Punch,  52 (1867), 250.

Invisible Musicians

Vorax

Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Music, Exhibitions, Sound, Instruments, Supernaturalism, Spiritualism, Charlatanry

Publications cited:

Spiritual Magazine


    Begins by wondering what 'the Faradays and Brewsters' and Mr Punch will make of a Morning Post report that some of the musical instruments displayed at the Exposition Universelle (1867) appeared to play by themselves. Anticipates that the aforementioned scientists would attribute this phenomenon to the 'touch or breath of some unseen attendant or passer-by', but points out that the author of the report could find no such person after a diligent search. Suggests that the music was performed by the 'spirit' of 'some great composer', in contrast to the 'spirits of minstrels' who perform at the seances of William H H Davenport and Ira E Davenport. Notes that the principal difficulty of the 'spiritual' theory is the 'absence of any medium' and proceeds to describe the difficulties currently being faced by the Davenport brothers in Russia.



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