align="right">200

CHARLES SANTLEY 216 ANTOINETTE STERLING 220 CHARLES HALLÉ AND MANUEL GARCIA
From a Drawing by Richard Doyle. 222 HERMANN KLEIN 238 MADAME MELBA 268 FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN BY MANUEL GARCIA AT 91 278 FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 99 294 FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN AT 94 296 FACSIMILE PAGE OF MUSIC WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDREDTH YEAR 312 FACSIMILE LETTER WRITTEN IN HIS HUNDRED-AND-SECOND YEAR 322

LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED.

——

• 'Albion.' (An American weekly newspaper published from 1823-1826.)
• Appleton's 'Cyclopedia of American Biography.'
• 'Athenæum' (1848).
• Brewer's 'History of France.'
• Burney's 'History of Music' (1776-1789).
• Colletta's 'History of Naples' (1734-1825). Horner's translation.
• 'Diversions of a Music Lover.' By C. L. Graves.
• Eitner's 'Quellen Lexikon.'
• Elson's 'History of American Music.'
• Fétis' 'Biographie Universelle des Musiciens.'
• 'Fitz-Greene Halleck's Memoirs.' By General James Grant Wilson.
• Fuller-Maitland's revised edition of Grove's 'Dictionary of Music.'
• 'Harmonicon' Musical Magazine (1823-1833).
• Haydn's 'Dictionary of Dates.'
• 'Jenny Lind's Memoirs.' By Holland and Rockstro.
• 'Le Guide Musical.'
• 'Londina Illustrata.' By Wilkinson. (1819-1825.)
• 'Madrid.' By a Resident Officer. (1833.)
• Mapleson's 'Memoirs.'
• 'Marchesi and Music.'
• Mendel's 'Musikalisches Conversations Lexikon.'
• 'Mexico.' By Maria Wright.
• Morse-Stephens's 'European Revolution.'
• 'Musical Reminiscences of Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe' (1824).
• 'Paris.' By G. L. Craik. (1834).
• 'Recollections.' By Bessie Palmer.
• Sir Felix Semon's 'Zum hundertsten Geburstage Manuel Garcia's.' (Privately printed.)
• 'Sixty Years of Recollections.' By Ernest Legouvé.
• 'Student and Singer.' By Sir Charles Santley.
• 'Thirty Years of Musical Life.' By Hermann Klein.
• Wyndham's 'History of Covent Garden.'

FIRST PERIOD

PREPARATION

(1805-1830)

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

MANUEL GARCIA, the Centenarian.

How much do those words imply!—words which it is impossible to pen without a feeling of awe.

Garcia, a member of that family of Spanish musicians whose combined brilliancy has probably never been equalled in the annals of the musical world. The father and founder of the family, renowned as one of the finest tenors of his day; as a prolific composer, and as a singing teacher of distinguished ability, as well as conductor and impressario; in fact, a fine vocalist and an equally fine musician, which in those days was something of a rara avis.

The eldest daughter, Maria Malibran, a contralto whose brief career was one series of triumphs, while her gifts as a composer were shared by her sister, Pauline Viardot-Garcia, whose singing drew forth the praise and admiration of all, and whose retirement from the stage and concert platform brought with it fresh honours in the field of teaching, wherein she showed herself a worthy exponent of the high ideals of the Garcias.

And what of Manuel himself? The subject of our Memoir has a triple claim that his name should be inscribed on the roll of fame. As professor of singing, he is acknowledged to have been the greatest of his time. In the musical firmament he has been the centre of a solar system of his own,—a sun round which revolved a group of planets, whose names are familiar to all: Jenny Lind, Maria Malibran, Mathilde Marchesi, Henriette Nissen, Charles Santley, Antoinette Sterling, Julius Stockhausen, Pauline Viardot, and Johanna Wagner—these are but a few of them.

Many, too, out of the number have themselves thrown off fresh satellites, such as Calvè, Eames, Henschel, Melba, Scheidemantel, van Rooy. One and all have owed a debt of eternal gratitude to Manuel Garcia and his system.

Again, as a scientific investigator he has given us the Laryngoscope, which Huxley placed among the most important inventions of the medical world. Indeed, it is no figure of speech, but a statement of demonstrable fact, that millions have been benefited by his work.

Thirdly, as a centenarian, he is without question the most remarkable of modern times.

Of the men who have attained to that rare age, those who possess any claim upon our interests beyond their mere weight of years are but a comparative handful.

Of musicians one alone has approached him in longevity, Giacomo Bassevi Cervetto, who died on January 14, 1783, within a few days of his 101st birthday, but with little distinction beyond this fact. As to the rest who go to make up the tale of the world's centenarians of recent years, it has been generally a case of the survival of the unfittest—

"In second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

How different Manuel Garcia when he celebrated his 100th birthday: in the early morning, received by the King at Buckingham Palace; at noon, entering the rooms of the Royal Medical Society with short, quick steps, walking unaided to the dais, mounting it with agility and then sitting for an hour, smiling and upright, while receiving honours and congratulations from all parts of the globe. Which of those who