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OUR ARM- CHAIR.-MUSICAL CORNER .
OUR ARM- CHAIR . Mas. ANN S. STEPHENS' NOVELS are published by T. B. Peterson & Brothers, No. 306 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, bound in paper cover, as follows : · $1.50 Curse ofGold, · 1 50 Mabel's Mistake, · 1 50 Doubly False, · 1 50 The Soldier's Orphans, - 1 50 Silent Struggles, - 150 The Wife's Secret, 1 50 The Rejected Wife, 150 Mary Derwent, 1 50 Fashion and Famine, 150 The Old Homestead, The Heiress, · 150 150 The Gold Brick, Or, bound in cloth, at $175 each. On receipt of the money, T. B. Peterson & Brothers will send, post-paid, a copy of either of the above to any address. THE MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN COMPANY, even with their immense factory, are barely able to supply the demand for their celebrated instruments, though they finish and deliver from one hundred to one hundred and fifty Organs every week. It is part of their system to print their lowest prices, which are fixed and invariable. They sell always at smallest remunerative profits ; and as cost of production is diminished by invention of new machinery, prices are reduced. They send their circulars, with full particulars, free of charge, to any one desiring them ; and they contain a great amount of information which must be ofimportance to any one thinking of buying an Organ. FIVE HUNDRED SUITS.- Miss S. II. Alexander, of Newbern, Va., writes:-" We have had our Wheeler & Wilson machine for ten years; have made five hundred suits of heavy cloth upon it, quite a number of tents- which is very heavy work -a quantity of family sewing, from the finest material to the coarsest, and never spent a cent for repairs. I have seen a great many other machines, but would not now exchange mine for any other." ADVERTISEMENTS inserted in this periodical at reasonable rates. "Peterson" is the most valuable vehicle in the United States for advertising, for it has a larger circulation than any other Magazine, and goes to every town, village, and cross-ronds in the Nation. For terms, etc., address PETERSON'S MAGAZINE, 306 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. " THE CURSE OF GOLD," says the Philadelphia Press, "is Mrs. Stephens' best story, after ' Fashion and Famine,' which, after many years, we remember with pleasure." It is published by T. B. Peterson & Brothers, 306 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. Price, in cloth, 1.75 : in paper covers, $1.50.
BOTH A NECESSITY AND LUXURY. -The Doylestown (Pa.) Democrat says :-"The writers for ' Peterson's Magazine' are of acknowledged merit, standing foremost in their rank, as first-class American authors. Such a periodical cannot fail of being a success, for it is both a necessity and a luxury." MUSICAL CORNER. HOW TO SING BALLADS.- After all, it is the well sung ballad that gives the most universal pleasure in the home circle. It is the ballad that moves the sympathies and enchains the attention of the majority of hearers. Few amateurs can hope to sing Italian music in a manner that shall satisfy ears accustomed to the singing of the great operatic " Stars; " but those who, by the aidof taste, feeling,
and expression, can succeed in giving full interpretation to an English, Irish, or Scotch song or ballad, may rely upoa finding attentive and delighted listeners even among the most zealous of opera habitues. Vocal solos may be divided into two classes—songs and ballads. Songs may be sacred or secular : but they do not, of necessity, embody a story. It may even be questioned whether they must, of necessity, be expressed in words. The song of the nightingale calls in no aid of language ; but it is a song, and one of the best of songs, nevertheless. The famons variations to Rode's air, the glory and delight of florid vocalists, though executed upon the open sound of A, with never a word in it from beginning to end, is in the same way a song. A Song, however, in the ordinary accep tation of the word, is an expression of feeling or sentiment in verse, unallied to any dramatic or narrative interest. A Ballad, on the contrary, embodies some story or legend. To take two instances, familiar to every reader-Waller's exquisite lines, beginning " Go, lovely rose,'" offer one of the best specimens of the genus Song, while Professor Kingsley's well-known " Three Fishers" may fairly stand as our representative of the Ballad. The first step toward singing a ballad should be a careful study of the words. These should be considered from every point of view, and read aloud with every effort to give them full expression, either by retarding or hurrying, raising or lowering the voice, in accordance with the sentiments of the story. When the best interpretation-or, as it is technically called, the best “ reading”—of the poem has been decided upon, the singer has then to study the resources and capability of the melody, and to practice till she suc ceeds in singing the words with precisely those same dramatic and sensational effects of utterance which she employed when reading them aloud. But to do this is by no means easy. It is often difficult to pronounce a harshsounding word on a high note. It sometimes happens that the very word which should be delivered with most power falls upon the weakest note of the singer's voice. Grating consonants must often be softened down. Vowels must sometimes be made the most of. Sibillants, above all, re quire the most dexterous treatment. For these, and a hundred similar emergencies, the ballad-singer must le always prepared. The art of taking breath is also of considerable importance. Only the merest tyro would, of course, take breath in the middle of a word ; but to avod this one error is not enough. The singer must be careful never to take breath in a way that breaks the flow of a sentence, or interrupts the sense of the words. The poem, whether read or sung, must be respected above all else; for to sing, be it remembered, is but to recite vocally. A good singer punctuates by taking breath judiciously. There are, ofcourse, passages in some ballads where, in order to give the effect of strong passion, such as hope, terror, joy. despair, the singer finds it necessary to let the breath eme and go in that fluttering, intermitting way, which, in cases of real emotion, is caused by the accelerated action of the heart. Again, there are occasions when the voice seems to fail from emotion, and where the words are interrupted by pauses, or broken by repressed sobs. Effects of this kind, when skillfully indicated rather than broadly expressed, give immense charm to the rendering of a pathetic ballad; provided always that they are not indulged in too frequently. The efforts of every singer should be bounded by the capabilities of her voice. She should know her own voice thoroughly, its strong and weak points, its shoals and quicksands, its utmost limits. Those who attempt to strain the voice beyond its natural compass inevitably sacrifice expression and accentuation to an unwise ambition. The consciousness of effort is fatal to that self-possession, that ease of delivery, and that freedom of thought, without which it is impossible to express delicate shades of meaning, of
