Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/55

Rh 

Even theatrical people, accustomed, as they are, to good acting and to artificial feeling well expressed, are sometimes moved by the force or feeling which an actor or singer brings to his part. Perhaps as prominent an instance of this as can be found was in the singing of Pacchierotti, a vocalist of the last century.

When singing at Rome in a certain opera, he sang with so much beauty of tone and true feeling that, at a certain place where a solo passage was followed by a short orchestral symphony, the orchestra was so moved by his singing as to forget to go on with their playing. Pacchierotti turned to the conductor, saying, "What are you about?"

The leader started as if from a dream, and could only say, "Pray forgive me." The whole orchestra were sitting with tears in their eyes, oblivious of their duties.  

Part of the service used in the Pope's chapel at Rome is sacredly guarded and kept with great care in the archives of the chapel. Any singer found tampering with this Miserere of Allegri, or giving a note of it to an outsider, would be visited by excommunication. Only three copies of this service have ever been sent out. One was for the Emperor Leopold, another to the King of Portugal, and the third to the celebrated musician, Padre Martini.

But there was one copy that was made without the Pope's orders, and not by a member of the choir either. When Mozart was taken to Rome in his youth, by his father, he went to the service at St. Peter's and heard the service in all its impressiveness. Mozart, senior, could hardly arouse the lad from his fascination with the music, when the time came to leave the cathedral. That