Scan 120
Voice and violin : sketches, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1898
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 100. See the scan on archive.org.
1in her leisure moments has sufficed to make her a most charming vocalist.
3The great prima donna Madame Mara, who shone before the time of Paganini, began life as a wonderfully clever child-violinist,¹ as many another eminent songstress has done, among whom we may mention Sembrich, Singelée, and Isidora Martinez, and she used to recommend a preliminary training on the violin as being of the greatest advantage to a singer. But there is a great difference between a preliminary training and the constant practice of the instrument and the voice at the same time. It may be true that a few years devoted to it in early life, before a course of vocal study is entered upon, would prove in many cases highly advantageous; but when once the voice has been chosen for cultivation the violin must not be allowed to interfere with it. On the other hand, the student of the violin must likewise go through a course of solfeggio before he begins the violin, if he wishes to become a perfect musician.
5¹ See my "Famous Violinists," &c. (London, 1896).
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