■ GAEL MARIA VON WEBER. THE LIFE OF AN AKTIST. iFram tfje German of fjts Son, BARON JMAX MARIA VON WEBER. BY J. PALGRAVE SIMPSON, M.A., AtTTHOR OF " PICTURES FROM REVOLUTIONARY PARIS," " LETTERS FROM THE DANUBE," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON: OLIVER DITSON COMPANY. KEWTORK: CHICAGO: PHILA: BOSTON: C. H. mtson k Co. Lyon & Healy. J. E. DilsoE & Co. Jolii c. Haynes & Co. / PEEFAOE. Music Library ML The task which Baron Max Maria von Weber, the son of the great composer, the story of whose life is here told, undertook in preparing a complete biography of his father, was one of no ordi- nary difSculty. For many years he resisted the entreaties of his widowed mother to compose the work, from scruples which did honor to his heart and sense. On the one hand, he feared the accusation of a want of impartiality in writing of a father whose memory he re- garded with as much pride as affection : on the other, he felt a natural delicacy in treating a subject, many persons connected with which were still in existence, and more especially as regarded the great artist's troubled sphere of action in a country with which he himself was offici- ally connected. His own scanty musical science he also considered an impediment in his way. But in process of time, as the memorials of his father, which he had been long collecting, gradually formed so con- siderable a portion of his daily thoughts and deeds, these scruples were in some degree modified, in some degree obliterated. Time, with aU its political and social changes, had prepared the way for freedom of speech; rivalries and antipathies had been swept away from the stage of the world. For true impartiality, he considered that he could trust to his own honesty of purpose. The feeling of his own deficiency in musical science vanished before newly-conceived ideas of what the true tendency of such a biography ought to be. " Mendelssohn says somewhere in his letters," writes the author of the German work in his own preface, " that, if any one could describe music with words, he himself would never write another note; and Weber also said to his friend Lichtenstein, ' I can write nothing about my works. Hear them played ! In my music you will find mj'self.' In these remarks, then, lay the rule for the best treatment of the biography of an artist. Let him be known as man, when already loved and honored in his works as artist." From any detailed criticism of the works of the great com- poser, his son has, consequently, abstained, upon the principle that 8 1441215 4 PREFACE. ■words would convey but little meaning to those who did not know his music ; whilst, to those who did, many words were unnecessary. With this conviction he has principally endeavored to relate the circumstan- ces and events of the artist's life, and the feelings induced by them in his mind, as they stood in relation to the creations of his genius, and, in logical deduction, the re-active influence of those creations on the out- ward world around him. For the interest ho excites he has relied upon a minute picture of the man, who, as artist, achieved so much, and suf- fered so much. He has presented hirn as he lived, as he wandered and thought, as he laughed or wept, as he triumphed or despaired. He has invited his reader to sit by Weber's table amidst his family and friends, to lean over his shoulder as he worked, to watch him playing with his children or his dog and ape, to see him directing in his orchestra, to hear the beatings of his heart. He has presented the artist not so much with lyre in his hand, and laurel-wreath upon his brow, as in his long coat or his strange court attire, — by turns the weary wanderer, the lover, the husband, and the court ofBcial. Baron Max Maria von Weber has preferred to write his biography without that profusion of references, explanatory notes, and pieces de Justification, with which such works are sometimes overladen. He has trusted to the implicit belief on the part of the reader in the truth of all his details. Materials for his work were amply supplied to him by notices in journals, pamphlets, and other works of the period; by the literary, musical, ecclesiastical, or governmental archives, which were everywhere opened to him with liberality; above all, by the volumi- nous correspondence either addressed to Weber and his family, or proceeding from the composer's own pen. Much was necessarily to be derived from that diary which Weber himself compiled, with scarcely any intermission, from the 26th of Febuary, 1810, up to within three days before his death: but not to the extent that may be supposed from such a term as "diary." Domestic details and accounts are to bo found in it in profiision. But even the greatest events of his own life the composer mentions in this record in but brief and scanty lines. For the purpose of fixing dates, however, it appears to have been of considerable value. The reminiscences of contemporaries, whether given by writing or word of mouth, and even the family traditions of the household, the author appears to have used with singular but honest caution. He found that the stream of time had so much effaced the strongest impressions as to leave the traces of memory confused, and not altogether reliable. "I have even found events," he writes in his own preface, " sundered by a considerable lapse of time, laid before me as having happened at one and the same period." " I have not entirely PREFACE. P o excepted from this mistrust ray own father's letters," he -writes again, " when they were addressed to that beloved wife to whom his Hfe and fame were more dear than to himself, and who looked forward to every line from his hand with strong nervous excitement. Without one mo- ment falsifying the truth, he naturally placed events in the light most pleasant to the woman whose happiness and peace of mind were so infinitely precious to him." With the personal appearance of the great composer his son has dealt with equal impartiality, deriving his de- Bcriptions from the best and most thoroughly reliable sources. With such strict conscientiousness of intention throughout his whole delicate work, the author has certainly earned himself every title to the implicit trust of his reader. In not one instance has he filled op gaps in events by drawing upon his own imagination, however likely to be correct. On the other hand, he has never been restrained by any partial feeling from laying bare blots in the character of the artist during the period of his youthful follies and excesses. " The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," seems to have been the author's maxim. '" To have left the shadows of his errors out of my picture," he says himself, " would have been to have avowed, in coward spirit, that the lights in his character had not sufficient, and more than sufficient, brilliancy to throw the darker tints altogether into the background." With Weber's painful position at the court of Saxony, his son, now a high government official in the same country, had necessarily to deal with a certain degree of delicacy ; but there is no doubt, at the same time, that he has painted with a bold and firm hand the period of his father's unmerited and humiliating treatment by a portion of the Saxon court. Admirable as is Baron von Weber's biography of his father, on the corapihition of which he has employed all his spare time during seven long years, it presents a far too voluminous form to be laid before an | English public in its entirety. It has been necessary, consequently, to condense it^ tlu-ouo;hout in its English garb, and even in some portions to reconstruct it. Frequently, when there occurred long biographical notices of artists of a secondary rank in Germany, and wholh'' unknown in England, with whom the great composer was thrown together, they have been wholly omitted; but it may conscientiously be asserted that nothing, either in event or feeling, connected with Weber's life, which in any way could interest an English reader, has been allowed to slip aside in the difiBcult process of condensation. London, January, 1865. J. P. & CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER I. PAGE Carl Maria VON Weber's Family.— His Birth ... 9 CHAPTER II. An Artist's Childhood , , 16 CHAPTER ni. The Boy's First Opera.— Freiberg and Salzburg . . 31 CHAPTER IV. Vienna ^vnd the Abbe Vogler .39 CH^VPTER V. Weber's First Conddctorship 48 CHAPTER VI. WURTEMBERG AND ITS CAPITAL IN 1807 66 CHAPTER VII. Life in Stuttgard . • • • 85 CHAPTER Vni. MANHEIM and HEIDELBERG IN 1810 , 103 CHAPTER IX. Darmstadt in 1810 , , 116 CHAPTER X. On the World 140 CHAPTER XI. Wanderings 164 CHAPTER Xn. Berlin in 1812 , . 