i 1 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MBLBOURNK THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd, TORONTO MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY FBOM THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE OF AMY FAY II EDITED BY MRS. FAY PEIRCE,: i' AvrmoiL of " Co-o«rativ« Houas^nFora ** ** The light that neyw wm on ses or land." WOBDSWOBTH " Pour admirer assez il faut admirw trop, «t on p«a d'Ulniioil uecetsaire aa bouheur." OteftBVLISZ With a Prefatory Notk By O. G. SONNECK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reaervtd K7 l~ fij COPTBIOHT, ^▲ISrSEN, MoCLUEG & COMPAinr A *'*• 1880. Copyright, 1896, bt the macmillan company. Printed August, 1896; reprinted June, ^897; September, 1900; February, 1903 ; March, 1Q05 ; June, 1908; July, 19C39 ; August, 1913 ; April, 1922, NoriDoali Vrrss t Berwick Ic Smitti, Norwood, MftM., U.8^ PREFATORY NOTE. Comparatively few books on music have enjoyed the distinction of reissue. Twenty-one editions is an amaz- ing record for a book of so narrow a subject as "Music Study in Germany." The case of Miss Amy Fay's vol- ume becomes all the more unusual, if one considers that her letters were written only for home, not for a public audience and further that within twenty years from the year of first publication, her observations had become more or less obsolete. The Germany of the years 1869-1875 was quite differ- ent from the Germany of 1900 and certainly of 1912, even down to German table-manners. The earlier "Spiessbiirgertum" of which Miss Fay gives such en- tertaining glimpses even in high quarters with their pomp and circumstance, was rapidly being replaced, at least outwardly, by the more cosmopolitan culture of the fin de sihcle, not to mention the ambition for political, in- dustrial and commercial "Weltmacht" in a nation thitherto known, perhaps too romantically, as a nation of "Denker und Dichter." Most of the heroes of the book are long since dead, Miss Fay included, who died in 1921. While even as late as 1890, Miss Fay's volume could have been used as a guide of orientation by the would-be student of music in Germany, certainly it could no longer serve 4S9232 PREFATORY NOTE. such a purpose during the years just prior to the war, when the lone American student of her book who despised Germany and everything German was definitely in the ascendency. In other words, her personal observations had ceased to be applicable except in certain details of ambient and had passed into the realm of autobiography valuable for historical reading. As a piece of historical literature proper, I doubt that the book would have sur- vived the war, because it is lamentably true that the'average American music-student or even cultured lover of music is not particularly interested in musical history as such. To this must be added the indisputable fact that "music study in Germany" or in France, for that matter, had become a mere matter of personal taste and predi- lection, and was not a necessity as in the days of Miss Fay's amusing experiments with this or that German teacher of renown. An endless stream of excellent Eu- ropean artists and teachers had poured into America since then, augmented by the equally broad stream of native Americans who had learned their mStier abroad. Music study in America thus became an easy matter and many an aspiring virtuoso would have done more wisely by staying and studying at home, instead of venturing to a European country with its different language, its different temperament, its different mode of living, cus- toms and so forth. Germany, in particular, is still a "marvellous home of music," to quote an editorial re- mark of Miss Fay's sister, but it is no longer the "only real home of music," thanks precisely to such artists as Miss Amy Fay herself. PREFATORY NOTE. To point out the radical change in conditions in that respect is one thing, quite another to deny, as some rather zealotic patriots do, that Europe, Germany included, can still give the American music-student something which he does not have at home quite in the same manner. De- bate on that subject is futile. Let the American music- student at some time in his career, but only when he is ripe for further study in a foreign country, sojourn a few years in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Vienna, Rome, London, and he will profitably encounter, whether it be to his taste or not, that indefinable something which the old world in matters of life, art, and art-life possessed as peculiarly its own in 1870, still possesses to-day, and will possess for many, many years to come. What, then, gives to Miss Fay's book its vitality? What is it that justifies the publisher in keeping the book accessible for the benefit of those who wish to study music in Germany instead of elsewhere or of those even who study music in America ? Of course, there is first of all the charm of Miss Fay's own personality, the charm of her observations in- timately, entertainingly, and shrewdly expressed. That makes for good reading. Incidentally, it teaches a stu- dent-reader to be observant, which unfortunately many musicians are not, even in matters of technique on their chosen instrument. Secondly, the seriousness of pur- pose of the authoress, the determination to improve her understanding of art and technique to the very limit of her natural ability, will act as a stimulating tonic for him or her who despairs of ever conquering the often so for- PREFATORY NOTE. bidding difficulties of music. The book will teach pa- tience to Americans, patience and endurance in endeavor, qualities which are none too frequent in us. Young America forgets too often that the Gradus ad Parnassum is not only steep ; it is long and rough. There is furthermore in these letters that respect for solid accomplishment of others, that reverential attitude toward the great in art and toward art itself, without which no musician, however talented, will ever reach the commanding heights of art. There permeates these letters the enthusiasm of youth, that perhaps sometimes overshoots its mark but for which most of us would gladly exchange the more critical attitude of maturer years. For we learn to appreciate sooner or later that enthusiasm is the propelling force and the refreshing source of in- spiration. Finally, born of all these elements there ap- pear on the pages of Miss Fay's letters such fascinating pen-portraits as that of her revered master, Franz Liszt, the incomparable. Turning the pages of the volume to refresh my memory and impression of it, I confess that I skipped quite a few because their interest seemed so remote and personal, but I found myself absorbing every word Miss Fay had to say in her chapters about Liszt and his Weimar circle. An enjoyable experience which one may safely recommend to those who desire first-hand impressions of the golden days of pianism in Germany, of the romantic, indeed almost legendary figure of Franz Liszt, and consequently a touch of the stuff out of which art-novels are made, into the bargain. O. G. SONNECK PREFACE. In preparing for the public letters which were written only for home, I have hoped that some readers would find in them the charm of style which the writer's friends fancy them to possess ; that others would think the description of her masters amid their pupils, and especially Liszt, worth preserving ; while piano students would be grateful for the information that an analysis of the piano technique has been made, such as very greatly to diminish the difficulties of the instrument. How much of Herr Deppe's piano " method " is original with himself, pianists must decide. That he has at least made an invaluable resume of all or most of their secrets, my sister believes no student of the instrument who fairly and conscientiously examines into the matter will deny. M. FAY PEIKCE. Chicago, Dec, 1880. PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. Miss Fay's little book has been so popular in her own country as to have gone through half a dozen editions, and even in German, into which it was translated soon after its first appearance, it has had much success. It is strange that it has not been already published in England, where music excites so much attention, and where works on musical sub- jects are beginning to form a distinct branch of literature. This is the more remarkable because it is thoroughly read- able and amusing, which books on music too rarely are. The freshness and truth of the letters is not to be denied. We may laugh at the writer's enthusiasm, at the readiness with which she changes her methods and gives up all that she has already learnt at the call of each fresh teacher, at the certainty with which every new artist is announced as quite the best she ever heard, and at the glowing and con- fident predictions — not, alas, apparently always realised. But no one can laugh "at her indomitable determination, and the artistic earnestness with which she makes the most of each of her opportunities, or the brightness and ease with which aU is described (in choice American), and each successive person placed before us in his habit as he lives. Such a gift is indeed a rare and precious one. Will Miss Fay never oblige us with an equally charming and faithful (3) PREFACE. account of music and life in the States? Hitherto musical America has been almost an unknown land to us, described by the few who have attempted it in the most opposite terms. Their singers we already know well, and in this respect America is perhaps destined to be the Italy of the future, if only the artists wiU consent to learn slowly enough. But on the subject of American players and American orchestras, and the taste of the American amateurs, a great deal of curiosity is felt, and we commend the subject to the serious attention of one so thoroughly able to do it justice. GEORGE GROVE. December, 1885. PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION. ®le tjorliegenbcn ©riefc eincr Slmerifanerin in tie ^eimat^, bte im Original bcreits in gftjciter ^luflagc erfc^icncn jinb, tocrbcn, fo ^offcn h)ir, aud^ bcm beutjc^en ?cfcr nic^t minbcreS SScrgniigen, nic^t geringcre ^Inregung al8 bent amcrifanijc^cn gcrta^rcn, ha fit In nnmittelbarer ^^rifc^e niebergefc^ricbcn, ein tebenbigeS Silb oon ben S3c3ict)ungcn ber 35crfaf[erin gn ben ^eroorragcnbflcn ntujtfas Uf(^cn ^crjonlic^feitcn, tt)ic SiS^t, ». 53iitott), Saujig, 3oac^im u. f. nj. bietcn. SBir geben ba8 S3ud^ in ttjortgctrcuer Ueberfc^ung unb ^aben t9 nur um biejcnigen SSriefe gefurjt, bic in 2)cutf^Ianb 2lll3ube=« fanntc? bc^anbcln, §ingcgen glaubten toir bie ©teHen bcm ?efer nt(^t tjorent^attcn gu biirfcn, rt)ctd^c gtoar nic^t ntufifalijc^en 3n» ^altS ftnb, un6 aber jcigen, mic mand^c unfcrer beutf^en ^u» obec SWtPonbc tjon 3lnterifanern bcurt^cilt njcrbcn. Hobert ©ppenljeim, Publisher, ©eriin, 1882. CONTENTS. n TAUSIG'S CONSERVATORY. CHAPTER I. PAOm A GxBMAK Intsriob IX Berlik. a Gbbmak Partt. Joachix. Taubiq^s Conbkrvatort IS CHAPTER 11. Clara Scbuicaitn and Joachim. Thb American Ministkb's. Thb Museum. Tbe Conservatory. Opera. TAUSia. Cbribtiias. 25 CHAPTER III. TAusie AND Rubinstein. .Tausig's Pufilb. Thb Bancboftb. A Gbbman Radical , 87 CHAPTER IV. Ofbba and Obatobio in Beblin. a Typical Amebican. Pbussiak RUDBNBBS. CONSERYATORY ChANOEB. EaSTEB U CHAPTER V. The Thibr-Qarten. A Military Review. Chablottenbubo. Tausio. Beblik in Summer. Potsdam and Babelbbbbo 64 CHAPTER VI. The War. Gbrman Meals. Women and Men. Tausio's Tbaoh- iNO. Tausiq Abandons his Conservatory. Dbebdxn. Euixak. 71 (7) CONTENTS. WITH KULLAK CHAPTER VII. PAOS. MovmG. Gkrmak Houses and Dinkbrs. Thb War. Captubk of Napolbon. Kullak's and Tausig's Teaching. Joachim. Wao- NBB. Tausig'8 Plating. Gbrma w Etiquette 95 CHAPTER VIII. CoNOXBTs. Joachim again. The Sibgb of Pabib. Peacb Dbclabks. Wagneb. a Woman's Symphony. Ovation to Waqnkr in Bbblin Ill CHAPTER IX. I>itpioultibs of thb Piano. Triumphal Entby of the Tboops. Paris ItS CHAPTER X. A Rhinb Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine. Cologne. Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spibb. Heidblbebg. Tausiq's Death 181 CHAPTER XL EiSEKACH. GoTHA. Ebpurt. Andernach. Weimab. Tausig — 14B CHAPTER XII. Dinner-Party and Reception at Mb. Bancroft's. Auctiok at Taubig's House. A German Chbistmas. The Joachims .... 157 CHAPTER XIII. Visit to Dbesden. The Wiecks. Von Bulow. A Child Peodigt. Gbantzow, the Dancer 168 CHAPTER XIV. A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Buloit's Playing. A Pbincelt FUNEBAL WILHELMJ'S CONCEBT. A COUBT BEAUTT 174 CONTENTS. d CHAPTER XV. Thb Boston Fibb. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak. Skbbwood. Hoch Schulb. a Brilliant American. German Dancino 182 CHAPTER XVI. A German Professor. Sherwood. Thb Baroness von S. Yon BuLow. A German Party. Joachim, The Baroness at Home. 193 WITH LISZT. CHAPTER XVII. Abbtves in Wiemar. Liszt at the Thbatbe.— At a Party. At HIS OWN House 205 CHAPTER XVIII. Liszt's Dbawinq-boom. An Artist's Walking Pabty. Liszt's Teaching 218 CHAPTER XIX. Liszt's Bxpbbsbion in Playing. Liszt on Conbebyatobies. Ob- DBAL or Liszt's Lessons. Liszt's.Kindnesb 227 CHAPTER XX. Libzt'b Compositions. His Playing and Teaching of Beethoven. HiB "Effects" in Piano-playing. Excubsion to Jena. A New Music Masteb 385 CHAPTER XXI. Libzt's Playing. Tausig. Excursion to Sondershaubbh »48 CHAPTER XXII. Farewell to Liszt I German Conservatories and their Methods. Berlin again. Liszt and Joachim 263 CHAPTER XXIII. KUZJ.AK AS A Teacher. The Four Great Virtuobi, Claba Schu- mann, Rubinstein, Von Bulow and Tausig 27t 10 CONTENTS. WITH DEPPE, CHAPTER XXIV. PAOE. Gnrss TIP KiiLLAK FOB Dkppe. Dbppe's Method in Touch and in -SoAi-B-PLAYiNQ. Fraulein Stbinighr. Pkdal Studt S83 CHAPTER XXV. Chobd-playing. Dbppe no mere "Pedagogue." Sherwood. Mozart's Concertos. Practicing Slowly. The Opera Ball. 299 CHAPTER XXVI. A Set op Beethoven Variations. Fannie Warburg. Deppe''b Inventions. His Room. His Afternoon Coffee. Pyrmoht, 811 CHAPTER XXVII. The Bbubiels Conservatoire. Steiniger. Excursion to Elbin- BERG. Giving a Concert. Fraulein Timm 8S3 CHAPTER XXVIII. Music in Hahburg. Studying Chamber Music. Absence of Re. LioioN IN Germany. South Americans. Dbppe Once Mor» A Concert Debut. Postscript., 881 IN TAUSIG'S CONSERYATORT. MUSIC-STtJDT IN GERMANY. CHAPTER I. A German Interior in Berlin. A CJerman Party. Joachim. Tausig's Conservatory. Berlin, November 3, 1869. Behold me at last at No. 26 Bemburger Strasse! where I arrived exactly two weeks from the day I left New York. Frau W. and her daughter, Fraulem A. W., greeted me with the greatest warmth and cordiality, and made me feel at home immediately. The German idea of a "large" room I find is rather peculiar, for this one is not more than ten or eleven feet square, and has one comer of it snipped off, so that the room is an irregular shape. When I first entered it I thought I could not stay in it, it seemed so small, but when I came to examine it, so ingeniously is every inch of space made the most of, that I have come to the conclu- sion that it will be very comfortable. It is not, however^ the apartment where " the last new novel wiU he upon the table, and where my daintily shppered feet wiU rest upon the velvet cushion." No! rather is it the stem abode of the Muses. (13). 14 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY, To begin then : the room is spotlessly clean and neat. The walls are papered with a nice new paper, grey ground with blue figures — a cheap paper, but soft and pretty. In one corner stands my little bureau with three deep draw- ers. Over it is a large looking-glass nicely framed. In the other corner on the same side is a big sofa which at night becomes a little bed. Next to the foot of the sofa, against the wall, stands a tiny square table, with a marble top, and a shelf underneath, on which are a basin and a minute soap-dish and tumbler. In the opposite corner towers a huge grey porcelain stove, which comes up to within a few feet of the ceiling. Next is one stiff cane-bottomed chair on four stiff legs. Then comes the lop-sided corner of the room, where an upright piano is to stand. Next there is a little space where hangs the three-shelved book-case, which will contain my vast Hbrary. Then comes a broad French window with a deep window-seat. By this window is my sea- chair — ^by far the most luxurious one in the house ! Then comes my bureau again, and so on Da Capo. In the middle is a pretty round table, with an inlaid centre- piece, and on it is a waiter with a large glass bottle full of water, and a glass; and this, with one more stiff chair, completes the furniture of the room. My cur- tains are white, with a blue border, and two transparen- cies hang in the window. My towel-rack is fastened to the wall, and has an embroidered centre-piece. On my bureau is a beautiful inkstand, the cover being a carved eagle with spread wings, perched over a nest with three eggs in it. It is quite large, and looks extremely pretty under the looking-glass. A BERLIN HOME. 15 After I had taken off my things, Frau W. and her daughter ushered me into their parlour, which had the same look of neatness and simpHcity and of extreme economy. There are no caipets on any of the floors, but they have large, though cheap, rugs. You never saw such a primitive httle household as it is — that of this German lawyer's widow. We think our house at home small, but I feel as if we Hved in palatial magnificence after seeing how they hve here, *. e., about as our dress- makeis used to do in the country, and yet it is sufficiently nice and comfortable. There are two very pretty little rooms opposite mine, which are yet to be let together. If some friend of mine could only take them I should be perfectly happy. At night my bed is made upon the sofa. (They all sleep on these sofas.) The cover consists of a feather bed and a blanket. That sounds rather formidable, but the feather bed is a hght, warm covering, and looks about two inches thick. It is much more comfortable than our bed coverings in America. I tuck myself into my nest at night, and in the morning after breakfast, when I return to my room — agramento-presto-change ! — my bed is converted into a sofa, my basin is laid on the shelf, the soap-dish and my combs and brushes are scuttled away into the drawer; the windows are open, a fresh fire crackles in my stove, and my charm- ing little bed-room is straightway converted into an equally charming sitting-room. How does the picture please you ? This morning Frau and FrSulein W. went with me to engage a piano, and they took me also to the con- 16 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. servatory. Tausig is off for six weeks, giving concerts. As I went up the stairs I heard most beautiful playing. Ehlert, Tausig's partner, who has charge of the conser- vatory, and teaches his pupils in his absence, examined me. After that long voyage I did not dare attempt any- thing difficult, so I just played one of Bach's Gavottes. He said some encouraging words, and for the present has taken me into his class. I am to begin to-morrow from one o'clock to two. It is now ten P. M., and tell C, we have had five meals to-day, so Madame P.'s statement is about correct. The cooking is on the same scale as the rest of the establishment — a little at a time, but so far very good. We know nothing at all about rolls in America. Anything so delicious as the rolls here I never ate in the way of bread. In the morning we had a cup of coffee and rolls. At eleven we lunched on a cup of bouillon and a roll. At two o'clock we had din- ner, which consisted of soup and then chickens, potar toes, carrots and bread, with beer. At five we had tea, cake and toast, and at nine we had a supper of cold meat, boiled eggs, tea and bread and butter. FrSulein W. speaks Enghsh quite nicely, and is my medium of communication with her mother. I begin German lessons with her to-morrow. They both send you their compliments, and so you must return yours. They seem as kind as possible, and I think I am very fortunate in my boarding place. Be sure to direct your letters " Care Frau Geheim- rSthin W." (Mrs. Councillor W.), as the German ladies are very particular about their titles ! SPEAKING GERMAN. 17 Berlin, November 21, 1869. Since I wrote to you not much of interest has oc- curred. I am dehghted with Berlin, and am enjoying myself very much, though I am working hard. I am so thankful that all my sewing was done before I came, for I have not a minute to spare for it, and here it seems to me all the dresses fit so dreadfully. It would make me miserable to wear such lookmg clothes, and as I can't speak the language, the difficulties in the way of giving directions on the technicalities of dressmaking would be terrific. Tell C. he is very wise to con- tinue his German conversation lessons with Madame P. Even the few that I took prove of immense assist- ance to me, as I can understand almost everything that is said to me, though I cannot answer back. He ought to make one of his lessons about shopping and droschkie drivmg, for it is very essential to know how to ask for things, and to be able to give directions in driv- ing. I had a very funny experience with a droschkie the other day, but it would take too long to write it. Frau W. cannot understand English, and she gets dread- fully impatient when FrSulein A. and I speak it, and always says " Deutsch " in a sepulchral tone, so that I have to begin and say it all over again in German with A.'s help. When I got f akly settled I presented myseK and my letters at the Bancrofts, the B's. and the A's., and was very kindly and cordially received by them all. Mrs. Bancroft and Mrs. B. have since called in return, and I have already been to a charming reception at the house of the latter, and 18 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. — — — ___^ — — — — - — J. * to the grand American Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel de Rome, at which Mr. Bancroft presided, and made very happy speeches both ui EngUsh and German. I en- joyed both occasions extremely, and made some pleasant acquaintances. I have also been to one German tea- party with Frau W. and A., and there I had " the jolhest kind of a time." There were only twelve invited, but you would have supposed from the clatter that there were at least a hundred. At the American dinner there was noth- ing like the noise of conversation that this little handful kept up. Before supper it was rather stupid, for the men all retired to a room by themselves, where they sat with closed doors and played whist and smoked. It is not considered proper for ladies to play cards except at home, and I, of course, did not say much, for the excellent reason that I couldnH ! At ten o'clock supper was announced, and the gentlemen came and took us in. Herr J. was my pai-tner. He is a delightful man, though an elderly one, and knows no end of things, as he has spent his whole life in study and in travelling. He looks to me like a man of very sensitive organization, and of very delicate feelings. He is a tremendous republican, and a great radical in every respect, and has an unbounded admiration for America. As soon as every one was seated at the table with due form and ceremony, all began to talk as hard as they could, and you have no idea what a noise they made, and how it increased toward the end with the potent libations they had. The bill of fare was rather curious. We began with shoes of hot tongue, with a sauce of chest- nuts, and it was extremely nice, too. Then we had ven- A GERMAN SUPPER. 19 ison and boiled potatoes ! Then we had a dessert con- sisting of fruit, and some delicious cake. There were several kinds of wine, and everybody drank the greatest quantity. The host and hostess kept jumping up and going round to everybody, saying: "But you drink nothing," and then they would insist upon filling up your glass. I don't dare to think how many times they filled mine, but it seemed to be etiquette to drink, and so I did as the rest. The repast ended with coffee, and then the gentlemen lit their cigars, and were in such an extremely cheerful frame of mind that they all began to sing, and I even saw two old fellows kiss each other ! The venison was delicious, and nicer than any I ever ate. Herr J. was the only man in the room who could speak any English, and since then he takes a good deal of interest in me, and lends me books. Every Sun- day Frau W. takes me to her sister's house to tea. I like to go because I hear so much German spoken there, and they all take a profound interest in my affairs. They know to a minute when I get a letter, and when I write one, and eveiy incident of my daily life. It amuses them very much to see a real live wild Indian from America. I am soon going to another German party, and I look forward to it with much pleasure ; not that the parties here give me the same feeling as at home, but they are amusing because they are so entirely dif- ferent. There is so much to be seen and heard in Berlin that if one has but the money there is no end to one's re- sources. There are the opera and the Schauspielhaus every night, and beautiful concerts every evening, too. They MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. say that the opera here is magnificent, and the scenery superb, and they have a wonderful ballet-troupe. So far, however, I have only been to one concert, and that was a sacred concert. But Joachim played — and Oh-h, what a tone he draws out of the violin ! I could think of nothing but Mrs. Moulton's voice, as he sighed out those exquisitely pathetic notes. He played something by Schumann which ended with a single note, and as he drew his bow across he produced so many shades that it was perfectly marvellous. I am going to hear him again on Sunday night, when he plays at Clara Schu- mann's concert. It will be a great concert, for she plays much. She will be assisted by Joachim, Miiller, De Ahna, and by Joachim's wife, who has a beautiful voice and sings charmingly in the serious German style. Joachim himself is not only the greatest vio- linist in the world, but one of the greatest that ever- lived. De Ahna is one of the first violinists in Ger- many, and Muller is one of the first 'cellists. In fact, this quartette cannot be matched in Europe — so you see what 1 am expecting ! Tausig has not yet returned from his concert tour, and will not arrive before the 21st of De- cember. I find Ehlert a splendid teacher, but very severe, and I am mortally afraid of him. Not that he is cross, but he exacts so much, and such a hopeless feeling of despair takes possession of me. His first lesson on touch taught me more than all my other lessons put together — though, to be sure, that is not saying much, as they were " few and far between." At present I am weltering in a sea of troubles. The A "MUSICAL READINQ.»» 21 girls in my class are three in number, and they all play so extraordinarily well that sometimes I think I can never catch up with them. I am the worst of all the scholars in Tausig's classes that I have heard, except one, and that is a young man. I know that Ehlert thinks I have talent, but, after all, talent must go to the wall before such practice as these people have had, for most of them have studied a long time, and have been at the piano four and five hours a day. It is very interesting in the conservatory, for there are pupils there from all countries except France. Some of them seem to me splendid musicians. On Sunday morning (I am sorry to say) once in a month or six weeks, they have what they call a "Musical Reading." It is held in a piano-forte ware-room, and there all the scholars in the higher classes play, so I had to go. Many of the girls played magnificently, and I was amazed at the technique that they had, and at the artistic manner in which even very young girls rendered the most difficult music, and all without notes. It gave me a severe nervous headache just to hear them. But it was delightful to see them go at it. None of them had the least fear, and they laughed and chattered between the pieces, and when their turn came they marched up to the piano, sat down as bold as lions, and banged away so splendidly ! You have no idea how hard they make Cramer's Studies here. Ehlert makes me play them tremen- dously /or^e, and as fast as I can go. My hand gets so tired that it is ready to break, and then I say that I cannot go on. " But you mmt go on," he will say. 3» MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. It is the same with the scales. It seems to me that I play them so loud that I make the welkin ring, and he will say, " But you play always piano." And with all this rapidity he does not allow a note to be missed^ and if you happen to strike a ATrong one he looks so shocked that you feel ready to sink into the floor. Strange to say, I enjoy the lessons in Zusammenspiel (duet-playing) very much, although it is all reading at sight. Four of us sit down at two pianos and read duets at sight. Lesmann is a pleasant man, and he always talks so fast that he amuses me very much. He always counts and beats time most vigorously, and bawls in your ear, "Eins — zwei! Eins — zwei!" or some- times, " Eins!" only, on the first beat of every bar. When, occasionally, we all get out, he looks at us through his glasses, and then such a volley of words as he hurls at us is wonderful to hear. I never can help laughing, though I take good care not to let him see me. But Weitzmann, the Harmony professor, is the fun- niest of all. He is the dearest old man in the world, and it is impossible for him to be cross ; but he takes so much pains and trouble to make his class understand, and he has the most peculiar way of talking imagin- able, and accents everything he says tremendously. I go to him because Ehlert says I must, but as I know nothing of the theory of music (and if I did, the names are so entirely different in German that I never should know what they are in English) it is extremely diffi- cult for me to understand him at all. He knew I was an American, and let me pass for one or two lessons A GERMAN PROFESSOR. 23 without asking me any questions, but finally his Ger- man love of thoroughness has got the better of him, and he is now beginning to take me in hand. At the last lesson he wrote some chords on the blackboard, and after holding forth for some time he wound up with his usual " Verstehen Sie wohl — Jaf (Do you understand— Yes?)" to the class, who all shouted "Ja,^ except me. I kept a discreet silence, thinking he would not notice, but he suddenly turned on me and said, " Verstehen Sie wohl — «7a?" I was as puzzled what to say as the Pharisees were when they were asked if the baptism of John were of heaven or of men. I knew that if I said "e/a," he might call on me for a proof, and that if I said "Kein" he would undertake to enlighten me, and that I should not un- derstand him. After an instant's consideration I concluded the lat- ter course was the safer, and so I said, boldly, "NeinP ^^Komraen Sie hierher! (Come here !)" said he, and to my horror I had to step up to the blackboard in front of this large class. He harangued me for some minutes, and then writing some notes on the bass clef, he put the chalk into my hands and told me to write. Not one word had I understood, and after staring blankly at the board I said, "Ich verstehe nicht (I don't understand.)" "Nein?" said he, and carefully went over all his explanation again. This time I managed to extract that he wished me to write the succession of chords that those bass notes indicated, and to tie what notes I could. A second time he put the chalk into my hands, and told me to write the 24 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. chords. " Heaven only knows what they are !" thinks I to myself. In my desperation, however, I guessed at the first one, and uttered the names of the notes in trembling accents, expecting to have a cannon fired off at my head. Thanks to my lucky star, it happened to be right. I wrote it on the blackboard, and then as my wits sharpened I found the other chords from that one, and wrote them all down right. I drew a long breath of relief as he released me from his clutches, and sat down hardly believing I had done it. I have not now the least idea what it was he made me do, but I suppose it will come to me in the course of the year ! As he does not understand a word of English, I cannot say anything to him unless I can say it in German, and as he is determined to make me learn Harmony, it would be of no use to explain that I did not know what he was talking about, for he would begin all over again, and go on ad infinitum. I have got a book on the Theory of Music, which I am reading with FrSulein W. She has studied with Weitzmann, also, and when I have caught up with the class I shall go on very easily. I quite adore Weitzmann. He has the kindest old face imaginable, and he hammers away so indef atigably at his pupils ! The professors I have described are all thorough and well-known musi- cians of Berlin, and I wonder that people could tfjll us before I came away, and really seem to believe it, "that I could learn as well in an American conserva- tory as in a German one." In comparison with the drill I am now receiving, my Boston teaching was mere play. * CHAPTER II. Clara Schumann and Joachim. The American Minister'a The Museum. The Conservatory. The Opera. Tausig. Christmas. Beblin, December 12, 1869. I heard Clara Schumann on Sunday, and on Tuesday evening, also. She is a most wonderful artist. In the first concert she played a quartette by Schumann, and you can imagine how lovely it was under the treat- ment of Clara Schumann for the piano, Joachim for the first violin, De Ahna for the second, and Muller for the 'cello. It was perfect, and I was in raptures. Madame Schumann's selection for the two concerts was a very wide one, and gave a full exhibition of her powers in every kind of music. The Impromptu by Schumann, Op. 90, was exquisite. It was full of passion and very difficult. The second of the Songs without Words, by Mendelssohn, was the most fairy-like per- formance. It is one of those things that must be tossed off with the greatest grace and smoothness, and it requires the most beautiful and delicate technique. She played it to perfection. The terrific Scherzo by Chopin she did splendidly, but she kept the great octave passages in the bass a little too subordinate, I thought, and did not give it quite boldly enough for my taste, though it was extremely artistic. Clara Schumann's playing is very objective. She seems to (25) 36 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. throw herself into the music, instead of letting the music take possession of her. She gives you the most exquisite pleasure with every note she touches, and has a wonderful conception and variety in playing, but she seldom whirls you off your feet. At the second concert she was even better than at the first, if that is possible. She seemed full of fire, and when she played Bach, she ought to have been crowned with diamonds ! Such nohle playing I never heard. In fact you are all the time impressed with the nobility and breadth of her style, and the com- prehensiveness of her treatment, and oh, if you could hear her scales! In short, there is nothing more to be desired in her playing, and she has every quality of a great artist. Many people say that Tausig is far better, but I cannot believe it. He may have more technique and more power, but nothing else I am sure. Everybody raves over his playing, and I am getting quite impatient for his return, which is expected next week. I send you Madame Schumann's photograph, which is exactly like her. She is a large, very German- looking woman, with dark hair and superb neck and arms. At the last concert she was dressed in black velvet, low body and short sleeves, and when she struck powerful chords, those large white arms came down with a certain splendor. As for Joachim, he is perfectly magnificent, and has amazing power. When he played his solo in that second Chaconne of Bach's, you could scarcely believe it was only one violin. He has, like Madame Schu- mann, the greatest variety of tone, only on the violin THE SING-AKADEMIE. 