negro banjo performance, the banjo effect on the
piano, in his case, I think, having been accomplished by the touch,
whereas many others find themselves obliged to lay a sheet of music on
the strings in order to impart to the vibrations the peculiar twang of
the original.

Another and more favorable example of his talent is in the beautiful
"Slumber Song," which can be had for voice or for piano alone. There
is another class of pieces by Gottschalk which seem very peculiar at
the present time. They are the rather loud and somewhat difficult
concert fantasies called the "Bamboula," or "Negro Dance," and
"Jerusalem," the latter being made upon certain melodies in Verdi's "I
Lombardi." Another piece of his which made a great effect in his
concerts and was a general favorite of students was the "Aeolian
Murmurs," a pleasant melody with a lot of fine pianissimo work to
represent the murmurs. Speaking of the misleading effect of the
Gottschalk performances, I will mention that the well-known piece, "The
Dying Poet," was played by him many and many a time in public, to the
great pleasure of the audience; yet before we gather up stones to throw
at the American concert audiences of the early '60's, let us not forget
that within the past few years audiences have shown themselves equally
vulnerable to the charm of Paderewski's "Minuet," a work in no respect
superior to the slightest of our American pianist. In this case, as in
the former, it is a question of the personality and appealing nature of
the performer.

WILLIAM MASON.

The other American pianist born in the year 1829 had a totally
different heredity, environment, and education. William Mason also
showed his talent at an early age, and was seriously taught the piano
under the direction of his father, the late very distinguished and
eminent Dr. Lowell Mason, who at that time and for about twenty years
later exerted a most commanding influence in Boston and the country at
large. Mason's advance was so rapid that by the time he was thirteen
or fourteen, or a little later, he appeared in public with orchestra in
Boston, playing the Mendelssohn G minor concerto, and I think he had
played the Weber "Concertstueck." In the season of 1846 and 1847 he
played the piano part in the chamber concerts given by the Harvard
Musical Association. In 1849 he went to Leipsic and became a pupil in
theory of the distinguished Moritz Hauptmann. Upon Hauptmann's death
he went to