Chinese singing is generally "recitative" accompanied by long notes, broken, or sudden chords from the orchestra.

It differs widely from Western music, but its effects are wonderful.

One of our writers has thus described music he once heard: "Softly, as the murmur of whispered words; now loud and soft together, like the patter of pearls and pearlets dropping upon a marble dish.

Or liquid, like the warbling of the mango-bird in the bush; trickling like the streamlet on its downward course.

And then like the torrent, stilled by the grip of frost, so for a moment was the music lulled, in a passion too deep for words." That this famous description of the effects of music which I have borrowed from Mr.Dyer Ball's "Things Chinese" is not exaggerated, anyone who knows China may confirm by personal observation of the keen enjoyment an unlearned, common day laborer will find in playing a single lute all by himself for hours beneath the moon on a warm summer evening, with no one listening but the trees and the flitting insects; but it requires a practised ear to appreciate singing and a good voice.
On one occasion I went to an opera house in London to hear the world-renowned Madame Patti.