Music and Some Highly Musical PeopleTrotter, James M.
History
Music and Some Highly Musical People
Trotter, James M.
African American musicians -- Biography; African Americans -- Music
"She had been told Lord Shaftesbury was one of the great
good men of England; and she resolved to call upon him in
person, and entreat an interview. His lordship immediately
granted her request, listened patiently to her history, and
directly gave her a letter of introduction to his lawyer.
"It may perhaps be considered a providential concurrence
that Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe was in London this same time
with Miss Greenfield. We notice in her 'Sunny Memories,'
under the date of May 6, the following remarks: 'A good many
calls this morning. Among others came Miss Greenfield, the
(so-called) "Black Swan." She appears to be a gentle,
amiable, and interesting young person. She has a most
astonishing voice. C. sat down to the piano, and played
while she sang. Her voice runs through a compass of three
octaves and a fourth. This is four notes more than
Malibran's. She sings a most magnificent tenor, with such a
breadth and volume of sound, that, with your back turned,
you could not imagine it to be a woman. While she was there,
Mrs. S.C. Hall, of the "Irish Sketches," was announced. I
told her of Miss Greenfield; and she took great interest in
her, and requested her to sing something for her. C. played
the accompaniment, and she sang "Old Folks at Home," first
in a soprano voice, and then in a tenor, or baritone. Mrs.
Hall was amazed and delighted, and entered at once into her
cause. She said she would call with me, and present her to
Sir George Smart, who is at the head of the Queen's musical
establishment, and, of course, the acknowledged leader of
London musical judgment.
"'In the course of the day I had a note from Mrs. Hall,
saying, that, as Sir George Smart was about leaving town,
she had not waited for me, but had taken Miss Greenfield to
him herself. She writes that he was really astonished and
charmed at the wonderful weight, compass, and power of her
voice. He was also as well pleased with the mind in her
singing, and her quickness in doing and catching all that he
told her. Should she have a public opportunity to perform,
he offered to hear her rehearse beforehand. Mrs. Hall says,
"This is a great deal for him, whose hours are all marked
with gold."'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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