191 CHAPTER Xni. (Jonductorship at Prague 220 CHAPTER XIV. Weber's Patriotic Compositions 248 CHAPTER XV. A Period of Change 271 6 CARL MARIA VON WEBER. CHAPTER I. CARL MARIA VON WEBER's FAMILY. — HIS BIRTH. It has frequently been remarked in the annals of the his- tory of Art, that artistic genius of the very highest ordei has needed the development of generations to blossom, and bear fruit in all its complete maturity. It has even been asserted that no great genius has appeared in any one celebrated artist without having gradually culminated through a line of fore- fathers who had distinguished themselves in the cultivation of the same branch of art, or at least given proof of the love with which they cherished it. Be that as it may, a singular example of this process of de- velopment, by which the love of some especial art in ancestors has sown the seeds for the future eminence of a chosen indi- vidual of their posterity, gradually tended the growing plant, and cultivated it into greatness, may be found in the history of Carl Maria von Weber's family. The example is all the more striking as the direction taken by the love of Art in each gene- ration was twofold. The devotion to music constantly dis- played by the great composer's forefathers was almost in- variably accompanied by a passion, verging on mania, for the stage, and, indeed, every thing connected with the theatrical world, — a passion which led many of them to commit the strangest actions, and to sacrifice position, fortune, all, in obe- dience to its impulses. This union of dramatic with musical 9 10 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. genius was developed, in all its completeness, in the subject of this memoir, — the man in whom all the family talent culmi- nated ; and it is to this combination that his theatrical compo- sitions may be said to have materially owed their profound originality and powerful dramatic effect. The first of Carl Maria von Weber's family of whom official record appears was a certain Johann Baptista Weber, born about the year 1550, whose estates in Upper Austria were greatly increased by imperial bounty, in return for his eminent services to the Catholic cause during the Thirty- Years' War ; and who finally was rewarded for his notable exertions by a patent of nobility as a Freiherr, or baron. The chief portion of his property, with the title, descended to his brother, Joseph Franz Weber ; of whom family tradition, even at this early period, records that his love for theatrical exhibitions, as well as music, induced him to erect a small theatre and concert- room upon his own estate. During the general confusion of aifairs consequent upon the Thirty- Years' War and the wars of the Spanish and Austrian succession, little or no record ex- ists of the Weber family. It is only evident, that, during these troublous times, their property was lost to them ; and, about the year 1740, the remaining branch of the family is to be found in the service of some of those minor potentates with whom Germany at that time swarmed. A Fridolin von Weber is then mentioned as steward to the noble family of Sehonau- Zella. Of the two sons of this Fridolin, the elder became the father of Constanze von Weber, the wife of the great Mozart, and of three other daughters, all more or less distinguished as professional singers. The younger, Franz Anton, was destined to be the father of Carl Maria von Weber ; the two celebrated composers being thus cousins by marriage. Both these brothers appear to have been inspired by the spirit of music, or rather possessed by it like a mocking demon, which, by its fascination, was ever leading them astray upon their troubled path of life. Their extraordinary talent, as in- strumental executants as well as singers, when still very young FRANZ ANTON VON WEBER. 11 reached the ears of Karl Theodor, the Elector of the Palati- nate ; and this prince invited them both to Manheim, where he had established that celebrated opera troop and orchestra, which were probably, at that period, unequalled in the world. The elder brother seems to have relincjuished the stage at an early period. He is subsequently mentioned as privy coun- sellor and district judge to the electorate. The position of his daughters fully shows, however, that his operatic and theat- rical tastes were never . quenched, and were transmitted to his children. The fortunes of Franz Anton, the father of the great com- poser, were far more checkered. Endowed with an eminently handsome person, reckless in spirit, and jovial in manner, he was eager to adopt a military career : and a commission was bestowed upon him as ensign in the elector's guard ; but upon the seemingly inconsistent condition, that he should not with- draw his services from the operatic stage of Manheim. This anomalous position Avas apparently not satisfactory to his rest- less disposition, however ; and having risen in favor with the commander of the forces of the electorate. Gen. Baron von Weichs, he flung aside opera scores and instrument, and fol- lowed his new protector to the imperial army. During the ensuing campaign, he not only became the idol of his squadi-on by his inexhaustible joviality of spirit, but was distinguished by his valor. After the battle of Rossbach, — where he was wounded, however, — his unsettled disposition again betrayed itself He left the military service ; and by the earnest recom- mendation of Ids patron, Baron von Weichs, who had learned to entertain a fatherly affection for him, he entered the civil service of Clemens August, Elector of Cologne, and Bishop of Hildesheim. This change of destination determined one of the most important events of his life. In the bouse of the chief of his department, Court Financial Counsellor von Fu- metti, the handsome young lieutenant engaged the affections of the beautiful Maria Anna von Fumetti, the daughter. Whether the father had the proverbially flinty heart is not 12 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. very apparent. But it was not until after the death of the old counsellor that the loving couple were united, and Franz Anton von Weber succeeded to the not inconsiderable fortune; and lucrative appointment of his beloved's father. His posi- tion was now a brilliant one. But the monotony of business routine evidently soon disgusted his ever-lively temperament. His passion for music again burst forth ; and it was indulged to such a pitch of fanaticism, that he was to be seen at all times fiddling in public places, as he marched at the head of bis numerous progeny ; or working with his bow in the fields, to the amusement or derision of his fellow-citizens ; and the office-papers soon lay in dusty confusion. This state of things could not last. His easy patron, Clemens August, died ; and with his successor, the Prince-Bishop Fricdrich Wilhelm, the wild, reckless, restless worshipper of Art found no favor. He was obliged to retire from his place with a pension ; but until the year 1773 he still dwelt at Hildesheim, occupied solely with his beloved art, and the education of the elder branches of his numerous family. The hope of placing before the world one of his children as a musical wonder of the ao-e was his principal mania ; but, strict and almost exclusive as the musical education of his children was, the desired miracle was nofc vouchsafed him, — not as yet. This life could not long satisfy the yearnings of the ambi- tious and unstable Franz Anton von Weber. A more artistic and livelier sphere of activity became more and more necessary to his restless spirit. A consciousness — an overweening convic- tion, perhaps — of his own superior artistic merits was always whispering temptingly in his willing ear. The traditional family demon was strong at his heart ; and, yielding at last to its iniluencCj he flung all other considerations to the wind, and dragged his 'tvhole family upon the stage. For some years there exists no record of the fortunes of this strange family troop of comedians, singers, and instrumental- ists. It appears probable that the family name was changed during the whole of this period, in obedience to the desire of FRANZ ANTON'S SECOND WIFE. 13 the proud Maria Anna von Fumetti, who, as is known, com- bated her husband's design with all her energies, but combated iu vain. The poor struggling woman seems to have broken her heart.under the burden of a life which to her appeared a constant degradation. She died, after a long period of suffer- ing, in 1783, not having yet attained her forty-seventh year. In the same year, the name of Franz Anton von AVeber — as though he had been released from a bond which weighed heav- ily upon his vainglorious spirit — again appears in the face of the world. He then figures as musical director of the Lubeck Theatre. The fortune brought him by his beautiful and once- happy wife was nearly squandered : he lived with his family in humble circumstances. His restlessness was still unquenched.. Now he is mentioned as conductor of the oixhestra of the Prince- Bishop of Eutin ; now, again, he expresses his discontent and, dissatisfaction with his position, and resoives once more to, appear upon the stage. A notable change in his life, howeyer, was before him. Always possessed by