CONSERVATORIO OF NAPLES.-At the beginning of the sixteenth century, a
Spanish priest, Juan de Tapia, then residing at Naples, undertook to establish an academy for instruction in church music, and to conquer all the impediments and difficulties attending upon such an attempt. After spending many years in useless efforts to procure sufficient money for the performance of his undertaking, he formed and carried into effect the chivalric idea of begging from province to province, from town to town, for the necessary money. Treated by some as mad, repulsed by others, slighted by all, still he did not despair ; and after nine years of this painful pilgrimage, he found himself possessed, in the year 1537, of sufficient sums for the establishment of the first Conservatorio at Naples, which he consecrated to the service of Santa Maria di Lorenzo. Wishing then to place the establishment under the patronage of the great, Tapia petitioned the viceroy to become its patron. He consented ; and from that time the Conservatorio enjoyeckhe benefits of a royal institution. The venerable prior, however, did not long survive the success of his undertaking. He died in the year 1540, and the pupils of the Conservatorio, as a mark of gratitude, placed his tomb in the choir of the establishment ; and masses were performed before his grave, on the anniversary of his death, till the end of the eighteenth century.—Harmonicon for April.
PAGANINI'S PAY.—It is said that one of the concerts given at the Opera in Paris, by Signor Paganini, produced him 16,500f. An amateur has made the following calculation upon this amount. The performer played during the evening three pieces, each covering about five pages of music, of six rows, giving about ninety-one measures to the page. The fifteen pages thus contained 1,365 measures, by which the 16,500f. are to be divided. The quotient will be 12f. for each measure, or the proportions will be as follow. For a round, 12f.; a minim, or white note, 6f. ; a black note, 3f. ; a crotchet, If. 50c. ; a double crotchet, 15 sous ; a triple crotchet, 74, sons; and, on the other hand, for a pause, 15f.; a demi-pause, 6f.; a minim rest, 3f.; a demi-rest, lf. 50c.; a quarter of a rest, 75c. There would still, out of the I 6,500f., remain 420L, which is exactly the price of such a violin as the Conservatory awards as a prize to its most distinguished pupils.—Le Furet de Londree.
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