173
at Shanghai" occurred on Friday September 19 1856" and by a remarkable coincidence it also marked the introduction of a brand new instrument to the China Coast music lover, viz the Saxophone. This, though, was not how it was announced. The artist, Ali Ben Sou Alle, who had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made a career in France and England as a clarinetist, was of Turkish descent and had seen fit to rename the instrument invented by Adolphe Sax in 1840 into something recalling his fatherland: the Turkophone. He had made a tour through Asia and in Hong Kong his success had not been unequivocal." In Shanghai, reception was somewhat mixed (cf Calendar: 19.9.1856). Apart from the "Turkophone” he handled the "Turkophonini” (which may have been the soprano saxophone), the clarinet, and an instrument "which we trust our Scottish friends will pardon us for pronouncing something worse than the bagpipe”.
As details of the activities of other artists that visited Shanghai will be found in the Calendar of Performances it seems hardly necessary here to elaborate on them. But attention should be drawn to the first lady singer" who engrossed the public there in July 1863: Miss Amelia Bailey. On a second trip some months later, in October and November, she drew "crowded houses small wonder in a place with so many soldiers and bachelors.
IV. The Actors
>72
J
For those that did not belong to the taipan class, that is, those not partners in a firm but lower mercantile assistants, the freedom to engage in whatever activities they wanted in their spare time was limited. Employees out on their first term called griffins were usually not allowed to marry because the firm did not feel like paying for home leave for an entire family. Another restriction put in their way was that commonly there was a clause in their contract which ran: "All horse and pony racing, or riding in races, and all acting in public theatricals is forbidden without the consent of the resident partner”.73
Here the reasons were partly financial as the employers feared that the youngsters might be carried away with the rehearsals, with disadvantageous consequences for the job they were supposed to do; and partly social, in that the senior merchants were perhaps afraid that the juniors would prove to be more popular on the stage than they themselves. Of those that were permitted and willing to don sock and buskin it is
173
at Shanghai" occurred on Friday September 19 1856" and by a remarkable coincidence it also marked the introduction of a brand new instrument to the China Coast music lover, viz the Saxophone. This, though, was not how it was announced. The artist, Ali Ben Sou Alle, who had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made a career in France and England as a clarinetist, was of Turkish descent and had seen fit to rename the instrument invented by Adolphe Sax in 1840 into something recalling his fatherland: the Turkophone. He had made a tour through Asia and in Hong Kong his success had not been unequivocal." In Shanghai, 100, reception was somewhat mixed (ef Calendar: 19.9.1856). Apart from the "Turkophone” he handled the "Turkophonini” (which may have been the soprano saxophone), the clarinet, and an instrument "which we trust our Scottish friends will pardon us for pronouncing something worse than the bagpipe”.
As details of the activities of other artists that visited Shanghai will be found in the Calendar of Performances it seems hardly necessary here to elaborate on them. But attention should be drawn to the first lady singer" who engrossed the public there in July 1863: Miss Amelia Bailey. On a second trip some months later, in October and November, she drew "'crowded houses small wonder in a place with so many soldiers
and bachelors.
IV. The Actors
>72
J
For those that did not belong to the taipan class, that is, those not partners in a firm but lower mercantile assistants, the freedom to engage in whatever activities they wanted in their spare time was limited. Employees out on their first term called griffins were usually not allowed to marry because the firm did not feel like paying for home leave for an entire family. Another restriction put in their way was that commonly there was a clause in their contract which ran: "All horse and pony racing, or riding in races, and all acting in public theatricals is forbidden without the consent of the resident partner”.73
Here the reasons were partly financial as the employers feared that the youngsters might be carried away with the rehearsals, with disadvantageous consequences for the job they were supposed to do; and partly social, in that the senior merchants were perhaps afraid that the juniors would prove to be more popular on the stage than they themselves. Of those that were permitted and willing to don sock and buskin it is
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