27 the shades can be made far more delicate than on the piano. I thought the second movement of Schumann's Quartette perhaps as extraordinary as any part of Clara Schumann's performance. It was very rapid, very stac- cato, and pianissimo all the way through. Not a note escaped her fingers, and she played with so much mag- netism that one could scarcely breathe until it was fin- ished. You know nothing can be more difficult than to play staccato so very softly where there is great execution also. Both of the sonatas for violin and piano which were played by Madame Schumann and Joachim, and especially the one in A minor, by Bee- thoven, were divine. Both parts were equally well sustained, and they played with so much fire — as if one inspired the other. It was worth a trip across the Atlantic just to hear those two performances. The Sing-Akademie, where all the best concerts are given, is not a very large hall, but it is beautifully proportioned, and the acoustic is perfect. The fres- coes are very delicate, and on the left are boxes all along, which add much to the beauty of the hall, with their scarlet and gold flutings. Clara Schumann is a great favorite here, and there was such a rush for seats that, though we went early for our tickets, all the good parquet seats were gone, and we had to get places on the estrade, or place where the chorus sits — when there is one. But I found it delightful for a piano concert, for you can be as close to the performer as you like, and at the same time see the faces of the audience. I saw ever so many people that I knew, and we kept bowing away at each other. 28 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. Just think how convenient it is here with regard to public amusements, for ladies can go anywhere alone ! You take a droschkie and they drive you anywhere for five groschen, which is about fifteen cents. When you get into the concert hall you go into the garde- robe and take off your things, and hand them over to the care of the woman who stands there, and then you walk in and sit down comfortably as you would in a parlour, and are not roasted in your hat and cloak while at the concert, and chilled when you go out, as we are in America. Their programmes, too, are not so unconscionably long as ours, and, in short, their whole method of concert-giving is more rational than with us. I always enjoy the garde-robe, for if you have acquaintances you are sure to meet them, and you have no idea how exciting it is in a foreign city to see anybody you know. Berlin, December 19, 1869. I suppose you are muttering maledictions on my head for not writing, but I am so busy that I have no time to answer my letters, which are accumulating upon my hands at a terrible rate. This week I have been out every night but one, so that I have had to do all my practicing and German and Harmony lessons in the day-time ; and these, with my daily hour and a half at the conservatory, have been as much as I could manage. On Monday I went to a party at the Bancroft's, which I enjoyed extremely. It was a very brilliant MR. BURLINGAME. 29 affair, and the toilettes were superb. At the entrance I was ushered in by a very fine servant dressed in liv- ery. A second man showed me the dressing-room, where my bewildered sight first rested on a lot of Chinamen in festive attire. I could not make out for a second what they were, and I thought to myself, " Is it possible I have mistaken the invitation, and this is a masquerade?" Another glance showed me that they were Chinese, and it turned out that Mr. Burlingame, the Chinese Minister, was there, and these men were part of his suite. The ladies and gentle- men had the same dressing-room, which was a new feature in parties to me, and as we took off our things the servant took them and gave us a ticket for them, as they do at the opera. I should think there were about a hundred persons present. There were a great many handsome women, and they were beautifully dressed and much be-diamonded and pearled. Corn- colour seemed to be the fashion, and there were more silks of that colour than any other. Mr. Burlingame seemed to be a very genial, easy man. I was not presented to him, but stood very near him part of the time. He looks upon the intro- duction of the Chinese into our country as a' great blessing, and laughs at the idea of it being an evil. He says that the reason railroads can't be introduced into China is because the whole country is one vast grave-yard, and you can't dig any depth without un- earthing human bones, so that there would be a revo- lution on the part of the people if it were done now, but it will gradually be brought about. He travels 30 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. with a suite of forty attendants, and says he has got all his treaties here arranged to his wishes, and that Prussia has promised to follow the United States in everything that they have agreed on with China. He is going to resign his office in a year and go back to America, where he wants to get into politics again. Mr. Bancroft introduced many of the ladies to the Chinese, one of whom could speak English, and he interpreted to the others. It was very quaint to see them all make their deep bows in silence when some one was presented to them. They were in the Chinese costume — Turkish trousers, white silk coats, or blouses, and red turbans, and their hair braided down their backs in a long tail that nearly touched their heels. On Thursday I went to Dr. A.'s to dinner. He seems to be a very influential man here, and is a great favorite with the Americans. He has a great big heart, and I suspect that is the reason of it. Mrs. A., too, is very lovely. I saw there Mr. Theodore Fay, who used to be our minister in Switzerland, and who is also an author. He is very interesting, and the most earnest Christian I ever met. He has the tender- est sympathies in the world, and in a man this is very striking. He has a high and beautiful forehead, and a certain spirituality of expression that appeals to you at once and touches you, also. At least he makes a pecu- liar impression on me. There is something entirely different about him from other men, but I don't know what it is, unless it be his deep religious feeling, which shines out unconsciously. Last week I made my first visit to the Museum. It THE MUSEUM. 31 is one of the great sights of Berlin, but it is so immense that I only saw a few rooms. In fact there are two Museums — an old and a new. I was in the new one. It is a perfect treasure house, and the floors alone are a study. All are inlaid with little coloured marbles, and every one is different in pattern. One of the most beautiful of the rooms was a large circular dome-roofed apartment round which were placed the statues of the gods, and in the centre stood a statue in bronze of one of the former German kings in a Roman suit of armour. Half way up from the floor ran round a little gallery in which you could stand and look down over the railing, and here were placed on the walls Raphael's cartoons, which are fac-similes of those in the Vatican, and are all woven in arras. They are very wonderful, and you feel as if you could not look at them long enough. The contrast is impressive as you look down and see all the heathen statues standing on the marble floor, each one like a separate sphinx, and then look up and see all the Christian subjects of Raphael. The statues are so cold and white and distant, and the pictures are so warm and bright in colour. They seem to express the difference between the ancient and the modern relig- ions. We went through the rooms of Greek and Roman statues, of which there is an immense number, and on the walls are Greek and Italian landscapes, all done by celebrated painters. We had to pass through these rooms rather hastily in order to get a glimpse of the " Treppen Halle," which is the place where the two grand stair-cases MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. meet that carry you into the upper rooms of the Museum. This is magnificent, and is all gilding and decoration. An immense statue stands by each door, and on the wall are six great pictures by Kaulbach, three on each side. " The Last Judgment," of which you've seen photographs, is one of them. I ought to go to the Museum often to see it properly, but it is such a long distance off that I can't get the time. Berlin is a very large city, and the distances are as great as they are in New York. At the last " Reading " at the conservatory the four best scholars played last. One of them was an Amer- ican, from San Francisco, a Mr. Trenkel, but who has German parents. He plays exquisitely, and has just such a poetic musical conception as Dresel, but a beautiful technique, also. He is a thorough artist, and he looks it, too, as he is dark and pale, and very strik- ing. I always like to see him play, for he droops his dark eyes, and his high pale forehead is thrown back, and stands out so well defined over his black brows. His expression is very serious and his manner very quiet, and he has a sort of fascination about him. He is a particular favorite of Tausig's. After he played,came a young lady who has been a pu- pil of Von Billow for two years. She plays splendidly, and I could have torn my hair with envy when she got up, and Ehlert went up to her and shook her hand and told her before the whole school that she had " real talent. After her came my favorite, little Fr^ulein Timanoff, who sat down and did still better. She is a little Russian, only fifteen, and is still in short THE BERLIN OPERA HOUSE. 33 dresses. She has almost white hair, it is so light, and she combs it straight back and wears it in two long braids down her back, which makes her look very childish. It is really wonderful to see her ! She takes her seat with the greatest confidence, and plays with all the boldness of an artist. Almost all the scholars in Tausig's class are study- ing to play in public, and I should think he would be very proud of all those that I have heard. There are many scholars in the conservatory, but he teaches only the most advanced. He only returned to Berlin on Saturday, and I have not yet seen him, though I am dying to do so, for all the Germans are wild over his playing. The girls in his class are mortally afraid of him, and when he gets angry he tells them they play " like a rhinoceros," and many other little re- marks equally pleasing. Berlin, January 11, 1870. Since my last letter I have been quite secluded, and have seen nothing of the gay world. I have been to the opera twice — once to "Fantaska" a grand ballet, and the second time to ^' Trovatore!^ The opera house here is magnificent, and I would that I could go to it every week. It is extremely difficult to get tickets to it, as the rich Jews manage to get the monopoly of them and the opera house is crowded every night. It is the most brilliant building, and so exquisitely painted ! All the heads and figures of the Muses and portraits of composers and poets which decorate it, are 3 34 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. so soft and so beautifully done. The curtain even is charming. It represents the sea, and great sea mon- sters are swimming about with nymphs and Cupids and all sorts of things, and one lovely nymph floats in the air with a thin gauzy veil which trails along after her. The scenery and dresses are superb, and I never imagined anything to equal them. The orchestra, too, plays divinely. The singing is the only thing which could be im- proved. The Lucca, who is the grand attraction, is a pretty little creature, but I did not find her voice re- markable. The Berlinese worship her, and whenever Lucca sings there is a rush for the tickets. VVachtel and Niemann are the star singers among the men. Niemann I have not heard, but Wachtel we should not rave over in America. I am in doubt whether indeed the Germans know what the best singing is. They have most wonderful choruses, but when it comes to soloists they have none that are really great — like Parepa and Adelaide Phillips ; at least, that is my judgment after hearing the best singers in Berlin, though as the voice is not my " instrument," I will not be too confident about it. Everything else is so far beyond what we have at home that perhaps I un- consciously expect the climax of all — the solo sing- ing, to be proportionally finer also. They have beautiful ballet-dancers here, though. There is one little creature named Fraulein David who is a wonderful artist. She does such steps that it turns one's head to see her. She is as light as down, and so extremely graceful that when you watch her TAU8IG. 35 floating about to the enchanting ballet music, it is too captivating. There were four other dancers nearly as good, who were all dressed exactly alike in white dresses trimmed with pink satin. They would come out first, and dance all together, sometimes separately and sometimes forming a figure in the middle of the stage. Then suddenly little David, who was dressed in white and blue, would bound foi'ward. The others would immediately break up and retire to the side of the stage, and she would execute a wonderful paa seul. Then she would retire, and the others would come forward again, and so it went. It was perfectly beau- tiful. Finally they all danced together and did everything exactly alike, though little David could always bend lower, and take the " positions " (as we used to say at Dio Lewis's,) better than all the rest. On Friday I am going to hear Rubinstein play. I suppose he will give a beautiful concert, as he and Billow, Tausig and Clara Schumann are the grand celebrities now on the piano, Liszt having given up playing in public. After our lesson was over yester- day, Ehlert took his leave, and left us to wait for Tausig — my dear ! — who was to hear us each play. He came in very late, and just before it was time to give his own lesson. He is precisely like the photo- graph I sent you, but is very short indeed — ^too short, in fact, for good looks — but he has a remarkably vivid expression of the eyes. He came in, and, scarcely looking at us, and without taking the trouble to bow even, he turned on me and said, imperiously, " Spielen Sie mir Etwas vor. (Play something for 36 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. me.)" I got up and played first an Etude^ and then he asked for tJie scales, and after I had played a few he told me I " had talent," and to come to his lessons, and I would learn much. I went accordingly the next after- noon. There were two girls only in the class, but they were both far advanced. I had never heard either of them play before. The second one played a fearfully difficult concerto by Chopin, which I once heard from Mills. It is exquisitely beautiful, and she did it very well. From time to time Tausig would sweep her off the stool, and play himself, and he is indeed a perfect wonder ! If, as they say, Liszt's trill is " like the war- ble of a bird," his is as much so. It is not surprising that he is so celebrated, and I long to hear him in concert, where he will do full justice to his powers. He thrills you to the very marrow of your bones. He is divorced from his wife, and I think it not improbable that she could not live with him, for he looks as haughty and despotic as Lucifer, though he has a very winning way with him when he likes. His play- ing is spoken of as sans pareil. I spent a very pleasant Christmas. The family had a pretty little tree, and we all gave each other presents. It was charming to go out in the streets the week before. The Germans make the greatest time over Christmas, and the streets are full of Christmas trees, the shops are crammed with lovely things, and there are little booths erected all along the sidewalks filled with toys. They have special cakes and con- fections that they prepare only at this season. CHAPTER III. Taiuig and Rubinstein. Tausig's Pupils. The Bancrofts. A German Radical. Berlin, Februa/ry 8, 1870. I have heard both Rubinstein and Tausig in concert since I last wrote. They are both wonderful, but in quite a 'different way. Rubinstein has the greatest power a.xd abandon in playing that you can imagine, and is extremely exciting. I never saw a man to whom it seemed so easy to play. It is as if he were just sporting with the piano, and could do what he pleased with it. Tausig, on the contrary, is extremely restrained, and has not quite enthusiasm enough, but he is absolutely perfect, and plays with the greatest expression. He is pre-eminent in grace and delicacy of execution, but seems to hold back his power in a concert room, which is very singular, for when he plays to his classes in the conservatory he seems all passion. His conception is so very refined that some- times it is a little too much so, while Rubinstein is occasionally too precipitate. I have not yet decided which I like best, but in my estimation Clara Schu- mann as a whole is superior to either, although she has not their unlimited technique. (37) 38 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. This was Tausig's programme : 1. Senate Op. 53. .... Beethoven. 2. a. Bourr6e - . . . . . Bach. b. Presto Scherzando, - - - Mendelssohn. c. Barcarole Op. 60, - • \ d. Ballade Op. 47, - - j- . Chopin. e. Zwei Mazurkas Op. 59 u 33, ) f. Aufforderung zum Tanz, - - Weber. 8. Kreisleriana Op. 16, i 8 Phantasie Stucke, \ ' ' Schumann. 4. a. Standchen von Shakespeare \ nach Schubert, >• Liszt, b. Ungarische Rhapsodic, ) Tausig's octave playing is the most extraordinary I ever heard. The last great effect on his programme was in the Rhapsody by Liszt, in an octave varia- tion. He first played it so jjianissimo that you could only just hear it, and then he repeated the variation and gave it tremendously forte. It was colossal! His scales surpass Clara Schumann's, and it seems as if he played with velvet fingers, his touch is so very soft. He played the great C major Sonata by Beethoven — Moscheles' favorite, you know. His conception of it was not brilliant, as I expected it would be, but very calm and dreamy, and the first movement especially he took very piano. He did it most beautifully, but I was not quite satisfied with the last movement, for I expected he would make a grand climax with /those passionate trills, and he did not. Chopin he plays divinely, and that little Bourr^e of Bach's that I used to play, was magical. He played it like lightning, and made it perfectly bewitching. LITTLE TIMANOFF. 39 Altogether, he is a great man. But Olara Schu- mann always puts herself en rapport with you immedi- ately. Tausig and Rubinstein do not sway you as she does, and, therefore, I think she is the greater inter- preter, although I imagine the Germans would not agree with me. Tausig has such a little hand that I wonder he has been able to acquire his immense vir- tuosity. He is only thirty years old, and is much younger than Rubinstein or Btilow. The day after Tausig's concert I went, as usual, to hear him give the lesson to his best class of girls. I got there a little before the hour, and the girls were in the dressing-room waiting for the young men to be through with their lesson. They were talking about the concert. " Was it not beautiful?" said little Tim- anoff, to me ; "I did not sleep the whole night after it !" — a touch of sentiment that quite surprised me in that small personage, and made me feel some compunc- tions, as I had slept soundly myself. " I have prac- ticed five hours to-day already," she added. Just then the young men came out of the class-room and we passed into it. Tausig was standing by the piano. " Begin !" said he, to Timanoff, more shortly even than usual ; " I trust you have brought me a study this time." He always insists upon a study in addition to the piece. Timanoff replied in the affirmativCj and proceeded to open Chopin's Etudes. She played the great A minor " Winter Wind " study, and most mag- nificently, too, starting off with the greatest brilliancy and "go." I was perfectly amazed at such a feat from such a child, and expected that Tausig would 40 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. exclaim with admiration. Kot so that Rhadaman- thus. He heard it through without comment or correction, and when Timanoff had finished, simply remarked very composedly, " So ! Have you taken the next Etude, also ?" as if the great A minor were not enough for one meal ! It is eight pages long to begin with, and there is no let-up to the difficulty all the way through. Afterward, however, he told the young men that he "could not have done it better" himself. Tausig is so hasty and impatient that to be in his classes must be a fearful ordeal. He will not bear the slightest fault. The last time I went into his class to hear him teach he was dreadful. FrSulein H. began, and she has remarkable talent, and is far beyond me. She would not play piano enough to suit him, and finally he stamped his foot at her, snatched her hand from the piano, and said : " Will you play piano or not, for if not we will go no farther?" The second girl sat down and played a few lines. He made her begin over again several times, and finally came up and took her music away and slapped it down on the piano, — " You have been studying this for weeks and you can't play a note of it ; practice it for a month and then you can bring it to me again," he said. The third was Fraulein Timanoff, who is a lit- tle genius, I think. She brought a Sonata by Schu- bert — the lovely one in A minor — and by the way he behaved Tausig must have a particular feeling about that particular Sonata. Timanoff began running it off in her usual nimble style, having practiced it evi- TAUSIG TEACHING. 41 dently every minute of the time when she was not asleep, since the last lesson. She had not proceeded far down the first page when he stopped her, and began to fuss over the expression. She began again, but this time with no better luck. A third time, but still he was dissatisfied, though he suffered her to go on a little farther. He kept stopping her every moment in the most tantalizing and exasperating manner. If it had been I, I should have cried, but Timanoff is well broken, and only flushed deeply to the very tips of her small ears. From an apple blossom she changed to a carnation. Tausig grew more and more savage, and made her skip whole pages in his impatience. " Play here !" he would say, in the most imperative tone, pointing to a half or whole page farther on. " This I cannot hear ! — Go on farther ! — It is too bad to be listened to !" Finally, he struck the music with the back of his hand, and exclaimed, in a despairing way, " Kind^ es liegt eine Seele darin. Weiss du nicht es liegt eine Seele darin f (Child, there's a soul in the piece. Don't you know there is a soul in it?)" To the little Timanoff, who has no soul, and who is not suflBciently experienced to counterfeit one, this speech evidently conveyed no particular idea. She ran on as glibly as ever till Tausig could endure no more, and shut up the music. I was much disappointed, as it was new to me, and I like to hear Timanoff's little fingers tinkle over fhe keys, "Seele" or no "Seele." She has a most accurate and dainty way of doing eveiything, and somehow, in her healthy little brain I hardly wish for Seele! 42 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. Last of all Fraulein L. played, and she alone suited Tausig. She is a Swede, and is the best scholar he has, but she has such frightfully ugly hands, and holds them so terribly, that when I look at her I can- not enjoy her playing. Tausig always praises her very much, and she is tremendously ambitious. Tausig has a charming face, full of expression and very sensitive. He is extremely sharp-sighted, and has eyes in the back of his head, I believe. He is far too small and too despotic to be fascinating, however, though he has a sort of captivating way with him when he is in a good humor. I was dreadfully sorry to hear of poor Gottschalk's death. He had a golden touch, and equal to any in the world, I think. But what a romantic way to die ! — to fall senseless at his instrument, while he was playing "ia Morte^ It was very strange. If any- thing more is in the papers about him you must send it to me, for the infatuation that I and 99,999 other American girls once felt for him, still lingers in my breast ! On Saturday night I went for the first time to hear the Berlin Symphony Kapelle. It is composed only of artists, and is the most splendid music imaginable. De Ahna, for instance, is one of the violinists, and he is not far behind Joachim. We have no conception of such an orchestra in America.* The Philharmonic of New York approaches it, but is still a long way off. This orchestra is so perfect, and plays with such pre- ^Thls was written before the fall development of the Thomas Orchestra. The writer had heard it only in its infancy. BERLIN SYMPHONY KAPELLB. 4S cision, that you can't realize that there are any perform- ers at all. It is just a great wave of sound that rolls over you as smooth as glass. As the concert halls are much smaller here, the music is much louder, and every man not only plays piano and forte where it is marked, but he draws the tone out of his violin. They have the greatest pathos, consequently, in the soft parts, and overwhelming power in the loud. Where great expression is required the conductor almost ceases to beat time, and it seems as if the performers took it ad libitum; but they understand each other so well that they play like one man. It is too ecstatic ! I observed the greatest difference in the horn playing. Instead of coming in in a monotonous sort of way as it does at home, and always with the same degree of loudness, here, when it is solo, it begins round and smooth and full, and then gently modulates until the tone seems to sigh itself out, dying away at last with a little tremolo that is perfectly melting. I never before heard such an effect. When the trumpets come in it is like the crack of doom, and you should hear the way they play the drums. I never was satis- fied with the way they strike the drums in New York and Boston, for it always seemed as if they thought the parchment would break. Here, sometimes they give such a sharp stroke that it startles me, though, of course, it is not often. But it adds immensely to the accent, and makes your heart beat, I can tell you. They played Schubert's great symphony, and Beetho- ven's in B major, and I could scarcely believe my own ears at the difference between this orchestra and ours. It is as great as between and Tausig. 44 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. Berlin, March 4, 1870. Tausig is off to Russia to-day on a concert tour, and will not return until the 1st of May. Out of six months he has been in Berlin about two and a half ! However, as I am not yet in his class it doesn't affect me much, but I should think his scholars would be provoked at such long absences. That is the worst of having such a great artist for a master. I believe we are to have no vacation in the summer though, and that he has promised to remain here from May until November without going off. Ehlert and Tau- sig have had a grand quarrel, and Ehlert is going to leave the conservatory in April. I am very sorry, for he is an admirable teacher, and I like him extremely. We had another Musical Reading on Sunday, at which I played, but all the conservatory classes were there, and all the teachers, with Tausig, also, so it was a pretty hard ordeal. The girls said I turned deadly pale when I sat down to the piano, and well I might, for here you cannot play any thing that the scholars have not either played themselves or are perfectly familiar with, so they criticise you without mercy. Tausig plays so magnificently that you know beforehand that a thing can never be more than comparatively good in his eyes. Fraulein L. is the only one of his pupils that plays to suit him. I do not like her playing so much myself, because it sounds as if she had tried to imitate him exactly — which she probably does. It does not seem spontaneous, and she is an affected creature. They all think ' the world ' of her at the conservatory. A STRANGE GIRL. 45 and I suppose she is quite extraordinary ; but I prefer Fraulein Timanoff — "die kleine Person" as Tau- sig calls her — and she is, indeed, a " little person." On Sunday Fraulein L. played the first part of a Sonata by Chopin, and Tausig was quite enchanted with her performance. I thought he was going to embrace her, he jumped up so impetuously and ran over to her. He declared that it could not be better played, and said he would not hear anything else after that, and so the school was dismissed, although sev- eral had not played that expected to do so. Tausig has one scholar who is a very singular girl — the Fraulein H. I mentioned to you before, who has studied with Biilow. She is half French and half German, and speaks both languages. She is full of talent and cannot be over eighteen, but she is the most intense character, and is a perfect child of nature. One can't help smiling at everything she does, be- cause she goes at everything so hard and so uncon- sciously. When the other girls are playing she folds her arms and plays with her fingers against her sides all the time, and when her turn comes she seizes her music, jumps up, and rushes for the piano as fast as she can. She hasn't the least timidity, and on Sunday when Tausig called out her name he scarcely got the words out before she said, "Ja" to the great amusement of the class (for none of us answered to our names) and ran to the piano. She sat down with the chair half crooked, and almost on the side of it, but she never stopped to arrange herself, but dashed off a prelude out of her 46 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. own head, and then played her piece. When she got through she never changed countenance, but was back in her seat before you could say " Jack Kobinson." She is as passionate as Tausig, and so they usually have a scene over her lesson. He is always either half amused at her or very angry, and is terribly severe with her. When he stamps his foot at her she makes up a face, and the blood rushes up into her head, and I believe she would beat him if she dared. She always plays as impetuously as she does every- thing else, and then he stops his ears and tells her she makes too much " S^ectakeV^ (his favorite expression). Then she begins over again two or three times, but always in the same way. He snatches the music from the piano and tells her that is enough. Then the class bursts out laughing and she goes to her seat and ories. But she is too proud to let the other girls see her wipe her eyes, and so she sits up straight, and tries to look unconcerned, but the tears trickle down her cheeks one after the other, and drop off her chin all the rest of the hour. By the time she has had a piece for two lessons she comes to the third, and at last she has managed to tone down enough, and then she plays it splendidly. She is a savage creature. The girls tell me that one time she sat down to the piano (a concert- grand) with such violence as to push the instrument to one side, and began to play with such vehemence that she burst the sleeve out of her dress behind ! She is going to be an artist, and I told her she must come to America to give concerts. She said '' Ja/' and immediately wanted to know where I lived, so she RUBINSTEIN. 