the desire of developin,g an extraordi- nary musical genius in his children, he travelled in the year 1784 to Vienna in order to place his two. elder sons as pupils with the then aged composer, Joseph Haydn. A home for these children was found in a family of the name of Von Bren- ner ; and here the amorous Franz Anton von Weber, although now at the age of fifty, fell violently in love with Genofeva, the daughter of the house, a mild, fair, pretty girl of sixteen years. By what magic the middle-aged and needy musician won the maiden's heart, and, still more, the consent of the father, is not apparent. The scarcely well-assorted pair were married on the 20th August, 1 785 ; and, shortly afterwards, Franz Anton von Weber took back his young and lovely bride to his only hpme at Eutin. His appointment as musical dn-ector of the prince-bishop had been relinquished ; but as Stadt Musikus. or salaried and privileged leader of all the music of the town on festive occasions, he still contrived to obtain a scanty sub- sistence. That the pride of the ambitious artist was deeply 14 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. wounded by his position, as well as his vanity mortified, may be well understood ; nor can it be a matter of surprise that his temper should have been soured by need, and that his children by his first wife should have been occasionally harshly treated- But the saddest sorrow of this sad time of his life arose from the deep melancholy of his young bride. Many reasons may be surmised for her excessive lowness of spirits : by her family it was attributed to that longing for a lost home which is admitted as a disease under the name of Hebnweh. It was under these unhappy circumstances, and when the " wolf was at the door," that, on one cold wintry night in 1786, the melan- choly Genofeva brought a son into the world, who received at the baptismal font the names of " Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst." The father knew not then that the ambition of his life had been accomplished ; and that, if not a wonder-child, at all events a future genius, had been born to him. Franz Anton's love of show was evidenced in the exercise of all his influence to obtain the widow of his old patron, Duke Friedrich August, and Prince Carl of Hesse, then Statholder of Schleswig and Holstein, as godmother and godfather to his newly-born son. Both of these illustrious personages con- sented to appear by proxy. Strange to say, a considerable confusion exists in the precise date of Carl Maria von Weber's birth. The parish registers of ■ Eutin have entered the baptism of the child as taking place on the 20th November, 1786. But the father's own hand has recorded, in unmistakable figures, the birth of his son on the 18th December, 1786 ; and from the circumstance that the anni- versary was invariably celebrated, as well by the family as by Carl Maria von Weber himself, in after-years, on this latter date, and, at the same time, from certain other textual irregu- larities in the church register, it may reasonably be inferred that a mistake of carelessness occurred in the ofiixiial entry of the day of baptism, and that the 18th December was Weber's genuine birthday. ' The child was yet an infant, when the family (lemon, roused THE BABY CAEL MAKIA. 15 probably by a series of operatic performances which wero given at the Episcopal court of Eutin, again seized on Franz Anton's heart. Once more he grew drunk with the smell ol oil-lamps, size, and carpentry ; once more his senses were dazzled by the dingy glitter of stage-lights ; once more the flattering thunder of applause deafened his better reason : his blood was again fevered by the poison of the stage. Spite of the tears of his poor young submissive wife, who shrank timidly from a course of life which had broken Anna von Fumetti's heart ; spite of the entreaties and expostulations of his daughters, whose proved talent for the stage, however, may have entered largely into their father's decision, — he again took up the wanderer's staif, and set forth upon that troubled journey in search of theatrical fame, which he never ceased thenceforth restlessly to pursue until nigh on eighty years of age. With the three grown-up daughters and the one son, who still remained by his side, he started once more to tempt fortune on the operatic, or, if circumstances so willed it, the dramatic stage. The baby Carl Maria was carried, by his quiet, suffering mother, in the train of the wandering troop. For some years, Franz Anton, with his children, pursued this strolling life; and, from the year 1787 to the year 1792, records may be found at Cassel, Meiningen, Nuremberg, and other towns, tell- ing of the performances of the well-known " Weber's Companj of Comedians." CHAPTER n. AN ARTIST S CHILBHOOD. In an old album of a certain Elise Vigitill was found the first known writing, in childish, trembling characters, of that hand which afterwards so clearly and firmly traced the scores of " Oberon " and " Der Freischiitz." " Dearest Elise," run the simple words, " always love your sincere friend Carl von Weber; in the sixth year of his age; Nuremberg, the 10th September, 1792." At that time the little Carl Maria was a weak, sickly child, suffering from a disease of the thigh-bone, which left traces in after-life. He was the darlino- treasure of O his poor mother, whose failing health, listless melancholy, and household cares, kept her a constant prisoner in that dingy Nuremberg lodging. A happy child, except in the fond affec- tion of that pale, mild woman, he cannot have been. The maniacal ambition of his father to find at once in his last-born the fulfilment of his oft-deceived hopes, and give a wonder- child to the world, vainly endeavored to force that slowly de- veloping intellect. The child shrank in nervous irritation, amounting to disgust, from the ceaseless musical experiments which were tried with the hope of working a miracle. It is strange, that with his brain overtaxed, his nervous tem- perament painfully harassed, and his constitutional reserve shrivelled into shyness by his inability, from constant pain and suffering, to mix in the companionship of other children in his 16 GAEL MAEIA'S FIRST LESSON. 17 earlier years, the spirit of Carl Maria von Weber should have ever developed itself into that gay, elastic, at times jovial nature, which rendered him so popular with his friends in later youth. As yet, the poor boy turned away with loathing from the rich banquet of art which he was expected to devour greedily. Franz Anton groaned in despair at his seeming lack of all talent ; and his half-brother Fridolin, who helped the father in this ill-digested musical education, once, as Weber himself was accustomed to relate in after-life, tore the fiddle- bow from his little trembling hands, smote him with it several times over the knuckles, and angrily exclaimed, " Whatever may be made of you, Carl, it will never be a musician 1 " But Franz Anton, fortunately, had better patience: he could not yet relinquish his fond hope. The child's instruction was con- tinued; whilst, amid the wanderings of the Weber company, his plastic nature was receiving impressions which were never to be effaced. The boy knew but little of the play-grounds of other chil- dren of his age, — the house-stairs, the street, the garden, the meadow, or the wood, — the scenes which often go so far to stamp a character. His early games, it is true, as far as deli- cate health permitted, may have been such as those of other boys. But the arena in which they took place was widely different. As child of a theatrical manager, his play-fellows were actors' children. His woods, his meadows, and his gar- dens were daubed on canvas ; a painted palace was his street. His boyhood's mimic fights were fought, not with sticks cut from the forest-bush, but with silvered swords and cardboard shields, with which the actors, as heroes or robbers, fought out their mimic fights upon the' stage at night. It was not on the hill-side, beneath the air of heaven, that little Carl Maria stormed the imaginary fortress with his playmates. The stage represented the castle, which was to be defended against the assailants from the orchestra ; and side-scenes and traps were the vantage-points or pitfalls of the battle. Orchestra and Btage arrangements were familiar to him before the first les- 2 18 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. sons of bis primer, half-understood theatrical intrigues his first glimpses of life. There is no doubt these first impressions of childhood exercised a powerful influence over his talent, and gave him that dramatic insight and knowledge of theatrical effect which stood him in such good stead in his operatic com- positions. But there lay in this daily communion with stage- life all the dangers arising from his contact with the laxity of morals, the ^ittle-mindedness, the want of true poetical feeling, which floated only too visibly on