Evelyn Innes
Book Description
I ts beautiful shape, and the shape of the old instruments, vaguely perceived, lent an enchantment to the darkness. In the corner was a viola da gamba, and against the walls a harpsichord and a clavichord. A bove the virginal on which Mr. I nnes was playing there hung a portrait of a woman, and, happening to look up, a sudden memory came upon him, and he began to play an aria out of Don Giovanni. ...
MoreI ts beautiful shape, and the shape of the old instruments, vaguely perceived, lent an enchantment to the darkness. In the corner was a viola da gamba, and against the walls a harpsichord and a clavichord. A bove the virginal on which Mr. I nnes was playing there hung a portrait of a woman, and, happening to look up, a sudden memory came upon him, and he began to play an aria out of Don Giovanni. But he stopped before many bars, and holding the candle end high, so that he could see the face, continued the melody with his right hand. To see her lips and to strike the notes was almost like hearing her sing it again. Her voice came to him through many years, from the first evening he had heard her sing at La Scala. Then he was a young man spending a holiday in I taly, and she had made his fortune for the time by singing one of his songs. They were married in I taly, and at the end of some months they had gone to Paris and to Brussels, where Mrs. I nnes had engagements to fulfil. It was in Brussels that she had lost her voice. For a long while it was believed that she might recover it, but these hopes proved illusory, and, in trying to regain what she had lost irrevocably, the money she had earned dwindled to a last few hundred pounds. The I nnes had returned to London, and, with a baby-daughter, settled in Dulwich. Mr. I nnes accepted the post of organist at St. Joseph s, the parish church in Southwark, and Mrs. I nnes had begun her singing classes. Her reputation as a singer favoured her, and an aptitude for teaching enabled her to maintain, for many years, a distinguished position in the musical world. Mr. I nnes sabilities contributed to their success, and he might have become a famous London organist if he had devoted himself to the instrument. But one day seeing in a book the words viola damore, he fancied he would like top an instrument with such a name.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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