mance of her
effective and spirited conception of the "Erlkoenig." She came a few
times more: I could perceive that the good structure was tottering.
After a few months, she had entirely sacrificed her voice to this single
"Erlkoenig." In such tender years, one such idol is sufficient. What a
price for an "Erlkoenig"! The old, experienced singing-teacher, Miksch,
of Dresden (with the exception of Rossini, the last famous champion of
the old school), has often warned me that radical amendment is seldom
possible with such over-strained and broken voices, which already are
obliged to struggle with enfeebled muscles, even although youth may
excite great and decided hopes. There is also another difficulty: that
one of these strong, over-strained voices must hereafter be used with
much less strength, if we wish to cultivate a correct tone; and it is
impossible to tell whether the chest-tones, when they are restored to
their true limit, will ever come out again as powerful and at the same
time as beautiful. Let no musician, however talented and cultivated he
may be, ever adopt the teaching of singing, unless he can combine with
firmness of character great patience, perseverance, and
disinterestedness; otherwise, he will experience very little pleasure
and very little gratitude. Even if the "Erlkoenig" does not stand in the
way, every voice presents new and peculiar difficulties.

_A Few Words addressed to Singing-Teachers on the Accompaniment of
Etudes, Exercises, Scales, &c._

It is common for teachers to play their accompaniments as furiously as
if they had to enter into a struggle for life and death with their
singers. At the beginning of the lesson, the lady singer ought to
commence quite _piano_, at _f_ in the one-lined octave, and to sing up
and down from there through five or six notes, without any expenditure
of breath, and should guide and bring out her voice by a gentle practice
of _solfeggio_; and yet you bang, and pound on the keys, as if you had
to accompany drums and trumpets. Do you not perceive that in this way
you induce your pupils to strain and force their voices, and that you
mislead them into a false method? In such a noise, and while you are
making such a monstrous expenditure of strength, to which you add a
sharp, uneasy touch, and a frequent spreading of the chords, how can you
watch the delicate movements of the singer's throat? Is it necessary for
me to explain how such a rude accompaniment must in