AN INFANT PRODIGY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1517, 25 November 1886, Page 3

AN INFANT PRODIGY.

They have dug eut what appears to be a genuine infant prodigy iu Sydney. The Mail says :—" Within this city has been resident for some years a little girl whose musical powers are phenomenal, whose tiny fingers fly over the keyboard with fairylike Bpeed, aud who plays not as if she were giving the result of study or labor, but as though phe were playing with the pianoforte as an ordinary child plays with her favorite toy. Little Elsie Hall is now 9 years of age, and small for her ag9. There is nothing of the wonderchild about her manner. The talent is inherited from her mother, who for years was known and valued as a teacher of music in Queensland. The little ons from her birth music constantly, and before she could walk picked out on the pianoforte musical phraseß. She played by instinct, and learning the notes has been acquired almost by accident. The child has been for some time under Herr Kretschraann s care, and beyond the extraordinary facility with which she has triumphed over the difficulties of pianoforte playing, a remarkable advance has been made since the 0 minor concerto of Beethoven has been studied, and the chi d has not only learned the music accuratelv from memory, but haß played it with eight instrumentalists associated in the performance. Evidence of the most satisfactory kind was afforded of this at a gathering of musical connoisseurs assembled recently at the invitation of Heir Kretschmann in the hall at the German Club. The amazement of the audience was as great as their pleasure. In Elsie there is little to show that she is conscious of possessing extraordinary gifts. She is a thorough child, not overstroDg physically, full of fun, and not disposed to go through aDy drudgery. Of the theory or Bcienoe of music she knows very little, her parents having wisely resisted any »ttempts at forcing her gifts or of overtasking her strength by any intellectual pressure. There is something irresistibly amusing io seeing this little child seat herself at the piano and play the elaborate cadenza which Carl Reinecke has composed for the fifth concerto, her tiny hands unable to stretch an octavo, and the octaves playsd by flying leaps at a marvellous pace, While the fingers are busy Elsie is by no means absorbed. The bright dark eyes scan the faces of the comp&Dy, and the little bead tuniß from side to side to mark all that is goit'g on. Her gift is, however, much beyond that of running over the keys and remembering music. Her ear is wonderfully true, »od she has unuiistakeable creative power.'