:.l >^l «Si ^S- mi'M ^OKHVmi ^mnims//^ ^m-mnE?. 1^1 i(^ \wei)miver;/a .y^mwrnu 1^1 3 ''Jjii'JhYSOl-"^'^^ V/jc] nrrA!!; [\t fAIIFOPv ifYl I lifry ^•UBKA ^ mim' ^ojnvDjo"^ "^tfojnvjjo >i,.OFCAUFOft)^ ^ S ti' ^ i R •^iUJiNV:- i ICoQ-. ^- iiAwnivii t ,\tLIBRARYQc ^. %mm\^ ''^omm\'^ ^nwmm^ "^z MiUBRARY^;/: ,\WtUNIVti;A/A an-ii^^ ^^^Aavaaii^*^ o ^WEUNIVERS-/// o vj.-lOSANCEl^^ o MNa-3Wv sNNlLlUK.MiVa^ ^OfCAllFO/?^ >&Aava3n# 6f C3 O ?3 ^lOSANCElfj> o '^/5a3AINa-3\\V ^^tUBRARYd)/^ \^my^^ ^^OJIlVDJO'f^ AOFCAllFOff^ ^.OFCAIIFOI?^ i/so^^ "^AaaAWrtiu^^ ^<9Aavaan-A>N'^ >&AHvaaiH^ < oa _ J o AWEUUIVERSyA 59v Of o o '■^ ^^lcUBRARY(9/^ ^^ivw';jna^ ,\WEUNIVER5'//, ^lOSANCElfX^ "^rjii'iKvrm-^^ ^/h CMlsifJflUW A-OF-CAllFOff^ <^ ^lOSANCElfx^ ^^sM-UBRARYOr. ^i^^UBkARYO/ ^AWEDNIVfRJ/yji -< "^/saaAiNa-^vc^ \^myi^^ ^«tfOJiivDjo^" I ';i33NVS01^ .«^ 7/ ■ A^y^M<>> r:^yf/n , safe - ''« man, u fact who lights the torch that dispels the darknes, wh ch prevented an ordinary mind from findurg an easy a; aLg the stony route which leads to truth ; al of these benefactors of humanity share more or less the fate of that man, whom the immense .dea struck, to create an instrument for measuring the t™e -rd co,. trolhncr the advance of the sun-otherwise the watch. He wa°s declared mad, and his invention, the"Nure- ber- E"o-" which he maintained would go on all day and^ight with the aid of a very small implement was deposited in the Rathhaus (Guildhall) as => "--"'^ "[ the deplorable result to which that human folly-called genius, might lead. . Seein-the dififerent fates of different geniuses: hovv Columbus was at first honoured like a grandee, and allowed the privilege of keeping his hat on m presence of his king, and then thrown into pnson, all his mv niense merits forgotten ; how Mozart, whose work lives SS 26 FROM HAXDEL TO HALLL to this day, died so poor that eight shillings paid his funeral, and debts to the amount of ^300 could not be paid ; whereas Gluck lived in great affluence and luxury, not because, but although, he too was a genius, the idea becomes irresistibly clear, that it is not only difficult to be able to do great things, but that the great acquire- ment needed is the faculty of making your own success, of convincing the people of your extraordinary gifts — a sure help — though you might not possess them. What I mean is, that success in life depends on the savoir faij-e of a man, because, being given two men of extraordinary gifts and accomplishments, one does succeed, while the other one does not, see Gluck and Mozart. And then there are the mediocrities who have no real desert, but make a fortune with ordinary house-work, instead of the work- house to which sometimes more capable men have to go. Meyerbeer, said to have possessed nine millions of thalers, never made out of all his operas wherewith to live comfortably one year. Rossini, who enriched any amount of publishers and singers with his operas, died worth three millions, 7iot made by music. Dumas, whose ' Mousquetaires ' alone made three fortunes, and who was the author of no less than 1200 volumes, died in debt, while his contemporary, Victor Hugo, left a princely income, for, although known to stand as a poet and a novelist high up the ladder, yet he stood at least equally high as a maker of bargains with publishers. One of his greatest achievements before his death was to write a very small brochure, anent the 2nd of December, and to demand 25,000 francs {£\fioo) from his publisher for it. The publisher refused. What did the great poet CLUCK. do? He printed It himself; put the price of one franc on it (lO^.) and sold three hundred thousand copies. Result 300,000 francs or £\2,QOO\ This result was due to the simple but eminently practical notion, that there are a vast number of people extant who do not mind spending a shilling, but very spare in comparison are those who can spend half a guinea. And in that one word, " practical," lies the solution of the whole ques- tion. Genius creates new works, lives in heaven amid unknown worlds ; this is very grand, but practical results are the consequence of common sense on earth. It is not correct to fancy that who can do the bigger, can do the smaller. Man can do the bigger, woman can do the smaller ; but that makes man woman's slave, because the ordinary daily requirements, the sewing on of a button, the preparing of your food, the necessary comfort, in fact, has nothing to do with heaven-born genius, but with practical common sense, and therefore has it rightly been said, Cc que fcmme vent, Dicu le vent ; and Euripides, when he sent Hercules to Hades to fetch back the shadow of Alceste, which Pluto would not allow, he made Proserpina persuade him to give in, for although Pluto was a god, Ce qne feimne vent, Dien le vent. All these thoughts come to me as I think over Gluck's career. Gluck, Christoph WiUibald, but not " Ritter von " as he is usually called, for he was neither " Ritter" (knight) nor " von," but merely called himself " Ritter," because he had received a decoration of which he was as the phrase goes Knight " of that order," was born on July 2nd, anno 17 14, and simple as this statement seems, it 28 FROM HANDEL TO HALLA. wanted the inexhaustible patience of research, which is so often the attribute of German scholars, and in this instance, that of Mr. A. Schmid, custos of the Imperial library, Vienna, to fix both date and birthplace. The place is Weidenwang in Bavaria. Numerous incorrect biographies give all sorts of Bohemian villages as his birthplace, alleged to be very authentic, but they are named simply from rumours or unauthorized assertions, both lightly made and carelessly repeated. Gluck was brought to Bohemia when a child, in fact, when three years old, was taught there, and Bohemia being a very musical countrx', and having at various times, even to this date, produced eminent players and composers, it was, although not correct, yet not unlikely, that Gluck should be a Bohemian. Marmontel, who at Gluck's arrival in Paris, treated him as an intruder, called him le Jongleur de Bohcme, but Gluck was a German, and moreover a Bavarian, for all that. Before venturing upon giving the reader the chain of facts that form Gluck's eventful life, ended more than one hundred years ago, I read a goodly number of English, French and German sources of information, to which I am indebted for learning Gluck's history, but to none more than to the mighty collection of reliable facts — the thoroughly con- scientious accumulation and research into every detail having reference to his hero's life, to be found in Schmid's ' Life of Gluck,' which can be compared with one work only, that of another German, Otto Jahn's ' Life of IMozart.' But then you have to take the evil ■with the good. First, although reliable in nearly all his Statements, Schmid is too partially smitten with his GLUCK. 29 idolised hero. Then again you have to wade through an immense series, some hundreds of pages, of certamly undoubted and most patiently verified facts, but they are not always of sufficient importance, and then there are many dreary and tedious observations and anno- tations, sometimes quite irrelevant, and diluted until barely more than air remains. Having alluded to his immense success and recog- nition by all Europe before his death, because his really great masterpieces were only written within the last twenty years of his life, and instantly proclaimed as such (a very unusual luck), I might as well say, that just as he, the prototype of Wagner, broke a new path for him- self, and freed his pen from conventional writing, so he set an example to Wagner in the shrewdness of putting himself under the highest patronage and- influencing publicity both with his pen and that of his powerful friends. He even sacrificed an excellent French singer (Sophie Arnould), who had very successfully " created " the role of Eurydice in Gluck's ' Orphee,' for a very pretty girl who, although not without talent, could not compare in artistic inspiration with the other one ; but then, she was the mistress of the Austrian Ambassador, and being himself patronized by the Dauphine, Marie Antoinette, he insured the influence of the court both by legitimate and illegitimate ways. To begin with, Gluck had the confidence in himself which is granted only to genius. Goethe says some- where : "Nur Lumpe sind bescheiden" (Only nobodies are modest). Gluck was not arrogant, but he knew his value and he stood up for his system. Not only did he 30 FROM HANDEL TO HALli. defend it with a very able pen, but he took all possible trouble to influence other able pens to take up the cudgels for him, and so well did they do it, that the strife soon became general, and, what with praise and abuse, Gluck's name was perpetually discussed, and his detractors served as advertisers not a bit less than his defenders. Again the same proceeding as Wagner's. What Gluck was anxious to do was this. The Italian composers made up their mind that the great singers had the ear of the public, and that in order to please the public the composer had to please the singers. But what pleased the singers } An opportunity for special roulades they could make, or for certain high notes parti- cularly brilliant and which, in order to show well off, they kept any length of time, whether that destroyed the harmony of the phrase or not, although this is as big nonsense as it would be for an actor to liold out a special vowel in a certain word. But even Gluck, who preached so wisely against the weakness to flatter the caprices of a great singer, did he not sacrifice the great talent of Sophie Arnould to the less talented Saint- Huberty? He did so, as in other instances many great men did before and after him, and who, when asked for their reasons, treated the question as an idle one, be- cause to idle questions you may reply as Martin Luther did when a lady asked him : " What did the Lord of creation do during that immensity of time before the world was created, can you tell me t " "I can," said Luther. " He sat in a birch wood, and cut birches to punish people with, who ask loads of idle questions." CLUCK. 