1831.] C 265 ] 



STORIES OV LIVING MrSICIANS. 



If an exaggerated degree of veneration was accorded, by the ancient 

 Greeks, to musicians as men, we, perhaps, are too prone to consider them 

 more in their professional than their personal character. No son of song 

 ' , ever yet acquired fame or honour in his art, without possessing an en- 

 thusiasm which, though chiefly directed to musical science, could not 

 fail to tinge his thoughts and actions on points unconnected with har- 

 mony. Braham rather regales his mind upon the recollections of royalty 

 than the reminiscences of popular applause ; Catalan! muses less on her 

 miracles of voice than on the compliments of the soldier Swede ; and 

 poor Charley Dignum's glee was but the consequence and product of 

 mock-turtle and malmsey-madeira. It might be difficult to define in 

 what manner " the concord of sweet sounds" operates on the moral 

 character of him whom thsy inspire ; j^et it will be assented to, that 

 musical taste often wars with the ordinary pursuits of life, and induces 

 apathy in the common concerns of active society : — and it is a freedom 

 from the cares and anxieties of the world, thus produced, which has 

 assured longevity to singers in a number of remarkable instances, little 

 as their avocations would seem favourable to advanced age. 



It is but a few years since Madame ]\Iara, after the interval of half a 

 century, re-appeared upon the London boards,undoubtedly with diminished 

 powers of execution, but with all the taste and enthusiasm for the art 

 that she possessed when she enchanted a by-gone generation. She was 

 then more aged than the oldest of her admirers ; — on the scene of her 

 early glories, where once the proud and the influential struggled for her 

 notice, and with all the deceitful reminiscences of her former fame alive 

 in her mind, she found herself alone — a stranger in the assembly ; the 

 walls had lost their echo, and the mute respect with which the audience 

 listened to her later accents, eloquently told her v/hat she had been, and 

 wliat she was. She wept bitterly at the wholesome but humbling lesson. 

 Barbarini, once so celebrated as a singer, was discovered but last year, by 

 a traveller, still living, in a retired town of Russia; where, at the age 

 of 100, he was in the active performance of the homely duties of a 

 lowly innkeeper at Voronoge, and, notwithstanding his weight of years, 

 walked daily a league and a half for the benefit of his health ; eacli 

 evening reverting to his guitar, and singing the songs of his fair Italy 

 with a feeble voice. Court-favour failed him, and, reduced to poverty, 

 he was obliged to seek subsistence by manual labour in that distasteful 

 clime. 



Catarina Gabrieli, who had been in her infant years the companion of 

 poor Barbarini, who had shared with him the best of his fame (being his 

 junior by five years only), and whose musical talent was the boast of her 

 native Italy, also still survives. She is upwards of 100. But, two years 

 since, she could delight her friends by evidence of yet extraordinary 

 powers. In the meridian of her renown the most splendid offers were 

 made her to proceed to foreign shores, and from London golden argu- 

 ments were profusely lavished to induce her to visit us. " I can never do 

 there as I like," was the honest answer of the celebrated cantatrice. " If 

 I do not choose to sing I shall be insulted. — No ! no ! — I would rather 

 live in my own Italy, were it a jail." The Empress Catherine, about the 

 year 1 7f>.'>, exerted all lier influence to have Gabrieli at Saint Peters- 

 burg, luitil, wearied by the assiduous persuasion of the autocrat's ambas- 