47 could come and see me. I think she will make a cap- ital concert player, for she is always excited by an audience, and she has immense power. I am a mere baby to her in strength. Perhaps when she is ten years older she will be able to restrain herself within just limits, and to put in the light and shade as Fraulein L. does. Since I last wrote I have been to hear Rubinstein again. He is the greatest sensation player I know of, and, like Gottschalk, has all sorts of tricks of his own. His grand aim is to produce an effect, so it is dread- fully exciting to hear him, and at his last concert the first piece he played — a terrific composition by Schu- bert — gave me such a violent headache that I couldn't hear the rest of the performance with any pleasure. He has a gigantic spirit in him, and is extremely poetic and original, but for an entire concert he is too much. Give me Rubinstein for a few pieces, but Tausig for a whole evening. Rubinstein doesn't care how many notes he misses, provided he can bring out his conception and make it vivid enough. Tausig strikes every note with rigid exactness, and perhaps his very perfection makes him at times a little cold. Rubinstein played Schubert's Erl-Konig, arranged by Liszt, gloriously. Where the child is so frightened, his hands flew all over the piano, and absolutely made it shriek with terror. It was enough to freeze you to hear it. Last week I went to a party at Mrs. Bancroft's in honour of Washington's birth-day, and had a lovely time, as I always do when I go there. Bismarck was 48 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. present, and wore a coat all decorated with stars and orders. He is a splendid looking man, and is tall and imposing. No one could be kinder than Mr. Bancroft. He and Mrs. Bancroft live in a beautiful house, furnished in perfect taste and full of lovely pictures and things, and they entertain most charm- ingly. They seem to do their utmost for the Ameri- cans who are in Berlin, and I am very proud of our minister. His reputation as our national historian, together with his German culture and early German associations, all combine to render him an admirable representative of our country to this haughty king- dom, and I hear that he is very popular with its self- satisfied citizens. As for Mrs. Bancroft, one could hardly be more elegant, or better suited to the posi- tion. Mr. Bancroft is passionately fond of music, and knows what good music is, — which is of course an additional title to my high opinion ! The other day Herr J. called for me to go and take a walk through the Thier-Garten, and see the skating. It was the first time I had been there, though it is not far from us, and I was delighted with it. It is the natural forest, with beautiful walks and drives cut through it, and statues here and there. We went to see the skating, and it was a lovely sight. The band was playing, and ladies and gentlemen were skating in time to the waltz. Many ladies skate very elegantly, and go along with their hands in their muffs, swaying first to one side and then to the other. It is grace itself. Carriages and horses pranced slowly around the edge of the pond, and at last the Prince and Prin- A GERMAN RADICAL. 49 cess Royal came along, drawn by two splendid black horses. The carriage stopped and they got out to walk. " Now," said I to Herr J., " you must take off your hat " — for everybody takes off his hat to the Crown Prince. As they passed us he did take it off, but blushed up to his ears, which I thought rather odd, until he said, in a half -ashamed tone, " That is the first time in my life that I ever took off my hat to a Prince." " Well, what did you do it for?" said I. " Because you told me to," said he. He is such a red hot republi- can, that even such a little act of respect as this grated upon him ! I only told him in fun, any way, but I was very much amused to see how he took it. He always raves over the United States, and says we are the greatest country in the world. He is a strange man, and you ought to hear his theory of religion. He sets the Bible entirely aside — like most German cultivated men. We were talking of it one night, and he said, " We won't speak of that blockhead Peter, stupid fish- erman that he was ! but we will pass on to Paul, who was a man of some education." David, he calls " that rascal David, etc." Of course, I hold to my own belief, but I can't help laughing to hear him, it sounds so ridic- ulous. The world never had any beginning, he says, and there is no resurrection. We live only for the benefit of the next generation, and therefore it is nec- essary to lead good lives. We inherit the result of our father's labours, and our children will inherit ours. So we shall go on until the human race comes to a state of perfection. "And then what?" said I. Oh — 4 60 MUSIC-STUDY IIST GERMANY. then, he didn't know. Perhaps the world would ex- plode, and go oil in meteors. ^^ We do know," said he, " that there are lost stars. Occasionally a star disap- pears and we can't tell what has become of it ; and perhaps the earth will become a wandering star, or a comet. The intervals between the stars are so great as to admit of a world wandering about — and there is no police in those regions, I fancy," concluded he, with a shrug of his shoulders. " Do you really believe that, Herr J. ?" I asked. " Oh," said he, " we won't speak about beliefs. Now we are speculating P^ He is a delight- ful companion, and I think he is scrupulously con- scientious. Though he does not profess the Christia» faith, he acts up to Christian principles. CHAPTER IV. Opera and Oratorio in Berlin. A Typical American. Prus. sian Rudeness. Conservatory Changes. Easter. Berlin, March 20, 1870. On Wednesday the Bancrofts most kindly called for me to go to the opera with them. They came in their car- riage, with two horses and footmen, so it was very jolly, and we bowled rapidly through Unter den Linden (the Broadway of Berlin), in rather a different manner from the pace I usually crawl along in a droschkie. They had fine opera glasses, of course, and we took our seats just as the overture was about to begin, so that eveiy- thing was charming except that instead of Lohengrin, which we had expected to hear, they had changed the opera to Faust, which I had heard the week before. Faust is, however, a fascinating opera, and it is beauti- fully given here, albeit the Germans stick to it that it is Gounod's Faust and not Goethe's. Since I have come here I have a perfect passion for going to the opera, for everything is done in such superb fashion, and they have the orchestra of the Symphony Kapelle, which is so splendid that it could not be better. It is a pity the smgers are not equally good, but I don't believe Germany is the land of great voices. However, the men sing finely, and the prima donnas have much talent, and act beautifully. The prima donna on this occasion was Malhnger, the rival of Lucca. She is espe- (51) 52 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. cially good as Margaretta. Niemann and Wachtel are the great men singers. Wachtel was formerly a coach- man, but he has a lovely voice. His acting is not remarkable, but Niemann is superb, and he sings and acts delightfully. He is very tall and fair, with light whiskers, and golden hair crowning a noble head, in truth a regular Viking. When he comes out in his crimson velvet mantle and crimson cap, with a white plume, and begins singing these delicious love songs to Margaretta, he is perfectly enchanting ! He and Mallinger throw tiiemselves into the long love scene which fills the third act, and act it magnificently. It was the first time 1 ever saw a love scene well done. The fourth act is most impressive. The curtain rises, and sliows the interior of a church. The candles are burning on the altar, ani the priests and acolytes are standing in their proper order before it. The organ strikes up a fugue and all the peasants come in and kneel down. Then poor Margar- etta comes in for refuge, but when she kneels to pray a voice is heard which tells her that for her there is no refuge or hope in heaven or earth. This scene Mallinger does so well that it is nature itself. When the voice is heard she gives a shriek, tot- ters for a moment, and then falls upon the floor sense- less, and 0, so naturally that one is entirely carried away by it. The organ takes up the fugue, and the curtain drops. The contrast between the two acts makes it all the more effective, for in the third it is all love and flowers and languishing music, and in the fourth one is suddenly recalled to the sanctity and severity of the church ; also, after the orchestra this subdued fugue on READING GOETHE. 63 the organ makes a very peculiar impression. In the fifth act Margaretta is in prison, and Faust and Mephis- topheles come to rescue her. This is a powerful scene, for at first she hesitates, and thinks she will go with them, and then her mind wanders, and she recalls, as in a vision, the happy scenes of earlier days. They keep urging her, and try to drag her along with them, but at last she breaks free from them and cries, " To Thee, 0, God, belongs my soul," and falls upon her straw pallet, and dies. Then the scene changes, and you see four angels gradually floating up to heaven, supporting her dead body, while the chorus sings : " Christ ist erstanden Aus Tod und Banden Frleden und Heil verkeisst Aller Welt er, die ihn preist."* This ends the opera, which is very exciting through- out. I am going to read the original as soon as I know a little more German, so that I shan't have to read with adictionaiy. I am just getting able to read Goethe without one, and think he is the most entrancing writer. There never could have been a man who understood women so well as he ! His female characters are per- fectly captivating, but he is not very flattering to his own sex, and generally makes them, in love, (what they are) weak and vacillating. I met a very agreeable young countryman at a dinner the other day — a Mr. P. — and a great contrast to any of Goethe's ill-regulated heroes. He was the typical Amer- *Chriat is risen ont of bond? and death. He promises joy and blessing to all the world, which for this glorifies Him. 54 MUSIC-STtTDY IN GERMANY. ican, I thought. Wide awake, bright, with a sharp eye to business, very repubhcan, with a hearty contempt for titles and a great respect for women, practical and clear- headed. When the wine was passed round he refused it, and said he had never drunk a glass of wine or touched tobacco in his life. I was so amused, for he looked so young. I said to myself, " probably you are just out of college, and are travelling before you settle down to a profession." After a while he said something about his wife. I was a little surprised, but still I thought "perhaps you have only been married a few months." A little further on he mentioned his children. I was still more surprised, but thought he couldn't have more than two ; but when Mrs. B. asked him how many he had, and he said " three living and two dead," adding very gravely, " I have been twice left childless," I could scarcely help bursting out laughing, for I had thought him about twenty-one, and these revelations of a wife and numerous family seemed too preposterous ! — But it was very nice to see such a model countryman, too. It is such men that make the American greatness. After dinner I went with my hostess to hear Men- delssohn's Oratorio of St. Paul. It is a great work, a little tedious as a whole, but with wonderfully beautiful numbers interspersed through it. There are several lovely chorales in it. I was disappointed in the perform- ance, though, for in the first place there is no organ in the Sing-Akademie, and I consider the effect of the organ and the drums indispensable to an oratorio ; and in the second, the solos all seemed to me indifferently sung. The choruses were faultless, however. The^ BORSl^G'S GREENHOUSE. 55 understand how to drill a chorus here ! Next Friday I am going to Haydn's " Jahreszeiten," which I never hap- pened to hear in Boston. Germany is a great place for birds and flowers. All winter long we have quantities of saucy-looking little sparrows here, and they have the most thievish expres- sion when they fly down for a crumb. I sometimes put crumbs on my window-sill, and in a short time they are sure to see them. Then they stand on the edge of a roof opposite, and look from side to side for a long time, the way birds do. At last they make up their minds, swoop down on the sill, stretch their heads, give a bold look to see if I am about, and then snatch a crumb and fly off with it. They never can get over their own temerity, and always give a chirp as they fly away with the crumb ; whether it is a note of triumph over their success, or an expression of nervousness, I cannot decide. One cold day I passed a tree, on every twig of which was a bird. They were holding a political meeting, I am sure, for they were all jabbering away to each other in the most excited manner, and each one had his breast bulged out, and his feathers ruffled. They were " awfully cunning I" On Tuesday I went out to Borsig's greenhouse. He is an immensely rich man here, who makes a specialty of flowers. He lives some way out of Berlin, and has the largest conservatories here. The inside of the portico which leads into them is all covered with ivy, which creeps up on the inside of the walls, and covers them completely. When we came within, the flowers 56 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. were arranged in perfect hanks all along the length of the greenhouse, so that you saw one continuous line of brilliant colours, and oh — the perfume ! The hya- cinths predominated in all shades, though there were many other flowers, and many of them new to me. Camelias were trained, vine fashion, all over the sides of the greenhouse, and hundreds of white and pink blossoms were depending from them. All the centre of the greenhouse was a bed of rich earth cov- ered with a little delicate plant, and at intervals planted with azalea bushes so covered with blossoms that one could scarcely see the leaves. At one end was a very large cage filled with brilliant birds, and at the other was a lovely fountain of white marble — Venus and Cupid supported on three shells. But I was most struck by the tree ferns, which I had never before seen. They were perfectly magnificent, and were arranged on the highest side of the greenhouse with many other rare plants most artistically mingled in. After we had finished looking at the flowers we went into a second house, where were palm trees, ferns, cacti and all sorts of strange things growing, but all placed with the same taste. It was a beautiful sight, and I never had any idea of the garden of Eden be- fore. I must try and bring home a pot of the " Violet of the Alps." It is the most delicate little flower, and looks as if it grew on a high, cold mountain. HAYDN'S JAHRE8ZEITEN. 57 Berlin, April 1, 1870. To-day is April Fool's day, and the first real month of spring is begun. I have not fooled anybody yet, but as soon as dinner is ready, I shall rush to the window and cry, "There goes the king!" Of course they will all run to see him, and then I shall get it off on the whole family at once. I shall wait until the " kleiner Hans," Frau W.'s son, comes home. I call him the " Kleinen " in derision, for in reahty he is immense. I have been very much struck with the height of the peo- ple here. As a rule they are much taller than Amer- icans, and sometimes one meets perfect giants in the streets. The Prussian men are often semi-insolent ill their street manners to women, and sometimes nearly knock you off the sidewalk, from simply not choosing to see you. I suppose this arrogance is one of the benefits of their military training ! They uHl have the middle of the walk where the stone flag is laid, no matter what you have to step off into ! I went to hear Haydn's Jahreszeiten a few evenings since, and it is the most charming work — such a happy combination of grave and gay ! He wrote it when he was seventy years old, and it is so popular that one has great difficulty in getting a ticket for it. The salon was entirely filled, so that I had to take a seat in the loge, where the places are pretty poor, though I went eai'ly, too. The work is sung like an oratorio, in arias, recita- tives and choruses, and is interspersed with charming little songs. It represents the four seasons of the year, and each part is prefaced by a little overture appropriate 58 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. to the passing of each season into the next. The reci- tatives are sung by Hanna and Lucas, who are lovers, and by Simon, who is a friend of both, apparently. The autumn is the prettiest of the four parts, for it represents first the joy of the country people over the harvests and over the fruits. Then comes a splendid chorus in praise of Industry. After that follows a little love dialogue between Hanna and Lucas, then a descrip- tion of a hunt, then a dance ; lastly the wine is brought, and the whole ends with a magnificent chorus in praise of wine. The dance is too pretty for anything, for the whole chorus sings a waltz, and it is the gayest, most captivating composition imaginable. The choruses here are so splendidly drilled that they give the expression in a very vivid manner, and produce beautiful effects. All the parts are perfectly accurate and well balanced. But the solo singers are, as I have remarked in former letters, for the most part, ordinary. I took my last lesson of Ehlert yesterday. I am veiy sorry that he and Tausig have quarrelled, for he is a splendid teacher. He has taught me a great deal, and precisely the things that I wanted to know and could not find out for myself. For instance, those twists and tur?as of the hands that artists have, their way of striking t)ie chords, and many other little technicalities which one must have a master to learn. He always seemed to take great pleasure in teaching me, and I am most grateful to him for his encouragement. I think Tausig behaves very strangely to be off for such a long time. He does not return until the first of May, and all this month we are to be taught by one of his best scholars until he THE " PASSION " MUSIC. 59 comes back and engages another teacher. He has just given concerts at St. Petersburg, and I am told that at a single one he made six thousand rubles. They are in an immense enthusiasm there over him. Last night I went with Mr. B. to hear Bach's Passion Music. Anything to equal that last chorus I never heard from voices. I felt as if it ought to go on forever, and could not bear to have it end. That chorale, "0 Sacred Head now wounded," is taken from it, and it comes in twice; the second time with different harmonies and without accompaniment. It is the most exquisite thing ; you feel as if you would like to die when you hear it. But the last chorus carries you straight up to heaven. It begins : " We sit down in tears And call to thee in the grave, Rest soft— rest soft." It represents the rest of our Saviour after the stone had been rolled before the tomb, and it is divine. Every- body in the chorus was dressed in black, and almost every one in the audience, so you can imagine what a sombre scene it was. This is the custom here, and on Good Friday, when the celebrated "Tod Jesu" by Graun, is perf ormed,they go in black without exception. Berlin, April 24, 1870. I thought of you all on Easter Sunday, and won- dered what sort of music you were having. I did not go to the English church, as is my wont, but to the 60 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. Dom, which is the great church here, and is where all the court goes. It is an extremely ugly church, and much like one of our old Congregational meeting- houses ; but they have a superb choir of two hundred men and boys which is celebrated all over Europe. Haupt (Mr. J. K. Paine's former master) Js the organ- ist, and of course they have a very large organ. I knew, as this was Easter, that the music would be magnificent, so I made A. "W. go there with me, much against her will, for she declared we should get no seat. The Germans don't trouble themselves to go to church very often, but on a feast day they turn out in crowds. We got to the church only twenty minutes before service began, and I confess I was rather daunted as I saw the swarms of people not only going in but coming out, hopeless of getting into the church. However, I determined to push on and see what the chances were, and with great difficulty we got up stairs. There is a lobby that runs all around the church, just as in the Boston Music Hall. All the doors between the gal- lery and the lobby were open, and each was crammed full of people. I thought the best thing we could do would be to stand there until we got tired, and listen to the music, and then go. Finally, the sexton came along, and A. asked him if he could not give us two seats ; he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Yes, if you choose to pass through the crowd." We boldly said we would, although it looked almost hopeless, and then made our way through it, followed by muttered execrations. At last the sexton unlocked a door, THE "DOM CHOIR." 61 and gave us two excellent seats, and there was plenty of room for a dozen more people ; but I don't doubt he frightened them away just as he would have done us if he could. He locked us in, and there we sat quite in comfort. At ten the choir began to sing a psalm. They sit directly over the chancel, and a gilded frame work conceals them completely from the congregation. They have a leader who conducts them, and they sing in most perfect time and tune, entirely without accom- paniment. The voices are tender and soft rather than loud, and they weave in and out most beautifully. There are a great many different parts, and the voices keep striking in from various points, which produces a delicious effect, and makes them sound like an angel choir far up in the sky. After they had finished the psalm the organ burst out with a tremendous great chord, enough to make you jump, and then played a chorale, and there were also trombones which took the melody. Then all the congregation sang the chorale, and the choir kept silence. You cannot imagine how easy it is to sing when the trombones lead, and the effect is overwhelming with the organ, especially in these grand old chorales. I could scarcely bear it, it was so very exciting. There was a great deal of music, as it was Easter Sunday, and it was done alternately by the choir and the congregation ; but generally the Dom choir only sings one psalm before the service begins, and there- fore I seldom take the trouble to go there. The rest of the music is entirely congregational, and they only 62 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. have trombones on great occasions. We sat close by the chancel, and the great wax candles flared on the altar below us, and the Lutheran clergyman read the German so that it sounded a good deal like Latin. I was quite surprised to see how much like Latin Ger- man could sound, for it has these long, rolling words, and it is just as pompous. Altogether it made a strange but splendid impression. I thought if they had only had their choir in the chancel, and in white surplices, it would have been much more beautiful, but perhaps the music would not have sounded so fine as when the singers were overhead. The Berlin churches all look as if religion was dying out here, so old and bare and ill-cared for, and so few in number. They are only redeemed by the great castles of organs which they generally have ; and it is a difficult thing to get the post of organist here. One must be an experienced and well-known musician to do it. They sing no chants in the service, but only chorales. To-night is the last Eoyal Symphony Concert of this season, and of course I shall go. This wonderful or- chestra carries me completely away. It is too mar- vellous how they play ! such expression, such dan! I heard them give Beethoven's Leonora Overture last week in such a fashion as fairly electrified me. This overture sums up the opera of Fidelio, and in one part of it, just as the hero is going to be executed, you hear the post-horn sound which announces his delivery. This they play so softly that you catch it exactly as if it came from a long distance, and you cannot believe BERINGER. 65 it comes from the orchestra. It makes you think of "the horns of elf -land faintly blowing." Tausig is expected back this week, and he has in- deed been gone long enough. He is going to give a lesson every Monday to the best scholars who are not in his class, and as I stand at the head of these I hope to have a lesson from him every week. This would suit me better than two, as he is so dreadfully exact- ing, and it will give me time to learn a piece well. Then I should have my regular lesson beside from Mr. Beringer, or whoever he appoints to take Ehlert's place. Beringer, who is a young man about twenty -five years old, has turned out a capital teacher, and I am learning much with him. He plays beautifully himself, and is a great favorite of T^usig's. He has been with him so long that he teaches his method ex- cellently, and gives me pieces that he has studied with him. I believe he is to come out at the Gewandhaus, in Leipsic, in October, and after that he will settle in London. CHAPTER V. The Thier-Garten. A Military Review. Charlottenburg. Tausig. Berlin in Summer. Potsdam and Babelsberg. Berlin, June 5, 1870. We've had the vilest possible weather this spring, but Berlin looks perfectly lovely now. There are a great many gardens attached to the houses here. Every- thing is in bloom, and is laden with the scent of lilacs and apple blossoms. The streets are planted with lin- dens and horse chestnut trees, and on the fashionable street bordering on the Thier-Garten, all the houses have little lawns in front, carpeted with the most daz- zling green grass, and rising out of it are solid banlcs of flowers. The shrubs are planted according to their height, close together, and one behind the other, and as they are all in blossom you see these great masses of colour. It is like a gigantic bouquet growing up be- fore you. The Thier-Garten is perfectly beautiful. It is so charming to come upon this unfenced wood right in the heart of an immense city, with roads and paths cut all through it, and each over-arched with vivid green as far as the eye can reach. When you see the gay equipages driving swiftly through it, and ladies and gentlemen glancing amid the trees on horseback, it is very romantic. Frau W.'s brother, "Uncle S." as I call him, (64) CHARLOTTENBURG. 65 announced the other day that he was going to take lis to Charlottenburg. I had often been told that I must go there and see the " Mausoleum," but as you know I never ask for explanations, this did not coi, \ey any particular idea to my mind, and I started out jn. this excursion in my usual state of blissful ignor- ance. We took two droschkies for our party, and meandered slowly through the Thier-Garten and along the Charlottenburg road till we arrived at our point of destination. This was announced from afar by an absurd statue poised on one toe on the top of the castle which stands in front of the park containing the Mausoleum. The first thing we did on alighting was to go into a little beer garden close by to take coffee. It was a per- fect afternoon, and the trees and flowers were in all their June glory. We sat down around one of those delightful tables which they always have under the trees in Germany. The coffee was soon served, hot and strong, and Uncle S. took out a cigar to complete his enjoyment. Then we began to stroll. We went through a gate into the grounds surrounding the castle, and after passing through the orangery emerged into a garden, which soon spread into a beautiful park filled with magnificent trees, and with beds of flowers cut in the smooth turf for some distance along the borders of the avenues. We turned to the right (in- stead of to the left, which would have brought us di- rectly to the Mausoleum) in order to see the flowers first, then the river, and then come round by the pood where the carp are kept. 5 66 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. The Germans certainly understand laying out parks to perfection. They are not too rigidly kept, and there is an air of nature about everything. This Charlot- tenburg park is a particularly fascinating one. A dense avenue borders the River Spree, which is broad at this point, and flows gloomily and silently along. The branches of the trees overhang the stream, and also lock together across the walk, forming a leafy avenue before and behind you. "We met very few people, scarcely any one, in fact, and the songs of the birds were the only sounds that broke the all-pervading calm. The path finally left the river, and we came out on an open spot, where was a pretty view of the castle through a little cut in the trees. We sat down on a bench and looked about us for awhile, and then went up on the bridge which crosses the pond where the carp are kept. The Germans always feed these carp religiously, and that is a regular part of the ex- cursion. The fish are very old, many of them, and we saw some hoary old fellows rise lazily to the surface and condescend to swallow the morsels of cake that we threw them. They were evidently accustomed to good living, and, like all swells, considered it only their due! At last we came gradually round towards the Mau- soleum. An avenue of hemlocks led to it — " Trauer- Baume (mourning-trees)," as the Germans call them, and it was an exquisite touch of sentiment to make this avenue of these dark funereal evergreens. At first you see nothing, for the avenue is long, and you turn into it gay and smiling with the influence of the birds, THE " LEGENDED TOMB." 67 the trees, and the flowers fresh upon you. But the drooping boughs of the sombre hemlocks soon begin to take effect, and the feeling that comes over one when about half way down it is certainly peculiar. It seems as if one were passing between a row of tall and silent sentinels watching over the abode of death ! Involuntarily you begin repeating from Edgar Poe's haunting poem : " Then I pacified Psyche and kissed her, And conquered her scruples and gloom, And banished her scruples and gloom, And we passed to the end of the vista Till we came to the door of a tomb ; And I said, ♦ What is written, sweet sister. On the door of this legended tomb ?' And she said, • Ulalume, Ulalume, 'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume." And so, too, does your eye become fixed upon a door at the end of this vista, which comes nearer and nearer until finally the Mausoleum takes form round it in the shape of a little Greek temple of polished brown marble. A small flower garden lies in front of it, and it would look inviting enough if one did not know what it was. Two officials stand ready to receive you and conduct you up the steps. Within these walls a royal pair lie buried — King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his beautiful wife, Luisa, who so calmly withstood the bullying of Napoleon I. and for whom the Prussians cherish such a chivalrous affection. They are entombed under the front portion of the temple, and two slabs in the pavement mark their resting places. These are lit from above by a 68 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. window in the roof filled with blue glass, which throws a subdued and solemn light into the marble chamber. You walk past them to the other end of the temple, which is cruciform in shape, go up one step between pillars, and there, in the little white transept, lie upon two snowy marble couches the sculp- tured forms of the dead king and queen side by side. Though this apartment is lit by side windows of plain glass high up on the walls, so that it is full of the white daylight, yet the blueish light from the outer room is reflected into it just enough to heighten the delicacy of the marble and to bestow on everything an unearthly aspect. Queen Luisa was celebrated for her beauty, and the sculptor Ranch, who knew and adored her, has breathed it all into the stone. There she lay, as if asleep, her head easily pressing the pillow, her feet crossed and the outlines of her exquisite form veiled but not concealed by the thin tissue-like drapery. ]t covered even the little feet, but they seemed to defii e themselves all the more daintily through the musli'i. There is no look of death about her face. She seems more like a bonny " Queen o' the May," reclining with closed eyes upon her flowery bed. The statue has been criticised by some on account of this entire absence of the " heaute de la mortr There is no transfigured or glorified look to it. It is simply that of a beautiful woman in deep repose. But it seems to me that this is a matter of taste, and that the artist had a per- fect right to represent her as he most felt she was. The king's statue is clothed in full uniform, and he THE MEMORIAL STATUES. 