31 It is to be feared that Gluck — logical and right in his condemnation of that scries of trills and vocalises com- posed only with a view of furnishing a cheval de batailU to a singer, and though he was correct in assigning to music the higher duty of lending expression to deep feeling, to paint in tones dramatic passion, and to im- press his hearers with the significance of the poet's words — that he went to the other extreme by appealing to the Greek poets, who had established the principle of unity, which, though grand and life-like, by excluding variety led to monotony. Gluck encountered in his * Alceste ' different despairs of different people anent the same calamity, viz., that occasioned by the gods having de- cided that King Admetos cannot live unless some one offers himself up as a voluntary victim, when the Queen Alceste decides that she will die for him. Of course this causes her despair at being bound to die so young, and his despair to let her die for him, and the people's despair to let their noble Queen throw away her life. Now it taxes the capabilities of a composer too much to have continually the same feeling to express, though elicited by different persons or reasons, yet always the same tears and cries and wailing. Moreover, this is what people will not sufficiently understand. The Greek nation, great and civilised to a degree in those olden times, with their polytheistic ideas, believed in Apollo and Jupiter, in Pluto and Proserpina, in Charon and Cerberus, in all the gods and semi-gods, in their temples and attributes. But mythology, however poetic and interesting as a study of antiquity, is listened to by us ■u-'ith a smile of cynicism, so that what impressed the 33 FROM HANDEL TO HALLE. Greeks with deep earnest, and therefore Hfted their author Euripides to the highest point of pubHc venera- tion, cannot possibly impress us in the same serious manner. Gkick feeling this, asked Calsabigi, a talented Italian author, to cut the Greek tragedy into a libretto for him, and he did so. But I just remember that I should remain more in the regular groove, and instead of speaking at once of the master works which Gluck wrote during the later years of his life, be a good boy and begin from the beginning. Very well, then, let me be a good boy. It is one of the strange occurrences in the history of art that its ordinary development brings it very slowly forward from step to step, until suddenly a genius springs up and carries all recognised proceedings rapidly away, so that although the plebs may pretend not to understand him, yet real artists cannot withhold their admiration, although it be not impossible that envious professionals may underrate and calumniate him, so that the impression which genius created for a short life-time, and the light which the torch fired by him cast all over the world, may pale again the moment his life flies, and the slow work begin anew. See our nineteenth century now nearly at its conclusion. Gluck one hundred years ago kicked away the sugar-plums of the Italian com- posers, and created a vigorous dramatic serious element. How long did it last .'' A very {q.\n years after his death the superficial music came again to the fore. Then, be- hold, from 1810-1830 came that giant Beethoven, and his immense symphonies took the world by surprise. This lasted until in 1 850-1 860, the supremacy of Offenbach's CLUCK. 33 opera-bufifa sent polkas and valses over the world. Again came Wagner, with his powerful albeit sometimes tedious and lengthy creations. So that now, after this long time, we are again at the music drama as Gluck, a century before, had thought it. When barely created, it gave rise to all the violent upholding and tearing down, just as the Wagner dramas did. It is not right to say : nil novi sub sole — there is nothing new under the sun. New, for us, is what we have never seen or heard of even, though they may have had it a thousand years ago. It is clear that everything on the face of the globe, swinging round in the same circle, physical and moral history repeats itseF. Pardon the digression. Here is the good boy again. Gluck was not a wonder-child, as Mozart was. His father did not produce him, as Mozart pere did, with advertisements that " he will play on a piano, when the keyboard is covered with a cloth, and take no wrong notes " ; therefore, nobody cried " Au miracle ! " over the earnest, steady, studious boy, and in general his capaci- ties were developed slowly, and, if I may say so, syste- matically, not providentially. Mozart had that great providential inspiration, he sat down to the piano, and before the public, " phantasied on any given motif!' I say providentially, because although every quality of the mind is given us by Providence, there is yet a great difference between the work we accomplish through diligence, industry, and steady development of qualities born with us, and that heaven-given facility to sit down and do the astonishing feats that Mozart did when seven years old, empowered to do so without special trouble or hard study. Gluck, the son, grandson, and great- D 34 FROM HANDEL TO HyiLL^. grandson of hunters, first inhaled the grand forest air from which he derived the strength that made him vigorous enough in after hfe unflinchingly to encounter and sustain severe struggles ; for, say what we may, the physical disposition has the principal share in the mind's success. Let any master of painting, of music, of poetry, empty a bottle of brandy, and see what in his dulness he will produce. Let, on the other hand, a strong lad like young Gluck walk out in the early morning hours through a pine wood, and come home filled with ozone, and sit down to work, and his ideas will be strong, healthy, with the wood perfume and the bloom of wild flowers on them, and they will charm every reader. It is this which proves very often the superiority of the English education, because it tends to strengthen and develop the boy's muscles, because in the strong healthy body lodges the strong healthy mind. The boy Christoph Willibald grew up without much education. He was sent to Komotau to study with the Jesuits in their Gymnasium, but, having no money to pay for his tuition, he discontinued his classes and taught himself singing, fiddle, and violoncello. With the latter instrument, which he played with a certain proficiency, he even made a little money — a most im- portant factor in his impecunious life. Concerning the Jesuit Gymnasium I have two remarks to offer. Gymnasium in the Austrian states is not what it is here — an institution for developing bodily exercise — but the beginning of a college. A boy, for instance, who wishes to become a lawyer, a doctor of medicine or of theology, must first absolve three years' study of GLUCK. 35 elementary classes, then he is admitted to the gymnasium classes of six years, where at once he begins the study of Latin, Greek, history, and so on. After this come two years' philosophy and physic, and then only is he admitted to the study of medicine, law, or theology, and after three years' theoretical and two years' practical study, tothe Rigorosum or final examination, which con- fers upon him the Doctor's title. At such examinations the professor has a right to ask any question appertain- ing to the science or sometimes to presence of mind. An intimate friend of your humble servant was asked : " Supposing you would be suddenly fetched to a man who had fallen down from St. Stephen's steeple (ninety- two feet high) on the pavement, what would you do, who would you send for?" "A charwoman," he said, "to sweep away the bones and wash up the blood- stains." And he was praised for his presence of mind, which made him decide, without hesitation, that in such a case reflection was unnecessary, as nothing could be done. Having explained the gymnasium, I wish to explain the Jesuits. People say that they are the very picture of the self-sacrificing abnegation of the true priest. Any one who knows them, and for the matter of that, other priests in Rome, will judge for himself how far they are entitled to such praise. It always struck me that priests, like every mortal being, live in abstinence when they are so poor that misery is less their choice than their unavoidable fate. When they are rich, cardinals, arch- bishops, or such, you will perhaps see them practise abstinence and abnegation a little more in words than 36 FROM HANDEL TO HALL± in fact. So far as I could judge de 7'isH a rich cardinal has the same palace, galaxy of servants, quantity of rich obj'cts de z'criu where virtue is perhaps less object, as many and as tasteful as Sir Richard Wallace who does not pose exactly for abstinence. I will say that the Jesuits whom I have known are the most deeply instructed, most diplomatically courteous and amiable people one can wish to meet with. That abnegation is not in- variably their guiding principle the instance of young Gluck may show, who, when he could not pay his fees, was very simply and unceremoniously told, "Pas d'argent, pas de Suisse." I have, as before mentioned, searched rather ob- stinately for information concerning Gluck's