518 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO \779- 



and at last he weakened the springs of 2 keys at once, which, by preventing the 

 valves of the wind-chest from closing, occasioned a double cypher, both of 

 which he directly found out. Any child indeed, that is not an idiot, who knows 

 black from white, long from short, and can pronounce the letters of the alpha- 

 bet by which musical notes are called, may be taught the names of the keys of 

 the harpsichord in 5 minutes ; but, in general, 5 years would not be sufficient, 

 at any age, to impress the mind of a musical student with an infallible reminis- 

 cence of the tones produced by these keys, when not allowed to look at them. 



Another wonderful part of his pre-maturity was the being able, at 2 years and 

 4 months old, to transpose into the most extraneous and difficult keys whatever 

 he played ; and now, in his extemporaneous flights, he modulates into all keys 

 with equal facility. The last qualification which Dr. B. points out as extraordi- 

 nary in this infant musician, is the being able to play an extemporary base to easy 

 melodies when performed by another person on the same instrument. But these 

 bases must not be imagined correct, according to the rules of counter-point, 

 any more than his voluntaries. He generally gives indeed the key-note to pas- 

 sages formed from its common chord and its inversions, and is quick at discover- 

 ing when the 5th of the key will serve as a base. At other times he makes the 

 3d of the key serve as an accompaniment to melodies formed from the harmony 

 of the chord to the key-note; and if simple passages are played slow, in a regular 

 progression ascending or descending, he soon finds out that 3ds or loths, below 

 the treble, will serve his purpose in furnishing an agreeable accompaniment. 



However, in this kind of extemporary base, if the same passages are not fre- 

 quently repeated, the changes of modulation must be few and slow, or correct- 

 ness cannot be expected even from a professor. The child is always as ready at 

 finding a treble to a base as a base to a treble if played in slow notes, even in 

 chromatic passages ; that is, if, after the chord ot c natural is struck, c be made 

 sharp, he soon finds out that a makes a good base to it ; and on the contrary, if, 

 after the chord of d with a sharp third, f is made natural, and a is changed into 

 B, he instantly gives g for the base. 



When he declares himself tired of playing on an instrument, and his musical 

 faculties seem wholly blunted, he can be provoked to attention, even though en- 

 gaged in any new amusement, by a wrong note being struck in the melody of 

 any well known tune ; and if he stands by the instrument when such a note is 

 designedly struck, he will instantly put down the right, in whatever key the air 

 is playing. At present, all his own melodies are imitations of common and easy 

 passages, and he seems insensible to others ; however, the only method by which 

 such an infant can as yet be taught any thing better seems by example. If he 

 were to hear only good melody and harmony, he would doubtless try to produce 

 something similar ; but, at present, he plays nothing correctly, and his vulun- 



