A New Prodigy

In the city of Tourcoing, near Lille, there will be produced during next October an oratorio written by a boy of eleven. The announcement adds that the piece, which is called The Childhood of Saint John the Baptist, was begun by the little composer when he was no more than ten. The boy is named Rota Rinaldi. He is now studying at the conservatory at Milan. His mother, it is said, has taken alarm at his too early concentration upon music, and has decided to remove him from his advanced musical studies and send him to an ordinary high school.

It is still told among musicians how some years ago there appeared in Russia a boy orchestra conductor, son of Italian parents who were singers in a traveling opera troupe. The lad was nine years old and a genius. The ablest musicians of Russia gathered to applaud the splendor of his interpretations. He went on tour through Russia and appeared before huge audiences. Musicians warned the parents not to play him to ruin, that the prodigy should be taken away from music and given a commonplace boy's life until he had matured. The parents would not listen. They were intoxicated by the prosperity and glory that their son brought them. In a year the boy's talent had been worked to collapse. His interpretations became the flattest routine work. Then he fell ill and died. A contrasting case is that of Josef Hoffman, who, beginning as a nine-year-old prodigy of the piano, was allowed to make an initial sensation, and then was taken away from public appearances until he had matured.

The infant prodigy is one of the perennial marvels, despite his comparative frequency. Every year brings a number of precocious children, especially in music, and yet the public remains interested. A phenomenal child can draw attention to subjects most neglected by the populace. There is the game of chess. It is impossible to draw any public interest in chess ordinarily. But when the infant prodigy appeared, little Sammie Reschewsky, the newspapers ran columns about him. This boy, too, is a case to be studied with an eye to the over-pushing of precocious tots. It was reported that in Germany, before he came to America, rich people had offered his parents a financial guarantee provided they would take him away from much hard chess playing. It is to be observed now, however, that the lad, after a good deal of public appearance in America, has been withdrawn somewhat and is not allowed to drive himself so hard.