youth, but strange to say, nothing is known about his second decennium. Even Schmid, that conscientious searcher, (so German that he muddled the French word fuseau, fusee or spindle, vj\i\\ fusil, rifle,) although he took a life- time to inquire into every detail having any reference to the life of his hero, even he seems to have found no reliable information about Gluck the young man before he was twenty-four years old, and was introduced to Count Melzi, who took him as his private secretary to Italy. Let me say while upon the subject, that Schmid stated Hercules to be more skilful with the club than the rifle, the said "rifle" being substituted {ox\\\q. spindle, from which, when playing at the feet of Omphale, he tried to wind the thread. (Abbe Arnaud, whose French words in this rather awkward translation are alluded to, meant to say that effeminate music was not the affair of the Hercules Gluck, but powerful expression.) GLUCK. n When Gluck arrived in Milan he at once began writing operas after the fashion then established, whereby he at once earned a fashionable reputation. The librettists then wrote for inise en scene — that is, opportunities of decorations, costumes, etc.; the composer wrote for voice and " warbling " of solfeggi. Logical dramatic conse- quences, truth of accent, correct expression adapted to the idea, all that was not thought of much importance. And until Gluck was forty-eight years of age (Mozart was then six), he worked conventionally in the same groove. But suddenly he asked Calsabigi (above referred to) for a Greek libretto, ' Orfeo ed Eurydice,' v/here, just as in ' Alceste' she enters Hades for her husband, Orpheus goes into the Orcus to fetch back his Eurydice. There, too, although this monotony of hope and despair goes right through the piece, his giant hand cut out of the rock life-size statues, and certainly his scores showed by far more the power of Michael Angelo's Last Judg- ment than the sweetness of Raphael's Madonna della sedia. Once the new direction entered into, he kept in the same line with his other two ' Iphigenies ' and with • Armida.' Gluck had at any rate the satisfaction of being recog- nised as a great celebrity while he was alive, not, as it often happens, a celebrity by name but without the solid gain which only in rare instances rewards those who are clever enough to die before their time, as Rembrandt, the famous Dutch painter, did. He, finding that he had in his studio a great amount, not to say an accumulation, of pictures, sketches, and portraits for sale, left Amster- dam, and told his wife after a certain time, to give out the 38 FROM HANDEL TO HALL^. news of his having suddenly died. Barely had the news got abroad than friends and art patrons and dealers flocked to the house of the disconsolate widow, offering sympathy, and proving anxious to acquire whatever they could get of the great man's work. Each wishing to buy, one overbid the other, and whatever was to be had, was bought most eagerly. Barely had a month passed, when Rembrandt quietly returned to Amsterdam, and far ^rom being cross, the people laughed at the clever trick. Again we might say. Do not complain of that, there is nothing new under the sun. We are such infinitely small points on one of the smallest globes in creation, that so far as our own history goes, men were always governed by the same wishes, the same wants, and more or less by the same capacities. In every century one or two extraordinary organizations in art, deserving the title of genius, suddenly appear struggling for contemporary appreciation, yet are they thoroughly understood only half a century later, and this process continually renews itself. Just as in the general darkness God said, " Let there be light," so in the general darkness of ordinary course and mediocrity the genius comes like a sunlight and throws its bright rays on art and science, and that goes on for a certain time, then reaction follows, and when the new century is at an end, again another torch is lighted and goes through the same proceeding. The globe is round, all movement is round, and the quicker you rush on from one point of departure the quicker you must come back to it by completing your circular movement. The padre Martini, himself an Italian, deploring the routine into which music had fallen in France by the end of the CLUCK. 39 last century, felt and foresaw the necessity of a genius coming and reforming the meaningless conventionality, and this is what he wrote : " K desirabile che rinasca qualche professore di raro talento, e ben istruito di tutte le parti della musica, il quale, senza curarsi dei propositi impertinenti di tutti i suoi rivali, faccia risorgere all' esempio dei Greci, I'arte di muovere le passioni e libera finalmente gli ascoltanti dal tedio che loro fa provare la musica dei giorni nostri," (Martini's ' Storia della musica.') (It would be desirable that there be born a professor of rare talent and well versed in all the scien- tific parts of music, who, without caring a bit about the impertinent remarks of his rivals, would revive that great art of the Greeks to excite the real passions, and deliver the audiences from that tedious bore which the music of the present day causes them to put up with.) When Gluck composed his ' Armida,' the critics said that it was not to be believed that his verses were the same that Lulli had set to music, because Lulli had made them a mere peg whereon to hang his musical hobbies, whereas Gluck was so penetrated with the meaning of the words, that on that occasion he made his celebrated speech: "When I write an opera, I try before all to forget that I am a musician," which has been so thoroughly misunderstood. What he meant to say was, that he entered so entirely heart and soul into the subject which he had to interpret musically, that he identified himself with the poet more than with, the musician. The opinion of German critics on Gluck is naturally 40 FROM HANDEL TO HALLL very favourable ; but such men as Berlioz, in France, and Schure, in Belgium, wrote in an equally inspired strain on him. Berlioz says: "The exceptional qualities of Gluck will perhaps never again be found combined in the same musician. Inspiration, which carries the audience with him, high logic, a grand style, abundant ideas, deep knowledge of dramatising his orchestra, catching melody, always correct expression, both natural and picturesque, a seeming disorder which in fact is only a more high class order, clearness of design, and above all, power of such immensity that it had sometimes a frightening effect on an imagination capable of appre- f '^ting him." To understand the difficulty of performing Gluck, and hence to understand him, unless interpreted to perfec- tion, you need only read what he himself says about the famous air of Orpheus: 'J'ai perdu mon Eurydice': " Change the slightest nuance of movement or accent, and you'll make a dance tune of it." Now, as that air is one that has to be sung first with despair, then with tears in the voice, it is self-evident that only such artists who take the trouble thoroughly to understand the intentions of the composer can hope successfully to undertake the interpretation of his works. One reason, perhaps, why these operas produced such effect on the audiences of those times was, that they were given in moderate-sized theatres, calculated for the natural pro- portions of acoustics. Concert halls, like the Albert Hall, calculated to be filled by exceptional organs only, are no use when those exceptional organs are not available ; and we have, moreover, gone up always higher in pitch, GLUCK. 41 because the instruments sound more brilliantly in higher positions, and have built theatres and halls in which shouting becomes an unavoidable condition. Shouting, however, is not art ; and for building these big halls there is only one motif: making money, by admitting numbers of people at cheap prices, who cannot see or even conveniently hear. But that is not art, and the whole process of making music in this fashion is much more commercial than artistic. When Gluck, after the great success of ' Orfeo,' gave 'Alceste,' the people failed at first to take in the grandeur of the new work, and received it on the first evening rather coldly. Gluck, in despair, met Arnai after the performance, and said to him : " Oh, mon ami, 'Alceste' est tombee," " Oui, tombee du ciel," said Arnaud. " Only give them time to elevate themselves to that height." This shows what devoted friends Gluck had in Paris. And how intolerant towards others those admirers sometimes became (just like Wagnerites), the following little anecdote will demonstrate. Dorat, another admirer of Gluck, stood, one evening, in the pit, among a number of friends of the great com- poser, when some unknown listener asked him what he thought of Gluck. " Gluck," said Dorat, " is a musician of the first water, probably the first for grand effects, powerful, passionate, as warm as energetic, and who rends your soul with a shout of despair. He is elevated even in his orchestral accompaniments ; it is he who blew life into your automatic chorus by the power of his genius : in one word, he is the man to create the long-needed revolution in music. I find. 42 FROM HANDEL TO HALLE. though, that he is in some exceptional moments rather strepitous at the expense of melody." " Oh, you are a Piccinist ? " " I never saw the man, and know not a note of his music." " Never mind, you see a fault in Gluck : you are a Piccinist ! " So it happened to the writer of these lines to be asked during an opera night in Covent Garden Theatre, why he had quarrelled with Madame Patti. " But who says that I have quarreHed with her } " " Oh, you have praised Madame Nilsson ; that is evidently proof enough that you quarrelled with Madame Patti ! " I mentioned that Gluck dedicated his * Alceste ' to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and in his dedication- preface developed all that he thought of conventionality and thoughtless abuse of music, the real strength of which he only saw in lending to the poet's thought additional power, and in lending picturesque expression to the ideas of the drama, instead of hooking any amount of trills and runs on the peg of the verses, which might express anything between a murder and a bill of fare. And who, you may ask, was the Duke of Tuscany? It was he who became the enlightened Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, who, a hundred years ago, foresaw the triumph of liberty over the dark princi- ples of feudalism ; he who abolished all that contributed to the suppression of freedom, who sapped at the root of what Gambetta called, L Enncnii, abolished monasteries, confessional, the exaggerated number of holidays; it was he whose statue was crowned with laurels and flowers on the 15th of March, 1848, when Austria broke her fetters and enforced a constitution. To him Gluck in- CLUCK. 