... "As to the singing of Professor Bliss and Miss Nellie Brown, it seems as though we are all in the third heaven at once, and that it is almost sacrilege to come down to meaner things."
Said Andrew Fletcher, "I knew a very wise man that believed, that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws, of the nation." This certainly was placing a very high, but perhaps not a much too high, estimate on the song-writing power. As coming next in greatness to the composers of meritorious popular ballads, we may mention those accomplished persons, who, possessing sweetly-toned, sympathetic voices, and evincing by their mode of expression a ready, a full conception of the author's meaning, have, in an eminent degree, the power to correctly, charmingly render them. In this form of musical expression Miss Brown delights her audiences not less than in her rendition of songs of a more pretentious character. In singing the former she exhibits a most winning naïveté, enters wholly into the spirit of the song, and with a full, pleasing voice, impresses deeply its melody and meaning upon the hearts of her hearers, thus exhibiting the highest kind of lyric eloquence. As a singer, then, of ballads alone, she would take high rank in the musical profession, even if she did not excel—it has been seen that she does—in the rendering of songs of a more technical character.
And now, in nearing the close of this sketch, if any reader shall ask to know the secret of the fine degree of success to which our subject has thus far attained (for, in considering great instances of individual achievement, we are ever prone to attribute the same to mysterious or fortuitous circumstances), let him be assured that there is really no "secret" about it. Miss Brown, no doubt, commenced her career with much musical talent, and Nature was otherwise kind to her: but she has always been a diligent, persevering worker; and to this cause, rather than to her possession of rich natural endowments, must be mostly attributed her praiseworthy achievements. Indeed, Nature's generous bestowment of talents, or even of genius, is of but little value when the favored one does not assiduously labor to cultivate and develop the same.
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"No good of worth sublime will Heaven permit To light on man as from the passing air: The lamp of genius, though by nature lit, If not protected, pruned, and fed with care, Soon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare." |
In her efforts to acquire an artistic acquaintance with music, and to reach her present high and enviable position as a vocalist, Miss Brown has had the warmest sympathy and active co-operation of loving parents and an accomplished brother.[12] Nor should I in this connection fail to advert to the helping, the inspiring influence of thousands of the noble people of New England, who, fond lovers and constant promoters of the beneficent art of music, are ever prompt in the recognition and encouragement of all its talented devotees. To the words of private cheer from many of these, and to the inspiriting effect of their upturned, delighted faces, and frequent plaudits, when listening to her beautiful voice in the crowded music-halls, she must often revert with feelings not less of justifiable pride than of the warmest gratitude. The writer is quite sure that he but echoes the sentiments of the admiring thousands just mentioned, when he predicts, that if Miss Brown shall continue to exhibit in the future, as in the past, the same conscientious, ambitious devotion to her chosen profession, she is destined to take rank with the world's greatest singers.