Let us abandon this singing for parties, this
melancholy _dilettantismus_, everywhere so obtrusive! The girl is only
eighteen years old: is she beyond salvation? I endeavor to build her
voice up again, gradually, by gentle practice. She succeeds very well in
it, and after six lessons her natural docility arouses hope. The
head-tones again make their appearance, and the practice of _solfeggio_
brings out once more the stifled voice which had been forced back into
the throat by senseless exertions; a better attack begins to be
developed, and the chest-register returns to its natural limits. She now
declared, with her mother's approval, that she really would continue to
study in this way, but she could not give up the performance of her
effective and spirited conception of the "Erlkoenig." She came a few
times more: I could perceive that the good structure was tottering.
After a few months, she had entirely sacrificed her voice to this single
"Erlkoenig." In such tender years, one such idol is sufficient.
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