43 scribed his opera and the preface, in which he maintained that he freed opera from the worst of tyrants, "inveterate bad habit." Marie Antoinette, proud to patronize her countryman and previous teacher, wrote to Marie Christine : " A glorious triumph at last with Gluck's ' Iphigenie.' The audience, though, seemed at first puzzled with the new system, but now the excitement is such in society that people quarrel and fight over it as if a religious question were at stake." Gluck told Marie Antoinette that the air of France had redoubled the power of his genius, and that the sight of her majestic beauty had given such impetus to his ideas, that like herself, they had become sublime and angelic. " And when," asked she, " shall we hear ' Armida ' ? " " C'est sur le point d'etre fini, et vraiment cela sera superbe ! " said Gluck. With the same modesty, Spontini, at the moment of beginning the dress rehearsal of his opera, ' La Vestale,' said : " Messieurs, I'opera que vous allez entendre est un chef- d'oeuvre, commengons!" Vestris, the well-known ballet- master, not being afforded sufficient display for his dances, told Gluck, " If you persist in your refusal, the success of ' Armida ' is sure to be doubtful." (The same thing was told Wagner, twenty-five years ago, when he was on the point of bringing out 'Tannhauser ' in Paris, and refused to write ballet music for it.) " My subject," said Gluck, " is taken from the ' Gierusalemme liberata.' There is consequently not much room for entrechats. If Torquato Tasso had wished to make Rinaldo a dancer, he would not have brought him out in the armour of a warrior." 44 FROM HANDEL TO HALLIi. Dr. Burney in his journal of a musical tour, 1773, speaks about his visit to Gluck in the Faubourg St. IMarc, where he had very elegant well-furnished rooms. " Gluck," he says (then nearly sixty), " was much pitted with the small-pox and very coarse in figure and in look, but was very soon put into the best of humours by accompanying his niece, then a girl of thirteen, upon a very bad harpsichord, several airs of ' Alceste.' She had a very powerful voice, infinite expression and an astounding execution, considering that she was taught only two years. Gluck himself sang from ' Iphigenie,' of which he had not yet committed one note to paper, which shows that he carried the work in his head nearly ready. (This is also the explanation of Mozart writing the overture to 'Don Juan' in a few night hours, because he carried it written as it were in his mind.) He played with a readiness as if he had the full score before him, which astonished me much." The real origin of the Piccini and Gluck struggle was that Louis XV. and Madame Dubarry had always patronized Italian music, and when the latter saw that Marie Antoinette took up Gluck, she felt doubly incited to oppose to her influence her own protege^ Piccini who was a Neapolitan. T\\& Journal de Paris of the 2[st January, 1777, tells the following story. During the performance of 'Alceste' "tragedie de Mons. W. A. Gluck," Mdlle. Levasseur saner the verse : "II me dechire et m'arrache le coeur" with such deep expression that a gentleman in the stalls felt perfectly enchanted with her and applauded with frenzy. A neighbour of his, however, of quite different opinion, shouted to the singer : "It is not the GLUCK. 45 heart, it is my cars you tear ofif;" whereupon the first gentleman got up and said : " What a lucky accident for you ; now go quickly and try and get another pair." And of course everybody laughed and applauded the singer. It has often been said that Frenchmen cannot resist ridicule, but who can } If as the wise old king, Solomon, said : " All is vanity," being laughed at must be the severest trial. Gluck had this great problem to solve: "Truth in art." So long as there have existed aesthetical and philosophical discussions on art this question has always been debated. In order to be true in art, must you represent, or are you allowed to represent what may be horrid in nature ? Lessing put down the rule once for all : What is not handsome, forms not a fit subject for artistic treatment (Was nicht schon ist, gehort nicht in die Kunst), and although really true representation and expression are most desirable in a work of art, there is certainly no necessity for choosing a subject the truth of which would only give most unpleasant impressions. Gluck knew well what he was about, and, as I said before, he knew how to use his pen. One of his great adversaries, La Harpe, who understood nothing about music, having violently attacked ' Alceste,' Gluck wrote to him : " I am extremely sorry to have been misled by the number of performances and the applause granted to my operas into the belief that the public liked them. I am happy to see that it is sufficient to be a man of letters to judge everything, and I perceive with admiration that you have learned more about music in a few hours than 46 FROM HANDEL TO HALLL I who practise it over forty years. Since from what you say it is clear that a singer ought to continue the same motive, when he passes from one impression, even from one passion into another, I shall take advantage, know- ing your predilection for tender airs, to make Achilles, however furious he may be, sing an air of such sweet- ness that everybody will cry, and I shall omit every instrument from the orchestra except the oboes, flutes, and violins, so that no noise shall disgrace your tender nerves, and nothing be heard but what is soft and sweet. Perhaps some one will object that Sophocles made Oedipos appear with eyes injected with blood, furious with passion, terrible to behold, but then I shall reply to this connoisseur, that Mons. de la Harpe prefers that in his most furious anger, music serve only to express the sounds of turtle-doves. Some of my friends went even so far as to tell me to go and study your works, and try to find out whatever mistakes there may be discovered. ' But,' said I, ' I am a musician, and dare not bear an impious hand on so great a writer's work.' ' Why,' said they, ' has not M. de la Harpe, who is a literary man, without the slightest scruple tried to demolish the work of a musician, which, he says himself he understands nothing about, and moreover proves what he says by the expressions he used when exposing his opinion.' You see, my dear sir, if I told a painter to combine the sweetness of colours and delicacy of design with the coquettish grace of a flirting woman, when drawing the Last Judgment, he might answer me: I should like nothing better, but he might add the words of Apelles to Alexander—' Don't talk so loud, for the little boy CLUCK. 47 there who crushes the colours for me might hear you and mock at your words.' " This shows that he was well able to defend himself, but gleaning among the fiery sparks which the heated discussion elicited, one finds such phrases as, " II y a de tres belles choses dans les operas italiens, mais les Italiens n'ont pas encore produit un opera qui soit une belle chose," which proves what at first sight seems a paradox, that you express a higher opinion of a work when you remark that it contains feeble points than when you say that there are some good points in it ; because, in the first case, the beautiful is the rule, though there be weak points ; in the second case it is the re- verse. When Gluck complained to Dorat, that he received so many stupid letters anent his operas, whether admir- ing or criticising them, Dorat said, " L'enthousiasme ou la haine des sots, sont les deux malheurs du genie," and those who are uncharitably enough disposed to admit that "les sots" form the majority of mankind, may feel nearly inclined to pity genius. So is this remark of special interest when we compare it with what is con- tinually said about the sonority of contemporaneous music : " Power is the work of genius ; whoever tries to imitate it creates only noise." A child which screams will never be heard like a man with a powerful organ, however calmly he may speak. Gluck had that unfailing, unwavering judgment to know what he had to do. He swept away the super- ficial series of fioritures and gave his music a firmness of character which people did not always at first conceive. 