Walter Slaughter.
Walter Slaughter.
From a Photo. by J. H. Soper, Battersea.
Mr. Walter Slaughter was born in the year 1860, in the neighbourhood of Fitzroy-square. His career began as a chorister in St. Andrew's, Wells-street, at the age of eleven, where he sang for two years. One or two other people who have since become famous were there, amongst them Thurley Beale, Oliver King, and Edward Lloyd, the celebrated tenor. His father was far from musical; as Mr. Slaughter quaintly puts it, "he knew when 'God Save the Queen' was played because people stood up, and that helped him to recognise it, but that was his full musical knowledge." At the age of thirteen he left the choir, and finished his education at the City of London School, after which he spent a little time in a wine-merchant's office, and then was employed in the music-publishing firm of Metzler. While there, he studied under Cellier and Mr. Jacobi, working hard at orchestration, and soon making a reputation as a writer of dramatic music, which continued to increase until the very successful opera of "Marjorie" put the climax to his fame. As a song writer, he has scored a decided success with "Dear Homeland" and "Gondola Dreams." His latest song is "I Surrender," published at Cramer & Co.'s, Regent-street.
Signor Tito Mattei.
Signor Tito Mattei.
From a Photo. by Walery.
This celebrated pianist and composer was born on May 24, 1841, in Campobasso, near Naples. He commenced to study at the early age of four, under his father, whose musical instrument was the flute, and profession that of a solicitor. After his father, his master was the great teacher Thalberg. All his studies were conducted at home, his teachers in harmony being Signors Parisi, Ruta, Conti, and Raimondi. Amidst great success, he gave his first large public concert at Naples on September 28, 1846; he was then only five years old. Nearly all the notable musicians were present, amongst them such people as Mercadante, the director of the Naples Conservatoire, and the famous Lablache, who, being very stout, bought two seats to accommodate himself. From then up to the year 1851 he studied, and gave concerts near Naples and in Palermo and Messina. In 1852 he made his début in Rome, with so much success that he was presented with a special diploma, and had the honour of a professorship conferred on him by the Accademia di Santa Cecilia at Florence. He was admitted to the Societa Filarmonica. In the same year he went to Florence, where he met Rossini, who called him his colleague, and gave him eventually a host of letters with special recommendation to the leading musicians and patrons of music in Paris and London.
