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other parts of the compofition. After this I have been prefent 

 when he hath executed thirty or forty different folo's for 

 the fame inftrument, totally almoft varied the one from the 

 other, to the aftonifhment of feveral audiences, and particu- 

 larly fo to that eminent performer on the hautboy Mr. 

 Simpfon. 



Having found that the greater part of thofe who heard him 

 would not believe but that his voluntaries had been praclifed 

 before, I always endeavoured that fome perfon prefent (and more 

 particularly fo if he was a profeflbr) mould give him the fubjecl: 

 upon which he was to work, which always afforded the con- 

 vincing and irrefragable proof, as he then compofed upon the 

 ideas fuggefted by others, to which ordeal it is believed few mu- 

 ficians in Europe would fubmit. The more difficult the fubjecl: 

 (as if it was two or three bars of the beginning of a fugue), the 

 more chearfully he undertook it, as he always knew he was 

 equal to the attempt, be it never fo arduous. 



I once carried that able compofer Mr. Chriftopher Smith to the 

 boy, defiring that he would fuggeft the fubjecl: ; which Sam not 

 only purfued in a moft mafterly manner, but fell into a movement 

 of the minor third, which might be naturally introduced. When 

 we left Mr. Wefley's houfe, Mr. Smith, after expreffing his, 

 amazement, faid that what he had juft heard mould be a caution 

 to thofe who are apt to tax compofers as plagiaries ; for though 

 he had wrote on the fame fubjecl:, and the mufic had never been 

 feen by any one, this wonderful boy had almoft followed him: 

 note by note. Baumgarten found the fame, upon a like trial, of 

 what he had never communicated to any one. 



I can refer only to one printed proof of his abilities as a com- 

 pofer, which is a fet of eight lefibns for the harpfichord, and 

 which appeared in 1777, about the fame time that he became fo 



known 



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