69 looks very striking, too, lying there in all the dignity of manhood and of kingship, with the drapery of his militaiy cloak falling about him. His features are delicate and regular, and he is a fit countei*part to his lovely consort. Against the back wall an altar is elevated on some steps, and there is an endless fasci- nation in leaning against it and gazing down on those two august forms stretched out so still before you. On either side of the statues are magnificent tall candelabra of white marble of very rich and beauti- ful design, and appropriate inscriptions from the German Bible run round the carved and diapered marble walls. Altogether, this garden-park, with its river, its Mausoleum, its avenue of hemlocks, and its glorious statues of the king and queen, is one of the most exquisite and ideal conceptions imaginable. As we returned it was toward sunset. The evening wind was sighing through the tall trees and the waving grasses. An indefinable influence hovered in the air^ The supernatural seemed to envelop us, and instinct- ively we hastened a little as we retraced our steps. When we emerged from the hemlock avenue Uncle S., I thought, seemed rather relieved, for the contem- plation of a future life is not particularly sympathetic to him ! After he had asked me if I did not think the Mausoleum " sehr schon (very beautiful)," and had ascertained that I did think so, he restored his equilib- rium by taking out another cigar, which he lighted, and we leisurely made our way through the garden to our droschkies and drove home. It was quite dark as we were coming through the Thier Garten, and it 70 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. seemed like a forest. The stars were shining through the branches overhead, and their soothing light gave the last poetic touch to a lovely day. Berlin, June 26, 1870. Last week the Emperor of Austria was here, and they had a parade in his honour. The B.'s took me in their carriage to see it. We drove to a large plain outside the city, and there we saw a mock battle, and all the manoeuvers of an army — how they advance and retreat, and how they form and deploy. There was a continual fire of musketry and artillery, and it was very exciting. The enemy was only imaginary, but the attacking party acted just as if there were one, and at last it ended with the taking by storm, whi(;h was done by the attacking party rushing on with ojie continued cheer, or rather yell, from one end of the lines to the other. Then they all broke up, the bands played the Eussian Hymn, the King and the Emperor mounted horses and led off a great body of cavalry, and away we all clattered home — carriages and horses all together. It was a great sight, and I enjoyed it very much. I am going to play before Tausig next Monday, and have been studying very hard. He praised me very much the last time, and said he would soon take me into his regular class ; but he is such a whimsical creature that one can't rely on him much. Two of the girls have almost finished their studies with him, and soon are going to give concerts. I am playing BERLIN IN SUMMER. 71 Scarlatti, which he is awfully particular with, and expect to have my head taken off. Two of his scholars are playing the same pieces that I am, and he told one of them that she played " like a nut-cracker." He is very funny sometimes. The other day one of the young men played the Pastoral Sonata to him. Tau- sig gave a sigh, and said, " This should be a garden of roses, but, as you play it, I see only potato plants." Scarlatti is charming music. He writes en suite like Bach, and is still more quaint and full of humour. I find Berlin very pleasant, even in summer. Most of the better houses are made with balconies or bow windows, and around each one they will have a little frame full of earth in which is planted mignonette, nasturtiums, geraniums, etc., which trail over the edge, and as you look up from the street it seems as if the houses were festooned with flowers. On many of them woodbine is trained so that every window is set in a deep green frame. All the nice streets have pretty little front yards in which roses are planted, and I never saw anything like them. The branches are cut to one thick, straight stem, which is tied to a stick. They grow very tall, and each one is crowned with a top-knot of superb roses. Every yard looks like a lit- tle orchard of roses, and they are of every imaginable shade of colour. Every American who comes here must be struck with the want of beauty in the cities he has left at home ; and it is really shameful, that when our people are so much better off, and when such immense numbers of them see this European culture every year, still they do not introduce the same 72 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. tilings into our country. Take Fifth Avenue or Beacon Street, for example, and one won't see anything the whole length of them but a little green grass and an occasional woodbine, whereas here they would be adorned with flowers and all sorts of contrivances to make them beautiful. On Thursday a little party of three, including my- self, was made up to take me out to Potsdam. The Museum, Oharlottenburg and Potsdam, are, as Mr. T. B. says, " the three sights of Berlin." I have written you of the first two, and you shall now have the third. Potsdam is sixteen miles from here, and it took about as long to go there by train as it does from Boston to Lynn. It is the royal summer residence. On arriv- ing we bought a large quantity of cherries and then seated ourselves in a carriage to drive through the city to Charlottenhof. Here we got out and walked into a superb park, filled with splendid old trees. The first thing we saw was a beautiful little building in the Pompeian style. This was where Humboldt used to stay with the last king and queen in summer. We went into it and found it the sweet- est little place you can imagine. When we opened the door, instead of a hall was a little court with a fountain in it and two low, broad staircases (of marble, I think) sweeping up to the main story. The walls were delicately tinted and frescoed all round the borders with Pompeian devices. The windows were of some sort of thin transparent stained glass, through which the light could penetrate easily, and were also in the Pompeian fashion, with chariots, and horses, and A MINIATURE PALACE. 73 goddesses, etc. The rooms all opened into each other, but we were obliged to go through them so hastily that I could not look at them much in detail. The walls were covered with lovely pictures, and there were tables inlaid with precious marbles and all sorts o^ beautiful things. We saw the table and chair where the king always sat, just as he had left it, with his papers and drawings; and the queen's boudoir, with her writing materials and her sewing arrangements. From her window one looked out on a fountain at the right, and on the left was a long arcade covered with vines which led to a garden of roses. We opened a door and passed through this arcade, and, after looking at the flowers, went on through the park until we came to another house, which was Pom- peian, also, or Greek, I couldn't exactly tell which. It was built only to bathe in. The floors were all of stone, and it was as cool and fresh as could be. The bath itself was a large semi-circular place into which one went down by steps. It was large enough to swim in. Those old peoples understood pretty well how to make themselves comfortable, didn't they? There was an ancient bath-tub there, set upon a pedestal, made of some precious stone, which Humboldt had ap- praised at half a million of thalers. Outside was a lovely little garden, of course, and one of the prettiest things I saw was a quantity of those flowers which only grow in cool, moist places, sheltered under an awning. The awning was circular, and stretched down to the ground on three sides, so that one could only see the flowers by standing just in front. There were any 74 MUSIC- STUDY IN GERMANY. number of lady-slippers of every shade, each mottled exquisitely with a different colour, and behind them rose other flowers in regular gradation, and all of brilliant tints. It seemed as if they were all nestling under a great shaker bonnet, and they looked as coy and bewitching as possible. I thought it was a charm- ing idea. After we left this place we went on until we came to Sans Souci, which was built simply for the benefit of the orange trees — to give them a shelter in winter. At least, this was the pretext. It has a most dazzling effect in the sunshine as you look at it from below. Terrace rises above terrace, and at the top is this airy white building rising lightly into the sky, with gal- leries and towers, groups of statuary, colonnades, fount- ains, flowers, and every device one can imagine to make it look as much like a fairy palace as possible. The great burly orange trees stand in rows in the gar- dens in large green pots. Many of them were in blos- som, and cast their heavy perfume on the air. You couldn't turn your eyes any where that something was not arranged to arrest and surprise them. Here I saw another way of training roses. Running along on the green turf was a certain low growing variety, the branches of which they pin to the earth with a kind of wooden hair-pin, so that it does not show. They thus lie perfectly flat, and the grass is literally " car- peted " with them. It was lovely. After we had suf- ficiently admired the exterior of the palace, we as- cended the flights of steps which lead up the terraces, and went into it. Outside were the long galleries SANS SOUCI. 75 where the orange trees stand, and then we passed into the large and noble rooms. First came the one which is devoted to Raphael's pictures. Copies of them all hang upon the walls. After we had gazed at them a long time, we looked at the other apartments, all of which were furnished in some extraordinary way, but I glanced at them too hastily to retain any recollec- tion of them. I only remember that one was all of malachite and gold. The next thing we did was to go over the palace originally named " Sans Souci," where Frederick the Great lived. We saw the benches — ledges rather — on which his poor pages had to sit in the corridor, and which were purposely made so narrow in order to pre- vent their falling asleep while on duty. The arm- chair in which he died is there, and the bust of Charles XII still stands on the floor at the foot of the statue of Venus, where Frederick placed it in derision, because Charles was a woman-hater. I think it was a very small piece of malice on Frederick's part, and in fact he had such a bad heart that none of his relics interested me in the least. After we had seen everything we went to a little restaurant at the foot of Sans Souci, where we drank beer and coffee and ate cake seated round a little table under the trees. This fashion that the Germans have of eating out of doors in summer is perfectly delight- ful, I think. I laid in a fresh stock of cherries, though I had already eaten an immense quantity, but they looked so nice, piled in little pyramids upon a vine leaf, like the cannon balls at the Cambridge arsenal, 76 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. that there was no resisting them. I've thought of you ever since the cherry season began. They are so ex- tremely cheap here, that two groschens (about six cents) will buy as many as two persons can eat at one time. We drove from Sans Souci to Fingstenberg, which is only a place to see a view of the country. The landscape was perfectly flat, but it had the charm of quiet cultivation. It was green with beautiful trees, and the river wound along dotted with white sails, and there were wind-mills turning in every direction. After we left Fingstenberg we drove down to an inn where we ordered dinner, and this also was served out of doors. It was about six o'clock in the evening, and we were all very hungry, so we enjoyed this part of the programme very much. When we had finished our cutlet and green peas we got into the carriage again, and drove to Babelsberg. This is a little retreat which belongs to the queen, and where the royal family sometimes passes a few weeks in summer. We walked through a noble park where the ground swelled upward on our left and sloped downward on our right. After following the windings of the road for a long distance, we at last arrived at the little castle, perched upon a hill-side and embowered in trees. A smart looking maid showed us through it, and I was more impressed here than by all I had previously seen. As Salzac says, " People who talk about a house * being like a palace ' should see one first," — although, as Herr J. oi^erved, " Babelsberg is not a palace, but is more like the home of an English nobleman." It is just a quiet little re- EABELSBERG. '^^ treat, but the beauty with which everything is arranged is quite indescribable. Every window is planned so that you cannot look out without having something exquisite before you. Here it will be a little mosaic of rare flowers ; there a fountain, etc. And then the bronzes, the pictures, the rare old pieces of glass and china, the thousand curious and beautiful objects of art that one must see over and over again to be able really to take in. In these castles, too, there are no end of little nooks and crannies where two or three persons, only, can sit and talk. Dainty little recesses made for enjoyment. I walked into the grand salon and imagined an elegant assemblage of people in it, with all the means of entertainment at hand. It was a circular room, and large enough to dance the German in very com- fortably. We went up stairs and through the differ- ent apartments. I went into the Princess Royal's room, and " surveyed my queenly form " in the superb mir- ror, and arranged my veil by her toilette glass — which I envied her, I assure you, for it shone like silver. We saw the cane of Frederick the Great, with a lion couchant on it — the one which he shook on some oc- casion and frightened somebody — (now you know, don't you ?) Last of all we went up into the tower, and after climbing the dizzy staircase, we stood on the bal- conies for a long time, and looked over the splendid park about the country. Altogether, I was enchanted with Babelsberg, and nothing will suit me now but to have it for the retreat of my old age. I think I shall apply to be a servant there, for it must be a delightful lis MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. situation. The royal family is only a short time there, and the servants have this exquisite habitation, which is always kept in perfect order, all the rest of the year, and have nothing to do but show visitors over it and take in half thalers ! After we left Babelsberg we took a carriage and drove to the station, where we got into the cars about half -past nine, and went back to Berlin. Ilerr J. had made himself extremely agreeable, and had exerted himself the whole day on our behalf. We had a most perfect time of its kind, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but came back in the worst of spirits, as I gen- erally do. It seems so hard that one can never get together all the elements of perfect happiness I Here in Babelsberg everything was so lovely that one could scarcely believe that there had ever been a " Fall." It seemed as if people must be happy there, and yet I'm told that the queen is very unhappy. I suppose be- cause she has such a faithless old husband. CHAPTER VI. The War. German Meals. Women and Men. Taugig's Teaching. Tausig Abandons his Conservatory. Dresden. Kullak. Berlin, July 23, 1870. Just now the grand topic of course is this dreadful war that has just been declared between Prussia and France, and everybody is in the wildest state of ex- citement over it. It broke out so very suddenly that it is only just one week since it has been decided upon, and ever since, the drafting has been going on, and the streets are filled with regiments and with droves of horses, cannon, and all the implements of war. The trains are going out all the time packed with soldiers, and the railroad stations are the constant scene of weeping women of all classes, come to see the last of their dear ones. There is such a storm of indignation against Napoleon that one hears nothing but curses against him. I am entirely on the German side, and am anxious to see the result, for between two such great nations, and with so much at stake, it will be a tremendous struggle. We are promised a holiday soon, when I shall have a let-up from practicing, and only practice three hours a day, instead of five or six. Don't think I am mak- ing extraordinary progress because I practice so much. I find that the strengthening and equalizing of the fingers (79) 80 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. is a terribly slow process, and that it takes much more P^time to make a step forward than I expected. You I may know how a thing ought to be played, but it is I another matter to get your hands into such a training ^ that they obey your will. Sometimes I am very much encouraged, and feel as if I should be an artist " im- mediately, if not sooner," and at others I fall into the blackest despair. I don't know but that S. J. was in the right of it, not to attempt anything, for it is an awful pull when you do once begin to study ! I wish S. could come here and spend a winter. I am sure it would be capital for her health. The Ger- mans have a great idea that you must " stdrJcen (strengthen)" yourself. So they eat every few hours. When you first arrive you feel stuffed to bursting all the time, for you naturally eat heartily at every meal, because, as we only eat three times a day in America, we are accustomed to take a good deal at once. Here they have five meals a day, and one has to learn how to take a little at a time. But it is a pretty good idea, for you are continually repairing yourself, and you never have such a strain on your system as to get hungry ! The German women are plump roly-polies, as a general rule, and it is probably in consequence of this continual " strengthening." One has full opportu- nity to observe their condition, for they generally have their dress " aus-geschnitten (square neck)," as they call it, in order to save collars, and you will see them strolling along the streets with their dresses cut open in front. They are not handsome — irregular features and muddy complexions being the rule. The GIRLS IN GERMANY. 81 way they neglect their teeth is the worst. They are ahrays complimenting Americans on what they call our " fine Grecian noses," and, in fact, since they have said so much about it, I have noticed that nearly all Americans have straight and reasonably proportioned noses. — One sees a great many handsome men on the street, however — many more than we do at home. Per- haps it is because the Prussian uniform sets them off so, and then their blonde beards and moustaches give them a distingue air. From what you tell me of the shock of our respected friend over B.'s travelling from the AVest under Mr. S.'s escort, I think the "conventionalities" are taking too strong a hold in America, and it will not be many years before they are as strict there as they are here, where yojing people of different sexes can never see anything of each other. I regard it as a shocking system, as the Germans manage it. Young ladies and gentlemen only see each other in parties, and a young man can never call on a girl, but must Always see her in the presence of the whole family. I only wondgr how marriages are managed at all, for the sexes seem to live quite isolated from each other. The consequence is, the girls get a lot of rubbish in their heads, and as for the men, I know not what they think, for I have not seen any to speak of since I have been here. You can imagine that with my co-education training and ideas, I have given Fraulein W.'s moral system a succession of shocks. She has been fenced up, so to speak, her whole life, and, consequently, was dumbfounded at the bold stand I take. I cannot resist 6 82 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. giving her a sensation once in a while, so I come out with some strong expression. Do you know, since Fve seen so much of the world I've come to the conclusion that the New England principle of teaching daughters to be independent and to look out for themselves from the first, is an excellent one. I've seen the evil of this German system of never allowing children to think for themselves. It does make them so mawkish. A girl here nearly thirty years old will not know where to buy the simplest thing, or do without her mother any more than a baby. The best plan is the old- fashioned American one, viz. : Give your children a " stern sense of duty," and then throw them on their own resources. Berlin, August 6, 1870. Until yesterday I have had no holiday, for I got into Tausig's class finally, so I had to practice very hard. He was as amiable to me as he ever can be to anybody, but he is the most trying and exasperating master you can possibly imagine. It is his principle to rough you and snub you as much as he can, even when there is no occasion for it, and you can think yourself fortu- nate if he does not hold you up to the ridicule of the whole class. I was put into the class with Fraulein Timanoff, who is so far advanced that Tausig told her he would not give her lessons much longer, for that she knew enough to graduate. You can imagine what an ordeal my first lesson was to me. I brought him a long and difiicult Scherzo, by Chopin, that I had prao- TAUSIG GIVES UP! 83 ticed carefully for a month, and knew well. Fancy how easy it was for me to play, when he stood over me and kept calling out all through it in German, " Terrible ! Shocking ! Dreadful ! Gott ! Gott !" I was really playing it well, too, and I kept on in spite of him, but my nerves were all rasped and excite the tempest of sound of the introduc- tion the drums came in with a sharp tat-tat-tat-tat- tat ! Then the brass began with the air and came to a crescendo, at last blaring out in such a way as shivered you to the very marrow of your bones. It was like an earthquake yawning before you. The noise was so tremendous that it was like the roaring of the surf. I never conceived of anything in music to approach it, and Wagner made me think of a giant Triton disporting himself amid the billows and tossing these great waves of sound from one hand to the other. You don^t see his face, of course — noth- ing but his back, and yet you know every one of his emotions. Every sinew in his body speaks. He makes the instruments prolong the tones as no one else does, and the effect is indescribably beautiful, yet he complains that he never can get an orchestra to hold the tone as they ought. His whole appearance is of arrogance and despotism personified. By the end of the concert the bouquets were so heaped on the stage in front of the director's desk, that Wagner had no place left big enough to stand on without crushing them. Altogether, it was a bril- liant affair, and a great triumph for his friends. He has a great many bitter enemies here, however. Joa- 132 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. chim is one of them, though it seems unaccountable that a man of his musical gifts should be. Ehlert Is also a strong anti-Wagnerite, and the Jews hate him intensely. — Perhaps his character has something to do with it, for he has set all laws of honour, gratitude and morality at defiance all his life long. It is a dread- ful example for younger artists, and I think Wagner is depraving them. In this country everything is forgiven to audacity and genius, and I must say that if Ger- many can teach us Music, we can teach her morals ! CHAPTER IX. Difficulties of the Piano. Triumphal Entry of the Troops. Paris. Berlin, June 25, 1871. I have been learning Beethoven's G major Concerto lately, and it is the most horribly difficult thing I've ever attempted. I have practiced the first movement a whole month, and I can't play it any more than I can fly. If you hear Miss Mehlig play it, I trust you will take in what a feat it is. Kullak gave me a reg- ular rating over it at my last lesson, and told me I must stick to it till I could play it. It requires the gi'eatest rapidity and facility of execution, and I get perfectly desperate over it. Kullak took advantage of the occasion to expand upon all the things an artist must be able to do, until my heart died within me. " What do you know of double thirds ?" said he. I had to admit that I knew nothing of double thirds, and then he rushed down the piano like lightning from top to bottom in a scale in double thirds, just as if it were a common scale. In one respect Kullak is a more discouraging teacher than Tausig, for Tausig only played occasionally before you, where it was absolutely necessary, and con- tented himself with scolding and blammg. Kullak, on the contrary, doesn't scold much, but as he plays continually before and with you, with him you see (123) 124 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. how the thing ought to be done, and the perception of your own deficiencies stands out before you merci- lessly. My constant thought is, "When will my pas- sages pearl? When?^*7^ my touch be perfectly equal? When will my octaves be played from a lightly -hung wrist ? When will my trill be brilliant and sustained? When will my thumb turn under and my fourth fin- ger over without the slightest perceptible break? When will my arpeggios go up the piano in that peculiar roll that a genuine artist gives?" etc., etc. All this gives a heavy heart, and so disinclines me to write that you must excuse my frequent silences. We are having such a horrid cold summer that I sit and shiver all the time. I wish we could have a little of the hot weather you speak of. I have put on a muslin dress only once. Berlin is a very severe cli- mate, I think. The week before last was the triumphal entry or " Einzug " of the troops. They all went past "my win- dow, so I had a full view of them. The Emperor had made immense preparations, for he is very proud of his army. All along the Koniggratzer Strasse (the street we live in), to the Brandenburger Gate, a dis- tance of two or three miles, were set tall poles at inter- vals of a few feet, connected by wreaths of green. These were painted red and white, and had gilded pin- nacles ; they were surmounted by the Prussian flag, which is black and white, with a black eagle in the centre. About half way down the poles was set a coat of arms, with the flags of the older German States grouped about it. As they were of different colours, REJOICING BERLIN. 126 the effect was very gay, and they made a triumphal path of waving banners for the troops to pass under. All along the last part of the Koniggratzer Strasse, before you come to the Linden, were set the French cannon which were captured, and on them was printed the name of the place where the battle was, and one read on them " Metz, Sedan, Strasburg," etc. All up the Linden, too, the way for the soldiers was hemmed in on each side with cannon. The mitrailleuses inter- ested me the most, because they had thirty bores in each one, and could fire as many balls in succession. In this way, you see, a single cannon could rain shot. Luckily the French aim so badly that they couldn't have killed half so many Prussians as they expected. On every Platz (as the Germans call the squares), were columns and statues set up, and enormous scaffolds for people to sit on, all decked out with flags and coloured cloth. In short, the whole city was got up in gala array, and looked as gay as possible. Of course there were thousands of strangers who had come on to see it, and the streets were crowded. For about a week beforehand there was one continual stream of people going by our house, and a long Une of cai'- riages and droschkies as far as one could see, creeping along at a snail's pace behind each other. I got worn out with the noise and confusion long before the eventful day came. When it did arrive, already at six o'clock in the morning, when I looked out of my window, the walls of Prince Albrecht's garden opposite were covered with boys and men, and there they had to sit until nearly twelve o'clock, with their legs dangling down, and nothing to eat 126 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. or drink, before the procession came by, and then it took four hours to pass! Such is German endur- ance, and a still more striking instance of it was shown by an orchestra stationed on the sidewalk opposite my window. There were no seats or awnings for them, and there they stood on the stones in the hot sun for fully six hours, playing every little while on those heavy French horns and trumpets. Just imagine it ! I was astonished that there was no scaffold erected for them to sit on, and wondered how the poor fellows could stand it. Just before eleven o'clock the gate of Prince Albrecht's garden flew open, and out he rode, accompanied by a large suite, and they remained there awaiting the Em- peror, who was to ride by on his way to meet the troops. I wish you could have seen them hi their superb uniforms, seated on their magnificent horses. They looked like knights of the olden time, with their embroidered saddle- cloths and gay trappings. Preceding the Emperor came the Empress and all the ladies of the royal family in about ten carriages, each one with six horses and the Empress's with eight. The ladies were gorgeously dressed, of course, in light coloured silks with lace over-dresses. Then came the Emperor and his escort, riding slowly and majestically along. The enthusiasm was immense as they passed by, and they were indeed a proud sight. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Koon rode in one row by themselves. Bis- marck looked very imposing in his uniform entirely of white and silver, with enormous top-boots, and a brazen helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. There was every variety of uniform, and the Crown Prince looked very THE VICTORIOUS ARMY. 127 handsome in his. He is a splendid-looking man, with a very soldierly bearing, and he rides to perfection. The royal party went out to the parade ground, where they met the army, and then returned at the head of it, riding very slowly. Then, for four hours, the soldiers poured by at a very quick step. If you could have seen that river of men roll along, you would have some idea of the strength of this nation. They were tall for the most part, and their helmets and guns glittered in the sun. They were dressed in their old uniforms, just as they came from the field of battle. The people showered wreaths and bouquets upon them as they passed, and every man presented a festal appearance with his helmet crowned, a bouquet on the point of his bayonet, and flowers in his button hole. The Emperor's way was literally carpeted with flowers, and his grooms rode be- hind him picking them up, and hanging the wreaths upon their saddle-bows. Bismarck, Moltke and Von Eoon and all the men of mark during the war were similarly favoured. The army marched along at an astonishingly quick pace. I was surprised to see them walk so fast, heavily laden as they were with their guns and knapsacks and blankets, etc. Many of them had been marching a good part of the night to get to the place of rendezvous, and they had had a parade early in the morning. A good many of them fainted and had to be carried out of the ranks, and eight of them died ! It was the hottest day we have had this summer. — I was the most inter- ested in the Uhlanen. They were the greatest terror o* the French, and were light cavalry with no arms except 128 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. a large pistol and a lance. Just below the head of the lance was a little Prussian flag attached, and nearly every one was splashed with the blood of some poor French- man. When one looked at those terrible spikes, it seemed a most dreadful death, and I don't wonder that the French lost all courage at the sight of them. You see, being on horseback and so lightly armed, the Uh- lanen could go about like lightning, and were able to appear suddenly at the most unexpected points. As I was not on the Linden I did not see the army received at the Brandenburger Gate by the four hundred young ladies dressed in white, so I can't give you any account of that. Bismarck, who always knows what to do, took a handful of wreaths from his saddle-bow, and flung them smilingly over among the welcoming maidens. He is a courtly creature. I was nearly dead from just look- ing out of my window, and listening to the continual music of the bands, and I did not get over the fatigue and nervous excitement for several days ; but I was very fortunate to be able to see it from the house, for many persons who had to sit on the scaffolds were dreadfully burned, and were thrown into a fever by it. You see they weren't allowed to put up their parasols, as that obscured the view of the people behind them. I had one friend who suffered awfully with her face, and did not sleep for three nights. She said it was as if she had been burnt by fire, and the whole skin peeled off. July 4th. — As usual, it is over a week since I began this letter, and I have just decided to start at once on a summer journey with Mrs. and Miss V. N., Mr. P. and Mrs., Mr. and Miss S. Kullak is away for his vaca- AN ENGLISH ARISTOCRAT. 