physiognomy, that quick and feverish look, which may
almost always be observed in him. Off the
field of battle (that is, out of the orchestra)
he preserves the same expression, mingled with
a haughty melancholy.

The kettle-drummer ought not only to be an
excellent musician, gifted with a delicate ear,
but he must also possess certain physical qualities
(a supple wrist, for instance), without which
all the practice in the world would remain
unavailing. And, as musicians alone are able to
appreciate his merits, he is continually suffering
from wounded vanity, and becomes mournful
and misanthropical. How many small pianists,
poor violinists, and ignorant singers, are made
much of in society and liberally remunerated,
while the kettle-drummer, a thorough musician,
often learned in the art of composition, lives,
neglected, on the trifling pay he earns in the
orchestra! All because kettle-drums are not
admitted into drawing-rooms, and ladies cannot
show off their graces and make themselves
interesting by affecting to faint with pleasure at a
successful tap or roll!

The " timbalier" observes, in all the transactions
of life, the strictest exactitude. He pays
his tradesmen regularly, and never puts his name
to a bill. Like subaltern bureaucrats, he wears
threadbare clothes, but of scrupulous neatness.
Several distinguished composers, at the head of
whom we may place Adolphe Adam, commenced
their musical career by kettle-drumming, of
which they acquitted themselves, more or less,
well. Duprez, the famous opera-singer, was a
kettle-drummer before he turned tenor.

But the most celebrated of these artists, on
every account, is assuredly Schneitzhœffer,
kettle-drummer at the Opera, and author of
several important works, among which is the
Sylphide, Taglioni's triumph. With a name
more German than Germany itself, Schneitzhœffer
was French, a Gascon by birth and
temper. A volume might be filled with his
eccentric jokes. The first, and perhaps the most
original of all, was perpetrated on his arrival in
Paris, where he came to settle as a singing-
master. Knowing that his name, stuck full of
consonants, was impossible for Parisian lips to
utter, he wrote on his card,

SCHNEITZHÅ’FFER,
(Pronounce Bertrand,)
PROFESSOR OF SINGING.

This pleasantry was more effective in spreading
his name, than if he had advertised for years in
all the newspapers.

Hautboys, tambourines, and flutes, were long
the only instruments to which the French, in
days of old, danced their " branles," and their
"gaillardes." "The music of hautboys," says
Father Mersène, "is proper for grand assemblies,
such as ballets, weddings, village
fetes, and other public rejoicings, on account of
the loud noise it sends forth, and the great
harmony wliich it makes." In spite of modern
improvements (whose principal effect has been to
modify the tone), the hautboy does not lend
itself to rapid and brilliant bravura movements.
Its mechanism still remains defective; and many
a passage which is possible on the hautboy, in one
key, becomes impracticable when transposed into
another.

But if the hautboy be deficient in brilliancy it
possesses other valuable qualities; it is sweet,
pastoral, simple, and touching. No instrument
sings with a greater charm the chaste and
primitive airs of mountainous countries.

The hautboyist, like the sounds of his
instrument, is serious, tender-hearted, simple,
and timid. In love, he is less passionate
than the violinist; but his love is durable. A
woman who wishes (as all women do wish) to
have a constant husband, cannot do better than
marry a hautboyist. Notwithstanding which, it
is barely possible that some individual hautboyist
may prove inconstant. It is difficult to warrant
anything.

His house is also very orderly, and manifests
economical tastes. Of all the musicians of the
orchestra, he is perhaps the only one who owns a
savings bank book. Without exactly pretending
to elegance, he is always very respectably and
remarkably neatly clad. His habits are sedentary,
and he is sparing of speech. He never
lodges in furnished apartments. Everything
about him is carefully arranged. His music-
books—rare circumstance with professional
musicians—are never scattered about the furniture,
but are placed in order, in a receptacle beside
his desk especially devoted to that purpose. The
hautboyist is punctual at rehearsals, and is one
of the first to take his place in the orchestra when
the hour of performance arrives. Consequently,
it is rare that his modest pay is diminished by
fines incurred during the month.

The hautboyist practises, standing in front of
his desk, with his two hands applied to his
instrument. This position necessarily gives, in
the end, a certain stiffness to the whole of his
person. On the other hand, the music of the
hautboy, simple, pastoral, frequently monotonous
and melancholy, does not provoke in the
performer those twistings of the neck, which
some artists believe themselves allowed to
indulge in, in order to give greater expression to
passages of a passionate character. The result
is, that a hautboyist performing a solo is all but
a marble statue.

The hautboy's grand defect is its " quacking"
occasionally: especially in the hands of amateurs.

A young man, dwelling in a provincial town,
had been subdued by the charms of a widow,
whose husband's death had made her so
inconsolable that she sought consolation for her
immense loss by flirting with every man she
met with. Her admirer was handsome, amiable,
and rich. Everything seemed to be in his
favour. But, as no one is perfect, he played
the hautboy with an ad libitum ornamentation
of " quacks." It was a pity; especially as he
fancied himself a fine player. Every evening
he visited the widow, making all sorts of