The Looker-On: October, 1895 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Looker-On: October, 1895

It is related of Chopin that he was so sensitive in his infancy that he could not hear music without crying, and of Mozart that he fainted on hearing the sound of a trumpet. Ignace appears to have been similarly sensitive to sounds. As a boy he used to crawl on the piano stool, strike the keys, listen to the vibrations that make up a tone, and modify his touch till he got the exact quality his delicate sense of tonal beauty craved. He also had the sense of absolute pitch - that is, he could name every note he heard and tell the com ponent parts of every chord without seeing the key board. Eager as he was to listen and learn, there was hardly any food for his musical appetite except the folk-songs of the peasants, which in Poland are beauti ful and characteristic. Once a fiddler tried to give him a few lessons on the piano, of which he knew but little himself. Subsequently an old piano teacher was en gaged to visit the isolated farm once a month. He taught the boy and his sister how to play simple ar rangements of operatic tunes for one or two performers; but of systematic instruction there could be no ques tion under such circumstances.

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