129 tion, so I shall lose no lessons. We shall go first to Cologne and then to Bonn and Ooblentz and down the Rhine. Perhaps we shall get as far as Heidelberg. We got one of those return tickets, which makes the journey very cheap ; only you are limited to a certain time. We expect to be gone until the 1st of August. I intend to walk a great deal between the different points. Where the scenery is picturesque we shall occasionally walk from station to station. We take no baggage except a little bag (which we sling over our backs with straps), containing a change of linen and a brush and comb and tooth brush. We shall wear the same dress all the time and have our linen washed at the hotel. I thought it was a good chance for me, and as we shall be a party of embryo artists, we expect to go along in the Bohemian and happy-go-lucky style of our class. I think of writing a novel on the way! Won't it be romantic? Only, unluckily for Miss S. and myself, we shall have no adorers, as Mr. P. and Miss V. G. are engaged, and Mr. S. is only about eighteen ! Just before the Einzug I was at a party at the Bancroft's, and was standing near a doorway talking to one of K.'s class-mates in Harvard, when a portly gentleman pushed veiy rudely between us and stood there talking to Mr. Bancroft, who was on the other side of me. We gazed at him for a minute before we went on with our conversation. Presently the gentle- man took his leave and bustled away. " That was the Duke of Somerset," said Mr. Bancroft to me. I was rather surprised, for I had just been thinking to my- 9 13^0 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. self, " What an unmannerly creature you are !" — I suppose he had come on to the Einzug. Triumphant Berlin, by the way, is rather a contrast to Paris under the Commune. Such a horrible time as they have been having there I It is enough to make one's blood run cold to think of it. What insane barbarians they are — and the worst of it is the part the women take in it. I saw a picture of Thiers' house which they burnt down. It was a magnificent mansion, and crammed full of exquisite works of art. Mr. Bancroft grieved over it, for he had dined there, and knew what treasures it contained. He said it was one of the most beautiful houses he had ever beeii in. — And then the idea of pulling down the column of the Place Vendome ! Napoleon had built it from cannon which he had captured in his great battles and melted down, so that in a special manner it was a monument of their victories over other nations. There is a stupidity about them which makes them perfectly pitiable. [In 1848 Saint Beuve wrote the following almost prophetic words : " Nothing is swifter to decline in crises like the present (the Revolution of 1848) than civilization. In three weeks the result of many cen- turies are lost. Civilization, life, is a thing learned and invented. * * * * After years of tranquil- ity men are too forgetful of this truth ; they come to think that culture is innate, that it is the same thing as nature. But in truth barbarism is but a few paces off and begins again as soon as our hold is slackened."] —Ed. CHAPTER X. /I Rhine Journey. Frankfort. Mainz. Sail down the Rhine Cologne. Bonn. The Seven Mountains. Worms. Spire. Heidelberg. Tausig's Death. RoLANDSECK AM Rhein, July 14, 1871. You will be surprised to get this letter, dated from a little village on the Rhine, and I shall proceed to tell you how I came here, if the vilest of vile paper and pens will permit. I wrote a letter to L. just be- fore I left Berlin, in which I informed her that I meant to go on a little trip with a party of friends, as Berlin in summer is malarious, und I felt the need of a change. Thursday a week ago we left Berlin and rode straight through to Frankfort. It was a long jour- ney, and lasted from six o'clock in the morning until ten at night. I got up at four in the morning in a most halcyon frame of mind. In fact, I felt as if I were going to get married, owing to my putting on every- thing new from top to toe ! The laundress had made such ravages upon my linen that I found myself suddenly obliged to replenish throughout, and conse- quently I arrayed myself with great satisfaction in new stockings, new under-clothes, new flannel, new skirts, new hat, new veil and new shoes to boot! I put on my black silk short suit, took my bag and (131) 132 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. shawl, and sallied to the station, where I found the others waiting for me. It was a lovely ride from Berlin to Frankfort, and having been shut up in a city for nearly two years, the country appeared perfectly charming and new to me, and every little smiling tuft of daisies had a special significance. I don't know whether you stopped at Frankfort on your travels. I fell dead in love with it, and liked it better than any part of Germany I have seen. It is such a quiet town and has such an air of elegance, and there are such lovely walks all about. Everything looks so clean, and the streets are so hand- somely laid out, and then there are no smells, as there are in Berlin. The river flows all along the outside of the city, and the promenade along it is delightful. I went to see the house where my adorable Goethe was bom, and afterward walked over the bridge over which he used to go to school. There was a gilded cock perched upon it, which he used to be very fond of as a child. We saw his statue, and then visited the Mu- seum where was Danecker's great mastei*piece, Ari- adne sitting on the Panther. It is the most ex- quisite thing, and it is cut out of one solid block of Carrara marble. Through a pink curtain a rosy light is thrown on it from above, which gives the marble a delicious tinge. Strange that he should have risen to such a poetic conception, and never done anything afterwards of importance. We went into a great room where life-size pictures of all the Emperors of Germany were. Some of them are very handsome men, and the Latin mottoes under-' MAINZ. 133 iieath are very funny. One of them was : " If you don't know how to hold your tongue, you'll never know the right place to speak." I hope P. will keep L. well at her Latin and her history, and teach her something about architecture and mythology, for these one needs to know when one travels abroad. We only stayed one day in Frankfort, for there isn't a great deal to be seen there. The afternoon we spent in walking about and in sitting on logs by the river-side. Oh, what a sweet place one of those beautiful villas by the swiftly flowing river would be to live in ! We left Frankfort at seven P. M., and rode to Mainz, which is only a ride of two hours, I believe. As we came over the railroad bridge into the town, we got our first glimpse of the Rhine, and it was a splendid sight. Our hotel was very near the river, and^s our rooms were front rooms, and three stories up, we had a magnificent view of it. In the evening it was so fas- cinating to watch the lights on the water and the boats plying up and down, that it was long before we could make up our minds to leave the windows and go to bed. At Mainz we saw our first cathedral. It is six hundred years old, and had suffered six times by fire, but it was very fine, notwithstanding. We spent a long time studying it out. Afterwards we visited another church and ascended a tower which was built 30, B. 0. It^ seemed almost as firm as the day it was finished. The view from it is magnificent, and the top of it is all overgrown with harebells, golden rod and grass. It was very picturesque. On Sunday evening we took the boat for Cologne 134 MUSIC-STUDY IK GERMANY. which we reached at four o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, that sail down the Khine was too delicious ! The weather was perfect, and everything seemed to me like a fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine, and it was too lovely to see those old castles in every degree of ruin, jutting out over the steep rocks, so high in the air, and then the vineyards slop- ing down the hillsides to the water's edge. The whole lay of the land was so exquisite. I didn't wonder that it is so celebrated, and that so much has been written about it. A funny old Englishman came and sat be- side me, and we had a long conversation, pretty much as follows : Englishman. — "England is no doubt the finest country in the world. You know the people there are so enormous rich, they can do as they please." " Ah, indeed," said I, "have you travelled much in Ger- many?" "OyesI I've been all over Germany. I come up the Rhine every year," said he. " It's all very pretty when you've never seen it before, but it's noth- ing to me now." "Have you been to Berlin?" asked I. " yes," said he. *' Shouldn't want to live there. Your Prussians are so confounded arrogant. They think they're the greatest people in the world." " How did you like Dresden ?" said I, "Stupid hole," said he. "Leipsic?" "Dull town." "Stuttgardt?" "Quite pretty." " Kissingen ?" " 'Orrible place, nothing but fanatics ; every other day a Saint's day, and the shops shut up." "Wiesbaden?" " Very fine place." "Ems?" "Never been to Hems." "Mainz?" "Nasty hole." "Cologne?" "Stinking place." "Munich?" "Dread- COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. 136 ful unhealthy. They have fevers there, typhus, etc." I call 'em fevers." "How do you like the Rhine wines ?" " Don't like them at all. It's very seldom a man gets to drink a decent glass of wine here. I don't drink 'em at all. Hike a glass of port." "Beer?" " 0, the German beer isn't fit to drink. The English beer is the best in the world. German beer is 'orrible bad stuff. Nothing but slops, — slops !" Here I burst out laughing, for his flattering descriptions were too much for me. He gave me a quizzical look and said, "Well, I'm glad I made you laugh. You're from America, aren't you?" "Yes," said I. "Very un- healthy place, I'm told." " Indeed ? I never heard so," said I. " yes, veryV^ said he. Then he went off, and after a long while he returned. " I've been asleep," said he, " I've slept two hours and a half, all through the fine scenery." " WhatF said I, " don't you enjoy it?" ''No, I don't enjoy it at all." Then he told me he lived in Rotterdam, and that I must come to Holland. He was very complaisant over the Dutch, whom he said were " nice, decent people, like the English. There's nothing of the German in them," said he, "they're quite another people — not so en- ^Awsi-a^tic," — with a contemptuous air. We got out at Cologne, and he went on to his dear Rotterdam. So I saw him no more. Oh! isn't the Cologne Cathedral magnificent? It quite took my breath away as I entered it. The priests were just having vespers as we went in, and there was scarcely a person in the cathedral beside. It was so solemn and so touching to see them all by themselves 136 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. intoning the prayers, their voices swelling and falling in that vast place. And when the superb organ struck up, and they began to sing a hymn, so wildly sweet, with an interlude most beautifully worked up at the end of each line by the organist — as we sat there under those great arches which soar up to such an immense height, I felt as if I were in Heaven. Andernach, July 16, 1871. I believe I left off in my last with our arrival at Cologne, of which I saw very little, as I was extremely tired, and remained at the hotel. The Cathedral was, of course, the main point of interest, and that I saw thoroughly, as I went to it twice, and spent a number of hours each time. I was entirely carried away by its beauty and grandeur, as everybody must be. The descriptions 1 had heard and the photographs I had seen of it didn't prepare me at all. The height of the great pile is one of the most astounding things, I think. The three and four story houses about it look like huts beside it. Beside the Cathedral I only saw the church where the eleven thousand virgins are buried, but that was more curious than beautiful. — I was much taken down by the shops in Cologne, which I think much finer than the Berlin ones, and saw no end of things in the windows I should like to have bought. The cravats alone quite turned my head ! We only spent two days in Cologne, and then sailed for Bonn, which is but a very short distance. Here we were in a hotel directly upon the river, and I had BONN. 137 a sweet little room quite to myself. The view up and down the river was superb, and we could see the Seven Mountains most beautifully. Bonn is the most quiet, sleepy little town you can imagine, and just the place to study, I should think. We saw the house where Beethoven was born, a little yellow, two-story house, and then we visited the Minster, which is nine hun- dred years old. We saw there a tomb devoted to the memory of the first architect of the Cologne Cathe- dral, with his statue lying upon it. He had a severely beautiful face, and I could very well imagine him capable of such a great conception. We had great difficulty in getting a dinner at Bonn, as, being a university town, the students gobble up everything. Finally, we found a little restaurant where they got us up one, consisting of steak and potatoes. After dinner I went to walk with Mr. S. and we ate cherries all the way, and finally sat down on a bench by the river's side, where we had an enchanting view. Then we went back to the hotel, and I went directly to bed. It was delicious to lie there and hear the little waves washing up outside my window. It is just the place for a honey-moon — so out of the world as it seems, and with none of the activity and bustle of other cities. At six o'clock the next morning we took the boat, and in about half an hour we landed at a little town on the side of the river opposite to Bonn, and began our pedes- trian tour through the Seven Mountains, of which we ascended and descended four. They were all very steep and difficult to climb, and it reminded me of my trip to Mount Mansfield, years ago, only then we had horses. 138 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. We spent the night on one of them, the Lowen-berg (Lion-mountam). This was a funny experience, as all we five ladies had to sleep in one room, and in one great bed of straw made up on the floor. The fleas bit us all night, so we did not sleep too much. I mentioned the little fact to the seiTant next day, to which she replied, " Yes, when you are, n't used to fleas and bed-bugs, it is hard to sleep !" I agreed with her perfectly ! — Our walk was enchanting in spite of the difficulty of the ascent, and of the fact that all of us had satchels slung over our shoulders, and a shawl and umbrella to carry, which made locomotion rather difficult. We were in the sylvan shades, following delicious footpaths scented with flowers, and with the birds singing and trilling as loud as they could over our heads. It was heavenly on the Lbwenberg, for the view was glorious on every side, and it seemed as if we were on the highest peak in the universe. I sat for hours looking over the lovely country and following the meanderings of the Rhine. The atmospheric effects produced by the sunset were wonderful, and when it got to be nine o'clock we saw the lights twinkle up one by one from the dis- tant villages below like little earth-stars — reflections of the heavenly ones above. The last mountain we ascended was the Drachenfels (Dragon-rock), and a fearful pull it was. The three others had been so easy, comparatively, that we none of us knew what we were in for. Soon found out, though ! It was like trying to go up a waU, it was so steep. But when we got up we were rewarded, for the view was superb, and there was an interesting old Roman ruin up there. We wandered all about, and WORMS. 131 got an excellent dinner, and then came down late in the afternoon, took a row boat and rowed across the Rhme to Rolandseck — a fashionable watering place, and eg charming as German towns have a way of being. GoTHA, July 27, 1871. Since I wrote you from Andemach I have been trav- elling steadily. The whole party except Mrs. V. N. and myself made a pedestrian tour along the Rhine from Rolandseck to Bingen, a distance of sixty miles. 1 started to walk, but when I had gone fifteen miles I gave out, and was glad to take the boat. Mrs. V. N. was an invalid and couldn't walk, so I took charge of her, and we would travel on together. When we got to the sta- tion where we had agreed to wait for the others, I would seat her somewhere with the bags of the party piled up around her, and then I would make a sortie, look at the hotels, and engage our rooms. We saw the Rhine from Cologne to Worms very thor- oughly — for we kept stopping all along. It is truly mag- nificent, and nothing can be more interesting and pic- turesque than those old ruined castles which look as if they had grown there. Bingen is the sweetest place, and just the spot to spend a summer. We travelled from there to Worms, which is a dehghtful old city. We were there only an hour or two, but the walk from the boat to the cars was through the prettiest part of it, I should judge, and was very romantic, through winding walks overshadowed with trees. We saw that great Luther monument there, which is most imposing. The exterior 140 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. of the Cathedral is splendid, and in quite another style of architecture from the Cologne Cathedral. From Worms we went to Spire, in order to see the Cathedral there, which is superb, and veiy celebrated. It was founded in 1030 by Conrad the Second, as a burial place for himself and his successors. It has no stained win- dows at all, even in the chancel, which surprised me, but the frescoes and the whole interior colouring are gor- geous in the extreme. It is in the Romanesque style of architecture, and is so entirely different from the Cologne Cathedral that it was very interesting, but there's noth- ing equal to the Gothic, after all. From Spire we went to Heidelberg. I was enchanted with Heidelberg. It is the most romantic and beautiful place I was ever in. The Castle is the prince of ruins. I had made up my mind all along that I was going to enjoy myself at Heidelberg, for my friend Dr. S. was studying there, and I knew I should have him to go about with. So I had been urging the party to go there from the first. As soon as we arrived, off I went to find him, which I soon accomplished. He was very glad to see me, and put himself at once at my disposal. You know the S.'s used to live at Heidelberg, among other places, so he knows it all by heart. After dinner we all went up to the Castle, of course. I was very sorry that I had never read Hyperion. We had to ascend a long hill before we got to it, but the weather was perfect, so we didn't mind. It is so high up that the view of the town and of the Neckar winding through it, with the wooded hills on the opposite shore, is panoramic. HEIDELBERG CASTLE. 141 The Castle itself is an enormous i*uin, and very richly ornamented. Ivy two hundred years old climbs over it in great luxuriance. We passed through a gate- way over which stand two stone knights which are said to change places with each other at midnight, and there are all sorts of charming stories like that connected with the place. We saw a beautifully carved stone archway which was put up in a single night, in honour of somebody's birthday, and a monu- ment with an inscription over it stood in one corner of the grounds, stating that here had stood some distin- guished personage (I always forget all the names, unluckily, but "theprinciple remains the same"), when the Castle was being besieged by the French. Two balls came from opposite directions, passed close by him, and struck against each other, miraculously leav- ing him unharmed ! After we had walked around the outside of the Cas- tle sufficiently we went inside. It took us a long time to go over it, it was so large. We saw the stone dun- geon, which was called the "Never Empty," because somebody was always confined there — a dreadful hole, and it must have been in perfect darkness — and we saw the great Heidelberg cask which had a scaffolding on the top of it big enough to dance a quadrille on. But the finest of everything was the ascending of the tower. Just as we'got to the top of it, and had begun to take in the magnificent scenery, an orchestra at a lit- tle distance below struck up Wagner's " Kaiser March." It was the one touch which was needed to make the ensemble perfect. On one side the landscape lay far 142 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. below us, with the silver river winding through it; on the other the hills rose behind the Castle to an immense height, and with the greatest boldness of outline. The tops were thickly wooded, and lower down the trees were beautifully grouped, and the vel- vety turf rolled and swelled to the foot of the Castle. The sun was just setting in a clear sky, and cast long shadows athwart the scene, and I thought I had never seen anything more striking. Then to hear Wagner's Kaiser March by a well-trained orchestra come soar- ing up, made a combination such as one gets perhaps not more than once in a life-time. The march is superb, so pompous and majestic, and with delicious melodies occasionally interwoven through it. Wagner's melodies are so heavily and in- toxicatingly sweet, that they are almost narcotic. His music excites a set of emotions that no other music does, and he is a great original. It has the power of expressing longing and aspiration to a wonderful de- gree, and it always seems to me as if two impulses were continually trying to get the mastery. The one is the embodiment of all those vague yearnings of the soul to burst its prison house, and the other is the cradling of the body in the lap of pleasure. I always feel as if I should like to swoon away when I hear his com- positions. Then his harmonies are so strangely se- ductive, so complicated, so " grossartig," as the Ger- mans say, and so peculiar ! Oh, I have an immeii^se admiration for him ! He thinks that music is not the impersonation of an idea, but that it is the idea. But to return to the Castle. — We stayed up in the NICOLAI RUBINSTEIN. 143 tower for some time, and then we made the tour of the interior. Afterwards we walked and sat about until all the party thought it was time to go back to the ho- tel. Dr. S. and I thought we would stay up there to supper. So we went where the orchestra was playing, which was in an enclosed space near the Castle. We took our seats at a little table in the open air, and ordered a delicious little supper, also " A bottle of wine To make us shine " in conversation .'^and so glided by the most ideal even- ing, as far as surroundings go, that I ever spent. In our hotel at Heidelberg I kept hearing a man play splendidly in the room below us, and every time we passed his door it was open, and we could partly see the interior of a charming room with a grand piano in it, at which he was seated. A pretty woman was always lying back in the corner of the sofa listening to him, apparently. The presence of a large wax doll in- dicated that there must be a child about, and the per- fume of flowers stole through the open doorway. My interest was at once excited in these people, and I said to myself as I heard this gentleman practice every day, " This must be some artist passing the summer here and getting up his winter programme." Accordingly, on Sunday afternoon when he was playing beautifully, I roused myself up and enquired of a servant who he was. " Nicolai Rubinstein, from St. Petersburg," re- plied she. He is the brother of the great Anton Eu- binstein, and is nearly as fine a pianist. I know a scholar of Tausig's who had studied with him, and Tausig had a high opinion of him. 144 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. Oh, isn't it dreadful? When we were at Bingen we saw the news of Tausig's death in the paper ! He died at Leipsic, on the 17th of July, of typhus fever, brought on by over-taxing his musical memory. It was a dreadful blow to me, as you may imagine, and when I think of his wonderful playing silenced for- ever, and comparatively in the beginning of his career, I cannot get reconciled to it. If you could have heard those matchlessly trained fingers of his, you would be able to sympathize with me on the subject. I had counted so on hearing him next winter, for he gave no concerts in Berlin last winter. He was only thirty-one years old ! CHAPTER XI. Eisenach. Qotha. Erfurt. Andernach. Weimar. Tausig Berlin, Auguit 15, 1871. Well, here I am back in smelly old Berlin ! I really hated to leave Heidelberg, it was such a paradisiacal spot, but we saw so much that was beautiful after- wards, that my impression of it has become a little dimmed. From Heidelberg we went to Eisenach, its rival in a different way, for here we went over the Wart- burg — the Castle famous for having been the dwelling of the holy St. Elizabeth, and where Luther translated the Bible and spent ten months of his life disguised as a knight. I saw his room, a bare and comfortless hole, but with a splendid view from the windows. The Castle is in good repair, and is a noble pile. I suppose the Duke of Weimar spends some time there evei7 summer, as it looks as if it were lived in. It is endlessly inter- esting. There is a lovely little chapel in it where Lu- ther used to preach, with everything left in just as it was in his time — a little gem. The Wartburg is on a very high hill, and the views from it are superb. Among other things to be seen from it is the Venus- berg, which is the mountain Wagner has introduced in his famous opera of Tannhauser. He was so car- ried away by the Wartburg when he concealed himself near it, as he was being pursued by the government to be arrested as a revolutionary, twenty years ago, that 10 (145) 146 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. he never rested until he had united the legends of St. Elizabeth and of the Venusberg in his opera. Liszt, also, wrote an oratorio on St. Elizabeth as his tribute to the Wartburg. From Eisenach we went to Gotha, a lovely place, all shaded with trees, and surmounted by a very imposing castle, with two immense towers. It is an enormous edifice, and is surrounded by a magnificent park, through which goes the slowly winding river. I be- lieve that Gotha belongs to .the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, brother of the Queen of England, or something. At all events, in the middle of this river is an island where the ducal family is buried, and it is so thickly planted with trees whose boughs hang over the water, that their graves are quite shrouded from the vulgar eye. Pretty idea ! The river laps lazily against the grassy slope which covers the princely ones, and the wind rushing through the trees, sings their dirge. From Gotha we went to Erfurt, where we only spent one night, in order to see the Cathedral. Erfurt is an Undine of a place, full of running streams and bridges and mills roaring all about you. I saw one street with a brook rippling down the very middle of it at a most rattling pace, and at every little distance two or three stepping stones by which to cross it. Just think how fascinating for children ! I longed to stay and have a good play there myself. The Erfurt Cathe- dral is much smaller than those of Spire and Cologne, but the exterior is wonderfully beautiful. The tran- sept is a masterpiece, and has fifteen enormous win- dows of rich old stained glass going round it. The A BEAUTIFUL SERVICE. 147 nave did not please me so well, because in addition to its not being very rich, the side aisles were of equal height with the main body of the Cathedral, and were not sufficiently marked off from it to prevent the roof's looking like a ceiling. I believe the side aisles were of equal height with the main aisle in the Col- ogne Cathedral, but the archways and pillars cut them off more, so that it had a different effect. — I am more interested in cathedrals than anything else, and should like to travel all over Europe and see all the different ones. There is a lovely old church at Andernach, Koman Catholic, as most of the churches on the Rhine are. I went there to church one Sunday morning, and stayed through the service. They had the most pow- erful church music I've ever heard. There was an ex- cellent boy choir which sang in unison and led the con- gregation, every person of which joined in. The organ was fine, as was also the organist, and the singing was so universal that the old church walls rang again. The priest preached an excellent sermon, too — the best I have heard in Germany. Beblin, Auguit 31, 1871. Germany is a most lovely countiy, and perfectly delicious to travel through. I believe I have described all the places we went to excepting Weimar. Weimar is delightful, and so interesting, because Goethe and Schiller, Wieland and Herder lived there, and every- thing is connected with them, and especially with the first two. There are many fine statues in the little 148 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. city, and a delicious great park along the river which was laid out under Goethe's superintendence. — One group of Goethe and Schiller standing together in front of the theatre is magnificent. One hardly knows which to admire the most, Goethe, with his courtly mein and commanding features, or Schiller, with his extreme ideality and his head a little thrown back as if to take in inspiration direct from the sky. It is a most striking conception. The palace of the Grand Duke of VYeimar is the principal " show " of the place. It is filled with the richest works of art, and is beautifully frescoed in rooms devoted each to a particular author, and repre- senting his most celebrated works. There is the Goethe room, and the Wieland room, etc. The Wie- land room is the most charming thing. The fres- coes on the walls are all illustrative of his " Oberon," which is his most celebrated work, and one picture represents what happened when Oberon blew his horn. You must know that when Oberon blows his horn everybody is obliged to dance. So in this picture he is represented blowing it in a convent, and all the fat friars and nuns are dancing away like mad. They look so serious, and as if they didn't want to do it at all, but their feet will fly up in the air in spite of them. The nuns' slippers scarcely stick on, and it looks so absurd ! I was as highly amused at it as the mischiev- ous Oberon himself must have been, so delicately has the artist touched it off. There was another design representing a band of nymphs dancing in the sky, band in hand in the twilight, and it was the most THE DUCAL PALACE. 149 graceful thing ! — Their delicate little bare feet with every pretty turn a foot could have, their clothes and hair streaming in the breeze, and every attitude so airy. It was lovely! The Goethe frescoes were by another painter, and not so fine, but I prefer pictures to frescoes. Only one suite of the ducal rooms was frescoed. The others had superb pictures by the old masters, many of them originals. The Duke is an artist himself, and designs a great many pretty things. - For instance, he designed the large candelabra which stood on each side of one of the doorways, — Cupid peeping through a wreath of thistles and nettles. He was kneeling on one knee, and pushing them aside with each hand. It was all done in gilt metal and made a very dainty conceit, beside being a good illustration of the pains of love ! I think the Duke probably designed some of the pic- ture frames, for they were peculiarly rich and artistic ; for instance, the frames of the original cartoons of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper were entirely com- posed of the leaves and flowers of the calla lily. The leaves lapped one over the other, and here and there a lily was laid between. The flowers were done in a different coloured gilding from the leaves. They were very beautiful. The pictures were not all hung together, so as to confuse your eye, but here a gem and there a gem — and 0, I saw the most bewitching little statue there that ever I saw in my life ! The subject was "Little Eed Riding Hood," and it stood in the corner of one of the great salons. It was about two feet high, and represented the most fascinating 150 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. little girl you can imagine, clothed in the wolfs skin, which hung down behind and had formed the little hood. The child herself was quite indescribable — the daintiest little creature, with the most captivating ex- pression of innocence and roguishness. If she looked like that I should have followed the wolfs example and eaten her up I It was really a perfect little pearl of a statue. I would give anything to possess it. In short, I wish the Duke of Weimar were my intimate friend, for he must be a man worth knowing. Kow, if I could only play like Liszt ! — I don't wonder Liszt spends so much of his time in Weimar. I am getting perfectly crazy to hear him, by the way, for everybody says there is nobody in the world like him, and that he is the only artist who combines everything. He does not play in public any more, but Weitzmann says that he is amiability itself, and that it would prob- ably not be difficult for me to get an opportunity to hear him in private. In the palace I also saw the little boudoir of the Duchess. It was all panelled in white satin, and the fur- niture was of the richest white brocaded silk. The win- dow frames were of malachite, and one looked out through the single great plate of glass on to the beau- tiful park, and the winding river spanned by a bridge which suggests immediately to your mind, "Walk over me into the Garden of Paradise, for I was made for your express benefit !" The park lies on each side of this little river Ilm, and Goethe's exquisite taste has given it more a look of nature than of art. It seems as if you were walking in a delicious meadow, the GOETHE'S SUMMER HOUSE. 