its surface. That the bud- ding character of the child should have escaped this blight may be ascribed partly to that inborn instinct, which, through- out life, always urged him to wipe away the soil from the crystal ; still more to the influence of that sweet, pure, simple- minded mother, who sheltered her beloved little one by her moral instruction from the evil tendencies of an existence which to her refined nature was utterly uncongenial. The mother's task was even still more delicate and difficult. She was obli"-ed to shield her child from the contamination of his own father's example. The reckless joviality, which once sat so well on the handsome young officer, appeared coarseness and laxity in the more than middle-aged but still active manager, whose love of show and distinction had rendered him. boastful and domineering, and whose dashing manners had now no more sterling ring in them than that of false stajre- coin. That the whole theatrical life of his earlier years was utterly distasteful to the boy Carl's purer and more poetical nature was evidenced in after-days by Weber's strong repug- nance to speak of the times when the family, under Franz Anton's direction, stood in a scarce higher position than that of strolling players. Still, however great his unwillingness to recall the memories of this period, he never failed to mention his flither's name with affection and respect. Although sheltered from harm beneath his mother's wing, and consoled in all his bitter sorrows by her tenderness, Franz Anton's intended wonder-cliild knew little rest. The fiddle- bow had struck no sparks of genius from the boy's knuckles ; THE MOTHER'S TASK. 19 but as idol on some high pedestal in the temple of Art the father was resolved that this child should stand. Masters were found to teach him drawing, painting, engraving. In all, the boy displayed ability ; but in the exercise of none was the desired miracle worked. Franz Anton's eager and impatient temperament refused to have recourse to the only means, which, by dry labor and unremitting industry, might have fanned the latent spark into a flame. The desired wonder-child was ex- pected to run before it could stagger on its toddling feet, to read with no knowledge of alphabet or grammar ; in fact, to compose without due acquirement of the first principles of harmony, to paint pictures in oil before its fingers could trace the firm line with pencil upon paper, to engrave before its hand could grasp the tool with - steadiness. It is surprising that the poor little plant, thus forced in the parental hot-bed of education for the production of early fruit, ever i-ecovered its healthful power. It is fortunate that the boy himself pos- sessed that firmer will and better sense, which, in the circum- stances of after-life, enabled him, while yet there was time, to transplant the poor weakly flower of genius, so nigh shrivelled to a mere weed of feeble dilettanteism, into a better, sounder, healthier soil. The circuit of the Weber company seems, at this period, to have been chiefly confined to the towns of Nuremberg and Erlangen. But, in 1796, the chances of the wandering i)layers' life brought them to Hildburghausen. Here Franz Anton was compelled to sever himself from his troop for a while. The health of poor melancholy Genofeva, always ailing, was now completely shattered. It was declared impossible for her to drag her feeble fi-ame in the train of the wandering company. So at Hildburghausen Franz Anton remained with his faintins: wife, his last-born boy, and his sister Adelheid, who had steadily and loyally accompanied her restless brother through all his wanderings. An excellent woman was this Adelheid, now in the years of her old maidenhood, — a woman whose character had been formed rather by the world's experiences 20 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. than by education; — but of noble heart and kindly spirit. In Hildburgliausen, then, these members of the Weber family remained, with straitened means and in a humble lodging ; and here Franz Anton made the acquaintance of Johann Peter Heuschkel, the conductor of the orchestra of the residing Duke Friedrich of Meiningen. Heuschkel was still a very young man. His superior talent had early won for him the position he filled. He was amiable, lively, agreeable, but a strict and uncompromising zealot in the exercise of his art. The young musician was delighted with Carl Maria, whose joyous spu-it began about this time to pierce the cloud that hung around him ; and he begged to be allowed to give the boy instruction on the piano and in thorough-bass. His first task was to root out the weeds wliich grew in his young pupil's hastily-acquired style. The boy's unsteady brilliancy, the result of the flourishing Franz Anton's instruc- tion, was checked at once. His rambling hands were bound down to the severest precision. He was made to tread the dry, dusty road of thorough-bass, step by step, ploddingly and slowly, on that wearing and weary pilgrimage which can alone lead to the true shrine of Art ; and many were the tears shed by the poor child on his ungenial and dreary path. But the affection he soon learned to entei'tain for his amiable young master supported him on his way ; and, sooner than might have been expected, the child himself began to discover the power this severe discipline would place within his grasp. Franz Anton looked on astounded to see how a system of instruction so repugnant to his own brilliant geniality drew forth from his child blossoms of genius which his own hothouse forcing had failed to warm into life. In after-days, Weber himself thank- fully acknowledged that he owed all the real firm foundation of his clear and characteristic execution on the piano to his severe, zealous, and much-beloved young master, Heuschkel of Hildburghausen. But scarcely had the boy Carl Maria begun to feel in the depths of his heart the truth and value of the advantages he war's alarms. 21 thus enjoyed, when his father's restless spirit snatched them from him. Franz Anton's troop had arrived at Salzburg. Once more the manager's " soul was eager for the fray ; " and, his poor Genofeva's strength being sufficiently restored to bear the fatigues of travel, to Salzburg he went, in the autumn of 1797, to undertake the personal direction of his theatrical com- pany in that town, previously to a projected excm-sion through Bavaria, Baden, and the Palatinate. But his plans were thwarted, and the advantages he expected nullified, by the tempest gathering nearer and nearer on the political horizon. The revolutionary hurricane was sweeping up from the West- The incredible successes of the French republican armies had filled the German princes with anxiety and agitation. Moreau had aheady stood before Munich. The peace of Campo For- mio could scarcely be said to have checked the progress of such an irresistible avalanche as the victorious Bonaparte. The storm-wind blew ; and men bowed their heads before it. It is generally before the burst of any great political thunder- cloud that art lies prostrate. The cloud looks far blacker on the horizon than when driven up immediately overhead ; and the same people who have stood appalled and powerless at the dis- tant rumbling of the cannon, and turned away their faces from the pleasures and solaces of life in their uneasiness, can after- wards dance, sing, and crowd the theatres, when the battle is raging at their very gates. And so it came that apprehension smote Franz Anton's theatrical speculation to the ground. He resolved to remain at Salzburg. Salzburg, however, offered no rich harvest for dramatic art. The cruel rigors of the late archbishop had driven away in emigration forty thousand souls : the archbishopric still suffered from the loss of its best and freshest blood ; and a curse for the misdeeds of his predeces- sor seemed to rest oa all the efibrts of the severe Hieronymus Colleredo, whom destiny had marked out for the last of Salz- burg's reigning ecclesiastics. The archbishop, it is true, still entertained an orchestra and choir, which prevented musical art fi-om dying out entirely in that dull abode. But the citi* 22 WEBEE'S EAELY YEARS. zens of Salzburg seemed to have no heart for the more refined enjoyments of life ; and the ill success of Franz Anton's theatrical management, which led eventually, it would seem, to the closing of the theatre, would probably have induced him to leave his profitless residence, had he not found a good opportunity for continuing the musical education of his little son. He had succeeded in placing the boy in the Archepisco- pal Institute for young choristers. The director and teacher of this establishment was a brother of the great composer, Joseph Haydn. This Michel Haydn owed much of his reputation to the reflex thrown on him by his brother's brilliant name. Without being endowed with any great creative talent, he was nevertheless a learned and a sound musician. Although