Part 10 (1/2)

Something of this has been already alluded to in setting down the experience of Manuel's early studies. There is, further, a well-known story, doubtless authentic, of a stranger pa.s.sing near their house in Paris, and hearing sobs and objurgations proceeding from within. He at once inquired what was the meaning of these noises, and was answered, ”Ce n'est rien. C'est Monsieur Garcia, qui fait chanter ses demoiselles.” However that may be, there can be no question of the excellent results of his teaching.

As regards the accusations of violence, strictness, and tyranny which were brought against him, Madame Viardot a.s.serts that he was much calumniated both as a father and as a man. ”How often,” she says, ”have I heard my sister Maria remark, 'Si mon pere n'avait pas ete si severe avec moi, je n'aurais rien fait de bon; j'etais paresseuse et indocile.' As for myself,” she adds, ”I never saw my father lose his patience with me while he taught me the solfege, music and singing.”

When Manuel Garcia returned to France after his _debut_ at Naples, he did not immediately begin teaching at the vocal conservatoire which his father had started. His predilections had always been scientific, and he was pa.s.sionately fond of all such studies, but specially of anatomy and all that had to do with the human body. On his arrival he was suddenly seized with an idea that he would prefer a seafaring life, and without thinking the matter over twice he resolved to become an officer in the French mercantile marine. With this object in view he began the study of astronomy and navigation, and pursued the work with so much diligence that he obtained a post on a s.h.i.+p. He was, in fact, on the point of going on board to take up this new career when his mother and sisters besought him with tears and supplications to relinquish his intentions.

So ardently did they implore him, that when actually starting he was overcome with emotion and gave way to their entreaties.

Upon this he settled down with his parents in the Rue des Trois Freres in Montmartre, and was of great a.s.sistance in helping the elder Garcia to give lessons at the vocal conservatoire. The hall porter of their house was no less a person than the father of Henry Murger! Manuel often used to catch up the boy Henry in his arms and kiss him as he ran about the pa.s.sages. ”Little Murger was a most charming child,” recalls Mme.

Viardot, ”full of fun and the pet of the house. At that time he was winning prizes at school, and used to arrive home with his arms full of them. Perhaps he was rather ashamed of his origin, for in the day of his success he never came to see us. We should have been so happy if he had.”

And what a day of success it was! After having commenced as a notary's clerk, he gave himself to literature, and led the life of privation and adventure described in his first and best novel, 'Scenes de la Vie de Boheme,' published in the year when Manuel Garcia was celebrating his fortieth birthday. During Murger's later years his popularity was secure and every journal open to him, but he wrote slowly and fitfully in the intervals of dissipation, and died in a Paris hospital over forty-five years ago.

Unhappily Manuel with his nature found, on settling down in Paris with his parents, that the somewhat overbearing manner of his father was difficult to get on with, considering that he himself was now twenty-five years of age.

At last, after a few months, he made up his mind that it would be best to absent himself from Paris for a time, in the hopes that this might result in a pleasanter state of things on his return.

It happened that the turn which events took in Algiers brought an opportunity for carrying out this desire. A dispute arose about the payment of seven million francs,--a debt incurred by France in the Egyptian expedition. Of this sum 4-1/2 millions had been paid, but the balance remained unsettled till certain counter-claims could be adjusted.

”After a tedious delay, Ha.s.sein, the Dey of Algiers, the princ.i.p.al creditor, became impatient,”--I quote from Dr Brewer--”and demanded immediate payment. To this request no answer was vouchsafed; and the next time the French consul presented himself at court Ha.s.sein asked him why his master had not replied to his letter. The consul haughtily replied, 'The King of France holds no correspondence with the Dey of Algiers'; upon which the governor struck him across the face and fiercely abused the king.

”An insult like this could not, of course, be overlooked; and it was at once decided by the French Government that a squadron should be sent to receive the consul on board, and revenge the insult.”

As soon as this news became known Manuel talked the matter over with his sister, Maria Malibran, and through her influence with the Commander-in-chief he was enabled to obtain an appointment in the commissariat of the army which was to accompany the expedition.

Accordingly he embarked at Toulon on May 11, 1830, and took part in the severe conflicts which ended in less than two months with the bombardment of Algiers and its surrender to the French armament under Bourmont and Duperre, the deposition of the Dey, and the total overthrow of the barbarian government. After the fall of Algiers the young Spaniard returned to Paris to find the capital in a state of uproar.

On July 26 the obnoxious ordinances were made known regarding the press and the reconstruction of the Chamber of Deputies, which had been dissolved in May. This at once let loose the furies of revolution, and hostilities were commenced with the raising of barricades on the very next day. Repeated conflicts took place between the army and the police, the latter ultimately aided by the National Guard. On the last day of the month Charles X. retired to Rambouillet, and the flight of the Ministry took place. On August 2 Charles abdicated, and five days later the Duke of Orleans accepted the crown as Louis Philippe I.

These events were quickly followed by the publication of the Const.i.tutional Charter of July and the retirement of the ex-King to England. The closing scene of the drama took place in the December of the year, when Polignac and the other Ministers, who had been members of the administration of 1829, were tried and sentenced to life-long imprisonment.

During the last months of 1830 Manuel Garcia attached himself to the military hospitals. His reason for taking this step was that he had determined to go through a course of preliminary study in the scientific side of singing before devoting his life to the career of teaching. At the hospitals he took up medicine and some specialised studies which embraced the physiology of everything appertaining to the voice and the larynx, for he had already perceived the importance of physiology as an aid to the rational development of the voice. His labours were crowned with success, and contributed much to the determination of the exact anatomy of the vocal cords.

During this time he used to carry home in his pockets the most extraordinary things from his anatomy cla.s.s. Madame Viardot speaks of it thus:--

”What do you think he brought? You would never guess. The throttles of all kinds of animals,--chickens, sheep, and cows. You would imagine that these would have disgusted me. But it was not so. He would give me a pair of bellows, which I would insert in these windpipes, one after another, and blow hard. Heavens! what extraordinary sounds they used to emit. The chickens' throttles would cluck, the sheep's would bleat, and the bulls' would roar, almost like life.”

At the remembrance of these rather gruesome incidents Madame Viardot laughs, much in the spirit, one may suppose, of the delicate Spanish beauty who applauds the thrusts of the matador at a bull-fight.

With the end of the year 1830 we find the first portion of Manuel Garcia's life brought to a close, the period of preparation. During the first twenty-five years we have found him brought up in music, learning the old Italian method of singing from his father and Zingarelli, with a few lessons from Ansani; while harmony he has studied under Fetis. He has acquired practical knowledge as an actor and singer upon stage and concert platform: he has heard nearly all the greatest operatic artists in Italy, France, and England: he has already had some experience of teaching, and is well acquainted with the lines followed by the famous maestri who have gone before him. Moreover, when he makes his regular start as _professeur de chant_ in 1831, he is able to apply his medical knowledge to the greatest advantage.

With all these advantages, added to a fine intellect, intuitive perception, and extraordinary patience, what wonder that when once he embarks on his career as a singing-master he never again looks back, but speedily establishes himself as a scientific teacher, with a reputation unequalled by any of his contemporaries?

SECOND PERIOD

PARIS

(1830-1848)