possessed remarkable talent both as a pianist and singer. To the family
concerts which he heard at home was the rapid development of the boy's
talents largely due. Nature had given him a very sensitive ear and a
fine clear voice, and at the age of four or five he joined his mother
in duets at the evening gatherings. From the very first he manifested
a taste for the instrument for which he was destined to become
distinguished. He so teased his father that, at the age of six, he was
presented with his first violin, and his joy on receiving his treasure
was overpowering. The violin was never out of his hand, and he
continually wandered about the house trying to play his favorite
melodies. Spohr tells us in his "Autobiography": "I still recollect
that, after my first lesson, in which I had learned to play the G-sharp
chord upon all four strings, in my rapture at the harmony, I hurried to
my mother, who was in the kitchen, and played the chord so incessantly
that she was obliged to order me out."

Young Spohr was placed under the tuition of Dufour, a French _emigré_ of
the days of '91, who was an excellent player, though not a professional,
then living at the town of Seesen, the home of the Spohr family; and
under him the boy made very rapid progress. It was Dufour who, by
his enthusiastic representations, overcame the opposition of Ludwig's
parents to the boy's devoting himself to a life of music, for the notion
of the senior Spohr was that the name musician was synonymous with that
of a tavern fiddler, who played for dancers. In Germany, the land _par
excellence_ of music, there was a general contempt among the educated
classes, during the latter years of the eighteenth century, for the
musical profession. Spohr remained under the care of Dufour until he was
twelve years old, and devoted himself to his work with great sedulity.
Though he as yet knew but little of counterpoint and composition, his
creative talent already began to assert itself, and he produced several