151 trees being sometimes grouped together, sometimes growing thickly along the water's edge. You go in and out of sunshine and shadow, and here and there are dusky little retreats, and, to borrow Goldsmith's elegant style, — "the winding walks assume a natural sylvage." Some distance up the river, on the side of a gentle hill, was a small house in the woods where Goethe used to live in summer. Here he slept sometimes, and farther up the hill was a summer house where he took his coffee after dinner. To the left of this summer house he had had made a long alley-way or vista of trees whose tops met overhead and formed a leafy ceiling. It was like a cloister, and here he could pace up and down and muse. It was a delightful idea. To the right of the summer house was a small garden, and beyond that was a path which wound through the wood down to the path below. In one of the rocks there Goethe had had a little poem cut. I was sorry afterward that I hadn't copied it, it was so pretty. — But it was such a charming place to read and study, and it seemed to give me a better impression of him than anything else. I saw a piano in the Duke's palace upon which Beethoven had played. It was a funny little instru- ment of about five octaves, but it was so wheezy with age that there wasn't much tone to be got out of it. After we had finished looking at the palace, we went over to see the ducal library. Here I saw a superb bust of Goethe as a young man. It was so handsome that it spurns description. He must have been a perfect Apollo. I also saw a likeness of him painted 162 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. upon a cup by some great artist, for which he sat thirty-four times ! The old librarian, who had known •Goethe, said that it was exactly like him, and the min- iature painting was so wonderful that when you looked at it with a magnifying glass it was only finer and more accurate instead of less so ! There was also a most noble bust of the composer Gliick. The face was all scarred with small-pox, so that the cast must must have been moulded from his features after death, but I never saw such a living, animated, likeness in marble. It looked as if it were going to speak to you. There was a funny toy there, nearly three hundred years old. It was a drummer boy, with a little baby strapped on his back. The librarian wound him up, and then he beat his drum lustily, rolled his eyes from side to side, and wagged his head, while the baby on his back hopped up and down. Whenever little children see it, it scares them, and they begin to cry. It had on a red flannel coat, and hasn't had a new one since it was made. — " Nearly three hundred years old, and never had a new coat," is worse than when C. P. bought himself a trunk, and went round the house saying, "Twenty-seven years old, and been in twenty-three states of the Union, and never had a new trunk before !" Goethe's house is not exhibited, which I think highly inexcusable in the Goethe family, but Schiller's is. So we saw that, and what a contrast it was to the ■ducal palace ! — You go to a small yellow house on one of the principal streets, enter a little hall by a little door, go up two flights of a little stair-case, and in the SCHILLER'S HOME. 153 very low-ceilinged third story was Schiller's home — "home " I say, and the whole of it, so please take it in ! The first room you enter is a sort of ante-room where photographs are now sold. The next room was the parlour, and of late years it has been comfortably fur- nished by the ladies of Weimar in the usual cheap German taste. The third room was Schiller's study, with an infinitesimal fourth room, or large closet, opening from it, which was his sleeping apart- ment. The study is precisely as he left it, and nothing could be more bald and bare. No car- pet on the floor, the three windows slightly fes- tooned at the top with a single breadth of Turkey red, his own portrait and a few wretched prints on the walls — in short, such a sordid habitation for such a soaring nature as seemed almost incredible ! His writing table, with a globe, inkstand, and pens upon it, stands at one window, and his wife's tiny little piano with her guitar on top, is against the wall. There are two or three chairs, and a wash-stand with a minute washing appa- ratus. In one corner is the tiny unpainted wooden bedstead on which he died ; a bed not meant to stretch out in, but to lie, as Germans do, half reclining, and so low, narrow, plain and mean that I never saw any- thing like it. In it and hanging on the wall over it are wreaths which leading German actresses have brought there as votive offerings to their great national dramatist, their white satin ribbons yellowing by time. At the foot of the stair-case as you go out, you see the little walled-up garden at the back of the house where the poet loved to sit. 154 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. After getting through with the abodes of the living, we visited the ducal vault where Goethe and Schiller are buried. It is the crypt of a sort of temple built in the old secluded cemetery in Weimar, and in it all the coffins are laid in rows on supporters. Goethe and Schiller lie apart from the others, side by side, near the foot of the stair-case leading down into the crypt. Their coffins, especially Schiller's, are cov- ered with wreaths and bouquets brought by strangers and laid there. Schiller's had on it a garland of silver leaves presented by the women of Hamburg, and an- other of leaves of green gauze or crape, on every one of which was worked in gold thread the name of one of his plays. A great actress had made it herself as her tribute to his genius. From all I observe, I should judge that the German people love Schiller much more than they do Goethe. The dukes and duchesses lie farther back in the vault in their red velvet coffins, quite unnoticed. So much better is genius than rank ! Hummel is buried also in the cemetery, which is the most beautiful I ever saw — not stiff and " arranged " like ours, but so natural ! with over-grown foot-paths, and with much fewer and simpler grave-stones and monuments, and many more vines and flowers and roses creeping over the graves. We went to Hummel's grave, and had I been Goethe and Schiller I should much rather have been buried out of doors like him, amid this sweet half -wild, half -gentle nature, than in that dismal vault. Speaking of Hummel reminds me of Tausig's death. Was it not terrible that he should have died so young ! TAUSIQ'S PLAYING. 155 Such an enormous artist as he was ! I cannot get reconciled to it at all, and he played only twice in Berlin last winter. He was a strange little soul — a perfect misanthrope. Nobody knew him intimately. He lived all the last part of his life in the strictest retirement, a prey to deep melancholy. He was taken ill at Leipsic, whither he had gone to meet Liszt. Until the ninth day they had hopes of his recovery, but in the night he had a relapse, and died the tenth day, very easily at the last. His remains were brought to Berlin and he was buried here. Everything was done to save him, and he had the most celebrated physicians, but it was useless. So my last hope of lessons from him again is at an end, «^you see! I never expect to hear such piano-playing again. It was as impossible for him to strike one false note as it is for other people to strike right ones. He was absolutely infallible. The papers all tell a story about his playing a piece one time before his friends, from the notes. The music fell upon the keys, but Tausig didn't allow himself to be at all disturbed, and went on playing through the paper, his fingers piercing it and grasping the proper chords, until some one rushed to his aid and set the notes up again. Oh, he was a wonder, and it is a tragic loss to Art that he is dead. He was such a true artist, his standard was so immeas- urably high, and he had such a proud contempt for anything approaching clap-trap, or what he called Spectakel. I have seen him execute the most gigantic difficulties without permitting himself a sign of effort beyond an almost imperceptible compression of one 156 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. corner of his mouth. — And then his touch ! Never shall I forget it ! — that rush of silver over the keys. However, he entirely overstrained himself, and his whole nervous system was completely shattered long before his illness. He said last winter that the very idea of playing in public was unbearable to him, and after he had announced in the papers that he would give four concerts, he recalled the announcement on the plea of ill health. Then he thought he would go to Italy and spend the winter. But when he got as far as Naples, he said to himself, ^^ N'ein, hier hleibst du nicht (No, you won't stay here) ;" and back he came to Berlin. He doesn't seem to have known what he wanted, himself ; his was an uneasy, tormented, capricious spirit, at enmity with the world. Perhaps his marriage had something to do with it. His wife was a beautiful artist, too, and they thought the world of each other, yet they couldn't live together. But Tausig's whole life was a mystery, and his reserve was so complete that nobody could pierce it. If I had only been at the point in music two years ago that I am now, I could have gone at once into his class. His scholars were most of them artists already, or had got to that point where they had pretty well mastered the technique. A number of them came out last winter, and the little Timanoff played duets with Kubinstein for two pianos, at St. Petersburg. Since my return I have gone into the first class in Kullak's conservatory, instead of taking private lessons of him. I think it will be of use to me to hear his best pupils play. CHAPTER XII. Dinner.Party and Reception at Mr. Bancroft's. Auction at Tausig's House. A German Christmas. The Joachims. Berlin, October 2, 1871. This week]I have been to a dinner-party at the Ban- croft's. There were several eminent Germans there, and I was taken out by BQtticher, the Herr who has arranged all the casts in the Museum, and who knows everything about Art. He couldn't speak a word of English, so we Germaned it. We talked about Sap- pho all through dinner, and he gave me several details about that young woman which I did not know before. As C. used to say, we had one of those dinners " such as you read about in the Arabian Nights," topping off with a glass of my favourite Tokay, which, I regret to say, I so prolonged the pleasure of drinking, that finally the signal was given to adjourn to the drawing- room, and I was obliged to leave my glass standing half full, to be swallowed by the waiter as soon as my back was turned. Sad, but true ! On another evening, at a Bancroft reception, I talked with a Miss R., who was charming. She is twenty-two or three, I should think, very pretty and extremely elegant, and with the most deli- cious way of speaking you can imagine. Such soft- ness of manner and such a delightfully pitched voice, (157) 158 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. and then along with this perfect repose, such a vivid way of describing things ! I was immensely taken with her, and was delighted to have her for a countrywoman. She gave me a wonderful account of the Island of Java. I had a lot of questions to ask her, for you remember how persistently I read that book by a naturalist (Wallace) who went to Java in search of the Bird of Paradise. Miss R. is so ex- tremely intelligent, and yet so unassuming ; and then this high-bred manner. — I did not have time to hear her talk half enough, and, unfortunately, her party went away the next day. The other day was an auction in poor little Tausig's house, and all his furniture was sold. It was very handsome, all of solid oak, beautifully carved. He had spent five thousand thalers on it. His wardrobe was sold, too, and I don't know how many pairs of his little boots and shoes were there, his patent leather concert boots among others. His little velvet coat that he used to wear went with the rest. I saw it lying on a chair. I came home quite ill, and was laid up two days. It was the fatigue, I suppose, and miserable reflections. I wanted to buy a picture, but they were all sold in a lot. He had excellent ones of all the great composers, down to Liszt and Wagner, hanging over 'his piano in the room where he always played. Kullak deplores Tausig's death very deeply. He had visited him in Leipsic two days before he was taken ill, and said no one would have dreamed that Tausig was going to die, he looked so well. Kullak said Tausig was one of the three or four great special AMERICAN COMFORT. 159 pianists. " Who ynll interpret to us so again ?" said he ; and I echoed, sadly enough, " Who, indeed ?" Kullak, by the way, is a \Tond.evtvi\\y finished teacher. He is a great friend of Liszt's, and Liszt has taught him a good many things. I doubt, however, how M. will fare with him, if she is only going to be here a year. My experience is that it takes fully a year to get started under a first class master. These great teachers won't take a pupil raw from America, still less trouble themselves with a scholar who cannot im- mediately comprehend. I have written her to-day a three-sheet letter in which I have set forth the disad- vantages of Germany in a sufficiently forcible manner to prevent her feeling disappointed if she still insists upon the journey. I have come to the conclusion that I am no ci'iterion as to other people's impressions. Unless people have an enthusiasm for art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot appreciate the culture of Europe, they are much better off in America. There is no doubt whatever that as to the comfort of every -day life, we are a long way ahead of every nation, unless perhaps the English, whom, however, I have not seen. ^ Berlin, Deceniber 26, 1871. To-day is Christmas-day, and I have thought much of you all at home, and have wondered if you've been having an apathetic time as usual. I think we often spend Christmas in a most shocking fashion in Amer- ica, and I mean to revolutionize all that when I get 160 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. back. So long a time in Grermany has taught me bet- ter. Here it is a season of universal joy, and every- body enters into it. Last night we had a Christmas tree at the S.'s, as we always do. We went there at half past six, and it was the prettiest thing to see in every house, nearly, a tree just lighted, or in process of being so. As a separate family lives on each floor, often in one house would be three trees, one above the other, in the front rooms. The curtains are always drawn up, to give the passers-by the benefit of it. They don't make a fearful undertaking of having a Christ- mas tree here, as we do in America, and so they are attainable by everybody. The tree is small, to begin with, and nothing is put on it except the tapers and bonbons. It is fixed on a small stand in the centre of a large square table covered with a white cloth, and each person's presents are arranged in a separate pile around it. The tree is only lighted for the sake of beauty, and for the air of festivity it throws over the thing. — After a crisp walk in the moonlight (which I performed in the style of '^ Johnny-look-up-in-the air," for I was engaged in staring into house-windows, so far as it was practicable), we sat down to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake. I had just begun my second cup, when. Presto ! the parlour doors flew open, and there stood the little green tree, blossoming out into lights, and throwing its gleams over the well-laden table. There was a general scramble and a search for one's own pile, succeeded by deep silence and sus- pense while we opened the papers. Such a hand shak- ing and embracing and thanking as followed ! conclud- PRAU JOACHIM. ira ing with the satisfactory conviction that we each had " just what we wanted." Germans do not despise the utilitarian in their Christmas gifts, as we do, but, be- tween these and their birthday offerings, expect to be set up for the rest of the year in the necessaries of life as well as in its superfluities. Presents of stockings, under-clothes, dresses, handkerchiefs, soaps — nothing comes amiss. And every one micst give to every one else. That is law. I have just heard a young artist from Vienna who made a great impression on me. His name is Ignaz Brtlhl. He is quite exceptional, and has not only a brilliant technique, but also a peculiar and beautiful conception. — But the best concert I have heard this season was one given by Clara Schumann a week ago last Monday. She was assisted by Joachim and his wife^ and that galaxy is indeed unequalled. Frau Joachim sings deliciously. Not that her voice is so remarkable. You hear such voices all the time. But she manages it consummately, and sings German songs as no one but a German could sing them. Indeed I never heard any woman approach her in unobtrusive yet perfect art. She does not take you by storm, and when I first came here I did not think much of her, but every time I hear her I am struck with how exqui- site it is. Every word takes on a meaning, and on this account I think you have to understand the language before you can realize the beauty of it. One of her songs was Schumann's " Spring Song," with that rapid agitato accompaniment, you know. — She came out and started off in it with a half breath and a tremor just 11 i62 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. like a bird fluttering up out of its nest, and then went up on a portamento with such abandon ! — like the bird soaring off in its flight. I never shail forget that effect ! Of course it carried you completely away. Beside singing so admirably she is a beauty — a sort of baby beauty — and when she comes out in a pale pink silk, contrasting with her dark hair and revealing her imperial neck and arms, she is ravishing. I've been told she wasn't anything remarkable when Joachim married her. No doubt dwelling with such a genius has developed her. They say that Joachim has had such a happy life that he wants to live for- ever ! He certainly does overtop everything. On this occasion he played Beethoven's great Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, with Clara Schumann, and I thought it the most magnificent performance I ever heard ! I perfectly adore Joachim, and consider him the wonder of the age. It is simple ecstasy to listen to him. CHAPTER XIII. Visit to Dresden. The Wiecks. Von Biilow. A Child Prod- igy. Grantzow, the Dancer. Beblin, February 10, 1872. A week ago last Monday I went to Dresden with J. L. to visit B. H. We got there at about five in the afternoon, and were met at the station by B.'s maid, who conducted us straightway to their house in Christian Strasse. B. and Mrs. H. received us with the greatest cordiality, and we had a splen- did time. I came home only the day before yes- terday, and J. is still there. The H.'s have a charming lodging, and Mrs. H. is a capital housekeeper. The cuisine was excellent, and you can imagine how I enjoyed an American breakfast once more, after noth- ing but "rolls and coffee" for two years. B. did everything in her power to amuse us, and she is the soul of amiability. She kept inviting people to meet us, and had several tea-parties, and when we had no company she took us to the theatre or the opera. She invited Marie Wieck (the sister of Clara Schumann) to tea one night. I was very glad to meet her, for she is an exquisite artist herself, and plays in Clara Schu- mann's style, though her conception is not so remark- able. Her touch is perfect. At B.'s request she tried to play for us, but the action of B.'s piano did not suit her, and she presently got up, saying that (163) 164 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. she could do nothing on that instrument, but that if we would come to her^ she would play for us with pleasure. I was in high glee at that proposal, for I was very anxious to see the famous Wieck, the trainer of so many generations of musicians. Fraulein Wieck appointed Saturday evening, and we accordingly went. B. had instructed us how to act, for the old man is quite a character, and has to be dealt with after his own fashion. She said we must walk in (having first laid off our things) as if we had been members of the family all our lives, and say, " Good-evening, Papa Wieck," — (everybody calls him Papa). Then we were to seat our- selves, and if we had some knitting or sewing with us it would be well. At any rate we must have the appar- ent intention of spending several hours, for nothing prcrvokes him so as to have people come in simply to call. "What !" he will say, " do you expect to know a celebrated man like me in half an hour?" then (very sarcastically), "perhaps you want my autograph !" He hates to give his autograph. Well, we went through the prescribed programme. We were ushered into a large room, much longer than it was broad. At either end stood a grand piano. Otherwise the room was furnished with the greatest simplicity. My impression is that the floor was a plain yellow painted one, with a rug or two here and there. A few portraits and bas-reliefs hung upon the walls. The pianos were of course fine. Frau Wieck and " Papa " received us graciously. We began by taking tea, but soon the old man became impatient, and CLARA. SCHUMANN'S SISTER. 165 said, "Come! the ladies wish to perform (vortragen) something before me, and if we don't begin we shan't accomplish anything." He lives entirely in music, and has a class of girls whom he instructs every even- ing for nothing. Five of these young girls were there. He is very deaf, but strange to say, he is as sensitive as ever to every musical sound, and the same is the case with Clara Schumann. Fraulein Wieck then opened the ball. She is about forty, I should think, and a stout, phlegmatic-looking woman. However, she played superbly, and her touch is one of the most delicious possible. After hearing her, one is not surprised that the Wiecks think nobody can teach touch but themselves. She began with a nocturne by Chopin, in F major. I forgot to say that the old Herr sits in his chair with the air of being on a throne, and announces beforehand each piece that is to be plalyed, following it with some comment : e. g., "This nocturne I allowed my daughter Clara to play in Berlin forty years ago, and afterward the principal newspaper in criticising her performance, remarked : ' This young girl seems to have much talent ; it is only a pity that she is in the hands of a father whose head seems stuck full of queer new-fangled notions,' — so new was Chopin to the public at that time." That is the way he goes on. After Fraulein Wieck had finished the nocturne, I asked for something by Bach, which I'm told she plays remarkably. She said that at the moment she had. nothing in practice by Bach, but she would play me a gigue by a composer of Bach's time, — Haesler, I think 166 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. she said, but cannot remember, as it was a name entirely unknown to me. It was very brilliant, and she executed it beautifully. Afterward she played the last movement of Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major, but I wasn't particularly struck with her conception of that. Then we had a pause, and she urged me to play. I refused, for as I had been in Dresden a week and had not practiced, I did not wish to sit down and not do myself justice. My hand is so stiff, that as Tausig said of himself (though of him I can hardly believe it), "When I haven't practiced for fourteen days I can't do anything." The old Herr then said, " Now we'll have something else ;" and got up and went to the piano, and called the young girls. He made three of them sing, one after the other, and they sang very charmingly indeed. One of them he made improvise a cadenza, and a second sang the alto to it without accompaniment. He was very proud of that. He exer- cises his pupils in all sorts of ways, trains them to sing any given tone, and " to skip up and down the ladder," as they call the scale. After the master had finished with the singing, Fraulein Wieck played three more pieces, one of which was an exquisite arrangement by Liszt of that song by Schumann, "Du meine Seele." She ended with a gavotte by Gliick, or as Papa Wieck would say, " This is a gavotte from one of Gltlck's operas, arranged by Brahms for the piano. To the superficial observer the second movement will appear very easy, but in mj/ opinion it is a very hard task to hit it exactly." I hap- pened toknow just how the thing ought to be played, AN ORDEAL. 167 for I had heard it three times from Clara Schumann herself. Fraulein Wieck didn't please me at all in it, for she took the second movement twice as quickly as the first. "Your sister plays the second movement much slower," said I. " So?^' said she, "I've never heard it from her." She then asked, " So slow?" play- ing it slower. "Still slower?" said she, beginning a third time, at my continual disapproval. " Streng im Tempo (in strict time)", said I, nodding my head oracularly. " VdterchenJ^ called she to the old Herr, " Miss Fay says that Clara plays the second movement so slow," showing him. I don't know whether this correction made an impression, but he was then deter- mined that I should play, and on my continued refusal he finally said that he found it very strange that a young lady who had studied more than two years in Tausig's and Kullak's conservatories shouldn't have one piece that she could play before people." This little fling provoked me, so up I jumped, and saying to my- self, "Kopf in die Hohe^ Brust heraus^ — vorwdrts!" (one of the military orders here), I marched to the piano and played the fugue at the end of Beethoven's A flat Sonata, Op. 110. They all sat round the room as still as so many statues while I played, and you cannot imagine how dreadfully nervous I was. I thought fifty times 1 would have to stop, for, like all fugues, it is such a piece that if you once get out you never can get in again, and Btllow himself got mixed up on the last part of it the other night in his concert. But I got well through, notwithstanding, and the old master was good enough to commend me warmly. 168 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. He told me I must have studied a great deal, and asked me if I hadn't played a great many Etuden, I informed him in polite German " He'd better believe I had !" I should like to study with the Wiecks in my vaca- tion next summer if they would take me. Perhaps I may. They are considered somewhat old-fashioned in their style, and I shouldn't wish to exchange Kul- lak for them, but they are such veterans that one could not help getting many valuable ideas from them. Papa Wieck used to be Billow's master before he went to Liszt. Did I tell you how carried away with Bulow I was? He is magnificent, and just between Kubinstein and Tausig. I am going to hear him again on Sat- urday, and then I'll write you my full opinion about him. He is famous for his playing of Beethoven, and I wish you could have heard the Moonlight Sonata from him. One thing he does which is entirely pecu- liar to himself. He runs all the movements of a so- nata together, instead of pausing between. It pleased me very much, as it gives a unity of effect, and seems to make each movement beget the succeeding one. , liEBLiN, May 30, 1872. I wish L. were here studying piano with Kullak's son. He has one little fairy of a scholar ten years old. Her name is Adele aus der Ohe — (isn't that an old knightly name ?) — and it is the most astonishing thing to hear that child play ! I heard her play a concerto " ART IS LONG." 169 of Beethoven's the other day with orchestral accom- paniment and a great cadenza by Moscheles, abso- lutely peyfectly. She never missed a note the whole way through. I suppose she will become, like Mehlig, a great artist. But perhaps, like her, she won't have a great conception, but will do everything mechani- cally. One never can tell how these child-prodigies will turn out. — Please don't form any exalted ideas of my playing ! I'm a pretty stupid girl, and go forward slowly. I never expect to play as Miss Mehlig does. If I can ever get up to Topp, I shall be satisfied. You wouldn't believe how long it takes to get to be a vir- tuoso unless you tried it. Mehlig, you know, studied steadily for ten years, under the best of teaching all the time, and she had probably more talent to start with than I have. Miss V. and Mr. Gr. have been here five years studying steadily, and they are no farther than I am now. Not so far. It makes all the difference in the world what kind of hand and wrist a person has. Mine, you know, were pretty stiff, and then it is a gi*eat disadvantage to begin studying after one is grown up. One ought to be learning while the hand is forming. I am just now learning that A minor concerto of Schumann's that Topp played at the Handel and Haydn Festival in Boston. The cadenza is tough, I can tell you. That is the worst of these concertos. There is always a grand cadenza where you must play all alone and " make a splurge." I don't know how it feels to be left all at once without any support from the orchestra. It is bad enough when KuUak 170 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. lies back in his chair and ceases accompanying me. He plays with me on two pianos, and I get so excited that my wrists tremble. He is a magnificent pianist, and his technique is perfect. There's nothing he can't do. Like all artists, he is as capricious and ex- asperating as he can be, and, as the Germans say, he is " ein Mai im Himmel und das ndchste Mai im Kel- ler (one time in heaven and the next time in the cel- lar) !" He has a deep rooted prejudice against Amer- icans, and never loses an opportunity to make a mean remark about them, and though he has some remarkably gifted ones among his scholars, he always insists upon it that the Americans have no real talent. As far as I know anything about his conservatorium just now, his most talented scholars are Americans. There is a young fellow named Sherwood, who is only seventeen years old, and he not only plays splendidly but composes beautifully, also. In my own class Miss B. and I are far ahead of all the others. Kullak will praise us very enthusiastically, and then when some one plays particularly badly in the class he will say to them, " Why, FrSulein, you play exactly as if you came from America." It makes Miss B. and me so indignant thafwe don't know what to do. Of course we can't say anything, for he addresses this remark in a lofty way to the whole class. Miss V. couldn't bear Kullak, and the other day, when she and Mr. G. were taking leave of him to go to America, she let him see it. He said to her, "And when shall I see you again ?" "iVever," exclaimed she ! We have only one way of revenging ourselves, and that is when he gives THE BALLET OF " ESMERALDA." 