You will succeed after a while, but precipitation,
compulsion, and disputes are useless. The improvement of a soprano
voice, ruined by over-screaming, requires prudence, patience, calmness,
and modesty, and a character of a high type generally. It is also a very
thankless task, and success is rare; while on the piano a fair result
may always be accomplished.
* * * * *
I return once more to the subject so frequently discussed, that I may
try to relieve the universal difficulty of our lady pianists. I have
heard much playing of late, in parties both small and large, on
well-tuned and on ill-tuned pianos, on those with which the performer
was familiar, and on those to which she was unaccustomed; from the timid
and the self-possessed; from ladies of various ages, possessed of more
or of less talent, and in various cities: the result was always the
same.
We hear from the ladies that they could play their pieces at home before
their parents or their teachers; but this is never sufficient to enable
them to save their hearers from weariness, anxiety, and all sorts of
embarrassment.
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