A YOUTHFUL PRODIGY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4204, 29 August 1892, Page 2

A YOUTHFUL PRODIGY.

k Four-year-old musician, .in old Dunedinite writes; On Tuesday, the jjth jn'st/I paid a' visit to Mr Cheek's residence to "hear and seo that wonderful genius of a boy, Hillier Cheek, I was met at the (}qor by the little fejlow himself—a bright anil lively boy of' four years, with plenty of animal spirits, Hillier first displayed extraordinary musical precocity soon after reaching the age of two, when he would stand at the pianoforte and pick out different chords.. The boy during my visit seemed to pay ]itt)e attention io what was"going oil, giving B,ll' hjq 1 answers with the thoughtlessness of ohjldloodj never stopping to think, at tho same time being always oorrect. He immediately named any note, or combination of several notes, sounded on the pianoforte—of course without seeing the instrument—and followed by singing any note I chose to call by nani3. Ho, withouthesitation, named two notes, one iu the lowest ootave of

the basa clef, and the other in (be highest octave of the treble clef. Mr Cheek • (hen Commenced to jplay § whikt his wile struck a chord on' the Amorican organ. The child immediately named' the notos played on the organ with perfect correctness. He can name which of the twenty four major or minor keys a piece is being played in, and can follow by ear its various module tions. He transposed several of hP own little compositions (melody and harmony) into different keys with tha style of a littlo professor; the top rung of an Austrian ohair serving as a foot rest for the child's feet. la harmony he can play, and correctly resolve forty different; chords, when called forby can distinguish the same when played in any key by another person. ' Some pretty little tunes, well harmonised, and of bii own composing, were shqwn,.t(fo roe, having|beeu-written down by his father, Everything is done without apparent effort, and the boy seems to have anything hut a morbid love of music, and treats the! pianoforte as one amongst other toys, Mr Cheek next took his violin from the case, and, without.touohing the pegs, drew the bow across the four strings at once; Hillier immediately told him the D and 6 strings were fiat, which proved correct on trying them with the piano. When in Wellington the principal unanimous in advising that. Hiwr should not commence serious Btudy until he is seven years old. At a visit which Mr and Mrs Cheek were paying to Mr Hill (the renowned Wellington musician), Hillier, who had never seen a double bass before, was much struck with ono of Mr Hill's. The boy twanged one of the strings,' and being asked by his father what '■ note that was, he replied D sharp, at; which they all laughed; but on tuning it with tho pianoforte the ohild proyed to be perfectly correct,