drums, he passed from one to the other
with such amazing rapadity that the
eyes of the spectators, 1t is said, could
/ scarcely follow the motion of his body and
! hands, and were left to wonder how the
very novel effect was produced.
Musical and mechanical prodigies there
! have been in plenty, but it is not often
| that both these attributes is combined in
one person, and still more rare-perhaps
altogether singular-that these should be
! combined in the person of a man who
was blind. John Watson, a native of
Dundee, Scotland, who was born in the
closing decade of the last century, lost
his sight by the smallpox when only 3
years of age. At the age of IL years he
was admitted into the asylum for the
blind at Edinburgh, where he soon dis
tinguished himself by his knowledge of
mechanics, and the improvements which
he was able to make upon any piece of
machinery submitted to him. He also
showed talent for music, which, how
ever, from the necessity of gaining live
lihood by the labor of his hands, he was
unable to cultivate for some time
He played on the violin and the violon-
cello at the same time. The stops, says
the relator of this anecdote, by which he
shortened the strings of his violncello
have been fitted with more than ordinary
elegance and precision, additional springs
having been added to assist and relieve
his leg In the operation Of bowling; and
the bow has been fastened to his foot by
new machinery, which insures more pow
erful and steady execution.
Indeed" remarks the writer of the
story, the whole of this machinery
was so constructed that he could play
both instruments for very great length
of time without more fatigue than ii he
played only upon one. Nor was
this all for, by the very nice
and accurate application of mechanism
wholly invented by himself, he could
perform on two violoncellos at the same
time, and the one upon which he played
the principle strain was so contrlved as
to have the power and tone of two played
by different performers, so that he might
be said to play three violoncellos--the
principle strain upon two and the bass
upon the third. Nor was this compass
limited, for the instrument upon which
he played the principle strain had a range
Of sixty-four semi-tones, and more could
be added If necessary. In 1891 Mr. Wat
son went to London TO exhibit his musical
inventions, and, it is said, attracted great
attention and patronage"