48 FROM HANDEL TO HALLE. When he wrote ' Artaserse,' some musicians blamed him for his new track. So he thought he would have his fun with them, and he wrote a great air, but only one, entirely in the style of the old claptrap with a ven- geance, and he had the immense satisfaction to see by the side of the success of his real music, that very air hissed to such an extent that it had to be cut out of the score. Calm and thoughtful in his work, he was yet very hasty and hot tempered in ordinary life, and it happened to him sometimes to receive fierce lessons. For instance, having lost his temper once with his servant, he sud- denly shouted to him : " This is really unbearable, are you mad, or am I ? " " Oh," humbly replied the man, " surely your Excellency would not keep a servant who is mad ? " The reason of the row was a very funny one. Gluck had a housekeeper who was a great miser, and in order to find out whether the servant took occasionally a piece of sugar, she had recourse to the following strata- gem. She tried patiently to catch a fly. When she succeeded, she put it quickly in the sugar-bowl, and put the cover on. From time to time she looked to see was the fly still there. Of course when she found the prisoner had gone, she knew that somebody must have delivered him. Then she pounced upon the servant as the guilty party. But as it happened, Gluck had per- petrated the crime, hence the reproach of the servant who was innocently accused. Gluck wrote in 1741 'Artaserse,' in 1742 ' Demo- fonte,' 1743 ' Siface,' and 1744, ' Fedra,' two operas for Venice ; what with Milan, Turin, and Venice, he wrote eight operas in five years. Lord Middlesex, then theat- GLUCK. 49 rical manager of the Haymarket, London, engaged him as composer, and he travelled with his great patron. Prince F. P. Lobkowitz, via Paris to London. But when he arrived (in 1745) the theatre was closed, on account of the public prejudice against all the singers being Catholics. Performances began again on the 7th of January, 1746, with his new opera, ' La Caduta dei Giganti,' given in presence of the Duke of Cambridge to whom the opera was dedicated. The opera had but a moderate success, in consequence of which only five performances were given. But Dr. Burney's fine percep- tion guessed the genius, and he wrote anent the opera that "it was evident, notwithstanding the quiet appre- ciation of the work by the public, that from that young man great things were to be expected." Gluck wrote to Handel about it, to ask the great man's advice, and he replied to Gluck: "You have been too conscientious; you have taken too much trouble with your work ; that does no good here. The English people want something striking, that touches directly their eardrum." Gluck differing in this from many people, that having asked for advice he acted upon it, instantly added two trom- bones to the score, and — the success increased. I wonder whether Handel meant that Gluck took too much trouble with details, because that is literally the advice I once heard Rossini give to a young composer : " Take trouble only with the great pieces ; don't waste your attention and your time on small matters ; put down the columns and the pillars, never mind the petty woodwork." When Gluck was in England he had not yet reached that great epoch of self-confidence which E 50 FROM HANDEL TO HALL^. made him fmally throw over with a mighty hand all the conventionalities, but he took advantage of the advice of Handel and Dr. Arne (1710-1778), and had part of his opera ' Artascrse ' here published. The exact title was, ' The favourite songs in ye Opera called Artascrse. By Sig. Gluck, London. Printed for J. Walsh in Catharine Street in ye Strand.' From this time dates Gluck's turning-point, when he made up his mind to leave sweet music for grand music. Sweet music goes straight to your ear, and tickles it, and pleases it, as sweets may please your palate. Grand music impresses your mind, it goes to ycur brain and to your heart, and is solid food, substantial tonic, not mere sugar-plums. How deeply inspired, however, the young composer was, there came a moment when the man claimed his right. He fell in love with the attractive daughter of the banker, Pergin — Marianne was her name. The mother sided with him and her daughter, but the father, a purse-proud man, would not hear of the marriage with a man of " hopes." But after travelling to Rome, where he wrote for the Teatro Argentina his 'Telemaco,' he was informed of the death of old Pergin and quickly returning, he got married on the 15th of September, 1750, being then thirty-six years of age, and not for one moment to his life's end did the mutual love of the two slacken. Remarkable is the circumstance that he was commissioned in 1761 to write a ballet, ' Don Juan,' which is entirely composed on the very subject which has served Mozart to write his opera from. His first real revelation came in 1762, when Gluck re- fused Metastasio's sweet opportunities for music which he CLUCK. 51 found not dramatic enough, and told Calsabigi to write him a great libretto with real passions, and importance enough for a tone drama {vide Wagner), for which he asked him to take Orfeo and Euridice. He begged of Metastasio, who was not in favour of the new departure, not to oppose it in public, and let him have a chance, which Metastasio promised. The first impression on the public was intense astonishment. The musicians were deeply impressed at once ; and when the opera was given for the fifth time, it was understood by all, and the effect upon the public by the grand inspiration of the Greek poet so skilfully used by Calsabigi, the strange power of the music, and the dramatic performance, Gluck having insisted on making even the chorus act for the first time in their career, produced a profound effect. On the 2nd of January, 1765, Josef II. was married to Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria. For this solem- nity Gluck had the honour of composing ' II Parnasso confuso,' which on the 23rd of the same month was sung by four Archduchesses, Maria Elisabetta, Maria Amalia, Maria Josepha, and Maria Carolina, all excellent so- pranos, as Maria Theresa herself had been. Gluck made Calsabigi again take his subjects from Euripides, because his own maxim was that of the Greeks : Unity and truth ! He made him change Euripides' scenario of Alceste, inasmuch as in the original Euripides makes Hercules intervene when Alceste is in the power of the Tartarus, and by sheer force tear her away, whereas Calsabigi makes Apollo the mediator, who having received Admetos' hospitality, intercedes in Alceste's favour. I just mention this because so much erroneous 53 FROM HANDEL TO HALL^. stuff has been written about Euripides and Calsabigi, as if Greek and Italian were beyond the reach of mankind and belonging, like the mammoth bones, to an ante- diluvian period. It must interest English readers to learn what one of the quoted names, regarded as a universal authority, thought of Gluck and his work, I have before alluded to Dr. Burney, who in his diary (two volumes) mentions the desire he had when in Vienna to make Gluck's acquaintance. So he asked Viscount Stormont, then English Ambassador at Vienna, to arrange an appoint- ment with Countess Thun, whose great desire it was to bring the two great men together, and so they two, with Dr. Burney, repaired to the Rennweg where Gluck lived. The meeting seems to have been a very cordial one. Gluck, though at the time fifty-eight years old, sang him- self, and Dr. Burney says that although completely voice- less, the expression and grace of his declamation made a profound impression upon him. But the real musical wonder in the house was Gluck's niece, already men- tioned, the daughter of his sister. The girl was then thirteen years old, but it seems that her voice, her dramatic passion, and the peculiarly vibrating power of her organ moved the hearer deeply. Unfortunately, the poor girl died at the age of sixteen from the smallpox. Dr. Burney says of Gluck's composition literally this : " As to invention, especially dramatic painting and theatrical effect, neither living nor dead composer equals him. He studies for a long time his libretto, carefully weighs the single parts, and the foundation of every character. It is his endeavour to satisfy the mind and CLUCK. 