The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-26
Girls FindDistinction
In It.
LOVES SUBSTITUTE.
Graceful and Passionate is
the Woman Who Plays.

The advantages to a girl of perform
ing on the violin are obvious. If she
sings, she may lose her voice, and if
she has not got one, she can't sing. II
she plays on the plano, no one. will
cease talking, no, not even If she plays
divinely, and then she cannot be well
seen at the piano, But if she holds a
violin. she is at once isolated. -s In our
overCroWded female population. fsola-
ton is everything. To be picked or
to pick yourself out of the crowd, to
command the undivided attention of
the room, TO have your innings and to
have it all to yourself under the most
advantageous, the most fascinating cir
cumstances, that is a great point A
girl may go to a dozen at homes" and
parties, but there are dozens more girls
there along with her, and she rs but
one in the dozen
But let her suddenly appear with her
violin, and she gets her opportunity.
She is perfectly seen as she stands
at ease. If she plays at night, her
arms and shoulders are bare; her head
with its artificially dressed hair, set
off with a rose or diamond comb, falls
into a natural and fetching pose. just
a little on one side; her cheek leans
lovingly upon the smooth surface of
her glowing Cremona, and is set off at
once by its sombre orange or gold red
Varnish.
Every motion of both her welI-round-
ed arms is expressive; every attitude,
if she playes really well and knows how
TO hold her instrument, must be grace
ful-displaying her flexible wrists. arms
and shoulders to the best advantage.
Expression, pathos, passion, sweet
ness, tenderness, Vigor. aspiration,
ecstacy delicious imaginative woe, all
sweep over her countenance like swift
cloud shadows that chase each other
on a summers day over the wide up
lands or sunny cornfield
She reveals herself without seif-con-
seriousness, for she claims the "yirtu-
osOs" privilege of being lost in her
art. She charms by her spontaneity,
her enthusiasm is infectious; see her
eyes are now half-closed in dreamy
langor, but presently they flash forth
IKE beacon fires, and then on a sudden
seem to fill with tears that gIisten in
her long dark lashes and forget to
| IaIl. The CONCEALED girl is melted by
the very essence Of her divine art. The
silent maiden finds a frank and fear
less tongue more eloquent than her
own. Her emotional consciousness,
which lay buried in the depths of her
tlTginal nature, is suddenly brought up
70 the surface; 1t pervades the whole
OF her tingling frame, and her soul. a
moment before apparently so cold and
pallld' IKE piece of Labrador spar
"neh set at particular angle, gives
or beautiful and iridescent tints.
II IS indeed strange that women
snouiu nave had TO wait until the last
quarter OF the Victorian era before her
CialflS TO the violin We're fully recog-
AlZed, when moments reflection will
snow now perfectly adapted the instru-
heht is TO her whole constitution and
now e&qulsitely fitted she is to mani
bulate its anointed fabric and call
Iorth the secrets of it's mysterious soul.
her sensitive hand seems ma lie IN CLASH
rs smooth and taper neck. How grace
| fullN and eXpressively do her white.
| ros9-tpped fingers spread themselves
| upon the black fingerboard. now press
ING down close and tight, now lowering
| over the vibrating chords
with what sWiftness Of command
uoe@ hef DOW attack, caress or daily
| with the willing strings; how comfort
ao!y and fondly does the Cremona mes
tie under her little chin, close above her
lhfobblng heart. as though listening
lohdly to the whispering rustic of those
tender beats before transmitting their
message into mystic sound.
AT last, at last! she has found a We
hlcle worthy of her subtle or passion
ate, but too long imprisoned, emotions:
all those vague day Dreams those
! quick returns upon self, those shy reti
cences which yearn for an ear that
! cannot be found, those condolences
| which will be revealed through her
| violin, but never betrayed that sutfo-
cation of feeling that finds no relief
until it is suddenly seized, explored,
embraced and lifted away upon those
TIDAL waves of ineffable melody, the
| spiritual counterpart of herself the
ministers of her agony and of her de-
/ light. the interpreter of things which
| words are powerless to express, and
leave them still unsaid in part, or say
them in too great eXcess!''
| Yes, surely the violin is made for
woman, and woman is made for the
violin. 1t is at once her grandest inter-
prefer of feeling and her best substi-
tute for love, if love she may not have
[ have often noticed how all-suficient
to a woman is her violin: aye it fills
her ideal kingdom with the suggestion
and prophecy of so much that might be
/ spoiled by more material realization;
and we must remember that while wo-
man is the greatest and most inexora-
/ bic of realists, she is also an idealist
beyond mans widest dreams: but she
will often discover in the subtle fabric
and materialism of the violin Just so
much of realism as she requires to en-
able her to live perfectly in a purely
ideal and almost supersenSuous world
of psychic consciousness. In this high
empire of sound, the woman becomes a
true prieSteSS. She stands forth az
the embodiment of human sympathy
and spiritual -Contemporary
Review.