Page:Memory; how to develop, train, and use it - Atkinson - 1919.djvu/161

Rh dismayed, he placed a blank sheet of paper before him, and played his part through from memory without a mistake. When the opera of ‘Don Giovanni’ was first performed there was no time to copy the score for the harpsichord, but Mozart was equal to the occasion; he conducted the entire opera and played the harpsichord accompaniment to the songs and choruses without a note before him. There are many well-attested instances of Mendelssohn’s remarkable musical memory. He once gave a grand concert in London, at which his Overture to ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was produced. There was only one copy of the full score, which was taken charge of by the organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, who unfortunately left it in a hackney coach—whereupon Mendelssohn wrote out another score from memory, without an error. At another time, when about to direct a public performance of Bach’s ‘Passion Music,’ he found on mounting the conductor’s platform that instead of the score of the work to be performed, that of another composition had been brought by mistake. Without hesitation Mendelssohn successfully conducted this com-