reserved in character and rough in manner, and in this much aflbrdino; a strikinjr contrast to the bright, gay, animated nature of his illustrious brother, Michel Haydn, already sixty years of age, seems to have been so much attracted to the weakly, limping little boy, whose pleasant wit and vivacity quickly won him the hearts of all his school- fellows, that he was induced to bestow every possible musical instruction on him without remuneration. That it was a great piece of good fortune for the boy to receive instruction from so thoroughly solid a master, from a master, too, who had the advantage, fully felt by the worldly- minded Franz Anton, of bearing the name of Haydn, is indis- putable. But the fresh spring of love for his art had been called up in the child's heart by his fondness for the sympa- thetic young master he had lost ; and when he Ibnnd himself led forward by the chill hand of the old man into the region of art, which Heuschkel had shown to him, as a sunny world bestrewn with flowers, and whicli now appeared to him no better than a dreary prison-chamber, full of mouldering books of notes, dust-covered instruments, and antiquated forms, the boy could but feel the cramping influence of the re-action. In a letter, however, written by little Carl Maria to his regretted young master, to wish him happiness on the approaching new INSTRUCTION FROM MICHEL HAYDN. 23 year, — the first letter extant of the illustrious composer, — amidst all his expressions of affection and regret, he speaks only of his " luck" in getting instruction from a master "who no longer takes any pupils, because he has so much to do." That these lines, however, may possibly have been written under his father's supervision, may be deduced from the fact that they were accompanied by a long letter from the ever- vainglorious Franz Anton, who begs to be addressed in return as "Major F. A. Baron von Weber." This persistence in being called " Major " by all his acquaintances in Salzburg was notoriously one of those incompreliensible vagaries in which the vanity of the old geiitlemau was accustomed to in- dulge. The struggle in the child's mind, at this period of his musi- cal education, was doubtless a severe one. On the one }iand, he turned with repugnance from the skeleton of art, which was now presented to him, denuded of every form of loveliness ; on the other, an inward consciousness once more whispered to him how important was tlie very study of this dry anatomy. When once left alone to direct his bark on the rough sea of harmony, like a young mariner, he could but acknowledge the blessing the previous study of his compass, his barometer, and his sextant, had afforded him. Meanwhile all was far from being peace within. Pecuniary troubles came tliick upon the little family. Franz Anton, in the pressure of his needs, grew more and more rough in man- ner to those around him. The severe climate of the mountain- circled city fell a deadly blight on poor suffering Genofeva. Still more blighting to her loving lieart Avere the wants of the family and the temper of her husband. Consumption had set in : she felt that she was near her end. Her last and bitterest sorrow lay in the thought, that the development of her boy's mind must be left in liands so little able to insure his future weal as those of the reckless Franz Anton. The anxious mother's heart was soon at rest, liowever. On the 13th March, 1798, the poor sickly, sorrowing Carl Maria knelt by 24 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. the deathbed-side, and held for the last time the cold hand of his deeplj-beloved, sweet, beautiful young mother. Franz Anton's grief was violent and loud. It was sincere, however ; for he could not but feel the blessinor he had lost. But it was not long. Within a year, the old gentleman, who, spite his age, still exercised a strange fascination over women's hearts, was for the third time betrothed at Bamberg to a widow, by name Von Beer. The marriage, however, eventually never took place. Carl Maria's heart seemed crushed at first. Fortunately he was not utterly deprived of the salutary effect of female in- fluence. His noble aunt Adelteid was still by his side. She took the reins of the little orphan's education into her own sensible and practical hands ; not only counteracting in the boy's mind the effect of Franz Anton's extravagant vagaries, and the possible contamination of the wild stroller's life, but blunting the child's dangerous tendency to sharp sarcasm with all her powers of control. To these latter efforts, probably, did Carl Maria von Weber owe the happy change which sweetened the instinctive bitterness of wit in the boy into the charming flow of humoi", free from gall, that distinguished him in later years, and was justly said to have had the power of reconciling every enemy, whilst it enchanted every friend. Meanwhile the real satisfaction of the boy, in the gradual conviction that he was slowly reaching the desired goal by his weary climbing in his dry studies, was more and more apparent. It was earnestly expressed in another letter, addressed, about the middle of 1798, to his former master, Heuschkel. In his labors he was urged on, frequently in the most injudi- cious manner, by his father, whose hopes to hail a great celebrity in his son were again aroused ; and who began already to boast of his young prodigy in such terms, that the blushes often mounted into the boy's cheeks, and his entreaties were stammered to be spared such painful eulogium. The first-fruits of the father's harvest shortly appeared in six short fugues of Carl Maria's composition ; which, after meeting with MUNICH IN 1798. 25 the full approval of his master, Michel Haydn, were duly pub- lished. They were dedicated to the boy's brother, Edmund von Weber, then married, and residing in Hesse Cassel. But, even in this publication, the influence of the boastful Franz Anton was only too apparent. In the dedication, which is dated " Sakburg, 1st September, 1798," stand the words, "in the eleventh year of his age." A year had been taken, with obvious purpose, from the boy's real standing. He was then far advanced in his twelfth year. These little fugues were favorably mentioned by Rochlitz, the great musical critic of the day, to whom they had doubtless been sent by the ambi- tious father. But with such gradual development of the boy's genius Franz Anton could not be content. His darling world of art was on the stage alone. He burned to see his child's composi- tions produced at once upon the boards. The school of Michel Haydn could never lead to this result. Theatrical manage- ment in Salzburg was more hopelessly swamped than ever in the advancing tide of war. So, towards the end of the year 1798, Franz Anton took his little family to Munich, with the evident intention of giving a dramatic tendency to the boy's talent by his nearer contact with the influence to be derived from the operatic and dramatic excellence afforded by that capital. At this period, Munich was still sustaining a somewhat tarnished reputation as the cradle and the school of German opera. Carl Theodor of the Palatinate, when he had succeeded to his heritage of Bavaria, had brought with him from Man- heira his admirable orchestra and troop of singers, headed by the great names of Vogler and Peter Winter as composers ; and had issued an order, that, for the future, no foreign perform- ances should be permitted at his court. A genuine lover of art, he had resolved that Munich, as his capital, — although Bavaria was never favored by his love, — should be distin- guished by all the splendor which a brilliant theatre, a faultless opera, and a general patronage of all the refinements of life, 26 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. could bestow upon it. But a change had come. His second marriage, with Marie Leopoldine of Austria, combined with all the distresses of his ignominious flight into Saxony before the cannon of Jourdan and Moreau, and the shame of his vain efforts to stem the triumphs of the French revolutionary army, had transformed the liberal and spirited Carl Theodor into a gloomy devotee and a harsh ruler. Under the cruel blight of such agents of tyranny as the morose Father Frank and the savage Privy-Councillor Lippert, the freedom of spirit, which could alone warm blossoms of art into life, was frozen to the ground. The tones of harmony were deafened by the dreaded rumbling of the wheels of Carl Theodor's spectral carriage, and the vain cries of the tortured in the Yellow Chamber. But the men of talent, who had flocked to Munich to bask in the sunshine of its golden period, were still there ; and the theatre was still carried on with a certain degree of brilliancy. Peter Winter, the celebrated composer of " The Interrupted Sacrifice," was the conductor of the orchestra ; and the amiable Franz Danzi, composer of many pretty little operas, was by his side. Both these men were lovers of true art, and still maintained sufficient authority to hold their banner proudly aloft. It was not so much the fostering care of these two celebrities, however, that Franz Anton sought for his son, as that of two strange men of genius. One of these men, Joseph Gratz^ who had pursued almost every profession during his checkered career, and lived through every phase of life, was one of the most celebrated musical theorists of his time. To him Franz Anton brought letters of recommendation. But Gratz loved money ; and he heard no chink of solid coin in the old spend- thrift's pocket. He declared he had too much to do already to take another pupil : perhaps he really had. The other sin- gular individual was Evangelist Wallishauser, who, during his triumphant operatic progress in Italy, had taken unto himself the name of Valesi. For one and forty years, his beautiful tenor voice had been heard upon all the stages of civilized GAEL MARIA'S NEW TEACHERS. 