El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-08
HoLO Learned Music
BY CAMILLE SAINT sAFNS.
The Enu1nrre Cnrr,nnanr
A short Story.
me z allous composer.

UNFORTUNATELY my mother
had not had a very good edu-
cation, but her powers Of i'm
agination made up for wat she
lacked. In that respect she Sls Won
derfuL She often told me about an
uncle, whom she had dearly loved and
who had ruined himself for Philip
Egalite. He was an artist by nature,
madly fond of music, and had built
an organ with his own hands, on
which he used TO play He let my
mother sit on his knees and while he
brushed and cOmbed her wonderful,
dark hair. he spoke to her of art,
music, painting and the beautiful in
ali its manifestations, so that she
quite made up her mind that il she
ever had any sons, the first born
was to be a musician, the second a
painter, and the third a sculptor.
She was, therefore, not surprised at
all when ], as soon as 1 had been
Weaned. began to listen to all sounds
and noises, that / made the doors
squeak and stood in front Of the
clocks waiting to hear them strike
Ny chief pleasure, however, was the
symphony of the kettle, q gigantic
kettle which was placed in front OF
the fire place in the parlOr every
morning / sat down on stool, as
close to it as possible, and waited for
its first murmuring sounds. its slow
crescendo full of surprises and a MI
crOscOpical Oboe, whose voices rose
=
OF the boiling water sllenced II.
Berlioz also must have heard this
Oboe for I have heard it IN the flight
to hell of the "Damnation De Faust
When I was so months old I was
put down in front Of a small piano,
which had not been used for years
Instead Of striking the keys at ran
dom as most children would have
done, I struck one key after the other
and did not raise my finger until the
tone had died away
All these little details have not
been told me, I remember them per-
I was taught after Charpentier's
method. A month later I was through
with it. Ny folks did not want 10
have a boy of my size and age ham
mering away at the piano all day,
but when they closed it I yelled and
hCwled, as if they were killing me.
Then the piano was left open ana a
small stool was placed in front Of II,
into which I climbed whenever I left
ny toys to play tunes which came
into my head. By and by my aunt
taught me the proper positions OF the
fingers that I might not acquire the
bad habits which are so difficult TO
overcome later. They did not know
what music was to give me. what
is written for children, Is as rule
merely melOd1OuS and the lett nanQ IS
unintereSting. I refused to play such
things. The bass does not sing"
said.
Then they looked through the old
masters. Hayden and Mozart, TO find
something that was easy enough for
me. When was five years old
played little sonatas neatly and flu
diences who understood and appre-
ciated what I played. In biography
written about me / have read LnaI
they used a whip to force me to play
That is not true, but il is true that
they had to tell me that a very mu-
steal lady was present or 1 fatty re-
fused to play.
In spite of the surprising progress I
made, my teacher did not think much
Of my future. Il shall be very well
pleased, if he is able to play at
dances when he is fifteen" she said
I began to compose right away. Ny
first compositions were Waltzes ana
gallops. The latter was fashionable,
though vulgar, and mine were no bet
ter than the rest List had had to
prove with his chrOmatc galOp what
genius NAV make out of even the
lowest popular kind OF music Ny
WaltZes were better Even then 4
composed, as I have always done, by
writing the music straight down on
the paper without trying it with my
fingers These WaltZes were far too
difficult for my small fingers but a
young woman friend Of our family,
a sister to the singer. Geraldys was
kind enough to play them
One day somebody got the idea that
I must hear an orchestra
At that time there were symphony
concerts at Passage SaumOn- I was
taken there by my mother who stood
with me near the entrance Until then
I had heard only viOlins alone and
the sound Of them did not appeal to
me It was quite different when 1
heard the string orchestra, but all at
once the brass instruments fell IN
comets. trombones, and cymbals. This
made me angry and 1 cried out aloud:
Tell them to be quiet. They make
such a noise that I cannot hear the
music"
Later I have had to get used to
crchestras.