171 us the choice of taking one of his compositions or a piece by some one else, always to take the other per- son's. For instance, he said to me, " Fraulein, you can take Schumann's concerto or my concerto." I immediately got Schumann's. The other night I went to see a great ballet-dancer. Her name is FrSulein Grantzow, and she is the court dancer at St. Petersburg, where I've heard that the ballet surpasses everything of the kind in the world. This danseuse is a wonder, and they say there has never been such dancing since the days of Fanny Ellsler. She has the ligure of a Venus, and the most expressive face imaginable. When she dances, it is not only dancing, but a complete representation of character, for she plays a r6le by her motions just the same as if she were an actress. I have seen many a ballet, but I never conceived what an art dancing is before. I saw her in " Esmeralda," a ballet which is arranged from Victor Hugo's romance and modified for the stage. FrSulein Grantzow took the part of Esmer- alda. In the first act a man is condemned to death, but is pardoned on condition that one of the women present will promise to marry him. The women, rep- resented by about fifty ballet dancers, come up one after the other, contemplate the poor victim, pirouette round him, and reject him in turn with a gesture of contempt. At last Esmeralda (a gypsy) comes danc- ing along, asks what is the matter, and on being told, has compassion on the poor wretch, and promises to marry him in order to save him from his fate. When the time came for Grantzow to appear, the 172 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. crowd of dancers suddenly divided, and she bounded out from the back of the stage. Such an appari- tion as she was ! In the first place her toilettes sur- passed everything, and she appeared in a fresh dress in every act. In this first one she had on a most daz- zling shade of green gauze for her skirt. From her waist fell a golden net-work, like a cestus, with littli golden tassels all round. She wore a little scarlet satin jacket all fringed with gold coins, and a broad golden belt, pointed in front, clasped her waist. On her head was a tiny scarlet cap, also fringed with coins, and she had some golden bangles round her neck. In her hand was a tambourine from which depended four knots of coloured ribbons with long ends. Shaking her tambourine high in the air, out she sprang like a panther, made one magnificent circuit all round the stage, and after executing an immensely difficult pas with perfect ease, she suddenly posed to the audience in the most ravishing and impossible attitude and with the most captivating grace conceivable. Anything like her elan, her aplomb, I never saw. Such a daring crea- ture ! Well, I cannot tell you all the things she did. She is a perfect Terpsichorean genius. All through the first act she danced very slowly, merely to show her wonderful grace, and the beauty and originality of her positions. She had a way of folding her arms over her breast and dancing with a dreamy step that was quite different from anybody else, and it produced an entrancing effect. Through the second and third acts she made a regular crescendo, just to display her tech- nique and show what she could do. All the othei AN IDEAL DANSEUSE. 173 dancers seemed like blocks of wood in comparison with her. — FrSulein Grantzow is said to be between thirty- five and thirty-eight years old. As the papers said, her art shows the perfection that only maturity can give. The men are all crazy over her, as you may im- agine, and she was showered with bouquets as large as the top of a barrel. The play of her features was as extraordinary as the play of her muscles. Her whole being seemed to be the soul of motion. CHAPTER XIV. A Rising Organist. Kullak. Von Billow's Playing. A Princely Funeral. Willielmj's Concert. A Court Beauty. Bkklin, July 1, 1872. Since I have been here X. has gradually devel- oped into a great organ player, and I fancy he is now one of the first organ virtuosi in the world. His musical activity is immense, and I don't doubt he will be one of the great musical authorities here by the time he is a few years older. He is a good-hearted little demon, the incarnation of German dirt and good humour, and he pretends to be desperately de- voted to me. Last Sunday he was at M.'s and went home with us afterward. Generally I go in front with A. or Herr J. and let X. give his arm to M., but this time I accorded him the honour of taking it myself. He is about a foot shorter than I am, but he trotted along by my side in a state of high satisf ac^ tion, and asked me what he should play at this concert. I told him he might play the G Minor Prelude and Fugue, as I had just taken it, "hut^^ said I, " mind you play it well, for I shall study it very hard during the next fortnight, and I shall know if you strike one false note. FU allow you six faults, but if you make one more I'll beat you." This amused him highly, but he said, *^ It is a very com- (174) AN ORGAN VIRTUOSO. 176 plicated fugue, and it isn't so easy to play it perfectly, with all the pedal passages. What will you do for me if I come off without making one fault?" I told him there was plenty of time to think about that, and I didn't believe he could. I have no doubt that he will play it magnificently, but I love to plague him. I wish that his department were secular rather than church music, for if he were only a conductor of an orchestra, or something of that sort, he could give me many a lift. He doesn't dare play the piano any more since I played to him a few times. He used nearly to kill me with his extemporizations, for he has no memory, and so he always had to extemporize. I generally went off into a secret convulsion of laughter when he went bang ! bang ! Donner and Blitz ! — splaying all over the key- board. It was the funniest thing I ever heard, and when I heard him burst forth in such grand style on the or- gan, I was perfectly amazed, and couldn't reconcile it with his piano playing at all. He is a great reader, of course, and can transpose at sight, and all that sort of thing. I've known him to play accompaniments at sight in a great concert in the Dom and transpose them at the same time ! July 6. — You ask me why I gave up going to the Wiecks in Dresden this summer. — Because they make everybody begin at the very beginning of their system and go through it before they give them a piece, and at my stage of progress that would be losing time. They think nobody can teach touch but themselves, but Kullak is a much greater musician, and I should not be willing to exchange him for FrSulein Wieck, 176 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. who does not begin to equal him in reputation. Much as Kullak enrages me, I have to admit that he is a great master, and that he is thoroughly capable of developing artistic talent to the utmost. He makes Miss B. so provoked that she had vei-y strong thoughts of going to Stuttgardt. The Stuttgardt conserva- torium is so crowded that it is very difficult to get ad- mission. Lebert (Mehlig's master,) sent word on her writing to enquire, that he would only take her on con- dition that she brought him a letter from Kullak au- thorizing her leaving him, as Kullak was a personal friend of his own, and so great an artist, that only the most important reasons could justify her giving up his instructions ! Of course that put the stopper on any such movement. I've always forgotten to'describe Bulow's playing to you, and it is now so long since I heard him that my impressions of it are not so vivid. He has the most forcible style I ever heard, and phrases wonderfully. It is like looking through a stereoscope to hear him. All the points of a piece seem to start out vividly be- fore you. He makes me think of Gottschalk a little, for he is full of his airs. His expression is proud and supercilious to the last degree, and he looks all round at his audience when he is playing. He always has two grand pianos on the stage, one facing one way, and one the other, and he plays alternately on both. His face seems to say to his audience, " You're all cats and dogs, and I don't care what you think of my play- ing." Sometimes a look of infinite humour comes over it, when he is playing a rondo or anything gay. It is A PRINCELY FUNERAL. 177 very funny. He has remarkable magnetic power, and you feel that you are under the sway of a tremendous will. Many persons find fault with his playing, because they say it is pure intellect (der reine Verstand) but I think he has too much passion to be called purely intellectual. Still, it is always passion controlled. Beet- hoven has been the grand study of his life, and he playes his sonatas as no one else does. If he goes to America next winter, you mttst hear him thoroughly, co^te que coi^te. So I advise you to be saving up your pennies, and be sure to get a place near the piano so that you can see his face, for it is a study. I always sit in the second or third row here. Berlin, October 27, 1872. This week has been quite an eventful one. It began on Monday with the funeral of Prince Albrecht, the youngest brother of the Emperor, and it was a very imposing spectacle. I was in hopes that Mr. B. would send me a card of admission to the Dom, where the serv- ices were to be held, but as he didn't, I was obliged to content myseK with a sight of the procession and gen- eral arrangement outside. I took my stand on a wagon with H., and we got an excellent view. There was a roadway built of wood from the royal Castle to the Dom, carpeted with black, over which the procession was to pass. We waited about an hour before it came along, but we were pretty well amused by the gorgeous equi- pages and liveries of the different diplomatic corps which dashed past. 12 178 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. We were on the opposite side of the canal which separated us from the square in front of the Dom. On the right of the Dom is the Castle, and the Museum is on the left. All this square was surrounded by military, for as Prince Albrecht was a Field-Marshal, the funeral had a military character. They were beau- tifully arranged, the cavalry on one side and the infantry on the other, and the different uniforms were contrasted with each other so as to make the best effects in colour. Both horses and men stood as if they were carved out of marble, with the greatest pre- cision of position. A little before eleven the royal carriages rolled past from the palace to the Castle, with their occupants. Presently the bells began to toll, and exactly at eleven the procession started. The Gardes du Corps, which is the Crown Prince's regiment, pre- ceded the coffin, dressed in wliite and silver uniforms, with glittering brass helmets surmounted by silver eagles. The coffin itself was borne on a catafalque, and drawn by eight horses covered with black velvet trappings. It was yellow, and was surmounted by a crown of gold. On it was laid the Prince/s sword, hel- met, etc., and some flowers. I was too far away to distinguish the personages that followed. Of course the Emperor was nearest, and all were on foot. Be- hind the coffin the Prince's favorite horse was led, sad- dled and bridled. All the servants of his household walked together in silver liveries and with large tri- angular hats with long bands of crape hanging down behind. The band played a chorale, "Jesus, my Ref- uge," and the bells kept tolling all the while. At the A •♦ CHARMEUSE." 179 door of the Dom, the procession was received by the clergy officiating. The coffin was so heavy that it was rolled down a platform of boards put up for the purpose. Then it was lifted by sixteen bearers, the glittering cortege closed round it, and they all swept it at the open portal. We waited until the end of the service, as it was a short one, in order to hear the eight rounds of firing by the artillery. It was interesting to see how exactly they all fired the instant the signal was given. First the musketry on one side, and then the musketry on the other, in answer to it. The officers galloped and cur- veted about on their fiery steeds, and finally, the can- non went boom — boom. The sharp crack of the rifles made you start, but the sullen roar of the cannon made you shudder. It gave you some idea of a battle. Tuesday night I went to a concert given by a new star in the musical world, a young violinist named Wil- helm j. He is only twenty-six years old, and is already said to be one of the greatest virtuosi living, perhaps the greatest of the romantic school, for Joachim belongs to the severe classic. All the artists and critics and many of the aristocracy turned out to hear him. It was his first appearance in Berlin, and as I looked round the audience and picked out one great musician after another, I fairly trembled for him. Joachim and de Ahna were both present, among others, and my adorable Baroness von S. swept in late, looking more exquisite than ever in black lace over black silk, with jet ornaments, and her lovely hair curled and done up high on her aristocratic little head. 180 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. She was all in mourning for the Prince, even to a black lace fan with which she occasionally shaded her eyes, so that her peach-bloomy cheek was just to be discerned through it. She is a charming pianist her- self, I've heard, and is a great patroness of music and musicians, especially of the " music of the future," and its creators. I see her at all the concerts. When her face is in perfect repose she has the most charming expression and -a sort of celestial look in her deep- set blue eyes. She is what the French call spirituelle, and the Germans geistreich, but we've no word in our language that just describes her. Well, as I was saying, my head got quite dizzy with thinking what a trial it was to play before such an audi- ence, but Wilhelmj seemed to differ from me, for he came confidently down the steps with the dignified self -poise of an artist who is master of his instrument, and who knows what he can do. He is extremely handsome, with regular features, massive overhanging forehead, and with an expression of power and self -con- tainment. He looked a perfect picture as he stood there so quietly and played. He hadn't gone far before he made a brilliant cadenza that took down the house, and there was a general burst of applause. His tone (which is the grand thing in violin-playing) was magnificent, and his technique masterly. He didn't play with that tenderness of feeling and wonderful variety of expression that Joachim does, but it was as if he didn't care to affect people in that way. It made me think of Tau- sig on the piano. He played with the greatest in- tensity and aplomb, and the strings seemed aotuaiy to WILHELMJ, 181 seethe. People were taken by storm. The second piece was a concerto by Raff. Wilhelmj was in the midst of the Andante, and was sawing our hearts with every saw of his bow, when suddenly a string snapped under the strain of his passionate fingers. He instantly ceased playing, and retired up the steps to the back of the stage to put on another string. Unfortunately he had not brought along an extra one in his pocket, and had to borrow one from one of the orchestra. Weitzmann, who in his youth was himself an eminent concert violin- ist, was amazed at Wilhelmj's temerity. "What rash- ness,^^ exclaimed he, " and the G string, too !" (one of the most important). After a pause Wilhelmj came down and began again, but the string was so out of tune that he retired a second time. He must have been furi- ous inwardly, one would think, and at his Berlin debut, too ! but he came down the third time with the utmost imperturbability, and got through the concerto. The whole effect of the concert was spoiled, though, and he had also to change the solos he had intended playing, so as to avoid the G string as much as possible. Instead of the lovely Chopin Nocturne in D flat (his own arrange- ment), he played an Aria by Bach. He did it so won- derfully that I was really startled. — I never shall forget the nuances he put into his trill. But at his second concert, where he did give the Nocturne, it was evident that the romantic is his great forte, and on a first appearance, and before his large and critical audience, he should have been heard in that genre.* * This letter, which was pnhlished in DwighVs Journal of Mutie^ \a the one alluded to on p. 193. CHAPTER XV. The Boston Fire. Aggravations of Music Study. Kullak. Sherwood. Hoch Schule. A Brilliant American. German Dancing. Berlin, November 24, 1872. All the papers over here have been ringing with the Boston fire, the horse pestilence, shipwrecks, explosions, etc., until I feel as if all America were going to the bad. What an awful calamity that fire is ! I can't take it in at all. All the Germans are wondering what our fire companies are made of that such conflagrations can take place. They say it would be an impossibility here^ where the organization is so perfect. The men are trained to the work for years, and are on the spot in a twinkling, knowing just what to do. They are as fully convinced of their super-excellence in the Fire Depart- ment as in every other, and nothing can make them believe that if two or three of their little fire-engines had been there, and worked by their firemen, the Chicago and Boston fires could not have been put out ! You know their machines are pumped by hand, too, instead of by steam, as ours are, which makes the assumption all the more ludicrous. It reminds me of a German party I was at once, where our war was the subject of conversation. "Oh, you don't know anything about fighting over there," said one gentleman, nodding at me patronizingly across the table. " If you had had two or (182) A DESPERATE VEXATION. 183 three of our regiments, with one of our generals, your war would have been finished up in no time !" I've had such a vexation to-day that I'm really quite beside myself ! I was to play the first movement of my Kubinstein Concerto in the conservatory with the orches- tra. I've been straining every nerve over it for several weeks, practicing incessantly, and had learned it perfectly. When I played it in the class the other day it went beau- tifully, and I think even KuUak was satisfied. Well, of course I was anticipating playing it with the orchestra before an audience, with much pleasure, and hoped I was going to distinguish myself. Music-director Wuerst and Franz Kullak always take charge of these orchestra les- sons, sometimes one directing and sometimes the other. I got up early this mommg, and practiced an hour and a half before I went to the conservatory, and I was there the first of all who were to play concertos. I spoke to Wuerst and told him what I was to play, and he said "All right." Wouldn't you have thought now, that he would have let me play first? Not a bit of it. He first heard the orchestra play a stupid symphony of Hadyn's, which they might just as well have left out. Then he began screaming out to know if Herr Moszkowski was there? Herr Moszkowski, however, was not there, and I began to breathe freer, for he is a finished artist, and has been studying with Kullak for years, and plays in concerts. Of course if he had played first, it would have been doubly hard for me to muster up my courage, and you would have thought that Wuerst would have taken that into consideration. As Moszkowski was absent, I thought I certainly should be called up next, but another 184 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. girl received the preference. She played extremely well, and Wuerst paid her liis compliments, and then took his departure, leaving Franz Kullak to conduct. Then one of my class played Beethoven's G major concerto most wretchedly. Poor creature, she was nervous and fright- ened, and couldn't do herself any sort of justice. At last it was over, and at last Franz Kullak sung out, "We will now have Rubinstein's concerto in D minor." I got up, went to the piano, wiped off the keys, which were completely wet from the nervous fingers of those who had preceded me, and was just going to sit down, when a young fellow approached from the other side with the same intention. "0, FrSulein Fay, you have the same concerto ? Very well, you can play it the next time. To-day Herr So-and-So plays it !" Now, did you ever know anything so provoking? I hoped at least that the young fellow would play it well, and that I should learn something, but he per- fectly murdered it, and there I had to sit through it all, Avith the piece tingling at my fingers ends — and now there's no knowing when I shall play it, as the orchestra lessons are so seldom and so uncertain. I hope there will be one two weeks from to-day, but even so I probably shan't do half so well as I should have done to-day, for the freshness will be all out of the piece, and I've practiced it so much now that I hate the sound of it, and can't bear to waste any more time over it. Such is life ! I thought this time that I had taken every precaution to ensure success, for I had risen early every day, and eaten no end of the " bread of carefulness," and the result is — nothing at A POLISH ARTIST. 185 all ! Not even a failure. It is the more to be re- gretted as to-day was the first Sunday of the month, and I wanted to go to church, especially as the bad weather kept me at home for two Sundays. However, I'm determined I will play the concerto yet, if I stake "liopf und Kragen (head and collar)" on it, as the Germans say. — But oh, the difficulty of doing anything at all in this world ! December 18, 1872. — At last I played my Rubin- stein concerto a week ago Sunday with the orchestra, and had the pleasure of being told by Scharwenka that I had had a brilliant success. Franz Kullak said that my octave passages were superbly played, and Moszkowski (who, to my surprise, was playing first violin) applauded. So I was complimented by the three of whom I stood most in awe. Scharwenka and Moszkowski are both finished artists and exquisite composers, and play a great deal in concerts^this win- ter. Schai-wenka is very handsome. He is a Pole, and is very proud of his nationality. And, indeed, there is something interesting and romantic about being a Pole. The very name conjures up thoughts of revolutions, conspiracies, bloody executions, masked balls, and, of course, grace, wit and beauty ! Schar- wenka certainly sustains the traditions of his race as far as the latter qualification is concerned. I never talked with him, as I have but a bowing acquaintance with him, so I don't know what sort of a mind he has, but I find myself looking at him and saying to myself with a certain degree of satisfaction, " He is a Pole." Why I should have this feeling I know not, but I 186 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. seem to be proud of knowing Poles ! — Scharwenka has a clear olive complexion, oval face, hazel eyes (I think) and a mass of brown silky hair which he wears long, and which falls about his head in a most pictur- esque and attractive fashion. He always presides over the piano at the orchestral lessons in the conser- vatory on Sunday mornings, and supplies those parts which are wanting. When concertos are performed he accompanies. He has a delightful serenity of manner, and sits there with quiet dignity, his back to the win- dows, and the light striking through his fluffy hair. He plays beautifully, and composes after Chopin's manner. Perhaps he will do greater things and de- velop a style of his own by and by. Every winter he gives a concert in Berlin in the Sing-Akademie. By the way, I would not advise your paying any at- tention to what G. says about music. She is incapa- ble of forming a correct judgment on the subject, and she used to provoke me to death with her ignorant and sweeping criticisms. I continually set her right, but to hear her go on about music and musicians is much like hearing S. K. and the M. crowd talk about art. What can be easier or more absurd, than to set yourself up and say that "nobody satisfies you." Stuff! — As for Kullak, I think a master must be judged by the number of players he turns out. In the two years that I have studied with him he has formed six or eight artists to my knowledge, beside no end of pupils who play extremely well. People come to him from all over the world, and as an artist himself he ranks first class. AN AMERICAN PHOENIX. 187 I must tell you about a new acquaintance I've just made, a Mr. P., a Harvard man, very fascinating, very brilliant, a great swell, and the most perfect dancer I ever saw. I first met this phoenix at a dinner, when he fairly sparkled. He seemed to have the history of all countries at his tongue's end, and went through revolutions and reigns in the most rapid way. We had an animated discussion over the Germans, whom he loathes and despises, and he brought up all the his- torical events he could to justify his disgust. I was on the defensive, of course. "They've no delicacy ^^^ said P., in his emphatic way, and I had to give in there. Indeed, I can imagine that to a fastidious creature like him, imbued, too, with all the Southern chivalry, the Germans would be startling, to say the least. "Why," he cried, "they help you at table with their own forks after they've been eating with them ! What do you think my host did to-day ? He took a piece of meat that he had begun to eat, from his cnvn plate! and put it on to mine with his own fork! ! say- ing, *Try this, this is a good piece!' — His inten- tions were excellent, but it never occurred to him that I shouldn't be delighted to eat after him." — P. can't bear it when the waiters at the restaurants pretend to think him a lord and address him as "Herr Graf." " I'll teach them to Herr Graf me," he said between his teeth, lowering his head, his eyes flashing danger- ous fire. But it is quite likely that they do suppose him a lord, for he looks it, " every inch." I met him again at a reception, and was having a most charming conversation with him about Goethe, 188 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. whom he was dissecting in his keen way, when in came Mr. and Mrs. N. I knew at once that there was an end of our delightful talk, for though Mrs. N. has a most fascinating and high-bred husband herself, and is, moreover, extremely jealous of him, she is never content unless the most agreeable man in the room is devoted to her, also. Sure enough, she came straight toward us, and took occasion to whisper some senseless thing in my ear. Of course Mr. P. had to offer her his seat. She was, however, not quite bare- faced enough to take it, but she had succeeded in breaking the t^te-a-tete and in distracting his atten- tion. Soon after another gentleman came up to speak to me, Mr. P. bowed, and for the rest of the evening he was pinned to Mrs. N.'s side. Such are the satis- factions of parties! Either one does not meet any one worth talking to, or the conversation is sure to be interrupted. It takes these women of the world, like Mrs. N., to get the plums out of the pudding. However, seeing him dance gave me almost as much pleasure as talking with him. He has this air of having danced millions of Germans, and is grace and elegance incarnate. Just at the end of the party, he asked me for a turn, and we took three long ones. I never enjoyed dancing so much. He manages to an- nihilate his legs entirely, and his arm, though strong, is so light that you feel yourself borne along like a bubble, and are only conscious that you are sustained and guided. He inspired me so that I danced really well, but when he coniplimented me, I basely re- frained from letting him know it was all owing to GERMAN DANCING. 189 him ! By a funny coincidence he is the son of that elegant Mrs. P. who was on the steamer with me, and his father is very prominent in politics. I remember perfectly the pride with which Mrs. P. spoke to me of this son, and how slightly interested I was. He accompanied her to the steamer, and in fact the first time I saw her was when Mr. T., who was standing by me on the deck, said, " That was a mother's kiss," as she rapturously embraced him on taking leave. I didn't notice Mr. P. at all, though he says he remem- bers me perfectly standing there. He is going, or has gone, to Kussia, and from there he will rejoin his family in Paris. That is the worst of being abroad. Charming people pass over your path like comets and disappear never to be seen again. By the way, I now feel equal to anything in the shape of a German dance. Perhaps that may seem to you a trifling statement ; but little do you know on the subject if it does. If youVe ever read "Fitz Boodle's Confessions," you will remember that he rep- resents the German dancing as a thing fearful and wonderful to the inexperienced, and how the match between him and Dorothea was broken off by his fall- ing w^ith her during the waltz, and rolling over and over. Here everybody dances, old and young, and you'll see fat old married ladies waddle off with their gray and spindle-shanked husbands. Declining doesn't help you in the least, and you are liable to be whisked off without notice by some old fellow who revolves with you like lightning on the tips of his toes, his coat-tails flying at an angle of considerably more than 190 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. forty-five degrees. Keversing is unknown, and conse- quently you see the room go spinning round with you. I always thought, though, that if one could take their steps, it might be pretty good fun. So, after a pause of three years, I finally concluded this winter to go to some German balls and try it again. The first one I attended was an artists' ball. There was first a little concert (at which I played), then a sup- per at ten o'clock, and then the dancing began. The dancing cards were handed round at supper, and my various acquaintances came up to ask me for different dances. The first one asked me for the Polonaise. "Delighted!" said I; — not that I had the remotest idea what a " polonaise " was, but I was determined not to flinch. The second engaged me for the " Quadrille a la Cour," and the third for the " Rheinlaender," etc., etc. I assented to everything with outward alacrity, but with some inward trepidation, for I thought it rather a bold stroke to get up at a large ball and attempt to dance a string of things I had never heard of ! However, I was in luck. The Polonaise turned out to be merely walking, but in different figures, and this, before the conclusion of it, makes you continu- ally change partners until you have promenaded and spoken with every one of the opposite sex in the room. This is to get the whole party acquainted. When you finally get back to your own partner, it breaks up with a waltz, and so ends. My partner was a young artist, half painter, half musician, and a very intelligent and in fact charming talker. Like most artists, his dress was rather at GERMAN DANCING. 191 sixes and sevens. He had on a swallow-tailed coat, but it did not fit liini, so I conclude it was borrowed or hired for the occasion. It was so wide, and so long, that when I saw him dancing with some one else, I thought I must have made a laughable figure with him, for he was small into the bargain. How- ever, he had that sunny, happy-go-lucky way about him that all artists have when they're in good humour, and he was a capital dancer. When I came back to him at the end of the Polonaise I started off with a mental "Now for it," for the waltz was the thing I was most afraid of ; but to my surprise, I got on most beautifully. Emboldened by success, I went on reck- lessly. " Kheinlaender " turned out to be the schot- tisch, and " Quadrille a la Cour " the lancers, so I was all right. They had to be danced in the German sense of the word, of course, but with courage it is possible to do it. Since this ball I have been to two others, and am now pronounced by the gentlemen to be a finished dancer. I don't know how I learned, but it seemed to come to me with a sudden inspiration. CHAPTER XVI. A Gterman Professor. Sherwood. The Baroness von S. Von Billow. A German Party. Joachim. The Baroness at Home. Berlin, February 25, 1873. At Mr. P.'s we had a charming dinner the other day, which was as sociable as possible, though we sat thir- teen at table. Think what an oversight ! I believe though, that I was the only one who perceived it. I sat next to a German professor, who is said to speak sixty- four languages ! He had a little compact head, which looked as if it were stuffed and crammed to the utmost. I reflected a long time which of his sixty-four lan- guages I should start him on, but finally concluded that as I spoke English with tolerable fluency we would confine ourselves to that ! He was perfectly delightful to talk to, as all these German savans are, and I got a lot of new ideas from him. He had been writing a pamphlet on the subject of love, as considered in various ancient and modern languages, and in it he proves that the passion of love used to be quite a different thing from what it is now. All this ideality of sentiment is entirely modern. My friend Miss B. is playing exquisitely now, and Sherwood is going ahead like a young giant. To-day Kullak said that Sherwood played Beethoven's E flat major concerto (the hardest of all Beethoven's con- (192) THE BARONESS AGAIN. 