The Percy Anecdotes

organ, and playing in a wild and different manner from that to which his mother was accustomed, she asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I am playing the gentleman's fine thing;" and Mr. Mully, who afterwards heard it, acknowledged that the child had remembered several passages, which he played correctly.

Being present at a concert where a band of gentlemen performers played the overture in Rodelinda, he was so delighted with the minuet, that the next morning he hummed part of it in bed, and by noon, without any further assistance, played the whole on the organ.

Dr. Burney, who, at the request of Sir John Pringle, drew up an account of this child, which is printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, for 1779, was at particular pains to put the talents of the infant Crotch to the test. "I examined," said he, "his countenance when he first heard the voice of Signor Pacchiarotti, the principal singer of the Opera, but did not find that he seemed sensible of the superior taste and refinement of that exquisite performer. However, he called out very soon after the air was begun, He is singing in f.' This is one of the most extraordinary properties of his ear, that he can distinguish at a great distance from any instrument, and out of sight of the keys, any note that is struck. In this I have repeatedly tried him, and never found him mistaken even in the half-notes; a circumstance the more extraordinary, as many practitioners and good performers, are unable to distinguish by the ear, at the Opera or elsewhere, in what key any air or piece of music is executed."

When, as was often the case, in consequence of the numerous visitors he attracted, he became tired of playing on an instrument, aud his musical faculties seemed wholly blunted, he could be provoked to attention, even though engaged in any new amusement, by a wrong note being struck in the melody of any well known tune; and if he stood by the instrument when such a note was designedly struck, he would instantly put down the right one, in whatever key the air was playing.

The maturity of age in Dr. Crotch has confirmed the precocity of his youth; and as a serious composer as well as a practical performer, he has long held the first rank in this country. A just compliment has recently been paid to him, in nominating him Principal of the Royal Academy of Music; an institution commenced under such favourable auspices, as to promise the greatest benefit to music in this country.