53 the feeling of his audience. He is not only the friend of the poet — he beconnes the poet himself In the vocal part he exhibits a study of nature and simplicity, and his orchestral accompaniments are a rich palette, and thus he is a painter too." Gluck found that the Eng- lish public loved simplicity, and therefore he adopted this manner, and he told Dr. Burney that he owed to England his predilection for the simple and impressive style which had so singularly distinguished his operas from the Italian flimsiness of his time. As to Gluck's singing without voice but so impressive through its passion, Dorat, one of the great poets of the time, when told that such a toneless voice sounded rather false, said : — " II cchappe souvent des sons a la douleur, ()ui sont faux pour I'oreille, mais vrais pour le coeur." Of the numerous extremely spirituels words which the enthusiasm for and against the music of Gluck elicited, I will quote only a few — although volumes have been written — of the most interesting kind. Thus wrote Voltaire to an antagonist of Gluck — the Marquise du Deffau — with hypocritical deference, on the 25th of January, 1775 : " I ask your generous pardon, madame, for admiring Gluck, or rather the Chevalier Gluck. I thought I had told you that a lady of great beauty with an excellent voice, which is quite equal to that of Mdlle. Le Maure, sang to me a recitatif-mesure by this reformer, and gave me infinite pleasure. Although I am as deaf as blind when the snow silvers the Alps and the Mount Jura, I really beg your pardon for having so 54 FROM HANDEL TO HALLE. enjoyed Gluck's work. Possibly I was wrong. It is quite true that other works of the same maestro are much less beautiful. I feel nevertheless that this is the music which, with the little sympathy I conceive for mere matters of fancy and taste, affects me most thoroughly, and for all that, like you, Madame la Marquise, I love the work of Lully notwithstanding all the Giucks of creation." This is what Abbe Arnaud wrote in answer to Mar- montel, who attacked Gluck by principle : " Marmontel juge la peinture en avcugle, Et la musique conime un souid, II dit qu'il a le secret des vers de Racine, Jamais secret ne fut si bien garde." Gluck, through his excellent wife accustomed to great neatness and cleanliness, cared very much for his appear- ance, and, according to the fashion of the times, was often seen in an embroidered costume, and wearing a cane with a gold knob. His death was quite sudden. He drove out with his wife, and in the carriage an apoplectic stroke rendered immediate return to his house necessary. He was put to bed. His friends tried to deceive him about the danger his life was threatened with, and began a discussion about a sacred trio he had written, and very much disputed the tone in which the part of the Saviour should be sung. "Well, my friends," he said, " as you cannot decide how we can make the Saviour sing, I'll go to Him and ascertain from His holy countenance what to do," and he died placidly on Nov. 15, in the year 1787. I mentioned that the row which was made by the CLUCK. 55 adversaries of Gluck in Paris was advertised under the flag of Piccinists and Gluckists, but not only had the two composers no share in the animosity, but the Journal de Paris, of December 13th, in the year 1787, published one of the most touching, noble-minded letters, written by Piccini, proposing the institution of an annual concert at the Opera, with nothing but Gluck's music, and an anniversary regularly established with one of Gluck's operas— Signor Piccini himself to conduct the first evening. Madame de Genlis in her 'Souvenirs' especially mentions the circumstance that Gluck always spoke well of Piccini. It is therefore quite out of place to charge the two composers with the gossips of those low-minded persons who imagine that they cannot better serve the interest of an artist than by lowering any other man supposed to be his rival. There is an amount of poetry committed to Gluck's memory, which, with the exception of a dozen Spanish lines by Yriarte, breathing real poetry and warm feeling, is perfectly horrible. French and German and Italian was the galimathias unlimited, but one Bridi carries off the palm with a Latin epitaphium sufficient to revolt the spirit of the great composer in his grave. Gluck was, like many a genius, too far in advance of his time to be immediately appreciated to his full value, but he had the common sense to live long enough to insure a great share of his due, and he had tact, clever- ness, and flexibility sufficient to make friends of those whose influence could help him in some way or other. He has been reproached with having too much courted 56 FROM HANDEL TO HALLE. contemporaneous celebrities, but when you see a rhan like Jean Jacques Rousseau, after having decidedly given up going to the Opera, making it his business to be seen every time a Gluck opera was performed, when a man of the immense importance of Voltaire takes up his pen to write such a letter as above quoted, the great impres- sion which the testimony of such men creates upon the general public is well worth a ^q\\ letters, as Henry IV, said : " Paris vaut bien une messe." While in art always the great reformer, the bold inno- vator of his time, Gluck, in private life, having married for love, remained faithful to the wife he had chosen, and who was the most touchingly faithful companion to him until the very moment of his death. In domestic life as well as in his creations, he was a model to be respected and admired, and Avorthy, if possible — of being imitated. Abrupt, dictatorial haughtiness was not in Gluck's character, but he was none the less convinced that he was justified in entering new paths which he had the strength to enforce, and however velvety was the paw that held the pen when he wrote the dedication of his 'Alceste' to the Duke of Braganza, he made it well understood that he was determined to do away with the abuses and illogical habits of the Italians who wrote arias only as show-pieces, and that he boldly put in the place of the discarded flinisiness his well thought out dramatic plan, because he knew it to be superior to the base con- cessions which Italian composers weakly conceded to the vanity of celebrated singers. A long chapter might be written on the tj'ranny of sineins: celebrities and on the submission of great CLUCK. 57 corrlposers ; but that will always be so, and, to judge from recent experience, will grow worse. A singer, who twenty years ago received two hundred pounds for a season of three months, receives now seven or eight hundred pounds for one evening, and it is an open secret that the very same singer is about beginning an operatic tour in North America where the payment of 'Cddl prima donna exceeds a thousand pounds of our money per evening. How dare a composer resist the wishes of such a singer .'* A Chevalier de Castellux, an Ignoramus Ai, pretended to discuss the merits of Gluck and Piccini with the Marquis de Clermont, a great friend and admirer of Cluck's Muse, but the latter replied, " I will sing you an air, and if you are capable of beating correct time to it, I will discuss Gluck with you." This may seem rather severe, but it is well-nigh incredible to what an extent ignorance and arrogance assume a right of discussion. It has happened to the writer of these lines to be present when a gentleman violently attacked Thalberg's piano playing as compared with that of Liszt. And in the course of conversation it was elicited that the gentleman in question had never heard either Liszt or Thalberg ! It is a well-known fact that Gluck wrote his best operas after he was sixty years old, so that the last years of his life saw his most glorious works. If Rossini had not stopped writing after producing 'William Tell,' when he was thirty-seven years old, what masterpieces might he have given to the world ! But he would not be persuaded into leaving his adored idleness. Count Aguado, the distinguished Spanish banker and amateur, 58 FROM HANDEL TO HALLA. a short time after the success of ' William Tell,' wrote to Rossini, who then lived in Bologna, would he send him a new work, or would he allow the Count to send him a libretto, Rossini to fill out a blank cheque, which Count Aguado would be happy to send him the moment his score was written. For two weeks no answer came, but then a letter arrived marked " Immediate," in which Rossini announced a parcel to be on its way to Paris, which the count fully expected to be the longed-for score. Great was his surprise when he read the fol- lowing lines : " Monsieur le Comte, I have the honour to announce to you that by this day's post I have for- warded to your address in Paris a parcel containing what cost me much reflection and care, a mortadella of the finest description, together with one of the best Bolognese sausages. There is only just a soup^on of garlic in it, and I hope you will find it to your taste, and remember your ever devoted friend, Gioachino Rossini." Of the demanded score not one single word neither then nor ever afterwards. The great friendship which the famous Salieri had for Gluck was expressed in a very amusing manner, a poly- glot leave-taking so often resorted to by Italians, who know just a little of every language, when Gluck left for Paris, and Salieri addressed him thus: "Ainsi, mon cher ami, lei parte domani per Parigi. Je vous souhaite di cuore un bon voyage. Sie gehen in eine Stadt wo man die fremden Kunstler schiitzt, e lei ci fara onore, ich zweifle nicht (embracing him). Ci scriva, mais bien souvent ! " And he did them "onore," because Gluck lived and died one of the greatest stars on the musical horizon. 