193 certos) with a perfection that he had rarely heard equalled. So much for being a genius, for he is still under twenty, and has only been abroad a year or two. But he studied with our best American master, Wil- liam Mason, and played like an artist before he came. But, then, Sherwood has one enormous advantage that no master on earth can bestow, and that is, perfect con- fidence in himself. There's nothing like having faith in yourself, and I believe that is the kind of faith that " moves mountains." At Mr. Bancroft's grand party for Washington's birth- day, last Friday, he presented me to the Baroness von S., but without telling her that I was the person who wrote that letter about her and Wilhelm j that M. pub- lished without my knowledge in DwigMs Journal. She was as exquisite as I thought she would be, and is the most bewitching creature ! She is just such a woman as Balzac describes — like Honorine, for in- stance. She has H^oeil plein de feu" etc., and is grace and sentiment personified. She was dressed in white silk, cut square neck and trimmed with a lot of little box -plaited rufiies round the bottom. Round her throat was a bl^-ck velvet ribbon, with a necklace of magnificent pearls fastened to it in festoons and a diamond pendant in the middle. She greeted me with a ceremonious bow, and began the conversation by complimenting me on an accom- paniment I had been playing. I told her I was study- ing music here, and that I had been in Tausig's con- servatory a year. As soon as I mentioned him we got on delightfully, for she was his favourite pupil, and 194 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. we talked a good deal about him and Billow. She said she had heard Tausig play everything he ever learned, she thought, and that only a fortnight be- fore his death, he was at her house and played Chopin's first Sonata. The last movement comes after the well-known Funeral March (which forms the Adagio) and is very peculiar. It is a continual running move- ment with both hands in unison, and it is played all muffled, and with the soft pedal. Kullak thinks that Chopin meant to express that after the grave all is dust and ashes, but the Baroness said that Tausig thought Chopin meant to represent by it the ghost of the departed wandering about. On this occasion, when Tausig had finished playing it, he turned and said to her, " That seems to me like the wind blowing over my grave." A fortnight later he was dead ! I asked her if it were not dreadful that such an artist should have died so young. The most pained look came into her beautiful eyes, and she said, " I have never been able to reconcile myself to it." The conversation continued in the most charming manner until von Moltke came up to speak to her on one side and Mr. Bancroft on the other offered his arm to lead her into the supper-room. " Did you tell her?" whispered Mr. Bancroft. "No; how could I?" said I. " You ought to tell her." So I imagine he did tell her, as they went into supper, that I was the young lady who had described her in the paper. I did not have a chance to approach her again until just as I was going home. She was standing in tne door-way of an ante-room with Mr. Bancroft, wrapped AN ARISTOCRATIC PARTY. 195 in her opera cloak and waiting for her carriage to be announced. I bade Mr. Bancroft good-night, and as I passed her she put out her hand and said to me with a meaning look, in her little hesitating English, '* I am so happy to have met you." I told her I owed her an apology, which I hoped to make another time. " Oh, no," said she, smilingly, " I am very thankful." — I suppose she meant "very much flattered," or something of that kind. I heard two tremendous concerts of Btilow's lately. Oh, I do hope you'll hear him some day! He is a colossal artist. I never heard a pianist I liked so well. He has such perfect mastery, and yet such comprehen- sion and such sympathy. Among other things, he played Beethoven's last Sonata. Such a magnificent one as it is ! I liked it better than the Appassionata. The other night I went to a party at a General von der O.'s. It was a " dreadfully " elegant set of peo- ple — all countesses, Vons and generals' wives. Stiff, oh, how stiff ! I felt as if the ladies did me a per- sonal favor every time they spoke to me. They were veiy handsomely dressed, and wore their fam- ily jewels. There was a great deal of music, and a certain old Herr von K. sat on a sofa and nod- ded his head i la connoisseur, while the officers stood round and scarcely dared to wink. The for- mality did not abate till we adjourned to the sup- per-room, when, as is always the case in German parties, everybody's tongue suddenly became loosed. — Germans are the happiest people at supper, and the most wretched before it, that you ever saw. Their 196 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. parties are always "just so." So manyhour.« of propri- ety beforehand, — the ladies all by themselves round a centre-table in one room, the young girls discreetly sandwiched in between with their embroidery, and talking on the most limited subjects in the most "papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism " manner — and the men in the other room playing cards. On this occa- sion, when we went into supper, there was one large central table covered with the feast, and then there were little tables standing about, whither you could retire with your prey when you had once secured it. I got something, and betook myself to a table in the corner, whither a young artist, also Miss B. and an oflBcer, the son of the celebrated General von W., who won the battle of something, speedily followed me. The artist, Herr Meyer, sat opposite me, and I began to jabber with him, unmindful of the officer, as I had pre- viously tried him on every subject in the known world without being able to extract a reply. We gradually col- lected a miscellaneous array of plates full of things, when I dropped one of my spoons on the floor. I picked it up, laid it aside, and began eating out of one of my other plates. Presently the officer, who had been glaring at me all the while out of his uniform, rose solemnly and went to the centre-table and re- turned. Suddenly I became aware, by my light being obscured, that he was standing opposite me on the other side of the table. I glanced up, and remarked that he had a spoon in his thumb and finger. As he did not offer it, however, it did not occur to me that it was for me, so I went on eating. After a minute I GOING TO WEIMAR. l97 looked up again, and he was still standing as if he were pointing a gun, the spoon between thumb and finger. At last it dawned upon me that he had brought it for me, so I took it out of his hand and thanked him, whereupon he resumed his seat. I was so over- come by this unheard-of act of gallantly on the part of an aristocrat ! and an officer ! ! that I felt I must say something worthy of the occasion. So after a few minutes I remarked to him, " Everything tastes very sweet out of this spoon !" — Total silence and impas- sibility of countenance on his part. — Miss B., who was sitting opposite, remarked mischievously, " That was entirely lost, my dear," and I was so depressed by my failure that I subsided and did not try to kindle him again. Berlin, April 14, 1873. Colonel B. told me some weeks ago, that KuUak had told him I was ready for the concert room, and that he would like to have me play at court. If this is his real opinion I have no evidence of it, for he knows I am anxious to play in concert before I leave Grermany, and yet he does nothing whatever to biing me forward. It is very discouraging. In this conservatory there is no stimulus whatever. One might as well be a machine. I propose to go to Weimar the last of this week. It seems very strange that I shall actually know Liszt at last, after hearing of him so many years. I am wild to see him ! They say everything depends upon the humour he happens to be in when you come to him. I 198 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. hope I shall hit upon one of his indulgent moments. Every one says he gives no lessons. But I hope at least to play to him a few times, and what is more important, to hear Mm play repeatedly. Happy the pianist who can catch even a faint reflection of his wonderful style ! Not long ago Mr. Bancroft invited me to drive out to Tegel, Humboldt's country-seat, near here, with the Joachims, and so I had a three hours conversation with that idol ! He is the most modest, unpretending man possible. To hear him talk you wouldn't suppose he could play at all. I've always said to myself that if any- thing would be heaven, it would be to play a sonata with Joachim, but have supposed such a thing to be unattain- able — these master-artists are so proud and unapproach- able. But I think now it might not have been so difficult after all, he is so lovely. Joachim was very quiet during the first part of the excursion, and I couldn't think how I could get him to talk. At last I mentioned Wagner, whom I knew he hated. His eyes kindled, and he roused up, and after that was animated and interesting all the rest of the time ! He said that "Wagner was under the delusion that he was the only man in the world that understood Beethoven ; but it happened there were, other people who could comprehend Beethoven as well as he,'* — and indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any one under- standing Beethoven any better than Joachim. Joachim is quite as noble and generous to poor artists as Liszt is, and constantly teaches them for nothing. He has the greatest enthusiasm for his class in the Hoch Schule, and I shouldn't think that any one who wishes to study the violin would think of going any where else. "CALLING" AT A PALACE ! 199 They say that Joachim possesses beautiful social qualities, also, and has the faculty of entertaining in his own house charmingly. He brings out what there is in every one without apparently saying anything himself. The Baroness von S. had seemed so cordial and friendly at Mr. Bancroft's on account of the letter you had published in Dwighfs Journal of Music, that I finally made up my mind to the daring act of calling on her in order to ask her for a letter of introduction to Liszt. She lives in a palace belonging to the Empress. There is a deep court in front of it, with lions on the gateway. Before the door stood a soldier on guard. As I approached, one of the Gardes du Corps (the Crown Prince's regiment) emerged from the entrance. He was dressed all in white and silver, with big top boots, and his helmet surmounted by a silver eagle. He was an officer, and of course all the officers in this regiment belong to the flower of the nobility. I was rather awed by his imposing appearance, and advanced timidly to the doors, which were of glass, and pulled the bell. A tall phantom in livery appeared, as if by magic, and signed to me to ascend the grand staircase. The walls of it were all covered with pictures. I went up, and was received by another tall phantom in livery. I asked him "if the Frau Excellency was to be spoken." He took my card, and discreetly said, " he would see," at the same time ushering me into an immense ball-room, where he requested me to be seated. It was furnished in crimson satin, there were myriads of mirrors, and the floor was waxed. I took refuge in a corner of it, feehng very small indeed. Those few minutes of waiting were extremely 200 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. uncomfortable, for I didn't know what she would say to my request, as I had only seen her that one time at Mr. Bancroft's, and was not sure that she would not regard my coming as a liberty. People are so severe in their ideas here. At last the servant returned and said she would receive me, and led the way across the ball-room to a door which he opened for me to enter. I found myself in a large, high room, also furnished in crimson, and in the centre of which stood two pianos nestled lovingly together. The Baroness was not there, however, and I saw what seemed to be an endless succession of rooms opening one out of the otlier, the doors always opposite each other. I concluded to "go on till I stopped," and after traversing three or four, I at last heard a faint murmur of voices, and entered what I suppose is her boudoir. There my divinity was seated in a little crimson satin sofa, talking to an old fellow who sat on a chair near her, whom she introduced as Herr Pro- fessor Somebody. He had a small, well-stuffed head, and a pale, observant eye that seemed to say, "Fve looked into everything " — and I should think it had by the way he conversed. The Baroness was attired in an olive-coloured silk, short, and fashionably made. She was leaning for- ward as she talked, and toying with a silver-sheathed dagger which she took from a table loaded with costly trifles next her. She rose as I came in, and greeted me very cordially, and asked me to sit down on the sofa by her. I explained to her my errand, and she im- mediately said she would give me a letter with the great- A HERR PROFESSOR. 201 est pleasure. We had a very charming conversation about artists in general, and Liszt in particular, in which the little professor took a leading part. He showed himself the connoisseur he looked, and gradu- ally diverged from the art of music to that of speak- ing and reading, which he said was the most difficult of all the arts, because the tone was not there, but had to be made. He said he had never heard a perfect speaker or reader in his life. He descanted at great length upon the art of speaking, and finally, when he paused, the Baroness took my hand and said, " Where do you live ?" I gave her my address, and she said she would send me the letter. I then rose to go, and she as- sured me again she would say all she could to dispose Liszt favourably towards me. I thanked her, and said good-bye. She waited till I was nearly half across the next room, and then she called after me, " I'll say lots of pretty things about you I" That was a real little piece of coquetry on her part, and she knew that it would take me down ! She looked so sweet when she said it, standing and smiling there in the middle of the floor, the door-way making a frame for her. A few days afterward I met her in the street, and she told me she had enjoined it upon Liszt to be amiable to me, " but," she added, with a mischievous laugh, " I didn't tell him you wrote so well for the papers." Oh, she is too fascinating for anything ! — She seems just to float on the top of the wave and never to think. Such exquisite perception and intelligence, and yet lightness ! The last excitement in Berlin was over the wedding 202 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. of Prince Albrecht (the son of the one whose funeral I saw) with the Princess of Altenburg. When she arrived she made a regular entry into the city in a coach all gold and glass, drawn by eight superb plumed horses. A band of music went before her^ and she had an escort all in grand equipages. As she sat on the back seat with the Crown Princess, mag- nificently dressed, and bowing from side to side, you rubbed your eyes and thought you saw Cinderella ! WITH LISZT. CHAPTER XVII. Arrives in Weimar. Liszt at tlie Tlieatre. At a Party. At his own House. Weimar, May 1, 1873. Last night I arrived in Weimar, and this evening I have been to the theatre, which is very cheap here, and the first person I saw, sitting in a box opposite, was Liszt, from whom, as you know, I am bent on getting lessons, though it will be a difficult thing I fear, as I am told that Wiemar is overcrowded with people who are on the same errand. I recognized Liszt from his portrait, and it entertained and interested me very much to obsei*ve him. He was making himself agree- able to three ladies, one of whom was very pretty. He sat with his back to the stage, not paying the least at- tention, apparently, to the play, for he kept talking all the while himself, and yet no point of it escaped him, as I could tell by his expression and gestures. Liszt is the most interesting and striking looking man imaginable. Tall and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows, and long iron-gray hair, which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Me- phistophelean expression when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of Jesuitical ele- gance and ease. His hands are very narrow, with long and slender fingers that look as if they had twice as (205) 206 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. many joints as other people's. They are so flexible and supple that it makes you nervous to look at them. Anything like the polish of his manner I never saw. When he got up to leave the box, for instance, after his adieux to the ladies, he laid his hand on his heart and made his final bow, — not with affectation, or in mere gallantry, but with a quiet courtliness which made you feel that no other way of bowing to a lady was right or proper. It was most characteristic. But the most extraordinary thing about Liszt is his wonderful variety of expression and play of feature. One moment his face will look dreamy, shadowy, tragic. The next he will be insinuating, amiable, ironical, sar- donic ; but always the same captivating grace of man- ner. He is a perfect study. I cannot imagine how he must look when he is playing. He is all spirit, but half the time, at least, a mocking spirit, I should say. I have heard the most remarkable stories about him already. All Weimar adores him, and people say that women still go perfectly crazy over him. When he walks out he bows to everybody just like a King ! The Grand Duke has presented him with a house beauti- fully situated on the park, and here he lives elegantly, free of expense, whenever he chooses to come to it. Wkimax, May 7, 1873. There isn't a piano to be had in Weimar for love or money, as there is no manufactory, and the few there were to be disposed of were snatched up before I got here. So I have lost an entire week in hunting one LISZT'S APPEARANCE. 207 up, and was obliged to go first to Erfurt and finally to Leipsic, before I could find one — and even that was sent over as a favour after much coaxing and persua- sion. I felt so happy when I fairly saw it in my room ! As if I had taken a city ! However, I met Liszt two evenings ago at a little tea-party given by a friend and pToUgie of his to as many of his scholars as have ar- rived, I being asked with the rest. Liszt promised to come late. We only numbered seven. There were three young men and four young ladies, of whom three, including myself, were Americans. Five of the num- ber had studied with Liszt before, and the young men are artists already before the public. To fill up the time till Liszt came, our hostess made US play, one after the other, beginning with the latest arrival. After we had each "exhibited," little tables were brought in and supper served. We were in the midst of it, and having a merry time, when the door suddenly opened and Liszt appeared. We all rose to our feet, and he shook hands with everybody without waiting to be introduced. Liszt looks as if he had been through everything, and has a face seamed with experience. He is rather tall and narrow, and wears a long abba's coat reaching nearly down to his feet. He made me think of an old time magician more than anything, and I felt that with a touch of his wand he could transform us all. After he had finished hisjgreetings, he passed into the next room and sat down. The young men gathered round him and offered him a cigar, which he accepted and began to smoke. We others continued our nonsense where 208 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. we were, and I suppose Liszt overheard some of our brilliant conversation, for he asked who we were, I think, and presently the lady of the house came out after Miss W. and me, the two American strangers, to take us in and present us to him. After the preliminary greetings we had some little talk. He asked me if I had been to Sophie Menter's concert in Berlin the other day. I said yes. He remarked that Miss Menter was a great favourite of his, and that the lady from whom I had brought a let- ter to him had done a good deal for her. I asked him if Sophie Menter were a pupil of his. He said no, he could not take the credit of her artistic success to himself. I heard afterwards that he really had done ever so much for her, but he won't have it said that he teaches ! After he had finished his cigar, Liszt got up and said, "America is now to have the floor," and requested Miss W. to play for him. This was a dread- ful ordeal for us new arrivals, for we had not expected to be called upon. I began to quake inwardly, for I had been without a piano for nearly a week, and was not at all prepared to play to him, while Miss W. had. been up since five o'clock in the morning, and had travelled all day. However, there was no gettmg off. A request from Liszt is a command, and Miss W. sat down, and acquitted herself as well as could have been expected under the circumstances. Liszt waved his hand and nodded his head from time to time, and seemed pleased, I thought. He then called upon Lei- tert, who played a composition of Liszt's own most beautifully. Liszt commended him and patted him AN ABSURD ORGANIST. 209 on the back. As soon as Leitert had finished, I slipped off into the back room, hoping Liszt would forget all about me, but he followed me almost immediately, like a cat with a mouse, took both my hands in his, and said in the most winning way imaginable, ^^Madem- oiselle, vous jouerez quelque-chose, n^est-ce-pas f " I can't give you any idea of his persuasiveness, when he chooses. It is enough to decoy you into anything. It was such a desperate moment that I became reck- less, and without even telling him that I was out of practice and not prepared to play, I sat down and plunged into the A flat major Ballade of Chopin, as if I were possessed. The piano had a splendid touch, luckily. Liszt kept calling out " Bravo " every min- ute or two, to encourage me, and somehow, I got through. When I had finished, he clapped his hands and said, " Bravely played." He asked with whom I had studied, and made one or two little criticisms. I hoped he would shove me aside and play it himself, but he didn't. Liszt is just like a monarch, and no one dares speak to him until he addresses one first, which I think no fun. He did not play to us at all, except when some one asked him if he had heard E. play that afternoon. R. is a young organist from Leipsic, who telegraphed to Liszt to ask him if he might come over and play to him on the organ. Liszt, with his usual amiability, answerd that he might. "Oh," said Liszt, with an indescribably coriiic look, "he improvised for me a whole half -hour in this style," — and then he got up and went to the piano, and without sitting down he 14 210 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. played some ridiculous chords in the middle of the key- board, and then little trills and turns high up in the treble, which made us all burst out laughing. Shortly after I had played I took my leave. Liszt had gone into the other room to smoke, and I didn't care to fol- low him, as I saw that he was tired, and had no inten- tion of playing to us. Our hostess told Miss W. and me to " slip out so that he would not perceive it." Yesterday Miss W. went to see him, and he asked her if she knew that Miss " Fy," and told her to tell me to come to him. So I shall present myself to-morrow, though I don't know how the lion will act when I beard him in his den. Weimar, May 21, 1873. Liszt is so besieged by people and so tormented with applications, that I fear I should only have been sent away if I had come without the Baroness von S.'s let- ter of introduction, for he admires her extremely, and I judge that she has much influence with him. He says " people fly in his face by dozens," and seem to think he is " only there to give lessons." He gives no paid lessons whatever, as he is much too grand for that, but if one has talent enough, or pleases him, he lets one come to him and play to him. I go to him every other day, but I don't play more than twice a week, as I cannot prepare so much, but I listen to the others. Up to this point there have been only four in the class besides myself, and I am the only new one. From four to six P. M. is the time when he receives A TIMID PUPIL. 211 his scholars. The first time I went I did not play to him, but listened to the rest. Urspruch and Leitert, the two young men whom I met the other night, have studied with Liszt a long time, and both play superbly. Fraulein Schultz and Miss Gaul (of Baltimore), are also most gifted creatures. As I entered Liszt's salon, Urspruch was perform- ing Schumann's Symphonic Studies— an immense composition, and one that it took at least half an hour to get through. He played so splendidly that my heart sank down into the very depths. I thought I should never get on there! Liszt came forward and greeted me in a very friendly manner as I entered. He was in very good humour that day, and made some little witticisms. Urspruch asked him what title he should give to a piece he was composing. "Per aspera ad astra,^^ said Liszt. This was such a good hit that I began to laugh, and he seemed to 'enjoy my apprecia- tion of his little sarcasm. I did not play that time, as my piano had only just come, and I was not prepared to do so, but I went home and practiced tremendously for several days on Chopin's B minor sonata. It is a great composition, and one of his last works. When I thought I could play it, I went to Liszt, though with a trembling heart. I cannot tell you what it has cost me every time I have ascended his stairs. I can scarcely summon up courage to go there, and generally stand on the steps awhile before I can make up my mind to open the door and go in ! This day it was particularly trying, as it was really my first serious performance before him, and he speaks 212 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. so very indistinctly that I feared I shouldn't under- stand his corrections, and that he would get out of patience with me, for he cannot bear to explain. I think he hates the trouble of speaking German, for he mutters his words and does not half finish his sen- tences. Yesterday when I was there he spoke to me in French all the time, and to the others in German, — one of his funny whims, I suppose. Well, on this day the artists Leitert and Urspruch, and the young composer Metzdorf, who is always hang- ing about Liszt, were in the room when I came. They had probably been playing. At first Liszt took no notice of me beyond a greeting, till Metzdorf said to him, " Herr Doctor, Miss Fay has brought a sonata." " Ah, well, let us hear it," said Liszt. Just then he left the room for a minute, and I told the three gentlemen that they ought to go away and let me play to Liszt alone, for I felt nervous about playing before -them. They all laughed at me and said they would not budge an inch. When Liszt came back they said to him, " Only think, Herr Doctor, Miss Fay proposes to send us all home." I said I could not play before such great artists. "Oh, that is healthy for you," said Liszt^ with a smile, and added, " you have a very choice au- dience, now." I don't know whether he appreciated how nervous I was, but instead of walking up and down the room as he often does, he sat down by me like any other teacher, and heard me play the first movement. It was frightfully hard, but I had studied it so much that I managed to get through with it pretty successfully. Nothing could exceed Liszt's LISZT PLAYS TO HER. 213 amiability, or the trouble he gave himself, and instead of frightening me, he inspired me. Never was there such a delightful teacher ! and he is the first sympa- thetic one I've had. You feel so fret with him, and he develops the very spirit of music in you. He doesn't keep nagging at you all the time, but he leaves you your own conception. Now and then he will make a criticism, or play a passage, and with a few words give you enough to think of all the rest of your life. There is a delicate point to everything he says, as subtle as he is himself. He doesn't tell you anything about the technique. That you must work out for yourself. When I had finished the first movement of the sonata, Liszt, as he always does, said " Bravo !" Taking my seat, he made some little criticisms, and then told me to go on and play the rest of it. Now, I only half knew the other movements, for the first one was so extremely difficult that it cost me all the labour I could give to prepare that. But playing to Liszt reminds me of trying to feed the elephant in the Zoological Garden with lumps of sugar. He dis- poses of whole movements as if they were nothing, and stretches out gravely for more ! One of my fingers fortu- nately began to bleed, for I had practiced the skin off, and that gave me a good excuse for stopping. Whether he was pleased at this proof of industry, I know not ; but after looking at my finger and saying, " Oh !" very compassionately, he sat down and played the whole three last movements himself. That was a great deal, and showed off all his powers. It was the first time I had heard him, and I don't know which was the most 214 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. extraordinary, — the Scherzo, with its wonderful light- ness and swiftness, the Adagio with its depth and pathos, or the last movement, where the whole key- board seemed to " donnern und hlitzen (thunder and lighten)." There is such a vividness about everything he plays that it does not seem as if it were mere music you were listening to, but it is as if he had called up a real, living form, and you saw it breathing before your face and eyes. It gives me almost a ghostly feeling to hear him, and it seems as if the air were peopled with spirits. Oh, he is a perfect wizard ! It is as interest- ing to see him as it is to hear him, for hisf ace changes with every modulation of the piece, and he looks ex- actly as he is playing. He has one element that is most captivating, and that is, a sort of delicate and fitful mirth that keeps peering out at you here and there ! It is most peculiar, and when he plays that way, the most bewitching little expression comes over his face. It seems as if a little spirit of joy were playing hide and go seek with you. On Friday Liszt came and paid me a visit, and even played a little on my piano. — Only think what an hon- our ! At the same time he told me to come to him that afternoon and play to him, and invited me also to a matinee he was going to give on Sunday for some countess of distinction who was here for a few days. None of the other scholars were asked, and when I en- tered the room there were only three persons in it be- side Liszt. One was the Grand Duke himself, the other was the Countess von M. (born a Russian Prin- cess), and the third was a Russian minister's wife. FASHIONABLE COURTESY. 215 They were all four standing in a little knot, speaking in French together. I had no idea who they were, as the Grand Duke was in morning costume, and had no star or decoration to distinguish him. I saw at a glance, however, that they were all swells, and so I didn't speak to any of them, luckily, though it was an even chance that I had not said something to avoid the awkward- ness of standing there like a post, for I had been told beforehand that Liszt never introduced people to each other. Liszt greeted me in a very friendly manner, and introduced me to the countess, but she was so dread- fully set up that it was impossible to get more than a few icy words out of her. I was thankful enough when more people arrived, so that I could retire to a corner and sit down without being observed, for it was a very uncomfortable situation to be standing, a stranger, close to four fashionables and not dare to speak to any of them because they did not address me. After the company was all assembled, it numbered eighteen persons, nearly all of whom were titled. I was the only unimportant one in it. Liszt was so sweet. He kept coming over to where I sat and talk- ing to me, and promised me a ticket for a private con- cert where only his compositions were to be performed. He seemed determined to make me feel at home. He played five times, but no great work, which was a dis- appointment to me, particularly as the last three times he played duetts with a leading Weimar artist named Lassen, who was present. He made me come and turn the leaves. Gracious ! how he does read ! It is very difficult to turn for him, for he reads ever so far ahead 216 MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. of what he is playing, and takes in fully five bars at a glance, so you have to guess about where you think he would like to have the page over. Once I turned it too late, and once too early, and he snatched it out of my hand and whirled it back. — Net quite the situation for timorous me, was it? May 21. — To-day being my birthday, I thought I must go to Liszt by way of celebration. I wasn't really ready to play to him, but I took his sec- ond Ballade with me, and thought I'd ask him some questions about some hard places in it. He insisted upon my playing it. When we came in he looked indisposed and nervous, and there happened to be a good many artists there. We always lay our notes on the table, and he takes them, looks them over, and calls out what he'll have played. He remarked this piece and called out " Wer spielt diese grosse mdchtige Ballade von mir'^ (Who plays this great and mighty ballad of mine?)" I felt as if he had asked "Who killed Cock Robin?" and as if I were the one who had done it, only I did not feel like "owning up" to it quite so glibly as the sparrow had, for Liszt seemed to be in very bad humour, and had roughed the one who had played before me. I finally mustered up my courage and said " Ich" but told him I did not know it per- fectly yet. He said, " No matter ; play it." So I sat down, expecting he would take my head off, but, strange to say, he seemed to be delighted with my playing, and said that I had "quite touched him." Think of that from Liszt, and when I was playing his own composition ! When I went out he accompanied "IL PAUT VOUS gItER?" 217 me to the door, took my hand in both of his and said^ " To-day you've covered yourself with glory !" I told him I had only begun it, and I hoped he would let me play it again when I knew it better. "What," said he, " I must pay you a still greater compliment, must I?" "Of course," said I. "Ilfautv