Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/488

472 well known to most readers, so that I may pass them over with a brief reference.

Mozart is, I believe, the true Wunderkind in the magical realm of music. He began to play at so infantile a period that no date is assigned. At four he could play minuets, in good style probably, for a year after he was exhibited in public. Early in his fifth year he composed concertos; at eleven he wrote an opera buffa, and so forth. Next to him, perhaps, comes Mendelssohn, who first played in public at the age of nine, and whose first dated work, a cantata, was written when he was eleven. Beethoven tells us that he began music in his fourth year, and that at nine he had outgrown his father's teaching. He is said to have written a cantata when ten, and it is certain that a composition for the piano (variations on "Dressler's March") dates from this year. Schubert is another conspicuous instance of early musical development. He, too, soon outstripped his teacher, who said he had got harmony at his fingers'-ends. At eleven he was sufficiently skillful with the violin to play that instrument in church, and at the same date he began to compose little songs.

The examples just cited illustrate what may be called all-round musical precocity. Others show early talent in a more restricted form of activity. A number of musicians distinguished themselves as lads by masterly execution. Meyerbeer, who as a young child could play any air he had heard, performed at a public concert at nine. Hillier did the same thing one year later. At the age of twelve Spohr played the violin in public. Mehul was installed as organist at ten.

Among instances of early attempts at musical composition may be named the following: Schumann tells us that he composed before seven; Cherubini is said to have written at nine, Auber at eleven, Weber at twelve (his first opera dates two years later), David at thirteen, Lotti and Rossini at sixteen, and our own Purcell at seventeen.

We have now to note the very early age at which a number of eminent musicians entered on a regular curriculum of study with a view to professional life. Some of the greatest precocities, as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, etc., having had parents either themselves musical and able to be teachers themselves, or at least svmpathetic and anxious to get musical instruction for their gifted children, may almost be said to have begun their professional career from their infancy; others began to study at a very early age. Thus Weber was sent by his father (himself a musician) to be instructed, at the age of nine. Puck began to study at twelve. In many cases we see the young musician's quenchless earnestness aided by the favor of influential friends, leading to an early devotion to the art, even in the teeth of parental indifference or active opposition. Handel and Haydn are striking cases in point.