33fftl)obfn» Whoever wishes to know the real musical giant of the nineteenth century, the overwhelmingly great genius of modern times, in fact the man whom we may safely call the father of the great orchestral work created in this century, the very foundation stone upon which all modern master-works are built, will receive from every honest musician the answer : Ludwig van Beethoven. Although his life has been described most minutely and most ably by biographers of many nations, by intimate personal friends who for years had noted down every particular, every little anecdote, every word worth preserving ; although these more faithful than brilliant writers — more voluminous than luminous, as Sheridan says — have been followed by writers much better able to appreciate the great man and his work from a safer distance, so that there is no hope of communicating any- thing new with regard to facts or opinions; yet I venture to offer a (e\v remarks on this Colossus of Composition : first, because I should be sorry to have such a name missing in a Gallery of Composers on whom it was my good fate to write a small series of essays ; and also because I fancy that the numerous books of reference from which information on the subject may be gathered are for the most part less accessible to the general 6o FROM HANDEL TO HALLi. public, being eitlier exclusively musical or published in foreign languages, each nation being, as it were, jealous to contribute a small share to the glorious monument of him who excited the admiration of every country — one might say of every man and woman — taking an interest in music. As seven towns fought for the honour of being the birthplace of Homer, so are there several houses in several streets of the good City of Bonn on the Rhine which not only claim the honour of having been the birthplace of Beethoven, but there are actually two houses provided with memorial tablets, both stating that "in this house Beethoven was born." Hoping to learn the real truth with my own eyes, I thought it as well to take a little trouble and make a journey to Bonn, to see his monument and investigate the affair on the spot. Bonn is situated on the border of the Rhine, just where that river is most charming ; and although the part of the journey from Mayence to Coblentz may not justify its high reputation, the spot from Coblentz to Cologne certainly does ; and nobody would guess from the poetical, romantic outside of Bonn, how dirty and unpoetical is the inside, how the streets smell, how the houses are kept, and even in what an uninviting state is the Beethoven monument itself, which ought to be one of the attractions of the town, and an ornament, artistic and historical. I had no idea, when I arrived at the splendid railway station, that the whole place surround- ing the monument would not be penetrated by that reverential air that usually fills places where marble reminiscences of great men form the pride of a town BEETHOVEN. • 6 1 when it comes in for an honor which it has done nothing to deserve. The least anybody might expect, surely, is that the monument of so great a man, in a city which otherwise has little to boast of, might be kept decently clean. But even this modest expectation is doomed to disappointment. Imagine a dirty Square with the statue in the middle, two lanterns equally dirty, so that even the light of Beethoven's genius could not shine through them ; the statue adorned (?) with a thoroughly decayed laurel crown, boasting two equally dirty white (?) ribands, on which the name St. Cecilia appears, either as a con- cession to the society who offered this petty homage, or as an invocation to the patron saint of music to save from the surrounding dirt the genius whose purity in art was equalled by his purity of character in life. The only thing grand and indestructible in the affair is the great name and the absence of superfluous eulogy. One must be thankful for small mercies ; and that the name Beethoven has been allowed to stand there alone, grand in its simple glory, without any of those usual sentimental German poesies, is a blessing indeed. My pilgrimage to the house began with a walk to the Bonngasse 20, where a tablet erected by the town attracts the curious traveller. On the tablet are en- graved in German the words, " In this house Ludwig van Beethoven was born, on the 17th December in the year 1770." The house is kept by a Restaurant called Blech, which, considering that Beethoven especially gave effect to the brass in the orchestra (" Blech," means brass in German), may be considered ominous. The house certainly looks by no means imposing, but the 62 FROM HANDEL TO HALLA. misery of the interior is even more depressing^ than one would expect from the outside. Imagine a bad wooden staircase leading up to the first floor, and hence a wind- ing, shockingly narrow second floor stair which brings you up to a garret-room some ten feet by six, containing a bed and a chest of drawers said to have belonged to the furniture then in the room. There is a large hole in the floor, which Mrs. Blech, who acted as my kind cice- rone, told me could not be repaired, as it was necessary to keep the room in its ancient hysterical state. She said " hysterisch," but I take it " historisch" is what she meant. The same kind lady informed me that Beet- hoven's father was a conductor {Kapellmeister), "but then," she added apologetically, as if to excuse the humble station, " he was a tailor as well ! " She has lived there fifteen years, and seems to make an honest penny out of foreigners coming to see the humble cradle of the great man ; and she told me that she continues the tradition by giving Concerts in winter down in the yard while people sit at the table drinking beer or lager. I don't know whether these Concerts include the ' Eroica ' or the ' Pastoral,' though the latter would more probably suit the character of the audience. Of course she is most indignant when anybody mentions the other house as being the birthplace of Beethoven. " On this house," she explains, " the town has erected the tablet, and this is the true one ; on the other the landlord himself put it up, but Beethoven was over five years old when they came to live there, and, great as the man was, he cannot have been born five years old, can he, now } " Most certainly I was of her opinion ; yet, in order to judge de BEETHOVEN, 63 visu, I repaired to the Rhinegasse No. 7, a much better looking house ; but the street is horrid — quite near the Rhine, thougli, where the necessary element for cleansing could easily be procured ; and I found it true that the tablet, with the suspiciously short inscription " Beet- hoven's Geburtshaus," has been put up by the present proprietor. The street, narrow and very unevenly paved, is not exactly in the odour of sanctity, for which fact, I fervently hope, the several sausage-makers and pork-pie manufacturers there established may one day have to answer. There is a certain difficulty about fixing the day of Beethoven's birth ; the only thing known is the day when he was baptized; and, as it was usual to baptize the child the day after its birth, the 17th of December is accepted as his birthday, but not with certainty, because when poor people could not make it convenient to go on a certain day, they waited a day or two ; and among the numerous volumes which I have consulted, there is one in which the i6th is positively given as the date. The house where he was born, and which I have stated to be situated in the Bonngasse 20, is sometimes men- tioned as 515, the old number from the time when the houses of the whole town were numbered from i to 1000; not as now, where there are only as many num- bers as there are houses in a street. Frau Baum, who is a neighbour, still gives her number as 516. The year is undoubtedly 1770, not 1772, as Beethoven seemed to believe himself, and which must be incorrect, from the simple circumstance that he so well remembered his grandfather, who died in 1773, when Beethoven was 4 FROM HANDEL TO HALL^. three years old ; whereas if his account were correct he would have been only a baby of barely one year. As to the several houses where he lived as a child, it is established beyond doubt that he was born in the Bonngassc, whence the family went to the Dreieck (triangle), and then to the Rhinegasse, when Ludwig was five years old. I will now give the baptismal register, whereby hangs a tale. It runs thus : " D^partement de Rliin et Moselle : Mairie de Bonn. Extrait da Rcgistre des naissances de la paroisse de St. Reniy a Bonn. Anno millcsimo scptingentcsimo, die decima septima Decem- bris, baptizatus est Ludovicus. Parentes D. Joannes van Beethoven et Helena (vel Magdalena) Keverich, conjuges. Patrini D. Ludovicus van Beethoven et Ger- trude Miiller, dicta Bannes." This copy of the original document is marked " Pour extrait conforme, 2 Juin 18 10." Signature and seal. When it was examined, an objection was raised that this could not be correct ; and in fact the objection was not long ago repeated, viz., that the church in which he was baptized is not in the parish of St. Remigius (see above). This is true, it is not so now ; but the fact is that all the parish divisions had been changed in 18 10 — hence the mistake. It has been stated in a French biography that his first opera was published in 1795, consequently when he was twenty-five years old ; and hence the reader is led to believe that Beethoven, too shy to let any one see his work, did not appear before this time as a composer. This notion is erroneous. He began his musical studies with his father at the age of four. When, later on, he BEETHOVEN. 