27 ' Europe. At Munich he had terminated his long operatic career. But he was considered the greatest teacher of singing of all time. Now, one of Franz Anton's few thoroughly prac- tical maxims had always been, " No man can write well for the voice, or compose a good opera, who cannot sing decently him- self." To Valesi, then, he applied to teach his little genius singing. Fortunately for the boy, the gray-headed old tenor did not return the same answer as the crusty Gratz ; and, under his auspices, young Carl Maria studied this branch of his pro- fession. A pupil of Joseph Griitz, Kalcher by name, after- wards court orn-anist at Munich, was secured for the more strictly musical education of the boy, whose talent, by the father's express command, was to be directed in a dramatic channel. For both his new teachers Carl Maria seems to have enter- tained the sreatest affection. No better combination to foster the talent of the boy in the sense of his father's wishes could probably have been devised than that of the quiet, careful young theorist with the fiery, animated, excitable old singer. Whilst on the one side the boy worked steadily under the eyes of Kalcher, in whose house he dwelt far more than with his fiither, and daily astonished his teacher more and more by the rich fund of imagination in his budding talent ; on the other he was taken by Valesi to the Vocal and Instrumental Academy of Munich, and soon made to excite the envy of his oldest fellow-pupils, not only as a piano executant, but as a singer. It cannot be denied, however, that the zeal of both his teachers was lacking in moderation. Not only were the boy's mind and body both overtaxed, but two of the natural but baneful ten- dencies of boyish genius, from which the strictei- teachings of Heuschkel and Michel Haydn sought to rescue him, were again in some degree awakened, — the facile production of fruit as yet unripe and dwarfed, and the overweening estimation of the produce. From the evil consequences of this hasty culture he may be said to have been saved by the very hyperbolical excess of his vainglorious father's vauntings, from which tha "28 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. boy's instinctive modesty shrank back alarmed, and which thus, by their re-actionary influence, tended to paralyze the deleterious effects of the fatal forcing system. Perhaps it was fortunate, also, that he was early taught a lesson in the school of disappointment, and that no musical publisher could be found to print the score of his earliest opera, " The Power of Love and Wine," and several other pieces, both vocal and instrumental, with which the impatient Franz Anton desired to astonish the world. At this time, a strange incident had nigh deprived posterity of Weber's genius as composer. To Munich there came a singular young man, with whom Franz Anton had been pre- viously acquainted in Nuremberg, — Aloys Sennefelder, an erratic genius, who after spurning the law, for which he had been educated, and tempting fortune as actor, artist, soldier, appeared, in his latest character on the stage of life, as half-starved author. He wrote plays of some merit ; but he could find no publisher to print them. He sought in his own fertile brain a cheap and easy means of reproduction which he himself could carry out. He sought and found, and unexpectedly achieved a world-wide celebrity. Need had been his " mother of invention ; " and thus Aloys Sennefelder became the inventor of lithography. Franz Anton had naturally access to Sennefelder's working-room. The sight of the new invention inspired him with a brilliant idea. AVhat an Eldo- rado was here for musicians ! The scales fell from his eyes ; and he saw his child's compositions self-engraved, self-printed, self-pul)lislie(l. Fame and fortune were in his own hands. Carl Maria was immediately made to watch the inventor's process in his own room, and learn the art. The boy seized the idea with avidity ; worked with his usual zeal to attain profi- ciency ; and even, with the assistance of his father, contrived a great amelioration in Sennefelder's press. His ardent little soul thus received an impulse in a new direction : he was fasci- nated with his work. Just as his enthusiasm had reached to its highest pitch, an inexplicable fire broke out in Kalcher'? THE INVENTION OF LITHOGRAPHY. 29 house. All the boy's compositions had been carefully laid aside by his master in a certain cabinet. This cabinet was wholly destroyed by the fire, whilst scarcely any other object in the apartment was injured. The accident made a powerful impression upon the boy's susceptible rain'd. His mother's dreamy nature had early imbued him, not only with an implicit reverence for the signs and symbols of his faith, but with a half-poetical, half-superstitious belief in the power of myste- rious and invisible influences pervading the universe, — a fancy which, more or less, accompanied him throughout his life. He looked upon the accident, so peculiar in its nature, as a warning to him, from the spiritual powers that directed his destiny, to renounce his further studies in music, and devote himself entirely to the new art of his adoption. He even announced his resolve in the firmest manner to his disappointed masters. Critics were severe also in Munich upon the first musical pieces published by the boy from his own lithographic press ; and this severity may have had a more genuine secret influence towards inducing the boy's transitory decision to renounce his musical career than the supposed warnings of his familiar demon. About the sapie time, Aloys Sennefelder began to draw back from his intercourse with the Webers in mistrust. The jeal- ousy of the inventor was naturally aroused by the advance the father and son were gaining on him in their efforts to bring to gi'eater perfection the art they had learned from him ; and every hinderance, instead of aid, was now thrown by him in their way. So Franz Anton concluded that their plans could be better carried into execution in any other place than that which housed the angrv Sennefelder. Once more, without any apparent definite plan, Franz Anton dragged his boy, now fourteen years of age, along with him in his wanderings. Wearied at last with her brother's never- ceasing restlessness, good Aunt Adelheid stoutly refused to travel on again. It was a pang for her to part from her boy Carl Maria ; but she needed rest, she could do no more, and she remained. 30 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. Of the desultory course of Franz Anton and his boy nothinc is known during the year 1799 beyond one fact, not without its importance in the career of Carl Maria. During a short sojourn in Carlsbad, on this passage from town to town, the boy had attracted 'the attention of the Chevalier von Steins- berg, the manager of the theatre of that town, — a man passionately devoted to the stage, and at once author, actor, singer, and director. This enthusiastic individual conceived the liveliest interest for the young genius, and even trusted to the boy's hands the book of an opera, called " The Dumb Girl of the Forest," of which he was the author. In 1800, the Webers, father and son, were residing at Frei- berg in Saxony, a town celebrated throughout Europe for its rich neighboring mines, and still more for its admirable mining .academy for the education of the corps of miners. Some of the greatest engineers, geologists, chemists, and other men of science of the day, connected with this great institution, were there collected. It was doubtless the con- sideration of the advantages to be derived from intercourse with such illustrious workers in the field of science which induced Franz Anton to choose Freiberg as the best per- manent residence, where he might carry out the execution of his plans for the perfection of the lithographic art. Here, too, the boy Carl Maria had at last rest and repose, and time to brood over the tempting opera-book, which could not but again fan into a flame the vainly-quenched fire of