Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
The most exciting event of the month has been the arrival of the
celebrated Swedish vocalist, JENNY LIND. She reached New York in the
Steamer _Atlantic_ on the 1st of September, and was received by a
demonstration of popular enthusiasm which has seldom been equaled in this
country. More than twenty thousand people gathered upon the wharf where
she landed, and crowded the streets through which she passed. She gave her
first concert at Castle Garden, in New York, on the evening of the 12th,
and this was rapidly followed by five others at the same place. The number
of persons present on each occasion could not have been less then seven
thousand. The receipts on the first night were about thirty thousand
dollars, and JENNY LIND immediately bestowed ten thousand upon several of
the worthiest charities of New York City. The enthusiasm which she excites
seems fully justified not more by her superiority as an artist than by her
personal qualities and character. Of her life a brief but spirited sketch,
from the graceful pen of her distinguished countrywoman, Miss BREMER, will
be found in another part of this Magazine. Her charities are already well
known and honored wherever there are hearts to glow at deeds of
enlightened benevolence. A young woman, who has not yet seen thirty years,
she has already bestowed upon benevolent objects half a million of
dollars, not inherited or won at a throw, but the fruit of a life of
severe and disheartening toil, and has appropriated to the benefit of her
native country the profits which she will reap from the willing soil of
America. As an artist she has powers which are met with but once or twice
in a generation. Her voice is in itself a wonder, and unlike most wonders
is beautiful to a degree which causes those who come under its influence
to forget surprise in pleasure. It is compared to all things beautiful
under the sun by those whose grateful task it is to set its attractions
forth in detail: to the flood of melody from the nightingale’s throat, to
light, to water which flows from a pure and inexhaustible spring. We shall
be content to say that it appears to us almost the ideal of a beautiful
sound. It would puzzle the nicest epicure of the ear, we think, to say in
what respect he would have its glorious quality modified. He might object
possibly at first to the slightest shade of huskiness which appears
sometimes in its lower tones, or to an equally slight sharpness in the
very highest, but if he listened long he would surely forget to object.
The purely musical quality of JENNY LIND’S voice is its crowning charm and
excellence, in comparison with which its great extent, brilliance, and
acquired flexibility are of but secondary worth. Its lowest tone can be
felt at a distance and above, or rather through, all noisy obstacles and
surroundings, whether they be vocal or instrumental. Another of its chief
charms is its seeming inexhaustibility. It pours forth in a pellucid flood
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