65 had a music-master, who died in 1780, Beethoven, then ten years old, composed and pubHshed a funeral cantata, ' In memoriam.' The cantata, however, is not now to be found, and the fact is scarcely to be regretted ; for, however important, and even now barely comprehended, his later works may be, there is not a composer known whose first essays have not been mere childish insignifi- cant trials, not excepting even Mozart's Babies' Sonatas, with which, qua Sonatas, a great fuss has been made, because composed by a mere child. But then, any man who impartially reads them must admit that they discover rather the baby than the sonata. Yet, very well known is a set of variations composed, " par un amateur L. V. B., age de 10 ans." This is really his Opus No. i. But he was at the age of ten already not only a profi- cient pianist, but an organist of such talent, that when his organ-master Neefe was appointed to another position he left Beethoven as his substitute, the deputy-organist being then ten and a half years old ; and so successful that his master said, " If the boy continues as he begins he will be a second Mozart." In fact this is what Mozart himself said when later on (1787) Beethoven was sent to Vienna and greatly desired to receive lessons from Mozart, who for one reason or another would not consent to give them, but told Beethoven to sit down to the piano and play something. Suddenly Mozart inter- rupted him, and asked could he improvise on a theme which he would give him. Improvisation is, in fact, the true test for an artistic nature ; there a man can show what inspiration he has got, and how he can give it effect in execution, F 66 FROM HANDEL TO HALL A. The great Masters Bach and Handel were gigantic in improvisation ; and Handel in his oratorios often wrote down conventional accompaniments, leaving the per- former to do as he had done — improvise. In the first quarter of this century the real great pianists, who were musicians also — which is not the case with all the pianists of our day — Cramer, Hummel, Moscheles, even Bocklet, gave public improvisations which were greatly appre- ciated. In our time I know only of one great pianist — • d'Albert — who has a serious talent for improvisation, which comprises instantaneous inspiration, theoretical knowledge of music and composition, as well as great exe- cution. Mozart then, no mean connoisseur, the moment he heard Beethoven play, wanted at once to find out " de quel bois il se chauffait," and gave him a motif for improvisation ; and so amazed and delighted was he with what he heard, that he turned round to his friends and said, " Note this boy, he will create some noise in the world." And we know that he did. Beethoven was then seventeen years old, and Mozart, just a i&w years before his premature death, was thirty-two. A recent instance of a great faculty for improvising is the little boy Hofmann, barely ten years old ; and who is guided to such an extent by the theme given him, that he exactly continues the style which the motif requires, be that style Wagner or Chopin. In my biography of Mozart I stated that when fourteen years old he had composed an opera, and stood with the baton at the conductor's desk. Well, Beethoven when twelve years and a half old filled the place which is called in Italy " maestro al cembalo," because it is the maestro who BEETHOVEN. 67 before the orchestral rehearsals begin conducts a re- hearsal of the chorus and the soloists at the piano ; and Beethoven had a clavicymbal in the orchestra, at which he sat and conducted the band. The custom of having a piano placed in the orchestra for the conductor, even when he led with the baton, was frequent until twenty- years ago, when the conductor used to strike a chord, or even a single note sometimes, for the singer to begin, and give him also a few chords during the recitative. What in those times musicians did for the love of art, without thinking of the financial advantages to be derived from it, is evident from the example of these two most illus- trious men, Beethoven and Mozart. How the latter sacrificed every benefit his operas or his position as Court Composer should have brought him, and died miserably poor, is well known ; and Beethoven's first pay when appointed real organist (at the age of thirteen) was £ijy a year, or exactly five shillings a week — little more than a man-servant usually gets per day. And yet it was somewhat better pay than Verdi received in a similar position and at a similar age when he was appointed organist, and had moreover to make the journey to and fro on foot. It is well known that Beethoven became deaf; and after having for some time used a brass ear-trumpet, he found that it affected his brain, and he took to using a slate, on which those who conversed with him had to write their answers. He had the queerest ideas imaginable about the origin of his deafness, and persistently pre- tended that the doctors knew nothing at all about it, and that they had treated him all wrong, and that the real 68 FROM HA AW EL TO HALLL seat of the evil was by no means in the car, but in the stomach ! He used to be attended to by a sort of housekeeper, whom, however, he often sent on errands. It therefore happened sometimes that visitors rang and knocked without the slightest result, because he did not hear them. Sometimes they simply opened one door after the other until they found themselves in his pre- sence, he being made aware of their arrival either by seeing them, or, when his face was not turned towards the door, by the sensation of their treading the floor. He then instantly came forward, with his slate in hand, to begin the conversation in the only way possible for the poor man. One of these visitors gave me, many years ago, a description of what the room looked like in which Beethoven wrote his immortal scores. The ceiling was rather low, but the room was a large one, with a big square table in the middle, which was covered with books of all shapes and sizes, papers, music, a large repeater watch, his ear-trumpet, small memorandum - books in quantities, partly written on, some yet contain- ing rough sketches of a i^"^ bars, etc. ; an inkstand, an innumerable quantity of pencils of different colours, music-paper both long and wide, and any amount of musical sketches and other things. To the left stood his bed, covered with music printed and in manuscript ; the window-sills seemed to be made of common wood without any paint on. On one of them a big nail served as a support fur a fiddle and bow ; and my in- formant observed that the wood of the window-frames was covered with little pencil-writings, partly music, and partly short observations. On several chairs about lay BEETHOVEN. 69 what most likely at a recent visit a laundress had de- posited there — a number of shirts, white, starched very- stiff, and one or two with jabots^ the fashion of tliat day. The inhabitants of Vienna have often with pardon- able pride boasted that their city was the preferred sojourn of so many great composers — Haydn, Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, Schubert, etc. But it was not the liberality of the Viennese which rendered their city especially desirable to those geniuses. Mozart made so little money that he had to borrow in order to live, and when he was offered by the King of Prussia a very liberal annuity in Berlin, he tendered his resignation and went to take leave of the Emperor. But it was quite sufficient for the latter to say " What, Mozart, can you leave me } " " No," said Mozart, " no, your Majesty ; I will stay." And stay he did. Yet without any help or increase of his income ; and he died deeply in debt. Beethoven, who had for pupil no less exalted a personage than the Cardinal Archduke Rudolph, told the Cardinal that he was afraid he would be obliged to leave Vienna, in order to make sufficient money honourably to live upon. Hearing this, the Archduke seemed to be quite beside himself, and proposed in- stantly to speak to the Princes Esterhazy, Razumovski, etc., so as to make up a subscription and keep Beet- hoven in Vienna. And he did speak to these person- ages ; but when Beethoven, having been promised an amply sufficient annuity, depended on their contribu- tions, one after the other stopped, for one reason or another — now for sudden losses, then because it was 70 FROM HANDEL TO JiALLlt. thought that the contribution was only expected for a while ; suinnia snuniiarinii — great cry, little wool. To what an extent the great man, usually represented as being haughty, ill-humoured, and quite a bear, could be kind and cordial and amiable, may be gathered from a letter addressed from Vienna by Louis Schloesser, the eminent Darmstadt Court Conductor, to a friend in Ger- many. Therein he tells that, having been introduced to Beethoven in November, 1822, after a performance of 'Fidelio,' with Mme. Schroeder in the title role, Beetho- ven asked him what he had written (Schloesser was then twenty-two years old), and told him to bring some of his manuscripts on a certain day and remain to dinner. But on the very day, while Schloesser was just looking through the MSS. which he was to take to the terrible judge, his door opened, and in walked Beethoven, saying that as it was a very fine day he came to take the young man for a constitutional before dinner, and had for the pur- pose come up the fourth floor in the Hotel zum Erzher- zog Carl, where Schloesser * then lived, and Beethoven at that time was fifty-two years of age. Kindness is not so much shown in the cost of presents, as in the way of presenting them ; there is, as a German proverb says, much honour in a glass of wine ; which means that a gentle nature will show much more in the way * Court-conductor Louis Schloesser died in November, 1886, in his cii,duy-seventh year. He was the father of the eminent musician, Mr. Adolphus Schloesser, to whose obhging kindness I owe a copy of Beethoven's autograph manuscript which is attached to next page. It represents part of a letter addressed to Mr. Schloesser, sen., by Beethoven himself. BEETHOVEN. 71 to oblige, than in the magnitude of the gift, which may depend on the means of the giver and not on his heart- felt wish to oblige you. If a man be able to give a sovereign as a charity, but will throw the gold coin so as to avoid the touch of the needy person, he will by humiliating him diminish the value of the gift ; but it is given only to few people — to gentlewomen, above all — to accompany the gift with a warm sympathetic look or smile, or a kind word, which w^ill do more than the gift itself to console and comfort. Side by side, then, the great man of the day and the young composer walked about till they came home to dinner ; and the opinion which, after careful perusal, Beethoven gave of the manuscripts submitted to him for judgment, and the remarks he made concerning his own way of writing, are too interesting to be withheld ^^/