Zenna Dare by Rosanne Hawke

Author:Rosanne Hawke [Hawke, Rosanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Australia, cross culture, history, opera, mystery, school, romance, drama, teenagers
Publisher: Rhiza Press
Published: 2014-07-01T14:00:00+00:00

Gweniver

Cornwall, 1846

Here lie deposited

The mortal remains of

Mr Joseph Antonia Emidy

who departed this life

on the 23rd of April,

1835

Devoted to thy soul inspiring strains

Sweet Music! thee he hail’d his chief delight

And with fond zeal that shunn’d not toil nor pain

His talent soar’d and genius marked his flight.

I remember the day I saw Joseph Emidy’s grave. Afterwards, Mr. Drew took me to a concert at the Assembly Rooms in Truro. I recall little of getting to the place but for numerous stairs and passageways. When it was my turn to sing, I reached the platform where I stood next to the pianoforte and a twelve-piece orchestra, no less. I looked down onto the gallery and up to the balcony surrounding three whole sides of the hall and saw hundreds, no, a thousand people. I nearly lost my nerve. All the gentlemen seemed to be smoking cigars and had a glass in front of them. But there were ladies present too, it being Thursday evening.

The members of the Harmonic Society had put together a program and I was asked to sing two songs, then there was an encore. Before Mr. Drew could rescue me I was begged to sing another. I could feel the music crash like a powerful drum inside of me. My singing was a mere response to the vibration that resonated within, possessing and shaking me all the way to my heart. I couldn’t have fought it even if I had a mind to. Truly I thought I would burst with all that sound inside and I knew that this was what I was born to do.

Mr Emidy had often played the violin there, music he had composed himself. He used to be a slave and I found that astonishing. A captain of a ship saw him in a Lisbon orchestra leading the violins and took him aboard ship and would not let him go. Years later, he was given his freedom and set ashore in Falmouth, where he lived and taught.

It would have been wonderful to have met him. Singing in a place where I knew he had been made me feel such an affinity with him. I was no less a slave than he was: a caged bird, yet I was working out a dream as no doubt so was he. What an impression his story made on me; his spirit, creativity and humility all rolled together in one soul. Even Mr. Drew had a good word to say on his behalf.

Mr. Charles Hempel was there too and said how delightfully I sang. He hoped he would hear more of me. The whole experience inspired me to keep at my musical studies even if I was a little in awe of Mr. Drew. Occasionally, he looked at me as if I were some freshly baked game he was to eat for dinner. Yet at other times he was almost amiable, telling me gossip about the music halls, taking me to places where I was to sing, so I became used to noisy audiences full of men who had eaten and drunk too much.

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