musical genius within. / CHAPTER m. THE BOY 8 FIRST OPERA. — FREIBERG AND SALZBURG. The boy's genius now began to struggle violently against tha bonds, self-imposed in one respect, with which it had been fet- tered. It strugfjled until its chains were torn asunder : from captive it once more became the master ; and its first effort of power was to silence the warning voice which had issued from the burning cabinet. " Major " the Baron von Weber had pub- licly advertised his lithographic press and printing-office in hig new establishment at Freiberg ; but, whilst the boy's ability as draughtsman was still exercised upon stone, the scratching of musical notes mio;ht be a2;ain heard alonsr with the creaking of the printing-press. Other influences, also, no doubt aided the liberation of that fettered genius. Necessity may have com- pelled an artistic tour, upon which the boy was taken by his father. At all events, Carl Maria played at concerts during the summer of 1800 at Erfurt, Gotha, and Leipsic ; and played with signal success. On the return of the wanderers to Frei- berg in August, they found the theatrical troop of the Cheva- lier von Steinsberg established in the town. The enthusiastic manager had, it appears, been somewhat prematurely boastful of the great original works, operatic as well as dramatic, with which he intended to astonish the favored public of Freiberg. His own comedies had been given with applause. The talented manager himself is reported to have been an excellent Ught 31 32 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. comedian. His company, carefully selected and admirably drilled by himself, appears to have stood far higher in artistic acquirements than the ordinary wandering companies of that day ; and the success of the troop had been unequivocal. But novelty was needed ; and, on the return of the Webers, Steins- berg earnestly urged the young musician to lose no time in composing his " Dumb Girl of the Forest " for the company. This entreaty doubtless again roused in the boy's heart the fa- miliar spirit of the family, the passion for every thing con- nected with the stage. The old gentleman, who had latterly seen with repugnance the absorbing devotion of his son to his newer art, was all impatience once more for the day when his youthful prodigy was to astound the world as an operatic composer. His influence was all in favor of the fresh attempt. In short, in the month of October, 1800, the opera was ready. Carl Maria has since mentioned, in his little autobiography, that, seduced by the anecdotes of miracles achieved by cele- Drated maestri, he had written the whole second act of the work in ten days. It has never been sufficiently explained why this opera, com- posed expressly at Steinsberg's request, to his own libretto, and tor his own company, should have been first given by another troop. But so it was. The work was first performed in Chem- nitz, in the month of October. It is announced on an extant bill as " ' The Dumb Girl of the Forest,' a grand romantic comic opera, — the music by C. M. von Weber, thirteen years of age, a pupil of Haydn." That this announcement was dictated by Franz Anton can never for a moment be doubted. His brag- gart spirit may be clearly seen in the misstatement of the age of his boy, who was then fourteen, and in the suppression of the Christian name of Carl Maria's re^l master, so as to induce the idea that he had studied under the illustrious composer. With what result the work was received by the public of Chem- nitz does not appear. In a correspondence which was shortly to ensue, it was asserted that the opera was hailed there " with the most distinguished applause." "THE DUMB GIEL OP THE FOREST." 33 Its turn was now to come at Freiberg. The Chevalier von Stcinsberg had done his best to place his "X^umb Girl of the Forest " to all possible advantage on the stage. A consider- able excitement had been created in the town respecting the work of the youthful prodigy. All Freiberg was on the tiptoe of expectation. But papa had blown the loud trumpet with so much indiscreet energy, that it was impossible for him to avoid awakening the most inharmonious echoes. Opposing parties were formed in the town. The leaders of the adverse party were the professor of singing, Fischer, and the Stadt Musikus, Siegert, who himself conducted the orchestra at the theatre. They took the field, mounted on their hobbies of musical ped- antry and old-established forms, against all comers who should dare to defend the extravagances, the mistakes, and the scant musical knowledge, of the boy composer. The other party was formed of the ardent youth of the Academy, the members of the gayer society of the town, whose hearts the little witty young lithographer and musician had won, and all the many jovial friends whom Herr Papa, spite his affected military rigid- ity, had gathered round him at the " Golden Lion " by his pleasant talk and genial manners. All went tolerably well up to the day of the first representation, which took place upon the 24th of November. Murraurings, it is true, had been heard. A great portion of the public. was annoyed by the unaccustomed wording and bombastic tone of the playbill. Not only was the composer announced as " Carl Maria Baron von Weber, thir- teen years of age, a pupil of Haydn," — the real Christian name of his master being again carefully suppressed, — but the pub- lic was informed that the work was dedicated, by permission, to " Her Electoral Highness, Maria Amelie Auguste, Reigning Electress of Saxony." The eventful evening came. . Spite of the support of the youth of the Mining Academy, spite of the good-will of friends and well-wishers, spite of Franz Anton's trumpet, — perhaps, in some degree, because of it, — the opera produced little or no effect. The musical critic of the Freiberg paper spoke of the work a 34 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. without harshness, but so far in disparaging terms, that it was called " a mere blossom of genius, which promises better and riper fruit." Franz Anton's disappointment was terrible. His dreams of immediate glory, honoi-, and fortune, through his wonder-child, were rudely dispelled ; and it is to the bitterness of the father's rage that must be attributed an extravagant and absurd newspaper article which appeared on the occasion, in the name of the son. The foolish impetuosity, the vaunting discourse, and the reckless conduct, of Franz Anton, were doomed to be the bane of the poor boy, whose. innate modesty and taste . were continually shocked by a father whom his affectionate heart was so much disposed to love and reverence. The newspaper article ascribed the failure of the opera to the bad leadership, and, in an underhand way, to the ill-will of the conductor. An immediate paper-war was the result. The pigtails of Conductor Siegert, and his friend the professor, were stiff with indignation. The " jjert chit," who had dared to sign such an attack, was to be trounced. Crushing letters appeared, to be met by rejoinders. The poor little composer was accused of ignorance, plagiarism, and even imposture. Falsehood, malevolence, and intrigue were thrown back in the teeth of the irritated assailants. The success of the work at Chemnitz was asserted and denied ; and the voice of a depreciating correspondent from that town was declared, on the Weber side, to be worth no more than " the yelping of a cur." No laurels can be said to have been culled by either party in this desperate fight. The wounds received fell all upon t(he heart of the poor lad, whose hand had been made to attach liis own signature to the far from elegant and highly injudicious letters which were so absurdly intended to support his honor and his fame. The consequences of the paper-war were harmful in another respect. Although the young blood of Freiberg had manifested its delight at the dirt thrown upon the " old pigtail faction," the Webers had lost in the skirmish the consideration of many of the better families of the place. Franz Anton determined to shake the dust oflF his feet, and eave the ungrateful town forever. "PETER SCHMOLL AND HIS NEIGHBORS." 