Purple Loosestrife. _Lythrum Salicaria._
Dedicated to _St. Pantaleon_.
[227] Golden Legend.
[228] In his “Reflections on the Devotions of the Romish Church.”
~July 28.~
_Sts. Nazarius_ and _Celsus_, A. D. 68. _St. Victor_, Pope, A. D.
201. _St. Innocent_ I. Pope, A. D. 417. _St. Sampson_, A. D. 564.
_Musical Prodigies._
There is at present in Berlin, a boy, between four and five years old,
who has manifested an extraordinary precocity of musical talent. Carl
Anton Florian Eckert, the son of a sergeant in the second regiment of
Fencible Guards, was born on the 7th of December, 1820. While in the
cradle, the predilection of this remarkable child for music was
striking, and passages in a minor key affected him so much as to make
tears come in his eyes. When about a year and a quarter old, he listened
to his father playing the air “_Schone Minka_” with one hand, on an old
harpsichord: he immediately played it with both hands, employing the
knuckles in aid of his short and feeble fingers. He continued afterwards
to play every thing by the ear. He retains whatever he hears in the
memory, and can tell at once whether an instrument is too high or too
low for concert pitch. It was soon observed that his ear was
sufficiently delicate to enable him to name any note or chord which
might be struck without his seeing it. He also transposes with the
greatest facility into any key he pleases, and executes pieces of fancy
_extempore_. A subscription has been opened to buy him a pianoforte, as
he has got tired of the old harpsichord, and two able musicians have
undertaken to instruct him.[229]
* * * * *
Eckert was pre-rivalled in England by the late Mr. Charles Wesley, the
son of the rev. Charles Wesley, and nephew to the late rev. John Wesley,
the founder of the religious body denominated methodists. The musical
genius of Charles Wesley was observed when he was not quite three years
old; he then surprised his father by playing a tune on the harpsichord
readily, and in just time. Soon afterwards he played several others.
Whatever his mother sang, or whatever he heard in the streets, he could,
without difficulty, make out upon this instrument. Almost from his birth
his mother used to quiet and amuse him with the harpsichord. On these
occasions, he would not suffer her to play only with one hand, but, even
before he could speak, would seize hold of the other, and put it upon
the keys. When he played by himself, she used to tie him by his
back-string to the chair, in order to prevent his falling. Even at this
age, he always put a true bass to every tune he played. From the
beginning he played without study or hesitation. Whenever, as was
frequently the case, he was asked to play before a stranger, he would
invariably inquire in a phrase of his own, “_Is he a musiker?_” and if
he was answered in the affirmative, he always did with the greatest
readiness. His style on all occasions was _con spirito_; and there was
something in his manner so much beyond what could be expected from a
child, that his hearers, learned or unlearned, were invariably
astonished and delighted.
When he was four years old, Mr. Wesley took him to London; and Beard,
who was the first musical man who heard him there, was so much pleased
with his abilities, that he kindly offered his interest with Dr. Boyce
to get him admitted among the king’s boys. This, however, his father
declined, as he then had no thoughts of bringing him up to the
profession of music. He was also introduced among others to Stanley and
Worgan. The latter in particular, was extremely kind to him, and would
frequently entertain him by playing on the harpsichord. The child was
greatly struck by his bold and full manner of playing, and seemed even
then to catch a spark of his fire. Mr. Wesley soon afterwards returned
with him to Bristol; and when he was about six years old, he was put
under the tuition of Rooke, a very good-natured man, but of no great
eminence, who allowed him to run on _ad libitum_, whilst he sat by
apparently more to observe than to control him. Rogers, at that time the
oldest organist in Bristol, was one of his first friends. He would often
sit him on his knee, and make the boy play to him, declaring, that he
was more delighted in hearing him then himself. For some years his study
and practice were almost entirely confined to the works of Corelli,
Scarlatti, and Handel; and so rapid was his progress, that, at the age
of twelve or thirteen, it was thought that no person was able to excel
him in performing the compositions of these masters. He was instructed
on the harpsichord by Kelway, and in the rules of composition by Dr.
Boyce. His first work, “A Set of Six Concertos for the Organ or
Harpsichord,” published under the immediate inspection of that master,
as a first attempt, was a wonderful production; it contained fugues
which would have done credit to a professor of the greatest experience
and the first eminence. His performance on the organ, and particularly
his extempore playing on that sublime instrument, was the admiration and
delight of all his auditors.
* * * * *
The present Mr. Samuel Wesley, brother of the preceding, and born in
1766, also gave a very early indication of musical genius. When only
three years of age, he could play on the organ; and, when eight years
old, attempted to compose an oratorio. Some of the airs which he wrote
for the organ were shown to Dr. Boyce, and occasioned the doctor to say,
“This boy unites, by nature, as true a bass as I can do by rule and
study.” Mr. Wesley’s compositions are in the highest degree masterly and
grand; and his extempore performance of fugues on the organ astonishing.
He produces from that solemn instrument all the grand and serious graces
of which it is capable. His melodies, though struck out on the instant,
are sweet and varied, and never common-place; his harmony is
appropriate, and follows them with all the exactness and discrimination
of the most studious master; his execution, which is very great, is
always sacrificed to the superior charms of expression.[230]
To this be it added, that the intellectual endowments of Mr. Samuel
Wesley equal his musical talents, and that the amiable and benevolent
qualities of his nature add lustre to his acquirements. He is a man of
genius without pretension, and a good man without guile.
* * * * *