Page:Notes of a Pianist.djvu/15

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CONTENTS.




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.


CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Parentage and birth—Musical precocity—Delicate health of his mother—Removal to Pass Christian—Mother alarmed by hearing the piano—Great surprise to find it was the child—Father's resolve to have him taught music—Anecdote of the negress slave and child—Effrontery of Indian—Return to New Orleans 25
CHAPTER II.
Mr. Letellier, his teacher of piano— Mr. Miolan, teacher on violin—Rapid progress—Plays organ at cathedral mass—Unable, from emotion, to relate his success to his mother—His first concert—Great success—Father's resolution to send him to Paris—Concert before departure—Anecdote of Mr. Barraud, the hairdresser 29
CHAPTER III.
Leaves New Orleans for Paris—Arrival in Paris—Hallé, his first musical professor—Afterwards Camille Stamaty—His love for Mr. Stamaty—Composition taught him by Mr. Maleden—Other studies—Introduced by his grandaunt, the Marquise de la Grange, to the Duke of Salvandi and the Duchesse de Narbonne, Duke d'Ecarre, Rothschild, Edouard Rodrigue—Great memory for music—Musical mnemotechny applied to other studies—Concert, non payant, at the Salle Pleyel—Could America produce an artist?—Great success—Chopin's prediction—Concert at Sedan—Hitherto played only compositions of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Thalberg, and Chopin—Writes 'Danse Ossianique,' 'Les Ballades d'Ossian,' or 'Le Lai du Dernier Ménestrel,' 'La Grande Valse,' 'La Grande Etude Concert'—Anecdotes 31

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