35 It may be here recorded, however, that Weber himself, in his autobiographical sketch, speaks of " The^ Dumb Girl of the Forest " as " a very crude work, but not wholly without inven- tive power ; " and regrets that it was more widely circulated than he liked himself. He says that it was given for fourteen nights in Vienna, was translated into the Bohemian language for Prague, and was represented with applause at St. Peters- burg. At what precise date Franz Anton again took his wanderer's staff' in his hand to seek fortune on a better soil is not recorded. In the month of November, 1801, father and son are again to be found in Salzburg. Affairs connected with his previous theatrical management appear to have led Franz Anton hither. But, at Salzburg, all was still in dire confusion. The French, under Moreau, had barely left the place. Wliatever his hopes and intentions may have been, they appear to have been slow in realization ; for the sojourn in Salzburg continued far into the summer of 1802. The leisure afforded by this protracted residence was em- ployed by young Carl Maria in the composition of a two-act little comic opera, entitled " Peter SchmoU and his Neigh- bors." The subject had been derived from an old novel by Cramer. With the advantage of the experience he had gained, the boy was now in a position to profit, far more than before, by the advantages again afforded in his studies under old Michel Haydn. It is probable, at the same time, that another personage may have exercised some influence over the development of the boy's talent at this juncture. That well- known wandering musical genius, Sigismund Neukomm, at that time twenty-four years of age, was his fellow-pupil then ; and the result of the intimacy of the two ardent musical spirits cannot have been without importance. The work on the new opera was terminated before the departure of the Webers from Salzburg in April, 1802. Weber himself has mentioned, that, in the composition of this opera, he had had the intention of employing several obsolete old musical instru- 36 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. ments. The extant score bears no trace of this design, how- ever. Possibly his judicious old master may have kept him back from such a purpose. Whatever may have been still the lad's shortcomings, there is no doubt that a great advance must , have been made in his composition to have permitted the strict and crusty old master to pen so admirable a testimonial as that which he gave his scholar upon this occasion. " In all truth, with full conviction, and with the best judgment," wrote Michel Haydn, " I attest that this opera has been com- posed in the truest rules of harmony, with much fire, great delicacy, and appropriate feeling." That the boy was in many ways actively and industriously occupied with his art is mani- fest from an extant letter written by him to Herr Andree of Offenbach, the musical publisher : his first letter it was to one of these arbiters of a young musician's destinies, — his first real letter of business. But this first effort was unsuccessful : the compositions offered — and they were numerous and mani- fold — were all declined. A better fortune attended the lad, however, in his " Six petites pieces d qualre mains," also com- posed during the stay at Salzburg, and forwarded to Gombart, the Augsburg publisher. These pieces appeared ; and they have been since declared by musical critics to be replete with a graceful beauty and a deep feeling, which were never sur- passed in his later compositions for the piano. It would almost seem that ill-judging Franz Anton proved a bane rather than a blessing to his boy whenever his own influence was used to work a spell over the young composer's fortunes. In the instance of the failure with Andree, the father's unlucky hand is easily to be traced in a passage of Carl Maria's letter to the publisher, in which he speaks of himself as the pupil of many very celebrated masters in Dresden, Prague, and Vienna; when it is notorious, that, in all the wanderings of the Weber pair, their sojourn in these places was only of the briefest nature. But the footlights of the stage were the bright beacon towards which the familiar spirit of the house of Weber was THE PRINCE-BISHOP OF AUGSBURG. 37 sure to steer their bark. The first consideration was the pro- duction of the new opera. Opportunities seemed to offer themselves in Augsburg. Edmund von Weber, Franz Anton's eldest son, who had entirely seceded from his father's com- pany of comedians in 1798 at Salzburg, was residing in that town, partly as musical conductor of the theatre; partly in the service of Prince-Bishop Clemens Wenzeslaus, who still retained his bishopric of Augsburg, although the peace of Luneville had deprived him of his rich domains of Treves and Coblenz, and all his other lands had been annexed to the conquering republic, " one and indivisible." The revenues of this genial old prince-bishop were still very considerable, however, thanks to the compensation, in the form of subsidy, bestowed on him by the German princes. As a true son of that splendid patron of Art, August III. of Saxony, he spent his life pleasantly in the society of the Muses, of whom Euterpe and Thalia were his especial darlings ; and entertained, at his own cost, an excellent orchestra and troop of singers. His favorite composer was the gi'eat Haydn ; and to this cirpurr^- stance it was probably owing that Edmund von Weber, one of the master's most distinguished pupils, had obtained a recommendation to the enthusiastic Clemens Wenzeslaus, and had been received into his service. Here, then, was a brilliant opening for the production of yqung Carl Maria's '■ Peter SchmoU," through the interest of bis brother. But the circum' stances of the time were unfavorable ; and this great hope was, for a while, deferred- So Franz Anton took up his staff, and again led fortlt his wonder-child upon his wanderings. The probable end and aim of this journey appears to have been the settlement of Franz Anton's affairs at Eutin. The father had doubtless other intentions, which might have been turned to his advantage during his course towards the north of Germany. But although it is apparent that Franz Anton, ■^ith his son, visited^ during the autumn of this year, Meinin- gen, Eisenach, Sondershausen, Brunswick, where at least a month was passed, and finally Eutin, no record can be found 38 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. of any concerts where the boy's talent was turned to profit. It may be surmised, however, that Carl Maria may have spent many blessed hours among the old musical works in the Ducal Library of Brunswick, and garnered up seed, to be sown on fruitful soil, and to spring up afterwards in that almost incredi- ble mass of richly-colored flowers of musical art which he presented to the world. CHAPTER IV. ^ VIENNA AND THE ABBE VOGLER. It is worthy of remark, that although no especial event of note in Carl Maria's life, no especial personal association, exer- cised any peculiar influence over his mind during this journey, it was exactly at this juncture that an evident and even strik- ing change occurred in the development of the young com- poser's genius. All at once, he ceased to crawl as a child in the nurse's leading-strings. Although his steps may have been as yet somewhat timid and uncertain, he walked alone. All he did was now, and was to be henceforth, imbued with the life and truth of his own heart and soul. The path into which a mysterious impulse urged him was doubtless the right path, which was eventually to lead to the great race-course of Art, upon which he was destined to win his wreath of immortality at the cost of his own life. The impulse, there is every reason to suppose, was that fresh spring of a first love which now stirred his young heart, and taught it to sing love-songs. His first real " Lied " was written in Hamburg, in the Octo ber of 1802, to the words of Matthisson's exquisite little poem, " The Taper." In this his own true feelings first found that voice which was thereafter to be prized by Germany as the best and dearest to her ears ; through darkness and light, through love and hate, through the struggles for freedom, and the storms of battle, to the great goal of victory and glory. What all We- 39 40 WEBER'S EARLY YEARS. ber's compositions, up to the period of his great operas, could not earn for him, was won by those songs, in which his own life's pulses beat ; those songs, whose joyousness made a peo- ple glad, whose pathos made a people weep ; those songs, which stamped him the heartfelt singer of a people's heart. In Eutin, during the two weeks of the Webers' stay in Octo- ber, 1802, Carl Maria had the good fortune to win the strong affection of Johann Heinrich Voss, then resident at that place, who took such a fancy to the pale, interesting lad, that he sup- plied him with the words of many of the cheeriest, brightest, gayest songs which were to gladden the hearts of Germany. One anecdote, belonging to these daj's in Eutin, shows how easily roused, even still, were the boy's susceptibilities. The Webers were lodged in the house of a Counsellor Strieker, where music was the favorite occupation. The son of the host was accustomed, to young Carl Maria's disgust, to achieve the most triumphant successes on — the Jew's-harp! and on one occasion, when a performance of this distinguished virtuoso on two Jew's-harps excited so general an enthusiasm, that Franz Anton himself exclaimed, " Good heavens, how beautiful ! " the boy closed his piano in indignation, and declared, in the most decided manner, that he would play no more. In the month of December, 1802, father and son had returned to Ausburg. The fortunes -of "Peter Sehmoll and his Nei